Pokémon Scarlet and Violet / WMG

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Pre-Release Theories

New and Returning Pokémon Part 1

Guesses for new Pokémon.

A windmill giant Pokémon based on Don Quixote.
- It would also look just like the wind turbines seen in the earliest screenshots. One of the characters has a grudge against one of this Pokémon and goes around attacking the turbines thinking it's that Pokémon.
- Maybe something like Paldean Duraludon?
- Jossed
A Pokémon based on Islamic Alchemy.
- Jossed
A tomato or a chili pepper grass-fire Pokémon.
- Confirmed with Scovillain, who is based on the habanero.
A kite Pokémon, possibly the main bird of the region.
- Jossed
An Iberoporus, preferably the regional bug.
- Jossed
A conquistador.
- Jossed, unless Kingambit counts since Bisharp already does look a bit like a conquistador
A non-dragon pseudo-legendary.
- Jossed, the Frigibax line are part-Dragon.
The legendaries could be based on infrared and ultraviolet.
- The third legendary will be a grayscale Pokémon, used by the villainous team to remove all colour from the world.
- Kind of. The legendaries seem to be based more on the "past vs future" angle, though both of them incorporate their respective colours into their designs.
A warrior based on Saint George and/or the dragon he slew.
- Jossed
A Pokémon based on Spanish myths, like the basilisk, or on South American folklore, like the chupacabra.
A bull (pretty safe bet. Maybe a regional variant of Tauros?)
- Confirmed!
A pre-evo of Tauros that evolves into either it or Miltank depending on gender?
- Jossed
An Iberian wolf
- Jossed
An Iberian lynx (Sprigatito's final evolution?)
- Confirmed
An Andalusian horse
- Jossed
A Pyrenean mastiff (regional dog in similar vein to Furfrou, Rockruff, and Yamper, maybe Normal/Ice)
- Confirmed (well, not the Normal/Ice part, that's Jossed).
A quaker parrot (there's a large feral population in Barcelona, possibly a regional bird?)
- Confirmed.
Another isopod like Wimpod. Believe it or not, Spain is full of the little buggers.
Torvosaurus and Miragaia as two-staged fossils, with either Lusotitan or Dinherosaurus as a single-staged fossil (in the same vein as Aerodactyl).
- Alternatively, a Rock/Water Pelecanimimus that evolves into a Deinocheirus. They're both ornithomimosaurs, and the latter has been known to eat fish, thanks to fossilized stomach contents
- Both Jossed
A basking shark.
- Jossed
A bearded vulture, maybe even a regional variant of Mandibuzz. It helps that Mandibuzz's habit of wearing bones, and the bearded vulture's ability to literally eat bones are in the same field.
- Jossed
A Carmen-inspired flamingo, preferably a Fire/Fairy-type.
- Semi-jossed; it goes by the name Flamigo but it is a Flying/Fighting type.
Version exclusive orange- and grape-based Pokémon. The two fruits seemed very prominent in the live-action sections of the reveal trailer to the point of being on some coat of arms.
- Jossed
A Pikachu clone based on a water vole. Electric/Water, maybe?
- Jossed.
A new monkey Pokémon since Spain, part of the Iberian Peninsula (which is the influence for this game's region), is the only European country that actually has monkeys native to it.
- Confirmed with Grafaiai, though it's based on the aye-aye, which is native to Madagascar.
The regional Bug-type Pokémon could be either a cockroach or a mosquito, given how much of a pest they are in real-life Spain.
- Jossed.
Any scrapped Pokémon from the GS Spaceworld demo:
- The Water-Fire-type seal Bomushika, considering there is a small population of monk seals in the Mediterranean.
- Sunmola and its evolutions, though Anchorage and Grotess will separate evolutions of Sunmola much like Clamperl.
- Both Jossed
A Llama to represent Spain's history with the Incas.
- Jossed
A regional form of Phanpy and/or Donphan that references Hannibal's elephants, as his base was in Spain.
- Half-jossed.
An Ifrit, referencing the Islamic era of Spain and very possibly the Psuedo-Legendary.
- Jossed
A Pokémon based on Snowflake, the only documented albino gorilla who was caught in the wilderness and lived in the Barcelona zoo until he passed away.
- This could be represented through the presence of Galarian Darumaka and Darmanitan.
- Jossed... unless you count Annihilape since it's Ghost-type
A photovoltaic cell, evolving into a miniature concentrated solar tower, referencing Spain as the worldwide leader in solar energy and solar power plants. Electric or Electric/Fire. Has Solar Power as one of its Abilities.
- Jossed
Completed versions of the Galarian fossils.
- Jossed
A locust => grasshopper, a speedy Bug/Grass-type.
- Half-jossed. There is a grasshopper, but it's a Bug/Dark Kamen Rider Shout-Out.
A legendary Pokemon based on Huītzilōpōchtli, since we already have a Pokémon based on his rival, Quetzalcoatl.
A beaver, due to Eurasian beavers being the largest rodent in Spain.
- Jossed.
A goose, possibly Quaxly’s final evolution if it’s a literal “Duck, Duck, Goose” phenomenon.
- Jossed.
A capybara.
- Jossed.
A rockhopper penguin.
- Jossed.
The well overdue dolphin Pokémon.
- Confirmed! The dolphin Pokemon's name is Finizen and its evolution, Palafin.
Cthulhu, either as a Legendary, Mythical, or even as a regional evolution of Malamar.
- Jossed
A literal golden eagle.
- Jossed.
A Legendary Pokémon based on Geryon, a tyrannical giant that Hercules slew. His remains were buried in Northwestern Spain, where the lighthouse known as Torre de Hercules stands.
A regional evolution (or form) of Exeggcute that is a pun on "Spanish omlette".
- Jossed.
A Portuguese dogfish that evolves into a massive, sluggish Sleeper shark. Not only are they in the same family, but one of the former's ranges includes the waters off of the coast of Spain, and is also known as the deepest-living shark species ever discovered. Could be any combination of Ice, Ghost, Water, Dark, or Psychic.
- Jossed
A Bug/Dark vampire-like butterfly based on the Madrilenial butterfly. There could even be gender difference for this Mon, with the male being a count, and the female being a vampiress.
- Half-jossed. We got a Bug/Dark type, but it's a grasshopper.
Puss-in-Boots, potentially a feminine equivalent as Sprigatito’s final evolution.
- Puss-In-Boots is an Italian story in origin, with no real connection to Spain outside of the character's depiction in Shrek, which would make it an odd choice.
- Jossed.
A rooster-like Pokémon inspired by the Rooster of Barcelos. Based on the tale that inspired it, its typing could be Normal/Ghost, or something along those lines.
- Jossed.
A Water/Poison Pokémon inspired by the Portuguese man o' war.
- Jossed.
An evolution of Dhelmise, given how much the exploration of the seas shaped the Iberian Peninsula's history.
- Jossed.
A flamenco dancer as the Three-Stage Feminine Pokemon. (like Gardevoir, Roserade, Gothitelle, Florges, Tsareena, Hatterene)
- Half-jossed.

Guesses for returning Pokémon.

The Pikachu line (admittedly a safe bet).
- Confirmed!
Swablu and Altaria.
- Also confirmed to be coming back.
Oricorio, particularly due to its Baile (flamenco) form.
- Confirmed!
Dhelmise.
Eevee and its evolutions.
- Confirmed!
Pincurchin
- Confirmed!
Spoink and Grumpig.
- Confirmed!
The Lotad line
- Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
Inkay and Malamar; due to the significance of squid in paella.
- Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
Teddiursa, Ursaring, and Ursaluna; as there appear to be phases of the moon.
- Teddiursa and Ursaring confirmed — though Ursaluna is not yet clear. It is likely, however, considering Hisuian Zoroark is in it.
- A new form of Ursaluna was added in The Teal Mask called Blood Moon Ursaluna, and the original one can be transferred from HOME.
The Wooloo line
- Jossed
Mimikyu. Given how popular it is, it should show up as a mainstay of each regional Dex.
- Confirmed.
Zubat and its evolutions, as they've been in every main-game Dex so far.
- Jossed
Tentacool and Tentacruel
- Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
Magikarp and Gyarados, as, like with the Zubat line, they've had perfect attendance in the main series.
- Confirmed!
Pokémon Dexited in Sword and Shield:
- Mankey and Primeape.
  - Confirmed! It even has a new evolution!
- The Slakoth line
  - Confirmed!
- The Skiddo line
  - Confirmed!
- The Scatterbug line
  - Confirmed!
- The Sewaddle line
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
- Minior
  - Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
- The Elemental Monkeys
  - Jossed.
- Blitzle/Zebstrika
  - Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
- Gligar/Gliscor
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
- Venonat/Venomoth
  - Confirmed!
- Phanpy/Donphan
  - Confirmed! Donphan even has two Paradox counterparts!
- Shroomish/Breloom
  - Confirmed!
- Tynamo/Eelektrik/Eelektross
  - Confirmed!
- Ducklett/Swanna
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
- Crabrawler/Crabominable
  - Confirmed!
- The Flabébé line
  - Confirmed!
- Aipom/Ambipom
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
- Girafarig
  - Confirmed! It even has a new evolution!
- Stantler, provided Wyrdeer is obtainable in the game.
  - Stantler is Confirmed!
- Glameow/Purugly
  - Jossed
- Houndour/Houndoom
  - Confirmed!
- Ekans/Arbok
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
- Spinarak/Ariados
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
- Surskit/Masquerain
  - Confirmed!
- Komala
  - Confirmed!
- The Weedle line.
  - Jossed
- Shuppet/Banette
  - Confirmed!
- The Geodude line
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask, and the Alolan version is in The Indigo Disk
- Rattata/Raticate
  - Jossed
- Grimer/Muk
  - Confirmed!
In short, there are 63 species in 27 families from Gens 5 to 7 that aren't used in a Gen 8 Pokémon game and have effectively missed out. They're bound to return for Gen 9, alongside all the Hisuian Pokémon, especially since Hisuian Zoroark was shown in the trailer.
Alolan Geodude, Alolan Grimer, and Alolan Rattata will be available in the game.
- Regional variants have never left their home region before.
  - Not entirely; Alolan Forms are available in LGPE and Sw Sh, Alolan Vulpix is also in Legends: Arceus.
- Unless received through in-game trades, regional variants such as Alolan Forms are only usable if the default variants in question are actually available in the games, more so once connectivity with Pokémon Home is established and online.
- Semi-Jossed. Only Alolan Grimer/Muk came back.
  - Now two-thirds Confirmed. The Geodude line returned in The Teal Mask, and their Alolan variants can be transferred from HOME. No sign of Rattata though.
  - Ultimately confirmed. Regular Geodude line is in The Teal Mask, while Alolan Geodude line is in The Indigo Disk
The Lycanroc line, to reference Iberian wolves.
- Confirmed!
The Nickit line.
- Jossed
Larvesta and Volcarona, as references to Spain's solar power infrastructure and a Visual Pun with the Tower of the Sun.
- Confirmed! Volcarona even has two Paradox counterparts!
Zangoose, though it’s hardly a stretch since Seviper is seen in the first trailer. However, Zangoose could be Scarlet-exclusive while Seviper is Violet-exclusive.
- Confirmed!
Eiscue
- Confirmed!
Rhyhorn and its evolutions.
- Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
Skrelp/Dragalge
- Confirmed.
Wimpod/Golisopod
- Jossed
Dunsparce
- Confirmed, even with a new evolution to boot!
Gen V and VI starters, as they've all been Dexited from all Gen VIII games (except for the Oshawott line showing up in Legends: Arceus).
- All past starters are confirmed to be returning for The Indigo Disk.
Kubfu/Urshifu
- Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
Impidimp and its evolutions.
- Confirmed!
The Applin line
- Confirmed! The DLCs even introduce one new form each!
Pawniard/Bisharp
- Confirmed! It even has a new evolution!
The Gible line.
- Confirmed!
The Beldum line.
- Confirmed as DLC!
The Dreepy line.
- Confirmed!
The Jangmo-o line.
- Confirmed in The Teal Mask.
Clobbopus and Grapploct
- Jossed
Drilbur and Excadrill
- Confirmed in The Indigo Disk
Bergmite and Avalugg
- Confirmed!
Staryu and Starmie
- Jossed
Bunnelby, or at least any rabbit species. In real life, rabbits originated from Spain.
- Half-confirmed. Bunnelby is jossed, but Azumarill returns.
Gen 8 regional evolutions:
- Perrserker
  - Confirmed. It's not in the Paldea Dex, but you get one from Salvatore by completing his quest line.
- Mr. Rime
- Cursola
- Sirfetch’d
- Obstagoon
- Runerigus
  - Except for Perrserker, all Galarian guesses are jossed.
- Sneasler
- Overqwil
  - Confirmed in Indigo Disk
- Basculegion
  - Confirmed in The Teal Mask
- Kleavor
  - Confirmed in Indigo Disk
- Wyrdeer
- Ursaluna
  - All of the Hisuian regional evolutions are in the code, but must be transferred from HOME.

Guesses for Paldean Variants.

Confirmed:
- Tauros, who will be more similar to toro bravo, the breed of cattle used in bullfighting. It will be larger, more muscular, and much more aggressive than a regular Tauros, and will have black fur. It will be used in whatever Paldea's version of bullfighting is.
- Wooper may get a regional form and become either Water-Psychic or Water-Ghost based on the cave olm. It might either evolve into a Paldean Quagsire, a new Pokémon much like Galarian Meowth, or a Paldean Quagsire that evolves into a new Pokémon.
  - Half-Confirmed, Half-Jossed: Wooper is the first to receive a Paldean form, but it becomes a Poison/Ground-type.
Half-jossed:
- Bisharp, maybe a conquistador.
  - Half-jossed: It's not a Paldean Variant, but it does get a brand new evolution.
- Jigglypuff line — pure Flying with a bigger emphasis on them being a balloon.
- The Magnemite line — Iono seemingly has two Magnemites in her hair, one blue and one pink, their Paldean forms will have genders and they will be pure electric-type like Magnemite and Magneton were in generation one.
  - Jossed. Those are hair clips.
  - Alternatively, her hair decorations are based on actual Paldean Magnemites. Owing to their pastel colors and larger, more expressive eyes, they would be Electric/Fairy. They would then be joined by a third, yellow Paldean Magnemite to become Paldean Magneton. It would then evolve into its own Pokémon rather than a Paldean Magnezone.
- Dunsparce — Becomes a Fairy/Dragon-type serpent that could evolve into a feathered pseudo-deity.
- Sinistea and Polteageist, possessing coffee instead of tea.
  - Alternatively, a Sinistea variant that evolves into a Pokémon that ressembles a moka pot. Maybe a Ghost/Steel Pokémon?
  - Semi-confirmed; Teal Mask added a convergent form based on matcha tea.
Jossed:
- Meowth (and maybe Persian?), as it's basically become the poster-child for Regional Variants. Someone more versed in the cats of Iberia can probably elaborate further for me.
  - Seems to be jossed already, since the trailer shows regular Meowth, but there's no word on Persian. Also, thanks to a screenshot of Hisuian Zororak in the game (meaning it and Hisuian Zorua are gonna pop up), it appears that the Alolan, Galarian, and Hisuian variants of Pokémon in this new regional dex are gonna be in the game. Furthermore, the Alolan and Galarian Meowth lines are also gonna pop up somewhere.
- In general, Paldean variants (and regional variants in future regions, for that matter) may now include more Kalosian, Alolan, or even Galarian species, as Legends: Arceus introduced the first regional variants of Alolan and Kalosian species.
- Honedge/Doublade making them more like rapiers or other dueling swords, maybe with a regional evolution that has them retain the twin-rapier aesthetic over the sword-&-shield motif of Aegislash.
- A cubist Porygon.
- Wimpod, with a regional evolution fully evolved to live on land.
- Phantump and Trevenant, maybe as non-Ghosts.
  - A teaser just posted as of this edit shows photos of painted trees and rocks based on the real-life Painted Forest of Oma. Perhaps Grass/Fairy?
  - This teaser was the run up to the introduction of Grafaiai, nothing to do with regional forms.
- Natu and Xatu, with a more tropical or gothic appearance.
- Due to the significance of oranges and grapes, Tsareena could gain a new regional variant and become Grass-Fairy. Maybe her regional variant changes depending on what version you’re playing.
- Murkrow, based on the New Caledonian Crow. It would get its own evolution separate from Honchkrow.
  - Jossed. Both Murkrow and Honchkrow are confirmed to be in the game, but without Paldean forms.
- The Elemental Monkeys, pulling from the Barbary Macaque and perhaps adding a reverse type circle for good measure.
- A variant of Roserade that fights with sword-like flowers, referencing Zorro.
- Mandibuzz, with a Paldean form based on the bearded vulture.
- Trubbish and/or Garbodor, given that the previous two main regions introduced regional forms for the other two pollution families with Alolan Grimer/Muk and Galarian Weezing. Additionally, they would be Poison/Steel, given that the secondary types of the other two lines were introduced after Gen 1, and Steel is the only one of the three that hasn't been paired with Poison.
  - They could use metal bins as armour, a small bin for Trubbish and big rubbish that they found outside of Pokémon shops for Garbodor.
  - Alternatively, Trubbish would use a personal-size wastebasket while Garbodor would use a big dumpster.
- An Ice-type Crystal Onix.
- Sudowoodo, which would become a Grass-type or Rock/Grass upon adapting to much more healthier grasslands or forests. Like Galarian Mr. Mime, it may even get a new evolution.
  - Semi-jossed. While Sudowoodo appears in the game without a specific Paldean form, one of the Gym Leaders uses a Sudowoodo with a Grass Tera type.
- Chatot — it could receive a slightly different look and even an evolution, possibly based on a macaw or cockatoo.
- The Pidove line could become Rock-Flying types as a nod to the *rock* dove, the common pigeon's wild ancestor, and could be made exclusive to Scarlet.
- Flamenco Gardevoir.

Guesses for version-exclusive Pokémon

Phanpy: Violet
Donphan: Violet
Zangoose: Scarlet
Seviper: Violet
Unovan Braviary: Scarlet
Mandibuzz: Violet
Flappe: Scarlet
Appletun: Violet
Cufant: Scarlet
Copperajah: Scarlet

More guesses tropers? Let me know here.

All guesses are jossed.

Guesses for the typings of the Starters' Final Evolutions

Sprigatito's final evolution.
- Grass/Dark
  - Confirmed!
- Grass/Electric
- Grass/Fairy
- Grass/Psychic
- Grass/Steel
- Grass/Rock
- Grass/Water
- Grass/Fire
- Grass/Fighting (Again)
- Pure Grass (Again)
- Grass/Ground (Again)
- Grass/Ghost (Again)
- Grass/Poison (Again)
Fuecoco's final evolution.
- Fire/Steel
- Fire/Dragon
- Fire/Poison
- Fire/Rock
- Fire/Ground
- Fire/Electric
- Fire/Grass
- Fire/Water
- Fire/Ghost (Again)
  - Confirmed!
- Pure Fire (Again)
- Fire/Dark (Again)
- Fire/Fighting (Again)
- Fire/Flying (Again)
Quaxly's final evolution.
- Water/Ice
- Water/Flying
- Water/Fighting
  - Confirmed!
- Water/Psychic
- Water/Normal
- Water/Ghost
- Water/Fire
- Water/Grass
- Water/Fairy (Again)
- Pure Water (Again)
- Water/Dark (Again)
- Water/Steel (Again)
- Water/Ground (Again)

Guesses for the themes of the starters' final evolutions

Sprigatito

Based on climbing ivy, due to the ivy leaf shape on Sprigatito's face and dewlap. Could combine with that of a mountain lion, big cats with an affinity for climbing. The final evolution will remain quadrupedal; like Venusaur, it would use its vine growths as appendages.
A Smilodon-based creature that uses its sabre teeth as swords in a musketeer-like capacity, possibly influenced by Puss in Boots from the Shrek franchise.
A bipedal cat person, much to the dismay and ire of people who want a quadruped starter. However it'll be different from Incineroar in that it'll be more feminine, maybe resembling a Cat Girl.
- Confirmed.
An Iberian lynx based on sprigs of mint.
Possible evolution names:
- 2nd form: Blynx, or Bloomynx, combination of "bloom" and "lynx"; Sprigato.
- 3rd form: Florlina, combination of "flor" (Spanish for "flower") and "felina" (Spanish for "feline"); Sprigatogrande.
A fluffy lynx resembling a ghillie suit

Fuecoco

Its resemblance to an apple/pepper, the underbelly resembling an apron, and the small yellow bits coming out of its head bearing cylindrical shapes, suggest it will evolve into a chef-themed dragon. Wields a frying pan with the tip of its tail shaped like a spatula.
By the time it's fully evolved, it will resemble a dinosaur.
- More specifically (not sure how to describe it further), it belongs to the family the T-Rex is in, mainly in its body shape as well as how its arms are proportionally small and constantly holds onto its belly.
- Possibly even a Carnotaurus to represent the Ox on the Chinese Zodiac^note.
Fuecoco's shape, color, and "hair" resembles a pepper, while its white face and beady, black eyes give it a look akin to a toony skull. Its final stage will likely be a ghost pepper based Fire/Ghost type, skirting as close to a Grass theme as possible without actually using any plant in its design (think Lurantis and it mimicking Bug types).
- Confirmed to be Fire/Ghost indeed.
The shape also bears resemblance to a cocoa bean, including a white inside much like Fuecoco's face. This chocolate and dessert theme will persist through the evolutions and be chef-like (as suggested above), but a pastry chef with Fire/Fairy typing.
Possible evolution names:
- 2nd form: Fogataiman, or Fogacaiman combination of "fogata" (Spanish for "bonfire") and "caiman".
- 3rd form: Incendrilo, combination of "incendio" (Spanish for "fire") and "cocodrilo" (Spanish for "crocodile").
  - Or, Quemadrilo, combination of "quemar" (Spanish for the verb "burn") and "cocodrilo".
Its arms will stay proportionally small and constantly hold onto its belly.
A gharial with glowing spikes and teeth
It's evolved will look like Croconaw and Feraligatr being bipedal crocodiles.

Quaxly

The hairdo on its head resembles a classic sailor's cap, so it is likely to evolve into something themed on sailors or boats. Comparisons to Donald Duck have not gone unnoticed.
Will gain a more warrior like design, eventually leading to being based on Don Quixote.
A Water/Fairy-Type Wizard that learns Special Moves of all Types while also having a few healing moves.
- For added points, its Hidden Ability would be Anger Point or Berserk.
Why not BOTH the Don Quixote warrior AND the Kingdom Hearts Donald design? It can be a mixed attacker.
Will become a goose/boat hybrid for its Quaxly children to ride on.
Its cap will develop into some sort of stormcloud, which will lead to a Water/Flying, Water/Electric, or Water/Ice combination.
A Water/Ghost or Water/Dark pirate/privateer.
Possible evolution names:
- 2nd form: Mallancho, combination of "mallard" and "Sancho" from Don Quixote.
- 3rd form: Patador, combination of "pato" (Spanish for "duck") and "matador" (Spanish for "killer"/"bullfighter")
  - Or Quaxautic. Quack, Quixote, Exotic, Nautical.
A conquistador.
- All jossed. It's instead a Water/Fighting dancer.

This generation will feature exactly 94 new Pokémon.

With the current last Pokémon on the National Dex being Enamorus as number #905, it makes sense that the ninth generation would be closed by our 999th Pokémon, with Pokémon #1000 being a Gen 10 legendary at the start of the regional dex, like Victini in Gen 5.

Jossed: There's 103 new Pokémon in the base game alone, and Pokémon #1000 is Gholdengo.

Fuecoco has absolutely nothing to do with the Chinese zodiac

It starts out a crocodile and it remains a crocodile. No word tweaking like male crocodiles being called "bulls", which is almost only in English are they called that, and no evolution reworking with it becoming something like a dragon, serpent, or ox. The entire "Fire Types are the Chinese Zodiac" is either of the following:

Just a coincidence up until now, as some lines don't match up at all (Typhlosion is most certainly not a rat, Delphox is not a dog - even though foxes are canids, Chinese folklore distinguishes between foxes and dogs very clearly, with both carrying different connotations).
A concept used for a few generations but abandoned.
It's not supposed to strictly apply to the first 12 generations.
The priority to keep the motif of Fire-types starters is less compared to keeping the motif among starters of the same gen.
The extent they follow the zodiac motif is lesser than normally we expect.
The zodiac motif, if it was ever intentional, only started in Gen 3 (Typhlosion is not a rat, Delphox is not a dog, and Charizard does not resemble a Chinese dragon), and has been retired.

Confirmed. It is a crocodile.

The starters will have a 180 in personality by the time they fully evolve.

Once they fully evolve, Sprigatito will be aloof and detached, Fuecoco will always be rushing and in a hurry, and Quaxly will become messy and careless.

Jossed

There will be new evolutions for some older Pokémon.

Sword & Shield, as well as Legends: Arceus, introduced about a dozen new evolutions for older Pokémon in total, even if the vast majority were from regional variants.

Should the trend continue, including regional variant evolutions, here are some candidates:

Dunsparce: One of the most requested and well-known candidates overdue to receive an evolution.
- Confirmed
Another split evolution for Yamask, provided if it receives another regional variant.
- Maskerigus, themed after opera (Psychic)
Yanma: So much pun potential.
- A physical attacker with a reskinned Skill Link themed after Bullet Hell
- A special attacker that is a pun on Yandere
Falinks: Could evolve into an army of 12 Fighting/Steel-type knights.
Heatmor: Becomes a Fire/Steel-type furnace/anteater hybrid.
Eevee: After missing out on an evolution in the previous generation, maybe Eevee could perhaps gain a new evolution or two in the new games. Based on the significance of Pokémon types from what we see from the trailer, maybe we would get all Eeveelutions for the remaining unused types.
Girafarig: Could get something based on its beta design which fully mirrors its body.
- It could also evolve into something based on an extinct giraffid that lived in the area.
- Confirmed! Girafarig evolves into Farigiraf, where its tail-head becomes like a hood surrounding its front-head.
Maractus could gain both a pre-evolution and evolution much like Roselia did in Gen 4.
Relicanth: a relatively forgettable one-stager that could get some new interest with an evolution.
Sudowoodo: Becomes better at resisting water to avoid blowing its camouflage.
Dewgong: Becomes a narwhal/whale hybrid capable of smashing through icebergs with its much stronger, more icicle-like horn.
Delibird: Becomes an avian Santa Claus/Krampus-like figure with a beak that lights up like Rudolph’s red nose.
A split evolution for another variant of Corsola that embodies colourful coral.
Primeape: Evolves into an enlightened Fighting/Ghost-type spirit that could tie into the lore of its Gen 7 PokéDex entry that states it gets so angry that it dies, as well as introducing a whole new evolution mechanic surrounding fainted Pokémon.
- Confirmed, even got the type right. Unsure if it evolves by fainting, though.
  - It doesn't, but it does evolve after using a move 20 times.
Wooper: Like with the Galarian variants of Meowth and Yamask, Paldean Wooper could evolve into an entirely different Pokémon.
- Confirmed, it evolves into Clodsire.

New and Returning Pokémon Part 2

There will be no new evolutions for past Pokémon.

There may be regional forms, but no odd-numbered generation has made evolutions for new Pokémon, not even Eevee.

True, but considering that many trends have been broken in recent generations, maybe this one will be broken as well.
Jossed. Girafarig gets an evolution called Farigiraf, and Dunsparce gets a joke evolution called Dudunsparce.

Sprigatito will be the "pretty" starter of the group.

Both Quaxly and Fuecoco look more headed into tougher directions character design-wise, but Sprigatito's design could easily develop to fit the niche of the more elegant or feminine starter that's been carrying on for several generations.
- Confirmed.
  - Arguably speaking, Quaquaval is almost on the same level as Meowscarada for being the "pretty" final-evolved starter, being based around a peacock and all. So it's somewhat confirmed.

The justification for Hisuian forms...

...is that the protagonist of Legends: Arceus fixed the timeline to make those species documented and preserved in the modern day. Before Arceus sent them into Hisui, those species were lost to time because they never appeared in earlier games. Arceus compelling the player to research Hisui could have been partially motivated by the desire to correct the timeline to make those species survive into the present day, and because of that adventure, they're suddenly now alive and kicking in the present.

The starter evolutions will vary based on version.

Last generation saw gym leaders vary based on version. This would see the final stage starters vary based on getting either Scarlet or Violet. This could be similar to how Lycanroc's different forms were dependent on which version you evolved it in during Generation VII.

Jossed.

There will finally be a Grass/Fire type Pokémon

In every 3rd generation so far, a Pokémon with two "starter" types has been introduced: the Lotad line in Gen 3, which was Grass/Water, and Volcanion in Gen 6, which was Fire/Water. Now that we're in Gen 9, and the number of unused type combinations is shrinking with each new game, it makes sense for the trio to be rounded out.

Confirmed.

There will be new Pokémon for each of the missing dual types.

Each of the missing dual types are;

Normal/Bug
Normal/Ice
- Winter-exclusive early Com Mon
Normal/Poison
- Confirmed with Grafaiai
Normal/Rock
- An ancient Normal-type Pokémon restored from a fossil
- Possibly the legendary Pokémon behind the Terastal phenomenon
Normal/Steel
Grass/Fire
- An exploding Tomato
- A hot pepper
  - Confirmed!
Bug/Dark
- A Pokémon based on a Skulltulla from the Legend of Zelda games
- The type combination has been confirmed, with a grasshopper.
Bug/Dragon
- A mass of bugs in the shape of a dragon
Ghost/Rock
- A tombstone version of Spiritomb
Poison/Ice
Poison/Steel
- A sentient engine of some kind, possibly being the very motor that operates Team Star’s flamboyant car.
  - Confirmed! It’s the Revavroom line.
Fighting/Fairy
- Confirmed, it's a Paradox Pokemon called Iron Valiant.
Fighting/Electric
- Confirmed with the Pawmi line
Fighting/Ground
- Confirmed with Great Tusks, a Paradox Pokémon that resembles an ancient Donphan.
Fairy/Ground
Fairy/Fire
- A lantern-wielder

There will a non-Mega Dragon/Fairy dual type.

At the moment, the only Dragon/Fairy dual-type Pokémon is Mega Altaria.

The third legendary (if it exists) could be one as it counteracts the types of the box-art legends. Its Fairy-typing not only makes it immune to Koraidon and Miraidon's Dragon-type attacks, but reduces the damage taken from Koraidon's Fighting-Type attacks while its Dragon-typing reduces the damage taken from Miraidon's Electric-Type attacks.
- As of release, Jossed.

The Version Mascots will have some form of interaction with a 3rd Legendary Pokémon that is in some way Dragon Type or Dragon-like.

This has literally been the ongoing tradition ever since Gen III, and nothing has truly broken the cycle in a sense.

Jossed. Whether you consider Ogerpon or Terapagos as Third Legendary, neither is Dragon-type.

The Legendary Duo theme

Ever since Gen 2, we've had a consistent theme between the cover legends:

Lugia & Ho-oh: Depths and Skies + Storms and Clear Weather + Despair and Hope
Groudon & Kyogre: Land and Sea
Dialga & Palkia: Space and Time
Reshiram & Zekrom: Truth and Ideals + Yin and Yang
Xerneas & Yveltal: Life and Death
Solgaleo & Lunala: Sun and Moon
Zacian & Zamazenta: Sword and Shield + Unstoppable Force and Immovable Object

And since the Region looks to take place in Spain, we're narrowed down to some possibilities:

Modernity & Tradition: A classic parallel duo. Spanish is a very modern country like the rest of the world, but there is a heavy root of tradition in its people. A Legendary Duo with a modernity-tradition theme would be an interesting take. Black and White and Black 2 and White 2 explored this concept, but they were not tied to any of the Legendary Pokémon or the plot in general.
Industry & Nature: This was explored in Sword and Shield already, but that wasn't the theme of the Legendary Pokemon that were a part of that game.
Religion & Royalty: Spain is a very Catholic country. It was also known for its extensive monarchy as well. Perhaps Scarlet will give us a Religion-themed Inquisitor Legendary while Violet will give us a Royal King Legendary.
Past & Future: Spain and Portugal are two countries both steeped in history they're proud of and on the cutting edge of technology and infrastructure. This is not the same as "Modernity & Tradition"; this is more "What Used to Be & What Is Yet to Be." This even extends to the game title names being Modern takes on the colours Red and Blue.
- Seemingly confirmed. The new Professors emulate a Caveman and Futuristic asthetic respectively, while the new mascots Koraidon and Miraidon look like an ancient dragon and a futuristic jet dragon. Furthermore, "korai" means past, "mirai" means future.
  - Confirmed: Koraidon and Miraidon are Past and Future.

Now considering that as of this WMG, there are two hidden videos on Pokémon’s playlist that came up recently, so we may have very little time to speculate before we verify it all.

