World-building the way Pokeballs work
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2022
- If Pokemon rebooted, could we get solid lore about how Pokeballs function? Can these details enhance the world of Pokemon and the game-play? Going into a world-building and game design deep dive, I attempt to answer to these questions.
Music by Wintergatan.
The "faint" animation of pokemon has always been them either shrinking (oftentimes obscured by light) or sinking into the ground.
Yeah, it's a hungry Dugtrio that grabs the fainted pokemon from below and pulls them underground so that it can eat them.
Every step you take is followed by a Dugtrio, waiting, biding it's time to eat whatever faints, wether those are wild pokemon or even trainers.
~Dugtrio, Dugtrio, Dugtrio, Dug, Trio~
The key question is why the loyalty of a Pokémon changes once caught. It was fighting me and breaking out of the ball a minute ago- now it does whatever I say. I always assumed the implication is that the ball actually redcalibrates its loyalty and becomes mine.
The terrifying question that Game Freak will do everything they can to avoid.
I’d say it’s more of acknowledging your strength. There’s some pokemon we see that refuse to get caught unless beaten to fainted state or the ball forces its capture, like the master ball.
@@Kyle-fp5lm So, They develop crippling fear of the trainer?
Have you consider the ball is just really nice? Poke balls are still made with apricots, maybe different combinations of apricot makes gives off different sensations, also it could be that it's the apricots that have the property to force minituaturization, some just take more time to succumb to the sensation.
@@jesusramirezromo2037 maybe? We’ve seem some example of what you’re talking about in the show I think.
I loved hearing that pokemon just shrink down, because while it seems insane on the surface we see pokemon literally shrink down all the time throughout the series... When they faint in the games. A small thing that has been dismissed as a gameplay shortcut suddenly became lore after decades is so incredibly silly I can't help but love it.
Mabey they shrink when they faint to protect them selves from death by nature until they heal and the Pokeballs triggers this defense mechanism to pull them in. that's why catching is more effective the lower their health and status are depending on their species or level effect vitality
weirdly, it was always a small point in early materials released alongside gen1, it was just considered way too silly until brought back (and also the serie shifted from "pokemon are special animals we are discovering" to "all animals are pokemons")
And stuff like the move Minimize shows that they can shrink as well through type-energy related shenanigans
But it's dumb, It's easier to explain the crystal used to craft Pokeballs transports them and captured them into energy
The anime even had an episode about an ancient PokeBall with a crystal on it that trapped souls
@@jesusramirezromo2037 Bruh it's magic cock fighting, it's always gonna be a little dumb you just gotta let it go.
from what i remember, i think in one of the games' lore the reason only few trainers consistently train + keep 6 pokemon at a time is because it can be incredibly difficult to have all 6. think of it as being like a service dog trainer or something, for unskilled people it could be really hard to train 6 different dogs at a time (and in pokemon, these arent dogs, theyre elemental creatures that would be even harder to control)
i don't really have a source for this though, and i may be misremembering, that's my bad if so! 😅
this video is very cool and i love discussing pokemon lore though. keep up the good work!
I actually really love this explanation, this is great! Thank you!
I think it's more like the Pokémon league regulated battling to be 6 Pokémon per trainer team.
I would like to add, perhaps pokeballs could be used only for very specific purposes. The first ones that come to mind are of course battling, but also research and mass/long distance transportation. People like ranchers or breeders don't actually have pokeballs for all of their Pokemon, but that's because they aren't needed.
Additionally, perhaps the catching process implements the trainer ID system that allows the trainer to command the Pokemon up to higher levels, and of course gives the OT higher priority over other people. Maybe the university account for the player has a hierarchy so that Pokemon moved between all of the games of one player has the same level priority, where as trades with other players lowers that priority.
This is really good, I did not consider these points.
I think it would be great to drive the idea in this world that these are creatures that have the right to be living out in the open, not commodities kept in storage. If your Pokemon are not in their pokeballs, people won't ask to battle you as a courtesy. Seeing a farmer only use a crate of pokeballs in order to move their flock to a new far away paddock instead of walking them makes sense as well.
I love this idea of having the university account interacting with the trainers on different levels. I knew that it would be part of the meta game-play / player experience to be managing and playing with this account. But you have opened my eyes just a little more in how that area could be gamified more!
@@RadioactiveMagicGamesi think if they can shrink at will, the balls might be designed to trigger that response as the binding nature of them (noted in b2w2) may be what makes it tough to break free
I really like how you went deep into the topic and gave it solutions that make sense! I really should watch all of your pokemon related videos
Mm, yes, indeed you should ;P
Not sure if it’s been said, but I think in Gen 2 an NPC mentions that the limit on party size is due to the trainer’s skill at “training” the Pokémon. In fact, I think the original name was more like “tamer” and that’s why some Gen 1 sprites had whips.
It makes sense when you remember that it’s usually the top tier trainers that have large parties, and since the main character is tasked to complete the Pokédex, they would also have more resources to collect Pokémon and send them to researchers.
Regarding trade evolutions, while I think some are artificially induced new evolutions not found in nature, Steelix is a perfect example of the expedited progress you described, as the conditions necessary for them to evolve in nature exceed a human’s life span.
Vulpix are similar, though they evolve by stone, rather than trading.
Good points! I'd love to see just a whole bunch more of these that the players could discover and even take advantage of!
@@RadioactiveMagicGamesi personally like the idea that the trading process has a "streamlining" or "compression" algorithm that can sometimes integrate compatible held items into the Pokemon's data, triggering an evolution.
