Rockruff's connection with the Alolan Starters - Dual Evolutions!?

Hey guys, [member='Aura'] here with another Sun and Moon discussion article!

So, as you may or may not remember, back when Rockruff was revealed to the world was "Iwanko" in a Corocoro leak, there was an interesting titbit that mentioned that "the Alolan Starters and Rockruff all share a secret", but nobody had any idea what that secret would be.

After the reveal of Z-Moves, some people started theorising that these four Pokémon would receive their own exclusive Z-Moves in their final evolved states, and although that could still happen it won't be something special to just those four Pokémon, since we've had confirmation of exclusive Z-Moves for Alolan Raichu and Snorlax already. However, with the new "Rugarugan" revealed earlier this week and how it takes a different form depending on what version of the game you get, this got me thinking; is this the secret that Rockruff shares with the starters?

If the starters received split evolutions, that would be revolutionary, and a first for the Pokémon series! Just like "Rugarugan", the evolution would be the same Pokémon, but you'd get a different for of it depending on whether you were playing Sun or Moon, with the Sun forms being more attributed to light while the Moon forms had more of a dark aura, just like "Rugarugan".

However, if this turns out to be true, then this would clash with another leak that has become very reputable since the unveiling of the Trail Captains, and that's this leak of the final form of the Alolan Starter Pokemon. In it, we can see what are supposed to be the final forms for Rowlet, Litten and Popplio, but we can also see, if you zoom in to the bottom-centre of Litten's final evolution, a small doodle of what appears to be Ash and Pikachu, along with Rowlet, Popplio and the Grass Trail Captain Mallow, boiling a kettle on this new Pokémon's stomach. Now, the only reason this leak became so reputable is because this image surfaced before we even knew Mallow existed, and it can't just be a coincidence that these two characters look exactly the same.

So, in summary, if the leak above proves to be true, does that mean that there is yet another secret that Rockruff holds? Or were these evolutions leaked on purpose to throw us off, only to have 2 sets of final stage starters revealed? Either way, discuss your thoughts below!

That's it from me for now! This is [member='Aura'], signing out until next time!

 

It was confirmed in the Corocoro leaks that the evolutions are, in-fact, version exclusive. However, these leaks didn't come out until the day after the original leaks.

Hope this clears up any confusion