Professor Kukui and Hala (?)

Rivvon said:

They're making it really obvious he's married in that official character art. Looks like it's not a Mega Ring, either, just a simple band. Even Elm isn't wearing a wedding ring in his art, despite the fact that his wife and child live just due south of his lab. So I wonder if Kukui's spouse will be a prominent character?

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inb4 he's married to Hala. I mean the freaking pokedex has rainbows on it.

Honestly I think I'd die from shock if Pokemon actually made a move like that though.

Sabrewulf238 said:

inb4 he's married to Hala. I mean the freaking pokedex has rainbows on it.

Honestly I think I'd die from shock if Pokemon actually made a move like that though.

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It might just happen....

Hala is nowhere to be seen after today's trailer yet he hands out the starters. What's his role? Maybe he is actually married to Kuiki, especially with the ring being shown off. The pokedex has rainbows because Hawaii is the rainbow state. However those are also associated with the LGBT community so it could work both ways.

This is only a proposition, but what if Hala is our father/grandfather? He might b the reason why we mved there and this can explain why he's presenting the Pokemon?

Sabrewulf238 said:

inb4 he's married to Hala. I mean the freaking pokedex has rainbows on it.

Honestly I think I'd die from shock if Pokemon actually made a move like that though.

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Well I did use the gender-neutral term "spouse" for a reason! Although I do think Hala looks a bit too old compared to Kukui; I'm sure whoever Kukui is married to would be closer to his own age.

Also, Kukui's hat has a rainbow on it, too... but I'm pretty sure that's all because this is the "Rainbow Region."

I think Professor Kukui is the son of Hala, and Hala was the old Professor (it would explain why he would give you your starters). Plus, Kukui does mean "nut" and Hala is "tree", and the fruit that grows on the Hala trees contain pits or seeds (and seeds could be nuts? lol idk where I'm going with this but it connecting Kukui to Hala xD).

Maybe his possible spouse is the champion, a gym leader, or E4.

colours said:

I hope this becomes the first region in which we battle the Professor. I'm surprised no one really mentioned that yet (unless I skimmed over it, somehow).

RIP. Even if fighting you was a glitch....

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Professor Sycamore says hi... maybe people are forgetting him a lot now, let alone the fact you were able to battle him.

colours said:

He is kind of a forgettable character in a way.

Either way, my statement still holds; I'd like for the Prof to be battled at some point in the story with a full team; Sycamore only had like 3 Pokemon and that's it..I dunno, I wouldn't call that an actual real battle, but your mileage may vary.

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I recall Sycamore battled you with a team of all the Kanto starters, maybe a hypothetical Kukui battle will have him use all three Alola starters? I feel that one of the issues we've had in recent generations lately is the lack of trainers with full teams, in fact in X/Y the only trainers who even had a full team were Calem/Serena (rematches) and Diantha.

colours said:

He is kind of a forgettable character in a way.

Either way, my statement still holds; I'd like for the Prof to be battled at some point in the story with a full team; Sycamore only had like 3 Pokemon and that's it..I dunno, I wouldn't call that an actual real battle, but your mileage may vary.

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Well if Game Freak keeps up the new tradition of Gym Leaders only having 3 Pokémon max, I don't see why Kukui would have more than that. Unless he turns out to be Champion, in which case he should have 6... but I think being a professor is a tough job, so I don't know if he'd have the time for his research and being Champion. With that in mind, I'm sure Sycamore's battles "count," unless you feel the Gym Leader battles don't count in a similar fashion.

Hikamaru said:

I recall Sycamore battled you with a team of all the Kanto starters, maybe a hypothetical Kukui battle will have him use all three Alola starters? I feel that one of the issues we've had in recent generations lately is the lack of trainers with full teams, in fact in X/Y the only trainers who even had a full team were Calem/Serena (rematches) and Diantha.

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My favorite thing about your post-game rival rematches is that even though they have a full team of 6 Pokémon, half of them only know three moves.


It would be cool if you could fight Kukui, but until we know more about him, I don't see why he would be any stronger than a Gym Leader. What would be neat is if Hala is his dad, and used to be a professor, and now that he's retired he can train more seriously and his team is fairly strong. Wouldn't it be cool, too, if Hala, retired professor, was Alola's Champion!

Doesn't Kukui study moves? Perhaps he battles to see them at work.

I really thought the old guy was the professor at first, but he might be some kind of Tribal leader? I'm a big fan of Kukui tho. He seems to be the youngest professor so far.

Rivvon said:

Well if Game Freak keeps up the new tradition of Gym Leaders only having 3 Pokémon max, I don't see why Kukui would have more than that. Unless he turns out to be Champion, in which case he should have 6... but I think being a professor is a tough job, so I don't know if he'd have the time for his research and being Champion. With that in mind, I'm sure Sycamore's battles "count," unless you feel the Gym Leader battles don't count in a similar fashion.

My favorite thing about your post-game rival rematches is that even though they have a full team of 6 Pokémon, half of them only know three moves.

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I have a feeling Game Freak won't break the Gym Leaders with only 3 Pokemon trend since we've had that format happening for six years now (B/W started it) and Elite Four only having 4 Pokemon. I also believe we may not get a trainer with a full team who isn't the Champion or the rival rematches, assuming Hau is going to be rematchable.

I was annoyed at how the AI trainers in X/Y didn't have full movesets, so I hope the trainers in S/M have full movesets, because I'm sure 5th Gen didn't have this issue.