u/lnombredelarosa

I got interested in Shazam after seeing how the Absolute version is basically Adam with Billy's age and maturity and I enjoyed how Absol Superman knows he is a kid from the start and seems to see himself in him and how funnily enough they're both teenagers here so he might eventually see Teth as a little brother of sorts rather than father figure.

Though you could interprete some moments as cues that they know or at least suspect he is younger than he looks I can't seem to find when they learned he was a kid in the New 52 so I've concluded they likely didn't know for sure but some of them like Wonder Woman, Batman, Luthor and Cyborg may have at least suspected while others perhaps thought he was young man who could pass for 30, which is the impression I usually get in the versions they don't know (such as in the animated Justice League War, Young Justice and JLU).

I understand Batman eventually figured it in 2018 Shazam but did the others eventually found out in Rebirth?

I'm not gonna say I'm unbiased since I'm tired of this fandom shitting on Harribel but objectively, its the only way I see it could work given that the only two captains who could stand up to him are now outclassed (if perhaps possibly in part from the reishi handicap).

Say, Ganju and Chad's fight with he golems leads them to Harribel's prison, as they know from having spent the last couple of days liberating Huecomundo and which Nelliel probably stressed that part of their mission is to rescue her to secure Huecomundo's peace. They then bring her to Orihime just in time for Ganju and Chad to join Renji in backing Ichigo, and as Harribel stands up she offers to hold Gerard at bay as she reveals her Segunda Etapa.

It wouldn't even need to imply Segunda makes her stronger than Gerard's current form, so much as that it releases greater ammounts of hollow reiatsu than all of the Vizored together by releasing an inmense ammount of energy infused water, that allows her to wash out Gerard's outer skin in order to reach the core, perhaps with some help from Byakuya and Toshiro, or hell maybe even Tsukishima and Ginjo.

It even connects with the current events, given how some have noted the similarities in Yhwach and hAschwAlth's black reiatsu from the soul king and the one produced by Ulquiorra's segunda and for that matter Harribel's watery abilities and the Primordial Sea that broke down the Soul king's body. Harribel having all of this factors in her could make her the worse possible match up for a Soul King's organ enhanced Quincy like Gerard.

Any other ideas?

Sasuke’s training with Orochimaru consisted predominantly in advanced training:

• Possibly gave him performance enhancers which resulted in radical improvement which Sasuke only took I suspect he eventually weaned himself off, which would explain why he was sleeping most of the time when not training as he was experiencing withdrawal syndromes
• Teaching him how to wield a sword, though since Orochimaru’s arms weren’t what they used to be their one on one sparring was limited
• Teaching him how to reshape his chidori in several ways, using it defensively, using it as senbons, enhancing his swordsmanship…
  • And without his knowledge, learning to extend it like Orochimaru himself did with his kusanagi sword
• Learning how to alter his own biology using a cursed seal in order to push himself past his limits
• Forcing him to fight against several opponents at a time so as to push his sharingan’s reflexes
• Teaching him how to counter genjutsu using more genjutsu of his own
• Interestingly, its shown that between the tough training, the withdrawal symptoms from leaving the drugs and using the cursed seal to push his body and ignore said withdrawal to continue his training routine, left Sasuke in a routine consisting purely on training, sleeping and running errands for Orochimaru, which consirably atrophiated Sasuke’s previously strained but functional social skills, making his personality considerably more single minded

Naruto’s training with Jiraiya contrasts because it focused almost entirely on improving the basics:

