Spoilers Pokemon Timeline (Basically) Solved!

[Esserise]

Also, the two Team Magma and Aqua Grunts that fell in love that are also referenced in ORAS now live together in Unova as well (Unova is apparently where criminals go to live a normal life, fun fact).

Granted, multiverses and all that, but I'm actually not sure the grunt couple in ORAS are the same couple as the one in Icirrus. The Magma and Aqua grunts in B2W2 don't actually know about each others' past involvement with their rival team, whereas for the ORAS lovebirds, their choices made in stark defiance of that knowledge is what the whole subplot revolves around.

So the Rocket Grunt, which was the only reason people forced a huge gap from Gen 4 to Gen 5

There's also Caitlin, though, who has clearly aged from her appearance in Platinum, and she's a much more high-profile character than the Rocket grunt.

Lastly, we know the gaps from the Unova, Kalos, and Alola games thanks to various in-game texts. Grimsley in the Alola games is stated to be 2 years older than his last appearance, which would be BW2, which is supposed to take place alongside XY, which is confirmed by Sina and Dexio to take place two years before the Alola games.

None of this comes from in-game text.

Grimsley being "two years older" comes from his SM concept art, and isn't mentioned in the games. And on the art itself, it's not quite clear whether it means it's been two years since B2W2 or just BW. It says "Grimsley (two years later)," the straightforward interpretation of which would be that it's been two years since we last saw him (in B2W2), but the rest of the notes only refer back to BW and make comparisons to how he appeared in those games.

The notion of B2W2 being contemporaneous with XY comes solely from that since-deleted tweet. XY make reference to some recent events involving Team Plasma in the Unova region, but as far as the actual text goes, that could refer to the events of either set of Unova games.

And then Sina and Dexio say nothing specific about how much time has passed between XY and SM. All Dexio says is that his battle with you "reminded me of us in the past... and that group of five young Trainers." I do think that makes it sound like it's been a while, maybe two years at least, but it's vague enough that prior to seeing Grimsley's concept art I myself had assumed it was more like three years, based on the real amount of time between the releases of XY and SM.

 

[Fairy Type Arceus]

You’re looking at this a little too hard, every game and every outcome is it’s own timeline of events, we’re just trying to broadly define what the general flow of the games is with one another.

Classicverse timeline: RBY -> GSC

Standardverse timeline. RSE/FRLG -> DPPl/HGSS -> BW -> BW2

XY is no longer part of the Standardverse timeline, Zinnia confirmed that Mega Evolution is not possible because the Ultimate Weapon was never fired in that universe.

Megaverse timeline: ORAS/LGPE -> XY -> SM/USUM (it’s honestly headcanon for which you think fits better, some fans argue it for either way).

There is a known alternate timeline or set of alternate timelines where the evil teams accomplished their goal or goals and those are the ones you fight in USUM.

There'd still be a kalos and an alola where megas don't exist either. The spilt happened from the ultimate weapon, kalos would still be there but AZ just didn't fire the weapon for whatever reason. Clearly we'll never visit this mega-less kalos but it would be in the same universe as the standard verse

 

[PokéSean]

Mallow just said that Trial Captains have to move on when they turn 20. Of course that doesn’t confirm retirement. It could mean to have another job. Mina's parents are confirmed to be a Gentleman and a black NPC. IDK if the sprite is senior age or middle aged but it proves that Mina’s parents are old. To know how Scarlet and Violet fit in the timeline is to know how old Lacey and Drayton are. They both seem to be like around their tweens (10-14). Clay doesn't look young adult and more middle aged. But that's probably how strong he is. Drayden is like middle aged or senior in his debut (late 50s-70s) and if SV does take about a decade from B2W2, that puts him in late 60s-80s.