#gsc and frlg was so good too </3

[lyricalchrysanthemum]

Thought about hgssspe again

(Hidenori Kusaka voice) I can do so much character assassination

[shadowdarkee]

Obfuscating Implausibility: The Hidden Ones

Note: Pokémon names are in ALLCAPS, because that's how they were written in-game in the games (RBY/FRLG, GSC/HGSS, RSE, DPPt) this is set in.

-----

The most implausible - most threatening to observe - aspect of existence was not the primacy and success of humanity, nor the e̢͒ͧͩ̉͐̀̾̎͂̂҉̸͟͠n̡ͪ̓ͫ̂̔͛̔ͣ͒͂҉tͤ̈ͮͣͭ́͟i̵ͨ̓ͩ̈͗̚̕͏t̛͐ͣ̍̓͒͂ͯ̆̊ͦ̈́͒̃ͦ͏̶i̴̶̾̓̾̇̐̑̉̏̽ͬe̶͗ͧ̈̾̌̉͠͠ş͊̐̽̀̈́͗̎̊͂͂͝ hidden in the Kanto region, nor even the mailman. No, it was a person - a group of people, really - who could be found in almost every region involved in the Pokédex project. And they could be found in places accessible to any human. UXIE found itself both exasperated that no one noticed them and terrified that someone eventually would. Was the heretofore lack of discovery due to the nature of the universe, or simply happenstance? The former suggested either even fewer degrees of freedom than UXIE thought existed or a level of skill and forethought involved in the creation that the legendary Pokémon somewhat doubted. The latter possibility was what scared UXIE. It could easily imagine the innumerable possible outcomes if others were to learn of them: none of them were good, and a plurality saw doom follow the existential crises that would be invoked. And so, observing AZELF's relative proximity to one of the beings, and the rapid approach of Year One, UXIE decided to take matters into its own hands.

The initially considered solution of personally erasing the minds of all who encountered them was immediately thrown out. UXIE could not be everywhere at once, especially not while imprisoned by a doomsday cult and having its head jewel painfully removed. No – it would have to be automated via the UNOWN, which introduced further complications.

The second possibility, then, was to have the UNOWN erase the memories of the information imparted by these beings. This wouldn’t work for obvious reasons: it required either (a) identifying the men to be hidden, or (b) encoding the information to be hidden into the UNOWN’s collective hive-mind. No matter how unintelligent the UNOWN were, UXIE dreaded the possibility of needing to erase the memories each individual member if they figured out what it was they were hiding. Worse, it introduced an obvious trail that other more intelligent beings could follow. Allowing the so-called ‘Original One’ to discover the truth about its existence could not be permitted.

The next possibility was to have the UNOWN automatically suppress the minds of all within the vicinity of the beings in question. This was discarded not because it left a trail (this could be solved), nor because it intruded on AZELF and MESPRIT’s domains (for this end justified the means), but because it broke the specifications for the Johto region.

The solution, it turned out, was to copy the effect that seemed to exist already. The UNOWN would ensure that none other than itself whose minds they held sway over would notice, nor be able to form memories about specified locations. Simply using these locations left a trail – and so UXIE designed an algorithm to ensure that for every one that needed to be hidden, 100 others sites were as well. Nowhere important of course – no one could actually reach any of the others. It would take the constant processing power of a full 3% of the UNOWN– about half of which went to opposing the minds of ARCEUS, UXIE's siblings, and the eventual super-powerful artificial psychic.

Of course, ‘None whose minds the UNOWN held sway over’, was the important part, for those that the UNOWN didn’t were meant to find the beings. And starting in Year One, so they were. First the Old Ones were discovered in Kanto. Thankfully the only psychics strong enough to watch from outside were cities away, or were ALAKAZAM, who were in on the secret already. Then came the discovery in Hoenn. There too, there was nothing to worry about, for much the same reasons. Needless to say, both happened without issue.

And now it would happen in Sinnoh, in a hotel so close to where AZELF dwells. This time, UXIE would have to make sure nothing goes wrong personally. Which was why it watched from the window as You approached the man. The psychic held its breath for a moment in anticipation, then sighed as it realized that no else one had noticed what the avatar was saying when he began to speak:

