SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

[hitoshura0]

Two words:

Underground Path.

A few more, to clarify:

There is a notice!

...Uncouth Trainers have been holding
battles in the Underground Path.

Because of rising complaints by local
residents, the Underground Path has
been sealed indefinitely.

Signed, the Celadon Police

It's for the Underground Path connecting routes 7 and 8 (better known as the tunnel between Celadon City and Lavender Town(ish)) in Kanto, from GSC. What the actual FRIG was the point of having this notice there? There's a level gap in GSC, the second strongest trainer in the game has his strongest Pokémon at lvl. 58, whereas Red has his weakest at 73. The games direly lack grind-able trainers to level your Pokémon up to the par of Red's. This secret location would be the perfect spot to have such battles, as per promised on the flyer, but no. The location wasn't even coded into the game.

Pattern Bush is another location I'd like to whack the designers over the heads with. "They say the patterns hide a secret". Nope, they don't. The patterns appear completely random, there's no code or secret to it at all, it just apparently looks like a circuit board. With the (un-alterable) Altering Cave at the end of the same route, you would think Pattern Bush's supposed secret and Altering Cave were connected somehow, but no.

Speaking of the Sevii Islands, they were full of those. The "door blocked by crates" house in Seven Island (and its counterpart in Mossdeep City) were intriguing, there had to be something going on behind that door. Oh, wait, it does - in Japan only.

Also in Mossdeep, we had the Space Centre and the White Rock. Neither served any purpose, which I found deeply disappointing back when I put hundreds of hours into Sapphire and Emerald.


Also, I guess the Ghost Girl in Lumiose counts a lot, but I expect her story to be told via the inevitable Hoopa event, or at least in "Z/X2Y2". Same would go for Couriway Rail Station (why?), the hidden message in Lumiose Rail Station (what?), the inacessible power plants (they even had doors, for frig's sake!) and the inexplicable mention of a Lava Dome Pokémon in Jaune Plaza. Loads of unanswered questions, but we're pretty much guaranteed to get another game to answer them.

Last, I expected Bulbapedia to figure out the exact number of residents in Lumiose City any day now. It took them embarrasingly long for being the definite Wiki for all things Pokémon, and long remained a mystery, but it seems the final number is 416.

Some of these we do have an answer for, though some are mundane and lame.

The Underground Pathway was never coded in because it just couldn't be. GSC is notorious for pushing the cartridge space, and thus a few spaces that were taken out in Kanto were just space saving measures that got some in-world explanation. Granted, maybe having it open up post Blue fight in HGSS would have been neat, but Red is surprisingly trivial if you know what you're doing, so maybe they thought it was unnecessary for the remakes?

Pattern Bush has been explained. It's the IC pattern for the GBA carts

Sometimes, those cryptic hints are just 4th wall breaks

The Couriway Rail station message seems to be a message from Past Sycamore to his future self, as he hints about your prize being hidden there when you beat him there. It's kinda sweet in a way.

But most of the not well explained mysteries in X and Y seem to tie to event mons/a next game. Also, I too hope we can do something with the White Rock in ORAS. Not the space center, so much. Because the logistics of that are almost unbelievable

 

[SnoopingGil]

Also, I too hope we can do something with the White Rock in ORAS. Not the space center, so much. Because the logistics of that are almost unbelievable

Given that kids in Pokemon have no problems entering and gambling in casinos, diving without scuba gear, acclimating to the geometry of alternate dimensions, standing next to active lava flows, breathing ash, or not being fried by a Fusion Flare/Fusion Bolt from point-blank range, I'd say space isn't too much of a stretch.

Another mystery from Unova: the Abyssal Ruins. What exactly creates the torrent of water that tosses you out, and why does it still work despite being ancient? How does using Flash move a stone? Strength moving stones makes sense, but Flash? And who is the "king" that is constantly mentioned in the wall writings? One theory is that he's N's ancestor or something, since the writings talk about how the king has a dream and how he defeated "***" and allied with "###", whose names are reversed depending on whether you're playing Black or White. But that just raises more questions: if N's not related to Ghetsis, how did Ghetsis know to look for N? Or was N being related to the king just a coincidence? Also, why does Ghetsis have papers that partially decode the wall writings?...

One more oddity: the Ruins are designed so that, no matter where you enter or what floor you're on, if you count the intersections you pass by and make turns at the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th intersections (the first 4 prime numbers), you will always end up near the center of the floor, which is where the entrance to the next floor is.

