Tag: Anonymous

Last week my noivern was attacked by a wild crobat when I let her out for her nightly fly. She’s recovered well. In the years I’ve had her, this is the only time this happened but now she’s terrified of going for a fly alone. I still own her mother who I send out with her now, but she won’t be around forever (she’s an old lady) so is there a way I can train her to fly alone again?

Have patience, anonymous, but keep allowing her to fly with her mother. It can take some time for pokémon to heal from trauma, but so long as your noivern is spending time with the pokémon who likely taught her how to fly in the first place, it’s probable that her healing period will go quicker than you think. Her mother will likely be able to sense her fear and work to correct this by herself; as both a maternal figure and a member of a species that relies on flight, your noivern’s mother will likely know best how to teach her daughter to embrace flying again. It’s important for you to give them space to do this but show your support for your noivern throughout this healing process.

If necessary (such as cases in which your noivern can’t move past her trauma), you may also want to consider allowing her to fly on short jaunts during the early evening as well, when it’s unlikely that she’ll be attacked by crobat (or anything else, for that matter). By “short jaunts,” I mean “anywhere you can watch her.” If she has the comfort of someone who cares for her, she’ll be able to grow back her confidence to fly on her own.

Either way, it will be a gradual process, so it wouldn’t be at all unusual if it takes your noivern months to gather up the courage to fly on her own again.

I’ve noticed my greninja bubbling it’s young recently. Like the 3 froakie babies will be in a nest of bubbles. Is this normal?

Absolutely. Greninja frequently bubble their young to make them comfortable, to protect them from harm, or to keep them warm. Assuming you live in the northern hemisphere, it’s currently autumn, going into winter, which means the temperature is dropping. Your greninja is likely preparing for this. In addition, the unusually warm temperatures we experienced through the summer may explain why you’re only noticing this recently—because it wasn’t as needed a few months ago.

Alternatively, some greninja subspecies bubble their young to teach them how to create bubbles themselves. By surrounding them with bubbles, the greninja forces her young to watch her as she creates the nest, so they can figure out how to weave their own later on in life.

In short, so long as your froakie can breathe and stay moist, they shouldn’t be in any danger.

I have a lot of self esteem issues… is there a Pokémon who can help me feel more comfortable with myself?

Admittedly, while there are plenty of pokémon that are capable of instilling a sense of confidence in you (in fact, all pokémon can, thanks to the bonds they have with their trainers and the amount of trust they place in us), no pokémon can really force you to feel comfortable with yourself. The only real way to do that is to look within yourself and find all the talents that lie within. Remember that each of us has a reason for being—a meaning that drives us. However, don’t get me wrong. That meaning is not divinely ordained. Rather, it’s entirely dependent on self-reflection. We determine who we are simply by embracing what we can do and what we have within ourselves, no matter how difficult that may sound.

There are ways pokémon can help, of course, but it’s not in the way you would think. They can’t really do so directly. Rather, they accompany you on your journey. And I mean that quite literally.

You see, this is a lot of the reason why humans go on trainers’ journeys. It’s true that our society puts pressure on us to go on one, but there are reasons for that. A trainer’s journey pushes us to unlock our own potential, to open our minds by experiencing the world, and to find for ourselves what makes us who we are. It’s true that some people walk away from a journey never figuring that out, but for others, the journey is a deeply spiritual experience that could trigger an evolution of our own into the people we’re meant to be.

If you haven’t embarked on a journey, I would recommend that you think about it. If you have, keep your mind open and consider every challenge as your opportunity to find out exactly who you are and what you’re capable of.

However, if you choose not to go on a physical journey at all, don’t worry. Some people figure things out on their own without ever leaving home. The journey just helps some people, and the act of going on a journey can be metaphorical. You can “go on a journey” simply by interacting with pokémon on local battlefields or by doing quite a bit of self-reflection and meditation. Just remember that you have a lot of potential inside you, just waiting to be discovered. Don’t compare yourself to others and remember that your identity and abilities are yours alone.

But if you wish to get a pokémon, literally any one of them will help you with this. All pokémon tend to see us as we are, rather than through the lens of our own self-doubts. Each of them will believe in you over time, and all of them serve as excellent reminders, in their own ways, that there is something inside you worth respecting.

I hope this helps, anonymous. Best of luck.

Bill, whats your opinion on shiny hunters/breeders? Like the people who breed to find shinies (or natures or egg moves or stats or abilities) and toss all the babies that aren’t shiny or useful to them? I think it’s really inhumane :( I’ve heard of places who do exclusive shiny breeding! Like someone can go to them and ask for a specific shiny Pokémon and they’ll breed for it… it’s sick!

