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What are your game headcanons?

Valerie feels like she originated from Johto. Dare I say she might even have been trained as a Kimono Girl in Ecruteak City? She exhibits such old-fashioned elegance and even with fairies, she definitely feels like she was trained in the classical arts back in the days!
That's actually canon.
 
Towns are essentially rather isolated little clans. Each Gym Leader acts as a mayor to their town, and also helps to defend it from angry wild Pokemon who raid the town for food/revenge/whatever. The Elite Four + Champion also take on this role, although their duties are region-wide and not limited to a specific area. Each town has their own way of electing a leader: in some places it's a democratic vote (such as most of Unova), while it could be that the title is passed down (a lot of Johto + Kanto). Other places hold ability-based competitions to select a new leader (Hoenn).

Gym Leaders and Elite Four + Champion typically get together once a month to discuss the laws, recent events, and that kind of thing. Gym Leaders are meant to listen to the people in their town and act as a representative, which is why the leaders shape the law a lot more than the Elite Four do. However, the Elite Four oversee the leaders and if it's found that they aren't listening to the townspeople, then the E4 have the power to find a new gym leader. This is why Elite Four members are often seen travelling about; they're checking that each town is being governed properly.

Unova looks like it's a big, highly populated area - while it is more populated than other regions, it still isn't comparable to our world. Everything there looks flashy because Unova is so rich from its entertainment industry.

Transport like cars/planes/trucks are used sparingly because Pokemon dislike the pollution it causes. Humans typically just ride a Pokemon to their destination and cars/planes/trucks are for moving heavy cargo.
 
Unova's original dragon was, in my head, actually a relatively small Legendary Pokémon that looked somewhat similar to Monodramon. What is told in legend as a single dragon "splitting" into three was actually a unique kind of evolution - the dragon evolved into two distilled beings at once due to the equal influence on it from the two brothers, and what would eventually become Kyurem was cast off as a Shedinja-like husk. And because it was an evolution, the process cannot actually be reversed. While Kyurem does have the ability to absorb one of the other dragons at a time with the help of the DNA Splicers, it could not contain both of the dragons simultaneously.

People in the modern day don't know what the original dragon looked like. Because depictions of it from before the "split" have not yet been discovered, the assumed idea of what it might have looked like can be found in Iris's Champion chamber - that would be the large dragon statue behind her throne.
 
The Original Dragon arrived in the meteor in the Giant Chasm intact, the DNA Splicers is one of the missing pieces of the Original Dragon that was discovered, the other missing piece is yet to be discovered. The dragons can only be reunited if they are on the same side as each other aka, all three being owned by the same trainer, first step to fusion done, the DNA Splicers being the second step, with the final step to fusion still yet to be discovered because it's connected to that missing piece.

Basically, the restoration of the Original Dragon happens in steps: The three dragons must be on the same side first as for them to not have any reason to oppose each other, second step involves the DNA Splicers and the first fusion, the final step requires the missing piece for the final fusion to happen.
 
I always thought that Reshiram and Zekrom were happier being separate, and it's Kyurem who was caught out and wishes to fuse back with the other two. Reshiram/Zekrom prefer being separate because it means they can fully support their chosen hero without having to compromise with each other.
 
While they would support the hero, I always thought they too suffer from the separation because of always having the fight that can destroy a region being a possibility is something they wouldn't want. Having the thought of accidentally destroying a region when they don't want to in the first place is a form of suffering.
 
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Adding to that, that is also the reason why Zekrom and Reshiram freely revert to and from the stones.

They appear when they deem the hero worthy, but as soon as that trainer falls into a path of destruction like in the past that shaped Unova, the dragons are able to deem the hero unworthy, not supporting the hero with their power and reverting back to their stones.
 
The individual storylines of the Mystery Dungeon games aren't canonical to the main series, but I do like to think that those games paint a fairly accurate picture of how Pokémon live when they are isolated from and unseen by humans. Pokémon are not simply the equivalent of animals; I believe that they are wiser, more aware, and more capable than we tend to think they are.
 
