Proposal: Galar: A separated region

This article idea is free to be claimed by someone else. While I don't mind writing it and it interests me, I also have other things to work on so if someone else wants to write it, speak up!

Arose from the following discord chat:

bobandbillToday at 9:05 PM
come to think of it
does... galar have any out-of-region people appear...?
outside of say a no-name npc saying theyre from unova or kanto or whatnot

SammiToday at 9:05 PM
I don't think so

bobandbillToday at 9:05 PM
hmm

SammiToday at 9:05 PM
they're all stuck at the border because they wanna bring in their Pokemon :P

MercuryToday at 9:06 PM
not even any people from Kalos
Brexiteers got what they wanted I hope they're happy

bobandbillToday at 9:07 PM
yeah that strikes me as odd now that I think about it
alola had red and blue and others in the battle tower (like wally and cynthia)
kalos had looker
oras also had looker I suppose, but it's a remake [lpge truly was kanto only]
bw/b2w2 had cynthia and also that one TR guy from gsc/hgss' kanto sidequest
hgss had sinnoh gym leaders and vice versa
this sorta makes galar feel more disconnected from everywhere else

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Thinking aloud, the layout could be:
- Intro
- Highlight how there are only no-name NPCs from other regions and a lack of even reference to other region characters.
- Examples of other regions doing this
- Conclusion: makes galar seem rather separated from other regions.
--- Speculation as to why? Purposeful from the devs? Or lack of time to implement say a Looker post-game story quest?

Thoughts please!

I'm all for the "GF saw the Dexit writing on the wall, made Galar like that specifically to throw some shade on westerners" angle. Other than that, noting how despite Dexit the Regional Champion, the supposedly most powerful and famous trainer with quite some sponsoring, has a Charizard a Pokémon from Kanto, and *none* of the other Starters appear, so definitively there's some extra shade too in that the rules apply to the plebeians but not to Rich People or something. Heck, the sponsors perhaps gave him a Charizard specifically so they could embarrass the League in public showing how competitor Pokémon from other regions are Better™ compared to... whatever the national product is (I don't buy for a moment that Scorbunny is primarily or solely Galarian native).

There's a lot of room for social criticism in these games and Dexit is only the delicious, low hanging fruit. There's something about hooligans and nazis as well as some stuff about region locking as a means to enforce artificial scarcity from corporate too, from what I hear.

Are the sponsor brands in SwoSh made up or references to real world brands? Because from that angle there could also be some references to Japan and the US (or, if they want to be reaaaaally obscure about it, to that Silph branch in Poké!Russia).

Another thing that might be worth a mention: is there a world map anywhere in Galar? Unova and at least the Megaevolution special's Kalos side had world globes IIRC so at least there would be *some* acknowledgement that other places in the world exist, dunno if that is the case with Galar.

There, some nifty angles for whoever wants to take up the article.

Something also interesting to note is how Unova, a region known for having "only new Pokémon"* and being incredibly distant from other regions still has people from other regions appear. Not just in the PWT, but Caitlin from Sinnoh's Battle Frontier has grown (shows the passage of time) and is part of the region's Elite Four, Cynthia has a villa there, and Sabrina has taken up working as an actress and works alongside Brycen in the Pokéstar Studios. There's also Looker, don't forget Looker.

Off the top of my head, the only regions to be as cut-off as Galar are Hoenn (no "outsiders;" in the remake it's only Looker and arguably the Battle Maison ladies in the copy-pasted Battle Maison) and Kalos (only Looker and only in the post-game). Johto having gen 1 characters appear is unavoidable but in the remakes there are gen 3 and 4 characters who appear, and Sinnoh similarly has at least one Johto character appear, if not more (again, just off the top of my head: Jasmine gives you HM Waterfall and participates in contests). It really does say a lot when even Kalos and remake-Hoenn managed to at least throw in Looker to add some sense of connection to the other regions but Galar didn't.

These are just some points to consider, mainly because I don't think people realize just how often these cross-regional characters appear. It's certainly not limited to Alola for the sake of making references due to its 20th anniversary release. As to whether the exclusion in Galar is intentional or not I can't say completely, due to not having actually experienced the game. But considering Unova was meant to feel "separate" as the first main-series title not set in Japan and its cast of all-new Pokémon* and still managed to establish a concrete connection with other regions through its use of "outside-region" characters, I can't say I would be able to find a way to justify their exclusion from Galar aside from "they didn't have time to add anyone." Like, such an argument of it being intentional is destroyed by the game itself: the undefeated champion Leon has a Charizard but the other two Kanto starters don't exist in Galar. There is clearly meant to be connection, it just wasn't followed through.

Insert "what do you mean, Hau is in the game, just look at Hop's animations" joke here.

(*but you can still transfer the old ones in the post-game)

Rivvon said:

Off the top of my head, the only regions to be as cut-off as Galar are Hoenn (no "outsiders;" in the remake it's only Looker and arguably the Battle Maison ladies in the copy-pasted Battle Maison) and Kalos (only Looker and only in the post-game). Johto having gen 1 characters appear is unavoidable but in the remakes there are gen 3 and 4 characters who appear, and Sinnoh similarly has at least one Johto character appear, if not more (again, just off the top of my head: Jasmine gives you HM Waterfall and participates in contests). It really does say a lot when even Kalos and remake-Hoenn managed to at least throw in Looker to add some sense of connection to the other regions but Galar didn't.

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On Kalos, it also had an appearance from Blue. Still only 2 people that I recall, but it's more than Galar. DPPt also had Oak appear (he has a house in Eterna).

I only know of one reference in Sword and Shield to Pokémon that might originate from outside of Galar. Type: Null's pokedex entry could be a very vague connection between Chairman Rose and the Aether Foundation.

bobandbill said:

On Kalos, it also had an appearance from Blue. Still only 2 people that I recall, but it's more than Galar. DPPt also had Oak appear (he has a house in Eterna).

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Blue did not appear in Kalos. An NPC mentions that he studied in Kalos, but it's only a name-drop. Blue himself has long gone and does not appear to the player.

Rivvon said:

Blue did not appear in Kalos. An NPC mentions that he studied in Kalos, but it's only a name-drop. Blue himself has long gone and does not appear to the player.

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Ah yes, true. It's an NPC talking about him and mentioning the smell you later quote. Still in itself substantially more than Galar!

Incidentally, article will have to take the DLC stuff into account now... we have clothing references (Ghetsis' eyepiece and Lysandre's visor), but still no characters themselves, so far.