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My take on the Pokemon Timeline (lore-heavy deep-dive)

When it comes to Abilities, I never really thought of them as just outright not existing in Gens 1/2 + LGPE + Arceus. I think they probably do exist, they just aren't being expressed mechanically, because so many Abilities seem designed to mechanize something that is just a natural aspect of a Pokémon's design or behavior - think Levitate, for example. Weezing is obviously capable of levitating even in RBY, because that's part of its design. That is to say, I don't really interpret Levitate as a unique sort of power that is meaningfully distinct from physical levitation (although granted, there is room to argue against that, with cases like Magneton). Other abilities like Flame Body, Sturdy, Air Lock, Schooling... they're usually just taking a quality that is inherent to that Pokémon anyway and giving it a role in battles/the overworld. It's not that Magmar in GSC or LGPE literally don't have a high-temperature body anymore.
This is kind of how I feel about abilities. They are simply traits that a Pokemon always had. Like you said, Weezing always was able to float, it's just that the floating has been given a purpose when the Pokemon is in battle.
 
Explain Gastly, Misdreavus and Unown only being immune to Ground moves in some situations. They have no other abilities.

Granted, the type chart was changed between the first two generations, but I explain that as researchers fixing their previous conclusions based on more data. For them not to notice any ability would be one hell of an oversight. I wouldn't bring it up if past remakes hadn't used updated mechanics, unlike LGPE and Legends.

Well who's to say those Pokémon don't have other Abilities, which simply haven't been "discovered" by researchers yet, in the same way that researchers in Gen 1 just didn't happen to notice that Ground-type moves were actually doubly effective on Magneton, and Poison-type moves weren't actually doing anything to it despite all evidence to the contrary? I see no reason why the grace that is granted to contemporary mechanical updates cannot also be extended toward hypothetical future ones. (And hell, the Koffing family just recently received two new Abilities after sitting through five generations with only Levitate, so Misdreavus picking up another Ability somewhere down the line is now entirely plausible.)

But I mean, really it's all relative isn't it? It seems like "one hell of an oversight" to you, but to me it's just a minor discrepancy, like in the period of time when we all still thought XY took place in the same universe and at the same time as B2W2, even though that would mean Draco Meteor hits Clefable in one country but passes right through it in another. The idea that the real, physical interactions between two types can be fundamentally different simply because "researchers" haven't updated their charts yet is a pretty big headscratcher unless you deliteralize type effectiveness to some extent (well, either that, or the Pokémon world has some kind of Sheldrake theory-esque pseudoscience going on where whole facets of being like Abilities and new types emerge in real time and then ripple out across the globe like a software update to all Pokémon lifeforms). Personally, I just take the same approach toward Abilities - it's not all so strictly literal. If it were, then I'd have to ask why Pokémon that obviously can levitate don't have the Ability, so either way you slice it, there's going to be problems.

(Honestly, I think the only reason why people focus so much on multiversal divisions when it comes to Mega Evolution is because they made that an explicit plot point. Abilities, new types, breeding - it's not that there weren't multiverse theories about Pokémon prior to ORAS, but such ideas were considerably more fringe back then because most people just accepted the new mechanics as exactly that, and didn't see any particular need to create whole universes just to explain some obvious retcons.)
 
(Honestly, I think the only reason why people focus so much on multiversal divisions when it comes to Mega Evolution is because they made that an explicit plot point. Abilities, new types, breeding - it's not that there weren't multiverse theories about Pokémon prior to ORAS, but such ideas were considerably more fringe back then because most people just accepted the new mechanics as exactly that, and didn't see any particular need to create whole universes just to explain some obvious retcons.)

See, this is exactly why I wanted a timeline like this in the first place. Game Freak wouldn't make Zinnia have a whole diatribe about an alternate Hoenn with no Mega Evolution if they didn't care about multiverses and timelines. They wouldn't reference the Moon Landing occurring specifically on July 20, 1969 in the Pewter Museum (and have the man in question buy a color television to watch it, indicating he was alive then) or use Gregorian calendar dates in the Pokemon Mansion if they didn't care about when those references would make sense or whether months and days and years were the same. And most importantly, they wouldn't bother giving tidbits like Norman last seeing an Eon Ticket 11 years before ORAS if they didn't want the players to look at that and go 'huh, so it is 2014.' Hell, the fact that that tweet by Toshinobu Matsumiya even exists is solid proof that they are thinking about this, and given how well the in-game lore backs it up (discounting B2/W2 being concurrent to X/Y), clearly this was in the works for a long, long time.

Everyone seems to have this mentality that Game Freak is lazy or uncaring when it comes to Pokemon games, but what they never acknowledge is that Pokemon's fanbase is so divided on what they want out of a Pokemon game that there's just no point catering to any specific group anymore. Some people insist 2D was the best, some want more comprehensive 3D (and some hate 3D chibi cough cough), some people want more competitive play, some want easier and more fun battles, and everyone insists they're being ignored and that Game Freak doesn't care about their IP anymore. But all these little references add up - somebody is paying attention, and it shows if you look deep enough. There are whole languages that are unique to various regions, but nobody talks about them because they have no effect on the gameplay.

Likewise, when people do examine the lore, any inconsistencies are dismissed as 'oh, Game Freak is just being lazy about their lore, so why bother?' It's so aggravating that nobody seems willing to try to piece things together anymore as soon as they encounter a problem - they're missing out.


Anyway, enough of that. I've been thinking about this still, and it occurs to me that the Mega Timeline as posited isn't quite accurate.

