SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

Pikachu315111

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So teleportation devices are a commodity in this world, yet they aren't used for anything other than gym/ evil lair puzzles?
Maybe their really expensive and sort range (and possibly need some strong psychic power?) so maybe considered a luxury item? It's like escalators and stairs. Sure escalators are more convenient, but stairs are easier to make. same deal here. Sure teleporters are convenient, but elevators are easier to make. They're only used in gyms to create a puzzle for trainers to solve and in villain lairs as for them its convenient to get to key places to initiate their evil plans quickly.
 
So teleportation devices are a commodity in this world, yet they aren't used for anything other than gym/ evil lair puzzles?
Well, pokemon that know teleport aren't that difficult to find/capture, so maybe the people in pokemon just see it as a waste of time and money to build teleportation machines for actually practical use because the pokemon can teleport on their own anyway.
 

Hulavuta

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Everything I know about teleportation I learned from Star Trek™ so bear with me.

We do teleport Pokemon over long distances very mundanely. In the anime, it is shown that depositing into the PC is actually using the PC to teleport the Pokemon to a safe location. If we only go by in-game we still use teleporting to trade Pokemon over the GTS and yes, this is mentioned by NPCs in the game so it is part of the game's universe and not gameplay and story segregation. I believe that is because of the Pokeball. Pokeballs seem to be pretty much optimized to go through this shit, they already can do funky stuff like being shrunken or enlarged at will, and can shrink a Pokemon to a size that fits in the Pokeball (or turning it into pure energy, whichever you prefer). Pokeballs are a special technology that optimizes a bunch of special physics-bending stuff for itself and anything in it.

While Pokemon transporting is a commodity due to the convenience of the Pokeball, teleportation for humans only works short distance, like within the same building, and is far more expensive. The first time you find teleporting (also known as warp tiles) is in Silph Co. I think teleportation was still a developing technology being worked on by Silph Co. The technology worked and they wanted to demonstrate, but they obviously can't let random people run around Silph Co. labs and offices so they put warp tiles in Sabrina's Gym, a place where visitors are more welcome.

Since the technology is so expensive, it's not really commonly found. It's only in certain noteworthy places, like the Tin Tower, or in evil teams' lairs because they are evil and stole them. Or they stole the designs and created many for themselves, there are quite a few scientists in these evil teams after all.

This is all just for technology-based teleportation though, using Psychic Pokemon to teleport is a different thing entirely.
 
This is all just for technology-based teleportation though, using Psychic Pokemon to teleport is a different thing entirely.
Not necessarily. It all depends on how the target is being transported. If it is more like the standard transporters in Star Trek, then yeah, the principles between technology and Pokémon are going to be different. But there are other ways to teleport. A form of wormhole or other space-warping principles could be used by both technology and Pokémon to teleport.
 
In the Amberette Town Fossil Lab, there's a Hiker who asks if you have a Genesect. After you show him it he gives you the Drives (Freeze, Shock, Burn and Douse). If you talk to him again he says:
Hiker said:
Genesect is also rumoured to have been found in Glittering Cave... It's only a rumour though
So A. Where did he get the Drives from? B. is this rumor about Genesect true? And if so, why hasnt GF expanded upon this?
Coincidently, there's also 5 meteor(ites?) that, IV you have Deoxys with you, it'll change form. How the hell did those get into Kalos? And why do they mutate Deoxys?
Mysteries for the ages ^^
 

Hulavuta

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Not necessarily. It all depends on how the target is being transported. If it is more like the standard transporters in Star Trek, then yeah, the principles between technology and Pokémon are going to be different. But there are other ways to teleport. A form of wormhole or other space-warping principles could be used by both technology and Pokémon to teleport.
Yeah, I was thinking each one was self-contained, so warp tiles and the GTS had their own way of transporting and Psychic Pokemon do it with their minds, not that they tapped into a wormhole or anything. That just introduces more elements into the Pokemon universe and I prefer to keep it simple and to what we've been shown already.

So A. Where did he get the Drives from? B. is this rumor about Genesect true? And if so, why hasnt GF expanded upon this?
Game Freak likes to be cryptic about stuff like this (hell, it's the whole reason this thread exists!) and they've moved on to Kalos so I don't think we'll be getting an official explanation. I think that Genesect could be found there, since he was revived from a fossil, yea? It's possible there were fossils deep in the cave.

Coincidently, there's also 5 meteor(ites?) that, IV you have Deoxys with you, it'll change form. How the hell did those get into Kalos? And why do they mutate Deoxys?
Mysteries for the ages ^^
The meteorites have special bs space properties that cause it to change form. And it is extremely convenient yes, but it's not too unbelievable that there were a few landing in every region.
 
