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Which games are canon?

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Somari

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It's typically considered that the canon games are undoubtedly: Blue, Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum.

Third games are the canon games, though some may argue Yellow is canon (I doubt it myself). But what about the other installments? What about the spinoffs? Heartgold or Soulsilver? Firered or Leafgreen? Black or White?

For the FRLG one I suppose you can assume the "canon" game is nonexistent - in canon the games are mixed together. But what about the other three?
 
Personally I think Heartgold is canon as the plot revolving around Ho-Oh seems to make more sense to me.

And White would be canon because I see the PC as an idealist whose idealism prevails thanks to Zekrom.
 
Is there anything new to say about this topic that wasn't brought up in your previous thread about it? Well, there is one thing: Black and White don't have a third version and the sequel story has two versions, as well, so it doesn't seem that any Unova version will ever be established as canon. In fact, the Entralink references make it clear that the differences in Unova are a result of a multiverse, so this makes it excusable for the differences to be permanent.

As for comparing Crystal to HGSS, I don't think this is a case of different universes but rather of different events that only happened to certain player characters. To be clear, I think that all the Crystal-exclusive events were not part of Ethan's story, but rather they involved Kris instead. There is obviously no way to prove this (yet), but I believe that Kris was the mysterious character who received Professor Elm's last starter in HGSS. After Suicune followed Ethan to Kanto, the Cerulean Cape encounter didn't lead to Suicune getting caught, which is why Suicune ended up in the Brass Tower again (this can actually happen in HGSS). This would have allowed Crystal's Tin Tower event to take place, although not in the exact same context as seen in that game. Remember that only in Crystal was it revealed that the legendary beasts were resurrected by Ho-Oh; I don't see why something so important wouldn't be part of the canon story. Lastly, the Ilex Forest event involving the GS Ball is also too important not to be considered canon just because Game Freak had a different event (which revolved around Giovanni more than anything else) in mind for HGSS.
 
Silktree said:
As for comparing Crystal to HGSS, I don't think this is a case of different universes but rather of different events that only happened to certain player characters. To be clear, I think that all the Crystal-exclusive events were not part of Ethan's story, but rather they involved Kris instead. There is obviously no way to prove this (yet), but I believe that Kris was the mysterious character who received Professor Elm's last starter in HGSS. After Suicune followed Ethan to Kanto, the Cerulean Cape encounter didn't lead to Suicune getting caught, which is why Suicune ended up in the Brass Tower again (this can actually happen in HGSS). This would have allowed Crystal's Tin Tower event to take place, although not in the exact same context as seen in that game. Remember that only in Crystal was it revealed that the legendary beasts were resurrected by Ho-Oh; I don't see why something so important wouldn't be part of the canon story. Lastly, the Ilex Forest event involving the GS Ball is also too important not to be considered canon just because Game Freak had a different event (which revolved around Giovanni more than anything else) in mind for HGSS.
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That sounds perfect! I had never played Crystal, so I didn't know how much it differed from HGSS. In my mind Crystal was always the trainer who got Elm's third starter and
caught Suicune, Gold (I don't particularly like his rename) was the hero who caught Ho-Oh and Lyra was Gold's childhood friend.
 
I assume that any references made to Gen 5 in Gen 6 will be vague enough to allow for either the events in Black/2 or White/2 to fit within the context. Regardless of the lack of a third version, I don't imagine GameFreak would have one paired version take precedence over the other.

I imagine Emerald and Platinum are canon; easy as that, whatwith the references to their storylines. Between Yellow; Blue; and FRLG, and Crystal and HGSS, it's up to interpretation, but I don't imagine any references have been made that particularly dis-include any of the games within that list. GameFreak doesn't have to label just one game that encompasses the same storyline canon.
 
I've never really considered the pokemon games to have much of any canon. I suppose the third version is assumed to be so, but the only real proof of this is Yellow into GSC. The only evidence we have of this is Red's team, since Yellow was the only game you could obtain all three starter pokemon in-game. Aside from that, we don't really have anything to work with, since there is a lack of continuation between the games.
 
I consider the most recent releases (FR/LG, E, Pt, HG/SS, B/W, B2/W2) to be "officially" canon, though to make sense of a lot of things, it's best to take each game in broad strokes. When it comes to paired versions, I don't consider one game to take precedence over the other.

I also consider Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness to be canon to the main series, with Ranger and Ranger: Shadows of Almia as an option. From what I've heard, Ranger: Guardian Signs presents too many contradictions to be placed within the same universe.
 
I think each games follows it's own canon. They each may have characters or history from previous installments but there is not enough consistence to believe that even two of them exist in the same continuity.
 
coolcatkim22 said:
I think each games follows it's own canon. They each may have characters or history from previous installments but there is not enough consistence to believe that even two of them exist in the same continuity.
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Generations I and II and presumably BW and BW2 put your statement into question.

Also, DP has direct references to the events of GSCHGSS and BW also references Generation II via the retired Rocket Grunt. This heavily implies that there is some kind of continuity to the games.

The only one that doesn't strictly fit into a timeline is currently Hoenn, though it's implied to have happened some time before HGSS (what with the Kyogre/Groudon/Rayquaza event.) However, the implication is too vague to be treated as fact.

People consider it as contemporary to Generation I (+remakes) due to their appearance in the same generation, but there's no concrete proof of that.

Now, on to the main topic. I, too, don't think that any one of the paired versions is strictly more canon than the other (if HG is canon, then what's the point of even having SS?) I'm gonna go ahead and say that the third versions (fourth in the case of Gen I) are the canon ones, but I'm gonna add that any events present in remakes and paired versions that were not present in the third versions (Weather trio and Dark Cave in HGSS, Sevii Islands in FRLG, the Red Gyarados report in DP) are also canon.

That's just how I personally see it though. I don't claim to be right or wrong.
 
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FR/LG/E/Pt/BW/B2W2 are canon

Collo/XD are also canon as is the first Ranger game and by extention the other Ranger games would be canon... pretty much all the games sans the PMD series is canon
 
Black and White can both be canon on separate continuities. Let's see how they're referred to in future generations.
 
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