 

[stage7_4]

The Couriway Rail station message seems to be a message from Past Sycamore to his future self, as he hints about your prize being hidden there when you beat him there. It's kinda sweet in a way.

Okay, where exactly is this one? I still can't seem to find it.

Also, adding another mystery type to the first post, "dummied out" or elements that were beta, removed, lost in translation, etc.

Now for another mystery: The Manaphy Kid

In Lumiose City (which seems to be a magnet for these things), there's a male preschooler trainer with a blue jacket. He's on one of the canal streets, peering into the water (I believe near Juane plaza?). When talked to, he asks about places to play with pokemon or something to that nature.

What's the mystery? If you can angle the camera right (which is it's own mystery) you can see they kid has a small blue doll in the shape of a Manaphy on his backpack. Or at least, it could be. Normally, preschool trainers have some kind of doll (Charizard for boys, Buneary for girls) but this is usually only seen in the battle image. It's possible that they are present in the overworld model, but the top-down view obscures them. In that case, this could be just a recolored Charizard doll some lazy programmer threw in.

Or it could be a memento of an old friend, comforting a young boy as he stares into the water wondering if somewhere a Manaphy is staring back...

 

[hitoshura0]

The message is between the two benches on the platform in Couriway, if I remember correctly. If you mash A around the area, you'll find it and can read it.

 

[Lady Vader]

Another mystery, and this is one of the old ones:

What is up with the move "Tombstoner"/"Tombstony"? All we know about this mysterious move, titled "Die-Die Beam" in Japanese as far as I know, is that it is not TM28, neither in Generation I nor III. It is one of the few moves ever to change spelling. Will it ever see use in Pokémon canon, or will it remain an obscure joke from Blaine, the franchise's resident master of riddles?

I kinda want a move called "Tombstoner". Though we would all make jokes on the second half of its name.
But I digress.

One mystery is the Cinnabar Volcano. In Generations I and III, when you visit Cinnabar Island, there is no volcano. In Gen II, you see what is likely the volcano. In Gen IV, you can clearly see the volcano.

True, Cinnabar could just be the tip of the volcano and not every volcano is that classic shape, but here's the odd thing: not only can you see a volcano in every other depiction of the island (the anime, Adventures, etc.), you can see it on the official maps. Here's the map of Kanto made to promote FireRed and LeafGreen:

There it is, plan to see. You can even see it on the original Gen I map! So, why don't we see it when we are there?


(I can sorta forgive the Gen I games since there were limitations, etc., but with everything else looking nice and improved in Gen III, why not have a volcano?)

 

[stage7_4]

Well, one possible answer was that the volcano was underwater and only rose above the surface after erupting. The island could be a caldera leftover from when the volcano was active, but then a period of dormancy eroded the mountain away (or the last eruption blew it away like Mt. St. Helens)

At least that's my best guess to add plausible real-life science to a world created by a cosmic llama.

Speaking of volcanoes though: The Lave Dome Pokemon of Lumiose City (really? Lumiose again?!)

If you go to Juane plaza there's two women talking. One claims she saw the Lava Dome pokemon in Juane plaza. But you can look and look and look, and even bring your own Heatran there (the Lava Dome pokemon), but nothing happens. Her friend compliments her on her mimicry of pokemon cries. ...wait, what?!

Apparently this is a translation error. In the Japanese text, the conversation reads more along the lines of one lady making a cry like the "lava dome" pokemon, Heatran, and the other lady complimenting her on her cry mimicry. Not that this has stopped people from combing the area looking for a volcano in the middle of poke-Paris. Another theory is that it's related to Volcanion, the underwater volcano half-cousin of Heatran. This is also untrue.

So consider this myth busted.

 

[Codraroll]

The Couriway Rail station message seems to be a message from Past Sycamore to his future self, as he hints about your prize being hidden there when you beat him there. It's kinda sweet in a way.

The mystery isn't about the message written on the bench. I'd say it's more of a mystery why there is a railway station there in the first place. It has no function, no rails continue out of the region from there, the only rails go into a tunnel in the general direction of Lumiose City. It would be a quick way to get to Lumiose from that far corner of the map without using Fly, yet it remains useless in-game. Why have a railway station in Couriway if no trains went there at all? Couldn't GameFreak have given it some purpose, at least?