In the Amberette Town Fossil Lab, there's a Hiker who asks if you have a Genesect. After you show him it he gives you the Drives (Freeze, Shock, Burn and Douse). If you talk to him again he says:

So A. Where did he get the Drives from? B. is this rumor about Genesect true? And if so, why hasnt GF expanded upon this?
Coincidently, there's also 5 meteor(ites?) that, IV you have Deoxys with you, it'll change form. How the hell did those get into Kalos? And why do they mutate Deoxys?
Mysteries for the ages ^^
Maybe all these meteorites contain traces of the space virus Deoxys supposedly mutated from that can trigger it to change its form? I'm also curious as to where the woman in Kiloude got her hands on the DNA Splicers. Not even going to try and figure out where that Reveal Glass came from that's handed to you if you show Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus.
 
Maybe all these meteorites contain traces of the space virus Deoxys supposedly mutated from that can trigger it to change its form? I'm also curious as to where the woman in Kiloude got her hands on the DNA Splicers. Not even going to try and figure out where that Reveal Glass came from that's handed to you if you show Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus.
And let's not forget the tutor in Snowbelle who can teach Secret Sword/Relic Song to Keldeo/Meloetta
I'm not even going to ask how.
 
Yeah, I was thinking each one was self-contained, so warp tiles and the GTS had their own way of transporting and Psychic Pokemon do it with their minds, not that they tapped into a wormhole or anything. That just introduces more elements into the Pokemon universe and I prefer to keep it simple and to what we've been shown already.
But what do Psychic Pokémon DO with their minds to cause teleportation?
 
Well if we're going to bring that up you might as well ask why not a whole evolutionary family appears in one place that a single of their evolution appears. As long as it's not a secluded place like an island I can sort of see a baby Pokemon running around on its own in the early routes.

And very true about Pokemon knowing attack they shouldn't, the probably most obvious one is Rhydon/Phyperior being able to learn Surf (as in the type they're quadruple weak to... they're now submerged in the stuff).
A lot of weird Pokemon get Surf, and I think it's because GameFreak wanted to lessen restrictions on your team for such an important HM. You don't really need to ever use Fly to get anywhere, but Surf is required so being able to teach it something that isn't Water type is handy if you don't have one/don't want one. Also I've always interpreted HMs as very practical moves (smash a rock, move this boulder, cut this tree) so Surf to me has always been the actual act of surfing a wave (which many Pokemon can do) and not about internally generating water ala Water Gun or another Water-type attack.

In a a theoretical situation, a little kid with a team of Venusaur/Rhyhorn/Nidoking/Raichu/Arcanine/Beedrill would be able to learn all necessary HMs and progress through the game without having to change his team. Doesn't need to go out of his way to be able to Surf. Fly is only optional.

It makes sense why Dive is limited to Water types (only they can hold their breathe long enough/breathe underwater and are capable swimmers). It's the same reason why Fly is limited to large winged Pokemon. It is a practical move, only this time with a much smaller niche than "smash this rock". Pretty much anything can smash a rock.

The only problem with my theory is that Dive is limited in distribution and required to progress in Gen3. But that's just how the game was designed. Also no comment on Whirlpool.
 
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Pikachu315111

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In the Amberette Town Fossil Lab, there's a Hiker who asks if you have a Genesect. After you show him it he gives you the Drives (Freeze, Shock, Burn and Douse). If you talk to him again he says:

Hiker said:
Genesect is also rumoured to have been found in Glittering Cave... It's only a rumour though
So A. Where did he get the Drives from? B. is this rumor about Genesect true? And if so, why hasnt GF expanded upon this?
Coincidently, there's also 5 meteor(ites?) that, IV you have Deoxys with you, it'll change form. How the hell did those get into Kalos? And why do they mutate Deoxys?
Mysteries for the ages ^^
Hiker & Drives: Hmm, maybe the Hiker was a former Team Plasma scientist? Surely they had a whole team of scientists working on the project then the one who gave us the drives in Gen V. In addition, being they were artificially making Genesect, they probably planned on making an army of them so thus needed to also create a whole slew of each of its drives. So when N cancelled the project, many of the scientists probably took the Drives either to see if they could re-purpose it or keep it as a memento. Fast forward to this Hiker, seeing that we have a Genesect he probably decided we could make much more use out the the Drives than he can, since he was part of the project thus would want to see this project perform the best it can.

