Rambling about the Pokémon timeline
No flag edit today, folks. Last night I casually visited Bulbapedia and had my entire brain exploded, so I'm gonna make a rambly post about how Pokémon characters now have (somewhat) official birth years.
Putting it under the cut because it's like very long. Also, this post may be edited several times as I see new info.
For those unaware of the Pokémon timeline, here is the info that we knew for several years (if you want to know more, here's the Bulbapedia page I'm getting this from):
RBGY/FRLG and RSE/ORAS take place at the same time. (Note: ORAS is excluded from most of these timelines due to inconsistencies and multiverse stuff, but I'm keeping it here because why not.)
GSC/HGSS takes place three years after the above games, and at the same time as DPP/BDSP.
There is an unspecified time jump between the Johto/Sinnoh games and Black & White.
B2W2 takes place two years after BW, and at the same time as XY.
SM/USUM takes place two years after BW/XY.
LGPE's canonicity is under fierce debate due to timeline issues. In that game, Red/Leaf (or Green, whatever they're calling her now) and Blue have already completed their journeys, but a line of Sabrina's dialogue alludes to her meeting a strong Trainer in three years. This is an allusion to the Johto protagonist, implying that LGPE takes place not long after RGBY. However, Mina appears in that game. Her listed age in concept art is 3-6 years younger than she is in SM, which is long after the original Kanto games. (My personal headcanon to fix this: Lillie goes on an adventure in Kanto offscreen at the end of SM. However, Sabrina's dialogue heavily implies she's talking about Ethan/Kris/Lyra and not Lillie.)
Sword and Shield take place an unspecified amount of time after the Alola games (Silvally's SwSh Pokedex entry mentions there being many of that Pokémon, but at the end of SM there were only three in existence).
Legends: Arceus takes place no later than 300 years before DPP/BDSP.
For years, this was all we had, and the unspecified gap between the Johto-Sinnoh and Unova games was all we had. However, Bulbapedia found an obscure book from 1996 that offers a solution.
The Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia was a Japanese-only illustrated Pokémon guidebook published when Red & Green first came out. Though it's old, a lot of its information still fits with current Poke-canon. (For example, the book mentions Nidorans being able to breed but their later evolutions being unable, when the breeding mechanic still didn't exist.)
The book holds a lot of weird and interesting lore, but the tidbit relevant to the timeline mystery is that it states that Porygon was created one year before the events of Red & Green. This is relevant because Porygon's SM dex entry says that it was created 20 years ago. If we take that as an exact figure (which it might not be, but whatever, let's jump to conclusions), then that means SM takes place 19 years after RGBY/FRLG. Do some quick math, and you get that there are 12 years between the events in Johto-Sinnoh and BW. Hurrah!
However, if we're now taking this book as canon, there's something important we can't overlook. This book explicitly states that Red & Green take place in 1996, and Porygon was invented in 1995. This may not sound revolutionary, as games usually take place around the time they're published, but this means we now have year dates for the entire series:
Red/Leaf's journey and the Hoenn games take place in 1996
The Johto & Sinnoh games take place in 1999
Black & White take place in 2011
Black 2, White 2, X, and Y take place in 2013
The Alola games take place in 2015
At minimum, Sword & Shield take place in 2016
If we're using Mina's age as our indicator of canon, Let's Go takes place between 2009 and 2012
Legends Arceus takes place no earlier than 1699
Using this timeline, we can estimate the birth years and current ages of any Pokemon characters with confirmed ages. And I'm a timeline nerd who loves this kinda stuff, so Let's Hecking Go.
Red & Blue (and presumably Leaf) were said to be 11 in the Japanese manuals for the Gen I games and 10 in the European releases. This would mean they were born in 1985-86. If we count Let's Go as canon, then they were between the ages of 23 and 27 in those games. They look too old for that, but LG's art style makes everyone look way younger than they are, so who knows. And finally, in their appearances in Sun & Moon, our boys are 29-30 years old. We stan millennial kings. Imagine them hanging out with 11-year-old Hau and being confused about Vines
ORAS says in those Pokenav news report things [I forgot what they're called lol] that Brendan/May is 12 and Wally is 10. This means that MC was born in 1984 and would be 31 by the events of Sun & Moon. Wally should have been born in 1986 and would be 29...except he appears in the Alola Battle Tree still looking like a kid. Uh...maybe that was a past alternate universe him? A Hoopa did it???