"Hi! I’m the Game Director!..."

~~~

It is kind of weird that you can interact with Game Freak in-game. In some of the games, we can even see computers that have the code we're running on displayed. Mostly, we ignore that they exist for immersion purposes, but what if they were actually there? Why doesn't anyone notice them? Here's an attempt at answering. I have to say that I REALLY like using Uxie for 'Just-So' stories. In all honesty, I've been sitting on this for four years, with the intent that this is the ninth work (and first work of the second half/arc) of a legendary pokémon focused series, the beginning of a series of one-shots where Uxie obfuscates implausible facets of the Pokémon universe(s) ('where do Mystery Gifts come from?', 'why does anime Bill's lighthouse's carvings of various pokémon include Mewtwo?', etc) from the universe's(') inhabitants - in order to keep everyone sane and prevent anyone from undergoing existential crises. Given that I'm still stuck fleshing out the first two-thirds of Chapter 7/10 of fic #3 in the series after struggling with it for four years, that's probably never going to happen.

[pochapal]

Is Pokemon Emerald better than Pokemon ORAS? If so, why?

caveat before going in that i literally haven't played oras since they first came out in 2014 so whatever i say about them may be fuzzy and inaccurate

anyway i think depending on how you play pokemon games and what you want out of them will affect how much you prefer one over the other. emerald is very much a classic challenging pokemon game that makes the best of all the gen 3 mechanics whereas oras is in this weird place where if you take advantage of the modern gen mechanics the game becomes super easy. like if you're gonna be doing a super chill casual run i don't think there's much of a notable difference other than oras having the gen 6 exp share for training and levelling? which i wouldn't know about since i've never played a pokemon game with the partywide exp share on so yeah. i need to replay oras before committing here but i will say emerald holds up as remarkably fair if tough despite a couple badly aged gen 3 oddities (limited bag space, strange mid game level jumps) sticking out here and there.

storywise oras owing to the fact that they are modern and integrated with the more fully-realized gen 6 lore makes them much more fleshed out and cohesive than emerald. emerald's whole thing is super impressive for the time but scratch the surface and it's pretty clear it's just a tougher sapphire version with a few remixed elements. the rayquaza cutscene is #iconic but it really doesn't compare to the delta episode (i think. again, haven't touched oras in almost a decade) as a narrative experience.

in terms of extra content i can now say i have actually Done the battle frontier for real rather than getting a few stages in and giving up when i replayed emerald last december. anyway it's...not bad? some of the more gimmicky facilities are a little weird (thinking of the one where the battle moves are automatically decided based on a pokemon's nature but the correlation between nature boosted stat and offensive/defensive strategy is kind of wonky) but compared to the tougher modern meta a lot of the gen 3 frontier facilities aren't too bad to come to grips with - only tough part is trying to get decent items and moves for viable strategies if you're playing legit and not just genning in what you need. oras meanwhile...obviously does not have any of that but it does have those little legendary micro side stories and was pretty good for national dex hunting iirc (i do remember dex nav chaining for a zorua and shiny hunting one of the wormhole legendaries for a good while which was fun) so like. guess it depends on if you favor battling or pokemon catching for your postgame material on that one.

anyway recency and nostalgia bias are both in favor of emerald for me but i literally only played oras once so it's up there as probably the games i'm least familiar with - my only real impression of oras is that they were inferior remake experiences to hgss but that isn't relevant to an oras vs emerald discussion. i will say i don't think you can play one and forego the other unlike rgb/frlg and gsc/hgss. like. oras is probably on a par with emerald but idk if one can be called definitively better than the other.

anyway moral of the story is that i should definitely get to replaying oras asap.

[epicspheal]

Your cactuverse post got me thinking again, how dare you /j.

No but really, when it comes my oc's , half of them are champions, 3 are pokemon professors, and the rest are ex-evil team members/ related to an evil team/ big bad( Wayne, Dante, Yarrow and Carol). The only outlier are Elliot and Aiko( Elliot travels around, and her priority isn't becoming champion....yet. Aiko trained under the kimono girls after beating the Kanto gyms and became Suki from Avatar.).

But this ask isn't about my oc.It's more about the leagues themselves. How do you think each pokemon league is structured? Like, how we see with Galar, it's literally a big tournament, with a lot of media coverage and such. The gym leaders are treated more like celebrities here than any game prior. Compare that to Kanto? It's more.... quiet. Not as quiet as Johto, since Kanto is known for its technological breakthroughs, but still quieter than Galar is. At least that's the feel I got. I also got the feeling that it was more...stricter? Maybe because the Indigo League was the first ever league we're introduced to as players, so there's some sort of grand feel to the Indigo League as a whole( also not saying that the other regions leagues and gym leaders aren't strict but that's just the feel I got). I hope that little comparison was able to get my question across.

Either way, I get to make this meme:

Young Kenji 🤝 Young Leon:

" oh shit being champion was not what I was expecting"

Ok that's all. Sorry for the ramble of a question, haha. Hope you have a nice day/ night!

Hi there @ihopethisendswell! First off your OCs are amazing as always, I love hearing about them (side note, I love hearing about other people's OCs too, so if you ever want to chat about them please don't hesitate to hit me up on Tumblr)! Now to your question, oh this was a tough one (I apologize if I don't fully answer this one there's a lot that could be discussed)! Galar really stepped it up when it came to the leagues and how important they were to the entire region. The only thing I wished is that we got to see more of the minor leagues outside of Klara and Avery becoming leaders. Like the whole major/minor division is super interesting and makes for a good plot (*cough*SwSh 2 sequels *cough*) To your point about Kanto, it is a lot quieter in the RBGY/FRLG and GSC/HGSS games. But in Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee you can actually see that the gyms have a balcony that people can watch from. So that's a bit of a precursor to the massive stadiums we see in Galar. Going back even further to BW2 we have Elesa's gym which has a packed audience for modeling show/battle. I will say Galar isn't the only region that treats its gym leaders like celebrities. To an extent, all of the gym leaders are at the very least local celebrities in their hometown. And many are known across regions as you can often hear NPCs in other games referencing leaders from other regions. Unova has the national gymquirer that is seen on TV that is essentially a gossip show. So yes Kanto and other regions are quieter about their gym challenge compared to Galar, but it's safe to say to there is still plenty of fervor around their leagues. I do tend to think that in Unova, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh the league isn't as popular as there are other competitive events. Pokemon contests are in-universe popular so I can see there being a divide between young people in Hoenn and Sinnoh on what path they want to devote their time to, with a few people choosing both. And then with Johto, you have the Pokethlon which is also super popular. Coupled with the fact that Johto shares a league with Kanto I can again see there being this divide among trainers on what path they want to choose. Unova is an interesting case where I think that the league in Unova is popular but at the same time, I think the Pokemon World Tournament may have eaten into its popularity as the driftveil/rental/mix tourneys would allow for trainers who may not have the means to go on a full journey to compete and experience the thrill of battle. Plus you also have the battle subway, one of the few battle facilities open to non-champion tier trainers, Pokestar Studios, and Pokemon Musicals. Essentially plenty of options for a kid on their journey to choose from. When it comes to strictness, in my eyes Galar is actually the strictest for the sole reason of you actually needing an endorsement to even attempt the challenge. Not to mention that as far we know endorsement (sponsorships are separate) only can come from gym leaders/champions/chairpersons which leaves only a handful of people you can get one from and they all are incredibly busy so it's likely people miss out. I always wonder, if Victor/Gloria hadn't been friends with Hop who would they have gotten an endorsement from and how? Not to mention the Galar league is on a set schedule with on and off-seasons. Although gameplay wise you are allowed to rechallenge the gyms as many times as you want, but as we've seen in the manga one loss can knock you out for good. You don't have the endless time to try and fail in Galar like you do in other regions. Not to mention bad behavior can get you kicked out which isn't the case in other regions (see Silver is said to be too harsh on his Pokemon yet got all 8 badges and was never in danger of losing his license). That and you have to challenge gyms in a certain order where there is (theoretically) more flexibility in other regions. The only hard rules being Norman won't face Brendan/May (and presumably other trainers like Wally who he knows are new) until they get 4 badges and Blue who won't

challenge you unless you have 7 Kanto badges. Alola and the Indigo League I think could be the second strictest but that depends on what is actually true about them. By that I mean does the Alola league require you to have completed the island challenge, something that is reserved for children, and given team skull's presence a high failure rate. This would lead to a rather narrow window of opportunity to become champion compared to say even Galar's as we see that even an old senior citizen was a gym challenger the year MC finally defeats Leon. For the Indigo league, the question would be: do you need all 16 gym badges from Kanto/Johto to challenge the elite 4 or do you just need 8 from one of the regions? Because if you need all 16 that's one hell of a hurdle especially considering one of those 16 is a former champion and apparently hasn't handed out that many badges (and lorewise the Kanto gym leaders as a whole are considered to be some of the strongest around next to Galar's). The other regions don't seem to have those potential requirements so I see them being less strict with the issue being, do you have the proper funds/support to go on a journey. One thing I've noticed is that the protags and their rivals for the most part all tend to come from at the very least middle-class families even though we know poverty does exist in the Pokemon world. Part of this is because Satoshi Tajiri's vision for the players to not have to worry about such things, but it begs the question of how likely is it for a trainer from poorer families to get to the league. Like outside of Pokemon centers which offer free healing, and the kind strangers on long routes who may offer healing/rest stops what are the other resources available to trainers. Because the trainers need food/clothing/supplies on the routes they are on for themselves not to mention their Pokemon. I'm sorry if this doesn't completely answer your question, I was trying to go after canon knowledge without going into my own personal headcanons (because this ask would be extremely long if I actually went into the worldbuilding for cactusverse's leagues).

