SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

[TMan87]

Replaying White 2 recently and... why are the Scientists in this game super creepy?
First off, their "crossing gazes" theme is slow and downbeat, giving you the impression you've just met with a terrible fate.
And then there are the animations: male Scientists seem to laugh creepily to themselves before sending out their Pokémon, and while female Scientists are less extreme, they still have a Scary Shiny Glasses type of animation.
Why? I get this was the case in like Gen I since all Scientists there were implied to work for Team Rocket iirc, but here those were just outside the Meteo Lab! They're working with Deerlings!

 

[Rapti]

I meant, the specific deity is not Daikotuten 315111, is a deity similar to him

200+ dollars not saved :< (thanks anyway)

Replaying White 2 recently and... why are the Scientists in this game super creepy?

The only legitimate scientists in the pokemon world are named after trees
if your name is Jeff or Kyle then you're obviously up to some shady stuff, why you probably forged your degree

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Meteo Lab! They're working with Deerlings!

I read that as the MeToo Lab and that did not help matters one bit

But scientists have always been creepy, their DPP encounter theme is even worse. I think it's (gently) riffing on that awkward, slightly predatory vibe some nerdy types do unfortunately occasionally have. The scientists we encounter do, on the whole, tend to be either barmy cranks or outright villains - the ones in Unova are admittedly doing good work but that doesn't mean that they can't be obsessive and awkwardly fixated on it. I think we're generally meant to view them as weirdos, but harmless weirdos. FWIW I don't really view the male Scientist animation as creepy - more smug if anything.

 

[Pikachu315111]

The only legitimate scientists in the pokemon world are named after trees
if your name is Jeff or Kyle then you're obviously up to some shady stuff, why you probably forged your degree

But what about Professor Mirror?

He can tell when Pokemon are making friends!

But scientists have always been creepy, their DPP encounter theme is even worse. I think it's (gently) riffing on that awkward, slightly predatory vibe some nerdy types do unfortunately occasionally have. The scientists we encounter do, on the whole, tend to be either barmy cranks or outright villains - the ones in Unova are admittedly doing good work but that doesn't mean that they can't be obsessive and awkwardly fixated on it. I think we're generally meant to view them as weirdos, but harmless weirdos. FWIW I don't really view the male Scientist animation as creepy - more smug if anything.

"Hey kid, want to combine two completely different looking fossils together to revive a Pokemon that's been dead for millions of years? I assure you, no matter the combination you get that's totally what they're meant to look like, even if it looks like they're having a hard time moving around or breathing. They're just like my shoes, mixed but all the same let me wal..."

Oh my Arceus I just realized she's wearing a leg warmer but no sock on one foot (only way I can explain what I'm seeing on her left foot, otherwise she's wearing asymmetrical pantyhose which I wouldn't put pass her) and an ankle sock on the other foot; she truly is a f***ing monster.

 

[R_N]

The black/white part you're seeing is part of the shoe's design itself. She's wearing no socks on one foot and a full length sock on the other.

 

[Myth2048]

The only legitimate scientists in the pokemon world are named after trees
if your name is Jeff or Kyle then you're obviously up to some shady stuff, why you probably forged your degree

It’s more like the reverse. Either you’re friendly but do little actual research, or you’re creepy but have a Phd. There is no in between. Expect Cara Liss. Who is the worst of both worlds.

 

[spookysocialist]

We got the final part of the translated pokedex book. One of the most interesting part is that it gives some context to the famously weird firered Kadabra entry that a boy turned into a kadabra. The book reveals that in universe, that is a Kanto folklore/fairy tale esque story. I think this goes to show that the pokedex entries aren't always meant to be taken literally/ as hard facts.

 

[R_N]

That tracks, there's always been a ton of entries that are clearly based less on "this literally happened" and more on the "this is said to have happened" (with about a 50/50 shot of it ACTUALLY happening and just being obliquely referred to as such), just not everything labels it up front as one or the other.

