Yes indeed, anonymous! Practically anything that can be tamed can be considered a pet, even fearsome pokémon such as gyarados. The trick is giving your pets the appropriate amount of care and space to maintain their mental health—as well as, of course, ensuring that they remain calm and docile around human beings.
In your metang’s case, it seems that it’s very comfortable around humans, so if you have enough space to keep one, it can certainly be your pet.
I’m afraid so, anonymous. Absol’s ability to detect any kind of bad luck is not limited to natural disasters. It’s just that the worse the disaster is, the more clearly an absol can see it. However, it can foretell practically anything that’s considered unlucky for anyone surrounding it, from death to its owner losing half of their favorite pair of socks. So if you own an absol and happen to be particularly unlucky, your absol will be able to pick up on every last bit of bad luck that is fated to come your way.
As Bill’s long-time friend and close partner, I mean this with as much tact as possible. Bill’s aptitude with naming things is … not the greatest. As one can tell by the fact that he named his sea cottage the Sea Cottage. —LH
Oh, come now! That isn’t fair! If I put forth enough effort, I’m sure I can come up with something!
For example, what about … Flamey? Camely? Volcano? Sandy? Lumpy?
….
Actually, come to think of it, you may have a point, Lanette.
Well, for starters, I agree wholeheartedly on the subject of its cuteness. Then again, I’m also rather partial to canine-like pokémon, so I admit I’m a little biased.
That having been said, I’ve heard the rumors of a secret evolution, and I’m certainly intrigued by them. I admit that as of current, I have no theories as to what that may mean, but I’m certainly open to hearing about others’. In the meantime, I’ve been keeping up with news about Alola and its local pokémon for months now, with the hopes of finding out more about not only rockruff but all of the region’s fascinating creatures, and I’m excited to hear the next bit of information that comes to the rest of the world. Supposedly, the researchers of Alola will be integrating their pokédex with the National Dex in November of this year, and you can be certain that I’ll do everything I can to get my hands on the National Dex’s latest edition as soon as possible.
You are also very welcome, anonymous. I’m glad you were able to get to the bottom of your predicament, and hopefully, you were able to clarify to your charmeleon that there are better ways of showing affection.
In the meantime, I congratulate you in advance for the hatchlings that are very likely soon to come.
They can indeed, especially if they’ve retained the ability to use Lick.
Of course, this is the least of your worries concerning gengar. They normally hunt by absorbing your life force through your shadow—which, incidentally, they can slip into without you noticing.
Needless to say, it’s highly recommended that you exercise extreme caution in areas where gastly and haunter are known to live. The reason why is because gengar are also likely living there; it’s simply that they’re less likely to be detected.
Happy travelings, anonymous!
It depends on how close you were before the trade, the pokémon’s temperament, and whether or not you’ve made your intentions clear with your pokémon first. For example, if you’ve abruptly traded away a pokémon with whom you’ve bonded, then yes, they may develop trust issues or become resentful, which will require their new trainer to work on building a relationship again. Other pokémon, particularly those who might not have been agreeable to you before the trading process or with whom you haven’t bonded, might be happier with a different trainer, to put it bluntly. If they notice at all.
Speaking to your pokémon beforehand can indeed help reassure them and adjust to their new trainer or at least understand why the trade is happening, but some pokémon may react negatively to the trade regardless. If the receiving trainer puts forth a lot of effort in bonding with their new pokémon immediately, however, these feelings can often be alleviated rather quickly.
Finally, interestingly enough, the exception to the above are pokémon with trade-based evolutions. Many trainers who trade to evolve often engage in “trades and trade-backs,” or agreed swaps between trainers with other pokémon that evolve via trading. Pokémon whose evolutionary requirements involve trading often understand by default that the process is necessary for their well-being, and the practice is so commonplace (and often outlined between all involved parties, including pokémon, beforehand) that they are also aware that the swap is temporary. Thus, they tend to mind less, and if the trade ends up being permanent—as in, they never return to their original trainer—then they’re often so focused on adapting to and training their new forms that they hardly feel anything at all regarding the departure from their former companions, especially if the receiving trainer is well-prepared to train their evolved selves. Of course, this also means it tends to be harder to bond with newly trade-evolved pokémon (as they tend to be too distracted to notice their new trainers), but with patience and care, it’s not unheard of for these trainers to achieve a level of closeness with their new pokémon.
