Pokémon Theories

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Fun thread! Particularly enjoyed the Hitmonchan sprite, Ditto and meta-anime theories. That last one is immense - how spectacular would it be if, after the last episode, the writers were just like, 'Hah, you thought we'd produce hundreds of episodes of drivel like that non-ironically? You got taken for a ride, son.'

While I've been playing through the main series, I've developed a bit of a theory (I'm sure there are others like it already out there) that links the plot-lines of the main series games, and explains how the protagonist in each one is actually the same character, on one continuous journey. It borrows a little bit from the manga, in terms of the Kanto/Johto Elite Four and most Gym Leaders being evil and high-level members of Team Rocket. It would take a while to flesh out properly, but basically, at the end of each region, some tragedy befalls the protagonist (death of his father, all his Pokemon stolen, etc.), forcing him to relocate and take on another identity elsewhere. After Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, the protagonist goes to Johto, where people are still talking about his monumental defeat of Team Rocket three years previously. His journey through Johto (and then Kanto again) is a Kill Bill-esque saga wherein he attempts to find and destroy those who ruined his life.
 

Codraroll

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Oh, and I've petted this for a while too:

C'Rolls theory of economics in Pokémon:

First of all, let's establish the value of a Pokédollar. It's worth little. Very little. A vending machine takes 200 of them for a small bottle of fresh water. You need a million to buy the cheapest bike available. All in all, the amount of money you carry on your adventure can be considered pocket change by most working residents in the Pokémon world.

So, that would mean that the items at Poké Marts are ridiculously cheap, right? Kind of. They are, for you, for the same reason why you are allowed to use Poké Centers for free. Your mom, possibly in cooperation with the regional professor (which is always portrayed as a friend of the family), pay quite a hefty sum for a premium Pokémon Trainer License. That entitles you to free use of Pokémon Centers, a Pokédex, drastically reduced prices at PokéMarts, free transportation and presumably other amenities such as laundry, food and camping equipment. This makes it considerably easier to get around the region, and allows you to devote all of your time to travel and train Pokémon. Most other trainers have lesser versions of the license, and thus stay near their home, only doing Pokémon training as a hobby. Going professional like you do would be too expensive for them.

So, why are you given this sort of scholarship? Well, your mom loves you, the regional professor sees that you're talented with Pokémon, and your father might have contributed too. The question of why isn't important, let us just assume that it happens. Yes, you're a very lucky and privileged kid, one of a very few, but otherwise, there would be no game.

During the course of the game, you do better than anybody would have expected from you. Your participation in the Pokémon League goes well, you defeat the Gym Leaders' standard teams, and eventually make it to the Elite Four. At this point, your mother and the professor don't pay anymore, sponsors have taken notice of you and provide economic support without directly interferring with your adventure (let's assume there are certain rules you have to go by if you want to challenge the Pokémon League as a minor, such as having to earn all your money yourself). After all, you become quite the celebrity in the region, talking to many residents, defeating an evil team, being on television, and starring in Musicals and even movies.

You have little economic responsibility on your adventure. Your mom takes care of most of the finances. The modest sum you carry in your pocket is no target for criminals, and it leaves less financial stress on you as a minor. Whenever you sell a valuable item you find, such as Nuggets, most of the sum goes directly to an account you won't get access to before becoming an adult. The same goes for your wages from off-adventure work (such as winning Pokémon Contests, starring in movies or running Join Avenue), since those technically aren't considered parts of your Pokémon League challenge, and you're not allowed to spend your earnings during your adventure.

Eventually, you get to challenge the Elite Four. Note that as a minor, your challenge technically doesn't count as an attempt to dethrone the Champion. I'd imagine a true Pokémon League challenge to be quite a bit more intense than anything you see in-game, and closer to the battle style we see here at Smogon. The Elite Four hold back when you meet them, but go all out whenever a qualified grown-up professional Pokémon Trainer decides to try for the title of Champion. Your challenge of the Elite Four isn't quite the same; you get unlimited tries whenever you feel like it, and they use standard teams, but you get enrolled into the Hall of Fame nevertheless. Note that all participants in the Battle Tower/Frontier have done the same, without making a big deal out of it. Nonetheless, it's a big feat, especially for someone so young.