Genesect Fossil: Well Genesect has been HEAVILY modified from what it used to be, so much so that even if we got a Genesect Fossil we'd probably wouldn't be able to identify it if we found one. And if we do find out it's pretty much going to be a different creature then the Genesect we know is (which would be interesting to see).
Also it's kind of odd how only a few select Fossils can be revived when surely hundreds of prehistoric Pokemon Fossils have been found. We don't actually know how fossil restoration works, but with that in mind it could be that in order for a fossil to be fully revived that Pokemon's entire DNA makeup need to be known. Somehow this has been done with a few fossil Pokemon, but being we only get them in batches of 2 and only every so often it's probably and long process and a lot of fossil samples since if one part of the DNA is missing then restoration can't be done (unless they're willing to fill in the gap with another Pokemon's DNA, if they don't do that already, but they would still need a few essential pieces of DNA I imagine). So with all that said, even if we found and identify a Genesect fossil the non-Plasma scientists probably don't have enough data on it to restore it. Heck, the Plasma scientists didn't need to fully figure it out since they were going to modify it anyway, so even if a Plasma scientist moves onto to become a normal scientist he probably still wouldn't know.

Deoxys Meteorites: It could be that different meteorites give off different kinds of "signals" that only Deoxys can detect and use to change forms. And it doesn't have to be a special meteorite, any meteorite probably gives off a certain signal. As for them having a meteorite which gives out a signal for each of Deoxys' formes... luck. Unless Deoxys can "assign" a certain signal a forme, for the player's convenience the fossil lab just so happens to have meteorite pieces that relate to each of Deoxys' formes. Contrived? Maybe, but there is just some things where you have to repeat to yourself "It's just a game, I should really just relax".

But what I would like to know is why did they put in 5? To make it seem a bit more plausible that they have all 4 you need? Personally I think there's a few more forms they can give Deoxys, here are two I thought up:

Deoxys Physical: 50/180/160/20/40/150//600
Deoxys Special: 50/20/40/180/160/150//600

But that is for another topic, besides, GameFreak probably are trying to figure out how they can do a Mega Deoxys...

I'm also curious as to where the woman in Kiloude got her hands on the DNA Splicers. Not even going to try and figure out where that Reveal Glass came from that's handed to you if you show Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus.
And let's not forget the tutor in Snowbelle who can teach Secret Sword/Relic Song to Keldeo/Meloetta
I'm not even going to ask how.
Might as well do both of these at once:

DNA Splicer: Well Drayden only said that the DNA Splicers he had has been in his family for generations and that Professor Juniper said they're made from materials that date back to the era as the materials used to make the Dragonspiral Tower. So it can be assumed those who built the Dragonspiral Tower also made the DNA Splicer, probably with the idea to use it to fuse the Tao Trio back together. It could be possible multiple were built so that there might be one around just in case there's a chance to fuse the Tao Trio back together and, just like Drayden, this Punk Girl is also a descendent on one who was given a DNA Splicer. Of course upon encountering a trainer who has a Kyurem, she decides that she can fulfill her family's duty and gives you the DNA Splicers so that you can use it to fuse Kyurem together with Reshiram and Zekrom (sure it's a stretch to assume to also have on of them, but being you have Kyurem you're one step closer than she is).

Reveal Glass: Oh boy, this one is a bit more perplexing. About nothing is known about the Reveal Glass, it just exists. I would say that maybe the scientist was able to make one using the glass from Reflection Cave but that would also mean she added the decorative framing bits which I don't think a scientist would bother with. Like the DNA Splicer Punk it could also be a family heirloom and seeing you have a Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus thinks you could make more use out of it than she can.

Sacred Sword & Relic Song: For Relic Song that could be simply the tutor just so happens who knows the song which Meloetta can utilize to become Relic Song. As for Sacred Sword, that's another one which is perplexing. Sacred Sword is a sword technique that was taught to Keldeo by the other Swords of Justice, so the only way for them to know how to do it if they somehow witnessed the Swords of Justice teaching the technique (and I doubt the Swords of Justice would show any human how to do the technique). It could be possible that someone replicated the technique close enough that when taught to Keldeo it's instincts kicks in and it becomes Sacred Sword. But how would someone be able to do that unless they witnessed the Swords of Justice using/teaching the technique is the question.

A lot of weird Pokemon get Surf, and I think it's because GameFreak wanted to lessen restrictions on your team for such an important HM. You don't really need to ever use Fly to get anywhere, but Surf is required so being able to teach it something that isn't Water type is handy if you don't have one/don't want one. Also I've always interpreted HMs as very practical moves (smash a rock, move this boulder, cut this tree) so Surf to me has always been the actual act of surfing a wave (which many Pokemon can do) and not about internally generating water ala Water Gun or another Water-type attack.

In a a theoretical situation, a little kid with a team of Venusaur/Rhyhorn/Nidoking/Raichu/Arcanine/Beedrill would be able to learn all necessary HMs and progress through the game without having to change his team. Doesn't need to go out of his way to be able to Surf. Fly is only optional.