[danwhobrowses]

A Personal Rant before Sword and Shield comes out

I’ve sat idly by for months, tried to weather a few negative responses but given that it’s now 6 days from release and I’m hearing that devs are getting literal death threats I’m going to put my foot down

If you’re already shitting on a game that hasn’t been released yet, you are all juvenile bitches, and I’m about to tell you why.

Before we begin, I’m not saying that you’re not allowed to dislike a game, that happens, but usually it happens after you play a game, not before.

You are viewing this game through a keyhole and judging the room and what you’re seeing is not worthy of this much hate. Let’s start with the big one Dexit: Not as Big as You Think Having No National Dex is of course not ideal, but it doesn’t ruin the game. Let’s Go has no National Dex, all it had was Alola forms and nobody whinged about it. Ruby and Sapphire didn’t have a National Dex until FRLG, and nobody whinged about it. Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Moon do not have a National Dex And Nobody Whinged About It Do you know why? Because it’s not actually a big deal. People who complain about it are bandwagoning because ‘Dexit’ is a meme, its name literally parodies an event in current Britain that many people don’t actually want to happen.  Now currently, the anger of Dexit is that Bulbasaur and Squirtle are not in it, which frankly is hilarious because the last wave of bitching was ‘Kanto mons are getting all the new stuff’. You wanna know how many main series versions Bulbasaur and Squirtle have not been in? Seven, only way to get them is trade and event. The other complaint is that there’s ‘only 400′ Pokémon. Remember those days where people were fine with 150? 400 is huge, in fact it’s 3 less than USUM and it’s not accounting for the Gigantamax forms Don’t let headlines fool you either, Sun and Moon had 302 Pokémon, it’s far from the ‘lowest dex number since 2003′. Do your own research with these things. Kalos’ regional dex was 151, BW2 was 300, BW 153, Sinnoh 210, RSE has 386 and GSC had 252 Don’t get me wrong, it smarts that some Pokémon isn’t there, but it’s not a dealbreaker, like let’s be honest here. For a good year and a half all your pokémon are gonna do is sit in an unused cartridge or a PC box, you’re literally whining about the fact that you can’t move your perfect IV Pokémon from one box to another. You could simply just let them stay in Let’s Go or USUM, you don’t have to use Bank or Home on continued subscription for that, so your complaints are only set on the foundation that you feel like you have to continually pay to not transfer your Pokémon, Finally, people act like these Pokémon are deleted forever, they’re not, this is for spacing to make sure this game doesn’t break down from the sheer mass of models and textures it has to maintain in a massive open world space, the local and online camping and battles. Just use the Pokémon that are there! There’s new Pokémon don’t you wanna try those? You can also look at FRLG or Emerald and consider that maybe more Pokémon will get patched in once the game proves to be stable. I don’t think you’ve noticed, but the Nintendo Switch isn’t as powerful as the other consoles out there, sometimes it runs like shit. Believe me on that one, Switch is still in a very buggy development phase. Let’s Go was kept small to test it’s capability and Sword and Shield can’t just fly in and give you all 1000 Pokémon just so one of the ones you want can be in there

You have to be much less obtuse with this, I mean this was a long time coming. You’re gonna have to live with the fact that not every Pokémon ever can be supported on one game alone. Disk, Download, Cartridge and Patch Sizes have limits in Compliance, you can’t just throw everything at it. Waah, the New Pokémon Don’t Look Good They do, you’re being petty. It happens every version, the people dislike the starter evolutions or just one in particular. Remember all the Oshawott hate? This all comes and goes because people have simply gone on the first instinct that ‘new and different is scary and should be shunned’ You’re that Simpsons meme when young Homer accuses Grandpa of not being ‘with it’ I won’t spoil to those who haven’t seen it, but I like the new starters, and some of the new Pokémon will need some growing but not every Pokémon looks good at first glance. If Mr Mime, Hypno or Gastly came out nowadays they’d be crapped on so much for lacking creativity or for looking weird. Look at Drampa as well, thing looks like Falkar from The Neverending Story, when I first saw it I thought it look weird but now I like it. You should offer these things time And actually fall back on past experience, you’re reacting like this isn’t the same thing that happens every version; the dex gets leaked, people whine about the evolutions, people get over it and accept that they overreacted. hIgH QuAlItY aNiMaTiOnS I’ve seen that video, 2 clips and you judge a whole game how classy of you? If you don’t see improvement you’re blind. You can’t shit on a game for keeping the battle animations, you can’t expect every Pokémon to move their own unique way to the exact position of the body part the opponent needs to get hit by, that’s just unrealistic. You’re also failing to equate to the new moves and all the new movesets. You have to ensure that each Pokémon is capable of calling this animation as well. The second clip in that video was Hop and Hau having the same rigging, and once again, that’s not abnormal. Rigging is not easy either, do it wrong and it sticks and deforms texture. There’s nothing wrong with Hop having one animation that matches Hau’s, you’ll probably find that many models actually have similar rigging as previous games. Because it’s not that big of a deal and it saves money, as an example look at Disney they copied hand-drawn motion and stuck a different character on them, Robin Hood’s Little John dances just like (animated, for those too young to know otherwise) Jungle Book’s Baloo The thing you’re also ignoring from that clip is the graphical improvement of Hop compared to Hau, Hau looks like a balloon with a smiley face but Hop’s face has depth and his mouth actually moves like a normal person, his clothes have far more contrast and complexity, but no just zero in on one fighting animation and one rigging that’ll surely be worth abusing a game that’s not even out... B-But Charizard I’ve already explained this before but Charizard is Leon’s main, it’s obviously going to have a Gigantamax, ergo it’s also going to be in the Dex. Does Charizard get a lot? Yes, but the reason is because Charizard is popular. One of the rarest cards is a Charizard Hologram Card, Charizard is one of the first version mascots, it is one of the most recognized Pokémon Ash has in the anime Reality of the matter is that like Pikachu, Charizard is a recognized Pokémon for all ages, it appeals to a demographic that’s not playing In Layman’s Terms: that part is not for you A reality you really need to face. Pokémon is a game for all ages, so elements of the game are not always going to be tailored to your age range. The gimmick of Dynamax and Gigantamax is for merch sales and young children because it’s got an audience there, you can’t expect the Biggest Entertainment Brand in the World to simply shut out a large fraction of its demographic just to appeal 100% to you And again, it’s not a big deal, so there’s a Charizard there, just save a Stone Edge and be done with it, if you hate Charizard so much this’ll be catharsis, but in actuality you’re complaining because it’s something to complain about Kanto are getting Everything That went down like a lead balloon didn’t it? Reminder that the first Gigantamax forms were Galar Pokémon, so you can’t really say that anymore. There are Galar forms from non-Gen I Pokémon too I assure you, but the reason Kanto gets a lot of them is because Kanto is the oldest. Let’s not pretend that other gens don’t get love either Or should I remind you of Mega Ampharos, Scizor, Heracross, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Blaziken, Gardevoir, Gallade, Mawile, Aggron, Medicham, Manectric, Banette, Absol, Garchomp, Lucario, Abomasnow, Steelix, Sceptile, Marshtomp, Sableye, Sharpedo, Camerupt, Altaria, Glalie, Salamence, Metagross, Latias, Latios, Rayquaza, Lopunny, Audino and Diancie? It’s true that the Johto starters could use something, but I don’t think they’re being purposefully ignored, perhaps the right design hasn’t come along. Rather it be done right than poorly wouldn’t you agree? The Devs Should’ve Done <Insert Thing Here> People who say this kinda stuff have no idea how a game is made. I have a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Computer Gaming and Animation Technology and I can tell you that none of the stuff you want them to do is easy. Even getting grass right is a complete hassle. You want small insights you should watch Corridor Crew react to Good and Bad VFX, they tell you about the mechanics of CGI a few times on those vids. This is what annoys me with the prior swipe at the Battle animations and rigging, even with 2 years this is a heavily massive workload and Game Freak have only recently expanded the team that work on Pokémon which makes communication much more widespread and difficult to manage, likewise they are working on other games too they are not just Pokémon, currently their next IP is why Toby Fox was able to do a bit of music for Pokémon, because he’s collaborating with them on another game. The work doesn’t stop, most of these people are overworked and still doing overtime, they bring out a good product and all it gets is ‘but it should have this’, and unless it’s a huge part of the game that’s needed to function then that’s really disrespectful Before you start critiquing on what the people making this game ‘should’ve done’ perhaps you should try to make a game yourself, because it is not easy even for pros, I call back to Toby Fox because creating Undertale took 32 Months to create, that’s 2 years and 8 months for those slow with math, it also took 3 years before it could be ported to Switch because the Engine couldn’t support the platform, Pokémon has less time to do that, greater graphical and animation quality to achieve and more characters to battle, attacks to animate and more songs to compose. Conclusion: You’re All Just Bitter I’ve already seen it happen recently but this group of people senselessly bashing something because of ridiculous demands, expectations or arguments based on a lack of understanding all combine into something I’m simply calling the ‘Bitterness Fandom’. It’s people hating for the sake of hating and trying to bring something down just because it’s been a popular force for so long, and it’s not just Pokémon that’s getting it It’s already been happening to Star Wars. The Last Jedi and Solo were great films but the Bitterness sank its fangs in and act like neither are as good as the original trilogy (like killing Snoke without knowing anything about him and Phasma before she could do anything is any different to killing Sidious and Boba Fett in Jedi or Maul in Phantom Menace and Grievous in Revenge of the Sith), a lack of awareness to reality and the desire to complain for the sake of complaining continues to infect Star Wars. We even have a thing called ‘Star Wars Fatigue’ Star Wars can’t release a film every year because of ‘Fatigue’ but Marvel can release 5 MCU films a year and nobody bats an eye. Those frustrations aside, I refuse to let the Bitterness sink in without me calling them out, because you are not Pokémon Fans. If you were you’d know that having no National Dex isn’t new, you’d know that the graphics have improved and leaks of the game happen every time, you’d know why Charizard is popular and that some features are not intended to be targeted at you Shock and Horror to the heavens above but games can’t do everything And if you’re that naive to think so then you’re clearly not doing your homework So let’s throw out an absolutely WILD suggestion shall we? Let’s decide our opinion on a game After playing it? Because shitting on something you don’t even have hands-on experience with it is a fragile pedestal to put yourself on. If we all think it’s bad then, so be it, but I sincerely doubt that is the case When my copy of Pokémon Sword gets delivered to my house I am going to enjoy it because I will not let petty and incorrect statements sway my feelings and I swear to Arceus if you think the Bitterness will bring down Pokémon that easily then you did not see the queue to the London Poké Center that had been amassing since midnight and was forced to stop taking more people when the doors opened What should matter is how you enjoy the game, play it before you judge it And honestly, don’t send death threats, why we need to tell you that is beyond me, the ones who made these games are people who have worked their asses off day in and day out to provide something you aren’t even going to play because one Pokémon isn’t in it, the irony is not lost on me when I say this but deep into the very bottom of my heart: Grow Up. If you don’t like the game, don’t play it, don’t bother people about it, we don’t need your shit here Enjoy the Game People

