Want to feel old?
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are nearly 13 years old.
Red and Blue are nearly 20!
But despite all that time we're just now unveiling lore that could answer some of the franchise's longest kept secrets.
*Game Theory Theme*
Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory where I'm not going to "Raichu" a love song,
I'm gonna write "Mew" a theory that has a "Chansy" of not being too "Farfetch'd".
Sorry. Enough puns. I'll keep my big "Meowth" shut.
This opening joke was reaaaaaally Onix-septable.
You still here after that terrible opening?
Great, thanks for sticking around.
Pokemon! I don't know what it is, but all of you out there just can't get enough of these little guys.
And at first, I was ready to gloss over the release of the newest installments (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire)
as just shameless re-release cash grabs of the original GameBoy Advanced games
which, let's be honest, they are.
But, what I didn't expect were these games
including new bits of post-game content that would
rock the foundations of the Pokemon world
and, after copious amounts of therapy
in the intervening year since the
my last Pokemaaans video,
I figured it was time to dip my toe
back in the Pika-pool for a theory
that's sure to put the
Griseous Orb on your Origin Form Giratina
If you know what I mean. ;)
And if you don't *know what I mean*
don't worry. I think probably about 98% of people watching this video
probably didn't get that.
I-I-I don't either, honestly.
I-I just say these things.
So this earth-shattering bit of post game content
is known as the Delta Episode.
And be wary, as there be spoilers ahead.
Basically, you team up with an all-new trainer
named Zinnia, last in her line of ancient
Pokemon dragon worshippers,
to save the world from an asteroid on a collision course with the planet.
Along the way, you encounter the mysterious
alien Pokemon, Deoxys, and the all-new
Mega Evolved form of Rayquaza.
And, yes, for those of you not keeping up with the series,
there are now Mega Evolutions, which are powered by the bond between trainer and Pokemon.
And if you're thinking that sounds a lot like Digimon,
then you're thinking something everyone else realized back in 1999.
But here's why I'm doing my 8th video on the franchise.
(Outside of the fact that you guys requested it.)
I believe the Delta Episode has given us the key
to finally answering some of your
longest held questions about the series
and also gives rise to a whole new line of questions
regarding the nature of the two different versions of each generation.
You know, Red and Blue.
Gold and Silver.
Ruby and Sapphire.
And so on.
What if it's not just a ploy to convince you to buy two games
when you should only really need to buy only one?
Well, obviously it is a ploy to get you to buy two games...
But, I'm talking about from a lore perspective here.
What if there's an in-game reason the two versions are similar, yet different?
Hold on to your Pokeballs Aroma Lady
because these games are set in different dimensions.
You didn't mishear me.
I said dimensions.
As in different planes of existence. Let me explain.
Normally, when people talk about these sorts of complex concepts,
they start with a cat and a man named Schrodinger.
But since it's Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire season,
let's replace this boring old Austrian physicist
with one-time Pokemon champion and all around cool guy:
Steven Stone.
And instead of a lame, non-powered cat,
let's replace it with this cat-like Pokemon: Skitty.
Wait a minute.
Skitty?
Like, Kitty, but with an S in front.
And it's a cat...
Oh my gosh!
Well played, Game Freak, well played.
Anyway, let's talk about the classic
quantum physics thought experiment:
Steven Stone's Skitty.
Try saying that one three times fast.
It's time to get metaphysical.
First, imagine that Steven Stone is standing there
in the Pokemon Stadium and that his weird little Skitty
is just sitting there inside a Pokeball on his belt.
Next, imagine that, unbeknownst to both of them, the
Pokeball Skitty is sitting in has faulty wiring,
which could possibly result in the Skitty being dead.
Awwww, poor little guy.
Now, this is where it starts to get weird
because quantum physics is just bizarre.
Imagine that, while Skitty lies unobserved
within the Pokeball,
that actually means he's in a superstate of being both alive
and dead at the same time.
'Cause we don't know which he is
until the moment Steven Stone says,
"I choose you!"
The Pokeball opens and we get our answer to the question.
Now you quantum physicists in the room might be asking yourselves,
"How can Skitty possibly be in two states at once,
and then how can they collapse into one,
and what determines which one he assumes?"
Well, my little would-be Pokemon masters, the truth is... no one really knows for sure,
but there are a few commonly discussed theories...
String theories! Thanks for observing!
No?
A little science joke?
Nah, whatever.
The theory we just discussed is called the Copenhagen Interpretation.
