Detective – Pinkie's Paradise

Pinkie plays Poirot with Pokémon: Theft on The Magnet Train Express

Hello Island Guests, I played another Pokémon Fan game! A Detective one at that! Based on the Hercule Poirot Novel, Murder on the Orient Express I shall have to investigate some thievery shennanigans on my way too of from Goldenrod city! I can’t completely tell which one.. but in this one hour romp I can most certainly tell you I will be investigating a “Theft on the Magnet Train Express”

Going for Gold

Theft on the Magnet Train express is a fun fan rom game that is set in the world of Pokémon Gold and Silver. Using Gen 5 Battle mechanics.. but deliciously old school 8 bit graphics we immediately get something that distinguishes itself from all the other fan games. For the vast majority of fan games and rom hacks out there all use the gameboy advance (Gen III) tilesets and sprite work. So from the get go we get a very unique game. This comes with it’s own strengths.. such as having a great atmosphere, the excitement to see sprites of Generation newer generations get a downgrade to 8 bit and the delightful nostalgia factor. There really are very few games feeling this unique when it comes to the rom hacking scene.It does come with some flaws as well though. This is arguably a non issue for those who do not dabble in Pokémon fangames on a regular basis.. but among all fan games there usually is a consensus on how these games are controlled. z,x and c are your main keys to operate menus and save while a or s activates sprint and either the f-keys or the keys surrounding s are used for registered items.

Theft on the Magnet Train express uses x to cancel actions but spacebar and enter as confirmation buttons. This is quite annoying. It’s very manageable but it feels very unnatural for me. There is this muscle memory and during that entire hour of playing this game it never really grew on me. I managed to pull it off but it never felt as comfortable as z , x , c. Now I could try again for the multiple endings this game has.. as it has 3 of them but this branching path does not come into play until the very last moments, almost making it more feel like an Endscreen difference than a different route. Which isn’t bad ..but it makes back to back replayability low. I will go back to experience the other two endings and find the hidden Pokémon.. I just won’t go back right now.. or anywhere this week! It’s one of those “I have an hour to spare.. let’s give that another shot type of deals’.So while I do commend them for choosing the harder and untrodden path you can sense and feel that the lack of proper assets kind of played a factor into making this game. Going for Gold .. made it a title only worth the silver.

Inspector Pinkie on the Case

In this game you play a woman named Ellen. After a blackout occurs in the magnet train from Goldenrod to Saffron city…. or the other way… Ellen goes out to investigate what is wrong and stumbles upon the best detective in the Pokémon world.. Looker! I love him and his theme has been given a 8bit rendition which made me squee with joy! There is a lot of love for the franchise in here and it shows in the tiny details. He challenges you for a Battle and I discover I have a Shiny Vulpix on my team. I beat the lookers Croagunk.. which I love because it is his signature Pokémon, and he names his deputy researching the strange events on the train. I will have to make way through the dangerous carriages of the train that are invested with trainers , Pokémon and even Team Rockett to solve a mysterious theft.. of something worth over 4 million Poké-Dollar.

Much more than just Pokémon battling you are engaged with solving this mystery! You do this by finding a certain number of items in each carriage.. Looker is such a good detective he exactly can expect how much evidence you can find in each carriage furthering your case. Some people want to battle you and with 30 ultra balls on you.. you also have a chance to start catching your own squad of Pokémon to assist your Vulpix. Some follow the wild grass mechanics but for the special ones.. you will have to go through some effort. What makes this game shine so much is that the story is not told through you to the things you need to do.. but through the things you CAN do. The Evidence you find will not cue the player in on what’s going on.. it all seems random.. but then if you check that other bookcase and find some exposition you suddenly start to piece stuff together. Depending on how well you piece things together you may get an ending for better or worse!

Inspector Pinkie is on the Clock!

Because of how the game is structured it let’s YOU do the work. It drops hints on what is going on, or where to go next but it never holds your hand. That one character that mentioned an item may become relevant three carriages later and you have to go back.. but where was he or she?! The game doesn’t tell you… it just whispers to you.. did you not talk to a person mentioning said item earlier?! The same style is chosen for the battles. Every Pokémon hits hard! You have a Vulpix so it’s defensive stats are not high even though it levels all wild Pokémon by level 10. It brings this new level of strategy to the table, you can easily knock out wild pokémon but trainers can easily knock you out as well. Even the wild Pokémon can! So you are going to have to strategize. Use Will o Wisp to burn and weaken physical attackers, yse Payback when you are being outsped.. go for high damage with flamethrower. You have a lot of options.. but you will also need them. You will need to work for your success.

The game never gets insanely hard but you are not used to having a pokemon with 0 IV and EV investments at level 35.. so the game feels weird. You need to work for success. From beginning to end you need to keep your head screwed on straight. There aren’t a bunch of healing items you can buy.. you are stuck on a train you will have to do with whatever you find. Burn your resources too much and you might get a bad end. I ended up catching a Sneasel for my team which I named Tracy and a Skiploom which I named Nancy.. which later evolved into Jumpluff. Tracy would use Hone claws to boosts it’s attacks and use Beat Down to strike down hard while Nancy would use sleep powder, mega drain and leech seed to stall my opponents to their doom! Vulpix would inflict burns and deal big damage with Flamethrower and Extra Sensory! I also had a Lickitung named Sherlick but he was just there to power up Tracy’s beatdown! I would have loved to use him.. but I could not make him useful enough other than giving me more leech seed stalls and bigger Beat Downs! All of it felt more “designed” and “clever” than my average Pokemon teams! So I like that here you really have to put in work.

Riding the Rails

While I do not mind putting in the work .. the game at times can feel a bit to chore like. That is mostly due to it being set in a train. You find enough evidence to unlock the next set of carriages go back.. talk to Looker.. and now you can access the next part. There is a road block so you need to go back.. grab an item.. make progress again, find the evidence, go back to Looker and so forth. It is all due to the fact that you are only on a train. It makes for a great setting for a mystery but too many of your events are contained in these new rooms. I would have loved it if old rooms now would trigger new events as well.. maybe there is something going on in the engine room, perhaps some earlier passengers are getting rowdy and you have to pacify them with a battle. Give us a reason to go back to these locations other than to just fetch an item. Looker is doing his own investigation while you do yours, have him get into trouble, have him instigate an event instead of you it would help the world feel more alive. Other Pokémon games do this as well. In fact even in Gold and Silver .. other characters than you “further’ the plot and you stumble upon it. This game lacks that element and as a result.. it feels a bit “colour by numbers”.

