Finally, Ruin Pokémon 

Chi-Yu being behind a lot of water makes sense. Where else to seal off a fire type that you never want to get out.

These four are like the Anti-Tapus: -A group of 4 Destroy humans instead of protecting them - share the dark type - signature move cuts hp in half

I love the follow up to catching these guys where Raifort is just adamant about wanting them for herself and stops short of just flat out asking you to turn them over to her. Definitely a socially acceptable lawful evil character here.

Being a Chinese speaker, I have some hypotheses as to how their named. Basically, they all seem to be puns that have a non-zero chance of being intentional, but the frustrating thing is that these are not referenced in the official Chinese translations (which are in the whole very literal) - they all follow the formulaic names of "ancient" + sword/beads/cauldron/tablets + leopard/fish/deer/snail - so they can't be relied upon. Wo-Chien: literally "snail" 蝸 + "bamboo tablet" 簡, but interestingly the word for "snail" 蝸 /wō/ is very close to the word for "ruin, trouble, disaster" 禍 /huò/, even sharing the same phonetic radical. (The closeness is even more pronounced in Cantonese, where they are both /wo/ but differ in tone). So "snail tablets" could also be interpreted as "ruinous tablets" or the "tablets recording ruins/troubles". The latter interpretation would fit with the Dex entry about the history of the Pokemon. (Note that this does not work in Japanese, which replaces the word for "snail" with the word for "bug" 蟲 /chóng/, so "bug tablets"). Chi-Yu: literally "crucian carp" 鯽魚 /jìyú/ + "jade" 玉 /yù/. The pun is a bit more obvious here, because "fish" 魚 /yú/ and "jade" /yù/ sound similar, differing only in tone. I would also go so far to say that the "chi" element is a pun on the word for "envy, taboo" 忌 /jì/, so Chi-Yu could also be interpreted as "fish of envy" or "jade of envy", or "forbidden fish/jade". Again, this fits in well with its dex entry. Chien-Pao: literally "sword" 劍 /jiàn/ and "leopard, panther" 豹 /bào/. The latter could also be interpreted as "treasure" 寶 /bǎo/, and indeed 寶劍 /bǎojiàn/ is a word meaning "treasured sword" (and that is how its name is rendered in Japanese). Not willing to let that be, I would suggest that "chien" could also refer to 姦/奸 /jiān/, which means "wicked, evil, criminal" (note that the first character also has a modern sense of sexual wickedness or violence). So Chien-Pao could have the double meaning of "sword panther" or "wicked panther". I couldn't find anything related to any Chinese words for hatred, so that's out. However, as a side note, Chinese bulbapedia theorises that the sword in question refers to the "victor over evil" blade 勝邪 /shèngxié/, the craftsman of which, Ōu Yězǐ, was said to have noted "With every sword I forge, a new evil is forged, hence this sword shall be named Victor Over Evil." Ting-Lu: literally "three-footed bronze cauldron" 鼎 /dǐng/ and "deer" 鹿 /lù/, so "cauldron deer" (the game chooses to use the more neutral term "vessel", which is probably better). The word for "deer" 鹿 /lù/ is an exact homophone of 陸 /lù/ "land, continent", which would match its Ground-typing but the rendering "cauldron land" doesn't really make sense to me. More curiously, the combination of deer and cauldron is reminiscent of the metaphorical terms 問鼎 /wèn'dǐng/ and 逐鹿 /zhúlù/ - "inquiring the cauldrons" and "pursuing the deer", which both mean something like "vying for supreme authority" in the context of war and conquest. They are both also referenced in the title of the modern comic Hong Kong novel "The Deer and the Cauldron" (鹿鼎記 /luk6 ding2 gei3). Basically Ting-Lu combines two symbolic objects of authoritarian power, somewhat comparable to the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.

One thing to note for these - I'm pretty sure Raifort will be evil in the DLC. If you talk to her after catching all four Treasures of Ruin, she will tell you that you can keep them "for now" and gives you a TM for Nasty Plot - that's not suspicious at all...

