indepthpokemonheadcanons

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Even when they are regularly and plentifully fed by their trainers, delibirds don't lose the instinct to forage and gather. In more rural areas, it is easy enough to let them explore woodland and bring back various nuts, roots, and berries - though it is important to check the contents of their tail regularly, as well-fed delibirds have a tendency to hold onto food so long that it spoils.

If the delibird can't forage outside, it will reproduce this behaviour inside the house. Should you ever find your pantry dwindling, be sure to inspect your delibird's tail, as your vanished storecupboard herbs or insant ramen may be found in there. On the plus side, it is never difficult to recover any stolen food, as delibirds are all too willing to share.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Rika Headcanons

Rika was born in Paldea, but her father is Unovan and her mother is Hoennese. She has spent a great deal of her life training in different regions around the world, and the result is that - no matter which language she is speaking - her accent is rather unusual and hard to place. 

Because she is so personable and down to earth, challengers are often surprised to discover what a bad loser Rika is. Since becoming an Elite, she has had to learn to be more gracious, but she is still infamous for turning sullen and petulant when beaten. Despite this, when reflecting on prior battles, her favourites are almost always the ones where she was bested.

Rika uses any pronouns. They have no preference for how they are addressed, but most of their colleagues tend to stick with feminine or neutral terms - aside from Poppy, who has always called Rika ‘uncle’.

Rika is exceedingly unimaginative when naming pokémon. Their beloved clodsire is called ‘Clod’. 

As a teenager, Rika took on the Hoenn League and successfully attained all eight Gym badges, but didn’t make it beyond the first Elite - Sidney, at the time. She lost to him twice, but he took a shine to her and kept in touch to offer some coaching. Even though their type specialisations are very different, Rika’s battle style resembles his in many ways -  blunt, slow paced, and occasionally brutal. While Sidney is evasive and Rika more defensive, they both allow opponents to wear themselves out before striking back, and striking hard. 

Rika swears constantly, and is not very good at curtailing their language even in professional contexts. They make a poor guest on pre-watershed shows. Geeta has had firm words with them about this more than once.

Most of Rika’s pokémon have battled alongside her since childhood - she caught her camerupt and whiscash in Hoenn over ten years ago, and her clodsire is even older. In her annual reviews, the League has pressed her to take on and train a greater variety of pokémon, to give her more flexibility in teambuilding and cover some of the gaps in her offense. She is complying, but half-heartedly. She’d rather just battle with her old buddies.  

Her cooking is atrocious. She often forgets to eat full meals, subsisting on cup noodles and coffee.

Rika loves rotation battles more than any other style, largely due to how unpredictable they can be, but they see very little play outside of Unova. She runs occasional classes at Naranja Academy to introduce students to the basics, but it’s a tough sell for most - rotation battles have a very different rhythm to regular ones, and the initial learning curve is steep. There are particular rules pertaining to how and when you are allowed to rotate and attack, and a whole host of fouls and penalities to memorise. But it trains people in how to change strategies at incredibly short notice, and Rika credits it as the reason she is so adaptable in single battles.  

Rika thinks Larry is the bee’s knees, even if he finds her exhausting. Whenever she goes abroad for tournaments she brings back a funky-looking tie for him as a gift, which he inevitably does not wear.  

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Professor Sada and Area Zero

Area Zero has long been a source of curiosty and study in Paldea. Sada was far from the first to take an interest in the Great Crater, but she is the first to have conducted such thorough research there, at least since the era of Heath’s initial expedition.

Her earliest research pertained to the Terastal phenomenon unique to Paldea, and she is credited with eludicating existing theories about its origins. Her work led to the development of Tera Orbs some twenty years prior, which in subsequent years were developed for commercial use. This monumental discovery was enough to draw the attention of both academic and commercial funding bodies, who went on to pour investment into her true research pursuit - setting up permanent bases in Area Zero, to conduct a longitudinal investigation into the Terstal energy coalesced there.

Several research teams launched projects within the crater, of which Sada’s was the largest and most well-funded. Her team comprised scientists of both established and budding talent - among them Turo, an early career researcher whom she had supervised in prior years.

