The Pokemon anime is one of the most long-running video game adaptations the world has ever seen, spanning over twenty-five years of episodes, movies, and specials. The animated TV show has been around long enough that when it came to the idea of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet being adapted for television, it was never a matter of 'if,' but 'when' it would happen. Now, generation nine is set to take over the anime alongside the shake-up that the series will finally be bidding Ash Ketchum farewell. This makes the next set of animated Pokemon stories a wild card.
While fans aren't sure what to expect from the anime's new protagonists, it's fair to say that the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet series will focus more on the new Paldea region that previous shows did. However, due to the drastic version differences between titles, one character may have a completely different storyline depending on the anime's adaptation choices. This character is Arven, the son of the Pokemon Professor.
How Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Handle Arven's Story
As part of generation nine's branching storylines, the new games introduce Arven, the original owner of the player's Koraidon or Miraidon who is said to be the son of the Pokemon researcher in Area Zero. However, the catch is that due to how Scarlet deals with the past, and Violet has a futuristic theme, the professors are one of the version exclusives to each title. Scarlet players meet Professor Sada, and Violet players meet Professor Turo. Arven calls them mom and dad respectively in each title, with a memo in Area Zero saying the other parent walked out after Arven was born.
The version differences in Scarlet and Violet present a bit of a problem as the school trainers attend, as well as what legendary they catch and even the final boss in the game's main story changes depending on the version players have. However, the game presents these things as if they're the only options out there, almost making it that the Pokemon anime will have to choose a side. This goes for just who Arven's parents are as well. However, there's room in Arven's story for both of the professors to be his parents, and that has some grim connotations.
How Arven's Storyline Could Be Made Even Sadder
In the logs players find, players can read about Professor Turo and Sada being left behind by their old partner, but the text is rather nondescript. Depending on the game, all it says is "that man (or woman) left after that child was born." While the game doesn't say that the former partner was a fellow researcher, the idea of Arven having both Professor Sada and Professor Turo as his parents makes sense. The story of the professors is that they became obsessed with their research in both games, which means they could easily have split over their different paradoxical findings.
This storyline would work well for the Scarlet and Violet anime, as it gets around version differences while also expanding the lore at same time. However, this makes Arven's story debatably more tragic as both of his parents have abandoned him for research only to die for it. Imagining a scene where both of the professor's AIs unite to vanish into the time machine sounds horrible for Arven to witness. If previous anime adaptions of Pokemon are anything to go by, this option is very likely to be the direction it'll take.
How the Past Affects the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Anime's Future
Scarlet and Violet's anime choosing to handle both professors at once wouldn't be the first time that the anime changed the story only to expand upon it more than the source material. A rather similar decision was made in regard to the Pokemon Sun and Moon anime series, where Lillie was given a phobia of touching Pokemon due to previous trauma with the Ultra Beasts. While this seemed like a strange choice to fans at first, it ended up setting the stage for a rather large story arc dealing with Lillie's entire family in regard to her mother's obsession with the extraterrestrial Pokemon.
Where many fans were disappointed that such incredible character depth happened off-screen in the original Sun and Moon games, the Pokemon anime gave fans a front-row seat to everything the titles didn't show and more. It featured a cathartic climax of Lillie telling Lusamine she hates her for what she's done that ended up resolving everything within the family and earning Lillie and Gladion their happy endings.
How the anime changed Lillie only to make her and her family into much stronger, more developed characters is a great example as to why changing up Arven's story for more of an impact is a great choice the Scarlet and Violet anime could make. It also serves as a good source of evidence as to why the animated series may choose to expand Arven's story instead of limiting it to dealing with only one of the professors. However, the Scarlet and Violet anime is still rather unpredictable, as Ash's departure from the series may affect more than just a change in protagonist.
In many cases, when a franchise typically makes a big change like retiring Ash as the main character, many of the show's key staff tend to see it as just as prominent as fans do. This leads directors, animators, and almost any sort of valuable person on the show to leave, as well, seeking new work. Due to this, the change of production staff on the Scarlet and Violet anime may lead it to make changes any other series before it wouldn't make. As a result, fans are most likely going to have to wait and see just where the newest Pokemon animated adventure goes.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available on the Nintendo Switch.
