elementcollector1
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I realize this has likely been done to death already, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about my interpretation of the canon Pokemon timeline(s). Pretty much everyone knows that Mega Evolution constituted a 'reboot' of the series - however, what nobody else seems to be talking about is exactly how deep that rabbit hole goes, and the ramifications it has for the rest of the Pokeverse.
For the first six sets of games (G1, G2, G3, G4, G5a, and G5b), the concept was simple: Alternating groups of the first four (1+3, 2+4) took place concurrently and three years apart, starting with the events of Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen and/or Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Three years later, the events of Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, SoulSilver and/or Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum occur. About ten years after that, the events of Black and White take place, with Black 2 and White 2 happening 2 years after that according to both concept art and in-game dialogue.
This order was confirmed in a (now-deleted) tweet by Toshinobu Matsumiya, a main game developer and writer for the Pokemon series.
This can actually be expanded upon when it is realized that these oddly specific dates correspond roughly with the release timeline of the earliest games in each group: Pokemon Red and Green were released in Japan on 2/27/1996, Gold and Silver on 11/21/1999, Black and White on 9/18/2010, and Black 2 and White 2 on 6/23/2012. Additionally, the reason Black and White take place after a ten-year gap is because of an oddly-speaking Rocket Grunt who appears in Gold, Silver and Crystal to steal the Machine Part from the Power Plant, reappearing in Black and White to state that he’d moved to Unova and then his wife gave birth to their child, who mentions that he is nearly old enough to start his own Pokemon journey (commonly known to occur at the age of 10). Additionally, a cameraman in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum mentions that he was there for the recent appearance of a red Gyarados in Johto - something that happened in the course of Gold, Silver and Crystal. As such, the timeline is as follows:
1996: Events in Kanto/Hoenn
1999: Events in Johto/Sinnoh
2010: Events in Unova, part 1
2012: Events in Unova, part 2 / Kalos
However, X and Y introduce a discrepancy: With the advent of Mega Evolution, why hasn’t it been present in previous games? This is implied to be the result of the firing of the Ultimate Weapon, a machine that utilized the life-force of deceased Pokemon to create a blast so powerful it could fracture time and space. The firing of this weapon 3,000 years before the events of X and Y was enough to split the timeline in half - one where Mega Evolution was created, and one where it was not. This is also confirmed by Zinnia to be the point of the split in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
This essentially states that the Ultimate Weapon retroactively altered the timeline at the point of split when it created Mega Evolution - in the alternate timeline, AZ never built the Ultimate Weapon to begin with because there was no war occurring, and events proceeded as in the ‘Original’ timeline. These timelines are also observable to other timelines, and even travelable via Ultra Space.
Thus, the timeline can now be split into two - the “Original” Timeline, consisting of the list presented earlier, and the “Mega” Timeline, consisting of the Mega-Evolution-containing remakes of the appropriate games. However, temporal placement has now been altered, as revealed by an event in Alpha Sapphire. Examining a photograph in Aqua Admin Shelly’s room reveals the following:
The last bit of text, given what we know, can be deciphered as: “The 7th day of the 7th month, 2002. With Archie and Jirachi.”
Jirachi is heavily associated with the tanabata festival, a real-world Japanese event that takes place on July 7th (7/7) every year. Additionally, save for the possibility of Pokemon taking place thousands of years in the future or past, the date referenced by the note must then be July 7, 2002. Remember, on this date, Archie was a boy, not a man - meaning the events of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire must take place at least a full decade later, and possibly several. In fact, this would line up well with their release dates of 11/21/2014, 12 years after this event. If Archie was between the ages of 6 and 17 during the original festival and Jirachi’s appearance, he would then be between 18 and 29 during the events of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - young, but possible.
And if the Weapon split the timeline in half once, it could do so again. In the following games, the exact same thing happens - the firing of the Ultimate Weapon has split the timeline into two.
In one timeline, the Sun and Moon timeline, Lusamine becomes infected by the neurotoxin of a Nihilego, resulting in her progressively becoming more attached to Ultra Beasts to the point of forcibly opening Ultra Wormholes to become reunited with her precious Nihilego. Lillie, at the end of the game, leaves for Kanto to find Bill (who, in the G1 games and their remakes, had merged and subsequently unmerged with a Nidorino via a Cell Transporter machine) in the hopes of curing her mother’s condition. While Necrozma can be secretly encountered in this game, it does not have any interaction with Solgaleo or Lunala, and as such remains in its broken form.
