Considering they recreated that shot and clearly had to use it as a reference, I highly doubt them forgetting Ash-Greninja is possible.
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I don't think they forgot about it either, and I kinda doubt it's actually full-on retconned per se. Ash in the episode alluded to the Bond Phenomenon earlier when he talks about how he and Greninja would become one: how he would be like Greninja and Greninja would be like him. Also, despite Ash-Greninja being unusable in SV, the form was depicted in a mural in the games which means they still actively acknowledge its existence, and in fact may even put it into existence in a future game for all we know.
I think the issue with Ash-Greninja is that it's just a very abstract and unusual thing that is very abnormal in general and the Bond Phenomenon form wasn't the main point of the Greninja episode anyway, Lucario was the focal point, so they just decided to skate around it.
Even when the anime mentions old continuity every now and then, the thing is that the target audience is still ultimately the new kids, meaning even though Journeys is rife with old characters and fanservice, ultimately, it's still targeted towards the new elementary school kids who started Pokemon with Sword and Shield, and for these kids, Journeys/PM19 is their first season of Anipoke that they've watched. In other words, they probably haven't watched any of the older seasons.
Ash-Greninja is a very abstract and unusual transformation because it's something that is barely canon to the games. It was an anime-original idea and none of the Gen 6 games had it, and the one time it was in the games in Gen 7 it was a special event Pokemon. And not only is it something that is unusual, canonically in the anime which the games followed in SM, Ash-Greninja is a once-in-a-generation occurrence in the anime timeline's history. It's not like Mega Evolution where any individual specimen of a Mega Evolving Pokemon can hypothetically do it, Ash-Greninja was special because it was specifically Ash's Greninja who had such a power to begin with. The vast majority of Greninja have no such powers.
The "Battle Bond" Greninja you could use in SM was not just a typical Greninja, it was the Ash-Greninja. It was basically treated as a Mythical Pokemon, it was locked to one gender, it was unable to be bred, and it was banned from official competitive tournaments.
In that sense it's something that warrants a significant amount of explaining to talk about. I think they avoided both mentioning and showing Ash-Greninja in that specific episode because as I said, it's an unusual and abstract thing that is barely canon to the games, meaning most new kids wouldn't know what Ash-Greninja is or what it entails. This is further reinforced by Greninja's complete absence in Gen 8, as it's not in Sword and Shield or Legends: Arceus, and even moreso by Gen 9 with Scarlet and Violet where Game Freak decided to repurpose the Battle Bond ability to make it a more broadened and general ability, perhaps so they can assign it to other mons in the future, which given these circumstances, new kids who started Pokemon with the Switch games won't ever get to actually *see* what Ash-Greninja is all about.
As such, they basically just dodged the topic or avoided showing it so as to avoid confusing new viewers. If they had shown it, it would confuse new kids on what the hell that form was and why it looks different from what Greninja normally looks like, and especially later on when it shows up in SV where none of their Greninjas will have that power or form. It would warrant a significant amount of explaining on Ash's end to explain why his Greninja has that form. And that would take a significant amount of focus away from what the episode was really about, because it was really about Ash's Lucario and honing its aura powers and bond with Ash, getting help from Greninja because Ash and Greninja had special powers that involved their bond and fighting as one. And they had no time to focus on Greninja's unusual form when Lucario and training Lucario's power was the real focus of the episode, Ash-Greninja the form was not relevant to the story they wanted to tell with Lucario so they avoided it.
Really I think it's a matter of Ash-Greninja being abstract and unusual, barely being canon to the games in the first place, and JN still being targeted towards new kids who started Pokemon with Gen 8, and not wanting to confuse them, combined with not wanting to take away focus from Ash's Lucario who was the focus of the episode, so they basically "Broad Strokes"'d the whole thing.
I think the issue with Ash-Greninja is that it's just a very abstract and unusual thing that is very abnormal in general and the Bond Phenomenon form wasn't the main point of the Greninja episode anyway, Lucario was the focal point, so they just decided to skate around it.
