Rabid Speculation: Genetics in Pokemon Black and White 2?

We’ve got another one of those entries in a popular franchise whose announcement can be solely, “It exists, get hype!” and get away with it. At least with this one we have some images of combined Pokemon to go with our speculation hot wings. Are these direct sequels? The full titles for both games are Pokemon Black Version 2 and Pokemon White Version 2, so these could very well just be expanded variations on the games. Naturally our most interesting speculation comes from the only content we’ve now seen of the games; the images of Zekrom and Reshiram that appear to have fused with the disaster-causing Kyurem.

Let the ridiculous speculation begin!

For our first round of insane theories, let’s assume the more likely theory that these new games are Platinum-esque expansions. Why are there two of them this time? Was the possibility of Pokemon Gray too dull? It’s pretty easy to assume that was the case. Of course even if it was called Pokemon Anal Extravaganza it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see successful sales. That is the power of branding. Fortunately the looming fear of a debacle that echos New Coke keeps most powerful brands from releasing anything that stupid. More likely the reasonable assumption was made that players will just as likely buy two games in order to catch them all, but thinking as an optimist there’s a whole realm of possibilities. Perhaps it has something to do with these Lovecraftian-horror-hybrid versions of the legendary dragons from the previous games. Maybe the folks at Game Freak discovered the Pokemon Fusion website and started taking notes. There’s some exciting and horrifying prospects there.

From left to right: exciting and horrifying.

Ignoring the word “version” for now, the possibilities for actual sequels are much more exciting and significantly less horrifying. While the world of the Pokemon games has always been a relatively well-managed continuity, we haven’t seen much of a connection between the games barring a few scattered cameos. An actual sequel in the series could allow Pokemon to catch one of the most legendary creatures that seems constantly out of reach in the world of video games: character development. Unfortunately Team Plasma’s chance at actually calling attention to Pokemon’s largest elephant in the room was completely wasted when it was revealed that their beliefs were part of a front to cover up the classic “we’re meanies who kidnap Pokemon” schtick. It would be interesting to see a new set of antagonists that have learned to utilize actual effective Pokemon with more threatening motives. Depending on the time gap between the games, we could see anything from an older Cheren running his own gym to playing as a new protagonist whose endgame plot involves battling the canonical version of the player character from Black and White. Remember how epic it was to battle Red at the end of Gold and Silver? That is still one of the most memorable fights in the series.

It's definitely the one most remembered by fan artists.

So what do you guys think? We want to hear your rabid speculation, too. I personally won’t be playing these since I ended up trading in my DS when eleventy-billion games I wanted came out within two weeks of each other last year.