• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

The Solution to Disputed Video Game Canonicity

Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
2,673
Reaction score
186
Please feel free to move this if it is in the wrong section.

Ever since the first pair of remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, were released to the public, it has been believed by many that the original games are no longer considered canonical.

Others believe the reverse—that the originals override remakes any day.

But what if this isn't the case? What if all the games, originals and remakes included, are perfectly canon?

Remember that back in Generation II, Bill managed to master time travel by inventing the Time Capsule. This device allowed then-present-day trainers to trade their Pokémon to the past, and trainers from the past were able to trade to what they considered to be the future.

A generation later, in FireRed and LeafGreen, Bill introduced players to the Sevii Islands, a place not seen in Generation I. However, if the player decided not to go with Bill the first time he asked, then he waited at the Cinnabar Island Pokémon Center...and at his cottage at Cerulean Cape. At the same time.

As far as I know, if spoken to at his cottage, he remains blissfully unaware of his appointment with Celio.

Some would dismiss this as nothing more than a continuity error or programming oversight. But what if it isn't? What if the Bill at the Cinnabar Pokémon Center is actually Bill from the future, having stuffed himself into his Time Capsule and traveled back three years to introduce the Generation II and III Pokémon to the world, long before they're even discovered?

This does raise an issue, however—as the Time Capsule is not present in HeartGold and SoulSilver, had Bill traveled to the past, he would have become trapped there since neither he nor his younger self bothered to invent time travel.

Then again, if Bill were to encounter and befriend a Pokémon with power over time—such as Celebi or Dialga—he wouldn't have to invent artificial time travel in order to return to his own time. Considering that Celebi will take just about anyone who is pure of heart under its wing, this isn't unlikely. And, yes, even though he mucked around with time itself, Bill can still be considered pure of heart since he had nothing but good, scientific intentions in mind.

Using this hypothesis, it can be determined that the original games did happen—Bill just later went back and changed the timeline for the benefit of the scientific community, allowing esteemed Professors like Oak and Birch to catalogue more Pokémon in a shorter amount of time.

On an unrelated note, this also allows Bill—and possibly other characters as well—to witness alternative timelines. For example, if Leaf were born instead of Red, or if Gold had chosen Totodile instead of Cyndaquil, or if all of the protagonists and rivals had different names entirely, thus making all decisions made by the player canonical as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the wonderful world of paradoxes.

Yeah, call me a nerd. It's what I am.
 
Using this hypothesis, it can be determined that the original games did happen—Bill just later went back and changed the timeline for the benefit of the scientific community, allowing esteemed Professors like Oak and Birch to catalogue more Pokémon in a shorter amount of time.

On an unrelated note, this also allows Bill—and possibly other characters as well—to witness alternative timelines. For example, if Leaf were born instead of Red, or if Gold had chosen Totodile instead of Cyndaquil, or if all of the protagonists and rivals had different names entirely, thus making all decisions made by the player canonical as well.

Bill is the master of time itself. Bill is Dialga.
 
FRLG are the same story about the same people as RGBY, for that reason, I consider them the same thing. Bill appearing in two spots at the same time because the player did something as unlikely as turn him down at Cinnabar and then fly to Cerulean City to find him still there and then be absurd enough to think much of it is no evidence to suggest a continuity error @.@
 
FRLG are the same story about the same people as RGBY, for that reason, I consider them the same thing. Bill appearing in two spots at the same time because the player did something as unlikely as turn him down at Cinnabar and then fly to Cerulean City to find him still there and then be absurd enough to think much of it is no evidence to suggest a continuity error @.@

To be honest, I wrote this whole thing up for laughs. It's not really intended to be taken seriously so much as make you think.
 
oh, I loved this.

But I think the remakes become the new canon. The remakes are always better in some way.
 
why do people always care so much about timelines? Just enjoy the games, who cares about time lines or anything. The games aren't even really related qua storyline, unlike series like kingdom hearts.
 
