• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Popular Theories you find Bizarre

octoboy

I Crush Everything
From what I looked up, the Japanese term for echidna literally means "needle mole", and looking at the mole morpheme in that word, there doesn't seem to be any connection to the word for mouse. By the looks of it, though, the word for shrew is derived from the word for mouse in Japanese (and it turns out the French for "mouse" is derived from the Latin for "shrew", which itself is derived from the same Greek word from which "hyrax" [i. e. those little creatures which are cousins to the elephant] is derived... not to mention that the weasel genus is called "Mustela", Latin for "little mouse" yeah, it seems that as far as a lot of languages are concerned, all mammals under a foot long are mice).

By the looks of it, the Japanese for pangolin isn't connected to the word for mouse either, but sandshrew and sandslash are literally called "Mouse Pokémon" in Japanese, so it seems that category is just given to any pokémon based on any type of mammal that's deemed too obscure to use as a category.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Adrianna being Giovanni’s wife and Silver’s mother seems to be pretty Farfetch’d to me. The only things supporting this theory are Adrianna having the same hair color as Silver and her being part of Team Rocket. That’s it. Adrianna has never hinted being a mother nor has anyone hinted towards the idea and Adrianna has never said her having any type of emotion for Giovanni other than total respect and admiration. Most NPCs that have romantic feelings for another NPC will state their love. May/Brendan’s mom does with Norman, Chuck’s wife does it with him, and even the Magma and Aqua grunts found in the ORAS Battle Resort state their feelings for each other.
 

MrJechgo

Well-Known Member
The fact that people would have found a wild Mew under a truck after cutting its tires... Why would a Mew even hide under a truck again?

Mewtwo went into hiding in a cave and that cave wasn't a easy trek, and its location made sense since a destroyed lab wouldn't.

But Mew??? It should have been as annoying difficult to capture as were Raikou, Entei and Suicune in Gen 2. Mew is often seen wondering the world, being playful and not sitting still.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
Adrianna being Giovanni’s wife and Silver’s mother seems to be pretty Farfetch’d to me. The only things supporting this theory are Adrianna having the same hair color as Silver and her being part of Team Rocket. That’s it. Adrianna has never hinted being a mother nor has anyone hinted towards the idea and Adrianna has never said her having any type of emotion for Giovanni other than total respect and admiration. Most NPCs that have romantic feelings for another NPC will state their love. May/Brendan’s mom does with Norman, Chuck’s wife does it with him, and even the Magma and Aqua grunts found in the ORAS Battle Resort state their feelings for each other.

That part never bothered me as much because I always assumed if true it was a pure business arrangement (so the lack of emotional investment may not be an issue as she may not consider herself to be a mother or in love with with Giovanni). Now I will admit Its not a theory I think has much that really backs it to be honest and I don't think she's intended to be his mother by the game's creators. However I think what drives it is Silver's mother has never been revealed in any canon (as far as I'm aware) and there really aren't many other obvious named candidates.
 

RedJirachi

Veteran member
Silver is the anti-protagonist; its his mother who doesn't exist

I don't get the hype behind the Pokemon war theory. Yeah, war is canon to the past of the series but I don't get how people extrapolate "Lt Surge was in a war" to "there was this dramatic war that is why your father doesn't exist". I'm pretty sure the missing father thing is just Japanese culture of the father being busy with work or something. Lt. Surge feels more like he's referencing something like Vietnam(his appearance, he was introduced at a time where the Pokemon world was more supposed to be Earth, he's American and the timing of the Pokemon games being released).
 

MrJechgo

Well-Known Member
Oh boy... wanna go for theories that just scream to be debunked by the creators anytime soon...

Grass starters are based on extinct animals
Kinda on shaky grounds because of Venusaur. While the Bulbasaur line was recently confirmed to be based on frogs, it was long perceived as a basilosaurus, an extinct genus of large lizards. The only other starter that looks prehistoric is Meganium, being based on a sauropod. The rest... can easily be dismissed for other regular animals.

