#pokemon timeline

[samthesoupman]

My interpretation of the Pokemon Timeline

Quick few notes before I start this: I am aware that each pokemon game is it's own pocket universe, and timelines arent really important to the games, this is just for fun, side games like XD and Ranger won't be counted, remakes will take precidence over the origional versions, and if you have any evidence gainst this- please tell me! I'd love to have a discussion about this. Obviously the first game in the timeline is Legends Arceus, though the year is hard to tell- I'm gonna but it in it's own time period i'm calling "BE4" meaing "Before Elite 4" - so before the idea of catching and training pokemon became the norm for the pokemon world.

Then- the Kanto dilemma- is let's go cannon? Well the pokemon company swears let's go is mainline- the fact that the game starts with you isekai-ing into the TV is evidence enough for me that it's not real events- at best maybe it's a game in universe. Fire Red and Leaf Green's events can be dated however, the 96 on red's shirt in Ultra Sun and Moon and the constant references to "20 years ago" -fan service or not- show that FRLG take place in 1996.

Obviously, as stated many times in game, Heart Gold and Soul Silver take place 3 years after FRLG- not much confusion there at all. Briliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are also easy, as the game starts with talking about the Red Gyaradose incident in Johto. So, both these games would take place in 1999- in my opinion BDSP takes place maybe a month after HGSS.

The next one is a bit of a jump from what most expect- Black and White. I purely put this here because of Caitlin. Her hair is about 18 inches longer than it is in Platinum, taking into account how fast hair grows- that would put BW 4 years after BDSP in 2003. Then, obviously B2W2 happens 2 years after BW as stated in the story- putting it in 2005.

I put X and Y next, and I put it way ahead in 2013. There really isn't anything in XY that can help determine when it is- Dexio and Sina show up in USUM- so it can't be too far from those games. I just put it in it's release year. The most evidence I have for this is that they have portable holograms- a lot more advanced than the poketch's and X-Trancievers of the 2000's.

Next up I put ORAS in 2015 I'm sure a lot of you were shocked when I didn't put ORAS with FRLG like that one gamefreak guy said in his deleted twitter post- my reasoning? Wally is still a kid in the battle tree while Red and Blue are aged. Nothing really changes if ORAS is moved here, Steven is an adult when he cameos in HGSS, so it would make sense he hasnt visably aged 16 years later. At his oldest in ORAS he would be 32, well within the age range for a champion.

Then, one year later, USUM takes place in 2016. Obviously given the evidence i've used for many of the other placements this should explain itself, 20 years after FRLG.

Finally- Sword, Shield, Scarlett, and Violet... these games are almost impossible to place, but based on how far technology has come and some characters from BW having teenage children in the Blueberry academy- I'm just putting both these games in 2020- which would make the gym leader kids at around 17 depending on when they were born assumedly after BW's events.

so that's it! thank you for reading! share how you feel with me or i'll break you kneecaps.

[squidwolfy]

he still likes to dance

[crystalelemental]

Okay so I did a count of the assumed associations in the Pokemon timelines. Because I guess I hate myself tonight?

BW1 -> BW2. Literally the only hard confirmed thing in the series.

Y -> GS/C. Confirmed based on Red having all three starters, Blue having none. Though I'm just going to say it. Blue not having Eevee? Means that Gen 2 might actually be entirely separated timelines from the Gen 1 games we played. Nothing maps perfectly, and with alternate timelines existing, we can retroactively cast doubt on their continuity.

Y -> HGSS. Same as above. That's right, HGSS cannot possibly occur after FRLG, given the team composition. And the difference in Red's team suggests alternate timeline as well. Notably, HGSS could, in theory, lead to SuMo and USUM timelines, but those have Mega Evolution which is canonically a different timeline indicator from games without megas per Delta Episode.

HGSS -> BW1 -> BW2. We know Gen 2 goes to BW1 based on the ex-Rocket house. However, we can confidently saw that BW timeline exists alongside the remake timeline, because of Sabrina in PokeStar Studios. Sabrina has the (incorrect) short hair based on her HGSS presence, eliminating GS or C from possibility.

