Well, that direct was sure something.
Let's talk about those legendaries.
♪ soft piano music with dub bass ♪
So first off, the two wolves prediction was on point!
Though, considering they were kinda, the logos,
it's not hard to see why.
Also, before I really get into it,
NO! Zamazenta is Not A Lion.
Are you dumb?!
I can't believe how many people are telling me this on Twitter.
One: It has a mane, yes - just like maned wolves
Two: Why would they do a lion legendary twice in a row?
Three: I've never seen a lion with this many wolf traits before
And Four: No it's not, it's a wolf.
Anyway,
many were thinking the Galar Region would share a lot of symbolism with Kalos,
since France and the UK share so much history and are so close themselves
and sure enough, it is.
Norse Mythology. Both of them.
The Norse played a massive role shaping the way all of Europe is today, and especially the UK
and we do see what look like Norse runes inscribed on some rocks all around Galar, now don't we
You likely already know X and Y's connection to Norse mythology, so I won't go over that in detail
but what we need to know for now is that the legendaries are representative of entities
around Yggdrasil: The tree of life where all of the worlds reside.
And you should know that Nidhogg, Fenrir, and Hel, who are Zygarde's three forms,
All play important roles in Ragnarok, which is the end of the world - it's Norse Armageddon
And that is how we get to that two wolves prediction
Skoll and Hati are two wolves in Norse mythology who hunt down the sun and the moon
And when Ragnarok comes, they are said to devour them
Plus, Zamazenta's shield is decently sun-like
At least, as sunny as a
lion's ...mane would be
It's kinda a stretch, I guess
But! (sing-song)
When activated, Zacian's sword gets a moon-shaped thing on the end of the hilt
And it's moon colors, so
considering the last games were Sun and Moon,
Well, let's just say it all comes together
But that is not the only possibility
Also in Norse mythology there are two warrior wolves
that belong to Oden:
Gary and Frekkie, or
Jerry and Freaky
*silence*
These names. (Geri and Freki)
These two wolves fight alongside Oden in battle
and even sit at the table with him to eat
And when Oden sits on his throne
One wolf sits by Oden's sword
and the other sits by Oden's shield
and Oden holds his spear
Could the third legendary be a Spear then?
Maybe something with a spear tail?
Or perhaps a humanoid thing representing Oden himself
or maybe Tyr, another god frequently confused with Oden as they share.. a lot
Perhaps
Odin is, among other things, a god of war and hunting
known for wielding his weapons with his wolves
by his side after all
But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves
Let's get out of theorization and back to reality for just a moment
First let's go over how their names are different: Their latter syllables
The "Cian" in Zacian is an easy one. It's Gaelic for "Ancient"
Considering most legendary Pokémon are ancient
that one works out pretty well
Especially considering that Gaelic is an ancient Celtic language
that eventually evolved (lol) into modern-day Irish and Scottish
Well that just makes sense now, right?
The Galar Region is based on Great Britain after all
Zamazenta is a trickier one though
Euh...Mazenta is the Japanese spelling and pronunciation of "magenta"
but there's no uh,
There's no magenta on this Pokémon; is there?
wait a sec
oh no
Oh No, the Pokémon Shield logo is Magenta
Ahhhhhhh
Zacian .. Cian... Cyan
Ahhhhh
The color of the Sword logo is cyan; the color of the shield logo is magenta
Oh my god
Well that's just terrible and I hate it
at least if that's the only thing
At least Zacian has the extra meaning in there
There must be something we can pull for Zamazenta then
Well uh, during the Great Turkish War there was the battle of Zenta
which was just South of the city Zenta
Doesn't really involve a wolf or a shield though
because they had guns at that point
hmm
The SMS Zenta is an Austria/Hungarian warship class known for it's guns
which have gun shields
no
Zenta is a natural stress reliever
doubt it
Zenta is also the name of a mental and physical health tracking bracelet
it's probably not that
Oh! You know what!
Y'know that Midieval manuscript fancy text font letter thing where the first letter is really big and it has a bunch of like doodles behind it
more recently, that's been dubbed
The Zentangle Art Style
Zenta - Zentangle
But by recent, I mean like 2003 so..
maybe that's not the reason for the name
but considering old-timey Europe
and especially considering Celtic art which also fits the whole Gaelic name of the other legendary and all that
It could be
That could play a role in the name
maybe not
geez
Is it really just cyan and magenta then?
Perhaps, and that would make it two of the four colors that printers use
C M Y K - Cyan Magenta Yellow Black
Why black is K, you'll have to look up
it's an interesting fun fact
But
I guess we'll know when the third legendary is revealed
and you know, at the end there
they did put up their guard as something approached from the sky
Is that the yellow legendary perhaps
Maybe it's a yellow spear-wielder hmm?
Also!
Almost forgot to mention: The other prediction from long ago
was that these legendaries were to be based on
an unstoppable force and an immovable object
a common quandry
And this is proves true
Their official descriptions state that Zacian's shining blade can cut through anything
Anything!
Meanwhile, Zamazenta's gleaming shield can turn back any attack
Any!
It's perfect offense versus perfect defense
So who wins?
But back to the name origins, how about the prefix they share?