The Typings of the Boxart Legendaries

Koraidon
- Fire/Rock — It would match with the ancient pre-historic aspect of the evident past and future theme that the games seem to have. Given the mascots also have a sort of Motorbike theme going with them. The Fire could represent Petrol bast combustion of older motorcycles.
- Dragon/Fairy
- Rock/Dragon
- Fire/Dragon
- Dragon/Fighting
  - Confirmed!
- Pure Dragon
- Dragon/Ground
- Fighting/Ground
Miraidon
- Electric/Steel — Unlike Koraidon, Miraidon is visibly radiating an element which appears to be electricity. Its jet-like body would also make it a clear candidate for Steel type.
- Electric/Ghost
- Electric/Psychic
- Electric/Dragon
  - Confirmed!
- Steel/Psychic
- Pure Electric
- Steel/Dragon
- Steel/Flying

As well as Fossil Pokémon, there will be Futuristic Pokémon that are temporarlly displaced.

To further go with the theme of past and future, as well as the Space-Time Distortions introduced in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, there could be Pokémon plucked out of both the past and future and displaced into the present time.

With the high possibility that Miraidon is a robotic Pokèmon, then who built it?

It was likely built in the future by some Mad Scientist, but time traveled to the present.

Time Travel is certainly not out of the question, as the concept of Time Travel has existed since generation 2 through Bill's technology. Plus with the existence of Space Time Distortion, there can be many ways for a Pokémon from the future to appear in present time.
- Confirmed!

The third legendary will be an Ouroboros

Koraidon is named after the Japanese word for past, while Miraidon future. If the third legendary has a link to both of them, it could represent a cycle, where the past moves towards the future and that future eventually becomes a past as well. What other symbolism fits better for a cycle than an Ouroboros?

Bonus points if it has a Yellow or Green colour scheme to go with the Red and Blue of Koraidon and Miraidon.
Adding onto this, it will be named Genzaidon, after the Japanese word for present time (genzai), to go along with the theme names of Koraidon (past) and Miraidon (future).
- Alternatively, it could be called Genraidon (Genrai is Japanese for Return) to keep up with the -raidon theme the other two has.
There's also the fact that Ouroboros is generally depicted as a circle, which would visually connect an Ouroboros Pokémon to Koraidon and Miraidon due to the two of them having wheels as their visual motif.
Having said that, with Koraidon and Miraidon being visually reminiscent of fan-throated lizards, the Ouroboros Pokémon will not look like a snake, but rather, an armadillo lizard (which is scientifically called Ouroboros).
- Jossed. If we consider Terapagos as the Third Legendary, it's a turtle.

Conversely, the third legendary will be based on an Ouroboros

It could be a fusion between Koraidon and Miraidon. Symbolizing to both honor the past and look towards the future

Signature Moves or Abilities of Koraidon and Miraidon

Koraidon

A move that rewinds the state of battle to the beginning of the previous turn, undoing all effects and damage that happened in the meantime. Cannot be used consecutively, as otherwise you'd effectively play consequence-free (at least until its PP runs out).
An Ability that rewinds the state of battle to the beginning of the previous turn the first time in a battle Koraidon enters play. If Koraidon enters play to replace a fainted Pokémon, that Pokémon is no longer fainted, but Koraidon can no longer rewind. Does not take effect if Koraidon is present when a battle begins or if Koraidon enters battle on the same turn as Miraidon.
Intimidate, but for Special Attack.
An ability that lets it use its Attack stat for speed calculation.
An ability that makes it immune to opposing status moves.
- All jossed. It's ability sets up Sun and boosts its attack by 30%, while its Signature Move does additional damage to super effective opponents.

Miraidon

A move that sends the battle one turn ahead. Any passive effects that would happen during the skipped turn (such as Sandstorm, Leech Seed, Leftovers, or Speed Boost) or moves that can't be controlled once started (such as Rollout, Gorilla Tactics, Choice Items, or Outrage) immediately take effect. Cannot be used consecutively, as this could easily lock an opponent in a bad situation they can't avoid until they lose.
An Ability that sends the battle one turn ahead the first time in a battle Miraidon enters play. Does not take effect if the skipped turn would decide the battle or if Miraidon enters battle on the same turn as Koraidon.
A self-buff move that combines the effects of Agility and Magnetic Rise.
- All jossed. It's ability sets up Electric Terrain and boosts its Special Attack by 30%, while its Signature Move does additional damage to super effective opponents.

Possible typings for the evolved forms of the Pokémon seen in the trailers

Smoliv:
- Grass/Poison (due to the potency of the oil it secretes).
- Grass/Fire (the Pokédex mentions that it likes to bask in the warm glow of the sun, and some olives are very spicy).
- Grass/Steel, based on canned olives with the can providing the Steel-type. Whereas Smoliv's oil is very bitter and unappetizing, its fully evolved form has oil that's mild and pleasing, to reflect the taste of real-life olives between fresh and canned.
- Stays Grass/Normal
  - Game mechanics-wise, the Normal typing is to let it stay immune to Ghost moves and possibly give it STAB Boomburst.
  - Lore-wise, the Normal typing could reflect its sociability factor, being able to get along with people well while providing them with mundane utility (for this case, olive oil).
  - Confirmed.
Lechonk:
- Normal/Poison (due to its Weaponized Stench)
- Normal/Ground (being a pig and all).
- Fighting/Ground, a radical type change when exposed to a Dawn Stone.
  - All jossed. Lechonk's evolution stays a pure Normal-type.
Pawmi:
- Electric/Fighting.
  - Confirmed
- Pure Electric.
- If the electric shock capabilities of Pawmi’s paws are expanded into a defibrillator theme, it could gain Electric/Fairy type as it becomes a healer.
Fidough:
- Fairy/Ground
- Fairy/Fire
- Pure Fairy
  - Confirmed
Cetitan:
- Ice/Steel
- Ice/Poison
- Ice/Water
- Pure Ice
- Alternatively, Cetitan is the fully evolved form.
  - Confirmed. It has a pre-evo called Cetoddle.

Lechonk’s potential evolutions.

-A three stage line. Normal/Fighting for the first stage and a Ground/Fighting-type boar upon the final stage that stands upright with more emphasis on muscles. Could essentially be a cross between Mamoswine and Emboar.

Jossed.

Koraidon and Miraidon are both human-made

They're both made on the basis of the same Pokémon/concept, but taken into two different directions. Koraidon is the effect of genetic engineering, while Miraidon is that of something akin to robotics (it's either entirely artificial, or it's a living organism that was modified by humans, akin to Genesect). As to who made them, well, the website for the games states that the professors are researching "certain lore" passed down in the region. Prehaps it's the same lore in both versions, that talks about a Pokémon that can travel through time, but they interpret it differently based on their clear fascination with either the past or the future, modifying the "base" according to their own ideals?

The trend of Psychic-type legendaries and mythicals will finally be broken

Since the first generation, every generation has had at least one legendary and/or mythical Pokemon that's at least part Psychic:

Gen I: Mewtwo and Mew
Gen II: Lugia and Celebi
Gen III: Latias, Latios, Jirachi, and Deoxys
Gen IV: The Lake Trio and Cresselia
Gen V: Victini and Meloetta (well, one of its forms)
Gen VI: Hoopa (both forms)
Gen VII: The entire Cosmog line and all forms of Necrozma
Gen VIII: Calyrex (both regular and Rider forms)

Maybe the trend will finally be broken with Gen IX (the two legendaries don't really look like Psychic types).

Jossed; the box legends aren't part Psychic-type, but Munkidori is.

Conversely, the trend of having legendary Dragon-type Pokémon will continue

Since Gen 3, at least one legendary Pokémon is a Dragon:

Gen III: Rayquaza
Gen IV: All three Pokémon in the Creation Trio
Gen V: Both Pokémon in the Yin Yang Duo, and all three forms of Kuyrem
Gen VI: Zygarde
Gen VII: Ultra Necrozma
Gen VIII: Eternatus

Both Gen IX legendaries resemble dragons enough that at least one of them has to be part-Dragon type, thereby continuing the trend for another generation

Confirmed: Both mascot legendaries are part Dragon-type

Hisuian Pokémon will be version exclusive to Scarlet.

And their version exclusive counterparts in Violet would probably be the Ultra Beasts.
- Jossed: Hisuian mons are available by transfer while Ultra Beasts are unobtainable. However, Paradox Pokèmon play that role instead.

The third legendary will represent "stagnation"

Koraidon and Miraidon are both based on "past" and "future"... if that's the only interpretation we're going with. Another possible interpretation is that they represent "tradition" and "innovation". Usually the third legend is meant to be either a compliment or an opposing force against what the duo represents. Rayquaza being the skies to contrast with the earth and sea of Groudon and Kyogre, Kyurem being the wuji left by the absence of Reshiram and Zekrom's yin and yang, Zygarde being the balancing force between Xerneas's life and Yveltal's death. This makes me believe that this third Legendary would represent a facet that would oppose both Koraidon and Miraidon: stagnation. When people are stagnant, traditions are eventually forgotten, and innovation comes to a halt. It could also play into the "past and future" theme as well: if we only focus on the present, we stop thinking about both the past and future and don't even so much as move forward or backward. I.E., we stagnate.

This also ties in nicely with the speculation that the third legendary will be an Ouroboros. Ouroboros represents a cycle, and stagnation is a negative example of a cycle, where people do the same thing day in and day out, never reflecting on the past to avoid repeating any past mistakes and never striving to create something new for the future.
- Jossed. No such legendary to represent stagnation.

The new Pokémon introduced in this generation will bring the total number of 'Mons up to one thousand.

And the thousandth Pokémon will be a Legendary named and/or modelled after that number in order to commemorate this milestone. "Millenius", perhaps.

Confirmed yet jossed. The one thousandth Pokemon is Gholdengo.

Corollary to the idea that the third legendary represents stagnation, it will be (or was) responsible for an in-game calamity, much like Necrozma and Eternatus before it

And being a Pokémon of stagnation, the calamity it will cause (or has caused) is a "Groundhog Day" Loop.

Based on the reveal of the Terastal ability, an alternative for this calamity is something far more direct: physical crystallization of people, Pokémon, and landscapes that the players will have to quite literally break in the climax.
- So, like the third Anime movie?
Jossed. The calamity is instigated by the human Sada/Turo instead of a pokemon, and said calamity is Introduced Species Calamity instead.

Older Regional Variants will be brought back as version exclusive forms.

Scarlet and Violet have a past and future theme respectively, and while we have seen many Pokémon show up in their original form, it would be a missed opportunity to not bring back regional variants that fit that theme. Examples include:

Meowth: Kantonian Meowth will be exclusive to Scarlet while Galarian Meowth will be exclusive to Violet. Galarian Meowth because Perrserker would contrast better with Persian.
Hisuian Sneasel for Scarlet and Johtonian Sneasel for Violet would work as well... provided that Hisuian forms are catchable to begin with.
Note: May not even be exclusive to older regional variants. New one could fit as well.
- Galarian Meowth and its evolution are based off Vikings, who are from the past. Why would they be in Violet, which is themed after the future.
  - The logic may be a matter of evolution rather than theme. To explain this using another Pokémon, G-Zigzagoon would be Scarlet exclusive since it's meant to be the original while regular Zigzagoon would be Violet exclusive because it evolved from G-Zigzagoon.
Jossed. All regional forms that are in the game's code (with the exception of Galarian Meowth) can only be obtained in the game via transfer.

Time travel will be used to justify Hisuian forms/other Pokémon appearing.

There's a clear "past and future" theme going on (the names and to an extent appearance of the box art legendaries, the professors). Pokémon Legends: Arceus both had time travel as a plot device for the player character, and use Space-Time distortion as a way of letting you get Pokémon that shouldn't logically be there like Porygon. Even way back in Pokémon Gold and Silver, the Time Capsule was used to justify sending Pokémon from Gen II to Gen I. Be it another timey-wimey event or the use of some time machine, Hisuian Pokémon could be brought to the present. Time travel could also justify bringing other ancient Pokémon like the fossils (as seen in the Crown Tundra DLC, they've made old fossil Pokémon wild encounters for less reasoning), and new forms/means of evolution for past Pokémon could be introduced as Pokémon and/or evolutionary items from the future.

Hisuian forms appear but it's unrelated to time travel, they just exist in remote locations.

Cyclizar's relation to Koraidon and Miraidon

A pre-evolution? Cosmog was revealed to be a prevolution to both Solgaleo and Lunala, so this is probably the most likely outcome. Obviously, what Cyclizar evolves into would differ by version — Koraidon for Scarlet, Miraidon for Violet.
A descendant Pokémon that comes from breeding? Phione comes from breeding Manaphy, so it's not too far-fetched that breeding Koraidon or Miraidon would get a similar Pokémon.
Just a similar Pokémon that doesn't evolve into/descend from either? Consider the case of Luvdisc and Alomomola — very similar Pokémon that look like they should be related, but aren't. Could Cyclizard just happen to be similar to Koraidon and Miraidon?
Something like Diance and Carbink?
Past and Future forms?
- Confirmed!
Koraidon and Miraidon end up being Cyclizar individuals turned into that state by an unrelated outside individual? Akin to Ho-oh and the Legendary Beasts.
The duo are one-time (each) permanent terrastalization of Cyclizar.
- They aren't crystalized and don't have hats.

Grafaiai's habitat will be in the forest in the northeast.

Based on its name, this Pokémon is based on the aye-aye, a tree-dwelling primate, meaning it would be most at home in either forests or jungles. In addition, the art style as seen in the teaser photographs resemble the land art of Agustín Ibarrola, which is located in Basque Country. There happens to be a forest on the Paldea map roughly where Basque Country would be, so if you're looking for wild Grafaiai, you'd probably want to go to that forest.

They are found there, but are also found in other areas.

Grafaiai will have a unique Poison-type move that is super effective against Bug-type Pokémon (or does double damage otherwise)

The official website mentions that Grafaiai's toxic saliva is used to immobilize Bug Pokemon, and it would be a great Mythology Gag to the first generation, when Poison was super-effective against Bug types.

Jossed: Grafaiai's unique move is a Normal-type status move that copies the target's ability for Grafaiai and its allies.

The Forces of Nature will be available in the base game.

The lighthouses are located in each of the four cardinal directions, and the Forces of Nature, in their Therian Forms, are based on the Four Symbols of Chinese folklore: Tornadus is based on the Vermillion Bird of the south, Thundurus is based on the Azure Dragon of the east, Landorus is based on the White Tiger of the west, and Enamorus is based on the Black Tortoise of the north. Perhaps in the late game or the post game, they will emerge near the vicinity of these lighthouses and become available for catching.

Jossed. They can only be obtained via transfer.

Armarouge and Ceruledge are version exclusive branched evolutions of the same pokemon like Flapple and Appletun before them were for Applin.

They look remarkably familial to one another compared to many prior version exclusive for this not to be the case.

Confirmed! They both evolve from Charcadet

The Herba Mystical will be connected to the Raidon Builds/Modes.

Self-explanatory really. That plotline seems out of place compared to the age old Gym or Team plotline and it would make sense for progression reasons barring Dex progression.

Confirmed. You feed them Herba Mystical to gain more movement abilities.

Wiglett's typing

Water
Water/Ground
- This seems most likely due to them being seen in beaches as well as their similarity to garden eels.
Bug/Ground
Fairy/Ground
Rock/Ground
Normal/Ground
- Confirmed pure Water on the official Scarlet and Violet website

What kind of Pokemon would Wiglett evolve to?

Option 1: A trio of Wigletts intertwined just to poke fun at the fact that Wiglett resembles Diglett a lot.
Option 2: A clam pokemon. At least one Youtuber points out that although Wiglett superficially looks like garden eels and is even called such officially, garden eels are generally found nowhere near the Iberian peninsula. Instead, taking note on how spotless Wiglett looks, it's possible that it may be the tongue (actually foot) of a clam which it sticks out to survey its surrounding, for reasons because Wiglett is found on the beach instead of underwater, as well as that clams are comparatively a lot more common in the Mediterranean area.
Option 3: Something resembling Bobbit worm. After all, while garden eels and Bobbit worms are entirely different animals, they have a few similarities: The have long, slender bodies, and they generally hide in the seabed, poking their head out only when they're about to feed.
Option 4: A more literal take on the term garden eel, turning into a Water/Grass type.
Option 5: A trio of Wigletts, but separated a short distance from each other, the way groups of garden eels are actually distributed.
- If we do get three Wigletts, the name could be Wagtrio to continue the convergent evolution theme.
  - Confirmed, but the Wigletts are located on the same rock and are red in colour.

The Lechonk line will be written in-lore as the primary source of meat.

Not just the pork, but also chicken wings when Lechonk evolves and gains the Flying-type.

Oinkologne stays Normal-type but still possibly confirmed…one of the sandwich ingredients is ham.

When certain Pokemon have Tera types that correspond to a type it feels related to, this will be commented on in-game

For example, a Charizard is Terastallized to become a Dragon type, the trainer using it says "Behold, my Charizard is now Dragon type!" Other Pokémon that this would also apply to, along with their corresponding Tera type:

Flygon: Bug or Flying (the former because it's a dragonfly, a type of bug, the latter because it has "fly" in the name)
Clobbopus and Grapploct: Water (being based on octopi)
Dhelmise: Steel or Water (being based on an anchor, as well as being covered in seaweed)
Mismagius: Fairy or Psychic (appears to have magical powers)
Psyduck and Golduck: Psychic (it's in the name)
Electivire: Fighting
Sunflora: Fire (being based on the sun)
Luxray: Dark (learns several Dark-type moves)
- Luxray isn't evil or underhanded. Is this just because it has black fur?
Empoleon: Ice (being based on a penguin)
- Brassius refers to his Grass Tera-type Sudowoodo as a 'Truelywoodo/Truedowoodo.' Perhaps other gym leaders will do the same. Empoleon belonging to a gym leader seems unlikely, though, especially since Grusha is already shown to have a Cetitan as his ace, and Empoleon has no connection to the ice type outside of being a penguin. (One that's made of, well, steel.)
  - In addition, having a starter outside of the region they're associated with would be very unlikely. One feasible choice is Hisuian Zoroark, who is confirmed to be present in Paldea and is associated with frosty climates without actually being an Ice-type.
Toxel and Toxtricity: Dark
Klinklang: Electric (being based on gears and machinery, as well as having Plus or Minus as an ability, which only Electric-type Pokémon usually have)
Seismitoad: Poison (being based on a frog, having several Poison-type moves, and potentially having the ability Poison Touch)
Mienshao: Flying (moves gracefully like the wind)
Cacturne: Ground (being commonly found in the desert)
Tyranitar: Dragon (being heavily inspired by Godzilla, a draconic fictional being)
Florges: Grass (being based on a flower)
Conkeldurr: Rock (carries two blocks of stone/concrete)
Greavard: Fire (has a candle on its head)
Any Pokémon in general: Fighting (because they, well, fight)
All jossed, this does not happen.

Other Pokémon will be Retconned to have Cud Chew.

Giraffes are not the only animals to chew cud, after all. It could be given to ruminant-themed Pokémon that could use a buff, such as Miltank, Tauros, Bouffalant, Mareep/Flaaffy/Ampharos, Wooloo/Dubwool, Skiddo/Gogoat, and Deerling/Sawsbuck. Possibly even Stantler/Wyrdeer.

Jossed, the only other Pokémon with Cud Chew is the newly introduced Paldean Tauros.

There will be a Rock-type major Legendary Pokémon tied to the Terastal phenomenon.

Both of the previous generations' battle gimmicks (Z-Moves and Dynamax/Gigantamax) have turned out to be derived in-universe from a legendary Pokémon introduced in that generation (Necrozma and Eternatus, respectively), both of whom have had a One-Winged Angel form related to the battle gimmick (Ultra Necrozma and Eternamax Eternatus). It sounds rather logical that Game Freak will do a hat trick and create a legendary Pokémon to embody Terastal, and since Terastal involves crystals, that legendary Pokémon will most likely be Rock-type by default — it will probably have a One-Winged Angel form tied to Terastal that may change its type.

Jossed. Terapagos is Normal-type.

Bellibolt will evolve from a Pokémon called Ribbolt.

Bellibolt looks like it evolves from something, and for a frog-themed Pokémon, it's odd that its name has no references to frogs whatsoever. Usually, when the name does not reference the creature, plant, or concept from which it's based on, it's a final stage of an evolutionary line and is a portmanteau using the previous stage's name (like Noivern from Noibat, Ambipom from Aipom, or Sneasler from Sneasel). "Ribbolt" would integrate both it being a frog and it being electric, as well as a more basic name for a more basic Pokémon.

Jossed. It is an evolution but the pre-evolution is called Tadbulb.

The Hidden Ability versions of the starters given by connecting with Pokemon Home will have the starter's final evolutions' secondary type as their Tera Type.

So far every game, with the sole exception of Let's Go, that connects with Pokemon Home gives out starters for those games with the Hidden Ability. However, due to the Terastal phenomenon that affects the Pokemon types and the likelihood of the in game starters being fixed on their primary type for their Tera Type, it's proposed that the Home Hidden Ability Starters will likely be given their respective final stages secondary type as their Tera Type.

Jossed — their Tera Types matches their primary.

Greavard has a (parasitic) relationship with Litwick

Hence the candle on its head and the fact that it "slowly and inadvertently" drains the lifeforce of those around it. Maybe one day these two species encountered each other and "fused", becoming something like Paras and Parasect — except instead of the parasite draining its host, it uses the host's friendly demeanor to draw other creatures near and then drain them instead, doing it slowly so as to not arouse any suspicions.

Greavard will have a Hellhound or a Cerberus for its evolution

And it will no be as benign as its predesesor, activily stalking and draining its targets.

The candle will multiply into multiple snaking flames, elongated ones that evoke the snakes said to be on Cerberus.

Or...

Grevard will have a benevolent Saint Bernard as its evolution

The latter half of Grevard's name seems to be drawn from 'Bernard'. When it evolves, it will gain more control over it's power of life energy, and the candle on it's head will become something like the barrel Saint-Bernards are depicted with in media, to allow it to give people this energy in order to heal them.

Both jossed, it evolves into a skeletal dog with a tombstone on it's head.

That weird gold coin Pokémon following players around in Pokémon GO evolves into the treasure chest seen on the official site.

After all, what to fill a treasure chest with than with gold coins? In addition, since the counter at the upper-left corner has 9s in a gold background but the other values in a black background, the coin Pokémon likely has the National Pokédex number of 999, giving this hypothetical treasure chest Pokémon the National Pokédex number of 1000. This will not become apparent until the counter reaches 999 and the treasure chest fills up, however.

Jossed. They are two forms of the same species, Gimmighoul.

Gimmighoul can learn Pay Day.

It would be pretty fitting, as a Pokémon themed around money.

Sort of jossed. It doesn't learn Pay Day, but its evolution does learn Make It Rain which does the same thing.

Ideas for new convergent evolutions (if not in the main game, in a potential DLC)

Since Wiglett was revealed to be its own species (and not a regional form of Diglett), it opened up a whole bunch of new possibilities for convergent evolutions, Pokémon with similar names and appearances to existing ones, but with different typings and behaviors. Here's some ideas for new convergent evolutions:

Snowasaur, Icysaur, and Blizzarsaur: Ice-type Bulbasaur-inspired line. The bulb on its back would keep it warm in its first stage, before blossoming into a snowdrop flower upon its final evolution.
Dirtle, Boulderotle, and Mountoise: Rock/Ground type Squirtle-inspired line (becoming Rock/Steel upon its final evolution). These turtles would be cave-dwellers instead of water-dwellers, their shells being made to withstand rockfalls. Mountoise's cannon would have more of a steely look, and would be equipped as a Sand Blaster instead of a water cannon.
Chargemander, Chargemeleon, and Chargeizard: Electric-type Charmander-inspired line (becoming Electric/Dragon upon its final evolution). These mons would have sparks of electricity on their tails instead of flames.
- None of these are in the base game. Instead, we got a mushroom equivalent to the Tentacool line called Toedscool and Toedscruel.

Gimmighoul's evolution (if it has one) will be Ghost/Steel

Coins are made of metal, after all.

Confirmed

There are other "future" Pokémon, and all of them will have the dot-matrix display eyes.

Both Miraidon and "Iron Treads" have pixelated dot-matrix displays for eyes, by far the most prominent feature they have in common. There will be other Pokémon from the future found in Violet, and they will all have eyes like that too. As for the common theme for Pokémon from the past, like Koraidon and "Great Tusk," it's not quite as clear.

Confirmed.

Characters

The player character belongs to some sort of scouting organization

Since both the male and female characters wear an identical outfit, a first for the series, one can assume that they might be uniforms of some sort, standardized to look the same for both genders. Both characters also seem to have a patch of some sort on their sleeves, which is almost deliberately obscured on all in-game footage, like it has a symbol of an organization we're not supposed to know about yet. The uniform itself is reminiscent of a scout's uniform. This leads me to speculate that this generation's gimmick, similar to trials in Alola and the competitive sport take on the gym challenge in Galar, is that young people who want to go on their own Pokémon adventure must join an organization reminiscent of scouts here in the real world, who organizes trials and whatever the equivalent of the gym challenge is. The badges will be sewn-on patches instead of metal ones like in previous generations, and will be similar to merit badges in real-world scouting organizations, so the player will likely have to do some sort of a trial in addition to a Pokémon battle. If the camp mechanic from SWSH makes a return, it will make sense in the context of your character being a scout. Gamefreak seems to put a big emphasis on the characters' differently colored outfits, so depending on which version you'll choose, your character will belong to a different troop.

Jossed, they are a student.

These will be the first Pokémon games to have its protagonists actively go to school.

I've seen a lot of people compare the outfits the player characters wear to school uniforms. Maybe the ever-present "Trainers' School" will have more prominence in this game.

Confirmed! The Player doesn't need to attend the classes, though.

Possible names for the regional professor.

Carob.
Rice. Bonus points for it being a pretty popular family name.
Palmera, Spanish for palm tree.
- All jossed. The Professors' names are Sada and Turo, which seems to have derived from the Spanish words for Past and Future, Pasada and Futuro respectively.

Emmet will show up in some regard.

Most likely searching for his lost brother, or at least a lead.

Jossed.

The plot in this game will be minimal, if not outright optional.

It could strike a balance between players who like the story more and players who like the gameplay more.

Jossed. The three main plots are important especially to unlock the final plotline.

Alternatively, this will be one of the more story-heavy Pokémon games.

This is in reaction to complaints about Pokémon Sword and Shield having a bare-bones plot with awkward pacing.

Confirmed

The Professors are time travellers

Professor Sada is actually a cavewoman from prehistoric times that was somehow transported to the near past, and became a Pokémon Professor due to not having any real skills useful in the modern day outside of hunting and observing Pokémon, while Tudo is a time traveler from the far future who got stuck in the present day and either became and/or restablished himself as a Pokémon Professor due it being the safest profession available that won't mess up the time stream. It will be revealed that Sada and Turo are actually related, the former being the ancestor of the latter.

Possible backstory: People who had beef with Turo decided to murder him in the most indirect way possible by using a time machine to travel back and kill his ancestor, erasing Turo from existence. Turo managed to stop the villain and rescue his ancestor Sada, but found he only had a single charge left in his time machine to make thejump. What he did next is the major plot deviation between versions:

In Scarlet: Turo decides to leave Sada in the care of some people in the modern day he knows will care for her and then travels back to the future.
In Violet: Turo gives Sada the time machine to send her back to her time period, trapping him in the modern day and decides to become his own grandpa to ensure his existence in the future.
Jossed, so very, very jossed
- Amusingly, a time-displaced Professor gets to chat with us, and some of the things we can say may have inspired the professor to create their time machine and AI robot. So, not a voluntary time traveler, but they do.

There is a third Professor with the traditional plant name

At some point in game, you'll run into Professor Olive/Cork/Ceibo/etc, regardless of the Professor you choose and/or if they are actually evil.

Confirmed, sort of? Clavell isn't a Pokémon professor, but he does have a plant name. And if we count Briar as a professor due to her interest in Terastal phenomenon, well, that's another plant-named character.
Confirmed - Professor Jacq, who created the Pokédex app for the Rotom Phone, is named after Zinnia elegans Jacq., a type of flower. His Japanese name is Zinnia.

Nemona will beome a Pokémon Professor.

Bulbapedia says she's named after a plant.

More specfically, she would have all of the qualifications of a regional Pokémon Professor, but she submits her research and scholarly articles through Sada or Turo instead. Nemona might be afraid that people wouldn't believe her findings due to her being far younger than people would expect a professor to be. Rather, Sada or Turo are adults Nemona would trust to keep her secret and, as the public faces of Nemona's research, gain professorhood in her stead. Eventually, it'll become known that Nemona is the real brains behind Sada's or Turo's reputations, and the adults gracefully relinquish their statuses as Pokémon Professor and allow the institutions to transfer that title to Nemona.
Jossed.

The postgame battle facility will be in the region's counterpart to Mallorca.

It is an area isolated from the rest of Spain, but is a popular tourist destination. There will at least be a Battle Tower, or something functionally equivalent, like the Battle Subway and Battle Tree in the past. Ideally, this means there could be a Battle Frontier there, as the ones in Hoenn and Sinnoh were designed to look like resorts, but that seems unlikely.

Jossed, there is not one.

Nemona being depicted solely in a Scarlet themed outfit will be foreshadowing an older/future Violet themed Nemona.

Scarlet version, as we now know, has a heavy past theme, as seen with Professor Sada and Koraidon. And yet, unlike the protagonists, Nemona is depicted exclusively in a Scarlet version inspired outfit. Now how a Nemona from the future could work with this is:

Violet Nemona recruits her younger self either by bringing her forward in time or travelling back to the events she wishes to change depending on the version. Violet Nemona, however, would be the leader of the decoy team trying to counter the true big bad.
Alternatively, Violet Nemona will be truly the big bad of the game, manipulating everyone, even her younger self. This would be the play with expectations that she'd be the leader of the decoy team.
Jossed. The official website shows Nemona in a violet outfit in one of her pictures, at the same spot you see her battle the player character in the second trailer.

Sada and Turo are older versions of the protagonists, displaced in time.

Mainly cause that would be a huge twist, and while art exists for the protagonists in both outfits, the main outfit they're depicted happens to line up with the professor of the same sex, so this could work.

Highly doubt it, what if you play the male character in Scarlet, or the female character in Violet?
- Maybe it'll be like Gen 3 or Gen 6 where the not chosen player character becomes a rival character instead.
Jossed.

Sada and Turo are red herrings

While they both are professors studying Pokémon, they don't fulfill the traditional role professors have in the games. They're less like Oak or Birch, where they give the player a starter and the Pokédex, and more like Fennel or Burnet, where they study something different, but are still technically Pokémon professors. We will get a third, tree-named professor who's the same in both games in due time.

Sort of? They don't fulfil the traditional professor role and Clavell is the one who gives the player their starter and plays a more professor-like role, and his alter ego's name is Clive (as well as his name in many languages being plant-based).

Nemona has a bit of an older sister/mentor relationship with the player

The player character seems to be a child, about 10 years or so in age, but Nemona is clearly older, maybe even around 16 or so. Her relationship with the player character is less like friends of the same age, akin to the friend groups in the past games, but more similar to Nemona being the player's mentor or older sister, maybe even a tutor or so, if the school-like setting will turn out to be true. There will probably be rivals/friends that are closer to the player character's age that will be revealed down the line.

Could just be the not chosen player character that becomes the same age rival.
- Nope.

Volo will return

Since Scarlet has a past theme, maybe Volo fled to this region. And for Violet, maybe they have a machine that resurrects him or even pulls him from the past.

Or possibly he's somehow gained immortality, like AZ or possibly Cogita, allowing him to live to the modern day. He did say he'd keep trying even if it took centuries, after all.
Jossed.

Arven is Sada and Turo's son

Looking at his official art, he's got Sada's eyes, Turo's squared chin, and his hair colors match their respective hair colors.

Clavell might be a candidate as well for the father. Their face structure and skin color are similar to each other.
Arven is confirmed to be the son of Sada and Turo

Clavell is the champion.

His outfit has six Pokéballs, so it’s possible he will be the final challenger.

Jossed: Geeta is the champion of Paldea. This does not discount Clavell being a former champion, however, though based on in-game lore he was more involved in Pokémon research than battling.

Players will get Koraidon/Miraidon near the beginning of the game.

The player will find the cover Legendary after it supposedly washes up on the beach near the starting town, possibly after they get their starter Pokémon. It appears to attack, and a battle occurs between the player and Koraidon/Miraidon.

Unlike most legendaries, Koraidon/Miraidon will be relatively weak, being not that much stronger than the player's starter.

After beating it, Koraidon/Miraidon will then allow the player to catch it and use it both in and outside of battles.

As the player progress, Koraidon/Miraidon will get stronger until it is powerful enough to match previous generations' legendaries.

The framing of the trailer suggests there’s multiple of this species, and that they’re given to students as part of the Treasure Hunt.
Partly confirmed. You do not obtain it to use in battles until the end, but it will join you early on.

Nemona will choose the starter strong against yours, Arven will choose the one weak to yours and Penny will have her own starter separate from the main ones.

Self explanatory.

If Penny indeed picks her own starter, it may be a Pikachu, partly as a nod to Gen 1 where Pikachu serves as starter for Pokemon Yellow, and partly also as a foreshadowing of her true identity (see below).
All jossed. Clavel takes the starter strong against you, Nemona takes the starter weak against you, Arven has his Mabosstiff and Penny has a team of Eeveelutions.

