Web Animation / Pokémon Generations

These are the untold stories of the Pokémon World.

Pokémon Generations is an animated short series in the same line of Pokémon Origins, a Truer to the Text adaptation of the various generations of Pokémon games. The series follows various characters (except the games' protagonists), within various regions (Kanto to Kalos) and gets wrapped up in the plots involving the games. Each region/generation gets three episodes for itself.

The trailer for the series can be seen here, with the rest of the series being uploaded to the official Pokémon YouTube channel (playlist).

Pokémon Generations was succeeded by Pokémon: Twilight Wings, a series of shorts based off of Pokémon Sword and Shield, and Pokémon Evolutions, another Truer to the Text animated anthology series that additionally features stories from Alola and Galar.

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This series contains the following tropes:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Sceptile's Leaf Blade cuts through several metal doors as Brendan storms the Magma hideout.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • Shelly in the games already had lots of fanservice but her body is much more detailed here as well as a couple of shots of her butt. On the flipside, Archie is more muscular and his shirt is somehow tight enough to show that off, making you wonder why he's even bothering to wear it in the first place (or if it's even real and not, you know, painted on).
  • The Kanto Elite Four member Lorelei's design is taken up to eleven, complete with Sideboob, as if her anime counterpart wasn't sexier enough. Additionally, Bruno's muscles are significantly more detailed.
  • "The Old Chateau" features Cheryl of Diamond and Pearl with a noticeable hourglass shape and much softer, more feminized features than in her official art from that game. Considering the episode's tone, this may have been a deliberate move to make her seem more innocent and sympathetic.
  • Male version. "The Frozen World" shows off how muscular Drayden is despite being an old man.
  • The female Team Aqua Grunt is also a case of this. In the games, her midriff wasn't as detailed, didn't show off the pelvic bones, and was mostly flat chested; here, all detail is shown and she is also absolutely stacked as well.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Deoxys is already an Olympus Mon; but in its fight with Mega Rayquaza, it's shown to be able to change formes on the fly, while it can't switch during battle in the games.
  • In the games, Gabby and Ty only interview passing trainers. Here, they're sneaking into guarded facilities and giving the slip to the personnel.
  • Mimi saving Emma from Xerosic's Mind Control by itself counts as this, contrary to Xerosic turning off the mind control by himself. Xerosic was also Adapted Out, which made this scene happen.
• Adaptational Dumbass: While Archie and Maxie's plans in their debut games are hardly ingenious, Archie throwing away the Blue Orb despite knowing it is the only thing that can control Kyogre and outright being surprised that Kyogre is destroying everything after he told it to really paints him in a much less flattering light.
• Adaptational Heroism: Somewhat with Lance's solution to the Electrode-powered generator; in the games, he decides that the best course of action is to knock them all out. Here, however, he just sets them free.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The human ghosts and Rotom in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were creepy but ultimately harmless. Not so much the case in "The Old Chateau", where they actively hunt and very likely harm Cheryl.
  • Colress is significantly more apathetic towards living things in The Frozen World than he is in the games. In the games he only joined Team Plasma to use their resources to further his research and doesn't really care about the player overthrowing the rest of the organization (he actually encourages them). Here, he blindly focuses on unlocking Kyurem's true potential, seemingly caring little for the well being of both it and that of the entire population of Opelucid City. Then again, this event from the games was never shown from Colress' POV and he was the captain of the Plasma Frigate at that time, so it's entirely possible he did act like that, especially since he later admits to you that he's willing to try a merciless approach like Team Plasma's and even destroy the world if it would gain him scientific knowledge.
• Adapted Out:
  • Petrel is the admin of Team Rocket's hideout in Mahogany Town as in the games, but fellow admin Ariana is conspicuously absent.
  • The Hoenn player character is absent from "The Cavern" where he/she would have been there to witness Kyogre's awakening in game.
  • The Sinnoh player character has been removed completely, and instead Cynthia confronts Team Galactic alone and Buck and Looker are the ones who defeat Charon when he tries to awaken Heatran.
  • The lake trio and their attempt to free Dialga and Palkia are also absent.
  • The Unova player character doesn't show during N's Castle's rising from the ground. Instead, Iris takes their place as the one witnessing the event before following right after with the Unova Gym Leaders coming to help stop Team Plasma. However, he arrives in episode 15 to save N from White Kyurem at the end, despite never appearing in Black 2 and White 2's game plot. In fact, he ends up replacing the Black 2 and White 2 protagonist in that scene.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Lance's Dragonite. Eerily walking slowly and destroying everything in its path. And when it does attack, it's scary.
