It’s been almost four months since the initial announcement of Pokémon Sun and Moon, and the hype and speculation is running rampant. The floodgates of news have finally opened, providing us Pokéfans something substantial to hold us over until November. With the starters, two new Pokémon, the full region map, and many other news tidbits to look through, the initial announcement trailer is practically out of our heads. Except, there’s one thing from that trailer that has yet to leave my mind: “It all comes together…”
Many fans clung to these words claiming them to be evidence that we’d finally be getting a game with all the regions. That’d be the perfect way to celebrate a 20th Anniversary, right? Wrong. It’s unlikely Game Freak will ever make a game allowing us to travel every region because that minimizes the incentive to play other games. So, if not all the regions, what exactly is “coming together” in Pokémon Sun and Moon? The plot line that began in X and Y and continued into Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire’s Delta Episode: Mega Evolution, Infinity Energy, Project Azoth, and… Alchemy?Wait. I don’t remember Alchemy being a part of X and Y or ORAS. This is where Sun and Moon fit into the picture.
The Alchemy Legendaries: Solgaleo and Lunala
With the little information we have so far about Sun and Moon, all signs seem to be pointing towards a plot focusing on Alchemy. One of the clearest examples of this is found within the mascot legendary for Sun version, Solgaleo. Solgaleo is stated to be “the beast that devoured the Sun.” This statement confused a lot of fans because they assumed the legendary for Pokémon Sun would embody the Sun, not eat it. Believe it or not, imagery of a green lion devouring the Sun is common throughout Alchemical texts. This green lion symbolized an acidic substance that could dissolve metals, including gold. The substance created from the dissolved gold is what Alchemists used to create more gold from base metals such as iron or copper. (In some texts, the molten gold was also compared to the elixir of life, but we’ll get back to that in a minute.)
With Solgaleo being clearly related to this alchemical symbol, I began to wonder the significance of the moon in Alchemy and if Lunala could fit into this theory. There is a lot of speculation around what Lunala is based around. Lions are often associated with the sun and masculine energy, so Solgaleo is an obvious connection—Lunala, not so much. Surprisingly, I found a possible inspiration for Lunala that fits into Alchemy: the Egyptian Goddess, Isis (Pictured Below). Isis was a goddess often associated with the moon, portrayed with long wings and horns on her head. She was also the goddess of magic and Alchemy. Further, in Egyptian mythology, Isis is known for raising her husband from the dead, garnering her the title: the protector of the dead. If Lunala is based off Isis, this title of “protector of the dead” could attribute to its Ghost typing. With Lunala likely being based of a goddess of the moon and alchemy, both box legendaries obviously have some sort of ties to Alchemy.
Project Azoth in Sun and Moon?
So, how does Alchemy help the plot line of X and Y “come together?” Ancient alchemists had two main goals: wealth and immortality. Alchemists believed they could achieve immortality and turn any substance into gold if they could create a philosopher’s stone. A bit of a speculative stretch, but the diamond shaped stones in the Japanese logos for Sun and Moon (and now seen on the wrists of our playable characters) could somehow be symbolic of a philosopher’s stone. Philosopher stones were said to contain the “elixir of life,” or, less commonly known as Azoth. In Alchemy, Azoth is essential to transmutation and transformation. It is the universal solvent and sometimes described as the universal life force—“the animating energy of the body [and the] … enthusiasm that moves the mind.” What kind of life energy do we know of from X and Y and ORAS that helps transform the body of Pokémon? Infinity Energy, the source of Mega Evolution.
While I do not have suggestions for names of the new evil team of the Alola Region, I do know this: they are going to attempt to achieve immortal life through using either Solgaleo or Lunala in combination with Infinity Energy, or Azoth. I also think that Sun and Moon might see the end of mega evolution as we currently know it. I know this sounds like a crazy statement since mega evolution has become an integral part of the Pokémon metagame. However, the stones seen on the wrist of our playable characters are definitely not keystones. I speculate these diamond stones will act like a keystone, but instead it will tap into Infinity Energy in a different way allowing for Pokémon to transform/mega-evolve without the use of a Mega Stone. I also posit the storyline of Sun and Moon will include many references to Kalos, which may or may not result in needing to travel to Kalos in the post game. AZ will most likely make an appearance because he was the first person to learn how to use Infinity Energy (the Pokémon Universe’s first alchemist). The plot lines of the recent Pokemon games are getting darker and more complex, so what’s to stop GameFreak from going all out in these games that are supposedly meant to “bring everything together?”
So, what do you guys think? Do you agree that Alchemy will play a part in the plot line of Sun and Moon? What do you think of Project Azoth?