The mystery is also not THAT nicely paced. About during the middle part of the adventure you will have all the clues you need to figure out what is actually going on and while that might actually be by design I think it could have been paced a bit better. Let that one bookcase stand in a carriage near the end not near the middle. Maybe I am too trained into these type of stories that I figured out what was going on..but I think most of you would get it right away as well. A good thing about that though is how it is all very much discoverable with in game resources.. you do not need to know lore about Carkoal or about the Magnet train from Gold to understand what is happening here. It is a satisfying plot that does feel like it can be lifted from an actual Pokemon game.. thus not being overly dark.. it feels like it can be a part of the world. Some fun characters are created both in the present and the past of Pokémon so while the ride is very enjoyable it arrives at the second to last station early. Being early can be amazing..but since it’s not the station you need to disembark from you don’t get the benefits.. you know the train will just sit there and wait arriving at the end as scheduled. You can appreciate the environment a bit more.. but in the end it’s a bit of a moot advantage.

The Usual Suspects

To properly find out how this Pokémon detective game did we need to check how it functioned as a Pokémon Game, as a Mystery and as a game in general. Let’s start with the latter because that is where it scores the highest. For the hour that this game is long it is nice to see a non- hand holding game that lets you explore some rooms, uncover evidence but also sleuth for the REAL story yourself.. as you will notice inconsistencies. I really love that part of this fan game and I think this is my favourite short fan game all together. As a Pokémon game however this game falls short. It is great that they use the gen II tileset but Pokémon it plays into my nostalgia so hard and the music in 8 bit is FANTASTIC! I LOVED LOVED LOVED.. that.. yet it also comes with some hefty downsides. The Pokémon count is REALLY low! They had to make a lot of old looking sprites and while they do look amazing I would have wished for at least a few more.. Pokémon in it’s very concept is something of abundance… and while I do get that what I want makes no sense on a train I just don’t think the setting and core concept are that great of partners.

As a mystery it offers a very satisfying story and the way the mystery unfolds before you , I have rarely seen done better. Usually we all get all the important clues highlighted and here the important stuff is in the subtext! I adore that! We are just given a bit too much stuff to uncover that subtext. Some dialogue is a bit to on the nose. There are several characters that are aware of a situation that really tell you how everything works. It would have been more satisfying to encounter them closer to the end.. or have them experience the same confusion everyone in the train is experiencing.. enough to make you feel “hey something isn’t right here.. we got two conflicting stories here” At least it made me feel SUPER DUPER smart for figuring it out so fast! So that is nice.. but I loved this little romp so much that I wished I ended up just a bit more surprised.. and that’s what makes me grade this game with a medium high score. It is still one of the better short games out there.. when it comes to Pokémon.. yet it also misses some crucial elements.. it hyped itself up in the beginning.. just to let it weaken in the mid-section! it is passable by all accounts.. and it looked like it was going to knock it out of the park.. but the landing rough! I would love to see them tackle another short detective game in the same vein in a bit more open setting. That way it is easier to miss clues, put in more pokemon and get that extra diversity! A nice demo for a hopefully bright future! Please make another Looker game soon guys!

Cyberpunk…Film Noir… Disney.. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu Review

Konichi-welcome back Island Guests! This blog has been around for a year and a bit now and while I was just starting out fresh as a Pokémon Blog, a movie came out recently that I JUST missed out on being relevant about. Before Halloween Month came along, I decided to review video game movies and.. luckily that Pokémon Movie was specifically based on a Video Game! Even Better .. it’s NOT a sucky Video Game movie! Hurray you guys, I finally reviewed Detective Pikachu.

Researching History

In February a short, almost demo like game called Detective Pikachu hit the markets in Japan. It gained a lot of popularity and in 2018 it saw a Global release in a much more fleshed out, full game version because of it. In it we would play Tim Goodman, a do-good boy that solved mysteries with his gruffly voiced Pikachu! It did not take long before the rumors of this becoming a movie began to pop up! With a huge petition for Danny Devito becoming the hatted electric mouse. Ryan Renolds however wanted it more.. and with Justice Smith taking the role of ..what in the game was a very white Tim, we in may 2019 we got Detective Pikachu the movie. I must say.. I am SOOO happy with these casting choices.

The Tim in the video games was a super generic blank sheet of a character that was like Phoenix Wright if you take all his dialogue and charm away. Just a guy who responds to something and occasionally solves a puzzle in a very kiddy way. The movie while still clearly aimed for kids aimed at kids at least decided to age the characters up a bit to give them actual stuff to do and make them feel like a cohesive part of this world. For that I am grateful. Ryan Renolds clearly cares more for Pokémon than Danny Devito ever would so we got a bland character that is made more interesting and actors who are really involved with the franchise! This is how you do re-casts and change up the status quo! Very well done!

Finding Evidence in the Story

The movie does follow the plot of the game for a big part, with some twists here and there! Since this IS a detective movie and there is fun to be had in solving this riddle.. even if it is quite an easy one, I shall try to maintain spoilers to a minimum but I will spoil what the plot of the movie is about. So if you think that is a spoiler, this review might not be for you. Tim wants to be an insurance guy and live without a Pokémon.. because having a Pokémon reminds him of his neglective father who Tim has since banned out of his life. That ban is put to a screeching halt though when Lieutenant Hide Yoshida calls him from Ryme City! Apparently Tim’s father has been in an accident and he died! Now Tim has to get there to wrap up some business and say goodbye to his estranged father.

However things do not turn out to be that easy! Tim finds some weird “drugs” that turn Pokémon feral in his father’s apartment as well as a talking Pikachu. This Pikachu believes his father might still be alive..but is struck with Amnesia and together the two discover a plot that involves fighting many other pokémon including the most powerful pokémon off them all, Mewtwo. … but since it is not Mega Mewtwo… I gotta say that technically is not true..but hey! We will roll with it. We will see a lot of interesting locations within and just outside Ryme city and are introduced to Pokémon in a way that is less intrusive or knowledge intensive in a plot with some interesting twists. While it all is very predictable there are enough events and plot threats to keep the movie interesting to the slightly older audience. Even if you don’t know that much about Pokémon…because in reality.. Pokémon is just a dressing put over a cyberpunk story for children. Only instead of robots helping society it’s pokémon… or animatronics. It’s Blade Runner for kids!

Interrogating The Pokémon

Without the whole Pokémon thing we have a 6/10 movie I’d say. There is still some very funny jokes in the movie like the interrogation of Mr. Mime working even if you do not know anything about Pokémon. Detective Pikachu making jokes about Cocaine in a Pokémon movie.. and the whole litle “drug” subplot .. and the finding of the father that has gone missing/is dead it can carry the story well enough. The movie is well acted and shines best when Tim is meeting with the lieutenant. Those two bounce off of each other REALLY well. Weird but some of those scenes really hit hard. The heartfelt talk with Pikachu works well enough without any Poképuns with it alll feeling really endearing and there is enough sense of adventure and science for everyone… However the more you know about Pokémon the better this movie becomes. My Arceus the sheer number of easter eggs here in this movie are insane. Everything oozes Pokémon.. even though it somehow is on a completely separate layer than the rest of the movie. This movie would have worked just as well for people not knowing about Pokémon if the plot was with little robots or something fitting in a cyberpunk Scenario.