[harusha]

What are your top pokemon games??

Official or fangame? I’ll just list both. I will say Pokemon Reborn is my top-rated overall if we combine both lists (with HGSS and Collesseum/XD following as 2 and 3 respectively.)

On Official, it’s 

1. Heartgold/Soulsilver (My favorite region is Johto, and Ethan is my favorite Pokemon protagonist so…unsurprising. The games are still genuinely good though imo because of the massive amount of content and post-game and QoL stuff like following Pokemon, auto-run, etc.) I also love the nostalgic feeling of the region. Lance is also here, and I like him and his design a lot, not as much as Volkner though. Also Proton is here, and I love the dude so. Pedometer is included here.

2. Pokemon Colosseum/Pokemon XD; I include this together since they’re a duo set in terms of story. XD is the better one gameplay-wise because of the new additions of Shadow moves, more Pokemon choices, QoL changes like saving, etc. but Colosseum is the harder of the two games imo b/c of the sparsity of Pokemon–if you can play it on laptop, mod XD with Pokemon XG for massive QoL changes (Fairy Type, more shadow Pokemon, upped difficulty, etc.)

I like how this set tries new stuff and it honestly showcases how if you the Pokemon IP to a third-party, you end up with something that tries to be different and actually plays pretty well.

3. Pokemon BWBW2; included as a set because of joint story line. Honestly, I feel like BWBW2 are objectively the last great mainline series additions. Even if you didn’t care for the story, they at least tried with it and the rivals. You had the nice rival in Bianca and the “focused/ruder” rival in Cheren, and both encompassed the themes of the game (Truth with Bianca as she realizes her ineptness as a trainer and Ideals with Cheren who strives to overcome his boundaries and the player even if he never can). N is pretty awesome, and I think Ghetsis is a better Lusamine (sorry, idc for how Lusamine’s actions are brushed over and blamed on the space jellyfish). There’s a lot to enjoy in Unova imo.

Also massive post-game stuff like Join Avenue (which encourages one of the main tenets of Pokemon, interacting with others and trading; ex. “Magnemite Coil”), half the region opening up for Post-game (White Treehollow, Kyurem’s abode, etc.). The Legendaries also have home locations for the most part, and their items aren’t just given to you by random people. A lot of stuff to do that isn’t just breeding mindlessly for shinies (I mean I love doing that, but options ya know?) or online battle.

4. Pokemon Conquest; Fire Emblem (or more accurately, Nobunaga’s ambition) meets Pokemon. I like turn-based grid tactic games, and this one’s actually pretty fun. You’re encouraged to roam around and give people different Pokemon to see which ones they’re compatible with. Also another example of what can be done if Pokemon is given to a another developer.

5. Pokemon Explores of Sky (and to a lesser extent since it’s the base, Time/Darkness); you can swap this with Colloseum/XD, BWBW2 or Pokemon Conquest depending on if you prefer Pokemon’s style of play, tactics games, or dungeon crawlers. I like this one since the story’s actually pretty good, the difficulty’s nice, and especially the post-game dungeons and content.

6. Pokemon Platinum and Diamond+Pearl to a lesser extent– the region that actually has a reasonably difficult Elite Four and champion. I love the additions they have like distortion world, the melancholic feel you get at times in the Chateau area and snowfields, and the post-game Battle Frontier. However, the games run so slow without Drayano’s mods. In terms of husbandos, Volkner’s pretty nice as well, and he’s pretty high-tier for me. Cynthia’s here as well, so I guess she counts since she’s a feature every time she shows up.

7. Pokemon FRLG-The definite version of Kanto for me. Sevii Islands, callbacks (callforwards?) to the Johto games with the Rocket Admins, decent difficulty and ability to sequence break somewhat, etc. It gives new experiences for those who’ve played the OG versions, but doesn’t change them drastically. The “you can’t evolve anything outside of the OG 151 before post-game” is stupid though. Lance is here as well, but his half Dragonite/Dragonair team annoys me b/c of how repetitive it is, but product of the time as well and the HGSS first battle had that as well but at least they’re all evolved.

8. Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team-I like this one since the story’s still good and incorporates the idea of a human being transported to a Pokemon world, but I just feel like Sky’s gameplay improvements and portraits for everyone trumps this one. I like Gengar a lot and his team. I also think the difficulty on this one (depending on starter and partner) is fairly good at times (The Moltres fight is actually pretty difficult if you don’t have Pikachu or a water type partner).

9. Pokemon Emerald and to a lesser extent Ruby/Sapphire–Battle Frontier, Scott and Smeargle cave (ie. post-game content), beautiful promotional artwork (including ORAS’s), fairly difficult battles at time if you aren’t prepared/going in blind with no excessive grinding (2nd May battle, Flannery, etc.), hidden secrets like Regis and Secret Bases. However, the latter half is so boring with the excessive surfing and lackluster variety. Steven’s here, and he’s a dreamboat even with the sprite graphics.

10. Pokemon Channel and Hey you, Pikachu!-Weird I know. This would be higher if I didn’t think this was a niche pick. It’s just really relaxing, and I want another one, especially if you can get more Pokemon to raise. It’s a lot more fun once you play it. I like exploring with Pikachu and it offers a look into the world of Pokemon as a non-trainer. I really want another one tbh.

11. Pokemon Rangers series (Ranked from favorite to lowest; Shadows of Almia–>OG–>Guardian Signs; all are good but that’s my preference) The gameplay is actually pretty fun, and I wish we got another one. They could use Joycons as a styler. Spencer, Sven, and Lunick are also pretty cute

12. Pokken Tournament- What battles should feel like in mainline if they injected millions of dollars into the mainline, so unrealistic expectation. I think Pokken is a decent fighting game. The moves are nice, and the music is good. This can go lower if you don’t care for fighting games.

13. Pokemon Battle Revolution and Stadium games-They’re mostly battle simulators with some mini-games. The animations are actually pretty lively and fun compared to SWSH’s. I would like to rank this higher, but there is no story mode sadly. It’s great if you want to see what Pokemon would look like in-scale.

14. Pokemon X/Y-I think these are actually pretty nice if only for the fact there isn’t excessive handholding; it’s there but it doesn’t force me to put down the game out of boredom. The outfits are genuinely pretty cute. However, the rivals are ridiculously terrible, difficulty is either too low or unbalanced if you use/turn off exp. share. Let’s put ORAS here as well b/c I think the lack of Battle Frontier and mediocre post-game, getting Lati@s early, etc. drops it down from Emerald. The PSS system is amazing though.

15. Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Pinball series-Yeah, I’ve played these. Trozei’s actually pretty cool as a match-3 game, and pinball is pinball. You also get slightly more lore into the Pokemon world with Lucy Fleetfoot. I like match-3 and pinball so very much a YMMV. Pop Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon here as well. Idk, they just lack the magic of the first two entries.

16. Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Dash, all the other spin-offs I didn’t talk about-they all offer something fun, but I just wish it was either updated for modern times and not released again (like with Snap) or a bit more (in the case of Detective Pikachu and Pokepark series). Pop Puzzle League games here as well. I like them, but they aren’t much besides Tetris games. Same goes for the Pokemon Trading Card games; they’re nice, but not super great imo.

???. Pokemon Box/Ranch/all the other storage games and stuff like Dream Radar-Idk what you’d want me to say since they’re storage space or gimmick games to catch HA Pokemon. You do get Extremespeed Zigzagoon which I love since the little buggers are very adorable.

Bottom Tier. Pokemon SM and USUM. I hate these games. They’re cash grabs (more so than usual) with being $40 a piece and the updated versions being barely changed (and actually feeling like what should have been released first). Incredibly handholding, areas feel half-baked, lacks areas to explore for the most part, Lillie is kinda annoying for me tbh (which hurts because you’re supposed to feel for her and the game’s story hinges on that), and the player is an actual detriment to what they’re trying to achieve story-wise. A big shame b/c Alola is a pretty region and Team Skull is great in concept, but execution is awful. Stated as someone who has bought all 4 versions to keep, and 2 extras for gifting.

Absolute Bottom Tier- Pokemon Masters, incredibly terrible mobage game coming from someone who plays FGO, FEH, etc. lack of meaningful content, grinding but meaningless b/c of said lack of content (ex. FGO gates you with mats but it makes you feel like you’re growing with your servants and offers a story and events to compensate; basically, a sense of achievement). CO-OP is pretty bad when you can just hop over to GBF or something if you want guilds and group content. I’m still gonna wait for Ethan and Volkner to appear though.

Unrated-OG RBGY and OG GSC (the remakes are superior outside of nostalgia factor imo so I think it’d be unfair for them to take a spot), LGPE (didn’t buy them b/c pricing but the colors are vibrant and I love that), SWSH (didn’t buy them because I have opinions on the cuts and stuff and price point doesn’t look appealing for what’s offered), Pokemon Mini (these were included with Pokemon Channel), Magikarp Jump+Duel (Duel was a cash grab and Magikarp Jump is cute but no real opinion on it), Pokemon Go (weird spot where I like it, but I don’t live in an area with safe walking areas so very much area-dependent), Arcade games (I don’t live in Japan for that), Perdue Farm games (they’re flash games made to promote so…), Pokemon Rumble (enjoyable but not memorable for me imo) etc.

Fangames-

1. Pokemon Reborn-150+ hours of content, visible themes that permeate the story and characters, beautiful spritework for some of the areas, intuitive usage of TMs/HMs and some logic (ex. Field Effects that emulate anime battling in turn-based rpg such as Corrosive Field; using Rock Smash to break the glass in some areas to solve puzzles, etc.), actual difficulty that hinges on how much you understand Pokemon (ex. IVs, stats, EVs, etc.) that’s fair but still difficult, puzzles and rewards for exploring and coming back to areas, etc. Fantastic game that I wish Gamefreak had attempted to emulate (perhaps not the darker themes but the ambition basically). Has some kinks with the revolving door of characters and such but still fantastic. Also offers custom shiny sprites, custom egg sprites, and online play like Wonder Trade and battling.