The initial project findings were promising but limited. Sada insisted on establishing permanent bases at the deepest point of the crater, on the evidence of it being the area at which Terastal energy was most condensed. Funding was granted for this, but not without the reluctance, as it would be both a dangerous and expensive operation.

Even though Sada’s research was, by agreement with her sponsors, supposed to focus on Terastal energy, she grew gradually more fixated on the bizarre, dangerous pokémon at the base of the crater. Having long been fascinated by Heath’s research in the Scarlet Book, she wanted to know where these ancient creatures came from, how they had arrived here, and whether it might be possible to bring forth more of them.

The Terastal energy within the crater was conducive to creating advanced, seemingly impossible technology. Even machinery from outside Area Zero ran differently at the base of the crater; batteries lasted twice as long as normal, and computers were prone to odd glitches, wherein they would switch on or open programmes unprompted. Sada proposed to test the limits of this energy while simultaneously investigating the newly-dubbed ‘paradox pokémon’, and began developments on a machine. It was to be assembled in the prismatic carvern at the crater’s deepest point, where the Terastal energy was strongest.

Only a select portion of Sada’s researchers knew that the construction was intended to be a time machine. Her sponsors were already growing skittish and impatient due to the length of the project, and a similar fatigue was setting in amongst her own team. Turo was one of the few brought into her confidence. By this stage, the two of them had been engaged in an on-and-off affair for the better part of a year, and she trusted him further than most.

Progress on the time machine was startlingly fast, though the researchers did not seem to recognise this, despite the copious records they kept about the machine’s construction. Shortly before its first successful retrieval, Sada discovered that she was pregnant, to her surprise and Turo’s quiet horror. 

He expressed his reluctance from the start; their affair had never been serious, and he was enitrely unprepared to be a father. Sada agreed not to involve him, but still attempted to maintain their quasi-relationship, in the hopes he would change his mind. They remained together in the months following Arven’s birth, with Sada based outside the crater on maternity leave and Turo visiting intermittently, travelling between Area Zero and the south province.

Shortly before Arven turned one, Turo left without warning. He intened to keep in contact, but once he had extracted himself from his relationship with Sada - and from the bizarre, oppressive project in Area Zero - that portion of his life took on an uncanny, dreamlike quality, and he could not find the courage to return. Sada never heard from him again, and nor did Arven.

Sada returned to the project early, before her maternity leave had concluded. She resumed her work at the base of the crater, while Arven remained in the labs at the uppermost levels until he was old enough to board at the academy. Even as Sada successfully summoned more paradox pokémon with the time machine, the overall project began to fracture and lose momentum. Her findings were scattered and inconclusive; the money was running out; her sponsors and fellow researchers were dropping away faster than they could be replaced.

The smaller the team became, the more Sada retreated into herself, preoccupied with the need to understand the crater and the creatures there, certain that to solve the mystery would yield ‘paradise’. She developed the AI with the same uncanny speed and ease that she developed the time machine, but told nobody about it. She summoned a second koraidon, in the interests of creating a breeding pair. She stopped writing to her son.

The AI was the only entity to survive the destruction of Research Station 4, and the only witness to the deaths of Sada and her few remaining team members. Contained within the Zero Lab was a written account of the events leading up to and proceeding this disaster, as recorded by the AI, in thorough and seemingly complete detail. This record is among the copious files, papers, and photographs that Arven, Juliana, Penny and Nemona recovered from their voyage into the crater, all of which are currently held in Director Clavell’s care.

There some oddities about the AI’s record, however. It makes no mention of the vast Tera crystals that ravaged Research Station 4, even though photographs suggest that they may have emerged suddenly, with enough force to disrupt the building’s structure. Nor does it mention what happened to the bodies of Sada and her fellow researchers.

