#floating timeline

Knowing you’re a cartoon character isn’t all its cracked up to be. Especially when you’re trapped as a kid in high school for eternity! Teetering on the edge of puberty indefinitely is enough to drive anyone totally NUTS!

To name a few: using too many commas, repetitive word choice, improper grammar, uncapitalized words throughout the entire story, thick blocks of text when you need to break up paragraphs, etc… You get the point. The last one seriously makes me mad because I will lose my place in a chapter. I understand the first drafts won’t be perfect from the get-go, but them not improving frustrates me. What I am trying to get at is writing something you are satisfied with is harder than it sounds.

Moving onto the main point of this post. The Pokémon world’s floating timeline presents a unique problem. Whether it is the eternal summer of the Anime or games remakes making concrete events more vague. I’m not going into the darker Manga events since I barely know them. It tends to be different from our own in many ways besides super powered creatures. Here are some questions I ask myself whenever I think up any fanfic ideas.

—Do all individuals of a species look the same? {Pokémon look like mirror copies no matter how many you catch in the games. I would like to think there are other appearance traits than the bigger size. Maybe some have shaggier fur, longer claws, and different colors besides being shiny considering the genetic diversity.}

—Why do some people have Pokémon before being ten years old? {We know being ten is the minimum requirement to take on the league. Yet we see visibly younger kids have Pokémon in several other regions. I think ten is the youngest age you are allowed to be to compete in official tournaments. Ash had a trainer’s license in the Anime which might relate to this.}

—Are talented/prodigy trainers granted special privileges? {In a short answer, yes. We see very young trainers like Tate and Liza appointed to co-gym leader status. It seems talented trainers are very sought after in the Pokémon world. The youngest high-ranking trainer has to be (SPOILERS) the Paldea’s Poppy. Her attitude and visible appearance make me think she is five to six years old. Poppy is strong enough to hold an Elite Four position in the game!}

—Why are we made the new champion after beating the old one? {This is one of the few things about the games that genuinely annoys me. We are not only the strongest trainer in-region but given a high authority position. League champions appear to be people who rank first in the tournament. What would make more sense is the former champion mentors whoever beat them for a few years. Champions hold the highest authority being able to go to places too dangerous for average trainers.}

—What exactly are Legendaries/Mythicals? {Not the easiest question to answer so let’s go over the basics. All species have the strength of fully-evolved dragon types. Each has a job to do in the world, some more important than others considering what they represent. One's like the Creation Trio and Arceus are actual real gods. Giratina itself was described as eldritch. People can go their whole lives without seeing one in any continuity. A lucky few can catch them and they will actually listen to orders.}

—Is it legal to have a Legendary Pokémon considering how important they are? {When you take into account their sheer strength and abilities this is a grey area. We catch the region’s legendaries/mythical in every game. I have personally used at least one box legend on teams to beat the Elite Four. In the universe though how often does this genuinely happen? Where they bond enough to let themselves be caught by a mortal. It would be so easy for Groudon or Yveltal to just kill us if they didn’t want to listen... Are there rules for this? A limit to how many you can use on a team. Does the trainer have to let the league know they have one if they take on the Pokémon League? Look at how easily Tobias swept the gym challenge.}

—How advanced is the technology? {Another odd area so rarely addressed in the Pokemon World. Bags, a staple thing, can hold several items including Bikes in them without weighing us down. Pokemon are transported by digitizing them across the internet/electric lines. Centers can heal our pokémon with a machine in just a few seconds. Teleport tiles have existed since the first freaking generation! The Pokemon World is much more advanced than our own. I would say they focused on medicine, science, and transportation the most.}

—Is battling similar to animal fighting? {PETA has kicked up enough fuss over the years when it comes to the Pokémon franchise. The games have shown that trainers make friends with their Pokémon enough to affect battles. Some even shrug off status effects to not worry the trainer. There are cases of Pokémon abuse and abandonment in the series. Yet tend to be much rarer than our cases in our world. Besides, wild Pokémon will battle to get stronger.}

—Are there any real-world animals? {Evidence for this is present when you look at species classifications. Cats, dogs, mice, crocodiles, and others like that are found in dex entries. Fish were seen in the anime’s early episodes. Pidgeotto ate an actual worm before Ash caught it... So kinda. Smaller animals seem to inhabit the Pokémon World from what we’ve seen. Makes the food situation less grim.}

—What is pokémon training actually like? {I imagine that it’s far less glamorous than the games show. Camping for months on end without access to showers. Having to feed six super-powered creatures three times a day. Not to mention having an unstable budget to rely on. I pity those who repeatedly lose.}

Now questions I don’t have answers/ headcanons/theories on currently.

—What was the Pokémon World’s reaction to parallel dimensions being real? Ultra Space

—Why are there two different types of Rangers? One that uses poke balls and one using stylers.

—Is time travel a somewhat regular occurrence and do people watch for timeline changes? The Hisui situation is not subtle with there being Porygon in the pokédex. Time-space distortions might appear in the modern day.

—Are humans in there more durable than us? Ash gets hit by Pokémon moves and Lance hyper-beamed someone in Mahogany Town.

—How can friendship be quantified?

—What’s the yearly number of Pokémon killing humans?

—Are psychics employed as lie detectors?

—Is it wrong for a psychic to read minds?

—Do mediums need special training?

—How do non-Pokémon related careers fare in a Pokemon training-focused world?

—Does ditto breeding have any side effects?

—What requirements are there to become a gym leader? Why is it only one gym per town?

—Can a trainer be charged with murder if one of their Pokémon kills a human in self-defense?

—Are there blacklisted species against the law to be trained without licenses?

—What happens to all the less-than-ideal babies from IV breeding? Shiny breeding?

—Where do Pokémon eggs actually come from?

—How often are Pokémon actually injured to the point if bleeding?

—Why does this crazy world let ten-year-olds wander in the wilderness?

—Are the evil teams' schemes years in the making? What were they thinking messing with the God-like Legendaries?

—How much does the league tell the public about us stopping evil teams?

—Are the additional non-native encounters in remakes caused by the Legendary Pokémon raging? Mass migrations away from danger.

—Can they take away our legendary Pokemon?

—Do the legendaries have cult followings?

—Would using Mega Evolution or Z-Moves to battle trainers who can’t be considered unfair?

—How rare is the ability to talk to Pokémon?

—Do badges/ribbons expire?

—Is evolving less maturing than just growing stronger? Can evolved mons still be immature?

—Are atheists a thing in the Pokemon world?

—How many grimdark or nuzlucke stories are just dark timelines?

—What if Legendaries are classified as genderless because nobody has studied them?

—Do Pokémon have to be re-caught if the trainer wants to switch their poke ball type?

—How rare are evolution items?

—How do TMs teach Pokemon new moves?

—Are ghost types immortal?

—What happens to Orre during the time skip?

—Does Ash age or is he stuck at ten?

—When does Ingo get sucked into the past?

—How long was he there before we show up?

—How do trade evolutions occur wild?

—Do we control the player character to save the region?

—What weapons if any exist in that world?

—How old are the Champions?

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