What are your game headcanons?

[Shib]

I find it easiest to just assume each game is an entirely separate universe.

even gen 1 to gen 2 which was developed as a direct sequel as it seems a much better explanation for all the new Pokémon to me than "we thought there were only 150 Pokémon in the world until around 100 more were discovered in the neighbouring region which is very easy to get to. Particularly when you consider that even Gen 1 had a world traveling ocean liner!


Edit: don't get me wrong, I love hearing fan theories and head Cannons, just since I always had anime/main games/side games as separate universes anyway so when the games confirmed multiple game universes everything made much more sense with the easy excuse ;-)

 

[prog rocker]

I find it easiest to just assume each game is an entirely separate universe.

even gen 1 to gen 2 which was developed as a direct sequel as it seems a much better explanation for all the new Pokémon to me than "we thought there were only 150 Pokémon in the world until around 100 more were discovered in the neighbouring region which is very easy to get to. Particularly when you consider that even Gen 1 had a world traveling ocean liner!


Edit: don't get me wrong, I love hearing fan theories and head Cannons, just since I always had anime/main games/side games as separate universes anyway so when the games confirmed multiple game universes everything made much more sense with the easy excuse ;-)

I guess I should explain better: I believe each save file is its universe, but the basic events (kid receives starter from professor, defeats Team, takes part in the League) of each region happen in a certain order always, but anything asides from that is different.

Think how in most universes Spider-Man he gets bitten by a spider and loses Uncle Ben, but after that everything is different.

 

[Esserise]

Now that I think about it, I wonder what happened to the humans. Most Pokémon know what humans are, but have never seen one. In the first PMD, one of the Friend Areas is a ruined lab, but in EoD/EoT/EotS you came from the future, so humans still exist.

I wonder if it has to do with that dungeon that has human-shaped holes...

I guess my immediate assumption is that humans are either totally nonexistent - or at least, an extremely rare species - in the MD world. Pokémon are the dominant lifeforms, and any stake in the world that humans have eked out has been very small.

The protagonists, I think, are all clearly transported to the MD world from another universe through various means, except for maybe the Explorers protagonist, since they're from the fairly distant future. So in theory, they could be descended from a human that already lives in the MD world's "present."

Hoopa obviously exists in MD, so maybe at some point in the past, a number of humans were transported from their world over into the MD world and, with no way to get back, simply had to adapt to it. Perhaps that explains the Decrepit Lab - maybe Hoopa just up and grabbed a laboratory from another world and dragged it to the MD world, and the rough process of being uprooted from the ground, severed from its infrastructure, and pulled through dimensions trashed the facility.

 

[prog rocker]

Now that I think about timelines and multiverses, here's a kind of meta headcanon: The Team Rainbow Rocket leaders come from the worlds of unsold games, which in my opinion makes them games where the protagonist was never born, and therefore there was no one that could stop them.

 

[Esserise]

For what it's worth, as far as the main series goes, the in-game evidence we have for event placement is as follows:

The Johto games are firmly stated to be 3 years after the Kanto games.

People often cite the connectivity between RSE and FRLG as evidence that the Kanto and Hoenn stories take place at the same time, but there's a more direct line of proof: In HGSS, Mr. Pokémon has the Red and Blue Orbs delivered to him by "a friend of [his] from the Hoenn." So if RSE/ORAS were to take place after the Johto games, the Orbs wouldn't be around for Team Aqua and Magma to target. (Never mind why these extremely sacred and powerful relics that we were told must remain on Mt. Pyre have now been handed down to some Johtonian dude with connections.) Also, Steven shows up in HGSS, introducing himself as "the Champion from the Hoenn region," but I would argue that this doesn't "decanonize" Emerald or whatever is sometimes supposed. He clearly still was the Champion at one point in Emerald's continuity, and could just be referring to that former status to see if it rings a bell. He surely had some degree of fame and recognisability, so he guesses that maybe Ethan/Lyra might have heard of him.

That being said, if you're not willing to just outright ignore the existence of Master Balls like I am, you probably have to assume that RSE/ORAS take place at least some time after the Kanto events, rather than being simultaneous. Because at the time of RBY/FRLG, the Master Ball was still in the prototype phase and only one is ever given to you, whereas in the Hoenn games, Team Aqua/Magma own a Master Ball, and it can also be won through the ID lottery.