In feng shui, the term for bad energy is sha chi. It creates disharmony when the 5 elements are not in balance. In this case, the elements are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. In this "theory", I believe Ting-Lu is earth, Wo-Chien is wood, Chi-Yu is fire, and Chien-Pao is water. I also believe Gimmighoul is related to this story, and is the metal element. It's scarlet dex reads "This Pokémon was born inside a treasure chest about 1,500 years ago." I think that treasure belonged to the merchant.

I feel like nobody talks about how these guys are literally "object" pokemon. I hope this was on purpose with how much people complain object inspired designs. I love how the object they come from are the focus point of the design its really cool

I adore Wo-Chien so much He is grudge and is constantly side-eyeing everyone Of course they are all great, but I love Wo-Chien just a tad more.

These guys look like they are based on the Chinese myth of "the 4 perils", which would actually make them the lore counterparts to the forces nature quartet. The 4 perils are also known as the 4 evil animals, or the 4 criminals (just like how the pokemon are sealed as prisoners). The 4 perils have physical descriptions, but the pokemon dont really seem to be based on what the perils supposedly looked like, instead being designed around what the perils represent. Each peril represented chaos, greed, ignorance, and war. I think chien pao is easiest to identify as war, being a sword. Greed is chi yu for being the most valuable of the treasures. I think wo chien is supposed to be ignorance, as his tablets contained stories of evil acts, but can no longer be read. That leaves ting liu as chaos. His bowl is designed to look like a type of shrine, and its torn in half, like a shrine ripped appart by an earthquake (pretty chaotic). I really love these guys design a lot In the myth, the perils fight with "the 4 benevolent animals". These are the the azure dragon (thundurus therian), the vermillion bird (tornadus therian), the white tiger (landorus therian), and the black tortoise (enamorus therian)

The first of these "ominous black stakes" I encountered was the one behind Kofu's gym. Was indeed worried about what would happen if I removed it (the game even gives you a foreboding prompt), so I saved before plucking it out. After doing so, nothing happened, which simply added to the mystery...

It's commonly theorized that the glassy obsidian tops of the mountains near Chi-Yu were caused by its immense heat in the past before being captured

I think these pokemon will stick in my mind due to the fact that since Miraidon and Koraidon are actually Paradox mons, it makes it so that this region has no legendaries actually tied to its story and as far as I know it also makes this region the only one with no benevolent deities. (Not counting man made or mythical or those that are technically normal mons) Gen 1 had the birds. Gen 2 had the beasts and Ho-oh and Lugia. Gen 3 had the weather trio and Latios and Latias. Gen 4 had the creation trio and others. Gen 5....way too many to list but mostly good god-like mons. Gen 6 had gods of life, death and balance. Gen 7 had the tapus (box arts are also technically not true legends and are instead normal mon in a another context). Gen 8 had ancient Heros. Gen 9....because of the techincality the box arts are just normal mon. Leaving the actual legends to only be evil (thus all being dark type) This is the only gen like this! (until DLC maybe)

I feel like the Legendary Quartet is hinting at a future region.

I actually got all of the ruin pokemon before taking the history classes It took me over an hour to find the yellow shrine myself, but I found the blue shrine almost immediately because an npc at the base of fury falls wondered about its name prompting me to explore it I love how these legendaries truly take advantage of being an open world game... you really have to explore every nook and cranny of paldea to find all of them Chi-yu was is my favorite because it was the first one I encountered Which was hilarious to me because it was just a little goldfish sealed behind several feet of granite

I just want to point out: these four are probably the legendaries with the most potential for regional variants. The Pokemon themselves are the objects, so if they simply use a different material to form their bodies, such as maybe Chien-Pao using rocks instead of snow or Chi-Yu using gas instead of fire, that’d make for easy regional variants for future regions. Of course, that requires there to be additional sets of treasures, but considering how many versions of some legendaries exist (like how there’s a Regi trio sealed in Hoenn and a seperate trio in Galar), that’s not too far-fetched

I think it’s an especially nice detail that the Scarlet Pokédex entries focus on their past history while the Violet entries focus on the future harm that they can bring once released

Chien-Pao is actually very similiar to how I originally envisioned Sprigatito's final evolution. Maybe that's why it's my favourite.