• Teaching him basic chakra control excercises such as sitting still while doing hand seals and focusing his chakra for summoning jutsu
• Walking on water to apply said chakra control
• Basic genjutsu breaking by focusing his great raw chakra
• Teaching him the rasengan so as to give him a proper offensive technique
• Personally sparring with him so that he would develop a proper and better coordinated style of taijutsu, rather than plain street fighting and improvisation
• Doing physical training in order to properly build a strong physique to match his chakra level
• Teaching him how to harness the nine tails chakra (which his now properly controlled base chakra would certainly help) and about his own jinchuriki seal, though they ultimately had to give up as Naruto’s seal began to loosen
• Making sure his casting of shadow clones became more fluid and energy efficient, allowing him to cast innumerable clones at will without letting any chakra go to waste
• Teaching him to infuse his rasengan with more chakra so as to make it bigger even if only slightly and also making his clones better able to do the rasengan on their own
• Making sure to use his literary knowledge gained from his career as a published and well respected author to expose him to the kind of proper reading material that a healthy growing young man should know about
• In contrast with Sasuke who kept himself mostly isolated from the world at large, Naruto travelled all over the ninja world and met all kinds of people so his poor social skills improved considerably, losing a lot of his showoffy tendencies and becoming a lot more charismatic, if still occasionally struggling to read the room

As a result of this, Sasuke who had a far more advanced and life risking training improved a lot more compared to Naruto, who endured a tough but not inhumane training and incomplete one to booth considering their failure to control the ninetails. The thing is, however that this only applies to their short term improvement because as part 2 continued, where Naruto kept continuously improving his incomplete training, Sasuke’s own improvement became considerably more stale because he did not have a proper base from where to expand.

Sasuke was indeed able to overwhelm team 7, best Deidara and later push Itachi to his limits, all of which he did by using the versatile techniques and smarts to exploit opponent’s weaknesses. However while this was useful against opponents who had key weaknesses and gaps on their abilities that his sharingan would let him see and exploit, when facing trully solid opponents, who had built up their abilities properly or who were plain up stronger Sasuke’s own gaps began showing:

• When facing Killer Bee, it became apparent that Sasuke was merely a “good” swordman whose sharingan and  unnaturally developed body only allowed so much against a "great" swordsman and a properly trained body (much like when he fought Lee in part 1)
• Against the Raikage, it became apparent that while Sasuke chidori and its variants along with his sharingan were practical enough for blitzing most opponents, its offensive power hadn’t radically improved (specially compared to Kakashi’s raikiri) as Ay was capable of easily tanking it with minimum injuries
• Against Danzou, it became apparent that while Sasuke’s nature transformation was practical enough, he hadn’t really mastered it as something he could rely upon solidly like Danzou did with his wind release. It was also shown that up until the end when Danzou got overconfident, he was the more skilled taijutsu user, repeatedly intercepting his faster and younger opponent

Of course he managed to hold his own in all of this and even win in some but mostly through the Mangekyo bailing him out with considerable side effects. What’s more its shown that Sasuke’s tendency to singlemindedly push himself past his limits were counterproductive as it gave him a tendency to bite more than what he could chew, go for fights before fully recuperating, not cooperating with teammates and made his ability to strategize rather conventional, focusing on people with somewhat regular physicals like Itachi.

With Naruto on the other hand, it was the opposite as he underperformed innitially against Kabuto and Sasuke himself and much like the latter, was shown to need his mangekyo later, he innitially needed the nine tails and much help to properly take on Deidara and Orochimaru which in turn had considerable side effects on his body. However, with every struggle he took, Naruto’s opted for undergoing further training in order to continue from the points he had left with Jiraiya, because unlike Sasuke, Naruto’s proper grasp of the fundamentals allowed him to improve massively as he only needed to reapply and expand the more basic principles that Jiraiya had merely started on him, many of which I suspect he intentionally left incomplete in order to let him become stronger on his own.

• His usage of rasengan, chakra control, wind release and shadow clones in order to create the rasenshuriken ended up crystalizing of all of the previous fundamentals he had previously improved, reaching higher levels and allowing him to outmsart and beat an albeit weakened Kakuzu
• Training in senjutsu, showed that all the chakra control and concentration drills as well as proper understanding and awareness of his own chakra served as a basis for Naruto to properly learn how to meditate in order to use sage mode to harness his great chakra to full effect which in turn allowed him to further improve all the jutsu he had inherited such as further improving the giant rasengan and rasenshuriken
• I suspect the taijutsu style he learned from Jiraiya ended up being the basis for Frog Kumite
• While his previous training on how to use Kurama ended up failing it did allow him to get to know the nine tails and his own seal which served when taming him in the future

It is however worth mentioning that unlike Sasuke, Naruto’s own victories ultimately came down to team efforts which in turn tended to place him in unique positions to defeat more powerful opponents but they also left him a lot less injured than Sasuke’s did, which inverted their innitial situation, where Naruto got super injured in the start from relying on the nine tails.

