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Pokémon Legends Z-A DLC Has Surprising Tie To Original Games

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Pokémon Legends Z-A DLC Has Surprising Tie To Original Games

Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s Mega Dimension DLC is filled with references to old games. It’s a pseudo sequel to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, with dashes of Diamond and Pearl carryover sprinkled in, and plenty of references to characters from X and Y. However, one small reference to the original Red and Blue is surprising longtime fans because it proves an old villain might have learned a few lessons since the original Game Boy games.

In Legends: Z-A’s main story, Corbeau, the hotheaded but kindhearted leader of the mob-like Rust Syndicate organization, reveals that Lysandre, the boss of the genocidal Team Flare from X and Y and an enigmatic figure in Legends: Z-A, helped raise him from an early age. In Mega Dimension, he reveals that Lysandre wasn’t the only antagonist who looked after him at one point. It appears Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket in Generation I, also took Corbeau under his wing.

Corbeau reveals this during Mega Dimension’s post-game as the player is starting to hunt for the Legendary Pokémon Rayquaza, and he remembers a “boss of an organization from Kanto” who knew about the myths and legends from the Johto and Hoenn regions from Gold and Silver and Ruby and Sapphire. Giovanni disappears after the player defeats him in Red and Blue, and while he makes appearances here and there in future games, he only returns to his crime boss ways in the Rainbow Rocket storyline in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but that’s an alternate universe version of him. So it sounds like, at some point, he passed through the Kalos region and met Corbeau.

This might just seem like a simple nod to previous games, but Giovanni’s history makes it bittersweet. In Gold and Silver, the player’s rival is revealed to be the Team Rocket Boss’ abandoned son. So perhaps Giovanni viewed his mentoring of Corbeau as a chance at redemption for being a deadbeat dad. That said, some fans are turning on Corbeau for this reveal, as it can be read as the character getting a lot of pandering fanservice woven into his backstory.

Personally, I like the idea that some of the biggest bastards in all of Pokémon could raise a guy and instead of also becoming a terrorist, he becomes a mob boss who uses his influence to better Lumiose City. Corbeau was one of my favorite characters in Legends: Z-A, but if the anime ends up tying him to another team leader, I might be on board with the argument that his links to various criminal organizations are getting out of hand. Next you’re gonna tell me he loves Piers from Team Yell’s music? Wait, that actually sounds pretty probable.

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