As for Sinnoh, the most obvious piece of evidence is probably the TV piece about the Red Gyarados at the beginning of Diamond & Pearl (it's replaced in Platinum by a TV report about Rowan returning to Sinnoh after working with Oak in Kanto for the last 4 years - which, since we're keeping score, means that Rowan left Sinnoh for Kanto about a year before Red/Green went on their journey - but a cameraman NPC elsewhere in the game still mentions that he was the one who filmed the Red Gyarados feature). Strictly speaking though, this is only suggestive that the Sinnoh games are happening alongside the Johto story. Technically, you could argue that the programme is a rerun. But there are other details that sort of more firmly lock the Johto and Sinnoh stories into a degree of simultaneity. Particularly when it comes to HGSS - for one thing, there is a minor event in the post-game of HGSS where you can witness a conversation between Erika and Jasmine in Celadon. The two of them discuss Jasmine's image struggles:

Erika: "Hi, Jasmine. I heard Whitney from Goldenrod Gym said you were too plain and should look more fancy. Is that true?"
Jasmine: "Yes... I'm thinking maybe I should participate in this Contest in Sinnoh to try and be more vibrant..."
Erika: "How did it go?"
Jasmine: "I couldn't bring myself to go to the Contest."
Erika: "Oh, I see... Then why don't you try putting on something especially gorgeous?"
Jasmine: "Ah, yes! Maybe I can bring myself to enter the Contest!"
Erika: "How about a fancy, light blue outfit with a cape over it?"
Jasmine: "What? That's too embarrassing!"
Erika: "I see. You think Clair from Blackthorn is a little embarrassing... I'm just taking notes."
Jasmine: "Oh, no! Erika, that's not what I meant!"

(The syntax is a little weird there. Did they mean for her to say "I was thinking maybe I should participate"? Because the next two lines speak as though the Contest already happened and she didn't go.) Anyway, later on, you can trade with Jasmine for a male Steelix named Rusty - the very same one that she uses in Super Contests in the Sinnoh games, so it would seem that her appearance at Sunyshore City in DPP occurs after this conversation in Celadon, and then the trade with Ethan/Lyra happens after she returns from Sinnoh.

Furthermore, Cynthia appears during the Sinjoh Ruins event in HGSS, where she knows about Arceus by name, which is something that wasn't the case in Platinum - in that game, the reveal of Giratina's existence is specifically what leads her to reinterpret the cave painting in Celestic Town to refer to the three dimension dragons instead of the lake guardians, thereby implying the existence of an even more powerful individual Pokémon, which she supposes may be the otherwise-unnamed "Original One" that is mentioned on the Plates.

Furthermore, for the sake of being a total anorak, the Draco Meteor tutor in both HGSS and DPP is the same person - an elderly woman named Wilma. Crasher Wake and Maylene also make cameos in HGSS, and Oak makes an appearance in DPP's post-game.

I think all of this, combined with the Red Gyarados documentary, suggests that the events of Johto and Sinnoh occur in fairly close proximity, but are not precisely contemporaneous. The Johto events seem to begin first, and then maybe by the time that Ethan/Lyra are wrapping up the Johto side of the game, Lucas/Dawn are beginning their journey over in Sinnoh. Ethan/Lyra then go through their exploits in Kanto, during which the conversation between Erika and Jasmine occurs, inspiring Jasmine to travel to Sinnoh for the Contest. She arrives a little while before Lucas/Dawn reach Sunyshore City. Then she participates and goes back to Olivine. Lucas/Dawn defeat the Elite Four and talk to Cynthia in the Platinum post-game, where she infers the existence of Arceus. Then Cynthia begins doing research which leads her to the Sinjoh Ruins. And Grandma Wilma was visiting some extended family in Blackthorn during the Johto games, but returns to her cottage in Sinnoh after that. At some point after Lucas/Dawn have become the Champion, Oak travels to Sinnoh to work on the Pal Park and investigate the white rock on Route 224, as a similar rock has apparently been recently unearthed in Kanto.

Black & White have a Plasma grunt mention the downfall of both Team Rocket and Team Galactic, so the Unova events have to be after everything we've seen thus far. Add on to that the fact that Caitlin appears as part of the Unova Elite Four and is clearly older than she was in Platinum, as well as the cameo by the funny-speaking Rocket grunt who stole the Machine Part in HGSS, having turned away from his life of crime and started a family in Icirrus. He has a child who uses the School Kid sprite, but Game Freak have never divulged to us the exact amount of years that elapse in between the first four generations and Black & White. There is also a cameo by Cynthia, who mentions the Sinnoh protagonist's encounter with Giratina. That's a rather more firm "ruling out" of the events of Diamond & Pearl than Steven's remark in HGSS was to Emerald, but honestly, it's not hard to headcanon a version of Diamond or Pearl where Cynthia and Lucas/Dawn investigated the Sendoff Spring together.

