Personality, evolution and interaction with Pokemon

[p96822]

This is an interesting topic I want to talk about.

When a Pokemon like Greninja, Talonflame or Luxray evolve. People said that they lose there personalities as a result. I think this is kind of a misconception and that it more that the Pokemon don't get the chance to show their personalities because they don't interact with others. If Ash's Greninja interacted with the other Pokemon then would it been better as character? There are other thing about evolution that sometime give Pokemon a role to play like Luxray's x-ray eyes. Even though this doesn't give Luxray that much personality, but this does give Luxray more uses of help our heroes with it's abilities.

Another thing that bothers me is Pokemon interaction. In some way I find some of the Pokemon interaction in Sun and Moon are bland and as major as other Pokemon relationships

 

[DatsRight]

I think screentime does play into it, SM uses a looser animation style that allows the creative team to have more complex larger Pokemon appear more frequently besides battles and action scenes. That said I think SM is more willing to undermine the 'badassery' of its ace Pokemon more often and let them get in on the bumbling and silly events more as well.

Lycanroc is a good example of this, in battle he acts like a standard serious powerhouse like the aforementioned examples, but since he appears a lot more often in the comedic scenes he still maintains shades of his Rockruff quirks and even gains new chemistries like his rivalry with Torracat.

 

[Leonhart]

If Ash's Greninja interacted with the other Pokemon then would it been better as character?

Better is subjective, although I might've enjoyed him more if he had formed a closer bond with Satoshi's other Pokemon, because believe it or not some of us enjoy watching character interactions and interpersonal development more than battles.

 

[Doppelgänger]

This phenomenon usually happens because the personality trait is tied to the Pokemon's strength, age or experience. Reaching that new tier of strength/age/experience obviates the need for that trait, and the Pokemon becomes a generic battler.

Cyndaquil acted like a weak/sleepy baby Pokemon so once it evolved it had nothing left. Oshawott, who has a big ego, wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if he were actually a strong Pokemon. Compare this to Chikorita, whose personality was "loves Ash" and so didn't undergo an attitude change after evolution. Or Treecko, who stayed cool/collected all the way into the Sceptile stage. The aforementioned Rockruff was wild and combative, so you see both signs of maturity and childishness out of it as a Lycanroc.

Greninja is rare case because it didn't "lose" its personality upon evolution, it got a brand new one to set the stage for the unique challenges it had to face.

 

[Kintaro]

It's interesting some pokemon evolve with little to no battle experience. Every single one of Brock's pokemon evolved with barely any battles. Misty had a few like Poliwag who had virtually no battles before it became Poliwhirl. Then of course there was May's Torchic which evolved because it wanted to fight Breloom.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

It's interesting some pokemon evolve with little to no battle experience. Every single one of Brock's pokemon evolved with barely any battles. Misty had a few like Poliwag who had virtually no battles before it became Poliwhirl. Then of course there was May's Torchic which evolved because it wanted to fight Breloom.

Brock's Pokemon that evolved are Steelix (item based), Forretress (low-mid level based), Crobat (low-mid level, then happiness based, Chaney (happiness based), Bonsly (move based), Ludicolo (low level, then stone based), Marshtomp (low level based) Most of his Pokemon don't technically need battle experience.

 

[BTS_fan]

Personality is overrated. As long as a Pokemon can be dependable in battle, I don't care too much about how they act.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Personality is overrated. As long as a Pokemon can be dependable in battle, I don't care too much about how they act.

Battling is overrated. I'd prefer to have fun personalities (which CAN include stoic ones if they pull them off right).

 

[Kintaro]

In each generation I usually prefer Ash's more comedic pokemon. Like Corphish, Gliscor, and Hawlucha stood out the most to me because they were based on humor, but they were also good battlers too.

 

[Ignition]

Personality is overrated. As long as a Pokemon can be dependable in battle, I don't care too much about how they act.

This. While I enjoy some Pokèmon for their personalities, I’m more concerned with their battle strength tbh

 

[CabochonJaw]

Personalities don't do as much for pokemon compared to learning moves, battling, and evolving. Piplup, oshawott, chespin, and rowlet - with their personalities, I'm glad they didn't evolve so that their evolved forms could be spared.

