WMG / Pokémon GO

Put the new entries at the bottom of the respective category.

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General

Pokemon Go will have Mystery Dungeon mode.

This will not be available in the first release, but it could be a good addition in the future updates. The players can use their caught Pokemon to talk with other Pokemon, caught or wild. While this could be seen as a weird idea, this allows Pokemon to communicate with other Pokemon without training from humans.

• You could imagine having a masculine-voiced Pikachu or Sylveon. Who knows?
• However, only the most-basic element of PMD could be implemented: players control their caught Pokemon with abilities to talk.
• As of launch, the game doesn't include a mode like this, among other that had actually been announced for it.

Where different Pokemon may be caught.

• Fossil Pokemon will be primarily or exclusively found in museums.
  • Jossed, since they can be hatched from eggs just as easily as anything else (as they can breed). They also show up near element-appropriate areas after a certain player level (near water for Kabuto and Omanyte).

Legendary Pokemon Locations.

• Mew - Guyana
• Mewtwo - Pripyat
• Zapdos - Grand Coulee Dam
• Articuno - Vatna Glacier
• Moltres - Yellowstone
• Raikou, Entei and Suicine - Kinkaku-ji
• Ho-Oh - Ginkaku-ji
• Lugia - Sakhalin Oil Platform
• Celebi - Ise Shrine
• Groudon - Mount Stromboli, the Grand Canyon
• Kyorge - Mariana Trench (Pacific Ocean), Hawaii
• Rayquaza - El Castillo
• Latios and Latias - Pulau Pinang
• Arceus - Vatican City, Mecca and Jerusalem

• Adding on to this:
  • Meloetta: Broadway, New York City and the Sydney Operahouse
  • Jirachi: Near the Northern Lights, Iceland
  • Xerneas: The Eiffel Tower
  • Yvetal: Mount Vesuvius, Italy
  • Deoxys: Roswell, New Mexico
  • Giratina: Stonehenge, England
  • Regigias: Easter Island
  • Palkia: NASA Headquarters, Houston
  • Dialga: Big Ben, London
  • Diancie: The Kremlin (Moscow), the Tower of Londong (in front of the Queen Mother's crown)
  • Volcanion: Mt. Fuji, Mt. Saint Helens, Yellowstone National Park, and Mt. Olympus
• Regice: Scandinavia, Iceland, Canada, Alaska, Glacier National Park (United States)
• Regirock: Pyramids of Egypt, Petra (Jordan)
• Registeel: The Empire State Building
• Manaphy: Any ocean area.
• Kyurem: Chicxulub Crater, Stony Tunguska River,
• Genesect: Dinosaur National Monument (United States), the Gobi Desert (China)
• Solgaleo: Teotihuacan (Mexico), Machu Picchu (Peru), but can appear right in front of your phone, wherever you are, during a total solar eclipse.
• Lunala: Kennedy Space Center (Florida), but can appear in front of your phone during a blood moon.
  • Jossed for Solgaleo and Lunala, since they evolve from Cosmoem, which itself is an evolution of Cosmog. Future Halloween will make Cosmog spawn everywhere when Gen 7 is in GO. See below.
• Missingno: Bermuda Triangle
• Tapu Koko: Diamond Head (Oahu)
• Tapu Lele: Lahaina (Maui)
• Tapu Bulu: Kaʻū Desert (Big Island)
• Tapu Fini: Mahaulepu Beach (Kauai)
  • Everything past Gen 1 Jossed as of now, since that's all there is in the game at the moment. Also, Legendaries haven't had any confirmed appearances, though some claims have been made. Also, Missingno. is not likely to appear in the game at all - data mining hasn't found anything about it, and it was never official anyway.

• NASA HQ is in Washington DC, it would be an extremely bad idea for Niantic to gather a large crowd at E street and at a place that's normally restricted to US citizens. The Smithsonian might be a better place.

• All jossed. Most Legendaries are confirmed to be distributed via Raids and Research Breakthoughs, while Mythicals are distributed via Special Research.

Arceus really WILL be in the Vatican.

...the public parts that are open to tourists. The Vatican will give their approval as a great PR move to show they can take a joke. It's possible it could also be in Jerusalem since, ya know, whole city to put it in. Mecca seems unlikely since it doesn't allow tourists.

• It is more likely there will be several places in the world where Legendaries appeared, there should be one in Japan at least.

Only the original 151 will be available upon release.

Hinted at in the first trailer, where only Pokemon from the first generation were shown. To not overwhelm players and the game developers with the 700+ mon from the get-go, the initial release of the game will only include the original 150, with Mew being offered in some sort of special event. Eventually new generations will be added if the game is successful, but for an initial release there's no reason for them to go insane with programming over 700 different mon.

• Confirmed.

The eggs you obtain in Pokémon GO are not actually eggs.

They are weird-looking Pokéballs there were used to seal Pokémon. The people who use them then go scatter them across the world.

• Alternatively, the Pokémon inside the eggs are actually gift Pokémon packed in an egg-shaped crate/box/container/whatever you call it. They're delivered en-masse randomly.

On April 1st every wild encounter will be replaced by Magikarp or other Pokémon that are considered Joke Characters.

Because it would be hilarious to see them pop up everywhere.

• Ironically, considering how many candies it takes to evolve Magikarp into Gyarados, this would be seen as a godsend rather than useless. Mega Gyarados anyone?
  • Jossed for 2018 and 2019, as the 2018 April Fools consists of increased Murkrow Spawns (Don't worry, they are easy to catch) and 2019's April Fools consists of Pikachu Photobombs.