It makes sense why Dive is limited to Water types (only they can hold their breathe long enough/breathe underwater and are capable swimmers). It's the same reason why Fly is limited to large winged Pokemon. It is a practical move, only this time with a much smaller niche than "smash this rock". Pretty much anything can smash a rock.

The only problem with my theory is that Dive is limited in distribution and required to progress in Gen3. But that's just how the game was designed. Also no comment on Whirlpool.
Good point. And I think Surf does generate water when battling, it's just when used outside of battle it can only be used on water because that's where you'll need the technique. You don't need to surf on a field of grass, you need to surf on water because you can't walk on that.

Anyway I always saw HMs mainly as utility moves anyway, something you have a dedicated HM slave for rather then teach your Pokemon. Now if you have a Water-, Flying-, or Normal-type it might not hurt teaching them Surf/Waterfall, Fly, and Strength, but generally there are better moves to have than most HM moves. And since you can't readily delete a HM, you'd rather a HM Slave to know it to free up a slot on your battling Pokemon. Besides the places you'll need a HM for is situational, mainly between one town/city to another town/city, so it's not like you're going a long stretch of time without access to a PC so you can switch Pokemon. Oh, and you can always go back to a previous route with the needed HM user if you missed anything. But that's just how I see it, I always have one or two HM slaves with me to handle the HM stuff and maybe even provide as cover fodder as I revive/heal one of my Pokemon. Actually, in XY the Farfetch'd you can trade a Bunnelby for, Quacklin', became a key member of my team as he could learn Fly and Cut, also knew False Swipe which made catching Pokemon easier, and Night Slash for type coverage. Wound up taking him into my Elite Four run, he didn't do anything as I recall, but then again my Delphox, Charizard, and Blaziken mostly took care of things (yes, even Siebold. I had Pokemon Y so my Charizard came with a Charizardite Y and I taught him Solar Beam).
 

DHR-107

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Orange Islands
Guys. Seriously.

Let's not get into pseudo scientific stuff about the 4th Dimension please...

You're taking this a little TOO seriously. I deleted like SEVEN posts because you were getting further and further away from the topic at hand. Let's just avoid talk of how Psychic Pokemon (or other Pokemon) teleport/move objects shall we?
 

Pikachu315111

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Okay, so here's a mystery that doesn't involve science: What is the true forme of the Forces of Nature?

To find out more about the Reveal Glass I watched videos of you receiving them in the games. They didn't really provide much about the item itself, but they did mention something intersting: It's not known whether Tornadus', Thundurus', and Landorus' true forme is their Incarnate Forme (where they look like a genie/djinn) or their Therian Forme (where they look like an animal). So what do you think is there true form?
 

Jibaku

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This is probably a -massive- stretch but...

I would like to believe that the incarnate forme is their true form. This is because they all learn Hammer Arm naturally, something that would appear to not make sense from the therian perspective (Landorus-T and Tornadus-T do not have arms). Because either forme can learn this move from level up, the therian forme must've had prior knowledge from its other forme as it's a little silly to expect a bird to smash things with a fist without having one. With the experiences Tornadus-I were able to obtain, it transfers that to its Therian forme, improvising in the process.

Despite being a giant intimidating cat, landorus-T is incapable of learning Roar. It might look like a tiger, but it's still just a genie inside.

Their levelup moves in general seem to reflect the defiant, prankster, and prideful nature of the incarnate forme (Nasty Plot, Hammer Arm, Swagger, Revenge, Astonish), as indicated by their abilities, pose, and lore (mostly relevant to thundurus/tornadus). I feel like the therian formes are adaptations to their surrounding environment. The need for enhanced flight to go along with the windstorms it creates (Tornadus), the ability to sustain itself by eating lightning from the atmosphere when it's not terrorizing people (Thundurus), and well...Landorus just wants to be a bigger boss because looking nearly identical to the other two could mean that he gets treated more as a colleague than an authority figure.
 
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So what do you think is there true form?
I'm going to say something fun here and go with neither.

For this, my evidence is the names of their formes: Incarnate and Therian. "Incarnate," as defined by the dictionary, means "embodied in flesh; in human form," especially for a spirit. Therian seems to refer to Theria, a mammalian subset. We have a humanlike form and an animal form, but the humanlike form's name seems to hint that it's only a representation or a vessel of its true spirit-like form. I can't see how an animal-based form would be any closer to its true self.

Basically, what the Tornadus/Thundurus/Landorus trio reminds me more of is something like Greek (or pretty much any mythology or religion, for that matter) gods or spirits – they can take many forms in the human realm, but they have a true, spiritual form that's not for mortal eyes to see. In addition, they can be found through the Dream Radar, kind of like how gods/spirits often appear in people's dreams in myths.
 
