Adaman and Irida can be seen wearing the Adamant Orb and Lustrous Orb, respectively.
Additionally, their names are likely derived from “adamant”* and “iridescent” (loose synonym of “lustrous”).
*Adamant is likely used for the orb name due to its similarity to “adamantine” (unbreakable), which is a pun on how 金剛 (kongou, the Japanese word for “diamond”) can also be used to mean adamantine and the fact that the Adamant Orb is called こんごうだま (Kongoudama, Diamond Orb) in Japanese. Nvm I’m dumb see Mad Ram’s reply
As for their Japanese names, my best guess is that セキ (Seki, Adaman) is derived from 宝石 (ほうせき, houseki), meaning gem/jewel/precious stone, and that カイ (Kai, Irida) is derived from 石灰岩 (せっかいがい, sekkaigai), meaning lime limestone—perhaps in reference to cave pearls, which form in limestone caves. I’m much more certain about Seki than Kai, but my Japanese isn’t good enough to figure out any other potential origins—this is the closest to a pearl reference I could find.
Dawg, that's a Prism Sphere and a Pale Sphere respectively. They're found in every corner of the Sinnoh Underground.
Yeah, especially considering that the final form of one of the Gen 6 starters is literally THE MOST POPULAR POKEMON OF ALL TIME. I'm honestly surprised Greninja wasn't in either of the SWSH DLCs, but I digress.
Greninja was also voted the most popular Pokemon in that Japanese only popularity poll from the ORAS era, so I think it's safe to say that it's the most popular Pokemon currently. "All time" may have been an exaggeration, but it's definitely the most popular Pokemon in the modern era of Pokemon.
I have a kind of visceral reaction to this narrative. I sincerely cannot wrap my head around it.
It's bewildering that Greninja won at all in 2014. I remember back when the XY starters leaked just ahead of the international release. We had a "meh" fox mage, an okay soldier boy, and a pencil-thin almost-frog with a chaotic jumble of polygons for a head. On arrival, it was proto-Inteleon except with even more tongue. If you had told me in 2013 that Greninja would be the most popular Pokémon of Gen 6, let alone the whole series, I would have gratuitously insulted your mother.
But oh well. It could be chalked up to current relevance. It's like calling Joe Biden the most popular American president of all time because (1) he got more votes than any of his predecessors and (2) he dominates the news cycle at the time of this post. He's also yucky, much like a certain frog humanoid. No one would earnestly argue he is the G.O.A.T., right?
That makes it all the
more bewildering that Greninja is still winning polls in 2020 instead of more recent additions like Dragapult and Cinderace. I mention those two in particular because Dragapult shares the same alien design choices as Greninja and Cinderace is being pushed on TV like Greninja before it. What does Greninja have that those two don't? Is there something it did
first that no later addition has matched? Does Greninja-Ash alone somehow make up the difference? What am I missing?
I can only rationalize it in terms of demographic nuance. For one, I never seem to hear about these polls until after the fact, and surely I am not alone in this. At the same time, I imagine XYZ-consumers adore the frog on a level unrivaled anywhere else in the fandom and flock to these polls in droves. Greninja has a supremely dedicated fan club—I'll grant it that—but I do not see it being a universal fan favorite.
Also, it seems like the Diamond/Pearl clan are using Sinnoh as the name of the creator deity of Hisui? Plot is thickening....
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This is some interesting info. So Sinnohwas the name of an entitiy (Or entities?) and the region was named after that. From the way Iririda and Adaman speak, Sinnoh is some sort of deity. What I'm curious about iswhether Sinnoh is meant to be Arceus or the respective legendary dragons of each clan, or the creation trio as a whole.
Finally.
Finally.
One of my biggest pet peeves in this entire Pokémon world (that most will agree is a never-ending
font of pet peeves) is the misuse of the name
Arceus. I do not mean that it's sacred or never to be uttered in vain. I mean that it should be unknown to practically every living person in the series. To see fan labors get by with lazy oaths like "Oh my Arceus" and "Giratina take me"
and get praised for their quality of writing drives me up a wall. Those are not household names. They are not used by the people of Sinnoh. They sure as hell are not used by the people of Kanto Route 2.
I, for one, welcome the mysterious "almighty Sinnoh." Whether it refers to Arceus itself or the conflated image of Dialga and Palkia, I welcome a name that underscores just how obscure those entities are and just how incomplete the region's mythology is meant to be. It's ironic... that I, at last, should buy into "Sinnoh confirmed."
...Wait. Oh God. They wouldn't
actually give them a fusion for this game, would they?
