I think entirely too much about things like this.
So Christmas! Quiet thing, really, in part because I just don't really celebrate it that hardcore. I mean, I sort of do because one half of my family is Christian, but at the same time... eh. Really, holidays in general I just sort of shrug off as "WOO FREE DAY" but don't really make a hardcore effort to acknowledge. Just about the only one where I drop everything to do any sort of tradition (besides a half-assed attempt at upholding Thanksgiving) is New Year's, when I sit around with Mom and something warm and feel awesome.
This year's going to be different, wherein I'm traveling out to hang out with her. (I moved to Boston this past autumn, and she moved to Arizona. My parents are still together, but it's complicated and has a lot to do with her work and my dad's dream of building out that way.) But on top of that, my uncle, aunt, and cousin are picking us both up and taking us out on New Year's Eve to go hang with them in Las Vegas. Then on New Year's Day, we're all going to Los Angeles for more family hang time. So the short of it is that from December 30th (when I'm flying to Arizona) to January 2nd, I will probably be unavailable.
Fannish thing, though? That means all the stuff I want to do for Bill's birthday will probably be happening on December 30th instead unless someone wants to post stuff for me. Which I honestly would rather not do because I don't want to cause confusion among readers.
That and you'd need my passwords to put up the stuff on my domain and over here, and the day you're getting those (and your name isn't Camisado) is the day you'll probably need to go to a frozen Hell to force me to talk anyway.
With that being said, procrastination time!
So one of the fics that I've been getting a lot of interpretations about (more so than any other fic that I've written, in fact) is Retroactive Continuity. It's really interesting to hear what people have to say about it, either on SPPf, FFNet, or elsewhere. So I felt like it'd be really fun to share with you the exact headcanon that went into writing it. You can actually enjoy the fic without knowing any of this, and in fact, I encourage you to do so and form your own opinion. But if you're really curious as to what it means, feel free to keep reading.
So basically, to start things off, normally, I canon cocktail like crazy for the most part. I mean, generally, I keep canons separate (like I will never assume that game!Red is the same as Special!Red and will never attempt to say that the events of the games took place in Special or vice versa), but for more obscure/background elements (like Bill's personality, who invented the Storage System, and so forth), you actually get a little bit of everything.
Retroactive Continuity is the first fic I've written where that's not exactly true.
To go back, one of the inspirations for the fic was a couple of things I drew from the TVTropes' page for GS-related Wild Mass Guesses. Namely, the WMG that says that the later games are the result of the Time Capsule messing up the space-time continuum. Keep that in mind.
That said, to clarify, let me just go through the entire timeline as I see it.
Red/Green/Blue: These games started what's known as Universe Alpha. All three of them are basically the same, save for some cosmetic changes (different sprites and maybe a layout change for Cerulean Cave -- nothing major), so for our purposes, let's just say all three of them are basically part of the same timeline. Yellow is different because it's actually a hybrid of the games and the anime, so it actually is an offshoot reality between those two.
Gold/Silver: These games were originally part of Universe Alpha, taking place three years after RGB. The only awkwardness is the fact of which legendary bird is accessible when (and therefore which wing NPCs gave you at what times), but basically, it's still a minor difference in comparison with, say, BW. HOWEVER.
Crystal: Crystal changed things when they not only brought in a new character but also new events (like Suicune's status as a major plot point). As a result, it's like a Donnie Darko-esque rewrite: not a full universal discard but instead more like going back in time and redoing the universe on a new timeline. As a result, Crystal marks the completion of Universe Alpha-II, and it shoved Gold/Silver into Alternate Alpha. Gold/Silver terminate at the end of their games (as in, the entire universe that's contained within them ceases to exist); Crystal goes on a little bit further.
Unforeseen Circumstance A: Remember what I said earlier about the WMGs? They happen after the events of Crystal. RGB was already an unstable universe thanks to Missingno and the glitches, but Bill's Time Capsule pushed it over the edge and caused reality to rewrite itself from the ground up. For that reason, Crystal actually continues a little bit further until the TC causes the space-time continuum to collapse and restart. It should also be fun to note that Lanette's existence (and by extension, the existence of all of the other programmers) serve as a dampener for Bill to prevent him from ending the universe by accident again. There's a basis for this outside of lulzy plot bunnies, too. Take a look at his dialogue in the Ecruteak Pokémon Center. In GSC, Bill was telling you how to use the Time Capsule. In HGSS, he's talking about his research into trading things, which inevitably cycles back to Lanette. His dialogue in HGSS feels forced and unnatural, but if one assumes that the remakes were the direct result of the Time Capsule, it makes sense that it sounds like that -- because it's a hasty attempt made by the universe to cover up notion of the device that caused existence to rewrite itself to begin with.
So anyway.
