The Pokémon Wars Discussion: Heavy On Fan Speculation

[BlackButterfree]

From the canon of the games and the canon of the anime, we have heard about a few wars in the Pokémon world. Apparently the Pokémon world is much more peaceful than ours because while we have wars between countries and kingdoms pretty much every other decade, the Pokémon world has had six wars in the past 3000 years. Even less if you don't count anime wars.

First is AZ's war, which we can probably assume was a world war due to the presence of so many Pokémon from other regions, and it took place 3,000 years ago. This one is completely canon, as it appears in the X and Y games. And if Team Flare shows up in the anime, that probably means it'll be canon in there as well, since Team Flare is so closely tied to the war (Lysandre is descended from AZ's brother, making Lysandre the Prince of Kalos.) This war is the one we know most about and here are some theories.

Spoiler

One theory suggests that all of the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova Pokémon in Kalos are descendants of foreign Pokémon soldiers from the other regions who survived AZ's weapon (who else here thought back before X and Y came out that Xerneas and Yveltal were the weapons themselves?). The theory also goes on to suggest that the reason why there's so few Kalos Pokémon is because the other 40-something species were completely wiped out from both AZ's war and the Parfum Palace war. We also know that the reason Mega Evolution exists is because of the weapon. The Pokémon that were sacrificed for the machine poured their energy into it. Energy which was later slammed back into the Earth in the form of the blast that killed thousands and ended the war. Another fan theory that draws heavily upon what Sycamore tells you at Anistar's Sundial is that when this blast collided with the Earth, the deceased Pokémon's spirits flowed into regular stones, morphing them from either a Fire Stone, a Water Stone or even a regular rock into Mega Stone. The type of Mega Stone that it is reflects what kind of Pokémon's spirit flew into it. There's holes in this theory (namely Aerodactyl and Mewtwo) but overall the theories surrounding AZ's war are pretty cool.

The second war is Sir Aaron and Lucario's war. This one is only canon in the anime, and it was made canon by DP056 and DP071/DP072. This one seemed to be a three-pronged war, with a Red army and a Green army and Queen Rin's kingdom of Rota and happened approximately 2000 years ago. It should be noted that Rota, Cameran Palace, and the Tree of Beginning all have blue-ish crystals which are central to the plot of the movie. The armies are a direct reference to Red and Green, the original paired versions of Pokémon. The Blue-ish crystals of Rota could be a minor reference to the third version Blue.

It is very possible and very likely that the anime war explicitly referred to in EP020, which premiered 8 years before M08, is the same war as Sir Aaron's. This war also happened 2000 years ago and it is the war where the Ghost of Maiden's Peak lost her lover, and became a ghost herself. This war has never again been brought up, but being in Kanto (same as M08) and being in the same time frame (2000 years ago), this makes it very likely that it is the same war.

After this is the anime's war between the Brothers of Truth and Ideals in Unova. This war is only canon in the anime, since in the games it was more of a battle between the brothers using their dragons as opposed to all out war. This war happened around 1000 years ago and helped shape the Unova region into what it is today.

The next war is much more recent, being around 300 years ago. This is the war that ended with the Parfum Palace being built, and it can be assumed that this was also a world war, since Zekrom and Reshiram are portrayed as statues in the back garden for their heroism during the war. The few people who speak about this war also mention that other regions were involved when they mention why Zekrom and Reshiram are portrayed. Since this would imply more than a third region besides Unova and Kalos, this means at least four regions took place in this war, making it a world war.

The last and most recent war is the Lt. Surge war. This seems to only be canon in the games, because the anime never brings up Lt. Surge's past in the army. Also, the canonicity of this war can also be questioned in the games themselves, as Lt. Surge is American and the United States can be presumed to not exist in the Pokémon world, with Unova and Orre representing New York City and Arizona, respectively. This also raises the question of how Pokémon were used in this war, as in Pokémon Adventures, Surge is seen using his Voltorb like sacrifical grenades. This war is so far the only one with the least information known about it, even the date is unknown.

Spoiler

If comparing the Pokémon world to ours, and using 1996 (the year the games were released in Japan) as a starting point, each of these wars has an equivalent war in the real world:

3,000 years ago: 1068 BC - Athens fight with the Dorians
1046 BC - King Wu of Zhou overthrows the last Shang Dynasty King Di Xin and becomes the first king of the Zhou Dynasty of China
1020 BC - Destruction of Troy

2,000 years ago: 8-23 AD: Wang Mang temporarily overthrew the Han Dynasty of China
66-73: First Jewish-Roman war

1,000 years ago: 1066 AD - Norman conquest of England


300 years ago: 1775-1783: American Revolutionary War

5-10 years ago: Since Lt. Surge is American, most likely the 1986 bombing of Libya by America. Or more likely, since he's not too old looking, he'd most likely be a veteran of the Gulf War from the early 90's. This is only if the Pokémon World's America is similar to the real world's.

 

[Jukain]

Ever since the beginning, there's been reason to believe that the pokemon world once had as troubled a past as our own. In my own musings, a central idea was that the Pokemon League was established to ensure that the problems of the past never occur again. Of course, I'm not even sure how old the League actually is. The idea was that with regulations on how people use their pokemon, and also a way to more civilly resolve disputes, there would be less strife. This would usually imply that the League has it's origins at least by whatever equivalent of the Renaissance or the unification of Japan. The game would indeed seem to contradict this theory. Not to mention that it didn't fully work, as evil teams arise constantly to turn the world on it's head. Either way, conflict would seem to be present in this world as much as it tries to hide it. I still think the League managed to make it less of a thing, although when and how is another matter. I even believe that some of the regions may have their own origins for their own League, but at some point in time, they all joined forces and created an international entity.

 

[margaretB]

Wow! That was interesting. I usually watch Pokemon with Ash, Pikachu and friends went on to their adventure.

 

[Muur]

Isn't Conquest a canon time period from thousands of years before gen 1?

 

[Jukain]

No. The time frame of Conquest is uncertain. Motonari mentions other regions using pokeballs to capture pokemon. How old the pokeball is in itself is not certain, though. I do, however, find them to be a reflection of how training was before the pokeball was invented. (including the war part) I think the pokeball was invented after the League was established, though. As the world became more industrialized, it was no longer practical to have a team of pokes trailing behind you. I guess Ransei was more adamant about tradition since they industrialized and kept the old ways. (note that Johto also seems to adhere to the old ways, and thus keeping a poke outside the ball became a thing there)

 

[BlackButterfree]

Isn't Conquest a canon time period from thousands of years before gen 1?

Apparently the only canon side games are the Shadow Pokémon Games and the Ranger Games (largely due to the introduction of Manaphy in a Ranger Game as opposed to a regular game). Conquest may take place around AZ's war or even Red's journey but either way it's not canon.

 

[MegaCharr]

Here's how I put it in my strange oddball way.

Does the events of the world that "we" seen of the Pokemon world take place in the far distant future. Dates are hardly ever refrenced, technology that we seen for the pokemon world is realllllly off for the time period(we think those events happen in the year of 2000 but we dont have the ability to bring back fossiles or compress objects(blame The Doctor/Looker on that one) unless this is actually one of many civilizations in the earths history with humans ruling for hundreds of millions of years,changing the land, the creatures...Many many many civilations. Maybe this civilization we seen is about 500 million years later because you have creatures that have intelligence that's equalls humans and then some. Its said that the Pokemon world has seen many many many wars in its history and with the many past civilations in that amount of time. Only a few hundred(or a few thousand species remains)

Its a theory I had.