The game will eventually introduce Technical Machines or Move Tutors

Right now there's no way to pick or change the moves your Pokémon have, but I feel in a future update they will introduce TMs as items or have Move Tutors. TMs will probably be single-use moves for a specific move a multitude of Pokémon can learn, whereas the Move Tutor might allow the player to actually change the moves of their Pokémon to another move that Pokémon could naturally have the chance to learn. Like if your Gyarados has Twister, you can use the Move Tutor to give it Hydro Pump instead.

• Confirmed with the June 2017 gym update! Technical Machines are potential drops from raids.

Pokemon Candies are modified Rare Candies

Such that they only work on a specific Pokemon, but had they been obtainable in the main games, they will raise the Pokemon's level by more then one.

Pokémon Candies are... Pokémon.

I mean, c'mon, you discard your Pokémon 'permanently' to a mad scientist looking professor who just so happens to trade back a 'candy' the exact coloration of that species... Suddenly the above guesses of you being a member of the villain teams don't seem that Farfetch'd.

• And neither does the above theory of Willow being the Big Bad, since if Teams Galactic and Flare are anything to go by, Pokémon's natural energy is more than enough to fuel The End of the World as We Know It and/or a Fantastic Nuke.
  • Alternatively and less horrifically, Pokemon candies DO indeed come from the Pokemon themselves (you automatically get 3 from catching one), but are actually their evolving energy in physical form. You only get one when you transfer because Willow is just keeping the others to test out their evolutions or something. You also get a lot for just hatching them, so t.
  • Additionally, you get one Pokemon Candy of that evolution line each time you evolve a Pokemon of said line, so Willow could be evolving any Pokemon you transfer to him, and he gives you the spare candy generated from the evolution.
• The candy aren't made FROM Pokémon, but they ARE made with Pokémon slave labor.

Missing No. will become available, most likely as an April Fool's joke.

And it'll only be available in beach areas.

• Perhaps it would be on the border between the ocean and the beach and you have yo walk back and forth to catch it.
  • Let's just hope it doesn't screw with the game if you DO catch it.
    • Or being true to the spirit of the Apri Fool's Day it will only seem to screw with the game, send the gamer into panic (OH NO, all my pokémon ran away / were abducted by Team Rocket! I was demoted to level 1 due to offenses against Professor Willow! All my star dust was confiscated as contraband / stolen by Team Rocket!) just to show them a "Just Kidding" screen and wishing the player a happy April Fool's Day.

Eventually the game will be VERY imbalanced

• All the gyms will be owned by Veteran players with the strongest monsters, leaving no chance for newbie who just started playing to conquer the gym. EVER.
  • I'm sure there will eventually be some sort of measure to prevent veterans from rendering anyone who's been playing for only a month worthless, similar to how Ingress has a player level cap of 16 but an item level cap of 8.
  • It's actually possible, though difficult, to take on a much stronger opponent with the right strategy. Perfecting the ability to dodge is key, as well as using a faster type of Pokémon. Done right, Cherry Tapping with a Fragile Speedster can take down an enemy gym pretty quickly. Also, ownership of the Gym is based on Prestige, which goes down with every loss. Even a weak player who can beat the weakest member of the Gym can eventually wear it down with a combination of Revives, Potions, and patience.
  • Confirmed, although only in highly populated areas with a completely different reason alongside the reworked gym system.
• Team Instinct will simply be removed from the equation. Alternatively, it will cooperated with another team to take a common enemy.
  • Not likely. While hard numbers still aren't available, the gap between Instinct and the other teams has narrowed in popularity polls due to players joining with the "underdog" team. At the time of writing that the Facebook groups for Valor and Mystic had Likes in the range of 4000 while Instinct hadn't broken 800. A more recent look into it shows the numbers are much closer, though with a still noticable gap.
• Another way to rectify this would to have gyms in each town acting as permanent headquarters for the teams - they can't be taken, and offer a place for inexperienced pokemon to train, but have low-level pokemon in them so that after a certain point it's more viable to go after enemy gyms.

Like trading, player-on-player battles will be incorporated into the game later

It might not be exactly like the trailer, but it would probably play like this:

• Your phone will be able to alert you when another player is present.
• You can then request a battle from the other player. The other player is then given the option to either accept or deny the battle request.
• The participants can choose which Pokemon they're going to use for the battle and how many.
• The winner will be awarded a certain amount of gold coins for free.
  • Confimed, although it does not work the way listed here.

Area 51 is where the Pokemon are spawning into the real world from.

Why else would they be so common around that vicinity? This is one of the things they've been hiding!

In the vain of Ingress, Pokemon Go is based on Dimensions and Dimensional Rifts

Think about it. The game's about Pokemon, creatures that normally don't exist in our world, coming into ours. Plus, the game's Pokemon, Pokestops and Gyms are in the same locations as the Portals in Ingress. Perhaps the events of Platinum (Cyrus trying to destroy the universe) or something like that caused a dimensional rift that allowed Pokemon to enter into our world. Willow, a professor who's been studying this, fears that the Pokemon will be viewed as pests in that world, and use the help of real-life trainers to give them purpose.

• Pokémon Sun and Moon involve mysterious extra-dimensional creatures known as Ultra Beasts. This kind of plot seems to be what Pokemon as a franchise is gearing up for...

Pokéstops and Gyms are holes in interdimensional fabric.

Basically, the Ingress portals were reacting with the Pokémon world instead of a nondescript alien world, with Pokéstops being places for real-world Trainers to restock on supplies (seeing as how they aren't exactly commonplace IRL). Gyms are kinda the same thing, except with the weakened fabric allowing for Pokémon battles without risk of serious injury to either party.