Fire starters are based on the Chinese Zodiac
Again on shaky grounds... but not because of Charizard. Seriously people, Charizard IS a dragon-inspired Pokémon, it's just didn't get the typing because it would have made it more powerful and too game-breaking. Typhlosion and Delphox are the wrenches thrown in the theory. People claim that Typhlosion is based on the Rat, but in reality, it's a honey badger. Cyndaquil might be called the "Fire Mouse Pokémon", but it was inspired by echidnas, shrews, anteaters, and tenrecs, none of these being related to mices, rats or other rodents. Delphox, obviously, is based on a fox, not the Dog. Foxes and dogs are canines, but a fox isn't a dog, just like a wolf isn't a dog. It feels like the creators saw Okami's Brush Gods, saw Ninetails and said: "Yup, that would count" :p

Charizard's the Dragon, Blaziken's the Rooster, Inferape's the Monkey, Emboar's the Pig, Incineroar's the Tiger and Cinderace's the Rabbit. Technically speaking, nothing prevents GameFreaks to introduce a Fire/Fairy Rat starter based on Ratatosk and a Fire/Dark Dog starter based on Cerberus, just like they can add a Horse, an Ox, a Sheep or a Snake... or just about any animal/creature they can think of.

Water starters are based on weaponry
Final evolutions of the Water starters including some aspects weaponry. Out of them only Blastoise, Empoleon, Samurott, Greninja and Inteleon would count. It is a big stretch to say Swampert has a war fan aspect based on its tail and even more so when you try to shoehorn something for Primarina.
Feraligatr is based on brass knuckles with its claws, Swampert on war fans with its head fins and Primarina on either a Chinese mace with its tail or even bombs based on its water balloons. That's what running around.

Like I said in another topic, if Miyamoto managed to confirm that Super Mario Bros 3 is a stage play due to the visible screws, cables and curtains and that teh Star Fox team did NOT replace their legs for prosthetics to keep blood flowing in their heads, I... fail to see why no one just asked Ken Sugimori about the starters' design process ^^;
 

MrJechgo

Well-Known Member
Here's another one:
Water starters must be amphibious to represent how they can fight in any terrain
A tortoise (Blastoise), an alligator (Feraligatr), a mudskipper (Swampert), a penguin (Empoleon), an otter (Samurott), a frog (Greninja), a seal (Primarina) and a lizard (Inteleon) can all "live" outside of water, and can fight on any kind of ground, as outlandish in may be. Afterall, your starter could be your very first Water-type, most Water-type Pokémon are seen, encounterable and catchable later in the game, when you get a fishing rod or Surf. This is why most Water Pokémon are seen floating in mid-air, while a selected few, including your starter, are standing on the field normally.
 

TheWanderingMist

Paladin of the Snow Queen
I hate the Fire starter Chinese zodiac theory. It doesn't work because Fennekin isn't dog - it's a fox which are only distantly related to canines.

Besides if GF wanted to stick to the zodiac then they would've made a Fire type dog starter out of an actual dog and not just a vulpine Fire starter.
Foxes are very closely related to canines. They ARE canines. They are in the family (actually a sub-family, but the other two are extinct so there is no distinction any longer) Caninae, which includes dogs and wolves. Would you be doubting that Fennekin's line filled the dog role if they were based on wolves?
Anyone remember the idea that the Ultra Beasts destroyed the original dimensions where the Generations I through V games were set? I think it came off a single line Anabel sad that got taken out of context and spread out of control into a fish tale.

(Also, regarding the Generation VIII starters, the Japanese have imagined Cinderace as a girl far more than Rillaboom or even Inteleon.)



This has actually been done for an entire series before:
The soap opera St. Elsewhere, in which the very last scene of the final episode shows that the entire series came from the mind of an autistic child in a hospital, based on a snow globe resembling the house that the series is set in.

This was one of the most infamous endings in TV history (the backlash was MUCH larger than Lost, Game of Thrones, or My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ever got), and that infamy made other people wonder if other TV series were just extended dream sequences of an eccentric people. That series ended in 1988, less than ten years before Pokémon, the anime, got started. People who were around and could clearly remember that finale were still attuned to pop culture when the Pokémon anime began; the idea of "this is all a coma dream" was still fresh in people's minds.