Black 2 & White 2 firmly establish themselves as happening 2 years after Black & White. That's cut-and-dry. As far as references to other games go, Black 2 has an ex-Galactic grunt appear as a Plasma grunt on the Plasma Frigate in the post-game. And in relation to Hoenn, B2W2 seem to favor Emerald over Ruby & Sapphire - Wallace participates in the Champion Tournament while Juan participates in the Hoenn Leaders tournament, although I would argue that Steven could have retired in the Ruby or Sapphire universes as well, just later than he did in Emerald (indeed, ORAS also seem to suggest this is the case at the end of the Delta Episode). There's a backpacker in the Desert Resort who says that the Mirage Tower in Hoenn has disappeared. Again, a favorable reference to Emerald, but we could assume that the Mirage Tower existed in Ruby & Sapphire as well, and that it just collapsed earlier for some reason. What's a little bit harder to reconcile though is the appearance of former Team Aqua and Magma grunts in Icirrus, where the Rocket grunt used to be. They mention how they are a couple, but that their partner is unaware of their respective past as part of an organization that tried to expand the sea or land. Technically speaking, it is only in Emerald that both of Hoenn's crime groups possess a goal like this. In Ruby & Sapphire, the opposite version's team is entirely benevolent, and strives solely to stymie the extremist efforts of the villainous group of that game. But I suppose if we're willing to imagine a jaunt with Cynthia into the Sendoff Spring in Diamond & Pearl, we might also be willing to imagine that Ruby's Team Aqua and Sapphire's Team Magma simply had less tangible success but better PR.

X & Y don't give us very many leads to go on. They're definitely set after the first four generations due to a variety of references I don't want to bother listing. As far as their relationship to Gen 5 goes, the only clue we're given here is a comment from an NPC in Lumiose asking if you've heard of Team Plasma, who were "making news a while back in the Unova region." On its face, this seems like a reference to the events of either of the Black & White pairs of games, though we should recall that Team Plasma have been a thing since N was a boy. Hugh even mentions that the Shadow Triad stole his sister's Purrloin 5 years before the events of B2W2, which would be 3 years before the events of BW. So that's not really enough to say anything for sure, without that one tweet marking B2W2 and XY as contemporaneous. One might assume that Looker's presence in the Kalos games "explains" his absence in the second Unova games, although I personally wouldn't really say that was something that needed "explained." Looker is probably a busy guy in general. At any rate, you can also consider the presence of the Fairy type, and surmise that XY have to be taking place at least a little while after B2W2 in order to explain why it wasn't known about at that time (although that's pretty flimsy, because why would Gardevoir just suddenly start being really good against Hydreigon in conjunction with the human recognition of the Fairy type?). But at that point it's easier to just say "multiverse" and call it a day, especially when XY feature Mega Evolution, and the games immediately after them reveal that there is a discrete universe with Mega Evolution, and a discrete universe without it in which the war in Kalos never even took place.

ORAS remain relatively faithful to the details established thus far. They make a reference to the Royal Unova being under construction, but decline to give an exact number of years in which it is expected to be completed. There are a couple other Easter eggs that are maybe a little more continuity-infracting, like the portraits of Giratina and Arceus in the Lilycove Museum, but that's a lot easier to overlook than the whole "Mega Evolution actually originates in Hoenn and is well-known about despite what XY said" fiasco which, again, easier to just say "multiverse."

Sun & Moon and their upgraded editions contain references to all previous games, and it is quite clear from these references that they occur sometime after all those other games. You have to find Grimsley's concept art in order to get the specification of it being "2 years" since his last appearance, though.

LGPE obviously occur within their own pocket universe or something, as they maintain the idea of a 3-year timeframe between Sabrina's battles with [the Kanto protagonist] and [the Johto protagonist], and yet feature Red, Blue, and Green as already-accomplished Trainers who traveled while documenting their findings in notebooks since this version of Prof. Oak only recently invented the Pokédex, and because Mina appears, but looks considerably younger than she did in the Alola games. My personal estimates put the events of LGPE as quasi-occurring around the time of Black & White or so, but I'm well aware that the work I did to deduce that is far more than anything Game Freak did when thinking about these references.

Also, unless they were communicating across two different dimensions, those The Two Professors videos they put out in the run-up to LGPE's release where Oak and Willow make discoveries about Meltan would seem to imply that, if GO is "canonical" to any main series game/universe (Which, sure, why not? In addition to that GO trailer suggesting that the Giovanni in the game is the same one from USUM, I think being the launchpad for the reveal of an entirely new Pokémon is a pretty remarkable accomplishment that shows a strong endorsement from the core game developers), then the world of LGPE is the one. Which surely makes sense, given the shared mechanics.

