History Fridge / PokemonColosseum

[[center:[-'''Other Media:''' [[Fridge/PokemonAnime Anime]] | [[Fridge/PokemonAdventures Adventures]]-]]]

* While Shadow Pokemon are very obviously violent and dangerous, it seems strange that characters are so specifically shocked by their willingness to attack humans. The opening sequences of Red/Blue, Ruby/Sapphire, and Diamond/Pearl all established that non-Shadow Pokemon are ''also'' happy to attack people, even when they lack Pokemon to defend themselves. However, it makes sense when you remember that Orre doesn't have any wild Pokemon. The region's citizens only ever interact with Pokemon that were either raised in captivity or trained ahead of time by people in other places. It's not that Shadow Pokemon are the only Pokemon who attack humans — they're just the only Pokemon ''in Orre'' who do it, because all of the others have already been taught not to do so.

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* Wes's starting pokemon are a espeon and a umbreon, both pokemon who evolve from having a high friendship. Additionally espeon has a full power return, meaning it's at MAX friendship. Even when Wes was an unrelenting pokemon thief he still cared for his pokemon.
* At the beginning of the game, Es Cade promises to investigate Cipher for you. Yet throughout the game, he never once calls you to give you new information, and any time you visit him, what info he does have is stuff you've already known for a long while. At first it seems like he's incompetent, until [[spoiler:it is revealed that he's the BigBad]].

* Finally figured out why Double Battles are the default battling style in the Orre region. The bad guys there are much more willing to directly attack defenseless people (i.e. people who just lost a battle), so having two Pokémon out at once covering for each other lessens the chance.
* The trainers in these games are pretty non-nonchalant about their Pokémon getting stolen by the player. This is Orre, which is noted for being a rough region that is essential run by crime syndicates. The people living here must be used to crime happening on a regular basis. And with no wild Pokémon to be found, that means they're rare goods that must get stolen and trafficked on a regular basis.
** ...That's borderline FridgeHorror.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'', when you first capture a Shadow Pokémon, you can't order it to use any of its non-Shadow moves until you open up its heart a certain amount, yet the trainers you snagged them from can have a Shadow Pokémon use all of its moves (except for the ones replaced by Shadow moves). Why is that? Because the Shadow Pokémon opened its heart to ''them''. Nowhere does it say that you're the only one who can open a Shadow Pokémon's heart. You basically kidnap them, so of course they're going to shut their heart to you.

* In ''Colosseum'' and ''Gale of Darkness'', if you fail to catch a Shadow Pokémon from someone but you get another chance to snag it later, the Pokémon will still be the same level with the same attacks and stats, even if this makes the trainer's other Pokémon several levels higher than it. This makes sense when you remember that Shadow Pokémon in your possession don't level up or learn new attacks until they've been purified — the same is true for other trainers.

* Cipher in ''Colosseum'' mentions that their plan in Realgam Tower is to raise enough money with Shadow Pokémon battles to fund their world domination plans. But if the true leader of Cipher really was the obscenely rich Mr. Verich all along and he had the tower built, why would they need more money in the first place? Then you remember the idea was specifically for "wealthy old men" to bet and you realize their real goal wasn't money, but for the Orre branch of Cipher to convince their absolute leader to support and fund the Shadow Pokémon plan while still being able to attend incognito.
* Most of this game’s shadow Pokémon are Johto Pokémon. They were used in the game because they were unobtainable anywhere else aside from a few exceptions in events and Hoenn’s Safari Zone. Porting from gen 2 was impossible and ''VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen'', which made some of the creatures available in the Sevii Islands, weren’t out yet. ''XD'', by contrast, had shadow Pokémon from all the generations that were out at the time.

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
* In VideoGame/PokemonColosseum, female Riders wear hats that appears to be made of '''purple leopard fur'''. Normally one wouldn't think much of it. However, now that we have a purple leopard Pokémon, Liepard, one has to wonder just '''what material was used to make that hat'''?

*** This gets even worse the more you think about it. Pokemon have been established as living ''everywhere''. Even the most barren or hostile environments have Pokémon in them in other regions — there's three lines of Pokémon that actually thrive in the most toxic of environs, due to being '''living pollution'''. And yet, somehow, Orre is so desolate and barren that no Pokémon lives here?
*** HarsherInHindsight comes into play; ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has revealed the existence of Yveltal, whose lore is that it ''sucks the life out of everything around it''. Could Orre have been a fairly recent site of Yvetal's feeding?