2. Pokemon Rocket Edition-Not done but I think this is a fantastic hack so far story-wise and how it implements its mechanics. You’re a Rocket Grunt, but you aren’t OP. It deals with the politics behind Kanto and Team Rocket. Still being worked on.

3. Pokemon Viridian Version-Another “play as a Rocket” game. Funny yet still can be serious; it takes the tone of the anime and understands when to be serious and when to not be. It feels like it would fit into the canon tone-wise, and deconstructs the “it’s cool to be a Rocket!” thing.

4. Pokemon Gaia-Excellent and a huge callback to classic Pokemon in story. It’s an OG region and offers a lot to do.

5. Drayano hacks- QoL updates but his work actually adds a lot to the games+new events.

Anyways, that’s my list. There’s a lot of Pokemon content, but this is how I feel for the most part.

[crystalelemental]

Let’s start with something my writer friends might yell at me for: In any narrative that’s not entirely visual, there’s going to be exposition.  This happens, and I’m pretty sure it’s unavoidable.  Someone, at some point, is going to just explain something.  “Show, don’t tell” exists to encourage people to actually demonstrate what they’re talking about, rather than just wall of text at people at every turn.  In essence, it’s insisting that you need to show the important parts to make a believable story with any emotional impact.

When we’re talking villain redemption, the critical component of a good redemption arc is the turning point.  A turning point is used either to showcase the exact moment a villain’s motives and goals are called into question by the villain themselves, and serves as the tipping point for them to change their actions, or to emphasize how irredeemable a villain is by having them reject the introspection and continue to act as they have.  The immediate example of this that comes to mind is Kira from JoJo part 4.  Had he kept his head down, he could’ve lived the rest of his life comfortable and quietly with that family.  Instead, he has too go all murderer again, and we’re shown that he’s beyond help.  These turning point moments guide the rest of their development, and is the critical component that needs to be shown to make actions beyond that point believable and meaningful.

Again, examples are better, so let’s take a scenario in which ORAS had gone the alternate story route in the same way as USUM.  In RSE, Maxie and Archie have their villain moments as you chase them around the region, watching them cause problems.  At the end, they use the orbs to awaken the legends, and stare in horror as the sun/rains intensify.  They comment aloud that this isn’t the world they wished for, and that everything is all wrong.  In that moment, we see the introspection and the realization that they done goofed, and they begin to work toward stopping the problem before vanishing, only showing up to return the orb to its proper place.

Then, in ORAS, the same events happen, up until the time of awakening.  When the beast awakens, Maxie/Archie disappear with them.  They’re completely gone, you witness the devastation alone, and you go to battle the beast alone, maybe with Steve/Wallace’s help.  When you return from the cavern, Archie and Maxie are just there, and Steven comes up to you and says “Hey, so I talked it out with them and they decided the ecosystem is probably okay as it is!  They’re good now!”  And the rest of the game, there are hidden scenes they have placed around where they might make statements like “I still wish to find a way to create more habitable land for people, but maybe the oceans are necessary too” or something along the lines of acknowledging the other side.  Which one hits harder?  The first, obviously.  It shows the impact their actions had, the moment they looked within themselves and found their way, and made action to change.  We don’t really see them being good at any point, but if we were told in a game that took place years after this that they were around and good people, we’d buy it.  Because we saw the moment they changed as people.  The second just has them uttering some vacuous nonsense about the other side having a point without really doing anything.

Or, supposed FRLG and HGSS took a different path.  In RBY, Giovanni is fought several times, and at the end he disbands Team Rocket in shame.  In GSC, you get the follow-up on Team Rocket disbanding, and maybe a scene of Giovanni contemplating his history before leaving for good.  Then, in FRLG, you fight Giovanni only as the Gym Leader.  You see him in the villain roles, but he never battles, always passing it off to others.  You beat him, and you get something like “Not bad, kid.”  And that’s it.  You beat the rest of the game, and it ends there.  Then in HGSS, Team Rocket is still disbanded, and you see Giovanni a lot after you beat the admins again, and he’s talking about how “Maybe the caring and love for Pokemon is what makes a trainer strong” but otherwise does nothing.  Again, he’s not evil now, based solely on “he’s not doing anything evil, and he’s commenting on understanding the problem.”  But there’s no justification.  Again, without the moment of introspection on the part of the villain, subsequent actions that show they’re good feel like they came out of nowhere, and there’s no context for the alteration.

That’s what happened this gen.  In SM, Lusamine unleashes the Ultra Beasts on the world to escape to her own paradise with Nihilego.  We see her fuse with this being that she captured, and the beast she is now part of rejects her, nearly kills her, and it's her child that comes to her rescue at the last second.  We see the experiences she had as a villain, and the final line she gets in the game is acknowledging that Lillie is "becoming beautiful."  Similarly, Guzma we see within the world of Nihilego, now freaked out and defeated.  He encountered something that he couldn't touch, much less beat down, and the creature was terrifying to him.  The core of his being as the toughest dude alive is broken down, and we see his reaction to the world while within it.  Because we see these things, we have justification for them to change.  Do they?   Not openly. Lusamine is apparently still having a rough time of it, and Guzma still hasn't internalized what Hala was trying to teach him, but in giving you his "lucky charm," he takes that first step.  We don't see what lies beyond that, but we see the first moments of reform, and the transition is believable because we've gotten justification in the scenes that are shown to us.  Had Lusamine come back late in SM post-game, and talked about how she’s considered changing, I’d buy it.  Had Guzma been shown, later on, to have come to accept his losses and is working toward improvement, I’d buy it.  I have been shown their tipping point, I have had the process shown to me, and we’re making progress.  That is believable and significant to me.

In USUM, they handle it very differently. Let's start Lusamine.  Lusamine's scenes are kept virtually the same, up until the very end of the Aether Paradise Invasion.  They keep the Nihilego thing (and then do nothing with it, oddly enough; what was the point of that now?), and more significantly, they keep her snapping at Lillie that she has no children.  Then, in the immediate scene after this, Lusamine is talking about how they're good kids and she's doing this to protect everything.  Which...okay, that's some strong whiplash.  From "You're both dead to me" to "You're good kids" in the span of under 3 minutes of gameplay.  Incredible.  Honestly I feel like that level of backpedaling on a character is enough to justify my distaste.

The next time you see her, she's being thrown back to your world by Necrozma and urges you to run.  You do not do this, and instead go to fight Necrozma. When you return, Lillie tells you she talked it out with her mom, and they're on good terms now.  Guzma gets the same problem.  They come back from their Necrozma trip, which we don't see, and he just states he gets what's going on and bam, reformed.  There's no struggle, no sense of reality to it. Essentially, there’s no follow-up.  The turning point is critical to show, but it’s also pretty important to show an act of good.  Maxie and Archie are a good example.  They return the orb.  It’s small, but it’s an act showing their change.  Imagine if they’d kept that and had the fossilized legend in their basement, and you all have a good laugh about something with another character while they held the orb and the legend was right behind them.  That’s what happened with Lusamine and the frozen Pokemon.  Her “thinking about letting them go” is not action; the problem still persists, and nothing she does at any point shows her to be any different.  She tells you she’s different.  She tells you she might let things go, or that she’s not going to control Lillie and Gladion’s life.  But there’s no presented action behind it.  SM may not have shown us the end of that process, but it leads us through the first steps in a way that's far more believable than what USUM presents.  USUM wants us to believe that they're beaten up, and suddenly now they're good.  For reasons!  If SM issue is "I don't see her change at the end," then USUM's problem is "I don't buy that she's actually changed."

To cap this off: "show, don't tell," as a concept, exists to state that the important details of your story need to be explicitly shown, rather than implicitly stated.  If we're told a major event happened but don't see it, it feels like we're cheated.  If a major change in a character occurred but we don't see it, it doesn't feel believable.  The critical aspect of a redemption arc isn't that they get to be good. That's the outcome at the end of the road.  The critical component is seeing the turning point.  When we see the turning point, it's easy to accept that a redemption has occurred or will occur, (ie, "when did you start becoming beautiful?").  In fact, stories sometimes use the demonstration of this turning point, followed by the villain not accepting it, in order to show how irredeemable someone is.  It's important to have that moment to establish the impact of a change, or the impact of a refusal to change.  Without being shown a turning point, a villain's redemption is now implicit.  We're left to just believe that the turning point occurred and that it was justifiable (ie, "We talked it out and it's fine now!").  One presents a situation in which, regardless of the villain's choice, that choice has meaning.  The other presents a situation in which no choice was made, things just happened.  I don't think I need to explain which one carries the emotional impact.

As a few miscellaneous points for the responses on the other posts, because I can’t not:

I commented that Lusamine is one of the most villainous villains not based on global impact, but on emotional impact.  It’s the same deal as the old Voldemort/Umbridge dichotomy.  Voldemort’s bad and a problem for everyone, but Umbridge is the evil you know all too well, so its portrayal is familiar and powerful.  Lusamine hits home in a way that most world-ending villains don’t, so I count her as one of the best villains in the series in that regard.

My problem with Rainbow Rocket isn’t that Giovanni leads, it’s that Giovanni is the only one with a point being there.  The others have no story influence.  Archie and Maxie literally state that Giovanni is just letting them stay there, and Cyrus just wants to go home.  Only Ghetsis has an alternate plan, but his is just jumping on Giovanni’s plan and hoping he can control Giovanni.  Everything hinges on Giovanni.  If you want a celebration of all villain teams, you could’ve easily made a post-game where Looker and Anabel team up with you to take down the Rainbow versions of each organization, which all have their own motives and stories.  Instead, they’re pushed into Giovanni’s without purpose and they all seriously feel neglected.