One of the things I noticed is that the color of each respective seal represents a color of a typing that is strong against each of the four Pokemon. . . . . . Wo-Chien - Purple - Poison Chien-Pao - Orange - Fighting Ting-Lu - Green - Grass Chi-Yu - Blue - Water

I like to think that when the trainer passes away, if the pokeballs weren't passed down to a new trainer, the Ruinous Pokemon will get bored, and break out. Meaning the moment you catch these pokemon, your lifespan is now a countdown to the world's ruin.

Lol I thought it was just my game that had Raifort's hair glitch. I can't stop looking away, it's weirdly hypnotising :'D Anyway I agree, the ruin quartet is great, I love them!

The most out of place legendaries in a region. They are so cool from their designs and origins. Chi-Yu is easily my favorite and it has the best shiny of the four. It took me awhile to catch these Pokémon’s cause the color coordination person that I am wanted to catch these in balls that matched their colors. A nest ball for Wo chien, a dive ball for chien pao, a luxury ball for ting lu, and a repeat ball for Chi Yu.

I quite like Wo-Chien's design a lot. The use of the tablets to depict a shell is quite unique and visually interesting. The motif integrated into the design better than the other Ruin Beasts, not that they're poorly designed. Wo-Chien just uses the tablet visual better than the very cumbersome bowl. Another thing to consider is how these somewhat play as a counter part to the Weather Quartet, so would the Ruin Beasts get an alternate form down the line? Maybe opposite how the Quartet is normally humanoid with an alternate creature form these instead are beasts that have an alternate humanoid form?

Chinese audience here. If it wasn't obvious enough they are Chinese Pokemon, like they didn't even bother to translate their Chinese names. Their Chinese names actually directly tells you what they are, because that's how Chinese Pokemon names work. Chi-Yu is the Jade Fish, which has those Jade beads around its eyes Ting-Lu is the Cauldron Deer (Ting is a kind of ancient Chinese Cauldron often used in religious practice, and Lu means Deer in Chinese) Chien-Pao is the Sword Leopard (Chien means Sword and Pao means Leopard) which we can see its saber tooth is a broken sword And Wo-Chien is the Bamboo slip snail (Wo means Snail, and Chien here specifically means the Bamboo slips that were used as writing materials before paper was a thing) Personally, I don't believe they are really inspired by Chinese mythology. The scale of destruction and years don't really match. Though there's a common theory that they are based on the 4 perils, it really doesn't fit them one-to-one. As the History class mentioned, they were treasures brought to the West from China. This actually matches the real-world history of the Silk Road Which is a real road that links China and Spain for merchants to use, I believe that was a thing around the 5th~13th Centuries (and this matches the in-game time) After European people knew how to sail this road wasn't used that often anymore. According to what we know, the Pokemon's real body is actually the treasure object, not the animal. A lot of ancient Chinese antiques embed animal designs on them, so it's likely this is where the inspiration came from Each of them represents a Chinese idiom that actually has a historical story, which I believe it's not easy for Western people to understand this part. I'm not including the stories here because it will make the comment too long. Just to note they have real Chinese historical inspiration backgrounds

I caught all mine in luxury balls. What better ball to store an ancient treasure in than one of luxury? ironically, the ball that most fits the aesthetic that caused these pok'e mon to manifest in the first place, is also the ball that will make them friendly towards humans since luxury balls make the friendship stat increase faster.

It's really fascinating to me that Raifort - absolutely everything about her dialogue - screams villain. She's got all the signs of the villains of Pokemon games gone by, often even more blatant than the "surprise" villains we've had before. She even has a line where she spitballs the idea of screwing with the timestream, out loud, and you say, "That seems like it'd cause a lot of problems" and she's like, "Oh, sure, right. Right. Guess it's better this way." And yet, she never does anything actually bad. You get the impression that if she had the means she WOULD, but when push comes to shove she recognizes her own limits and doesn't try to trick you into giving her the Ruin Pokemon, or releasing them on the world, or using their power for some nefarious purpose. Behind the scenes I wonder whether they wanted her to be the villain but they couldn't make it work writing-wise or maybe didn't want to have one of your teachers turn out to be evil for public image reasons. In-universe I like the idea that as a history nerd fascinated with the lore behind them, she really does just want to see them and learn about the past events. So when you catch them and show them to her she's content. It's such a weird mix of you subduing her motive (by helping satisfy her curiosity) and her never quite having the means to make trouble on her own. But one can easily envision a different Pokemon game where Raifort is the final boss.

