In-game head canon

[Wukong]

This is a kind of weird topic but I thought I'd throw it out there. I was wondering if when playing the games, anyone has any weird head canon to try to rationalize certain aspects of the games. There are two examples I wanted to bring up:

1. Rivals - I always found it incongruous that someone could be considered a rival when you just constantly beat them over and over again. So I like to imagine that even if I beat my rival in certain encounters in-game, I actually lose those battles in my head. For example, in Platinum I imagine I lose the battle to Barry in Canalave City so that it adds more weight to defeating him at the Pokémon League. Or in Emerald, losing the battle to May on Route 119 so there's more significance to the final battle in Lilycove City. Those are just a couple examples but if I face my rival seven times let's say, I try to imagine losing three times along the way at the most sensible points in order to rationalize calling this person a "rival". Otherwise it feels like a big hole to me. It's made especially worse by the fact that your rival's ace more often than not has a type advantage over your ace. So beating them constantly just doesn't add up for me.

2. Battle structure - It's hard for me to make sense of certain battles when I have a full team of six and my opponent only has two or three Pokémon. Like, of course I'm going to win. So I imagine the battle structure is instead a best of five, best of three, or one v. one matchups based on how many Pokémon are available on each side. For example against Byron in Platinum I choose three of my Pokémon to go up against his three and whoever gets to two wins first, wins the match. If I just gang up on him with six Pokémon I have too much of an advantage to feel good about winning in the end.

Anyway, those are couple quirks in my head I can think of when playing the games. Maybe I'm the only one but I'm curious to hear if anyone else has any they can think of.

 

[The Mind Electric]

I've talked about this before in another thread, but I headcanon that the process of catching a Pokémon in-game is the Pokémon testing the trainer's worth. That's why demonstrating your battle prowess by weakening it and using status makes you more likely to catch it. Pokémon with lower catch rates have higher standards. Once the Pokémon thinks you're good enough, it joins because it's now willing to be a potentially life-long partner with you because it trusts you to treat it well, which makes sense because it's well-established in Pokémon lore that being nice to your Pokémon makes you a stronger trainer (this is literally true in gen 7 with Pokémon Refresh).

 

[Wukong]

I've talked about this before in another thread, but I headcanon that the process of catching a Pokémon in-game is the Pokémon testing the trainer's worth. That's why demonstrating your battle prowess by weakening it and using status makes you more likely to catch it. Pokémon with lower catch rates have higher standards. Once the Pokémon thinks you're good enough, it joins because it's now willing to be a potentially life-long partner with you because it trusts you to treat it well, which makes sense because it's well-established in Pokémon lore that being nice to your Pokémon makes you a stronger trainer (this is literally true in gen 7 with Pokémon Refresh).

Just curious - how do you rationalize gift Pokémon?

 

[Hugin]

Maria Sharapova is considered to have a rivalry going with Serena Williams. Her record is 2-19, and the last time Sharapova won against Ms. Williams was 2005. Given that, Calem considering himself Serena's rival doesn't seem too egregious, since he only loses 5 times in a row.

The protag is actually special. Especially in early gens, it's pretty easy to figure that most kids get a mon, spend a couple months backpacking across the region, get like 3 badges, and return home with a newfound skill with rock types or whatever and have a good path for college laid out. The protag getting a team of 6, swapping half of them out after evolving them for stuff that's even better, and rocking up to the E4 with a Raikou as their weakest is the sort of thing that leads to real-world news articles saying stuff like "following her victory in the robotics competition over both the MIT and CalTech teams, 11 year old Mala has been offered a personalized learning opportunity at Microsoft".

 

[The Mind Electric]

Just curious - how do you rationalize gift Pokémon?

"Well, I don't know who this trainer is, but my old trainer trusts them enough to give me to them, so I guess they must be worthy."

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Just curious - how do you rationalize gift Pokémon?

"Well, I don't know who this trainer is, but my old trainer trusts them enough to give me to them, so I guess they must be worthy."

I don't think they are the old trainer's Pokemon (at least in the vast majority of cases). Most of the time it's someone saying "I found this [Pokemon], but I'm not a trainer and/or I haven't been able to bond with it. Could you take it?"