Oh well. It's not as bad as the Battle Subway, which has a map showing lines going under most of Unova, yet still there are only two usable stations. Before BW2, I had great hopes that the Battle Subway facility had been moved to a Frontier, and that the subway was turned useful, transporting you between cities rather than in a big loop and back again. What's the point of battling in trains if the train goes nowhere, and its motions have no effect on battles?

 

[Phione]

I still find it odd, though. Of all Pokémon to mimic, why a Heatran?
What is the Ghost Girl's connection to Rotom?
Do those statues in Parfum Palace have any meaning?
WHAT is the strange souvenir?
Who are those faceless men in the Scary House story?
What is this region the Backpacker in the hotel talks about? It's not any Core Series region we've seen...
WHY IS KALOS SO FREAKING MYSTERIOUS

 

[Jimera0]

I have something to add about the mysterious Hex Maniac ("Ghost Girl") that appears in the tower in Lumiose City. In Hotel Richissime (that big Hotel you can work in in Lumiose) there's a Hex Maniac (same model as the Ghost Girl) in the room to the left of the elevator on the 4th floor. If you talk to her, she says "... ... ... Don't talk to me... ... If you do, I won't... ... Hear the elevator..." I'm convinced that this girl is connected to the ghost girl, since, since the ghost girl comes out and confronts you after you exit the elevator. I suspect that the "ghost" we see is actually some sort of psychic projection of the girl in Hotel Richissime.

Of course that still doesn't answer the question of WHY she's listening in on that elevator so intently. She seems to be waiting for someone specific, but who and why? I hope that we'll find out some time in the future.

There's another really mysterious thing that the games only really scratch the surface on in Unova; the desert ruins. We get bits and pieces about them, but there's clearly so much more about them than is revealed. It's implied that they MADE Sigilyph to act as a guardian for their civilization, which is insane considering that prior to generation V the only artificial Pokemon was Porygon, which is way different than Sigilyph is. Then there's the fact that Yamask and Cofagrigus are found there and no where else, and it's implied they're actually human ghosts. There's also Zen Mode Darmanitan which seems to be connected to them as well, and it's not too much of a stretch to think that the same civilization had something to do with Golett and Golurk, which also seem artificial and ancient. But perhaps the biggest mystery of all is what could cause such a clearly powerful and advanced civilization to fall into obscurity. It must've been something catastrophic.

 

[Codraroll]

Adding another layer to the Ghost Girl mystery, there is a building in Lumiose City with four stories. The elevator can take you to the first, second and fourth floor, but not the third (if I remember correctly, it could be the second floor that's "missing"). It's been a while since I last explored the city, but I think the "missing floor" in that building is the same floor as the one you meet the Ghost Girl in another. I think the ghost is connected to elevators somehow, and that the "missing floor" is the place she is looking for/coming from. Possibly with a connection to Hoopa.

Anyway, I have confidence that the mystery will be solved come the next Kalos games.

 

[stage7_4]

The message is between the two benches on the platform in Couriway, if I remember correctly. If you mash A around the area, you'll find it and can read it.

Finally found the dang thing. Thanks. Still makes zero sense, but still a cool little easter egg.

For another easter egg (or maybe a ghost story?): Return of Missingno 2 - Missingno Harder

In Lumiose City, again, if you walk by the boutique and adjust the camera so it faces straight on into the door-frame you can see the ghostly silhouette of the original glitchmon.

Probably unintentional and just a graphical error, but since the original was just an unintentional graphical error too...

Wait, what's happeningrighright○’＆’＆leftleft＊＋＝＝＾＾downdown imsorry＞＞u’？imsorry＆’％dont＆ｆｈlose「４８８０：」：｜ｆっah＠；：i’veatoned；｜＞ ？＊saycheeseＬ６８（everyone：￥２２４３＋Ｌsm*le」

Sorry, blacked out for a second. And why do I have 600 moon stones?

 

[Phione]

The Ghost Girl, the girl in the hotel, elevators, Rotom, Hoopa... The note in Lumiose Station, the boy in Lumiose Station... Something's going on... Hey, there were ghosts in Platinum where Rotom was originally caught...

