Leaked Pokemon Series Timeline Explained

A timeline of events in progress Pokemon the series is complicated – much, much more complicated than many fans just getting into the franchise would think. Various minor inconsistencies, rampant misinformation among fans, and the fact that there is much more than just one timeline. Pokemon series are all factors that play into this complexity, but in one of the few times in franchise history, fans recently got a look at an official and pretty in-depth breakdown of the series' timeline…or parts of it, at least.

This information stems from the infamous “teraleak” that occurred earlier this month. This monumental data breach came after an anonymous hacker gained access to Game Freak's internal repositories earlier this year and has since led to flooding the internet with never-before-seen development Pokemon content from the last few decades. In addition to the personal information of more than 2,600 employees and contractors, almost anything from concept, source code, scrapped narrative details, glimpses into the build of the first games, and even some details regarding unreleased games have been leaked online.

How these leaks determine part of the Pokemon timeline

The data coming from these leaks is one rabbit hole, but the sequence of events in the whole series Pokemon continuity and timeline is something else entirely. Leaked information regarding the main series Pokemon a timeline shared by @CentroLeaks on Twitter states that the Gen 1 and Gen 3 games take place in the same year, around the same time. As fans know, the Gen 2 titles take place three years later, although the events of the Gen 4 games take place around the same time – according to Game Freak, they take place “slightly later” than the Gen 2 games. The first of the Gen 5 games, Pokemon black and whiteare then stated to take place 10 years after the events of the Gen 4 games.

The Gen 4 games are somewhat transparent in that they take place at the same time as
Pokemon Gold and Silver
as they begin with the player watching a news broadcast about a red Gyarados in the Lake of Wrath.

This isn't the first time fans have been tipped off about the Pokemon timeline

First, most of this is not technically new information. Many have invested Pokemon theorists and fans have long believed that these games take place at the same time, thanks in large part to a long-deleted tweet from Toshinobu Matsumiya, a writer at Game Freak who has been working on the series since Gen 1. Originally shared in May 2014, the tweet appeared to confirmed that Gen 1 and 3 occur simultaneously, with Gen 2 and 4 similarly occurring at the same time later in the timeline. Furthermore, the tweet claimed that after the events of Pokemon black and whitecontinuation Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 also occurred around the same time Pokemon X and Y.

Fans should note that leaked content is rarely Canon content

However, unlike this tweet, information from recent leaks actually adds a bit more context Pokemon timeline by clarifying the number of years between the events of Gens 4 and 5. Many may even consider Matsumiya's ten-year-old tweet retroactively lending credence to the recently leaked timeline information, and above all, it's important for fans to understand that almost everything has been leaked Pokemon documents represent content that was in active development at the time. That said, the canonicity of absolutely any leaked content should be taken with a large grain of salt, as many designs and narrative details ended up changing between development and release.

Since the games themselves don't provide any detailed insight into the series' timeline, it's very possible that this information will be quickly retconned in the future. But as understood today to the best of fans' knowledge, this is the most concrete and comprehensive timeline layout within the main series games – regardless Pokemon remakes, spin-offs, manga or main anime series, all of which occur either in different contexts or in some cases in different timelines within the same context.

The Pokemon timeline remains something of a mystery after Gen 6

Of course, the elephant in the room is that this information does not include games past Gen 6. While Pokemon X and Y were included in Matsumiya's tweet timeline, there are only loose theories to help fans pin Gens 7, 8, and 9 on the timeline. All that is known about these games is that they take place one after the other – which is only understandable due to the very narrowly defined scraps of information in these games that refer to the events of the previous entries in Pokemon series.