No spoiler tags allowed on these subpages! Therefore, read with caution!
Original Games
- A subtle one, but, in the original RSE, the rival says they want to go home and show their dad their Dex progress after you beat them in Lilycove. It's a common complaint that you can't fight them again after this, but this might be why in-universe. The player beat them so many times that they no longer want to put as much focus on their training.
Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
- The Mauville Game Corner being closed down. Understandable since the EU had passed laws prohibiting the use of gambling in games since the originals' release. note But here, all there is to it is a 'Closed' sign thanking customers for their patronage and the owner outside, who will give you plushies for your secret base."Thank you for all your support over the years. Good Game.""Mauville Game Corner Owner."
- Almost every part of the Sea Mauville's backstory, including:
- One room has letters from Professor Cozmo as a child to his dad, who worked on the Sea Mauville. The letters heavily imply that Cozmo's father's marriage was falling apart because of the strain of his job.
- One can only imagine the pain Prof. Cozmo's father was under between the stress of his job and the strain of his marriage. In the room across the hall from where the letters are found, we find a recording from the professor's father. It's an apology statement concerning his loss of the Odd Keystone, something the Pokémon Spiritomb was bound to. Near this we see bottles of an energy drink produced by the Mauville company... and the drink contains Seviper extract. Anybody who's encountered it remembers that Seviper is a Poison-Type... Oh Arceus...
- The Pokémon Spiritomb is over 100 spirits inside a Keystone. Professor Cozmo Sr. was trying to hide the evil spirits in an non-accessible room on the Sea Mauville. They didn't want anybody getting in... or it getting out.
- Under the bed in one of the rooms is a book about dealing with unemployment. At this point, the Greater Mauville Holdings firm was falling apart, and with it, the livelihoods of the workers.
- The diary entry about Wattson stopping the New Mauville project. The writer was a manager of that project, and he was powerless to do anything about the pissed-off employees and colleagues. And then when you find the notes on Devon and the real source of "Infinity Energy", it starts to come together, why New Mauville was cancelled — the worst is that he couldn't do anything about that, in fear of the livelihood of him and his employees going under...
- After you get to the area accessible using dive, you encounter a man who says his uncle was looking for a treasure on the structure. You find the treasure in the storage room of the Sea Mauville, where there are nuggets, a mega stone, and the Hi Skitty doll that the young Prof. Cozmo gave to his dad. The Hi Skitty doll is the "treasure" the man's uncle was looking for. The owner even comes in after the door is unlocked and tells it "It's time to go home". He calls the doll by his son's name — that is, Takao Cozmo.
- The reason for the name of Zinnia's Whismur being named Aster? It's a reminder of someone she lost.
- Her speech about the original Aster. "I loved her with everything I had... but I still lost her." Ouch. It's made many players theorize that Aster I was either Zinnia's girlfriend or daughter.
- You'd think that with shiny locks implemented into the game, you'd think there would also be a shiny lock on uncatchable Pokémon, such as the Poochyena that you have to battle immediately after getting your starter. There isn't
. - Archie/Maxie's revelation after they succeed in summoning Kyogre/Groudon. When the player has to go inside the Cave of Origin, their speech gets reduced to almost nothing in shame.
- At Battle Resort, you end up finding Looker washed up on the beach. A woman takes him to her house to help him recover, and if you go to that house, you'll discover that he has amnesia. The fan favorite Interpol agent is now lost and confused about his identity, and the somber remix of his Leitmotif only adds to the sadness.
- Considering this game's place in the timeline, this would canonically be Looker's first appearance. Which makes a lot of things Harsher in Hindsight. His insistence on you always referring to him by his codename? Maybe it's because he doesn't remember his real name.
- Pokémon Sun and Moon implies that the Looker who was found washed up in ORAS is none other than the same Looker from the non-Mega universe (e.g. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Black and White) who passed through a UB Wormhole and ended up in the alternate universe. It is also implied that the Ultra Beasts may have attacked the other universe, meaning that Looker survived the destruction of his own universe, but for better or for worse, can't remember a thing.
