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