This is why gift Pokemon typically take on your ID number rather than the giver's. It wasn't ever truly their Pokemon; it didn't consider them its trainer, but it's willing to go with you. Contrarily, Pokemon like Webster's Spearow or Kirk's Shuckle retain their old ID numbers because they're explicitly not yours. Even when Kirk allows you to keep his Shuckle, it's more that he (and it) realises it'll do better with you as opposed to him outright giving it to you.

 

[MrHands]

Pokémon are slaves and the Elite 4 run a weird Left Libertarian - Socialist hellhole that only appears to be a utopia because you are a 10 year old that is forced into service by an aging professor to fill out an encyclopedia that has less validity and fact checking than Wikipedia.

We all know the Elite 4 are the unofficial government of the Pokémon world. They run the league from the ground up. There are little to no income taxes in the Pokémon world but all the government money comes from Pokemon battles. Electricians, Rockers, Actors, Engineers, Janitors, Cooks, Office Workers and so on all run the 9-5s and pull in cash. They fight Pokemon battles, occasionally spar with gym leaders, and lose. The money they pay goes to either field trainers or gym leaders. Field trainers gradually lose to gym leaders as well. But eventually all the money goes to the Elite 4. The Elite 4 use this money to fund the league, building huge stadiums and funding the famous socialist healthcare system, also known as Pokémon Centers. Naturally the Elite 4 live in a grand castle far from the struggles of you and me.

Common social services like unemployment, human healthcare, and even roads appear to be underfunded. How many dirt paths infested by Pokémon have you travelled? Even just travelling town to town is typically a life threatening event unless you do what the Elite 4 wants and enslave a few of your own battle pigs. Might as well gamble your money along the way in a Pokémon blood sport battle. Wake up sheeple. This is what they want! FIGHT. ENSLAVE. OBEY.

Oh and Pokémon? Absolutely slaves. Imagine you're walking in the woods. You come across a wild Pikachu. Your first reaction, despite having the opportunity to click "Run" with almost zero risk, is to click Tackle and beat this thing to death. You manage to poison it and bring it to the absolute brink of unconsciousness. Yet still the Pikachu fights. It will fight until it runs out of PP and literally struggles itself to death. Why? Why does it fight for freedom? Because it does not like you, and it does not want to live in a tiny ball. But that doesn't matter. Not unlike a wild stallion you have shattered its ability to resist. You throw a Pokeball, or if you're particularly nefarious a Friend Ball. The Pokeball obliterates the Pokemon's willpower and bends it to your will. If you used a Friend Ball it even goes as far as convincing the Pokemon that you're its buddy. The next time you send the Pokémon out of the ball it obeys your very command. Why? Because that's what Pokeballs do. They digitalize the slave and re-organize the data to understand that it must obey you. It brands it with a league-authorized trainer ID number that only works with you and forces it into PC digitalization forever. Of course the Pokemon league states that wild Pokémon are jealous of trained Pokémon. They want to have a trainer. They love fighting in the battle pits of Kanto. Do you believe this? This is what the Elite 4 wants you to think!! Just do what the trusted dragon trainer in a cape says! Don't think, just CATCH 'EM ALL.

Wake up! Put on the glasses. See the world for what it is. Team Rocket is the only justice in this cruel world. One day we will all be free.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Rivals - I always found it incongruous that someone could be considered a rival when you just constantly beat them over and over again. So I like to imagine that even if I beat my rival in certain encounters in-game, I actually lose those battles in my head.

Let's first read the definition of rival:

• Noun: A person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.
• Verb: Be or seem to be equal or comparable to.

Competing with the player for the same objective? Check.
Competing with the player for superiority in the same field/activity? Check.
Are seemingly/compared equally to the player? Check.

Well checks out, and nothing says the Rival has to beat the player at any point. And to me that doesn't make them any less of a challenge, they're at the very least better than random trainers and in-lore are or at least have the capability of beating the Gym Leaders as well as the player does (and some post games have them participating in prestigious battling facilities only the toughest of trainers are allowed to battle in).