 

[Bakugames]

Considering how the pokedex is meant to be a middle school encyclopedia which are know for exaggerating or just saying wrong stuff + talking about myths, I'm not surprised dex entires variate between fun facts and fun myths

 

[Pikachu315111]

We got the final part of the translated pokedex book. One of the most interesting part is that it gives some context to the famously weird firered Kadabra entry that a boy turned into a kadabra. The book reveals that in universe, that is a Kanto folklore/fairy tale esque story. I think this goes to show that the pokedex entries aren't always meant to be taken literally/ as hard facts.

• Porygon-Game Corner Investigations: If it's known by Silph Co. that Porygon, which they likely have a trademark on, is being illegally sold at the Game Corner and investigations are being done. Okay, so why then is the Game Corner still selling Porygon? If they're under investigation, that should mean the police/law are involved, and so one of the first things they'd do is stop the selling of Porygon. I always assumed the selling of Porygon was because they recently stole the information to make them thus Silph Co. had no idea.
  
  
• Koffing-Munitions Factory: Just like Voltorb being found in a Poke Ball factory which explains its appearance, Koffing being found in a munitions factory explains a lot about it.
  
  
• Weezing-Bleaching: Wouldn't removing the toxicity from Weezin (or just bleaching it) kill it?
  
  
• Voltorb-Powerline Tightrope: So, did Voltorb use electromagnetic waves to levitate themselves along powerlines to travel along them? Was it only able to travel on them if there was two? Or did Voltorbs actually balance themselves on them like a tightrope act?
  
  
• Kadabra-2nd Literary Award Winner: The "boy turning into a Kadabra" was not only a fairytale, but it's title "The Transformation" hints it being a reference to Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphasis"; though if you ask me the psychic boy got off WAY easier than Gregor Samsa (like, I'd think the only major thing he'd have to deal with would just be a thick tail)...
  
  
• Ditto: I'm surprised how little info they have on Ditto, you'd think that one they'd have gone into more detail with how mysterious it is.
  
  
• Jynx-Are They Clothes: Interesting that GF originally did think about sort of explaining Jynx seemingly wearing clothes. True, they didn't say much, once again the Pokemon refused to cooperate and the researchers came up with a hasty conclusion, but still nice these long time Pokemon mysteries wasn't just something fans noticed... though odd GF never tried to get these additional factoids out again.
  
  
• Kabuto-Ancestor of Hermite Grabs & TURTLES: Okay, was a bit of a stretch to say Omanyte was the ancestor of sea slug and squids but at least those animals are in the same phylum (not that that's saying much...), but the only thing hermit crabs and turtles have in common is that they're both animals. Saying it was the ancestor of crabs and lobsters (or if they want another non-aquatic animal, arachnids) would have made much more sense.
  
  
• Kabutops-The Imps of Shellfish: I was not expecting a Gremlins reference, at least of all for Kabutops, but here were are!... Mogwai & gremlin Pokemon when, GF? Could just give them the Ability Hunger Switch and we're good to go!
  
  
• Moltres-Phoenix: So in the Pokemon World, which have confirmed at least the belief of baku, mogwai, and gremlins, apparently phoenix's don't exist but rather they're based off Moltres. Okay...

AND that's it. We learned new thing & confirmed some facts about Pokemon we've known for over 20 years, taught history about the Pokemon World that may or may no longer canon, and answered, and see that even when close to releasing the games GF still were scrambling to put things altogether (some say they're still scrambling to this very day).

 

[spookysocialist]

• Porygon-Game Corner Investigations: If it's known by Silph Co. that Porygon, which they likely have a trademark on, is being illegally sold at the Game Corner and investigations are being done. Okay, so why then is the Game Corner still selling Porygon? If they're under investigation, that should mean the police/law are involved, and so one of the first things they'd do is stop the selling of Porygon. I always assumed the selling of Porygon was because they recently stole the information to make them thus Silph Co. had no idea.

Maybe they know/suspect the game corner is a front for Team Rocket, and didn't stop the sale of porygon because they didn't want to tip off Team Rocket and ruin a larger investigation? Or maybe they're investigating who at Silph Co gave Team Rocket the design for porygon - it seems that one of the Silph scientists who was also a Team Rocket agent probably smuggled out the porygon data to them

 

[Ironmage]

• Kabuto-Ancestor of Hermite Grabs & TURTLES: Okay, was a bit of a stretch to say Omanyte was the ancestor of sea slug and squids but at least those animals are in the same phylum (not that that's saying much...), but the only thing hermit crabs and turtles have in common is that they're both animals. Saying it was the ancestor of crabs and lobsters (or if they want another non-aquatic animal, arachnids) would have made much more sense.