Ruby/Sapphire: A complicated matter. As if to test things out, the universe started off with two distinct branches of the same reality, collectively known as Universe Beta. However, what drove Courtney crazy in her part of the fic is the fact that the two are basically the same, save for in the perception of any member of Teams Aqua and Magma. With Emerald retconning them, however, they're considered Alternate Beta-I
Emerald: Emerald seeks to unify these two continuities, and for the most part, it's successful. As a result, whereas the beginning of Universe Beta is extremely unstable (even more so than the start set by RGB from a storyline perspective), Emerald forms the basis on which all the other games in the same universe continue. Despite this, it's considered Universe Beta-II. And it's also what drove Courtney completely insane.
Fire Red/Leaf Green: Rehashes of the Kanto arc, set in the same timeline as RSE. While it occurred concurrently with all three jewel games, it remained basically untouched by the events in Hoenn. As a result, it can be attached to either reality but, for our purposes, we should say that it attached itself to Emerald to continue with Beta-II while RS collapsed in on itself the way GS did.
Diamond/Pearl: See Ruby/Sapphire, basically. Like them, the universe attempted to create reflective realities, existences that are basically the same in every way unless you happen to perceive them from the standpoint of a member of Team Galactic. Even so, it at least has the decency of being pretty consistent when it comes to goals. It's just the story varies with who ends up getting summoned and what facet of reality ends up being distorted. One could say that the distortions created a mini-rift that resulted in Platinum. With Platinum retconning them, they (plus the events that took place three years before them) are considered Alternate Beta-II.
Platinum: Like Emerald, it seeks to stabilize the timeline, and it does. In doing so, the universe pitched its biggest threat, Cyrus, out of one dimension and into another where his efforts to create a world in his image can't be furthered. It should be noted here that the universe, since the Unforeseen Circumstance, now has fail-safes to prevent a full cataclysm that causes the universe to be rewritten completely for a second time. (As far as we know, anyway, what with the potential for RSE remakes and all.) Putting it short, it continues Beta-II, which so far had encompassed Emerald and FRLG.
Heart Gold/Soul Silver: Bringing Johto into Beta-II in the same way as what FRLG did for Kanto. However, not all of Beta-II was maintained for this game, and Leaf was written out of existence by accident. (I like to think that it was due to Cyrus's space-time meddling, but that's just personal headcanon.) Likewise, Kris was written out due to the Unforeseen Circumstance, but some Johto characters might remember her instead of Lyra. In short, this is the part of the universe that fucks with female characters' heads.
Black/White: The latest addition and the most problematic of all. See, it's not just events in this game. It's the entire region. Places in one branch of the reflective existence aren't the same as their respective counterparts. (Opelucid, anyone?) Likewise, while the storyline is essentially the same in both halves, characters aren't. (Iris is the gym leader in one, and Drayden is in the other.) This extends to the implications surrounding which dragon N chose. In one instance, he rides a dragon associated with truth; in the other, the one associated with ideals. Given the fact that he's very dedicated to his own beliefs, I'm sure this contradiction wouldn't be a good thing to become aware of. But mostly, the main thing you'll want to know about the current end of Beta-II is that as far as anyone in Unova is concerned, it's highly unstable. (The other regions view it as being stable so far, however. So long as they don't remember anything from any other timeline.)
The Meaning
So basically, here's a list of what each character is remembering during each of their parts:
- Leaf remembers existing, period. In a way, she recalls Alternate Beta-I because her existence, as far as she can tell, stopped when the Gen IV games came out.
- Bill remembers both Alpha and Beta. He's not entirely aware that he was the cause of the universe collapsing, but he is aware that he created the Time Capsule. Also, he's frustrated because he wants to remember more, but the confusion of timelines (and possibly Lanette's existence) keeps him from doing so. Lastly, he's also one of the few characters in this fic who reveals that he's aware of universes outside of the games (the comment about universes where he's helped saved the world and others where he serves as a teacher and nothing more -- both direct references to Special and the anime, respectively), likely due to Yellow. When he says he's redundant, it's true that HGSS rendered him as being such, and that's the main source of his confusion: because he's acutely aware of a time when he wasn't but is prevented from grasping it completely.
- Courtney, as noted earlier, simultaneously remembers both Alternate Beta-I and Universe Beta-II. This drives her crazy because of the contradiction between good and evil. In Ruby and Emerald, Magma are the primary villains, whereas Sapphire has them be forces of good attempting to prevent a catastrophe. This causes her to question her own moral stance because both are pretty much two serious extremes that could say a lot about her character. I mean, she remembers being a criminal and a vigilante crime fighter at the same time, and there's nothing in her past or personality that can point her in the direction of figuring out which one is the real her. The existence of Emerald as Universe Beta-II doesn't answer any of her questions because rather than stabilize her universe, it adds to her memories, giving her a third possibility (that Magma and Aqua were both evil and both successful in a way but that both took on different events and therefore had different ways of attempting to achieve their goals).