The other recovered files, written by the true Sada and others on the project, are stranger still. Clavell has pored over the construction records for the time machine, attempting to make sense of them, but to no avail. It is not merely that the science is beyond him, but that there is no science to follow; it is a meaningless ramble, formatted into merticulous order, which contains no discernable method or instructions. The same is true of the notes on the AI, which are even less coherent. None of the records explain how Sada, brilliant though she may have been, could have created these unprecidented technological marvels with such ease.

At the end of the AI’s written account, there is a final request to destroy any retrieved documents from Zero Lab, as their programming prevents them from doing it themselves. Clavell has prepared to do this many times, but a certain curiosity always holds him back. What a loss it would be, he thinks. A lifetime of work and effort, all to bring humanity a little bit closer to something. Some truth, some trove of knowledge - some treasure, still waiting to be uncovered. 

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

thank you for 6k followers!!

knowing there are so many people out there who also enjoy overanalysing the pokémon universe really warms my heart

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

In times gone past, travellers crossing the arid regions of Paldea were encouraged to carry supplies of white pebbles with them, as a means of protection against wandering brambleghasts. Such pebbles needed to be small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and they had to be arranged in a circle around any place where you stopped to rest.

The custom goes that the pebbles, being roughly the same weight and colour as living souls, might trick passing brambleghasts into thinking they had found prey. In turn, they would then ignore the soul of the traveller sleeping inside the circle. This custom is not often practised now, but you will still find rings of pale stones out in remote areas of Paldea. Sometimes, there will be a break in the circle, as though one pebble has been stolen away.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Grusha Headcanons

Grusha avoids social and networking events as far as possible. Even though his role as Gym Leader demands a certain degree of public engagement, he finds it exceedingly difficult to sustain conversations, and often comes across as aloof and rude without meaning to. Rather than risk saying something tactless, he engages as little as possible.

He joined the League a few months before Ryme did, but he has taken much longer to settle into his role. Despite being relatively new to the professional battle scene, critics rank him as one of the strongest Gym Leaders in Paldea, with the makings to become an Elite in future. Geeta has dropped similar hints during his annual performance reviews. But the praise does not always register; he doubts his ability and dwells on defeats, which often leads to him avoiding more challenging opponents. 

Grusha did not have great interest in pokémon battles when he was younger. Neither of his parents were trainers, but they pressed him to try an array of sports and other pursuits throughout childhood, both battling and coordinating among them. Of the countless activities he dabbled in, snowboarding was the only one that truly seized his interest, but now that this path has closed to him, he has fallen back on alternative pursuits. Competitive battle still does not wholly engage him - but it is, at the very least, something he can feel good at. 

His battle style is notable for how he manipulates visibility during matches. His signature technique utilises tailwinds combined with hailstorms and haze, which makes it exceedingly difficult for opposing trainers and their pokémon to see what is happening on the battlefield. His own team, all trained to rely on senses other than sight, are well adapted to fighting in such conditions. The technique is highly effective, but League officials have gently (but firmly) discouraged him from using it in more public matches, because low visibility hurts spectator enjoyment. 

When he was younger, Grusha kept his hair short. It was only during the long, listless year after his injury that he grew it out, largely because he couldn’t summon the energy to book a haircut. He has since decided that he prefers it that way. Occasionally, he experiments with his appearance in other ways, such as with nail polish and makeup, but he is intensely private about it, especially now he is back in the public eye. 

He does not tend to keep his pokémon in pokéballs unless he has to, as they are adjusted to roaming alone on Glaseado mountain. His weavile is especially reluctant to be contained. While Grusha has good control of his team on the battlefield, he is lax in domestic settings - he lets his pokémon sleep where they please, and even feeds them food from his own plate. 

Grusha did some occasional modelling as a child, largely due to his mother’s insistence and fashion connections. He has taken on similar work as an adult, but he feels more self-conscious in front of a camera than he used to, uncertain of how to stand and hold himself. 

Due to how recently he entered his role, he is not especially close to anyone in the League. At the few social functions he attends, Rika is one of the few to always strike up a conversation with him, but he assumes she is only being polite. Her blatant attempts to flirt are also taken as politeness.   

