Discussions of your headcanons

[henrymidfields]

I don't think we've seen discussions of headcanons, so I shall initiate this thread here. As Ron Burgandy of San Diego said, before we start, let's go over the ground-rules....

• Anything Pokémon related is fair-game. Toys, anime, manga, and of course the games.
• However, I would like to ask everyone to not write headcanons that refers to Smash Brothers alone, because I am pretty sure that we have the Smash Brothers subforum for that. Headcanons that straddles Smash Brothers and, say, the Special Manga would be preferable. But of course, this is just my personal request.
• And of course, let's be good ladies, gentlemen, and proper sentinel Pokémon, and follow all the standard rules as set by the forum.
• And finally, no touching of the hair or face... And THAT'S IT!!!!

Okay here goes mine:

General stuff:

• Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and other places form the country of Shoyo, the Pokeverse version of Japan. Her capital is Yamabuki (Saffron) City. The Japanese original names are canon for people and cities, with some exceptions. Shoyo means "Rising Sun" and is written as "昇陽".
• Team Rocket is an ultranationalist terrorist organization, that hates the cosmopolitanism and de facto democracy of present-day Shoyo. They long to revive the Empire of Shoyo (大昇陽帝国).
• Unova and Orre are two of the states forming the United States of Columbia, the Pokeverse version of USA. Opelucid City is the state capital of Unova (just like how Albany is for NY), and the national capital is Washington DA, or District of America. The English dub names are canon.
• Lieutenant Matthias "Machisu" Surge hails from Virbank City, and initially worked in that Navy Base before being transferred to Kuchiba [Vermillion].
• Kalos is a country, equivalent of France, and generally, the French names are canon.
• Fantina Melissa Morton (the Ghost-type Gym leader) is a coordinator from Los Arceus [Los Angeles], and she has a Kalosian mother who is a movie star.
• Team Flare is a Kalosian Fascist and chauvinist organization, who longs to resurrect the pre-WWII Kalosian Empire. And Lysandre's genocide policies makes Jean-Marie Le Pen look like a socialist progressive.

Anime:

• Most of the movie locations in the Anime are actually the Pokémon equivalent of their inspired real-life places. Yes, Alto Mare is in Etruria [italy], Crown City or Kronenbrucht is in Flandaria [Netherlands] and so on. Why does Satoshi (Ash) travel to these places? Well after Wataru (Lance), head of the Shoyoese National Police (昇陽警察庁) heard about Satoshi's achievements in the first three movies, the former appointed the latter as a part-time assistant. Usually, Wataru would respond to distress calls from the ICPO, but when he is unavailable, Satoshi is sent in on Wataru's behalf.
• So why has Satoshi (Ash) fared better in Kalos? Well, he knows some Kalosian [French] to get around, due to his old friendship with Serena St-Yves, and also he has travelled to Europe a couple of times, and there's always someone who can speak Kalosian (which is an international language) or in rarer cases, Shoyoese [Japanese]. (Alamos Town from the Rise of Darkrai is based on Barcelona. Endioak Town from the Victini & Zekrom/Reshiram movie is based on one of the towns in France. Crown City and Alto Mare, see above.)
• And why did he screw up so badly in Unova? Partially because of his loss to that rigged Tobias that damaged Satoshi's self-esteem for a while, and he was a bit of a stepford smiler. Also his English isn't his forte.
• Speaking of Serena St-Yves, her father was sent to Shoyo as the High Ambassador of Kalos in Yamabuki City, and the family followed along. However, Grace didn't want to live the typical expatriate's life and insisted in living near Masara (Pallet) Town, living with the locals, and training her Rhyhorn.
• Bianca's father (being first-generation Etrurian-Columbian [italian-American]; see more in the Games section below) was initially overprotective of Bianca due to some close calls with Communist/Neo-Fascist terrorism that occurred when he was a kid. (There is a real-life counterpart to this.)

Games:

• Why is Bianca's father even stricter in the games. His family was less fortunate during the game versions of the 1970s Etrurian years; he lost a brother and a grandfather in a terrorist attack back home in Etruria. And old nightmares...just don't die off that easily.
• Touko Hilda Shirase, and Touya Hilbert Kuroda (BW1 protagonists) are Niseis. Touko/Hilda even have Kotone (Lyra) as a cousin.

