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Pokemon Discussion Thread - Z-A arc

Genuinely. what are you referring to?
Old Theory Video of theirs where they said (I think) Sun and Moon were setting up Pokemon to do a huge reboot, and that the third game was going to have a sort of Reboot Event that was going to restart the franchise.

That, of course, didn't really pan out. Though I saw some people (ironic ir not) were saying it was right because of Dexit 'retconning' Pokemon and Moves existing.
 
I finally got around to watch Pokemon again and tbh, whilst I was rather disappointed at some of the episodes, season 2 has been quite fun. They improved the animation to some degree. I can still see some re-used animation but generally they've definitely made everything more fun. The battles now look better in general and have clearly more thought behind them than Liko spamming magical leaf (she kinda still does that but with more thought). Now that Dot is fianlly participating in the adventures fully its actually quite fun as the dynamic is nice. I'm definitely back to the feeling I had before of just watching it with a smile forming subconciously on my face. Hopefully they'll keep this up.
 
Old Theory Video of theirs where they said (I think) Sun and Moon were setting up Pokemon to do a huge reboot, and that the third game was going to have a sort of Reboot Event that was going to restart the franchise.

That, of course, didn't really pan out. Though I saw some people (ironic ir not) were saying it was right because of Dexit 'retconning' Pokemon and Moves existing.
It was technically a very small reboot if you count Let's Go Eevee and the other, inferior Let's Go Eevee
 
It was technically a very small reboot if you count Let's Go Eevee and the other, inferior Let's Go Eevee
I'm not sure I'd really call that a 'reboot', while we revisited Kanto again in a new gameplay style and some notable story shakeups, and newer generation stuff was worked in, the game still fits into the wider concept of Pokemon that existed before and was maintained after. Pokemon's got lots of timelines and universes and oddities, but all of it is still one big 'thing', you know?

Pokemon will keep changing as new stuff is added, and remake/revisiting games will keep working in those ideas retroactively, but the type of 'reboot' people think of and the theory video was working towards? I don't think Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, just all of them have any interest in doing it any time soon...If ever.
 
I'm not sure I'd really call that a 'reboot', while we revisited Kanto again in a new gameplay style and some notable story shakeups, and newer generation stuff was worked in, the game still fits into the wider concept of Pokemon that existed before and was maintained after. Pokemon's got lots of timelines and universes and oddities, but all of it is still one big 'thing', you know?

Pokemon will keep changing as new stuff is added, and remake/revisiting games will keep working in those ideas retroactively, but the type of 'reboot' people think of and the theory video was working towards? I don't think Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, just all of them have any interest in doing it any time soon...If ever.
Fair enough.
 
So, Nintendo Direct revealed some new stuff.

Pokemon explicitly can appear outside of the wild zones.
There is some sort of day & night system.\
Quasartico is behind the revelopment.
There is a tournament that happens at night. May be an "unofficial" sort in-universe. Z is the lowest rank, & A is the highest rank in it.
Some Pokemon species appeared. It's not clear, but some of those Pokemon may be Pokemon not previously known to be available in Pokemon: Legends Z-A.
 
Rewatching the trailer now.

image.png


This appears after base Houndoom surrounded by fire(? Attack animation.), & before the a montage of Megas.

New Dragalge Shiny?
 
Lack of pre-battle dialogue for the nighttime trainer battles is dissapointing.

Trainers who reach the top are said to have a wish granted. Yet, the battles are at nighttime & seem to have a dangerous, unofficial kind of feeling to them, no?
What could organize & support such a system, yet also grant a wish?
A-Z already reunited with EF, so surely he isn't planning to betray EF & use the Ultimate Weapon for that again right? It certainly can't grant ANY KIND of wish a challenger might ask for. (Unless GF just handwaves it, but unless giving life to whatever protag asks for takes A LOT less than reviving a single Pokemon -Or maybe it's dependent on power?- it's not going to be able to do everything.)