It's too bad that we never get to this point in the game, but I guess Pokémon training is a lot more complex for older trainers. Perhaps your minor's license expires, so prices in Poké Marts go up. On the other hand, you can access the fortune you built up from sponsorship money and wages. Perhaps you have to continue your formal education after spending some years training. It's hard to tell. Anyway, I think the game is the most fun the way it is, when you have no responsibilities and grown-ups take care of all the complicated stuff. Meanwhile, your mom can make a respectable living from your adventures, without ever having to leave the house.
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Fact: (not theory)

In Japanese version, Pokedollar is actually Yen...

They just changed it in the globalized versions...

Also, I find it funny when I read something like "Herbs from another region" in my English White2. (My first English game, really.)
[Fact] Because in Japanese, it says "Chinese medicine"

So if someone wonders why these herbs come from "another region" but somehow they never told people where it is, your answer is here-- Chinese medicine.

So... [theory]: I don't think you will get to see this "another region" in the games then xD
 
Loved the thoroughness of the economics theory - in part because it explains why the 'elite' trainers in-game are so poor. When you've been on Smogon even just a little while, you soon realise how much depth the games leave untapped in terms of serious Pokemon battling.
 
I have one fallacy with the whole free-health-care-for-pets/economics theory: your rival in GSC/HGSS. Silver was orphaned by his own father and would be unlikely to have a bank account to tap into to pay any hidden cover charges that travelling kids aren't allowed to know about, yet he has an official trainer's license, goes on just as much of a journey as Gold/Crys/Lyra, collects all of the badges, and makes it to the very end of Victory Road.

So I don't think it's so HungerGames/tax dodging as it is just being a world where animals like to fight and humans (predominantly gifted children) help those animals reach new heights by living in an economical world tailored to trainers, as it may be seen as the worlds most respectable profession if not the easiest to enter in to, so that travelling isn't so expensive. Joey just sticks around route 30 because he's a dingus who isn't as good a trainer/multitasker as those trainers with more than one Pokemon. I don't know what's up with all of the homemaker mothers who don't do anything to pay for the house, though. The only exception so far is the mom in BW2 who used to travel as an RN, but settled down in Aspertia (and technically the mom in DPPt for being a contest superstar, as older and more talented coordinators may make a sensible living following the senior trainer lisence theory, which is an understandable setup.)
 
I have one fallacy with the whole free-health-care-for-pets/economics theory: your rival in GSC/HGSS. Silver was orphaned by his own father and would be unlikely to have a bank account to tap into to pay any hidden cover charges that travelling kids aren't allowed to know about, yet he has an official trainer's license, goes on just as much of a journey as Gold/Crys/Lyra, collects all of the badges, and makes it to the very end of Victory Road.
)
He did steal his starter pokemon...goin off the prior theory (which i think is brilliant), maybe he stole his starter, and takes the money he earns from other trainers (betting?). Shit maybe he hit it big at the game corner..Also he obviously didnt start out on the good side so he could have possibly made his own/stole and forged a trainer license (fake id).

Bill gates & Al Capone = both rich. Just one did it the good way and the other not so much...
 
Is Cubone the lost baby of Kangaskan? Yes it is. Look here, i found exact proof that it is so.



So I got a baby Kangaskan & a Cubone's head figure. I realized, "what would happen if i put the bone on the babys head?"

So i tried it, and this is what i got, a Cubone.
 
Is Cubone the lost baby of Kangaskan? Yes it is. Look here, i found exact proof that it is so.



So I got a baby Kangaskan & a Cubone's head figure. I realized, "what would happen if i put the bone on the babys head?"

So i tried it, and this is what i got, a Cubone.
the color of the skin and eyes do not match, but it's a popular theory nonetheless. The anime also doesn't give baby Kangaskan those back spikes, but then again this is the same anime which is infamous for 'aim for the horn!' so take it with a grain of salt.
 