If worlds in the multiverse are like continents, then Ultra Space is the oceans in between. Now, I think that's fairly obviously just by playing Ultra Warp Ride, but as it relates to Alola's mascot trio, lately I've been liking the idea that Necrozma are very, very ancient remnants from when the multiverse first formed (this could be why their bodies are made of superhot plasma - kind of like how the universe was crazy intensely hot right after the Big Bang and needed to cool down), and there may not even be very many of them left, if a great number of them even existed in the first place. On the other hand, you have Cosmog, which I imagine as popping up every now and again in the void of Ultra Space. But Ultra Space is a harsh, chaotic environment. The energy that flows through it naturally causes Ultra Wormholes to form in areas of higher gravity, and because both Necrozma and Cosmog are formed by this energy, they too have the innate ability to open wormholes, but only Necrozma and Cosmog's evolved stages are powerful enough to withstand the energy currents within Ultra Space. So upon genesis, a Cosmog will instinctively warp itself to the nearest world outside of Ultra Space (or just be blown about by the currents and caught in the gravity of a natural wormhole). But because they are so frail, few of these Cosmog survive, even upon arriving in their new world. Only the ones that are fortunate enough to land in a favorable habitat are able to grow and become Solgaleo and Lunala, who remember that world and come back around to it via natal homing when they feel it's time to reproduce. This allows them to ensure a stable cradle for their offspring, which circumvents Cosmog's normally very high mortality rate. This contrasts with Necrozma, which I've been thinking are probably biologically immortal but incapable of reproduction.
 
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Icirrus and Dendemille both grow their food with the help of their local wild Pokemon. Each harvest season, they have a harvest festival: in Icirrus, this involves sterotypically American barn dances and shindigs, while Dendemille's involves a bunch of weird rituals about fairy-type Pokemon and is kind of like Guy Fawkes Night in the UK. In both cases, part of the harvest is given to the wild Pokemon, who further divide it among themselves. Icirrus's harvest festival is the Unova equivalent of Thanksgiving.
 
Another quick thought on Ultra Necrozma's biology (upon reading a good blog post from a fellow that I patron): Why does it travel to various worlds and share its energized light? Moreover, how does it continue to produce this light? Since it's a prism, it shouldn't be generating its own, but rather converting it from something else that it is taking in.

Well, we know that the black prism Necrozma absorbs light, and ravenously so, as it was severely weakened by its bodily deformation brought on by the actions of the people in Ultra Megalopolis. But again, the concept is the same, whether we're talking black Necrozma or Ultra Necrozma. Both are based on prisms, which "consume" light, in a sense, so why should this not still hold true for Ultra Necrozma? Perhaps it simply required far less light in order to sate itself.

But let's go a step further. Consumption of light in order to fuel bodily processes reminds me of two things, the first of which is sun basking. That would be quite fitting, since Necrozma is a dragon, which are usually envisioned as reptilian, and many reptiles use the light of the sun in order to get going (maybe I've just struck upon something in regards to Alolan Exeggutor's Dragon typing?). So let's imagine that Necrozma seeks out worlds that are in orbit around stars in order to take advantage of that abundance of light.

But then, applying the logic of a prism, what goes into Necrozma should be refracted as something else. And that reminds me of another thing - photosynthesis. Many plants, of course, use light energy from the sun to fuel their biological processes, and the carbon dioxide that they draw in from the air is reduced, while oxygen is released. If Ultra Necrozma uses the light of nearby suns in order to provide itself with some energy, then we might surmise that just as plants draw in water and carbon dioxide from their surroundings, Necrozma is also drawing something in. Which leads me to its other typing, Psychic. Many Psychic-types are capable of absorbing mental energy, be it in the form of emotions or dreams. And it is hypothesized in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon that the Z-Power Rings are actually fragments of Ultra Necrozma's body. We can look at the mechanics of said Z-Power Rings and observe a process similar to photosynthesis - they take in a Trainer's emotions, and release it as an aura of power. So perhaps Necrozma, in the same way that plants take the carbon dioxide of our breath and give us oxygen in return, absorbs the feelings of the people and creatures whose worlds it settles on and converts them into powerful energy that benefits them. And maybe when those feelings turn malicious, Necrozma becomes sick and unable to retain its form, until it eventually reaches a critical condition and shatters, as happened in Ultra Megalopolis.
 