Platinum -> BW1. Caitlin. Note that Cynthia looks exactly no different, however, despite an allegedly large time jump per fan timelines. Which implies either (1) Caitlin hit a growth spurt in whatever timeframe occurred, which could be lengthy or could be as short as like four years, or (2) they're not actually associated at all, as Caitlin doesn't have Darach, and barring the commentary about not being allowed to battle, I don't think makes mention of the Battle Castle in Gen 5 at all. And I know what you're thinking. "Couldn't HGSS also attach to BW1?" Very unclear, considering that DPPt and HGSS take place at nebulously the same time, with Jasmine also occupying two places at once and having contradictory voice lines on which one happened first, so there's also the possibility that DP and Pt are separate timelines from HGSS. Which, further note: yes, DP and Pt are separate timelines just like all the third games.

R/S/E -> BW2. The Rocket house is occupied by former Magma and Aqua grunts. There are two reasons I'm not including HGSS in this mix. First, we don't know for sure that RSE took place before or after HGSS. Second, we don't have anything to connect RSE to HGSS itself. These grunts could be associated with the teams, but notably only talk about not letting the other know about their past, not any specific deed committed. Unlike the Rocket Grunt who can be placed by dialect, we don't know these goons. RSE may not have even happened yet, to say nothing of how R, S, and E are all different timelines given the wildly different events and we'd have no way of knowing which one they came from.

XY/ORAS -> SuMo. We assume, given the presence of mega evolution, but there's not anything I can think of to sincerely connect them together. They could just as easily be associated with USUM, but there's nothing to ensure those either.

Pt -> XY/ORAS -> SuMo or USUM. Because Looker. Now of course, this is impossible, as Platinum does not have mega evolution, so are we dealing with separate Lookers? I've heard theory that ORAS amnesia Looker is also a Faller, but if that's the case then he has no association at all with Gen 7 Looker, who does not seem to be pursued by the UBs in the same way as Anabel, nor is he used by Interpol the same way. It's also impossible to tell if ORAS took place before XY and he's better now, and that's why in XY he seems like a bit more of a mess, or if XY was first and wherever he was off to next didn't go so great.

Legends Arceus -> BDSP. Yes, specifically. Why? Raminas Flowers. Those don't exist in DPPt, only in BDSP does Raminas mean anything. By extension, the Legends Arceus events cannot be confirmed to have happened in DPPt timeline.

RB/Y -> SuMo. I'm bringing this up because it's wrong wrong wrong! Mega Evolution timelines do not intersect with non-mega evolution timelines! RBY and SuMo cannot possibly be related, yet the entire fan timeline bases itself on this association, because the Porygon Dex entry in SuMo said it was made 20 years ago, while some outside book source stated Porygon was made around 1 year prior to RB, thus setting the timeline between those games at 19-20 years. You want to know why? Because that's how many real world years passed. SuMo released in 2016, RB in 1996. It's just a reference to reality, not anything happening in the games' reality. It's made up, guys. The dex says Pyroar can breathe fire hotter than the Sun, sometimes it's stupid.

As far as I'm aware, literally any other association between two games is pure speculation. And even most of this isn't hard confirmation.

[heyimflame]

Because it's in my head right now, here's what I think the Pokémon Split Timelines are and my "Maybe Cannon Thoughts" are. (Thanks for this XY. we LOVE split timelines.)

Mega Timeline:

LGPE - HGSS (I like to think the remakes are all in the Mega Timeline, no reason tbh.)- ORAS - BDSP - BW/B2W2 - XY (duh) - SM/USUM - SwSh - SV. (Due to Ash Greninja being alluded to in that one painting in Nemona's House and the Crater being theorized to be created by AZ's Weapon, I think its fair to say SV is in the Mega Timeline. also Roaring Moon exists.

Regular Timeline:

RBGY - GSC - RSE - DPPt - BW/B2W2 (No Remake yet so it still fits. Thanks Pokémon ZaZa.) - Gen 6 is in the air - Gen 7, Ditto. - SwSh fits both ways. - SV is kinda in the air as well.

Also just cus, here's who I think are the Cannon Protag/MC choices are and why. (And if both Gender Variants canonically exist.)

Gen 1 - Red (Duh. it's Red.) (Also Red is the only one that exists. (Leaf Represent))

Gen 2 - Ethan (Mainly cus that Ethan VS Red fight on Mt. Silver is just TOO ICONIC.) (Kris and Lyra don't exist.)

Gen 3 - Brendan (Mainly cus he looks more like Norman than May does.) (Both Brendan and May exist tho.)

Gen 4 - Kinda in the air, but I tend to rock with Dawn being cannon. (Meaning that Rei is her Cannon Ancestor in LA.) (Dawn and Lucas both exist, but ONLY Rei exists. No Akari.)