First of all, Z-A or Za is a prefix used in a number of languages
For instance, in Serbo-Croatian languages it can be applied to adjectives to denote that it means "a finished action"
Something is done
And in Polish, it can be applied to verbs, to indicate that an action is irreversible
And in quite a number of South African languages, such as Zulu, it means "of" or "of the"
So no matter which of these possibilities it is, it works
So it could mean "of the cyan" or "of the ancient times"
"Of magenta" or perhaps "irreversible cyan"
"Irreversible magenta"
"magenta finisher" "ancient cyan finisher"
All of these work considering the theme-ing
Both of the unstoppable force versus immovable object theme-ing
As well as Skol and Hati's role in Ragnarok
Norse Armageddon - The End
The Finisher
And with Z-A meaning all those things it also points to all of the Z's in their names working really well for other bits of symbolism too.
Z has been used in Pokémon a number of times to symbolize the end.
It's the end of the alphabet after all, which is where they get the idea from
Z-moves are anime finisher moves
AZ brought about an end and a beginning to the Pokémon world as they knew it with the Ultimate Weapon
Project Azoth's goal was to wipe the world clean - end it to start anew
Necrozma also threatened to end the world by absorbing all of the light
Pokémon XYZ ended the classic Ash anime as the Sun and Moon one would start an entirely new art direction and story-telling method
And in the anime, Zygarde, the xyZ legendary, also almost ended the world, or at least Kalos
And Zygarde's inspirations play roles in Ragnarok
Just like Zacian and Zamazenta
There's a lot here
Bonus Theoretical Detail!
Remember how in Sun and Moon the legendaries are officially gender-less like every other legendary,
but male and female are implied heavily for them?
As in alchemy and mysticism, the sun is masculine and the moon is feminine
And also, it's literally stated in the Pokédex entries
We may have a similar situation here
Skol and Hati are also male and female, according to some sources anyway.
Others say they are brothers rather than brother and sister.
Norse mythology is heavily debated, yo
And Skol, the male, hunts the sun as the sun is masculine
And Hati the moon, as it's feminine
This also makes their names work well, as Cian or Key-enn is also a super common male surname in Ireland
that I'm probably mispronouncing
In fact, it was the 8th most common name in 2003
Wikipedia for the win
It's also the name of the father of Lugh, an Irish god
And then the ending suffix of Zamazenta is the feminine form of Entis meaning "abounding in" or "full of" in Latin
which ome to think, that also works really well with the name
You know, most legendary Pokémon have like quadruple meanings in their name
is super deep
Ho man, what if the printer color theory is true?
C M Y K - Cyan Magenta Yellow Black
but what if Necrozma comes back as the black
sorta similar to how Zygarde came back in Sun and Moon
Probably not, but it's an idea
More likely, we'll get one or two new legendaries to symbolize one or both of those colors
Oh gods, you know what?
Along with his two wolves, Odin also has two ravens
Which are said to be All Seeing, All Hearing, and sometimes even All Knowing
Infinite Wisdom
Eternal
So we already have two no-limit fallacies:
A cyan unstoppable force and a magenta immovable object
And they team up to fight Something that's coming over them
Something creating wind around them
Like the wings of a Raven
Is it perhaps a yellow raven with a spear
Who is all-knowing in it's infinite sight?
Another no-limit fallacy?
You Cannot Stop This Sword
You Cannot Attack Through This Shield
And you can't even hit something that is all-seeing
cuz it'll just perfectly dodge your attacks
it knows you're going to attack it before you do
Y'know considering ravens are black, it'd be kinda lame to just have a black raven especially since they just sorta showed a new Pokémon that's a black crow-knight
So I guess while it would be a little weird
A yellow raven with some armor and a crown and a spear tail or like spears on the ends of its wings..
It could work
They could have two ravens or just one
Since yellow would make sense as just the raven because all those colors, minus the black,
If you mix the cyan magenta and yellow, all of them combined make black
So there's that
And it wouldn't be the first time we have multiple mythological entities merge into a single Pokémon
Cough Zygarde Cough Xerneas
Hm, Zallow
Zallow could be a name for it
But then, what about it being a dragon?
That'd be so classic
A classic fire-breathing draconic dragon
it's perfect for England
And you know what,
Beowulf is a story based in Scandinavia inspired by Norse myth but written in Olde English as it's English
Super classic English literature
And Beowulf fought your classic fire-breathing dragon with, and it specified,
A sword and a shield
So maybe it's a classic dragon that's yellow and has spear elements
Or it's just a classic dragon with a crown
And it's yellow
Well if we're considering a classic dragon, you could also say Saint George, who was an Englishman,
who famously fought a dragon with a spear
And right now, just to clarify-
This is All Theoretical
Can't really say for sure one way or another with the data we've got
And really, 80% of this is probably gonna be wrong
but the ideas, man
Knowledge
well maybe
it's all speculation at this point and that's just my idea
What are yours? Let me know
Down Below
And we also have a Discord with a spoilerific sort of discussion channel if you're interested
Link Below
And coming soon we have a set of videos all about Dragon Pokémon
So be sure to check out what makes a Dragon-type coming June 8th
It's essentially Part One of the two-part Every Dragon Type Pokémon explained
and it's going to kick off DRAGON MONTH
i hope to see you there
So you be sure to never stop using your Noggin
And I hope to see you there
Please come watch it
You'll love it