In another timeline, the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon timeline, Lusamine was never attacked by a Nihilego and thus never developed an infatuation with them. Instead, she opens the Ultra Wormholes to confront Necrozma directly, only to fail and have the player succeed in her place. By the end of the game, Lusamine is in reasonable health, and as such Lillie has no impetus to leave Alola in search of aid. Necrozma absorbs the light of Solgaleo or Lunala and eventually transforms into Ultra Necrozma, and is then defeated by the player.
Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon are not necessarily a departure from the Pokemon game formula in this sense - prior to Black and White, the games were well-known for releasing a third, ‘improved’ version of the stories they told (examples being Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum). However, they are unusual in the sense that the ‘remakes’ are also a pair, and aren’t sequels like Black 2 and White 2 - and, for all intents and purposes, that they result in completely different ‘official’ game endings, where former remakes simply included new postgame content (with the exception of Platinum). What this actually means is, at this time, uncertain, but it is weak evidence that this is a proper timeline split rather than just re-releases of the same story. Additionally, both sets of games mention that Porygon was created 20 years prior, which dates it to approximately 1996 - the same as its creation in G1 games, even if the Mega Timeline Kanto games take place significantly later. Lastly, Trainer Red's shirt in the Alolan Battle Tree has a logographic which can be interpreted as "96" - the year he became Champion of Kanto.
Importantly, the two new timelines are both able to interact with prior timelines, moreso than the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire timelines were able to observe them. Anabel, the head of the Battle Tower (a feature only constructed in Emerald), is present and openly acknowledges that she is from an alternate universe. Mohn, who appears in all four games managing the Poke Pelago, is another Faller (the diagetic term for those who have passed through Ultra Space and ended up in a different universe than the one they began in). This, combined with Zinnia’s comment about the ‘distortions’ caused by the Mega Timeline’s existence, appear to suggest a continual weakening of the boundaries between universes - with each use of the weapon, the universes created are more able to overlap with others and each other. Moreover, there appear to be multiple Necrozma running around.
With the event of the Let’s Go! remakes of Yellow, however, the boundaries are proven to be further deteriorated than once thought, as now not only are courses of events altered, but also their temporal locations: Red and Blue finished their journeys years before Team Rocket attempted their plans in Kanto. Additionally, these games are confirmed to take place in the Mega Timeline:
This is similar to what happened with Archie in Alpha Sapphire, as a Bug Catcher NPC notes that 10 years prior to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Pokemon Centers in Hoenn featured a second floor with a Cable Link Club, exactly as their appearance in the original Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald (the latter of which was released in 2004, 10 years before the 2014 release of OR/AS) - once again, temporal placement of events has been altered, though not as overtly. Additionally, both the Fairy type (something newly categorized as of X/Y) and Mega Evolution (known, but rarely researched outside of Kalos) are known to the Kanto and Hoenn regions, implying both word and possibly resources (such as Mega Stones) have spread.
Additionally, this placement of the games in the timeline completely solves a long-standing discrepancy of the original timeline theory: If Red and Blue have aged significantly by the events of Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (being present as adults in the Battle Tree in Alola), why hasn’t Wally, who looks identical to his appearance in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire? The answer, quite simply, is that Wally hasn’t visibly aged because it’s only been a few years for him, whereas Red and Blue ‘finished their journey(s) years ago’ in the Mega Timeline’s version of the Kanto events. Therefore, there is strong evidence that this altered placement in the Mega Timeline is accurate.
However, a problem with this placement of OR/AS after X/Y arises in the form of the peculiar NPC known as Mr. Bonding. Mr. Bonding shows up in the X/Y series to grant the player character O-Powers, bonus abilities which aid them with various tasks such as catching or battling. However, Mr. Bonding did not always have the powers he possesses in X and Y, and is, in fact, given them by actions undertaken during the course of Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire - five gentlemen bestow their O-Power-granting abilities upon a random stranger, turning him into Mr. Bonding and causing him to leave and spread O-Powers far and wide (presumably starting with Kalos, given that he bids the player adieu at the end of his cutscene before leaving). Thus, OR/AS (or at least a section thereof) must take place before X/Y.