I don't know, there might be something to this. The only turtles in gen 1 can breed with kabuto and one is referred to as the shellfish pokemon, and the carracosta line (the ancestral turtle) even shares the water 3 egg group with the other invertebrates (and archeops???). It's not as biologically nonsense as mushrooms being plants, and just about every fantasy setting does that.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Something that struck me lately is that I find it odd that they never created an ability that explicitly boosts the power of cutting/slashing moves. Considering there are a few abilities that boost moves with certain attributes (Iron Fist boosts punches, Mega Launcher boosts aura/pulse moves, Reckless boosts recoil moves, etc) and the fact that there are so many cutting/slashing moves now, it's strange an ability that explicitly boosts these moves has yet to exist. Namely, we have a lot of moves like this:

- Slash
- Night Slash
- Psycho Cut
- Shadow Claw
- Cross Poison
- X-Scissor
- Dragon Claw
- Razor Shell
- Leaf Blade
- Aerial Ace
- Crush Claw
- Cut (lol)
- Solar Blade
- Razor Wind
- Razor Leaf

Etc.

That's a lot of moves, and more than enough to have an ability that boosts them, especially since none of them exceed 90 BP so a boost wouldn't break them too much while it makes them that much cooler. Why they haven't created such an ability at this point is quite strange.

 

[Siggu]

Something that struck me lately is that I find it odd that they never created an ability that explicitly boosts the power of cutting/slashing moves.

In terms of flavor, there's Tough Claws... which oddly increases the power of ALL contact moves, despite its name (and the fact the only Pokémon who get the ability have sharp claws).

 

[spookysocialist]

Something that struck me lately is that I find it odd that they never created an ability that explicitly boosts the power of cutting/slashing moves. Considering there are a few abilities that boost moves with certain attributes (Iron Fist boosts punches, Mega Launcher boosts aura/pulse moves, Reckless boosts recoil moves, etc) and the fact that there are so many cutting/slashing moves now, it's strange an ability that explicitly boosts these moves has yet to exist. Namely, we have a lot of moves like this:

- Slash
- Night Slash
- Psycho Cut
- Shadow Claw
- Cross Poison
- X-Scissor
- Dragon Claw
- Razor Shell
- Leaf Blade
- Aerial Ace
- Crush Claw
- Cut (lol)
- Solar Blade
- Razor Wind
- Razor Leaf

Etc.

That's a lot of moves, and more than enough to have an ability that boosts them, especially since none of them exceed 90 BP so a boost wouldn't break them too much while it makes them that much cooler. Why they haven't created such an ability at this point is quite strange.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Not sure if this exactly fits here but it's the closest:

So, I was watching a video analysis about the history (& debates) about Beowulf's retellings when they did a quick summary of Beowulf. While I know bits and pieces about Beowulf, I didn't know the full story until now. But, upon hearing the full story and looking up additional details, well, it could just be me, but I can kind of see some similarities between the story of Beowulf and Gen 8's "The Darkest Day".

First things first, Beowulf summary incase you don't want to watch the video or read the Wikipedia article:

Battle 1: Grendel

Hrothgar, king of the Danes, builds a great hall for him and his warriors to hold celebrations in. One day a monster named Grendel, pained by the sounds of joy, attacks the hall killing and devouring many of Hrothgar's men.

Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland hears about Hrothgar's troubles and, with permission from his king, leaves his homeland to help.

Beowulf spends a night in the hall. He does not have any weapons (in some versions he's completely naked) because he sees himself as Grendel's equal (it's also mentioned Grendel's skin is too strong to be pierced by a blade). When Grendel attacks, him and Beowulf tussle until Beowulf finally rips off Grendel's arms, causing it to run away into the marshes where it dies.

Battle 2: Grendel's Mother

Angry over the death of her son, Grendel's Mother attacks the hall and kills Hrothgar's most loyal fighter before escaping (Beowulf was elsewhere). Hrothgar gets Beowulf and they and a hunting party go out to Grendel's Mother's lair which is at a bottom of a lake.