• Alternate Continuity: Appears to be a separate one from Origins and the games themselves.
  • Red is shown to have picked Bulbasaur as his starter (though if the fact Blue has a Blastoise is any indication, that's not the case in all of them), and after catching a Pikachu, uses it as his main Pokémon, rather than Charizard. Also, Red goes through each region in turn, just like Ash did. It's also implied by Giovanni not reforming like he did at the end of Origins and Blue's design lacking the green jacket he was given in said series.
  • The issues are further complicated by Episode 7 following the events of Omega Ruby and Episode 8 following that of Alpha Sapphire, two mutually exclusive series of events.
  • Hilbert shows up at the end of episode 15, which takes place in Black & White 2. Nate is nowhere to be found. In the B/W2 games, the protagonists of the B/W games don't show up at all, and are only casually mentioned if you have an Old Save Bonus.
  • Mimi saves Emma from Xerosic's Mind Control by damaging Essentia's helmet, which is different from how Xerosic turned it off by himself when he felt remorse for hurting Emma. The event also happens in the Lysandre Café, rather than in Team Flare's lab.
• Ambiguous Gender: In "The Scoop", the trainer riding Mega Rayquaza is completely covered up by a Team Magma suit, so it's impossible to tell if it's supposed to be Brendan or May in there.
• Ambiguous Ending: "The Old Chateau" ends with a ghost, possibly Rotom in disguise given the similar eyes, menacing Cheryl and Chansey. Whether this takes place before her meeting with the protagonist of the Sinnoh games and explains why she needs an escort or takes place afterwards and has a darker context is left up to the viewer.
• Animalistic Abomination: Groudon and Kyogre cause untold disasters upon being awakened. The former just being a vision, but the latter being very real. Albeit there are indications in the games that being in primal form without a trainer causes them to go insane, hence their rampages.
• Apocalypse How: In "The Vision", Magma Admin Courtney has a vision of one caused by Primal Groudon, in which Groudon destroys the surrounding islands with one Solar Beam and then kills Team Magma with another. One actually ends up being started in "The Cavern", complete with nightmarish depictions of natural disasters tearing Hoenn apart, both land and water Pokémon suffering, and Shelley and Archie about to be eaten by Kyogre.
• Artistic Age: invoked While main characters in core Pokémon titles often look older than they should, a particularly noticeable case is the already rather precocious-looking Blue, who not only looks like he should be 16 at the very least, but sounds it too. Note, the first generation protagonists are 11. It gets especially noticeable when compared to Red, whose design hasn't changed from Origins.
• Art Shift: In "The Redemption", the story of AZ and the great war from 3000 years ago plays out in the same hand-drawn still-frame animation style as it's depicted in Pokémon X and Y.
• Ascended Extra: In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes, Gabby and Ty were just reporters who interviewed passing trainers and had no relevance to the plot. Here, they the are the focus of Episode 9 where they are investigative journalists uncovering the footage that depicts the battle between the protagonist and Mega Rayquaza against Deoxys from the Mossdeep Space Center.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Red's Pikachu from episode one. He goes from struggling against Caterpies and Woopers to taking on Volcarona and Noivern without much difficulty.
  • As if Dragonite wasn't enough of this, Lance's Dragonite has proven to be this in both of the shorts it's in, managing to tank a hit from Blue's Blastoise and to take on five Pokémon at once and win in Episode 4.
  • While one could argue that it isn't "adorable" in the traditional sense, Looker's Croagunk is nonetheless proficient enough to hold back a Legendary Pokémon like Heatran.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • To an extent with Cyrus. While he didn't succeed in destroying the current world to create a new one like he had planned, the Distortion World is exactly what he wanted.
  • "The Frozen World" ends with Colress using Kyurem to freeze Opelucid City and Drayden forced to hand the DNA Splicers over to Zinzolin.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Giratina interferes with Cyrus' attempt to remake the world in episode 11.
  • Looker and his Croagunk help save Buck and his Claydol from a rampaging Heatran.
  • Clay saves Iris from getting pounced by 2 Liepard, before the rest of the Unova Gym Leaders show up to save the entirety of Unova from Team Plasma in episode 13.
  • Zekrom and Hilbert save N from the fused Kyurem's attack.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Downplayed. While there's no actual blood you do get to see Deoxys blasted with a massive hole in his chest.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Episode 8 ends with Primal Kyogre about to ram the Aqua submarine, with Archie and Shelly on board.