Unfortunately, this introduces another discrepancy, in that Wally would have aged more significantly by the time of S/M/US/UM if OR/AS took place more than two years in the past, and should show this visibly. It is possible, at the very least, that OR/AS is somewhat concurrent to X/Y, and as such four years passes between Wally’s appearance in OR/AS and his appearance in S/M/US/UM, making him fourteen to fifteen years old. The height difference between a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old native to Kyushu, Japan in 2013 was an average of 27 cm or 11 inches, meaning Wally should have been roughly 120% his former size - a substantial change, but perhaps within the margin of error for the cartoonish Pokemon look. Incidentally, the height difference between a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old native to Kyushu, Japan is 14 cm or 5.5 inches, an almost indistinguishable 110% height change. Wally’s lack of physical aging may be explained by whatever ailment makes him so frail, as stunting (low height or weight for a given age) is commonly associated with poor outcomes in child pneumonia. Additionally, a scientist at Devon in OR/AS mentions he is working on a project to visualize Pokemon dreams, and that a rival of his (Dr. Fennel) is working on the same thing in Unova - something she has officially completed by Black 2/White 2 (and likely completed as early as Black/White), meaning OR/AS could theoretically take place in 2010 (however, this is not likely due to the other presented evidence).
This leaves Kanto’s place in the Mega Timeline uncertain, as where before it was concurrent to Hoenn, now Hoenn is concurrent to Kalos. Mega Evolution is a distant, yet known concept to Kanto, and is used by both the player character and their rival during the latter half of the game, similar to its use in the Hoenn remakes. Without anything else to go off of, Kanto would then be placed roughly concurrent to Hoenn once again, meaning Kalos, Hoenn and Kanto all take place approximately concurrently. We can conclusively say that the Let’s Go events take place before Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, as the Geothermal Power Plant in Alola makes reference to a Zapdos appearing in the Kanto Power Plant - additionally, the reference to the loss of a Machine Part in the Johto games means the Mega Johto games (if they ever exist) would take place before Alola events as well. Additionally, Kanto is well-known enough to Alola that several places have been (approximately) reconstructed for tourism - a traditional Gym modeled after Vermilion’s, Malie Garden after Nugget Bridge, etc. Furthermore, Sabrina (upon rematch at her Saffron City Gym) mentions that she won’t face another challenger like the player for another three years (referring to the 3-year time gap between the original Kanto and Johto games), meaning at least three years must separate the Let’s Go! Games and Alola games if they reference the events of Johto games in the Mega Timeline.
Thus, the Mega Timeline can be constructed roughly as follows:
2012: Events of Hoenn/Kalos/Kanto
2015?: Events of Johto/Sinnoh?
2016: Events of Alola (with or without Necrozma)
The events of Sword and Shield leave their placement in the time web inconclusive - there are no Mega Pokemon or references thereof, but the existence of Dynamax and Gigantamax raises a similar question to that of Mega Evolution - why was it never referenced in other regions, if it was known? As such, pending further evaluation, they are left unsorted. If they take place in the Original Timeline, this would indicate the existence of Fairy-types has also been discovered in that timeline. If in either of the Mega Timelines, they would indicate that Galar as a region is relatively isolated from the others in terms of Pokemon Dynamaxing versus Mega Evolving.
However, references to the events of the Alolan games exist in the Crown Tundra DLC, indicating that this instance of Galar is familiar with Ultra Beasts and Professor Mohn’s research on them. By transitive property, this should by rights place Galar in the Mega Timeline(s), similar to Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, but it may be that this is yet another version of Alola that also experienced similar events with Ultra Beasts. Notably, Necrozma is not obtainable in its Ultra form in Max Raids, indicating a stronger link to Sun and Moon than their Ultra remakes.
In conclusion, we have the following time tree (I couldn't figure out how to merge columns in this editor...) :
*Assumed to be a version of events without Mega Evolution? Unclear, as this would presumably leave the Ultimate Weapon inoperable.
Lastly, we of course turn to the most recent entries in the core series. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have thus far shown no direct indication that they will be featuring Mega Evolutions, Gigantamaxed Pokemon, or any other notable series gimmick, but would be solid candidates for the Mega version of Sinnoh events (which would thus roughly place them as occurring in 2015). Legends: Arceus, on the other hand, shows clear signs of taking place during the Edo or Meiji periods, between 1603 and 1912. However, given neither game has been released, these placements are largely tentative.
What do you think? It's got a bit of a Zelda-timeline vibe to it, but I want to know if there's any evidence disproving or challenging any of the assertions I've made.
For the first six sets of games (G1, G2, G3, G4, G5a, and G5b), the concept was simple: Alternating groups of the first four (1+3, 2+4) took place concurrently and three years apart, starting with the events of Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen and/or Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Three years later, the events of Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, SoulSilver and/or Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum occur. About ten years after that, the events of Black and White take place, with Black 2 and White 2 happening 2 years after that according to both concept art and in-game dialogue.
