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What are your game headcanons?

Where does meat come from in the Pokemon world? Well, that's a tough question if they've all got human-like intelligence, or sentience. I've spent a while thinking about this.
  • Carrion: Pokemon will eat the random dead bodies they find in the forest, as long as it's not the same species as them. Their guts are strong enough to handle the bacteria and fungi on a rotting corpse, although they prefer fresh bodies.
  • Hunting: I lied. Not all Pokemon are sentient, and humans and Pokemon will kill them for meat. Since their population is small, humans and Pokemon hunt them rarely and their fresh meat is considered a delicacy. Usually, it's standalone Pokemon with no evolutionary line that aren't sentient. There are plenty of exceptions to this rule, though. Seedot isn't sentient but it does evolve, while Audino is sentient but has no evolutionary line.
  • Sharing: This isn't strictly meat, but Pokemon which produce and store their own food, like Chansey and their eggs, may share their products with friends or sell them.
  • Battling: Not all species are content with carrion. Many sentient Pokemon try to knock out other sentient Pokemon. Once their opponent has fainted, they kill it and start eating. This is risky because the attacker might get knocked out and killed themselves, so it's generally quite rare. It's better for Pokemon to form bonds with each other to avoid this behaviour.
  • Funerals: Excarnation, where a dead body has its flesh removed so that only the bones are left behind, may also be a source of meat for Pokemon and humans. Again, Pokemon will avoid eating friends, relatives, or those of the same species.
That has an impact on the way people live their lives.
  • Pokemon will only do battle for trainers they trust to protect them. This is because fainting in the wild is so risky. Fainting itself isn't harmful to Pokemon, and they'll wake up after a minute or two. It's the vulnerability that comes with it that is so dangerous.
  • Wild Pokemon also get into groups to sleep and travel. These may be of the same species or a bunch of different species.
  • Sleeping wild Pokemon usually have a watchman or guard in case a predator arrives. Humans also do this; their cities and towns usually have nightwatchmen and guards.
  • Funerals generally take the form of leaving wild Pokemon to eat the body's flesh and then storing the bones in a memorial jar. This jar might be buried or cremated. Not all regions practice this.
  • Humans are particularly weak compared to other Pokemon. Humans won't travel outside their homes without a friendly Pokemon which has agreed to defend them.
  • Human healing technology is considered very valuable, and this gives Pokemon an incentive not to kill them.
  • Another incentive not to kill a human is the fear of a reprisal from other humans, which are very social creatures and have strong bonds with each other. This applies for social species of Pokemon as well.
edited to address Nitro's comment.
But beings are sentient.
 
Pokémon can actually talk to humans in any language, as long as they're well trained to use it. (Meowth of anime Team Rocket Trio and the Detective Pikachu were trained this way.) But given the presence of robotic Pokémon, I can assume the Pokémon are more than just technologically advanced than real-world animals, plants and machines. For example, Eevee is multiple times smarter than a regular household pet. (In that case, Eevee isn't from Pokémon World originally, but from outer space).
 
-Melony is Wulfric's younger cousin.

-Kalos & Galar have a rivalry with one another, just like the UK & France IRL. They are opposite regions culturally in terms of art & science vs sports & music, and a focus on one's journey as a Pokémon Trainer vs taking on the Gym Challenge to become popular.
 
The fossil Pokédex entries are written by Cara Liss herself, and since she knows nothing about them she makes up stuff based on what she thinks should be right, therefore talk of them suffering is innaccurate and they don't suffer at all. I'm not even sure it isn't actual canon given that they pretty clearly aren't creatures that actually existed before she created them even though the Pokédex says they did. Arctovish doesn't seem to have any issues with its upside-down head and Dracovish looks like it couldn't be happier running around the camp playing fetch etc. Dracozolt seems happy enough even with its large hindquarters, and afterall there are humans out there in real life with disproportionately large lower halves who seem to get along fine. The only one of the four that actually looks like it suffers in any capacity is Arctozolt with its inability to walk easily, constant shivering and nasal discharge.
 