- Mars's problem isn't so much that she's confused by existences but that she fucking hates that her current one exists. With a passion. See, while Alternate Beta-II ended with Cyrus messing with the space-time continuum enough to cause the fabric of reality to fray and create the events of Platinum, it was also the existence in which Cyrus still exists in that dimension. (Yes, the "end of the universe after the games end" thing sort of contradicts the part of the fic where Mars says she recalls searching the world for Cyrus, but just imagine that she's delusional by that point. Also, it probably took time for the universe to fully unravel.) Universe Beta-II, meanwhile, continues past Cyrus's existence by jettisoning him into the Distortion World. Unfortunately, Mars sort of always had a scary Harley Quinn-like love for Cyrus (even if he refused to reciprocate), so because she can remember Alternate Beta-II, she's intensely pissed off that she's alive in Universe Beta-II instead. I guess you can say she's actually the sanest character in Retroactive Continuity because while she still doesn't accept the idea of alternate universes, she's at least not trying to kill herself, creating mantras in her head, or attempting to destroy all existence. In fact, she would be perfectly happy with the alternate existence if she had Cyrus around.
- N. Lots of people have mentioned N, and the short of it is he's already aware of different realities thanks to the way Black/White are. He knows that the universe doesn't have stability but that it did for brief periods in the past (the Alternates), so he wants Beta-II to continue into the third Gen V game so that the unstable timelines can be shunted off into Alternate Beta-III. He thinks of the new game as being the stability he desperately needs because he can barely grasp reality as it is. (He doesn't know which dragon he's riding, for example.)
This cycles back to Leaf.
- Leaf, in a desperate attempt to restart reality (because if it's not suicide, it would be a reality in which she exists) by contacting Missingno, is planning on using the glitch to unravel the space-time continuum enough to warrant a Universe Gamma. N naturally doesn't want this because of the fact that he feels like he needs Alternate Beta-III to exist, so he plans on killing her before she finds it.
So in the end, the main thing is people are going crazy because of alternate realities. Hilarity ensues.
For funsies, yes, I've thought about more alternate realities than this. Example:
- The Ranger games and the Orre games are part of Beta-II.
- Mystery Dungeon is not part of any of these universes but are, instead, actually part of a completely different timeline that branches off of the current one decades before the events of Emerald and FRLG. It has its own set of alternate universes, although because I haven't played anything past the first MD games (yes, for shame), I'm not going to go into detail here.
- Snap and Yellow are in the same universe, occupying that awkward half-dimension between the anime and Universe Alpha.
- All of the other side games are in individual, separate dimensions.
- Same thing with all of the other media. (For example, the anime is one universe, Special is another, Electric Tale is another, and so forth.)
- There are multiple characters who remember multiple universes, even on a subconscious level. Many of them simply dream about their alternate selves. It's necessary that versions are somewhat aware of each other in order to maintain the link between them.
- I also want to say that each universe is actually a different realm of reincarnation (meaning the characters of Universe Alpha reincarnated into the characters of Universe Beta, who are actually past incarnations of the characters of Special and so forth), but that's actually more of a plot bunny than headcanon.
Speaking of which, the second half of this overly long post!
Bill. You're such an ass sometimes, you know that? There's a reason why it took me over ten years to figure you out.
Anyway, because of all these alternate reality shenanigans I've come to think about the canon associated with Bill again. Namely, there's one source that I could never figure out: How I Became a Pokémon Card.
Let's rewind. As I've said, the Bill in fanfiction on a normal basis I use is actually an amalgam of his various selves, mostly because any one of them alone (except Special) is actually too sparse of a character to write anything about, including headcanon. (I've noticed that when people write about Bill, they have a tendency to borrow a lot from Special. I can't really blame them because he's the most complete in that universe, but it just means that it's interesting to note that most people don't write about the game-verse Bill alone.)
So to give you an idea of who I'm actually writing, here's a list of canon universes I borrow from, what I've borrowed, and how I reconcile the rest of the character into the one I use:
Anime
Borrowed: Superficial things. He owns a lighthouse, dresses like a rainbow, has green hair, and speaks in a very soft, British voice. Also, he's explicitly a Pokémon researcher with an interest in behavior. He has a fascination with ancient Pokémon and uses costumes to understand them (and modern Pokémon). Stiff upper-lip/British politeness and social awkwardness. Sense of dissonant serenity. Tendency to wax philosophical.
Explained Away: "Fancy" in his definition does not mean suit (like the one he wears on a normal basis); it actually means a kilt or other ridiculously traditional wear. He's therefore actually embarrassed by fancy do's more than uncomfortable with them. The forced English accent (read: the sound of an American with a Brooklyn accent attempting to sound English) really is forced -- as in, it's not his native one but is instead an attempt at making himself sound comprehensible to other people. (His native accent is unintelligible to anyone outside of one particular district of Goldenrod City. I usually write that his native accent sounds a lot like a thick Edinburgh one, but I sort of think it would be hilarious if it actually was Southern and that the English one was an attempt to make people take him more seriously.) The lighthouse is actually named the Sea Cottage. He dyes his hair; it's actually the same color it is in the games.