Speaking of these cursed treasures…. Did you notice that the unknown hexagonal disc legendary Pokémon in the Violet/Scarlet book is depicted wearing a crown? Is it a paradox Pokémon created by the King’s corruption infused into the crown? Perhaps, somehow this corrupt crown Pokémon has the power to make events repeat itself or even manipulate them for personal gain? Maybe that is why Heath became possessed and wrote that weird page, and the professor eventually became obsessed in the way they did? Perhaps this Pokémon has an ulterior motive. That would be so cool.

"I wanna play with the fishy" 🤣🤣🤣

my favorite is definitely chien-pao. adorable sabertooth stoat who plays in avalanches, i love it so much

We caught Eternatus (space demon), Giratina (Pokémon Satan), Darkrai (nightmare fuel), and let's not forget Zygard (Captain Planet on steroids). I think catching the Four Horsemen Pokémon is no different.

that little bit of hair on the side of raiforts head that always twitches drives me fucking insane, and thats why i havent finished her class lmao

My favourite has to be Chien-Pao. It’s cute and cool at the same time. Here’s hoping gen 10 will be set in China🙏🏻🙏🏻

Chi-Yu is my new fav legendary mon, fire goldfish, masterpiece

Chi-Yu is an adorable fishy that was hard to find and even harder to catch. They're my favorite of the Ruinous Treasures that Scarlet and Violet unleashed onto the land.

When you learn the story of the ruination quartet, they make a little more sense since they kind of reference the various treasures and artifacts from different lands that Spain collected during their expeditions

Do like the lore of these Pokemon, along with how these are very devious Pokemon. Like the details that the Pokemon are actually those items, and the animal bodies are just like an avatar made up of the elements. I like how they are actively beings of destruction and disasters. Bringing in earthquakes or avalanches. And their possible relations to a king and how Pokemon masters had to fight them back and seal them. Certainly would like to see what would happen next after they are caught and made docile.

I wonder if these pokemon are foreshadowing the region of the next main line entry. I think Pokemon entered the Chinese market and it would make sense to choose China as the next region to further expand in that region.

I like when legendary pokemon actually are incorporated into the setting and have some sort of puzzle or quest involved with acquiring them. This was a pleasant surprise compared to what has become kinda normalized where you just *get* a legendary pokemon for free with little build up beforehand, often just being handed to you via an event.

Chi-Yu really takes "burning envy" to a whole new level!

i caught all of the ruinous pokemon within dusk balls.

chi-yu has to be my favorite little fire fish swimming through lava not giving a care in the world, aside from the blistering heat i aspire to be like it

Poor any local Absols probably foreseeing all kinds of horrible futures with the binds being broken.

No one mentioning that Ting Lu roars “POOOR!” When it comes out 😂

I love Chien-Pao's design. Dude's a LITERAL snow leopard, that's just brilliant.

I really liked how the game doesn't tell you outright how to open the shrines and makes you find the stakes themselves. While not as cryptic as the Regis, it was pretty refreshing to see. There's also an air of mystery to these Pokemon, even with the teacher explaining them. They also feel so out of place, like they are some sort of invasive monsters.

god i love these guys, absolutely wonderful designs and just as good lore (bunch of tablets turns into a snail, commits war crimes) chi-yu's gotta be my favorite just because it's just a silly little goldfish, but ting-lu is a close second

When Raifort said that she would "allow" us to keep the pokemon for now, I was just speechless. The audacity of that woman

I accidentally wandered upon Ting-Lu,'s shrine while wandering around, so I took it upon myself to pick up most of the stakes while searching up the location.