Gen 5 - Hilda and Rosa (no reason. I just like them more.) (Nate and Hilbert don't exist.)

Gen 6 - Serena (Mainly cus I like to think Calem's the Professors son, or at least related to him.) (Also Both exist YIPPIE!)

Gen 7 - Also in the air, Selene and Elio are literally fucking twins. (Also only one exists.)

Gen 8 - Gloria. You know I'm right. (Victor does not exist. Only Gloria.)

Gen 9 - Either works. They didn't even try to make Florian and Juliana their own person in general. (Also only one exists.)

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[niklenakle]

Hi bulbapedia ive solved the mystery thank u so much give me 200 dollars when u add it to the timeline wiki thank youuuuuuuuuuu

[instaquarius]

For the Full Res since I know it's like REALLY hard to read (tbh even on dA you might have to just zoom in like 500% and also on dA hit full screen and you should be able to read it. It's mostly including pokedex entries or stuff I found on bulbapedia to further support why I pokemon where they are in the timeline/family tree and stuff

PTA (PokeTale: Ascendance) Legendary and Mythical Pokemon timeline or Family Tree (specifically for my Undertale/Pokemon AU), including Headcanons and so on.

About the lines and stuff and connections:

Black lines are Creation Lines.

Aka for Pokemon directly and intentionally created by another Legendary like Arceus Example: Personally, i like to think that Arceus came first as well and created some of the "bigger" Pokemon Gods *like the Creation Trio and Lake Trio* and then Mew was the last one after the Earth was made/Universe and all that stuff. Though I also personally headcanon that Arceus also created more Pokemon than just the 7.

Like The Original Dragon (or Reshi, Zek, and Kyurem since they're the OG dragon that got split in half) as well as the Life and Death duo ((simply just because... ya know. The literal GODS of Life/Death/Truth/Idealism etc., kinda just sounds like they would be right up there in terms of power scaling with the literal Gods of Space, Time, and Antimatter/Gravity *for the Life Deer and Death bird* and Truth/Idealism, etc. kinda sounds like the Lake Trio territory *Being they're the literal gods of Knowledge, Determination/Willpower, and Emotion* and humans just haven't figured it out yet when writing the Pokedex entries))

(Plus, as much research as I did on Xerneas, Yveltal, and the Tao Trio, nothing I looked up reaaaaaaaally didn't give me an answer on where the hell they came from, unlike most other legendaries soooo ye. Going with my headcanon instead for my AU)

Note: All Legendaries besides the Creation Trio, Lake Trio, Tao, and X/Y duo are more or less all created by the Mew species before they all eventually basically went extinct except for one. Same thing for the humans as well. I believe all humans and Pokemon were mews back in the day, like 10 billion years or so ago, then eventually, through convergent evolution or whatever, they all became what the Pokemon world is today. (And yes. In PTA, Mew was created by Arceus. Arceus was the original/first Pokemon to be made)

The red lines are Related links. Pokemon like the Legendary Dogs was created by Ho-oh when he revived the Pokemon that died from the Burnt Tower. Or Legendary Birds being governed over by Lugia as implied by the Pokemon 2000 movie etc.

Purple lines are the avatar lines. Covering Pokemon that are more or less on Arceus level or even being straight-up stronger than Arceus, like Ultra Necrozma (Ultra Necrozma has a base stat total of 754 which is a fair amount higher than Arceus's previous record of 720.) Also, same reason why I added Eternatus to this (besides also the fact Eternatus straight up looks like a MASSIVE hand in his Gigantimax form, which makes me think Eternatus could have been a part of Arceus at one point but then accidentally fell off or something while Arceus was making all these pokemon/the universe and shit) and even the third legendary from Scarlet and Violet that's been hella implied throughout the whole game. At least just guessing by the whole mystery surrounding it-

Blue lines are artificial lines. Aka, artificial Pokemon made by humans like Mewtwo, Type: Null etc. It's basically self-explanatory.

Pink lines are monitor lines Example: We know from the pokedex Heatran was created from a volcano/lava pool (which was created by Groudon waaaaaaaay back in the early stages of the Earth being made/Groudon creating the continents etc.) Ho-oh is added cuz of his connection to a phoenix and phoenix's are created from ash etc. Ash comes from volcanoes sooo that's why I added him as part of the Groudon fam/part of his sort of "Court" in a sense as a lesser God that sorta serves Groudon etc. and miiiiiight be implied o be the God of Resurrection? or Lugia being Guardian of the Oceans to help Kyogre who's King of the Ocean/God of it etc.