There are a lot more that I've written about, but I'll just leave it here for the moment.

Edited June 4, 2016 by henrymidfields

[blah the Prussian]

Well, my head canons are numerous, but here goes:

Kalos is still a Kingdom. This isn't due to my personal preference, trust me! But the fact that titles of nobility still exist makes me think it retains a Monarchy as well. Just because Parfum isn't occupied, that doesn't mean the Royal Family can't be in some other palace. As to why it isn't mentioned, how many works set in the UK prominently feature the Royal Family?

I share the belief that Team Flare are Fascist, but that they are more pseudoscientific like the Nazis as opposed to reactionary like Action-Francaise.

I highly doubt, on the other hand, that Team Rocket is in any way Fascist. They are pretty explicitly the Yakuza.

Since Pokemon exist, humans never really developed a class system because slaves were unneeded, as were a lower class, explaining why the Kalosian Monarchy remains in place. However, this also means that Pokemon rights became a major focus of social justice groups. The most radical of these ideologies was Liberationism, which claimed that it was amoral for people to own Pokemon in any way. The Liberationist Party would eventually launch a Revolution in a region and seek to spread Liberationism across the world. That region was Unova. Unova's Royal Family, House Harmonia, would back the Liberationists, and the Kingdom of Kalos would lead a coalition of nations to stop the Equalist menace. Eventually, House Harmonia was dethroned, but Neo Liberationists, under the name Team Plasma, still seek complete Pokemon liberation.

TL;dr: Team Plasma are Communists, N is Lenin but younger and Ghetsis is Stalin.

Cyrus is an Objectivist. Evidence for this is his hatred of irrational emotion (Objectivism holds that everything should be done out of rational self interest rather than emotion) and his willingness to use everyone around him for his own ends, which Ayn Rand would definitely approve of. His desire to remake the world is also very Nietzschean, which was basically what Lbjectivism would have been had it not been dreamt up by someone who was mentally a toddler.

Environmentalism as an ideology is far stronger in our world, because of the influence of more intelligent Pokemon. This is also why Team Aqua exists, and why Sunnyshore City does as well.

Poke-Japan won some sort of World War. I'm going to say that Poke-Russia (Russia is mentioned by name by a Silph employee) allied with Unova during the Liberationist Wars, and Poke-Japan defeated it. Why? Well, Sinnoh's Battle Fromtier is on what is geographically Sakhalin, the lower half of which Japan took from Russia after it bitchslapped them in 1905, and it was returned to the Soviet Union in exchange for doing fuck all to Japan in WWII (no, land grabs when they were already beaten don't count, Joe). Thus, if the player can get to Southern Sakhalin wi ease it must be part of Sinnoh.

The Liberationist Wars are the War that appears in so many fan theories as well as the one Surge talks about. Surge was a military officer who opposed the Liberationist regime, and fled to Kanto as a result, where he stayed after the war.

Edited June 4, 2016 by blah the Prussian

[Magical Glace]

I figured that something happened to Rakutsu in the past that led to him beginning his work with the police when he was very young. He had to wind up with them somehow, since he seemed to outrank Looker during BW (he was ten at the time) and definitely does during BW2 (he's twelve), it would appear he's been with them for quite some time. I don't really want to form a theory on what it specifically is until we learn more concrete information about him through the progression of BW2, whenever Volume 53 happens.

More regarding Rakutsu, he really seems to put his work first in all scenarios we've seen him in thus far. As a result, I can see an interpretation of his social skills as being something he was trained specifically trained to do for his work. He does seem to be able to understand and manipulate others to a high degree of effect, but at the same time, it could indicate just not really caring about the others beyond what he needs from them.

tldr Rakutsu looks like a married to the job tyke bomb but I want to wait for BW2 finishes to cement my interpretation of his character.

The Archie and Maxie in Special ORAS are different people from the ones in RSE, like what's canon with the Matt/Shelly/Tabitha/Courtney, in other words, "Archie" and "Maxie" are titles, not names, in the Special universe.

N is not a Viridian Forest kid in Special canon, since he's probably only a bit younger than Yellow from my understanding.

