The Strange Souvenir Pokémon

[TwistedxMind]

Yeah kinda odd that is humanoid, but I do like that we had a hint to Gen 7 in Gen 6. makes you wonder if S/M have any hints towards Gen 8

 

[Esserise]

I think it'd have been neat if the Strange Souvenir face were the symbol on their Z-Crystal. Oh well. Still nice to see it confirmed outright.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

The Strange Souvenir turns out to be useless. You can buy one but they don't do a thing.

 

[godiego]

I think it's a bit weird to say that a distinctly humanoid statue is in the image of pixies (Tapu Bulu looks neither like a human nor a pixie), but maybe I'm being nitpicky.

to me at least it's seemed like a sort of "because i say so" reference. i mean, sure, maybe Gen 7 was always meant to be a Polynesian region but we know that Alola is the Strange Souvenir region only because Game Freak put the Strange Souvenir there; like, none of the stuff surrounding the Strange Souvenir (the Champion, the facility, the town) seemed to follow through so it seems very reference because Game Freak said it was a reference.

then again, the statues outside the Tapus' Ruins also depict things that we don't know about either so pfft.

 

[Esserise]

like, none of the stuff surrounding the Strange Souvenir (the Champion, the facility, the town) seemed to follow through

I suppose it's only speculative at this point, but:

- "A town you wouldn't believe" could pretty much be anything so I'm guessing that bit was a throwaway. Then again, Seafolk Village is fairly unique. Or maybe he was talking about pre-Skull Po Town...

- I think the facility was probably the Battle Royal Dome. I mean it could be that or the Battle Tree, really, but the BRD is based on the tapu's ritualistic battles so it's a signature thing of the Alola region, and it's a spiffy new battle style we hadn't seen before.

- Officially, the timeline is vague, but it doesn't seem unlikely that SM could be set a few years later than XY. With that in mind, maybe the Champion was Kahili. She says she was the island challenge champion "a few years ago," and she's pretty admired by the locals.

 

[godiego]

I suppose it's only speculative at this point, but:
- "A town you wouldn't believe" could pretty much be anything so I'm guessing that bit was a throwaway. Then again, Seafolk Village is fairly unique. Or maybe he was talking about pre-Skull Po Town..

i think there are certainly possibilities, but they can also have fairly noticeable weaknesses. Seafolk Village would be my candidate for the Unbelievable Town, but it doesn't seem as striking considering places like Pacifidlog Town exist.

- I think the facility was probably the Battle Royal Dome. I mean it could be that or the Battle Tree, really, but the BRD is based on the tapu's ritualistic battles so it's a signature thing of the Alola region, and it's a spiffy new battle style we hadn't seen before.

i definitely agree that BRD is probably the facility and even acknowledged it during promotion, it's probably the only remark that's concretely visible in game.

- Officially, the timeline is vague, but it doesn't seem unlikely that SM could be set a few years later than XY. With that in mind, maybe the Champion was Kahili. She says she was the island challenge champion "a few years ago," and she's pretty admired by the locals.

the timeline isn't too vague; the Collector's Edition came with concept art and in it Grimsley is stated to be two years older, thus two years after XY. i wouldn't necessarily rule out Kahili either, but her general treatment in-game (ie., name dropped) seems to suggest otherwise. hell, if i'd been playing completely blind i would've half expected Hapu to be the Champion over Kahili. and given that the island challenge is more of a rite of passage for kids rather than a sort of challenge for the biggest, baddest, brightest, and bestest trainers in the region as with the Gym-League system, it would seem to me that an island challenge champion is more of a completion, little-c champion rather than big-c, fights on behalf of a League, (de facto head of state? no?) Champion.

there's a lot that can be said on the champion aspect and i do think it's where the Hiker's dialogue ostensibly fails. even with the least wrong answer, aka you, it's still a very cheeky, breaking-the-fourth-wall, type of non-answer. (and it was something i even noted and considered in the past, given that you'd probably save the world and all.) but really it's all like i said a couple years ago: it's vague enough to be put in whenever and say it's a reference, whether it's one generation from now (aka, actually now) or ten generations from now.