This order was confirmed in a (now-deleted) tweet by Toshinobu Matsumiya, a main game developer and writer for the Pokemon series.
This can actually be expanded upon when it is realized that these oddly specific dates correspond roughly with the release timeline of the earliest games in each group: Pokemon Red and Green were released in Japan on 2/27/1996, Gold and Silver on 11/21/1999, Black and White on 9/18/2010, and Black 2 and White 2 on 6/23/2012. Additionally, the reason Black and White take place after a ten-year gap is because of an oddly-speaking Rocket Grunt who appears in Gold, Silver and Crystal to steal the Machine Part from the Power Plant, reappearing in Black and White to state that he’d moved to Unova and then his wife gave birth to their child, who mentions that he is nearly old enough to start his own Pokemon journey (commonly known to occur at the age of 10). Additionally, a cameraman in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum mentions that he was there for the recent appearance of a red Gyarados in Johto - something that happened in the course of Gold, Silver and Crystal. As such, the timeline is as follows:
1996: Events in Kanto/Hoenn
1999: Events in Johto/Sinnoh
2010: Events in Unova, part 1
2012: Events in Unova, part 2 / Kalos
However, X and Y introduce a discrepancy: With the advent of Mega Evolution, why hasn’t it been present in previous games? This is implied to be the result of the firing of the Ultimate Weapon, a machine that utilized the life-force of deceased Pokemon to create a blast so powerful it could fracture time and space. The firing of this weapon 3,000 years before the events of X and Y was enough to split the timeline in half - one where Mega Evolution was created, and one where it was not. This is also confirmed by Zinnia to be the point of the split in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
- “My people know it. From generation to generation, we pass along the lore about the distortions in the world borne by the Mega Evolution mechanism. And about the existence of another world, which we have long observed to be just like this one and yet not the same... That's right. A Hoenn region that's almost exactly like this one we live in. Filled with Pokémon and people like us. A world where maybe the evolution of Pokémon took a slightly different path, where Mega Evolution is unknown... A world where that war 3,000 years ago...never happened. A world where the ultimate weapon was never even built.”
This essentially states that the Ultimate Weapon retroactively altered the timeline at the point of split when it created Mega Evolution - in the alternate timeline, AZ never built the Ultimate Weapon to begin with because there was no war occurring, and events proceeded as in the ‘Original’ timeline. These timelines are also observable to other timelines, and even travelable via Ultra Space.
Thus, the timeline can now be split into two - the “Original” Timeline, consisting of the list presented earlier, and the “Mega” Timeline, consisting of the Mega-Evolution-containing remakes of the appropriate games. However, temporal placement has now been altered, as revealed by an event in Alpha Sapphire. Examining a photograph in Aqua Admin Shelly’s room reveals the following:
The last bit of text, given what we know, can be deciphered as: “The 7th day of the 7th month, 2002. With Archie and Jirachi.”
Jirachi is heavily associated with the tanabata festival, a real-world Japanese event that takes place on July 7th (7/7) every year. Additionally, save for the possibility of Pokemon taking place thousands of years in the future or past, the date referenced by the note must then be July 7, 2002. Remember, on this date, Archie was a boy, not a man - meaning the events of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire must take place at least a full decade later, and possibly several. In fact, this would line up well with their release dates of 11/21/2014, 12 years after this event. If Archie was between the ages of 6 and 17 during the original festival and Jirachi’s appearance, he would then be between 18 and 29 during the events of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - young, but possible.
And if the Weapon split the timeline in half once, it could do so again. In the following games, the exact same thing happens - the firing of the Ultimate Weapon has split the timeline into two.
In one timeline, the Sun and Moon timeline, Lusamine becomes infected by the neurotoxin of a Nihilego, resulting in her progressively becoming more attached to Ultra Beasts to the point of forcibly opening Ultra Wormholes to become reunited with her precious Nihilego. Lillie, at the end of the game, leaves for Kanto to find Bill (who, in the G1 games and their remakes, had merged and subsequently unmerged with a Nidorino via a Cell Transporter machine) in the hopes of curing her mother’s condition. While Necrozma can be secretly encountered in this game, it does not have any interaction with Solgaleo or Lunala, and as such remains in its broken form.
