My Eevee originally wanted to become a Sylveon, but recently he resisted evolution so I let my Espeon talk to him to ask why and he now wants to become a Jolteon to impress another trainer’s Flaaffy he just met (literally, just met her yesterday). Can I discourage him from making such a hasty decision? She has shown no interest in him and I doubt the trainer is going to stay in town for much longer. He seems to just be blinded by “love”

Oh dear.

First and foremost, yes, you can discourage him from going through with this decision. But first, ensure that he has absolutely no way of coming in contact with thunderstone. Remove any source of it from your possession to ensure that your eevee doesn’t get impatient and sneak off with it himself.

Once you succeed in doing that, your best chance is to wait until the flaaffy and her trainer leave. Eevee can be stubborn when it comes to mating partners, so you’ll need to be patient. If it looks like they won’t leave for quite some time, however, work with the flaaffy’s trainer if you can to let your eevee continue with his attempts to woo her. Sometimes, getting rejected repeatedly with increasing fervor on the flaaffy’s part will trigger a decrease of interest in your eevee. Of course, do keep an eye on both pokémon to ensure that the flaaffy doesn’t do too much damage to your eevee.

Also, use the fact that you have an espeon to your advantage. As a fellow member of the eevee family, your espeon is in the best position to explain evolution to your eevee, as they will know how grave the decision is for their kind. If it looks like your eevee is growing restless to evolve, if he’s being particularly ornery over the denial of a thunderstone, or if his interest in flaaffy refuses to wane after a few days, have your espeon sit down and communicate with your eevee on what it means to evolve. If you have any other evolved pokémon, allow them to join in on the discussion.

If your espeon can’t convince him, however, try sitting down with him and explaining to him yourself that evolution is a process that should only be undertaken for oneself, if one is absolutely certain that the form they’ve chosen is right (as it’s irreversible and all). I would only try this as an absolute last resort to reason with him, as it sounds as if your eevee is set in his decision. Allow for time to whittle away at his interest first and then try to speak with him about it.

If, even after going through all of these options, your eevee still wishes to evolve into a jolteon for the sake of love, consider finding him a potential mating partner of a type that he can’t possibly evolve into (as far as we know at the moment). Glameow, for example. In the best case scenario with this option, your eevee will become too distracted by his new partner to care about the flaaffy. In the worst case scenario, you’ll be the discoverer of a new eeveelution.

Good luck, anonymous!