The meta narrative of GtI's fourth wall break.
Beware, block of text ahead:
This is something that I've been thinking about and that I've seen mentionned only by one other person in the comment of AurumAlex's awesome video about GtI story.
As you probably know Hydreigon breaks the fourth wall, this is because Hydreigon is the funniest character, however most pass it off and do not think about the details of it, which is fair because the few that actually want to talk about GtI have more important themes to abord.
So this post is to talk about it!
Normally, you wouldn't pay much mind to who the human who get sent is, in fact, the little we got said is in Rescue Team that trainer is an existent term and therefore, the human is probably from the pokémon games world. This makes sense, this is why they know pokémon and this means they are soemone.
However, what I want to say is that, GtI, YOU are the human. YOU are going in the pokémon world, when you turn on your console and start the game, you become the pokémon, this why you're human, this is why it's you.
And this is why you leave, after finishing the story, the game is over, you've won, so you must say goodbye to tose characters, to this story, it is finished.
However, by coming back to the game, you showed that you are still here and trying to play the game, which is why Hydreigon notices it, and is able to break the fourth wall by looking at the screen. You cared enough to see what happens after the story end, and so you are given the chance to come back after some time and doing World Core. By completing this hard dungeon alone, you show your will to continue the game and go back to it.
At the end, Hydreigon but aslo your partner wish for you to come back when you want. It is a play on how you can turn off the game and comes back later. When you play the game and get immersed in it, you become the pokémon, and when you're done you can stop and go back to our human world.
But, you can also refuse to go back in the world. By saying you don't wanna come back, you essentially say you don't wanna engage with the rest of the game, so you leave once again, closing the game. And this is now the real end of the story, you don't wanna engage anymore and so you quit and don't play again.
You can still, however, get back after that choice, as if to mean that you changed your mind, and now want to actually engage with the game once again. So the game makes you go back as if you just lost the dungeon and you need to go back to it, prove again that you care enough to go back to it, and this time accept to continue to be in their world.
Also, the first line "you" say when Hydreigon explains they felt your presence is "What?", because, as the player, you are surprised Hydreigon was able to break the fourth wall.
Similarly, when you start the game, you are shown a generic silhouette describes as yours, but then it shifts to becme one of the pokémon you choose, because you are the one in front of the screen casting the shadow.
And one of GtI's gimmick was the possibility to generate a magnagate dungeons with the camera of your 3Ds, the music that plays when you pick the game mode is "Welcome to the world of Pokémon", the same that plays when you first dives into the game. After that you search a round object and it creates a dungeon, at this moment, you become a totally different pokémon with a different partner, because you entered the world again, but differently, with the magnagate option. The magnagate becomes its own link between human and pokémon world when you use the camera.
The last important instance is Hydreigon's appearance in Super. You can run into them in Serene Village and they will say that they recognize you. Referencing the fact that this is a follow-up and you are the same player, the same human, that continues to watch the story unfold through another game this time. However, the player does not remember them, because the player does not necessarly have the knowledge of the past game.
Some smaller consequences much less certain that I wanna bring up. So what is Hydreigon? An representation of the author? Is that why they are from the moral side of the player? Honestly, most likely nothing important, I mean, we can create a portal ourselves with anything that is round... And so, there was other humans brought in this world, but who got back to their world because of Kyurem and Munna's gang, what do they mean? I dunno, maybe they represent other players who gave up, but maybe nothing?
Some people might say this is weird and too out of touch with the rest of the series, but I find it pretty compelling and a good commentary on games and players wanting to engage with them, especially one with an history of controversy and people being unhappy about it such as GtI.