Heck, in recent games they sort of make this a plot point. Serena/Calem in Kalos, Hau in Alola, and now Hop in Galar, at some point all of them start feeling down on themselves because they keep losing to the player (and doesn't Trace in Let's Go also start feeling a bit inferior at some point before becoming Champion?).

Battle structure - It's hard for me to make sense of certain battles when I have a full team of six and my opponent only has two or three Pokémon.

In-lore would make sense for both trainers to agree to a certain amount of Pokemon. There could be a way I see them allowing the player to use all of their Pokemon:

• Random NPCs: Since battles aren't adjudicated, they're less serious so trainers with less Pokemon are okay with trainers with more using all their Pokemon to just see how far they could get or see if they could overcome a disadvantageous scenario. What do they have to lose aside from some pocket change and trip to the Pokemon Center?
• Rivals: As all rivals usually mention they want to push both themselves and the player to their limits they thus have no limits on amount of Pokemon used. It also gives them an excuse of, if they lose, well they have less Pokemon than you thus have room to grow (you beating their Pokemon without having any of your faint/only one only means you had more options and just so happened to have the "right" Pokemon to counter their team).
• Gym Leaders: As they're meant to be judges of a trainer capability, they allow trainers to use as many Pokemon as they want (up to the official six limit) as they're more "judging" the trainer on their tactics and bond with their Pokemon (you still got to beat them of course). If you can't beat them using an agreed amount of Pokemon (presumably using the Pokemon best against the Type they specialize in), you likely couldn't beat with a full team (at least in their thinking; and if you scraped through with the skin of your teeth that shows you in this moment at least had the gusto to pull through... but likely won't serve you well against the next stronger trainer).
• Villain Team: Easy enough, they're the bad guys, rules kind of go out the window and they should be lucky you just don't send out all of your Pokemon to detain them.
• Elite Four/Champion: As a gauntlet challenge, it's not that one of them thinks they can beat you on their own. If you're good enough to get to the Pokemon League than you've proven you know what to do against Type specialists. Now the challenge is a game of resource management as you either gotta decide that any damage your team sustained isn't major enough to heal before the next battle or gotta burn through items to keep your team in tip-top shape (while usually HP and status ailments are a problem, PP can be since PP restoring items are limited unless you farmed for Lum Berries). And with the Champion the point is moot as they use six Pokemon, though they're after the gauntlet so who knows how much PP you have left and/or may have ran out if Revives and some of your Pokemon are fainted.

I headcanon that the process of catching a Pokémon in-game is the Pokémon testing the trainer's worth.

Makes sense, I'll also add my own headcanon here now:

When Pokemon "Faint" They Aren't Unconscious/Seriously Hurt: Infact Faint is probably a misnomer, it's more that the Pokemon no longer wants to battle as continuing battle will lead to actual serious injury. A Pokemon's HP bar isn't their actual "health" but more of a metaphysical representation of the amount of energy they're willing/are exerting to battle with. Now depending on whether the Pokemon is wild of tamed depends on how they act when it depletes. A Wild Pokemon's instinct is to immediately retreat after getting knocked back; your own Pokemon also instinctively know they're done battling and will refuse to battle with the Pokemon anymore. For tamed Pokemon, knowing their trainer will recall them back into their Poke Ball, the Pokemon starts their resting process to begin healing up; once again the other trainer's Pokemon instinctively knows to no longer continue the battle with the Pokemon. This is also why you can check on your Pokemon in the stat screen & even have them use a field move: they're just now tired and don't want to battle or do any intensive interaction unless they absolutely have to. It's also because of this why Pokemon Battling is acceptable: Pokemon aren't being seriously hurt and they know instinctively when to stop fighting so serious injury doesn't occur.

Just curious - how do you rationalize gift Pokémon?

With green_typhlosion pointing out that not all Gift Pokemon are owned by the person which gives them over, it's likely Gift Pokemon are Pokemon which have decided they wanted to form a bond with a person to become stronger and are just waiting for the first trainer to come along. They first usually end up either befriending a human they trust/have helped or in some cases were rescued by a human from an unfavorable situation so have formed some trust with them. But sometimes they do so with humans who aren't trainers thus the human is trusted to look out for a strong trainer which ends up to be the player character. Pokemon likely can sense either a person's "power level" and/or the "power level" of the Pokemon travelling with them, thus having a general idea that the player is indeed a strong trainer they can form a bond with and become stronger.