Before his altaria evolved, she liked to settle in his hair and sleep on his head. She still attempts to do it now, even though she is rather too heavy for it.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

The Paldean battle circuit has always had an international presence, oweing largely to the prestige of Naranja Academy and the high volume of budding trainers it accepts from abroad, but the commercialisation of the terastal phenomenon has driven tourism to new heights. Over the last decade, Paldea has become a thriving hub of international competitions and tournaments, one of the most popular draws for professional trainers, amateurs, and spectators outside of the Indigo League.

The invention of Tera Orbs is credited as the reason for this boom. The technology is still in its infancy, so League officials were originally hesitant to incorporate it into Gym and Elite battles, but it created an immediate buzz of excitement both locally and abroad. Once Tera Orbs were reliable enough to be distributed to members of the public - albeit in small numbers, and at great expense - Paldea cemented its place as a new hotspot for battle innovation.

The Paldean League now works in partnership with others across the world, most notably the Indigo and Kalosian Leagues. Their Gym Leaders and Elites are not only invited to open tournaments, but provided with Tera Orbs so that they may terastallize their pokémon during any competitions. Foreign trainers are often fascinated to discover the dormant tera types of their pokémon, and enjoy the new challenges that terastallizing brings to battles; Alder, former Unovan champion, now competes more in Paldea than his home nation. Likewise, long-time fans of established trainers will often travel to see them partake in Paldean tournaments, as the battling in Paldea is unlike anywhere else in the world.

Tera Orbs are currently limited in their range, and lose functionality outside a certain radius of Area Zero. Even in Paldea itself, there are known ‘dead spots’ where the Orbs become significantly less reliable, particularly by the coast or at high altitudes. Using them outside of the region is impossible. There are plans to develop the technology further, increasing the range until terastallising can be introduced to the global stage, but they aren’t without pushback. Many believe that it would drive Paldea back into relative obscurity, because it would dispense with the principal thing that makes their battle circuit unique. In any case, such developments are likely to take decades.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

The interview section of the Paldean Champion Assessment never used to be carried out by a member of the Elite Four. It was handled by more minor league staff and was, by all accounts, a rather mundane part of the process. Rika took it upon herself to make the interview more of a feature, adding more theatrics and much harder questions. While her schedule doesn't let her conduct all of the interviews herself, she still dedicates a lot of time to them - she loves donning the glasses, getting into character, and scaring some kids.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

In Paldea, ‘sprigatito fur’ is a common scent name for laundry detergents and air fresheners. Such products always carry the outdoorsy, fresh smell of cut grass and flowers - despite the fact that sprigatito does not have an inherently floral scent at all. Many other grass types, such as petilil and gossifleur, are noticeably fragrant, but sprigatito only smells like most feline pokémon - warm and a little dusty. Nobody is quite sure why the name persists.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

The accident that ended Grusha's snowboarding career also led to him breaking two of his front teeth. The damage was hastily repaired and is essentially unnoticeable now, but he is still self-conscious about it; he rarely smiles in photos, and has a habit of hiding his mouth.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Volo and Giratina

Unbeknown to most who knew him, Volo hailed from an old, wealthy family based in western Hisui. He grew up surrounded by old Hisuian faith, raised to believe not only in deities of time and space, but an overarching god referred to as (among many other names) Arceus. While the old faith was not necessarily uncommon among Volo’s generation, belief in Arceus had been declining across the region for many decades, largely oweing to the influx of individuals and clans arriving to Hisui from other Japanese regions.

Volo took a keen interest in Hisuian legends from a young age, which his family initially encouraged. His ancestry stretched back to the most ancient of Hisuian peoples, and so his family had at their disposition an array of records, relics, and artefacts ranging from centuries to over a millennia old. He was fascinated not only by Arcues and the governers of space and time, but by the banished deity of blights, destruction, and chaos, known now as Giratina.

The old Hisuian faith rarely distinguished the creation trio by their names; this is a more modern development. Instead, these deities were viewed principally as three of Arceus’s one thousand ‘arms’, which it had used to shape the universe. Each deity was an extension of Arceus’s will rather than independent being in its own right.