 

[Lordemort]

what the hell did professor ivy do to brock

 

[stage7_4]

what the hell did professor ivy do to brock

A lot of the anime is weird around that time frame, but here's what I understand:

The GS Ball that they got from Ivy was supposed to build up to this Celebi story. But then they changed plans when they wanted to make a movie out of it, which then got retooled to highlight Suicune as well to advertise the Crystal version of the game. My best guess is that whatever caused Brock to leave would have been revealed around then. So this was another plot left on the chopping block.

By this point whatever you can imagine the cause was is probably better than the canon answer.

 

[Lady Vader]

A lot of the anime is weird around that time frame, but here's what I understand:

The GS Ball that they got from Ivy was supposed to build up to this Celebi story. But then they changed plans when they wanted to make a movie out of it, which then got retooled to highlight Suicune as well to advertise the Crystal version of the game. My best guess is that whatever caused Brock to leave would have been revealed around then. So this was another plot left on the chopping block.

By this point whatever you can imagine the cause was is probably better than the canon answer.

I think there is not an official answer to what happened between Brock and Professor Ivy. It seems like it was always meant to be a joke (and by always I mean after the makers of the anime decided to bring Brock back). Though I have some theories (Ivy has some, uh, interesting hobbies and tastes).

 

[DHR-107]

I've been kinda not wanting to post in this thread... But my general curiosity has me intrigued.

Whoever runs the Pokemon "Countries" is almost totally inept. Most cities have next to no Police Force or anything of the like. Not even Hospitals. Of Fire Service (excluding Vermillion). Is Pokemon set so far in the future that humans do not get ill/sick any more? Even in the anime, there is very little cause for concern when a person gets "hurt" compared to when a Pokemon does. In general, there are loads of things in Pokemon which are totally opposed to each other. Routes and areas between cities have little in the way of roads (though they have been shown, but only to move around goods), or any other infrastructure. In all the games so far, we've only seen ONE factory (Pokeballs) and some Power Plants (I think). Pokemon World in general seems to have a far smaller population then "our" world. Even factoring scales of 10,000x, the biggest cities barely cover a million people. Where is everyone?

This brings me to my next point: Officer Jenny is the only person consistently seen with a motor vehicle of any kind (her motorbike). Cynthia had a jeep, Scott had a sports car. Walking is the preferred method of travelling for almost everyone (and Bikes I guess) except when its super long distance. We've seen PLENTY of boats (in fact, boats are probably more common in the Anime/games than any other form of transport), and a few planes and bizarrely enough I vaguely remember a blimp. Trains are also fairly common, but their technology is either miles ahead of ours (I know Maglev trains now exist, but they are still extremely rare), or is pretty similar (the TGV style train to Kiloude in XY and the Subway trains).

Do the abundance of Pokemon mean that just Flying everywhere is a totally viable option? Does this mean that within a "country" there may only be one or two ways "out" to another? You simply fly on your Pokemon to that city, board a plane to go somewhere else?

Technology is something in Pokemon World which is either so fantastically ahead of ours (Pyramid King Brandon's flying contraption springs to mind) or totally backwards (Team Rockets Balloon). They have the ability to transport living creatures over phonelines/internet. Team Rocket, seemingly totally inept, have made some of the most amazing/technologically advanced weapons I have ever seen from scraps. Yet in other places people live in log cabins, or randomly miles away from all known civilisation (especially in the anime).

Maybe it's just a lot of handwaving, but there is something very odd going on with the technology in Pokemon. Energy needs are obviously met by Pokemon, which means there is unlikely to be warfare in modern times.

Secondly: How exactly are Gym Leaders/Elite 4 chosen? Frontier Brains are seemingly hand picked by Scott (as evidenced by him requesting Ash to become one). But no clear lineage is made for Gym Leaders. Brock's father gave it to Brock, and then Brock handed it to his little Brother. Are there no age or experience requirements? Forrest seemed to be less than Ten even so... How could he possibly qualify as a Gym Leader? What towns/cities get to have Gyms? How is that decided? Slateport is a pretty big city in Hoenn, but doesn't have a gym, whereas Lavaridge Town (which is pretty small) does. I know they've generally had a split of Contests/Gyms in Hoenn, but in that case for the games, why can you not progress with Contest Wins over Gym Badges?

@_@ Wow that was a bit more ranty than I thought rofl.

 

[TM RazorWind]

In Lumiose City, again, if you walk by the boutique and adjust the camera so it faces straight on into the door-frame you can see the ghostly silhouette of the original glitchmon.

Maybe MissingNo was to blame for the Lumiose Save Glitch.