Even when the anime mentions old continuity every now and then, the thing is that the target audience is still ultimately the new kids, meaning even though Journeys is rife with old characters and fanservice, ultimately, it's still targeted towards the new elementary school kids who started Pokemon with Sword and Shield, and for these kids, Journeys/PM19 is their first season of Anipoke that they've watched. In other words, they probably haven't watched any of the older seasons.
Ash-Greninja is a very abstract and unusual transformation because it's something that is barely canon to the games. It was an anime-original idea and none of the Gen 6 games had it, and the one time it was in the games in Gen 7 it was a special event Pokemon. And not only is it something that is unusual, canonically in the anime which the games followed in SM, Ash-Greninja is a once-in-a-generation occurrence in the anime timeline's history. It's not like Mega Evolution where any individual specimen of a Mega Evolving Pokemon can hypothetically do it, Ash-Greninja was special because it was specifically Ash's Greninja who had such a power to begin with. The vast majority of Greninja have no such powers.
The "Battle Bond" Greninja you could use in SM was not just a typical Greninja, it was the Ash-Greninja. It was basically treated as a Mythical Pokemon, it was locked to one gender, it was unable to be bred, and it was banned from official competitive tournaments.
In that sense it's something that warrants a significant amount of explaining to talk about. I think they avoided both mentioning and showing Ash-Greninja in that specific episode because as I said, it's an unusual and abstract thing that is barely canon to the games, meaning most new kids wouldn't know what Ash-Greninja is or what it entails. This is further reinforced by Greninja's complete absence in Gen 8, as it's not in Sword and Shield or Legends: Arceus, and even moreso by Gen 9 with Scarlet and Violet where Game Freak decided to repurpose the Battle Bond ability to make it a more broadened and general ability, perhaps so they can assign it to other mons in the future, which given these circumstances, new kids who started Pokemon with the Switch games won't ever get to actually *see* what Ash-Greninja is all about.
As such, they basically just dodged the topic or avoided showing it so as to avoid confusing new viewers. If they had shown it, it would confuse new kids on what the hell that form was and why it looks different from what Greninja normally looks like, and especially later on when it shows up in SV where none of their Greninjas will have that power or form. It would warrant a significant amount of explaining on Ash's end to explain why his Greninja has that form. And that would take a significant amount of focus away from what the episode was really about, because it was really about Ash's Lucario and honing its aura powers and bond with Ash, getting help from Greninja because Ash and Greninja had special powers that involved their bond and fighting as one. And they had no time to focus on Greninja's unusual form when Lucario and training Lucario's power was the real focus of the episode, Ash-Greninja the form was not relevant to the story they wanted to tell with Lucario so they avoided it.
Really I think it's a matter of Ash-Greninja being abstract and unusual, barely being canon to the games in the first place, and JN still being targeted towards new kids who started Pokemon with Gen 8, and not wanting to confuse them, combined with not wanting to take away focus from Ash's Lucario who was the focus of the episode, so they basically "Broad Strokes"'d the whole thing.
I think that's the whole matter here. They wanted to save themselves an explanation to new viewers... while leaving the older viewers wondering what on Earth happened.
All they needed to do to make this reasonable was retitle the transformation from "Ash Greninja" to something like "Bonded Greninja" or something, removing the overt anime character reference and tie to the phenomenon. Then they don't have to relate Battle Bond appearances and the form back to a character who only exists in one of the several Multi-Media avenues of the franchise.
My tinfoil hat theory is that Ash-Greninja almost overshadowed Pikachu for that season as far as being Ash's partner/ace Pokemon, and someone on the marketing team simply wasn't having that. Same reason Infernape had a relatively understated part in his reappearances for Journeys given his role in Sinnoh. Hell Greninja's reappearance was just to parallel/train a marketable mon with a superform who they weren't playing above Pikachu this Gen.
My tinfoil hat theory is that Ash-Greninja almost overshadowed Pikachu for that season as far as being Ash's partner/ace Pokemon, and someone on the marketing team simply wasn't having that. Same reason Infernape had a relatively understated part in his reappearances for Journeys given his role in Sinnoh. Hell Greninja's reappearance was just to parallel/train a marketable mon with a superform who they weren't playing above Pikachu this Gen.
none of this wouldve been a problem if they just gave the kalos starters mega evolutions
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
I'm not sure if this was ever confirmed by any source code or anything but I remember reading that the plan was to give all the Kalos starters the Bond Phenomenon in XY, with each starter's boosted form having aspects of the player's clothes.
