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littleeyesofpallas · 9 months ago

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I realize in this* convoluted series of posts I was so focused on gym leaders and elite four as the sort of core of any games cast that I just casually neglected a bunch of side characters, so I figure it's a good time to go back and rectify some of that, starting with the now topical Kalos team...

*[Kanto] [Johto] [Hoenn] [Sinnoh] [Unova] [Kalos] [Alola] [Galar] [Hisui] [Champs] [Paldea] [Paldea2] [Paldea3] [Teams] [Misc.]

While they are in fact all named after plants, they are also themed around the ABCMX classification system for solar flares.

Aliana's name is actually AKEBI[アケビ] as in akebi[木通] the japanese name of the Akebia quinata, commonly called the chocolate vine, five-leaf chocolate vine or just five-leaf akebia.

Bryony's name in japanese is just BARA[バラ] as in bara[薔薇]: "rose." A bizarre choice for a character with a green motif, and odd for such a minor side character when Roses are so iconic and universally beloved. Kind of feels, like a waste.

Celosia's name was CORREA[コレア] after the genus of flower shrubs that includes things like the common correa(aka native fuchsia), the Salmon Correa i used in the picture above, and the Dusky Bell among others.

Mable is in fact named MOMIJI[モミジ], after momiji[紅葉]: Japanese Maple, which seemed confusing at first, as those are obviously famously red leaved, but it turns out there are some prizes cultivars that can turns range of purples and violets instead, and as an odd result of this there are notorious scams built around the faking of a mythic japanese blue maple mutation. (Although the other flowers aren't perfect matches to their girls' color schemes either so maybe that's a coincidence)

Xerosic's name was originally XEROSICY[クセロシキ] named after Xerosicyos, a genus of plant notable for their round flat leaves, perhaps most notably the Xerosicyos danguyi: the Silver-Dollar Plant.

oh but there's more...

But other than the obvious Flare association, it also ties back into the sun themes evoked by Lysandre being a descendent of AZ/his brother and as a kind of Kalos/France tied to the Parfum Palace/Palace of Versailles, is a parallel to King Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil:"The Sun King".

Also Lysandre's name in Japanese is just straight up Fleurdelis[フラダリ] which is of course extremely silly sounding. But the ⚜️ is itself designed after the Lily flower, and of course so is the Ultimate Weapon and AZ's special Floette.

In this vein I figured I could tackle a handful of other villain teams. A fun if obtuse one is that the extended Team Rocket cast in HGSS are in fact all named after rockets, both space ships and missiles.

Archer was originally APOLLO[アポロ] named after the Apollo Missions carried out by NASA throughout the 60s, utilizing the Saturn V model rockets that would eventually put the first manned crew on the moon with the Apollo 11.

Ariana is ATHENA[アテナ] was named after the Athena series rockets built and launched throughout the 1990s. I get the feeling they just picked it because it had a conveniently complementary name to Apollo.

Petrel is LAMBDA[ラムダ] is named after a family of rockets made in Japan and launched the first Japanese satellite, the Osumi, into space in 1970.

and finally Proton was just LANCE[ランス] and seemingly named after the MGM-52 Lance missiles developed by the US military in the `1970s.

Oddly while Maxie and Archie are named after flowers...

Maxie was MATSUBUSA[マツブサ] after the matsubasa[松房] tree, a type of star anise with a distinctive red starburst shaped flower.

Archie was AOGIRI[アオギリ] the Chinese-parasol tree, which is actually kind of underwhelming plant to have as a namesake, but the actual etymology of the name aogiri[青桐] is "Blue+Pauloniwa" and I assume the association with Blue is really the motivating factor re.

Courtney was KAGARI[カガリ] from kagari[篝] the Japanese word for a metal basket like structure that you put on a pedestal or tripod to put firewood in to burn as like a big torch. It can also refer to a bonfire.

Tabitha is HOMURA[ホムラ] from homura[炎] which is just the word for a flame or a blaze.

Matt is just USHIO[ウシオ] from ushio[潮]: "tide"

and Shelley is IZUMI[イズミ] from izumi[泉]: a "spring" or "fountain" of water.

Galaxy's are all obvious, although in English they renamed Pluto to Charon, Pluto's coorbital moon.

Oh and Cyrus himself being the only person not named after a planet, was named AKAGI[アカギ] after the Bishop Wood tree, akagi[赤木].

Okay so for one it's bonkers that N's real name is NATURAL HARMONIA[ナチュラル・ハルモニア] which, given some context I'm going to say is a reference to Natural Harmonics in music. But let me be real with you: I don't know shit about music theory so I cannot verify that claim, nor was I able to verify if the image I was googling to throw up here even accurately depicts "Natural Harmony" so take this one in particular with a hefty grain of salt...

And with that disclaimer in mind, Ghetsis's name is actually G-Cis HARMONIA[ゲーチス・ハルモニア], G-Cis as in "G-C♯" which is a tritone, and tritone's have the curious nickname of "The Devil's Interval" or diabolus in musica:"The Devil in Music" because of the extreme dissonance the gap in tone makes.

then there's N's foster sisters, Anthea, whose real name is VERBENA[バーベナ], after the flower Verbena, which has a variety of divine and mystical associations in western culture.

and Concordia's name is actually HELENA[ヘレナ] named after the St.Helena Olive, which I take from her epithet as "Goddess of Peace" is meant to reference an olive branch as a symbolic peace offering.