In a hypothetical game for the reboot, having PC's be capable of "upgrading" pokemon via this data assimilation process would be a fascinating new rabbit hole of possible evolutions to go down,
@@RadioactiveMagicGamesactually, now that I think about it, that brings about a whole new ball park of revalations, such as why a pokemon would want to be "trained" in the first place,
I mean, It'd probably be a given for a trainer to, y'know, feed their pokemon in universe, but on another level, the DATA technology, mega evolution, and other branches of research done by humans could aid the pokemon themselves, providing new options that the pokemon might not have had otherwise, like tutors and new evolutions
Hi, regarding the rather absurd explanation given by Professor L…
That’s also the same explanation given by Professor Westwood in the “Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia” cited by Bulbapedia. So, this appears to have been the in-universe explanation since the book was published back in 1996, shortly after the first games were released in Japan.
It’s more consistent with the pokeballs represented in the manga, as those balls are semi-transparent and a trainer and their pokemon can visibly and audibly check in on each others, but the anime and games clearly don’t follow the same logic XD
Well there you have it! Good thing I just wanted to throw it all away and start again :P
Technically the Party screen for pixel era would be the most accurate representation since you can check your pokemon while they move
if you think about it, mew can learn minimize and it's also the ancestor of all pokemon so it's possible the pokeball could be triggering the mew DNA inside a pokemon to activate and force a pokemon to use minimize and the pokeball sucks them in from there.
Clever! I like it
But mew isn't the ancestor of all Pokemon, just the non legendaries
What about the creation trio and Arceus?
What I always wondered as a child was what happens to the balls Pokemon break out of. In the first season of the anime I believe I saw that a Pokeball returns to its user if the Pokemon escapes from it, but we all know that this isn't the case in the games. There must be thousands of broken Pokeballs lying along the wayside, or do trainers pick these up to bin them? Do these get recycled, or is there a Pokeball soup polluting the oceans of the Pokemon world, similar to our plastic soup?
Also, Damon and crew, congratulations that your channel is starting to do a lot better! I remember being your 40th subscriber with videos getting maybe tens of views, thinking you guys deserve better. I'm happy for you all that your hard work is slowly but surely paying off! Keep up the great work!
This makes me think that there would be a trash island floating in the ocean just covered in all the pollution Pokemon. Either that or "pokeball recycle bins" at the edges of towns and rangers going around fining trainers who don't pick up their trash.
And thank you! Yes we are very proud and happy at the boost! Hope it happens again / continues :P
Broken Pokeballs come alive and become Voltorb, obviously.
Failed pokeballs could teleport back to be recharged and resold. :)
Interesting to note, tech that detects abnormalities and "heals" them opens the door to a lot of scary ethics questions. For starters, who decides what is an "abnormality"? :3
Yeah... I didn't want to go down that rabbit hole but... you are not wrong!
And can it detect mental ones? Or just physical?
Imagine getting the first of a brand new species of pokemon and taking it to the pokecenter... only to have it bleed to death cause it's not registered by the League 💀
Well, I would have suggested it could have a sample of an healthy mon, and based on the specific part related to it's health, modify those data to bring it back to health. This also justify TM, as this idea is basically how CD can avoid losing data being having multiple part of the CD's data to use.
There's actually an explanation of 'the pokemon are doing the shrinking' thing. In fact the VERY first Pokedex stated it outright, depicting a Primeaoe curled up in a glasses case.
Exactly! It isn't brought up out of nowhere, it's technically established lore.
THIS WORLDBUILDING IS INCREDIBLE
The Pokémon shrinking detail actually is lore from the very beginning of the franchise in a Japanese exclusive Pokédex lore book
That explanation in Legends Arceus bugs me immensely because it doesn't align with what the franchise has been showing for the past 20 years and makes the professor look dumb and uneducated, but this is another where the anime greatly expands their history and Ovi made a small miniseries on the subject. It turns out that the pokemon world has a long history with such sealing devices with pokeball like structures being found to be hundreds to thousands of years old and still operable. The people of the pokemon world are master sealers due to sealing pokemon away being the first thing they developed so that they can have a proper civilization. These sealing practices were continually improved and developed over the years with them always going back to the iconic pokeball shape because they found it to be the most effective with the modern pokeballs being the latest iteration and extremely advanced magiktech complete with a host of handy features such as shrinking, a teleportation feature that can send them straight into cyberspace, a restorative feature, a even connecting to the pokedex for more accurate information gathering. Pokemon isn't just sci-fi it is sci-fi fantasy being right smack in the middle of that spectrum. In a figurative reboot I do expect these expansions to be folded in with the casual background revelation that the pokemon world is stupendously advanced and the only reason why things look the way they do is because they like the aesthetic. They had force fields and flying fortresses in the medieval ages and in the modern age time machines are not even news worthy. They are rather strange in terms of fictional versions of humanity in that they lack curiosity in anything that doesn't involve pokemon. They could have already made it to the center of the universe and explored the multiverse but they generally don't care to do so. Sorry for getting off topic there but the pokeballs aren't new ironically and are marvels of magic and technology to the point of being the most powerful sealing devices in all of fiction.
"They are rather strange in terms of fictional versions of humanity in that they lack curiosity in anything that doesn't involve pokemon." This is actually a really fantastic observation! It is really at the heart of the world-building. Not just "what if these creatures called Pokemon existed" but also "and humans were fixated on them almost exclusively".
