Pokémon Horizons General Discussion/Speculation Thread

[Kurolegacy]

To be fair, Goh was a dark skinned character from Kanto. So, I don't think they don't consider the skin color so important to decide the region.

In the same vein, even Go stands out in that regard as, prior to Unova, dark skinned characters were few and far between and weren’t really showing up much in Kanto. Closest we had was Brock and his complexion leaned more on the lighter side of a dark skin complexion and wasn’t even consistently presented as that in other media beyond the anime. It wasn’t until we got to regions that were further out from the original 4 that we really saw multicultural characters.

 

[Konja7]

In the same vein, even Go stands out in that regard as, prior to Unova, dark skinned characters were few and far between and weren’t really showing up much in Kanto. Closest we had was Brock and his complexion leaned more on the lighter side of a dark skin complexion and wasn’t even consistently presented as that in other media beyond the anime. It wasn’t until we got to regions that were further out from the original 4 that we really saw multicultural characters.

Yeah. I don't think Brock was considered especially dark skinned (the racism worries were due to his eyes).

To be clear, Goh and Roy are likely Japanese. They just have a darker skin tone.

 

[Soublades192]

I don't really have an issue with Roy being from Kanto. Yeah, it can come off as more Kanto pandering, but I don't think that having him from a different region would necessarily give more spotlight to that region. Now if they have another home base in Kanto, that would be a different story since that would have more impact on how they feature new Pokemon, but one character being from Kanto isn't really a problem.

I like Roy's design and his mysterious Pokeball looks pretty cool. It looks like a combination of an ancient Pokeball and a Tera Orb. Based on the posters, it seems like Fuecoco is close to him, which could mean that it will be his starter Pokemon. I'm not sure if he'll get Quaxly too, but that would be interesting.

Usually I don't go for theories, but people are now speculating that there could be a plot of time travel involved for this show where Roy represents the 'past' and Riko represents the 'future'

Makes sense considering the theme of Scarlet and Violet, but that is just speculation

 

[Kurolegacy]

Usually I don't go for theories, but people are now speculating that there could be a plot of time travel involved for this show where Roy represents the 'past' and Riko represents the 'future'

Makes sense considering the theme of Scarlet and Violet, but that is just speculation

Also worth noting when it comes to their secondary hair color, eye color and clothing color all present these opposite colors.

 

[Enzo]

Eh, I think Roy being a dark-skinned boy from Kanto is basically them trying to fix just how pale-skinned the earlier seasons were. Ash and Brock were the darkest people from miles pretty much all the time until Unova came along.

I know it's not necessarily a problem, but I really dislike how they could've made him be from whatever region they wanted but of coooourseeee they chose to make him kantonian. Gotta pander to Kanto and get that sweet ol' nostalgia cash somehow, right?

Again, him being from there isn't an inherent problem, but it's pretty telling when they have 9 whole regions to choose from and they go with Kanto out of all of them. Honestly they should've made him galarian to try and make up for what they did to Galar in JN. Or actually, wanna know what? Roy should've been from Unova, since that's the next region to get remakes, and there's a big chance that the new series might cover the future remakes, depending on how long it runs, that is, of course.

To me, it just sounds like them making damn sure they have a good reason to spend a while in Kanto once again. sigh

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Roy is definitely a western name which makes it weird to make him a Kanto native, that's true. BUT, Riko is a japanese name, and yet they made her a Paldean despite of that. Based on that, they probably wants to distance the pokémon regions from their real world associations. Also, there is people from different nations in every country.

On a less serious note: I found Riko and Roy's true parents!

Spoiler

 

[Poke Trey]

I'm surprised out of all these comparisons, no one said the M20 companions. Watch people still think that Roy and Ash are connected somehow because KANTO.

 

[Soublades192]

I would find it amazing if this new show were to take place in the AU established in I Choose You

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm surprised out of all these comparisons, no one said the M20 companions. Watch people still think that Roy and Ash are connected somehow because KANTO.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Roy is Ash's son because they're both from Kanto" yet, but maybe that's already been mentioned elsewhere.

While I do understand the frustration of more potential Kanto pandering, would Unova or Galar really get more spotlight if Roy was from those regions instead? I'm not really convinced. Goh being from Kanto instead of Galar wasn't really the reason Galar was treated poorly in Journeys. It was mainly due to having a home base in Kanto and the poorly executed concept of a world tour. They could have said that Goh was from Galar instead, taking a trip to Kanto and decided to stay once he became a Research Fellow and nothing about how Galar was treated would have been significantly different most likely.

 

[Konja7]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Roy is Ash's son because they're both from Kanto" yet, but maybe that's already been mentioned elsewhere.

I think I've seen it mentioned as a joke.

However, the idea of Roy being Ash's son doesn't benefit the popular ships. So, it isn't so weird almost nobody mentioned it.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think I've seen it mentioned as a joke.

However, the idea of Roy being Ash's son doesn't benefit the popular ships. So, it isn't so weird almost nobody mentioned it.

I'm not sure how it wouldn't benefit popular ships. Couples can have sons too, but with most of the focus being on Riko instead of Roy so far, people would probably expect any child of Ash's to be at center stage.