Live Wo Chien reaction 🐌

These legends are lovely and I love the little lore behind them and what they embody as said in the dex Wo-Chein embodies a Grudge Chein-Pao embodies Hatred Ting-Lu embodies Fear Chi-Yu embodies Envy And looking at their designs I can see exactly that in each of them

Who a good little calamity? "Splashy" You are. Yes you are. *Screams can be heard as a fire fills the night shy* Hehe fishy.

I love the begging it was accurate to how good the theme is

These four things are my personal highlight from this game, Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu are definitely in my top 5 paldea favorites.

something i noticed about each shrine i thought is cool is the color of each is the weakness of each pokemon inside; purple for poison, orange for fire or fighting (most likely fighting type), green for grass, and blue for water

That opening for the video is exactly how I felt about the battle music for those legendaries. Also, 🤣🤣🤣🤣

My favorite of the four is Wo-Chien, mostly because they remind me a lot of Leshy from Inscryption. They both initially appear to have floating, glowing eyes, their bodies are covered in greenery, and they’re both associated with writings on cards/tablets. All of the quartet’s IRL inspirations are also really cool. They’re all based off The Four Perils of Chinese mythos, four malevolent beings and the antagonistic counterparts of the Four Benevolent Animals, which is what the Forces of Nature are based on (Thundrus, Tornadus, Landorus, and the recently introduced Enamorus).

Not me staring at Raifort's hair on one side as it bounces like its a spring....

the designs of these pokemon are absolutely amazing, specially the fish. Like all of them feel so oldschool, like something to come out of gen 2

I also love “On the one hand, I may have put the world in danger again by releasing these Pokémon, but on the other hand, lava fishy”.

Wo-Chien was my easiest encounter. I used Yawn from one of my Eevee-lutions and then caught it a few moments later. Unfortunately, all the others were not so simple!

Happy New Year to absolutely everyone!

You did the four of them in the exact same order as me, and you also had the exact same issued with Wo-Chien that I did, I thought the other three were going to take forever based off that one alone 😂

The gold dish definitely caused those spikes of hardened Lava in the mountains near its shrine.

I am like, 90% sure that ghimigoul and goldengo is supposed to be the merchant that sold the treasures to the king, we know the merchant was showered in gold, but since the king wasn't the nicest person he probably executed him by putting melted gold on his insides since that's an irl way of execution used back then, that would explain why gholdengo is so happy and sociable, cause those are the traits of a merchant, that also would explain why ghimigoul only appears near the ruins of the paldean empire

I can’t wait to find the swords and catch them on my own. Very cool. They do remind me of the gen 3 puzzles I had to figure out with friends to unlock the Regis (while studying brail to figure it out.) very cool indeed

When I encountered these four, I caught the first in a lucky premiere ball. Then, I put a self-imposed rule to catch all the others in premiere balls to have them all match. Needless to say, it took a long time to catch them. Especially Wo-Chien, for the reason you stated in video. But I did it! Now I have all these ruinous disaster beasts in pretty matching pokeballs, haha. Chien-Pao is my favorite of the four, I love the blade teeth and the lanky ferret body!

1:48 Professor Laventon, a wooden pokeball, and a picture of the Hisui region are on Rafort's board behind her. Pretty neat. I didn't catch that when I was taking her classes in game.

20% sure Raifort planning something with the legendaries. She literally gives a TM Nasty Plot, uses Zoroark in the Ace Tournament, gives u instructions on how to find legendaries that are part Dark/Evil type, and literally proceeds to have a team of sneaky pokemon. But it could just possibly be a coincidence

Something cool about the treasures animals: They're all based on luck charm animals, goldfish are fairly obvious, but snails, deer and snow leopards are all luck granting sights in Chinese folklore, customs and mythology. So they are the devilish, dark and twisted reflection of these animals!

im surprised nobody made the connection yet, but this is in a sense the second time we get a mention of a pokemon from a Chinese region. the first one was Urshifu from Gen8's Isle of Armor, which also mentions he comes from another region.

I also found interesting that the color of each seals can match a pokemon type each of the ruin legendary have a weakness Ting-Lu: green -> grass type Chi-Yu: blue -> water type Chien-Pao: orange-yellow -> combat type Wo-Chien: purple -> poison type just a cool potential implication as to how the ancient managed to sealed those pokemons. (and probably how painful it could have been.)