Ignored: The fact that he didn't invent the storage system.
Games
Borrowed: Background. Family. Achievements. Associates. Half his Pokémon team (Eevee and the Gen I Eeveelutions). The fact that people talk about him, not necessarily in the best light. His sense of happy oblivion towards obvious things (like how hard Celio hit on him in FRLG). The Clefairy incident. (My headcanon for the latter goes on to state that there's still Pokémon DNA in his system. It's just so negligible that he's not particularly worried about it. It also doesn't normally affect him on levels he can detect.) Minor facts brought up by his fans, including the part where he's lactose intolerant, the one where he adores Eevee, and so forth. Also, the fact that the first Pokémon he caught was an Abra (which is now currently his Kadabra).
Explained Away: The part about how he's not a good battler. This is true, but he knows how battles work and can potentially hold his own if he wanted to. (Something borrowed from the Card canon, basically.) The problem is he's too attached to Pokémon to want to put them in harm's way (even to the point of giving away an Eevee because he thought he couldn't bring himself to train it). AEM actually explains this thought a bit better, but basically, every time Bill steps onto a regulated battlefield (the painted floor thing seen in gyms and whatnot), he immediately imagines all the different ways a Pokémon can get hurt. In short, he's a pacifist.
Ignored: Pretty much the overly casual way of speaking (to make way for the animeverse's stiffer, more awkward, and far more potentially hilarious mode).
Special
Borrowed: Personality, mostly. He's emotional, soft-hearted, loyal, honest (and easily concerned about his friends), and genuine in everything he says and does. Also, while he isn't quite as cowardly or easily flustered as Special!Bill is (thanks to the balancer his animeverse self provides), he's still pretty easy to provoke and isn't particularly good at hiding his emotions. Also, the part where he graduated several educational institutions at a young age, the one where he does research for Celadon University, and his birthday and blood type. Lastly, his pessimistic tendencies.
Explained Away: See the gameverse. Also, the part where he's a minor official/adviser of the Pokémon Symposium is meant to reflect his role in the Association (only apparently with far less power than he's given in the manga).
Ignored: Aaaanything not mentioned here. Truth be told, I was never particularly fond of Specialverse's rendition of him. Even though I think the fact that he subverts certain tropes is absolutely brilliant. The buttmonkey bits, however, are not.
Electric Tale
Borrowed: Oh, Electric Tale. I love you so much. Anyway, past (including the part where his Ivysaur's evolution inspired him to become a researcher). The fact that he hated school. The one where he can't spell worth crap. His ability to easily make friends with Pokémon (even outdoing the animeverse in this regard). The fact that he's a massive Cloud Cuckoolander. (He skips right past logical answers and straight into Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.) The other fact that his projects are actually funded by a Pokémon research corporation. The level of respect and familiarity he and Professor Oak share with each other. (It's why my headcanon is that Bill was Oak's student at some point.) He even has a Venusaur because of this one.
Explained Away: Very little, actually! \o/ Just about the only thing I couldn't reconcile was his character design and the fact that he's actually an employee of a company, rather than freelance. Other than that, it's literally all there in its entirety.
Ignored: No, seriously. This canon version was so awesome I couldn't part with any of it.
Other Versions
Unfortunately, I don't know Golden Boys (which is a shame because Bill is apparently a massive badass in that one) or Zenshou enough to figure out what else the above versions don't cover. And I'm sort of ignoring Pocket Monsters (the manga with Isamu Akai) completely because you don't really want to know what the hell they did with Bill's character in it. Seriously.
And then, there's the card manga.
See, it's pretty amazing. It provides a rare look at Bill as a child, and Bill as a child was such a badass he outdoes most of the characters in Special. (Is a giant, rampaging Dragonite destroying your town? Are the other townsfolk attempting to attack it with pitchforks? Fuck that! Get in the middle of that shit and start preaching about peace. And what's even more epic is that everyone stops what they're doing -- in the middle of a fucking battle -- to listen to him. Bitsy Bill's mad skillz were insane.) That and he's actually the reason why I'm convinced Bill is a pacifist.
The problem is that there's so many inconsistencies. Ignoring the fact that it apparently says that Bill was living in a small town at the time (unless this was meant to depict him living with someone else/at the edge of Goldenrod City), it's also the canon where humans didn't know that Pokémon exist. This is actually a pretty major plot point because the townsfolk are attacking the Dratini that starts off this plot because they don't know what the crap it is. (The reason why Bill steps in to defend it and take it away from them is because he realizes this is a really shitty excuse for abusing a living creature, not that he thinks there's a good reason to do so -- which, yes, is also stated in this canon.) So in order to use any of it, I have to basically disregard the plot entirely and focus on the personality of the character himself. Which if you've ever heard my thoughts on characterization (which are themselves lengthy) is something I just don't do. (Short form: OMG GUYS BACKGROUND FORMS PERSONALITY. THERE'S A REASON BEHIND EVERY PERSONALITY TRAIT YOU HAVE. FREUD AND I ARE BFFS.)