Ms. Geeta will be the champion of the league.

Ms. Geeta is said to be the strongest Champion.

Confirmed.

None of the Gym Leaders have a Signature Mon of their specialty type.

Instead, as seen with the example with Brassius, they'll use Terastal to change their ace Pokémon into that type.

Already jossed, Grusha’s ace is Cetitan and it is ice type. Iono's ace is Bellibolt, which is electric type.
- Confirmed, actually (those aren't their strongest Pokémon); Grusha has an Ice-Terastal Altaria, Iono has an Electric-Terastal Mismagius. Larry, the Normal type gym leader, is the exception; he uses a Staraptor that he Terastallizes into a pure Normal type.

Clavell will be the technically last gym leader strength wise.

It would be rather fitting for a character that has difference depending on the version to be the last gym leader, given prior games like Black and White having a similar set up with Drayden and Iris. Additionally Paldea is set up similar to Kanto or Johto in that the trainer school is in the second town/city the player can visit. And it would bookend nicely with the previous color named games, Black 2 and White 2 where Cheren was the gym leader at the gym that was also the trainer school.Alternatively...

Sada and Turo are the technical last gym leader strength wise.

Same reasons as the Clavell guess above, but tapping into the version exclusivity that we saw with Drayden and Iris. Also we've had a professor who was our champion battle before, so this could progress on that aspect.

Both jossed.

Jacq is a Poison-type specialist.

He has a purple-and-indigo color scheme common to Poison-type specialists throughout the series (Koga, Janine, Roxie, Melli), and he wears objects on his left ankle and right knee that looks like toxic sludge. In addition, his trousers have a wavy line going down each sleeve that also looks like sludge, albeit heavily stylized.

Jossed, his only correlation to the Poison type is his use of a Swalot (that doesn't even have any Poison moves aside from Toxic).

Plot and Setting

There will be a non-bloody version of bullfighting as a regional sport

Some form of bullfighting reference seems to be a given, in a region based on Spain in a series so focused on creature collecting. Of course, the real bullfighting is too bloody and controversial for the series, so it will be some kind of non-bloody alternative where the "bull" ends up either fainting or is caught. The bull in question will be either a new Pokémon, maybe a pseudo legendary, or a regional variant of Tauros that's bigger, more aggressive, and possibly has black fur.

Jossed.

You will meet a lot of old Galarians who moved to the region after they've retired

Real-life Spain is a popular spot for old, wealthy Brits to move to after they retire, due to its pleasant climate, a bit like how old Americans often move to Florida.

Maybe Opal will make a cameo here, given how she passed on the role of gym leader to Bede back in Sword and Shield.

Jossed.

There will be a lot of students from Kalos and/or Galar who came here for a student exchange program

Spain is a popular destination for the ERASMUS student exchange program that lets European students study for some time on a different university in a different country. Galar and Kalos are the only other Europe-based regions the series have, but a different one we haven't seen yet might be teased.

Overall jossed, but Penny is from Galar.

The Elite Four types will be Grass, Electric, Normal, and Fairy.

Grass, Electric, Normal, and Fairy are the only types that haven't been used by members of the Elite Four.

Seemingly Jossed. Brassius has been revealed to be the Grass-type gym leader, Iono has been revealed to be the Electric-type gym leader and it seems there may not be an Elite Four again.
- Jossed: The Elite Four types are Ground, Steel, Flying and Dragon.

Potential Gym Leaders

I'm placing my bets on a Bull... er Tauros fighter who uses Ground-type Pokèmon.
A Fire-type gym leader based on the titular character from the Carmen opera. Bonus points if she's the gym leader of the Pokémon equivalent of Seville, where the opera takes place.
A Fairy-type or Normal-type Gym Leader who makes paintings for a living, specializing in either cubism (to reference Picasso) or surrealism (to reference Dalí). His Gym would be an art museum, and the puzzles would involve perspective tricks based on his paintings' style.
- Jossed: The Normal-type Gym Leader, Larry, is an ordinary salary man.

Region name speculations

Espana (Spain)
Ibera (Iberian Peninsula)
Brasila (Brazil)
Orona (From Oro and Corona, the Spanish words for the Sun and the Crown respectively)
Lusio (Lusitania)
Veria (Iberia)
- All Jossed. It’s Paldea.

There will be a Time Skip in the game

The protagonists look much more childlike than the previous protagonists, so during the game, there will be a Time Skip to showcase their growth into a more mature person.

We've had younger protagonists before, heck the game started with them! It's unlikely that the player character will grow up within the game.
Jossed
Actually semi-confirmed, although it's only a few weeks at most and happens very early in the game for the sake of skipping the player's classes in order to start the treasure hunt.

This is the region that battled Kalos in the war that created Mega Evolution there

It's the obligatory guess, but Spain and France, while hardly as famous as France and England/Germany, did punch each other in the face a few times in history.

The map of the region was revealed and there seems to be a giant crater in the center. Maybe that is where AZ's ultimate weapon hit?
- The crater is unrelated to the ultimate weapon.

All 18 types will be used across 8 gyms

Each Gym Leader will specialize in a theme that covers two or more types, rather than a single type, thereby incorporating every type. Some types are closely related enough that they can learn moves of each other's types and share a weakness, resistance, or a type they are both super effective against. Possible badge names and types involved:

Nature Badge: Bug, Grass, and Poison. Plenty of bugs are poisonous, appear in the early stages, and Bug/Poison and Grass/Poison are common typings, with some of the very first Pokémon being this type. Additionally, even Bug and Grass type Pokémon that aren't part Poison can learn Poison-type moves, or even moves that can poison the opponent despite not being Poison type.
Earth Badge: Rock and Ground. In Gen 1, there were no pure Rock-type Pokémon, and most Rock types were part Ground. Both of them lend themselves to Dishing Out Dirt, both are super effective against Fire and weak to Water and Grass. Nearly every Rock type can learn Ground-type moves (most notably, Earthquake), and quite a lot of Ground types can learn Rock-type moves.
Slush Badge: Water and Ice: Both types resist themselves, they are super effective against Ground, and (most importantly of all), the number of Water-type Pokemon that can't learn an Ice-type move (notably, Ice Beam) can be counted on one hand (with more than a few pure Ice types being able to learn Water-type moves as well). It encapsulates the Ice Magic Is Water trope well.
Magnetic Badge: Electric and Steel. Both are weak to Ground and resist themselves, as well as being able to learn both types of moves. Magnetism involves both electricity and metal, making a viable type combination. Moves like Magnet Rise and items like, well, the Magnet, are Electric type, despite being more associated with Steel.
Magical Badge: Psychic and Fairy. Both types are super effective against Fighting, are resisted by Steel, and more than a few Psychic-type Pokémon being able to learn Fairy-type moves and vice versa. More importantly, Psychic and Fairy have a lot of overlap with light, space, and magic especially, with the Abilities Magic Guard and Magic Bounce being found on both Psychic and Fairy types.
Power Badge: Normal and Fighting: Both have no effect whatsoever on Ghosts, and a lot of Normal-types can learn Fighting-type moves and vice versa. Several moves with the words "punch" and "kick" are Normal-type (when you'd think they'd be Fighting-type), and Karate Chop was converted from a Normal move to a Fighting move.
Shadow Badge: Dark and Ghost: Both of them are super effective against the exact same pair of types, Dark-type Pokémon can learn Ghost-type moves and vice versa, and both of them lean towards Casting a Shadow with some of their moves.
Draco Badge: Fire, Flying, and Dragon: Despite sharing only one resistance between the three of them (Grass), both fire and flight are commonly associated with dragons. Dragons can breathe fire and fly with ease, Dragon/Flying was the very first dual type combo to involve the Dragon type, and Pokémon like Charizard, Dragonite, Salamence, and more can learn all three types of moves.
- Jossed. The gyms each have one type. However, the other two stories each have 5 bosses, so combined there is one major opponent of each type.

The games will take a sudden Darker and Edgier turn even for Main Series Games.

It'll likely be about halfway through, but basically the stakes suddenly get real high even for a Pokèmon game, with a much more dangerous and consistent Big Bad.

Zigzagged: While there are cases of people dying in the story, there aren't that many dark aspects in the story.

The reason why the region's name hasn't been revealed yet is because it has a different name in both Scarlet and Violet

The two versions may have more differences to them than simply a few different Pokémon or gym leaders. Perhaps each version has a culturally different region — one based on Christian Spain, and the other on Muslim Al-Andalus. In one version of reality, settlers from another region moved in and displaced the locals, resulting in major cultural differences. Given the apparent time travel theme in the legendaries and professors, it's even possible that the two versions of the game are temporally displaced, as well. So, for instance, Scarlet would take place around the time of Pokémon Legends, and Violet in the modern day. This would explain the continued existence of Hisuian regional variants which are supposed to be extinct in the modern era.

The villain team in each version of the game might be remnants of the other reality, who are trying to use the legendary's time powers to change history into *their* version of history.

Jossed. The region's name is Paldea in both Scarlet and Violet.

The dessert pastry of this region that heals all status condition will be the alfajor.

This is Spain's signature portable cake and has a distinctive sandwich-like appearance.

Jossed

The coastal city that is around where Barcelona is has Punic influences

The round harbor resembles that of Carthage, and Carthage has history with Spain. Some legends say the family of Hannibal founded Barcelona.

Paldea will have an Underground City.

Furthermore, it will be located within the big snowy mountain to the north. In the video accompanying the third trailer, within the player character's home is a map of Paldea with 8 labeled locations

. If we take those to mean the locations of the Gyms around Paldea, then comparing it with the official illustration of the Paldea region, 7 of those labels correspond to a town or city

, and all of those cities appear to have the tall, white building that accompanied the Glaceado Gym as demonstrated in that video. The 8th one, located at the southern foothills of the mountain, corresponds to nothing—except for what looks like a cave entrance by a riverbank. Every known Gym is within a town or city, and if there really is a Gym within that cave, there should be an accompanying civilization next to it. Of course, there is the question of how its inhabitants interact with the rest of the region, let alone the world, but we've had geographically isolated towns in the past, such as Sootopolis City, Snowpoint City, and Kiloude City.

Jossed, though there are large caves.

The events of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet were orchestrated by a pair of Clavells, in the attempt to avoid paradoxes while in the search for more power.

Sada and Turo would initially appear dismissive of each other, but they'd be revealed to be a couple. They would've initially travelled to the centre of the Paldea region in the rift before some accident occured that resulted in them being lost, this would be why they appear posthumously. Arven would be revealed to be their son who has is own agenda while the player does their challenges.

Both Clavels would orchestrate by preferring 1 school, while maintaining individualized hooks. Since Jacq is already an adult, he likely already settled into the Violet school thus Clavel would plop Arven there, maybe to act as a paradox-proof anchor of some kind, while Penny has a non-descript design for her uniform which would connect with either school (primarily the one the player starts in), while they need some motivation by distancing Nemona from Arven.

Jacq is presumably a former Macro Cosmos employee, due to having the same Hexagon shape (in his case, his glasses), which would be similar to chairman Rose's belt buckle and pin, Oleana's earrings and Bede's coat. His Pokedex app for the Rotomphone is probably vital for whatever purpose the Clavels has with the main character and the box legend.

I may also have to wonder if Korai/Miraidon happened to be a pair of Cyclizar that the scientists owned, but got seperated from their trainers, and got ireversibly altered into their current forms before they were found by the player. Clavel probably can't act on his plan the moment they met, but could probably keep tabs on them via the Rotomphone's reports (under the veil of calling them school projects).

I'm pretty sure there's only one school in each game, and every 'school' character belongs to the one the player character is in, with uniform colors changed accordingly. Jacq and Arven are not exclusive to Violet.

Identities of a hypothetical Elite Four.

It might not seem like we'll have one, but if it hasn't been denied yet, then it's still open for discussion.

A Rock-type character to help send home the Terastal phenomenon, perhaps even the one who discovered it.
Final answer: A set of Elite Four does appear in the game, consisting of a Ground-type league receptionist, a Steel-type Mini-Moe, a Flying-type specialist who doubles as a Normal-type Gym Leader and a Dragon-type art teacher.

Brassius will give out the TM for Trailblaze upon his defeat.

Every appearance of him so far has had at least one instance of his Pokémon using Trailblaze. Gym Leader battles have historically not only been tests of your knowledge of Pokémon types, but showcases of new moves and their applications in battle. Since he is so strongly associated with this move, which debuts in Scarlet and Violet, he will likely allow the player to use Trailblaze as a reward for defeating him.

Confirmed.

There will be a Secret Final Campaign

After becoming a Champion, taking down Team Star, and defeating the Titans, a final storyline will unlock, and it will be based around the game's Time Travel theme.

Confirmed. It's the [artificial intelligence] Professor corresponding to your game, with a full team of the associated Paradox Pokemon (Ancient for Sada, Future for Turo) and a second-phase fight against the cover Legendary

Antagonists

There will be two evil teams, similar in set up to Magma and Aqua.

Guesses for how the teams are set up below.

Two old families, both alike in dignity that have great sway in the region. Depending on the version, one will try to obtain more influence in the region over the other.
- Considering that Spain (as well as Portugal) has a long history of kings (and Spain is currently a kingdom), and in particular, Spain was formed between a union of Aragon and Castile (although those weren't the only kingdoms, those were the most prominent), they could make both teams royalty.
Class/Caste representation, to better match the oddly different fonts the words Scarlet and Violet are written in.
Old and Young. Perhaps taking the idea of influence from another above.
Us vs. them, where we (the playing character) belong to one of the sides depending on the version.
- Isn't that implied given how Magma and Aqua worked in the games?
  - That was figurative; this time it's literal.
Casual trainers vs Competitive trainers. One can be the Lesser of Two Evils depending on the version you play.
A seemingly benevolent organization that is eventually revealed to be evil.
A Pokémon version of The Spanish Inquisition, presumably worshipping Arceus. Because nobody expects the Arceus Inquisition!
Two unrelated evil teams, with agendas that have nothing to do with one another.
Rival schools, considering the current motifs surrounding it.
The Affably Evil vs a Jerk who is not as evil by technicality.
Past vs. Future, reflecting the styles used in the logos. A Legendary Pokémon would have the power to change the world into that of a previous state or a future state. "Team Scarlet" wants to revert the world back to how it was in the past, as if the time between then and now never happened; while "Team Violet" wants to skip time into the future.
For once, the Plot Twist could be the Professors themselves being secretly evil and using the protagonist to further their ends. That would actually fit the Past vs. Future theme from the suggestion above, given that Professors Sada and Turo also follow the same theme.
- Jossed, Team Star is the sole evil team in Paldea. They are split into five sub-teams though.
  - The last point about the Professor, however, is confirmed, in a way.

Rather than an evil team, there will be a different sort of "antagonist".

The most recent Pokémon titles have made Teams less and less relevant or even evil. Perhaps in these sets of games, you attend one school while your rival attends another and both of you have a friend group each. The antagonist this time is the other school, and for 3/4s of the story, everything is fairly low-stakes for a Pokémon game.

Jossed

The antagonist plans to use a counterpart Ultimate Weapon to Kalos, but uses "Astro Energy" instead of Infinity Energy.

Kalos's Ultimate Weapon uses Infinity Energy as a subtle reference to France's vast nuclear stockpile, the third largest in the world (slightly ahead of China), as well as major cities like Paris running largely on nuclear energy. Spain, on the other hand, runs mainly on solar energy, with dozens of solar plants dotted across the Spanish landscape. In the past, the government of the Generation IX region, being a neighbor to Kalos, built its own Ultimate Weapon as a defense against Kalos's Ultimate Weapon, but since Spain uses a lot of solar energy and very little on nuclear (whereas France is the other way around), this facet would be indirectly referenced as Astro Energy, power collected from outer space acquired and stored over long periods of time. After a thousand years, this energy would become immense and catastrophic in power, perhaps more destructive than Kalos's Ultimate Weapon.

Jossed.

The sun will play some role in the game's plot

The game seems to be named after the light spectrum, the sun is constantly mentioned in the website and the sun is a prominent visual in the introduction to the legendaries.

Jossed.

The other professor will be an antagonist.

To play off the past and future theme, in Scarlet Turo will represent the more negative sides of change, while in Violet Sada will represent the more negative sides of tradition.

Jossed. Your version's professor is the antagonist, while the other professor doesn't appear.

Both Sada and Turo will be antagonists regardless of the game you pick.

No Pokémon game so far has pulled the twist that the Professor is the antagonist, but given that the player character likely begins their adventure in an academic setting, there might be no better time to do it than now. Their clothing and names are certainly very unusual for Professors, and their being named after the themes of the Legendaries brings to mind Archie and Maxie, the leaders of Team Aqua and Team Magma respectively. Just like Archie and Maxie in OR/AS, both Sada and Turo will be antagonistic towards each other and towards the player character — with the Professor in your chosen version acting cordial towards you and guiding you in your adventure until you discover they were not quite what they seemed. It is, however, not outside of the realm of possibility that they are entirely redeemable just like Archie and Maxie, and/or that they are being manipulated/will be upstaged by a yet unrevealed antagonist.

It's unlikely that either will be evil. Who would act as the supporter then? Plus, they generally give you your first Pokémon, and it's unlikely an antagonistic professor would want to give you any asset.
- They’d be twist villains, not starting out antagonistic.

Zigzagged: Only one appears as an antagonist depending on your game version.

In addition, the Professor in your chosen version will manipulate your friend/rival Nemona for their own ends and turn her against you.

A ramification of the above WMG. Given that Nemona is so friendly and enthusiastic, the Professor (either Sada or Turo) will attempt to harness her best qualities to turn her to their cause. They will initially encourage friendly competition between Nemona and you, while subtly grooming Nemona to believe in their misguided goals — to the point you and her end up on opposing sides of the conflict. Again, the main series games have not yet featured a Rival Turned Evil scenario, so this could be one hell of a Player Punch if true.

Jossed. The Professors never attempt to sabotage Nemona and the Player's relationship.

Another rival will be revealed alongside Nemona.

While Nemona will become the main rival that we'll have at least one more released before the games are announced. We weren't told about Bede or Marnie until later down the line.

'"Confirmed.'' Arven and Penny are also our rivals.

Nemona is a spy for this gen's evil team

"Nemona" literally means "no name" or "nameless", so this is merely her cover identity. She pretends to be your friend and mentor to get closer to prof Sada/Turo and steal their reaserch to pass it to their employers, who want to use it for their own, evil, means. There's a chance she's coerced, blackmailed, or feels like she owes the organisation for taking her in/helping her, a bit like a more extreme version of Bede, and she will eventually turn good and repent.

Jossed.

The villainous team of this game will be called Team Star.

There are a lot of flags shown throughout the third trailer, most notably on a flashy hot rod and at the entrance to walled off town, which has a star with the negative space resembling a letter "S." There is too much of this icon's presence in different locations for this to be a gym, and every villainous team so far has had a monogram icon, so this is most likely the call sign for them. "Team Star" would be the most basic name there is based on this information, but team names tend to stick simple.

Confirmed!

Geeta and Mela are related to Rose and Lysandre respectively

They look too much like those characters and the fact they hold the same role in the game seems suspicious. Perhaps they're foils to one another. Geeta wants to restore her family legacy after Rose ruined it with his plan, while Mela succumbed to the loss of Lysandre and wants to avenge his death.

This doesn't happen. Also, they really bear zero resemblence aside from hair color and skin tone. It's not even that close; Mela's red is a much more cherry-red while Lysandre's red hair is more orange.

Team Star are controlled opposition.

They are set up by headmaster Clavell as the "bad guys" as an extra challenge for trainers to fight.

Jossed.

All three rivals will be the Final Boss of each story.

For Victory Road, as a Mythology Gag, your rival during your journey to become the Champion (or Champion-rank this time) ends with a final rematch against them. Nemona wants to fight simply because she's So Proud of You for getting as far as you have under her tutelage.

For Path of Legends, Arven will be an Optional Boss once you complete this story, and it'll reveal him being terrible at battles is because he lacks confidence in his battling technique, but he proves to actually be a pretty competent Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass.

For Starfall Street, Penny will be your ally fighting against Team Star, and either reveal herself to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing or will have a friendly battle with you after Team Star is dealt with to prove how much stronger you've helped her become.

Confirmed for Nemona, half confirmed for Penny (you do have to fight her but she is definitely not a full-on Bitch in Sheep's Clothing) and half confirmed for Arven (he is neither optional nor hindered by a lack of confidence).

Ms. Geeta or Clavel or whomever the big bad will be will turn out to be genuinely evil.

Looking at past generations where there was a bigger organization while also having a Team to fight, Lusamine was either brainwashed and drunk on her own darkside due to Nihilego or a Well-Intentioned Extremist wanting to protect Alola's light from Necrozma, likewise Chairman Rose was hasty but likewise well intentioned in solving Galar's future energy crisis. Even Commander Kamado fell into this despite the team being his to begin with. This time whomever the big bad will turn out the be, they will be a genuine evil or at least unrepentantly bad person right to their core.

Jossed. The Big Bad is the AI of the professor, who's only acting on their programming. Even the Professor who programmed them is not evil, just too focused on the powers of the time machine.

Penny is part of Team Star.

Going with the Ms Geeta = Chairman Rose parallel mentioned above, Penny would contrast well with Marnie. Additionally her mentioned shrinking violet nature and her also mentioned absence from class would thus make sense. She was also mysteriously absent from the trailer discussing the three plotlines of the game. Now how she's involved precisely is up to debate but its likely she's part of the Team.

She's a dragon type specialist of the team the same way Mela is for fire types. Her hair, when seen from the front, interestingly enough matches the old dragon type icon used until Gen 4 with blue on the top and red beneath.
She, like others, were pushed into joining and she's an atoner.
She's the one who founded Team Star to begin with. May or may not cross over with the dragon type specialist or atoner points... or both.
- Half confirmed. Penny is the founder, but isn't a dragon type specialist.

Mela is not the total head of Team Star.

Judging by her character info she'll be more like an enforcer to the leader rather than lead it all herself. This could mean there are other factions in Team Star, and she's just the leader of one part of it.

Confirmed. Penny is the leader, and Mela is the leader of a sub-group of Team Star.

Guesses on other crews:

A group that manages the caverns and focus on Rock-type and Dark-type Pokemon.
A Dragon-type group located about southeast of the snowy mountain, an Electric-type group located in the craggy mountains in the northeast, a Dark-type group located south of that oasis city, and a Fairy-type group located near the northern lighthouse. There are flags on the illustrated Paldea map at these locations, and this is following the pattern of the dark red flags pertaining to Mela's Fire-type group as seen in the 4th trailer.
A ground-type specialist who specializes in setting up traps.
- Dark and Fairy are confirmed. The one on the northeast region is instead Fighting-type, and the one southeast of the snowy mountain is Poison-type.

The other factions of Team Stars will have Stellar Name taken from constellations related to Cassiopeia

Mela leads a Team Star faction named Schedar, which takes its name after Alpha Cassiopeiae

. Since the mythological figure Cassiopeia was related to several other figures who also became constellations, the other team star factions probably will be named after the alpha stars of said constellations as well:

There will be Alderamin squad, named after Alpha Cephei whose constellation is based on King Cepheus, Cassiopeia's husband.
Then Alpheratz squad, a.k.a. Alpha Andromedae whose constellation depicts Andromeda, Cepheus' daughter.
Then Mirfak squad, a.k.a. Alpha Persei whose constellation depicts Perseus, the man who saved Andromeda and later married her.
Then possibly Markab squad, a.k.a. Alpha Pegasi, whose constellation depicts the pegasus who became Perseus' mount.
Then, lastly, possibly Menkar squad, a.k.a. Alpha Ceti, whose constellation depicts the sea monster Cetus whom Perseus slew to save Andromeda.

For bonus points:

Whoever leads the Alderamin squad will be The Dragon of Team Star's leader by way of Meaningful Name: Cepheus was a king, and the name Alderamin came from an Arabic phrase that means the right hand, i.e., Alderamin squad leader is the right hand man.
The leaders of Alderamin and Mirfak squads will be male because Cepheus and Perseus were men, and the leader of Alpheratz squad will be female like Mela since Cassiopeia and Andromeda were women.
- These may or may not be jossed already, if only because one could trance the flags visible on the map to form the Cassiopeia constellation and the flags associated with the Schedar Squad being perfectly aligned with position the Schedar star takes in the alignment. If anything that may be a hint to the Team Star commander being a woman due to the Cassiopeia connection.
  - Totally, absolutely jossed indeed. Not only the five bases are named after the five stars of Cassiopeia, the very character who starts off your Starfall Street campaign is named Cassiopeia.

Team Star's true leader is a woman/girl.

The Team Star Flags across the map when lined up form the, albeit rough, outline of Cassiopeia constellation of which Schedar is a star of and the Schedar Squad's flag aligns perfectly with the position the Schedar Star takes place in the constellation. This may imply that the Team's leader is in fact a woman.

Ms. Geeta is highly suspect, due to the star-compass symbol on the back of her glove and being described as the strongest champion of the region while also being the chairwoman of the league. This could parallel well with Cassiopeia's arrogance leading to her fall as well as her having been a queen. The champion is defeated and being the Team Leader on top of that would guarantee a fall from grace.
Alternatively, it could be Penny, since she's the only rival so far not connected to any of the 3 storylines.
- Confirmed. It's Penny.

Team Star's crew bosses can all use Terastal.

Except for Team Flare, each villainous team in a region with a battle gimmick specific to that region has every important member either use the gimmick or be connected with it in some way: Guzma and Plumeria of Team Skull both wield Z-Crystals and use Z-Moves, Piers of Team Yell does not use Gigantamax for personal reasons while Marnie does, and if we count Macro Cosmos as the real villainous team of Galar, both Chairman Rose and Oleana use Gigantamax. Following this pattern, all of the crew bosses of Team Star, who seem to be the counterpart to villainous team admins, should have Tera Orbs and can use Terastallization on their Pokémon. Mela, for instance, would have all of her Pokémon with the Fire Tera type and will use it on her last Pokémon.

Jossed, they do not use it.

Each of the Starmobiles will be based on a different vehicle.

Considering the Starmobile we see Mela using is bright red, and the Paldea map shows Team Star hideouts with different colored flags, most likely, each of the squads will have their own Starmobiles. The one located by the northern lighthouse might have a ship or submarine, for instance, due to it being the only one by the coast, while the one to the northeast might have a plane or helicopter, as the hideout is at a high-altitude location.

How did a bunch of delinquent students get their hands on a plane or submarine? Although one could ask the same question about the Pimped-Out Car.
Such students owning expensive vehicles may lend credence to the suspicion that Team Star is under someone important's payroll, such as Clavell or Geeta.
Jossed, they aren't on anyone's payroll and they all only have cars run by Revavroom.

Iono is secretly an antagonist.

In the second part of her livestream, Iono is repeatedly seen bragging about the increase in her follower count while casting shifty glances at the camera and snickering mischievously. The first time she does it, she even mutters "Er, uhh..." and covers her mouth with her sleeve like she's said too much. She could genuinely just be excited about having more followers... or she could have some kind of ulterior motive for growing her follower count. The fact that she's been revealed through eight minutes of bespoke fully-voiced animation, compared to the other Gym Leaders' reveals being brief snippets of in-game footage, also implies that she will play a bigger role in the game than them (yes, her trailers were ostensibly to reveal Bellibolt, but Iono was front-and-center for all but thirty seconds of it). Taken together, these signs point to her playing some kind of antagonistic role, either as part of Team Star, or as the game's Evil All Along Hidden Villain in the vein of Lusamine, Chairman Rose, or Volo.

Jossed

Iono's videos are a tie-in to the anime.

Alternatively, rather than her being a villain, Iono may be a traveling companion of Ash. Recognizing him as either the runner-up or the champion of the World Coronation Series (depending on how his upcoming match with Leon will go), she will tag along, figuring livestreaming her journey featuring Ash will attract more viewers.

Jossed on the latter part: Riko and Roy are the protagonists of the Paldea anime instead.

Iono is a Virtual YouTuber, and she's actually Penny.

Iono is actually a digital avatar of Penny. Penny's motif is Plusle and Minun, who represent the positive and negative charges of electricity. Their colors and inspiration can also be applied to magnets which have positive and negative poles that are often represented by red and blue, and Magnemite happens to also be an Electric-type as well. Penny's hair is also a mix of red and blue, while Iono's is a light pastel shade of said colors. If you focus on her Magnemite hair clips, they quite literally clip through Iono's hair. Now clipping 3D models in Pokemon games have been noticed before, but this could be a deliberate detail to foreshadow she's actually digital because 3D VTuber models do clip through themselves. Penny is also rather shy so it's possible she streams with a digital avatar because she's too nervous to do it live.

The fact that Iono battles in person and actually looks like that does call the idea into question, however. Some explanations are that this is a remotely controlled automaton or a hologram, though she does look pretty convincingly real (in-universe, at least).
Alternatively, Iono is Penny's cosplay Alter Ego. We've seen very little of Penny, and those times she skips schools may be her streaming as Iono. Furthermore, the cosplay idea can explain why, although Iono in the trailers is indeed virtual, we can also fight Iono in the real world.
Jossed

Brassius has a prickly personality.

Pun very much intentional. This seems a bit overthinking, but here it goes:In comparison to previous Grass-type Gym leaders, Brassius is associated with thorns (the prickly portion of a vegetable stem - think Disney Sleeping Beauty).Generation 1's Erika represents the traditional Japanese art of Ikebana, or floral arrangement. This associated her with grace(fulness), delicacy (the state of delicate) and composure - much like a floral arrangement.Generation 8's Milo represents farming, but more like agriculture (from Latin language ager "field"). He seems to show an easygoing, down-to-earth personality, sort of a male Mother Earth character (or deity of harvest).

Comfirmed, he is less friendly than past grass leaders, although more somber than unfriendly.

Gym Leader lineups

Brassius

Smoliv (Confirmed)
Sunflora, due to everything about him involving Sunflora in some way
Sudowoodo with a Grass-type Terastal (Confirmed)
A new Grass-type Pokémon we haven't seen yet or a Sunflora evolution.
- Both unconfirmed are jossed, his third( first sent out) Pokemon is Petilil.

Iono

Magneton, as she has Magnemite hair decorations, but her location seems too late for Magnemite but too early for Magnezone
Pikachu, as a viewer to her livestream guessed it as her partner Pokémon. Also, if indeed Iono is Penny, this Pikachu may be the very Pikachu she picked at the start of the story.
Klank or Metang with an Electric-type Terastal; alternatively, Croagunk with an Electric-type Terastal
Bellibolt (Confirmed)
- All unconfirmed are Jossed, she has Wattrel, Bellibolt, Luxio and an Electric Tera type Mismagius on her team.

Grusha

Cryogonal
Abomasnow
Hisuian Zoroark with an Ice-type Terastal
Cetitan (Confirmed)
- Again, all unconfirmed are Jossed. His team is Frostmoth, Beartic, Cetitan, and Ice Tera Type Altaria.

How the three main storylines come together

Previously, Professor Sada and Professor Turo ran Naranja/Uva Academy together. Clavell wanted something near the Academy that would require full access to the land to obtain, so he pulls some strings to oust the professors and become the new headmaster, bringing in people on his side as teachers and faculty, such that there is a mix of pre-existing people, like Jacq, and Clavell's people. There's just one problem: as an academy, it's full of students. So once per year, he organizes a Treasure Hunt, which he passes off as an opportunity to explore the Paldea region, battle the Gym Leaders, and learn from journeying, but for him, this is his way of clearing the academy of students as he and his people search.

In response, Professor Sada and Professor Turo split up, but remain in contact with each other. Depending on the version, once of them stays in the research lab south of Mesagoza to keep tabs on Clavell, while the other one, with Penny's help, (her being either the other professor's daughter, or the first student to realize something is wrong) gathers students who have caught on to Clavell's scheme, and forms Team Star, to be used as an organized resistance group to overcome Clavell, storming the academy with the Starmobiles as necessary. However, due to being disorganized and spread out, as well as Penny's Shrinking Violet personality, which makes her a poor fit to coordinate Team Star, years have passed without Team Star making any progress, and the Professors, crew bosses, and ordinary grunts all become frustrated. Furthermore, Clavell has gotten wind of Team Star's actions, has branded them as delinquents, and has cut off communication between the professors. They need another plan.

You, the player character, move to Paldea, and into the village nearby the research lab south of Mesagoza. The professor there, depending on your version, sees great potential in you and sends you into the academy alone. This professor had found a de-powered Koraidon (in Scarlet) or Miraidon (in Violet) washed ashore and secretly arranges for you to find it for your use. You are not aware of it yet, but you are that professor's next plan, to have one very promising person enroll in the academy, join the Treasure Hunt, and perhaps defeat Clavell one on one. Clavell is not privy to this and thinks you are just another student, and so do you.

Meanwhile, Arven has long suspected Clavell is up to something, but he isn't sure what. Seeing the six Premier Balls on Clavell's waist and knowing he (Arven) isn't a very good trainer, he figures he stands no chance at uncovering what's happening and continues with his studying. While researching cooking and ingredients at the academy's library, he stumbles across a book describing the Herba Mystica and wants to set out to go find it. Seeing you, the player character, show your skill in battle, he requests your help in finding it. The reason why he's seeking out the Herba Mystica, regardless of the danger involved, is that collecting a full set of Herba Mystica would bring out the minor Legendary Pokémon, hence its nickname of "the legendary herb" and why Arven's quest is called "Path of Legends." His plan is to draw out these minor Legendary Pokémon to even the gap in power between him and Clavell. Once Arven meets up with these Legendary Pokémon, you clear "Path of Legends."