To recap, ORAS takes place definitively in 2014 due to the following:
-As mentioned previously, showing Gym Leader Norman an Eon Ticket will cause him to remark that he hasn't seen one for 11 years. The original distribution time for the Eon Ticket for R/S/E was January 2003 to December 2003.
-An NPC boy mentions that 10 years prior to the games, Hoenn's Pokemon Centers had a second floor with a Link Cable Club. This is a reference to how they looked in the original R/S/E, Emerald being released in Japan in September 2004.
-As mentioned in the OP, Archie was a 'boy' on 7/7/2002. He's not exactly a boy anymore, he's a global ecoterrorist. And a man.

This means that X/Y, having to take place after OR/AS, can't take place in 2012 as the tweet states, as this would require time travel on Mr. Bonding's part and they didn't show anything of the sort. It may be that the tweet wasn't deleted so that Game Freak could more zealously restrict knowledge or conception of a hard-ordered timeline, but instead because they knew ORAS would contradict it - keep in mind ORAS was announced worldwide on the same day the tweet was made, and the tweet was deleted no later than October 2014, a month before the game's release.

To make matters worse, Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, by this same logic, can't occur in 2016 and instead also occur in 2014:
-Anabel mentions that she came through an Ultra Wormhole 10 years prior to the events in Alola, specifically from the Emerald timeline since she guarded the Battle Tower. Emerald was released on 9/16/2004 in Japan.
-Concept art for Grimsley, who appears in Alola, indicates he's aged 2 years. This doesn't actually imply that 2 years have passed since B2/W2 - it's just that he looks 2 years older than he did in those games. However, because Anabel's and ORAS's timeline comparisons required timelines to be synchronized (e.g. if it's 2014 in one timeline, it's 2014 in all of them), it can be said that he looks 2 years older than he would have in 2012 in the Mega Timeline.

Because Dexio and Sina show up in SMUSUM and reminisce about the events of X/Y, this means that they have to appear in Alola after the events of X/Y, and that X/Y must also occur in 2014 by transitive property. For all these games to happen in the same year is (theoretically) possible - if League Challenges follow a similar annual cycle as school years, for example, they could have seen Calem/Serena finish their League Challenge in mid-2014, then show up in Alola in late 2014. One could even argue that because Alola is so close to the equator (tropical and based on IRL Hawai'i), they wouldn't experience enough of a seasonal change for SMUSUM taking place in late 2014 to look all that different than it taking place in early or mid-2014.

This also supports Wally not having aged a day in SMUSUM compared to ORAS - it's been less than a full year since we've seen him, whereas for Red and Blue it's been quite a lot longer considering Mina's age difference in LGPE vs SMUSUM (as noted by nickdt), 5-7 years or less judging by the concept art putting her as age 13-15 and Trial Captains having to retire at 20.

So, basically, the Mega Timeline looks like this, unless someone has some evidence that implies or proves one of these games can't be in 2014:

2007 - 2014: Events of Let's Go! Pikachu/Let's Go! Eevee.
2014: Events of X/Y/Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire/Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon.
 
So a recent Birdkeeper Toby video informed me that there's apparently a rock in Sinnoh that I had never noticed before that resembles a Munchlax in the DS games' Sinnoh but now resembles a Snorlax in BDSP. Might be worth looking for this rock in LA in case it favors one timeline over another.
 
So a recent Birdkeeper Toby video informed me that there's apparently a rock in Sinnoh that I had never noticed before that resembles a Munchlax in the DS games' Sinnoh but now resembles a Snorlax in BDSP. Might be worth looking for this rock in LA in case it favors one timeline over another.
It doesn't matter because every version is its own timeline, anyway. The most (arguably only) notable differences about BDSP are the Grand Underground and Ramanas Park. But Platinum deviated from DP to a greater extent.
 
I was musing an aspect of this some time ago, and my observation was that each generation reflects the time which it was released, although I noticed it in the form of the technology of the Pokemon world. Disregarding the more fantastic devices, what was present day technology is in each generation, including the remakes, which causes a retcon to the original versions. It's very minor in most cases, and doesn't really affect the narrative. I only know it to occur in the form of changing the Nintendo console in your room, and also what was once CRT monitors in the oldest games are now flat screens.
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It's probably not that much of an issue, and is more of a fourth wall break. There is also little issue with the matter this level of technology exists in the pokeworld to begin with, as that will progress in different ways according to culture.

The Mega timeline break is well known, though.
 
Okay, I'm gonna have to go through your post fully, but how the hell can things take place in 1996 in one universe and a later year in another. Universe, timeline, same thing.

I suppose it could just be their ancestors having kids later or earlier and the world just developing differently later or earlier, which is how you can explain the three different Peter Parkers in the MCU multiverse. But ORAS not taking place in 1996 just makes my brain bleed. I guess I answered my own question?

I didn't know there was a photo with a date in ORAS. Nor did I know the scientist from Black/White was directly named. Does that mean that the scientists working on the dream stuff in the original Hoenn games are older people?

And finally, YELLOW IS NOT THE THIRD VERSION. I'm sorry for the caps, but Yellow is only the third version outside of Japan. It's not the special enhanced version. Japanese Blue, which was the basis for our Red and Blue, was the third enhanced version after Red and Green. Yellow was always a separate game closer to the anime. I know we never got Green or anything else, but I'd rather go by the Japanese stuff, like going with the Japanese release of BW rather than the outside one. 11 years between 1999 and 2010.

I'll edit this when I read your TED Talk fully. That's a joke, not an insult. And I'm sorry for "necroposting." I posted on another thread from 2009, so it's not that bad that this is 2 years old.
 
I suppose it could just be their ancestors having kids later or earlier and the world just developing differently later or earlier, which is how you can explain the three different Peter Parkers in the MCU multiverse.
It’s pretty much the exact same situation. If 3 different Peters can become Spider-Man at completely different points of time, similar events in the pokemon multiverse can occur at different dates, as well.
 
Please note: The thread is from 7 months ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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