Pokémon Sword/Shield Translation Fake News, and the Glimwood Tangle Live Camera

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Get over your disappointment because it's based off stupidity.

There are two new fan-generated disappointments related to Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield from the past week. The chronologically second is the one happening “live” right now, this 24-hour live camera in “Glimwood Tangle”, which is apparently some forest in the Galar region. The Pokémon Company International advertised that “we will broadcast live footage for 24 hours from a camera set up in Glimwood Tangle—a strange forest located deep within the Galar region. This is your chance to get to know the various Pokémon that make their home in this forest! You may notice things that surprise you!”

So they apparently stuffed a Rotom in a camera and it's been looking like this:

This is actually an action shot. Normally there's no Morelull or any other Pokémon on screen.

Here's what I wrote in KoopaTV's Discord server on September 29th in “anticipation” for this:

[9:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm not watching this shit.
[9:21 AM] Rawk: Why?
[9:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's a 24-hour livestream of nothing.
[9:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You wouldn't sit down in front of your copy of Sword/Shield and stare at the screen for 24 hours doing nothing, would you?
[9:22 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So why would I do that if it's GAME FREAK controlling it?
[9:24 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: If there's any news from it they'll do that separately.

It turns out that this isn't even in-game footage, according to the website's “Not Actual Game Footage.” disclaimer. I don't really know what it is then, other than a pointless troll that's a publicity stunt that someone came up with as a “hey let's experiment with this new, unconventional idea to promote the game.” But I knew it would be pointless ahead of time. You should've, too.

And the first source of folks’ sadness?

The dis-trustworthy folks at Game Informer, which has been on KoopaTV's list of outlets to stay away from, allegedly had a bunch of information they got from interviewing with the folks behind Pokémon Sword and Shield. It's not information that I've gone and looked at personally, because I don't want to give Game Informer my time and I'd rather just hear information directly from The Pokémon Company International. (And preferably not in 24-hour livestream format.)

Among some other information that's pretty unclear what it means, Game Informer reported that there are 18 gyms in Galar, and some people believed you'd have to collect 18 gym badges. This excited some foolish Pokémon fans because they think that means the game would be over twice as long as a normal Pokémon game, and more content is good, right?

The Pokémon Company International had to issue a statement to Game Informer to correct this before it became a massive fake news scandal.

...Not that I think the corrective statement makes much sense or is entirely clarifying, but basically, there is a gym in Galar for every Pokémon type (18), but only 8 of them are in the Major League that you need badges for to enter the Pokémon League. (I bet Chairman Rose is rigging the system in favour of his favourite gyms.) Which gym is in the Major League vs. the Minor League depends on if you're playing Pokémon Sword or Pokémon Shield (and I guess some will always be in the Minor League... probably the Dark-type gym), and while the other gyms are in the lore, it's unclear if they'll exist in any capacity in the other games. We do know that we already see this in the case of Bea vs. Alister the Shy Ghost boy.

(Perhaps as a Fighting Dojo scenario? Remember that in Saffron City?)

By the way, if it's not clear, I'm not convinced that more gyms means better things. It's a foolish quantity over quality mindset.

But in both of the things I've written about in this article, it's a case of a hysterical Pokémon fanbase getting excited from fake news caused by poor translations that are taken as (initially) undeniable truth, and caused by stupid expectations that aren't at all based on the descriptions readily available to them.

People just don't have reading comprehension anymore.


There's a pony-like mysterious Pokémon that hasn't appeared in other announcements or games before that is appearing on the stream, but only on rare occasions and not even in full. It's an inherently poor way to get information, but KoopaTV might cover any succinct trailer and official information dumps offered by The Pokémon Company International after this is over.


The mysterious pony is Galarian Ponyta. Read all about it and see its succinct trailer here.