Pokémon Centers will be introduced with Johto Pokémon, and won't be run by Nurse Joy ...

... Pokémon Centers in Pokémon GO will be run by a new nurse called Nurse Harmony, and will have a Lugia emblem on her costume. This not only shows she is unbiased to the three team factions, but it will be a nod from the developers to fans who have Team Harmony with Lugia as their Fanon team!

Pokémon were once regular animals exposed to and mutated by Stardust.

Sometime in the distant past of the PokéWorld a large meteor struck Earth and scattered a strange bright substance in the atmosphere. The ecosystem was thrown into chaos, resulting in many species of animal going extinct. Of the ones that did survive, many of them began mutating and morphing into creatures with strange and terrifying powers. This is why there are mentions of regular animals in the series but few appearances; they do exist but are dying out. Humanity also faced near extinction, but the ones that did survive were able to apply the strange substance to technology and tame the new monsters. Exposing 'mons to Stardust seems to accelerate their mutations and amplify their abilities. Stardust plus a shell made of a species material composition is the original recipe for a Rare Candy. Mew, Deoxys, and Clefairy are all very closely tied to the strange symbiotic substance from outer space.

Future Pokémon with multiple forms will simply have those forms as evolutions.

Pokémon with different forms, such as Cherrim with Flower Gift, Aegislash with Stance Change, and Castform with Forecast will have their alternate forms be separate evolution branches. For the two former, Cherubi and Doublade will randomly evolve into one of the two forms as their final forms, either Overcast Cherrim or Sunny Day Cherrim/Sword Aegislash or Shield Aegislash and be unable to change into the other form thereafter. With Castform, because it has three options, Castform will be made a two-stage evolution, unlike the games where it doesn't evolve. With enough Castform candies it'll evolve into Sunny Castform, Rainy Castform, or Blizzard Castform. It'll just simplify the whole 'form change' system if they make it part of the already established evolution system.

• Jossed. They are now just considered different entries much like in Pokémon Rumble.

Pokemon Eggs come from Professor Willow and the Pokemon you transfer to him

Self-Explanatory: as part of his research, he breeds Pokemon that were transferred over to him, and then he gives people the Pokemon Eggs whenever they go by a Poke Stop.

Pokemon GO is an entire Mystery Dungeon in real world.

• Pokestops are Treasure Floors of Mystery Dungeons the players need to discover, and the Gyms are actually Duel Floors (similar to Boss Floors) or Training Mazes in which duels take place.
• All three teams are actually Dungeon Explorers researching the Mystery Dungeons and they do compete in different medium (see below). It works like a traditional exploration guild though.

Mega Evolution will be included in future updates.

This Super Mode will be considered in Pokemon GO, as it is back in Sun and Moon. Anyone wants to bring in Mega Charizard or Mega Pidgeot?

• Have fun, Gym Defenders. You will get wiped out if you don't have a Mega-Evolved Pokemon.
• It could be a paid feature to prevent players from unauthorized access. So broken, you need to pay to Mega Evolve.
• Certain Mega Evolutions could be region-exclusives too. You can only have Mega Charizard X in Asia and Mega Charizard Y outside Asia. (Hello, Australian-only Mega Kangaskhan.)
• Confirmed. Trainers can gather Mega Energy in order to Mega Evolve their pokemon, however this only lasts a short while, preventing players from simply dropping a Mega Poke Mon onto a gym to lock it down for days at a time.

When future generations are introduced, there will be more region exclusives

Possible examples (feel free to add more) include:

• Bellossom being catchable in Hawaii (it looks like a hula dancer)
• Phanpy and Donphan being catchable in Africa and Asia (due to their resemblance to elephants)
• Archen and Archeops being catchable in Germany (both resemble Archaeopteryx)
• Numel and Camerupt being found in Middle-East (due to having camel-like resemblances).
• Treecko, Grovyle and Sceptile being found in Asia.
• Riolu and Lucario being catchable in North America (due to resemblance to raccoons).
• Unova region Pokemon are more common in the U.S.
• Kalos region Pokemon are more common in France.
• Alola region Pokemon and Alola variant Pokemon are more common in Hawaii.
  • All Jossed. Phanpy is a moderately rare spawn, Numel and Treecko are Com Mons, Bellossom is an evolution exclusive and Riolu is a rare 10km or 7km egg hatch. In reality, the future Regionals are Heracross, Corsola, Torkoal, Tropius, Relicanth, Pachirisu, Chatot and Carnvine. Zangoose/Seviper, Volbeat/Illumise and Gastrodon formes are dependant on Old World (Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa) or New World (The Americas), while Solrock and Lunatone switch territories.

The Alolan variants will be added to the game in a later update

In a twist, they'll be found everywhere, but much rarer in regions outside Hawaii.

• If Mega Evolutions and Alolan Forms are in the game, imagine people using Mega Charizard to burn Alolan Exeggutor down, or taking Mega Pidgeot to bomb Alolan Raticate.
• Confirmed, but they are equally common worldwide. Meowth, Grimer, Sandshrew and Vulpix can only be found in 7km eggs while Raichu and Marowak are Raid exclusive.

There will be more than two styles to choose from.

There will be more avatars added so that you are not just choosing your gender, but also age group, fabulousity etc.

There will eventually be a crossover event with Ingress.

Go will receive Lure Modules that give Stops the effects of fracked Portals, but are otherwise identical to regular Lures, as well as clothing customization themed after Ingress factions. Meanwhile,, Ingress will receive Beacons and avatar customizations themed after Pokémon, as well as Frackers that give Portals the effects of Lure Modules, but are otherwise identical to regular Frackers.

