Yesterday, we shared the details of a new Pokemon that's set to be featured in the upcoming Pokemon X and Y. Although it doesn't yet have a name, one of the most striking things about it is quite how many traits it shares with one of the legendary Pokemon from the first games, Mewtwo - leaving us to christen the newcomer Newtwo. In fact, this similarity is something the game's official website has been keen to point out, in order to get people thinking - after all, anything that shares similarities with Mewtwo, the world's most powerful Pokemon, simply has to be a critical part of the storyline of the new games. And so, with a mixture of giddy excitement and intrigue spinning in our head, we got to thinking - and we've arrived at a rather interesting conclusion.
Much like Mew and Mewtwo, he seems to have an array of Psychic moves at his disposal.
What if Pokemon X and Y were all about genetic engineering?
There's plenty of evidence to suggest this is a possibility. In fact, it's been pretty much staring us in the face - we just didn't realise it until now.
Evidence One: It looks so much like Mewtwo.
This is significant for several reasons. For those are a bit rusty on their Pokelore, Mewtwo, the star of the first Pokemon film, and the toughest legendary to catch in Pokemon Red and Blue, is a one of a kind Pokemon - the result of a genetic engineering project. Funded by the ne'er-do-wells Team Rocket, Mewtwo started out life as an attempt to clone Mew - an ancient, powerful Pokemon long presumed extinct. By taking Mew's DNA and tweaking it, the scientists produced Mewtwo, an incredibly powerful, though conflicted, psychic Pokemon. Frustrated at being treated as nothing more than an experiment, Mewtwo flew into a rage and destroyed the scientist's lab, before practically disappearing from the Pokemon world - he hasn't been seen in the games or on TV for years. As Mewtwo's a legendary Pokemon, it's not able to breed, so the fact the new Pokemon bears such a likeness strongly suggests that it could be the result of another genetic experiment - something backed up further by our next piece of evidence.
Evidence Two: The new Pokefilm
The sixteenth Pokemon film, due out in July in Japan has the rather catchy title of 'Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! The Movie: ExtremeSpeed Genesect: Mewtwo Awakens' - which is relevant for two reasons. Firstly, it mentions the return of Mewtwo, who as we mentioned, hasn't been seen on the big-screen for over a decade (further emphasising his significance to our new 'mon), and secondly, it features Genesect, a Pokemon who shares a rather similar history to Mewtwo. Revived from a fossil and augmented with cybernetics (this time by the nefarious Team Plasma), Genesect is a product of the same process Mewtwo went through - an attempt to bring Pokemon back to life by stretching the boundaries of science. Could the games share a similar theme?
Evidence Three: The names
This is arguably the strongest piece of evidence, yet it's been staring us in the face since day one. The new games are called Pokemon X and Y, which marks a distinct change in direction from the previous games. While the others have been named after precious stones, or colours, could it be that Pokemon X and Y are named after chromosomes, to reflect their genetic engineering theme? It certainly has scientific and genetic overtones, suggesting that the story this time around may well be about Team Plasma (or, more likely, a new team) tampering with something, or conducting genetic experiments to make Pokemon more powerful - resulting in this new Mewtwo. Even if the other possibility is true - that Newtwo is a hitherto long-lost Pokemon, from the same lab that Mewtwo came from, it would still suggest the theme for Pokemon X and Y will lie in genetics. What's also interesting is that the Japanese logos for the games feature a miniature picture of a double helix in them - which further cements the whole genetics theme.
Notice the little rainbow double helix in each one.
Speaking of which...
Talking of the Newtwo, a leaked poster for the upcoming Genesect film initially had the newly revealed Pokemon in place of Mewtwo, with the words 'Eclair forme' written underneath. While the more recent posters have since replaced Newtwo with Mewtwo, it suggests the upcoming film may hold several secrets about the upcoming Pokemon games. For that aren't that great at French (and that includes us), the word 'eclair' in this case isn't referring to those delicious chocolatey creamy pastries, but actually translates as 'lightning'. While the film's trailer has shown Genesect and Mewtwo facing off, it's worth bearing in mind that it's an ExtremeSpeed Genesect he'll be up against, which gives it an incredible speed boost. With Mewtwo having been created for power, not speed, what are the chances that Genesect will run rings around Mewtwo, until the new 'eclair' forme Newtwo shows up to even the field?
Maybe a scientific facility of some sort?
And all this would seem to add further weight to our inkling yesterday that Mew, Mewtwo and Mewthree may actually make up a new legendary trio. We've had birds, beasts and rocks, but the legendary trios usually have some connection - and, as you may have already worked out by now, we reckon the Mews are linked by some sort of 'genetics' theme.
There's also the mysterious new eevee-lution called Sylveon to consider. With Eevee already evolving into fire, water, grass, electric, ice, psychic and dark types, there's not really that many more types left that the new eevee-lution could be. Commonly rumoured possibilities were flying, normal or ghost, but none really seemed to fit with the design. But consider this - following on from the theme above, what if Sylveon is some kind of genetically enhanced Eevee, or perhaps even a previously unknown evolution resulting from contact with some kind of man-made experimental stone? This stone could even be the source of the new Mew-alike too - a 'hyper stone', or something similar.
Of course, the above is all just speculation - but when considered as a whole, it certainly seems as though Pokemon's getting ready to go down a decidedly genetic route. As a further proof of concept, the more recent Pokemon games, like Pokemon Black and White, have attempted to deal with more mature concepts, too - Black and White saw a conflict between Pokemon trainers and Team Plasma, who swore that Pokemon would be better off being free to live on their own, rather than under the control of trainers. It was a plot that was supposed to make you think - so is a story about 'playing god' in the series' future? We certainly think so - but only time will tell. With a worldwide release this October, and a film that likely has connections to the new game out in July, we're imagining more details will start to trickle out soon - so we'll be keeping our fingers crossed we aren't completely wrong!