Necrozma is a problem for the same Voldemort/Umbridge reason above.  Necrozma has a more global impact, but no emotional impact.  It’s just a force of nature that’s a threat in its current state that you have to stop.  Going from a villain that is entirely emotional impact to something that’s just a nebulous enemy with no bearing on the people present feels like a downgrade.

Lusamine is 100% a damsel in distress in the post-game.  She’s unconscious, Giovanni’s trying to turn her into a mindless puppet, and your entire involvement is going in to save her.  She is, by literal definition, a damsel in distress.  And for your first female villain in the series, that’s...really bad.  Especially following SM.

However, I will concede that I hadn’t considered Guzma wanting to fight and beat down UBs as his own reward for tagging along with Lusamine.  So that was an interesting point to read.  I also can’t argue that many of their traits are different across games, but the issue isn’t the traits, it’s utilization of those characters that causes problems for me.

I will also concede that not getting to fight Mother Beast is the greatest disappointment of the century.  I was hoping they’d fix that by having Lusamine fuse with Nihilego to fist-fight Necrozma, but alas, they did not do that.

[kibibarel]

Fav themes (not lusamine because we all Know that you'll pick her) from each gen?

i’m not sure if you meant like…character theme, Pokemon battle theme, or just “theme” in general, so i’m just putting down my favorite songs in general

Gen 1: Final Battle! Rival (FRLG) y’all know i’m kind of meh about Gen 1 in general, but this song goes SO HARD it’s ridiculous

Gen 2: Game Corner/Lucky Channel (GSC); Battle! Ho-Oh (HGSS)…somehow the HGSS version of the Game Corner music was a downgrade imo, but i have such strong memories of sitting my character’s ass down in the Game Corner for hours just to listen to the music when i was a kid

Gen 3: honestly..the entire RSE soundtrack is iconic and extremely nostalgia-packed, but Heavy Rainfall stands out for me..also Battle! Rival; Battle! Zinnia (ORAS)…honestly Zinnia’s battle theme is one of my favorite Pokemon songs of all time

Gen 4: …another extremely nostalgia-packed soundtrack……..this is too hard………probably Champion Cynthia

Gen 5: ENDING -To Each Future-…….strangely makes me more emotional than N’s Farewell…what an ending

Gen 6: probably Battle! Xerneas/Yveltal…..but i also really like the Shalour City and Anistar City themes

Gen 7: Lusamine’s Theme……..but you said no Lusamine so uhhhh Aether House and Mother and Daughter. Lillie’s themes are also very good

[mala-sadas]

whats your take on pokespe´s timeline?

Thank you for asking this, it always surprises me when people don’t agree on the chronological order of all the arcs, let alone the time between them. I’ve actually put a decent amount of work into constructing my timeline and all of the concrete time gaps are supported by canon evidence.

Updated as of 10/31/2021. This timeline is consistent with the one that was given in PokéSPedia.

RGB

+2 years

Yellow

+1 year

GSC

+2 years

RS

+6 months

FRLG

+3 months

Emerald

+3 years

HGSS

+a month or two

ORAS

+3 years

DP

+two weeks

Platinum

+3 years

BW

+2 years

B2W2

concurrent with

XY

+5 months (2 months from the epilogue)

SM

While it’s currently impossible to tell exactly when the SWSH arc takes place, the scant references to previous arcs tell us that it at least occurs after XY.

Now, as for why I think this timeline is accurate, allow me to present my evidence. I’ve limited it to mentions of the passage of time rather than ages for the sake of simplicity and clarity.

Under the cut, because there are a lot of images.

First off, it’s explicitly stated at the beginning of the Yellow arc that it takes place 2 years after the battle at Silph Co., the climax of the RGB arc:

Then, in the first chapter of GSC, Elm mentions a big battle in Kanto a year prior - the climax of the Yellow chapter:

RS, unfortunately, doesn’t state explicitly when it takes place relative to its preceeding chapter. However, when Ruby and Sapphire were playing together as kids, 5 years prior to the chapter, Ruby said:

This is obviously referring to Red, who won the League at the end of RGB. So, RS has to occur at least 5 years after RGB. A little math tells us that this would be at least 2 years after GSC.

FRLG is stated to occur 6 months after the incident with Kyogre and Groudon in Hoenn:

Since the Kyogre and Groudon incident happened in September, FRLG takes place sometime in March. 

Emerald takes place a few months later, during the first week of July:

(Fun fact: this timeframe is a reference to Tanabata, the Japanese Star Festival, which is likely the inspiration for Jirachi’s ability to grant wishes.)

ORAS confirms that this is the year after RS:

When Carr of the Three Beasts first appears in HGSS, his opening monologue contains this line:

Since Carr made his debut as one of Giovanni’s admins in FRLG, it’s safe to assume that this three years metric is talking about the time between FRLG and HGSS. If you want further proof, the ages line up, too:

On the left, Crys in GSC. On the right, Silver in FRLG. Supplemental age data confirms they’re both 16 in HGSS. Thus, a five-year gap between GSC and HGSS and a three-year gap between FRLG and HGSS.

ORAS is pretty clear about when it takes place; I believe the first specific time mentioned in the chapter is when Ruby’s accident with Salamence took place:

That was five years before RS, meaning ORAS is four years after that. So, ORAS and HGSS take place in the same year. As for which comes first…

Archie and Maxie’s appearance in ORAS confirms that they left the Distortion World when Giratina re-entered it at the end of HGSS. Presumably it took them some time to master Mega Evolution and re-locate the orbs; thus, ORAS takes place maybe a month or two after HGSS.

Now, explaining the time gap between ORAS and DP gets complicated. ORAS and HGSS both make it abundantly clear that they take place before DP. In ORAS, Palmer has returned from Johto (where he was seen at the end of HGSS) and is living with a younger Pearl and Diamond:

It’s not really clear just how young they are at this point. It has to be a decent amount of time before DP because in DP, Pearl says that he hasn’t seen his dad in some time, and Proteam Omega has had time to go from a proposal to a full-fledged cartoon that’s popular enough to have a substantial amount of merchandise produced. But to come up with a more concrete estimate, we’ll have to look at the special Mt. Silver Training Chapter that was published back in 2011.

At the end of GSC, Red and Gold go off to train at Mt. Silver, during which the events of the Mt. Silver Training Chapter take place. At the beginning of this little two-round story, it’s stated that Red and Gold have been training there for three days:

A few days later - so, about a week after GSC - they return to Red’s house, where you can see two familiar faces on Red’s TV spouting some familiar lines:

These comedians, Abbot Clef and Costello Jiggly, performed this routine for Diamond and Pearl when they were four years old, which inspired them to become comedians. Since Diamond and Pearl are twelve years old in DP, and we can assume that this filmed performance aired around the same time that Diamond and Pearl saw them live, that would mean that this training session -and therefore GSC - takes place eight years before the events of DP. As I previously mentioned, the gap from GSC to HGSS is five years, meaning that the gap from HGSS/ORAS to DP is around three years.

Platinum is mercifully a lot simpler - two weeks after DP ends.

Platinum also gives us a hint as to where Black and White fit in the timeline, since it ends with Looker being sent off to Unova:

We learn during a flashback in B2W2 that Team Plasma and the Seven Sages started acting in Unova three years prior to BW (when N becomes the king of Team Plasma):

It’s safe to assume that Platinum occurs around the time that the Sages first become active, since Lady Caitlin grows up quite a lot between the two arcs. On the left, Caitlin in the Platinum arc; on the right, Caitlin in BW:

So, BW is three years after Platinum. And, like the games, B2W2 takes place two years after BW:

Specifically, the main events take place during September-October of that year:

Then, XY…ooh, boy, XY. For a long time we didn’t have any concrete place for XY in the timeline – just some cameos and Easter eggs indicating it takes place a few years after DP, which were easy for the casual reader to miss. But the epilogue of B2W2 finally gave us enough information to place XY on the timeline. Unfortunately, it requires a bit of working backwards and logical reasoning, so we’ll put a pin in that for now and skip to the XY-SM gap.

In a flashback in the final chapter of XY, Professor Sycamore sends Sina and Dexio to Alola to investigate the Zygarde Cells spotted there.

In SM, when Sina and Dexio first appear, they state that they’ve been in Alola for five months:

Sina and Dexio were sent to Alola immediately following the final battle, not during the epilogue, which takes place three months later. Thus, SM takes place 5 months after the final battle of XY, but only two months after XY’s epilogue. This is an important distinction to make, because we know the timing of XY’s epilogue:

In the Japanese schooling system, the third term starts in January. Despite the region being based on a non-Japanese country, the schedule of the Aspertia Trainers’ School follows the Japanese schooling system, so it’s safe to assume that the Sky Trainer Academy follows this same schedule. Thus, the main events of XY take place in October, with the epilogue taking place the following January and SM beginning that March.

Now, keeping that in mind, let’s go back to B2W2’s epilogue. At the end of the main story, we’re treated to this conversation between the head of Interpol and the Magician:

The very end of the epilogue shows the Magician and Colress leaving for Alola, so it must be the following March. In this scene (left), Colress is wearing the same outfit he wears in the Alola games – and the SM arc as well (right):

While it is possible that Colress goes to Alola in the March after B2W2 and SM begins in March of a later year, it seems unlikely that it would take him so long to develop Beast Balls for the Aether Foundation. We already know that he spends at least six months on the project, as when Anabel makes her first appearance in SM, she implies that part of her and Looker’s mission in Alola is to find Colress:

And Colress delivers the Beast Balls to Lusamine after the six-month timeskip in the middle of the arc. So, that seems like more than enough time for him to develop the Beast Balls – and it would explain why the Aether Foundation didn’t have any Beast Balls earlier in the arc.

(Why Anabel talks about needing to capture Colress when he was literally escorted to Alola by an Interpol agent is unclear, but it wouldn’t be the first time that the Interpol higher-ups have deliberately withheld information from their agents. Additionally, this chapter was published a good two years before B2W2 was finished, so from a meta perspective, Kusaka might not have decided yet exactly how B2W2 was going to end and the lines will be changed for the full volume release.)

So, in short, it’s possible that XY and SM could take place a year or more after B2W2, but the simplest solution is that XY begins the same October in which B2W2 is taking place, and SM begins the March following both.

Lastly, let’s talk about the placement of SWSH in the timeline. Of the small handful of allusions to the events of other arcs in SWSH so far, the one that references the latest arc timeline-wise is this one:

Given that Lysandre’s whole thing is that he’s a philanthropist who lost faith in humanity and tried to eliminate everyone except his “chosen ones”, it’s a safe bet that Piers is alluding to him and the events of XY here. So, SWSH takes place after the main events of XY have concluded.

