I have a confession: I am addicted to internet drama. Not the celebrity kind, but the deeply nerdy kind where people zoom into 3D models and argue about triangles. If you were online in early 2024, you remember the Palworld versus Pokemon plagiarism debate. It was everywhere. It was exhausting. It was also weirdly educational. Now, in 2026, I look back at that saga like an old war veteran. Did Pocketpair steal Pokemon models? Did they use AI? Was the whole thing a misunderstanding? Grab a coffee, because I am about to relitigate the great Palworld model debate with the smugness of someone who has watched too many YouTube explainers.

The Comparison That Launched a Thousand Tweets

The core of the accusation was simple. A user on Twitter took in-game models of Palworld creatures and Pokemon creatures, put them side by side, and showed that they looked extremely similar. Fans of Pokemon nodded sagely. Case closed, right? Pocketpair definitely copied. But wait. The internet has a funny habit of correcting itself, usually with maximum drama. Earlier that day, the person who made the model comparisons got accused of fabricating the entire situation. They admitted they had scaled down the models to fit better. Oops. Then another user, MajoraZ, noticed something crucial: the topology of the triangles in the Palworld models was very different from the Pokemon models.

Now, if you are not a 3D developer, that sentence sounds like alien gibberish. I get it. I once thought topology was a board game. But here is the deal: 3D models are made of two layers of polygons, one inside and one outside. The topology is the inner layer. Two models can look almost identical on the outside, but have completely different inner structures. It is like two cakes that look the same on the outside but one is made of sponge and the other is made of concrete. Delicious, confusing concrete.

A Quick and Dirty 3D Model Primer

Let me break it down for my fellow non-developers. I am basically a golden retriever with a keyboard, but I can read a thread. Here is what I learned:

Thing	What it means	Why it matters
Polygons	Tiny shapes that build a 3D model	More polygons equals more detail
Outer layer	What you see	Can look identical between models
Inner layer / topology	How the polygons are arranged inside	Hard to fake, easy to detect
Scaling	Resizing a model	Can make things look more similar than they are

So, can two models look the same but have different topology? Absolutely. Can someone steal a model and change its topology? Theoretically, yes. But MajoraZ explained that doing so would be 'more work than changing the overall look of the model.' In other words, if you are going to steal a Pokemon model, why would you spend hours rewiring its innards just to make it look like a different creature? That is like stealing a car, then rebuilding the engine from scratch, then painting it a different color. At that point, just build your own car.

So, Did Pocketpair Steal? The Plot Thickens

Here is where I have to be fair. MajoraZ did not completely exonerate Pocketpair. They said it is still possible that the developer took Pokemon models and edited them while changing the topology. But it is unlikely. And that 'unlikely' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The new discovery more than likely clears Pocketpair of the stealing accusations, as well as the accusations that Pals are AI-generated. There appears to be too much work put into the models for them to be outright stolen, even if they are very heavily inspired by existing Pokemon designs.

But hold on. Let us not pretend this is a complete vindication. Certain pals clearly have features ripped straight off certain Pokemon. You know the ones. The fire fox. The electric mouse. The grass dinosaur. I am not naming names, but if the shoe fits, wear it. The plagiarism accusations are still in full force for design copying. The difference is between 'stolen 3D assets' and 'heavily inspired by.' One is a legal issue. The other is an ethical and creative issue. And in 2026, we still do not have a clear answer.

The Verdict From My Couch

If you ask me, and you did not, the whole debate was a mess. Fans on both sides were frothing at the mouth. Pokemon fans gathered new evidence almost every day. Palworld fans countered with memes and sales numbers. Meanwhile, Pocketpair just kept updating the game. In 2026, Palworld is still a thing. Pokemon is still a thing. The sun still rises. And the discourse? It never truly dies. It just waits for a slow news week.

Did Pocketpair plagiarize? I think they were inspired. Heavily. Maybe too heavily. But did they rip models? Probably not. The topology evidence is too strong. Did they use AI? Probably not. The models have too much human-like work. Is that a satisfying conclusion? Not really. But it is a nice conclusion to the debate, though I am sure some new revelation will rear its head in the coming days to keep us all firmly rooted in the discourse.

So here I am, in 2026, still thinking about triangles. If that is not a sign that I need a hobby, I do not know what is. But hey, at least I learned what topology means. And is that not the real treasure? No. The real treasure is the drama we made along the way. 🎉