This past January, Pokémon fans saw the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus on the Nintendo Switch system. Even outside of its role as more on action-RPG with semi-open world elements, the game was a breath of the wil- I mean, fresh air in many ways for the Pokémon main series lineup. But of course, this is all stuff most Pokémon fans already know. What's the point in making a thread about common knowledge? Diving deep into the potential Legends: Arceus iceberg sounds way more appealing for me.
So what exactly do I want to discuss here that I couldn't discuss elsewhere, you may ask? Out of fear that this may fall outside of thread creation rules in my preferred posting location, I want to talk about something that might just go a little bit further than "your run-of-the-mill fan theory". People who know me well have most likely heard me talk about the Pokémon Ranger games before, and hardcore fans of my personal favorite in the trilogy, that being Guardian Signs, might remember that Arceus makes an appearance in that game as well. Okay, so Pokémon's equivalent of God is in two seperate video games. So what?
Well... here's the thing. Most of us know by now that Pokémon Legends: Arceus is canon to the main series timeline of games, and that it takes place hundreds of years before the events of the Sinnoh games we all know and love- which are obviously also canon. What long-time Pokémon fans might not remember is that the Ranger trilogy are some of the very few spin-off Pokémon games we also know to adhere to the canon timeline. The reason I mention this is because of a neat bit of Arceus-related trivia. There are only two Pokémon games in canonical history that Arceus is a part of the region's definitive PokéDex or equivalent of one, since we can't say for certain that Wi-Fi events are or aren't canon across the board. Not like it matters anyway, since Sinnoh's regional PokéDex in DPP and BDSP stops at either Manaphy or Giratina for some reason. Huh. Those two games are... well, these two- a Pokémon Ranger game, where Arceus can be met in the past as well as in a Wi-Fi event, and in the Legends game sharing its name.
If you haven't figured out what I'm getting at here, it's that Guardian Signs and Legends: Arceus are, technically speaking, canon to the same timeline of events. This brings up a lot of interesting ideas about either game that present some... questions about the newer of the two on the Nintendo Switch. For the uninformed, what happens in the events of Guardian Signs is that the player can meet Arceus in the past, but that whole side-plot of the game isn't actually required. Since Oblivia (the region where Guardian Signs takes place) would have been the first region, either before or around the same time as Hisui, to recognize Arceus in a non-divine Pokémon form, as we can make an assumption that the only way anyone would have learned about Arceus's existence in Hisui would be if knowledge of its appearance over in Oblivia was made evident to the Hisuian population somehow, and from there, modern society- including who would later be known Rei/Akari when they fall through the space-time rift at the beginning of the game- would eventually be able to recognize Arceus in Pokémon form as well, as evident by the fact that Rei/Akari does seem to have at least some reaction to Arceus's appearance at the Hall of Origin at the end of Legends's storyline.
My question for you guys, and the reason I made this thread... is how is any of this possible if the player character of Guardian Signs could very realistically have not triggered the sequence of events to make Arceus known within Oblivia's past? Since the player can just as easily choose not to go through with the past storyline, doing so would inevitably result in a timeline split where contemporary history after the events of Oblivia's past could never have happened was never introduced to Arceus during the events of Legends, and since Arceus would not have been introduced in Hisui at that point, the entirety of Legends: Arceus's story and the rest of the canonical Pokémon timeline starts to fall apart completely starting with the Johto/Sinnoh era.
Does anyone have any questions?
So what exactly do I want to discuss here that I couldn't discuss elsewhere, you may ask? Out of fear that this may fall outside of thread creation rules in my preferred posting location, I want to talk about something that might just go a little bit further than "your run-of-the-mill fan theory". People who know me well have most likely heard me talk about the Pokémon Ranger games before, and hardcore fans of my personal favorite in the trilogy, that being Guardian Signs, might remember that Arceus makes an appearance in that game as well. Okay, so Pokémon's equivalent of God is in two seperate video games. So what?
Well... here's the thing. Most of us know by now that Pokémon Legends: Arceus is canon to the main series timeline of games, and that it takes place hundreds of years before the events of the Sinnoh games we all know and love- which are obviously also canon. What long-time Pokémon fans might not remember is that the Ranger trilogy are some of the very few spin-off Pokémon games we also know to adhere to the canon timeline. The reason I mention this is because of a neat bit of Arceus-related trivia. There are only two Pokémon games in canonical history that Arceus is a part of the region's definitive PokéDex or equivalent of one, since we can't say for certain that Wi-Fi events are or aren't canon across the board. Not like it matters anyway, since Sinnoh's regional PokéDex in DPP and BDSP stops at either Manaphy or Giratina for some reason. Huh. Those two games are... well, these two- a Pokémon Ranger game, where Arceus can be met in the past as well as in a Wi-Fi event, and in the Legends game sharing its name.
If you haven't figured out what I'm getting at here, it's that Guardian Signs and Legends: Arceus are, technically speaking, canon to the same timeline of events. This brings up a lot of interesting ideas about either game that present some... questions about the newer of the two on the Nintendo Switch. For the uninformed, what happens in the events of Guardian Signs is that the player can meet Arceus in the past, but that whole side-plot of the game isn't actually required. Since Oblivia (the region where Guardian Signs takes place) would have been the first region, either before or around the same time as Hisui, to recognize Arceus in a non-divine Pokémon form, as we can make an assumption that the only way anyone would have learned about Arceus's existence in Hisui would be if knowledge of its appearance over in Oblivia was made evident to the Hisuian population somehow, and from there, modern society- including who would later be known Rei/Akari when they fall through the space-time rift at the beginning of the game- would eventually be able to recognize Arceus in Pokémon form as well, as evident by the fact that Rei/Akari does seem to have at least some reaction to Arceus's appearance at the Hall of Origin at the end of Legends's storyline.
My question for you guys, and the reason I made this thread... is how is any of this possible if the player character of Guardian Signs could very realistically have not triggered the sequence of events to make Arceus known within Oblivia's past? Since the player can just as easily choose not to go through with the past storyline, doing so would inevitably result in a timeline split where contemporary history after the events of Oblivia's past could never have happened was never introduced to Arceus during the events of Legends, and since Arceus would not have been introduced in Hisui at that point, the entirety of Legends: Arceus's story and the rest of the canonical Pokémon timeline starts to fall apart completely starting with the Johto/Sinnoh era.
Does anyone have any questions?
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