The way Yamamoto and Yhwach talk of their old days as worthy opponents and vile enemies who killed countless of each other's men feels inconsistent with how almost hillariously one sided was the one fight between the Og Gotei Captains and Sternritter army, with most of the former not even bothering to take out their shikai (or even their Zanpakuto in Chika's case) to massacre the latter. The way Yamamoto spoke, it would imply that that the Sternritters had probably kicked the Og Gotei's asses in their past encounters (which would explain why Ichibei went into the negotiating table with him) and I suspect it was because of two factors:

• Yhwach didn't have the Almighty to better strategize and manipulate the battle field
• The Captains were fighting them on an enclosed space

Now we know the Og Sternritters didn't have schrift and Vollstandig which in the present allowed them to keep up with the far more experienced and skilled Captains. So my take is that to make up for it they instead fought more like a formal army, say:

• An Infantry of blut users at the front lines, who impeded the passage of more enemies
  • Directed by Algora, a close combat specialist
• An artillery of Heilig Pfeil sharp shooters that continuously shot all approaching opponents
  • Directed by Nikita, long range specialist
• An elite Cavalry of Letz Stil users held in reserve to shoot down any bankai, with quincy doctors beside them prepared to restore their powers (a simpler process when it came to echt Quincy) whenever the time ran out
  • Directed by Hubert, an elitist jerk
• All of this while Yhwach used the Almighty to predict the future and to a lesser degree manipulate it (its implied this ability was underdeveloped before he took in the Soul King) and make sure it went exactly as he desired
  • His orders were shouted by Seydlitz, Yhwach's right hand man

Now with this formation in mind and the fact that Yhwach gets stronger from people loyal to him dying, it would imply that every loss would empower him and for that an infantry of Gemischt Quincy at the front lines would make sense.

While the Og Gotei was far better in close combat, their kido and kido like zanpakuto were far less developed (its implied even Yamamoto only had Zanka no Taichi's East) so in open battlefield the probably lost badly, as they quite simply couldn't get close enough or kill enough Quincy fast enough to break their formation which resulted in great many losses for the shinigami and forcing Ichibei into the negotiation table, resulting on Yhwach losing the Almighty "until the day of his death".

Now this event cause a significant shift in the battlefield, as the Sternritter army was no longer strategically invincible but it had lost none of its advantage as far as ranged combat went and there was still the problem that with every fallen soldier Yhwach got closer to getting back the Almighty, not to mention the fact that Yhwach had likely already predicted Ichibei would take the Almighty and had made plans accordingly. So they had to somehow take away their range advantage and defeat the whole army in a single battle.

So when the Sternritter army came to their gates, they offered little resitance and allowed them to enter behind the their walls all the way to the Hogyoku hill only for Yamamoto to encroach them with Jokaku Enjo as a wall preventing them from fleeing. Fueled by their previous defeats and knowing they wouldn't get such a good chance again, the Captains and their seated officers went berserk among the troops, getting past their formation and killing left and right without caring for whose lives they risked in the process in order not to give them a chance to get back on their feet. Yhwach had expected this to happen and in fact he had likely accounted for it, knowing that the defeat of his most powerful army could refuel him and restore his Almighty. I don't know if he was confident of taking on Ichibei that day but supercharged as he might've had enough power to take out the 13 Captains by himself and having a reserve army back in the Lichtreich, he probably planned on returning eventually with fully trained Hachwalth as his right hand man and making sure Left arm now incarnated in a quincy body.