• Break the Cutie: Cheryl and Chansey at the Old Chateau. Being chased by the shapeshifting butler and being scared by a purple faced ghost girl is enough to leave them scarred for life.
• Breather Episode:
  • After two pretty intense action episodes (Episode 3 and Episode 4), Episode 5 focuses solely on a conversation between Looker and Silver about the location of Giovanni.
  • Episode 16 is placed after nine more episodes following Episode 6, and after the intense confrontation between N and Ghetsis, it focuses on a closer look at Lysandre's Villain with Good Publicity side.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • A group of 4 Team Rocket grunts know who Lance is and his level of experience as a trainer, yet decide to take him on. Given Lance's speciality, this trope is even taken literally, making their actions even dumber as they smugly challenge his Dragonite with a Grimer and a Magnemite.
  • After seeing them be revived by Ho-Oh, the townspeople become very afraid of Suicune, Entei, and Raikou. They quickly become violent and drive the legendary Pokémon away, with one man even throwing a rock at Suicune. However, the Legendary Pokémon don't really do anything to them in retaliation.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Petrel in "The Lake of Rage". He and his Weezing get their butts kicked by Lance's Dragonite, and the freed Electrodes then use Thunderbolt on him.
  • Charon's summoning of Heatran goes wrong so fast, even to the standards of a "villainous leader summons legendary" scene, it indeed almost borders on a parody of said scenes. Not only does Buck proceed to mostly ignore him when he starts ranting, Looker actually knocks him out with a neck chop, forcing his own grunts to carry him out of the place.
  • Cheryl and her Chansey spend the entire episode they appear being tormented, toyed with, and scared by ghosts in the Old Chateau.
• Came Back Strong: The Pokémon that would become Suicune, Entei and Raikou presumably weren't all that impressive until they died and were brought back by Ho-Oh.
• Canon Welding: Since there is no specification whether Episode 13 takes place in Black or White's canon, both Drayden and Iris show up to help against Team Plasma rather than just one of them.
• Casting Gag: Rikiya Koyama and Jamieson Price, both of whom previously voiced Giovanni in Pokémon Origins, are now playing Archie.
• The Cavalry: In "The King Returns", after Ghetsis forces N's Reshiram to fuse with Kyurem, Hilbert shows up riding on the back of Zekrom just in time to save N from an Ice Burn.
• Cerebus Retcon: If Cheryl's traumatic ordeal in the Old Chateau is meant to take place before she meets the protagonist in the game, it provides a pretty good reason for why she's afraid of going through the forest without an escort.
• Cold Open: The first episode's title only shows up at the very end. Given the format, the episode will likely serve as the opening credits for a combined showing.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In "The Challenger", Blue is shown completely destroying each member of the Elite Four in battle.
  • In "The Lake of Rage", Lance and his Dragonite quickly and handily beat any Team Rocket grunt they come across.
  • In "The Vision", Brendan's Sceptile annihilates every single grunt the pair come across while storming Team Magma's hideout.
  • In "The Uprising", the Unovan Gym Leaders and their Pokémon that show up after Iris and her Druddigon quickly take down several Team Plasma grunts as they show up at the entrance to N's castle.
  • In "The Redemption", Calem's Chesnaught does this to AZ's Golurk, ending his battle with him. The rest of the battle was not shown, as it was obscured by the girl recalling the story her mother told her about AZ's past.
• Cute But Psycho: Courtney in "The Vision". She gets quite the crazy set of eyes when she gleefully tells Brandon that she wants to "analyze" him.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Episode 16 specifically takes place in Pokémon Y.
• Darker and Edgier: When compared to the vast majority of the rest of the franchise. The fact that several of the villainous teams basically amount to terrorist groups is not glossed over, and actual SWAT teams are called in to deal with them (with Machamp and Arcanine even being used to breach walls). And that's not counting the apocalypses shown in the first two Hoenn episodes and the first Sinnoh episode demonstrating how terrifying Ghost types can be.
• Didn't Think This Through: Archie in "The Cavern" boasts, "As long as I have the Blue Orb, I control Primal Kyogre!" He then throws the orb at Kyogre, allowing Kyogre to go out of control.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Hoenn player character captures Deoxys, admittedly with the help of Mega Rayquaza. This means they also managed to catch Rayquaza, and may or may not have had an Olympus Mon for that one.
• The Dog Bites Back: Upon being freed from powering Team Rocket's radio machine, the Electrode immediately move towards zapping Petrel.
• Downer Ending: "The Frozen World" ends with Colress using Kyurem to freeze Opelucid City while Drayden is forced to hand the DNA Splicers over to Zinzolin.
