Official Pokémon Sword and Shield speculation thread (Updated June 5th, 2019)

[El_]

I think people should be looking towards Celtic mythology rather than Norse when it comes to the Kalos legends. Xerneas is pretty much just Cernunnos in Pokemon form, and even the region where this old paganistic god was worshiped Gaul is really just ancient France.

Yveltal is harder to pin down, but The Morrigan is a Celtic Goddess of death & rebirth which sometimes is represented by a black raven.

 

[Adelon]

I still don't get the association the XYZ trio has with Norse. Yveltal and Zygarde have nothing in common with their counterparts from a characterization or lore standpoint and Xerneas' similarities are pretty much typical of any deer. On top of that, despite being connected through Yggdrasil/Loki none of the unifying elements of those stories like Ratatoskr, Ragnarok, or even Yggdrasil and Loki themselves are present with makes their connection even more flimsy.

It honestly feels like a star peg, triangle hole situation where these three are being shoved into an association that they have nothing to do with rather then something that fits them like the Tao trio with Taoism.

Xerneas is a benevolent life-giving deity that seems to have more in common with the Horned God of Celtic Gaul. The deer in Norse mythology are actually harming the tree by eating its branches, also the snake is supposed to be an evil being but Zygarde is a noble entity that protects ecosystems and Yveltal doesn't really have much in common with the messenger bird who has no connection whatsoever to death (nor is it particularly evil). Zygarde reminds me of a snake-like being called mahoraga from Hinduism that is supposed to be related to dragons, and live underground but it could also have a connection to Brahma who preserves the universe.

If anything, its more likely the three are partially based on the Trimurti (Creator, Destroyer, and Preserver) and on Celtic gods of ancient France.

 

[Noipoi]

Okay I’m actually kinda mad

I’m trying to avoid that one leak because I don’t want to be spoiled but every where I go people bring it up and I keep getting bits and pieces spoiled.

I just wanna talk about Wooloo, I don’t need these spoilers!

 

[Juizel]

just wanna talk about Wooloo, I don’t need these spoilers!

Then maybe a speculation thread that's for discussing leaks/rumours and even own theories isn't really for you

 

[Noipoi]

Then maybe a speculation thread that's for discussing leaks/rumours and even own theories isn't really for you

I dunno man, I managed to avoid Smash leaks on Smashboards just fine.

But if you have any spoiler-free forum suggestions I’m all ears.

 

[Juizel]

I dunno man, I managed to avoid Smash leaks on Smashboards just fine.

But if you have any spoiler-free forum suggestions I’m all ears.

Uh, idk, because I personally never mind spoilers, but this is basically a "anything that's posted here can either be a spoiler or fake, you never know" kinda thread so if you want to avoid spoilers, actively reading this thread might not be the best decision., while there are probably plenty other threads on this forum where you're relatively safe from repeats of the one leak we currently have that has pretty good chance at being somewhat legit

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I dunno man, I managed to avoid Smash leaks on Smashboards just fine.

But if you have any spoiler-free forum suggestions I’m all ears.

This is the thread specifically for spoilers. It's kinda like sticking your hand in a peanut butter jar but asking for something nut-free. This forum has plenty of other threads that aren't dedicated to leaks-why not just look at the other sections?

 

[Defiant]

The Norse mythology is so obvious. Especially now with Sw/Sh next door with the 2 norse wolves who chase the Sun and the Moon!

OMG Electric Corgi sounds absolutely awesome!!! <3

 

[Joker901]

Now that I think about it, the leaker gave the names for the squirrel line. So It will not take long to understand if it's true or not. I would say a month or two at last...Also the second gym leader should be revealed around August.

 

[Esserise]

Well, but there is a big difference between interpreting the aura trio as an allusion to norse mythology figures and between interpreting Pokémon "as a tale of simulants inside a virtual world being generated by aliens from Hoag's Object", that's something else.

The only difference is a matter of scope. Scale it back if you like. How 'bout interpreting that Nihilego is a metaphor for crystal meth?

I mean, people did predict that the Z legendary would be a snake based on the Norse Mythology connection.

What's the most obvious animal to contort into the shape of the letter Z?

And Zygarde’s forms do suspiciously looks like the 3 children of Loki. You gotta give it some credit at least.

I really don't think they do, though.

For one thing, Fenrir is usually depicted as being quite large. Suddenly it's the smallest of the bunch? Yeah, it's got a leash, but it's a jump to connect that to Glepnir since it doesn't seem to bind or prevent Pupgarde from moving. Might it actually just be intended as a leash, because it's a dog? Frankly, I don't think Puppo even looks like a wolf... it's far more doberman-like in both pattern and build. Wolves look like, well, Lycanroc, or Zamazenta. They're bigger, hairier, more imposing.