Now I suspect the Almighty did in fact return that very day when the he was sorrounded by the Captains but before that happened yet after the loss of it, Chojiro's determination to help Yama caused the formation of a new possible future (something Yhwach admitted to Ichigo, happens constantly). So as he impaled him the back and Yamamoto sucker nuked him with Zankai no Taichi, he lost too much power and was left at death's doorstep, and just like Ichibei predicted, his Almighty return, allowing him to push his eyes to the limit and use the last of it to reshape the future into the events of the series, whcih he uttered in the Kaiser Gesang.

To the surviving Sternritters (which included Robert) this was a prophecy that they made sure to remember and spread, but to the Shinigami this were the ramblings of a madman at death's doorstep, so after Ichibei made sure to black out his corpse's name, Yamamoto took pitty on his enemy (possibly with the Almighty's influence) and allowed the surviving Quincy to leave with their emperor's corpse.

It has some of the same details as Lebanne's maid outfit, including what seems to be a head dress, though not exactly the same given how they'd probably wouldn't want to show Liko showing off her body like that. I'm thinking its possible that Liko will be fighting in the Society of Battle Conosieurs from the ZA games, perhaps from getting herself into a simmilar arrangement on how Jacinthe got Lebanne to become her maid.

I could see anime Jacinthe having a contest like approach at battles that relies on elaborate combos much like Mewscarada and growing interested on Liko as a result, while critiquing how she holds herself back. Due to her having something Liko needs (or perhaps from defending Navi's honor after someone in SBC bullies her) they end up having a tag match with Ditto against Jacinthe (whose ace, Clefable, has a fire move like the one above) or perhaps Lebanne instead depending on what level they want her to be; maybe a tag match of Liko and Navi vs Jacynthe and Lebane, though in that case I don't see them realistically winning unless Ditto makes for broken support by mimicking all of Mewscarada's moves. At the end I could see Liko impressing her enough (not necessarily by winning but perhaps by pushing her into mega evolving and setting the space for a rematch later) to begift her mega stone.

Either way, Liko gets embarassed from being forced to wear maid outfit and traumatized at the thought of wearing Lebane's.

I imagine they’ll find a way to seal or weaken his power but without fully taking it away (maybe back to the strenght level that he had when the Ancient Justice League imprisoned him, now being More closely matched with Kal), resulting on him hillariously turning back into the mouthy kid of about 12 that he was before transforming and being imprisoned.

I suppose he’ll take on a random name in order to escape Lazarus corp, such as Billy Batson and be a recurrent enemy turned rival and eventually occasional ally to Kal, who’ll on some level be able to see himself on the kid (much like regular superman sometimes does with Billy but on a big brother level) and try to reach out to him while the kid repeatedly tells him to fuck off…and occasionally listens.

He might even start some kind of sect together with a couple of other street kids and perhaps one old man (the Captain Marvel family, whom he’ll see as his disciples and sometimes empower ad his apostles while still struggling to ration his power between them But who in turn end up humanizing him. Hillariously, he'll probably struggle with languages somewhat, causing everyone to assume he is a middle eastern immigrant.

Any funny background events? Who invited who? How was their date?

You may include any pairring you like but I heavily recomend the usage of casual dates that resulted in nothing but a fun night or on crackpairrings that resulted on awkward if not downright terrible evenings (a la Harry Potter and Parvati in the Yule Ball).

The bandage is itself a giveaway that he has a scar and the fact that he lived with an aunt rather than with parents further implies something happened to his family. The natural assumption is that he lost his parents in a Grimm attack...but there's more. The repeated pattern of how he flinches or gets scared whenever someone touches or even approaches him, specially when its someone much bigger and stronger than him...how he insisted he needed to confront Hazel himself...the way his argumentative relationship with a father figure like Ozpin...and for that matter he doesn't get nearly as scared when it comes to confronting Grimm and he has admitted to have fought smaller Grimm in the past, so his trauma being with them is doubtful.