[blah the Prussian]

Okay, to expand off of my previous headcanon: Team Plasma was the Liberationist regime's secret police, and they were led by Ghetsis. PLASMA stands for Pokemon Liberation Army Special Manpower Assignment, to hide the fact that these were the people who carried out brutal purges against Pokemon trainers.

[Moblin Major General]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:

Slowpoke and Slowbro are like Elcor from Mass Effect: A monotone speech pattern accented by their physiology, in this case their Psychic ability. Since only other Psychic types can understand how they are speaking (especially since their mouths seldom move), they are forced to relay the tone in which they are speaking. Also, because only Slowking is known to speak due to it's high intelligence, they are often regarded as mentally retarded by people.

All 4 main protagonists of the PMD games are related.

Other: All the Electric type leaders are distantly related.

Ramos disapproves of Erika's gardening techniques.

Blaine's redesigns stem from culture progression. The reason he looks like a barber in HG/SS is because he took up vaudeville after Mt. Cinnabar erupted. He did this because he realized that science is dangerous even when it all goes right.

[henrymidfields]

A continuation of general headcanons:

History:

- World War II happened differently in Shoyo. As the "Meiji-era" equivalent in Shoyo happened at an earlier period, democracy in Shoyo had more time to mature. Also, the institutional cruelty to Pokémon by the Imperial Military was unpopular with the people. Just as Shoyo's ultranationalism in its central government and military was about to go out of hand, people in Hoenn/Johto/Sinnoh stood up and revolted, formed the Republican faction, and sabotaged the war effort. Thus in contrast to the top-down implementation of RL!Japan's democracy by the GHQ, Shoyo's post-War democracy was imposed and upheld in a more bottom-up approach by her Republican country-people.

Infrastructure:

• Unlike how Japan, and pretty much all of the developed world, is heavily dependent on motorization, Shoyo is more reliant on rail travel. This is because of stronger environmentalism and the hostility of Pokémon against digging up fossil fuel, which in turn limits the general availability of such power source.
• As such, Shoyo National Rail (SNR 昇陽国有鉄道) did not have the same financial issues that real life Japan National Railways did, and local lines services are still good. Also, due to public interests, they were only partially privatized - while they were under more exposure to competition from the private railways, public and national interest in the rail infrastructure remains strong.
• During the events of BW2 and XY, SNR further extended the Maglev from Goldenrod to Rustboro via Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shimonoseki. This was effectively the last nail on the coffin for competition from domestic air travel.
• The only full-grade freeway networks is the Tohjo Expressway from Yamabuki [saffron] to Kogane [Goldenrod]. The two are also the only cities to have in-city tollways as well.
• Due to the above, Shoyo Airlines (昇陽航空) and All Shoyo Airways (全昇陽空輸) domestic flights are mostly between the mainland and remote islands. The majority of their revenue comes from international flights.

Architecture:

• Architecture-wise, most of Yamabuki has a dearth of pre-WWII buildings due to the firebombings similar to Tokyo during 1945. Most of Yamabuki and Tamamushi's [Celadon] monuments were the work of Kenzo Tange.
• While many cities in Johto are traditional-looking, in contrast to Kanto's modern cities, the more modern Johto cities of Kogane and Asagi also feature many historic buildings, albeit being of a more European nature of the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa eras. The two cities, along with Kanazumi [Rustboro], and Kotobuki [Jubilife] did not suffer as much firebombing as Kanto's cities (and for that matter, RL!Osaka/Kobe/Fukuoka/Sapporo), due to Allied forces recognising and eventually allying with the Republicans.

Edited August 2, 2016 by henrymidfields

[Magical Glace]

The Archie and Maxie in Special ORAS are different people from the ones in RSE, like what's canon with the Matt/Shelly/Tabitha/Courtney, in other words, "Archie" and "Maxie" are titles, not names, in the Special universe.

[spoiler=Special ORAS]Well, apparently they're the same people. They were dead, but Giratina (apparently) gave them temporary bodies in a weird attempt to avert the meteor problem.

[かベリー]

Maxie and Archie are a couple and the whole reason they fought was because Maxie bought a moist absorber and Archie didn't like it dry.

[Ebony]

I hope this isn't necroposting I always imagined they had Pokemon for people with various disabilities. Like how people train dogs for the blind and such, only with Pokemon.