He did steal his starter pokemon...goin off the prior theory (which i think is brilliant), maybe he stole his starter, and takes the money he earns from other trainers (betting?). Shit maybe he hit it big at the game corner..Also he obviously didnt start out on the good side so he could have possibly made his own/stole and forged a trainer license (fake id).

Bill gates & Al Capone = both rich. Just one did it the good way and the other not so much...
Ok, then what about the opening of Platinum, where you and your childhood friend are going out to the local lake to find a veritable Red gyarados, but then you meet the Professor who just gives you a Pokemon without initially expecting to help you start your journey. Then your mom just gives you some running shoes and calls it a day until you see her again in Hearthome City? Since it wasn't written for your character to be ready to start a journey, I'd find it hard to believe that your mother would be able to fill out any forms or paperwork to hanlde a bundle of financial responsibility shortly before you walk into your first Pokemon Center/Pokemart the next town over.
 
Ok, then what about the opening of Platinum, where you and your childhood friend are going out to the local lake to find a veritable Red gyarados, but then you meet the Professor who just gives you a Pokemon without initially expecting to help you start your journey. Then your mom just gives you some running shoes and calls it a day until you see her again in Hearthome City? Since it wasn't written for your character to be ready to start a journey, I'd find it hard to believe that your mother would be able to fill out any forms or paperwork to hanlde a bundle of financial responsibility shortly before you walk into your first Pokemon Center/Pokemart the next town over.
In Platinum it opens up with your friend busting in your room telling you that yall should go to prof. rowan's to see if he will give you pokemon. So, on the way to the lab, your dumbass friend (who has never played pokemon red obviously), wants to run through the grass to get to the lab without a pokemon. That's when the prof. shows up and basically takes you and dumbass under his wing and assists you on your journey along with dawn.


sooo.. with that maybe the prof. is the one who sponsors you, since in that game he is more invovled with your journey than in the other games. You basically start out as his assistant (like Dawn) to fill up the pokedex, but when he sees you won a couple of badges he encourages you to win the league
 
my stealing of my starter/people's money (hell ya silver in da hood) reminds me very much of the creepypasta 'tarnished gold'.

several things happen in it, including:

- wild pokemon rarely appearing - potentially because of the aura of hatred that they can sense. animals are very perceptive when it comes to such things, and pokemon are said to be more intelligent than most animals - after all, they can understand commands given to them automatically, in any language, and require no prior training to do so - so this makes a lot of sense. the pokemon are said to run away on the first turn, and force themselves to faint if something like mean look is used to prohibit them from doing this.
i'm not that smelly, am i?
it could also explain why, despite complaining about how weak the 'mons are, unlike blue's, none are ever replaced.


- never actually winning the badges. the pokemon possessed are never quite strong enough to actually beat the leader, so stealing the badge, the money, and the loot from the leader after losing the battle is required in order to be able to use the hms necessary to proceed. it also worked against npcs who would give you items normally, like the bike.



but, yeah. considering the backstory and everything, it's entirely possible and even likely that the badges were stolen, not earned - when has the name 'silver' been on the statue signifying those who have beaten the leader, unless that was the name you chose for yourself?

the pasta is right here btw
i know that a pasta is more of a fanfic than a theory, but i figured it was relevant to the conversation.
 
my stealing of my starter/people's money (hell ya silver in da hood) reminds me very much of the creepypasta 'tarnished gold'.

several things happen in it, including:

- wild pokemon rarely appearing - potentially because of the aura of hatred that they can sense. animals are very perceptive when it comes to such things, and pokemon are said to be more intelligent than most animals - after all, they can understand commands given to them automatically, in any language, and require no prior training to do so - so this makes a lot of sense. the pokemon are said to run away on the first turn, and force themselves to faint if something like mean look is used to prohibit them from doing this.
i'm not that smelly, am i?
it could also explain why, despite complaining about how weak the 'mons are, unlike blue's, none are ever replaced.