 

[Soublades192]

I'm not sure how it wouldn't benefit popular ships. Couples can have sons too, but with most of the focus being on Riko instead of Roy so far, people would probably expect any child of Ash's to be at center stage.

I see many people wondering the theory of Riko or Roy being connected with Ash and of course who Ash would end up with one day, but this question always goes to me : How would Ash fare as a father? Forget about who he ends up with him or who his children would be, how would he be as a father (assuming this new series or at the end of MPM shows an adult Ash with a family, and it doesn’t have to be Riko or Roy involved by the way) especially considering he didn’t really grew up with his dad and the closest he has to a father figure is Professor Kukui (and Mimey xD)


On the subject of Roy, I gotta say I do like his design. Riko was getting most of the spotlight from fans, but as time is going by, I’m starting to be very interested in learning more about Roy, especially with this ‘ mysterious‘ Poke ball.

 

[Kallyle]

It seems like my idea about Riko and Roy looking for some sort of treasure through different regions One Piece style is seemingly coming true thanks to that mysterious Poké Ball that Roy has. At least if the writing team doesn’t just try to redo Journeys with an episodic structure again.

 

[Nicolas721]

While it's too early to speculate on possible reasons on why they choose the worldwide travelling again I can think on two: 1. They still want to keep their distance from the games, but not to the point they want to create a new region and 2. They have a bunch of scrapped ideas from Journeys they couldn't use for the production issues they want to use now.

I don't mind either Roy being from Kanto. For all we know it could actually reflect his personality with him being more old-fashioned and more respectful for the traditions than Liko or something like that. After all Serena was Kantonian in the games and was changed to (ambiguously) Kalosian in the anime so you could say this is making up for that.

His Pokeball is interesting. The red & blue colors feel closer to Ruby/Sapphire or XY's than the other generations' colors so my wild guesses about its contents would be Jirachi or Hoopa, but I also have the gut that it belongs to an unrevealed Pokemon.

 

[Poke Trey]

While it's too early to speculate on possible reasons on why they choose the worldwide travelling again I can think on two: 1. They still want to keep their distance from the games, but not to the point they want to create a new region and 2. They have a bunch of scrapped ideas from Journeys they couldn't use for the production issues they want to use now.

I don't mind either Roy being from Kanto. For all we know it could actually reflect his personality with him being more old-fashioned and more respectful for the traditions than Liko or something like that. After all Serena was Kantonian in the games and was changed to (ambiguously) Kalosian in the anime so you could say this is making up for that.

His Pokeball is interesting. The red & blue colors feel closer to Ruby/Sapphire or XY's than the other generations' colors so my wild guesses about its contents would be Jirachi or Hoopa, but I also have the gut that it belongs to an unrevealed Pokemon.

Roy also could be used for possible FRLG promotion as that game turns 20 next year. That'll at least give Kanto more reasons to be in this next series. His Pokeball definitely gives me gen 3 vibes with the red and blue spots on the ball, leading me to think that this and shiny Rayquaza will be a means to also promote Emerald's 20th anniversary. Next year too by the way.

 

[Konja7]

I'm not sure how it wouldn't benefit popular ships. Couples can have sons too, but with most of the focus being on Riko instead of Roy so far, people would probably expect any child of Ash's to be at center stage.

If Ash was Roy's father, who will be Roy mother? It seems unlikely the answer will be Serena, Dawn or Misty, right?

The reason why some people were obsessed about the idea of Liko being Ash's daughter was because she has blue eyes (like Serena or many other pokegirls) or Blue hair (like Dawn).

That's the reason why I think they don't speak so much about the theory of Roy being Ash's father, since his features makes unlikely the most popular pokegirls will be his mother.

 

[Rockapheller]

That's the reason why I think they don't speak so much about the theory of Roy being Ash's father, since his features makes unlikely the most popular pokegirls will be his mother.

The reason why some people considered Riko and not Roy is not because Roy doesn’t share any resemblance to any Pokégirls, but because Riko is a more central character and she has a hair clip that is in the shape of Ash’s original hat’s logo.

 

[Eitarou]

While it's too early to speculate on possible reasons on why they choose the worldwide travelling again I can think on two: 1. They still want to keep their distance from the games, but not to the point they want to create a new region and 2. They have a bunch of scrapped ideas from Journeys they couldn't use for the production issues they want to use now.

I don't mind either Roy being from Kanto. For all we know it could actually reflect his personality with him being more old-fashioned and more respectful for the traditions than Liko or something like that. After all Serena was Kantonian in the games and was changed to (ambiguously) Kalosian in the anime so you could say this is making up for that.

His Pokeball is interesting. The red & blue colors feel closer to Ruby/Sapphire or XY's than the other generations' colors so my wild guesses about its contents would be Jirachi or Hoopa, but I also have the gut that it belongs to an unrevealed Pokemon.

Wait, where was it said the XY protags were from Kanto? As far as I remember, the games never state where they came from.

 

[JFrombaugh]

Based on the concept art we've gotten and the colors the two protagonists wear (red vs blue), I feel like Roy & Liko are going to basically be expys of Goh & Chloe, respectively.

 

[Poke Trey]

Guess next week, we'll get more news on them and figure out what's really going on.