Anyways, so this isn't a one-liner, has anyone else noticed that several Ghost-types turn malevolent when they evolve? To quote the Pokedex:

- Phantump 'are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest', and Trevenant 'will trap people who harm the forest, so they can never leave.'
- Yamask 'arose from the spirits of people interred in graves', and Cofagrigus 'swallow those who get too close and turn them into mummies'.
- Pumpkaboo's 'pumpkin body is inhabited by a spirit trapped in this world', and Gourgeist 'sings joyfully as it observes the suffering of its prey'.

I dunno... I guess it just bugs me that no less than three distinct Ghost-types Pokemon evolve into Pokemon that prey on humans. Not to mention that two of them, at least (it's not clear for Pumpkaboo), were human spirits before they became Pokemon. Does anyone else find that trend strange?

 

[antemortem]

Whoever runs the Pokemon "Countries" is almost totally inept. Most cities have next to no Police Force or anything of the like. Not even Hospitals. Of Fire Service (excluding Vermillion). Is Pokemon set so far in the future that humans do not get ill/sick any more?

I'm fairly positive that Pokemon are called upon for most emergencies. The Squirtle Squad comes to mind as it was like a mini municipal firemen force called upon to put out fires and such, was it not? I could be remembering wrong. But I'm pretty sure people put together Pokemon forces for things like that, so it's really up to humans to handle localized problems. And as for injuries, it's been shown that Potions and the like have the same healing effects on at least surface level wounds as one was spritzed on Ash's scraped leg once and it stung but it was healed rather quickly.

 

[SnoopingGil]

Secondly: How exactly are Gym Leaders/Elite 4 chosen? Frontier Brains are seemingly hand picked by Scott (as evidenced by him requesting Ash to become one). But no clear lineage is made for Gym Leaders. Brock's father gave it to Brock, and then Brock handed it to his little Brother. Are there no age or experience requirements? Forrest seemed to be less than Ten even so... How could he possibly qualify as a Gym Leader? What towns/cities get to have Gyms? How is that decided? Slateport is a pretty big city in Hoenn, but doesn't have a gym, whereas Lavaridge Town (which is pretty small) does.

IIRC in the anime there's some kind of gym inspection organization that can approve or shut down gyms (of course I only read Bulbapedia summaries of anime episodes when I'm bored and have never actually watched the thing so don't take my word for it). I assume each regional Pokemon League has some kind of central committee that chooses the "gym roster" every season, while the management of gyms is probably left to the gym leaders themselves, which is why there's no consistent guidelines as to who can run a gym. Whether a settlement has a gym or not probably just depends on whether there are any strong trainers in the area, so it could just be that people in Lavaridge take battling more seriously than people in Slateport.

 

[Codraroll]

I dunno... I guess it just bugs me that no less than three distinct Ghost-types Pokemon evolve into Pokemon that prey on humans. Not to mention that two of them, at least (it's not clear for Pumpkaboo), were human spirits before they became Pokemon. Does anyone else find that trend strange?

It does fit in pretty neatly with the "10-year-olds write the Pokédex" theory. They're simply quoting ghost stories they heard growing up, or other folklore. For instance, Cubone are evidently fully capable of having babies without anybody dying at any point in the process, yet Cubone still constantly miss their mothers. It might simply be that Cubone abandon their eggs, and don't form families, that has led many people to believe they die away from their younglings. Cubone are pretty rare anyway, so the myth would persist simply because very few people ever get to observe their behaviour in the wild.


Speaking of Pokémon procreating, I also find it another mystery that nobody has ever seen a Pokémon lay an egg. Perhaps they are like radioactive particles, which never decay when observed?

 

[9 Tales of Ninetales]

Okay, to be fair I haven't watched the anime in a long time. But there is something I've always wondered about it that I imagine was never answered. The original season in Kanto had a lot of more... "original" arches and diverse episode plots than the later seasons (or at least it felt that way to me) but if you go to any random episode sometime after the Kanto episodes you typically get a story plot like this:

• Ash and co. meet random trainer with featured Pokemon X
• Ash and co. learn about Pokemon X a little bit
• Team Rocket is broke and starving, they need money to survive and stealing is all they know
• Team Rocket sees Pokemon X and decides to steal it along with Pikachu
• Team Rocket attempts a theft. usually using a combination of costumes, and or a big robot that may or may not be shaped like a Meowth or some other Pokemon (and has like vacuuums for arms and drill for feet or whatever)
• Pokemon X uses it's powers Ash and co. learned about along with Pikachu to thwart Team Rocket
• Blasting Off
• Pokemon X is Cool! Photo Finish Everyone!

