Not really a major mystery but something that confused me as I just transferred a couple of them... why is Unown found in the forest area in the Pal Park? None of the locations it can be caught in are forest areas, they're always ruins and/or caves. I would have expected to find them in the mountain area or just the general field area, so ran around for a couple of minutes confused as to why they weren't showing up.
At first I wondered if many it was the "default" location where they just placed all the Pokemon they don't know about, but that looks to be the Field area.
Looking at all the other Pokemon
who are placed in forest I'm seeing a lot of nocturnal and ghost Pokemon. It makes me wonder if, in GF's logic, the forest can be used as a pseudo "dark/shadowy" location (due to the tall trees blocking the sun) for Pokemon that usually are found in those environments. While it's not an exact fit, Unown have only been found in dark locations so, without ruins or caves, these was probably considered the next best thing. But now I'm just imagining you walking through a shady forest and suddenly all the trees around you have odd writing all over them, and some start blinking *shivers*.
One inconsistency that has probably been noticed before, but caught my eye. Let’s talk about the Galactic Bomb. If the characters can feel it in Canalave when it’s in Lake Valor (in essence, on the other side of the country), then how is Pastoria City still standing?
As
green_typhlosion posted, for this to be done in real life the bomb would have not just evaporated the water but also destroyed the lake & surrounding area and, if a nuclear bomb, have made probably the entire Sinnoh region radioactive.
So the only conclusion is that, being they're a science-based organization, that the bombs they used were specially made to ONLY rapidly evaporate/displace H2O and not effect living life forms (because Magikarp are still alive and a few scenes later the lakes rapidly refill and are populated again so the effects were temporary). Yeah, I know, super cartoony, but that's what we're working with here.
If I was told to make a bomb that made sense (cartoony physics allowed of course), I would just make it a science bomb that just messes with physics. When detonated the bomb would create an infinite void space that would encompass the whole lake and everything in it (water, sand, plantlife, Pokemon, etc.). Where did everything go, you ask? It still exists, it's just been spatially and temporally misaligned so it's still there but just not at the moment; In addition to the void space it likely also released some quantum particles in order to sustain the anomaly for a short while). However short time is the keyword, eventually physics will correct itself so the clock was ticking for Team Galactic to do what they needed to do and split before everything returned. And of course this instantaneous shifting of space and time would probably send metaphysical shockwaves through the spacetime of Sinnoh which would feel like an earthquake but isn't as it's not quite a physical aftermath that's being felt.
So, WHY would Galactic even do this, especially when they didn't do this for the other lakes? My guess it would have to do with Azelf as it's the only factor different from the other lakes. Actually, that is just an assumption, maybe they did have two other bombs or some other device but maybe they had different effects. I imagine to get the Lake Trio to appear you need to do more than just surf to their island cave. For the player they just appeared to them because prodigy/pure of heart/chosen one/etc.. But for Team Galactic they probably needed to do some "coaxing". So Mesprit would need something which disturbed emotions, Uxie something that would disturb intelligence, and Azelf something that disturbed willpower. For Mesprit and Uxie I could see them having a machine that used psychic waves which could affect the mind in various ways. But for Azelf, probably really no psychic waves that could disrupt willpower in the way so that it's forced out, so instead they tried a different method: a show of force. They just didn't harm the lake (and in theory have things try to fight back against them), they completely displaced the lake and everything in an instant so they were no resistance whatsoever. As the being of willpower, that probably would have offended Azelf enough to appear (though they then likely had a way to instantly disable it).
Anyway, what's on my mind today is the Striation Gym. It's obviously designed in-game to counter your starter, and my headcanon was always that the girl in the Dreamyard who gives you an elemental monkey is just an employee trying to drum up business (much like the people who don't let you leave Pewter/Violet City before you've beaten their respective gyms). Fine, but what do they do for someone whose first Pokemon was a Lillipup?
Well the actual answer is we're not supposed to think about it.
The only "out" I can think of is that, when you first meet them, Cilan is standing outside of the Gym and notes what your first Pokemon is (which, thinking about it, is kind of cheating for the Gym Leader to do...). For the player and anyone who has a Pokemon with a Type that interacts with Grass, Fire, and Water they'll pick the best counter. But otherwise I can see if one wouldn't have a better advantage over the other they would let the Challenger choose who to challenge. So basically:
Leader You'll Challenge Depending On Type:
Cilan: Water, Electric,
Chili: Bug, Steel, Grass, Ice, Fairy
Cress: Fire
Cilan or Chili: None (at least for mono-types)
Cilan or Cress: Ground, Rock,
Chili or Cress: Flying, Poison,
Any: Normal, Fighting, Ghost, Psychic, Dragon, Dark
Type combination of course not withstanding, For a duel-type Pokemon I'd imagine it might be more complicated as they'd likely focus on weakness first but also gotta be careful of the secondary type giving the opponent an advantage.