During yesterday’s annual Pokémon Day Presents showcase, Game Freak finally unveiled gameplay footage of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, revealing real-time combat, the return of some old friends, and teases about new mysteries in Lumiose City. It also revealed the three starters for the game will be Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile. At a glance, those picks aren’t that odd. Pokémon Legends: Arceus had starters that originated in regions different from the Sinnoh one it was set in. However, given two of them are from Gen II’s Johto region, fans are wondering why Cyndaquil, the fire-type porcupine-ish little guy who also debuted in Gold and Silver, wasn’t part of the starting roster alongside Chikorita and Totodile. The most plausible reasons for the omission aren’t that interesting, but the more outlandish conspiracy theories forming around it are very funny.
If you somehow missed it last year, Pokémon developer Game Freak was subject to a massive leak in October. As information trickled out of the company, we learned things about upcoming projects and scrapped Pokémon, and also got a few folklore-style stories about the universe that may or may not be canon. One of these stories focused on a Typhlosion, the final form of Cyndaquil, who transformed into a human and impregnated a woman. The internet had a field day with it and the fire starter’s reputation hasn’t recovered from the scandal. Now, fans are spinning tales that the reason Cyndaquil isn’t joining its Johto starters in Legends: Z-A is that Game Freak may have thought it was too soon to put it back in the spotlight. The more likely explanation is that Cyndaquil was a starter in Legends: Arceus, and Game Freak probably didn’t want to double-dip in the same subseries. But nevertheless, fans are running with the theory, and while some think the Typhlosion jokes are dead, I am still laughing.
Typhlosion has gotten some recent love, so it’s not like Cyndaquil fans are starving. The Pokémon got a brand new Hisuian form in Legends: Arceus that is arguably even cooler than its Johto region variant. But even if he’s not a starter this time, hopefully the little guy still shows up in Legends: Z-A as an obtainable Pokémon when the game launches later this year.