Wake up! Put on the glasses. See the world for what it is. Team Rocket is the only justice in this cruel world. One day we will all be free.

#GhetsisDidn'tDoAnythingWrong

 

[Chadlad50]

My headcanon is that Pokemon sizes can vary heavily, and that most sizes in the Pokedex are just the smallest one found, or maybe an average

It's the only way I can rationalize 3'11 Lucario/Infernape and 4'7 Nidoking

 

[Wukong]

Pokémon are slaves and the Elite 4 run a weird Left Libertarian - Socialist hellhole that only appears to be a utopia because you are a 10 year old that is forced into service by an aging professor to fill out an encyclopedia that has less validity and fact checking than Wikipedia.

We all know the Elite 4 are the unofficial government of the Pokémon world. They run the league from the ground up. There are little to no income taxes in the Pokémon world but all the government money comes from Pokemon battles. Electricians, Rockers, Actors, Engineers, Janitors, Cooks, Office Workers and so on all run the 9-5s and pull in cash. They fight Pokemon battles, occasionally spar with gym leaders, and lose. The money they pay goes to either field trainers or gym leaders. Field trainers gradually lose to gym leaders as well. But eventually all the money goes to the Elite 4. The Elite 4 use this money to fund the league, building huge stadiums and funding the famous socialist healthcare system, also known as Pokémon Centers. Naturally the Elite 4 live in a grand castle far from the struggles of you and me.

Common social services like unemployment, human healthcare, and even roads appear to be underfunded. How many dirt paths infested by Pokémon have you travelled? Even just travelling town to town is typically a life threatening event unless you do what the Elite 4 wants and enslave a few of your own battle pigs. Might as well gamble your money along the way in a Pokémon blood sport battle. Wake up sheeple. This is what they want! FIGHT. ENSLAVE. OBEY.

Oh and Pokémon? Absolutely slaves. Imagine you're walking in the woods. You come across a wild Pikachu. Your first reaction, despite having the opportunity to click "Run" with almost zero risk, is to click Tackle and beat this thing to death. You manage to poison it and bring it to the absolute brink of unconsciousness. Yet still the Pikachu fights. It will fight until it runs out of PP and literally struggles itself to death. Why? Why does it fight for freedom? Because it does not like you, and it does not want to live in a tiny ball. But that doesn't matter. Not unlike a wild stallion you have shattered its ability to resist. You throw a Pokeball, or if you're particularly nefarious a Friend Ball. The Pokeball obliterates the Pokemon's willpower and bends it to your will. If you used a Friend Ball it even goes as far as convincing the Pokemon that you're its buddy. The next time you send the Pokémon out of the ball it obeys your very command. Why? Because that's what Pokeballs do. They digitalize the slave and re-organize the data to understand that it must obey you. It brands it with a league-authorized trainer ID number that only works with you and forces it into PC digitalization forever. Of course the Pokemon league states that wild Pokémon are jealous of trained Pokémon. They want to have a trainer. They love fighting in the battle pits of Kanto. Do you believe this? This is what the Elite 4 wants you to think!! Just do what the trusted dragon trainer in a cape says! Don't think, just CATCH 'EM ALL.

Wake up! Put on the glasses. See the world for what it is. Team Rocket is the only justice in this cruel world. One day we will all be free.

View attachment 371570

I actually like your head canon governmental structure. Yes it's oppressive in many ways, but I like it in the context of the games setting up a nice underdog narrative between you and the big, bad Elite Four.

The "Pokémon as slaves" one I'm not so sure. I think it's more complex which is kind of what makes BW's plot so interesting. Ultimately though I see Pokémon as very aggressive pets. Imagine owning a cat or dog that has a literal lust to fight other animals otherwise it cannot be happy. Some mons have a higher fighting instinct than others but they all ultimately seek out fights as a means of growth. And it's your job as a trainer to pave the way for your mons by finding them the best opportunities to grow and flourish. Kind of like a coach in a way. The way your mons select you as worthy coach/trainer is like how The Mind Electric described it earlier.