Unfortunately with the wide range of options granted by customisation it likely proved unworkable (if indeed it ever was the plan) so it was junked.
Interestingly in the Adventures manga's Y's Greninja inexplicably has Battle Bond despite it not (to my recollection) ever playing a role in events so that might have been intended to play into this idea (with her Grenina taking on her appearance).
That was never stated anywhere as far as I'm aware. It's always just been the assumption
What we do know is Ash-Greninja was made at request of the anime folks and GameFreak worked with them to create it. It's fully possible it was a draft of something they might have planned with Z at some point, but there's no evidence of it.
That sounds like what I had suggested to include Ash-Greninja & Bond Phenomenon. Bond Phenomenon would give the Starters some additional details based on the customization option, and Ash-Greninja is just showing what an Ash version of Greninja would look like to show if off in the anime.
I have a proposed explanation for the Legendary Pokemon appearances in things like Post-Game of ORAS or Dynamax. Gen 6 onward has established that Pokemon exists in a Multiverse to explain away things like version differences and remake updates.
The Legendaries were implicitly coming from these locations/universes as-is because of mechanics like Hoopa's rings or the Ultra Warp Ride travel in USUM. My proposal is you are specifically catching not-your-version exclusives from these, explaining away their absence in stories where they'd otherwise logically come up (i.e. the Groudon from some version of Pokemon Sapphire). Rainbow Rocket already establishes universes exist where the Bad Guys win and catch their Mascot Legend, so what about ones where they just exist or get pulled away for you to catch?
This would mostly explain away Pokemon who are hard-confirmed to be unique specimens or whose potential-multiples would be accounted for just by existing (like the Sinjoh Creation Trio's event), though it still could be the explanation for something like seeing Zapdos in a Wormhole as opposed to trekking to some Raid in Kanto like Journeys depicts for seeking one out.
The Legendaries were implicitly coming from these locations/universes as-is because of mechanics like Hoopa's rings or the Ultra Warp Ride travel in USUM. My proposal is you are specifically catching not-your-version exclusives from these, explaining away their absence in stories where they'd otherwise logically come up (i.e. the Groudon from some version of Pokemon Sapphire). Rainbow Rocket already establishes universes exist where the Bad Guys win and catch their Mascot Legend, so what about ones where they just exist or get pulled away for you to catch?
This would mostly explain away Pokemon who are hard-confirmed to be unique specimens or whose potential-multiples would be accounted for just by existing (like the Sinjoh Creation Trio's event), though it still could be the explanation for something like seeing Zapdos in a Wormhole as opposed to trekking to some Raid in Kanto like Journeys depicts for seeking one out.
So I started speculating and text-rambling about Sneasel variants while looking at some stuff for PLA, and whether or not this is a mystery to people who have played more of the game than I have, I want to get this down.
Johto Sneasel vs Hisuian Sneasel and their evolutions are stated to be because of their respective environments, yet we come to the retroactive issue that normal Sneasel is quite prominent in Northern Sinnoh while Hisuian is nowhere to be seen, despite the latter still being capable of surviving in cold environments. Hisui is based on an era of Japanese history that is approximately 600-700 years ago, which in terms of that dramatic a change would not be a very long time for natural selection (a complete change in body structure and losing/heavily downplaying Venomous claws), as well as a change in social/pack structure between the evolutions. The first explanation my mind jumps to is that these are modern Johto Sneasel introduced effectively as invasive species that simply stuck around in the Cold regions rather than Hisuian Sneasel being naturally selected out for them, also explaining how they would basically be identical to naturally occurring Sneasel in another region.
To my memory, Hisuian Sneasel and Sneasler would be the only time we've had a "full-line" Regional Form occurring within a Region where another form of it appears naturally in the Wild (separated by a large time span but not as evolutionary significant as the changes entail), rather than a shared Pre-evolution diverging on Evolve due to environment factors like Marowak or Exeggutor, so it's the first time the two variants co-existing or having one displace the other becomes a legitimate consideration. All the others come from factors like Ultra Wormholes (which take you outside Alola's environment anyway if the evolutions are an indication) or in-game trades.