Rayquaza, despite its threatening looks, has no want or reason to go after humans. It would tolerate a human petting it, for instance. I kind of hold the same for Giratina, except it'd be better to keep your distance.

In Pokemon Black and White, the MC had Reshiram and N had Zekrom.

[Zerxen]

B/W of the anime is not canon. "Folklore has it that on moonless nights, this Pokémon will make people see horrific nightmares." As many of you know, Ash lost the Sinnoh League to Tobias, a trainer who owns a Darkrai. Since Ash was the first person to actually defeat his Darkrai in battle, Tobias sought out a way to discourage Ash in the future. The night after the League ended, Tobias sent out his Darkrai to lock both Ash and Pikachu within a nightmare. This nightmare involved Ash and Pikachu heading to Unova to win the league there, however, Ash appears to be inexperienced and his companions were constantly putting Ash down for being different. In the real world, Brock takes both Ash and Pikachu to Pallet Town believing both of them are in a coma. Delia looks after the two of them and gets several visits from Dawn and Cynthia, hence the reason they appear in the meloetta portion of Ash's nightmare. Some time later, Alexa arrives in Pallet Town to write a document about the effects of the nightmares caused by Darkrai. Alexa gives Ash and Pikachu a lunar wing from when she was documenting Cresselia and the two of them wake up from their long slumber. Alexa then convinces Ash that if he wants to continue his dream of becoming a pokemon master, she would recommend for them to go to Kalos next." (Copied from my Reddit account)

[henrymidfields]

On the question of Legendaries:

(extracted from my various Blog entries from Bulbagarden)

[spoiler=Gen 1]

The Bird Trio (Articuno/Zapdos/Moltres)

Being birds, three of the more generically designed Pokémon, and also introduced in Kanto/Kalos without a major backstory, they feel like they can appear just about anywhere without major disbelief. I feel that they fly around the world, signifying the four seasons around the globe. Articuno could migrate to the Northern Hemisphere from late winter to spring, while Zapdos would come to signify the summer monsoons and typhoons. Around mid-to-late autumn, Articuno would come in to signify the beginning of winter while the other two migrate to the Southern Hemisphere to signify spring and summer there. In fact, I've always wondered why the bird trio wasn't re-introduced in Unova and appear in the different seasons...

Mewtwo

We all know about the story of how the experiment of Mewtwo had "Gone Horribly Right" to use TV Trope's terms? Then why is it found in Kalos. Easy. Red either caught Mewtwo but released it later upon realising that it just wanted to be alone, or he outright failed to catch it. Then Mewtwo fled from Shoyo, searched for other isolate places it could find, and ended up settling in the Pokémon village in Kalos years later. It and Wulfric (who Mewtwo decided that the latter wasn't a threat) looks after the abandoned Pokémon in the village. For the Anime-verse, the reasons for the above are even more obvious: Ash deliberately decided not to catch Mewtwo because of the tragic reminder of what Mewtwo went under before, and the ethical issues that comes with. Mewtwo would leave Shoyo for Kalos sometime after the events of Mewtwo Returns.

[spoiler=Gen 2]

Ho-oh, Lugia, and the Koma-inu Trio

Originally being from continental Asia, the two birds have guided the prehistoric people to multiply and to tame the land of the Far East. Unproven myths also mention of them guiding the first Asians to cross the then Ice-Age landbridge from the Korai Peninsula to the Shoyoese Archipelago. The two are often considered as the reincarnation of the Shintoist deities: Amaterasu and Susano'o. Centuries later, when Enju [Ecruteak] was established in the late 8th Century as Enju-kyo, two temples were created to commemorate the supposedly-reincarnated deities. Upon then, Ho-oh and Lugia could often be seen to perch on the steeple, or fly around the vicinity. The mysterious fire of the early 19th Century which burned down one of the towers was due to gunpowder stored for the new Imperial Army who recently took over Enju from the Tokugawa Shogunate. A flash of lightening and strong winds would spread the ignited explosion and fire over to one of the towers. Out from the debri of the Burnt Tower, Entei, Raikou, and Suicune were reincarnated. (The Imperial Army would later overthrow the Shogunate and form the early modern government of Shoyo.)