• Dragged Off to Hell: Giratina frees Dialga and Palkia from Cryus, then takes him to the Distortion World. Subverted as Cyrus sees it as what he wanted all along.
• Dragon Rider: The Hoenn player character dons a Team Magma suit and rides Rayquaza into space to fight Deoxys.
  • Hibert comes in at the end of Episode 15 riding atop Zekrom.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Zygarde's 100% form makes its first official appearance (excluding the Magearna movie and the Team Flare arc in the Anime) in the final seconds of Episode 1, beating out its game debut by just a couple of months.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • A sort of meta example. After five years, we finally have an official version of the Generation Five storyline where N and the player character (Hilbert in this case) are reunited.
  • AZ finally reunites with his Floette after 3000 years of separation after finally redeeming himself with a Pokémon battle against Calem.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • Giratina makes its entrance as concentrated darkness, causes two legendaries to flee for their survival and drags Cyrus into its bizarre dimension.
  • Dialga and Palkia are said to be able to recreate the world from scratch by combining their powers.
• The Faceless: The Player Characters from the games never have their faces clearly visible; they're always obscured by something or out of focus.
  • Calem's face is obscured by blinding sun rays at his champion coronation ceremony, though his Chestnaught and Charizard, Diantha, and Professor Sycamore are clearly seen. Subsequent shots show him too far in the background for any detail, being shown up close from behind, and then later obscured by sun rays again.
• Fantasy Gun Control: As implied in Black and White, shown in full effect here. The SWAT team infiltrating the Viridian Gym is only shown to carry batons and riot shields. Presumably, this is because their Pokémon could go above and beyond the roles that firearms perform, with an Arcanine's Flamethrower shown to outright reduce a wall to slag. Giovanni is also referred to as being a great Pokémon Trainer in the same tone of voice as if he was heavily armed. During Team Rocket's takeover of the Goldenrod Radio Tower, one of the grunts has his Arbok visibly threaten one of the tower's staff into broadcasting as if he was holding him at gunpoint.
• Fantasy Twist: Courtney has a vision of the outcome of Team Magma's mission, whereby Primal Groudon Solar Beams them to kingdom come. However, it's left ambiguous as to whether it was a derailed fantasy, or her actually having a vision.
• Freeze-Frame Ending: Episode 8 ends with Archie and Shelly screaming in front of Kyogre's gaping maw, freezing just as Kyogre opens its mouth.
• Freeze Ray: Colress uses Kyurem to power up a freeze ray and uses it on Opelucid City.
• Generation Xerox: Agatha mocks Blue by saying she expected him to be filling the Pokédex, just like his grandpa, which infuriates him.
• Going for the Big Scoop: In "The Scoop", Gabby and Ty investigate the destruction of the asteroid containing Deoxys.
• Gone Horribly Right: Archie awakens Kyogre to reset the world back to the way it was (meaning before the birth of human civilization); but Kyogre is intent on flooding the world, wiping out all people and Pokémon, on land and in sea alike.
• Gonk: Compared to Loralei, Bruno and Lance, Agatha's an old and somewhat mannish looking woman who's usually seen wearing a Slasher Smile.
• Halloween Episode: "The Old Chateau" is the first of the Sinnoh episodes and was released three days before the Halloween of 2016. It's also one of the most terrifying things to come out of Pokémon animation.
• Heel Realization: Shelly has undergone one by the start of Episode 8, and we're shown her horrified reaction to her discovery of Primal Kyogre's power at the Weather Institute. Archie also has one, but it's far too late as the rampaging Primal Kyogre lunges forward to attack him.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Looker not only doesn't wear a helmet during the assault on Viridian Gym, he doesn't wear any kind of armor; and he runs in first.
• Hero of Another Story: It's revealed that Looker was in Kanto during the events of the Red and Blue, and was in charge of the police's hunt for Giovanni and Team Rocket.
• Hotter and Sexier:
  • While Lorelei and Shelly's designs are already fanservicey, their limelight feature them with designs, including Lorelei's Sideboobs and Shelly's Male Gaze. In addition, the female Aqua grunt's design adds a more detailed midriff and Courtney's dialogue with Brendan at the end of Episode 7 is rather suggestive.
  • Cheryl is a mild example. She has a permanent blush, exhales when she talks and there are several closeups of her glossy lips while she eats. While she's not flashing any skin or seductively posing, there's definitely a fanservice vibe.