After some preparations, Beowulf jumps into the lake and, after dealing with a water monster, finds Grendel's Mother's cavern. She pulls him in and after some fighting, including Beowulf's sword breaking against her skin, gets the upperhand and sits on top of him. She tries to kill Beowulf by stabbing him with a short sword but his armor protects him (and assumingly is able to get her off him). He then notices a sword made for giants hanging on the wall and is able to get to it and cuts off her head.

Further inside the lair he finds Grendel's corpse and uses the giant's sword to cut off his head, but Grendel's blood is so hot it melts the sword to its hilt. Beowulf brings back the hilt and Grendel's head. For both his services Beowulf was given many gifts, and words of wisdom, from Hrothgar.

Final Battle: The Dragon

Beowulf would eventually become king of the Geats. Fifty years after the defeat of Grendel & his mother, a slave steals a golden cup from a dragon which goes on a rampage burning everything in sight. Beowulf gathers his warriors to fight the dragon, but he tells them to stand back as he fights the dragon alone. However, now much older, the dragon proves to be too much for Beowulf and starts overcoming him (many paintings show Beowulf defending himself from the dragon's flames with a shield).

All but one of his men flee, the one remaining named Wiglaf. Wiglaf jumps into battle and cuts open the dragon's belly, reducing the intensity of its flames giving Beowulf an opening to stab it to death with a dagger. However, Beowulf is mortally wounded; he names Wiglaf as his successor and passes away.

The other warriors return, Wiglaf angrily berates and blames their cowardice for their king's death. They take Beowulf's body back and its burned on a great pyre as his people mourned and wailed; a barrow (a hill/mound) is built in his memory.

So, a lot to unpack here. Now, a lot of what I see could just be coincidence... then again Beowulf is one of the most famous Old English epics which could be considered a codifier of such Germanic Heroic legends (including a hero defeating a dragon) SO one could say its a bit odd that GF didn't reference it in some way... unless they did:

1. Grendel & his mother = Dynamax Pokemon: Both of them are giant monsters who attack the peace and must be dealt with by the hero. The Dynamax Pokemon all go on a rampage upon growing and they all are defeated by the twin heroes.
   
   
2. Beowulf coming from the Geatlands = Twin heroes from nowhere: In The Darkest Day story, though it's not mentioned, the twin heroes are dressed in commoner clothes. So this could relate to how Beowulf was essentially a stranger, an outside figure, coming to save the day. Or, if you believe the Two Wolves were the twin heroes, them coming from out of nowhere to suddenly save the day. Works eitherway.
   
   
3. Weaponless Beowulf = Hero of Many Battles Form: Beowulf fighting Grandel with no weapons (or completely naked) could maybe be a partial inspiration for Zacian & Zamazenta's "Hero of Many Battles" form. They do not have their weapons yet they both are still formidable warriors.
   
   
4. Beowulfs Armor & Weapons = Crowned Forms: Though Beowulf fought Grendel without weapons, he had weapons and armor going against Grendel's Mother and the Dragon which were pivotal to his victory over them. Against Grendel's Mother, Beowulf's armor protected him and used a giant's sword to slay her. Against the Dragon, Beowulf's shield is depicted protecting him from the Dragon's flames and both Wiglaf's sword & Beowulf's dagger is used to slay it (BTW, I didn't mention this as didn't feel it was needed for the summary, but a lot of Beowulf's weapons had names noting their importance). While Zacian & Zamazenta are strong in their "Hero of Many Battles" form, up against Eternatus they needed their Crowned Forms.
   
   
5. Melted Gaint's Sword = Rusted Weapons: The Rusted Sword and Shield could maybe be a reference to how the giant's sword, which was important for Beowulf's victory against Grendel's Mother, was soon destroyed only leaving the hilt as a memento.
   
   
6. Beowulf Becoming King = Twin Heroes Become Kings: An obvious connection. After saving the day the twin heroes were made kings much like how Beowulf would become a king of his people for his great bravery.
   