Foxes are still part of Canidae, which is a relatively small group of animals, considering Caniformes, the next largest division out, is a lot bigger and more diverse and includes weasels, otters, skunks, bears, raccoons, seals, sea lions, and red pandas. It is still a much shorter stretch than deeming Cyndaquil to be based on a rat--if Cyndaquil really is based on a hedgehog, then that would mean it's not based on a rodent at all (or even a lagomorph). Hedgehogs are part of the order Eulipotyphla, which also includes moles and shrews but are not closely related to rodents aside from both being mammals.
As above, foxes actually are canines. The infamy of St. Elsewhere comes partially from the ending itself, but a large amount of it is also because St. Elsewhere had a high number of crossovers with other shows, which pulls them into question by extension.
And the main body colour. And the eyes. And the limb count and limb structure.


Not only is butterfree described as doing the same thing in its first ever dex entry, the dust mite connection is pretty shaky, considering venonat's eyes and antennae are pretty distinct insect features (at most, it can be seen as kind of resembling a dust bunny).

Count me in as seeing venonat's appearance as pretty fishy. The closest I've heard to a plausible explanation of why butterfree and venonat look alike is that it's a referance to Batesian mimicry, with the non-poison-type butterfree imitating the poison-type venonat, a la viceroy. Though even that is a tad suspect to me as to be deliberate, as most bug types in gen 1 were otherwise pretty simple in design.
Actually, I can disprove the Butterfree was intended to be Venonat's evolution with a single Wikipedia page:
 

MrJechgo

Well-Known Member
Foxes are very closely related to canines. They ARE canines. They are in the family (actually a sub-family, but the other two are extinct so there is no distinction any longer) Caninae, which includes dogs and wolves. Would you be doubting that Fennekin's line filled the dog role if they were based on wolves?

As above, foxes actually are canines. The infamy of St. Elsewhere comes partially from the ending itself, but a large amount of it is also because St. Elsewhere had a high number of crossovers with other shows, which pulls them into question by extension.
It's still a stretch to consider Delphox the Dog Zodiac when a fox and a dog are different enough, despite being in the same family. If Delphox was modelled after a wolf, it still wouldn't have counted, about a wolf isn't a dog.

If you really want to throw the Chinese Zodiac out of the window, look no further than Gen 2's Typhlosion... and before you look, no, a honey badger isn't a rodent like a Rat; it's a mustelid, like echidnas, weasels, ferrets, badgers and even wolverines :p
 

TheWanderingMist

Paladin of the Snow Queen
It's still a stretch to consider Delphox the Dog Zodiac when a fox and a dog are different enough, despite being in the same family. If Delphox was modelled after a wolf, it still wouldn't have counted, about a wolf isn't a dog.

If you really want to throw the Chinese Zodiac out of the window, look no further than Gen 2's Typhlosion... and before you look, no, a honey badger isn't a rodent like a Rat; it's a mustelid, like echidnas, weasels, ferrets, badgers and even wolverines :p
Aye, but unlike the other two lines which do not have their distinctive traits until the final evolutions, the Fire one can be made to apply to their initial stages instead of the final ones, and Cyndaquil is called the Fire Mouse. If we get an Ox, Snake, Horse, or Goat in Gen IX, I'd say it's likely they're using the Zodiac at least as a starting inspiration.
 

octoboy

I Crush Everything
It's still a stretch to consider Delphox the Dog Zodiac when a fox and a dog are different enough, despite being in the same family. If Delphox was modelled after a wolf, it still wouldn't have counted, about a wolf isn't a dog.
I'd say it's probably irrelevant whether or not you personally consider them "different enough"; so long as it's plausible a developer decided that something in the dog subfamily was close enough, it's plausible that this pattern was deliberate.

As I said before, typhlosion's line is by far the biggest misfit for what sign it presumably represents, so that makes me suspect that the pattern wasn't intended from the start, but the very loose pattern might have been noticed at some point and run with.
 