I'd like to introduce another mystery which I believe has been briefly touched on in previous pages: How exactly does the Pokeball work? Here's my theory. This wall of text will be smaller than my last one; I promise.

When a Pokemon is captured in a Pokeball, it is split into pure energy, which is stored in a battery-like device in the Pokeball itself, and data which defines both things like its level, stats, moveset, ability, gender, etc., and also things like its memories and personality. The data is not stored on the Pokeball; rather, it is stored on a 'cloud' in an undisclosed location. The only data stored on the Pokeball itself is the Pokemon's 'ID', which is not the trainer ID of whoever caught it, but its own unique number. When you deposit a Pokemon into a PC, you are really just changing the 6 ID numbers on your Pokeballs. Now, here is an important part. When a Pokemon is in energy/data form in a Pokeball or on the PC, it is still conscious; it just exists in the virtual world. In fact, from the Pokemon's perspective, being boxed is literally the same thing as being in a Pokeball, meaning that boxed Pokemon can still interact with 'travelling' Pokemon while in the computer, similar to what happens in the Tron movies. In the case of Porygon, it is the same thing, only in reverse. Porygon's native environment is in the computer, and it can be given the physical form of the cyberduck we all love.

So what exactly happens when a Pokemon is caught? When a Pokeball is wiggling, the Pokemon is being converted into energy and data. This energy is unstable, however, and it can overwhelm the 'battery' in the Pokeball, causing the Pokemon to break out. Legendaries are far more powerful, meaning that not only do they consist of more energy, but their energy is also more volatile. The data is untouched, because the data of biological (as in, not Porygon(2/Z)) Pokemon is actually too complex to understand. The Pokeball essentially sends the 'soul' of the Pokemon to the cloud in computer form, and then when the Pokemon is sent out, the process is done in reverse. (No, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but then again, neither does every Water-type ever creating H2O out of nothing, or Psychic-types disappearing and reappearing somewhere else, but let's not go there.)

Now I will talk about a question that is likely responsible for >50% of the 'is Pokemon ethical' controversy: why do caught Pokemon suddenly obey whoever caught them? One answer is pretty simple: surviving in the wild is hard. It is stated that wild Pokemon tend to be jealous of human-trained Pokemon, and it is possible that this is because most Trainers will care for their Pokemon, protecting them, providing them food and water and making sure that they are safe when battling. (This theory assumes that you're not doing a Nuzlocke, incedentally.) Now, you will notice that I said "most trainers" in that last sentence, because there are some trainers such as evil teams that don't care for their Pokemon. So why do the Pokemon also obey them, and how do Pokemon tell what kind of a Trainer is trying to catch them? To answer this, I will draw a parallel to another way to capture Pokemon: the Ranger's Capture Styler. It is shown that Pokemon follow Rangers when they are captured because the Ranger's feelings of friendship are conveyed to the Pokemon. The same kind of thing happens with the Pokeballs. If a trainer's friendly feelings are conveyed, the Pokemon will recognize that the trainer means no harm, and wants to help them excel and go far beyond what they could do in the wild. Pokemon are eager to help in return, and thus will obey a good trainer. In the cases when Trainers such as evil team members and, in particular, Silver in the beginning of GSC, catch Pokemon, the sad truth is that the Pokemon will still listen to them not out of friendship or trust, but out of fear of being punished.

As for Gym Badges, these are measures of a Trainer's skill. A powerful Pokemon will seldom listen to an unskilled Trainer, no matter what their intentions are, because the Pokemon feels that its potential is being wasted. Another possibility is that the Pokemon, understandably, has a "you're not the boss of me" attitude. This is especially true for Trainers whose Pokemon listen to them out of fear, because the powerful Pokemon in question simply don't fear them.

Welp, that was a bit longer than I had hoped. I now leave it for you guys to discuss.
 
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Pikachu315111

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I'd like to introduce another mystery which I believe has been briefly touched on in previous pages: How exactly does the Pokeball work? Here's my theory. This wall of text will be smaller than my last one; I promise.

When a Pokemon is captured in a Pokeball, it is split into pure energy, which is stored in a battery-like device in the Pokeball itself, and data which defines both things like its level, stats, moveset, ability, gender, etc., and also things like its memories and personality. The data is not stored on the Pokeball; rather, it is stored on a 'cloud' in an undisclosed location. The only data stored on the Pokeball itself is the Pokemon's 'ID', which is not the trainer ID of whoever caught it, but its own unique number. When you deposit a Pokemon into a PC, you are really just changing the 6 ID numbers on your Pokeballs. Now, here is an important part. When a Pokemon is in energy/data form in a Pokeball or on the PC, it is still conscious; it just exists in the virtual world. In fact, from the Pokemon's perspective, being boxed is literally the same thing as being in a Pokeball, meaning that boxed Pokemon can still interact with 'travelling' Pokemon while in the computer, similar to what happens in the Tron movies. In the case of Porygon, it is the same thing, only in reverse. Porygon's native environment is in the computer, and it can be given the physical form of the cyberduck we all love.