In another timeline, the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon timeline, Lusamine was never attacked by a Nihilego and thus never developed an infatuation with them. Instead, she opens the Ultra Wormholes to confront Necrozma directly, only to fail and have the player succeed in her place. By the end of the game, Lusamine is in reasonable health, and as such Lillie has no impetus to leave Alola in search of aid. Necrozma absorbs the light of Solgaleo or Lunala and eventually transforms into Ultra Necrozma, and is then defeated by the player.
Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon are not necessarily a departure from the Pokemon game formula in this sense - prior to Black and White, the games were well-known for releasing a third, ‘improved’ version of the stories they told (examples being Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum). However, they are unusual in the sense that the ‘remakes’ are also a pair, and aren’t sequels like Black 2 and White 2 - and, for all intents and purposes, that they result in completely different ‘official’ game endings, where former remakes simply included new postgame content (with the exception of Platinum). What this actually means is, at this time, uncertain, but it is weak evidence that this is a proper timeline split rather than just re-releases of the same story. Additionally, both sets of games mention that Porygon was created 20 years prior, which dates it to approximately 1996 - the same as its creation in G1 games, even if the Mega Timeline Kanto games take place significantly later. Lastly, Trainer Red's shirt in the Alolan Battle Tree has a logographic which can be interpreted as "96" - the year he became Champion of Kanto.
Importantly, the two new timelines are both able to interact with prior timelines, moreso than the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire timelines were able to observe them. Anabel, the head of the Battle Tower (a feature only constructed in Emerald), is present and openly acknowledges that she is from an alternate universe. Mohn, who appears in all four games managing the Poke Pelago, is another Faller (the diagetic term for those who have passed through Ultra Space and ended up in a different universe than the one they began in). This, combined with Zinnia’s comment about the ‘distortions’ caused by the Mega Timeline’s existence, appear to suggest a continual weakening of the boundaries between universes - with each use of the weapon, the universes created are more able to overlap with others and each other. Moreover, there appear to be multiple Necrozma running around.
With the event of the Let’s Go! remakes of Yellow, however, the boundaries are proven to be further deteriorated than once thought, as now not only are courses of events altered, but also their temporal locations: Red and Blue finished their journeys years before Team Rocket attempted their plans in Kanto. Additionally, these games are confirmed to take place in the Mega Timeline:
This is similar to what happened with Archie in Alpha Sapphire, as a Bug Catcher NPC notes that 10 years prior to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Pokemon Centers in Hoenn featured a second floor with a Cable Link Club, exactly as their appearance in the original Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald (the latter of which was released in 2004, 10 years before the 2014 release of OR/AS) - once again, temporal placement of events has been altered, though not as overtly. Additionally, both the Fairy type (something newly categorized as of X/Y) and Mega Evolution (known, but rarely researched outside of Kalos) are known to the Kanto and Hoenn regions, implying both word and possibly resources (such as Mega Stones) have spread.
Additionally, this placement of the games in the timeline completely solves a long-standing discrepancy of the original timeline theory: If Red and Blue have aged significantly by the events of Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (being present as adults in the Battle Tree in Alola), why hasn’t Wally, who looks identical to his appearance in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire? The answer, quite simply, is that Wally hasn’t visibly aged because it’s only been a few years for him, whereas Red and Blue ‘finished their journey(s) years ago’ in the Mega Timeline’s version of the Kanto events. Therefore, there is strong evidence that this altered placement in the Mega Timeline is accurate.
However, a problem with this placement of OR/AS after X/Y arises in the form of the peculiar NPC known as Mr. Bonding. Mr. Bonding shows up in the X/Y series to grant the player character O-Powers, bonus abilities which aid them with various tasks such as catching or battling. However, Mr. Bonding did not always have the powers he possesses in X and Y, and is, in fact, given them by actions undertaken during the course of Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire - five gentlemen bestow their O-Power-granting abilities upon a random stranger, turning him into Mr. Bonding and causing him to leave and spread O-Powers far and wide (presumably starting with Kalos, given that he bids the player adieu at the end of his cutscene before leaving). Thus, OR/AS (or at least a section thereof) must take place before X/Y.