  • Emma is notably 16 and because of that her "assets" and body type are very developed especially in comparison to the games.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: When Kyurem absorbs N's Reshiram to become White Kyurem, N tries to urge Reshiram to resist Ghetsis's control. It works for a moment, but it ultimately fails to disobey Ghetsis. Fortunately, N is saved by Hilbert's Zekrom.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All episodes are named "The ____", following on from Pokémon Origin's Japanese name "The Origin."
• Ignored Expert: Shelly tries in vain to warn Archie that she learnt from the Weather Institute how releasing Kyogre will end up destroying the world.
• Intrepid Reporter: Gabby drags her cameraman Ty into hacking video footage of the meteor destruction from the Mossdeep Space Center.
  Gabby: You gotta be a little crazy if you want to go for the big scoop.
• Jump Scare: The ghost girl from the Old Chateau does this to Cheryl and her Chansey in Episode 10.
• Just in Time: Hilbert shows up riding on the back of Zekrom and saves N from White Kyurem's Ice Burn right at the end of "The King Returns."
• Kick the Dog: Espurr gets kicked by Essentia in Episode 17.
• Large Ham:
  • Agatha of the Elite Four; she's depicted as fairly loud and brash, even managing to summon her Pokémon theatrically!
  • Bruno even moreso, letting out a loud battle cry before facing off against Blue, for absolutely no reason beyond being dramatic.
  • Lance hams it up pretty epicly for his battle against Green.
  • Tabitha of Team Magma, especially noticeably compared to Maxie who is The Stoic.
  • Archie hams it up all throughout Episode 8. Every sentence is punctuated by waving his arms around.
  • The sages from Team Plasma in Episode 13, big time. Not only they tell a bunch of philosophical metaphors solemnly, but they shout that they're the chosen ones to change the world and that no one's going to rebel against their master, Ghetsis. All while they rise to the skies on top of their castle and lightnings strike.
• Limelight Series: This is the premise of many shorts in the series, being "untold stories" of what secondary characters from the games did offscreen.
  • Episode 1 features Pikachu's adventure with Red throughout six different regions.
  • Episode 2 features Looker as he hunts down Giovanni during the events of Pokémon Red and Blue.
  • Episode 3 features Blue taking on (and defeating) the Elite Four of Kanto.
  • Episode 4 features the raid on Rocket's Mahogany Town hideout from Lance's perspective.
  • Episode 5 features Silver/Gen 2 Rival and Looker.
  • Episode 6 features Eusine's reflections of Suicune and the Legendary Beasts.
  • Episodes 7 & 8 feature Hoenn's villainous teams, Magma and Aqua respectively.
  • Episode 9 features the Hoenn news reporters, Gabby and Ty, as they investigate the events of the Delta Episode.
  • Episode 10 features Cheryl and her Chansey in the Old Chateau.
  • Episode 11 features Team Galactic at the Spear Pillar.
  • Episode 12 features Buck and Charon, and brings back Looker again.
  • Episode 13 features the Unovan gym leaders as they defend Unova from Team Plasma.
  • Episode 14 focuses on Team Plasma as they freeze Opelucid City during the events of Black 2 and White 2.
  • Episode 15 features N confronting Ghetsis and N's Reshiram fusing with Kyurem.
  • Episode 16 features Lysandre and gives us a closer look at his Villain with Good Publicity side.
  • Episode 17 features Looker once more as he thinks back on his assistants Emma and Mimi while chasing down Essentia.
  • Episode 18 features AZ challenging the player character in order to redeem himself of his past mistakes, while a small child recalls the story her mother told her of AZ's past.
• Living Shadow:
  • Agatha's Gengar takes on this appearance briefly when it first appears, pooling out of Agatha's Pokéball as a sinister mass of darkness, taking on a shadowy form and then solidifying into its true appearance. Fitting, seeing as it's "the Shadow Pokémon".
  • Giratina appears in the real world as a mostly shadowy ooze, then in its normal form once it's back in the Distortion World.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Gabby and Ty, two unimportant NPCs in the Hoenn games, are the protagonists of Episode 9.
• Minor Major Character:
  • Red. Despite his central role in events and character motivations his face is always obscured, he never speaks, his name is never said aloud and his onscreen appearances mostly have him in the background. Also, while he's responsible for the downfall of Team Rocket, there's no evidence that Looker or the police even know who he is.
  • Ethan in Episode 4, where he appears barely twice, and is only mentioned off-hand as Lance's distraction.
  • Zig-zagged with Brendan in Episode 7. He's not front and center, with the episode being told from Team Magma's perspective, but he's directly addressed as a threat.