- never actually winning the badges. the pokemon possessed are never quite strong enough to actually beat the leader, so stealing the badge, the money, and the loot from the leader after losing the battle is required in order to be able to use the hms necessary to proceed. it also worked against npcs who would give you items normally, like the bike.



but, yeah. considering the backstory and everything, it's entirely possible and even likely that the badges were stolen, not earned - when has the name 'silver' been on the statue signifying those who have beaten the leader, unless that was the name you chose for yourself?

the pasta is right here btw
i know that a pasta is more of a fanfic than a theory, but i figured it was relevant to the conversation.

wow that was long as shit..lol, but it was a very interesting read. Do you know of anymore good ones you could point me to, the only ones i've read was the ash coma and lavender town music ones.
 
Is Cubone the lost baby of Kangaskan? Yes it is. Look here, i found exact proof that it is so.



So I got a baby Kangaskan & a Cubone's head figure. I realized, "what would happen if i put the bone on the babys head?"

So i tried it, and this is what i got, a Cubone.

I like this theory; only problem is that the skull cubone wears doesn't exactly look like the head of Kanghaskan.
 
Well, the creature on a Slowbro's tail / Slowking's head doesn't really look like a Shellder. Maybe the baby Kangashkans and the skulls undergo some changes when they become Batman.
 

Mario With Lasers

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Here are several branches of the war theory from tumblr that I liked
It was really, really good until the Hoenn Rocket part because then it went to shit


Besides, a theory I really like is that the PokéDex is written by a ten-year old (read: you). Not that I think the main characters are 10-year-olds, but... this could explain a lot of things. What if the whole world of pokémon only seems so simple and straightforward and "trainer-oriented" because... you're a kid? This is why the routes seem so short, the cities so small, the world so based in Pokémon battles even though their technology is advanced enough to transform living creatures in data, lock them in weird mechanical balls AND send them to a "PC box".

Just like Cobraroll believes the anime is meta, I think the pokémon world is, in a sense, meta. It's a videogame with kids as its target audience, but also our perception of the world comes from a kid's eyes. The Pokémon world might as well be some Fallout-like dystopia but we'll never know because, for any kid living in that world, it's just some marvelous Pokétopia where everyone can control super-powerful monsters and yet the world hasn't gone to shit already.
 
I like the theory that Cubones are actually baby Charmanders whose tails failed to ignite. (It's a reasonably large image.) While I like the Cubone/Kangaskhan theory their skull shapes don't really line up.
 

Codraroll

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Oh, I can post in this thread all day long...

My revolutionary Cubone theory: Cubone are baby Cubone.

Yeah, it's a species of its own. Cubone or Marowak breed and hatch new Cubone. Just like in the games.

So, where are the skull and bone coming from? I think it is actually parts of its egg. Cubone and Marowak only lay one egg at a time, and abandon it shortly thereafter. The egg looks a lot like the skull of a larger animal, especially when half-buried in the ground in mountaineous areas along with many other skulls. The puropse of the peculiar egg is twofold: It both camouflages the nest, and provides the newborn Cubone with a thick piece of armour. Cubone can bury up to their shoulders in the sand when sleeping, protected underneath the solid helmet. Inside the egg, the Cubone fetus is also equipped with a bone. It has to use the bone to get out of the egg when hatching, and later carries it for self-defence.

As Cubone grows, the egg eventually fuses with its skull, and grows as Cubone gets bigger. Gradually, the egg is replaced with bone matter, meaning that it becomes a proper skull within months of its hatching. The bone grows too, becoming heavier. Both pieces of armour can regrow when damaged, to some extent. As Cubone evolves, so do the skull and bone.

Cubone are lonely Pokémon, rarely shown with neither mate nor offspring. This has led many people to believe that Cubone die upon laying eggs, sacrificing their life to give the cub a weapon and armour. As Cubone live in rocky and mountaineous areas, far from people, they haven't been studied properly until recently. Only then was it discovered that Cubone and Marowak indeed survive laying eggs (although it's extremely painful due to the shape of the egg). The discovery hasn't quite stamped out the old misconception that Cubone carry their mothers' skull, though, and it's still referenced as fact in a lot of literature. On the other hand, the skull they carry technically stems from their mother, although she will still have her original two intact.
 