*** As of Generation VII, it gets worse; now we have more nightmarish Pokémon, such as [[FemmeFatale Salazzle (who can brainwash both Pokemon and humans),]] [[AndCallHimGeorge Bewear]] [[AccidentalMurder (who is infamous for unintentionally killing their trainers)]], [[AnimateInanimateObject Palossand]] [[LifeDrain (which can entrap, then suck the life out of their victims)]], [[BedsheetGhost Mimikyu]] [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow (which, if one tries to look under its disguise, the peeper will die)]], and [[GiantSpider Araquanid]] [[AccidentalMurder (which is known to drown small Pokémon in their bubble)]]. In addition, this generation also debuted the [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] known as the [[OlympusMons Ultra Beasts]], [[StarfishAlien otherworldly beings]] that [[ExtremeOmnivore consume entire oceans]] [[TooManyMouths (Guzzlord)]], [[AbsurdlySharpBlade bisect entire buildings]] (Kartana), [[KillItWithFire set whole forests ablaze]] (Celesteela), and [[EmotionBomb cause other beings to act more violent than normal]] (Nihilego, [[TheManBehindTheMan as it demonstrated to Lusamine]]). Just having the above Pokémon would be bad enough (a Shadow Bewear, for example, could just snap a trainer in two without inhibition or remorse, eschewing the battle altogether if it could manage to ambush somebody), but factor in the Ultra Beasts, beings that are powerful enough to ''destroy entire universes,'' and Cipher would have dominion over the universe if they maintained control over the dimensional interlopers.

*** Gen VII introduced the practice of adding Pokémon during the lifespan of a given Generation. This opens the door to a brand-new possibility — Cipher '''[[TykeBomb deliberately creating a brand-new Pokémon from scratch]]''', [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke a la Mewtwo or Genesect]], to create a trump card that nobody could possibly anticipate or prepare for.

* At the beginning of the game, Es Cade promises to investigate Cipher for you. Yet throughout the game, he never once calls you to give you new information, and any time you visit him, what info he does have is stuff you've already known for a long while. At first it seems like he's incompetent, until [[spoiler: it is revealed that he's the BigBad]].

* Cipher in ''Colosseum'' mentions that their plan in Realgam Tower is to raise enough money with Shadow Pokémon battles to fund their world domination plans. But if the true leader of Cipher really was the obscenely rich Mr. Verich all along and he had the tower built, why would they need more money in the first place? Then you remember the idea was specifically for "wealthy old men" to bet and you realize their real goal wasn't money but for the Orre branch of Cipher to convince their absolute leader to support and fund the Shadow Pokémon plan while still being able to attend incognito.
* Most of this game’s shadow Pokémon are Johto Pokémon. They were used in the game because they were unobtainable anywhere else aside from a few exceptions in events and Hoenn’s Safari Zone. Porting from gen 2 was impossible and ‘’VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen’’, which made some of the creatures available in the Sevii Islands, weren’t out yet. ‘’XD’’, by contrast, had shadow Pokémon from all the generations that were out at the time.

* In VideoGame/PokemonColosseum, female Riders wear hats that appears to be made of '''purple leopard fur'''. Normally one wouldn't think much of it. However, now that we have a purple leopard Pokemon, Liepard, one has to wonder just '''what material was used to make that hat'''?

*** This gets even worse the more you think about it. Pokemon have been established as living ''everywhere''. Even the most barren or hostile environments have Pokemon in them in other regions -- there's three lines of Pokemon that actually thrive in the most toxic of environs, due to being '''living pollution'''. And yet, somehow, Orre is so desolate and barren that no Pokemon lives here?

* Cipher's last appearance was back in Generation III. Who knows what havoc they could wreak if they manage to make Shadow Pokémon out of stuff like [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Hydreigon]], [[AnAxeToGrind Haxorus]], [[YourSoulIsMine Chandelure]][[note]]already has a reputation for ''burning people's '''souls'''''[[/note]], [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Darkrai]], [[MagmaMan Heatran]][[note]]the embodiment of volcanoes -- which means they might use it to bury towns under magma flows[[/note]], [[WasOnceAMan Cofagrigus, Trevenant]], or [[{{God}} Arceus]] itself?!? Or any of the ''other'' nightmarish Pokémon in this setting?

