I wonder if Diantha and Lance were supposed to be at the Battle

They were simply references. Don't read too much into it.

>>32745950
Kek

There are 6 dummied out trainers in the data who were grouped in with the battle tree bosses. I'd be amazed if Lance wasn't one.

>>32745975
Source?

>>32745975
I guess this could be Diantha, Lance and 4 other people.

>>32746184
My guess for the 4 others: Steven, Wallace, Iris and Alder

They really should expand on battle tree: just copying and pasting the battle tree in sun and moon with 3-4 nostalgia characters ain't enough

>>32745950
A character expecting us to battle a certain trainer when that trainer isnt around is hardly a reference

>>32745934
DUDE GEN 1 LMAO, that's why. Everyone from other generations were there because they were in the story for barely any time at some point or another, except for Wally and Cynthia. I'm assuming Wally is there because ORAS were the most recently released main Pokemon games and Cynthia was supposed to be foreshadowing for the DP remakes, but nope. Alola 2.0 is what we're getting.

TL;DR: Fuck variety.

>>32746153
https://projectpokemon.org/research/sunmoon/gametext.txt
File 58, between Red/Blue and Sina/Dexio. Note that Looker is also in this group, despite not being in the tree.

>>32745934
I'd actually expect your player character, not Diantha.
Which reminds me of how much they could have taken advantage of PGL by using the data stored there to create special customized trainers for future games. But no, of course they cannot and instead everything everything is deleted when moving up a generation.

>>32746427
>I'd actually expect your player character, not Diantha.

That wont ever happen because they wouldnt bring back any old protagonists, specially since there''s two of them. The only exception is Red and only because GS was a continuation of RGBY. After Red no other protagonist returned

>>32746381
Take your retarded Gen 1 victim complex elsewhere.

>>32746455
knowing gf theyd just make it one protag depending on your current game gender

>>32745950
Was that a Johto reference?

>>32746465
Except it's a fact, not a victim complex. It's in the dialogue with all its references to Kanto, the Alolan forms are all Gen 1 Pokemon, Red/Blue being the Battle Tree leaders, the list goes on. Feel free to think whatever you want, but you can still go fuck yourself.

>>32746455
That's why I mentioned PGL. Bringing YOUR old character and otherwise pseudo-randomizing it (or outright removing it if it's something as unimportant as a Battle Tree match). Going up the battle tree and suddenly finding my customized Y character with a similar team to the one I used on my last visit to the Hall of Fame? That would have been awesome.
The battle against Red in GSC was cool but they still don't seem to realize why it was.
>and only because GS was a continuation of RGBY
I'm still salty this didn't happen in BW2, specially after it allowed you to carry over data from BW, including your character's name. They could have done a lot with this but instead did nothing.

>>32746519
>They could have done a lot with this but instead did nothing
False. They talked you about them. They told you how similar you two are (sometimes in a kinda creepy way). They built an air of mystery around the character. You reach their home at the very end of the game, an encounter with this legendary character seems likely anytime soon...
... and nothing happens. Ever. The ultimate blue balling.

I think they might just go full PWT,
Mostly so they can future proof the models like they did for the Pokemon themselves

The 6 characters that were meant to fit in that gap were probably Lance, Steven, Wallace, Alder, Iris and Diantha

Aside from Red and Blue, I dont see them bringing any other player characters to prevent Canon teams/Genders but I think they could bring in Leaf and give her Blue's team from Yellow,

They could put in Cheren and Bianca using their own PWT teams

>>32746746
>gamefreak
>doing anything resembling effort
If gamefreak were going full PWT for future-proofing, they would've done so with SM, don't you think?

>>32746799
I'm pretty sure that's what they were doing, they just ran out of time and cut all the nonessentials plus a few cameos, and saved everything for Ultra as a selling point

>>32746799
>doing anything resembling effort
Back in XY they made 3D models higher poly than what 3DS can handles and in SM they created walking and running animations for all pokémon, not just the pokéfinder ones.

>>32746853
Thing about trainer models is, would they really use them for anything BUT something like PWT?
When it comes to remakes, they love tweaking every single design, so that's kind of wasted effort if that's the objective behind future-proofing trainers.

>>32746519
The BW protagonists are in the BW2 PWT data. They even have pre and post battle lines. They're unused, but were planned at some point.

>>32747219
Godfuckdamnit.
Although an overworld encounter, something more personal, would be better.

>>32746952
>When it comes to remakes, they love tweaking every single design, so that's kind of wasted effort if that's the objective behind future-proofing trainers.

that and the fact that the style of human character models can fluctuate more often than pokemon.