>>54401147True, Arven does just say that they're smudgy or blurry, so it's probably something different.
Honestly, I do think that there is some underlying consistent truth to the Pokémon world. A lot of people point towards THAT Masuda quote (you know, "It starts to get a little complicated if you pay too much attention to timelines") and say that there's no point in thinking about the story because of it, but I also think people are missing the context and the point of why Masuda said that. This is what Masuda says right after:
>"Maybe one hint is that if a character is appearing with Professor Oak, they’re living in the same era. Rather than some series where it makes sense to have the timeline progress as you go and the story evolve, the approach that Pokémon takes is expanding the world, like what the regions are, and making it richer as we go. Rather than a timeline, it’s more of a physical space thing."It's not that Pokémon doesn't have a consistent timeline, or that they don't have actual lore. It's more like "If you look into the specific details like 'if DPP and HGSS happen at the same time, then how can Jasmine be in Sunyshore City when she should be at the gym?' then it gets weird." For those specific details, you're just kinda meant to go "yeah okay, Jasmine just travels fast between the regions and does it often". Same with Oak appearing in Platinum.
If anything, Masuda's quote proves that they think about consistency a lot, but it's just they'd rather make the world, regions, etc. richer with lore, rather than make one linear story. The Original Story, AKA the Creation of the Pokémon world, is surprisingly really consistent, for example. Especially in JP, with the use of very consistent terminology.
>>54401463That would be cool... It could be Cyrus, or maybe Volo? Very curious about this.
>>54402203Not exactly "crystals", but the idea that the civilization was more advanced than the present's is there.