Johto Sneasel vs Hisuian Sneasel and their evolutions are stated to be because of their respective environments, yet we come to the retroactive issue that normal Sneasel is quite prominent in Northern Sinnoh while Hisuian is nowhere to be seen, despite the latter still being capable of surviving in cold environments. Hisui is based on an era of Japanese history that is approximately 600-700 years ago, which in terms of that dramatic a change would not be a very long time for natural selection (a complete change in body structure and losing/heavily downplaying Venomous claws), as well as a change in social/pack structure between the evolutions. The first explanation my mind jumps to is that these are modern Johto Sneasel introduced effectively as invasive species that simply stuck around in the Cold regions rather than Hisuian Sneasel being naturally selected out for them, also explaining how they would basically be identical to naturally occurring Sneasel in another region.
To my memory, Hisuian Sneasel and Sneasler would be the only time we've had a "full-line" Regional Form occurring within a Region where another form of it appears naturally in the Wild (separated by a large time span but not as evolutionary significant as the changes entail), rather than a shared Pre-evolution diverging on Evolve due to environment factors like Marowak or Exeggutor, so it's the first time the two variants co-existing or having one displace the other becomes a legitimate consideration. All the others come from factors like Ultra Wormholes (which take you outside Alola's environment anyway if the evolutions are an indication) or in-game trades.
Hisui is just presented as being a harsher environment with different chemical make up to live in than modern day Sinnoh across the board. It's mostly a thing told through gameplay only in so far as there's few settlements and pokemon attack you on sight, so you just kind of have to take their word for it. As the environment changes both in landscape and I guess composition, Sneasel leaves those traits behind.
As for why the change is so sudden in a "real time" aspect well. I know this isn't the best answer. But Pokemon are basically already magic when it comes to their evolutions and regional forms, so the same probably applies to response to environmental changes too. The time scale is small but I can also bring over a Vulpix to alola, breed it and then it's popping out keokeos.
I thought that only worked the other way around?
Also, someone brought up Relicanth on another thread, and I was reminded of when I saw someone on Bulbagarden Forums years ago wonder if the people who assigned gender ratios in Gen 3 had no idea what they were doing, which is why Relicanth has the gift Pokémon gender ratio and 1/3 of female Azurill become male upon evolving.
Could very well be the case that Relicanth was originally intended to be a fossil Pokemon like Aerodactyl, but something changed in the planning and the gender ratio was already assigned and not altered. There are exceedingly few remnants of past designs in the final products of Pokemon games, but Relicanth is notably the only instance of a Pokemon with that gender ratio that did not debut as a gift Pokemon.
If you are in that region, all versions of that Pokemon produce Pokemon in that region
So are you in Galar? Normal Meowth & Alola Meowth will always produce Galarian Meowth unless you hold an everstone.
It's...definitely not true, but the robot is probably meant to be like. A non-Pokemon robot. Jugulis is a "machine-Pokemon" hybrid, as the tabloid puts it
Since I got mildly nerd-sniped with that:
- There are only two lines capable of breeding with Hydreigon (Dragon group only) that I would potentially describe as mechanical: the Dreepy line (Dragon and Amourphus) and Duraludon (Dragon and Mineral)
- The only Flying-type (what Jugulis changes to) in the Mineral Egg group with the real robots is the non-robot Minior
- The Mineral group also contains the Fidough line
I have been lurking on these forums for a while, and decided to make a post here.
I have also been thinking about how why the Pokémon that are present in Pokémon Legends Arceus aren't present in the modern day, and have thought of a potential theory for the absence of the new starter trio. I think it is a bit shaky, but there are some detail that could be evidence for it.
For the starters specifically, the reason they aren't found in modern day Sinnoh is that they were never really native to the region in the first place. I think that the new starters could have been brought to Hisui by space time distortions, like the Porygon line or the Jotho form of Sneasel. Similarly to the other Pokémon found in distortion that aren't native to Hisui, the new trio of starters cannot be found in the wild outside of special events. Unlike them though, the new starters can also be found during massive mass outbreaks, which could be evidence against this idea.