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The volatile weather in the Wild Area is caused by Dynamaxed Pokémon with weather-changing abilities residing in the dens. It's not intentional on the part of those Pokémon, but there is a bit of a resultant turf conflict among the species that benefit from those different weather conditions. The Pokémon in the Wild Area also tend to be hardier than their counterparts in more normalized zones, because of the need to avoid or adapt to the constant changes in the weather.

On another note...

We're told in the games that Dynamaxing only occurs in the Galar region. And yet, the Pokédex entry for G-Max Melmetal says this:

"In a distant land, there are legends about a cyclopean giant. In fact, the giant was a Melmetal that was flooded with Gigantamax energy."

How can this be possible, if Dynamax energy is only present in Galar? Well, think about the Wishing Stars. Even though Eternatus fell to Earth 20,000 years ago, fragments of that meteor still seem to be pulled down occasionally. I would say that most of the time, the abundance of Dynamax energy in Galar (as well as the presence of Eternatus itself) attracts the energy in the meteor fragments that still hang in Earth's orbit, continuously bringing them down to Galar. But sometimes there are fragments that manage to fall astray. In one such case, the fragment was then found and digested by a Meltan (since they feed by absorbing iron and metal particles in the soil), which gave it an innate ability to Gigantamax on its own, kind of like how Rayquaza can Mega Evolve without a Mega Stone due to its diet of energized meteors affecting the composition of its organs.
 
Sinnoh has really experienced many battles that involved giant Pokemon, or at least giants, this is supported by the fact that there are elemental Plates not only aboveground but also underground as well. One of those battles involved Dialga and Palkia battling inside some sort of distortion and because of the distortion, people thought they were the same Pokemon.
 
Sweet! I love headcanons!

-Meat in the Pokemon world is made from Pokemon. It's not really all that hard to figure out. The dex entries outright say they hunt each other.

-Heroes of the games in game order (in my opinion)

Original (AdvancedDS) Timeline: Red, Ethan and Kris, Brendan, Dawn, Hilbert, and Nate and Rosa.
Mega/Infinity Timeline: Calem, May (note: ORAS comes before XY chronologically), Elio, Undecided (I have yet to decide who I think is the Galar Hero).
Let's Go Timeline: Chase

-Speaking of Timelines, here's my fan timeline:

AdvancedDS Timeline: Arceus creates universe -------------> RBY/FRLG/RSE -> GSC/HGSS -> DPP -> BW -> BW2 (Modern Day)

Mega Timeline aka Infinity Timeline: Arceus Creates Universe -> AZ Sets off Ultimate Weapon ---------(Slightly Altered Versions of RBY, GSC, and maybe DPP)-------> ORAS -> XY/Slightly Altered Versions of BW -> BW2 -> Mix of SM and USUM -> SwSh (Modern Day)

Let's Go Timeline: Faliure to Stop Necrozma for one reason or another and absorbs all light in the universe before exploding, releasing all the light it has absorbed and creating a new universe -> Slightly Altered Version of RBY -> LGPE (Modern Day)

-There was a war in Kanto but it's not some big secret conspiracy. It's out in the open and more or less everyone knows about it.
 
The minor division Gyms in Galar (aka the 8 Gyms we don't battle in the games) are private buildings more akin to traditional Gyms from other regions, rather than Stadiums. Some of the Minor League Gym Leaders are newbies, working diligently to one day make the major division; others are simply people who lacked the desire to seek fame for themselves by battling in front of 50,000 screaming fans.

Some more headcanons I have about the Minor League (headcanon until GameFreak proves me wrong, anyway):

-The Normal-type Gym Leader is an elementary school teacher who lets her top students become her Gym Trainers. She has a Greedent, Diggersby, and Gigantamax Snorlax.

-The Steel-type Gym is located in Motostoke, and has a rivalry with Kabu's Fire-type Gym. The Gym Mission is a steampunk-themed puzzle with gears and switches. The Leader uses Klang, Bronzong, and Steelix.

-The Bug-type Gym is located in Ballonlea, and is led by an archer who has you hit targets with a bow in her Gym Mission. She uses Ribombee, Vikavolt, and a Gigantamax Butterfree in Gym Battles.