Unfortunately, this introduces another discrepancy, in that Wally would have aged more significantly by the time of S/M/US/UM if OR/AS took place more than two years in the past, and should show this visibly. It is possible, at the very least, that OR/AS is somewhat concurrent to X/Y, and as such four years passes between Wally’s appearance in OR/AS and his appearance in S/M/US/UM, making him fourteen to fifteen years old. The height difference between a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old native to Kyushu, Japan in 2013 was an average of 27 cm or 11 inches, meaning Wally should have been roughly 120% his former size - a substantial change, but perhaps within the margin of error for the cartoonish Pokemon look. Incidentally, the height difference between a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old native to Kyushu, Japan is 14 cm or 5.5 inches, an almost indistinguishable 110% height change. Wally’s lack of physical aging may be explained by whatever ailment makes him so frail, as stunting (low height or weight for a given age) is commonly associated with poor outcomes in child pneumonia. Additionally, a scientist at Devon in OR/AS mentions he is working on a project to visualize Pokemon dreams, and that a rival of his (Dr. Fennel) is working on the same thing in Unova - something she has officially completed by Black 2/White 2 (and likely completed as early as Black/White), meaning OR/AS could theoretically take place in 2010 (however, this is not likely due to the other presented evidence).
This leaves Kanto’s place in the Mega Timeline uncertain, as where before it was concurrent to Hoenn, now Hoenn is concurrent to Kalos. Mega Evolution is a distant, yet known concept to Kanto, and is used by both the player character and their rival during the latter half of the game, similar to its use in the Hoenn remakes. Without anything else to go off of, Kanto would then be placed roughly concurrent to Hoenn once again, meaning Kalos, Hoenn and Kanto all take place approximately concurrently. We can conclusively say that the Let’s Go events take place before Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, as the Geothermal Power Plant in Alola makes reference to a Zapdos appearing in the Kanto Power Plant - additionally, the reference to the loss of a Machine Part in the Johto games means the Mega Johto games (if they ever exist) would take place before Alola events as well. Additionally, Kanto is well-known enough to Alola that several places have been (approximately) reconstructed for tourism - a traditional Gym modeled after Vermilion’s, Malie Garden after Nugget Bridge, etc. Furthermore, Sabrina (upon rematch at her Saffron City Gym) mentions that she won’t face another challenger like the player for another three years (referring to the 3-year time gap between the original Kanto and Johto games), meaning at least three years must separate the Let’s Go! Games and Alola games if they reference the events of Johto games in the Mega Timeline.
Thus, the Mega Timeline can be constructed roughly as follows:
2012: Events of Hoenn/Kalos/Kanto
2015?: Events of Johto/Sinnoh?
2016: Events of Alola (with or without Necrozma)
The events of Sword and Shield leave their placement in the time web inconclusive - there are no Mega Pokemon or references thereof, but the existence of Dynamax and Gigantamax raises a similar question to that of Mega Evolution - why was it never referenced in other regions, if it was known? As such, pending further evaluation, they are left unsorted. If they take place in the Original Timeline, this would indicate the existence of Fairy-types has also been discovered in that timeline. If in either of the Mega Timelines, they would indicate that Galar as a region is relatively isolated from the others in terms of Pokemon Dynamaxing versus Mega Evolving.
However, references to the events of the Alolan games exist in the Crown Tundra DLC, indicating that this instance of Galar is familiar with Ultra Beasts and Professor Mohn’s research on them. By transitive property, this should by rights place Galar in the Mega Timeline(s), similar to Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, but it may be that this is yet another version of Alola that also experienced similar events with Ultra Beasts. Notably, Necrozma is not obtainable in its Ultra form in Max Raids, indicating a stronger link to Sun and Moon than their Ultra remakes.
In conclusion, we have the following time tree (I couldn't figure out how to merge columns in this editor...) :
YEAR | CLASSIC TIMELINE (NO MEGAS) | MEGA TIMELINE 1 | MEGA TIMELINE 2 |
1996 | Red/Green/Blue/Yellow/FireRed/LeafGreen, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald | ||
1999 | Gold/Silver/Crystal/HeartGold/SoulSilver, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum | ||
2010 | Black/White | ||
2012 | Black 2/White 2, X/Y* | X/Y**, Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Let's Go! Pikachu/Let's Go! Eevee | **-> Ultimate Weapon = timeline splits again |
2016 | Sun/Moon | Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon | |
2019 | Sword/Shield? |
Lastly, we of course turn to the most recent entries in the core series. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have thus far shown no direct indication that they will be featuring Mega Evolutions, Gigantamaxed Pokemon, or any other notable series gimmick, but would be solid candidates for the Mega version of Sinnoh events (which would thus roughly place them as occurring in 2015). Legends: Arceus, on the other hand, shows clear signs of taking place during the Edo or Meiji periods, between 1603 and 1912. However, given neither game has been released, these placements are largely tentative.
What do you think? It's got a bit of a Zelda-timeline vibe to it, but I want to know if there's any evidence disproving or challenging any of the assertions I've made.