My headcanon is that Pokemon sizes can vary heavily, and that most sizes in the Pokedex are just the smallest one found, or maybe an average

It's the only way I can rationalize 3'11 Lucario and 4'7 Nidoking

I just throw Pokedex heights out the window to be honest. Even averages wouldn't solve the problem. Smallest might I guess but then I would have to ask why the dex only lists the smallest and not the largest, or a range? It's just better left ignored to me.

Let's first read the definition of rival:

Competing with the player for the same objective? Check.
Competing with the player for superiority in the same field/activity? Check.
Are seemingly/compared equally to the player? Check.

Well checks out, and nothing says the Rival has to beat the player at any point. And to me that doesn't make them any less of a challenge, they're at the very least better than random trainers and in-lore are or at least have the capability of beating the Gym Leaders as well as the player does (and some post games have them participating in prestigious battling facilities only the toughest of trainers are allowed to battle in).

Heck, in recent games they sort of make this a plot point. Serena/Calem in Kalos, Hau in Alola, and now Hop in Galar, at some point all of them start feeling down on themselves because they keep losing to the player (and doesn't Trace in Let's Go also start feeling a bit inferior at some point before becoming Champion?).

I respectfully disagree with this entire argument. First of all, of the three points you brought up in your "definition of a rival" the last point is my main point of contention. I would not say that's "checked off" unless there's some way to imagine in my head that my rival actually beats me at certain points. Otherwise I can't consider them anywhere close to an equal. Two tennis players might be competing for the same objective and vying for superiority in the same field of tennis, but unless their head to head win-loss record is somewhat close to equal it would be difficult for me to consider them true rivals.

Furthermore, just because recent rivals feeling inferior to you has been a plot point in recent games, doesn't make that a good thing necessarily. Trace frankly is not a good rival at all compared to RBYFRLG Blue in my opinion. And as far as "friendly" rivals are concerned, Barry and the Gen 5 rivals were far better executed than the recent generation rivals to me. The older rivals all had one thing in common and that was a competitive spirit to push you and be considered your peer or equal. Which I could actually get behind as long as I could imagine losing to them every once in a while.

 

[Pikachu315111]

First of all, of the three points you brought up in your "definition of a rival" the last point is my main point of contention. I would not say that's "checked off" unless there's some way to imagine in my head that my rival actually beats me at certain points. Otherwise I can't consider them anywhere close to an equal.

An important word you probably overlooked was "seemingly". Just because YOU don't consider them equal rivals doesn't mean EVERYONE ELSE sees them as such. Taking your tennis player anology:

Two tennis players might be competing for the same objective and vying for superiority in the same field of tennis, but unless their head to head win-loss record is somewhat close to equal it would be difficult for me to consider them true rivals.

Okay, so these two tennis players have a very uneven win-loss record, possibly even completely one sided. But, what if the "losing" tennis player still was so good that, aside from the "winning" tennis player, they easily are able to beat anyone else. They're #2 and have the positioned pretty secure, players #3, #4, & #5 ain't anywhere close to the top 2 spots. #2 can't really get any better against the ones below them, the only one that's giving them a challenge is the one in #1. Meanwhile, #1 may have a very good/perfect win record, but #2 is still constantly at their heel and could maybe even beat them if not focused. Its because of that fact that #2 is considered #1's rival, to everyone else there are no two better players. In addition #2 and #1 inspire each other to improve themselves and play their hardest, a thing which having a rival makes you want to do.

There are different types of rivals. Yes, there are rivals where you're equally as good and share win-losses with one another. But there's also rivals where one is slightly more superior than the other yet both are still better than everyone else. (And then there's also rivalries where each rival has something they're better at than the other; but I feel that's besides the point).

Question: If they introduced a recurring game character where they're programmed to always be better than you, would you consider them a rival? Their Pokemon are always a few levels higher, they have a full party, superior moveset if not possibly a competitive moveset, it's pretty much setup so that there's no way without cheating for you to win against them. You're #2 now, just barely behind but never able to quite beat them until possibly end game/post game. And when you beat them, that's it, they decide to move on to another region not interested in having a rematch. What would you consider a scenario like that?