Not at all, actually! While it’s true that wild zangoose and seviper are blood enemies, once tamed and given proper homes (with properly established feeding routines), you can actually eliminate any need for either of them to fight. It’s much like how most people believe that growlithe, meowth, and marill are all mortal enemies, but in actuality, all three lines can get along just fine if introduced to a loving home … and, well, taught not to attack each other.
It’s wonderful to hear that your pokémon are getting along splendidly, though, anonymous, so may their relationship thrive for years to come!
I would hate to tell you this, anonymous, but very likely not, especially if your eevee feels so strongly about a certain evolution that he would resist doing so naturally, despite meeting all of the conditions for it. You could certainly try to outline his options in a tactful manner, but be sure to avoid comparing umbreon to flareon (as this may inadvertently cause him to feel that you would be disappointed in him if he chose not to evolve that way) and emphasize that you would support his evolution, regardless of which form he feels the most comfortable in. If anything, use this opportunity to test the strength of his convictions and ensure that he’s thought his decision all the way through, not because you wish to ensure he’s made the right choice with regards to his evolutionary form but instead because you wish to ensure he’s made the right choice in choosing to evolve at all.
This is because, ultimately, evolution is a permanent thing. While you’ve said you wouldn’t force your eevee to change his mind, this is something I feel is important for trainers to keep in mind generally speaking, as some trainers are not as conscious of their pokémon’s wishes as others. But when you get to the heart of the matter, evolution cannot be reversed, meaning the choice to evolve and the choice of which form to evolve into will affect a pokémon for the rest of their lives. That pokémon must be completely comfortable with both decisions before undergoing the process, or else the process itself will become a traumatic experience, either during or once the realization of what it means settles in. There have been cases of pokémon evolving to the “wrong” evolution (it happens most frequently with members of the oddish line for some reason), only to become far more aggressive once evolved.
So for the sake of your eevee’s sanity, I would suggest trusting his decision if he’s certain of it. If your eevee would be happiest being a flareon and you need an umbreon, there are certainly other options to take as a compromise, including allowing your eevee to evolve and then adopting a second eevee who would be far more open to the idea of filling that niche. Eevee and its evolutions are social pokémon when tamed anyway, so fitting a flareon and an umbreon on the same team can actually produce emotional benefits.
Absolutely, anonymous. In actuality, though, psychic-types are often inherently stronger and more mentally stable than most other beings in existence, purely because of the burden telepathy and empathy hoist onto their users. Thus, it’s like any other form of Darwinistic evolution: those who couldn’t adapt to the psychic strain also couldn’t pass their traits on to offspring, whereas those with well-fortified minds could.
However, ghost-types tend to be susceptible to mental illnesses, and it’s not for the reason one would think. You see, some ghost-types, particularly yamask and phantump, are supposedly the deceased spirits of human beings. Regardless of whether or not that’s true, it’s undeniable that they are more melancholic than most other pokémon, and some are even prone to symptoms that uncannily resemble those of either PTSD or depression. They aren’t the only ones, either. Members of the shuppet line are also prone to these issues, and spiritomb is supposedly aggressive due to the exact nature of its unfinished business, so to speak.
Fairy- and normal-types are also prone to mental issues in the form of anxiety, likely due to an inborn aversion to humanity. Clefairy in particular seem to be affected by this, but anxiety has also appeared in audino, meowth, granbull, and skitty.
As for physical afflictions, there are indeed a wide variety of possible illnesses that affect some pokémon and not others—far too many to go into, to be frank. For example, grass-types are far more susceptible to cold and may experience frostbite sooner than other pokémon, electric-types that have been exposed to electromagnets or extreme surges of electricity may experience shock sickness (a condition in which they’ve stored too much electricity and/or can’t release any of it), and steel-types can actually be burned by their own armor under extreme heat (a condition called self-burning). In terms of diseases, some infections affect some grass- or bug-types but not others, some mites infest the fur or hair of some mammalian pokémon but not others, and the flu may devastate some bird-like pokémon but not others. I wouldn’t say there’s any one type or species of pokémon that are more susceptible to disease or conditions than another (even though I’ve mentioned grass-types twice in this paragraph alone), but there are certainly plenty of examples of certain conditions afflicting some pokémon more than any other.
The Pokédex According to Bill 