After years of speculation regarding her potential existence, a recent Gamefreak data breach has confirmed that the series developer fully intended to give Jynx a Mega evolution in Pokémon X/Y, but ultimately chose not to out of concern for the “negative reactions” her design would evoke in “foreign countries”.
Introduced in the 2013 pair of mainline franchise entries and accessible only during battle, the ‘Mega Evolution’ mechanic allows for a handful of Pokémon, at their trainers’ command, to temporarily take-on a new, combat-specific form, in doing so gaining access to an expanded library of abilities, upgraded stats, and of course, a new visual design.
When the game launched, the Pokémon who were given access to this new ability ranged from the extremely popular, such as Charizard, Mewtwo, and Lucario to more ‘out-of-left-field’ picks like Beedrill, Heracross, and Lopunny.
But upon the game’s release, fans were quick to notice that X/Y’s final roster of Mega Evolutions as missing one notable entrant in Jynx, who had previously appeared on a 2012 ‘Mega form’ trademark filing but ultimately entered the 3DS-era battlefield as the only Pokémon listed in said filing to not receive such an upgrade.
For the next eight years, the mystery of Mega Jynx would continue to be the subject of fierce debate among fans, with the main point of contention being whether the Ice-Psychic Pokémon was ever meant to actually receive a Mega Evolution or if her inclusion on the aforementioned trademark filing was the result of an early concept that Gamefreak never ultimately moved on.
However, this question would finally be answered in 2020 with the release of the franchise’s Pokémon HOME.
Upon its release, a dataminer known by his online Twitter handle of @mattyyoukhana uncovered an audio file deep within the transfer application’s code for “a cry similar to Jynx’s” but given “the same reverb” effect as those bellowed by the other Mega evolutions, its existence all but confirming that Mega Jynx was more than just an idle idea thrown about by Gamefreak staff.
Let's start out with some of my findings with Pokémon HOME.
— Matt (@mattyoukhana_) February 19, 2020
Mysteriously within the app's sound directory, data exists for a Cry similar to Jynx's. In the video, the first Cry played is Jynx's, and the second is unknown.
Sounds like it's the same reverb a Mega Evolution would. pic.twitter.com/0rYZFK6vVR
Unfortunately for fams, rather than definitively putting the entire topic to rest, the solving of the ‘Missing Mega Jynx’ mystery only spawned another one as the question shifted from ‘Was she ever real?’ to ‘Why was she cut from the game?’
And perhaps the most commonly speculated reason for her lack of a Mega form is, unsurprisingly, her appearance.
A subject of controversy ever since she made her debut in Red/Green/Blue (and Yellow if one wants to get exceptionally technical), Jynx’s design has regularly come under fire from oversea critics, particularly Americans, who believe her black skin and exaggerated features were intended as a racist caricature of a black woman.
As a result, Gamefreak would change Jynx’s skin color from black to purple for the international release of Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal, afterwards making it her standard appearance, and pulled any and all anime episodes featuring her from Western circulation.
And in light of new information, it turns out fans were absolutely correct when they speculated that Jynx’s skin color was the reason behind the cutting of her Mega form.
On October 15th, after digging into the files leaked as part of the recent Gamefreak data breach, users on 4chan discovered unused X/Y code relating to Mega Jynx’s stats and abilities.
A week later, a user on the leak-dedicated GameFreakOut Discord server uncovered actual concept art for the Pokémon’s unrealized form, which as seen below would have given Jynx fluffy, floor-length blond hair, transformed her red dress into a blue floor-length gown adorned in ice crystals and featuring snow white trim and sleeves.
The transformation would have also taken her normally ‘bulging’ eyes and given them a look akin to sunglasses.
Further, a quality check form found in the leak also confirmed that it was overseas fans’ ‘racist’ perception of Jynx that served as the primary reason behind Gamefreak’s decision to scrap her Mega form, with an unidentified employee noting, as machine translated by DeepL, that “Due to concerns about the recurrence of negative reactions to Jynx in foreign countries (evoking certain racial groups), we decided to delete Mega Jynx from the game.”