From the moment Tim tries to capture a Cubone that is very sad and lonely.. right until the very last second of the movie there are some may callbacks to everything pokémon. Mostly in Ryme city itself. The neon lit streets of this magnificent city feature so many pokémon. Every single commercial sign is a reference to a pokémon or something in the pokémon world. From a call to the berries in the pokémon mythos to having brands based on pokémon names, pokémon models and so much more. Pokémon are very much a part of this world. The Jigglypuff singing at the bar.. standing on a table with guests who have fallen asleep. Pikachu riding into battle on a Pidgeot feels like a callback to the original opening of the anime, There is just so much to unpack here! So many layers and on a single view you will never see it all. There is a cleverness in how this world has been built. For example there are Loudred at a club working as “speakers’. Machamp is being used on a crossroads because it can hold up four signs due to having so many arms. Dodrio being a flightless bird thus being seen walking in the city all over and Aipom being mischievous little miscreants it all works wonders.

It is a bit weird to place this in the Pokémon timeline though, as the rest of the regions seem to have the traditional.. capture a Pokemon system.. Ryme city works on a Pokémon buddy system.. humans and pokemon befriend each other and walk across the city as friends and equal partners.. ..but outside the city it is the traditional pokemon world.. I honestly wish they left this scene out.. even though I love the Cubone in the beginning ogf the movie.. it means that Kanto exists in this universe and so the idea that Mewtwo exists suddenly happened twice.. it’s an implication that is tricky to unify. Luckily even then there are small visual cues that could provide an answer. Maybe this research station had a particular organisation funding them ..something from inside the Pokémon world. However since this is set in the future from Red and Blue a few problems still arise with that.. so let’s just not think about it and take a look at how cute Snubbull is! Yes, who’s a good pink doggie!

Effects under the magnifying glass

Like I mentioned before the movie does a pretty good job of following the plot of the movie though some significant twists are made towards the end. Which I think is a good thing, we get a new case with a new perpetrator and new developments. Which means even if you have played the game before the mystery is still yours to solve.. which also is quite in line with the puzzle type of game it is. We do see Tim hunt for clues and little scraps of hints on what happened yet it never feels as Mundane and trivial as in the game.. which isn’t nearly as good as the movie. Not even close! Strangely the video game movie is better than the video game.. as it feels a whole lot more love went into this one. The game felt a bit cash-grabby but here there is so much attention to details it really feels like it is made for the fans. While obviously there is a LOT of CGI in this movie a lot of the pokémon are also made practical. Their faces have been animated in later but there is actually something on set. We get a strange atmosphere of effects that are decently enough to be believed.. but you are aware there isn’t anything there..

I would like to compare it to seeing a ghost.. in real life and you know it’s a ghost.. but you can’t walk through it.. it is still there.. you can bump into it.. this movie feels a bit like that. Pokémon have another wordly quality yet also something tangible. They aren’t there but it feels like you CAN touch them. I think this is the best way to go about this to be honest. Pokémon are strange and if we had to make them realistic they would lose lots of features that would make them so recognisable. Feathery pokemon feel feathery, fluffy Pokemon feel like they actually have fur … and Mr. Mime has that sense of creepiness that his game counterpart has as well. Every effect is a bit like that.. in the fact that it really doesn’t feel like attack..but an effect yet if you saw it in 3d you’d probably still duck dip or dodge. Almost on a seperate layer.. which calls back to how animations worked in the sprite based pokemon game that also was just another layer. So weirdly for me this level of fake.. sells it more as Pokémon. The Squirtles and Bulbasaurs are adorable.. and seeing Greninja, Charizard and Torterra.. gave me that sense of wonder again of first encountering them and thinking they were really cool! Everything is just different enough.

I DID have a few issues with some of the stunts though, it all feels just a bit safe. The stuff human actors have to put up with is kept to a fair minimum except for one scene.. which is such a shame because I think that is a missed opportunity. It would be hard to realise, but the idea of a human facing against the raw power of a pokémon or facing trouble from a pokemon seems very under explored here. There isn’t as much of a sense of danger as I would like. That does fit the videogame .. but it fits the world a lot less. Oh well.. we always have the upcoming Monster Hunter movie for that type of stuff.. *cough*

One level short of evolving

I had a blast with Detective Pikachu but it has issues. The biggest gripe is the “Disney” vibes we get from some dialogue. We get the classic boy whose mother died and now did not want to live with his father.. but now everyone is dead and he must go look for the truth.. while encountering a girl. Who tries to be way tougher than she is.. Luckily it isn’t the Late 2010’s “I can do everything” myself kinda woman. No she acts like this .. but it is shown to be an act to be tougher then she is.. it gives her a sense of frailty and makes her different from most of her peers who are actually that sassy .. bratty ..I can do this by myself type. No, she is actually the footwipe of her boss, not taken seriously in her career and dealing with actual problems instead of being strong enough to rise above them. Making her feel more real. She has some Misty vibes so giving her a psyduck is a bit unfortunate and feels as if this is Misty.. but if we look closer we can see she is different enough! We just need to really look.

Other than that.. There are a few instances of weirdly written dialogue that are not akin to normal speech but are needed to further the plot in a certain way and create barriers. For example at one time Tim gets his hand on a part of dialogue.. which seems a clear indication of some dark motives, however later in the movie we see this message has been pulled out of context.. . this trope can work.. but with the reveal that is made later on.. it seems strange that the dialogue flowed like that in the first place. It is just a very awkwardly worded conversation that has been designed to sound confusing if you only hear a specific part of it. It is here that we realise this is a kid movie and then the writer did not want to bother making it more compelling and sensical. There are a few moments like these. where “it’s good enough for children” It’s a shame because so much of this movie seems to be made for all and new fans alike. I know that little kids will not notice this.. but most times kids movies are just as much watched by adults as Mommy and Daddy have to come along… or any combination of the two and not forgetting a non binary parent.. regardless of who sees it with their kid.. there usually is someone.. so that excuse.. it’s just a kids movie.. I find a bad one.

In the end we got a delight of a movie that I had very gleeful feelings watching, both times.Yet it is also a movie whose faults are very apparent from the get go. The predictable plot, the sloppy dialogue and the low stakes make me realise there is more potential in this type of story than we got out of it right now. This is good for everyone… adequate for the non pokemon fan and a blast for the actual pokémon fan. It does get better the more you know about pokémon and the more things you can spot in the background. Having seen it two times now though I doubt I will watch it again any time soon.. at best just to stare at the backgrounds of the more crowded scenes. I would like to compare it to a level 19 Tyrogue. It’s cute.. can kick your ass and we know it has a whole lot of potential. It is not fully clear where this could go.. but it just needed that little push to be better! Now it still great but it will not endure indefinitely. It still is one of the best video game movies made!