While the dex entries for the Hisui variants for the fully evolved starters states that the Hisui forms were caused the Hisui environment, these new form might have not been created by natural selection of the starters while they lived in Hisui. It seems that regional variants that evolve from a non variant prevolution, like Alolain Raichu or Galarian Weezing, seem to be caused by the prevolution being exposed to unique conditions rather than being a more distinct subspecies like the regional forms where all members are regional variants. If a Pokemon like Pikachu is brought to Aloha from another region is evolved into Raichu, it will become an Alolain Raichu. A similar thing happens in reverse when a Pikachu caught in Alola will evolve into a regular Raichu when brought to another region or into ultra space. These specific types of regional variant might be similar to how split evolution works, with the different evolutions just being more similar to each other. This is even eluded to with multiple dex entries for Alolain Raichu
The reason the new starters are not found in modern Sinnoh could be that the distortions stopped bringing them to Sinnoh, and the starters brought into Sinnoh weren't able to establish a stable population and went extinct.
Another possibly that could explain some of the other Hisui Pokemon missing in the modern day is that the pokemon found in platinum regional dex that were missing in legends arceus were introduced to the region later on either through more space time distortions, or through more conventional ways. These new species could have acted as invasive species and caused some of these Pokémon to go extinct.
Considering the large amount of differences between these two regional dexs, I think this theory could be a possibility. Although this could just be because they wanted to add some Pokemon for the Hisui form idea, along with adding and removing other pokemon from the dex in order to suit the game better.
I have also been thinking about how why the Pokémon that are present in Pokémon Legends Arceus aren't present in the modern day, and have thought of a potential theory for the absence of the new starter trio. I think it is a bit shaky, but there are some detail that could be evidence for it.
For the starters specifically, the reason they aren't found in modern day Sinnoh is that they were never really native to the region in the first place. I think that the new starters could have been brought to Hisui by space time distortions, like the Porygon line or the Jotho form of Sneasel. Similarly to the other Pokémon found in distortion that aren't native to Hisui, the new trio of starters cannot be found in the wild outside of special events. Unlike them though, the new starters can also be found during massive mass outbreaks, which could be evidence against this idea.
While the dex entries for the Hisui variants for the fully evolved starters states that the Hisui forms were caused the Hisui environment, these new form might have not been created by natural selection of the starters while they lived in Hisui. It seems that regional variants that evolve from a non variant prevolution, like Alolain Raichu or Galarian Weezing, seem to be caused by the prevolution being exposed to unique conditions rather than being a more distinct subspecies like the regional forms where all members are regional variants. If a Pokemon like Pikachu is brought to Aloha from another region is evolved into Raichu, it will become an Alolain Raichu. A similar thing happens in reverse when a Pikachu caught in Alola will evolve into a regular Raichu when brought to another region or into ultra space. These specific types of regional variant might be similar to how split evolution works, with the different evolutions just being more similar to each other. This is even eluded to with multiple dex entries for Alolain Raichu
The Hisusi forms for the starters could have been adaptations that were evolved for a different region that has a similar enough environment to Hisui for the Hisui form to be able to show up. Or the Hisui forms were not evolved as an adaptation, and the environment of Hisui being able to affect the starters in this way is just a odd emergent property of these Pokémon. Possibly similar to how some item based evolution work.
The reason the new starters are not found in modern Sinnoh could be that the distortions stopped bringing them to Sinnoh, and the starters brought into Sinnoh weren't able to establish a stable population and went extinct.
The pokedex entry for Oshawott specially mentions it being from Unova, a detail that would be somewhat odd if it was already native to the region
The reasoning given for how the environment of Hisui causes Hisui Typhlosion feel more fitting for the possibly that these new forms are odd occurrences rather than the result of adaptations to the environment.
The evolutions of Magnazone, Probopass, and Vikavolt are caused by exposure to magnetic field found in certain areas
this method feels similar to how Hisui Typhlosion was described, just with a different phenomenon causing the evolution
Eevee evolving into Glaceon or Leafeon by being close to either the ice rock or moss rock.