Also, actions in one game will, for a limited time, affect the world of the other game: Fracking an Ingress Portal will also apply a Lure to the corresponding PokéStop if any, and applying a Lure to a PokéStop will also frack its corresponding Portal.

• Confirmed! In that event, Cubone and Ponyta's shiny rates and spawn rates are increased. The bottom part doesn't happen however.

When future generations are introduced, some non-Com Mon Pokemon will spawn more frequently.

Some non-Com Mons in main games will become a common find in GO, as evidenced by Eevee's spawn rates.

Possible examples (feel free to add more) include:

• Smeargle (Beagles you can find anywhere.)
• Houndour and Houndoom (Dobermans you can find around, including nearby police stations)
• Torchic (need I say more about this Chick Pokemon?)
• Roselia and Roserade (rose bushes)
• Swablu and Altaria (swallow-like Pokemon)
• Mawile (because cheaters)
• Klefki (Keys, keys everywhere. May bump up even more during Valentine's.)
• Phantump and Trevenant (trees, trees everywhere)
• Cat-based Pokemon with "black cat" superstitions can be a common find.
• Rowlet (will spawn somewhat frequently, because its typing makes sense ー for a bird Pokemon living on trees)
• Cutiefly (flies everywhere)
• Bounsweet (Try not find one in grocery stores.)
• Sandygast and Palossand (Sand Pokemon)
• Cosmog (maybe an increased spawn during future Halloween; and can teleport away immediately like Abra does; also same situation as Magikarp)
• Robot-based Pokemon can spawn more frequently, if you live in industrial areas. From common ones like Golett, Klefki, Beldum, Klink, to, if you are really that lucky, robot Legendaries like Genesect and Magearna, which are hard to find.
  • Jossed: Smeargle, Houndour, Mawile: Smeargle is the default photobomb exclusive, Houndour is a semi Com Mon while Mawile can only be found in Raids.
  • Confirmed: Roselia, Swablu, Torchic, Glameow. Additionally, all starters are Com Mons.

If the Halloween event turns out to be successful, then more holidays will have events

Likely examples (feel free to add more):

• Christmas: Possibly a spike in Water-type and Ice-type Pokemon spawn rates and also an increase in candies you can obtain. Because Magikarp Power.
• Thanksgiving: A spike in bird Pokemon or perhaps a spike in Flying-types in general. Doduo and Dodrio may get the most focus.
• Chinese New Year: A spike in Fire-type and Dragon-type spawns. Charizard may get the [[Warp Whistle most focus. Or, on the other hand, may correspond with an animal from the Chinese Zodiac in general (i.e Year Of The Rat = More Pikachu).
• Valentine's Day: A spike in Fairy-type Pokemon spawn rates. Jigglypuff rolls into Wigglytuff Guild.
• Women's Day: A spike in increase of spawn rates for female-only Pokemon lIke Jynx, Nidoran♀, Chansey and Australian-only Kangaskhan.
• April Fool's Day: Perhaps a different joke every year—perhaps one year Missingno. shows up, or another every single spawn turns out to be a Magikarp or (in Gen 2) a Dunsparce. Or (worst case scenario) nothing but Pidgeys, Rattatas, Zubats and/or Eevees. Or any Pokemon with Run Away abilities.
• Earth Day: An increase in Grass-type spawns. Possibly also an increase in "endangered" Pokemon, like Lapras and Farfetch'd (in Asia) or "extinct" fossil ones, like Omanyte, Omastar, Kabuto, Kabutops, Aerodactyl, Larvitar, Pupitar and Tyranitar.
• Next year's Halloween: An increase in spawns for Dark-type Pokemon such as Murkrow, Umbreon, Houndour and even Tyranitar.

• Christmas, Chinese New Year, Valentines, Women's Day, April Fool's Day, Earth Day, and further Halloween events confirmed. However, some behave much differently from here.
  • Chinese New Year: Features increased Electrike, Poochyena, Growlithe and Snubbull spawns that yield triple stardust when caught in 2018 and increased Rattata, Ekans, Mankey, Ponyta, Electabuzz, Dratini, Mareep, Miltank, Torchic, Poochyena, Spoink, and Buneary spawns in 2019.
  • Valentines Day increased the appearances of pink Pokémon in 2017, increased Chansey and Luvdisc spawns only in 2018 and returned to increased pink spawns with new raid bosses in 2019.
  • Earth Day increased Ground type spawns and features the return of Groudon in 2019.
  • Halloween is used to release a few Ghost and Dark Type Pokémon from a new generation every year. In 2018, Giratina's Altered Forme is available.

After PvP battles become a thing, the Pokemon League will essentially be defictionalized

Maybe wishful thinking on my part, but hear me out; after enough people have enjoyed themselves with their battles, Niantic will start advertising the Pokemon League, complete with an Elite Four made up of Niantic employees and the statement that the one who can defeat them will be declared champion. Realistically, it'll be different from the games' version, with the League being an annual occurrence that trainers from all over the world can come to and participate in, and the champion not having to hang around the Elite Four and challenge everyone else, but instead be given a trophy while his/her photo is hung up in a Hall of Fame.

Different Buddy Pokemon will receive different gameplay alterations.

Using a certain Pokemon as your buddy could change the gameplay. Niantic might throw in this hidden trick.

Examples: (feel free to add more)

• Meowth will give you double candy and 10 Pokecoins per 3km walked.
• Mega Gengar will disable flee rate for all Pokemon until you switch it back to normal or to another Pokemon as your buddy.
• Pokemon with Pickup in main-series games such as Sentret, Teddiursa, Zigzagoon, etc. will have a chance to find a random item every time the distance is met, ranging from potions to evolutionary items.