Trainer Profile: My Grandpa

Greetings little Watsons. Today’s blog post will close of the series of tributes I make to my grandfather. Because Detective Pinkie’s blogs always take a lot of time and effort to make I had to seek out a format that fitted the theme of our grand detective but did not take as grand of an amount of time. After playing around with some concepts, we settled on Trainer Profile: A format where we analyze a Character, Blogger , Celebrity or whatever you guys suggest. What would their trainer class be? What type would they have the most affinity with and which six pokémon would they run on their team. As my weak voice disallows me from speaking about grandpa at the funeral I decided to reflect on who he was to me and others by making him my first trainer profile.

Trainer Class: Gentleman

First encountered on the SS Anne the Gentleman trainer class is known for their refined tastes and elegance. Grandpa was a distinguished man himself, some would even call him a snob. While that may have been true up to about five years ago, when he met his current girlfriend he mellowed out on it. Back before my father’s company went bankrupt and before his divorce an alienation from mom.. we were as a family quite well off. Grandpa used to treat us to fancy dinners at michelin star restaurants and in return we would take him to nice dinners or cook fancy meals. He loved mom’s home cooking even if she wasn’t his daughter even after their divorce they kept a warm bond, like a gentleman should. You wouldn’t find him on the SS Anne soon though, he once went on a cruise and did not like it, he did not feel old enough for it he said. While the last years of his life he was plagued with all sorts of sores and trouble walking right up until he was around 80 he was adventurous and loved to travel and see exocitc new places. Exactly like the gentleman in pokémon. He didn’t like adapting though, even when we went to the fanciests of restaurants he would not dress up, he was the one who paid so he should be able to wear what he wants. Frank Sinatra would have been envious of grandpa.. cause grandpa never did anything that was not his way. Though around the 2013’s range that behaviour led to him become kind of selfish. He had earned the right to be selfish to be sure but he seemed to enjoy things less and less. He stopped going out.. treated my mother as a maid for a while and became harder to deal with. Unfortunately it pushed us apart, traveling to him was tricky for me with my health and financial situation being dire. I would try to come over a few times but either I got no attention because cycling was on tv.. or he did not feel like having people over. So we saw each other very sparingly yet everytime I could actually come over he always had my preferred drink in his fridge. It would be past it’s expiration date..sometimes by a lot…but I was happy to drink it still, because he was so happy that he could serve me my favorite drink and for a little while be that gentleman he was once again.

Preferred Type: Psychic Pokémon.

Grandpa has always preferred the pseudo intellectual talks. Theater shows running, stuff about his flowers and talks about business and wine where regular conversations at the shared dinner table. Like I said before grandpa was a little bit elite. Yet he also favored some simple things. In fact the entire reason why I made Detective Pinkie is because he nurtured a passion for crime series in me. From when I was waaaaay to young I was already watching along with him to solve the murders in the red light district in the dutch crime series Baantjer. We would always spar on who done it together as a bonding moment and he kinda sharpened my mind by it. By the time I was twelve I could recognise narrative structures in crime series that let me to deduce virtually 80% of the murderers as long as I saw the correct set up scene. Sometimes i had to help grandma with her quilting and missed a key scene. Grandpa had a scary talent to play with your mind and help you improve it without sounding all that preachy. He was a master of manipulation even in his later years and he oftenly managed to avoid conflicts by outplaying those who disagree with him. A very clever man that could be somewhat cold and logical seems to fit nice with the psychic type.

The Pokémon Team

Signature Pokemon : Hypno (Psychic Type)

No little Watson’s grandpa doesn’t steal children unlike Hypno, however before I was born he was a teacher of sorts… and a hypnotist. Proficient with a pendulum it would make them a nice pairing as both can hypnotise you in that case. Grandpa wasn’t the biggest animal lover either and preferred plants or people so it makes sense that his signature pokémon wouldn’t be an animal… there will be one on his team but mostly these are going to be non-animals. Hypno seems the best pokémon on this list because it like my grandpa is sly and smart and to be honest not ALWAYS the nicest. He can be amazing though if things go his way Hypno can be an amazing pokémon that has options to outsmart tanky pokémon or hit much more powerful mon’s much harder than he should be able to himself. You won’t see him on any top 5 or top 10 really, but that is how he likes it. Hidden in plain sight but having the space to do as it wants.So I think grandpa would really have been able to bond with this Pokémon and become best friends. Since grandpa would have probably would let his Pokémon serve him his drinks ..should he ever figure out he could.. it would also keep Hypno off the streets to prevent him from snagging a kid so it’s a win win.

Special Sweeper: Mr Mime (Psychic-Fairy Type)

While grandpa’s team might not be that competitive, you can easily suffer if you underestimate him. Mr Mime is such a Pokémon Physically inept , (grandpa was never really fit unlike my other grandpa) but keen of mind is a trait that defines Mr Mime as well as well as the father of my father. Silent is a trait that even suits them better. Though grandpa could actually speak, he didn’t really like talking. Even when we were conversing we rarely were talking. When I felt sad as a kid and told him why..he’d rather buy me a toy or give be a big piece of chocolat rather than talk things through. He didn’t really like to talk about things. When I asked about the past he would answer but often without really saying anything to substantial as well. If he felt insulted or sad that one of his other sons was giving him trouble, he would never tell and suffer on his own.. building up barriers and reflects.. quite like the pokémon I selected for him. Always very defensive and careful he never showed his cards to much even to those who are important to him. Recently mom had gotten him to open up a bit.. so.. she would definitely have a Brick Break Pokémon.

Special Wall: Clefairy (Fairy Type)

A trainer has to have pokémon that can take special attacks and for grandpa that would be Clefairy Now this doesn’t actually have anything to do with the Pokémon’s outer space lore or the moon even though I think grandpa did have a telescope at one point.. I think he did but the memory is to vague I do recall a thing I wasn’t really allowed to play with and I think it was a telescope.. and eventually we were allowed to play with it as he never used it… but I can’t recall it to sharply. My choice for Clefairy is strictly based on the minigame included in Nintendo 64’s Pokémon Stadium. In which we see a teacher clefairy teaching other clefairies dance and sing.. and bonking those who fail with a hammer. Excluding the hammer, probably, that is exactly what grandpa used to do. He had a choir he ran with people he taught how to sing and also taught the piano. He had stopped by the time me and my sister was growing up so I never REALLY saw that side of him.. but he tried to teach me piano once. Yet me being very twitchy and and not in full control of my muscles made it hard and he was a bit impatient. My sister DID have the talent and even though it was just once or twice I saw him truly light up when teaching went well. I never saw him really play music himself.I only heard him sing in a sea shanty band he formed with my dad, youngest uncle and some of dads friends, called Sunken deep. Grandpa did not live to make music he lived to teach eat. Since Clefairy has Sing and Metronome in it’s regular moveset so besides from that classic mini game it also has the right tools to help teach music.