Celebi:

Worshipped as a deity of the forests, Celebi's first recorded appearance was in both Kojiki and in Nihon Shoki. It was supposedly conceived as an offspring of God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami, and became the divine lord over the forests of Shoyo. No one know what the true story is, although its appearance seem to predate human occupation on the Shoyoese archipelago, and seemed to be responsible for the beautiful lush forests across the archipelago. While sightings of Celebis were never all that common, what little existed were decimated due to Shoyo's ruthless industrialisation and natural decay during and after the Meiji era. To the people's horror and regret, the once beautiful forests of Shoyo started to die at an alarming rate, not helped by the lack of Celebis and their regenerative power. This prompted a renewed sense of environmentalism, with the Conservation Societies of Saiyu [Evergrande]-Hoenn, Inyo-Shikoku, Johto, and Sinnoh formed. To many people's joy and relief, Celebis have been sighted again in recent times, as the rightful rulers of Shoyo's green realm.

[spoiler=Gen 3]

Regi Trio + Regigigas:

The Regi Trio's origins are from the Hebrews in the Middle East. According to tradition, one of the first recorded instances of the Regi Trio is in a Jewish myth where the potters created a statue, which God animated it as a powerful soldier for the battle against Gentiles, which became the basis of Regigigas. In the Middle Ages, rabbis of the European ghettos would use them as protection against the Antisemitic mobs, though the extent of success in protecting the inhabitants varied. Being more inert and obedient to their masters, they are the few legendaries that can be caught easily.

While a Regigigas was discovered in northern Shinnoh, the other three are not native to Shoyo. They were offered as a gift from the Hebraic-Palestinian Government to post-WWII Shoyo in recognition of the Shoyoese Republican rebels to offer asylum to the Jewish people persecuted by Nazi Germany.

Note: Chiune Sugiura, however, was under the Imperialist Government during the war. Although he was not arrested unlike most other officials, he was politically marginalised for an even longer time than in real-life. It was only in 2000 that his rescuing of the Jews were made public, and even then the Shoyoese Government at the time refusesd to fully rehabilitate him. They would finally issue an apology to Sugiura's family in 2010 after much public and diplomatic pressure from the Jewish communities and a resolution to publicly denounce Shoyo instigated by the Hebraic-Palestinian Government and the United States of Columbia, and endorsed by other countries including Kalos and Teutonia, at the 2009 United Nations general assembly.

Latias/Latios:

Latios and Latias are actually non-native to Shoyo, instead hailing from Etrusca, the home of the Latin Empire, and eventually the cradle of Europe. Legend has it that they were the mythical creators of the Latin Republic and later, Empire, and prior to Christianity spreading to the Etruscan Peninsula, the twins were worshipped as divine guardians of the Latin cities. (At least one such case was confirmed in the Alto Mare Incident of 2000.) While they would often be seen in the European continent, and especially in Etrusca, they would occasionally travel to other nations, for unknown reasons. They were sighted in Japan on three occasions: once when the Iberian traders came to Shoyo during the Sengoku era; once when the black ships of the United States of Columbia visited Kuchiba %5BVermillion%5D as part of its gunboat diplomacy, leading Shoyo into the Meiji Era, and once just a decade ago (from 2010).

Note: Unlike how Alto Mare in the anime is stated to be off the coast of Johto, Alto Mare in this story is actually located in Etrusca, corresponding to where Venice and Italy are in real life.

Groudon

Unlike in the games, Groudon actually roams all around underneath the coasts of the world. Scientific research in recent years conclude that Groudon was responsible for creating the many islands across the Asia-Pacific, including the archipelagoes of both Shoyo, Siamland [Thailand], Malaysia (tentative name), Indonesia, and New South Saxonia [New Zealand]. While Groudon can be seen outside of the Asia-Pacific, such events tend to be rare. As such, Groudon is depicted in many (South-)East Asian myths, including in the Kojiki, which one of the various kamis the the deistic couple of Izanagi and Izanami conceived. On the other hand, according to the Abramic creation story (including the first several chapters of Genesis in the Old Testament), God supposedly created Groudon (along with Kyogre), and ordered the two Pokémon to separate the land and the seas on the 2nd day of His creation. Later, when the Israelites flee Egypt from the tyrannical Pharaoh, God summoned Groudon and Kyogre from the deapths of the Red Sea to separate the waters from dry land to give the Israelites passage. Groudon's appearance also leaves a fertile land behind, complemented with the balance of sun and rain with Kyogre).