That in observing the Skitty, we collapse the two possible outcomes
to one true outcome:
Skitty being either alive or dead.
But another theory is that that collapse never happens,
that there's a universe for each possibility:
one where Skitty pops out and is alive,
and another where it's sadly a bit more than fainted.
This is known as the many worlds interpretation,
and if you're a true loyal Theorist,
you might remember this episode I did -YIKES- a little over two years ago
about how the Zelda timeline is wrong,
where I explain that every situation with multiple outcomes creates an entirely new parallel universe.
Well, that's one way to explain Steven Stone's Skitty, too.
But now, instead of just one Pokemon's life hanging in the balance,
imagine it was a significant percentage
of the total Pokemon population on the planet,
which leads us back to the franchise's lore.
According to Pokemon X and Y,
3000 years before the events of the game
there was a trainer named AZ
who lived in the Kalos region
with his beloved flower-bearing
fairy Pokemon, Floette.
Unfortunately for both of them, a war suddenly broke out in the region,
and the Floette was called upon to fight.
Sadly, Floette was killed in battle, and AZ was devastated.
AZ went crazy trying to build a machine that would bring his
Floette back from the grave.
And, in that process, somehow developed the ability to live forever.
I don't know... It's a theory for another day.
What's even crazier, though, is that he eventually succeeds.
But by now, he's so maniacally
deranged about ending the war at any cost
that he configures the machine to power itself
on the lives of Pokemon.
Millions of Pokemon are killed to bring Floette back,
and the whole awful series of events
is so earth-shattering that the trauma
of all these deaths combined with the energy of AZ's weapon
to irradiate some weird Stonehenge-like
rock things outside of Geosenge town.
Hah!
Geosenge. Stonehenge.
Again. Well played, Game Freak. Truly stellar work with these creative names.
But here's where Steven Stone's
quantum Skitty matters.
Imagine that, in this case, the faulty wire in Skitty's ball
is the same as AZ's giant death machine,
and that the two different possibilities,
AZ firing the weapon or AZ not firing the weapon,
have created two separate universes:
one where irradiated stones filled with the spirits of dead Pokemon
enable Mega Evolution, where your favorite Pokemon
temporarily get even bigger and more powerful,
and a second where Mega Evolution doesn't exist because the
weapon was never fired
and millions of Pokemon never died.
Suddenly, you get the most brilliant retcon ever:
an explanation for why some games in the franchise feature Mega Evolution
and some don't.
Now, I would be skeptical, too.
I mean, this is waaaay too complicated for a kids' game.
Except that it isn't.
The games actually support this theory.
Fast forward to Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire during the Delta Episode.
In case you missed it
the first time because you were still trying
to figure out that super esoteric
Giratina joke,
an asteroid 6 miles across,
the same size as the one that probably killed the dinosaurs,
is on a collision course with Earth.
Mr. Stone, Steven Stone's father
and head of the Devon Corporation, explains that his company
has harnessed the same energy AZ created with his weapon
to power many of the high-tech gadgets that appear throughout
the Pokemon world,
including one that's about to help you save the world
by tearing a hole through reality
and opening a portal to another dimension
for the asteroid to fly away through.
Yeaaaaaahh. This is, uh, still a game
about capturing cute little pocket animals
and having them slap each other around, right?
Anyway, seems like a great plan, right?
Rip open a dimensional rift.
Bada-bing, bada boom.
Asteroid crisis over.
Easy-squeezy, lemon-peazy.
Enter Zinnia, weird dragon girl descended from... ancient protectors of old
or something... doesn't really matter.
Her hidden ancient dragon knowledge warns that
in this other dimension there is a planet just like yours,
but different somehow...
And sending the asteroid to them will just destroy their planet
instead of yours.
Here're some quotes.
That is an impressive machine.
Snap your fingers, the asteroid vanishes and we all live happily ever after?
Ahahahahahah! Indeed! It's like that former Champ said.
This thing is the best hope we have of saving this planet
and everything on it.
But you know, it could also be the worst tragedy imaginable
for some other world and everything on it.
My people know it.
From generation to generation, we pass along the lore about the distortions in the world
borne by the Mega Evolution mechanism.
And about the existence of another world, which we have long observed to be just
like this one and yet not the same...
That's right. A Hoenn region that's almost exactly like this one
we live in.
Filled with Pokemon and people like us.
A world where maybe the evolution of Pokemon took a slightly different path,
where Mega Evolution is unknown...
A world where that war 3000 years ago... never happened.