Additionally, Raihan has a couple of lines where alludes to the actions of the evil teams of previous arcs. While it’s true that he’s a history buff and could have read about these incidents happening hundreds of years in the past, these lines sound to me like “ambitious people awakening Pokémon that have the power to destroy the world” is a contemporary issue, not a historical one. That is to say, I don’t think SWSH takes place hundreds of years after the other arcs or anything like that.

So there you have it…my take on the Pokéspe timeline, mostly factual with a tiny smidge of assumption. I really hope this clears things up for people.

[banished-away]

favourite character tag !

tagged by @vault-emblem​!

Rules: List ten of your favourite characters in ten different fandoms and then tag ten other victims to do the same!

(i dont even know if i have 10 fandoms rn)

1- stefan (fire emblem 9/10)

this one was kinda obvious. i dont know how to explain my love for him, but he ties a lot into the lore, fits the ‘strange friendly hermit’ type and the cool teacher kind, plus being a very good unit and also mysterious. hes not the kind of character you find often!

2- silver (pokemon gsc/hgss)

i just love him. he was one of my first videogame crushes, his character arc has yet to be topped in any pokemon game (or game in general), hes a jerk rival done right, and frlg and hgss added so much more dept to him, and acts as a bridge between the johto and kanto games. his arc shows that, no matter how low yoiuve fallen, how evil you are, you can change for the better.

3- zuko (atla)

again, hello childhood crush. hes very similar to silver. his arc made me cry as a child and still makes me emotional now. his character growth should be used as a model for all redeemed villain characters

(also still salty he didnt end up with katara)

4- princess leia organa (star wars)

i got into star wars very late, just before tfa came out. from what everyone told me, leia was just the princess type, so i didnt have high hopes for her.

i was never happier to be proven wrong.

leia is who every girl should strive to be. shes strong, charismatic, and yet kind, with her snarky personality spicing everything up. she is a great role model, character and icon. i cant exactly put into words my love for her, but its a lot.

5- tonbokiri (touken ranbu)

this might be inaccurate bc i only watched katsugeki sorry im a fake im just a sucker for gentle giants types. hes easily the strongest of the second unit and yet is the quietest, gentlest one. his fight with the ootachi made me emotional, and seeing him overcome it in the last episode almost made me cry. i love how he acts as kind of a mediator in the group. i cant wait to see more of him as i get deeper into tkrb hell!

6- geralt of rivia ( the witcher books)

there is another archetype of character arc i love, and its “lone wolf suddenly grows to care for a small child”. and geralt is the best example of it. his particular view of the world, the contrast between how he acts and appears versus his nice personality, and how he grows to care for ciri and acts as her father figure makes him a very multi-faceted, interesting protagonist and character.

7- heartstone (magnus chase and the gods of asgard)

i just care for him so much. his character arc about accepting himself is lovely, hes an endearing character and you can see he cares deeply for magnus and co. in a book full of great characters, hes easily my fav

(help im running out of people ill just do more fe games)

8- azel (fire emblem 4)

i can relate to azel a lot. we are both always overshadowed by people we care for, are weak mentally and phisically, and didnt grow up in the best of enviroments. yet his resolve to go on is inspiring, and his soft and gentle personality is very close to mine. despite everything he remained strong, and according to kaga’s notes, despite all that happened between him and arvis he still loved his brother so much, and still believed in him being good.

9- mareeta (fire emblem 5)

talking about characters who go through a lot! mareeta is one of my favorite characters ever. the premise of her character is a pretty epic one: the daughter of a fallen prince with special blood which gives them mastery of teh sword, who was abducted bt slave traders and then saved by a mysterious amnesiac woman (herself a fallen princess), raised in a small village with the protagonist (ANOTHER fallen prince), then taken away again and forced to fight her mother, saved in secret by her father, and now out to save her mom. and yet she is just a normal girl, who just wants to be with the woman who took care of her for so many years. even her desire to get stronger is born out of guilt over having eyvel captured. shes just a normal teen girl: she fails, cries, gets angry, suffers a lot (this is jugdral after all), and yet she never gives up. she keeps going and going, despite all she goes through. and in the end she has her happy ending: she returns to fiana with her mother, reunites with her father, becomes a famous swordmaster. her story is one of the most interesting in jugdral, its hard to not get attached to her.

10- giratina (pokemon dppt)

hey, did you know that the-banished-one is a subtle reference to them? no? good bc if you did then it would be embarassing

but now ive embarassed myself on here enough to revela it

i just. fcking love giratina. they have great lore, a great role, great stats, great type combination, great design, great E V E R Y T H I N G. plus the concept of a god of balance and antimatter is??? just fucking cool????? plus i love them not being good or evil. theyre just there, doing their antimatter balance thing. not doing anuthing bad? good, giratina is happy. youre fucking up with the space-time continuum? too bad, youre gonna get sucked into a black hole into a world where gravity isnt a thing and everything is different from our reality

(also just how cool is the distortion world??? a lot, thats how much)

also i loved the giratina movie. i loved taht trilogy in general, but the giratina movie is extra good. smol shaymin becoming friends with a giant eldritch abomination??? sign me tf up!!!!

i tag @this-is-the-light-of-zwei, @jugdraldefender, @sanguine-daydreams, @02nz, @spooky-soleil and just anyone who wants to do this

[ruby3818]

Wait, how much new content do they usually add into numbered releases? I've only recently caught up so I have no idea.. Does that mean they might expand on the plot too?

It depends on the arc. Every arc goes through an editing process when it gets collected from magazine/online release to numbered release in the proper full volumes (not the mini volumes which are just the magazine/online run) where it will have chapters added and other tweaks and additions to the plot to flesh it out.

Generally if it’s a main arc such as BW and GSC, it will have the last chapter or two extended and then another chapter or so added after that. It will then have a few pages added here and there to flesh out the story.

Examples are: GSC ending with Gold and Pibu exiting the shrine (happily, not presumed dead/missing in time) and…that’s it, the end. So all that bit with the dexholders interacting was added. BW ended rather abrubtly in it’s magazine run with N just thanking Black (White wasn’t even there, she just kinda… appears in the last panel) after the battle with Ghetsis and then leaving. BW had a lot added in the numbered release (there is an entire list that I wrote somewhere on this blog) as the original ending was pretty rushed, but hey, at least it was happy.

For sequel and remake arcs such as the Emerald chapter and HGSS they get much more chapters added. I don’t really know if they have much added in between chapters due to lacking any examples but if Kusaka and Yamamoto deem it nessesary during the editing process then I’d presume there would be additions.

Examples of changes in sequel/remake arcs are: HGSS ended with Arceus having it’s plates returned, which seemed like a good thing in the magazine run but in the numbered release it’s the start of the final battle with Arceus and the creation trio from Sinnoh. The past villians Giovanni, Lance and Pryce also make their return. HGSS had 5 whole chapters added to the end. The Emerald arc just ended with the other dexholders being wished back. 3 chapters were added to the end containing the final battle with Guile and the fake Kyorge.

I see XY’s numbered release having the same sort of additions as BW with the final battle being extended, some pages added here and there to flesh out the plot and a full epilogue added to the end. There will probably be more references to SM added too. We know for sure that the chapters from the second magazine will also be added in the final volumes.

ORAS will most likely have a similar editing process to HGSS with 3-5 chapters added at the end and a full epilogue as well. I believe these added chapters will probably revolve around the FRLG gang side of the plot (Giovanni, Red, Blue) since the Ruby and Sapphire side of things was resolved in the online run. Also in a true Pokespe fashion Deoxys probably isn’t dead and will reappear on Earth and Kyorge and Groudon will probably be in the final battle (these are just my theories though).

Unfortunately in order to get to the full volumes for XY and ORAS, BW2 must finish it’s online run first and then itself be collected into numbered volumes. Then XY gets collected and then ORAS. So it may be up to a two year wait before we get to ORAS’s ending…

[hideandseaking]

What do you think are the easiest and hardest Pokemon generations to nuzlocke?

From easiest to hardest, in my personal experience:

Gen 6Gen 2Gen 1Gen 7Gen 3Gen 5Gen 4

Now I’ve put 7 in the middle because I haven’t fully done a SM Nuzlocke yet, but I am in the beginning of a wondertradelocke for Sun so ask me in June for a new list at that point ahaha

I’ll put some reasoning for each choice in a read more if you’re interested on the placements and why I put them where (:

Gen 6 (XY and ORAS):

Definitely the easiest in my personal opinion. I’ve done 3 different XY lockes (Wondertradelocke, Alphabet Wonderlocke, and a Tradelocke) and I’ve procured the least amount of deaths from the Wondertradelocke. I believe only 3 Pokemon died. The Alphabet Wonderlocke was harder because I was forced to use alphabetical order, which forces a lot more out of you. But by the time I went to the E4 with a team of 6, I have two level 100 pokemon from grinding up potential new teammates. It’s cute when Diantha mega evolves her Gardevior and you one-shot it with your Armaldo’s X-Scissor. The Tradelocke with Dan was the hardest of the 3 but that’s partially because he’s a jerk who gives me underleveled pokemon constantly fdasjfkld The EXP share is very enabling during it, so to make it harder I would suggest turning it off right at the beginning.

As for ORAS, I’m currently at the E4 with Dan in a Tradelocke of that. I’ve only lost like... 6 Pokemon, I think? I don’t have my 3DS on my atm. But even with the EXP share turned off starting after the 5th gym, it’s been painfully easy. Definitely a good game to start with if you’ve never Nuzlocked before, but for a seasoned veteran this isn’t fun to play as a nuzlocke

Gen 2 (GSC):

I’ve part-way Nuzlocked Crystal up to Chuck, and I’m almost complete with a Vietnamese Crystal Nuzlocke (almost ready for the E4 actually), and the death counts are consistently low in these games. I’ve only lost once in a Viet. Cry. Nuzlocke to Falkner due to really bad luck but other than that I’ve always prevailed. I’d say they’re the easiest if the EXP share wasn’t how it is in Gen 6. I always lose a Geodude to Whitney and then have a barren land of deaths until around Blackthorn. If everything goes smoothly in the Viet. Crys. Nuzlocke, then I’ll come out with 3 deaths?? I’ve also done a 3-way GSC Nuzlocke Stream where I was on Gold, and we made it to Jasmine without any trouble at all really. None of us had more than 2 deaths. They’re very easy games the Nuzlocke. Another good beginner set for anyone.

Gen 1 (RBY):