I actually liked that little idea you came up, Pretty interesting.

To put it simply (and seeing as I haven't played FireRed in a while this may not be physically possible, due to events and such), did anyone ever bother to think that maybe FireRed/LeafGreen are just the same Red and Blue games, only that it takes place a few years later?
I mean, c'mon, you could be the next generation and the characters of Red and Blue could be adults and master trainers running around other regions or something. Lol.

That's how I think it works, anyway.
 
I actually liked that little idea you came up, Pretty interesting.

To put it simply (and seeing as I haven't played FireRed in a while this may not be physically possible, due to events and such), did anyone ever bother to think that maybe FireRed/LeafGreen are just the same Red and Blue games, only that it takes place a few years later?
I mean, c'mon, you could be the next generation and the characters of Red and Blue could be adults and master trainers running around other regions or something. Lol.

That's how I think it works, anyway.

You must be forgetting the plot of the game. That rather insignificant little detail kinda pops this theory.
 
It would be nice if Nintendo would release an official timeline(likely not to happen). Umm it depends on how you look at it. FRLG are the closest to a remake. In Gen 1 the Sevii island could be in that gen but just not explored. As for the the SI not in hgss, they are probably there but they are just not needed. This so confusing.
 
I agree with the timeline idea
Red Blue Gold Silver Ruby Sapphire Diamond Pearl and Hmm Platinum as well i guess in one timeline
Yellow in its own seperate timeline
 
The remakes are the just retellings of the original games with a more fleshed out plot, meaning both game sets are canon just the remakes would be preferred to over the original games due to the more fleshed out plot.
 
Much like with the Zelda and Mario fandoms (any fandom I'm for that matter...) I believe the timeline goes in order of the way games came out.

(don't take the following so seriously, I'm just explaining my own theory story thingamajig. Here I go.)
Though for FRLG? It is a time paradox for me. The hero and heroine (called Leaf and Fire respectively in my story. Yes. Leaf is the BOY in my story D: ), are brother and sister, children of Red and May (hahaah). Leaf was a very good trainer, even becoming champion. When his sister Fire turned 11, he resignedly took a vacation from his post to help Fire out on her journey. His rival, Jerry (what we called the FRLG rival...) showed up to give Leaf a hard time, and an argument broke out.

As Fire tried to stop their arguing, Professor Oak had noticed something odd going on. Then Celebi flew past the window. Realizing what Celebi was about to do (as it had also happened to him 40 years ago...yes, I pulled inspiration from the movie), but as he ran outside to stop Celebi, Celebi had already taken the three children with him to the past. Celebi does control time travel, doesn't he?

Celebi, to stop their arguing, dropped them off in three different places, in time as well. He dropped Jerry off in Orre, during the time of that story going on.

Fire was dropped in Hoenn, just in between the end of GSC story, and the start of the RSE story.

And Leaf, he was dropped in RBY!Kanto, the very beginning.

Rather than Bill with his Time Capsule, it was Celebi who was responsible for a twig in time. Leaf managed to return to Fire's time, after going through the original RBY story. They both then traveled to the FRLG!Kanto, and tried to figure out what was going on. That's what brings in the Sevii Islands portion of the story, in between RBY!Kanto and future!Kanto (not HGSS!Kanto, much further than that).

That is the FRLG hero in my avatar, not perfectly made (more like rather badly made D8; ), using the time twig as an advantage to his own training. He takes over a "Platinum" role, while his sister continues to try and figure out a way back to future!Kanto.

It's still in the planning, so this is quite a basic structure, and can change at any given time... but that's about it so far, my own little "theory". Quite silly, but it works in my story.

As for HGSS, I'm trying to decide if I should treat Hibiki as Gold, or as a new person. It will help me decided whether I should use another time paradox plan, or go with what my sisters and I originally planned, where Gold is pulled from Pokemon Rangers (he joined by Gen IV in my story) to help Hilly (Kotone), the niece of a high-ranking Ranger, become a Pokemon trainer so she can learn about the real world.