On the more destructive side, Groudon is considered to be responsible for many of the historical geological disasters in the Pacific Rim's history. Researches by the University of Yamabuki [saffron; University of Tokyo] since the 1950s reveal a heightened seismic activity from Groudon's activity beneath the surface of the earth, and later research indicates that increased magma activity induced by Groudon was the prime cause of the Great Aurian City [san Francisco] Earthquake of 1906, and the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. In the cases where Groudon actually came out onto the ocean surface, it was responsible for volcanic eruptions such as the Mt Asama (tentative) Eruption of 1783, and the Mt Shirogane Eruption of 1707. However, such Pokemon-induced activities made disaster preparations easier for authorities; in the Ousen (Kogane-Asagi) Earthquake of 1995 [Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake], increased Groudon activity underneath in early January prompted mass evacuations from Asagi and parts of Kogane. While property damage climbed up to billions of USDs, the death toll was in the hundreds, being a fraction of the death toll of the 1923 Kanto earthquake.

Kyogre

As with Groudon, Kyogre also roams underneath the seas as the ruler of the marine realm. It was one of the earliest Pokemon in Earth's history, which granted all the marine life forms, before many of them evolved into terrestrial beings, including humans. As with Groudon, Kyogre appears in many lores of coastal civilizations, including the Kojiki, which is another one of the various kamis the the deistic couple of Izanagi and Izanami conceived during the creation of the Shoyoese archipelago. On the other hand, according to the Abramic creation story (including the first several chapters of Genesis in the Old Testament), God supposedly created Kyogre to separate the seas from the sky, and the seas from the land on the 1st and 2nd days of His creation. Later, when the Israelites flee Egypt from the tyrannical Pharaoh, God summoned Groudon and Kyogre from the deapths of the Red Sea to separate the waters from dry land to give the Israelites passage. Together with Groudon, Kyogre created the heavenly blessing of rainfall for the land to grow.

On a more destructive note, Kyogre can also summon storms in the seas and on the coast. Research ast the Shoyoese Metrological Agency (気象庁; Kishocho) (along with several national universities) have revealed the correlations of storms with Kyogre's activities above the seabeds, and as such, the weather agencies around the globe continuously monitor the legendary's Pokémon's movements to prepare for upcoming wild weather.

Rayquaza

Rayquaza was for a long time considered to be a quasi-mythical being that was believed in various myths to create the sky. In Kojiki and Nihonshoki, it was considered to be the original kami dragon that separated the earthly matter from the heavenly in the creation of the Earth. In the Abrahamic tradition, it together with Kyogre, separated the oceans from the sky in the first day of God's creation. Rayquaza was said to appear to tame Groudon and Kyogre, and thus holding the Earth's elemental power in check. However, it was only very recently that humans were able to observe Rayquaza. In 1995, the factions of the former Eco Warriors, Hino-tsuchi Dan [Team Magma] and Unabara Dan [Team Magma] awakened Groudon and Kyogre, respectively, to further their ecological goals. To their horror, however, both legendary Pokémon went out of control, prompting a mass evacuation from Lune [sootopolis] Island onto mainland Shoyo. Just as the city was starting to flood, emergency workers and Shoyo Defence Force personnel witnessed a glorious light from the sky's clearing and a green serpentine dragon rising down from the sky, and soothing the other two legendaries. Later research verified the descriptions given by various ancient texts to be the no-longer-mythical Rayquaza, and thus it has been added onto the Hoenn region Pokedex as a commemoration.

Deoxys

Nothing in addition to canonical information can be provided here. The ORAS Delta Episode shows that Deoxys is clearly extra-terrestrial. As of 2010 in this timeline, research is still undergoing on Deoxys.

Jirachi

East Asian countries celebrate the Lunar 7th of July as the day to wish upon the stars, based on the Tsing'guese [Chinese] folktale of "The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd". In Tsinguo, it is called the Qixi Festival; in Korai, it is the Chilseok; in Shoyo, and especially in Hoenn, it is known as Tanabata. A creature similar to Jirachi appears in the above folktale as one which creates the bridge as the Weaver Girl wished for to meet her lover.