Soooo... yeah. Tl;dr, "WHY DOES THIS CANON EXIST?"
Feel free to leave a comment on this entry or at http://mercoledi.dreamwidth.org/23649.html?mode=reply. Want to see the original post? Check out Jax's DW at http://mercoledi.dreamwidth.org/23649.html.
This year's going to be different, wherein I'm traveling out to hang out with her. (I moved to Boston this past autumn, and she moved to Arizona. My parents are still together, but it's complicated and has a lot to do with her work and my dad's dream of building out that way.) But on top of that, my uncle, aunt, and cousin are picking us both up and taking us out on New Year's Eve to go hang with them in Las Vegas. Then on New Year's Day, we're all going to Los Angeles for more family hang time. So the short of it is that from December 30th (when I'm flying to Arizona) to January 2nd, I will probably be unavailable.
Fannish thing, though? That means all the stuff I want to do for Bill's birthday will probably be happening on December 30th instead unless someone wants to post stuff for me. Which I honestly would rather not do because I don't want to cause confusion among readers.
That and you'd need my passwords to put up the stuff on my domain and over here, and the day you're getting those (and your name isn't Camisado) is the day you'll probably need to go to a frozen Hell to force me to talk anyway.
With that being said, procrastination time!
So one of the fics that I've been getting a lot of interpretations about (more so than any other fic that I've written, in fact) is Retroactive Continuity. It's really interesting to hear what people have to say about it, either on SPPf, FFNet, or elsewhere. So I felt like it'd be really fun to share with you the exact headcanon that went into writing it. You can actually enjoy the fic without knowing any of this, and in fact, I encourage you to do so and form your own opinion. But if you're really curious as to what it means, feel free to keep reading.
So basically, to start things off, normally, I canon cocktail like crazy for the most part. I mean, generally, I keep canons separate (like I will never assume that game!Red is the same as Special!Red and will never attempt to say that the events of the games took place in Special or vice versa), but for more obscure/background elements (like Bill's personality, who invented the Storage System, and so forth), you actually get a little bit of everything.
Retroactive Continuity is the first fic I've written where that's not exactly true.
To go back, one of the inspirations for the fic was a couple of things I drew from the TVTropes' page for GS-related Wild Mass Guesses. Namely, the WMG that says that the later games are the result of the Time Capsule messing up the space-time continuum. Keep that in mind.
That said, to clarify, let me just go through the entire timeline as I see it.
Red/Green/Blue: These games started what's known as Universe Alpha. All three of them are basically the same, save for some cosmetic changes (different sprites and maybe a layout change for Cerulean Cave -- nothing major), so for our purposes, let's just say all three of them are basically part of the same timeline. Yellow is different because it's actually a hybrid of the games and the anime, so it actually is an offshoot reality between those two.
Gold/Silver: These games were originally part of Universe Alpha, taking place three years after RGB. The only awkwardness is the fact of which legendary bird is accessible when (and therefore which wing NPCs gave you at what times), but basically, it's still a minor difference in comparison with, say, BW. HOWEVER.
Crystal: Crystal changed things when they not only brought in a new character but also new events (like Suicune's status as a major plot point). As a result, it's like a Donnie Darko-esque rewrite: not a full universal discard but instead more like going back in time and redoing the universe on a new timeline. As a result, Crystal marks the completion of Universe Alpha-II, and it shoved Gold/Silver into Alternate Alpha. Gold/Silver terminate at the end of their games (as in, the entire universe that's contained within them ceases to exist); Crystal goes on a little bit further.
Unforeseen Circumstance A: Remember what I said earlier about the WMGs? They happen after the events of Crystal. RGB was already an unstable universe thanks to Missingno and the glitches, but Bill's Time Capsule pushed it over the edge and caused reality to rewrite itself from the ground up. For that reason, Crystal actually continues a little bit further until the TC causes the space-time continuum to collapse and restart. It should also be fun to note that Lanette's existence (and by extension, the existence of all of the other programmers) serve as a dampener for Bill to prevent him from ending the universe by accident again. There's a basis for this outside of lulzy plot bunnies, too. Take a look at his dialogue in the Ecruteak Pokémon Center. In GSC, Bill was telling you how to use the Time Capsule. In HGSS, he's talking about his research into trading things, which inevitably cycles back to Lanette. His dialogue in HGSS feels forced and unnatural, but if one assumes that the remakes were the direct result of the Time Capsule, it makes sense that it sounds like that -- because it's a hasty attempt made by the universe to cover up notion of the device that caused existence to rewrite itself to begin with.
So anyway.
Ruby/Sapphire: A complicated matter. As if to test things out, the universe started off with two distinct branches of the same reality, collectively known as Universe Beta. However, what drove Courtney crazy in her part of the fic is the fact that the two are basically the same, save for in the perception of any member of Teams Aqua and Magma. With Emerald retconning them, however, they're considered Alternate Beta-I
Emerald: Emerald seeks to unify these two continuities, and for the most part, it's successful. As a result, whereas the beginning of Universe Beta is extremely unstable (even more so than the start set by RGB from a storyline perspective), Emerald forms the basis on which all the other games in the same universe continue. Despite this, it's considered Universe Beta-II. And it's also what drove Courtney completely insane.
