[Sword & Shield] THEORY: The Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra Are Going to Introduce Us to Galar’s Elite Four

[Superfox]

With the first part of the DLC coming out tomorrow, I thought it'd be fun to post a fun little theory I've been mulling over. Disclaimer: I have no real evidence for this, it's basically speculation, but still fun. So..

The topic of why Galar doesn't have an Elite Four is one that I haven't really seen discussed much in the fandom. Or at least, not as much as I'd think it would be. I mean, Pokémon fans discuss every little detail. So it's odd that this seems to have slipped the notice of many in the community. Every Pokémon generation/region up until now has featured an Elite Four. Even Alola, which doesn't even have a formal League when we start the Gen 7 games, has an Elite Four set up by the time the games are done. So, it seems odd that Galar is the first not to have one.

Now, some would say that that's because Galar and Gen 8 are meant to mirror the anime more, where the Pokémon League is literally just a tournament-style competition as opposed to the hierarchical Elite Four system set up in the games. Therefore, there's no need for the Elite Four. However, there's one issue with that argument: even in the anime, where each region has a tournament-style League, each region still also has an Elite Four and we even see those characters in the anime. Ash met the entirety of both the Kanto and Sinnoh Elite Four rosters. Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four has appeared. Caitlin of Unova's Elite Four has appeared. Ash met Malva and two other members of Kalos's Elite Four (Siebold and Wikstrom) have appeared. You get the gist...

So, even where there is no "need" for them, the Elite Four still seems to be a staple of the Pokémon world. So why no Elite Four for Galar? Unless, of course, Galar does have an Elite Four. We just haven't met them yet...because we meet them in the DLCs. In fact, I think we just might have already been introduced to at least one of them. And we even know the type that this person specializes in.

I'll post the second part of my theory when I can, but I wanted to encourage a discussion and see if you could guess who I'm talking about first before I did. Be back soon!

 

[Xander Olivieri]

I honestly liked that Galar didn't have an Elite Four as it made the impact of becoming Champion seem more realistic to me. It also felt closer to the Anime than it ever has with this format. I feel that, because of the heavy sport theme'd motif that we won't have an actual E4 introduced. Same with how Alola had no Gyms even after the formation of their league (a thing that was highly speculative at the time and believed to be the outcome we as the player would end up working towards), but rather they converted their tradition as a way to show you are qualified to challenge the League.

I feel that we'll see the other "Gym Leaders" rather than the Elite Four. Both Klara and Avery are training to be able to open their own Gyms and we already know at least one Gym for every type exists in Galar, but only the 8 top gyms make it into the Major league and the others are Minor league. At least with Isle of Armor this seems to be the main thing...Crowned Tundra seems to follow a different path.

 

[Superfox]

I honestly liked that Galar didn't have an Elite Four as it made the impact of becoming Champion seem more realistic to me. It also felt closer to the Anime than it ever has with this format. I feel that, because of the heavy sport theme'd motif that we won't have an actual E4 introduced. Same with how Alola had no Gyms even after the formation of their league (a thing that was highly speculative at the time and believed to be the outcome we as the player would end up working towards), but rather they converted their tradition as a way to show you are qualified to challenge the League.

I feel that we'll see the other "Gym Leaders" rather than the Elite Four. Both Klara and Avery are training to be able to open their own Gyms and we already know at least one Gym for every type exists in Galar, but only the 8 top gyms make it into the Major league and the others are Minor league. At least with Isle of Armor this seems to be the main thing...Crowned Tundra seems to follow a different path.

I mean, true, it did feel closer to the anime, but again, even in the anime, an Elite Four for each region exists. We meet them.

 

[Superfox]

Well, dang. I thought this topic would get more traction.

Anyway, I know that the Isle of Armor has been out for over a week, but just because I'm a completionist, I'm gonna finish off the theory. So, the character I was referring to actually wasn't in the Isle of Armor at all. No, the character that I believe might turn out to be a member of the Galar Elite Four is none other than...Peony.

Now, I know I said that we knew the type this character specializes in, but that's because I think the type Peony specializes in can be easily deduced. If we look at Peony, the look kind of gives it away: heavy duty jacket and cargo pants, hard hat, a backpack full of what is presumably hiking gear. He's a hiker. And since Rock-type is taken by Gordie, I think it's entirely plausible that Peony is a Ground-type specialist. However, it's not just his look. There's also compelling, albeit circumstantial evidence that backs up this theory. Now, almost every Gigantamax Pokémon turned out to be some other trainer's ace during your playthrough, right? Kabu had GMax Centiskorch, Marnie has GMax Grimmsnarl, Melony had GMax Lapras, Chairman Rose had GMax Copperajah, etc. Even Hop got a signature GMax Pokémon: Corviknight.

Now, only a handful of GMax Pokémon haven't been assigned to a trainer you encounter in the story. I think it's only four: Orbeetle, Toxtricity, Butterfree, and of course Sandaconda. And while it's entirely possible that Peony could throw out Toxtricity and prove to be an Electric-type specialist, I think the get-up he's wearing points more towards the Ground-type. So, yeah, my conclusion is that Peony is likely a Ground-type user and his ace is GMax Sandaconda.

As an aside, I think the fact that both Orbeetle and Butterfree have yet to be assigned (especially Orbeetle) might also point to the possibility of a Bug-type specialist Elite Four member as well. And that actually plays into the whole "we're getting Sinnoh remakes" narrative as well. Because when was the last time there was an Elite Four with two members that specialized in Ground-type and Bug-type respectively? That would be Bertha and Aaron of the Sinnoh Elite Four.

So how do I get from "Peony is a Ground-type user" to "Peony is a member of the Elite Four"? Well, again, it's a stretch, buuuuuuut look at how we (supposedly) meet Peony. He's in the Crown Tundra searching for/investigating the Galarian Legendary Bird trio. That kind of sounds exactly like something Lance (Kanto's Dragon-type Elite Four member/sometimes Champion) would do. From my understanding, the games (and the anime) have largely established that it mostly falls on either the Champion and/or Elite Four of each region to investigate unusual and sometimes dangerous phenomena. For lack of a better comparison, because this world sort of centers on strength and prowess in Pokémon battling, the Champions/Elite Fours are basically the governing bodies of the Pokémon world because they are the "strongest trainers" around. So, leading an expedition team to the Crown Tundra to investigate a troubling new development or at least study an important natural phenomenon? It sounds like something an important official would be doing.

On top of that, there were some characters in the Isle of Armor that I think could also potentially be members of Galar's Elite Four. I mean, I know there has to be more to Honey than meets the eye. Maybe that's where she met Mustard. If Mustard was Champion at one point, maybe Honey was/is an Elite Four member.

Now, is any of this provable by demonstrable fact? No. As I said before, it's all just speculation. But as I also said, that's what makes it fun.