There's another characters whose age is confirmed in ORAS: Steven Stone. He says in that game that he is 25. This would mean that he was born in 1971, and is 44 years old by Sun & Moon. Nintendo pls give us middle age steven
The Johto & Sinnoh characters have no specific canon ages, but the default age for Pokémon protags and rivals is 10-12, so we'll go with that. These kids were probably born between 1987 and '89, and would be between 26 and 28 by SM.
Hilbert/Hilda, Cheren, and Bianca are 14-15 years old during their adventure. They were born in 1997-98 and are at least 18-19 in modern canon. Our first Gen Z members of the cast.
N is 20 during BW. He was born in 1991 and would be at least 24 in current canon.
Nate/Rosa, Hugh, Serena/Calem, and the Kalos rivals have no specified age, but since the previous Unova protags were older, I'll calculate an age range of 10-15 for them. In that case, they were born between 1998-2003, and by Alolan times would be 12-17.
(Note: for a while there was a statement going around Bulbapedia that the Japanese versions of XY state that the protag is 17-18; however, that info has since been removed. I don't speak Japanese so I can't verify that, but if it's true, then the Kalos gang gets bumped up to 1995-6, and would be 19-20.)
Selene, Elio, Hau, and Lillie are canonically 11, so they were born in 2004. Gladion's exact age is unknown, but he's older than his sister, so I'd guess 2001-2003.
Due to SwSh's dubious place in the timeline and the protags/rivals not having canon ages, I'm just gonna leave that alone.
Chase/Elaine and Trace have no canon ages, but look to be on the younger side of 10-12; I'd guess they were born sometime from 1997-2002.
The protag of LA is estimated to be about 15. We don't know what world/time the protag comes from, so we can't say anything for them. However, if their rival is assumed to be the same age, then they must have been born about no later than 1684.
Edit: I found a few more characters with confirmed ages. Professor Birch is 35 in ORAS; this means he was born in 1961 and would be 54 by SM/USUM.
Professor Rowan is 60 during Lucas/Dawn's journey. He was born in 1939 and is 76 by the Alola games. Hopefully he's retired by now (although idk what kind of retirement fund system Sinnoh's government has. does the Pokémon world even have governments? it seems like 10-year-old children are allowed to wander with no supervision. but also there's a police force, so somebody has to be controlling them...what even IS the Pokémon world anyway?).
Cyrus is 27 during his shenanigans with Team Galactic (apparently he's a lot older than he looks!). He was born in 1972 and...well, I'm pretty sure he dies so this doesn't matter, but he would be 43. Also, Steven is older than Cyrus. Let that sink in.
Other random timeline stuff we can pin down with this (only including events that happened during times I can reasonably do math for):
The Kalos war and creation of the Ultimate Weapon happened 3000 years before XY, so roughly 987 Poke-BCE. (I assume they must have some Common Era equivalent. Does Jesus exist in the Pokémon world to create this distinction. Did Christ die for our Pokesins?)
The Darkest Day storm in Galar occurred a few years after that.
The Draconid peoples' homes were turned into Meteor Falls in roughly 4 CE.
In roughly 496 CE, the language used in the Ruins of Alph was created.
Rayquaza went Mega for the first time in 996.
Xerneas and Yveltal went dormant in 1213.
Bell Tower and Brass Tower were created in 1299.
Magearna was created in 1515.
Brass Tower burned to the ground and the legendary dogs were created in 1849. (As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that LA takes place before this and yet features Hisuian forms of the dogs. Maybe their Hisuian forms were the Pokémon they were before Ho-oh changed them?)
Professor Rowan's visit to Kanto was in 1995.
What is the point of this information? I dunno, really. Like I said, I'm a timeline nerd and I like to have all this stuff laid out. If you wanna use it for an actual practical purpose, feel free, but do credit me, because I think I'm the first person to lay all this out.