*** Gen VI gives us such [[SarcasmMode pleasantries]] as the aforementioned Phantump; its evolved form Trevenant; Honedge, a possessed sword that can drink the life force of others; Clawitzer, the "{{BFG}} Shrimp" Pokemon; and mental manipulator Malamar. Shadowing any of those is bad enough, and that's not even going into Mega Evolution. On top of that, Yveltal can desoul entire towns, Primal Kyogre can wash Orre away, and Primal Groudon can melt it to the consistency of ''glass''; giving those latter three to the likes of Cipher equates to handing the worst people in the world a WMD and the carte blanche to ''use it''. Sweet dreams.-
*** As of Generation VII, it gets worse; now we have more nightmarish Pokemon, such as [[FemmeFatale Salazzle (who can brainwash both Pokemon and humans),]] [[AndCallHimGeorge Bewear]] [[AccidentalMurder (who is infamous for unintentionally killing their trainers)]], [[AnimateInanimateObject Palossand]] [[LifeDrain (which can entrap, then suck the life out of their victims)]], [[BedsheetGhost Mimikyu]] [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow (which, if one tries to look under its disguise, will die)]], and [[GiantSpider Araquanid]] [[AccidentalMurder (which is known to drown small Pokemon in their bubble)]]. In addition, this generation also debuted the [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] known as the [[OlympusMons Ultra Beasts]], [[StarfishAlien otherworldly beings]] that [[ExtremeOmnivore consume entire oceans]] like [[TooManyMouths (Guzzlord)]], [[AbsurdlySharpBlade bisect entire buildings]] (Kartana), [[KillItWithFire set whole forests ablaze]] (Celesteela), and [[EmotionBomb cause other beings to act more violent than normal]] Nihilego, [[TheManBehindTheMan as it demonstrated to Lusamine).]] Just having the above Pokémon would be bad enough (a Shadow Bewear for example could just snap a trainer in two without inhibition or remorse for example, eschewing the battle altogether), but factor in the Ultra Beasts, beings that are powerful enough to ''destroy entire universes,'' and Cipher would have dominion over the universe if they maintained control over the dimensional interlopers.
*** ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' bring with it [[SerialEscalation an even more dangerous threat than any of the aforementioned]] in the form of [[EldritchAbomination Ultra Necrozma.]] [[TheAssimilator Upon taking over Solgaleo and Lunala,]] Necrozma has been proven to open Ultra Wormholes by roaring. Not to mention prior to transforming, it was able to beat back [[BigBad Lusamine]] and [[TheDragon Guzma]] with ease, throwing them back to their world. To top it off, its Ultra forme is [[ThatOneBoss already difficult enough to beat on its own without being a Shadow Pokemon]] one can only imagine what would happen if Cipher got a hold of Necrozma, Lunala, Solgaleo, and the Ultranecrozium Z....
*** ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'' bring a different kind of horror with it in the Rainbow Resort and Team Rainbow Rocket. The central premise of the facility is that its major inhabitants are parallel instances of villainous leaders who were successful with their schemes, like a Cyrus who rewrote reality or a Lysandre who obliterated Kalos. Remember how Greevil's plan involved prototyping Shadow Lugia so that he could make Shadow Pokemon that function without the need for a trainer? The possibility of a parallel Greevil or Ardos running amok with a team, let alone an army, of autonomous Shadow Pokemon is not something one wants to comprehend.]] Then again, given how competent Cipher is in comparison to the other villain groups, maybe these parallel leaders should be grateful they don't have to bunk with men and Pokemon they can't control...
*** Generation 8 introduces Dynamax, Gigantamax, and Eternamax. Imagine them weaponizing those... and worse, it was never said they could not be done with Mega Evolution or Z-Moves. Thankfully all of those are tethered to Eternatus, who is bound to the Galar region, but if Cipher were to expand there and take over, suddenly the Darkest Day feels so small...

* Whenever you snag an Admin's Shadow Pokémon, in future battles, they will have a replacement for it. Gonzap will as well. When you fight Fein at the end, the man who is deliberately framing Wes for assault, his team (with the exception of Shadow Togetic) consists of the replacement Pokémon used by Gonzap and the Cipher Admins.