So what exactly happens when a Pokemon is caught? When a Pokeball is wiggling, the Pokemon is being converted into energy and data. This energy is unstable, however, and it can overwhelm the 'battery' in the Pokeball, causing the Pokemon to break out. Legendaries are far more powerful, meaning that not only do they consist of more energy, but their energy is also more volatile. The data is untouched, because the data of biological (as in, not Porygon(2/Z)) Pokemon is actually too complex to understand. The Pokeball essentially sends the 'soul' of the Pokemon to the cloud in computer form, and then when the Pokemon is sent out, the process is done in reverse. (No, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but then again, neither does every Water-type ever creating H2O out of nothing, or Psychic-types disappearing and reappearing somewhere else, but let's not go there.)

Now I will talk about a question that is likely responsible for >50% of the 'is Pokemon ethical' controversy: why do caught Pokemon suddenly obey whoever caught them? One answer is pretty simple: surviving in the wild is hard. It is stated that wild Pokemon tend to be jealous of human-trained Pokemon, and it is possible that this is because most Trainers will care for their Pokemon, protecting them, providing them food and water and making sure that they are safe when battling. (This theory assumes that you're not doing a Nuzlocke, incedentally.) Now, you will notice that I said "most trainers" in that last sentence, because there are some trainers such as evil teams that don't care for their Pokemon. So why do the Pokemon also obey them, and how do Pokemon tell what kind of a Trainer is trying to catch them? To answer this, I will draw a parallel to another way to capture Pokemon: the Ranger's Capture Styler. It is shown that Pokemon follow Rangers when they are captured because the Ranger's feelings of friendship are conveyed to the Pokemon. The same kind of thing happens with the Pokeballs. If a trainer's friendly feelings are conveyed, the Pokemon will recognize that the trainer means no harm, and wants to help them excel and go far beyond what they could do in the wild. Pokemon are eager to help in return, and thus will obey a good trainer. In the cases when Trainers such as evil team members and, in particular, Silver in the beginning of GSC, catch Pokemon, the sad truth is that the Pokemon will still listen to them not out of friendship or trust, but out of fear of being punished.

As for Gym Badges, these are measures of a Trainer's skill. A powerful Pokemon will seldom listen to an unskilled Trainer, no matter what their intentions are, because the Pokemon feels that its potential is being wasted. Another possibility is that the Pokemon, understandably, has a "you're not the boss of me" attitude. This is especially true for Trainers whose Pokemon listen to them out of fear, because the powerful Pokemon in question simply don't fear them.

Welp, that was a bit longer than I had hoped. I now leave it to you guys to discuss.
First off, I think I should share my theory how the Pokeball works since you and I share a different idea on how a Pokeball works:

To me, when a Pokemon is captured they're physically turned into energy and stored in the Pokeball. Everything about that Pokemon (stats, Moves, Ability, Nature, gender) is stored in the Pokeball since they're part of the Pokemon. Each Pokeball has their own ID number which is linked to the trainer's ID number. When you store a Pokemon in the PC, the Pokeball is also being turned to energy. As for the Pokemon's consciousness, I think they have a "half consciousness" where a Pokemon traveling with you can sense what's going on outside. However this is probably via functions of the Pokeball, for Pokemon in the PC the Pokeball is now data too thus the Pokemon inside probably enter a sleep state until switched into the trainer's party via their Pokeball being turned back to physical matter. Also a Porygon inside a Pokeball is just like any other Pokemon inside a Pokeball, Porygon turning itself into data and entering the virtual world is a power is must do outside the Pokeball.

Now with that explained (and let's get far from that topic since the last time we talked about science a mass of posts got deleted), onto your questions:

What happens when you catch a Pokemon? I agree with your idea that the Pokeball is probably processing the Pokemon's data. During this time the Pokemon's data is unstable and volatile thus it fights back. It successful it breaks out as it's still too strong to be captured, thus it does not consider you worthy enough to capture it. If the Pokeball catches then the Pokemon has accepted you've beaten it to a point where it finds you worthy and calm down, letting the Pokeball finally finish analyzing it. If you have 6 Pokemon with you the Pokeball teleports to your account on the PC.