When the later generations are added, specific Eevee evolution will still trigger through names.

Names once again, rooted in the anime:

• Leafeon: Zoey
• Glaceon: May
• Sylveon: Serena
  • Confirmed, but Leafeon is named Linnea and Glaceon is named Rea, based on the Eevee users from Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Delibird is already in the game.

It's exclusive to Antarctica.

• Jossed. Instead, it will only be available in every year's Christmas event.

Delibird will be part of a Christmas event.

The reason why it's currently absent from the game is that Niantic is planning to release him as part of a Christmas-themed event by the end of 2017, similar to how they released the Gen III Ghosts as part of the 2017 Halloween event. Additionally, catching it might reward the player with random items, to fit the whole Christmas theme of both the event and Delibird itself.

• Confirmed!

Evolving Karrablast will require Shelmet candies, while evolving Shelmet will require Karrablast candies.

This is in nod to how evolving them requires both of them to be traded for each other.

Team GO Rocket will hijack Gyms and Raids as well as Pokestops.

with the newest update adding the feature to the game, I think it's time for a WMG of my own. The former would sometimes have a "Rocket Boss" residing in a gym that has much more powerful Pokemon than normal and requires at least 2 players of different teams to uproot. However, they don't use the Motivation system; once one of their Pokemon is KO'd, they stay dead, streamlining the process a bit. There would also be common grunts invading gyms, which have the assortment of your average payer or Grunt; some strong-ish Com Mons such as the Sudowoodo that seem to be popping up rapidly lately, maybe a weak version of whatever's popular in the meta, such as a >1100 CP Blissey, the standard Dark/Poison/Zubat mixture, etc. The latter would have you and anyone you were fighting alongside have to fight off GO Rocket Grunts as well as the boss. The grunts' Pokemon would go down in a hit or two, but more importantly would block your shots. Afterwards, you have to fight a light Zerg Rush of grunts. The boss will always be a Pokemon that could potentially be a Shadow Pokemon, and will always yield a Shadow Pokemon.

When Kecleon is released, it won't be a standard encounter.

Wild Ditto disguises itself as certain wild Pokemon, and the recently introduced Zorua disguises itself as your Partner Pokemon. Kecleon is the last Hoenn Pokemon to be unreleased in the games despite even the next two generations having almost all Pokemon except their mythicals. While Kecleon could be just added as a regular encounter anti-climatically, maybe they'll do something special? As a Hollywood Chameleon with the Color Change ability, Kecleon in-lore is able to make it look invisible and change type. This could be represented by it impersonating a Pokemon, serving as a nice surprise. Alternatively, it'll be exclusive to Field Research like Spinda. Perhaps if you catch a Ditto or some other thematically appropriate Pokemon instead of just an item you can encounter Kecleon.

Teams and Characters

You are the villain.

Team Instinct, Mystic or Valor could easily fit as villain team name in Pokemon Universe.

• If this is the case, then Prof. Willow could be the Big Bad, some people are already thinking the fact for him to research Pokemon you have to permanently give your extra Pokemon to him is weird, leading some to believe he is amassing an army or doing something even more unscrupulous that requires an excess of Pokemon to burn through.
  • He could also be orchestrating a massive Let's You and Him Fight between the three teams, given how he encourages you so fiercely to join one of the three. From there, he capitalizes on the "Stop Having Fun" Guys constantly trading Pokémon for extra candies to collect a Pokémon army to take over unopposed while Teams Instinct, Mystic, and Valor use up all their resources fighting each other.
  • So Willow is like the Administrator?
• To be honest, Team Valor, Mystic, and Instinct don't really fit the Space theme the other criminal teams typically have (Rocket (Space Travel), Magama/Aqua (Planet Earth), Galactic (Galaxy), Plasma (Plasma is commonly found in space), Flare (Solar Flare)). Plus they don't really seem to do anything "harmful" outside of taking over a player-controled Pokegyms, other Evil Teams want to take over the world, blow it up, or be a parody of PeTA. As for Willow's Intentions, I honestly don't know. Maybe he's just studying them using the extra poke-candies he has (you do get three when getting a pokemon) before releasing them, maybe he DOES want to take over the world, maybe he's already taken over the world and getting the players into playing his "game", maybe he's trying to make an Eevee-Pidgey Stew for lunch, honestly I don't know.
  • There's a villain team in the spin off game which doesn't follow the Space theme : Cipher in Colosseum and XD. Pokemon Go is different enough than the main games, it takes place in the real world, it is aimed at teenagers and young adult who are free to roam the street rather than young children. It could be an attempt to make the villain realistic. IRL, there won't be a team called "Team Evil" who tried to take over the world, but any real life conflicts (and discrimination) between groups are often started by different ideologies and beliefs.
  • It could be Gameplay and Story Segregation but Willow is incredibly suspicious. All the three teams are sending mons to him, all over the world. Does he really need to research that many? What kinda research that would require that many? Even if he transferred them into the PC, it's still a big data, he'd need a server or something to store them. If he was just releasing them, why asking the player to sent him in the first place?
    • He could be doing something more consistent with real-life research: Tagging and tracking pokemon for research purposes. Players send him specimens who are studied for the individual mon's age, sex, and general well being before being equipped with some sort of tracker or transmitter and released into the wild. Then he studies the pokemon in their natural habitats. Any time the player captures a previous specimen, he updates his database with details like how much that specific pokemon has grown since he last saw it.
    • The issue is there are too many. Imagine everyone from all over the world sending him pokemon at anytime. This is less about researching animals, it is more like money transfer in the real life, except with pokemon. There is always a transaction done, every second. Even if Willow killed a hundred mons within minute, he's probably still had another thousands sent at the next minute. It's that many. And yet he's still managed, which meant he had a very, very big resources to deal with it, systematically...or it's just Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • Good point. I figured he was messing with evolution or something, but you guys have valid points.