And finally, the yellow line is the Adaption line. Example: Like how the Koraidons had to adapt to the future changing and learn to use his freaking wheels built into his body to become cyclizar then even more modified into miraidon- (maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe same can work the Tao trio?) them adapting to being split into 2 or 3 technically-

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And before anyone says shit like "Uwu this pokemon shouldnt be connected to this because in canon it doesn't say so" I didnt want to just have every single legendary connected to Mew even if in my headcanon i said that Mew HELPED in creating all these legendaries.

Like for example I think a Pokemon like Celebi was "made" by Dialga cuz it has time powers so I kinda feel like Mew made Celebi but Dialga also helped maybe giving Celebi some of its powers so it can time travel and so on.

But also, other legendaries are like- kinda implied to have a connection to this legendary (Like Melloetta singing to make people happy sounds like something that's in Mesprits kingdom or whatever or something she'd rule over, so that's why I had Melloetta as TECHNICALLY being Mesprits kid) and so on.

And it doesn't help either 50% of the time past maybe the 5th gen its like nintendo stopped caring giving all these legendaries cool backstories and stuff or they just KINDA exist to like- giving a prince a ride (looking at the 2 horses from Galar) or Victini being the "Victory" God etc.

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Oh yeah, also in case anyone wondering why the Hell Zero is also here/eventually becomes Chara's adopted Sibling is because at some point after the Giratina movie, and he leaves Jail he ends up in Paldea and basically eventually meets Iono and ends up on her streams and stuff and they kinda end up dating in PTA (since both like electric-type Pokemon and have Magnetons and shit) 

Chara eventually runs into him again and they talk out about what happened and what Zero almost did to the Giratinas and smoltina and after realizing he changed and such she began to trust him and eventually he ends up as a part of the Arceus family as her brother

Also I crackship Iono and Zero. Cuz I think it'd be a cute ship 

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For PokeTale: Ascendance

An AU based off of an RP between me and a friend of mine from my Discord server discord.gg/pQf9ZsdF6E where the Creation Trio as babies (a time they all cant really fully control their powers and junk) accidentally create a portal into the Undertale Universe and meet Chara and basically Arceus finds Chara and adopts her after finding out about her shitty human parents and Chara ends up helping Arceus raise the babies and basically lives in the Pokemon Universe now

[cutekittenlady]

How long do you guys think it was between pokemon legends arceus and the mainline pokemon games? I only ask cause I wanna try and create my own timeline for use, in like, fics and stuff.

Tbh I'm not as super into making a timeline as some other folks are. (Like I refuse to beleive its 12 years between the sinnoh and unova games.) I mean the only reason its generally believed that the kanto and hoenn, as well as the johto and sinnoh plot lines take place around the same time is likely because of hte initial remakes.

I dunno, I just want a general timeline for use in my own fanfics. Any facts can be warped around what I need.

[redcallisto]

I loved his progression. what a silly little guy

[factual-fantasy]

Ya'll.. hear me out-

[critterbitter]

The Dreamyard’s the singed ruins of the once Pokemon Energy Labratory. About five years ago, this swath of land was left abandoned due to dangerous levels of psychic energy saturating the air. Today, it serves as a Munna and Musharina nest, and is slowly being reopen to the public as a conservation site.

Are the children in awe of the Dreamyard’s fridge horror history? Probably not. Are they enjoying themselves in the spooky abandoned ruins? Definitely.

Masterpost for more fun pokemon doodles!

[onefey]

kids these days just don't think 27 is as shockingly young as they used to...

bonus:

[sereneslash]

the question remains: will i ever make reguri art that isn't for a bad joke

[esprei]

reference page for emperor!volo from my dystopian au he's... a bit extra

[crystalelemental]

Bulbapedia's timeline page, on the subject of Let's Go:

"Although Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! are remakes of Pokémon Yellow, Red and Blue are known to have already finished their journeys years ago, and Mina's age mentioned in her concept art would suggest that the games are set a maximum of six years before Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon,[4][note 7] implying that they take place later than the original game. However, this is contradicted by Sabrina having a vision of meeting a special Trainer in three years, referencing the protagonist of Generation II, suggesting these games may not necessarily adhere to the timeline of the rest of the core series."

So yeah, even they're throwing in the towel on this one.

[felidaeng]

crystal

[efverse]

3 kids from lacunosa :)