And lastly, Sword & Shield's only lead for placement is the Type: Null deal, but as noted, you can stretch that a bit by pointing out that the Beast Killer project started at least 2 years before the events of Sun & Moon. Still, I think it's probably a little more likely that SwoShi are """meant""" (using that term very loosely) to take place after Sun & Moon.

 

[Poke Dragon]

The Necrozma from the Ultra games found a way to permanently become Ultra Necrozma thanks its trainer attaching the Z-Power Ring to it as well as the Ultranecrozium Z.

 

[RK9]

Hop and Hau merely have a starter for gameplay, traditions and Pokédex reasons. Canonically, they don't own a starter, having Wooloo and Pichu as their 'starter' Pokémon instead.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I wonder if it has to do with that dungeon that has human-shaped holes...

Which one?

 

[BackSet]

Speaking of Mystery Dungeon, I always headcanoned it as the world N made for Pokemon.

 

[prog rocker]

Which one?

Doing research now, I guess it was a false memory. I could have sworn I saw something like that in either Rescue Team or Explorers,

 

[Esserise]

Hoopa is an accidental creation of Dialga and Palkia in an alternate universe. The formation of Sinnoh didn't go as smoothly in that reality, and the two of them's manipulation of time and space bore Hoopa, who defeated them and claimed the land for itself. This world is where it stores all of its treasures.

Speaking of Mystery Dungeon, I always headcanoned it as the world N made for Pokemon.

Similarly, a page ago I mentioned choosing to think sometimes of only Gens 1-5 as a singular narrative, and within that, having B2W2 as the final entry in the story, I like to think that N eventually does lead society to abandon Poké Balls, as he says is his new goal at the end of those games. By doing so, he doesn't separate people and Pokémon, but rather brings them closer together. Maybe it even takes hundreds of years, but the movement starts with him nonetheless. And so begins the third age of the world - originally, according to Sinnoh myths, people and Pokémon lived separately, and then at some point, the invention of Poké Balls brought their worlds together through technology. But what comes after that? Maybe a world where both humans and Pokémon are fully integrated into each others' worlds as equals. Maybe in that far future, almost everyone is able to understand Pokémon like N can.

 

[BackSet]

Wasn't that basically the plot of Detective Pikachu?

 

[Esserise]

Wasn't that basically the plot of Detective Pikachu?

The movie or the game?

The game, no. The movie... eh sort of but it was way weirder, basically the twist of Get Out but with human consciousnesses being put in Pokémon bodies

 

[BackSet]

Other headcanon stuff: Canonically (ha, "canonically") Eternatus was caught by the main protagonist. But since giving a giant spine with nigh infinite power to a child, even if their a teenager (especially if they're a teenager), is stupid and irresponsible, I say Eternatus just kind of exploded or something. Nobody knows what happened but it's gone. Is it in another dimension? Underground? In space? In my pocketses!? Nobody knows.

 

[Venomaid]

The interior cave of the Seafoam Islands, Cerulean Cave and most of Mt. Moon collapsed prior to the G/S/C timeline because of an earthquake caused by Cinnabar's volcano erupting.

 

[Poke Dragon]

Kyurem knows that he can't fuse with both Reshiram and Zekrom, but he also knows that there will be a day in which he will be able to do so. For the time being, he is content with being fused with one of them.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Besides the usual Chansey/Audino, pokecenters commonly use psychic pokemon like Espeon and Gardevoir to help comfort and mediate patients suffering from panic attacks or PTSD.

 

[Acrobatic Crobat]

Whenever hero or partner in PMD: Explorers uses Gone Pebble, the fallen friend it reminds them of is Grovyle.

 

[Poke Dragon]

MissingNo. are mangled Pokemon who were unfortunate enough to travel spacetime without Dialga and Palkia monitoring the concepts. The Johto guard is supposed to protect them from that unfortunate fate, but since trainers found a weak spot, they experimented without knowing the life of pain that they just put their Pokemon through.

 

[BackSet]

MissingNo. are mangled Pokemon who were unfortunate enough to travel spacetime without Dialga and Palkia monitoring the concepts. The Johto guard is supposed to protect them from that unfortunate fate, but since trainers found a weak spot, they experimented without knowing the life of pain that they just put their Pokemon through.

And also probably themselves because it doesn't matter whether you send your pokemon in or yourself you do not mess with space and time! You will screw yourself over!