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The Dragon Stones are in-fact, oozing with power constantly. This makes sense that despite them being stones, they are able to float to the desired spot as if they didn't weigh as much as a stone would. Contrary to the manga, the Dragon Stones are actually small enough for a 14-year-old trainer to hold them in one hand each.
 
The routes in the games don't have paved roads because Pokemon absolutely destroy them through battles. The roads would need to be constantly repaired as trainers fight, and it's not worth the extra expenses for the region's government to do so. Since outdoor battles are infrequent in cities, they can afford to have sidewalks and roads because they won't require constant upkeep.

Routes have a larger diversity of Pokemon than just 4-5 species. For example, Caterpie in-universe can actually be found in trees all over Kanto, but are just found near Viridian Forest in the games because no players want to see Caterpie on every single route. Version exclusives also coexist in the same universe, the unavailable exclusive just never appears to the player when they pass through in the games.

The Masked Royal and Crasher Wake have fought at some point, and it was glorious.

That's it
 
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Here's what I've collected so far:
General stuff:
  • Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and other places form the country of Shoyo, the Pokeverse version of Japan. Her capital is Yamabuki (Saffron) City. The Japanese original names are canon for people and cities, with some exceptions. Shoyo means "Rising Sun" and is written as "昇陽".
  • Team Rocket is an ultranationalist terrorist organization, that hates the cosmopolitanism and de facto democracy of present-day Shoyo. They long to revive the Empire of Shoyo (大昇陽帝国).
  • Unova and Orre are two of the states forming the United States of Columbia, the Pokeverse version of USA. Opelucid City is the state capital of Unova (just like how Albany is for NY), and the national capital is Washington DA, or District of America. The English dub names are canon.
  • Kalos is a country, equivalent of France, and generally, the French names are canon.
  • Team Flare is a Kalosian Fascist and chauvinist organization, who longs to resurrect the pre-WWII Kalosian Empire. And Lysandre's genocide policies makes Jean-Marie Le Pen look like a socialist progressive.
  • Also, see here for what Gen 1-4 region looks like.
Anime:
  • Most of the movie locations in the Anime are actually the Pokémon equivalent of their inspired real-life places. Yes, Alto Mare is in Etruria [italy], Crown City or Kronenbrucht is in Flandaria [Netherlands] and so on. Why does Satoshi (Ash) travel to these places? Well after Wataru (Lance), head of the Shoyoese National Police (昇陽警察庁) heard about Satoshi's achievements in the first three movies, the former appointed the latter as a part-time assistant. Usually, Wataru would respond to distress calls from the ICPO, but when he is unavailable, Satoshi is sent in on Wataru's behalf.
  • So why has Satoshi (Ash) fared better in Kalos? Well, he knows some Kalosian [French] to get around, due to his old friendship with Serena St-Yves, and also he has travelled to Europe a couple of times, and there's always someone who can speak Kalosian (which is an international language) or in rarer cases, Shoyoese [Japanese]. (Alamos Town from the Rise of Darkrai is based on Barcelona. Endioak Town from the Victini & Zekrom/Reshiram movie is based on one of the towns in France. Crown City and Alto Mare, see above.)
  • And why did he screw up so badly in Unova? Partially because of his loss to that rigged Tobias that damaged Satoshi's self-esteem for a while, and he was a bit of a stepford smiler. Also his English isn't his forte.
  • Speaking of Serena St-Yves, her father was sent to Shoyo as the High Ambassador of Kalos in Yamabuki City, and the family followed along. However, Grace didn't want to live the typical expatriate's life and insisted in living near Masara (Pallet) Town, living with the locals, and training her Rhyhorn.
  • Bianca's father (being first-generation Etrurian-Columbian [italian-American]; see more in the Games section below) was initially overprotective of Bianca due to some close calls with Communist/Neo-Fascist terrorism that occurred when he was a kid. (There is a real-life counterpart to this.)
Games:
  • Why is Bianca's father even stricter in the games. His family was less fortunate during the game versions of the 1970s Etrurian years; he lost a brother and a grandfather in a terrorist attack back home in Etruria. And old nightmares...just don't die off that easily.
  • Touko Hilda Shirase, and Touya Hilbert Kuroda (BW1 protagonists) are Niseis. Touko/Hilda even have Kotone (Lyra) as a cousin.
History:

