Summary
Pokemonhas been providing us with mysteries ever since Ho-Oh flew over Pallet Town during the first episode of the anime. Followingthe extensive Pokemon leaksover the weekend, it seemed one of the series' longer-standing mysteries had been debunked. The mystery that Blaziken and Latias were originally supposed to be a single Pokemon as someone claimed the concept art for that mysterious unused ‘mon confirmed it was actually just supposed to be a Delibird evolution.
The theory that Latias and Blaziken were supposed to be one Pokemon dates back over a decade as Game Freak officially revealed concept art for the scrapped Pokemon in 2012. Intended to be introduced to the world in Ruby & Sapphire, the theory goes that The Pokemon Company split its design in two and it became Blaziken and Latias. The two debuted in Ruby & Sapphire hence why all these years later, the theory persists.
However, believers in the Latiken theory were thrown a curveball this week when what appears to be an in-game version of the Pokemon was a part of the big Game Freak leak. Not because it was in there, but becausesomeone claimed the leak confirmed it to be a scrapped Delibird evolutionrather than a Latias x Blaziken hybrid. You can certainly see where that assumption came from, but apparently, the leak doesn’t confirm that at all.
If Anything, The Leaked Image Has Fueled The Latiken Theory Rather Than Debunked It
Twitter’s community notes to the rescue and it has been pointed out since that there is no such file in theGame Freakleak suggesting the image is of an unused Delibird evolution. The image that was indeed included in the leak was simply criticized for looking like a Delibird evolution rather than there being any confirmation that’s what it is. The good news is the Latiken theory lives. The bad news is poor old Delibird still can’t evolve and, as far as we know, Pokemon has never had plans for that to change.
There has been a lot of information coming out of the Game Freak leak and there’s likely more to come as people continue to work their way through it. Some of the more notable information unearthed so far includesnotes from the meeting in which Pokemon decided Ash’s anime arc would come to an end, andthe hacker claiming they found and played Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Oh, and all the stuff about Pokemon and humans having babies together. Please, don’t make me think about that again.