Fire Red/Leaf Green: Rehashes of the Kanto arc, set in the same timeline as RSE. While it occurred concurrently with all three jewel games, it remained basically untouched by the events in Hoenn. As a result, it can be attached to either reality but, for our purposes, we should say that it attached itself to Emerald to continue with Beta-II while RS collapsed in on itself the way GS did.
Diamond/Pearl: See Ruby/Sapphire, basically. Like them, the universe attempted to create reflective realities, existences that are basically the same in every way unless you happen to perceive them from the standpoint of a member of Team Galactic. Even so, it at least has the decency of being pretty consistent when it comes to goals. It's just the story varies with who ends up getting summoned and what facet of reality ends up being distorted. One could say that the distortions created a mini-rift that resulted in Platinum. With Platinum retconning them, they (plus the events that took place three years before them) are considered Alternate Beta-II.
Platinum: Like Emerald, it seeks to stabilize the timeline, and it does. In doing so, the universe pitched its biggest threat, Cyrus, out of one dimension and into another where his efforts to create a world in his image can't be furthered. It should be noted here that the universe, since the Unforeseen Circumstance, now has fail-safes to prevent a full cataclysm that causes the universe to be rewritten completely for a second time. (As far as we know, anyway, what with the potential for RSE remakes and all.) Putting it short, it continues Beta-II, which so far had encompassed Emerald and FRLG.
Heart Gold/Soul Silver: Bringing Johto into Beta-II in the same way as what FRLG did for Kanto. However, not all of Beta-II was maintained for this game, and Leaf was written out of existence by accident. (I like to think that it was due to Cyrus's space-time meddling, but that's just personal headcanon.) Likewise, Kris was written out due to the Unforeseen Circumstance, but some Johto characters might remember her instead of Lyra. In short, this is the part of the universe that fucks with female characters' heads.
Black/White: The latest addition and the most problematic of all. See, it's not just events in this game. It's the entire region. Places in one branch of the reflective existence aren't the same as their respective counterparts. (Opelucid, anyone?) Likewise, while the storyline is essentially the same in both halves, characters aren't. (Iris is the gym leader in one, and Drayden is in the other.) This extends to the implications surrounding which dragon N chose. In one instance, he rides a dragon associated with truth; in the other, the one associated with ideals. Given the fact that he's very dedicated to his own beliefs, I'm sure this contradiction wouldn't be a good thing to become aware of. But mostly, the main thing you'll want to know about the current end of Beta-II is that as far as anyone in Unova is concerned, it's highly unstable. (The other regions view it as being stable so far, however. So long as they don't remember anything from any other timeline.)
The Meaning
So basically, here's a list of what each character is remembering during each of their parts:
- Leaf remembers existing, period. In a way, she recalls Alternate Beta-I because her existence, as far as she can tell, stopped when the Gen IV games came out.
- Bill remembers both Alpha and Beta. He's not entirely aware that he was the cause of the universe collapsing, but he is aware that he created the Time Capsule. Also, he's frustrated because he wants to remember more, but the confusion of timelines (and possibly Lanette's existence) keeps him from doing so. Lastly, he's also one of the few characters in this fic who reveals that he's aware of universes outside of the games (the comment about universes where he's helped saved the world and others where he serves as a teacher and nothing more -- both direct references to Special and the anime, respectively), likely due to Yellow. When he says he's redundant, it's true that HGSS rendered him as being such, and that's the main source of his confusion: because he's acutely aware of a time when he wasn't but is prevented from grasping it completely.
- Courtney, as noted earlier, simultaneously remembers both Alternate Beta-I and Universe Beta-II. This drives her crazy because of the contradiction between good and evil. In Ruby and Emerald, Magma are the primary villains, whereas Sapphire has them be forces of good attempting to prevent a catastrophe. This causes her to question her own moral stance because both are pretty much two serious extremes that could say a lot about her character. I mean, she remembers being a criminal and a vigilante crime fighter at the same time, and there's nothing in her past or personality that can point her in the direction of figuring out which one is the real her. The existence of Emerald as Universe Beta-II doesn't answer any of her questions because rather than stabilize her universe, it adds to her memories, giving her a third possibility (that Magma and Aqua were both evil and both successful in a way but that both took on different events and therefore had different ways of attempting to achieve their goals).