-The Ground-type Gym Leader is an archaeologist from Unova who is loosely based on Indiana Jones and is implied to have worked with Lenora. He uses Claydol, Runerigus & Gigantamax Sandaconda.

-In Sword, Allister decided he'd rather stay in the minor division because he is so shy & dislikes being in the spotlight. In Shield, he pretty much got the position by default because Bea decided to take this year's League off to work on her karate skills, rebalance her qi, and the like.

-Melony & Gordie had the same record this year, which meant that one of them (depending on your version) missed the major division on a bunch of stupid tiebreakers.
 
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Giratina is the last of the defeated giants and the only one of few who have survived the grand battle along with Dialga and Palkia. This is supported by the fact that the Timespace Orbs act just like the Plates, except that the Orbs are specifically made for the Creation trio.
 
Speaking of my fan timeline, I have some in mind:
Handheld-verse: RSE/FRLG (or perhaps ORAS) -> DPPt/HGSS -> BW/XY (XY is interim between BW and B2W2) -> B2W2 -> SM/USUM (more likely USUM)
Switch-verse: Let's Go -> Sword/Shield (SwSh is completely separate from the handheld-verse)

The fans-called "Mega-verse" is retconned in my handheld-verse due to BW/B2W2. The Sword/Shield games are completely separate from USUM-verse as well.

The Mega Evolutions are a shared technology between Hoenn and Kalos' mega-corporations. Contrary to what majority of people said, Mega Rings are too costly to make, and thus became an exotic item.

Z-Power, while part of Alola, is actually not native to the Pokemon World. It was originated from Ultra Space (due to Necrozma), but is universally and multiversally-compatible. Z-Rings and Z-Power Rings are also somewhat cheaper than Mega Rings, and are produced in mass numbers.

Mega Rings can break if absorbed too much alien energy or something (the sunlight is not harsh enough to break a Mega Ring however). Z-Power Rings are tougher and more technologically-advanced so there's almost no way to break it apart from hardest crashes.

Dynamax Rings are more fragile than Mega Rings and Z-Rings, but is capable of assisting Eternatus' powers.
 
Piers always faces discrimination whenever it comes to making it to the major league due to Spikmuth not having a Power Spot. He has lesser resources to compete with the other gym leaders and many attempts have been made to exclude him from the major league, but sheer skill, of the levels that cannot be ignored by anyone result him making to the major league.

There was a biopic made on Piers struggle and rise as a gym leader to market him in Galar.
 
Not much, but
  • Game!Brock still has a large amount of younger siblings, just like anime!Brock. He helps them out with his gym winnings. His parents are also a bit more responsible than they were in the anime universe.
  • Misty has 3 older sisters just like in the anime, and they still like to tease her from time to time because she's a tomboy. They're not trainers in the game universe.
  • Trainers have some kind of symbol on them that they have to keep visible at all times so that other trainers know if they're willing to battle or not.
  • There are alternate paths that non-trainers can take to move between towns that do not have trainer battles or lots of grass along them. It is generally advised that non-trainers travel with a Pokemon of their own, however. There are signs telling them how dangerous the Pokemon may be along those paths.
Also
  • In gen 4, the spheres you dig up from the underground are reasonably valuable, and serve several purposes: They can be grown to feed some types of Pokemon, you can make jewelry out of them or use them as building materials, etc.
  • The underground man in Eterna City dug out the tunnels in the first place because he liked spelunking and whatnot, but he also kind of sees it as a easy way to trick people into digging out resources to sell and stuff. Like, he's not malicious or anything, just a bit sketchy. The hikers that trade you decoration stuff to all report back to him. Any money he does get just goes into buying more digging stuff to hand out to random kids.
    • But I kind of headcanon him as the type of parent who'd just abandon his very young child son in a cave for a week in the hopes that he'd learn to love and appreciate digging. Not because he's a strict parent, but because he innocently and genuinely loves exploring so much that he'd want his own child to grow to do the same, and thinks that this is how you do it. if he did do something like this, I guess it did end up working out in the end?
 
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