@@RadioactiveMagicGames It really is a notable characteristic of poke-humanity beyond their nigh indestructibility and advancements. If it doesn't involve pokemon or affect their livelihoods they simply don't care which shows how highly they value the bonds between pokemon and humans. After all these eons they can't live without pokemon and pokemon can't live without them. Their entire world and civilization revolves around the relationship and bonds between the two.
my headcanon is that Pokémon hold themselves together at a molecular level using some form of magical energy and pokeballs just use some sort of electromagnetic field to temporarily disrupt that holding together and compact all of the Pokémon’s intangible and tangible data so it can fit in the ball
Could be. Magic exists in abundance in the Pokémon world. These people like Avery who can use telekinesis and no one bats an eye.
I absolutely love this series, can't wait for the next episode!
Since the game's code assigns each pokemon their own individual "catch rate" number to determine how easy it is to capture them, that could indicate the "stability" of the energy that species possesses/the regularity of their individual energy pattern. Then the level of chaos in their energy signature could also correlate to their power levels (stats). Pokemon like Zapdos would have a chaotic energy signature with changing patterns so that the PokeBall has a hard time matching/locking onto it, kind of like the police trying to track a phone call. The presence of more energy might also overwhelm the pokeball's internal technology. Weaker pokemon have more manageable energy levels for the tech to handle with simple patterns that are easy to lock onto. Humans cannot be caught because they have no energy signature at all to be locked onto, which is also why they cannot use the powerful moves pokemon use. When a Pokemon's energy is expended to the point of "fainting", their energy signature either is too faint for the technology to detect, or lacks enough of a regular pattern for the tech to lock onto. Sleeping, paralyzation, etc. slow their movement, making a less chaotic pattern. Entering battle makes a pokemon's energy more chaotic, like adrenaline, so balls with specialized interior environments can calm a pokemon that feels they've escaped into their natural environment, or a place where they feel unthreatened. The Master Ball could contain a complicated expensive algorithm that is linked to the Pokedex library so that it can automatically generate the most ideal environment for any creature (this makes it impractical to mass produce).
I LOVE THIS!!! Yes this would work really well.
I'm going to pretend this is lore now
I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this already, but shortly after Red and Green were released, an official guide actually explains what caused the invention of Poké Balls. Apparently a Primeape shrunk itself down into a researcher's glasses case, which gave them the idea of creating Poké Balls. It's obviously been reconnected by PLA, but it's still very interesting to me.
Remember that episode in the early anime when ash and Gary are fishing on opposite sides of the river. A pokeball is in the water and they both latch on to it. Being stubborn they struggle to pull the pokeball away from the other. The pokeball snaps and breaks into 2 pieces.
When I was a kid I was super sad because I thought there was a Pokémon in there and they killed it by destroying its pokeball. What happens when a Pokémon ball breaks? Adult me now thinks it's more likely the pokeball was empty and fell out of someone's bag. I have so many questions about pokeballs 😮
There was an early anime episode that explained that too. When Ash broke Snorlax's Poké Ball, Snorlax was forced out of the ball, so Ash spends the entire episode struggling to get Snorlax to follow him to the nearest Center to get the ball repaired.
On the subject of pokemon battles being compared to dog fighting.
For most pokemon, NOT "battling" (read as "play fighting") is worse for their physical and mental health than actual life or death combat.
Pokemon are [Blood Knights], they crave combat like we crave "play".
Pokemon battles are a required form of enrichment to all but the most passive of individual pokemon.
From the ferocious Hydreigon to the cowardly Whimpod, they all want to grow stronger, and fighting is the best way to do that. With the exception of stones and trades, their "evolution" (metamorphosis) is entirely connected to battle through leveling up.
Rare candies are incredibly special because they provide a full level without combat, and are likely in high demand for passive pokemon.
This actually plays into the whole consent thing. The anime in particular shows consent to be a required part of catching Pokemon. Battling to prove your strength is just one way to get that consent. This is why many people had issues with Goh and his instant catches. Also, why as fun as it is, the catching in Legends Arceus put some people off.
Very underrated channel. Really enjoy the implications and all. Hope your channel grows quickly!
Thank you!!
Pokeballs do not store as data, they store as Energy. we can see reflectors inside the ball, presumably used to bounce the stored energy back and fourth. and the PC stores them in a physical location by teleporting the ball away.
Hey I loved this sci-fi deep dive. The more world building the better!
Another great video as always! Keep them coming!
1:17 A guy ODed a Primeape on tranquillizers. It's in the Gen 1 era Lore Book.
This channel deservers more views! I watched the playlist so far and im impressed with amount of research and thought you put into your videos!
You went a very different route than I did when I pondered this question!
Years ago I did a ton of worldbuilding because I wanted to write my own Pokemon story, set in a version where all of the questions are answered. I latched onto the idea of "magical Pokemon" by starting with the idea: "You can't 'shoot lightning' physically, so what is it that a Pikachu is actually projecting at a foe?"
Things went from there and I basically tied all the unexplained elements of Pokemon to a base idea of Pokemon being supernatural (thought I won't explain how they're supernatural here), and the technology that humans use are the limited handles they have for dealing with them. I also like that this allows Pokeballs to be very simple/cheap devices, because they're acting on a set of physics in a similar way that insulation acts on hot objects.
One of my favorite ideas that unfolded from this was a explanation as to why there are no/very limited guns in this world: Pokemon don't have internal organs like we'd recognize them, so they have basically no effect on them. The best defense against the lethal "fire" of a Charizard is your Blastoise's "water."
(And yes, the quotation marks are very intentional here. To put it simply, Pokemon are trying to mimic how our world works. And for a damn good reason...)