Since communication between the professors has been cut off by the time your journey begins, the other professor, and Team Star with them, don't know you are on the same side as them. They fight you to their fullest capacity until you take out all of their crew bosses, upon which the professor running Team Star emerges to battle you himself (if Turo) or herself (if Sada). That is when they tell you what they want, and learning the truth, you join with them, clearing "Starfall Street."

What Clavell ultimately finds is a time rift, either to the past or the future, to find Miraidon (in Scarlet) or Koraidon (in Violet)—that is, the other Box Legendary. He wants to harness their power over time to overpower Geeta, Paldea's current Champion. This is where "Victory Road" comes in: Clavell is sick of being Always Second Best to Geeta ever since she went on her own journey as a challenger. He has never been able to beat her in battle, and by harnessing Miraidon's or Koraidon's power, he could beat her, hence his scheme to take over the academy and find Miraidon or Koraidon. The people on his side were people who challenged Geeta in the past and lost too, and they desire to see Geeta defeated by proxy.

By the time you've collected all of the Gym Badges and challenged the Pokémon League up to her, Clavell and his people will arrange to prevent you from challenging her. It is up to you, Nemona (who is just another student, not knowing of what's going on until the end), Arven, Penny, the Professors, Team Star, the minor Legendary Pokémon, and maybe the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, if they're in the game, banding together to take out Clavell and all of his assistants, and save Paldea. While all of Clavell's people are eventually defeated, Clavell uses his Box Legendary to overpower Geeta with ease, becoming the new Champion. However, he has let his Box Legendary's time powers run amok and threatens the stability of only only all of the region, but also the entire Pokémon world as well. Clavell himself doesn't care, as long as he's the Champion, and it's up to you to stop him, which you do through the power of your own Box Legendary.

With Clavell's Box Legendary quelled and sent back to its own time, Clavell himself de-powered and imprisoned, and peace to Paldea restored, Geeta becomes the Champion once again, and you challenge her for the title in the way the League had intended. Defeating her clears "Victory Road."

None of this happens even a little bit.

Grusha had a Career-Ending Injury.

He has something of a disgruntled demeanor based on what we've seen of him. He also talks about experiencing "the cold taste of reality" right before sending out Cetitan. This suggests something bad happened to him to make him the bitter man he is now. His character profile also says he's a retired snowboarder, whereas Gym Leaders typically keep their jobs as they remain Gym Leaders (such as Lenora being a museum curator and archaeologist, Viola being a photographer, and Milo being a farmer). Both of the known Gym Leaders currently keep their own jobs—Brassius as an artist, and Iono as a streamer, whereas Grusha is retired. Connecting the dots would suggest Grusha had a promising career as a professional snowboarder but had it cut short in some way—the most common way in real life is a permanent injury, and it is quite plausible that Grusha can no longer safely snowboard, as much as he wants to and as much as he dreams of what he could've achieved without that injury, and is now a full-time Gym Leader reluctantly.

That would give him parallels to Brycen if this is true. Would they do that?
- It is quite possible, as the major difference would be that Brycen was able to move on and pursue an acting career, becoming even more famous and well-liked than before, whereas Grusha is stuck grumbling about his past and hates his current life path.
Confirmed!

Gameplay and Meta

The new game mechanic will be Pokèmon Half-Human Hybrid transformations.

Well. It's not impossible right? After Giant Pokèmon of all things, what do you think would happen next?

Jossed, the new gimmick is Terastallizing.

The Trainer School will act as a tutorial level.

Simple enough, right? Maybe take a quiz and you can skip the usual tutorial if you pass, sort of like how Sword and Shield allowed us to skip the capture tutorial if we already caught one Pokémon. Fail and you have to take a remedial presentation that is the capture tutorial. The shot of the player returning home is them coming home and preparing for their journey.

Jossed. You get all the tutorials before you reach the school.

The gimmick will combine the limits of Dynamax/Gigantamax with the scale of Mega Evolutions.

The Pokemon will receive a stat boost instead of increasing size and it will last for three turns, unless they're one of the few select Pokémon that either has the trinket or factor that allows it to change form.

Could bring in some Z-Move elements and just have trinkets for both types and specific Pokémon to balance it out.
Jossed, the gimmick is Terastallizing

The gimmick will be super-moves like Z-Moves... but they depend on the TRAINER rather than the Pokémon

Instead of the super move being based on an item and/or moves the Pokémon has, the trainer will be the one who can choose what move can they unleash during battle, letting you save it for whatever moment you need it most. Like you give yourself a "Dark" type move, and you can save it until the opponent uses a Pokémon that's weak against Dark, regardless of which Pokémon you're currently using.

Jossed, the gimmick is Terastallizing

Strong and Agile styles will return and be expanded on.

Jossed.

This generation's battling gimmick will be a Comeback Mechanic.

The boost will become stronger the more outnumbered the user's team is compared to that of the opponent. Inversely, the boost will become weaker the more the user's team outnumbers the opponent.

Or it could be simpler than that, becoming stronger the more Pokémon have fainted on your team. Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, villainous team leaders, and other notable trainers would save it for last. This would give starter-only runs a severe disadvantage, however.
Jossed, the gimmick is Terastallizing.

The Live Action segments play a bigger role in the story than we think.

I'm assuming that the segments take place years after the games as shown by the old looking room and player's bedroom both having a Switch OLED.

Live-action hasn't been used in the Pokémon games before (The Mystri Stage event notwithstanding), and the "old looking room" is just Game Freak's office. Seems unlikely.

The gimmick is that Pokémon that can evolve can evolve and devolve at will

Provides a great Mythology Gag to Pocket Monsters.

Jossed, the gimmick is Terastallizing.

Possible users:

Pikachu and/or Eevee: Mascots.
Clefairy: It’s the progenitor of the concept.
Pseudo-Legendaries: For those who prefer the middle evos but know that the final evos are strong.
Kanto starters: Because Game Freak.
Branched Evolutions: Maybe you can even choose which one to evolve into!
- Jossed. The new mechanic is Terastallizing.

Each regional form of a Pokémon will be counted as a separate species for the purpose of the Species Clause.

If only to allow both Unovan Zoroark and Hisuian Zoroark on the same team for extra chaos and confusion.

Ways for the story to progress as intended using the open-world system

There have been open world RPGs prior to this game, but the particular combination of mechanics in a Pokémon game makes it more difficult to design without accidentally jumbling the story or getting softlocked via Sequence Breaking. In particular is the turn-based battling, as it means theoretically anything and anyone can be defeated by being overleveled enough. Ways it could be done:

A revamp of the EXP system in which points are no longer given out once you're sufficiently overleveled, much like with Paper Mario 64. This prevents the sort of power-leveling that would allow people to go off-course and skip large parts of the story. Similarly, EXP Candies and Rare Candies are provided in finite quantities until the postgame.
The Badges work like the star system in Pokémon Legends: Arceus in that they affect how your Pokémon obey you, not how Pokémon from other players' games obey you. This requires you complete parts of the story for your team to be functional and allow you to keep up with Trainers and wild Pokémon in more areas. This also means the story beats would be tied to the Gym Leaders, who will only battle you once you complete every part of a particular segment of the game.
"Open world," in this sense, does not mean "Every location is accessible the moment you finish the starting area." Rather, areas will be blocked off by terrain, NPC Roadblock, and obstacles that require you complete particular story flags to be able to proceed. This would give it more of a Metroidvania style progression than earlier generations had. Additionally, you may be denied access to areas you haven't visited until you take on every Trainer in the area, in keeping with series tradition of having you fight most Trainers along each individual Route.
A Level Scaling system in which important characters have Pokémon at levels scaled to yours. Wild Pokémon, however, are fixed.
Wild Pokémon and NPC Trainer Pokémon in areas you're not supposed to visit yet are able to land attacks on you and/or your Pokémon that make it difficult to impossible to win regardless of level difference.
Everything is optional besides becoming the Champion. This includes defeating the villainous team, reconciling with rivals, resolving crises pertaining to Legendary Pokémon, and helping NPCs. All of those can wait until you feel like it, if you ever do.
Perhaps a combination of the above. The Badges won't prevent you from using Pokémon caught within their stated limits, but would prevent wild Pokémon caught above that limit from obeying you and perhaps even going so far as to prevent the experience yield if the Pokémon is above your badge progression. NPC Roadblock would prevent access to gyms unless certain requirements are met, such as obtaining a prior gym badge or even a certain amount of Pokédex progression. The gyms themselves could be scaled to the player's own team level, preventing players from just sweeping through.
- Confirmed to be a combination, specifically two and three. Badges now work like the star system and it's recommended you fight Gym Leaders in a specific order. It's also recommended to work on fighting Titans as they allow you to explore the world more easily (and one can't be done without fighting a certain Tian).

This building

◊ will act as a central hub of sorts.

Think about how large it is and how close is it to the battlefield with all the types surrounding it. It's possible this place will have a lot of NPCs that could provide you with services like evaluations or name changing if not at the Pokémon Center. If we're going with the schooling theme, it could also be where the campus is located, likely in the first town.

Instead of creating a new gimmick, an old one will get brought back.

The anime brought back Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, so why can't the games?

Jossed.

Dynamax will return on another level.

This time, instead of 4 trainers teaming up against one wild Pokémon, they will have to fight against a single trainer whose Pokémon (up to six) stays dynamaxed throughout!

Dynamax is Galar-exclusive, since the lore explicitly states that it can only happen there. There's no way it could return without some Retcon.

Someone will smuggle Galar Particles into the region and allow Dynamax and Gigantamax on a limited scale.

Though because of the imperfect way it's done, it won't function quite like Dynamax and Gigantamax in Galar. The Pokémon won't be as big, and the particles will need to be carried as a Hold Item. Alternatively...

Jossed.

Someone will find a way to harness the power that creates Alpha Pokémon.

Like Dynamax and Gigantamax, however, it will only be temporary and provides a limited boost to the Pokémon's stats.

Jossed.

The game will have Multiple Endings for the first time.

Possibly, for the first time, it will actually matter if you don’t defeat the Big Bad, and will lead to The Bad Guy Wins or at least a radically different story.

Jossed.

For completing the Pokédex, your reward will be an Early-Bird Cameo of the Gen 10 starter Pokemon

To go with the theme of Time Travel (as well as past and future), completing everything in the past and present will allow you to visit a One-Time Dungeon from the future, where the starters of the 10th generation (and maybe even their evolved forms) reside.

Jossed. You get the Shiny Charm.

Vehicles will play an important part in-game

Based on this tweet

A tire appears on a billboard in the background during Nemona's gameplay footage, the Pokémon Centers in this region resemble gas stations, there's what looks like a dirtbike arena in a desert area, and Koraidon and Miraidon have motorcycle and jet kibble respectively. Either this is going to factor in the past vs. present theming of the games, the Poké Rides from Sun and Moon will become vehicles outright (for example: an ATV for traversing through rough terrain and heavy snow like Mudsdale Gallop and the Mamoswine ride from X and Y, using Surf with a jetski, the Rotom Bike from Sword and Shield outright becoming a Rotom Car, etc), or both. Either way, you probably will get to ride your Olympus Mon like a motorcycle.

Confirmed! You get to ride your version legendary like a bike.

You won't be forced to wear a special outfit in Gym, Elite Four, and Champion battles.

It will be like previous generations where you could pick your own outfit.

Half-confirmed: There are no sections where you are forced to change your outfit for major battles.
Half-jossed: You wear your school uniform the entire time.

Paella will be used as a game mechanic much like curry was in the previous generation.

And there will be at least one Take That! to paella snobs.

Jossed, it is sandwiches

The games will have a third version for the first time since Platinum.

Much to the dismay of players who wanted a sequel like Black and White 2, a double-version retelling like Ultra Sun and Moon, or DLC like the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra.

Jossed. There is a DLC.

The Spanish language option in these games will be version exclusive.

For example, Scarlet will use European Spanish, while Violet will use Latin American.

Jossed: according to the website, European Spanish is the only type of Spanish available.

Terastal crown designs

Terastallized Pokémon wear a crown on their heads, and atop this crown is a large decoration corresponding to its type. All decorations taper down at the bottom. The ones confirmed as of the August 3rd Pokémon Presents are as follows:

Normal: a large gray or white gemstone (possibly referencing the Normal Gem)
Fire: a candelabra
Grass: a bouquet of flowers
Water: a fountain
Flying: a bunch of balloons

The remaining types may be as follows:

Electric:
- a lightning bolt coming down from a dark cloud.
- An oversized light bulb
  - Confirmed
Psychic: a crystal ball on a pedestal
- Jossed, it is an eye
Fighting: an arm with an oversized fist
- Confirmed
Ice: a pointy snowflake
- Confirmed
Bug: a generic insect with all its legs together in the crown
- Jossed, it is insect antennea
Ground: slabs of flooring
- Jossed, it is what looks like half of the Earth.
Poison:
- a wisp of dark gas with a skull at the top.
- A skull and crossbones
  - Confirmed
Rock: a tan or yellow gemstone with a hexagon cut
- Jossed, it is a Roman- or Greek-looking building
Ghost: a purple ghost whose "tail" is within the crown
- Confirmed.
Dragon: a dragon's head
- Confirmed
Dark:
- the moon, held up by a group of black shards coming from the crown
- Two hands that hover-grab the Pokémon's head with a silhouette of a face at the background. This gives an impression that the Pokemon is under control of a demon lord Big Bad.
- Both jossed, it is a weird...grinning, spiky face thing.
Steel: a cross-beam
- Jossed, it is an axe
Fairy: a stylized butterfly
- Jossed, it is a heart with wings.
- Are we sure the flying type one isn't exclusive to that Pikachu? I don't imaging birds would have balloons when wings would be a better option.
- Yep, you can see Drifblim with the balloons as well.

Type chart revisions

While the type chart has only been revised when new types are introduced (in Gen 2 and Gen 6), they could still alter the type chart a bit, even if a new type isn't added. Here's a few ideas:

Poison: Is now super-effective against Water (since poison can contaminate water), is now weak to Steel (since Steel is immune to Poison and there are other types that are super-effective against the type they are immune to).
- Does steel, already one of the best types in the game, really need to be any stronger?
Water: Is now weak to Poison (see above) and is no longer neutrally effective against Electric (water and electricity don't mix, while water conducts electricity easily).
Electric: Now resists Water (see above), is now super-effective against Steel (because metal is a good conductor of electricity, much like water), but is no longer neutrally effective against Rock (the Ground-type, which is similar to Rock-type, is immune to Electric).
- It doesn't make sense for water to resist electric because of conductivity, but steel to be weak to it because of conductivitiy. If anything, both should be weak to it, for concistency.
Fairy: No longer resists Bug (it's a mystery as to why the type even resisted Bug to begin with).
Ice: Is now immune to Water. Water-type attacks now deal no damage and raises Defense.
- Type chart effectiveness never raise/lower stats. That sounds more like an ability.
All jossed.

You will have limited control over a Pokémon's Terastal type.

The trailers suggest that all wild Pokémon will have a Terastal type based on one of their natural types unless you get them out of Raid Battles. However, unless you get really lucky, that would be a horrendous grind to get something of a specific species and a specific Terastal type. There has to be a shortcut. Based on precedent in previous Pokémon games, there are two possible ways to go about this:

Terastal types could be bred down if one or more parents (more likely the father) derives from a Raid Battle and is holding a specific hold item. The offspring would be the lowest evolutionary stage of the mother (barring special cases like Azurill and Bonsly) but will have the same Terastal type as the father. Without these conditions, the offspring will have a Terastal type that's the same as one of its natural types.
A consumable item becomes available, rare before the post-game but readily available after that, though with high cost (such as BP), that changes a Pokémon's Terastal type to another specific type. This would follow in the class of items such as Max Soup (for Gigantamax), Bottle Caps (for maximum Individual Values), and Mints (for Nature-based stat boosts and drops). There would be 18 of these items, one for each type.

However, to parallel Max Soup only becoming avaialble in Sword and Shield DLC, these options would ony be made available later into the generation.

Confirmed: you can collect items known as Tera Shards and 50 of them will allow you to change a Pokemon's Tera Type.

The purpose of the "lighthouse and watchtowers" main quest

The story takes on three paths, all of which must be completed to complete the game. One of them is confirmed to be the Pokémon Gym challenge, while another involves red flags, which is most likely uncovering the villainous team's plans and foiling them. The third one, however, involves lighthouses and wooden watchtowers, which are dotted across the entirety of Paldea and whose purpose and end goal is completely unclear. It may be that:

Like with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, climbing these tall structures would be necessary to make a detailed map of Paldea. While warp traveling would still involve towns and Pokémon Centers, you will only be able to visit the ones you've visited AND have filled in on the map. Watchtowers chart mainland areas, and lighthouses chart sea and island areas.
You may be tasked with learning more about the history of Paldea, of which people from older times had documented at the tops of the lighthouses and watchtowers. There is one toppled watchtower in a desert area to the west, partially buried in sand (and is seen in the distance in the third trailer as the Pokémaniac is throwing out a Pokémon), suggesting these structures have been in Paldea for a long time.
The lighthouses and watchtowers are a source of a mysterious power in Paldea, and they can only be activated from the top. Gathering and harnessing this power may be necessary to stop some calamity coming from the crater in the center of Paldea or an attack from a rogue Legendary Pokémon in the story's climax. While you can see something has been activated, its purpose won't be apparent until later on.
Inversely, the mysterious power from the lighthouses and watchtowers will empower some calamitous force in the climax, unbeknownst to the player character, who then must help to stop it. A character you meet towards the beginning, either the one who first tells you about these towers and/or one who accompanies you around the region as you activate them, knows full well what they'll do and is attempting to use this power for their own ends.
This is a simple collection sidequest. You're climbing to the tops of these structures for no reason other than you can.
Titan Pokémon will only appear, or can only be defeated, after climbing to the top of a certain number of structures, or climbing a certain group of structures. For instance, Klawf might not show itself until you've reached the top of every watchtower in that arid area to the east of Mesagoza.
Should be noted the lighthouses are positioned and match the colors that indicate direction on the minimap so they might not mean anything other than cardinal direction, especially since one of the them(the green/north one) are behind a pair of flags. However an examination of the map shows both small and large watchtowersand some overlapping(the western area has a mostly buried large one in the desert and a smaller one near the oasis? town slightly to the east) in areas which may indicate different functions based on size.
All jossed, however, the towers do provide a few bonuses:
- You may find find Gimmighouls up there.
- The towers also serve as warp points like Pokémon Centers.

Terastallizing can be done on a smaller scale.

There will be an item that, if held by a single-type Pokémon, adds its Terastal Type as its secondary type. This does not take up a Terastal slot.

Jossed

The Frostbite Status Effect from Pokémon Legends: Arceus will replace the Frozen status from this game onwards

Unlike the other four Status Effects, the Frozen status doesn't have an attack that is guaranteed to inflict it, and it's the least balanced of all Status Effects (it's like the Sleep status with more RNG involved). Frostbite, by contrast, is a special counterpart to the much more common Burn status, making it more viable in future games.

The icon for Drowsy, another Legends Arceus status effect, can be seen in one of the trailers, making this quite likely.
Sadly jossed.

How Terastal intersects with Abilities and moves that change type or are type-specific

Terastal allows you to change a Pokémon's type whenever you want and with a specific type. That Pokémon remains that type for the rest of the battle. But what happens if the Pokémon has a move or Ability that would interfere with Terastal? Here is how Terastal might work in those cases:

Wonder Guard: Terastal will change the Pokémon's STAB and type for all other purposes, but the Pokémon will still be vulnerable to the same type(s) it was before. This is to prevent people from giving Shedinja a Terastal type of Electric and an Air Balloon to make it invincible to all direct damage.
Color Change, Protean, and Libero: Once Terastal activates, these Abilities no longer function. The Pokémon remains that type regardless of the types of moves used on it for Color Change and moves it uses for Protean and Libero.
- Confirmed for Protean and Libero: once Terastallized, their effects wears out. However, as Kecleon is unavailable in the game, Color Change remains unanswered.
Camouflage, Conversion, Conversion 2, and Reflect Type: Once Terastal activates, these moves no longer has any effect.
- Unanswerable for Camouflage, as it cannot be selected in battle.
- Unanswerable for Conversion, Conversion 2 too, as the Porygon line are not in game.
Burn Up: If Terastal is Fire and the Pokémon was originally Fire-type, the Pokémon no longer has a type but keeps a power boost to the Fire type. If Terastal is a type other than Fire, the move has no additional effect.
- Jossed; once Terastallizing into a Fire-type, Burn Out does not cause the user to loose its Fire-typing.
Transform and Impostor: If Terastal activates before Transform or Impostor takes effect, the Pokémon takes the form, stats, moves, and Ability of the target Pokémon but has the Terastal type.
- Confirmed.
Forest's Curse and Trick-or-Treat: If targeting a Terastallized Pokémon, Forest's Curse will add the Grass-type to the Pokémon's Terastal type, and Trick-or-Treat would do the same with Ghost.
Soak and Magic Powder: These moves have no effect on a Terastallized Pokémon.
Adaptability: This Ability would add to STAB equal to 50% of the move's original power regardless of Terastal type. That is, if the Terastal type is different from the original type, the original type would get no STAB, but the Terastal type would get x2 STAB. If the Terastal type and original type are the same, that type now gets x2.5 STAB.
- Jossed, stacking Teastal type with the original type gives the STAB x2.25.
Mimicry: The Pokémon no longer changes type based on the active terrain.
Revelation Dance: When Oricorio Terastallizes, the move remains the type pertaining to Oricorio's style.
- Jossed; Revelation Dance becomes the user's Tera Type if Terastallized.
Aura Wheel: When Morpeko Terastallizes, the move remains Electric for Full Belly Morpeko and Dark for Hangry Morpeko.
Zen Mode: A Terastallized Darmanitan does not change types when Zen Mode activates, but it changes its appearance and stats.
Forecast: A Terastallized Castform does not change types with the weather, but its form does.
Relic Song: A Terastallized Meloetta who uses Relic Song will change to Pirouette Form and assume Pirouette Form's stats but will not change type.

You’ll be able to choose and/or change your pronouns in this game

It might be a long shot, but look at the October 6th trailer: the first three trainers shown — Haruto, Julianna and Aoi — are referred to by he/him and she/her respectively. But the fourth one, Florian (whose basis is the default male character like Haruto but also gets the most androgynous/gender nonconforming character customization) is referred to by they/them pronouns (direct quote: "Looks like this trainer found the perfect style! Line up a good shot and SNAP! Now they’ve updated their profile picture!"). Perhaps the game will allow you to choose your character’s pronouns at the beginning of the game from a list of "he/him", "she/her" and "they/them" alongside choosing your avatar.

You do not choose pronouns in this game, but have non-gendered character customization.

Not only that, but if you look closely, it appears that the male avatar also has an option to wear makeup.

Full customizablity has been confirmed across gender (no appearance traits are gender-locked and the two 'bases' can be switched between at any time, so it is possible!

You will need to fulfill certain requirements, other than gathering ingredients, to be allowed to craft TMs.

Tying into the above WMG, this could include requirements like defeating a Gym Leader, reaching a certain area, having caught certain Pokémon, or finding that TM in the open.

Possibly already confirmed in the very trailer that introduced the Technical Machine Machine, as when one of the players used the Let's Go feature to send out Quaxly to obtain the Swift TM, a pop-up about the machine being updated was shown. If anything, confirmed for the method of obtaining the TM prior to it appearing in the crafting machine.

Each types of boss trainers will have different approaches in using Terastallization.

Gym Leader Terastallize their token unmatched type Pokemon to match their type specialty (but only when it would give them an advantage). Team Star admins Terastallize their aces; who already match their type specialty; to match their type specialty; to maximize their STAB bonus. Finally the Elite Four member will all have their monotype teams, using Terastallization to generally change their Pokemon away from their specialty.

Confirmed for Gym Leaders, but jossed for Team Star (Aside from their leader, Penny, Team Star admins don't use terastalization at all, and also jossed for Elite Four (they do terastalize their type-specialty mon into their own type specialty).

Hidden Power with be streamlined into the Terastallization gimmick.

If a Pokémon is transferred from the previous generation, its Tera type will be what its Hidden Power type would be.

Areas in Paldea that count as another region for the purposes of evolving regional forms

Alola

The islands to the east of Levincia, as they most likely correspond to Mallorca and Minorca. They are the closest counterpart to tropical islands due to their warm climate (for European standards).
A possible DLC based on the Canary Islands, due to having a subtropical climate.

Galar

The area with the village where you begin and the lab where Professor Sada or Turo works, as those correspond to Gibraltar, whose tip is under control of the United Kingdom.

Hisui

Whatever area that is on the official site in which the player encounters a wild Hisuian Zoroark.

Regionless (for the purpose of evolving something to its default form without it counting as Paldea)

The area underneath the swirly vortex of clouds in the center of Paldea. It seems to be a no man's land, unknown and largely unexplored. Hence, it wouldn't be under the jurisdiction of any region and thus be regionless, much like how Ultra Space is considered regionless within Alola.
All jossed.

All of the old gimmicks, will be seen in pictures but will not be usable.

The old gimmicks will appear in paintings that show the events of the previous games in the series.

Other

This game will have at least one vocal song.

In a promotional video for the 2022 World Championships, Ed Sheeran said that he was doing something big for Scarlet and Violet's release. Maybe the games will have a vocal song either in one of the storylines or over the end credits?

Jossed: Ed Sheeran's collaboration is for a soundtrack for the Pokémon franchise in general.
Likely un-jossed: Official tweets say that his song 'Celestial' will be featured in Scarlet and Violet.
Ultimately confirmed: "Celestial" is performed during the game's credits.

Post-Release Theories

Pokémon

Cyclizar, Koraidon, Miraidon: relation to the visible spectrum of light/colour

The visible spectrum of colour is known in English by the acrostic ROYGBIV: Red — Orange — Yellow — Green — Blue — Indigo — Violet.

Koraidon is mostly a draconic-like Pokémon with red body, representing scarlet, or, in other words, red/infrared.
Miraidon is a draconic Pokémon of an indigo/violet colour, representing violet/ultraviolet.
Cyclizar is the middle point between both colours, having a traditional colour associated with lizards, that is, green. Cyclizar represets "our time", since Koraidon (and the Past Paradox Pokémon) comes from 1 Million B.C., and Miraidon (and the Future Paradox Pokémon) comes from The Distant Future. In other words:
- Koraidon: Past, beginning of the light spectrum.
- Cyclizar: Present, middle of the light spectrum.
- Miraidon: Future, end of the light spectrum.

Sandy Shocks is from present day.

Magnemite and its evolutions are living robots and as such, couldn’t possibly live in prehistoric times naturally. Unless they were out there. In Legends Arceus, distortions in space-time are responsible for bringing Pokémon, people, and the player centuries into the past. It’s possible a similar type of temporal rift caught a number of Magnemite/Magneton and dropped them in prehistoric times. From there, they were forced to adapt and change due to the new and no-doubt savage environment.

The rift Magneton fell into was caused by the Time Machine.
There is a wild Magnezone outside of space-time rifts in Hisui. Also, Magneton isn't a robot, and there are already living rocks, plants, bells, and yes, magnets (Probopass, a compass covered in metallic filings just like Sandy Shocks's legs) in the ancient past of the pokemon world. It fits right in alongside Hisuian Voltorb who eventually becomes metallic, and all the future paradox pokemon are literally pokemon for whom one explination for their existance is that they evolved to appear metallic. Why couldn't there be an ancient living piece of metal, when stuff like that exists naturally in this universe? Saying it's out of the question for a metal creature to be alive in the past just...doesn't really make much sense when there's already a ton of living object creatures in the past

"Great Tusk" and "Iron Treads" are codenames, not the actual Pokémon names.

This would parallel the Ultra Beasts, who were known by codenames prior to their names being confirmed in-game, and in turn in the real world too, such as Pheromosa being called "UB-02 BEAUTY" or Guzzlord being called "UB-05 GLUTTON" until you reached far enough into the story that you learned their names. After all, even the Ultra Beasts follow the general Pokémon naming convention of portmaneaus and other bits of wordplay; there's no reason Great Tusk and Iron Treads would actually be their names, even if they fit within the 12-character limit.

Possible, as Koraidon and Miraidon's former names followed Paradox Pokémon's naming conventions as "Winged King" and "Iron Serpent", respectively. However, none of them seem to have official names, so like Type: Null, their names are their current monikers.

The third legendary Pokémon will be given the 1000 spot in the Pokédex

Currently, Koriadon and Miriadon are 998 and 999 in the Pokedex, respectively. Tinkatink is currently 1000, and there's no third legendary Pokemon. But when the DLC is released, the third legendary will be released along with it, and it will take Tinkatink's spot (Tinkatink will retroactively be moved to the 1001 spot).

Yeah, that's more than likely not happening, as the National Dex order is fixed, and if Tinkatink is indeed Nat. Dex number 1000, it will stay as that.
- The thing is, that isn't the actual Nat Dex number. We can't know what the exact numbers are until linking to pokemon Home is possible, and I'm not sure where the current numbers came from in the leaks, but they are more than likely placeholders, due to how incredibly odd and out of order they are.
Ultimately Jossed: Gholdengo takes that #1000 position.

The ()isk Pokémon is a Basilisk Pokémon.

The image in the “A ()isk P()è()n?” entry depicts what looks to be a lizard sitting atop of something and above the lizard is a crown. Basilisk in Greek means “little king” and it has a crown shaped crest. Whatever this Pokémon is it’s a Basilisk.

It being a Basilisk would also fit with the other two main legendaries being lizard-like, since while the mythological Basalisk was a giant snake monster, there are real world lizards named after the basalisk.
Jossed.

Sada/Turo didn't actually create a time machine and the Paradox Pokémon might be Ultra Beasts.

The displacement of Paradox Pokémon hasn't altered the timeline because they aren't from the past/future. The Pokédex entries for them suggest that they look a little too conveniently similar to cryptids from magazines of questionable credibility. Under this theory, the Professor believes they've created a time machine when, in reality, the machine either artificially creates life or pulls Pokémon from another dimension where said Pokémon are real.

The time machine being a time machine is never really placed into question.

The Treasures of Ruin are hinting at Generation 10's region being based on China

Clodsire was at least partially based on Del Lago.

Both are large, brown salamanders with big mouths, wide bodies, and small eyes, RE4 was set in Spain, part of Paldea's inspiration, and the Poison type represents the Las Plagas parasite that mutated Del Lago.

Guesses for more Paradox Pokemon

It might be obvious that we're getting more Paradox Pokemon when DLC eventually hits, so go wild on what ideas you'd like to see.

A Paradox Magikarp: In Pokemon's Red, Blue, Y and Violet pokedex Magikarp is described as being stronger in the ancient past. It will be a water/dragon duel type with similar stats and appearance to Mega Gyarados.
- Alternately, Magikarp & Gyarados will gain a convergent Pokémon in the DLC, due to datamines implying it was planned in the base game.
Paradox Fossils: Giving players the ability to see what they use to look like before their were revived from the fossils.
Past Paradoxes based on unused Beta designs like Gorochu and the planned Gen 2 Evolutions: A nice way to bring them back without making them feel out of place, and if we believe the Wish Machine theory, we wished them back into existence.
Paradox Kyurem: The original dragon, from before Reshiram and Zekrom split from it. Perhaps an alternative future form, based on the three dragons recombining.
All jossed, the only new Paradoxes are the Swords and Beasts.

The Area Zero Entity is behind the Treasures of Ruin gaining form.

Hear this out. The entity is already known to be the source of Terastallization and the Paradox Pokemon, the latter via both the time machine and through unknown means given Great Tusk and Iron Treads being present as Titans as well as the past prior to the creation of said time machine. The Treasures of Ruin, despite already having a history prior to being purchased by the Paldea King, only ultimately manifested as Pokemon in Paldea where all these other phenomenon tied to the entity are occurring. Thus the connection between the Entity and the Treasures being rather high.

Additionally the King being evil and greedy was to blame but given that the entity is described as the Basilisk Pokémon, and Basilisks are considered the Serpent King which notably Koraidon's and Miraidon's 'Paradox titles' contain part of such a mantle (Winged King and Iron Serpent respectively), a "king" was in fact to blame, but it was the Basilisk Pokemon rather than the Paldean King.

Where is the entity described as the Basalisk Pokemon? It is only called the Disk Pokemon in the book.
- It's unfortunately not. However it should be noted the image from the Scarlet/Violet Book for the Entity looks remarkably similar to a woodblock print of a basilisk by Ulisse Aldrovandi, just minus the globe with hexagons it's standing on and the position of the crown being over it's torso rather than what appears to be it's head. That same portion also resembles the real life animals named Basilisks to a degree as well. So there's some credence to calling it a basilisk if not simply for the sake of the speculation, especially given the Raidon correlation mentioned.