   
7. The Dragon = Eternatus: Not sure if the one Beowulf fought was a skeletal space dragon, but both breathed fire which is an important story point.
   
   
8. Beowulf & Wiglaf = Twin Heroes: Both Beowulf and Wiglaf we needed to defeat the dragon, just like both heroes & wolves were needed to defeat Eterantus.
   
   
9. Mortally Wounded: Both Beowulf and the Twin Wolves did not survive their battles against their respective dragons. Also, the Twin Wolves resting at some hot springs could be a semi-reference to Beowulf's body being burned on a great pyre.
   
   
10. Memory Barrow = Slumbering Weald Alter: After their deaths, Beowulf and the Twin Wolves were both laid to rest in special places made in their honor where they could rest in peace.

... Oh, and the fact that the last part of Beowulf's name is pronounced like "wolf" with Zacian & Zamazenta are. Heck, if you want to stretch it, "Beo" could be made to sound like "Bi"; Beowulf = Bi-wolf = Two Wolves.

EDIT: Oh, and another possible connection. In Sword & Shield, while "The Darkest Day" is a word-to-mouth myth vaguely known, it's not until Sonia goes around to see the tapestries & important locations to the myth does she piece things together and writes her book telling the full story of "The Darkest Day" bringing its awareness to the masses. Something similar happened with Beowulf, the only copy is a few untitled pages (dating to 975-1010 AD) part of collection of many other manuscripts which was almost lost to a fire in 1731. It wasn't until 1786 and since then has been re-translated & adapted hundreds of times over.

 

[Rapti]

Something similar happened with Beowulf, the only copy is a few untitled pages (dating to 975-1010 AD) part of collection of many other manuscripts which was almost lost to a fire in 1731. It wasn't until 1786 and since then has been re-translated & adapted hundreds of times over.

To be fair, most of Europe's 3rd - 9th century manuscripts have been lost

it's why there's actual scholarly debate on whether king Arthur was an actual welsh warlord or just a myth
myth which I still think needs more representation in S&S

I still want my Twrch Trwyth inspired pokemon dammit -:<

 

[Bakugames]

Swsh focus a lot on british modern times for their pokemon. Probably them relying too much on James Turner's british background in general. His pokemon are more focused on pop culture, which isn't bad, but led to a lack of more historical stuff and made the swsh dex feel artificial, too modern

 

[Hugin]

Image

In a fun return to the pre-internet rumor mills, the above is currently floating around Tumblr. It's almost definitely not a thing, sprites don't work that way, but between Gen II code being held together with duct tape and how few people actually have a physical copy of Crystal to check against it, I fully expect to be seeing "alt color trainers in Crystal" posts for years now that someone has seeded the possibility.

 

[Pikachu315111]

In a fun return to the pre-internet rumor mills, the above is currently floating around Tumblr. It's almost definitely not a thing, sprites don't work that way, but between Gen II code being held together with duct tape and how few people actually have a physical copy of Crystal to check against it, I fully expect to be seeing "alt color trainers in Crystal" posts for years now that someone has seeded the possibility.

NO! It totally works! My friend says that their next door neighbor's cousin who's dad works at Nintendo was told by Masuda himself how to do it!

 

[R_N]

sprites trying to call on the wrong color pallet is definitely a thing you can force in various games, so it's not exactly outlandish.

But also you could probably do this on an emulator, not just with a cartridge, so I feel like this would be relatively easy to reproduce....

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Pikasprey accidentally ran into something similar during his Caterpie softlock while messing with cheats, and even made reference to a "well-known" glitch that lets you do it intentionally. I'm not sure if it's the same glitch, but the video is two years old, so swapping player pallets isn't some flavor-of-the-month rumor.

 

[Snoozer (Zzz...)]

The "Change player color glitch" does work. I remember successfully pulling it off in the past. That image comes from this Glitch City wiki article.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Thinking about shiny locks just now and it seems to me that GF is kind of inconsistent with how they're applied.