* Speaking about Shadow Pokémon, their downsides really outweigh their positives, even only thinking of their usage in combat. Shadow moves may have tactical uses, but the fact that Shadow Pokémon cannot level up or learn more powerful moves makes their long-term prospects [[CrutchCharacter questionable]]. So why hadn't Cipher caught on? Well, when you remember that their Pyrite Colosseum plans were about collecting battle data, it becomes clear that at that point, they were still in the testing phase! They hadn't been using them long enough for the level lock to become an issue. Perhaps Evice actually 'did' notice later on, and that was why his later plans emphasized showing off their ruthlessness to make money in admission fees and bets -- he's realized that they aren't as suitable for real battles as he thought. As for Greevil, notice that he didn't bother giving most of his admins Pokémon he and his sons couldn't [[CurbStompBattle stomp to the curb]] if they proved disloyal [[DifficultySpike until]] they were being driven back to their last strongholds and he didn't have much of a choice...
** Furthermore, his goals of creating Shadow Pokemon that didn't need his underlings to control them might have been a matter of CombatPragmatism. A "Wild" Shadow Pokémon would be much more likely to ignore typical battle conventions and [[JustShootHim just go for a killshot on an enemy trainer]] if it saw the chance. They wouldn't need many levels for that.
** The creation of Shadow Pokémon was an effort to turn them into nothing more than war machines. A Pokémon with no sense of mercy or moral reasoning has no issue outright killing Pokémon, or even attacking people, such as how the Shadow Makuhita strikes Wes in his first fight against their kind. Evice wanted an army of killing machines; to do that, he closed off their hearts, because the majority of trainer Pokémon are not inherently evil enough to do such things.
* In ''Colosseum'' and ''Gale of Darkness'', if you fail to catch a Shadow Pokémon from someone but you get another chance to snag it later, the Pokémon will still be the same level with the same attacks and stats, even if this makes the trainer's other Pokémon several levels higher than it. This makes sense when you remember that Shadow Pokémon in your possession don't level up or learn new attacks until they've been purified -- the same works with other trainers.

[[center:[-'''Pokémon Family Species:''' [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIFamilies Gen I]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIIFamilies Gen II]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIIIFamilies Gen III]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIVFamilies Gen IV]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVFamilies Gen V]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVIFamilies Gen VI]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVIIFamilies Gen VII]]-]]]

*** Generation 8 introduces Dynamax, Gigantimax, and Eternamax. Imagine them weaponizing those... and worse, it was never said they could not be done with Mega Evolution or Z-Moves.

* Most of this game’s shadow Pokémon are Johto Pokémon. They were used in the game because they were unobtainable anywhere else aside from a few exceptions in events and Hoenn’s Safari Zone. Porting from gen 2 was impossible and ‘’VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen’’, which made some of the creatures available in the Sevii Islands, weren’t out yet. ‘’XD’’ ,by contrast, had shadow Pokémon from all the generations that were out at the time.

*** HarsherInHindsight comes into play; ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has revealed the existence of Yveltal, whose lore is that it ''sucks the life out of everything around it''. Could Orre have been a fairly recent site of Yvetal's feeding?

[[center:[-'''Main Games:''' [[Fridge/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold and Silver]] | [[Fridge/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby and Sapphire]] | [[Fridge/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]] | [[Fridge/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White]] | [[Fridge/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 Black 2 and White 2]] | [[Fridge/PokemonXAndY X and Y]] | [[Fridge/PokemonSunAndMoon Sun and Moon]] | [[Fridge/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon]]-]]]

* Most of this game’s shadow Pokémon are Johto Pokémon. They were used in the game because they were unobtainable anywhere else aside from a few exceptions in events and Hoenn’s Safari Zone. Porting from gen 2 was impossible and ‘’VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen’’, which made some of the creatures available in the Sevii Islands, weren’t out yet.

** Most of this game’s shadow Pokémon are Johto Pokémon. They were used in the game because they were unobtainable anywhere else aside from a few exceptions in events and Hoenn’s Safari Zone. Porting from gen 2 was impossible and ‘’VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen’’, which made some of the creatures available in the Sevii Islands, weren’t out yet.

* Orre is a region that almost no wild Pokémon live in. The only wild Pokémon are found in secluded spots in the sequel. Which makes you wonder what it is about Orre's environment that makes it so difficult for Pokémon to live. Especially when you consider that Pokémon seem to have adapted to live everywhere else, including one desert in Unova.