The Area Zero Entity is a contrast to Arceus

Arceus is meant to be akin to God. The Area Zero Entity is described as a Basilisk (a Serpent King) and the serpent was to blame for mankind being cast out from paradise (precisely Eden), which is what the research at Area Zero was meant to lead to. Arceus can become any type when its holding a plate(or the advantageous type with the Legend Plate), the Area Zero Entity, via Terastallize, can allow any Pokemon to become any type (this can be changed via the Tera Shards).

Adding to this, and going off the above WMG about the Entity's possible connection to the Treasures of Ruin, Arceus is based off a Kirin which occasionally is treated in place of a dragon when associated with the Yellow Emperor who presides over the Four Auspicious Beasts which is represented by the Forces of Nature which the Treasures themselves contrast (along with the Tapus). There's some credence to this connection.
Terapagos isn't much like this at all. Also it's not a Basalisk, it's a World Turtle.

The Entity's name.

We know the name is six letter long due to the censored name. Now what the name is beyond that we can only guess but here's some ideas and some potential logic behind them.

Raidon: It's similar to the Paradox Duo except this emphasizes it's association with the Terastallize phenomenon and the raids. The lack of prefix changing the Rai portion to mean something else connects with it being the "present" in contrast.
Raidox: same logic as above but the dox derived from Paradox, tying that in as well.
Suecra: just Arceus backwards, this is more of a joke based on the Arcues WMG above.
Parado: paradox missing an x. Could also be derived from Pallas, a titan from Greek Myth.
Paldea: giving new meaning to the name of the region, Pal is a corruption of the first three letter of Paradox and Dea means God-like. May or may not fit with the Arceus guess.
Terask: A combination of "Tera", "Disk", and "Tarasque".
The name of this generation's phenomenon is "Terastallization", a portmanteau of "Tera" and "crystal". Now, the first part, "Tera", does not seem to be explained in-game, but it is possible to surmise that it derives from the Greek root terato-, meaning 'monster'.
Another possibilty draws on the picture of the creature in the Scarlet/Violet book: the monster seems to be some sort of globe with a crown on it. The crown may point to a word meaning royalty: rex, regis (Latin), roi (French), rey (Spanish).
- Given its appearance described in the book, some combination with corona (crown) and mundas (world) would work as well with the king imagery.
  - Especially considering it's been suggested that it could stand in contrast to Arceus and "Rex Mundi" has been used to refer to Satan.

Actually, if one reads the mysteriously-smudged page on Scarlet/Violet Book, the black blocks littering that page blank out on average two letters per block. Some blocks do conceal a single letter each and some even three, but most of the blocks hide two each. With that in mind, given that the mysterious entity's name is represented via six blocks, it's possible that its name contains more than six letters, maybe even the full twelve as per the name limit in this game.

Here's the copied smudged page as case study.

A █isk P█é█n?

While sep█ated from the resea█h team in the crater's dep█s, I found a s█ange...en█ty. Whether it was a █kémo█, or even █liv█ at all, I kn█w no█. It bore a s█ll with layers of o█rlapping he█gons, and glea█d brig█er still than █mstone. Vie█d as a whole, it res█led a mys█ious, █illiant d█sk.

And this is how the text would look like with proper letters revealed; notice how often a block conceals two letters instead of just one:

A Disk Pokémon?

While separated from the research team in the crater's depths, I found a strange...entity. Whether it was a Pokémon, or even alive at all, I know not. It bore a shell with layers of overlapping hexagons, and gleamed brighter still than gemstone. Viewed as a whole, it resembled a mysterious, brilliant disk.

It should be noted, the image of the entity in the Scarlet and Violet Books utilize six characters in the Pokemon world language so assuming it has only six characters in its name is perfectly valid.
With this in mind, another suggestion is Terapiña: From the spanish word for pineapple (given the yellow crystals during the first half of the battle with the AI and the Disc Pokemon's resemblence to a pineapple), 'Tera', and 'terrapin' (scientific name for a turtle).
- All Jossed. It's actually Terapagos — but the last one is close.

Tentacool and Tentacruel will be added in an update.

With Toedscool and Toedscruel being introduced in Generation IX, it feels weird that the Pokémon they are based on are not available in the games. Hopefully this gets changed in an update, if not outright DLC.

Confirmed! They're part of the returning Pokémon in The Indigo Disk.

Family of Three form Maushold happens when one of the two smaller mice splits off from the others to find a partner of its own.

When it finds one, those two become a new Tandemaus. And if the other small mouse does the same, then the original Maushold goes back to being a Tandemaus.

Tinkaton's Attack stat is a disappointingly weak 75 because it will get a unique weapon-based hold item

Just like Farfetch'd's stick and Marowak's Thick Club. Perhaps in a future DLC Tinkaton's will be a giant hammer that boosts or even doubles its Attack akin to Marowak holding Thick Club, turning it into a much more lethal threat.

It doesn't.

The Paradox Pokémon are actually from the reverse ends of the timeline.

It’s noted that the Future Paradoxes are believed to be the tools of aliens or created by ancient civilizations. While the Ancient Pokémon seem to be from the past, it's noted that Volcarona and Cyclizar (Slither Wing's and Koraidon's supposed descendants respectively) has no known fossil to have been found in the case of the former and been used as ride Pokémon since ancient times in the case of the latter. As for why the Ancient Paradoxes seem so Primal? It’s because they come from an apocalyptic future where these Pokémon had to evolve in the darwinian sense in order to survive. Additionally, while Koraidon and Miraidon have names that suggest a specific point in the timeline, it should be noted that it's either one of the two professors who are obsessed with those periods that named them and thus the names may be inaccurate. In conclusion, the Future Paradoxes are actually from the past while the 'Ancient' Paradoxes are actually from the future.

Only Iron Treads, Bundle, and Moth are described as being ancient or from aliens. These descriptions come from the Occulture magazine, which in-universe is most likely an unreliable source based on speculation coming from the Scarlet/Violet Book and rare sightings of ones who escaped Area Zero. Cyclizar is said to have been a companion to humans for 10,000(?) years — as for Koraidon and the past Paradoxes, “prehistoric” is probably a better word to describe them than “ancient”; if they actually are time-displaced then they probably lived before humans even existed.

The Ancient Paradox Pokémon were wiped out by a meteor

Probably not Eternatus's meteor, but the thing about meteors is that they don't just wipe out ecosystems by squishing them or blowing them up. Meteors create massive plumes of dust that reduce sunlight and alter temperatures. Sudden climate shifts are canonically what wiped out the Corsola variant that became Galarian Corsola, and it is speculated that this was because of Eternatus's meteor, but the Ancient Paradox Pokemon also are all clearly tied to the sun with their shared Protosynthesis ability that boosts them up in the sun. Add in the fact that several, like Brute Bonnet and Flutter Mane, are compared in text to dinosaurs and pterosaurs, as well as how several of their weaker descendants and their evolutions are more associated with elements like Moon (stones) and Dusk (stones,) and how Slither Wing's current counterparts are associated with the sun and, notably, generate their own fire and heat, what happened to them originally was a dinosaur-esc death by meteor choking out their ecosystems with their lineages surviving from less dominant relatives adapted to less sun-tied niches or who rapidly adapted to using alternate fuels for their growth, and their lower stat totals are from lacking the limitless powersource that is the sun.

The third legendary is slowly terraforming the Region

The massive Terra crystals, some of which are eating away at the lab and terra raid dens are but one sign of it- the terrastizing phenomenon as whole might be a means of further extend its reach. Not to mention the eyes that appear on the crowns of terrastaized pokemon, may be a means of the entity perceiving things outside of its normal area.

There are other signs of it- Herba mystica originates from area zero and has several effects, not the least of which being able to turn pokemon into giant forms of themselves.

Finally, it seems to have some connection to paradox pokemon. While most of them were brought here from the time machine, at least one of them was there prior to set the events that led to its creation into motion. Furthermore, it is made clear that if allowed to run rampant, they will result in a Introduced Species Calamity, which further hint towards a terraforming theme.

Interestingly, while this WMG is overall jossed, Terapagos' Stellar Form does have the ability named Teraform Zero, which cancels out the effects of weather and terrain. So, in a sense, it does terraform, just not in a way usually seen in stories.

A future patch/DLC/sequel will give all Paradox Pokémon actual names

Koraidon and Miraidon are technically known as "Winged King" and "Iron Serpent", respectively, but still have standard-sounding Pokémon names. This means that all Paradox Pokémon could have proper names instead of "Adjective Noun" and "Iron X". With a sequel or DLC of some kind being very likely, it could add actual names for these Pokémon, such as:

Paradox Donphan
- Past (Great Tusk)
  - Tuskphan
  - Donphasaur
- Future (Iron Treads)
  - Treadphan
  - Dontreads
  - Tronphan
Paradox Volcarona
- Past (Slither Wing)
  - Slitherona
  - Stegomoth
  - Volcaterpillar
  - Bulkorona
- Future (Iron Moth)
  - Volcaracid
  - Satseraph (combination of "satellite" and "seraph")
  - Volcarobo
  - Acidrone
  - Volcorrosion
Paradox Jigglypuff (Scream Tail)
- Cacophuff (combination of "cacophony" and its name)
- Screamilypunk (combination of "scream", its name and "punk")
- Squigglyfluff
Paradox Amoonguss (Brute Bonnet)
- Broonguss (combination of "brute" and its name)
- Moongusarus (blending its name with stock dinosaur name)
- Bungamoonguss
- Humoonguss (humongous+Amoonguss)
- Dinospore (dinosaur+spore)
- Prehisporic (prehistoric+spore)
- Crushroom (crush+mushroom)
- Mushdoom (mushroom+doom)
- Oongaboongus
Paradox Misdreavus (Flutter Mane)
- Manevus (combination of "mane" and its name)
- Misdactyl (combination of its name and pterodactyl, since the occult magazine said it was the ghost of a pterosaur)
- Misterror (same as the above, but with the play on pterodactyl with "terror")
- Mystereavus (mystery/mysterious+Misdreavus)
- Misdreamus
Paradox Magneton (Sandy Shocks)
- Oreton (combination of "ore" and its name)
- Magneferro (combination of its name and “ferrofluid” since the ‘fur’ on it resembles the magnetic spikes created by ferrofluid)
- Ferrorex
- Magneterra (Magneton/magnet+terra (earth))
Paradox Salamence (Roaring Moon)
- Salamoon (combination of "moon" and its name)
- Malamence (combination of “malevolent” and its name)
- Salamenesis (Salamence+nemesis)
Paradox Suicune (Walking Wake)
- Suishodai (Suisho (Japanese word for crystal) + kodai (Japanese word for ancient))
- Suirex (Playing of Suicune's naming origins, -cune (kun, monarch) is replaced with rex (Latin for king, typically used for dinosaur names))
- Basilisaur (Basilisk lizard + dinosaur)
- Suiraptor
Paradox Raikou (Raging Bolt)
- Thunderneck
- Raikirin (Rai (Japanese for Thunder) + Kirin (Chinese mythological creature that's based on a giraffe))
Paradox Delibird (Iron Bundle)
- Deliguin/Delinguin (combination of "penguin" and its name)
- Delibot (combination of its name and "robot")
- Santron (Santa+tron)
- Giftech (gift+tech)
Paradox Hariyama (Iron Hands)
- Hariyborg (combination of "cyborg" and its name)
- Palmmot (palm + Pawmot, a separate Pokémon with similar fighting style)
- Robozuna (robot+yokozuna)
- Sumomega (sumo+omega+mega)
Paradox Hydreigon (Iron Jugulis)
- Flydreigon (combination of "fly" and its name)
- Hydrugulis (combination of its name and "Jugulis")
- Cydreigon (cyber/cyborg+Hydreigon)
- Hydreitron (Hydreigon+tron)
Paradox Tyranitar (Iron Thorns)
- Tyranithorn (combination of "thorn" and its name)
- Tyranitron
- Tyranitech
- Shockathorn
Iron Valiant
- Galladevoir (combination of both "Gallade" and "Gardevoir", the two Pokémon it's related to)
- Gardellade (same as the above)
- Gardevade (same as the above, but also works as a corruption of "guard" and "evade")
- Gardroid
- Valkyrlia (Valkyrie + Kirlia)
Paradox Virizion (Iron Leaves)
- Viridiode (Viridion + diode)
- Virizitron
- Alloizion (Alloy + Champion)
Paradox Cobalion (Iron Crown)
- Coblitzion (Cobalion + Blitz; the word tachyon in Tachyon Cutter refers to a theoretical particle that always moves faster than light)
- Cobaltron
- Cobalitron

The third Legendary is actually Zygarde

It sounds a bit farfetch'd but Zygarde is often associated with hexagons and the Iberean Peninsula is near France plus it'll be cool for Zygarde to have relevence for once.

Jossed. It's Terapagos.

The Area Zero Entity is to the Glimmora line what Diancie is to Carbink

While Glimmet are relatively common around Paldea, Glimmora is only found in the wild within the Great Crater, and its Pokédex entries mention how its petals resemble Tera Jewels. Plus, its face, a simple one with two eyes contained within a hexagon, resembles the crowns seen on Terastalized Pokemon, which could tie into a theory above saying the Entity is using Terastalization to perceive things beyond its normal area. Perhaps it uses its Glimmet relatives to spread Tera Jewels across the region, inducing the Terastal Phenomenon for whatever goal it has in mind, terraforming or otherwise.

It's also interesting to note that Glimmora's outermost shell is a set of six petals, and Tera crystals are of hexagonal, a.k.a. six-sided, shape. Furthermore, in Teal Mask DLC, you can find Glimmet and Glimmora up the top of Oni Mountain.... and there is a tera crystal deposit at the summit, giving further credence that Glimmet/Glimmora is closely related to terastal phenomenon.
Not particularly.

The Area Zero Entity is a Paradox Pokemon from outside of time

Building onto the above theories and how the time machine can pull Pokemon from the past and the future, especially with Koraidon and Miraidon, I'd like to believe the Area Zero Entity is also a Paradox Pokemon...but it's from neither end of the temporal spectrum. Any thoughts for a Present Paradox Pokemon is thrown out the window because Cyclizar isn't a Paradox Pokemon, and it wouldn't make sense for a Legendary Pokemon representing the present...but considering its powers, I'd like to imagine the Area Zero Entity being a Paradox Pokemon that's from outside of time itself, a being not from the past, present or future. It would explain why in Scarlet it pulls Pokemon from the past to the present and in Violet it pulls Pokemon from the future to the present. Because it's outside of time, it can pull anybody from anywhen and anywhere at any moment.

The Area Zero Entity is Earth itself, similar to Unicron in some continuities

The entity looks spherical, and judging by the waves and boat on its illustration, it could be planet-sized. If we can catch it at all, we're probably only going to be able to catch an avatar of it similar to Arceus in PLA.
- I don't think that Terapagos is a representation of Earth.
Jossed. The earth-like look is Terapagos' Stellar form.

There will be a third type of Paradox Pokémon in a DLC

...but rather than past or future, it would be those from an alternate present timeline, where magic/supernatural powers became the mainstay that humans relied on instead of technology. Several of these Pokémon could be Fairy-, Dragon, Psychic- and Ghost-typed.

Not as of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero.

The Entity isn't a Pokemon; it's an egg.

Specifically, Arceus's egg, mentioned in several of its Dex entries. Once the current world is destroyed and Arceus dies, it will hatch to create everything anew.

Jossed - we get confirmation that they are a Legendary in the Pokémon Presents, and it's called Terapagos.

The third Legendary boss fight

DLC is extremely likely in Scarlet and Violet, and we still don't know much about the third legendary aside from its smudged entry in the Scarlet/Violet Books and one lab note in one of the research centers at Area Zero. It feels guaranteed that we'll actually find it in the DLC, but here's the thing: the boss fight against it, this troper feels, should possess an uber-upgrade to the game's gimmick. Think about past examples:

Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire: While not the game that debuted Mega Evolutions, Mega Rayquaza gains the honor of having a direct upgrade to the gimmick, being the only Mega Evolution to not require a Mega Stone to undergo the phenomenon.
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon: Ultra Necrozma had been a nightmare for many Pokemon players for good reason, and it's a Mega Evolution-style form that can only be accessed by having it equip it's exclusive Z-Crystal, the catalyst for the game's gimmick, Z-Moves.
Sword & Shield: While we can't access it like we could Ultra Necrozma, Eternamax Eternatus could also be considered a direct upgrade to Dynamax/Gigantamax, being the only Pokemon that has a BST of over 1000.

So with this in mind, it should make sense for the boss to have a mega-upgrade to Terastallization...but how?

It has an exclusive Omni-type Tera Jewel, dealing SE damage on all types but only being weak to Rock-type.
Its Ability is effectively a Legend Plate where it can change it's Tera Jewel on the fly.
- Alternatively, its ability allows Terapagos to mix-and-match three types when it Terastallizes (So it can be Fire/Dragon/Flying or Bug/Ice/Steel, for example).
  - Confirmed! Terapagos is the only Pokemon that naturally comes with a new Tera type called Stellar-type, with gives a STAB to all moves regardless of type.

The third legendary created, or was created by the Great Crater of Paldea.

There are already some parallels between it and Eternatus. Eternatus is an incredibly powerful being linked to the Dynamax phenomenon, the third legendary is heavily implied to be tied to the Terastal phenomenon. Eternatus crashed into Galar 20,000 years ago and its energy/radiation is what makes the phenomenon possible. Maybe the third legendary is similar; it was something that crashed into Paldea a million years ago, creating Area Zero, but the collision took it out of commission and made it a much weaker, broken entity. Alternatively what collided wasn't a Pokemon but a Magic Meteor, and the third legendary was birthed from the collision and formation of Area Zero; kind of like how Deoxys started as a mere virus before being mutated by a laser into a new Pokemon species.

Just for Fun: The third legendary is actually tiny. Really tiny

Scenario 1: The shell that encompasses it is just inorganic walls and the actual third legendary Pokémon is actually just the size of Chi-Yu.
Scenario 2: Assuming the basilisk-like thing behind the disk is indeed a Pokémon, it may be the Dondozo to the real third legendary's Tatsugiri, bringing in mind the similar situation of Calyrex and its steeds (i.e., aside from its head, Calyrex is pretty small, clearly outsized by either of its steeds).
- Scenario 1 is confirmed, in Pokémon Horizons: The Series, Terapagos's Normal Form is small enough to fit inside a child's backpack. Even in it's Terastalized form, it's still itty-bitty.

The third legendary can change types at will and has a different form for each type.

The only known sketch of it depicts what appears to be a shell or a spherical chamber made of overlapping hexagonal plates. Perhaps the basilisk-like creature sitting atop is just one of its forms (and most likely the Dragon-type one). When it wants to change forms, the shell/chamber opens up, it goes inside, and it comes out with a different appearance. Gameplay-wise, it would have an Ability similar to pre-nerf Protean or Libero, changing its type to whatever is the next attacking move it'll do. In exchange, it cannot undergo Terastal, or at least the same kind that other Pokémon can do. (Or alternatively, it is perpetually Terastallized, even outside of battle.)

Looks to be potentially confirmed due to how Terapagos looks like from the Presents.
Jossed, it doesn't change types at will nor does it have a unique form for all types. However, it's Stellar Type form embodies all types at once and it can make any attack not very effective against itself.

Potential new Pokemon for the DLC

It's obvious that we'll get new Pokemon in the DLC, as that's what happened in the DLC for Sword & Shield. As for which ones, this troper is unsure, but as this is a WMG page, we can speculate.

New Legendary Titans (Regieleki and Regidrago were unexpected yet welcomed surprises, and something that feels like GameFreak would make a trend out of for the DLC.)
- Regismog: Poison-type Titan representing the pollution-filled Industrial Era.
- Regimpire: Fighting-type Titan made of bronze representing the Bronze Age, where war and empires were rising.
Green Charcadet Evo: This could be a more defense-oriented Evo, the armor used could be called "Inconspicuous Armor".
Paldean Miltank: Tauros and Miltank are counterparts of sorts and with Paldean Tauros in the game with no sign of Miltank anywhere which leaves the door open for a new form of Miltank to appear.
All jossed.

The Area Zero Entity was sealed by Zygarde.

All the hexagons around it are Zygarde's cells keeping it sealed in place, to unlock the Area Zero Entity battle you must prove that you are strong enough to fight it by first fighting Zygarde, after defeating Zygarde it will release the seal letting you battle the Area Zero Entity.

Jossed. Terapagos has them as part of their actual form.

The Raidon you bond with during the game is actually Heath's Cyclizar displaced in time and distorted by the "time machine"

Heath's status as the author of the Scarlet/Violet book as well as the leader of a past expedition to Area Zero makes it natural for his portrait to be included in the book, twice even. The first portrait is Heath with a past director of Naranja/Uva Academy, who is logically included due to being the sponsor of the expedition. The second portrait is Heath with his partner Cyclizar. Which, taking into account Law of Conservation of Detail, is odd, as having Heath alone in the "About the Author" page would have sufficed, hinting that this Cyclizar is more than a mere beast of burden.

It is known that our Raidon was previously in the care of Professor Sada/Turo, which superficially explains why it's amicable with humans. However, given that the second Raidon the professor pulled was so dangerous that it ended up killing the professor not long after it was retrieved (even if indirectly), it starts to get strange that our Raidon was that friendly, even to little Arven, especially once you take into account that said first Raidon is the only Paradox Pokémon in the entire game whose mindset isn't "kill everything on sight". Thus, this opens the possibility that not only our Raidon might not have actually been Koraidon/Miraidon to start with, it might have already been conditioned to human interaction by being someone's pet/partner. Being Heath's partner who somehow got plucked out of time and morphed into a Koraidon/Miraidon would explain so much about its friendliness.

The Area Zero entity is not the same individual as Terapagos

Given Terapagos's design, it's easy to assume that it is the Pokémon responsible for the terastal phenomenon, and subsequently everything that went wrong in Area Zero. However, even considering that, out-of-universe, Pokémon doesn't completely subscribe to Beauty Equals Goodness (hello Lusamine and Hatterene), something like Terapagos being fully responsible for what went down in Area Zero somehow doesn't seem likely; Necrozma and Eternatus, who were responsible for the Z-power and Dynamax phenomena respectively, look clearly menacing.

What might seem to be the case, instead, is that the Area Zero entity and Terapagos are pieces/parts of the same being, for example, the Area Zero entity being the body, and Terapagos being the soul. And similar to how Calyrex can muster its full might only when reunited with its steed (even if it was already powerful enough to convert mere worship into fertile lands), the Area Zero entity is not able to channel or contain its power properly without its soul, causing all the tragedy that passed in Area Zero. Plus, while we have yet to actually see Terapagos's size, it doesn't look like it's anywhere near Eternatus' size, which makes it seem rather tiny, way too tiny, for something capable of coating the entire depths of Area Zero with Tera crystals (look just how huge the crystals around and inside Zero Lab are).

Also, the image in the last page of Scarlet/Violet book seem to contain what could be a crowned turtle at the top of the incredibly immense disk structure, opening the possibility that Terapagos and the massive disk-covered being are distinct beings. Plus, Terapagos being the Indigo Disk may mean there are others.

Lastly, Terapagos looks suspiciously like the turtle princess from the tale of Urashima Taro

, opening the possibility that the plot of Indigo Disk is to bring it home to Area Zero, in this case thus "completing" it and allowing it to control its terastal power better (even if it can't undo any damage the Area Zero entity has done).

Some evidence pointing to this is that the Area Zero entity is described as having hexagons on its shell (and hexagon motifs are semi-prominent in the game as a whole), while Terapagos is covered in pentagons. Considering attention is specifically brought to the shell patterns, it seems like an odd change to make in the "official" design, unless Terapagos is a fragment of the Area Zero entity at most.
There's also the fact that Terapagos will be the central Legendary in The Indigo Disk, which should take place in Blueberry Academy, an overseas academy that isn't even so much as hinted at in the base game, thus opening the possibility that Terapagos has also been away from Paldea for quite some time and thus unlikely to be responsible to all the fiasco that happened in Area Zero.
- Jossed. The DLC outright states the Entity mentioned by Heath is Terapagos.

Regieleki and Regidrago are Paradox Pokémon.

Given their more recent debut compared to their Hoenn brethren, as well as Legends: Arceus completely ignoring their existence, it might be possible that they are Paradox Pokémon that made their way to Galar one day and had lore about them made up. If I had to guess, Regieleki is a future version of Regigigas and Regidrago is a past version. Alternatively, they could be like Iron Valiant and be Paradox versions of all of the original Regis. Walking Wake and Iron Leaves confirm that Paradox variants of Legendary Pokémon is possible, so this opens up the possibility further. My guess as to their Paradox names are Drake Statue (Regidrago) and Zap Circuit (Regieleki; breaking the future naming convention of “Iron” being the first word).

They don't have the same BST or signature ability of paradox pokemon, they aren't in Area Zero (and it's pretty much stated the Titan was the only one to make it out), and none of them are dual-type, while all of the paradox pokemon are dual-type with one of the types being the type of the pokemon it's counterpart has. They also do not follow the design conventions of past and future paradoxes, with past pokemon all having yellow eyes and a tail, and future pokemon all having robotic segments and glowing sections with light-up dots. The Regis also have temples they're sealed in, because they are Regis, and none of the paradox pokemon have anything similar relating to their origin.

Characters

Jacq will become a professor later on.

Considering how teachers and professors in our world can both teach the inexperience he might become a second/third professor down the line along Sada and Turo. It's not far off, as we had Samson and Kukui in Gen VII and Magnolia pass her title to Sonia in Sword and Shield, plus it's mentioned he made the Pokedex app for the Rotom phones.

Sort of confirmed; he developed Paldea's Pokédex, and he indeed was also a researcher before becoming a teacher.

The opposite version professor died during an early incident with the time machine.

The remaining professor told their son that they "left" because they thought that would hurt him less. The professor's obsession with their research is an attempt to prove that their spouse's death wasn't all for nothing. Whatever this incident was also cut off the time machine from either the future or the past.

They don't even need to be actually dead for this to work, the incident could have sent them through time but they're gone either way.
- I think the lore josses the time machine idea, but it may be that a spacetime anomaly happened which took away the missing professor.
The professor never tells Arven that their spouse “left” though - it’s written in one of the research journals in Area Zero, presumably when Arven was much younger. Unless the professor wrote these journals thinking Arven would read them in the future, there would be no reason for them to do this, unless they wrote it thinking it would hurt them less.

The professors are universal counterparts.

As in depending on the universe, we either have Sada or Turo but never both. Think Bioshock Infinite's Lutece twins.

Sada and Turo are siblings

Arven's other parent is is someone else. In Scarlet, Sada is Arven's mom, married to an unnamed third person, and Turo is his uncle. And the reverse in Violet.

Larry hails from Sinnoh.

Larry is noticeably designed after a regular Japanese salaryman, possesses more than a cursory resemblance to Cyrus and Rowan, performs in a izakaya-style restaurant that is very out of place in Paldea, and his signature Pokémon is a Staraptor.

This comes with the Fridge Horror that Larry is a kid-friendly representation of Karoshi, a.k.a., death by overworking, which unfortunately happens quite often in real life with myriad of publicized cases from Japan.

Ingo is Eri's ancestor.

Eri bears a striking resemblance to him—her hair and eyes are the same color as his, her eyes are shaped similarly to his, and if you look closely, she even seems to lack eyebrows like him. Plus, there’s her Badass Longcoat she takes off before she battles.

Likely Jossed, since a post-Indigo Disk cutscene shows that those aren't Eri's natural hair and eye colors (and she has eyebrows, they're just usually covered by her face paint).

Raifort will be an antagonist in the DLC.

She already has some Ambiguously Evil traits (her behavior, her interest in the explicitly destructive Treasures of Ruin, her choice in Pokémon, etc.), and her obsession with the past above pretty much everything else parallels Sada/Turo's obsession with keeping the time machine working no matter the cost, so she could easily go the Well-Intentioned Extremist route.

Jossed so far.
Jossed completely on the antagonist part, though the DLC does heavily imply she used to be a graverobber, so confirmed on the Ambiguously Evil part.

Heath will be an important character in future DLC.

During the postgame Arven points out the oddities in the Scarlet/Violet Book — including how Heath saw Paradox Pokémon long before they supposedly first arrived via the Professor's time machine, and how the final page is smudged in every copy of the book he's found — and then dismisses most of it as just made-up stories. A copy of the book is accessible for the player to read at their own leisure, with a few pages showing what Heath himself looked like. His name is highlighted during Raifort's history lessons, where it's revealed he was dismissed as a fraud due to the fantastic nature of his book. What happened to him after this is not stated.

Given that most legends in the franchise turn out to be at least partially true, it's possible the player will eventually learn more about the unidentified Pokémon in the book and the apparent contradiction in Paradox Pokémon's origins. Pursuing these mysteries will likely invite more discussions of the Scarlet/Violet Book, and in turn about Heath himself. The simplest role he could play is that, since it's been 200 years since his expedition, he's long dead and would be a posthumous character who exists in legacy only.

As shown with the Professor there are still ways for a character to appear even if they should be dead, though, so Heath (or some recreation of him) could still make a physical appearance as either friend or foe — he might even battle the player using one or more of the unidentified Pokémon teased in the book. Perhaps Heath has taken the same path as Charles Muntz?

Just because the time machine brought the Raidons to the present first, doesn't mean that Area Zero didn't have spacetime anomalies that brought the Paradox Pokémon to the then present while Heath was around.
- Currently we know that Briar is Heath's descendant and is eager to learn more about the terastal phenomenon, and being a Blueberry Academy teacher, her role likely doesn't end in Kitakami. We'll see if Heath will have any actual posthumous role, though.
As of The Indigo Disk, Heath still hasn't had any kind of physical appearance on-screen. Briar's obsession with proving his stories correct does play a large role in the plot, though.

Poppy is older than she looks.

She's just short, and affects a younger age to get her opponents to underestimate her.

Confirmed, she's actually only 9 years old and looks half that age!

Ortega and Bede are related

They're both jerkish rich kids from regions based on Western European nations who specialize in Fairy-types and have light hair.

Kofu and Siebold have a connection to each other

Both are chefs who specialize in Water-types, and Paldea is likely on the border of Kalos, so it seems likely they've met at some point.

Iono is also an AI in a robot body

Reasoning:

Her proportions are kind of off
It'd fit with her electric/tech theme
The way her Magnemite hairclips spin and levitate seems a bit much for a fashion accessory
- The AI's are stated to only work in Area Zero, and Iono is clearly not there. Also, her proportions are not that off for a character in this kind of anime style, she's just a bit short. Even if her art was a bit off, that is not evidence towards her being a robot, since the professor's robots are 100% perfect in replicating human proportions and features, so 'slightly off proportions' isn't a trait that established robots have.
  - Those are just the professors' AIs. Who's to say that hers doesn't come from someone else and thus can work outside A0?
  - The professors say such advanced technology is only possible due to the Area Zero crystals, you couldn't simply get something as advanced 'somewhere else', that's not how it works.
  - 1. Who's to say some other eccentric scientist didn't go into Area Zero somehow, get some crystals, and build a robot with them? 2. Even if they didn't, the Pokémon series is no stranger to crazy-advanced tech. If they can turn digital data into physical living creatures, create portals to alternate universes, and not only reanimate fossils, but turn them into cyborg super-soldiers, I see no reason why people other than Sada and Turo could make A.I.s and robots. After all, WE can make those things in real life (albeit not as advanced as in fiction) without magic time paradox crystals.
  - There's the key phrase—not as advanced. Not to mention the permissions are very restricted as to who's allowed in Area Zero, since it doesn't matter who makes the robots, we know from the AI themselves that it just wouldn't work outside of Area Zero, even if you took a couple crystals somewhere else. That's why they cannot leave.
  - Yeah, the professors SAY that humanity can't make such advanced A.I.s, but they aren't omniscient. Perhaps whoever created her is the only person who knows how to make such advanced A.I.s without using Zero Crystals and they're just hiding the fact that she's an AI-powered robot. Besides, it's hard to believe that nobody else in the Pokéverse is at least trying to make advanced A.I.s given how many tech geniuses there are.

Iono is a robot control by her hair clips, which are variant Magnamites

Those things are not hair clips. They float. They emote, in sync with Iono. And as noted above, Iono's body proportions are a bit off.

Giacomo is related to Grimsley somehow

They have similar hairstyles, their names both start with "G", and not only do both specialize in Dark-types, but three of the Pokémon Giacomo uses are ones that are also used by Grimsley (or in his Kingambit's case, belong to the same evolutionary line).

Geeta's Top Champion title isn't meant to refer to her battle skill

It's meant to refer to the fact that she's the chairwoman of the Pokémon League, and thus in a higher position of authority than literally every other champion-rank trainer.

Nemona is actually a cousin to both Momo and Kale

Nemona has that saiyan's desire for a good fight and resembles both of them somewhat. Her mentioning how her parents are off-hands is due to them visiting her aunts and uncles in far-off regions and even planets. They are rich from intergalactic space travels.

The Area Zero Entity created the Player Character

The Area Zero Entity has the power to grant wishes, which is the reason for the "treasure is at the bottom" of Area Zero myth. Sometime before the game began, The Third Legendary heard the subconcious wishes of The AI Professor, Nemona, Penny and Arven and created The Player Character to make their wishes come true.