 

[Chadlad50]

I just throw Pokedex heights out the window to be honest. Even averages wouldn't solve the problem. Smallest might I guess but then I would have to ask why the dex only lists the smallest and not the largest, or a range? It's just better left ignored to me.

True, none of the "solutions" fix 11'6 Giraffe sized Groudon

 

[Wukong]

An important word you probably overlooked was "seemingly". Just because YOU don't consider them equal rivals doesn't mean EVERYONE ELSE sees them as such. Taking your tennis player anology:

Okay, so these two tennis players have a very uneven win-loss record, possibly even completely one sided. But, what if the "losing" tennis player still was so good that, aside from the "winning" tennis player, they easily are able to beat anyone else. They're #2 and have the positioned pretty secure, players #3, #4, & #5 ain't anywhere close to the top 2 spots. #2 can't really get any better against the ones below them, the only one that's giving them a challenge is the one in #1. Meanwhile, #1 may have a very good/perfect win record, but #2 is still constantly at their heel and could maybe even beat them if not focused. Its because of that fact that #2 is considered #1's rival, to everyone else there are no two better players. In addition #2 and #1 inspire each other to improve themselves and play their hardest, a thing which having a rival makes you want to do.

There are different types of rivals. Yes, there are rivals where you're equally as good and share win-losses with one another. But there's also rivals where one is slightly more superior than the other yet both are still better than everyone else. (And then there's also rivalries where each rival has something they're better at than the other; but I feel that's besides the point).

In men's tennis there was a time when Andy Murray was consistently fourth behind Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He was clearly better than everyone else but also a clear step below the top three. That doesn't mean he was a "rival" of the Big Three necessarily. Michael Jordan in his prime was sometimes challenged by Charles Barkley and Karl Malone in the NBA Finals. That doesn't mean they were rivals of his the same way Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were.

I just prefer a more equal rival who keeps me in check in my head, rather than a completely one sided rivalry that makes me look a little too special compared to everyone else.

Question: If they introduced a recurring game character where they're programmed to always be better than you, would you consider them a rival? Their Pokemon are always a few levels higher, they have a full party, superior moveset if not possibly a competitive moveset, it's pretty much setup so that there's no way without cheating for you to win against them. You're #2 now, just barely behind but never able to quite beat them until possibly end game/post game. And when you beat them, that's it, they decide to move on to another region not interested in having a rematch. What would you consider a scenario like that?

I don't really get the point of this example, sorry? Anyway, I wouldn't consider that person a rival. I would consider that person clearly better than you, who you just so happened to beat one time out of several. That person is still a clearly superior trainer.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I don't really get the point of this example, sorry?

At this point I think we should just agree to disagree.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

My headcanon is that Pokemon sizes can vary heavily, and that most sizes in the Pokedex are just the smallest one found, or maybe an average

It's the only way I can rationalize 3'11 Lucario/Infernape and 4'7 Nidoking

This, but for evolution levels.

Pokemon evolve at a fixed level in-game for the convenience of the player (seriously, imagine if Venusaur evolved not at level 32, but at any random level between 28 and 36. The Internet would be flooded with people going "whY hASn't My vENuSAUr eVoLvED????11??1?") but in reality, I think evolutionary levels don't really exist; they're a broad descriptor of when a Pokemon will change, much as we assign broad ages to human development. When we say "children lose most of their baby teeth by the age of 14" it doesn't mean that that's literally the case for all children. I knew people who had a full set by 13 and people who were still losing them at 15.

So when you meet that scrubby Bug Catcher who has a Kakuna that long since should have evolved (there's even one in HGSS who has a Metapod at level 60) then that means that they're just a really shit trainer who can't raise a Pokemon well. Sure, some of them might be deliberately holding back on evolution because that's mentioned constantly - every game has at least one NPC who tells you that evolving quickly means potentially losing out on new moves - but in general, particularly with weaker trainers, it's plausible that their weakness is why their Pokemon is overlevelled for its evolutionary stage.