 

[DatsRight]

Personalities don't do as much for pokemon compared to learning moves, battling, and evolving. Piplup, oshawott, chespin, and rowlet - with their personalities, I'm glad they didn't evolve so that their evolved forms could be spared.

In fairness Rowlet did some of the better quality battles in SM, and I think his bond with Meltan gave him something integral to do within Ash's team development otherwise.

I think the key word may be less personality or battling and more agency. If the Pokemon maintains an agency often that plays into them having a bit of both since the writers would likely have a base to develop them around, instead of just going for colourful but inactive comic relief or a generic drone who only comes out to fight.

 

[pokedigijedi]

I don't know about losing personality, but yes they do appear less and less in the anime whenever they evolved because the anime is obsessed with marketing the cute unevolved Pokemon, on account that 99.9% of the anime is marketing and nothing else

 

[BTS_fan]

I don't know about losing personality, but yes they do appear less and less in the anime whenever they evolved because the anime is obsessed with marketing the cute unevolved Pokemon, on account that 99.9% of the anime is marketing and nothing else

I think there needs to be a balance between cute Pokemon and ones that have the strength to fight well.

 

[DatsRight]

I think there needs to be a balance between cute Pokemon and ones that have the strength to fight well.

A shame SM wasn't much for battling really, since Ash's Alola team could have been a good compromise, with a balance of evolved and unevolved Pokemon and all of them getting reasonable development and interactions, and even a rival for each of them. Still Pikachu is an ongoing example of cute Pokemon that still battle great.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I personally like a balance between serious and comedic personalities. I like trainers who are serious in training and battles but also can be relaxed and humorous when it is appropriate. I like season 1 Misty because she was a bit serious yet pretty snarky towards Ash which made things interesting to watch. I also enjoyed how jaded the main group became towards TRio at the end of the Indigo League especially towards their mechas.

 

[DatsRight]

I personally like a balance between serious and comedic personalities. I like trainers who are serious in training and battles but also can be relaxed and humorous when it is appropriate. I like season 1 Misty because she was a bit serious yet pretty snarky towards Ash which made things interesting to watch. I also enjoyed how jaded the main group became towards TRio at the end of the Indigo League especially towards their mechas.

The problem however was that S1 Misty's non-Psyduck Pokemon were practically a non entity around that point, and Psyduck himself was pretty much exclusively comic relief that Misty's couldn't control.

Again SM Ash came close, I mean this series is comical but it tackled one of his Pokemon handling death for character development.

 

[Kintaro]

I wonder why the writers can never inject personality into Ash's bird pokemon. Pidgeotto/Noctowl/Swellow/Staraptor/Uzefant/Talonflame, etc. are all essentially the same pokemon re-skinned with a different design every gen.

Every gen besides SM so far since he has Rowlett, Ash captures the same generic early bird pokemon and they all function similarly and have next to no personality.

 

[DatsRight]

I wonder why the writers can never inject personality into Ash's bird pokemon. Pidgeotto/Noctowl/Swellow/Staraptor/Uzefant/Talonflame, etc. are all essentially the same pokemon re-skinned with a different design every gen.

Every gen besides SM so far since he has Rowlett, Ash captures the same generic early bird pokemon and they all function similarly and have next to no personality.

The sad thing is that Talonflame actually started off okay due to being more mischievous and feisty as a Fletchling. It's kind of sad how the XY lot all actually started off decently and interacted with each other reasonably well while still showing their battle potential, then just got streamlined to Ash's impersonal soldiers after evolving. I think they acknowledged this in the last handful of episodes where they get at least the odd playful moment.

The last half of XY was perhaps the worst for the personality/competence balance. You were either comic relief or a super serious drone. Even poor Sylveon got ditched as a character the moment she evolved.

 

[Kintaro]

If the Mudkip meme had actually existed in the Gen III era (and no, before anyone asks, it didn't from 2002-2006, it happened long after), I wonder if Mudkip would have gotten treated better in the anime. Mudkip feels like a pokemon that got popular due to internet memes long after Gen III ended. As most people know, social media didn't exist in the early 2000's. I wonder if Mudkip would have gone to May instead even if she had started with Torchic. The ORAS short with her having both turned me onto the idea.