Have you ever had a Pokémon disobey you?

[NovaBrunswick]

Most Trainers catch their Pokémon and train them up well below the badge obedience limits, but if you've ever traded over an over-levelled Pokémon, you may find that sometimes they won't obey your every command.

So have any of you ever experienced this unfortunate predicament in the games? I seem to remember one incident when I was younger and didn't quite get the mechanics of the game, so I would just use whatever strong Pokémon I could get my hands on. This led to a few embarrassing and irritating moments when my Pokémon would just laze around and even fall asleep out of nowhere.

 

[Samayouru]

Yup. It was mostly Rocky from the GSC games. I had no idea a pokemon could disobey you until Rocky hit a certain level. Now I rarely take any notice of any trades NPCs in the games offer me.

 

[Kirby Dragons]

My level 100 Rayquaza almost lost to a level 20/30/40 or so Sudowoodo in Moon, because of this.

 

[ruxy_100]

During my second play through of Omega Ruby, I decided to transfer over some Pokémon from Y. I transferred over a low level Litleo and Ducklett who took the place of my starters, and I also transferred over my Zygarde who I had trained up to be a force to be reckoned with.

I completely forgot about the badge requirement and it took me several frustrating missed attacks to realise why by level 70 Zygarde wasn't obeying me. It then dawned on me, and I popped it back into the computer until I reached the final gym.

The Litleo and Ducklett that I transferred were also a bit higher level than normal starters, so they came close to exceeding the maximum obedience level a couple of times. In a few instances I had to pop them back in a box, just so they wouldn't accidentally level up and stop obeying me at an inopportune moment. But after the 3rd or 4th gym their levelling-up slowed down so it was all good.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Oh yes. I remember one time in Pokemon Colosseum where one of my Pokemon hit me. Caught me off guard .

 

[RedJirachi]

The event shiny Beldum proved troublesome for me until I got my first badge

 

[wobbanut]

Ugh, yeah, I've had a couple of times where pokemon just stopped listening and started being a pain. Most recently, it happened with the machop I got in the in-game trade in Moon. While the machop I got in Sun was a great team player and I kept it as part of my main team, my machop in Moon stopped listening to me. I ended up just leaving him in the box and traded him to evolve for the pokedex, but that's it.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Not in recent memory, but back when I first had Yellow, I twice traded with a neighbor for stronger Pokémon (Cloyster and Poliwrath on two separate occasions) to help me get through the game (lol). I remember getting so mad every time they loafed around and refused to obey. I guess I should've expected it since by then, Ash's Charizard was still disobedient and I was trying to copy the anime to a "T" at certain points, but I didn't expect it to be that bad in the game.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

Not in recent memory, but back when I first had Yellow, I twice traded with a neighbor for stronger Pokémon (Cloyster and Poliwrath on two separate occasions) to help me get through the game (lol). I remember getting so mad every time they loafed around and refused to obey. I guess I should've expected it since by then, Ash's Charizard was still disobedient and I was trying to copy the anime to a "T" at certain points, but I didn't expect it to be that bad in the game.

I think the reason Charizard often refused to obey Ash was that he didn't technically 'win' some of the badges. Erika gave him the Rainbow Badge only because her Gym went up in flames, and he got the Earth Badge after it too got blasted. So Charizard didn't see those badges as properly won in a battle. Or maybe he was just lazy.

 

[ToonsJazzLover]

It had happened to me a few times with the in-game traded Pokemon. But I had never traded a Pokemon with someone before.

 

[DevAesthetic]

Yeah, I remember a time back when I was playing Emerald that I over leveled one of my pokemon but I forgot who it was. It wasn't a fun time. And plenty of times in Pokemon X when I was doing a run with pokemon from wonder trades, I ended up with a shiny level 50 Groudon that kinda helped but It mainly stayed in my bag until I was able to take full control of the groudon.

 

[Mega Altaria]

Yes, it happened to some of the event Pokémon that I had. The event Torchic disobeyed me as a Combusken in the X and Y games when I was battling Grant in the Cyllage Gym. In B2W2, I think that one time on the Plasma Frigate, Keldeo and Meloetta disobeyed me in a Double Battle against Team Plasma Grunts.

 

[WildHennaCharizard]

yes but most of the time it was because I had either traded pokemon over from another game I had or once when I did a wonder locke run (playing a nuzlocke run with pokemon you get in wonder trade).

 

[Victorian Rush]

Yes. I ended up losing a wonderlocke on Omega Ruby because all of my Pokemon would not obey me.

 

[Bananarama]

It's very rarely happened to me, and mostly involving in-game trades like Rocky in GSC early in the game. I think I've had a outside traded legendary disobey me like once before (Groudon I think?), but I don't remember the exact circumstances.

 

[The Red Thunder]

Typically, I will breed and send over a team for a new run of a game. Ultimately, this also means that my Pokemon will frequently disobey me early on in the games, and can make the first couple Gym Battles quite a problem. I remember almost raging one time when I was replaying either Ruby or Sapphire (can't remember which) when none of my Pokemon would do anything, and I ended up losing against Brawly twice as a result.

 

[Jirachi100]

Back during Generation 4, I remember trading over my level 100 Chatot (It was my first level 100. I don't know why.) to either Platinum, Pearl, or Soulsilver (I forgot which one) and it was very frustrating trying to get it to win a gym battle.

 

[SpookyMimikyu]

Surprisingly, I never had a Pokemon disobey me. I took the warning about Pokemon becoming disobedient if they go over a certain level to heart, and I never use any traded Pokemon until the post game. Though I would be given other reasons to rage over the years of playing Pokemon.

 

[KyogreThunder]

In my last FireRed walkthrough, my Jynx (Zynx) I got in an in-game trade often ignored orders because her level was too high (above 50) and I really didn't feel like challenging Sabrina before clearing the first three Sevii Islands.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

Surprisingly, I never had a Pokemon disobey me. I took the warning about Pokemon becoming disobedient if they go over a certain level to heart, and I never use any traded Pokemon until the post game. Though I would be given other reasons to rage over the years of playing Pokemon.

Like Whitney and her Miltank?

I haven't had any over leveled Pokemon since probably Gold version.

Always a delicate balancing act, trying to be powerful enough to easily defeat the opponents, but also trying to have your Pokemon still obey you.

That's a balance I always try to strike - strong enough to earn an easy win, but not too strong above the limit so as to avoid frustration from disobedience.