#talkinh about this is scary and i am very tired i will stop now and go to bed probably

[ubassembly]

one of my main headcanons that can apply to every pokemon is that they can all display alternate colourations of varying rarity! but what makes a shiny pokemon different is, shinyness!!!!

like, not only will the colours be different but so will the texture? I think that’s the right word I don’t remember. The exact way this appears depends on the type of pokemon, some examples might be iridescence, velvet-like fur or glossier than normal metal, there are other ways this can look those are just what I can best describe at this time. But that is why they are called shiny and why in art styles that convey less texture and stuff they’re shown sparkling!

a pokemon can have a lot of variety in colouration and patterns but only one of those colourations will display shiny-ness, the others are just rarer colours, the colour of the shiny will always be the same colour and that pokemon cannot be that colour without it being a shiny.

there are a few exceptions of pokemon that have more than one colour that is a shiny, the cyndaquil line, charizard, dratini and dragonair and others! there can be subtle variations in shade like a shiny dragonite having lighter or darker pink wings, that would not be considered having two shinies it has to be pretty different.

the standard colouration of pokemon is the most common colour for that pokemon, generally alternate colours come about through breeding or are found in regions where the pokemon did not originate! some breeders try to breed for specific colours but pokemon have very unpredictable genes so this is usually unsuccessful and bad for the pokemon. the standard colourations can have subtle differences depending on region too! for example a dratini from johto is a darker blue than one from sinnoh!!