If you can’t tell already, I like to play hacks and ROMs instead of the real games, and alternate versions of Nuzlocking instead of traditional. My experience with RBY has been a Crazy Randomizer Version of Red and a partial tradelocke turned Nuzlocke with Blue. With the Crazy Randomizer, it took me 28 tries to not die before Brock, but after the 28thh reset it was smooth sailing and I made it to the E4 before my laptop threw away the file. I had a Moltres named Lucifer and everything RIP. But that isn’t to say that these games weren’t hard. There are a lot of deaths peppered in these games, as they’re unfair and the coding came from another dimension. When I was tradelocking with my brother, he died twice to which we had to restart. In both games I’ve been reduced to a party of 2 and nothing more. They’re a good standard of tough but not unholy unfair. A little boring to play at the beginning if you’ve seen it before, but honestly still fun.

Gen 7 (SM):

Now, like I’ve said, I’m only doing a Sun Wondertradelocke atm (though I have bidders for a Tradelocke... and a 4-way Tradelocke....) and thus it’s going in the middle. I’ve only gotten up to Hala? I’ve lost a few Pokemon already, and I know these games are going to be a little more tough than XY at least. ...If you turn off the Exp share. Idk yet tho. Nothing is too certain here until I complete that tradelocke. Like I said, come back to me in June when I’ve probably gotten a lot farther and can gauge the games more then.

Gen 3 (RSE and FRLG):

I’ve played these games so much just kill me. Ruby is my Nuzlocke for my comic, and I’ve made it clear before that the death count came out low for it. It’s a pretty easy game in all honesty. I’ve done an Omega Emerald nuzlocke where I quit before Petalburg. And I’ve done an Emerald 365 Nuzlocke where I died in that too. Maybe if I tried Emerald I would see harder results, but once you know how to play the game, Ruby is easy. I’d recommend trying Emerald for more toughness but I wouldn’t expect much from these games.

That being said, FRLG is a lot harder. Leaf Green was the first Nuzlocke that I ever completed and I almost filled a whole box. It sucks evolving your Eevee into a Jolteon to have it taken from you right away. Or having your Primape that’s 8 levels above an Ivysaur get demolished in one Vine Whip. It’s tough. Like??? Really tough?? I’d have to pick up one again to see if it was just my beginner aspects that made it tough or if it was the game itself, but that box count doesn’t lie. This is why Gen 3 is up higher in my opinion, because this game hurt a lot lmao

Gen 5 (BW and B2W2):

Pain and suffering! Pain and suffering!! I’ve completed a White Nuzlocke and only a White Nuzlocke out of these games. I filled a box. I was down to a team of 3 after the 5th badge and it didn’t fully replenish until after the 7th badge gym. I’d evolve something and it would get brutally murdered 30 minutes later. I’ve seen a Bisharp 15 levels under my Archeops take it down from full HP to 0 in one hit. This game is brutal. It’s terrifying. I fear the day I’m bored enough with the others to go and try these again.

I have a White 2 Nuzlocke somewhere but I’m afraid of this game too. I haven’t picked it up recently because my team got down to 1. I was relying on a Delcatty in Burgh’s battle. I’m at the 5th badge gym in it currently and I’m pretty sure I have a team of 5 in it. It’s scary and I’m afraid of going back to that game too. This is a super tough generation as a whole, but it’s so rewarding to beat one.

Gen 4 (DPPt and HGSS):

Y’all I haven’t even gotten close in a DPPt game. I die before the 4th gym every time. I don’t even know what it’s like to battle Wake in these games. Everything seems moderate and then you get to Solaceon town and you’re left for dead. Things kill you. You die. Not to mention, who tf wants to put up with the game speed in DP?? At least try Platinum for comfort but that’s just even harder. If I ever manage to beat one of these games, I’ll tell you. But honestly respect to anyone who has, because these are brutal games.

As for HGSS, I’ve beaten SS before and GOD it took me 2+ years. The experience climb is the most painful one I’ve ever had to deal with. These games test your patience and penchant for grinding. You can’t even get half the Pokemon you want until the game is over. I believe I filled a good portion of my box in these games too, but the fact of the grinding climb being so slight in the games is just sad and hurtful. Also seeing your Pokemon walk behind you and then they die can be a little more heart-wrenching than the other games. These are fairly tough as well because of Whitney but overall the gameplay is fair enough. Just a lot of patience and stamina required for these games.

Anyway, that’s all I gotta say from my personal experience. I hope you enjoyed this and if you’ve had a different experience, feel free to share it lmao

[1358456]

I'm a bit cofused about the timeline as well as the age of our Dex Holders. Do you mind lighten me up?

Ah, good old ages... one of the big reasons as to why I don't want the first 10 Dex Holders to appear ever again in an arc that takes place during or after DP. And of course, some asswipe already violated that...

Anyways, assuming the data I'm using (ages in Emerald arc) is accurate...

Ruby and Sapphire are just 80 days apart in age, so they're the same age. In Emerald arc, it says that Ruby is a year older than Sapphire and Emerald. But Ruby's birthday had passed, Emerald's has also passed, but Sapphire's did not. So, when Sapphire's birthday passed as well, both Ruby and Sapphire would be a year older than Emerald.

Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0

Red, Green, and Blue are all at the same age. In FRLG, they're all 16. But 2 months later in Emerald, Blue's birthday has passed and she becomes 17. So when Red's and Green's also pass, they're all 17 at that point. Which makes them 5 years older than Ruby/Sapphire.

Red, Green, Blue: +6Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0

Blue and Silver are 3 years apart in age, as that was one of the factors behind the kidnapping to start with (Silver 2, Blue 5, Will 8, Karen 11, ... someone else 14, the other guy 17). And Silver is 13 in Emerald, birthday NOT passed. Gold is also 13 in Emerald, birthday NOT passed. Crystal is 13 in Emerald, and her birthday HAD passed. So when everyone's birthdays have passed...

Red, Green, Blue: +6Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0

Yellow is 14 in Emerald, birthday passed.

Red, Green, Blue: +6Yellow, Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0

Diamond and Pearl are 12 when DP started. Platinum was 11. DP started in September (English version f*cked that up and began on April ish), which is after both Diamond and Pearl's birthdays. Platinum's birthday passed around the time Candice and Maylene fought Jupiter, so Platinum had turned 12 by the end of DPPt.

Diamond and Pearl watched their first comedy act when they were 4. And that act was based on a Red Gyarados. The only Red Gyarados appeared during GSC and was caught by Silver. So in the time of GSC arc, the Sinnoh Dex Holders are AT MOST 4 years old. And it's in all likelihood that they were 4 in GSC. And in GSC, Gold and Silver were 11, birthdays not passed, Crystal was 11, birthday passed.

Which puts DPPt approx. 3 years after HGSS/ORAS. In HGSS, there's a young Cynthia with a Gabite, and given how her age is completely unknown in DPPt... or BW/BW2 for that matter (Shauntal asks you about it), there clearly has been some time between HGSS and DP. 3 years is enough.

In ORAS, there's a "flashback" that has little Platinum in it for the first time ever. Given how old she looks there, and how there is no reason for a "flashback" given the context, it's reasonable to assume that that's how old Platinum is in the time of ORAS, which is in the same year as HGSS. And also in ORAS, Diamond and Pearl are already practicing their comedy, or trying to at least, with Palmer present, and in DP, Pearl says that he hasn't seen his dad in a long while. So the 3 year time gap seems to be appropriate.

Red, Green, Blue: +6Yellow, Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: -5

The end of DPPt has Looker being alerted to Team Plasma BEGINNING to rise in Unova. The BW2 Prologue has Team Plasma BEGINNING to rise in Unova, and it takes place 3 years before BW. Thus in all likelihood, BW takes place 3 years after DPPt.

Black is 14 in BW, birthday unknown. White is said to be the same age as Black, in BW2, which would mean she's 16 by the time of BW2, which is 2 years after BW, so she's also 14, birthday unknown. If their birthdays have passed to be 14 in BW, then they are 1 year younger than the Sinnoh trio. Else, they are the same age. I assume that Black and White have turned 14 in BW, as in their birthdays have passed.

Red, Green, Blue: +6Yellow, Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: -5Black, White: -6

BW2 is 2 years after BW, and Rakutsu and Faitsu are 12. Rakutsu's birthday is in May, Faitsu's is in September. BW2 STARTS at September, so Faitsu is either 12, or will turn 12 very shortly, which puts them 4 years under Black and White, who are or will be 16.

Red, Green, Blue: +6Yellow, Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: -5Black, White: -6Rakutsu, Faitsu: -10

No one knows when XY arc takes place, or how old X and Y are. The one person who can "solve" the mystery is the certain asswipe that randomly appeared in the arc. And, like the asswipe that he is, he gave no information whatsoever.

In ORAS, Red and Blue are the only Kanto Dex Holders available because the other guy went to Kalos (and f*ck Yellow). And in XY, it's revealed that it's not the first time Green came to Kalos. So his random ass appearance in XY is unrelated to his absence in ORAS, which gives no information whatsoever in terms of time or age.

But... let's say that XY arc is 3 years after BW2 because why not. And X and Y are 13 in XY because... why not. Also, no one had a starting age of 13 thus far (Sapphire 10, most everyone 11, DPPt 12, BW 14), so... why not.

Red, Green, Blue: +6Yellow, Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: -5Black, White: -6Rakutsu, Faitsu: -10X, Y: -12

We don't even know everything about Black and White, let alone anyone after that, and CERTAINLY not anything about Sun and Moon. If I recall, in the games, the player character is ASSUMED to be 11, so... sure, why not. As for WHEN SM arc takes place? Who knows. Let's say... 2 years after XY?

Red, Green, Blue: +6Yellow, Gold, Silver: +3Crystal: +2Ruby, Sapphire: +1Emerald: 0Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: -5Black, White: -6Rakutsu, Faitsu: -10X, Y: -12Sun, Moon: -16

22 year gap between Red and Moon this way. Heh. The Kanto Dex Holders really are old enough to be Alola Dex Holders' parents. I mean, if Moon is 11, then Red/Blue would be 33.

Blue: "Look, kid. We've been doing this since LONG before you were born."

Or even...

Blue: "Kid... I'm literally THREE times older than you."

Given how in this "chart", DPPt is smack in the middle, the basis should be placed on them, not Emerald.

Red, Green, Blue: +11Yellow, Gold, Silver: +8Crystal: +7Ruby, Sapphire: +6Emerald: +5Diamond, Pearl, Platinum: 0Black, White: -1Rakutsu, Faitsu: -5X, Y: -7Sun, Moon: -11

So, people want to see Yellow back for random reasons in BW2, huh? 25 year old Yellow, eh? ... Why? Because of PWT, Red and Green should be in BW2 too? ... Why? BW2 already has enough to focus on. It doesn't need random ass people from other regions who don't belong to make a single pointless ass appearance. Like in ORAS.

My sweet little Platinum would be in her 20s already by the time of XY and SM... sheesh. I'd rather not see her appear in any arc that is not a Sinnoh remake.

Way to make people feel old, eh? "You started this manga series years ago when these characters were 11. Now they're 33. How do you feel?"

Given the 5 year gap between Emerald and DPPt, it should've obviously served as a division line. The first 10 Dex Holders by themselves, leaving the other 11 alone. But nope. Some asswipe randomly appeared in XY and... yadda yadda yadda.