So even as a kid I actually was really bothered by this one Pokemon Mystery...

If Team Rocket is so broke, how in the Heck can they afford these giant Robots shaped like a Meowth?

 

[stage7_4]

TEXT!

It is weird but let's talk about it (or, talk about it until the MST3K mantra pops up).

Anybody read Blood, Germs, and Steel? Its about the effect of geography on civilization development. One of the pinnacles (and I'm really watering this down in case someone calls me out) is the domestication of animals. We can take the pokemon universe as one where the domestication of animals has grown to the point of domination of every other aspect. With that in mind there's a couple of points I'd like to make:

1. Jetpack future: Everybody has one, in the form of the Fly HM. Also, everyone also has a boat with the Surf HM. And more. So there's less an emphasis on private transportation, but not to the point where alternative transportation is gone altogether, because see point 2.

2. Have vs. Have-not's: For every Gary Oak, we've got a Barry the bird boy and his amazing five spearows (and one pidgey, just to shake it up). While the player might understand type balance and diversity, this is apparently a rare skill and not everyone can actually tame their jetpack bird. In fact, some suck so much at training pokemon that anything beyond a caterpie and weedle is too much. So while flight is easy to get, it's still hard to use (for the common pokemon trainer). This means that while private individual transportation is outclassed by pidgey's, public transportation is still necessary.

3. License to Fly: A thing that always bothered me was that gym leaders, kinda suck at their job. They aren't good trainers, they monotype their teams, low levels, and most don't use coverage moves to cover weaknesses. But then again, you need certain badges to use the HM's. So what does this mean? It means that gym leaders are really an elaborate DMV, to test trainers to see if they have the skills to handle flying, surfing, spelunking (flash), and deforestation (cut). Actual "be a master" types are handled by the elite four, but the average citizen only needs three badges to fly and about four or five to surf (water safety is no joke). So the gyms are a test, not a title match. Meant to teach, not to preach.

4. The Journey: You can only fly to places you've been, so it makes sense to go on this world/country tour just once so you can fly back at any time.

Well that's my theory. That addresses only a couple of your points. At best.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

...I got nothing on the Rocket Balloon. Maybe they wanted a flying mode of transit that could keep pace with somebody walking without totally overtaking them (like a plane would)? No idea how they could actually control where they went though.

 

[Hulavuta]

If Team Rocket is so broke, how in the Heck can they afford these giant Robots shaped like a Meowth?

The actual answer is that it's a cartoon and so they can get away with certain things and extend your suspension of disbelief, but I guess while we can pretend Team Rocket's disguises are better than they actually are, there's no real way to get around this one from a pure story viewpoint.

If I had to explain it, it's possible that each machine is built from the last one and that they are skilled enough to repair the damages. I mean hey, everyone's good at something, maybe that's Jessie's only skill. Or it could be that they get these robots from Team Rocket. That brings up the question of why they would continue to get them despite failing several hundred times at this point though.

EDIT: Found a really cool theory video on YouTube.

Basically, Giovanni's mother (the former boss of Team Rocket) felt obligated to take care of Jessie as a favor to her mother, an obligation that was inherited by Giovanni after he took over.

As for James, the theory was that his parents were kinda sketchy and had a relationship with Team Rocket and helped fund it since they were rich. His parents pay Team Rocket to keep track of his whereabouts. It's possible the robots come out of money that James' parents specifically set aside for him (through Team Rocket) and therefore are no real loss to Giovanni.

 

[Phione]

Why the heck are the Team Rocket Trio still employed? You'd think Giovanni would start to rely on grunts with superior skills like the ones who easily captured Meloetta. But no, he still entrusts them with important missions 25% of the time and gives them complete freedom the other 75% of the time.

 

[TM RazorWind]

Speaking of Pokémon procreating, I also find it another mystery that nobody has ever seen a Pokémon lay an egg. Perhaps they are like radioactive particles, which never decay when observed?

Delibird is secretly Delistork
It's possible that Day-Care Couple don't want to give random ten-year-olds the 'birds and the Combees' talk, so they pretend they haven't seen Pokemon laying eggs.