Interestingly, the Box system in most pokemon games is already limited depending on how many badges you have (you start with 8 I believe), and then get more as you go. But as it's so high at the start players probably don't notice this all that often . So it would probably be easy enough to just tighten this system a bit more, like starting with the one box and going from there.
What? Is this true? I had no idea!!! Then yes I would absolutely (and greatly) restrict this to an actually noticeable degree :P
@@RadioactiveMagicGamesI double checked and it looks like the boxes are unlocked by placing pokemon in each box (you do start with 8 though). as getting more pokemon and going through the gyms is so connected I thought it was the badges that unlocked more. So functional if you changed it to badges it wouldn't change game flow much
@@sarahwilkins8664 ah fair enough, thanks for checking!
So the Pokemon Shrinking down thing may seem like a handwave but it's been there since the beginning of the series in one of the very early books about how Professor Westwood's beloved Primeape nearly OD'd on a sedative and he found it sleeping in his glasses case
But the Legends Arceus thing ISN'T a contradiction. The Gen 1 Pokedex Book from 1996 literally spells out the Pokemon shrinking ability thing, and it was directly mentioned by a character in the Canalave Library in Platinum. Both Game Canon Lore.
And that's not even getting into that BOTH Pokemon Adventures AND The Electric Tale of Pikachu went with it.
And that Gen 1 Lore Book is also where it's directly stated that Nidoqueen's are sterile, so they do look at it from time to time even if a few details about real world locations no longer check out
It's my head-canon that the inside of every pokeball is the same space; an enormous open world based with every pokemons favoured terrain, with everything they need to live happily. Pokeballs are just portable doorways to that world. The loyalty to the trainer comes from the appreciation of the trainers strength, and the fact that the Pokemon realise that now they've been caught, their lives will be full of meaning, satisfaction, free food and safety.
I remember seeing episodes of pokemon where they had to wash and brush and maintain their pokemon so i always assumed the reason why most trainers have like 2 or 3 pokemon is because thats how many someone can realistically take care of
You know, the "Legally can't have more than 6 pokemon" rule really doesn't need to be there. Just because Joey COULD go catch a bunch of rattata, doesn't mean he wants to. Or that he could take care of them. I'm completely in my right to have three dozen dogs, but that doesn't mean I want that many. There's probably laws in place that make sure you let your pokemon out of the PC and their pokeballs enough, but beyond that?
More likely, the reason people only have so many pokemon is a mix of "This is the amount I want to/can reasonably handle raising." and "We're in the middle of the forest. I want to keep a couple pokemon ready just in case a beedril decides to come at me."
My take is that modern pokeballs create a simulation of the caught pokémon's perfect habitat, regardless of the ball's quality; the exterior only affects the catchrate, not the simulation.
This is an interesting video and I hope you keep making more. Perfect video to enjoy watching with late night poptarts. You make a great Pokémon proffesor 🎉
Actually legends Arceus didn't create that lore for the pokéball. In a guide only released in Japan after Red and Green released there was a short snip bit mentioning how Pokémon had the ability to shrink down and that pokéballs used that to catch them. It also had a lecture from professor Oak about pokémon
I always thought of trade evolutions as a sort of mutation, like the metal coat gets amalgamated into the pokemon or Machoke grows extra arms, which explains why they don't exist in nature (except when they do like Steelix in DPPt). A bit gruesome though perhaps!
The teleport pads obviously work by a Alakazam hiding behind the wall teleprting whoever steps on it
I absolutely Love the idea that badges are your permission as a trainer to have more pokemon. That makes all kinds of sense narratively, as world building, and as a mechanic. It also gives more meaning to the whole Pokemon league and gyms existing at all, it's a certification program of sorts, maybe even tied to universities? I like that idea
my thought on “why don’t people own teams of 40 strong pokemon” is the time and cost to care for so many creatures that have such vastly different needs. an average person doesn’t own a dozen gyrados because they can’t care for all of them. having two or three might just be all they can handle.
Always figured most people didn't have 6 pokemon because taking care of 6 large animals would be very difficult
It's also a great reason for type specialities! Pokemon of the same type likely have similar needs, taking care of a bunch of water types is much easier than taking care of a diverse team
This would be really fantastic worldbuilding that I wish was brought up in the games... at all. It would be great to hear trainers talk about this and the issues they faced about caring for their Pokemon.
"Dude, I'm so sad. I had to let my Gyarados go because it just has a wildly different diet to the rest of my water Pokemon!"
God it would be!! Full disclosure I got this take from a tumblr post about detective pikachu, but I still love it a lot, it would be a great way to make pokemon feel more like actual creatures who need love attention and care
I feel that laws in place restricting people to no more than six Pokemon work really well, but they don't need to go beyond that. The reason most people don't carry a full team of six could be that training that many magical beasts into pristine fighting shape would be an immense effort, even for criminal organizations. Only those most dedicated to and talented at battling go that far, such as our player character.
Additionally, the vast majority of trainers we see in-game only carry one or two Pokemon at a time. I always assumed this was because they aren't proper trainers. They are just people taking their pets out for the day, and a controlled battle can be enriching to their Pokemon.
Great video btw, the Pokemon world is rife with interesting ideas that don't get explored.
1. It's been stated (I can't recall where) that the different grades of Pokeballs, relate to comfort quality inside.
Does this mean Pokemon in Pokeballs are the equivalent of caged hens? That's a terrible way to treat your first pet/ best friend, and these are given out by Professors!
I definitely prefer your idea of build quality; the logic could be it reads and converts DATA faster so Pokemon are caught faster and therefore less likely to escape.