Without Gameplay and Story Segregation, it only led into more Unfortunate Implications.

This is tied with the WMG 'you are the villain'.

• Imagine that Willow is the Big Bad and you are his agent. Him asking your adventuring style is actually asking what disguise you would use. You can change your appearance and use the clothing/items provided by him.
• Instead of offering a starter, he just told you to catch them, as if it were a test. Unlike previous Professor who noted the bond between mons and human, he just noted that you are a good pokemon catcher. Which would be useful for him.
  • Taking a bit deeper, the protagonist might not actually be human. In the main games, it is noted to be dangerous to walk without mons since the wild mons can attack you, yet the protagonist does not need mons for protection. It was so EASY for the protagonist to catch mons just by throwing ball without weaken them first. Maybe it was a special skills, or maybe it was because the protagonist are DESIGNED to do it. The pokemon are too confused as to what him/her are, allowing them to be caught without being weakened. And of course, gender doesn't matter anyway.
    • Taking it even further : The team leaders are shown in shadow because the protagonist cannot recognize other humans other than Professor Willow. That's exactly how the protagonist sees them. The protagonist can recognize other Pokemon Go trainers, because they are the same creatures as him/her.
    • So what you're saying is the player Went Mad from the Revelation and refused to visually comprehend the team leaders' appearances, yet recognized Pokémon instantly due to (likely) having played Franchise/Pokemon games before and thus being more familiar with them?
    • If the player is robot or something designed to capture Pokemon, recognizing a human won't be a priority. Maybe their data aren't on the database yet.
• Imagine that, as a villain, would you bother 'training' and 'bonding' with your mons? No, you just wanted them to get stronger instantly. Thus, Pokemon candies. It would be a 'waste' training mons by defeating wild mons, rendering them 'unconscious' because you cannot catch them. It is more useful to keep them alive, so they could produce candies....
  • Usually, the player would feed their mons a lot of candies at a time. Like a force feeding.
  • The gameplay itself doesn't allow you to care about mons like in the main games. You only care about getting the strongest ones and discard others. Things would get worse if there is breeding options. Even in the main games, most players only want to get the shiny or 'perfect' ones and discard others.
• Pokemon candies do come from Pokemon, and the process...doesn't kill them, at the very least. You do get 3 when you captured one. That doesn't necessarily mean the process was nice or easy. If it was, each mons would just produce more candies after some times, like berries. They didn't.
• Instead of usual heroes who just defeated the gym leader and get the gym badge, you just joined local 'Team' and completely take over Gym. Like a turf wars. Maybe the reason there is no League because the politics are to chaotic, gyms are constantly being take over.
• Instead of buying items, you just came over to the Pokespots and flip over the place. Are you mugging them? Or are you asking them retribution, since you can always do it again after some time? "Give us item and we'll let you stay safe, we won't take over your place. You see that gym over there? We completely obliterated the previous guys and owned the place."

If the Teams were evil, here's what their Evil Plans would be like:

• Spark learned from a young age that any person, no matter how civilized they appear, can be stripped down to just their INSTINCTS to survive. He then realized that humans and Pokemon alike are really nothing but the electrical impulses in their brain, and the only true way to remind people of this is to remove society as we know it. After coming upon the legend of Zapdos, he concocted a plan to use its electrical abilities to cause massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse in order to fry all technology, thus forcing humanity and Pokemon to become their "true selves" in his eyes.
  • So Team Instics is The Joker? I knew I joined the right team!
• So then Team Mystic's evil plan is to use Articuno to "freeze" people's hearts to make them more logical and less emotional, and Team Valor's evil plan is too use Moltres to...weed out the weak so only the strong passionate people survive?
  • Eeeeehhhhhh...Maybe more like Team Mystic wants to cause a Nuclear Winter (through which Articuno will thrive) as a result of a trigger-happy war which they will orchestrate to show that logic is the key, and Valor...uses Moltres...to summon a Coronal Mass Ejection so they can...reshape the world for the valorous?
    • Team Instinct just waits in the back, knowing the two teams (Valor and Mystic) would kill each other, and then steals all the gyms for themselves, and changing the rules so that they could become the strongest in the world!

The fourth team:

There will be an alternative fourth team (or more) in future release, based on another legendary.

• Alternatively it will be an obvious villanious team with no legendary mascot at all - Team Evil or something.
  • Maybe Team Dark, with a Darkrai logo, with the goal of stopping time and plunging the world into darkness.
    • Given some below WMGs drawing parallels with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, that doesn't seem too out there.
• Alternatively, the game will give you options to not joining team, but a neutral party instead.
• Maybe the 'fourth team' won't be a team anyone can actually join, but an NPC team that will act as the actual villain of the game. They will introduce conflict and an actual story to the game, as well as act as a way to keep the other teams in check, since they can randomly take over other team's gyms. Basically, there will be a very slim chance they will steal a gym if a team has only just taken it, but if a team has a gym for too long, the chance for them to be taken over by Team Dark increases.
  • Seeing, that the game started out with generation 1 pokémon, the villainous team, whether it will be an NPC front or not, will be our beloved / hated Team Rocket.
    • Well, considering that Rocket is already taking Pokéstops and has staged multiple failed large-scale takeovers, this seems quite plausible.

