
KAHUNA HAPU GUIDE TRIAL
There's no greater example of this in the series than the man in the discount mark who cracks the joke about his island trial being "a mortgage". They're out having fun, but when the week or whatever's over they're hopping a boat back to Kanto and working a job. Even among the trainers you face out and about, the adults are mostly on vacation. Most have a job, and discuss their job at length with you. In the other games, when people do notice you, it's always, "Oh, out on your gym challenge?" It's a common thing. In fact, it's tradition: island children ALL do this. This is a game series where literally no one questions that you, an 11-year-old kid, have decided to travel across 4 islands populated with dozens of monsters known for killing humans (some particularly target children!) No one questions your mother, no one holds you back. 20 is just as arbitrary as 18 or 21, and I still know a lot of 30-year-old children.īut OK, "realtalk", and by that I mean "let's take Pokemon seriously in a way it may not be intended to be".

I imagine they just wanted to pick a random age that sounded "adult". What do you think of the whole "trial captains must retire at 20" rule? Why do you think it was made a rule to begin with? How different do you think things would be if trial captains could be any age? Though there are plenty of adults out there who still enjoy Pokemon, so it's not a perfect metaphor.

Or is the specification of 20 years of age simply meant to be another reference to Pokemon's 20th anniversary? Could be a reflection of how many people who were fans as kids lost interest in/no longer had the time to play the games by the time they were adults. Is it supposed to be a "the young mentor the young" sort of thing? Since the island trials seem to only have kids/teens take them on, as far as I know. Is it supposed to be a generational thing? Since the kahunas appear to be elderly or at least middle aged by default, with people remarking that Olivia is rather young for a kahuna (Hapu is probably even younger, but with how sparsely populated Poni Island is I imagine there weren't a lot of other options). Still, I don't really understand why Alola would enforce a children/teenagers only rule with the trial captains.

KAHUNA HAPU GUIDE PLUS
Plus it's a possible reason why Guzma never became a trial captain maybe he was too old by the time he got strong enough. Though it would explain why many of the captains have other jobs, since they know it's only temporary. Why do you suppose that's a rule? A set-in-stone age limit is a weird detail for the trial captains, especially considering the gym leaders could be just about any age.
