Originally, they couldn’t. Then some asshat from game freak decided somewhere along they could.
Game Freak? Are you referring to the gaming company headquartered in Celadon City? I can’t imagine what they would have to do with the dodrio’s physiology or physical capabilities. Usually, it’s either Silph Co. or the Pokémon Laboratory who’s responsible for the creation and modification of pokémon for no apparent reason other than to see if they could.
Orre is what happens when human beings use an entire region as a receptacle for toxic waste.
In all seriousness, Orre itself has a very long history of mining. While there certainly have been regions that have been heavily mined without damaging the local population of pokémon (Sinnoh, for example), most regions had adopted environmentally friendly policies concerning waste run-off early in the establishment of their respective industries. This is not the case with most American regions, Orre included and especially, and consequently, most of its water tables have actually been toxic to pokémon up until fairly recently. This should also explain some of the behavior of the locals, especially in and round Pyrite Town, which experienced the heaviest amount of mining.
Of course, it also doesn’t help that its neighboring region, the currently virtually uninhabitable Blanca, was used as a nuclear testing site from the end of the 40s right up until the 70s, nor does it help that the mountains of this same region are currently being used to store spent nuclear fuel. Pokémon generally stay so far away from that area that they’re simply not found in any of the neighboring regions, and they’re sparse in the regions neighboring those.
In short, pokémon do not live in Orre because Orre is literally a toxic wasteland except in very select areas—namely all of the populated areas except Pyrite Town. The fact that man has been so tenacious as to make those spots be habitable should be a testament to our species’ very audacity.
Well, anonymous, in most cases, it’s simply because fire-types don’t live in forests. Most of them are actually native to places that are better suited to withstanding fire (and lava and other heat-related problems) such as caves or deserts. Charmander in particular are only found in tropical volcanoes, if they aren’t simply bred in captivity. Likewise, a few of the other starters, namely tepig and torchic, only exist as domesticated, bred species, so their habitats are usually well-maintained, well-irrigated ranges.
Ponyta, meanwhile, are capable of controlling the temperature and height of their flames shortly after birth, which means that while brushfires are still a risk in their native grasslands, they tend to be less common than one would think, thanks to the superior control the species has over their abilities. It also helps that they’re well aware that burning their only source of food would be a bad idea, so it’s particularly imperative to them that they exercise such control.
As for the pokémon that do live in forests, most of them also exercise extreme control over their abilities. This goes especially for predatory pokémon, such as vulpix, growlithe, houndour, litleo, and fennekin. All of these species rely on biting and clawing tactics, rather than their fire abilities, to hunt, and as such, ranged fire attacks are only used in extreme defensive measures, such as to repel invading humans.
However, concerning the remaining—fletchinder, chimchar, pansear (despite what the Unovan pokédex states), and cyndaquil—those do start about as many forest fires as one would think. Luckily, almost all of these are rare, except for fletchinder and its normal-type pre-evolution, which is why this author for one is baffled that Kalosean forests and grasslands still exist.
You’ve apparently hit upon the one question that my partner has received so often that it reduces him to a state in which he finds it difficult to communicate outside of memes.
(Oh, I can communicate just fine, Lanette. Whether or not you would want me to, however, is an entirely different matter. —Bill)
So rather than take the risk of allowing Bill to say something he would regret—which he would—
(Hey! —Bill)
—allow me to answer this one for him.
Pokémon are perfectly safe, both within the poké ball and inside the storage system. Both technologies take advantage of a pokémon’s ability to change form. Even pokémon incapable of evolving, such as farfetch’d and the like, have this ability encoded in unused portions of their DNA. The poké ball simply triggers this ability and directs it to convert the pokémon’s body into a electrical-digital format. So while it’s not true suspended animation, as a contained pokémon is typically perfectly aware of what goes on outside of its ball, it is a state in which a pokémon no longer needs to eat, sleep, or perform any other function necessary for maintaining their physical forms. This also halts aging and the progress of most ailments, but strangely enough, it does not halt the affects of poisoning or poké rus. This is likely because such conditions are inadvertently converted into patches of corruption, one form of which “corrects” itself over time as the pokémon adapts and heals itself. (Poisoning is a far more difficult condition to self-heal from.)
Additionally, it’s true that most pokémon are initially aware of their surroundings at first, but it’s possible for pokémon to enter extended sleep states while inside their poké balls, especially if contained for long periods of time. This is why it’s important to allow your pokémon time outside their poké balls now and then. Otherwise, according to psychic scans, when stored in a poké ball, a pokémon simply watches what goes on outside of its capture device. This is contrary to popular belief, which is, of course, the idea that pokémon get their own miniature habitats within each ball.
The storage system functions via the same principle, although for it, pokémon enter a true form of suspended animation due to the recursive nature of the process. You are, essentially, nesting a captured pokémon within a capture device within a capture device. Also according to psychic scans, pokémon who have been through the system are not at all aware of entering, nor are they aware of any time spent in storage. They simply, well, sleep.