This is completely ridiculous. Not only does the player character have established biological parents, they came from elsewhere to Paldea. The Area Zero Entity can only make things inside the deepest part of Area Zero, which is why all the paradox pokemon come from there and move outwards, not the other way around.
- The Tera Raid Dens appear to support the idea that The Area Zero Entity can create stuff outside of Area Zero, since Tera Raid Dens are created by energy unleashed from Area Zero, and some dens contain Pokemon that cannot be found in the wild such as Gengar or Armarouge and the seven star dens have Pokemon that aren't even native to Paldea. It is also plausible that The Area Zero Entity could have created The Player Character's Mom to be a guiding figure of sorts. With that being said, the story of moving from another region could definitely be a convincing lie that could be made in service of fulfilling the role The Player Character was meant to fulfill.
- Terapagos doesn't make the Tera Raid Dens. They are caused by excessive amounts of energy leaking through the ground out of the crater, much like how the Paradox Pokemon can escape out through the crater. Additonally, the Entity making all these things completely whole cloth goes against how it works. It doesn't innovate, it doesn't elaborate, it grants wishes and dreams. It only made perfect copies of all the paradox mon as they were described in the book. The possibility of Nemona, Penny, Arven, and the AI Professor all vaugely wishing for the exact same person of the exact same description and exact same background to come help them is infinitesimally small.

You can battle the Gym Leaders and Elite Four as many times as you want in a later update, and they will have updated teams.

Their teams will change based on the species made available in post-release updates. The most obvious case of this will be Katy's last Pokémon being Ursaluna rather than Ursaring.

Possibly confirmed; the League Club feature in the Indigo Disk DLC allows players to invite characters from Paldea to battle and trade with. Only gym leaders have been shown so far, but it's not out of the question to imagine you can summon Geeta, the Elite Four and other characters like Nemona/Arven/Penny for infinite rematches. The only unclear detail at the moment is if their teams are updated.
- Very confirmed! The rest can be invited, but have to be unlocked by befriending the Gym Leaders (through battles and trading). And yes, all teams are updated.

The third legendary was responsible for bringing the protagonist to Paldea

This speculation is based on two other speculations: The mostly-all-but-confirmed idea that the protagonist came from Galar, and the still-up-in-the-air theory that Tera crystal's true power is to grant wishes, making the third legendary a wish-granter.

Some time before the start of the game, the third legendary became focused on the wishes of three particular children in Paldea: Penny who wished to save her friends from expulsion, Arven who wished to save his Mabostiff, and Nemona who wished for a worthy rival. The entity eventually decided to grant their wishes in one fell swoop by scanning the region and its surrounding for a promising person (The same way Arceus reached through time to pluck PLA's protagonist to Hisui), and ultimately came across the Galarian protagonist. Then it gave them and/or their mother a prophetic dream which inspired them to go to Paldea. After that, just a little twist of fate here and there to ensure that the protagonist meets Nemona, Arven and Penny all on the same day, intertwining their fates and ultimately fulfilling their wishes.

I don't think that Terapagos had brought the player to Paldea.

Raifort is a descendant of the Paldean king who bought the Treasures of Ruin

Her unusual interest in the Treasures of Ruin is definitely suspect, but maybe her reasons for wanting to claim them is not just because she wants to, but, as her ancestor was the previous owner of those four, however briefly, she may think that they are essentially family heirloom that's gotta stay in the family.

In fact, while she lets the protagonist keep the treasures for now, she could actually have been planning to swipe them from the protagonist's hand: By banking on the possibility of Clavell and/or Jacq finding out about the Ruin Quartet in the protagonist's possession which hopefully will be followed up with the two kindly seniors asking the protag to hand the quartet to a more suitable adult, at which point Raifort would step up to claim them.

Mr. Harrington is lying about what happened with Team Star.

Specifically, there was no deputy that 'went behind his back' to erase all the records of what happened. He's nothing more than an Unreliable Expositor trying to paint himself as a tragic figure despite the role he played in screwing Team Star over. Sure, maybe he feels genuine remorse for his actions, but that wasn't enough for him to actually try and reverse any of the damage that had been done while he was still in charge, did it? No, he resigned for fear of having to face consequences for both his actions and inaction, and the staff followed suit.

Penny's two-tone hair is an homage to Iono.

Since she spends most of her time on her computer, it's quite likely she's a fan of Iono and thus dyed half of her hair blue to imitate Iono's style.

Arven's missing parents will be battle-able in the DLC, and they will field a team of normal versions of Paradox Pokémon their professor selves command in the opposite versions

I.e., in Scarlet, Mr. Turo will have a team of Volcarona, Tyranitar, Delibird, Hydreigon, Hariyama and Gallade (or if Delibird is too much a joke character, replace it with Gardevoir to represent the fact that Iron Valiant is a combination of Gardevoir and Gallade), while in Violet, Mrs. Sada will have a team of Volcarona, Mismagius, Magnezone, Amoongus, Wigglytuff and Salamence (or to avoid repeating Volcarona in both's teams, either of them will replace their Volcarona with Donphan since Great Tusk/Iron Treads exist)

Jossed.

Giacomo is Larry's son.

They don't look that similar at first, but when you look at Giacomo's concept art page, you can see his pre-team Star look, where he looks very similar to a younger Larry, both in facial features and hairstyle (since his spikes are down, and he has a single droplet-like bunch of hair on his forehead, similar to Larry's blue accents). Prehaps Larry wasn't supportive towards his musical passions (because he'd prefer his child to have a more "stable" job, like that office job he has), and that was, on top of the bullying and not handling his student body president role too well, another reason why Giacomo decided to join Team Star.

Nemona isn't as busty as she appears.

Those are Pokeballs. Her mom got Nemona her first bra, and the Pokemon fanatic she is, she thought it was to store Pokeballs.

Plot and Setting

Terastal was originally from Galar, but got pushed out for giant Kaiju by Rose

While Spain is a monarchy, the thought of monarchy usually falls first onto Great Britian. And given the league in Galar is a highly publicized event, just putting on a crown seems boring. At least to the media mogul that Rose is. And giant monsters fighting? THAT is exciting. So of course he pushes out Terastal for Dynamax.

The Tera phenomenon comes from Area Zero, and was observed 500 years ago. Rose isn’t that old.

Terastal's major connections with Kalos

In IRL history, there have been several wars between France and Spain. In Pokemon X/Y, we were shown that the Ultimate Weapon struck an enemy nation and ended a great war. There's a large crater in the center of Paldea. This gives some credence to the idea that Terastal was born from the payload that the Ultimate Weapon had released on ancient Paldea, while the "crowns" sprouting from Terastal Pokémon are oddly similar to the Ultimate Weapon's deactivated state.

The crater has existed for millions of years and the weapon was fired only 2000 years ago. The timeline just doesn’t work out.

Crater in the center of Paldea

We know that Kalos went to war with another country in the past, maybe the crater in the center of Paldea was caused by Kalos' Ultimate Weapon?

It may be obscured because the contents of that crater differs depending on the version. Scarlet, being themed on the past, would have a prehistoric jungle, while Violet, being themed on the future, would have a futuristic city or industrial area. This wouldn't discredit the above theory; it could be that the Ultimate Weapon's impact was so powerful that a permanent time rift (or Space-Time Distortion, if you'd prefer) appeared in Paldea.
- All jossed. Not only Kalos has nothing to do with the crater (it exceedingly predates human civilization for crying out loud), the crater's landscape in both versions is simply pristine nature.

The evil king responsible for the Four Perils paid for them with Gimmighoul coins, which is why he was cursed

The line ‘he showered them in gold coins’ being used to describe the king buying the four perils’ artifacts gave me pause, since the only other place gold coins are drawn attention to in game is Gimmighoul. Gimmighoul are noted to curse those who steal their coins. It’s possible his artifacts became Pokemon due to the Gimmighoul getting its retribution.

Perhaps, instead of this, he instead was turned into a Gimmighoul for his deeds, much like how various people connected to him were turned into the Four Perils.

Time travel runs on You Already Changed the Past rules in this series.

Arven's main concern is that the Paradox Pokémon escaping into Paldea will cause ecological devastation rather than, say, causing damage to the timeline itself. Because of that, it's entirely possible that the Pokémon were meant to be brought to the present all along.

If the protagonist and Arven had failed to save Mabosstiff, he would've been reborn as a Houndstone

Houndstone is the ghost of a lovingly mourned dog, so it would not surprise me if, in a bittersweet twist, Arven's love for Mabosstiff would've resurrected the little guy as a ghostly hound. Arven, of course, would gladly accept him in his new form.

Some of the major NPCs will become antagonists in the DLC.

The DLC will feature a theatre class that acts as the Gen IX version of Pokéstars Studios, with some npcs acting as the villains of the plays. The player character will have a script of the play to follow, however, the playable character can cause the play to turn out differently by not sticking to the script.

Humans can go back and forth through the time machine

The AI Professor was trying to dissuade the group of children from trying to go back to a time where modern comforts didn't exist or forward to a time where their Pokémon are likely outclassed. It might be lying to protect Arven in particular, as he could try to use it to save his parent from their death.

They say that humans can't return to the present, not that they can't use it.

The time machine isn’t actually a time machine.

Instead, it’s a wishing machine, the power of tera crystals actually granting the professor’s dreams inspired by the Scarlet/Violet book that they grew up with. The original expedition, whose accounts were disregarded as spurious fiction, failed, and they really did make up most of the results, explaining the anachronism of paradox Pokémon supposedly appearing before the time machine was created. This would also fit into the theme of finding your treasure— the crater, and the mysterious legendary Pokémon, grant you your greatest treasure.

The idea that tera crystals is a phlebotinum that grants wishes surprisingly has weight when we look at terastallization. How many times we, players, see a Pokémon and tell ourselves, "Oh, I wish this Pokémon were of that type instead of this type"? That's exactly what terastallization does!
As plausible as it might be, a secret cutscene after the end of The Indigo Disk seems to confirm that it was real time travel all along with an example of a Stable Time Loop: a new entry from the Professor's journal tells the story of them being transported to a lake in the east where a child gave them a white book. Sure enough, flying to the Crystal Pool after catching Terapagos causes the latter to summon the real professor from the past, at which point the player character gives them the white book Briar wrote about their own expedition.
- The phrasing of the cutscene heavily implies that the professor is not only from the past, but also from an Alternate Universe. So the original guess is partially correct; it's not a time machine, but appears to be an Alternate Universe-machine.

The time machine is based on, or becomes, the mysterious egg-shaped legendary Pokémon in the Scarlet/Violet book.

The book shows an egg-shaped Pokémon covered in tera crystal plates— the time machine room in Area Zero is a giant chamber lined with tessellating tera crystals.

The legendary is a small crystal, but perhaps the machine is based on it.

The time machine doesn't go back and forth on the same timeline

It travels to the distant future or past of a different timeline. That's why bringing Pokémon from the past/future is easy, but trying to retrieve the same human is impossible.

Confirmed!

Following above, the time machine grabs Pokémon from the non-Mega timeline

... while Scarlet/Violet takes place during the Mega timeline. It wouldn't be the first time a person (or Pokémon) was taken from the non-Mega timeline and displaced into the Mega one.

Nemona, Arven and Penny's use of their Master Ball

After completing "The Way Home", each member of the main cast, including the Player Character, has received a Master Ball from Director Clavell. What they will be doing with it is not elaborated upon at all but opens possibilities in a future update or DLC.

One likely outcome is that they will use it to catch a Legendary Pokémon, continuing what Hop started in Sword and Shield, a rival with a Legendary in their team.

The Legendary Pokémon at the bottom of the Crater is sentient and intelligent.

Assuming its ability is to grant wishes, or at least generate things and Pokémon from people's imaginations, it may be doing so on purpose—not to cause harm, but out of an unending love and admiration for humans. It created the Paradox Pokémon, provides the region with the Terastal phenomenon, and allows the AI Professor and the Time Machine to work because it believes this is what people want, in particular the expedition teams that have gone down there. However, it's trapped at the bottom of the Great Crater of Paldea, unable to communicate in any way other than granting wishes. So in the meantime, it observes humans who wander into Area Zero, and in return, it creates things based on what it thinks they'd like. Your expedition, the one with yourself, Arven, Penny, and Nemona, is the first such expedition of people critical of what has transpired in Area Zero. As a result, for future DLC, this Legendary Pokémon becomes confused and frustrated at humans, unable to understand why these humans, Arven in particular, are so mad and so disgusted, even though it's done nothing but grant their wishes. In other words, it's a Literal Genie: It lovingly grants people their wishes, but neither it nor the wishers take a moment to consider the consequences of those wishes.

Confirmed on the sentient part, although the intellegent part... not so much.

The "time machine" doesn't actually pull Paradox Pokémon from another time period, timeline, or dimension, and it also doesn't actually create Paradox Pokémon out of the blue

Instead, it only yanks Pokémon currently existing in Paldea and distorts them so that they look like Pokémon from ages past or distant future. This is why Paradox Pokémon, especially future Paradox, look suspiciously too similar to currently-existing Pokémon: they are merely given cosmetic job and a little power boost.

Part of the reason is terastalization: When a Pokémon terastalizes, not only its type changes, but its body becomes crystalline, to the point that with some of them, you may notice that their body even becomes translucent. This suggests that the power that enables terastalization is capable of physically distorting a Pokémon, with the Paradox Pokémon being the result of a full-blown physical do-over compared to the more controlled terastalization via Tera Orb.

Interestingly, this can serve as a Watsonian explanation as to why some Pokémon that are version-exclusive somehow have a Paradox variant in the opposite version. For example, the reason why we have Flutter Mane and Roaring Moon but not Misdreavus and the Bagon line in Scarlet is because the "time machine" has converted too many Misdreavus and Bagon in Paldea and thus those two Pokémon are as good as extinct in the wild; same case with why we have Iron Thorns and Iron Jugulis but not Larvitar line and Deino line in Violet; too many of them got yanked and morphed by the machine and thus they're gone from the ecosystem. This indirectly also means that the ecological disaster that the AI Professor warns us about actually has happened; we merely prevent a second wave. And, as a Fridge Horror, this also means that aside from creating Tera Orbs to harness terastalization power, the original professors actually have failed in their dream of creating an actual time machine to reach through time.

Jossed. The Indigo Disk implies the Paradoxes come from alternative timelines.

The treasures of ruin are originally from Kitakami, before the Paldean king bought them

It would be an easy way to tie in a development of the history teacher’s plotline into the DLC.

"The Treasure of Area Zero" DLC pre-release

Ogerpon is part Grass type.

It’s got a fairly blatant plant motif, and I could imagine it hiding in the undergrowth, or using it to deceive others.

Perhaps Grass/Dark?
It looks like a Bug type to me.
It's likely considering another thing I've noticed. The Loyal Three have abilities and somewhat designs that seem to imply that they are part-Poison type. Poison is only strong against Fairy (which doesn't have a clear connection here) and Grass. If the Loyal Three are said to have defeated Ogerpon, it would make sense for them to have their one of their typing to be super-effective against Ogerpon.

As for it's actual typing, I'd say it's probably either Grass/Ghost or, if the "Loyal Three evil" theory discussed down below is true, Grass/Dark. After all, it would follow the trend off Dark-type Pokemon labelled as evil when they clearly are not.
- Confirmed, it's predominantly Grass-type: It is a Pure-grass Type in it's base form and its type changes dependant on the mask it wears.

The new Pokémon introduced in "The Teal Mask" are based on Momotarō

Fezandipiti, Munkidori, and Okidogi represent the talking pheasant, monkey, and dog that accompanied the titular hero on his journey, while Ogerpon represents the oni they fought. Related to this, Ogerpon will be the main antagonist of that story.

Confirmed on the Momotaro part, inverted for the antagonist part.

The region based on China will not be where Generation 10 is set, after all

It will be similar to the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra in that it's a new location that can only be accessed in the DLC, but it will be an entire sub-region with its own Pokémon, and Fezandipiti, Munkidori, and Okidogi will be the sub-region's Starter Mon.

The region in the DLC appears to be based moreso on Japan, going off of the name. And those three pokemon look more like sublegendaries than starters.

The Entity in the Indigo Disk DLC will be a new type entirely

Maybe it'll be "Crystal" type or "Rainbow" type, with the new type combining elements of all 18 types together. Offensively, it would deal neutral damage to every type. Defensively, it would combine the weaknesses and resistances of the other types. Take any type, calculate how many types it's super effective against (let's mark this number as "A") and how many types it's not very effective against (let's mark this number as "B"). If A is higher than B, the type is super effective. If B is higher than A, the type is not very effective. If A and B are equal, the type is neutrally effective. If a type has zero effect on any other type, it also has no effect on The Entity. So, the new type would:

Be weak to Rock (and only Rock), since it's super-effective against four types and not very effective against three types.
Take neutral damage from Water, Fire, Ice, Flying, and Fairy.
Resist Grass, Bug, Steel, and Dark.
Be immune to Normal, Fighting, Electric, Ground, Poison, Psychic, Ghost, and Dragon.
- A new type just for one Pokemon is ridiculous when type-switching abilities exist and would be more balanced and feasble, and it has symbols for the current 18 types on it's back (not 19, no new symbols, just 18 types and tera raised above the rest). New types are not added just cause, and it would be the opposite of balanced — balancing being the only reason new types are introduced.
- Honestly, if anything, I'd imagine it instead has an ability that effectively gives it a second Tera Type based on a new held item.
- Maybe it'll have something similar to Arceus or Silvally's signature abilities, but unlike those two the type changes are more random.
- The reveal of the rainbow-hued, as yet unnamed new teratype, with a symbol shaped like Terapagos's back, almost certainly hints that Terapagos will have a special tera type. How an omnitype like this will function is yet unknown.
  - It does have new Tera type, and it allows all moves to gain STAB.
- In terms of only typing, Jossed. Terapagos is pure-normal type. It is however, locked to the new Stellar type if it Terastalizes.

Ogerpon has two forms

One that resembles an Oni and one that resembles Momotaro, as a twist on the old Momotaro story. It'll be depicted as a Fallen Hero who once helped save the sub-region with the help of Munkidori, Okidogi and Fezandipiti, but underwent a Face–Heel Turn in the process. The player will save it by defeating it, resulting in it reverting back to its old, heroic form.

It is emphasized that it's wearing a mask. It could have a maskless form, with a more heroic face (in some of the art we can even get a glimpse of its real face).
Well, it does have a tera form, but a maskless non-tera form also sounds plausible.

Zigzagged. It has different forms, but it has four of them.

Ogerpon was victimised as the villain

Alternatively, Ogerpon may have been less dangerous than believed - while mischevious, its was content with simply pranks. Munkidori, Okidogi and Fezandipiti simply took advantage of this trait to make themselves the heroes stopping Ogerpon, with it nowadays wearing a mask to hide from the trio.

Zigzagged - the Loyal Three are villainous, but Ogerpon had masks even before the trio. In fact, they stole Ogerpon's other masks.

Ogerpon and Terapagos are both the third legendary, in the sense that they both fill different archetypes of one

One will fill the role of "hostile legendary" while the other will be a benevolent "trio/duo master".

Semi-jossed.
- Now completely Jossed.

The typings of The Heroes of Kitakami

Fezandipiti:
- Fire/Fairy
- Flying/Fairy
- Fire/Flying
- Poison/Fire
- Pure Flying
- Fire/Psychic
- Poison/Flying (basis of the poison typing is its ability, Toxic Chain)
- Poison/Fairy
  - Confirmed.
Okidogi:
- Grass/Dark
- Grass/Fighting
- Grass/Psychic
- Poison/Grass
- Pure Fighting
- Grass/Fairy
- Poison/Dark
- Poison/Fighting
  - Confirmed.
Munkidori:
- Water/Psychic
- Water/Ground
- Water/Fairy
- Poison/Water
- Water/Fighting
- Water/Dark
- Pure Dark
- Pure Poison
- Poison/Psychic
  - Confirmed.
The reveal of their shared signature ability implies they will all share a Poison typing.

Ogerpon will have a customizable secondary type.

By putting its mask on, its secondary type will be set to whichever its Tera Type is. Tera Blast will also automatically change type without it having to Terastallize.

Zigzagged. It puts masks on to change typings, but there are only three different masks that allow it to do so and they appear to be independent of the Tera-type and are instead determined by an item.

Terapagos will have a special Tera Type or Ability akin to Arceus's Legend Plate.

In that when it Terastalizes it changes to match the type that would be most effective at that moment.

It could just be an ability called Tera Type to constrast Arceus's Multitype.
If it's a Tera Type in and of itself, it may be labelled Legend to go with Arceus's plate.
- It has a special Tera type called Stellar type, embodying all types.

Terapagos will have a different form when it Terastalizes.

While it is fitting that it doesn't look exactly as we see it in the Scarlet/Violet book given the circumstances with the Imagined Pokemon, it would make sense given all the other Gimmick Progenitor Legends so far for Terapagos to get a new form that more closely resembles the form in the book.

Confirmed! The multi-typed turtle we saw first was actually Terapagos' terastalized form, and a special "Stellar" type grants a crown that does resemble the one seen in Scarlet/Violet book.

Walking Wake and Iron Leaves are a preview of the DLC

Much like Galarian Slowpoke before them, they merely tie into the DLC which is why we can only capture one of them for now.

Highly likely, given the reveal of more Paradox beasts/swords that will be in the dlc.
Zig-zagged. They did technically tease the fact that the Paradox Swords of Justice and Legendary beasts would be in the DLC, but nothing else.

Terapagos is partially influenced by the story of Urashima Taro.

In the story, Taro rescues a turtle and is taken to a dragon palace only to be returned to a different time period.

Half confirmed with a twist. We take Terapagos out of Area Zero instead of returning it there, but it does bring someone to a different time period, namely a past version of the version-exclusive Professor being temporarily brought to the future (that is, the game's present time).

Regional evolutions will be available in the DLC.

Specifically, there will be some similarity between the environments of the DLC locations and past regions that have featured regional forms, allowing Pokémon without regional forms that can evolve into regional forms (like Pikachu, Koffing, Cubone, and Rufflet) to evolve into said regional forms. Specifically, Kitakami, being a traditional Japan-inspired location, will enable Hisuian evolutions (Stantler, Ursaring, Quilava, Dewott, Dartrix, Petilil, Rufflet, Goomy, and Bergmite evolving into Wyrdeer, Ursaluna, Hisuian Typhlosion, Hisuian Samurott, Hisuian Decidueye, Hisuian Lilligant, Hisuian Braviary, Hisuian Sliggoo, and Hisuian Avalugg, respectively), while Blueberry Academy, being set on the ocean, will enable Alolan and Galarian evolutions (Pikachu, Cubone, Exeggcute, Koffing, and Mime Jr. evolving into Alolan Raichu, Alolan Marowak, Alolan Exeggutor, Galarian Weezing, and Galarian Mr. Mime, respectively).

Confirmed. The Terarium in Indigo Disk's Blueberry Academy is shown to have Alolan Exeggutor, making it likely other past regional forms will be obtainable.

The Indigo Disk's regional dex will list Pokémon used in the Blueberry academy.

There are no wild Pokémon in the region, so it instead doubles as a catalogue of what Pokémon they'll use such as for battling facilities and renting purposes.

Given the presence of a Wild Area-like overworld for Blueberry Academy, likely jossed.
- Mostly confirmed. The majority of Pokémon in Blueberry Academy's dex are indeed found in the Terarium, but a rare few (such as Terapagos) are found in Paldea instead.

Ogerpon's Signature Move & Ability

Signature Move:
- Night Parade:
  - Dark-Type
  - Lead your entire party to cause mayhem on your foe. This move has more power dependent on the number of Pokemon in your party that haven't fainted.
- Isn't this almost the same thing as Infernal Parade
  - Nope. Infernal Parade's a Ghost-type move that deals damage and has a chance to inflict Burn. This move is different.
- Potent Elixir:
  - Poison-Type
  - Throw a splash of elixir at your target, inflicting Confusion and lowering evasion.
Signature Ability:
- Potion's Influence: This Pokemon is immune to Confusion. Any move that would Confuse this Pokemon will instead increase evasion by 1 stage.
- Given that it's three rivals are poison type, Ogrepon being poison type is doubtful. The Direct implies it'll be Grass type. Also not sure where the focus on potions is coming from, since it has nothing to do with potions.
All jossed. It's signature ability is Embody Aspect: a new ability which only appears when Ogerpon is Terastalised and it adds a stat boost in addition to Ogerpon's pre-existing ability (in a similar vein to As One) that is dependant on what mask it is wearing.. Ogerpon's signature move is Ivy Cudgel, a Grass type, physical, 100 base power single target physical move with 100% accuracy that has an increased to crit and changes types dependant on what mask Ogerpon wears.

Returning Pokémon not found in Paldea

The Teal Mask

Confirmed:

Vulpix/Ninetales
Yanma/Yanmega
Seedot/Nuzleaf/Shiftry
Chingling/Chimecho
Feebas/Milotic
Grubbin/Charjabug/Vikavolt

Guesses:

Volbeat/Illumise, as fireflies are associated with outdoor festivals.
- Confirmed
Nincada/Ninjask/Shedinja, due to cicadas being a Japanese symbol of summertime^noteI made the guess above that should Shedinja be made available, the types that get through Wonder Guard would not be affected by Terastallization to prevent an Electric-type Shedinja with an Air Balloon from being invincible
- jossed
Jangmo-o/Hakamo-o/Kommo-o, being based on East Asian monks and the last pseudo-Legendary line not confirmed for Scarlet and Violet in some way.
- Confirmed.
Lotad/Lombre/Ludicolo, to go with their counterparts.
- Confirmed

The Indigo Disk

Confirmed:

Seel/Dewgong
Beldum/Metang/Metagross
Blitzle/Zebstrika
Cottonee/Whimsicott
Espurr/Meowstic
Milcery/Alcremie
Shaymin
Every starter

Guesses:

Geodude/Graveler/Golem, due to a Geodude silhouette used in the interface of the weather monitor in the trailer.
- Confirmed, with the regular variant appearing in The Teal Mask and the Alolan variants in The Indigo Disk.
Swinub/Piloswine/Mamoswine, due to a Mamoswine silhouette used in the interface of the weather monitor in the trailer.
- Confirmed, though appearing in The Teal Mask.
Tornadus/Thundurus/Landorus/Enamorus, as they control weather and may be the why Blueberry Academy has a weather monitor.
Vullaby/Mandibuzz. Since Rufflet/Braviary are already in the base game, their counterparts should be added either in the Teal Mask or Indigo Disk.
- Confirmed in The Teal Mask.

Kitakami will be based on the Okayama region of Japan.

This is due to the Momotaro legend's association with Okayama prefecture, and over time, Okayama became associated with Momotaro as well. The summer celebration seen in the trailer and as mentioned in the official description of "The Teal Mask" would correspond to the Momotaro Festival, held there each August.

If this winds up being true, would it be too much to hope that give it a geographic relation to the other Japanese regions and mention either "Johto/Kanto to the east" or "Hoenn to the south/south-west"?

Blueberry Academy is set off the coast of a region based on somewhere in New England or Atlantic Canada.

Naranja Academy and Uva Academy are named after fruits widely grown across Spain and have names in Spanish. Blueberry Academy may have the same basis too, with New England and Atlantic Canada^note where blueberries are native and are cultivated on a large scale. In addition, the word "Blueberry" is in English, even in its Japanese name, suggesting that whereas Naranja Academy and Uva Academy are in a region based on a Spanish-speaking area, Blueberry Academy's greater region is based on an English-speaking area.

Jossed. Briar revealed that Blueberry Academy is somewhere in the Unova Region.
- Well, close enough, considering that New York and New England geographically are very close to each other...

Indigo Disk will come with new held items that grant a second Tera Type

At the moment, Pokemon can Terastallize into a single Tera Type. In real life, turtles shed their scutes. Terapagos is based on a turtle, and each of its scutes has a type symbol. This makes me wonder if we can collect Terapagos Scutes of various types that when held grants the Pokemon a secondary Tera Type. (Ex. A Baxcalibur with a Steel Tera Type while holding a Ghost-type Terapagos Scute turns it into a Steel/Ghost-type upon Terastallizing)

Jossed, although that said, Stellar Tera does allow a dual-type Pokémon to keep its dual typing instead of having to become monotype.

The Entity will have an ability that changes its type into the type or type combination that would be most resistant to the attack that's about to be used on it

Similar to Arceus' Legend Plate, except defensive instead of offensive. Whatever attack is used on The Entity, it will either be doubly resisted or do no damage, because it will change into the type or type combo that the attack would inflict the least damage on. Here are the possible outcomes in the form of [Type]: [Entity's type combination]. Bold types and type combinations indicate that they would be more viable, since they are maximum super-effective against the opposing attacking type, as well as resisting it as much as possible:

Normal: Ghost
Grass: Any type combination combining Grass, Bug, Fire, Poison, Flying, Dragon, and Steel.
Fire: Water/Rock, Rock/Dragon, Fire/Rock, Fire/Water, Fire/Dragon or Water/Dragon.
Water: Grass/Dragon, Grass/Water, or Water/Dragon.
Electric: Ground
Ground: Flying
Bug: Any type combination combining Ghost, Fairy, Fire, Poison, Flying, Dragon, and Steel.
Rock: Steel/Ground, Fighting/Ground, or Steel/Fighting.
Fighting: Ghost
Ghost: Normal
Poison: Steel
Psychic: Dark
Dragon: Fairy
Flying: Rock/Steel, Electric/Steel, or Rock/Electric
Ice: Fire/Ice, Ice/Steel, Fire/Steel, Water/Steel, Water/Ice, or Water/Fire.
Steel: Water/Electric, Fire/Electric, Steel/Electric, Water/Fire, Water/Steel, or Fire/Steel.
Dark: Fairy/Fighting, Dark/Fighting, or Dark/Fairy.
Fairy: Steel/Fire, Steel/Poison, or Fire/Poison.

It doesn't change type, but Terapagos will make an incoming move not-very-effective when it's at full hp.

Paldean Tauros' breed is replicable.

Perhaps there'll be a new Pokémon that the Tauros can breed with to get a different sub-form.

Blueberry Academy will have a bullying problem.

In contrast to Naranja/Uva Academy having mostly taken care of its bullying problem when the player character arrives, Blueberry Academy will have continued issues with bullying. The apparent focus on Pokémon battles could be to blame, with the stronger trainers/students picking on and looking down upon the weaker trainers/students.

Overall jossed. Kiaren's antics does result in a rather unwelcoming atmosphere in the academy, but once that's dealt with, the academy is as friendly as Paldea's academy.

The four unidentified characters in the artwork for "The Indigo Disk" are Blueberry Academy's top Trainers.

They'll turn out to be the school's very own Elite Four, and defeating them will be a major part of the DLC's plot.

Confirmed! They are in fact, the school's Elite Four.

Nemona, Arven, and Penny will have some involvement in the DLC plot, but not a major role.

It's possible that one or more of them will accompany the player on their trips to Kitakami and Blueberry Academy. Of the three, Arven seems more likely to go to Kitakami (for the local food, so he can add to his own cooking knowledge), Nemona seems more likely to go to Blueberry Academy (signing up for it the moment she heard about its focus on battling), and Penny has an equal chance of doing one of them, both, or neither (either due to lack of interest or because she's on probation due to the whole "stole LP from the Pokémon League" thing).

Whoever ends up traveling with the player will probably provide someone to talk to and possibly a subplot (like how Sonia set you on the path to catching the Swords of Justice in the Sword and Shield DLC), but they won't get involved in the main plot due to a combination of their stories wrapping up for the most part in the main game and the presence of Carmine and Kieran (who'll most likely be the central human characters of both parts of the DLC).

Jossed. The three of them are not involved in this DLC's story at all.
- Zigzagged. While they do not appear for the DLC, they do appear and play a major role in the DLC's (as of the time of writing) unreleased) epilogue.

The Loyal Three are more malevolent than the stories about them suggest.

They may not turn out to be the true villains, but perhaps they fought against Ogerpon for their own self-serving reasons rather than to actively help Kitakami.

Who’s to say they couldn’t be the true villains, and Ogrepon had been unfairly framed?
As the old saying goes, "History is written by the victors". It is a possibility.
There's also the fact that those purple things they wear are chains coated with poison so potent, merely being near them can inflict Bad Poison on other Pokémon. This is not the sort of weapon good guys would use.
- Confirmed!

Lacey actually is from or related to Kitakami, and her absence is the the main cause of Teal Mask plot.

This guess is based on the fact that her Japanese name is Taro. By itself, it refers to the plant taro

, fitting the pervasive Floral Theme Naming in the franchise. However, take note that she has pink hair. Now, one of the Japanese words for pink is "momo-iro", literally "peach-colored", and that momo word is the exact same momo found in the name Momotarō (roughly, "Peach Boy"). Thus, Lacey the pink-haired is literally a momo Taro (pink Taro).

Further expanding from this, Lacey is related to both Teal Mask and Indigo Disk plots due to the fact that, in terms of folklore basis, she is "in the wrong place". Teal Mask should've been based on Momotaro, and Indigo Disk should've been based on Urashima Taro, and thus as a momo Taro, she should've been in Kitakami, but instead she displaces the Urashima Taro in Blueberry Academy, causing all sorts of problems.