On the one hand, although I’m always excited by the prospect of finding and encountering rare pokémon, I am uncomfortable with the concept of collecting pokémon in the way some pokémaniacs do. Pokémon, after all, are living, breathing creatures, and to reduce their value down to their pelt or skin color is a little … problematic.

On the other, if you’re referring to shiny specialists (those who are paid to find or breed shinies for others), rest assured that there’s more to it than that. Shiny pokémon sometimes struggle in the wild as noted here, so trainers who are hired to find and catch them through legitimate means (that is, by obeying capture laws and avoiding poaching) often focus on species whose shiny variations would fare much better in a domestic setting than in the wild.

Likewise, all reputable breeders require certification to run a day care, so those who run services to breed for shiny pokémon are required to rehome the non-shinies. Oftentimes, if you ask these day cares, you’ll find that they often either give their non-shiny pokémon to starter distribution centers or run sizable no-kill shelters themselves, which are often open to those who wish to find pets as well as partners for trainers’ journeys. (Breeders are barred from culling their hatchlings or releasing them en masse into the wild. Either are great ways of failing inspections and having licenses revoked.)

Of course, reputable trainers-for-hire or shiny breeders are few and far between, and the shiny enthusiast culture often encourages seedier practices, rather than the legitimate ones. All too often, I hear about a trainer who essentially poaches a shiny or a trainer who accepts eggs from non-specialist day cares, only to release non-shinies into the wild en masse (thus often disrupting the local ecosystem). These would be irresponsible, especially because they’re often coupled with the tendency to treat the shinies they obtain as trophies, rather than as living beings. It’s unfortunate that this happens, yes, and it’s not something I condone, even if the shiny in question is a particularly rare pokémon I would love to see.

Thus, to put it in short, I’m fine with the idea if you obtain your shinies through legitimate means or set up honest, humane businesses that follow strict ecologically-friendly policies. I’m less comfortable with the idea if you don’t intend on following humane, eco-friendly practices.

Do researchers know/have theories as to why evolutionary lines seem to cap at three stages?

It’s an issue of power, anonymous. At the third stage, a pokémon is usually at its peak potential without any enhancements. Pokémon don’t really have the sort of energy to achieve an evolution beyond the third stage, as the power involved in such a state would be extremely difficult for a non-legendary to control and highly risky for a pokémon’s physical form to contain.

This is, incidentally, why mega evolution is a temporary process and why many pokémon experience berserker states when first tapping into it. The mega evolution stone is essentially a catalyst that unlocks any remaining potential a pokémon has and pours it into their forms all at once. As this potential is usually not enough to trigger a full-scale evolution by itself, the stone provides an additional boost of energy, which often far exceeds the amount a pokémon is capable of handling. The end result is not only that blind rage but also the inability to hold that form permanently. After a while, if forced to maintain their mega evolved state, a pokémon will revert to their original forms on their own, as their energy will simply be completely spent.

But the point is, the reason why pokémon can only evolve twice at most is because they just don’t have enough—power, energy, aura … any one of those, depending on which researcher you ask—to achieve proper evolution for a third time. The closest some will ever come is mega evolution, which is half external anyway.

I’m a Pokémon coordinator, and I’ve been using my wigglytuff primarily but I’ve been thinking about getting her a partner. Any recommendations as to what would pair with her best?

Well, it depends on the contest and your routine, anonymous. I must admit, I’m even less well-versed in contest strategy than I am when it comes to battling strategy, so my advice on the matter would be severely limited. However, from what I understand—based on what I know from my younger sister and Lanette’s days as a coordinator—it’s best to begin by asking yourself what effects you want to evoke during your battle. Know your wigglytuff’s strengths and pinpoint what parts of her abilities you wish to highlight. For example, if much of your routine centers around her singing ability, consider getting her another pokémon that can use Sing so the two of them can perform in harmony. If, however, your routine focuses on her use of elemental abilities, get her a partner that would compliment the elements she uses. (Fire if she uses ice-type attacks, for example.) Think hard about what would compliment everything she does on stage, and that should simplify your choice considerably.

Any pokemon can decide that they dont want to evolve, but I’ve heard this is most common with Pikachu. Is this true and why? I’d have guessed it would be eevee because it has the biggest decision to make out of any pokemon.