Okay, didn't see that one here yet so might as well post it:

Wynayt's and Wobbuffet's main body is the tail.
The blue part is a fake body like a punching bag. Hence the bulk and the movepool (Counter, Mirror coat)

:D
 
I thought that was the canon. Well, a lot of the Dex entries talk about it hiding its tail:
"It desperately tries to keep its black tail hidden. It is said to be proof the tail hides a secret."
Was its tail never said to be its head outright?
 
Well, yeah, I read the dex entries on bulbapedia just to make sure that what I had read (edit: that the tails are their actual bodies) is not really a fact. Unless it is stated in a spin-off game or something, about which I know nothing about.

So yeah, afaik, it is implied but not explicitly stated.
 
Well, yeah, I read the dex entries on bulbapedia just to make sure that what I had read (edit: that the tails are their actual bodies) is not really a fact. Unless it is stated in a spin-off game or something, about which I know nothing about.

So yeah, afaik, it is implied but not explicitly stated.
It also makes sense with the eye location. The only thing is why it's mouth would be a part of the dummy, since it's a real mouth and not just for looks. Putting such an important feature in a place with theoretically no other purpose then to take hits doesn't make much biological sense. One would think the mouth should have been evolved and developed long before such a defense mechanism, and so wouldn't be a part of that mechanism. Then again, this is a video game, so anything goes I suppose.
 
It also makes sense with the eye location. The only thing is why it's mouth would be a part of the dummy, since it's a real mouth and not just for looks. Putting such an important feature in a place with theoretically no other purpose then to take hits doesn't make much biological sense. One would think the mouth should have been evolved and developed long before such a defense mechanism, and so wouldn't be a part of that mechanism. Then again, this is a video game, so anything goes I suppose.
Who ever said that Wobuffet eats with that mouth? it might not even lead to its stomach, and maybe it feeds on pebbles and dust mites through a mouth on its tail that nobody's ever seen. The entire body that we see may have been craft with a full face with recognizable features so it wouldn't look too alien. Pokeology.

EDIT-oh wait, there was an episode where it was shown to eat through its mouth. dammit.
 

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It still doesn't have to be its proper mouth, though. It could just be a great, empty cavity, and all the actual chewing, saliva production and stuff could be happening at its very bottom.

Otherwise, Wobbuffet's apparent mouth could actually be a proper mouth, just a very sturdy one. You see Pokémon being punched in the face all the time, and they're still able to bite and chew (Loudred being a prime example). Only Machamp appears to be the one taking measures against mouth-punching, foregoing its teeth for a "beak" upon evolution. Having teeth knocked out all the time would just be a hassle.
 
It still doesn't have to be its proper mouth, though. It could just be a great, empty cavity, and all the actual chewing, saliva production and stuff could be happening at its very bottom.

Otherwise, Wobbuffet's apparent mouth could actually be a proper mouth, just a very sturdy one. You see Pokémon being punched in the face all the time, and they're still able to bite and chew (Loudred being a prime example). Only Machamp appears to be the one taking measures against mouth-punching, foregoing its teeth for a "beak" upon evolution. Having teeth knocked out all the time would just be a hassle.
That's certainly plausible as to how it is able to function at present, but I'm questioning the likely-hood of such a system to evolve in the first place. (note that I realize this conjecture is entirely pointless but I find it very fun to think about so there.) The need for a mouth or other apparatus to take in and digest food sources almost certainly predated any defense mechanisms to take hits from enemy creatures. Thus the organism should have already developed a mouth before the large, blue 'sandbag' part of it, and there would be no reason to then transfer that mouth further away from it's other sensory devices (eyes, possible smell or sound detection systems, etc.). The first paragraph sounds interesting though, and I could see the mouth not being transferred so much as extended to maintain the deception of the 'sandbag', with as you say the actual chewing and digestion happening somewhere else.

As to many Pokemon taking facial hits, I suppose that in order to keep teeth in place they may simply have superior gum strength, or the teeth may be actually solidly attached to the rest of the skull. Although as Cubone's skull does not have teeth, that second idea is probably untrue.
 
Can this thread include Pokeology/the reasoning behind why certain species look the way they do? I'd love to talk about how a Pokemon's physique and type helps define the way it lives.
 
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