Jossed. The only Blueberry Academy residents who have any role at all in Team Mask are Briar, Carmine and Kieran. Also, the actual truth about the "Momotaro legend" in Kitakami is a backwards retelling of the believed tale.
Even more Jossed by the reveal that Lacey is the daughter of a Unovan Gym leader, most likely Clay.

Professor Turo/Sada will appear at Blueberry Academy in Scarlet/Violet respectively, creating the link between the academy and Area Zero for the DLC's plot.

A common piece of Fanon is that Sada's/Turo's partner that walked out on them was the other version's professor, but their fate afterwards is unknown. With no clear connection between Blueberry Academy and Area Zero, what if that link exists in the surviving professor being a staff member at the academy? They could be a big player in the plot from that point forwards or simply nudge the player in the direction of Terapagos.

Jossed. A version of the version-exclusive professor does however appear in a special event in the Kitakami Crystal Pool.

The typings of the new Paradox Pokemon

Raging Bolt:
- Electric/Dragon
  - Confirmed.
- Electric/Dark
- Electric/Fighting
Iron Crown:
- Steel/Normal
- Steel/Ground
- Steel/Dragon
- Steel/Dark
- Steel/Psychic
  - Confirmed.
- Steel/Flying

There will be Paradox versions of Entei and Terrakion

We currently have Paradox versions of two of the three Legendary Beasts and Swords of Justice, why not complete the set? Also, if Keldeo gets a Paradox form, then Celebi may get one too.

Celebi? Why not Ho-oh, the one who actually has a connection to the Beasts.
- Celebi/Keldeo are both mythical Pokemon of Johto/Unova, while Ho-Oh is a box legendary. Including it without including Reshiram or Zekrom for the Swords would probably create a glaring imbalance.
- Zekrom and Reshiram have no connection to the Swords aside from the game they're in. Keldeo and Ho-oh are both the unoffical fourth member of the trios with a story connection to them. Several paradox pokemon have their stats lowered from their original forms, so there's no need for power imbalance.
  - Understandable, but it'd certainly be strange to see Ho-oh or a variant thereof without Lugia to go with it.
  - We can think of this as balancing the fact that Lugia starred in the DX games complete with a spiffy Shadow form.
- Confirmed! They are called Gouging Fire and Iron Boulder.

Continuing the theory above, the Paradox Legendary Beasts and Swords of Justice will be able to combine with each other to form the "Imagined Pokémon" from the Scarlet and Violet Books

The imagined Pokémon have elements of all three trio members whereas the Paradox Beasts and Swords we've seen so far are pretty clearly only based on individual members of said trios. Combining legendary or, at least, legendary-ish Pokémon is nothing new for the franchise (Kyurem with Reshiram/Zekrom, Necrozma with Solgaleo/Lunala, and Calyrex with Glastrier/Spectrier), and given the weird biology of Paradox Pokémon (especially considering that the future paradoxes are robots), it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that some of them can fuse with each other.

Jossed.

Briar is related to Brassius

They look pretty similar, and Briar's name is a reference to a plant, which coincides with Brassius being a Grass-type specialist. Plus, the term "briar" usually refers to thorny plants, and Brassius' outfit does evoke thorny plants.

Likely jossed, as she does mention Heath but says nothing about Brassius.

Briar is a descendent of Heath

She has a similar haitstyle, which we all know is the easiest way to identify descendents in pokemon, and her outfit with the red, purple, and tera-symbol earrings clearly indicates she will have story importance. Who better to take the player to the area that will allow them to encounter Terapagos than the descendent of the person who discovered it?

Confirmed.

Ogrepon's and Terapagos' unique terastal forms can only be achieved via specific held items

In other words, without their respective special held items, those two's terastal forms will be the same as any other Pokémon: A crystal crown showing the Tera type. This also means that their special terastalization come with special properties not found in regular terastalizations, especially in Terapagoss' case owing to its shell showing all types.

Jossed for Ogerpon: While it does require items to access specific special effects from Terastalisation, at its base it will still get a special form from terastal.
Also Jossed for Terapagos.

Ogrepon and the mask it wears are actually different entities; i.e. the mask is sentient, a la Majora's Mask

Unlike Terapagos whose unique terastalization significantly alters its shape, Ogrepon's terastalization seems to alter only the mask and nothing else (its legs can be seen still looking similar to its pre-terastal form), as if it's the mask that terastalizes and not the one wearing it. Plus, it's also clear that the mask is detachable. Thus the possibility that the mask is sentient, either it possesses Ogrepon, or it IS Ogrepon.

Jossed. The mask is completely nonsentient.

Drayton is related to Drayden somehow.

They both have white hair, their names sound incredibly similar, and it's heavily implied that Drayton has a preference for Dragon-types, between the Dragon-type symbols on his clothing and his ace being the part-Dragon Archaludon.

And Drayton has been stated to be from Opelucid City, and is a Dragon-Type specialist.
- Confirmed! Dialogue from Hassel confirms that Drayton is Drayden's grandchild.

Terapagos' type

In its base form, Terapagos will likely be pure Rock-type, as gemstones and crystals are a type of rock. In its unique Tera form, it will retain its Rock type and gain a secondary type based on the chosen Tera type (if its Tera type is Rock, it will still be pure Rock, but the power of Rock-type moves will be tripled instead of doubled). The icon of the Tera type will be lit up on Terapagos' shell. This means that Terapagos in its Tera form can potentially be Rock/Normal or Rock/Ghost, two type combinations that have never been seen before.

Rock/Dragon or Rock/Fairy would also make sense, as those types usually indicate something of great magical power like Terapagos seems to have.
Jossed. It's pure Normal-type like most other type-changing pokemon.

The Legendary trio Paradox Pokemon

So far, all the Legendary Beast-based Paradoxes have been part-Dragon, while the Swords of Justice-based Paradoxes have been part-Psychic. It's also been said and shown that Paradox Pokemon are stronger than their modern-day counterparts, and the new typings give them an advantage over their modern counterparts (Dragon resists Water, Electric, and Fire, while Psychic is super-effective against Fighting). Therefore, it's a reasonable assumption that the Entei-based and Terrakion-based Paradox Pokemon will follow that pattern, being Fire/Dragon and Rock/Psychic respectively.

Confirmed! Gouging Fire and Iron Boulder are indeed Fire/Dragon and Rock/Psychic.

The Timeless Woods will be a location where...

Celebi can be found. Celebi is a mythical Pokémon like Deoxys and Keldeo and there's been a recent tread where Mythicals are easily given out but in a way that makes them catchable by the player. Given the name Timeless Woods, and the fact that Celebi's shrine in Johto is in the Ilex Forest there may be a connection to our favorite time travelling onion fairy and this new location. All that and Perrin is trying to find a certain Pokémon to take a photograph of it.
Extinct Pokemon or variants will be found. This includes fossils as well as the Hisuian forms.
- Semi-confirmed: it's the home of an Ursaluna variant, but that and White-Striped Basculin are the only Hisui Pokémon there.
The player character from Legends Arceus will be found and battleable just like Red once was on Mt Silver.
- Jossed.

All members of the Blueberry Academy’s Elite Four have at least one new Pokemon introduced in the DLC on their teams.

It wouldn’t really make much sense if only the one member got one new Pokemon, total.

Jossed.

The "champion" of the Blueberry Academy league will be the opposite gender player character.

For a brief moment in the trailers we see a person appear and challenger the player character to a battle, but we never see their face. While others may suggest this is Kieran there is also another viable candidate: the player character who is not chosen. The games have added in the unused trainer as an NPC before, especially in Gens 3 and 6 as a central rival. It's possible the trainer of the gender not chosen by the player will instead be at Blueberry Academy and rise in their ranks to become the Champion of their league.

Jossed. It's Kieran.

The new "Rainbow" type and how to get it

As seen in the August 2023 trailer footage, there appears to be a 19th Tera type. The icon of said type resembles a rainbow version of Terapagos' shell, and it's used by a Pokémon other than Terapagos in the trailer. As such, there's a good chance that Terapagos in its unique Tera form will serve as the Final Boss of the Indigo Disk DLC, and once it's defeated, it will drop the item that gives it it's unique Tera form. Said item can then be given to any Pokémon so it can obtain the "Rainbow" Tera type.

Zigzagged. Terapagos does serve as final boss, but it doesn't give out the unique item. Instead it's obtained post game by battling rare wild terastallized Pokémon or forking over 50 Stellar Tera shards like other types.

The bullies who picked on Team Star wound up at Blueberry Academy.

We never did get to see who they were, and they're only mentioned in passing in conversation. If they were expelled out of Naranja or Uva, perhaps they enrolled instead at Blueberry, where they can pick on other students through Pokémon battling, and the administration turns a blind eye to it. For that matter, perhaps Blueberry Academy's Elite Four are among those bullies themselves...

This doesn't happen.

The odd cubes found in the Terarium were mined from Area Zero.

They have the same iridescent gleam and glowing sheen as the crystals in Area Zero, and like the crystals there, continue to be well-lit when the environment goes dark if a Pokémon is Terastallized. Though the primary purpose seems to be to artifically allow Terastallization to work at Blueberry Academy, this also means they have a contact with someone who can go in and out of Area Zero freely, extract huge crystals from there, and do it all without the people of Paldea noticing. That, in turn, suggests something very shady is going on at that school.

Jossed.

Dripplin will not have a net gain in its BST when it evolves.

This would prevent Flapple and Appletun from being inferior branches.

Jossed.

"The Teal Mask" DLC post-release WMG

Dipplin will have an evolution

The Totem Pole Trench aspect of its design feels like it can develop even further given that it isn't explored much through its in-game animations, such as both wyrms in the apple fully developing and resembling a two-headed apple dragon. This theory really started to gain traction with the fanbase when it was discovered that Dipplin is affected by holding an Eviolite, which many fans speculate is more than just a mere oversight. Kieran will probably use it on his team in The Indigo Disk.

Confirmed! It's called Hydrapple and is still a Grass/Dragon type.

Kieran has been somehow possessed by something that has magnified his worst traits and will need to be dealt with in Part 2. This thing may also explain how the Loyal Three resurrected.

Carmine repeatedly points out how his behavior goes beyond simply being angry or upset, and the game goes out of its way to show how extreme he is reacting, be it the manic motions or the sheer disconcerting lack of light in his eyes during the final battle with him in Kitakami. Maybe he really did just snap and there's nothing more to it, but the hints are there if the story wants to go there.

For now this theory is Jossed.

BB League Elite Four will serve as the Psycho Rangers to our Paldean protagonists

Building upon the theory above that bullying is pervasive in Blueberry Academy, the Elite Four will serve as an antagonistic parody of the Paldean protagonists.

Crispin as psycho-Arven: Both are Chef of Iron, but Crispin probably came from a privileged background and is loved by BBA students, in contrast to Arven who takes care of himself despite his famous background.
Amarys as psycho-Penny: Both are bespectacled and emotionally-subdued, but the fact that Amarys seems to hold a stopwatch at the start of her battle suggests she's a Neat Freak and a Clock King on top of being an expert battler being an Elite Four, in complete contrast to Penny who's disorganized and not quite competent at actual battling.
Drayton as psycho-Nemona: They have so much contrast between them: Drayton is an academic Lazy Bum who has repeated a school year several times, while Nemona is a hard-working Student Council President. Drayton seems emotionally laid-back, Nemona is Genki Girl par excellence. Drayton's ace is a Dragon-type a.k.a. a rare, pompous, better-than-you kind of type, while Nemona's ace is a mere starter Pokémon.
Lacey as psycho-Juliana/Florian: A nice person and the face of the team, and the strongest trainer among their gang.
A connection is never drawn and bullying isn't a major element. Also they aren't antagonists.

Heath was the visitor who befriended Ogrepon and was shunned by the Kitakami natives

Kieran's grandfather mentions that the unwelcome visitor came from a foreign land (could be Paldea) and he brought some sparkling stones with him that the late mask-maker incorporated into the masks he gave to the foreigner and Ogrepon. We know that the gemstones that adorn Ogrepon's masks are tera crystals, to the point that it takes tera crystals found at the summit of Oni Mountain to repair the Teal Mask.

What if Heath left Paldea after public began to scorn his Scarlet/Violet book? The base game does mention that public opinion on Heath slowly soured as they accused him of making things up, so perhaps after he couldn't take it anymore, he took all his prized possessions (including some tera crystals) and departed to parts unknown, maybe even leaving behind his family (who might or might not have joined in dissing him), eventually meeting Ogrepon and arriving at Kitakami. This could also help explain why Briar, his descendant, is interested in Kitakami; not just because there are tera crystals there, but also because Kitakami was her ancestor's last resting place, so she could actually be going there as pilgrimage.

Some tropers mentioned that, assuming Kieran was accurate, six generations have come and gone since the foreign man arrived, and Heath was alive about 200 years ago. 33-ish year per generation is not impossible, although admittedly rural places like Kitakami would more likely encourage women to give birth sooner.

Heath looks nothing like the man accompanying Ogrepon in the flashback; the man is much larger and broader, and has long hair with a ponytail. Ogrepon's companion is also implied to be killed by the Loyal Three. Being dead would make it impossible for him to have descendents (and it seems unlikely he'd have had children beforehand if he's such an outcast that he's living in a cave with an ogre).

Alternatively, the man who befriended Ogerpon was AZ

According to AZ, after he had used the Ultimate Weapon he had spent the next 3,000 years wandering the world in search of Floette. While traveling the world, it's likely that at some point he would have wound up in Kitakami, and as he's immortal, this visit could have happened anywhere within the past 3,000 years.Designwise, AZ and the man in the story match up quite well. Both are shown to be tall, disheveled men with noticeably long hair, albeit the man in the story wears his hair in a ponytail. If this man was in fact AZ, that would also explain why the townspeople feared him, as most people would likely find a 9-foot tall wanderer to be a frightening site.

There is also precedent given to him befriending Ogerpon, as while his Floette had held a special place in his heart, he has been shown to have formed bonds with other Pokémon, particularly his Torkoal, Golurk, and Sigilyph that he uses to battle, meaning it's just as possible that he could have formed a bond with Ogerpon as well.

The only noticeable contradiction in this theory would be the implied death of the man who befriended Ogerpon, as AZ is very clearly still alive. Since this "death" was left rather ambiguous however, it doesn't completely count this out of the possibility.

AZ and the man have a completely different build. The man is very muscular and AZ is a human beanpole.

“The Visitor” could be extremely evil

Has anyone wondered why "the Visitor" has no body found? I don’t believe that the Loyal Three killed him and then dropped his body in the water because dead bodies float. I think "the Visitor" had disappeared like ran away to make it look like he died to make Ogerpon get mad. When Ogerpon killed the Loyal Three, I don’t think she was trying to kill them, I think she was trying to save them from their Toxic Chains but "the Visitor" in disguise surprised Ogerpon into killing the Loyal Three, starting the plot of the Ogerpon’s bad publicity in the first place. I believe "the Visitor" was working with Pecharunt this entire time and was only pretending to be Ogerpon’s friend.

This would make the villagers completely right in not trusting him, lessening the "judging outsiders is bad" moral Mossui Town needed to learn, not to mention make Ogerpon an even bigger woobie than she already was. While it's certainly possible that Pecharunt could've influenced him to some extent, it feels really unecessary.

An Irida descendant will be introduced in The Indigo Disk DLC

Contrasting with Perrin, he will be a man and he'll have a different skill/interest (perhaps painting landscapes?). Given that Perrin's Reunion Vow farewell suggests that she'll be present in the Indigo Disk as well, maybe the two will be depicted as rivals (for a mild History Repeats gag) or close friends (to show that the Diamond and Pearl Clans truly have abandoned their rivalry).

Jossed.

Alternatively, Perrin is also an Irida descendant

Either the shippers were right all along or Adaman and Irida had descendants who then hooked up with each other.

Characters from Unova will make an appearance in The Indigo Disk DLC

Potential examples are:

Cheren (he became a teacher in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2; perhaps he ended up being "promoted" to working at Blueberry Academy after gaining more experience, though since he's a gym leader, it's more likely he'll be a "guest lecturer" of sorts; as a bonus, he'll be given another redesign to show how much time has passed since the last time we visited Unova)
Bianca (if Cheren appears, Bianca will likely appear as well, possibly as a full-fledged Pokemon Professor this time)
Hilbert/Hilda (given their status as player characters, it's possible that they won't appear in-person, but they'll likely be mentioned somewhat prominently, such as having someone talk about "a hero who saved this region many years ago")
N (rounding out the "main" characters of Black and White, N is popular enough that he'll likely have an appearance or at least a cameo in the story)
Rosa/Nate (for the same reason as Hilbert/Hilda)
Hugh (perhaps as a disciple of Cheren's)
Emmet (obviously researching at Blueberry Academy to look for clues regarding his missing brother)
Benga (if Alder is also a faller, as some have theorized due to a portrait resembling him being in the Diamond and Pearl Clan camps, then maybe Benga will also be looking for leads on where his grandpa disappeared to)
Alder (alternatively, Alder's still around and as the former champion, he shows up to give trainers pointers)
Members of the Elite Four (we've already seen Grismley in Alola, so having Caitlin, Shauntal and Marshal appear would be appropriate. Perhaps we'll also meet Grimsley's replacement)
Colress (he already returned in Sun and Moon, so maybe he'll show up here too)
Iris (she's presumably still champion of the region; plus, if Drayton is related to Drayden, it would mean Iris is sort of related to Drayton too, since she's basically Drayden's adoptive daughter)
All jossed.

The Loyal Three have changed their ways after being defeated by the player.

Similar to how Giratina had a change of heart after the player beats it in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Loyal Three had some time to reflect on their behavior after getting defeated by you. Rather than fleeing the region once they become more known for their true nature, they wait for the player in the same places where their Titanic battles took place so that they can be caught by them.

Confirmed.

The nature (pun intended) of Ogerpon, or, what it was based on.

Her typing is pure Grass-type with the Teal Mask, and becomes Grass/Secondary when another mask is used on her. Her face is orange, she is wearing what appears to be a green dress with white flowers and yellow dots; she has long black legs with two sprouts between her toes. Her leafy cloak changes colour, but the green stalk on her head does not. With this information, it is possible to assume she was based on a type of gourd or calabash.

The orange face made me think she was meant to be a peach, because momotaro.

Ogerpon wasn't nervous around Kieran because he was a stranger to her. She was afraid of him.

Pokémon tend to be more sensitive of people’s emotions like animals in real life. It could be that Ogerpon could tell something was off about Kieran, which is why she doesn’t accept the teal mask from him. He has come up to her cave multiple times before and he never met her until the player shows up.

Another possibility is that Ogerpon is afraid of Kitakami natives in general and not just Kieran. Some scenes that can be taken as evidence for this:
- Ogerpon's instant liking to you seems to indicate that she recognizes you as a fellow foreigner, and yet the two times she sees you with a Kitakami native, she'd rather leave the scene: She hides behind a rock when you and Kieran investigate the Dreaded Den, and despite having been chummy with you she instantly flees when Carmine catches up to you, even abandoning her Teal Mask instead of trying to take it from your hand when Carmine is standing nearby.
  - She does warm up to Carmine fairly quickly while you and Carmine are getting her other masks, though, which is notably before Kieran tells the real story to the other villagers. Ogerpon might still be able to tell that the player character is a foreigner, but this at least indicates that she's capable of judging the Kitakami natives on an individual basis.
- Carmine's grandpa seems surprised to learn that Ogerpon still visits the Festival of Masks, suggesting that no one in his family has seen Ogerpon for ages despite their ancestor's hospitality to Ogerpon and her companion. The fact that you notice that Ogerpon is standing where no one notices her suggests that she tries her best not to be noticed by the natives, and meeting you, a foreigner, drops her guard.
- Ogerpon is clearly reluctant to enter Mossui Town, and even after Kieran assures her it's ok, she still cowers in fear until she finds out that the villagers have changed their opinion on her.

Hence, it seems more like Ogerpon fears the Kitakami natives than feeling uneasy near only Kieran; she thinks the natives will mob her owing to that long-past misunderstanding.

There will be a "Momotaro" Pokémon revealed in the Indigo Disk, and its presence/abilities will answer various lingering questions from the Teal Mask' story.

A partially hidden asset used during the flashback of the Loyal Three during the Teal Mask shows a fourth figure as a peach-like face, who likewise resembles the shape at the end of the poison chain each of the Loyal Three wear. This and their designation as Retainer Pokémon indicates they are in service to something else. Other datamined info indicates the existence of something called Dokutaro (basically meaning "poison Momotaro").

Zigzagged. A Momotaro Pokémon exists now, named Pecharunt. However, it is as of currently unreleased and it does not appear in the Indigo Disk storyline at all.
- Very confirmed thanks to dataminers! Pecharunt's event story confirmed it can brainwash others, which is why the Loyal Three went evil.

Following up on this, the "Momotaro" pokemon will also be an antagonist, and will be Kieran's partner in the next part of the dlc.

Since the Loyal Three turned out to be villans, it would make sense for the "Momotaro" pokemon to be bad as well. Kieran will form a bond with it after being rejected by Ogerpon and they'll try to work together to take down the player. For bonus points, taking note of an aforementioned WMG about how something may be responsible for Kieran's worsening Sanity Slippage, this "Momotaro" may have been the cause in question, akin to how Nihilego drove Lusamine insane the last time (especially since, if this "Momotaro" indeed is Dokutaro, both Dokutaro and Nihilego are Poison-types whose poison affects the mind).

Jossed.
- Zigagged. Pecharunt is an antagonist, but it doesn't become Kieran's partner. It's implied, however, that the Pokemon was the reason of Kieran's worsening behavior.

Why Bloodmoon Ursaluna is there in the first place

The Bloodmoon Ursaluna is said to have crossed the sea to Kitakami. Since it's a bear, who are known to love to eat salmon, it may have followed the salmon-inspired Basculegion, who can be naturally found in the region and likely migrated there from Hisui across the water, prompting the bear to follow.

Briar will turn out to be a Corrupted Character Copy of Arven, similar to how Carmine and Kieran served as ones to Nemona and Penny.

Like Arven, Briar has a relative who did plenty of research on the various phenomena related to Area Zero. However, unlike Arven, who has no fond memories of his parent and (initially) wants nothing to do with their research, Briar wants to continue Heath's research and prove he was right — and much like Sada/Turo before her, this could easily turn into a manic obsesssion.

I fail to see how Carmine and Kieran are 'copies' of Nemona and Penny.

There will be an unseen fourth legendary (fifth if we consider Ogerpon as the third and Terapagos fourth) to serve as the ultimate final boss of Indigo Disk, and it will be related to Kieran

By now many of us have suspected that the professor's time machine, which is powered by (if not made of) tera crystals, doesn't actually pull Paradox Pokémon from beyond the boundary of time, but instead creates new lifeforms that have too much uncanny resemblance with the cryptids described in dubious paranormal books. Hence, Paradox Pokémon most likely came into existence because the professors read those magazines, got intrigued by the many cryptids seen there and then wished to see them in the flesh, and the "time machine" created the Paradox Pokémon according to their wish.

With this in mind, given how insane Kieran has gone by the end of Teal Mask and how even more insane he will become by the end of Indigo Disk (since as an NPC in a Pokémon game he's pretty much doomed to lose to our player character), he may absentmindedly "wish" for something, anything to give him the means to finally beat you... and the tera crystals, whether in Blueberry Academy or in Area Zero, answers his wish and conjures a Paradox monstrosity to satisfy his desire to obliterate you. For bonus point, owing to Kieran's obsession for Ogerpon, this conjured Paradox Pokémon may very well be something like a Paradox Ogerpon.

Jossed.

The trainers you can invite to your League Room in Blueberry Academy will serve as Superboss fielding high-90s or even lv 100 teams

Judging from the trailer, it seems you can only invite one Paldean trainer at a time to your League Room, whom you can then chat and battle with. Perhaps to ramp up the challenge against one single trainer you can battle again and again as well as to discourage "bullying" by picking on the easiest of them, the game will make those invited trainers field superboss-level teams, either high level 90s or even 100, complete with proper investment in items, IVs, EVs, natures and abilities to ensure that this trainer you can fight at your own leisure with exact proper planning won't go down too easily. In return, you'll get some Bragging Rights Reward for beating said trainers at the very top of their game.

Kind of confirmed. They're all slightly to significantly higher leveled than they were previously, though in the 80s rather than 90s or 100, and you do get some small cosmetic awards for beating them. Also, you can invite up to two instead of just one at a time.

Ogerpon's owner/partner in the Kitakami legend might be based on Kintaro

Here's my theory: Kintaro is a Japanese folk tale hero - almost as ubiquitous as Momotaro in terms of how known his tale is. He is most famous for being huge, red-skinned and strong - cutscenes of Ogerpon's backstory reveal that her owner/partner was... Top-heavy at least. He (and Ogerpon) was ostracized for his different appearance. Kintaro's legend states that he caught the Shuten-Doji - a type of oni (and Ogerpon is based on an oni). Also... It's said that Kintaro avoided the death from the oni's head biting him due to Kintaro stacking multiple (he wore 3 helmets - one was his and the two others were from his warriors) helmets (there are 4 masks for Ogerpon (however, only 3 are actual held items, with Teal Mask being the default one - and when Ogerpon Terastalizes, it's masks are there in front of it, like a shield/helmet).

The tera crystals in the Teal Mask granted Kieran's wish for everyone to know the truth about Ogrepon and the Loyal Three by bringing the Loyal Three back to life so the villagers could see for themselves their true nature.

The Loyal Three have a benefactor that’s an Evil Counterpart to Terapagos.

The Loyal Three are all known as “Retainer Pokémon,” meaning there is somebody they answer to. It’s also no coincidence that they were all weak, then were given power to turn their weaknesses into strengths, which is likely what they wished for. If we go by the theory that Terapagos grants wishes, this would mean there is another wish-granting Pokémon out there, and one who isn’t as benevolent as Terapagos granting wishes via poison instead of…whatever Terapagos does. Note also that the Loyal Three all have yellow sclera, just like the Ancient Paradox Pokémon. If Kieran suddenly has yellow sclera in Indigo Disk, watch out.

Kieran's eyes are already yellow, though.
- His irises are; his sclera could still turn yellow (though Fezandipity's are more whitish-looking than the other two).
Seemingly confirmed. Datamines for the Indigo Disk have revealed a new Mythical Pokémon that appears to be based on a peach (being the Momotaro to the Loyal Three) which is also part-Poison type and appears to use the same toxic chains that the Loyal Three use.
- Jossed on the "Evil Counterpart to Terapagos" part though.

If Emmet returns, Perrin will help him with researching Hisui

She already knows a fair amount about the Hisui region and her Reunion Vow line suggests she will return in the Indigo Disk. If Emmet is present, then who better to explain the history of Hisui to him than Perrin?

Kieran's Furret and/or Cramorant will make a returning appearance in The Indigo Disk.

They may either make a cameo in Kieran's dorm room, or even be re-integrated into his Pokémon team to indicate a point where he overcomes his obsession with getting stronger.

Jossed.

Speculation on the types which the BB Elite Four will specialise in.

Lacey:
- Fairy
  - Confirmed.
- Ground
  - Amusingly, she does have an Excadrill, though she terastallizes it into Fairy-type anyway.
- Poison
Crispin:
- Fire
  - Confirmed.
- A mix of Fire and Grass
  - Semi-confirmed. He has an Exeggutor, which has Solar Beam and can use it instantly due to his Talonflame setting up the sun.
Amarys:
- Steel
  - Confirmed.
- Water
- Electric
Drayton:
- Dragon
  - Confirmed.
- Steel

Poppy was an actual adult woman who got regressed into a child by tera crystals/Terapagos

This WMG is basically a combination of two earlier WMGs: That Poppy is actually an adult who just so happens to look like a child and capitalizes on that to surprise unsuspecting trainers with her battle prowess, and that tera crystals or even Terapagos is actually something of a wish-granter.

Basically, perhaps Poppy was an actual adult woman in the past, then at some point she absent-mindedly said something along the line of "I wish I looked younger" when she was maybe researching in Area Zero or when she unknowingly was within an earshot of Terapagos. This resulted in her waking the next morning in the body of a child, which indeed makes her look younger.

If this happened, it would probably be noticed and commented on, IE the profs would realize their time machine is actually a wish machine. When characters look younger than they are, it's usually commented on, IE Lusamine. Poppy doesn't just look young, she clearly acts and thinks like a child and is treated as such by the other E4. Also, Poppy is not and has never been suggested to be an Area Zero researcher or to have ever been there.
- Jossed. She's just a 9-year olf girl who somehow managed to climb all the way up to the Pokémon League, that's all.

Kieran will be the "champion" of the Blueberry Elite Four.

Every Elite Four needs a champion, and since Kieran is dead set on becoming stronger than the player, beating the strongest trainers of Blueberry Academy sounds like something he'd maybe try to do in order to prepare himself for your next encounter with him.

Confirmed! Although, not really for long...

Terapagos is not the true source of Tera crystals/terastal phenomenon

One particular pervasive theme in Scarlet and Violet, including Teal Mask, is that things are often more than meet the eye, and aside from Victory Road, each subplot showcases this theme:

Path of Legends: We first see Arven as an abrasive jerk, only to learn later that he's a stressed-out boy who hasn't seen his parents in ages and nearly loses his only friend. In fact, while he still remains a bit caustic in the end, he's definitely a whole lot nicer once we help him with his problems.
Starfall Street: Team Star, the so-called school bully, is actually the victim of bullying, and their undeserved reputation stems from their bullies bailing out upon being fought back and then-school staffs not helping to clear things up. Also, many people are surprised that the leader of Team Star is an assuming snarky pipsqueak that is Penny.
The Way Home: The professor you've been interacting throughout the game is actually a robot copy. In addition, while no doubt a respectable researcher, the actual professor is also a nutcase who's perfectly fine with bringing invasive species (and dangerous ones at that) onto Paldea just for the sake of making their paradise.
The Teal Mask: Ogerpon went through pretty much the same trauma as Team Star: she killed the Loyal Three out of revenge for stealing her masks and (presumably) killing her companion, but instead the townsfolk thought she was a heartless murderer and her bullies ended up being unjustly revered.

With this in mind, the Indigo Disk story might not be a straightforward quest to find Terapagos and stop it from causing more problem in Paldea (and beyond) with its Terastal powers, but instead the quest to discover something else that is the true cause of Tera crystals' existence.

Admittedly, this WMG has one wringer: The Teal Mask has clarified via Heath's original manuscript in Briar's hand that Heath did suspect that Terapagos' body contains Tera crystals, the material that causes terastal phenomenon. However, as a counter-argument against this wringer, Ogerpon, despite seemingly not from Area Zero, is able to achieve a unique terastallization no other Pokémon has displayed before, meaning that just because you are not made of Tera crystals doesn't mean you can't do special things about it. Hence, going back to the "more than meets the eye" mentality, Terapagos probably didn't cause terastal phenomenon or create Tera crystals, but merely is so attuned to Tera crystals that it can also achieve a unique terastallization even if it isn't the progenitor of terastal phenomenon and merely decorates its shell with Tera crystals. For bonus points, if Terapagos' benevolent portrayal in Pokémon Horizons carries over into the game (namely, how it protects Liko and Sprigatito from Amethio's Ceruledge), maybe Terapagos is deep under Area Zero to protect Paldea from the true source of Tera crystals, even as it's slowly losing grounds (similar to how Zelda traps Calamity Ganon for a century before it musters enough might to overpower her).

Jossed, jossed, jossed. It's stated multiple times that Terapagos is the source of the Terastal phenomenon.

If Briar really is the villain and manipulating Kieran, she'll establish herself as the Viler New Villain in comparison to Sada/Turo by trying to kill him.

In the promotional image for The Indigo Disk, we see the protagonists, Carmine, Briar and Kieran all reflected in crystals, and the expressions on the latter three (fear, triumph and uncertainty respectively) and the fact that Kieran's crystal is the only one that's shattered all suggest that something really bad is going to happen in the final confrontation. Likely, Briar will reach a point where she decides Kieran has become a liability to her and try to dispose of him. She most likely won't succeed, because children's game, but it will still be a dramatic turning point that shows just how unhinged she is and just how far she's willing to go in order to acheive her goal.

It will also establish that, unlike Sada/Turo who were Well Intentioned Extremists who did evil things for what they believed was a good cause, Briar is entirely self-serving and willing to harm others just for her own gain.

As an additional point, maybe Briar isn't a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing from the very start, but rather, she becomes an unhinged villain because she snapped after discovering that her ancestor Heath really did lie about his findings in Area Zero, sending her into a denial in her attempts to vindicate him which prompts her to use Kieran in her plans.
Jossed. Briar is not really a villain, more of a Terastal fanatic who unintentionally acts as an echo chamber to Kieran's darker side.

The Blueberry Academy is a teaser for the expected (and inevitable?) Black/White remake

HEAVY SPOILERS!