This provides a handy explanation for why some Pokemon can be caught extremely underlevelled, and why some trainers occasionally have underlevelled mons. Lance is the most obvious example. Some people theorise that Team Rocket's radio signal forced Lance's Dragonite to evolve early, but I'm more inclined to go with the option that, as a Dragon master, he's able to get the most out of his Dragonite and evolved it earlier than most people are able to.

This ties into what I said on another thread recently about levels fluctuating; I think they can drop, too. Much as a muscle needs to be used to stay strong, I think a Pokemon at a high experience level needs to battle frequently to stay strong. (Again, the reason this doesn't happen to the player is for gameplay reasons.) It's possible that Lance evolved his Dragonite long before he met the player and it hadn't properly battled in a good long while, thus its level dropped from 55 to 40.

 

[bdt2002]

I think Dragapult has a pretty cool head cannon. It literally shoots its own children from it!



Oh wait, that’s not what we’re talking about? Ugh, fine. All jokes aside, maybe I’m getting the definition of a head-canon mixed up, but if I had to pick from my list, I’d say that my 13 Tiered League idea is far and away the most interesting.

Basically, this head-canon of mine considers the idea that the eight Gym Leaders of a region and the five members of that region’s Pokémon League have a sort of system to rank each of those Trainers compared to one another. Ranks 13 through 6 all go to the Gym Leaders, ordered by strength and team levels and whatever else. I am aware of the whole thing from Pokémon Origins where Gym Leaders ask how many Badges a challenger has, but even then, there’s still plenty of them to rank if we so desired. Ranks 5 through 2 go to the Elite Four, with the stronger ones being fought later in the Indigo, Hoenn, and Sinnoh Leagues. And of course, Rank 1 goes to the Champion.

Believe it or not, we have seen evidence of this kind of thing many times before. There’s been more obvious cases like Koga going from a fifth-tier Gym Leader to second-tier Elite Four member, but also more obscure things like Sinnoh’s own Volkner being recognized as Sinnoh’s strongest Gym Leader despite the whole Pokémon Origins thing. What’s stopping a person from Volkner being their first Gym Battle if they live nearby?

Some other key examples:
-Iris went from Tier 6 to Tier 1 in the Gen 5 gap
-Bruno went up one Tier in the Johto games
-Blue went down some Tiers after being Champion
-Sinnoh’s Aaron was previously a Bug Gym leader
-Byron ranks higher than his son Roark

 

[Bakugames]

Starters are the dogs of the pokémon world: species domesticated and bred for human needs.

First, we have that the starter types are all the three most desired types early humans would want to use. grass for agriculture and plant resources, water for sea transportation and irrigation, fire for cooking, building, and combat. Electric would have been a fourth, but I assume it'd take a while for humans to be able to harvest and use electricity, even when electric monsters exist.

Second, they are almost non-existant in the wild. Only let's go has had its native starter species appear in the wild. Island scan features non-alolan starters in its pool, but it seems to be a feature that references invasive species, so the starters were probably abandoned or bred without environmental stresses.

Third, though it is a smaller point, is that starters are becoming less of random monsters and more of animals directly linked to the human culture of the region in some way.

So here's the entire headcanon:

- Starters have been domesticated for humans for a long time, though some groups were influenced by others to domesticate their own species, after learning others are doing it, rather than being a total coincidence. They were used in early human development

- These starters have changed through the years to fit whatever humans were breeding for, and are probably unrecognizable from their ancestors. I assume Darwinistic evolution happens at a faster pace since the pokémon are affected by magical types which would cause more severe changes in shorter spans of time.

- As humans became more independent of the starters due to technology, and the advent of more expanded entertainment (not only pokémon battles slowly becoming more popular but also sports, music, literature, etc), starters started to reflect less of working partners and more of a mix of fighters and also able to be used in entertainment and at home.