- World War II happened differently in Shoyo. As the "Meiji-era" equivalent in Shoyo happened at an earlier period, democracy in Shoyo had more time to mature. Also, the institutional cruelty to Pokémon by the Imperial Military was unpopular with the people. Just as Shoyo's ultranationalism in its central government and military was about to go out of hand, people in Hoenn/Johto/Sinnoh stood up and revolted, formed the Republican faction, and sabotaged the war effort. Thus in contrast to the top-down implementation of RL!Japan's democracy by the GHQ, Shoyo's post-War democracy was imposed and upheld in a more bottom-up approach by her Republican country-people.


Infrastructure:
  • Unlike how Japan, and pretty much all of the developed world, is heavily dependent on motorization, Shoyo is more reliant on rail travel. This is because of stronger environmentalism and the hostility of Pokémon against digging up fossil fuel, which in turn limits the general availability of such power source.
  • As such, Shoyo National Rail (SNR 昇陽国有鉄道) did not have the same financial issues that real life Japan National Railways did, and local lines services are still good. Also, due to public interests, they were only partially privatized - while they were under more exposure to competition from the private railways, public and national interest in the rail infrastructure remains strong.
  • During the events of BW2 and XY, SNR further extended the Maglev from Goldenrod to Rustboro via Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shimonoseki. This was effectively the last nail on the coffin for competition from domestic air travel.
  • The only full-grade freeway networks is the Tohjo Expressway from Yamabuki [saffron] to Kogane [Goldenrod]. The two are also the only cities to have in-city tollways as well.
  • Due to the above, Shoyo Airlines (昇陽航空) and All Shoyo Airways (全昇陽空輸) domestic flights are mostly between the mainland and remote islands. The majority of their revenue comes from international flights.
Architecture:
  • Architecture-wise, most of Yamabuki has a dearth of pre-WWII buildings due to the firebombings similar to Tokyo during 1945. Most of Yamabuki and Tamamushi's [Celadon] monuments were the work of Kenzo Tange.
  • While many cities in Johto are traditional-looking, in contrast to Kanto's modern cities, the more modern Johto cities of Kogane and Asagi also feature many historic buildings, albeit being of a more European nature of the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa eras. The two cities, along with Kanazumi [Rustboro], and Kotobuki [Jubilife] did not suffer as much firebombing as Kanto's cities (and for that matter, RL!Osaka/Kobe/Fukuoka/Sapporo), due to Allied forces recognising and eventually allying with the Republicans.
 
Raikou, Entei and Suicune's original forms that perished in the Burned Tower before being revived by Ho-Oh were actually their beta designs from the G/S demo leak.
 
^ I personally like the theory that they are Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon.

I thought about it more, and these would be the population sizes for typical Pokemon settlements:
  • Up to 300 people - village (Celestic, Verdanturf, New Bark Town)
  • Less than 5000 people - town (Cherrygrove, Nacrene, Floaroma)
  • 5000 or more people - city (Goldenrod, Celadon)
  • 10k or more people - megacity (Castelia, Lumiose, Nimbasa)
A weirdly pedantic thing to think about, I know.

Secondly, you don't necessarily need to beat a Gym Leader to get past them - you just have to show that you're at the same level of skill as them. This approach prevents things like unlucky crits from robbing an otherwise good trainer of their badge. Gym leaders adjust their battling style to match what they think a trainer's level should be, based off the badges they own and the strength of their Pokemon.
 
Raikou, Entei and Suicune's original forms that perished in the Burned Tower before being revived by Ho-Oh were actually their beta designs from the G/S demo leak.

^ I personally like the theory that they are Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon.

Well, at least according to the legend of the beasts' creation, they embody the elements that were involved in the tower's destruction - the lightning that ignited it, the fire that blazed, and the rain that doused the flames. If that's accurate, then it would suggest that they didn't have those elemental associations beforehand. But then, you can overwrite anything with headcanon.
 
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