Pokemon Sword and Shield Teases an Alien Pokemon Invasion

Pokemon Sword and Shield's third Legendary Pokemon hints that something strange is happening in the Galar region. The first Legendary Pokemon players obtain in Pokemon Sword and Shield isn't the Mascot Legendary Pokemon of those respective games, but rather the strange Pokemon Eternatus. Eternatus is the source of the Galar region's Dynamax energy and is the center of a plot to solve the Galar region's not at all pressing energy problem. Eternatus doesn't look like any of the other Pokemon from the Galar region, and for good reason. The Pokedex entry for Eternatus notes that the Pokemon came to outer space from a meteor. That might sound like a familiar origin story, as several Pokemon also allegedly came to Earth riding a meteor. In fact, Eternatus shares several similarities with three Pokemon with the same origin story. The first is the Mythical Pokemon Deoxys, which came to earth from a meteor and was later artificially enhanced with a laser beam. The other two Pokemon are bit more surprising - Staryu and Starmie.

All four Pokemon have several common characteristics - they all have an organ described as their core, they all came from outer space, and all have various abilities due to their core. While Deoxys shoots lasers from its chest, Staryu and Starmie transmit radio signals into space with their cores, while Eternatus absorbs ambient energy and then uses it to warp space-time during its transformation into its Gigantamax form. Several other alien Pokemon also make appearances in the game: Solrock, Lunatone, Clefairy, Clefable, Elgyem, and Beheeyem all appear in the wild in Pokemon Sword and Shield. We'll note that every "confirmed" extraterrestrial Pokemon appears in Pokemon Sword and Shield save for Kyurem, whose origin story was disputed in Pokemon Black and White 2, and Deoxys, who is a Mythical Pokemon.

Now that we have four alien Pokemon with cores and several other alien Pokemon making an appearance in Pokemon Sword and Shield, I can't help but wonder if there's more to this plotline. While Pokemon Sun and Moon didn't really explain what Necrozma was other than that it was likely an Ultra Beast trapped on Earth thousands of years ago, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon provided an in-depth storyline about the new Pokemon. And considering there's several other alien Pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield, we can't help but wonder if there's something else going on in the game...

Let us know your Pokemon Sword and Shield theories in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to chat all things Pokemon!