In theory, the wish-granting could be a lie to get people to participate.
Someone mentioned something about Infinity Energy? Related to battling? But what for?
A-Z lost his cherished Pokemon to war, & it was the use of said energy that made it leave him, no?

So surely it wouldn't be A-Z who's behind the wish offer, right?
 
In theory, the wish-granting could be a lie to get people to participate.
Someone mentioned something about Infinity Energy? Related to battling? But what for?
A-Z lost his cherished Pokemon to war, & it was the use of said energy that made it leave him, no?

So surely it wouldn't be A-Z who's behind the wish offer, right?
Oh no, that mf gonna revive Majin Buu
 
Lack of pre-battle dialogue for the nighttime trainer battles is dissapointing.

Trainers who reach the top are said to have a wish granted. Yet, the battles are at nighttime & seem to have a dangerous, unofficial kind of feeling to them, no?
What could organize & support such a system, yet also grant a wish?
A-Z already reunited with EF, so surely he isn't planning to betray EF & use the Ultimate Weapon for that again right? It certainly can't grant ANY KIND of wish a challenger might ask for. (Unless GF just handwaves it, but unless giving life to whatever protag asks for takes A LOT less than reviving a single Pokemon -Or maybe it's dependent on power?- it's not going to be able to do everything.)

In theory, the wish-granting could be a lie to get people to participate.
Someone mentioned something about Infinity Energy? Related to battling? But what for?
A-Z lost his cherished Pokemon to war, & it was the use of said energy that made it leave him, no?

So surely it wouldn't be A-Z who's behind the wish offer, right?
Maybe the lack of proper dialogue is a trailer thing? There is post battle dialogue so my guess it was simply edited out in this instance.

IIRC AZ really regretted his actions and his immortality back in XY and reuniting with Floette had this feel of "I get this second chance, even though I don't deserve it", so I don't think he'd try doing dangerous or manipulative things given that he can now be happy with his partner. I do agree that the wish prize reeks to scam, unless someone actually has a Jirachi with them.

Maybe the Ultimate Weapon will be brought up again, I dunno, and AZ will be help against it.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if the wish thing has something to do with Hoopa Unbound, given it’s classified as the Djinn Pokémon and it makes more sense for a Kalos Pokémon to be involved if any Pokémon is. Hoopa doesn’t have actual wish powers, but if they go the lie/scam route it wouldn’t need to.
 
Maybe the lack of proper dialogue is a trailer thing? There is post battle dialogue so my guess it was simply edited out in this instance.
I sure hope so.
IIRC AZ really regretted his actions and his immortality back in XY and reuniting with Floette had this feel of "I get this second chance, even though I don't deserve it", so I don't think he'd try doing dangerous or manipulative things given that he can now be happy with his partner. I do agree that the wish prize reeks to scam, unless someone actually has a Jirachi with them.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Maybe the Ultimate Weapon will be brought up again, I dunno, and AZ will be help against it.
Definitely.

Ultimate Weapon lore?

But then again, if the whole game is in Lumiose, how does the Ultimate Weapon come up? Last we saw, it was in Geosenge Town. Surely you can't just relocate something like that?

~~I mean, logically, you probably can. Get a team of, like, IDK, 30 Machop or Machoke, or even just a huge platform, & haul it out, right?
 
I sure hope so.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Definitely.

Ultimate Weapon lore?

But then again, if the whole game is in Lumiose, how does the Ultimate Weapon come up? Last we saw, it was in Geosenge Town. Surely you can't just relocate something like that?

~~I mean, logically, you probably can. Get a team of, like, IDK, 30 Machop or Machoke, or even just a huge platform, & haul it out, right?
Not necessarily the Ultimate Weapon itself. I was thinking that some psycho fascinated by the technology AZ developed and Lysandre tried to recreate would attempt to study and develop his own for some nefarious objective, and he could have his base in Lumiose due to being a large city with easy access to a criminal underworld to get resources and such. I'm just rambling tbf, but given the game seems to be about Zygarde and the balance it brings, I wouldn't discard that the death and life of Yveltal and Xerneas could also be part of the story to an extent.
 