• In Gen V, only Reshiram, Zekrom, and Victini are shiny-locked. All other catchable legendaries - Kyurem, the Kami trio, and the Swords of Justice - are available in their shiny forms. The three mythicals are obviously also shiny-locked by dint of only being available by events. Additionally in B2W2 all of the old legends are available shiny.
• In X and Y all legends and mythicals are shiny-locked, period. In ORAS Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and Deoxys are shiny-locked but everything else is available as a shiny.
• In Gen VII Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Cosmog, Zygarde, all the Tapus, all the Ultra Beasts, Ash-Greninja, and all the mythicals are shiny-locked. In USUM, this no longer applies to the Ultra Beasts (except Poipole) and does not apply to any of the older legends available via the Ultra Wormhole.
• In Gen VIII Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Cosmog, Kubfu, Calyrex, Spectrier, Glastrier, Keldeo, and the Galarian forms of the legendary birds are shiny-locked. In addition, the starter trio and the scripted encounter with Galarian Slowpoke are all shiny-locked too, but can be bred to produce shiny forms.

Few things jump out at me there:

-In BW they didn't lock everything they could have. You'd have expected Kyurem or possibly even Landorus to be shiny-locked but it seems like initially they just wanted to lock the cover legends as well as Victini, which is a mythical. For obvious reasons, Game Freak seems to dislike giving easy or early access to shiny mythicals since Mew and Celebi were always distributed with fixed IVs in Gen I and II - while Celebi could be SR'ed for in Crystal, this was only ever possible in the Japanese titles until recently. Mew wasn't available shiny until Gen III, and only then on Japanese copies of Emerald with an extremely elusive event item. Consider that in 2021, eleven years after BW's initial release, Meloetta, Keldeo, and Victini are still unavailable in shiny form; there has never been an event for any of them, despite ample opportunity.

-In X and Y there isn't a "lower" legendary trio so they just said "screw it" and locked everything, including Mewtwo and the three legendary birds. I suppose they locked Zygarde because at this point they expected another Kalos game to happen and probably anticipated that they could use shiny Zygarde for an event. Part of me suspects they regretted giving early access to shiny Kyurem in BW and wanted to keep something back this time around.

-By the time we reached SM, it looked like they wanted to lock ALL special Pokemon, period, so not one of the catchable legends can be caught shiny. Except... did they forget about Type:Null? It seems an odd one to leave out given that the game is clear on it being a legendary. Yes it's a pain to SR for but people will do it. They later made a big hoo-hah about releasing shiny versions of the light trio, Poipole, and the Tapus, so you'd think they'd do the same with Type:Null.

-In Gen VIII they've again just locked off absolutely everything, and even made it so you can't get a shiny starter (which seems unduly harsh). Oh, wait. Turns out Regieleki and Regidrago were never shiny-locked. I'm not complaining, but... why not? Those two, along with Glastrier and Spectrier, are four of the most wanted Pokemon in the game right now. Why wouldn't GF take the opportunity to restrict them?

Serebii has a good list of all the shiny-locked Pokemon at the time of writing - there's some oddballs on there, like shiny Fancy Pattern and Pokeball Pattern Vivillon or hat Pikachu. What intrigues me is that there are some Pokemon, like Zeraora, for which it only took GF two years to release the shiny for, and yet others, like Victini and Hoopa, that we are still waiting on after years and years. Keldeo is encounterable for the first time in the Crown Tundra, and yet GF still shiny-locked it. Zeraora has no connection to Galar, and was an odd pick to be the prize for "one million victories" (seriously, why not Victini, it's literally there in the name) - did GF just look at all the mythicals and pick it randomly? Or is there more of a reason to it?

What do you think is the reason we haven't seen some of these yet?

 

[Nokocchi]

Game Freak seems to dislike giving easy or early access to shiny mythicals since Mew and Celebi were always distributed with fixed IVs in Gen I and II - while Celebi could be SR'ed for in Crystal, this was only ever possible in the Japanese titles until recently. Mew wasn't available shiny until Gen III, and only then on Japanese copies of Emerald with an extremely elusive event item.

There was a Shiny Mew event in Gen II that was downloadable from the Pokemon Centers in both Japan and New York(There were also shiny events for all of the Legendaries from both Gen I and Gen II, the former especially helped because it's hard trying to get anything Shiny in the Gen I games without ACE). Shiny Celebi, however, was still exclusive to the Crystal event released only in Japan.