2. Pokemon Amie, Poni Island and Camps are sparse spaces that appear removed from time with limited features. How much more exciting would it be to actually enter the world of the PC?!
Theres an infinite space (in world, PKMN Home needs to be sold somehow) where they could add in anything without much extra logic.
If the concern is new environments, then just reuse the locations where you found the PKMN with a bluish flickering hue. So the "ideal environments" are recreated but with only PKMN you've caught, so a virtual Zoo.
If happiness is kept in the game, it can be increased by leaving PKMN in a box with friendly species and suitable biomes.
3. The licenses make a lot of sense, it would also explain the complete lack of team diversity. "I'm only licensed to fish Magikarp, Milotic are a protected species so that would be years of training and another license. I ain't got time for that!"
4. Further to what you mentioned; number of species could instead be based on the number of fully evolved/ max friendship PKMN, to demonstrate they can look after a variety of creatures. Eg 1 fully happy/ evolved PKMN allows the player to collect 20 species, it would directly motivate players to use a variety of Pokemon in order to catch them all.
What the badges could do is allow the player to capture certain protected species; powerful/ mythical PKMN based on the gym. "Congrats on beating the Fire Gym! You may now capture Fire types of special scientific interest. Not that I believe them, but a kid said they saw a Ho-Oh flying past the forest full of Spearow. As a qualified researcher, if you see it, you may capture it" If there were ever themed gyms, like 'Fencing' then the Swords of Justice and Zacian/ Zamazenta
5. I do wish they removed the need for trade evolutions; new players have no way of knowing the PKMN was supposed to evolve, especially if the evolution is new. It could just be reach X level whilst holding Y item. What if in game trainers gave you trade items as prizes and offered to trade with you in order to evolve a PKMN of theirs. "I saw you had a Dusclops, I have a REAPER CLOTH. I can help you evolve much faster if you help me evolve my Haunter by trading. I'll beat you next time for sure!" NPCs only ever give money as prizes, which struck me as odd. In an economy as broken as PKMN, why would people accept that and not use items as prizes instead?
1. Yeah when you think about it too hard (like a lot of things in Pokemon) things gets worse!
2. Oh my god! I didn't even THINK about how this would mean that a player could turn themselves into DATA in order to visit their Pokemon IN THE PC! That is awesome! Love the idea of being able to customise those digital spaces too!
3. Yes there could be so many more levels to a license beyond what I talked about here. Endangered species conservation is absolutely one of them!
4. Interesting ideas!
5. Under a reboot, I think if the designers approached the idea with a mindset of "unique evolution conditions" as opposed to "trade evolutions" then it instantly opens up the space for a lot of new things. Learning those things from NPCs would be fantastic as well so players will actively seek out what they might reveal.
I like the idea of different styles and types of liscences, and this could actually give Trainer Classes an in-universe presence!
"I've got an ace trainer liscence" "I've got a psychic Liscence" etc.
not to mention the different balls’ lore. Maybe the ultra ball could branch into why they’re originally custom made for Ultra beast catching
Ultra Balls have a huge H on them because their proper name is Hyper Ball - Ultra Ball is just Unovan slang for that model because we think it sounds cool.
Mabey they shrink when they faint to protect them selves from death by nature until they heal and the Pokeballs triggers this defense mechanism to pull them in. that's why catching is more effective the lower their health and status are depending on their species or level effect vitality
When you say reboot you must be referring to a hard reboot, which could potentially happen soon. However there have already been at least a couple of soft reboots already, gen 5-8 and now gen 9, gen 5-8 are a soft reboot to the series which rebooted gen 1-4 and now gen 9 is a soft reboot of gen 5, which presumably means gen 10-12 will be reboots to gen 6-8. Again possibly a hard reboot with gen 10 or 11 but as late as gen 12 or 13.
Fun fact: the last trade evolution was introduced in X and Y (Trevenant and Gourgeist) and in Legends Arceus the made an item to evolve trade evolution (a literal ingame link cable)
My only issue here is that it's established that Bill jury-rigged the PC item storage to store Pokémon, not the other way around. That's why when you access it, it's SOMEONE'S PC or BILL'S PC. You're literally accessing Bill's own server in the item storage system, which he's set up to be able to accommodate Pokémon, or more likely, to accommodate Pokéballs as an item and read their data to show you details about the Pokémon inside.
Lore-wise, I'd assume Pokémon can't be easily duplicated because it's set up to store the item of "Pokéball" and then *access* the data inside it. The data about the Pokémon isn't in the PC at all, but rather just that there is a Pokéball there that the PC can read from for more info. Duplicating the data of a Pokéball just gives you an empty Pokéball, or possibly a corrupt one because it expects to find certain data inside it but doesn't. This may even be the origin of BAD EGG, simply the way Bill has programmed the PC to display Pokémon information that isn't valid.
I do think there's precedent for pokeball technology being used to transport items as well. After all, we find dropped items on the ground inside of what look to be pokeballs, to a point where multiple species of pokemon mimic the look of a pokeball as part of their survival/hunting strategy.
The premise of matter-energy conversion is basically how Star Trek explains its transporter and a related device called a replicator. So in the realm of sci-fi fandom, you’re right on the money.
The transporter stores molecular patterns in a “pattern buffer,” like what you called DATA.
One Star Trek character, who was shipwrecked, jury-rigged a pattern buffer to store himself inside indefinitely (it’s only supposed to hold for a few seconds) - he was rescued 70 years later, having not aged a day. He wasn’t conscious for the time, so it’s not quite like a Ball. Also, if something goes wrong with the device and the pattern is lost, the character dies, which is much darker than what Pokémon would allow.
