May I ask what pokemon would be good to give as a first Pokemon to my disabled younger brother. (He uses a wheelchair because he can’t move his legs at all.) We live in Unova, but my sister and uncle travel a lot so we could get Pokemon from other regions, too. He’s going to be eight.

First and foremost, at the risk of stating the obvious, never use a service pokémon as a starter. I know this should stand to reason, but many people give their wheelchair-bound or otherwise disabled pokémon they believe can perform both functions. The problem with doing so, however, is in the fact that service pokémon should never be allowed to battle, as a fainted or injured service pokémon is not a pokémon that can do its job. Thus, if its human needs it during or immediately after a battle, it won’t be available to perform, which rather unfortunately defeats its purpose as a service pokémon.

That having been said, most likely, your brother should consider getting a service pokémon in addition to a starter, and he certainly can do so without having the former apply to his six-pokémon limit. That is to say, your brother can have a service pokémon in addition to a full team of six, and in that case, which one he chooses should be specific to his case. Very likely, he can work with one of several government or medical organizations to determine which one would be the best fit for him.

With all of that in mind, which starter would be best for him depends on what his interests are and whether or not your sister or uncle can get quite literally any pokémon for him. I do recommend against more energetic pokémon, such as fighting-types or some fire-types, however. While your brother may be able to handle these as he continues on his journey, giving him one early on may pose a difficult challenge, as he will be new to traveling and battling on his own. Energetic pokémon, particularly those of the fighting-type, typically demand rigorous training routines in rougher terrain, and they may not understand the limitations of their own trainer. There have been cases of more experienced trainers with limited mobility figuring out how to balance their limitations with their pokémon’s needs, but this usually comes after years of trial-and-error and, well, raw experience.

By contrast, however, psychic and grass pokémon tend to be less demanding in that department, as their abilities are more meditative or internally-focused. Thus, they require less vigorous physical training and more internal growth and meditation, and these involve training routines anyone can keep up with. In fact, a psychic-type’s need for meditation and mindfulness exercises may be important for your brother’s own development as a trainer. Unova actually has an excellent choice in the form of munna (who, itself, is a formidable battler), as well as solosis and gothita, but ralts is an excellent choice as well. Should you choose a grass-type (which don’t so much meditate as quietly and contemplatively absorb sunlight for the sake of sustenance), most grass-type starters except snivy work well, as do oddish, petilil, budew, lotad, and seedot. (I would, of course, not recommend pokémon that have a tendency to drift on the wind, namely hoppip or cottonee.)

Of course, ultimately, you’ll want to take into consideration what he wishes to train as well. If he does want to train fighting- or fire-types, there are certainly calmer members of either classification you may consider. The point is, don’t give him something that would be too demanding or challenging right away.

I wish you and your brother the best of luck, anonymous. May his journey be filled with wonder.