Physical Wall: Slowpoke or Slowbro (Water Psychic Type )

It’s kinda funny how much pink Pokémon suit my grandpa ! Maybe we have more i common than we thought. This Pokémon is the hardest for me to do as it makes me a bit queasy. It was on here because it’s kinda lazy but tough as nails. My Grandpa during the last few years kind of was like that. They could bond laying on the couch eating some snacks. They could appreciate each others slow rhythm but they both can stand one hell of a beat down as well. Grandpa survived tumors, massive kidney problems huge inflammations and plenty of other stuff that could have killed him. Slowbro and Mega Slowbro represent him so well in that manner. Once more a pokémon that is part of the oldest generation but one that has grown and developed and requires a bit of a brain to play. I think he would have really fitted well with my grandpa’s play style should he have had one. He may have been oblivious to how people are around him are feeling and he might have stubbornly done everything at his own tempo he kept fighting and in the end he wasn’t even killed by the new things trying to kill him. It was bad luck, a complication somewhat unrelated to everything he went trough.

Physical Sweeper: Kingler: (Water)

On the list for entirely different reasons than all the others… Kingler is a tribute to a memory of my grandfather teaching me how to each crab. Not talking about that fake stuff either. Grandpa pushed lobster and crab onto me. It’s a special memory of where he took me to this very luxurious grocery store in belgium. You could buy both lobsters and crab from a tank. Of course little girl me was enthralled by the creatures and wanted to buy one. He said he would but that these crabs are not to keep as pets but they have to be boiled alive. Shocked by the harsh truth I did not want the poor things to die. So he then offered to buy fresh crab meat .. from an already dead crab. Somehow he tricked me into wanting a crab and in the way he phrased it..my brain played a trick on me saying that THAT indeed would be the best answer. I really wanted crab but I did not want it to die so clearly this was the answer. Back at home he had grandma serve it to the three of us and what I tasted was such deliciously sweet meat I was instantly hooked. Which was a good thing because he payed for christmas dinner in a nearby castle where we would be serve lobster. My aunt scoffingly said I would pass on the food and be ungrateful (this was before she had kids) and rather than argue with her.. grandpa hatched a plan to avoid discussion and fights. Kingler is a physical attacker that attacks with quick precision attacks like Aqua Jet attacks after setting up raising it’s attack with Swords Dance. Grandpa later told me what he did once we had an argument with the same aunt in question. He told me (no joke.. this just translates wonderfully well, that my aunt underestimating his grandkids got him just a little krabby*

*Krabby is the pre-evolved form of Kingler.

Legendary: The Eternal Floette (Fairy)

As I come closer to the conclusion of this post it becomes harder to fight the tears. The final pokémon for my grandpa’s team is the legendary pokémon Eternal Floette. The immortal gardener who gave their energy to everything they have grown, dancing in joy if they do well. It was a regular Floette at first that met it’s unfortunate end to be returned ny it’s trainer who loved it so much it could not accept it’s death. It ended up hurting many people. I do not have the opportunity to build an ultimate weapon to bring him back so I have to do what AZ could not and let go. I have to say goodbye and though I do not follow any of the ‘popular’ religions I do not fully believe we become wormfood either. I do not believe in heaven but I do believe in something. Something like an energy a force a power that we can not comprehend. Scientific facts stats that the energy that my grandpa had can’t just disappear from this world it’s still around there somewhere. Like I told earlier this week my grandpa ..back in his energetic days loved his plants and garden and it granted him great happiness. Having access to grass moves and fairy moves..it has this celestial quality to it. So while I picked the rest of his Pokémon as a reflection of the past.. i picked this as a wish for the future. I hope his energy like that of a Floette can go to the plants he so cherished. When a Floette sees their flower field blooming they do a little dance of joy. Grandpa I know you will not be able to dance anymore.. but tell you what… if your energy lets the flowers bloom I shall be the do the dancing part. I will miss you.

Tomorrow is the day of my grandpa’s cremation. I shall not be releasing a blog on that day. Starting on saturday.. maybe on sunday if I am to cried up to write. I am sorry if this first edition of Trainer Profile was dark and not relatable. Do you have a character you like me to profile next time? What would be your trainer class? Or your team. Leave a like and a comment and remember.
I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again!

XO
Pinkie

Pikachu’s Stolen Evolution

Top of the day to you my dear Watsons! I am back from my escapades as Zubatgirl. Last week’s posts was one of the least liked posts that have been recently made! Princess Pinkie told me that is because I am the least liked Pinkie and that I am boring. I do not wish to believe such poppycock so today we will return to format and get back on the regular cases. Today we investigate the story of the stolen evolution!
The story of Gorochu!

A Neutral Choice

There is no doubt in my mind that everyone in the world knows Pikachu even if you haven’t played anything of Pokémon, one could not have missed Pikachu… well at least not if you’re reading this blog. I am sure your aunty Trisha from that manor in Higher Upton who has silverware ranked for how fancy her meals are and who collects Hummel-statues might not have heard of the electric mouse. Pikachu is the official Pokémon mascotte. The electric mouse pokémon is so present throughout the franchise the games might almost have been called Pikamon. Few people know however the story on how Pikachu became the mascotte. An anime was planned to launch alongside the game with a young trainer going on his pokémon journey. However there was a problem, from a marketing stance it would have been unwise to let him choose either Bulbasaur , Charmander or Squirtle. If Satoshi/Ash chose one of the three people playing the game might have felt they picked the wrong one. So an election was held. Kunihiko Yuyama, the lead for the anime printed out the , not fully official, line up and have a popularity contest.

Pikachu’s original sprite was elected as the most adorable partner for the anime protagonist. Atsuko Nishida was the woman behind this design says she based the design of the shocking little rodent on a long Daifuku rice treat with ears.

It resulted in a more plumb looking Pikachu a very fat looking mouse, that nowadays more resembles pika-clones like Dedenne , Marill and Togedemaru. However thanks to some concerned mothers who feared Pikachu’s fat look might promote childhood obesity and issues like that Pikachu was eventually slimmed down due to peer pressure. An inquiring mind like me can’t help but to wonder. Would Pikachu still have won the election if it started out slimmed and not so adorably plumb? Maybe they would have elected another Pokémon to be the cutest and we could have had Farfetch’D or Snorlax as our mascotte. We do know that miss Nishida designed is quite different from what Pikachu is now and in 2018 she told us Pikachu wasn’t only meant to evolve into Raichu it was meant to go even further beyond.

Devilish good looks

Anno 2019 we know this for a fact Pichu->Pikachu->Raichu (or Alolan Raichu) but in 1995 Atsuko designed it as follows Pikachu->Raichu->Gorochu. The latter would a more devilish design. Witth horns and large fangs it would resemble an electric demon and look somewhat more serious than the other two. This would also be reflected by it’s name. The Pika for example is a certain type of mouse/hare like creature indigenous to most of the northern hemisphere, western europe being the exception.