A more obscure example is one of the Star Trek video games, a FPS, explains that you store your extra weapons in a portable pattern buffer.
It was unorthodox in Star Trek for transporters to be used to heal someone, but they could influence the state of objects in their buffer. If a firearm is in there, the transporter can disable it (or not materialize it at all).
Pokeballs can actually capture items, as seen in the original tv series when Ash tries to catch a mankey and gets a riceball instead.
Also, lost items are stored in Poké Balls
Underrated TH-camr.
Take my sub dude, I was looking for a vid like this. Due to researching for a fanfic I have in mind. Keep up the great work!
Also could you perhaps dive into how people, who are not friends with a regional professor. Become pokemon trainers, along with the trials and tribations a trainer with no sponsor has to deal with?
Cheers! Glad you enjoyed!
Indeed that is an interesting topic. I lightly alluded to this with that line about trainers reacting to your Pokedex mission and special licence but that does beg the question: what is life like for them? Is that an actually engaging experience that players might enjoy the challenge of?
I don't think I have time to do an episode on it but I do want to bring this up at some point!
In the Pokemon adventure's manga there's actually something similar to your "DATA Transport Pad" given to Crystal well everyone else just has to carry extra mons back with them
Yeash I love videos like this :D
Cheers! I love making them! :D
My headcannon is that Pokemon are creatures that are extremely good at converting matter into energy and vise versa. The Poke Ball hijacks this to turn the entire Pokemon into energy in the form of light to store them. Transporting Pokemon via the PC could be done by having the Pokemon transform itself and the Poke Ball into electricity to be sent through telephone wires.
Trading could transfer a small amount of energy between the Pokemon, causing certain Pokemon to evolve, and a professor of a given region could study this specifically, the same as Rowan studied energy given off when Pokemon evolve.
Here’s my take on trade evolutions:
You know how friendship evolutions require a strong bond between a Pokemon and another individual (usually their trainer, but not always the case) to happen? Well, I think trade evolutions are the opposite: instead of being triggered by a surge of positive emotions, they are triggered by a surge of negative emotions. To an average everyday captured Pokemon, the easiest way to trigger such emotions would be their trainer trading them to another like property.
This is why some trade-evolved Pokemon are so aggressive-looking. Machoke, for example, took its trading so badly it grew an extra pair of arms. It’s not that the trade triggers the evolution, just that it’s the easiest way to do so.
The existence of Trade Evos in the wild implies a method outside of trading
Machoke grew extra arms in the wild cause it got dumped and found a new partner.
I’m surprised at your comments regarding how PLA’s take on Pokémon “shrinking” as a cop out. I think the reason the shrinking terminology is used is because Laventon is wrong. Pokeballs have only just been invented, so his observations made me feel that it was supposed to be an allusion to how many old theories from back in the day eventually became outdated because of assumptions or new information. If you read the first Pokedex’s entries you can get a similar vibe as well. Especially for the Porygon and Magnemite lines imo.
I do agree with you though! I also wish we got a better explanation; as well as more intricate worldbuilding in general. Pokémon is on a gold mine of potential in regards to making a truly unique and magical place but. Game Freak just drops the ball 9 times out of 10. The only good & interesting lore we’ve gotten so far is from Gen 7’s Alola and MAYBE Sinnoh.
ANYWAYS… on another note: I think the answer to how Pokémon & Pokeballs work can be explained just like most of the universes’ forms of technology. The Pokémon universe is a world or worlds were humans have invented various technology used to warp or access other dimensions. Think about it.
Everyone always makes the joke of how Pokémon protagonists’ bags are never ending; because LOL how would a bike fit in the pockets. But if trainer bags work in a similar manner to a DND bag of holding; it makes all the sense in the world.
Bill invented the PC storage system which not only houses your Pokémon not in your party of six; but teleports them on demand whenever you access the service in The Pokémon Center’s computer. Pokeballs themselves might work in a similar manner. There’s a whole little pocket dimension in there.
If you really want to get meta though; maybe Pokémon are called Pokémon or “Pocket Monsters” to begin with are BECAUSE the Pokémon themselves can easily access or utilize similar dimension related shenanigans. I mean there’s multiple instances of Pokémon getting power boosted depending what “game universe” they’re in, like Deoxys. And we also know Pokémon are highly susceptible to weird dimension shifting via getting more powerful/volatile like the Ultra Beasts in SuMo or the normal Pokémon that show up in those other universes in UsUm.
Long post is long but. Hopefully my wall of text is understandable. XD
Long posts are fine by me! The reason I find "Laventon is wrong" a pill a little hard to swallow (if otherwise perfectly acceptable) is that he has such readily accessible materials to make the Pokeballs himself as well as all the people around him who actually do. If he is wrong and it is in fact the balls doing the work... then he should have been quickly re-informed.
However, I would totally be fine with all Pokemon (and people) utilising dimension related shenanigans! It would just also be nice if that was actually utilised in a coherent fashion across the franchise. I think it would be very fun if, when handed your backpack they said: "oh don't worry about running out of space, I had an Abra install a pocket dimension in it. You could fit a whole bike in there!" I live for those kinds of details :P
Let the Mystery Dungeon world float in your brain and it could easily be the pocket dimension that Pokemons enter lmao while in the ball they are rescuers
The topic of Porygon begs a question that I've struggled with for souls in my own magic system. You can't make energy out of nothing, so where does this innate energy come from when a baby is born? Answering that could be an interesting detail that contextualizes both baby pokemon/eggs and the Porygon line, maybe even Mewtwo.
there converted into energy,, the shaking of the pokeball we see is that energy bouncing around inside the ball via mirrors inside,, its considered a good capture when the energy is finally stabilized ! or the pokeball has gotten attuned to the energy of the captured Pokémon.