Granted, some pokémon have shown a vague level of awareness of their surroundings, and for them, we’ve designed wallpapers meant to make pokémon more comfortable. But the main point is, your pokémon are not at all harmed by being stored, so on a technical level, if used as recommended, neither poké balls nor the storage system are cruel.
Nonetheless, yes, we do recommend that you withdraw your pokémon once in a while for psychological reasons. I’m sure you wouldn’t like waking up to know that ten years have passed either, after all.
There, Bill. Was that so hard? —LH
For you, perhaps. You’ve only been asked once. —Bill
There are theories as to why this is, although there are scientists still undertaking research into that very subject. The prevailing theory is that the ovum contains all the information concerning an offspring’s species before fertilization, meaning all genetic data is donated by the mother alone, with any other information (such as inherited moves, shininess, genetic disorders, and so forth) being donated by either the father or both parents. This particular theory is favored because it’s also implicit in its support of cross-species breeding. As in, the reason why a wailord and a diglett can produce viable offspring is because the parts of the resulting hatchling’s genetic code that actually does get recombined from both parents’ gametes is technically compatible.
The less favorable theory is that species is determined by mitochondrial DNA, rather than nuclear. On the one hand, this might also explain why a pokémon’s change of species (that is to say, its evolution) is triggered by a boost in energy and radiation, as the organelle responsible for energy regulation would thus be the one responsible for encoding form and responding to the flags for form change. On the other, this is a far, far messier explanation, as mitochondria do not work like this in quite literally any other life form on Earth.
This is an excellent question, one that has plagued many pokémon researchers since the dawn of, well, pokémon research. What makes this question even more difficult to answer is that some pokémon clearly possess human-level sapience as well as intelligence, and there is absolutely support for the idea that pokémon would be perfectly capable of building their own civilizations if humans were to suddenly disappear one day.
The prevailing theory is that humans and pokémon form a symbiotic relationship in which pokémon rely on us far more than we on them. While wild pokémon can get stronger and develop their powers on their own, it’s far easier to do so by bonding with a human. This is supported by the fact that some modes of evolution—most notably those associated with trading—are far easier to achieve via human interference. It likewise falls in line with the Sinnohan story concerning the idea that once, long ago, humans and pokémon lived in harmony due to an agreement made among all pokémon to help humans in their development.
The other theory—which in my opinion is merely an extension of the above, but some thoughts within the scientific community differ on that point—is that the arrangement is by necessity. It’s a bit like asking why bears aren’t the dominant species, even though they are both intelligent and higher on the food chain than we are. Whereas animals and pokémon have both naturally adapted plenty of tools they would need to survive, humans have not. Instead, we’ve developed a sense of ingenuity: the ability to reason and create. That isn’t to say that pokémon aren’t capable of creating or reasoning; it’s more to say that this isn’t their primary mode of survival, as they rely much more on their powers. Whereas humans have built cities, learned to form global networks with one another, and created devices to harness the elements (both in the form of pokémon and in the form of the literal elements themselves), pokémon spend much of their time honing their own abilities and learning to defend comparatively smaller groups of their own kind and parcels of territory.
In short, there are very likely at least two possibilities. First, pokémon benefit the most from a symbiotic relationship with humans if the humans in question were allowed to flourish and develop. Second, we actually are just as advanced as pokémon, and it’s the ability to adapt and create that’s enabled us to maintain our place in this world.
(And a sobering third: pokémon simply allow us to be the ones in charge.)
Attract is a bit of a tricky subject, anonymous. So to answer the simpler question first, absolutely, pokémon can be homosexual. In fact, while it’s not the predominant form of sexuality, it’s also not uncommon for pokémon to be attracted to pokémon of the same sex. Likewise, practically any form of sexuality exhibited by humans can be found among pokémon, and some pokémon species also engage in intercourse not only for breeding but also for the sheer pleasure of it. Sex is, in other words, not just for procreation, even when it comes to pokémon.
However, Attract doesn’t really take into consideration sexuality. Not really, anyway. It’s simply a move that forces the victim to let its guard down by perceiving the user as being attractive, not in a sexual or romantic way but instead in an aesthetic way. Pokémon simply don’t want to hit something that looks too pretty to hit, even if that pretty thing is something they wouldn’t normally be attracted to.
As for why it can only be used against Pokémon that don’t match the user’s sex (unless the user has no gender, at which point it fails, regardless of what the target is), scientists aren’t entirely sure. The prevailing theory is that it’s simply a type of empathic wave that’s slightly different when emitted by one sex than it is when emitted by the other and that this slight difference is enough to make it ineffective against members of the same sex.
Oddly enough, I’d actually written an entry on the subject here, but suffice to say, I’d like to agree with your friend. The whole restoration process is an imprecise one at best, so errors in the rendering of pokémon—including the physiological makeup of each specimen—would hardly be surprising.
The Pokédex According to Bill 