A theory about Pokémon Rejuvenation: Part 2

[Hycrox]

Guess who’s back, back again

So last time I’ve left off on the supposition that the entirety of the Rejuvenation universe being illusory. I believe the “how” of it was somewhat uncovered in part 1 of this theory, so now I’m focusing more on the “what”.

So, remember that list of questions at the end of part 1? Well let’s get to work on em:

• Are there instances where the illusion breaks?

Let’s call these instances cracks. So, at some points, you’ll see that the false reality the story’s placed in sometimes cracks and gives us information on the actual real world. Thing is, these are __extremely__ rare, but they do exist. First, let’s look at one small moment: when you’re in the past (the part when you’re with Ren, Reina and Huey), at some point you have a serious breakdown, and fall unconscious to the ground. Common belief is that Kieran, who arrives at the scene shortly, is the culprit. But I’d say that wasn’t the case. The player’s breakdown was caused by a crack in the illusion. What does this reveal? Let’s take a look at the static we see during that moment:

Spoiler

Huh... This is interesting, you can faintly distinguish a shape

Now, the next crack is a bit strange, but important nonetheless: the Unown Dimension. The Unown Dimension is a separate dimension from the dimension most of Rejuvenation happens in, and I consider it has only two beings living in it: Allen and Alice. I consider everything else in that dimension, including Team Trappus members and the Pokémon, to be a machination. It’s known that Allen and Alice were trapped in the Unown Dimension for a great deal of time, so they’re entirely unfamiliar with the “real” world. They were even given fake personalities, and stories, from their father (identity uncertain). Typically, they behave like characters from fairy tales, as Allen fancies himself a knight, and Alice shares many traits with the typical princess. Even though the Unown Dimension is confirmed to be an illusion, meaning it’s an illusion within an illusion, I believe it can tell a lot about the world of Rejuvenation, purely from what it references.

Now the next subject isn’t so much a crack, as a surprisingly interesting character to discuss: Amanda. Let’s talk a bit about Amanda. Ok at first I wasn’t so sure of what Amanda’s character was even supposed to be… or do. Let’s talk about Amanda a bit more. She initially just seems like your typical introductory character: she points you to your starter,  talks a bit about the league with you, etc. She’s also Jan’s sister. She seems like a pretty normal character at first, completely removed from the events of the main story of Rejuvenation. But, that all changes in the latest version of Rejuvenation. In this one, she kidnaps Melia just as Bladestar launches their attack on the Grand Dream ball. Melia is unconscious, but wakes up in a facility that is later revealed to be in Gearen, with Amanda in front of her. Amanda then reveals she’s actually responsible for all the questionable decisions made by the Aevium League, namely appointing Texen as the successor to Keta. She’s also some sort of extremely complicated and powerful demonic robot. I’d say this, like the reference, was intentional: she’s a way to prevent the fiction of Rejuvenation from being broken, albeit by brute force. Remember my hypothesis of Freya and Crescent being proxies of the supreme deity? Let’s add Amanda to that list. Though this raises an extremely big question. Jan believes Amanda’s his sister. Then… what is Jan?

So, Jan is supposedly one of the managers of the Aevium league, and more importantly, the gym guy. So, seeing as Jan believe Amanda’s his sister, then there are many, many possibilities as to what ingame Jan truly is: he may be a creation of Amanda, to hold together the fiction of Rejuvenation. Or, he may be yet another proxy of the deity, which would be fitting, considering his position in the league, and his extensive knowledge on all leaders, even past their playstyles. Though, Jan just may be the one _exterior_ to the fiction. I’m mostly making this supposition based on him being the mandatory self-insert of the creator and head dev of Pokémon Rejuvenation. Of course, him being in his position ould lead one to assume he _is_ the deity. Well I disagree, since he and Amanda have a sibling relationship, and while Amanda is powerful, she can be destroyed, or at least, gravely injured, by elements of the fiction. Naturally, I mean Sakitron in this case, who destroys Amanda in all situations, be it by self sacrifice or not. So Amanda wouldn’t be considered a sister to the deity, and therefore Jan can’t be the deity. Unless, of course, Amanda was specifically created to serve as a sister to Jan, the grand orchestrator behind everything. Either way, he’s obviously playing a big role in this fiction, possibly being the one individual who’s exterior to it. Of course, there’s the rest of the Rejuvenation dev team to consider, but I believe their in-game selves are just creations of in-game Jan, for his amusement. He may (or may not) be a proxy, but he doesn’t want to be bored either. Now, onto the next one:

• What is the purpose of this illusion?