Then there's also Colress, named Achroma[アクロマ] as in "Achromatic", as in Without Color, hence the English name being "Colorless."

And then there's the other sages:

ROOD[ロット] Dutch for "Red"

Bronius was originally SUMRA[スムラ] from the arabic word samra[*] for "brown/tawny/deep yellow." (*I tried to copy paste the arabic text here but for some reason it and the brackets together were really screwing up the formatting...)

GIALLO[ジャロ] like Rood was unchanged, and is just Italian for "Yellow."

Ryoku was shortened from RYOKUSHI[リョクシ] as in ryokushi[緑色]: "green."

Gorm was AZULA[アスラ] From the Spanish Azul:"Blue"

and Zinzolin was named ヴィオ[ヴィオ] from Violet. Technically a few languages all spell it the same, but of note, the "English" name Zinzolin is French for a reddish-violet color

Bafflingly the Seven Sages includes Ghetsis, who of course is not named after a color, so between him and Bronius/Sumra being brown, they do not make a seven color rainbow spectrum. Why no Indigo or Orange? And why a green sage when Ghetsis and N have such strong green color coding? Why don't the sprites for the sages match their color namesakes???

Also the Seven Sages could have been a harmonic scale reference, yet aren't?? despite N and Ghetsis' thing.

It's interesting that Zinzolin is the one sage who comes back with NeoPlasma in BW2, and he is the one named in French... I wonder if he'll make an appearance in Z-A.

Team Skull we did in the Alola captains batch oh wait wtf no I didn't.. Weird, I coudl have sworn iI included Plumeria and Guzma since they were clearly positioned as sort of pseudo captains for Poison and Bug types.

Guzma's name was in fact just GUZMA[グズマ] in Japanese, from the Guamania genus of Tufted Airplant

and Plumeria's name was PLUMERI[プルメリ] from the plumeria flower, aka frangipani.

But there's still the Aether Foundation, the "surprise" real evil team of the game. Lusimine, Lillie, Gladion, Faba and Wicke.

Lillie's name is basically the same in English and Japanese, LILIE[リーリエ] the German name for the lily, and of course her overall disposition and design are clearly based on a pure white lily.

Gladion's name is GLADIO[グラジオ] it could easily refer directly to the Gladiolus flower, the "sword flower", but I'm assuming it's from Gladiole specifically, as that's the German name for the flower, and the whole of not just Lusamine's family but the Aether staff as well are all named in German.

Lusamine's name is basically the same in Japanese, although it was probably meant to be romanized as LSAMINE[ルザミーネ] because it comes from Balsamine, German name of the Balsam plant,

Faba's name was Saubuoh[ザオボー] from Saubohne, German name for the Fava bean, which accounts for his coloration.

Wicke is just WICKE[ビッケ] again the German name for the Vetch plant.

oh and Mohn's name is MOHN[モーン] and it's German for Poppy. Unlike the Poppy in Paldea, whose look is based on the flower in bloom, I'm pretty certain from his build and his hair/hat that Mohn is supposed to look like a Poppy seed, the type you'd harvest milk of the poppy, or poppy's tears from... to make opium...

Also the Ultra Recon Squad, who have a fun theme were, to play into the way they come from a lightless alien world, they're all named after underwater plants or algae. I especially like the algae ones because despite how some alga, like kelp and seaweeds tend to look, they are not in fact plants, and this familiar yet different relationship feels like it fits the themes of the Ultra Beasts.

Dulse is in fact just DULSE[ダルス] a type of algae found in the waters around Ireland and Sctoland

Zossie's name is AMAMO[アマモ] from amamo[甘藻] the Japanese name for Eelgrass(Zostera marina)

Soliera's name is MIRIN[ミリン] which is the Japanese name for the genus Solieria

Phyco's name is SHIONIRA[シオニラ] is from the Japanese name for the Alismatales order of plants comprising a wide range of species, some of which grow near bodies of water, some grow in or above the water, and others still grow entirely underwater.

So obviously Rose is ROSE[ローズ], who I guess msut have seemed too obvious because I totally skipped him before... His brother Peony is a play on the fact that the Rose and Peony are sort of undisputed romantic icons in the west and east respectively, although some of the rose's reputation has bled into the east as well. (also i forgot to put it in the image but the Tudor rose and Galar being England feels obvious even if it didn't really play into the plot or themes of SwSh's story)

Speaking of Peony... His daughter Peonia's name is actually SHAKUYA[シャクヤ] from shakuya[芍薬] the Japanese name for the Chinese peony (Paeonia lactiflora).

Oleana's name was actually just OLIVE[オリーヴ].

Oddly there's not really anyone of note that's actually a member of Team Yell, they don't have a real leader or admins, just Marnie as the object of their support.

I did everyone in Team Star in my first Paldea post, but worth noting is the alias Cassiopeia refers to the constellation, hence team Star, but moreover the individual star squads are each named after a major star within the constellation: Segin, Ruchbah, Tsih, Schedar, and Caph. (Tsih and Navi are two names for the star γ(gamma) Cassiopeiae, just labeled "γ" above.)

And with that we're all brought up to speed with evil teams, until Z-A drops some new ones on us...

#pokemon #pokemeta i guess #oof i didn't stop to think about how loooong a post this was gonna make

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