I think Oscar was abused in the past. Probably not by his aunt since they do seem to have a good relationship but even then the way he left her without saying anything might imply he wasn't too attached to her. We do know from Cinder and Roman that the foster care system in Anima sucks and often lends itself for abuse and slavery. And speaking of parallels its also an interesting parallel with Nora and Ren who are also orphans as well as Emerald who grew up in the streets (I lean towards runaway given her mommy issues) or even Ruby and Yang given that they lost a parent. It would be interesting if Oscar talked with any of them at some point about his past to show that the old him is still there.

Love their dynamic. How they read each other and can tell when something is bothering them, how despite Corvin innitially trying to maintain a distance he eventually became a parental figure to Kippa alongside her, how they struggle to admit they care for each other and hide it beneath snarks that subtly imply as much.

There's a prophecy sorrounding that someone whom Jiraiya will teach will lead to great destruction or stability, which is the destiny Isshiki meant. Now Kashin Koji has the ability to see possible futures and analyze jutsu learned in this to teach it to whoever developed it at an advanced rate and this ability is powerful not just because it gives powerful jutsu but because it means whoever he has taught said jutsu and therefore has been guided by him is now a potential child of the prophecy, just like Naruto and Pain both were and has the potential to use said justu to make a large impact on the world.

Its a risky prophecy so he has to make sure he only teaches people whose goals he can trust, making the possibility of meeting Eida and falling for her charm particularly dangerous, as he could force him to teach someone like Kawaki, Daemon or maybe even Amado. Its also part of the reason he taught Inojin as the fact that he is in love with Himawari means he can be fairly predictable, at least as long as nothing happens to her. On that regard, it makes sense for him to have only approached Boruto after he got sepparated from Sasuke and got himself a clear number of objectives against which he won't deliberately act.

I suspect he'll end up teaching a number more of people such as Mitsuki, Himawari, Sarada and Sumire, all of whom have the potential to develop techniques that could change the ninja world. While this is doubtful, the worse possible scenario would be teaching Code, who clearly doesn't know how to fully use his new powers despite his inmense potential and whose goals run around destroying the planet.

In the myth, Gawain gets into a wedding arrangement with Dame Ragnelle, a woman whose been cursed to become a deformed old lady, in exchanged for her answering the question of "what is is that women want?" to which she essentially answers that they want agency. Gawain in turn follows through with the marriage and assures Ragnelle that he'll treat her with respect no matter what, which in turn undoes the curse. They live happily for five years until Ragnelle dies of natural causes, but not before giving Gawain a child though in that case, he was a son and his name was Gingalain (tbf then you could bring up how most of the other knights seemingly have mother who are unrelated in the myth).

Now Llyswarch is indeed beautiful but her arms look overtly long and somewhat malformed, which along with her somewhat similar hair style to the figure of Loathly Ragnelle above could imply connection with the nanatsuverse's version, whose "curse" I'm thinking might come from suffering from having inherited a degree of demon genes from a partly transformed parent. We also know that since she is two years younger than Percival's children she is apparently going to be born in 3 years from the current time, making her roughly 2 years old when Lancelot turns 23 and has his prophecized dissapereance.

I think that in the final act of the story Gawain will meet Ragnelle and have a similar discussion to the one their Arthurian selves had but in turn centering about what is it that Gawain herself trully wants, which fits really well with her character arc about finding herself, in turn allowing her to fully stabilize her Dawn, just like Llywarch described her future self has achieved. Like in the myth, Ragnelle will eventually die prematurely and leave Gawain to raise their toddler daughter, Llywarch as her own.

Its implied Renko was the one who taught Nen to the Troupe and that she was something of a mentor figure to them so assuming she remained an associate to them even as they got into their criminal activities (she herself apparently frequented Meteor City so unless she was simply that charitable she might've been a criminal herself) it would make sense for Chrollo to have eventually asked her join.

We know she wasn't there during the foundation but considering Uvo is the 11th and that we don't know who was the 4th before Hisoka, this would mean they added at least 3 (but probably 4 so as to make it an even number of legs, unless they added the final position for Kortopi) members afterwards, possibly by the time they officialized the foundation by adding the tattoos and numbers.