It’s true, but no one is quite sure why, especially given the fact that no other pokémon with stone-based evolutions have similar aversions. Even when the evolution in question wouldn’t result in a massive power boost (as in the case with jigglypuff and clefairy), if given the choice of whether or not to evolve, those pokémon would jump at the chance to do so. For that reason, scientists believe that it doesn’t have anything to do with the stone itself.

Given how common evolution is in the pokémon world, it’s unlikely that it’s due to the fear of evolving, either. Certainly, some pokémon have a sense of trepidation about evolution, given how drastically it alters their form (and sometimes, by extension, their minds), but at the same time, most pokémon see evolution the same way we humans see growing up and becoming an adult. When you’re a small child, you look forward to that change and all the freedoms it represents. As an adult, it’s entirely possible to become disenchanted, but the point is, when you’re a child, you very likely dream about what it would be like to be an adult. So to a lower stage pokémon, being fully evolved represents freedom and power, and many pokémon that can evolve dream of that … except pikachu.

Personally, my theory is that it has a lot to do with the pokémon that don’t see evolution as a pleasant experience. Pikachu is certainly rare in that the opinion is prevalent among their species, but there are certain individuals in every species that openly resist evolution. In many of these cases, these individuals simply see themselves as being perfect as they are. Thus, to them, evolution in part forces changes they don’t want on them, but more importantly, it also represents giving in and admitting that they feel they need to change. You could even say that resisting evolution is an act of rebellion—a way of showing later-stage evolutions that they can reach their potential without needing to change a thing about them.

As for eevee, the urge to resist evolution is actually rare because of that choice. To an eevee, evolution is a massive part of their identities; being an eevee is merely the introduction stage before they find out for themselves who they are. Some eevee know right away which evolution they wish to be, and thus, much of their time may be spent preparing for evolution. Others who don’t quite know take pride in the fact that they have a choice. They take their time deciding, and they value that choice highly. Certainly, there are a few individuals who find the abundance of choices highly intimidating, but these individuals are by and large rare. Overall, eevee generally find the choice itself to be both exciting and a vital part of being a member of their evolutionary family. A cultural identity, if you will.

I found an egg on my porch with the note “please take care of it”. I don’t know what Pokémon it will be, what do I do?

Your first step either way is to take it to a breeder, a professor, or a pokémon center. The reason why is because all three have the ability to identify the egg, so if you were thinking of adopting it yourself, then you’ll need to know what’s inside it in order to prepare for its hatching. Even the exact temperature it needs to be at in order to hatch depends on what species of egg it is, so you quite literally can’t do anything until you know for certain what you’re dealing with on a literal level.

Once you’ve taken the egg to any of these three facilities, you have two choices. If you can take the egg, you have the option to do so. Simply follow the breeder, professor, or Nurse Joy’s advice on care up to and immediately after birth.

If you can’t take the egg or if you don’t wish to take the egg, you can leave it with them. Breeding centers, pokémon centers, and regional professors’ laboratories are actually the designated “safe haven” spots, or places where you can safely leave pokémon you can’t care for. (Why someone left an egg on your doorstep, I’m not sure, but that’s neither here nor there at this point.) Once left in the care of any of these three sets of capable hands, they will proceed to hatch the pokémon and care for them until they’re ready to be rehomed with a willing trainer, so you can trust your local breeder, professor, or Nurse Joy with the baby.

Either way, I wouldn’t recommend attempting to find whoever left the egg. It’s very clear that the person who did so doesn’t wish to care for the pokémon inside it (for reasons that could very well be completely valid, so please don’t take that to mean I’m accusing them of negligence), and if, on the very slim off-chance, the egg was illegally obtained, a reputable breeder, researcher, or Nurse Joy would be able to tell. (Pokémon professionals have a network set up for sharing information on poacher activity. If even an egg is missing from a habitat, we would know about it.)

Best of luck with whatever you choose to do, anonymous!

My mamoswine has been eating a lot more than usual lately and has been very defensive over people touching her. I think she could be pregnant but I’m not sure how to check, or take care of a pregnant mamoswine

Well, ah, keep in mind that all pokémon are oviparous, meaning they lay eggs. In other words, it’s highly unlikely that your mamoswine is actually pregnant because, well, mamoswine can’t actually get pregnant.

It’s likely that she may be sick, dealing with a vitamin deficiency of some sort, struggling with a mental health issue, or had actually laid a clutch recently. First, check her habitat for any sign of eggs. If you don’t see any eggs, take her to a pokémon center as soon as possible and have her examined by a Nurse Joy. Your local Nurse Joy should be able to spot what might be causing these odd behaviors and suggest possible courses of action.

Best of luck, anonymous!