- Archie and Maxie used to be on the same team.
- The "powerless" man in Mauville Hills, before getting transformed into Mr. Bonding has the TM for U-Turn on his balcony. If one translates that to him being suicidal, but continually backing down (making a U-turn) at the last minute, it turns him into one of the most sobering characters in the entire series.
- If you've been to Sea Mauville, notes in one of the rooms have the writer, who's had to cancel the New Mauville project for the sake of the Devon corporate structure, keep referring to himself as a "man with no power". Looks like we found out what was driving him ever closer to suicide—having to lay off all those workers.
- In Mauville City, you can find two girls- a delinquent and an ace trainer. The delinquent is offering to take the ace trainer for an awesome meal. The sadness comes when she explains that this is a farewell meal because due to the ace trainer becoming a prodigy, she's too good for the delinquent.
- It can also be interpreted as the Ace Trainer, who was once a Delinquent, moves up in class. As a result, her Delinquent friend acknowledges this, and so tells her friend that she shouldn't associate herself with a class who's lower.
- At these games' Battle Maison, a Preschooler wonders why her parents are tinkering with their tablets all the time and paying her no attention. After you win, she wonders if her parents consider the tablets as their children instead. This might hit players with Parental Neglect very hard.
- Defeating Wally at Victory Road. After his burst in confidence, epic battle music, and even Mega Evolving his Gallade, that very same Ralts you helped him catch, defeating (And in some cases, annihilating him) can make you feel a bit guilty. It's surprising the poor boy isn't completely crushed by the loss.
- It is subverted, though, by him not being too sad about it and him having a ridiculously powerful post-game team, including a Lv. 79 Life Orb Talonflame with Gale Wings.
- There is an old lady in Mauville Hills who used to be an ace rotation battler. But after her husband died, she had lost her spark and only has enough energy for one battle a day. Before and after the battle, she complains about aches and pains and talks in an all-around moody tone. Have we mentioned that physical aches, moodiness, loss of energy, and a loss of interest in once fun activities are common signs of depression?
- To make matters worse, she was once known as the "Rotation Fiend," but her neighbors now call her the "Rotation Frump".
- When you talk to Phoebe on Mt. Pyre near the summit after becoming Champion, she is seen talking near the graves, then says she came to visit her grandmother. She tells you that you have left a lasting heartfelt impression on her grandmother. At the top of the summit, the old man is by himself when before beating the Elite Four, he had an old woman standing next to him.
- You get the Lopunnite from a Mauville Mortgage Agent who chewed out the tenant of Apartment 12 for dodging payment on his rent by "pretending to not be there". Given the fact that the tenant is "a Frightened Man", the person must be leading a miserable, lonely life of constant paranoia.
- And don't forget that the Lopunnite was collateral. This likely means the man has a Lopunny, and how does Lopunny evolve again? Lopunny is also, it's worth noting, the only Pokemon that can naturally learn Return, a move whose power is boosted by maximum friendship, and its pre-evolution, Buneary, learns Frustration (Return's polar opposite) at the same level. This says a lot about the Pokemon's trust issues and how hard it normally is to get it to evolve and indeed, the man himself. Don't forget, also that rabbits are known for being skittish.
- During the Delta Episode in Alpha Sapphire after you face off with Matt and win, one of his lines strongly implies that he may have an inferiority complex and that his actions were not only to avenge Archie's defeat, but to get validation from him as well.
- Zinnia opening her heart up to you when you reach the Dragonhark Altar. This has a heartwarming shade to it as well, especially when you say that you too have had to hold back your tears at one point.
- In Pacifidlog Town, you meet a man who gives you the TM for the move Fling, and tells you that he once had a dream to go to Unova and become a baseball pitcher. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make his dream a reality, and before he knew it he was in his fifties with a family."For their sake, it's time for me to wake up from my dream..."