• Mook Horror Show: Episode 7 is told from Team Magma's perspective as Brendan attacks their base. His Sceptile is shown making quick work of any grunt Pokémon and security doors in his way with the grunts being helpless to stop him.
• Mr. Exposition: Eusine spends the entire Episode 6 narrating the legend of Johto's Legendary Beasts.
• Ms. Fanservice: The Elite 4's Lorelei, Team Aqua's Shelly and Unova's Gym Leaders Elesa and Skyla.
• Mundane Utility:
  • The SWAT team uses Machamp as a breacher and a Magnemite to short-circuit the electronic lock on the Viridian Gym.
  • In "The Scoop", a number of Pokémon such as Ninjask, Dusclops, Castform, and Loudred help move and set up equipment at the Mauville TV news station.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Just like in the Hoenn games, Archie immediately attempts to stop Kyogre's rampage upon being informed by Matt of how it's threatening to sink the entire world and everything in it beneath the ocean surface.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The way Sceptile uses Leaf Storm to take down a Golbat in Episode 7 is extremely similar to how the move is depicted in Pokkén Tournament.
  • Many of the noises made by the Pokémon in this series reference their cries from the original games.
  • The Haunter that attacks Cheryl and Chansey bears more than a passing resemblance to the Electric Tale's Black Fog.
  • Iris is saved by Clay's Excadrill, bringing the main anime to mind where she had an Excadrill as one of her stronger Pokémon and it was even her starter.
  • Red's starter is Bulbasaur, like in a piece of early art◊ for the original games.
  • Red's Pikachu uses many of the same moves that Ash's Pikachu is known for using, such as Electro Ball, Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, and Volt Tackle.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lysandre's Villain with Good Publicity act, especially the hype and runaway success of the Holocaster bring to mind the late Steve Jobs and the iPod and iPhone.
• No Name Given: If a character is given a name by the player in game, they won't have their name mentioned in Generations.
  • Gen 1's Rival is referred to as Oak's Grandson and Gen 2's Rival as Giovanni's son.
  • The player characters are only ever referred to as "that kid", "that trainer" or "the intruder".
• No-Sell:
  • In Episode 1, the Wooper are completely unfazed by Pikachu's electric attack due to their ground typing.
  • In Episode 4, Lance's Dragonite is attacked by a Grimer, Raticate, Magnemite, Houndoom, and Golbat. They don't even make it flinch.
• Olympus Mons: This series features 23 different Legendary Pokémon within a span of 18 episodes.
  • In Episode 1, seven Legendary Pokémon pass through Red's adventure with Pikachu. Zapdos in Kanto, Lugia in Johto, Latias and Latios in Hoenn, Regigigas in Sinnoh, Landorus in Unova, and Complete Forme Zygarde in Kalos. Pikachu even gets to fight Regigigas and Landorus.
  • In Episode 6, Eusine narrates the tale of Ho-Oh giving life to Suicune, Entei and Raikou.
  • In Episode 7, Courtney has a vision of Primal Groudon destroying everything.
  • In Episode 8, Archie forces Kyogre to turn into Primal Kyogre to flood all lands.
  • In Episode 9, Mega Rayquaza battles Deoxys in all of its Formes.
  • In Episode 11, Cyrus enslaves Dialga and Palkia, but his plan is foiled by Giratina, also shown in both of its Formes.
  • In Episode 12, Buck and Looker fight the awakened Heatran.
  • In Episode 14, Colress uses Kyurem's power to freeze Opelucid City.
  • In Episode 15, Gethsis fuses Kyurem with Reshiram to create White Reshiram, who is then confronted by Zekrom.
  • In Episode 16, Team Flare has the cocoon containing Yveltal in their possession.
• Parental Neglect: Giovanni is implied to be a perpetrator of this in The Legacy, leaving Viridian City while Silver was still young in order to go and rebuild Team Rocket after being beaten by Blue and Red. Silver didn't take it well.
• Pokémon Speak: Averted. Pokémon make animalistic/electronic noises instead of speaking their names. Played with for Pikachu; while it also makes more animalistic sounds, "chu" is an onomatopoeia for a mouse squeak. Several of them make noises similar to the cries they make in the games, most noticeably Ho-Oh. Chansey, not being based on a real animal, makes cutesy squeaks instead.
• Police Are Useless: For once in the franchise, averted. The second short shows that while Red may have been the one who ultimately took down Team Rocket, the Kanto police force was also hot on their trail (if only cleaning up after him, but still), and that they very much had the means to be; while Looker leads the operation, Interpol agents are by no means the only competent members of the police like most fans of the franchise have come to expect at this point, complete with a SWAT team.