While I like the possibility of her having been the member that Silva killed, which would mean that Killua's father killed someone who was like a mother to them, I find it unlikely given that it happened merely 3 years ago and I suspect Renko's death might've been part of what hardened the Phantom Troupe into their current selves, as even after Saraza's death they were ultimately doing things to protect Meteor City. I think she might've been the original #10 who Bonolenov replaced quite a while back, as unlike Shizuku he is quite familiar with Chrollo and other trope members yet he grew up in a far away land, implying he became their associate sometime after they became international but that it was quite a while back. Say, her presence had a somewhat pacifying effect on them, as she insisted on being professional and in not taking too much joy in unnecesary violence and her death caused them to rethink that mindset deciding to be as evil as possible so as to make sure no one would dare thread with them which made them into the people capable of killing the Kurta for the kicks.

As a guy who grew up arguing with his younger sister I’m going to enjoy this dynamic.

Uiharu and Misaka enjoying the sight of Kuroko and Touma's respective parental side.

Here's to hoping Kamikoto and Kuroiharu will both become canon (with Shaei and Index respectively shipping them). Maybe having a daughter and a son respctively in the future.

I like to think we'll eventually return to Blue Berry in order to have further battles and short term rivalries with Blue Berry's strongests, each now displaying a mega evolution to match the Rising Voltacclers.

Hard to say when Ichigo studied in England and wether it was for a pre graduate degree, for an exchange program or for a Master's. "We Do (k)Not Always Love You" established he was still living in Japan and Kubo said he dated Orihime in college but this may have been because Kubo established Ichigo sometimes uses the senkaimon to travel long distances. Given that we know the epilogue was in 2013, at which point Kazui would've been around 5, I lean towards the pre graduate or echange program (which given his only above average grades, would imply Soul Society may have given him a recomendation letter with its West Branch), unless he did a Master's in England after having Kazui, which wouldn't be impossible but would be a whole lot more complicated.

Either way, Ichigo would be around 18-20-24 years old when he was in England and Noel (who was 17 in 2015 making from the '98) would've been 5-7-9 years old, possibly at around the same time Shelby died protecting Balgo and got replaced by a disguiser. At around this time, which may have been a time of trauma for her, Ichigo might've saved Noelle from a dark dragon which may have been her introduction to Soul Society and ever since she's wanted to know about Japan's soul system, possibly because she herself hopes to study abroad there, which is why she wants to save money in her Witch activities and go there. On Ichigo's part, I like to think she reminded him of Karin.

Unlike the Seven Deadly Sins and other Noble lineages such as the Stolas and possibly the Von Eldritch (even the imps but their power is limited to physical strenght), the power that an Overlord has is not inherent but has to come from the soul power they've accumulated while in hell through contracts. The more people owe them, the more powerful they grow, making the Overlords the most powerful, ilicit business people in hell, so its not strange that massive conglomerates like Zeezi's clubs, Carmilla's weapon business or the Vees are among the strongest...but it does make it weird that businesses like Rossie's gourmet cannibalism, Maestro's opera, Zestial's book business and Alastor's radio show are just as powerful... which is why I believe its because they don't announce their actual businesses.