From the forests and plains of Asia to the Himalayan caves as well as large parts of eastern Europe and North America, much like Pikachu this mouse is everywhere. Pika is also the onomatopoeia (sound-imitation) of a japanese spark… yes sparks sound differently in japan! They make a Pika sound. Rai is japanese for thunder. Gorochu’s name would have been derived from Gorogoro the japanese onomatopoeia for a threatening rumble in the distance. Though the original design for Gorochu has never leaked, and twenty years after it’s planned release it is unlike that it ever will, yet fans have come up with a few designs of how it might have looked like. Such a handsome devil I must say.

Scrapped

At some point Gorochu was scrapped from the game. Now it’s easy to blame the design. Western mothers are terrified of any religious references let alone the devil. It has lead to many dubismn’s and censors. Stuff like Dark Magician Girl from yu-gi-oh losing her pentagram pendant.

Digimon censored a lot of religious names mostly in attacks and even completely negated Joe’s budhiman in the first season. Perhaps one of the biggest examples is Kami from Dragon Ball, he is actually meant to be God.. like THE god. Of course that did not fly with some people so that is why we call the green guy Kami to this day. Could Gorochu be the same?

Ken Sugimori the final artist of Pokémon claims the answer to this question to be no. ‘There weren’t any problems with Gorochu’s design at all, it was removed from the game for balancing reasons’ he said in an interview with Yomiuri. Now this seems a somewhat odd statement to make for a few reasons. First and foremost stats are simply a numeric value which would be very easy to change to rebalance the monster. There are no two stage evolution electric pokémon in gen I at all so makes it rather unique as well, in fact it may very well be the only typing in the generation that doesn’t have any stage 2 evolutions (not counting the repurposed fairy) the only other typing that didn’t get a stage 2 evolution would be the ice type and those are extremely rare in the game as it is unlike the electrical type. So state wise as well as type wise it would not seem THAT unbalanced at all, at least nothing that is not fixable. Raichu itself does not have to great stats either, though Alolan Raichu is decent , regular Raichu has fallen flat for many years. It’s one of the more lackluster evolution lines so once more excluding Gorochu seems a very odd call when it comes to game design and balancing. Could it be that there actually is some ulterior motive behind these choices? Would Gorochu really be that overpowered it would unbalance and already unbalanced game? Why come up with such a easy excuse. Even if it was unbalanced it could have been patched in generation II where a few others pokémon got new evolutions as well. Why was it completely omitted? It is time to come up with some theories!

Theories

How would Gorochu evolve is the first question we have to ask us. Would it be by thunderstone and Raichu by level? No! There is still some dialogue in the game that flat out confirms that Raichu was meant to have a trade evolution. When you arrive on Cinnabar Island there is a laboratory there. Inside that labtratory you can find a trainer, an old man wanting your Raichu and offering an Electrode for it. Now this is not a trade many people would make because in Gen I Raichu was actually better (nowadays it arguably is not). However should you have traded and talked to the man he tells you that the raichu you traded him went and evolved.

So Gorochu seems to function like a trade evolution and this trade though bad was meant to clue us in on that. With that in mind we can distill a theory that Gorochu was scrapped for being the fifth trade evolution. It would be a lot easier to have 4 trade evolutions and you can bounce them off each other, with a fifth you’d have to put faith in the other trainer at some point… but this argument doesn’t fully hold up as you can basically trade anyway you want and both can trade the same trade evolution as well, both could trade a Raichu to get Gorochu. But the companies do prefer round numbers so four for trade makes more sense than five A flimsy excuse but an excuse nonetheless.

*The official Gen I trade evolutions* we coould have had 5!

it is strange however that the line of dialogue made it into the english version of the game. Dataminers never found any artwork for Gorochu as it was scrapped n the japanese version already and the american version came out nearly two years later. For the dialogue to exist it would mean they deleted Gorochu in the japanese version and making the mistake not to adapt the dialogue, then letting it go unnoticed for two years after which the american production makes the mistake to directly translate it without noticing it either. Not impossible, but in a game with so many secrets and where they are discussed at playgrounds and all.. somewhat unlikely. If we talk about the Mew/Truck why not speak about the secret Pikachu evolution? Could it be the perfect storm of a trade that none one really wanted to make and translators not knowing the game in addition to a oversight from japan? Most likely yes, but could it be that they initially planned for Gorochu to return in the future as well and left the dialogue in as a tease? … they just might have.

Why would Gorochu be that unbalanced? Could he have competed with a pseudo legendary? Could that be the reason why the anime Pikachu became such a Gary Stue, having access to incredible powers? Was Pikachu meant to evolve and be Ash his way to glory? The story seems to have begun with the idea of an immensely strong Pikachu that got more and more retconned as they went along. There seem to be some oddities about the way the original story was told, Pikachu got reinvented as the show went on.. he slimmed down, became weaker or less powerful and around the third gym the door to evolution was closed off to us in the anime at least. Could the decision the anime made have led to Gorochu never being reintroduced?

We might never know! One might speculate though that had Pikachu never been fat, we might have had another mascot and Pikachu could have evolved because there would be no need to freeze it in time much like Ash. Maybe they did not want their mascot turning into something quite so evil themed…. maybe if they had implemented it I could have ran the pokémon onto a decent team. As much as I adore Pichu for it’s cuteness, the moment Gorochu was deleted from the game they robbed the line of it’s true potential. Alolan Raichu may have patched it up a bit but we could have had such a great electric type that got snuffed out for some very weird reasons.

What do you feel happend to Gorochu? Why did that beautiful boy have to be cut from the game? Do you know of other Pokémon that didn’t make the cut you would have liked to have seen become a reality? Let me know in the comments or leave a like! Onto the next mysterious case and onto new adventures and remember
I am not weird! Just very pink!
Until we read again!

Pokémon Gadgets for A Pokémon Detective

Top of the day to you my little Watsons. As one may have noticed I am somewhat inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brainchild, Sherlock Holmes, the best detective in entire Galar. However Princess Pinkie told me that there factually is one detective that is greater than mister Holmes. She did seem pretty sure of herself and I could not detect a lie. The detective she said is factually better goes by the name of Bruce Wayne… but when crime is about he turns into… Zubatman!… At least that is what she told me. Wayne seems to be intelligent but not as great as my beloved inspiration, so I can only deduce that this bat-person is the greater detective because of their use of gadgets. In an attempt to further myself as a detective I will look for some to make my own utility belt.

Pokeball Chargers 10,000 mAh

These days we do everything by smartphone! That goes for detective work as well. Not only can I research leads on my 4g internet, this nifty device also allows me to take pictures of evidence, record my own voice to hypothesise or even record others. It also allows me to follow some criminal scum on weird applications called Instagram, Facebook or recently WordPress. The Smartphone is thusly the main and most trusted gadget of a detective. Much like in those sony product placement James Bond movies like Casino Royale. They could do everything for him, they can do so for the world’s pinkest detective as well. The problem with these nifty devices however is the fact that they have a shorter lifespan than Yamcha when facing a Saibaman. Luckily we can compensate by using the power that is inside these Pokéballs. Quite literally in fact. These capture devices can be hooked up to your phone to provide some much needed oomph for your quickly drainable device. Coming in at about 20 american dollars, they are fairly cheap, depending on where you live in the world and what politician would drive your country of the edge of course.Their look is nothing shy of phenomenal, they look just like the real thing with a nice glow when you wield them. Fooling everyone you are trying to spy on that you are just a regular trainer. A great bit of Pokémon parefeniia to collect. They come in three variations, regular pokeball, great ball and master ball. Now we will just have to wait for the love ball variant to release and this detective is good to go.