Lacey is the first one to meet the player when they land on Blueberry, and professor Cyrano mentions her father is a Gym Leader in Unova, speculated out-of-universe to be Ground-type Clay.
Drayden is speculated to be Drayton's son, due to some physical resemblance between both and the fact that they are Dragon-type trainers.
With this in mind, it is possible to connect Amarys to Lenore, the Normal-type Gym Leader, leaving Crispin the only one out and lacking a connection to Unova, though he could be seen as an apprentice to Chilli, the Fire-type triplet.
- Crispin is from Virbank and Amarys is from Castelia so they do have more subtle connections to Unova.

The sun will eventually set and rise once more on Paldea.

Not talking about remakes that are way off and this will contain spoilers(duh), playing the core game ends with the opening screen changing to be an open window with the scarlet/violet book, as well as the Raidon's pokeball, gone. However, upon completing the Indigo Disk's storyline and travelling to Kitakami's crystal pools, Terapagos will call a past/paradoxal version of the game's respective professor upon which we trade Briar's book about the events that had transpired for the Professor's scarlet/violet book prompting the screen to return to the title with the book returned and the window still opened showing a setting sun. However, with the evolving credits as it were being an occurance prompted throughout story, it is likely there will be something to prompt a complete Nightfall and potentially a Daybreak. The question is how this will happen.

Considering the title screen changes after The Way Home and The Indigo Disk, it seems likely that it'll change again after the epilogue is completed. The question is whether it'll turn into night or morning, and, if the latter, whether there'll be an "in between" screen after the epilogue has been started.

Bloodmoon Ursaluna is the Noble Ursaluna

The Bloodmoon Ursaluna we encounter is the Noble Ursaluna from Pokemon Legends: Arceus. He travelled south to Kitakami due to the Sinnoh region having become more populated and industrial in nature. He looks different due to aging and being weathered during his travels.

"The Indigo Disk" DLC post-release WMG

Ogerpon will end up confronting Pecharunt in the post-game of the Indigo Disk.

Between Kitakami's specialty food being mochi, the fact that Pecharunt's dex entry specifically references poisoned mochi being fed to humans and Pokemon, the various datamines revealing 'zombie' NPCs in Kitakami, and the Pecharunt decoration at a mochi stall with one of said zombie NPCs, I can see an event where Pecharunt decides to act more directly after its Loyal Three underlings are captured and defeated. This could ultimately set the stage for a confrontation between Ogerpon and Pecharunt - narratively fitting, given Pecharunt is likely the reason why she suffered the loss of her companion, her masks, and being ostracised for years in the first place.

Videos about the epilogue material have surfaced, and they show this is Zig-zagged. Ogerpon is not scripted to interact with Pecharunt in anyway. However, you can bring her to your fight against Pecharunt. In addition, Pecahrunt does not appear to be doing this out of any specific desire to harm Ogerpon, but seemingly just to cause even more chaos and mayhem.
- There are special battle cutscenes that occur if you bring out Ogerpon and/or the Loyal Three, but nothing more than that.

Walking Wake, Raging Bolt, and Gouging Fire are the Pokémon that were originally trapped in the Brass Tower.

Their bodies were burned enough by the time Ho-Oh found them that it didn't manage to resurrect them properly, giving us the Suicune, Raikou, and Entei we know today.

Alternately, they're ancient ancestors of the Pokémon Ho-oh reserrected.

The Synchro Mechanic is secretly the devs testing ideas for a future game.

The idea of a feature in a game being a secret test for something else down the line isn't unheard of, so perhaps the idea of playing or fighting as your Pokemon could be a key part of a future game, mainline or spinoff. Perhaps something like a new Pokepark, a Pokken Tournament sequel, a new spin on Mystery Dungeon, or something else entirely.

Kieran stopped caring about his Pokémon during his quest to become stronger.

Due to how obsessed he became with defeating the player, he most likely mistreated his team and pushed them abnormally hard. He stopped seeing them as his companions and more like weapons, not caring if they got exhausted. If they showed wear, he probably boxed them or released them and simply went with other Pokémon. It’s also very likely that he would have been terrible to Terapagos if he kept it since it wasn’t as strong as he thought it would be.

Base form Terapagos will make appearance in future games... as a more common specimen whose ability is not Tera Shift

There are hints that there used to be more Terapagoses until something reduced their numbers to a single specimen deep beneath Area Zero: Not only its Violet dex entry specifically said there were more, but Terapagos could be either gender even though the one we get in Indigo Disk is only male. This opens up the possibility of finding an area in a future game where Terapagoses thrive freely. However, to preserve some out-of-universe balance considering how good Terastal-form Terapagos and especially Stellar Terapagos is, these common Terapagoses, whose BST is honestly kinda subpar (450 is pretty awful for a legendary), will have a different ability instead of Tera Shift, and this ability cannot be changed via Ability Capsule or Ability Patch. Think of Indigo Disk's Terapagos as something like an Own Tempo Rockruff, a special breed who only share name and typing with its regular specimens, or something like Bloodmoon Ursaluna, an entirely separate form of common Ursaluna..

Cyrano brought you to Blueberry Academy to solve the problem with Kieran.

Cyrano had been receiving reports about Kieran causing problems with the League Club and how his change in behavior happened after returning from Kitakami. The teacher NPCs confirm in-game that they’re aware of the problem and some might have reported it to Cyrano. Rather than taking some justifiable disciplinary actions against Kieran, he chooses to seek out the player whom he’s heard about through Carmine to help knock some sense into Kieran.

Credibility on Snacksworth's stories

Snacksworth is this game's answer to "Catching past generation Pokemon in the second half of the generation", though there are a few holes in his stories. Many of the Legendary Pokemon he encountered just happened to land next to him as he was having lunch, while multiple trainers (Even Kieran) have spent their whole lives trying to search, summon, and catch Legendary Pokemon. Although given the snacks do work, perhaps there is some truth to his stories. And speaking of good luck...

Snacksworth is the player character for a future game

There is only one other trainer in the entire series who casually approaches Legendary Pokemon and have few, if any, comments from others about this: The player character(s). Which implies maybe he *was* the player character from somewhere in a faraway region we haven't seen yet, or from the past.

Fossil Pokémon and Lapras were transported to the Terarium by Professor Sada’s/Turo’s Time Machine

How in the world did Fossil Pokémon get in the Terarium? I believe that this was Sada’s/Turo’s doing? They must have brought many Pokémon from the Pokémon Red Timeline, the Pokémon Blue Timeline, the Pokémon Yellow timeline and many other timeline too, along with Lapas and maybe other Pokémon

Unnecessary and unlikely for several reasons. We know from other games that there are wild populations of Fossil Pokémon derived from revived fossils, and that Lapras are no longer endangered (not that they'd be unreasonable to appear in the Terarium even if they were still endangered, given all the other rare Pokémon found there). Sada/Turo are never implied to have summoned anything but Paradox Pokémon, and they may well have been dead before the Terarium was even built.

Ogerpon is a female Mega Man X

Let's see:

Both have a longtime friend.
Both see their friend die.
Both have to deal with a trio.
Both have basically been sealed away for a long time (Literally in X's case, figuratively in Ogerpon)
Both trios consist of a Speed, Smarts and Strength core with a bigger evil behind the trio who can control others via their means to bend to their will:
- Okidogi and Violen are the the muscle of the group
- Munkidori and Serges are the brains of the trio
- Fezandipiti and Agile are the lean speedy member
- The Loyal Three's leader is Pecharunt who controls others via poisonous Mochi while Sigma uses the Sigma virus to control other reploids to do his bidding.
Both have their default weapon replaced by another weapon of their choice (X's Variable Weapon System changes the weapon that you fire, defaulting to the Mega Buster while Ogerpon has her masks that changes the typing of Ivy Cudgel, defaulting to Grass without any mask equipped)

The reason why the Terapagos we catch is super tiny is because it's actually a juvenile of its species

Building upon the speculation that there used to be more Terapagoses before the events of the game based on Dex entries and the fact that Terapagos could be either male or female, perhaps Terapagoses can actually sire offsprings, meaning that the Terapagos we catch may not be the very first Terapagos who first came to be in Paldea (whether via spontaneous genesis or arriving from space etc) two million years ago. This also opens up the possibility that the stupendously enormous Terapagos Heath saw actually did exist (or perhaps even still exists somewhere), and we only happen to see the hatchling of its species.

Building from the above theory of our Terapagos being a baby, we may see its adult form in a future game and it'll be named Stellapagos

Terapagos already has many star motifs in its design: star shapes all over its body, a form called Stellar Form, and a unique move named Tera Starstorm, plus the implication that it came from space. So, having its adult form being named Stellapagos seems to be quite basic, and even quite simple-but-clever in Japanese, as its name goes from Te-Ra-Pa-Go-Su to Su-Te-Ra-Pa-Go-Su.

Pecharunt was looking for new servants after losing the Loyal Three.

It seems like Pecharunt relies on others to do its dirty work and doesn’t care if it has to force people to eat its toxic mochi. As Kieran points out before the Penny-Arven double battle that it’s hiding behind your friends and telling them to battle you and Kieran. It seems like it took a liking to Nemona when she reveals herself to be under Pecharunt’s control possibly because Nemona is so passionate about Pokémon battles. It could be that it thought it had the perfect minion only to be upset when you defeat her.

The reason Terapagos instantly starts approaching the player before Kieran captures it...

...is because of a Stable Time Loop, or a close interdimensional equivalent.

Nobody knew about Pecharunt because it fled when Ogerpon showed up to kill the Loyal Three.

Given the personality it has, it makes sense that Pecharunt would abandon its minions to save its own skin.

Jossed, it was too fearful and slow to get away before being attacked.

Alternatively, Pecharunt was badly injured by Ogerpon alongside the Loyal Three.

Unlike the Loyal Three, it wasn't killed, but it was so badly weakened that it was forced to go into hiding. It regained its power via the Mythical Pecha Berry.

Considering Ogerpon has a special reaction if you send her out against Pecharunt, it's heavily implied that Pecharunt was at least there at the start of the incident. Fleeing also wouldn't be out of character for it, so it seems like some combination of these two WMGs is likely what happened.
Confirmed, after being attacked it used the last of its strength to withdraw into its shell where it went dormant, presumably being picked up by a Kitakami local some time later and mistaken for a decoration.

Ogerpon's trainer did die from the altercation, but not right away

Leaving the mask behind so that Ogerpon would have it for defense if needed, he went to the Mask Maker to seek medical help for his injuries, and told him what had happened. This is how the otherwise unknowable details of what happened in the cave became part of the story the Mask Maker passed down, and why was there when Fezandipiti and Okidogi fled in Pecharunt's lore video, but was not there when Ogerpon returned during the flashback story in the main game. However, for one reason or another, help was not possible for the man and he died not long after. The Mask Maker, perhaps fearing Ogerpon's wrath or grief would be even worse if she found out, may not have informed her. Or perhaps he did, it wouldn't have much effect on the story.

Assuming that the Pokémon who mortally wounded Arven's Mabostiff is indeed someone we haven't seen yet (thus debunking the theory that it might have been Slither Wing or Iron Valiant), this culprit, once seen, will have a Secret Art that functions like Psychic Noise, only that it's not Psychic-type

This would serve as a bit of Gameplay and Story Integration, as the mysterious Pokémon injured the Mabostiff such that it couldn't be healed via normal means. Psychic Noise is an attack that prevents its target from being healed, but of course as a Dark-type, Mabostiff would be immune to it, so the attack that hurt it is of a different type.

Arven's Mabosstiff was wounded by one of the Paradox Johto/Unova legendaries.

The fact that they don't "normally" spawn in Area Zero explains mechanically why Arven didn't immediately identify whatever attacked his Mabosstiff, as none of them will appear there on the player's first trip down there. Narratively, they're likely just much rarer than most other Paradox 'mons. For bonus points, the Scarlet/Violet book only shows an amalgamation of the beasts/deer (at least as far as we see). Regardless, it does handily provide existing yet very mysterious candidates for the culprit(s).

Cyrano is from Orre

Blueberry Academy exclusively uses Double Battles because that's the tradition where its founder grew up, and Orre is part of the same country as Unova if their locations correspond to their inspirations (Arizona and New York respectively).

Other

There will be DLC based on Andorra.

Where Andorra would correspond to on the illustrated Paldea map is currently shrouded in clouds. It could have some callbacks to Pokémon X and Y due to the real-life Andorra having a stronger French influence than Spanish.

Jossed.

DLC will be based on the Canary Islands and/or the Balearic Islands

Galar had their DLC based on Isle of Man and Scotland (islands near the United Kingdom), so it'd made sense for Paldea's DLC to be based on islands that surround the Iberian Peninsula.

Jossed.

The DLC will be about Setting Right What Once Went Wrong

This will probably involve restarting the time machine and using it to save the professor by pulling them out of their fateful moment, bringing them to the then present. Unfotunately, this will also bring new Paradox Pokemon with them.

The game has an oddly downer ending compared to past pokemon games, and the chance of DLC is likely.
Jossed.
- It's complicated. The Crystal Pool event has the professor give you a copy of their Scarlet/Violet Book, which in the original timeline is used as a key for their time machine, and state that they will go home and enjoy reading Briar's book, possibly letting them stay with Arven in their own timeline. So it probably is indeed setting right what once went wrong, but not in canon timeline.

Bill will appear in the DLC.

He will be fixing the time machine to allow people to move Pokemon through time with the time capsule function he created allowing people to transfer their Pokemon to Pokemon Home and from Pokemon Home to their game.

Jossed so far. The HOME connectivity update came and went with no sign of Bill.

A future DLC will Set Right What Once Went Wrong for the professors, only for them to become the Big Bad proper.

The DLC will involve the time machine being fixed or mysteriously reactivating, and the real Sada/Turo will be saved from the incident that killed them. However, they'll still have their Well-Intentioned Extremist ambitions of bringing ancient/futuristic Pokemon into the present and refuse to give up their dream, bringing in more Paradox Pokemon and needing to be talked down. After all, they are essentially the Man Behind the Man to the Paradise Protection Protocol. The knife could be twisted even further if the efforts to bring back Sada/Turo need to be undone to save the day, leaving them Deader than Dead or wiped from time itself.

The problem with wiping the professor from time is that it would cause Arven to be wiped from time and the events of the game will never have happened because the professor never caused them. A side effect of that is you never caught paradox pokemon or the box legendary.

Dialga will be part of the DLC.

It will appear to fix the time machine so you can catch the paradox pokemon from the future in Scarlet and paradox pokemon from the past in Violet.

Jossed.

Team Rainbow Rocket will return in the dlc.

A machine that can pull both pokemon and people out of time is still around even if it's inactive. The Professor Parent was the closest thing to a true big bad in this game and their story's end is remarkably similar to the previous evil team leaders that popped up during the Rainbow Rocket story, having achieved their goals but being brought to an end as a result. So Team Rainbow Rocket will return with the Professor Parent being brought back as well, perhaps as well with Sun-Moon's Lusamine and Swsh's Chairman Rose, with maybe Archer and Ariana padding out the cast(and representing Let's Go and giving Johto some representation as well).

And we may also get an appearance from a certain researcher of myths…
Jossed and jossed.

Somebody found the cure for Pokérus

Hence why it was removed this generation.

Or rather, either the Terastal phenomenon acts as a supressant for Pokérus or by the time Scarlet and Violet takes place on the timeline, every Pokémon had been infected by it in some way, causing a natural immunity to it which gets passed on through the Eggs.

The other version's professor will appear in an expansion

It's briefly mentioned that the professor's spouse walked out on them shortly after Arven was born, implying that they're still out there somewhere. Cue awkward family reunions.

And in a massive bout of irony like with Sun and Moon, the player will recognize the other Professor as Arven's other parent, but Arven himself will have no idea what their other parent looked like since they walked out on them when he was a baby.
Jossed.

The DLC will provide the health class that Miriam started teaching

She mentioned that she finally got credentials to become a teacher, but couldn't start teaching yet.

Jossed. She does indeed get an opportunity to teach a health class at Blueberry, but it's merely as a guest teacher.

The DLC will provide new clothing options

And what's more, we'll get to see more casual attire for other students (like Nemona and Arven). Some of the options will also be variants on the uniform — such as "custom" uniforms like the Team Star students or an outfit resembling Clive's. Additionally, clothing won't be gender-locked (so, for example, a male avatar can wear a female outfit).

Confirmed. Also, clothing is already not gender-locked.
Amusingly, you do get Team Star's customized uniforms after finishing the main story in The Indigo Disk... and you can wear either the male or female variant, regardless of your character's gender. So further confirmed!

More TMs will become available as more Pokémon can be caught in the upcoming DLC.

Except for Paradox Pokémon, Legendary Pokémon, and Starters, every wild Pokémon you catch or defeat will drop items based on their evolution line. With more returning species, and perhaps new species altogether, they will need corresponding dropped items too. And to give them a use, the Technical Machine Machine will have its selection expanded to use them. At the top of the list are most of the moves from the Master Dojo's Move Tutor, all of which are coded into the game but many of which no Pokémon can currently learn or is learned only by a single Pokémon line. For instance, the Koffing line might become available, and with it Koffing Gas used to make the TM for Corrosive Gas (currently unavailable at all); or the Beldum line dropping Beldum Shards used to make the TM for Steel Roller (currently learned only by Iron Treads).

Confirmed! The Teal Mask gave us 30 new TMs, and we get even more in Indigo Disk.

There will be DLC based on the Azores, where the Battle Frontier will return.

Annual holidays on the Azores sometimes involve traveling from place to place all over the island, visiting colorful buildings. This can translate perfectly to a Battle Frontier, with each of the Impérios corresponding to a battle facility. There would be a town corresponding to Ponta Delgada, and where the Sanctuary of the Lord Holy Christ would be is the main facility, where the owner/leader of the Battle Frontier meets the player character and where you can redeem BP for rewards. That being said, most of the items normally designated for a Battle Frontier are available to purchase directly from shops, so the Battle Frontier may instead award rare items (like Ability Patches and Gold Bottle Caps), expensive items (like Choice Scarves and Life Orbs), new items introduced during that DLC, Berries, or Tera Shards in large quantities.

Jossed.

The mystery Pokémon featured for the 7-Star Tera Raid Battles with the Poison Tera type at the end of January 2023 is...

Greninja, as the Water/Dark type combination would be able to fight the Poison-type weaknesses of Psychic and Ground.
- Confirmed

DLC will provide customization for the dorms

Seems a bit odd that the protagonist's dorm would be so barren when the other characters have such lively, personalized dorm rooms.

Jossed. Instead, you can customize Blueberry Academy's League Room.

The DLC will introduce Paradox Pokémon besides the Suicune and Virizion variants

Some candidates:

Past:
- Numel/Camerupt (Ice/Ground, Arctic camels with either cryovolcanic humps or humps made of fat like real camels have)
- Sharpedo (Water/Rock, prehistoric sharks like Megalodon and Cretoxyrhina)
- Genesect (before it was modified, Bug/Fighting or Bug/Normal)
- Dragapult (before it went extinct)
- Barraskewda (Xiphactinus)
- Bouffalant (aurochs)
- Beheeyem (ancient alien conspiracy theories, Psychic/Dark or Psychic/Electric)
- Drapion/Gliscor (Water/Ground sea scorpions)
- Ursaring/Ursaluna (Dark/Ground cave bears)
- Persian (Smilodon)
- Empoleon/Eiscue (Waimanu, Water/Ice)
- Espathra/Doduo/Dodrio (moas)
- Sceptile (dromaeosaurs)
- Reuniclus (early single-celled organisms)
- Torterra (Ankylosaurus)
- Inkay/Malamar (belemnites, Dark/Water or Water/Psychic)
- Stantler/Wyrdeer/Sawsbuck (Megaloceras)
- Slaking (ground sloths)
Future:
- Golurk (giant robots)
- Indeedee (robot maids/butlers)
- Greninja (Steel/Dark or Water/Electric, cyborg ninjas)
- Falinks (sentai or other superhero teams)
- Vikavolt (spaceships, Electric/Flying)
- Beheeyem (aliens)
- Camerupt (metal-smelting equipment or nuclear cooling towers, Fire/Steel, Electric/Steel, Fire/Water, Fire/Electric, or Electric/Water)
- Tinkaton (inventors, Electric/Steel or Normal/Steel)
- Revavroom (electric/flying cars, Electric/Steel, Flying/Steel, or Flying/Electric)
- Garchomp (jet-based Transforming Mecha, Dragon/Steel or Dragon/Flying)
- Coalossal (uranium ore, Electric/Steel, Electric/Rock, or Fire/Steel)
- Garganacl (bismuth crystals)
- Aegislash (lightsabers)
- Clawitzer (energy weapons)
- Greedent (garbage disposal robots)
- Cofagrigus (cryostasis capsules)
- Meloetta (Vocaloid-like characters)
- Torterra (domed greenhouses/cities)
- Watchog (futuristic police officers)
- Braixen (a more sci-fi take on magical girls)
- Stoutland (search-and-rescue robots/ambulances)
- Tentacruel (UFOs)
- Octillery (tanks)
- Skarmory (fighter jets)
- A Grass/Electric Paradox Sunflora or Meganium based on the concept of solar panels
Paradoxes of starter pokemon seem highly unlikely
All jossed.

The DLC will involve rescuing the AI Professor from the Third Legendary

Going on the idea that the Third Legendary is both powering the time machine and not actually pulling Pokemon out of other time periods but rather granting the Professor's wishes for them, then the AI Professor is likely trapped wherever the Third Legendary is. If so, maybe it'll be our mission to save them by battling and capturing the Third Legendary (which will also have the consequence of rendering the machine fully non-operational, allowing the AI to return for good, without needing to worry about triggering it again).

Jossed.

Alternatively (though there may be some overlap here), the Third Legendary will bring back the original Professor, however briefly

It would be cheap and honestly a little hokey to have the Professor's death be magically undone by Arven wishing for it, so perhaps instead, Arven absentmindedly says something like "I wish I could've said goodbye" within earshot of the Third Legendary and it grants his wish by summoning the Professor's spirit. After a heartwarming reconcilliation, the Professor atoning for their actions and Arven finally getting the closure he needed, the Professor will disappear, returning to the next life in peace, while the entire Pokemon fandom cries.

Semi-confirmed. There's a secret event where by bringing Terapagos to the Crystal Pool, the player character summons the real Professor from the past and has a conversation with them, forming a Stable Time Loop. Arven isn't there, but the Raidon is, and their expression is just as heartbreaking.

Hop and/or Sonia will appear in the DLC

Scarlet and Violet already contain a fair bit of Galar connections mainly Penny being from there and you can read Sonia's book in the school library. Sonia is also a researcher of myths and history and it makes sense for her to be interested in a region with rich history like Paldea. Hop is also her aide/assistant by the end of Sword and Shield and it's possible he could go to Paldea in her stead if she's too busy back home.

Jossed.

Upcoming 7-Star Tera Raid Battle events

The pattern so far appears to be fully-evolved starters that you can't normally find in Paldea, they take on a Tera type that either fits them thematically but is different from their regular types or counters well otherwise, there is a new one every 4 weeks, and they exist within the games' coding from release. So far, we've had Charizard with Tera Dragon, Cinderace with Tera Fighting, and Greninja with Tera Poison, all of whom were the most popular fully evolved starters of their generations. The upcoming ones may be:

February 24th to 26th, 2023: Rillaboom with Tera Fire. The Fire-type may represent the heated passion of playing the drums. All three types Fire is weak to also happen to be weak to Grass.
- Jossed, The 7-Star Raid that is happening during during this time frame is instead Pikachu with Tera Water. Further jossed as Rillaboom had Normal-tera during July 28th raid.
March 24th to 26th, 2023: Delphox with Tera Fairy. Being based on a witch, the Fairy-type would be a fitting type as both are based around magic and mysticism. In addition, Fairy is weak to Steel, which Delphox's Fire-type can counter; and Poison, which Delphox's Psychic-type can counter.
- Jossed, we instead get Flying-Tera Decidueye. Also, this raid marks the start of two-week cycle of 7-star Tera raids, given that the raid in the next two weeks after Decidueye is Bug-Tera Unovan Samurott.
  - Counter-jossed: While Fairy-Tera Delphox didn't appear on the exact aforementioned date, it did show up on July 6th to 9th.
April 21st to 23rd, 2023: Hisuian Samurott with Tera Electric. I don't know exactly how this type might play into the Pokémon's theming, but its sole weakness of Ground means it can feel safe with its Water-type attacks.
- Jossed. We did get a Samurott raid, though it was Unovan with Bug-Tera. Further jossed as the Hisuian Samurott raid we got had Water Tera instead.

Something will be announced on February 27, 2023, quite possibly the DLC

Every year on Pokémon Day (February 27), something is announced, whether it be a new instalment, new DLC, new event, or new Mythical. Given the buzz about the DLC, and that the main campaign raises so many unanswered questions, it'd be more surprising if they didn't announce it on that day.

It's also been confirmed that there will be a 20+ minute Pokémon Presents on said day, so it's looking even more likely that DLC will be announced then.
- Confirmed!

Enamorus will be the key to unlocking Hisuian evolutions in the present.

They all will reside in a secluded area.

Given Enamorus is now transferrable, with no sign of it unlocking Hisuian Evolutions in SV, jossed.

The plot with Terapagos will involve befriending it.

Both stories with Ogerpon and the box Legendary focus on the player forming a strong bond with each Pokémon. In the Indigo Disk, the player will be in another situation where they befriend Terapagos and eventually catch it.

If the pattern continues, Terapagos will probably have some trauma in its past that the player helps them overcome (like Koraidon/Miraidon with the events at Area Zero, and Ogerpon being shunned and villainized by Mossui Town).
Jossed.

Kieran is being affected by the same tera crystal phenomenon that drove the Professor mad.

It's possible that tera crystals can have a negative effect on certain individuals that come into contact with them, perhaps people with strong wishes that can easily be twisted towards something negative. Kieran's outbursts got especially bad after coming into contact with the Teal Mask, which contains tera crystals. If the tera crystals/Pokemon do grant wishes through some kind of connection with humans, maybe a strong negative wish the crystals don't know how to grant can be negativally amplified to the point of obsession - the desire to grow stronger, or the desire for a perfect paradise.

Indigo Disk is going to reveal the actual villain(s) of the Scarlet/Violet story, and not just Kieran.

Everything about Blueberry Academy, from its hidden location deep underwater to its Terarium essentially being an artificial Area Zero, screams an effort to hide darker intentions beneath the facade of higher education. There's also the teases of the Paldean Empire (whose descendants could easily still be trying to obtain the crater's treasure in other ways), Briar's continued obsession to get into Area Zero despite being continuously blocked by bureaucracy and brush-offs, and the Professors' as-yet-unrevealed corporate sponsors for their research potentially seeking results for their investments. And of course, Kieran is clearly being set up as the unpredictable "wild card" through it all. Any way you put it, somebody is going to be the final antagonist of the story.

Given what a hit Terastalizing has been for Paldean trainers, the Tera Orbs Sada/Turo made available thanks to their research have likely more than made up whatever their backers (implied to simply be the League given how they have all authority regarding Aea Zero) invested some ten years earlier. There's no sign Briar has made any request to enter Area Zero aside from the one time that she mentioned that she has yet to hear a reply on, so it's unclear just how much she has actually been blocked. As for the Paldean Empire, it's made out to have completely fallen apart and its people assimilated with the people of surrounding areas. There's no sign even vestiges of royal lines still exist (unlike Galar with its preserved castles and famous families).
All jossed.

Kieran's face ends up being changed by the "Momotaro" Pokemon.

Building on the entries above that posit Kieran teams up (or somehow comes under the influence of) the "Momotaro" Pokemon, and that the Loyal Three are in service to the "Momotaro" Pokemon: Kieran's face ends up somehow changed as an indicator of the Momotaro Pokemon's influence. It could be as mundane as a psychotic facial expression or changes in eye colour, or something more extreme similar to how the Loyal Three were massively altered by their Toxic Chains. The promotional art for the Indigo Disk released so far conveniently hides Kieran's face in shadow - and given we already know what he looks like from his official art (which was released around the same time), this is fairly suspicious.
- Completely Jossed. Out of all the player's friends/allies, he's also the only one who doesn't get brainwashed by Pecharunt, whereas Carmine, Arven, Penny and Nemona all get affected by its brainwashing mochi.

Briar was going to be the villain, but it was cut.

I can respect the arc of a Well-Intentioned Extremist causing problems because their obsession with knowledge, (that's what the professors had going on) but Briar just REALLY felt like she was built up to be something more. She makes several very evil looking expressions during the party's descent into area zero, and Carmine's throw-away line about her being "no good at battling" just seems like a very hastily thrown in way of saying "she won't be a boss". (it also doesn't make sense that a teacher an academy focused on battling would be bad at battling!) That single line compared to every appearance beforehand and her aforementioned evil expressions (which bear a striking resemblance to Volo's) make it seem like they were going to have her be more antagonistic but had to change plans on short order. With Briar's unique sprite and her consistent reappearances it doesn't make sense that we would get a character that could easily have been cut from the story.

In the future, previous Pokémon will be retconned/given the Stellar-type

Terapagos is the first - and, as of now, only - Pokémon to have the Stellar-type in its supreme Terastal transformation. Possible candidates to be granted the same typing may include Arceus, Deoxys, Jirachi, Necrozma, Eternatus, due to them being related to space.

Given the nature of the Stellar-type, it seems a bit more likely that it'd be reserved for other kinds of form changes rather than being upgraded to a "proper" type. That said, getting some other similar Stellar forms would be pretty awesome.

Lady O'Nare will be confirmed as Nemona's mother

Billy is never specifically stated to be her husband during all the encounters and is treated as more of a manservant than anything else, so this would keep in line with what Nemona already said in Area Zero about her father running a Rotom Phone company.

Was it ever actually stated anywhere that Billy works in realty with O'Nare?
- I double-checked. The closest it comes is when O'Nare calls Paldea Realty "our company" while talking with Billy. Doesn't seem very conclusive, but it seems more like Billy's only job is stroking O'Nare's ego.
- That said, the servant looking for them in Kitakami acts as if she works for both O'Nare and Billy.

Upcoming Paradox Pokémon Tera Raid Battles

Past Events

Every now and then, over a single weekend, a Paradox pair is made the subject of a Tera Raid Battle event: one Ancient Pokémon and one Future Pokémon, which you can catch as many as you like. So far, all of them have something in common with each other:

Event 1 (June 2023): Great Tusk and Iron Treads, alternate versions of Donphan
Event 2 (September 2023): Slither Wing and Iron Moth, alternate versions of Volcarona
Event 3 (January 2024): Flutter Mane and Iron Jugulis, Paradox Pokémon found only in dark caves

Possible Upcoming Events

Accordingly, the ones in the future may be as follows, though not necessarily in this order:

Brute Bonnet and Iron Hands, the slowest Paradox Pokémon in their categories; both are also hard-hitting physical attackers
- Confirmed for the weekend of March 21st to 24th, 2024.
Sandy Shocks and Iron Thorns, two unusual Electric-types found on rocky terrain in the upper layers of Area Zero
Scream Tail and Iron Bundle, cute Pokémon that Penny encounters during the story before entering Research Station 2
Roaring Moon and Iron Valiant, Paradox Pokémon with higher base stat totals, with both being the final Pokémon used by the AI Professor

Past Events (Legendary Trios)

In addition, we had an event where you're allowed to catch one of each featured Paradox Pokémon:

Recurring Event: Walking Wake and Iron Leaves

Possible Upcoming Events (Legendary Trios)

We might have more of these in the future to allow people playing one version to get the other one, with these Pokémon paired together:

Raging Bolt and Iron Crown, special attackers introduced together prior to the release of Indigo Disk
Gouging Fire and Iron Boulder, physical attackers kept secret until the release of Indigo Disk

There will be an update after the release of Pokemon Legends ZA to allow in Pokémon not coded into a Generation IX game until then.

Every major Legendary Pokémon is coded into Scarlet and Violet as of The Indigo Disk. Every one except Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde. As Z-A is set in Kalos, it's likely we'll be able to catch the three of them. Accordingly, Scarlet and Violet will be updated to allow you to use them in there via Pokémon HOME, as well as species not available until then, such as Staryu/Starmie, Absol, Furfrou, and any new species or regional forms introduced in Z-A. Accordingly, the hairstylists will be updated to be able to change a Furfrou's trim.

WMG / Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Pre-Release Theories

Sprigatito

Fuecoco

Quaxly

Koraidon

Miraidon

Brassius

Iono

Grusha

Alola

Galar

Hisui

Regionless (for the purpose of evolving something to its default form without it counting as Paldea)

Post-Release Theories

The Teal Mask

The Indigo Disk

Past Events

Possible Upcoming Events

Past Events (Legendary Trios)

Possible Upcoming Events (Legendary Trios)

Previous

Index

Next

WMG / Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Edit Locked

Pre-Release Theories

Sprigatito

Fuecoco

Quaxly

Koraidon

Miraidon

Brassius

Iono

Grusha

Alola

Galar

Hisui

Regionless (for the purpose of evolving something to its default form without it counting as Paldea)

Post-Release Theories

The Teal Mask

The Indigo Disk

Past Events

Possible Upcoming Events

Past Events (Legendary Trios)

Possible Upcoming Events (Legendary Trios)

Previous

Index

Next