Y’know I’ve been replaying Heartgold and Soulsilver recently and can we just talk about how the generation 2 pokemon games center around the theme of “the passage of time”. Think about it. The primary conflict in the game is that you’re trying to stop Team Rocket from regaining their former glory from the past. They’re trying to reclaim the past even though they should’ve moved on after they disbanded three years prior. Not only that but the post game allows you to revisit Kanto which allows you see how much it has changed in the three years since you left it. You get to see how the passage has effected it. The final boss of the game is also you from generation 1. The final test against yourself to see how much you’ve improved since the past game. Hell if you wanna zoom in even more on the game’s mechanics. GSC were also the first games to introduce a day/night cycle as well as daily/weekly events where the player has to wait for time to pass in order for certain events to occur. You can even see this with stuff like Kurt’s poke balls where you give him a apricorn and you have to wait for time to pass in order for stuff like berries to respawn. Everything in this game centers around how the passage of time affects the people and world around. It’s food for thought at least.