Pokémon disguises

Sometimes a great detective has to bland in her environment Be unseen, yet still be there. Imagine my surprise when I found out that pokemon disguises can be really cheap in this world. They are called onesies and there is a LOT of them out there. Coming in as cheap as only $9 dollars , not using my own currency but american dollars as it is usually the standard chosen price online. Of course there are pricier ones out there, but the point is we can put together a disguise collection for relatively little money. It is the perfect way to sneak up on a Pokémon Go player who is catching in AR mode or to infiltrate the base of an evil team. They also keep you rather warm and snuggly in your homestead! In fact they are excellent apparel for a lazy sunday or a rainy evening. Keeping you nice and toasty.
A detective should always keep their minds sharp and relaxing in a onesie at the proper time can certainly make this happen. These multifunctional infiltration suits double as a mental soothing contraption and thus are a must have for the pinkest detective.

A robot sidekick

My Ditto called Evidence is a great sidekick to have don’t get me wrong, but being imaginative really hurts it’s practicality. In this day and age I also can not get a young boy or girl to join me on my crusade against crime or people would think ill of me. I tried training a cat once, but PETA showed up and said I could not and when I tried to recruit someone on the sidekick reddit, this government guy showed up at my door telling me I’d need to pay them minimum wage… which is more than what I get! So, with no options left looked to see if there was a gadget that could help me out. Lo and behold the UchiPika Pikachu Robot. For about $58 dollars, excluding shipping you can own this robotic tiny pikachu what bobs it head in such a nice and sweet manner that no bad guy would ever think to harm it. It will teach you some basic japanese, as you need that to control it, which is nice because the more language you speak the more chance you have to overhear some good clues. UchiPika however is a lot more functional than just a training tool. Like a proper electric Pokémon it has the power to turn on electronic devices such as a tv, which is perfect to create diversions and create an opportunity for the detectives to sneak by into another room to continue their evidence gathering. Judging on the commercial I show below it can also create EMP pulse to shut down electronic devices such as lights. This already makes it so much more useful to that homeless man i once tried to hire as a sidekick. He asked for change so I figured turning his life into something heroic would be just the change he needed, he disagreed and tried to steal my kidney. Should such a case ever happen again now though I will be prepared, because I have UchiPika.. and he knows Jūman Volt (Thunder Bolt) so the toy is a taser as well. Though my japanese is a bit rusty it may not EXACTLY work like that, but we shall see.

The Pokérang

Batman has these little bat boomerangs he throws which he seems to be using to great effectiveness. We can deduce such a gadget must certainly work. Not having access to any of Wayne Enterprises production companies , I was forced to scour the net for a replacement. I think I found the perfect devices to use. They are called fidget spinners. A long time ago these enjoyed some popularity but in this day and age , no one seems to really care for them, making it plausible the aspiring detective/superhero can buy them in bulk for cheap. Unfortunately the cheapest one I found, was one featuring a Pikachu design coming in at about 18 dollars , for a tossable that is a bit steep and that one had blunt edges. The one I would prefer has edges. I found it online for 44 …. well I don’t exactly know the currency, the page was in arab and the currency symbol look strange to me as well. More research is needed, but who knows if 44 , unknown arab currency equals like 4 dollars I might be able to know the guns out of people’s hand with some obsolete gadget soon. If nothing else it can at least help me relax while I wait for my Pikabot!

The Pikachu evidence collector

Gathering evidence is an important task of a detective. As Pikachu is a detective himself he knows this to be true, so it makes sense that this evidence collector device has been fabricated with his face on it. The concept of this device is very simple. You carry a portable vault with you once you put evidence on the button on top of the vault the device will crack open a little bit as a pikachu made of plastic will come out and paw the evidence inside the vault for safekeeping. A wonderful device to assist any detective. Pikachu does however seem to be kind of fickle in the type of evidence he collects. He seems to function best when a small flat disclike metal object is placed on the button. Peculiar he is so picky because anything can be evidence. Luckily it also works with dried up gum, which can contain dna evidence and when combined with these discs or even with a regular coin it can also rake in hairs and other small materials. However with the average price of $30 I would have hoped for just a little bit more practicality. Nonetheless. since Pikabot will not collect evidence having this Pikachu do it is still better than not collecting it at all? Why I can’t collect it myself? Well because I am ZUBATGIRL!

Now that we are equipped with gadgets maybe Princess Pinkiie will stop picking on me! Thank you for helping me find these gadgets little Watsons or is it little Robins…little Tailows? Maybe little SideKricketots? Let me know your preferred nickname and your favorite gadget in the comments! Stay sharp my junior detectives and remember!
I am not weird just very pink!
Until we read again.

Norse Mythology in Pokémon

Jolly good, an avid reader has arrived to assist me in this matter. Let me first do you the courtesy of a formal introduction, even though the keenest and eager of minds might have already spotted me on the ABOUT page of this blogging endeavour.
My name is detective: Pinkelett Wellington-Oxley-Birminghamshire-Diggersby-Pinkerton-Cherrlyblossom. Feel free to call me Detective Pinkie though! Together with my trusted Ditto called Evidence we solve mysteries, deduce theories and analyse enigma’s.
Unlike the former crudely called ‘Theory-Thursdays’ I shall not only discuss theories but rumors as well. Today however we for an hypothesis about the identity of the final legendary in Pokémon Sword and Shield and for that we will look at Norse mythology. Are you ready little Watsons? Let us take a trip across the bifrost.

Kalos and Galar

My utmost apologies, before we can depart I must relay some factoids about Pokémon topography. For the sake of logical deduction one should know that different Pokémon regions are based on different countries. Their geographical location in the Pokémon world oftenly mirrors the once in the real world. Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh (as well as the islands from minor games like pokémon snap) are all based on Japan and thusly are described as being close to one another. Unova was our first trip to another country! Mimicking the american east coast. New York and New Jersey are referenced in this region and the region is to be described as very far away from the original four. Alola was based on Hawaii and is assumed to be relatively close to Unova though the island theming and vastly different culture makes his hard to deduce. The Alola region in fact was so different and secluded from the rest of the world it felt like it’s very own world. Kalos was, not so subtle based on france. This games legendaries featured a lot of nordic elements which seem to return in Sword and Shield. Galar which is even more obviously being based on Britain by process of extrapolation of the trend should be very close to Kalos, in fact their maps do seem to be connectable.

