Pokémon Black and White 2

Hello all
As many of you are no doubt aware, the next main series Pokémon games - Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 - were announced a few weeks ago, due for release in Japan this summer and the West this autumn. Sadly, information is still thin on the ground at this point, so all we can do is make guesses about what's in store for these games
Firstly, the things we do know - the games are not going to be a mere third version (à la Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum), so they will contain an original storyline. Personally, I'm pretty happy about this; as much as I love Pokémon, I love original storylines more than the rehash of old ones we see in third versions (remakes are a different story - enough time has passed to enjoy the same stories anew, in my opinion). The mascot of these games is going to be the third of the Tao Trio - Kyurem, the Boundary Pokémon. As you can see from the picture below, Black Kyurem (on the left) is the mascot of Black 2, and appears to be a Kyurem/Zekrom hybrid. White Kyurem (on the right) is the mascot of White 2, and appears to be a Kyurem/Reshiram hybrid:


The first thing you'll notice is that, unlike Black and White, the version mascots' colours match the title - Black Kyurem for Black 2 and White Kyurem for White 2. I have a theory about that, but I'll save that for a little later.
Sadly, that's about all that's known at this point. The only other snippets are that Black and White 2 will be connected to the Global Link, and that the soon-to-be-released event Keldeo will have some functionality in the game too. Therefore, I'll move on to a few theories.

Just as a warning, there will be ***SPOILERS*** from this point onwards

First off, as I mentioned before, is the reversal of the colours of the version mascots. At the end of Black Version, N rides off on his newly-captured Zekrom for 'a distant land', and in White Version, he rides off on Reshiram. The Tao Trio are so-named in the fandom because they represent the Tao concepts of yin (Zekrom), yang (Reshiram) and wuji - the absence of yin and yang (Kyurem). Now, if one of these Dragons left the region, perhaps Kyurem mutated to fill that void and maintain the dichotomy? Also, we can look at Kyurem's origin stories - the official line is that it fell to Earth on an icy meteor, the one that created the Giant Chasm. However, the fan theory is that it is the skeletal remains of the original Dragon Pokémon which split into Reshiram and Zekrom when the two princes of Unova were fighting. Suppose that a space virus, not dissimilar to Deoxys, took over the skeleton of the Dragon Pokémon and animated it? Viruses are known to mutate, and Kyurem may indeed have changed into the other two Dragons once before...
Secondly, a theory from a Facebook group I'm a member of, originally devoted to 'Pokémon Grey'. Take a look at the official box art for the games:


See the part behind the number 2 on both boxes? Is that a shiny patch of blue and red, or is it... a Ruby and a Sapphire? I admit this is a slightly far-fetched theory, but it's not an impossible one - what if the new games are set in Hoenn? If N has indeed gone to a distant land, then Hoenn (and all other regions, admittedly) fit that bill, as Unova can't be reached easily from the previously-known Pokémon regions. Plus, most of the fandom's expecting Ruby and Sapphire remakes in a year or two anyway, following the trend set by FireRed/LeafGreen and HeartGold/SoulSilver - it would explain there being two 'third versions', in any case, if they're putting their resources into two games at this point instead of one. I would like to see the so-called MagmaRuby and AquaSapphire, I'll admit, but I'd also love to see Hoenn a few years down the line with a different storyline. Although, I've just realised that it would make it rather hard to implement the inclusion of the Unova Dex Pokémon, unless they revert to the Hoenn Dex with the addition of the new Kyurem Formes... In any case, a 3D Hoenn would be a welcome sight, in these games or the next ones.
Also, as a footnote to the speculation, I think we can be pretty certain that the moves Freeze Shock and Ice Burn, introduced in Generation V but not yet seen in Black and White, will be the signature moves of Black Kyurem and White Kyurem, respectively.

Well, those are my thoughts thus far on the next Pokémon games. Doubtless I'll blog on them again once more is known, but for now, sayonara!

(All the pictures I've used in this blog are, of course, the property of Nintendo)