A fourth team will be added to act as the Conflict Killer for the other three.

And fittingly, they will be represented by Lugia.

Parallel between teams:

Team Instinct actually represent a physical body, while team Mystic and Valor represent mind and heart. Together, they combined a single entity, a person. At one point all three teams will be united against a common enemy.

Willow is sending the Pokemon back home

Pokemon showing up in our world isn't exactly the best thing, considering we haven't adapted our society to work with and around them. They're safer and likely happier in their own world, except for those that like their trainers enough to stay on this side. When you transfer a Pokemon to Willow, he in turn sends it back to the Pokemon World.

• This could also mean that he's actually from the Pokémon world, which leads to him perhaps being a native of that world.
  • Likely; he is one of Professor Oak's proteges and his mother was a Pokemon researcher, so it's a strong possibility he's a native of that world.
• Which in turn is probably causing extreme imbalances in the ecosystem. Com Mons are everywhere, and only the weak survive.

The teams are not only represented by the Legendary Birds...

...they're led by them. That's why we never see the leaders unsilhouetted—they're Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres in human form, and showing them outside of silhouette would give that fact away.

• So Willow is Lugia?
  • If he's the one regulating and/or endorsing the conflict, it makes sense for him to be the trio master of the bird trio.
• There's official art of the team leaders. It doesn't discount the idea though, given how Latias is able to transform into human form.

Blanche is wearing contacts.

• As an alternative for wearing a glasses. It has no basis but this is WMG after all.

Spark is Owain from Fire Emblem.

• Blond hair, goofy smile, drawn by the same artist. All we need is some hamfisted lines from Spark and he's basically Owain in present day.

If the team leader were evil.

• Candela would push pokemon to battle to death to overtake the gym and sent away the dead pokemon. She'll also quickly dismissed weaker pokemon for the stronger ones. All for the sake of power and strength!
  • Also, she will Mega Evolve some Pokemon (eg. Pidgeot) to bomb gyms.
• Blanche would just capture every pokemon for the sake of stardust and converting them into pokemon candy. She would forcefeed 400 candies into magikarp mouth in one go. All for the sake of evolution and science!
• Spark seemed like a decent guy, however he kinds of hoping Candela and Blanche team would fight each other so he got the chance for strike.
  • Alternatively, if the breeding options available, Spark would breed Skitty and Wailord.
  • Alternatively, he'd just do what everyone does on the main pokemon games : breeding hundreds eggs to get a shiny or a pokemon with perfect stats then throws away the rest.

Alternatively, the Team Leaders and their Teams simply represent real players on the Casual vs Competitive spectrum

• Candela and Team Valor represent casual competitive players, she goes for Pokémon who are big and powerful, and doesn't really think much about strategy beyond that. She doesn't care about Fast Attack vs DPS or what Smogen says, she just wants a team of big, intimidating Pokémon that hit like a freight truck. Also, when Mega Evolutions are introduced, she will be the first to use this mechanic for some Pokémon.
• Blanche and Team Mystic represent actual competitive players, unlike Candela while she uses powerful Pokémon, Blanche is more likely to study moves, gauge DPS and speed of her Pokémon's fast attack and what special attack provides the best damage as well as type coverage. Her Pokémon might not be the strongest at first glance, but her team works as a unit and all cover each other's weaknesses.
• Spark and Team Instinct represents the casual players, following the old saying of "Trainers should fight with their favorites" as opposed to treating Pokémon like just a bunch of stats and attacks. Spark doesn't care about having the "best" or most strategic team, but having a team with Pokémon that are his personal favorites.

The team leaders all hold a title from the achievement medals.

Blanche is a Scientist, Candela is a Battle Girl and Spark is a Breeder.

If the team leaders are given nationalities/accents...

• Blanche could be from Kalos/Nothern France, assuming her name. Could be a Femme Fatale but not a French Jerk.
• Candela may be from Unova/New York, having bits of Brooklyn Rage stereotype.
• Spark would be an Alolan/Hawaiian because of his cheerful and Adorkable nature.

Spark is Willow's son.

• Based on the very similar skin color, similar facial structure and hair color and hair style. Also based on a similar clothing/color scheme; Spark represents yellow team, and Professor Willow's black shirt under his lab coat has a yellow trim, similar to Spark's black and yellow shirt. Also their stances are almost mirror images: each has the opposite hand on one hip and holding a pokeball with the other.

Spark is Lt. Surge's son.

Team Instinct's symbol is Zapdos, an electric-type Pokemon, which happens to be the type favored by Lt. Surge. They even look a little similar to each other, as noted here.

• Or, as popular in Pokémon GO fan comics, Spark is the son of Lt. Surge's brother and Surge took Spark in after his brother died in war.

Spark is Willow's adopted son.

And that's the real reason his Team is based around taking care of Pokémon eggs. He knows what it's like to have no parents, and what it's like to be taken in by someone. He doesn't want those (seemingly abandoned) eggs to hatch without someone there for them.

• There's potential for this one. Spark's style of dress, speech, less formal mannerism, and Willow's remarks on his strong instincts getting him out of rough situations (which you could call 'street smarts') imply he may have a similar backstory as Sierra. Plus, if you're on Team Instinct and try to use the Rocket Radar too late at night, he mentions needing to meet up with Willow and trying again in the morning when he gets most of his work done. (By contrast, Candela mentions reaching out to Blanche to see if they have any info.) This could at least imply a casual relationship in the form of a mentor or father figure.

Willow runs a shop.