Hah, this discussing timelines is actually kinda fun. :'D
 
:boom:

That just blew my mind. I WISH Pokemon was like this. Tho I'd prefer if it was Bill and Red in a flying DeLorean...
 
Much like with the Zelda and Mario fandoms (any fandom I'm for that matter...) I believe the timeline goes in order of the way games came out.

(don't take the following so seriously, I'm just explaining my own theory story thingamajig. Here I go.)
Though for FRLG? It is a time paradox for me. The hero and heroine (called Leaf and Fire respectively in my story. Yes. Leaf is the BOY in my story D: ), are brother and sister, children of Red and May (hahaah). Leaf was a very good trainer, even becoming champion. When his sister Fire turned 11, he resignedly took a vacation from his post to help Fire out on her journey. His rival, Jerry (what we called the FRLG rival...) showed up to give Leaf a hard time, and an argument broke out.

As Fire tried to stop their arguing, Professor Oak had noticed something odd going on. Then Celebi flew past the window. Realizing what Celebi was about to do (as it had also happened to him 40 years ago...yes, I pulled inspiration from the movie), but as he ran outside to stop Celebi, Celebi had already taken the three children with him to the past. Celebi does control time travel, doesn't he?

Celebi, to stop their arguing, dropped them off in three different places, in time as well. He dropped Jerry off in Orre, during the time of that story going on.

Fire was dropped in Hoenn, just in between the end of GSC story, and the start of the RSE story.

And Leaf, he was dropped in RBY!Kanto, the very beginning.

Rather than Bill with his Time Capsule, it was Celebi who was responsible for a twig in time. Leaf managed to return to Fire's time, after going through the original RBY story. They both then traveled to the FRLG!Kanto, and tried to figure out what was going on. That's what brings in the Sevii Islands portion of the story, in between RBY!Kanto and future!Kanto (not HGSS!Kanto, much further than that).

That is the FRLG hero in my avatar, not perfectly made (more like rather badly made D8; ), using the time twig as an advantage to his own training. He takes over a "Platinum" role, while his sister continues to try and figure out a way back to future!Kanto.

It's still in the planning, so this is quite a basic structure, and can change at any given time... but that's about it so far, my own little "theory". Quite silly, but it works in my story.

As for HGSS, I'm trying to decide if I should treat Hibiki as Gold, or as a new person. It will help me decided whether I should use another time paradox plan, or go with what my sisters and I originally planned, where Gold is pulled from Pokemon Rangers (he joined by Gen IV in my story) to help Hilly (Kotone), the niece of a high-ranking Ranger, become a Pokemon trainer so she can learn about the real world.

Hah, this discussing timelines is actually kinda fun. :'D
Yes when you're making up fan fictions doing your own little crazy nutjob things grinding your brain gears to come up with things not actually true and too absurd to happen.
 
:boom:

That just blew my mind. I WISH Pokemon was like this.

Glad I could come up with something that made sense.

Tho I'd prefer if it was Bill and Red in a flying DeLorean...

I LOL'd.

Yes when you're making up fan fictions doing your own little crazy nutjob things grinding your brain gears to come up with things not actually true and too absurd to happen.

Hey, last time I checked, dreaming was legal.
 
Yes when you're making up fan fictions doing your own little crazy nutjob things grinding your brain gears to come up with things not actually true and too absurd to happen.

-shrugs- I don't see why I can't imagine things like this when in-game the timeline isn't explained. Besides, it's a theory story thing. I'm not saying this is the ONLY way it happened, this is how I guessed it happened. I did say not to take this so seriously.

And the FRLG hero =/= Red. Red has black hair, nothing will change it. >(
 
Please note: The thread is from 14 years 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.
Back
Top Bottom