Why does a Pokemon obey you? As I said, I think because it considers you worthy. You've proven yourself to that Pokemon you're strong enough to make it stronger. Good? Evil? These are human concepts, why would a Pokemon care about human concepts? Over time a trainer's Pokemon might start agreeing what their trainer beliefs, but that's from sharing a bond with the trainer using them. Every time a trainer uses a Pokemon, no matter how long, a bond is formed between the trainer and Pokemon. It's this bond which a Pokemon empowers itself with, which is why a trainer Pokemon is stronger than a wild Pokemon of the same level since the wild Pokemon is on its own. The stronger the bond, the stronger the Pokemon, however even the smallest bond makes the Pokemon even the slightest bit stronger and each time a trainer uses that same Pokemon the bond grows just a bit stronger. A person could hate a Pokemon with all their heart, but as long as their using a Pokemon, a Pokemon is gaining some additional strength from that bond, and to that Pokemon that's all that matters. However a trainer who's willing to work with his Pokemon and form a strong bond between them, working as partners and friends, this bond makes the Pokemon incredibly strong (thus why the player's character Pokemon are the strongest, they're able to achieve a strong bond no one else in the game can achieve).

What about a Ranger's Capture Styler? I think it's a similar case but the Pokemon is doing it for different reasons. The Pokemon Ranger is trying to prove to the Pokemon they mean no harm and require the Pokemon's help temporarily. The Pokemon starts off agitated, but as the styler circles around them it gives off energy that calms the Pokemon. Eventually the Styler would send out enough energy for the Pokemon to fully calm down and agree that you're worthy of it's use and come with them. So the Pokemon Ranger is still proving to the Pokemon they're worthy of helping them, the only difference is that they're doing so by calming it and this assistance is only temporary. In addition many times this assistance would be to help the Pokemon's home environment, so helping the Pokemon Ranger means also helping its environment (for them most part). So the Pokemon is still getting something out of helping.

And what about Badges? Remember that badge number only effects traded Pokemon. For Pokemon you caught you already proved to them you're worthy of being listened to. But to a traded Pokemon you're a total stranger and they want proof you're worth their obedience. Hence the number of badges show that you're skilled enough to use their strength wisely.

Now, I'm sure there are some exceptions, but for the most part I think this is how things work.
 

Hulavuta

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What about a Ranger's Capture Styler? I think it's a similar case but the Pokemon is doing it for different reasons. The Pokemon Ranger is trying to prove to the Pokemon they mean no harm and require the Pokemon's help temporarily. The Pokemon starts off agitated, but as the styler circles around them it gives off energy that calms the Pokemon. Eventually the Styler would send out enough energy for the Pokemon to fully calm down and agree that you're worthy of it's use and come with them. So the Pokemon Ranger is still proving to the Pokemon they're worthy of helping them, the only difference is that they're doing so by calming it and this assistance is only temporary. In addition many times this assistance would be to help the Pokemon's home environment, so helping the Pokemon Ranger means also helping its environment (for them most part). So the Pokemon is still getting something out of helping.
The styler is actually already explained. At least in the first Pokemon Ranger game, they say that the capture styler actually transmits friendship and helps the user establish an emotional connection with the Pokemon. In the Deoxys mission, Spencer says that it is impossible to make an emotional connection with Deoxys, and indeed it takes at least four tries to catch it. At one point Lunick says "try talking to it and telling it that we're its friend."

Capturing Pokemon with the styler is less worthiness and more of "we have established this bond so now I understand your problem and want to help you out." Releasing the Pokemon afterward is a sign of good faith that shows you really did just want their help, and you didn't want to capture them like a trainer would.
 
The styler is actually already explained. At least in the first Pokemon Ranger game, they say that the capture styler actually transmits friendship and helps the user establish an emotional connection with the Pokemon. In the Deoxys mission, Spencer says that it is impossible to make an emotional connection with Deoxys, and indeed it takes at least four tries to catch it. At one point Lunick says "try talking to it and telling it that we're its friend."

Capturing Pokemon with the styler is less worthiness and more of "we have established this bond so now I understand your problem and want to help you out." Releasing the Pokemon afterward is a sign of good faith that shows you really did just want their help, and you didn't want to capture them like a trainer would.
And now I've got a weird picture of a Ranger going "hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's this BFF speech I wrote on a top, it's friendship maybe?"
 
So it's October and time for a mystery. A SpOoKy MyStErY!

...or I would have one but I can't come up with one. Instead let's talk about family matters, especially the curious case of disappearing protagonist fathers. To date the only game I can think of that has your character's dad in it is Generation 3 with Norman. Everyone else has no known father.

While missing parents is very typical for this genre (I think Gamefreak shares some programmers with the Mother series, that also is known for missing or not-present fathers) while looking at each generation of games I found some bizarre trends. While your character almost always lacks family besides your mom, your rival usually has a much more filled out family unit.