[[center:[-'''Movies:''' [[Fridge/PokemonTheFirstMovie First]] | 2000 | [[Fridge/Pokemon3 3]] | 4Ever | Heroes | Jirachi: Wishmaker | Destiny Deoxys | Lucario | Ranger | The Rise of Darkrai | Giratina | Arceus | [[Fridge/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions Zoroark: Master of Illusions]] | Black/White | Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice | [[Fridge/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect]] | Diancie | Hoopa | Volcanion | [[Fridge/PokemonIChooseYou I Choose You!]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Main Games:''' [[Fridge/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold and Silver]] | [[Fridge/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby and Sapphire]] | [[Fridge/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]] | [[Fridge/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White]] | [[Fridge/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 Black 2 and White 2]] | [[Fridge/PokemonXAndY X and Y]] | [[Fridge/PokemonSunAndMoon Sun and Moon]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Pokémon Family Species:''' [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIFamilies Gen I]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIIFamilies Gen II]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIIIFamilies Gen III]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationIVFamilies Gen IV]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVFamilies Gen V]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVIFamilies Gen VI]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerationVIIFamilies GenVII]]-]]]

[[center:[-'''Movies:''' [[Fridge/PokemonTheFirstMovie First]] | 2000 | [[Fridge/Pokemon3 3]] | 4Ever | Heroes | Jirachi: Wishmaker | Destiny Deoxys | Lucario | Ranger | The Rise of Darkrai | Giratina | Arceus | [[Fridge/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions Zoroark: Master of Illusions]] | Black/White | Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice | [[Fridge/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect]] | Diancie | Hoopa | Volcanion -]]]
[[center:[-'''TV Specials:''' [[Fridge/PokemonMewtwoReturns Mewtwo Returns]] | The Legend of Thunder | The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon | [[Fridge/PokemonOrigins Origins]] | [[Fridge/PokemonGenerations Generations]] | [[Fridge/PokemonIChooseYou I Choose You!]]-]]]

* Orre is a region that almost no wild Pokémon live in. The only wild Pokémon are found in secluded spots in the sequel. Which makes you wonder what it is about Orre's environment that makes it so difficult for Pokémon to live. Especially when you consider that Pokémon seem to have adapted to live everywhere else, including one desert in Unova.
* Greevil wanting to have Shadow Pokemon that don't need underlings to control them sounds worse with the fact that the S.S. Libra caper at the beginning was able to be done merely by remote commands by a mook to Shadow Lugia. If the Shadow Pokémon process was perfected Greevil could have very well have done it with any number of Shadow Pokémon and coordinated practically whatever he wanted including attacking people. And that's without the extremely powerful legendary.

* Orre is a region that almost no wild Pokémon live in. The only wild Pokémon are found in secluded spots in the sequel. Which makes you wonder what it is about Orre's environment that makes it so difficult for Pokémon to live. Especially when you consider that Pokémon seem to have adapted to live everywhere else, including one desert in Unova.

[[center:[-'''Spinoff Games:''' [[Fridge/PokemonStadium Stadium]] | '''Colosseum''' | [[Fridge/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness XD]] | [[Fridge/PokemonMysteryDungeon Mystery Dungeon]] | [[Fridge/PokemonRanger Ranger]]-]]]
[[center:[-'''Other Media:''' [[Fridge/PokemonAnime Anime]] | [[Fridge/PokemonOrigins Origins]] | [[Fridge/PokemonAdventures Adventures]]-]]]

** Faux fur, of course.

[[AC:FridgeBrillliance]]

----* Finally figured out why Double Battles are the default battling style in the Orre region. The bad guys there are much more willing to directly attack defenseless people (i.e. people who just lost a battle), so having two Pokémon out at once covering for each other lessens the chance.

** Not only that, but Shadow Pokémon are little else than weapons. With their hearts being sealed away, the Pokémon have no trouble doing things even as terrible as attacking trainers. A fight with a Shadow Pokémon is very much a fight between life and death, the same as any gladiatorial fights in the ancient Roman Colosseum.

* Finally figured out why Double Battles are the default battling style in the Orre region. The bad guys there are much more willing to directly attack defenseless people (i.e. people who just lost a battle), so having two Pokémon out at once covering for each other lessens the chance.