The evolution of Crabominable by being in a cold area
A similar thing happens with the entry for Cyndaquil
The pokedex entry for Hisui Samurott mentions that the form is not common, which could be hinting at how the new starters having a very small population in Hisui, which would be evidence towards them being in Hisui due to the distortions rather than being naturally found in Hisui.
The entry for Dartix explicitly mentions it struggling with the cold climate of Hisui, which would make more sense if the species only recently moved to the region.
While all three entries for the final evolutions of the starters mentions them being due to the influence of the environment of Hisui, it is never explicitly stated that this is due to natural selection
The usage of the word evolution in this context could be referencing more so to the evolution mechanic than the process of evolution the word refers to normally.
The reasoning given for how the environment of Hisui causes Hisui Typhlosion feel more fitting for the possibly that these new forms are odd occurrences rather than the result of adaptations to the environment.
along with the example of other regional variants, there are some other Pokémon that have evolutions caused by being in different environmental conditions
The evolutions of Magnazone, Probopass, and Vikavolt are caused by exposure to magnetic field found in certain areas
this method feels similar to how Hisui Typhlosion was described, just with a different phenomenon causing the evolution
Eevee evolving into Glaceon or Leafeon by being close to either the ice rock or moss rock.
The evolution of Crabominable by being in a cold area
This post present a similar idea, and I would imagine that this phenomenon could possibly have happened at a larger scale. With multiple new Pokémon species being introduced to Sinnoh, and then resulting into the pokemon added in Legends Arceus going extinct.
Goldeen line
Meditite line
Hoothoot line
Wooper line
Wingull line
Girafarig line
Azurill line
Feebas line
Swablu line
Houndour line
Tropius line
Absol
Meditite line
Hoothoot line
Wooper line
Wingull line
Girafarig line
Azurill line
Feebas line
Swablu line
Houndour line
Tropius line
Absol
Magnemite line
Johto Sneasel line
Porygon is only found in the trophy garden or as a gift so it might not count
Johto Sneasel line
Porygon is only found in the trophy garden or as a gift so it might not count
Rowlet line
Cyndaquil line
Oshawott line
Stantler line
Paras line
Hisui Qwilfish line
Petilil line
Teddiursa line
Goomy line
Spheal line
Hisui Growlithe line
Basculin line
Vulpix line
Hisui Voltorb line
Hisui Sneasel line
Bergmite line
Hisui Zorua line
Hisui Rufflet line
The genie quartet
The original Sinnoh starters might also count since they are only found in the wild in legends arceus
Some of these Pokemon can be found in the grand underground in the remakes but since they added every Pokemon up to gen four in there, I'm not sure how that would affect this theory.
Cyndaquil line
Oshawott line
Stantler line
Paras line
Hisui Qwilfish line
Petilil line
Teddiursa line
Goomy line
Spheal line
Hisui Growlithe line
Basculin line
Vulpix line
Hisui Voltorb line
Hisui Sneasel line
Bergmite line
Hisui Zorua line
Hisui Rufflet line
The genie quartet
The original Sinnoh starters might also count since they are only found in the wild in legends arceus
Some of these Pokemon can be found in the grand underground in the remakes but since they added every Pokemon up to gen four in there, I'm not sure how that would affect this theory.
In general a lot of these mysteries could just be because of game design reasons, but it is interesting to speculate and think about these things.
Goldeen seems like a interesting one to me since it range in Sinnoh has gone from not being in the region at all, to being found in many areas when fishing.
The Wingull line is known to eat fish Pokemon so they could have hunted the White-Striped Basculin and the Hisui form of Qwilfish to extinction. Although I think it's less likely for Hisui Qwilfish considering it being poisonous and it's aggressive behavior would discourage hunting it. I think a combination of competition from goldeen and wingull hunting was what caused the extinction of White-Striped Basculin
I'm not that sure on what impact the hoothoot line had. One possibility is that hoothoot caused Hisui Braviary to go extinct considering that Noctowl can found in areas that are likely located in the Alabaster Icelands, where Hisui Braviary lives. Another possiblity for Hisui Braviary extinction is that it's dex entry mentions hunting Pokemon living in lakes.