A world where the ultimate weapon was never even built.
End quote.
This is pretty heavy stuff.
It's also stuff that seems to imply that our Mega Evolution theory is correct.
The 3DS Pokemon games, Pokemon X and Y, and Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
are set on a different timeline, a different dimension
than the other games in the series,
which also rather conveniently explains
why Mega Evolution never existed as a gameplay feature
until now.
Using the many worlds interpretation, Game Freak has created the ultimate retcon.
And, while that's pretty impressive in its own right,
I know you, and I know you're still not quite satisfied
because that's not what I originally set out to prove.
So, how does this translate to the different versions
being set in alternate dimensions?
Well, look at what we've learned.
In the world of Pokemon, the many worlds theory
seems to be a fact.
Different versions of reality are definitely created
whenever events have multiple possible outcomes,
leaving a bunch of really similar universes to float around
in the ether
with little differences between them, like say which Pokemon are available
on any given route.
Or maybe which legendary Pokemon the criminal syndicate has chosen to be a part of their master plan.
Or the name of Professor Oak's
human turd of a grandson.
All different universes, differentiated by different titles.
But we can take it one step further.
That rift creating device had a name.
It was called, get this, a "Link Cable".
And while the opening of this episode
may have made me feel like Father Time,
I'm sure at least some of you out
there watching in the audience
can remember, or at least have heard about a time
before wireless communications technology.
When us Pokemon fans had to buy a device that would
physically link our GameBoys together.
When we wanted to battle or trade.
A device that was called
a "Link Cable".
Why is this a big deal?
Well, we can extrapolate that not only are
Red and Blue, Gold and Silver, and so on different
tellings of the same basic story set in parallel universes,
but that in fact each copy of each game is
in fact its own universe, too.
And that these link cables actually physically connect them via rifts in time and space.
Want to trade or battle with a friend?
Well, doing that spreads new Pokemon from one dimension to the next,
and that's not even where it ends.
There's even a scientist in the game who explains that the Devon
Corporation casually uses this technology all the time
in devices that people use every day.
He only mentions those overused warp panels, but think about
all the different, bizarre things
this could explain.
I mean, this is a civilization that can travel through any possible
reality. What else could you do?
Well, how about impossible references to real-world pop culture?
Like when Ash references the Minnesota Vikings
in the Pokemon movie.
I didn't know vikings still existed.
They mostly live in Minnesota.
Maybe he really has heard of them.
How 'bout PC and Pokeball technology?
Well shoot, if we could just rip holes
in time and space, what if these devices use pocket dimensions?
What if that's the real reason they're called
Pocket Monsters in the first place?
It might even explain
Devon Corporation's uncannily creepy new reference for Omanyte and Omastar.
Don't tell me you didn't notice
all the new symbols hanging around their headquarters
these days. Now we know it's literally possible
that they visited the Twitch Plays Pokemon universe
and learned about Lord Helix himself.
And what about that mysterious ghost girl from Pokemon
X and Y who says you're
not the one, and then vanishes?
We might be witnessing a super-creepy
rendezvous between two inter-dimensional travelers.
And finally, what if Diglett's mysterious missing feet
exist in another dimension?
In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team,
Diglett says his feet feel like they're floating in air.
Okay, so, maybe I'm getting a bit carried away.
But then again, what if I'm not?
Maybe Pokemon has always been about
other dimensions and the beautiful idea
of connecting your little world with someone else's.
Or, maybe it's just something they didn't think about
until they realized that fans were asking too many questions.
But regardless, who knew that Pikachu would be giving you a little lesson
in quantum physics?
But hey, that's just a theory!
A Game Theory!
Thanks for watching!
Let's cut to the chase.
You like snacks, I like snacks.
You like free things, I like free things.
Get the best of all worlds by clicking the link
in the description, or typing in naturebox.com/matpat
into the address bar
and get yourself some free food sent
directly to your door via
the Naturebox delivery service.
This month, I'm dining on chocolate banana chips,
coconut date energy bites (for those late-night Game Theory sessions),
and dark coacoa nom-noms,
which are so named because when you eat them,
you go nom-nom-nom-nom-nom!
Like Pac-Man, but eating dark cocoa instead
of weird, white pellet things.
Let this be the universe where you get to indulge
in some free snacks delivered directly
to your door, and let that other
universe you just remain hungry and sad that he
didn't click the link in the description.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to do research on a game that isn't as
complicated as Pokemon.
I wonder how Metal Gear Solid is doing these days...