  
  It is invoked by Buck in Episode 12, however, when Looker defers to his judgment in dealing with Heatran.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Silver gives one to Giovanni after the latter is preparing to go into hiding following his losses to Red and Blue.
• Recurring Element: Generations as a whole fits into the "Animated Adaption targeted at older fans, that came out during a main-series game's pre-release season" niche, for each main-series game since Black 2 and White 2; Generations itself is this for Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Redemption Rejection: In Episode 15, as with Black 2 and White 2, N attempts to convince Ghetsis that Pokémon were the partners of humans instead of tools, and that Pokémon and humans have taken each other to greater heights. Ghetsis, of course, responds to that by shouting at him hysterically, claiming that no real person could talk to Pokémon, before attempting to off him with Kyurem's Ice Burn (which Hilbert and Zekrom arrive just in time to stop via Big Damn Heroes moment).
• The Remnant: A few of the stories concern the remaining members of a villainous group trying to regain their former power.
• Retraux: Episode 1 starts off using gameplay footage from the original Pokémon Red, which is monochrome with low resolution sprites.
• Rule of Three: Each of the six generations gets three episodes a piece, for a total of 18 episodes in all.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Episode 7 has Brendan's Sceptile taking down a Team Magma Grunt's Golbat with Leaf Storm while in the games, Golbat only takes one-fourth damage from Grass-type moves, being a Poison/Flying-type.
• Scream Discretion Shot: Episode 10 ends with Cheryl and her Chansey screaming at the sight of the ghost girl.
• Screen Shake: Happens in Episode 9 when Gabby runs towards the camera to pick up a flash drive on the ground. Everything shakes as if the ground was.
• Shout-Out:
  • Deoxys vs Mega Rayquaza looks like something that would come right out of Dragon Ball Z.
  • Heatran in episode 12 has the roar of a Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus rex.
  • The ending scene of Episode 13 is similar to that of the scene where Team Iron Man and Team Captain America run towards each other in Captain America: Civil War.
• Shown Their Work: The Charizard present at the ceremony in Lumiose City is no bigger than Professor Sycamore; an adult. Unlike in the anime, Charizard aren't exactly taller than an average adult, as stated in its dex entry. It is roughly the size of a teenager.
• Smug Snake: The entire Team Rocket garrison of episode 4, who believe they can take down the most powerful of the Elite Four and have the nerve to walk up to him swaggering confidently. Lance quickly dissuades them of that notion.
• Spiritual Successor: To Pokémon Origins, as a more serious and faithful Animated Adaptation of the main games aimed towards the series' Periphery Demographic.
• Stepping Stones in the Sky: Buck has his Claydol levitate rocks so he can jump on them to get to the Magma Stone, since Heatran is blocking the only path to it.
• Stock Sound Effect: Blue's Pidgeot does a red-tailed hawk screech when it attacks Bruno's Machamp. Various other Pokémon are heard to have these as well. Lapras sounds like a dinosaur, and Wingull are actual seagulls.
• Story Arc: Unlike the episodes for previous generations, which were just disjointed moments from the games with little-to-no continuity between each other, the Unova episodes roughly form this. The first episode focuses on the gym leaders attacking N's Castle, led by Drayden. The second episode focuses on Neo Team Plasma getting their revenge by freezing Opelucid City with Kyurem, and Zinzolin forcing Drayden to hand him the DNA splicers. The final episode focuses on N confronting Ghetsis, who fuses N's Reshiram with the Kyurem using the DNA splicers, before N gets saved by Hilbert.
• Stripperiffic: Elesa's outfit is nothing more than a short skirt, a top with exposed cleavage, and it being basically a bikini.
• The Stoic: Special mention goes to Cyrus. No matter if he accomplished his goal, got said goal stopped by a third beast, got stared down by an epitome of nightmares and just stood there taking a lunging move that takes him to the Distortion World, he hardly has any change in expressions and takes everything with a speck of salt.
• Suplex Finisher: Brendan's Sceptile does this to a Magma Grunt's Golbat in episode 7.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Agatha's comments about it being a long time since the Elite Four had a challenger makes sense when you realize that while anyone can become a Pokémon trainer, very few are able to take on the Pokémon League. Taking on the League requires traveling the entire country and training a Pokémon team strong enough to get all eight badges and get through Victory Road, something only a handful of people would have the time and ability to do.