- The amount of change depends sorely on the region. Japan-inspired regions valued tradition and kept their starters pretty much the same, in the same way, older parts of the culture are still present and practiced today.
Unova's starters were bred mostly for battling, taking inspiration from other places to refine and optimize battling techniques. Despite the advancement of battle and war, the starters were kept as it is for historical value, and are already considered peak pokémon battling performance.
Kalos' starters turned into symbols of the culture, literature, and theater influence of the olden days. A blast of the past
Alola reflects the modernization of old sports and shows that were always popular but slowly evolved and changed, and so did its starters.
Galar starters reflect the pop and Contemporanea status of Galar culture. Unlike other starters, Galar's change constantly to follow modern traditions closely, rather than needing to catch up. Scorbunny is a soccer player now but maybe something completely different in the future

- Starters are bred in captivity and given to capable trainers. However, older starters or those who aren't fit for pokémon battle are directed to adoption centers focused on people who wish to have them as pets. Any starter in the wild is an invasive species.

 

[Wukong]

Oh wait, that’s not what we’re taking about? Ugh, fine. All jokes aside, maybe I’m getting the definition of a head-canon mixed up, but if I had to pick from my list, I’d say that my 13 Tiered League idea is far and away the most interesting.

First of all, your theory as you described it absolutely qualifies as "head canon". It's an interesting theory actually.

Just for the record, this differs from wish-listing which I consider more speculation and hoping about what could happen in the future with the Pokémon games. As opposed to this thread which is all about rationalizing things to make sense in your head as it pertains to aspects of the games which have already happened. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[bdt2002]

First of all, your theory as you described it absolutely qualifies as "head canon". It's an interesting theory actually.

Just for the record, this differs from wish-listing which I consider more speculation and hoping about what could happen in the future with the Pokémon games. As opposed to this thread which is all about rationalizing things to make sense in your head as it pertains to aspects of the games which have already happened. Hopefully that makes sense.

Gotcha. I appreciate the help! :)

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

A couple more cents on the rival discussion:

1) There are some points in the games - and I won't pretend to know all of them - where you can lose a rival battle and still proceed in the story. Not just initial rival battles. Hau in Malie City is one. So the one-sided rivalry we're talking about here isn't a sure thing.

2) The rivalries are about relationships as much as competition, with the rival usually having some personal connection to the player character. Some rivals, like Blue, Barry, Hugh, and Hop, are introduced as the player character's longtime friend or opponent. Others are at least the opponent in the player character's very first trainer battle.

 

[Sonikku A]

Or in Emerald, losing the battle to May on Route 119 so there's more significance to the final battle in Lilycove City.

Rival May R110 with Mudkip:

Personally one Headcanon I have is that there's no such thing as insurance or child protection laws in the Pokemon world. Legit, why is there a toddler in the middle of the ocean in RSE!?
There's freaking Tentacool magic animals all around!

 

[Wukong]

Rival May R110 with Mudkip:

Personally one Headcanon I have is that there's no such thing as insurance or child protection laws in the Pokemon world. Legit, why is there a toddler in the middle of the ocean in RSE!?
There's freaking Tentacool magic animals all around!

That fight with Treecko is even worse actually.

And at the end of the day age is just a number. I can rationalize the Pokémon world just being one in which kids are forced to mature faster. Trust me, in third world countries they don't have child protection laws and shit lol.

 

[Sonikku A]

That fight with Treecko is even worse actually.

I meant you with Mudkip :V

 

[Chadlad50]

They did my boy Sceptile dirty. Blaziken and Swampert eat good and they give the best Hoenn starters scraps

 

[Wukong]

They did my boy Sceptile dirty. Blaziken and Swampert eat good and they give the best Hoenn starters scraps

Well, this kind of branches into something on-topic. One of the reasons I think Sinnoh has the best starter trio is two of their three final forms possess an advantage over their disadvantageous counterpart. As in, Torterra goes neutral with Infernape type wise, and Infernape neutral with Empoleon.

The reason this is important to me kind of harkens back to my original point about rivals. I want to rationalize the fact that my rival is my peer. Maybe I have a different idea of what a rival should be based on what other people are posting, but that's how I feel.

So, if I match up against Barry say seven times during the course of Platinum and win four times, I can rationalize the wins and loses quite easily in my head. Again, if I constantly beat my rival every time it undercuts their character in my opinion. But they look even worse by the fact that their ace Pokémon normally has a type advantage over mine. They look like a choke artist who loses even when they have the advantage.

In two out of the three Sinnoh starter cases, this feeling is nullified. I love that aspect of the Sinnoh starter trio.