 

[Esserise]

the timeline isn't too vague; the Collector's Edition came with concept art and in it Grimsley is stated to be two years older, thus two years after XY.

Ah, really? I didn't know that. Good to know.

i wouldn't necessarily rule out Kahili either, but her general treatment in-game (ie., name dropped) seems to suggest otherwise. hell, if i'd been playing completely blind i would've half expected Hapu to be the Champion over Kahili. and given that the island challenge is more of a rite of passage for kids rather than a sort of challenge for the biggest, baddest, brightest, and bestest trainers in the region as with the Gym-League system, it would seem to me that an island challenge champion is more of a completion, little-c champion rather than big-c, fights on behalf of a League, (de facto head of state? no?) Champion.

Well, truthfully I don't think there is a "right" answer, unless it really was an "It's you!" meta-joke. Kahili is just my best attempt to justify it in-universe. In reality, I think it either had to be meaning "you," or they just hadn't decided how they wanted to handle the League/Championship yet, or they had an idea for it, but later changed their minds.

 

[Silktree]

I doubt that they had the trial system worked out in 2013. I'll let the Champion reference slide.

Po Town would be my guess for the "town that you wouldn't believe".

the timeline isn't too vague; the Collector's Edition came with concept art and in it Grimsley is stated to be two years older, thus two years after XY.

That's funny because his appearance in B2W2 is exactly the same as BW, despite the two-year gap. And the real-life gap between XY and SM is three years.

Do you have a link to the concept art?

 

[godiego]

@Silktree: here

 

[Silktree]

I have a problem with that description because it seems to imply that SM are set two years after BW. His old design is referenced as being from BW rather than B2W2.

Of course, SM being set in the same year as B2W2 would hardly make much sense. So I guess they did mean two years after B2W2/XY.

 

[Esserise]

Necroposting for sure, but I just happened to come across this and I suppose it's somewhat relevant. There are these statues at the base of Mount Lanakila:

The interaction text says, "It is a statue dedicated to the Pokémon that is venerated as the guardian deity of the island." But it looks nothing like Tapu Bulu, and unlike with the souvenir in 2013, we can't really say that they just didn't know what the tapu looked like yet. Perhaps there was something to my guess that the tapu just have a variety of depictions in local art?

 

[Silktree]

I find it hard to tell what that is supposed to be.

I guess that these artists had never even seen the Tapus.

 

[PurplePopplio]

Isn't there statues of unknown Pokemon on each island and not just Ula'ula?

 

[TouyaShiro]

Perhaps there was something to my guess that the tapu just have a variety of depictions in local art?

In terms of an immersive sense, it makes sense to me in-universe - adaptations of various stories and legens often come with different depictions of the characters and beings involved, and of course art evolves over the generations - some being intentional corruptions of the original source material to portray it in a new light, but of course I don't think we get much of that in a Pokémon game.

It could be said that the statues there may have been made at a time when the Pokémon world was not as well-versed in accurate art depictions, something I bring up more or less in relation to the stamp collection - a modern marking of an old tradition. Completing every island's trials grants you a stamp for each of them with depictions of their respective tapu in their enclosed, shell form, much more accurate to their proper appearance when activating Guardian of Alola. Granted, I'm not sure where the tapu are depicted outside of this, the Strange Souvenir, those stamps and of course the mon itself, so it's hard to say for sure.

 

[Ereshkigal]

Necroposting for sure, but I just happened to come across this and I suppose it's somewhat relevant. There are these statues at the base of Mount Lanakila:

The interaction text says, "It is a statue dedicated to the Pokémon that is venerated as the guardian deity of the island." But it looks nothing like Tapu Bulu, and unlike with the souvenir in 2013, we can't really say that they just didn't know what the tapu looked like yet. Perhaps there was something to my guess that the tapu just have a variety of depictions in local art?

Maybe the tapus once looked differently than they do now?

 

[Hellpest]

Maybe the tapus once looked differently than they do now?

That's what I'm thinking, they wear those costume/mask things, maybe they change them?