- Mars's problem isn't so much that she's confused by existences but that she fucking hates that her current one exists. With a passion. See, while Alternate Beta-II ended with Cyrus messing with the space-time continuum enough to cause the fabric of reality to fray and create the events of Platinum, it was also the existence in which Cyrus still exists in that dimension. (Yes, the "end of the universe after the games end" thing sort of contradicts the part of the fic where Mars says she recalls searching the world for Cyrus, but just imagine that she's delusional by that point. Also, it probably took time for the universe to fully unravel.) Universe Beta-II, meanwhile, continues past Cyrus's existence by jettisoning him into the Distortion World. Unfortunately, Mars sort of always had a scary Harley Quinn-like love for Cyrus (even if he refused to reciprocate), so because she can remember Alternate Beta-II, she's intensely pissed off that she's alive in Universe Beta-II instead. I guess you can say she's actually the sanest character in Retroactive Continuity because while she still doesn't accept the idea of alternate universes, she's at least not trying to kill herself, creating mantras in her head, or attempting to destroy all existence. In fact, she would be perfectly happy with the alternate existence if she had Cyrus around.
- N. Lots of people have mentioned N, and the short of it is he's already aware of different realities thanks to the way Black/White are. He knows that the universe doesn't have stability but that it did for brief periods in the past (the Alternates), so he wants Beta-II to continue into the third Gen V game so that the unstable timelines can be shunted off into Alternate Beta-III. He thinks of the new game as being the stability he desperately needs because he can barely grasp reality as it is. (He doesn't know which dragon he's riding, for example.)
This cycles back to Leaf.
- Leaf, in a desperate attempt to restart reality (because if it's not suicide, it would be a reality in which she exists) by contacting Missingno, is planning on using the glitch to unravel the space-time continuum enough to warrant a Universe Gamma. N naturally doesn't want this because of the fact that he feels like he needs Alternate Beta-III to exist, so he plans on killing her before she finds it.
So in the end, the main thing is people are going crazy because of alternate realities. Hilarity ensues.
For funsies, yes, I've thought about more alternate realities than this. Example:
- The Ranger games and the Orre games are part of Beta-II.
- Mystery Dungeon is not part of any of these universes but are, instead, actually part of a completely different timeline that branches off of the current one decades before the events of Emerald and FRLG. It has its own set of alternate universes, although because I haven't played anything past the first MD games (yes, for shame), I'm not going to go into detail here.
- Snap and Yellow are in the same universe, occupying that awkward half-dimension between the anime and Universe Alpha.
- All of the other side games are in individual, separate dimensions.
- Same thing with all of the other media. (For example, the anime is one universe, Special is another, Electric Tale is another, and so forth.)
- There are multiple characters who remember multiple universes, even on a subconscious level. Many of them simply dream about their alternate selves. It's necessary that versions are somewhat aware of each other in order to maintain the link between them.
- I also want to say that each universe is actually a different realm of reincarnation (meaning the characters of Universe Alpha reincarnated into the characters of Universe Beta, who are actually past incarnations of the characters of Special and so forth), but that's actually more of a plot bunny than headcanon.
Speaking of which, the second half of this overly long post!
Bill. You're such an ass sometimes, you know that? There's a reason why it took me over ten years to figure you out.
Anyway, because of all these alternate reality shenanigans I've come to think about the canon associated with Bill again. Namely, there's one source that I could never figure out: How I Became a Pokémon Card.
Let's rewind. As I've said, the Bill in fanfiction on a normal basis I use is actually an amalgam of his various selves, mostly because any one of them alone (except Special) is actually too sparse of a character to write anything about, including headcanon. (I've noticed that when people write about Bill, they have a tendency to borrow a lot from Special. I can't really blame them because he's the most complete in that universe, but it just means that it's interesting to note that most people don't write about the game-verse Bill alone.)
So to give you an idea of who I'm actually writing, here's a list of canon universes I borrow from, what I've borrowed, and how I reconcile the rest of the character into the one I use:
Anime
Borrowed: Superficial things. He owns a lighthouse, dresses like a rainbow, has green hair, and speaks in a very soft, British voice. Also, he's explicitly a Pokémon researcher with an interest in behavior. He has a fascination with ancient Pokémon and uses costumes to understand them (and modern Pokémon). Stiff upper-lip/British politeness and social awkwardness. Sense of dissonant serenity. Tendency to wax philosophical.
Explained Away: "Fancy" in his definition does not mean suit (like the one he wears on a normal basis); it actually means a kilt or other ridiculously traditional wear. He's therefore actually embarrassed by fancy do's more than uncomfortable with them. The forced English accent (read: the sound of an American with a Brooklyn accent attempting to sound English) really is forced -- as in, it's not his native one but is instead an attempt at making himself sound comprehensible to other people. (His native accent is unintelligible to anyone outside of one particular district of Goldenrod City. I usually write that his native accent sounds a lot like a thick Edinburgh one, but I sort of think it would be hilarious if it actually was Southern and that the English one was an attempt to make people take him more seriously.) The lighthouse is actually named the Sea Cottage. He dyes his hair; it's actually the same color it is in the games.
Ignored: The fact that he didn't invent the storage system.