But would a Materball have stuff inside it to have a Pokemon always consent or does the Pokemon not need to consent and that no energy is left for the Pokeball to detect or latch on to if the Pokemon has fainted? Also, when moving the Pokemon to a new Pokeball, does the Pokemon try to evolve however it can even if it can't perfectly replicate the lingering data? In Pokemon Brilliant Diamond the D.A.TA Transport Pad is more advanced because it gives you the option to replace on of the 6 party Pokemon or to send the caught Pokemon in the Box on a PC. I'm pretty sure the Pokedex has something to do with why Ash would use a trading machine instead of trading by hand.
cool video
LA didn't made up the whole "Pokemon can shrink" thing
This has been Canon since Gen1, it was in a lore book and also shown in many of the comics. All LA did was spit it out in the most obvious "you-can't-miss-it" exposition to make sure everyone is aware that that was how PokeBalls have always worked since day 1. Cuz most people make up their own head canon and then get mad that the actual canon contradicts what they belive.
Also wasn't this implied to be the reason why wild Pokemon cannot be caught when beaten down? Because they would shrink down and got lost in the grass (where you would ecounter them)
They are heavily implied through the original design and pokemon ranger that it spins a light.
Since souls and people with magical superpowers canonically exist as part of the pokémon worldbuilding lore and we know ancient humans have been building pokeballs from apricots since ancient times, I've personally always assumed that the mechanical principles of pokeballs are based on sorcery rather than technology. All the weird gameplay quirks just make a lot more sense if you assume pokémon trainers are basically wizards capturing magical beasts to become their familiars.
In this theory, pokeballs are enchanted to capture a pokémon by converting them to spiritual energy and then forcing a magical obedience geas on them. This brainwashing spell only works on a conscious pokémon, which is why you can't just knock them out first. The spell also only binds the pokémon to the trainer who originally captured them, which is why traded pokémon can still disobey.
I agree with the idea that transferring pokémon into PCs is a recent invention. I think that the reason digitized pokémon can't be "edited" or "copied" is because the data is entangled with their soul, and you can't just copy or edit a soul like a mundane computer file. Not that pokémon researchers aren't trying, porygon is definitely the result of research into creating artificial pokémon souls.
I also agree with the idea that teleporters and pokeballs are fundamentally the same magitechnology. Which is exactly the reason that teleporters haven't been widely adopted by the public at large; everyone know that pokeballs brainwash pokémon, and are justifiably paranoid about being brainwashed by the teleporters. Silph Co's marketing department has so far had little success in convincing potential customers that uploading their souls into Silph's company servers is completely safe and cannot be hacked by malicious actors.
As for why most people in the pokémon world only have a couple of pokémon. I like to believe that it's because of there are laws regulating that pokémon cannot be stored in pokeballs or PCs long-term as that's considered animal neglect/abuse. You have to regularly let them out of the balls and take care of them, and doing that for six pokémon is more work than the average person wants to deal with. And if you want to own more than the legal personal carry limit of 6, you need to provide a suitable environment with human caretakers where they can roam freely. Generally the only way for non-wealthy people to fulfill this requirement is to pay a pokemon daycare facility. The player character usually gets around this regulation by working for a pokémon professor who has a staff of research assistants who care for the pokémon in your storage boxes.
What about that one part in earlier episodes of indigo league where ash had tiny poke balls but pressed on the button and they turned big?
That's just part of the storage function of poke balls, they shrink down and magnetize to the belt as well
A year late but here's my idea
You CAN catch as many pokemon as you want but if the Police catch you with more than 6 on your person they force you to release down to 6 and then put a mark on your record and perhaps even limit your pokemon owned down to 1, this matters since many of these trainers are using their pokemon for their families jobs and endeavors.
Another option is to have trainers registered under different rankings. Like 80% of the trainers you meet are Regional Trainers which is essentially an uncertified minor trainer in the area, this explains Youngsters and the like that you run into who are younger than you but you just became the legal age to be a trainer. These Regional Trainers can only have 6 Pokémon registered to Their names at a time any more and police come a knocking, but You The Player, Higher Tier Trainers like Veterans, Ace Trainers, Sages (and a few other Trainer Classes) Gym Leaders and Rivals are "National Trainers" and thus have access to the new Boxing System invented by Bill. Meaning all those Ranchers and Bug Catchers and Young Children and Bird Trainers ect are all just having fun but you and a few others persue Pokémon training as a Job. This allows for the logical fallicy of Jimmy on Route 2 having a Rattata and a Pidgey only cause he only has 6 spots since he's not certified but Ace Trainer Eric on Route 49 having a full team of six like yours
Greetings! I wanted to ask how can I go about using some of your thoughts in this video about pokemon, and the way pokeballs work for my own video?
honestly, I would love a Pokemon game that starts with the prof. monolog... but is interrupted like "welcome to the pokemon world, a world where monsters have magical powers and we use Pokeballs to capture and train them. Today we are examining the latest addition to the Pokeball and..... *sigh* your.... your not interested in all the small details are you? Shall we just leave the small things to the professors then? yah.... yah I think we shall, lets start your journey shall we?"
1:24 the light thing is what I’m most curious about. What’s the light they’re converted into?
Now being everyman in pokeworld would equal to hating protagonist, I love it!