Bianca and Cheren had full families in the Gen 5 era (and Hugh too), Gen 3 had your rival be Professor Birch's kid, Barry has his dad Palmer and I think Dawn/Lucas has a sister and family too, Gen 2 rival has the implied Giovanni and Professor Elm has a wife and son, Gary has Professor Oak and his sister, and X&Y has... wait, did we ever see any of your rival's families? I'm sure one or two of them live next door to you but I can't quite recall which...

I guess out of game the reason is to better insert yourself into the character since there isn't much family present to conflict with your own situation. I guess they give you a mom to avoid the implications of how you've been surviving on your own without pokemon up until then. I don't know, what's your takes on it?

Still, that's 5/6 gens of disappeared dads. That's practically a horde of faceless father figures. Wait, does that mean the spooky house on route 14 meant...?!
 
So it's October and time for a mystery. A SpOoKy MyStErY!

...or I would have one but I can't come up with one. Instead let's talk about family matters, especially the curious case of disappearing protagonist fathers. To date the only game I can think of that has your character's dad in it is Generation 3 with Norman. Everyone else has no known father.

While missing parents is very typical for this genre (I think Gamefreak shares some programmers with the Mother series, that also is known for missing or not-present fathers) while looking at each generation of games I found some bizarre trends. While your character almost always lacks family besides your mom, your rival usually has a much more filled out family unit.

Bianca and Cheren had full families in the Gen 5 era (and Hugh too), Gen 3 had your rival be Professor Birch's kid, Barry has his dad Palmer and I think Dawn/Lucas has a sister and family too, Gen 2 rival has the implied Giovanni and Professor Elm has a wife and son, Gary has Professor Oak and his sister, and X&Y has... wait, did we ever see any of your rival's families? I'm sure one or two of them live next door to you but I can't quite recall which...

I guess out of game the reason is to better insert yourself into the character since there isn't much family present to conflict with your own situation. I guess they give you a mom to avoid the implications of how you've been surviving on your own without pokemon up until then. I don't know, what's your takes on it?

Still, that's 5/6 gens of disappeared dads. That's practically a horde of faceless father figures. Wait, does that mean the spooky house on route 14 meant...?!
There's no implying anything. Silver (or whatever dirty name you named him) is Giovanni's kid. I think Trevor's folks are in Lumiose while Serena/Calem may have their father in Snowbelle, but I have a hard time caring about them other than wanting to care a little about Shauna. I think it just is how the genre is set up, everyone except the protagonist is allowed to have a more visually complete family.
 

Codraroll

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The protagonist is meant to be a "blank slate", with as little backstory as possible, so players can project themselves onto him/her. This allows players to come up with their own back stories, their own family connections, their own personality quirks, et cetera. The player character in Pokémon isn't meant to be a guy with a story and a personality (ex: Nathan Drake), or a guy with a personality but no distinct back story (ex: Mario, Sonic), it's meant to be you, and his/her story is what you make it out to be. Adding family members or a complex back story hinders the totally open perception of the player, and presents clear and established traits that limits the feeling of a "blank canvas".

The player's mother is just the loving, caring family who is always waiting for you back home, who's always ready for a visit, and will heal and encourage you whenever you like. She's the embodiment of Home, Sweet Home.
And occasionally it seems like she spends your money while you're away. Oh well, they're not all perfect.
 

Hulavuta

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I'm gonna go ahead and say that having no father actually makes the slate less blank. Most families have a mother and a father so the lack of a father raises a lot of questions. Were they ever married or is the player a bastard who never knew his father? Where is the father now, is he on his own Pokemon journey (like the anime implies)? Why doesn't anyone speak of him? This is only for the father, not other family members. It's not a stretch at all to say that the player has no siblings or family in the region, but the player absolutely had to have a father (that is just how biology works) and no father present in the game raises a lot more implications to the story than it prevents. Even if they just had a father who did nothing, who had similar lines to the mother and also stayed home all day, that would be totally believable (maybe even more believable, at least the mom has company).

Personally though, I like that the father is missing and I like coming up with my own story about where he is and I absolutely like the fact that they chose the mother to be around rather than the father. It's a stereotype that the mother is the more caring and housekeeping one. However, I do not think adding a story for the father or mother ruins the self-insert protagonist's story at all. Personally, I think it enriches it. Nobody (at least that I know of) dislikes Norman for being an actual father, and I found that whole story arc of "living up to your father" endearing. I also like in generation 4 where the mom was a former contest champion and enters the highest difficulty contests. It makes her seem more of an actual character who does stuff.

I don't think we want our characters to be completely blank slates, we want certain aspects of them to be defined, as a foundation for our imaginations to work off of. I know this isn't really a direct reply to anyone but I spent a long time writing it so I'm gonna post it anyway. :pirate:
 

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