A interesting detail is that Magicarp seems to be more common in modern Sinnoh than in Hisui. In most games and in modern Sinnoh Magikarp can be found in every body of water, which fits many of it's descriptions in the games as being able to live in any body of water. But in legends Arceus it is absent from two of the main areas of the game, the Crimsom Mirelands and the Alabaster Icelands. The possible expansion of it's range, either through Gyarados being able to fly allowing in to migrate to new bodies of water and establish new populations of Magikarp, it being accidently released into new habitats, or even through spacetime distortions, could have also had a impact on the ecosystem of Sinnoh.
Goldeen seems like a interesting one to me since it range in Sinnoh has gone from not being in the region at all, to being found in many areas when fishing.
The Wingull line is known to eat fish Pokemon so they could have hunted the White-Striped Basculin and the Hisui form of Qwilfish to extinction. Although I think it's less likely for Hisui Qwilfish considering it being poisonous and it's aggressive behavior would discourage hunting it. I think a combination of competition from goldeen and wingull hunting was what caused the extinction of White-Striped Basculin
I'm not that sure on what impact the hoothoot line had. One possibility is that hoothoot caused Hisui Braviary to go extinct considering that Noctowl can found in areas that are likely located in the Alabaster Icelands, where Hisui Braviary lives. Another possiblity for Hisui Braviary extinction is that it's dex entry mentions hunting Pokemon living in lakes.
Considering that you find the Hisui Braviary naturally in the Alabaster Icelands, the lakes referenced to in it's entry is likely Lake Acuity along with other unseen lakes that are similar to it in the Alabaster Icelands. Lake Acuity has only White-Striped Basculin living in the water during Legends Arceus. So the extinction of White-Striped Basculin could have led to the extinction of Hisui Braviary. In modern Sinnoh White-Striped Basculin has been replaced with golduck, magicarp, and interestingly goldeen. The extinction of Hisui Braviary could have been a knock on effect caused by the introduction of goldeen causing White-Striped Basculin, the main prey of Hisui Braviary, to go extinct.
A interesting detail is that Magicarp seems to be more common in modern Sinnoh than in Hisui. In most games and in modern Sinnoh Magikarp can be found in every body of water, which fits many of it's descriptions in the games as being able to live in any body of water. But in legends Arceus it is absent from two of the main areas of the game, the Crimsom Mirelands and the Alabaster Icelands. The possible expansion of it's range, either through Gyarados being able to fly allowing in to migrate to new bodies of water and establish new populations of Magikarp, it being accidently released into new habitats, or even through spacetime distortions, could have also had a impact on the ecosystem of Sinnoh.
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Hmm, maybe, but I have a different theory...
Cause nothing screams messing with reality more than an eldritch abomination mixed with a Biblical accurate angel.
Relicanth's whole thing is that it's a living fossil like its inspiration, the Coelacanth. It's a Pokemon thought to have gone extinct, but found still living in a remote location. Interestingly, Kabuto is mentioned have some surviving specimens in some dex entries.
Unless all of these dex entries were a lead up to the Crown Tundra having released revived Kabuto in the wild, I'm still on my "Ancient Pokemon were just commonly Rock types" stance.
Kabuto is based on horsehoe crabs, which have also changed little in hundreds of millions of years.
What I was getting at is that some programmer might've looked at Relicanth's type and mistook it for a fossil.
What I was getting at is that some programmer might've looked at Relicanth's type and mistook it for a fossil.
Interestingly, there are also current-time crinoids (lileep's inspiration) that closely resemble the fossil record, though they're rarer and usually deep-sea (most present crinoids don't have a stalk and free-swimming rather than anchored to the ground)
Apparently ammonoids and nautilouds split pretty early so the Helix Fossil is out of luck despite the visual resemblance.
Apparently ammonoids and nautilouds split pretty early so the Helix Fossil is out of luck despite the visual resemblance.
Of course, but between "the developers assigned Relicanth a gift Pokémon gender ratio by mistake" and "Relicanth was assigned the gift Pokémon gender ratio because it was planned to be a gift Pokémon, and was changed later on without being updated", I'm going to go with the latter theory regardless of Relicanth's design origin. I did a book report on coelacanths precisely because of Relicanth, so I'm pretty familiar with its basis.