I can't believe you found the legendary Houndour of the Lake.

Very epic seeing 4 Tahus in the beginning default dancing

i like the snail with the wooden tablets, but.... the curry bowl man

¨Why did you pause the video? There's nothing here¨ YOU LITTLE GENIUS

4:44 aw what a missed opportunity for "saber-toothed sable" lol

After catching them, i walked to the lab to ominously stand.

The “¿wut da dog doin?” Took me out 😂

I like how Raiforts hair makes this sudden movement as if its alive

7:49 Whaha, set the world on fire an play with the fishy...

So when u zoomed in on Raifort, I noticed the smart board in the background had a Pokéball from Hisui on it, but that is past Sinnoh, but then again, Paldea is the key piece of the map of all Pokémon

I ADORE Chien-Pao. The design of it looking like both a Smilodon (saber-toothed tiger) and a weasel may have been intentional, since the beast it's based on looks like a leopard in China and a weasel in Japan, while also bringing the elements of Kamaitachi to the table that were lost in translation with Sneasel and Weavile/Sneasler I also like Chi-Yu being the embodiment of greed and envy, while also being comprised of multiple symbols of affluence (namely, the specific kind of goldfish it is and the jade beads). I like to imagine its trainer feeding it koi pellets and spirit money on a silver spoon to keep it pacified.

I love that the battle theme for the Ruinous Beasts is basically a modified version of “Tanuk Tanuk”

my teachers and classmates will surely be impressed and definitely not run screaming in terror when I bust these bad boys out at the Academy Ace Tournament

I loved discovering about these pokemon, the lore with Raifort, and their designs. I gotta say though, I wish there was at least *some* hints as to the locations of the stakes for the shrines. At the time I was intentionally searching for them, I didn’t have much pokedex entries left to discover. I just don’t feel like Paldea is interesting enough to travel around aimlessly until you stumble upon them and I ended up using a location guide.

7:32 Good thing i never realised what i see there as a kid ...

This video is so well made!!! I love the way you paraphrase things but still leave the original text to follow.

I got these guys but I didn’t know Raifort could mark the shrines and allow you to fly to them

I love raiforts glitching hair strand

8:03 neat detail that idk if its a hint to new pokemon or not, each of the actual seals for each treasure of ruin shares the same color as a pokemon type that would be super effective against them. for instance the dark and grass type Wo-Chien is sealed behind a purple door, potentially representing poison. while Chien-Pao is behind a goldish yellow gate, potentially ground, fighting, or rock. Chi-Yu is behind a blue gate, which I will admit that the gate itself is more of a flying or ice type blue, where one could argue the stakes are more of a water type blue. and finally Ting-Lu is behind a grass type green door. I will admit Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu's gates are not as similar to types super effective against them, but I feel the argument can still be made... perhaps the door color represents the type of pokemon that these ancient pokemon user used to seal the treasures of ruin away... just a theory of mine that I cam up with after I got the full story (so far as we know) of these pokemon

I love these new guys so much. Their designs remind me so much of an incredibly fun game I played called, "Inscryption" so I just had to get them as soon and I found out what they look like.

good im not the only one that was grooving to their battle music.

I really want a loop of the bionicle treasure meme with the music

>Is snail >Is the slowest capture Makes sense alright

I hope the DLCs give these guys some more backstory, reallllly cool pokemon!

Love the mystery and history to these pokemon. But I think there's a potential writing mistake with Wu-chein. It seems to imply that the evil king of paldea both bought Wu-chein and help in it's creation by having a scribe sentenced to death. I think there may have be a change in direction with the story line at some point in development

I did not notice that pokeball seal design and was like “shut up” when you pointed it out

Anyone else reminded of the Alolan Guardians when they saw these 4 new legendaries?

I didn't know she marked your map. I just used the marking feature and went on an stake hunting binge in the post game.

Love the default dancing Tahus

I found Wo-Chien when I was at around lvl 30, because I noticed the purple stakes being exclusive to the southern area and wanted to investigate. When I noticed there being other colored stakes somewhere else too I thought it'd be lame and procrastinated my search until after the history lesson stuffs