• Rosie's is the most obvious, as its all but stated that the food she serves to the cannibals are corpses she is disposing of. Thus if any criminal wants to kill someone without it being publicly known (not by the unexistant police but by people wanting to avenge the dead party), they can give her the corpses and her more official clientel eats it.
  • This in turn gives Rossie dirt and info over all her criminal clientel, thus allowing her to extort her clients, making it a three way profit, so its no surprise she is one of the strongests Overlords, being powerful enough to in turn boost Alastor into being the overall strongest
• Zestial's business seemingly relates to old books...which in turn probably includes Grimoires whose study allows any sinner to channel their power into other effects, meaning that any sinner with any modicum of skill in magic likely studied books provided by him. He literally rules over Hell's higher education.
  • His partnership with Carmilla in turn makes more sense because her line of business is the most technical out of all sinners, meaning that she likely studied a mix of magic and technology from theory provided by his books
  • The fact that Velvette (who funnily enough seems to be the most studious of the Vees) happens to be a skilled witch would imply she has likely studied his books or at least their pdf version
• With Maestro this is headcanon, but I suspect that much like in the movies, he allows mobsters to have business meetings in his opera using the sound of the music as a cover
• As to Alastor, we know that he is an expert in radio signals to the point where even as a human he could use radio to contact hell and can seeminly send signals onto Vox's buildings, which alludes to his actual line of work: subtle, coded communications. Any mobster needs to send messages through more subtle and harder to detect means, then they need him as a mediator, in turn giving them space in his radio channels to send coded messages in the commentaries
  • This is specifically the reason why Rossie saw potential in him since he first made the ritual to contact her. She most certainly wouldn't see him as a valuable investment if his best idea was some edgy bullshit like broadcasting the screams of his victims and even if his radio channel was pretty good I doubt that alone would put him in the same class as Vox's massive conglomerate.
  • Interestingly, while Alastor is an expert on signals, he seemingly can't fix his radio staff on his own, for which he needs Rossie's magic, possibly because he himself refused to be taught by Zestial, due to his distaste for depending on others, not to mention his having died earlier than planned and without giving him time to study more magic before going to hell
    • However, I suspect Rossie in turn still needs to do business with Alastor, which is why now that their old contract is broken they need to sign a new more equal one

I feel this serves to contrast with how the old fashioned criminals in hell do business with the new breed like Vox, who openly profit on the misery of others in contrast with the seemingly more respectable old fashioned ones that do it more subtly, not to mention implying Alastor and Vox's distaste is on some level ideological.

This in turn makes me wonder how Charlie will react upon knowing the business that fund her hotel are even more amoral than what she knows, not to mention the possibility that, considering her family owned the hotel and how Lilith might've been an Overlord herself, that her own mother also did ilicit business with the hotel as cover.

Amethio has a now seemingly useless mega stone as none of his remaining Pokemon can mega evolve so most likely he (like Liko, Dot and Navy likely will) is gonna catch a new pokemon.

While my first thought was an edge lord, night themed pokemon he tends to go for (such as Absol, which like many, I now want for Liko) I've noticed a pattern that many characters tend to have pokemon that represent something different to what their own personality would push them to go for, representing how they go past their comfort zone to drive their have character development. So I feel it would make sense if he got such a pokemon.

I've also noticed Amethio has a penchant for bonding with older grandfatherly figures like his own grandpa Gibeon, his butler Hamber or even Ludlow as Mighty G. He seems to trust them as guiding figures which in turn allows him soften up and act a bit more like a kid again. I feel having Drampa would allow him to assimilate this aspect of himself better as well as symbolizing how he has grown more patient and flexible.

Its mega evolution in turn represents this two aspects of himself finding balance, regaining his aggression but now coupled with a patient nature. If you liken his other pokemon to the starry night sky (Amethio's motif, like Liko to the cloudy blue sky, Roy to the sun, Dot to the moon and Ult to the ground) then you could say Drampa represents his returning to the day and his mega Evolution is the day becoming stormy, matching dark and light of Amethio's hair.

Edit: It also contrasts nicely with his more Knight themed pokemon and Zygarde who is a dragon of a similar color scheme

I just feel they make sense, as given how Paul respects strenght above everythig else he would admire someone tough like Lana as she'd understand his desire to grow stronger because she wanted to grow stronger herself.

As to Lana, having gotten enough of energetic nice guys from dating Ash, she might enjoy someone whom she felt was more challenging, enjoying training with him under his more systemic regimes and strategies so as to not face another defeat like the one Guzma gave her. Paul in turn might grow insterested in learning of her Z moves.

I also like the contrast between their relationship with their respective siblings, with Lana having two mischievous annoying little sisters whom she is strict to with while Paul has an indulgent nice guy big brother he loves but occassionally finds annoying. From this experiences, I feel Lana would put Paul in his place when he gets into toxic bullshit in a way mirroring how she nags her sisters which alongside her more gentle Reggie like side, would make Paul want to be less jerky.

Ps: for the record this is post character development Paul