MrJechgo

Well-Known Member
Aye, but unlike the other two lines which do not have their distinctive traits until the final evolutions, the Fire one can be made to apply to their initial stages instead of the final ones, and Cyndaquil is called the Fire Mouse. If we get an Ox, Snake, Horse, or Goat in Gen IX, I'd say it's likely they're using the Zodiac at least as a starting inspiration.
They called Blastoise the "Shellfish Pokémon", when it's clearly a tortoise :p

Even then, Cyndaquil have more in common with hedgehogs, porcupines and echidnas. Porcupines are rodents like rats, but they don't look like rats or mices, despite being in the same order. A rat's signature traits are the fangs and the long tail... and neither is there for the Cyndaquil line.

What throws it off is that Cyndaquil, Quilava and Typhlosion aren't "overgrown mice" ^^;

I'd say it's probably irrelevant whether or not you personally consider them "different enough"; so long as it's plausible a developer decided that something in the dog subfamily was close enough, it's plausible that this pattern was deliberate.
Never said that opinion mattered :p I will say this: a fox have a much bushier tail, larger ears, a shorter snout and either a closer appearance to a wolf or even a weasel. Also, foxes are roughly the same, while dogs come in all shapes and sizes.

We've seen composites/hybrids of creatures when it comes to Pokémon (Arcanine comes to mine :p ). However, nothing really points to Fennekin, Braixen and Delphox to have traits from dogs.

As I said before, typhlosion's line is by far the biggest misfit for what sign it presumably represents, so that makes me suspect that the pattern wasn't intended from the start, but the very loose pattern might have been noticed at some point and run with.
My thought exactly.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Adrianna being Giovanni’s wife and Silver’s mother seems to be pretty Farfetch’d to me. The only things supporting this theory are Adrianna having the same hair color as Silver and her being part of Team Rocket. That’s it. Adrianna has never hinted being a mother nor has anyone hinted towards the idea and Adrianna has never said her having any type of emotion for Giovanni other than total respect and admiration. Most NPCs that have romantic feelings for another NPC will state their love. May/Brendan’s mom does with Norman, Chuck’s wife does it with him, and even the Magma and Aqua grunts found in the ORAS Battle Resort state their feelings for each other.
I was under the impression that her English name was Ariana, not Adrianna. Also while the theory itself isn't exactly strong, crimson-haired characters are quite rare in this franchise, and given that Athena (Ariana) was an avid follower of Sakaki (Giovanni), it would at least seem plausible that she could've been in a relationship with him and given birth to his son who might've inherited her hair color. And even taking hair color out of the equation, their hairdos are very similar as well.
 

Pikachu Fan Number Nine

Don't Mess wit Texas
Vietnam? How old do you guys think Surge looks? Gulf 1, guys! That would have been just a few years before the first games came out!
Anime Surge looks older than other incarnations of Surge. BTW I have written a fanfic depicting Surge serving in Vietnam.
 

RedJirachi

Veteran member
I was under the impression that her English name was Ariana, not Adrianna. Also while the theory itself isn't exactly strong, crimson-haired characters are quite rare in this franchise, and given that Athena (Ariana) was an avid follower of Sakaki (Giovanni), it would at least seem plausible that she could've been in a relationship with him and given birth to his son who might've inherited her hair color. And even taking hair color out of the equation, their hairdos are very similar as well.
She's the only realistic candidate for Silver's parent, besides "nameless unseen character that might as well not exist"
 

Orphalesion

Well-Known Member
She's the only realistic candidate for Silver's parent, besides "nameless unseen character that might as well not exist"

But in what way is she a "realistic candidate" to be Silver's mother? Because she's a woman and in team rocket?

For all we know Silver's mother lives in Kalos, or has passed away.
 
Last edited:

RedJirachi

Veteran member
That's where the besides part is in effect
 

Italianbaptist

Informed Casual

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Silver is the reverse version of Ethan and all other playable protagonist minus Brendan/May. He has a dad and a mom that is mysteriously missing from the game.
 
Top