Games
Borrowed: Background. Family. Achievements. Associates. Half his Pokémon team (Eevee and the Gen I Eeveelutions). The fact that people talk about him, not necessarily in the best light. His sense of happy oblivion towards obvious things (like how hard Celio hit on him in FRLG). The Clefairy incident. (My headcanon for the latter goes on to state that there's still Pokémon DNA in his system. It's just so negligible that he's not particularly worried about it. It also doesn't normally affect him on levels he can detect.) Minor facts brought up by his fans, including the part where he's lactose intolerant, the one where he adores Eevee, and so forth. Also, the fact that the first Pokémon he caught was an Abra (which is now currently his Kadabra).
Explained Away: The part about how he's not a good battler. This is true, but he knows how battles work and can potentially hold his own if he wanted to. (Something borrowed from the Card canon, basically.) The problem is he's too attached to Pokémon to want to put them in harm's way (even to the point of giving away an Eevee because he thought he couldn't bring himself to train it). AEM actually explains this thought a bit better, but basically, every time Bill steps onto a regulated battlefield (the painted floor thing seen in gyms and whatnot), he immediately imagines all the different ways a Pokémon can get hurt. In short, he's a pacifist.
Ignored: Pretty much the overly casual way of speaking (to make way for the animeverse's stiffer, more awkward, and far more potentially hilarious mode).
Special
Borrowed: Personality, mostly. He's emotional, soft-hearted, loyal, honest (and easily concerned about his friends), and genuine in everything he says and does. Also, while he isn't quite as cowardly or easily flustered as Special!Bill is (thanks to the balancer his animeverse self provides), he's still pretty easy to provoke and isn't particularly good at hiding his emotions. Also, the part where he graduated several educational institutions at a young age, the one where he does research for Celadon University, and his birthday and blood type. Lastly, his pessimistic tendencies.
Explained Away: See the gameverse. Also, the part where he's a minor official/adviser of the Pokémon Symposium is meant to reflect his role in the Association (only apparently with far less power than he's given in the manga).
Ignored: Aaaanything not mentioned here. Truth be told, I was never particularly fond of Specialverse's rendition of him. Even though I think the fact that he subverts certain tropes is absolutely brilliant. The buttmonkey bits, however, are not.
Electric Tale
Borrowed: Oh, Electric Tale. I love you so much. Anyway, past (including the part where his Ivysaur's evolution inspired him to become a researcher). The fact that he hated school. The one where he can't spell worth crap. His ability to easily make friends with Pokémon (even outdoing the animeverse in this regard). The fact that he's a massive Cloud Cuckoolander. (He skips right past logical answers and straight into Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.) The other fact that his projects are actually funded by a Pokémon research corporation. The level of respect and familiarity he and Professor Oak share with each other. (It's why my headcanon is that Bill was Oak's student at some point.) He even has a Venusaur because of this one.
Explained Away: Very little, actually! \o/ Just about the only thing I couldn't reconcile was his character design and the fact that he's actually an employee of a company, rather than freelance. Other than that, it's literally all there in its entirety.
Ignored: No, seriously. This canon version was so awesome I couldn't part with any of it.
Other Versions
Unfortunately, I don't know Golden Boys (which is a shame because Bill is apparently a massive badass in that one) or Zenshou enough to figure out what else the above versions don't cover. And I'm sort of ignoring Pocket Monsters (the manga with Isamu Akai) completely because you don't really want to know what the hell they did with Bill's character in it. Seriously.
And then, there's the card manga.
See, it's pretty amazing. It provides a rare look at Bill as a child, and Bill as a child was such a badass he outdoes most of the characters in Special. (Is a giant, rampaging Dragonite destroying your town? Are the other townsfolk attempting to attack it with pitchforks? Fuck that! Get in the middle of that shit and start preaching about peace. And what's even more epic is that everyone stops what they're doing -- in the middle of a fucking battle -- to listen to him. Bitsy Bill's mad skillz were insane.) That and he's actually the reason why I'm convinced Bill is a pacifist.
The problem is that there's so many inconsistencies. Ignoring the fact that it apparently says that Bill was living in a small town at the time (unless this was meant to depict him living with someone else/at the edge of Goldenrod City), it's also the canon where humans didn't know that Pokémon exist. This is actually a pretty major plot point because the townsfolk are attacking the Dratini that starts off this plot because they don't know what the crap it is. (The reason why Bill steps in to defend it and take it away from them is because he realizes this is a really shitty excuse for abusing a living creature, not that he thinks there's a good reason to do so -- which, yes, is also stated in this canon.) So in order to use any of it, I have to basically disregard the plot entirely and focus on the personality of the character himself. Which if you've ever heard my thoughts on characterization (which are themselves lengthy) is something I just don't do. (Short form: OMG GUYS BACKGROUND FORMS PERSONALITY. THERE'S A REASON BEHIND EVERY PERSONALITY TRAIT YOU HAVE. FREUD AND I ARE BFFS.)
Soooo... yeah. Tl;dr, "WHY DOES THIS CANON EXIST?"
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