Fan theories state we might venture into the 6th generation region, last time two railways connected we could travel across the lands as well after all! Safe to say if the player can cross the border, it would not be that hard for it’s mythos to do the same.
Most legendaries have an important role in shaping their respective regions as well, so it could be possible that Arceus created these legendaries together, but over time these lands segregated. With that being said let’s take a peek at some mythology. We will start in Kalos first. Where all legendaries seem to be inspired by this picture! But also have a much deeper connection. Keep this pictue in your mind Watsons you will need it.

Yggdrasil and Xerneas

At first glance you would not directly connect this:

and this:

However truth lies a layer deeper within my Watsons! If we look we can certainly see a mimicking in the colour pattern from Yggdrasill towards Xerneas but that is not the only evidence. Yggdrasil is the life tree. Xerneas pokédex entry calls it the Life Pokémon. Which in it’s dormant state in fact is a tree. Although not as massive and world connecting. Xerneas is described as a small blue true connected to the very essence of life. A life tree if you will.

Now before you yell out that this still is poppycock let us move a bit further into the northern mythology itself. Yggdrasil is not just a tree it also has some animal friends living inside and around it. Four of these magnificent creatures are called Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór These creatures are all deer that feed of the branches of Yggdrasil. Much like Xerneas all these deers are stags and they all wear gems in their antlers. Much like Xerneas. These colours are Red, blue, yellow, and purple, all these are represented in Xerneas design. While Xerneas uses his gems he has to power to grant things everlasting life.

Hræsvelgr and Yveltal

Though it is not too hard to see, the eagle sitting in the world tree in Yveltal it’s connections go quit a bit deeper then it just being an eagle.

First of all the eagle in the life tree as depicted in the image shared above is rumored to be blind. It is not hard so see an aspect of blindness in Yveltal. It’s eyes are a completely evil blue, while design trends really focussed at that time of bringing eyes to live a lot more. Pokémon almost always had pupils, with only extreme rare exceptions. and those usually just being hidden. Yveltal’s empty eyes could easily hint at it being blind. Yet Hræsvelg is not that eagle in the tree so why bring it up? This giant in the form of an Eagle, is known as the corpse eater. Yveltal is the Pokémon of death. Some people even claim that Hræsvelgr actually IS the eagle in the life tree, but this is up for debate. The Eagle in the life tree has the ability to peer into ones soul and this ability is never found in mentions of Hræsvelgr nor is something like this hinted at in Yveltal’s pokédex lore.
However since there isn’t much officially know about these two it makes sense to combine them. The Corpse Eater is is sit to dwell at the end of the world. The player in Pokémon Y encounters Yveltal when it is about to end the world as they know it, when Lysandre uses it to empower his doomsday weapon to destroy all life.

Níðhǫggr Jörmungandr and Zygarde

At the bottom of the tree we see a snake in its roots. This snake is Níðhǫggr, who is more accurately described as a dragon who lives under ground in the roots of the life tree. Zygarde’s typing is a ground dragon type, so that makes sense. Yet Zygarde has many forms and these aren’t just tacked on.. these are also very much rooted in Nordic mythology. Lets begin with the serpentine form.

This seems to be based on Jörmungandr. This snake was thrown into earth ocean by Odin, and apparently it was very good at playing snake because there it grew tall enough to loop the world and bite its own tail. This apparently brought good tidings to Midgar or in other words earth where staying like that keeps our world safe. Should the snake however ever let o Midgar will fall to disarray and be destroyed Zygarde is the order Pokémon, it’s tasked is to prevent our ecosystem from collapsing and maintain balance. Thus the Midgard-snake and the Order Pokémon share a purpose in life.
The fact that Zygarde kan grow is also a reference to this origin. However to his other two forms we need to look at his father first. No it’s not Tom Hiddleston.. it’s the actual Loki… who did some very weird things.

Angrboða and Loki must have been at the daycare together at one point, because it was said that they liked to play together. Three new lives where bred. Jormungandr, Hel and Fenrir. A snake.. a half undead giant woman.. and a dog/wolf. 10% Zygarde being a doglike creature is fairly obvious and there isn’t much of a deeper connection to the wolf there anyway.
With Hel it gets a bit more interesting in the design department. Too human pokémon have oftenly be met with dislike or even hate and controversy. I am looking at you Jynx! So they had to be a bit creative. Hel is mostly know for three things. Being the giantess that rules over norse hell is one. Zygarde does not rule over any afterlife ..but it took snakes role anyway.

So let’s see if our target looks like a giant. Check on that. 100% For Zygarde is definitely a giant. The second is her spiky crown. marvel kind of exaggerated it..but we can definitely see a spiky crown on zygarde as well. Finally one half of Hel is living, the other is dead. Though we don’t see a half rotting earth giant in Zygarde 100% on one half of it’s “cloak” it dons the main colour of Xerneas.. being life.. the other half of features Yveltal’s colour .. being death. I would say these are all strong enough connections to be more than just a coincidence. But how about Galar. We do not know a lot about those yet.. what is your theory? Well it is my believe Zamazenta and Zacian are based on Freki and Geri.

The Wolves and the Raven.

Zamazenta the shield wolf and Zacian the sword wielding lobo were announced to be the legendaries of Pokémon Sword and Shield. With some people immediately comparing them to Skoll and Hati, the wolves who chase the sun and the moon, I feel other then thematically following after Pokémon Sun and Moon there is not a lot to this reference, They might be used to deduced secondary typings, as we have clearly seen Nintendo crossing figures before to deduce typings and lore alike. Geri and Freki are Odin’s pet wolves.

Where X and Y used the icon of Yggdrasil to base legendaries around, when reusing mythos again you’d need an equally strong icon. One like Odin himself. In the art shared we see the wolves sitting at both sides of his throne. One sits by his sword, the other by his shield Their names roughly translating to something insatiable, always hungry, ever eager to satisfy themselves. With a bit of good will from us, and some free interpretation of their names we get a unstoppable force and an unmovable object. A perfect theming that seems to work excellent for the route Nintendo and Game Freak chose. Though Hati and Skoll are not out of the running yet, a pretty much confirmed leak has revealed there will be a third, and evil legendary. Based on this imagine and the accompanying lore we could assume the third legendary, will be a two headed raven, wielding a spear. Huginn and Muninn were Odin’s messengers and scouts relaying him all sorts of information thusly being sometimes being connected to the virtues of knowledge and wisdom, even omniscience. This could make Huginn and Muninn the inspiration for a pokémon representing the all knowing mind. Giving us a nice trinity: the unstoppable, the unmovable and the all knowing. This may just be speculation, but if we remember Sword and Shields first trailer when Zacian and Zamazenta where facing off suddenly something else approached…from the sky!

We may have not gathered enough evidence yet for a conviction..but at least we have a suspect. A good detective always has a theory. Haven examined the evidence yourself my dear Watsons, what do you think will be the third legendary? What are you hoping for?
Maybe you even have some more evidence! Be sure to let me know and like always remember!
I am not weird, I am just very pink!
Until we read again.