The idea that Pokémon need to conscious in order to go into a ball is contradicted by the fact that they can be captured while asleep
This is totally fair, though in my mind, you can wake up from being asleep, there is conscious activity (sort of). But you can't just wake up so easily when you're *knocked unconscious*.
@@RadioactiveMagicGames True but if you catch on while its asleep they remain asleep in their ball and still when you send them out again.
@@umwha I'll admit... you got me there!
@@RadioactiveMagicGames Great content by the way, I just discovered it last night.
Trade evolutions were always _implicitly_ a case of data corruption, the Pokemon's final _natural_ state (Machoke, Graveler, Haunter) getting corrupted into a more powerful and more alien form during the long-distance transfer to another game.
Consider how Gastly and Haunter have the same basic design, with Haunter being a more menacing version that adds hands. Gengar meanwhile is a doppelganger of Clefairy/Clefable and bears little resemblance to Haunter. Consider how Golem has a reptilian head and limbs more in line with the Machop family while Geodude and Graveler both had their face on the main round rock, and Graveler has _more_ arms than Golem does; meanwhile Machamp has extra arms as though it got those from another monster. Abra and Kadabra have tails, while Alakazam lacks a tail and is named after a different magician word. How Scyther and Onix need to be holding onto a Metal Coat item, then merge with it during transit.
This was all so _obvious_ to me at the age of ten that I marvel at the age of thirty-five how so many people manage to find it confusing.
Accelgore and Escavalier are the best examples of this gimmick being done thoughtfully, showing how the Gen 1 trade evolutions were clearly _intended_ to work all along. Conkeldurr is the best example of this being done _thoughtlessly and arbitrarily_ , as it's clearly the logical follow-through of its line's natural progression and the only reason it's a trade evolution at all is because it's the Gen 5 "equivalent of" Machamp from Gen 1, as Gen 5 is a sort of a soft reboot of the first games. Thus, these three lines show the mixed bag dichotomy that was Gen 5 at its best and worst simultaneously.
Slowkings existance is just bit head cause it wore a crown lmao
But apricorn balls exist. Wasn't this a huge sideplot in Gen 2? Some schmuck in the woods making pokeballs "the traditional way"?
In the lucario movie they go back in time and use hollowed out aprocorns or something so I dunno how that would tie in buut I did enjoy this theory
Oh right lol fair good stuff man
My guess is that humans of the pokemon world - with their clearly demonstrated ability to learn psychic or fighting moves, and far superior strength and durability to ours, are themselves pokemon relatives the same way ultra beasts are, and simply have pitiful movepools and special attack stats.
And the reason pokeballs blatantly control pokemon and yet aren't considered fully abusive is that the pokeball more or less enhances these humans' natural telepathy. It's how they can speak plainly in their native language and convey what they mean to an animal. It's a mild mind linking sympathy device.
This is more or less how ranger styluses in the same universes are stated to work, just with omission of the possibility that these items have to be wielded by a human and enhance that human's mild psychic ability.
I feel like the idea that allowing a capture requires consent shuts off so much plot potential.
I imagine it more like a lotus eater situation or analogous to trying to stay up and work while dead tired.
Each catch attempt "tempts" them with a taste of a psychologically comforting sleep-like state, and giving in for too long seals their fate.
i always found it odd how in HG/SS they start experimenting with not keeping Pokémon in their balls all the time, but having them follow the player. why if the Pokéballs are perfect little terrariums?
add on in HGSS that Elm mentions pokemon used to WALK as pokeballs didn't exist...so...did legends arceus basically undo what Elm said?
Im not too big a fan of shrinking mon, id rather their balls have been somehow hightech mumbo jumbo in the present post apricot Kurt & have a digimon situation with them by your side for the past as a sign of trust as follower Pokemon.
but like, wasnt an onigiri caught in a pokeball at one point in the anime
I hope he do types next please 🥺
;)
Yeeeeeesssssss🙏😍😇👑😃☺️🙃👁️👄👁️
I honestly, for whatever reason, have been eating my head thinking about how Pokeballs work and the ethics of them, how the creatures themselves feel about them and such, I don't know
It's a fair concern, so much so that Game Freak has put effort to sweep it under the rug somewhat.
@@RadioactiveMagicGames yeah, and it is a bit annoying. They've never truly explained how they're like for the creatures themselves, but as they say they're supposed to be comfortable, but isn't it for instance lonely there? And I wonder as well what happens when a mon is returned through that beam
Are you a member of Team Magma?
I don't think the actual mechanics of how pokeballs work will ever be explained. There just isn't an answer they can give that won't look bad in some way. Nintendo and the Pokemon company are very, VERY cautious about anything that might hint towards the reality of the games. Which is that you are capturing animals for the purpose of forcing them to fight each other. Any explanation is going to have a downside and in some way and will likely invoke parallels to that line of thinking. So we will never get that answer.
I've always kind of disliked the popcorn kernel mechanics of modern pokeballs.
If you know you know.
I have an idea about what the world was like before pokeballs if you want we can chat on discord about it.
Honestly, I would love to see those ideas shared here in the comments to my videos to help encourage more people to discuss their thoughts too. Although I might not catch every comment, I love to see people engage with my content and each other. I really appreciate your enthusiasm Jesse! Show me what you got! :D
@@RadioactiveMagicGames how about people used balms to tame wild until 500 years ago and since not many people knew how pokeballs worked they assume they shrink themselves to fit inside.
I'll admit, I think using balms would make for an interesting part of the history of taming Pokemon. Or even if it was a method used by one culture while other cultures had their own methods.