To try to answer this, let’s talk about the game a bit more from the spectator’s point of view. Particularly about the references in Rejuvenation. There are so much more references to common occurrences in real life, mostly memes, in Pokémon Rejuvenation. This is mostly done for comedic effect, or so it would seem. I believe these references serve a greater role in the story, and are an absolutely vital asset to uncovering the mystery of Pokémon Rejuvenation. There are references to everything in this game: Overwatch is referenced by SEC, the Team Xen guard machine with a suspicious design; Saki references Titanic in the ship after the player character, and basically everyone, escapes the Blacksteeple prison; the Goomink quest is very clearly a huge Zelda reference (an excellent one btw)… But there’s one set of references I consider _extremely_ important in this game:

the Shrek references.

One would miss em initially, but upon closer observation I believe Rejuvenation is filled to the brim with Shrek references. They start as early as you pick your character. If you notice, all character profiles have the colour white somewhere in their design, either in their regular look or in their past makeover look. Usually they even have it in both. All character profiles but one have white and brown in either possible appearances. Shrek’s clothes in all movies have always been white and brown. The first character profile on the selection screen even has white, brown and green shown in his clothes, in both his possible appearances. Everyone knows how closely Shrek is tied to the colour green. It’s also possible to tell from the areas in the game:

• There are two different swamp-like areas; the marsh located behind Carotos Mountain, and Honec Woods.

• Carotos Mountain is a volcanic area by the time you reach it, slightly resembling the ruined tower (its outskirts moreso) from where Shrek rescued Fiona in the first movie

• Finally, Grand Dream City seems to be just like Far Far Away: a bustling city, acting as the focal point of Aevium

 

Spoiler

epic

Then, there are the characters. I feel many of them have traits that significantly resemble characters in Shrek. For example:

• The player character would be Shrek, of course, as they're the great catalyst in the plot, when looking at the bigger picture.
• Melia is the gallant warrior, loved by all, impressively powerful, and blonde, just like Prince Charming. However, she’s more the idealized version of him, whilst his true self is represented by Madame X.
• Along the road you get plenty of companions that aren’t the brightest, but are loyal, sometimes surprisingly useful and have good comic relief: Ren, Aelita, Reina and Huey can all play the part of Donkey.
• Some characters, mostly antagonists, come across as petty and small, but resourceful nonetheless: Madelis, Geara, Angie, Thomas Blakeory, and especially Flora, would be good Farquaads.
• Some others break out of the mold, they’re rogues in some way. Boastful at times, but good friends once you get to know em: Erin and Adam resemble, in a way, Puss in Boots.
• The most interesting ones are the proxies: considering their situation, they could only represent the great orchestrator, manipulating everything so everything happens exactly as she likes: the Fairy Godmother.

But enough about Shrek, back to the theory.

Talking about characters, remember the third question I asked in the first part? Whether you do or not, here it is:

• There are a lot, and really a LOT of characters in this game. Are they all completely fake, or just transformed versions of their true selves? Or is it case by case?

Well, this one is a bit hard to answer right now, but I believe the relations between these characters' personalities and those of Shrek characters play a big part in determining who, or what they really are. After all, Shrek characters have some surprisingly realistic and down-to-earth personalities.

So, back to the crack theory: all references whatsoever qualify as cracks, as they’re different from what we’re accustomed to in the Rejuvenation fiction. Of course, in a similar vein, all the proxies, including Jan, are cracks. Jan being the biggest example, he’s not from the fiction, after all.

But what are they references to? As you know, they’re references to our pop culture. Games, shows, movies, memes mostly, they’re things we likely know of in the real world.  What was the last question of part 1 again?

• What is the "reality" of this world?

From what's been said within this theory, is it true that Rejuvenation is actually a projection put over the real world, _our_ world? That would make the most sense from here right?

But... is there any other possibility?

[Commander]

[Magus543]

Is this a legit theory or is it an elaborate joke? What do the Shrek references have to do with anything?