I don't know if talking potential leaks and rumors here is allowed, but a particularly interesting Eternal Floette alleged leak might be a way to reference the Ultimate Weapon and have the characters bring it up and discuss it more.
 
Through fall damage or not, it (for some reason) bypasses the defense calculations. It probably deserves some sort of note for game appearances, and we should check other moves that do set damage in the anime/manga/spinoffs and see if they make any mentions of that fact in the other media types.

I've never paid attention before, it'd be interesting if someone says something like 'the damage went right through their Withdraw!!!' or something similar in an Anime battle or something.
 
Through fall damage or not, it (for some reason) bypasses the defense calculations. It probably deserves some sort of note for game appearances, and we should check other moves that do set damage in the anime/manga/spinoffs and see if they make any mentions of that fact in the other media types.

I've never paid attention before, it'd be interesting if someone says something like 'the damage went right through their Withdraw!!!' or something similar in an Anime battle or something.
Has never happened before
 
Has never happened before
I don't mean to be rude, but I'm shocked if you managed to check the full list on Bulbapedia for each of the episodes they list already.

Then again, I've gotten no work done and this is a super low priority for me, so I might just be arbitrarily skeptical just because I've done... nothing.
 
...So you did or didn't check every episode's use AFTER commenting it?

Well...That's a fairly clear cut scan. Though he does say 'stamina' in that context. Not sure if because of that we'd still use Durability Negation? Statistics Reduction? I find all of this interesting I'm just too busy to focus 100%
 
...So you did or didn't check every episode's use AFTER commenting it?

Well...That's a fairly clear cut scan. Though he does say 'stamina' in that context. Not sure if because of that we'd still use Durability Negation? Statistics Reduction? I find all of this interesting I'm just too busy to focus 100%
I just checked what Bulbapedia wrote in the plot section of each episode, and it didn't mention anything about Seismic Toss bypassing a defense raising move

As for Super Fang, I think it might be durability negation?
 
I just checked what Bulbapedia wrote in the plot section of each episode, and it didn't mention anything about Seismic Toss bypassing a defense raising move
I'm not sure that's gonna be enough, given they're only wiki summaries. Why I said it like it was gonna be a project for some to do is because it's probably best someone check each episode itself rather than relying on Bulbapedia. Love the website, but direct sources is typically best.
As for Super Fang, I think it might be durability negation?
I'm only hung up on them saying 'stamina' since quantifying 'reducing stamina' is odd.
 
A theory! Potential spoilers! Thoughts, all?
Scarlet/Violet focused on conflicts involving loved ones and family. This time, I think the narrative might delve more deeply into themes of Life and Death - and what those concepts mean to both people and Pokémon. We might even see further exploration of the war hinted at in X/Y. It's also possible we’ll encounter a new villain who, like AZ, is immortal. Who knows?

If the "Z" in the title refers to Zygarde, then the "A" might hint at a new legendary/mythical. While Zygarde serves as the de facto guardian of the ecosystem, this new Pokémon could embody what Zygarde opposes - perhaps viewing Immortality as a violation of the natural order. That would tie in neatly with AZ’s story and the idea that Immortality must be undone, or else suffering is inevitable. Maybe the new villain seeks Immortality under the belief that being with their Pokémon forever is true happiness, unwilling to let go - possibly similar to AZ’s long separation from his Floette.

I think the idea of loss and acceptance will be key to this new game. Or maybe it won't amount to that and still great.

I also think it’s possible this new legendary or mythical Pokémon could be the source of Mega Evolution, just as Terapagos is tied to Terastalization. We still don’t know if Mega Stones were the only remnants from the Grand Delta Meteor - perhaps something else, something alien, arrived like Deoxys did. Hopefully, we’ll see the narrative pick up some of the threads left dangling after the Delta Episode or what would've been had X/Y not been rushed.

Edit: Discovering a third Deoxys laying dormant for all these years in the post-game would also be really cool. Mega Deoxys maybe?
 
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