Pokemon's Latias x Blaziken Hybrid Is Not Just A Scrapped Delibird Evolution

Summary

• A long-standing theory revolving around a scrapped Pokemon design lives on despite what appeared to be revealed in the Game Freak leak.
• Someone claimed a new image of what many believe to be a Blaziken x Latias hybrid was actually a Delibird evolution.
• Turns out that information wasn't a part of the leak at all, and the theory that Pokemon split the initial design into Blaziken and Latias for Ruby & Sapphire remains.

Pokemon has been providing us with mysteries ever since Ho-Oh flew over Pallet Town during the first episode of the anime. Following the extensive Pokemon leaks over the weekend, it seemed one of the series' longer-standing mysteries had been debunked. The mystery that Blaziken and Latias were originally supposed to be a single Pokemon as someone claimed the concept art for that mysterious unused 'mon confirmed it was actually just supposed to be a Delibird evolution.

The theory that Latias and Blaziken were supposed to be one Pokemon dates back over a decade as Game Freak officially revealed concept art for the scrapped Pokemon in 2012. Intended to be introduced to the world in Ruby & Sapphire, the theory goes that The Pokemon Company split its design in two and it became Blaziken and Latias. The two debuted in Ruby & Sapphire hence why all these years later, the theory persists.

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However, believers in the Latiken theory were thrown a curveball this week when what appears to be an in-game version of the Pokemon was a part of the big Game Freak leak. Not because it was in there, but because someone claimed the leak confirmed it to be a scrapped Delibird evolution rather than a Latias x Blaziken hybrid. You can certainly see where that assumption came from, but apparently, the leak doesn't confirm that at all.

If Anything, The Leaked Image Has Fueled The Latiken Theory Rather Than Debunked It

Twitter's community notes to the rescue and it has been pointed out since that there is no such file in the Game Freak leak suggesting the image is of an unused Delibird evolution. The image that was indeed included in the leak was simply criticized for looking like a Delibird evolution rather than there being any confirmation that's what it is. The good news is the Latiken theory lives. The bad news is poor old Delibird still can't evolve and, as far as we know, Pokemon has never had plans for that to change.

There has been a lot of information coming out of the Game Freak leak and there's likely more to come as people continue to work their way through it. Some of the more notable information unearthed so far includes notes from the meeting in which Pokemon decided Ash's anime arc would come to an end, and the hacker claiming they found and played Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Oh, and all the stuff about Pokemon and humans having babies together. Please, don't make me think about that again.

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