For another, Jormungandr? It's a sea serpent. What on Earth is it doing being a Ground-type? Never mind that the identification of Zygarde as Jormungandr only conveniently came up once we saw its other forms, when up until then, everyone insisted it was Nidhoggr. Neither of them have anything to do with the other. So which is it? Is Zygarde, the Ground-type, nature-protecting do-gooder of the Pokémon world, based on the evil dragon that chews dead bodies and tree roots thereby making the tree miserable, or is it based on a giant ocean snake that partakes in the end of the world? Is it both, even though these entities play completely different parts in the mythology? Or maybe it's just... a snake, because snakes are shaped like Zs, and they needed a creature shaped like a Z in order to set up the red herring of a third version.

And Hel? She's a Norse woman. Complete Zygarde is very clearly based on a king, with the French flag emblazoned on his chest. Plus, talk to me about how she's "half living, half corpse," but she doesn't represent cyclicality or the balance of nature or anything. Hel rules over the dead. That's... Yveltal's role, a whole different member of the trio. I mean, the sheer mental gymnastics of "This overtly French nature-loving king Pokémon sure looks a lot like this Viking death goddess, because some translations of the mythology happen to describe her as half-pale and half-dark, and the king Pokémon has a small blue accent and a small red accent to represent the balance it keeps between the Pokémon that's basically a life god and the Pokémon that's basically a death god!"

Coincidences can happen, especially when you go looking to match up superficial details. I once happened upon a picture of some dudes, taken recently in Australia, wherein one of the guys looked like almost exactly like an old friend of mine, but I know for a fact that it couldn't possibly be that friend, because he has had short hair for about a year now, unlike the guy in the picture, whose hair looked like what my friend's used to. But still, their faces were near-perfect matches. And I came across that picture completely out of the blue - I wasn't deliberately trying to find ways to make it to fit a certain narrative in my head.

 

[Joker901]

Has this supposed chinese leak being discussed already?

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Has this supposed chinese leak being discussed already?

View attachment 119420

lol!

 

[RileyXY1]

Has this supposed chinese leak being discussed already?

View attachment 119420

It's fake. Not only does it consider the Gigantimax forms and regional variants as separate species of Pokemon, it claims that all we're getting in terms of new designs is what was mentioned in the leak that predicted Dynamax aside from evolutions to the Pokemon that we already know are happening.

 

[bulbasaur99]

Has this supposed chinese leak being discussed already?

View attachment 119420

this is almost the same with the other leak which posted on 23rd may if you don't count wooloo and eldergoss evolution

 

[Myth]

The only difference is a matter of scope. Scale it back if you like. How 'bout interpreting that Nihilego is a metaphor for crystal meth?

Yeah, it's a matter of scope. I was only saying that you were misrepresenting my words and people's ideas.

About Nihilego's example, I don't think it's on the same scale. We already have several examples of legendaries being based on figures from different mythologies around the world. Moreover, Nihilego's example doesn't have as much evidence in its favor as the idea that the aura trio could refer to norse mithology figures, the way I see it.

Now that I think about it, the leaker gave the names for the squirrel line. So It will not take long to understand if it's true or not. I would say a month or two at last...Also the second gym leader should be revealed around August.

August would not be a bit late? I don't remember when second gym leaders are usually revealed...

Has this supposed chinese leak being discussed already?

View attachment 119420

That isn't from them. They just reposted it.

 

[RileyXY1]

this is almost the same with the other leak which posted on 23rd may if you don't count wooloo and eldergoss evolutions

Not only that, it claims that we're not getting anything else in terms of new designs outside of what that leak mentions.

 

[Joker901]

Not only that, it claims that we're not getting anything else in terms of new designs outside of what that leak mentions.

The chinese "leak" is clearly related to the other one. It looks like an answer to that leak...This is why it doesn't have the entire pokedex in it.
Not saying either of them is 100% real...

 

[Cute Charm]

Every time someone comes out as the Riddler or follows the same picture puzzles...i facepalm so hard my hand goes through my face.

Do they expect people to forget that the Sun and Moon Riddler said he would be out of a job if he leaked anything again?

As it stands right now, the play tester or whoever made the Dynamax leak is also probably out of a job or on thin ice as well going by that.

 

[Esserise]

About Nihilego's example, I don't think it's on the same scale. We already have several examples of legendaries being based on figures from different mythologies around the world.

Yeah, and in pretty much every one of those instances, the extension of design is both faithful to the source and not very subtle about it, as opposed to being only superficially similar and unrelated to the story while aggressively, embarrassingly garbling up the source material in ways that don't organically emerge at all.

Moreover, Nihilego's example doesn't have as much evidence in its favor as the idea that the aura trio could refer to norse mithology figures, the way I see it.

No? Loius XIV in his personal snake-themed Gundam has more in common with the Viking goddess of the underworld than Nihilego, a glassy, neurotoxin-injecting Rock/Poison-type Pokémon with which one of the characters becomes obsessed after a tragic loss to the point of neglecting and abusing her family has in common with the psychosocial effects of an addictive crystalline substance that stimulates your brain into giving you a sense of euphoria?

 

[Joker901]

Just a correction to my previous post. Grookey at level 15 has 41 hp and not 45. So the boost from Dynamax is actually 50%.