I would like to present to everyone...
Aka the biggest family tree conspiracy theory in the Pokémon fandom, all curated by moi.
The centerpiece of this theory is of course as the name implies gym leader Clay of the Unova region.
The goal? To decipher the family tree and further beyond.
As we know this begins with Lian, a warden of the Pearl Clan in Hisui and obvious ancestor to Clay.
However... Have we ever considered that maybe Lian has another descendant? My proposal, is Gym Leader Byron of the Sinnoh region.
Of course then if Byron is related to Clay (which I'd say they're brothers) then that would mean his son Roark is also part of this family tree.
With Roark canonically being Byron's son, then that would mean that if Byron is in fact Clay's brother, then Roark would have a cousin. That being Clay's canonical daughter, Lacey.
Now this has been under contention for a while...who is Lacey's mother? If you've been on my blog for a while you might be familiar with who I think it is. I believe that Lacey's mother is Gym Leader Tulip of the Paldea region.
Now of course, what would Tulip be doing all the way in the Paldea region away from her family? What if...there was another child? What if she and Clay were divorced? Divorce is a common reason for children to be bullied in school...
We know Ortega has an unnamed mother, and that his family owns an apparel company. Tulip is a model, and seems rather busy, like she's making a lot of money...
Now by now I'm sure that you're assuming I'm finished. However there's one last piece in this puzzle. One more character...a character with an unnamed father, mother, sister, and brother...
So now, let's go over everything in a more fanfic-y description. Clay is the descendant of Lian, and is the brother of Byron, and uncle to Roark. At one point he moved away from Sinnoh to Unova, where he married Tulip and had three kids, Yancy, Ortega, and Lacey. Yancy would become the TV personality Nancy. Eventually, Clay and Tulip got a divorce, and Tulip left for Paldea taking Ortega with her, where he would be bullied for having divorced parents and thus join Team Star. Meanwhile, Lacey would start attending Blueberry Academy.
And that's finally the end of it. Dropping the MatPat act, honestly do I really believe this? I mean, I don't think it's canon, but it's a cute headcanon. And obviously there's some small details that while not disproving anything do make things muddy. Like, Yancy's brother is said to own a Leavanny, and when she's on her show as Nancy, her interview with Clay doesn't read like someone talking with their father (though that could also just be viewed as just being professional for the sake of television).
Overall, don't take my words as gospel, and just have fun.