The legend followed that, before the universe was formed, Giratina’s purpose had always been to warp and destroy - to erase what Arceus was not satisfied with, so that it could be reshaped anew. Once the universe had been molded as Arceus chose, it cut off this third, violent arm, sealing it away in an abandoned realm. Volo became preoccupied with this myth in early adulthood, to the point of questioning and unpicking it. If Arceus had banished this violent arm, why did destruction persist in the current world? If Girtaina could destroy where Arceus could create, did this not make them opposites, and thereby equals?

And thus Volo grew to entertain an alternate interpretation of the mythos: that Giratina was not a subservient arm of Arceus, but a god in equal opposition, which presided over a distorted realm of its own. Even as a purely theoretical concept, it was impossibly blasphemous, and Volo’s views met with outrage. But he was too curious and too contrary to relent, even in the face of his family’s horror. He was ostracised by his local community, who believed him corrupted and turned to madness by Giratina itself, and his family ultimately cast him out.

Volo took to wandering Hisui in the years thereafter, never settling anywhere. He kept his family origins a secret, taking on the guise of a Ginkgo merchant, but continued to delve into Hisuian legends . Being cut off from his family only deepened his conviction in his own beliefs. He fixated increasingly on Giratina, convinced that it was his mirror, and that their fates were somehow twinned together. He had been treated as an extension of his family, not an individual, not an equal - just as Giratina had been branded as a mere arm of Arceus. He’d stood against his parents, his ���creators’, and been banished for it. He was as Giratina was.

And so he set out to find it. There were places in Hisui where alternate realms lay a little too close together - he’d read about them in his family’s ancient records, and he had all the time in the world to seek them out. If he could only commune with Giratina, speak with it, then he might finally find what he was looking for - a being which understood him perfectly.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Tinkaton will constantly repair and modify their hammers with scrap metal they find, but some are more excessive about it than others. Certain tinkaton have been known to alter their hammers until they are too big and unwieldy to even lift off the ground. Funny as this can be to witness, this behaviour causes a lot of issues, as it leaves them less mobile in combat and more vulnerable to predators. A tinkaton without its hammer is easy prey.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Silph Co. offers a range of decorative seals which can be purchased and downloaded to a trainer's Box system, but they are often expensive and not especially interesting - sparks, petals, coloured smoke. Many trainers believe that the most inventive seals can be found for free online, usually created by amateur trainers or other battle enthusiasts. Unfortunately, such seals are increasingly incompatible with Silph Pokéballs - many suspect that the company has deliberately altered the technology of their ball capsules to only function with official Silph seals. This has driven some trainers and coordinators to turn to other brands of Pokéballs, but pushback is limited in the professional side of the battle industry.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Vetenarians usually have to wear powerful sunglasses when treating shinx, as their instinct to light up and dazzle foes when threatened can make even routine treatment very difficult. As with all electric types, rubber gloves never go amiss either - just in case they start sparking.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Contrary to what people expect, degrees in battle studies usually favour theoretical study over practical work. Practical assignments typically account for less than half of the final grade, with essays and research making up the majority. The field naturally intersects with history, geography, and business - students can expect to study the rise and development of various regional battle industries, and how they have been influenced by urbanization and widespread technological shifts (such as the invention of mass-produced pokéballs). While some professional trainers have taken battle studies at degree level (notably Morty, as part of a combined honours in history), it's generally agreed that practical experience is more useful if your only goal is to take up a Gym position. If you're looking for an administrative or manegerial role within the League, however, a degree is almost essential.

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

This might be a long shot but I figure it's the best place to ask - does anyone know what happened to the Bland Pokémon Headcanons blog?? I loved their posts and I wish I could read through them again!

[indepthpokemonheadcanons]

Dhelmise infestations can cause serious trouble for sailors. While their tendency to wrap around anchors is well known, powerful dhelmise can spread all the way across the hulls of boats, tangling in propellers and even wrecking a ship's interior. They may also react violently to removal attempts, hence why prevention is the best course. Swanna and vaporeon are often trained to scour the undersides of docked ships, checking for any signs of infestation.