Professor Willow gives you candies after you transfer (sell more likely) him some Pokemon, and he allows anyone to buy anything from shop. So he is, technically, running a shop selling Pokeballs and incense and upgrades, as well as buying Pokemon in exchange of giving candies to players.

Professor Willow is Guzma with Amnesiac Dissonance.

So Guzma was off finding himself after the events of Pokémon Sun and Moon, when he got sucked into an Ultra Wormhole; giving him Identity Amnesia. He ended up in the Go Alternate Universe. The Pokemon Rangers found him and set him up as an assistant for a Pokemon Professor. A combination of sublimated skills and his new lifestyle lead him to being incredible to forming organizations to gather Pokemon information; based on a gentler form of competition than Team Skull. This resulted in him becoming a Professor of his own right at unprecedented speed.His penchant for "Team X" names is a subliminal throwback to his old life.

Professor Willow is an Expedition Society member.

There is an expy of Expedition Society in GO verse and it exactly works the same as its PSMD counterpart. There are tons of scientists doing research on Pokestops and Gyms, as well as spawn rates of Pokemon.

Willow appears to be the On-Foot and Underground Research Department head.

If the team leaders are actually Pokémon like in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon...

• Candela will be Ninetales or Rapidash giving her sleek, sporty flame motif.
• Blanche will be Dewgong or Azumarill for her androgynous mystique.
• Spark will be Ampharos or Electabuzz, being the cheerful one of the former or the Keet of the latter.
• Then, Professor Willow will be a Tyranitar. Dark Is Not Evil, maybe?

If there was a fourth team, it would deal with ambition.

This kinda crosses over with Hogwarts Houses a tiny bit, so please bear with me. Team Valor and Griffindor are alike, dealing with nerve, bravery and emotions and both are represented with the color red and Valor's presented gimmick is training and taking over gyms. Team Mystic and Ravenclaw are also similar, dealing with intelligence, wisdom, creativity and share the color blue, Mystic's gimmick being evolution. Team Instinct and Hufflepuff are also similar, dealing with loyalty, kindness and hard work (which the former can be lowered to an instinctual reaction and the lattermost Team Instinct faces alot due being the Hufflepuff House of the teams), sharing the color Yellow and Instinct's gimmick of hatching eggs.

To contrast with the rest of this, the fourth team would be akin to the Slytherin house, in that they'd both deal with ambition, determination, cunning and resourcefulness. To establish themselves from the other Team, a fourth team could take up the theme of gaining achievements and making use of Pokestops for resources in game (fitting with ambition and resourcefulness respectively) which could encourage completionists or the like to do as they please. The Team leader would perhaps be a male (to even out so to speak) or androgenous as Blanche is. Their representative Pokemon could be Gyarados to represent the reward of preservering long enough to achieve your ends.

Pokémon GO and No More Heroes are in same universe.

Given both the characters in GO and No More Heroes were designed by the same person, we can predict some crossover predictions.

• Professor Willow is Travis Touchdown's Vitriolic Best Buds, and he seems to work along Doctor Naomi before he works on his own. He is also implied to be involved in the development of Death Drive Mk2, led by Dr Juvenile.
• Blanche, Candela and Spark were assassins of (or at least, associated with) UAA, before they decided to create Friendly Rivalry teams in GO.
• Shinobu, as of 2019, is a Pokémon GO player, and some people likened her to Candela, and vice versa. Similarly, Travis has a Nintendo 64, which can play Pokémon Stadium games.

Giovanni is infected with the Corona virus

This is just a handwave for why there won't be a Team Rocket special research for april month.

Arlo is Giovanni’s son in this world, or they’re at least related.

It’s been speculated that GO Rocket Giovanni is also Rainbow Rocket Giovanni due to his tie-in line with USUM. Therefore, it does bring up the question of Silver’s (non-)existence. Even if he isn’t Rainbow Rocket Giovanni, he more than likely isn’t one of the redeemed ones. Arlo’s behavior has been jokingly likened to being Daddy Issues among some in the fandom. He certainly has a complex about losing, but it’s a very specific accusation that could have some basis.

Key points:

• Arlo shares similar phrases as Giovanni with some differences: Arlo's “world of hurt” vs Giovanni's iconic “world of pain” being one example.
• He has a gangster style, but is of noble birth and aristocratic behavior; so this might be a fusion of his father and whomever his mother is.
• He also shares the same excessive use of "tch" that's often seen with Silver's English language dialogue.
• He’s very insistent about how winning is his birthright and that losing isn’t an option for him. This could be seen as a play on Silver's goals and a reverse of what happened between him and Giovanni. It could be speculated that Arlo ran away to show Giovanni up, and then again from Candela to go chase his birthright when he failed.
• Giovanni being able to give Arlo something Candela can’t could be a lot of things: anything from a leadership title to his (presumed) father’s manipulative love and setting him up to be the next Team Rocket leader. This could also be a nod to Carr from the Pokemon Adventures manga, a character that Arlo had previously been compared to.
• Arlo’s official 2D artwork shares plenty of features with Silver's on top of Giovanni's.
• Arlo pulled his last Pokemon out of battle before it fainted in order to avoid another loss from Candela. While this isn't exclusive to Silver, it's worth pointing out due to the fact it was such a notable part of the character.
• Arlo seems to function not only as an Ein/Borg expy from Colosseum due to him being the possible reason behind the Shadow Pokemon, but has more similarities to Black from the Golden Boy's manga than later instances of Silver.
• Finally, it could just be the less puni plush character design usually seen in Pokemon, but Giovanni looks to be at the age where he should start grooming an heir.

If nothing else, he could be adopted or just aping Giovanni for favoritism.

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