• Team Power Walk: The four Rocket grunts in Episode 4 attempt this. Unfortunately for them, they don't have the muscle to back it up against Lance's Dragonite.
• Tears of Fear: Cheryl and her Chansey when they're confronted by the ghost girl at the end of Episode 10.
• Tears of Joy: AZ once he finally reunites with his beloved Floette at the end of Episode 18.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Pikachu in Episode 1 went from struggling with a Caterpie to one hit Ko'ing a Volcarona and fending off a Noivern while the mine cart he's on is in motion.
• Truer to the Text: Much like Origins, it adapts the games much closer than the on-going anime.
  • Team Rocket disbands after Giovanni's defeat, instead of persisting.
  • The Pokémon League challenge is a gauntlet of four powerful trainers instead of a tournament.
  • Silver exists as Giovanni's son.
  • In a meta example, Deoxys is caught with the more game-appropriate Ultra Ball instead of a normal Poké Ball.
• Ungrateful Townsfolk: Episode 6 shows that while the people of Ecruteak City mourned the deaths of the Pokémon that would become Suicune, Entei and Raikou, Ho-Oh appeared and breathed new life into the Legendary Beasts. Rather than rejoice, many of the villagers reacted to this violation of nature by turning into an angry mob. The trio, less than impressed with the villagers, decided to leave without a fight, never to return until they learned to trust people again.
• The Unreveal: The Legendary Beasts' previous incarnations are depicted as just canine silhouettes that don't resemble any particular Pokémon. Also serves to debunk the popular fan theory that the Legendary Beasts are reincarnated Eeveelutions.
• Unwitting Pawn: At the end of episode 17, Essentia is revealed as Emma, but she's absolutely confused as to what's going on, meaning she's been in a trance.
• Villain Episode: Episode 16 focuses on Lysandre, specifically his Villain with Good Publicity side.
• Villainous Breakdown: Episode 15 clearly shows us what Ghetsis has been going through; in the beginning, you can clearly see him panting and sweating, and when N has his "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight with White Kyurem, his father snaps even further.
• Villain with Good Publicity: "The Beauty Eternal" shows how incredibly honest and charitable Lysandre is to the public, while of course hiding his true agenda from officials.
• The Voiceless: The Player Characters are never heard speaking.
• Wham Shot: In "The King Returns", N gets rescued by Zekrom and...Hilbert!?
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: In-universe. According to Episode 18, the tale of AZ, the Great War, and the Ultimate Weapon is apparently a fairy tale told to children. invoked
• What If?: "The Cavern" is an alternative vision of what happens if the Hoenn Player Character doesn't show up to stop Team Aqua. Kyogre causes mass destruction and possibly kills Archie and Shelly.
• The Worf Effect: The Elite Four are ultimately taken out pretty quickly by Blue. Justified somewhat though, since it's a barely 5 minute short, meaning that there's a limited amount of screentime to show off each fight.
• The World Is Not Ready: The scientist at the end of episode nine tries to suppress the information of the protagonist's fight with, and capture of, Deoxys, noting the world isn't ready to learn of extraterrestrial Pokémon.
• World of Ham: Certain episodes really show how nearly everyone is a large ham. The Elite Four, Team Aqua, the Seven Sages, the Unovan Gym Leaders, the list goes on.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Agatha seems to see Blue as such - whereas the other members of the Elite Four respond to him defeating them with either annoyance (Lorelei) or disbelief (Bruno)- Agatha seems legitimately impressed with his level of skill, and even gives him something resembling a compliment. It probably helps that she knew his grandpa personally.
  • Naturally, Blue sees Red as such, evidently being equally impressed that his rival made it this far as well.
  • Courtney seems pretty interested in facing off against Brendan. Perhaps a little too interested.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Brendan's Sceptile suplexes a Golbat — a resistant type it should not even try to fight — in midair and takes it down. Literally. In both senses.
• Would Hurt a Child: Team Plasma try to attack Iris directly with three Liepards.
• Yandere: Like in the games, Courtney comes across as this in her interactions with Brendan. This face in particular.◊
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Much like in the games, Blue has only just become the Pokémon League Champion by the time Red shows up and fights his way through the Indigo Plateau to beat him. Not that Blue seems to care, he actually seems kinda bored just sitting on his throne and hoping that Red would come soon, and is thrilled when he does.
• You Don't Look Like You: Pikachu's design is rather different than how it usually looks, having smaller ears and a more mouse-like body similar to Pichu. This is because its design is a modern interpretation of its sprite from Red and Blue, as well as resembling how it is usually drawn in Sugimori art.

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