Obedience & Badges

[ThreeThousandFish]

TL;DR ~ In your opinion and/or from some information in the Pokémon games, why is it that Pokémon obey because of badges that their trainer owns? Why would Pokémon care about or even inherently understand badges?

As a partial owner of a dog, who can be very stubborn & often ignores me if my requests (such as "stop!") impede her own interests, I have begun to wonder why Pokémon will unconditionally obey their trainer simply because of the badges this trainer has accrued.

Pokémon generally are quite intelligent, but why would a symbolic trinket have any significance in their perception? Why would wild Pokémon even be aware of the concept of a badge, and why would a legendary Pokémon, with their great power or arguably sacred role in nature, even care about some accomplishments in a system that mere humans created?

I can understand the meachanical role that badges serve in the cores series, and I imagine that their absence or the inclusion of a more "realistic" system, whatever that would be, could discompose the progression of difficulty in an adventure, and any system with more complexity than a specific threshold for obedience that each successive badge increases probably would not have been pheasible in the earliest generations of the Pokémon series.

Regardless, I am curious if there is any reason for the effectiveness of badges on the obedience of Pokémon, whether it be from some obscure source in the games or from your personal ideas. Perhaps the world of Pokémon is not very logical or realistic anyway and discussions about it are ultimately furtile, but I maintain that consideration of how a society of humans & and every species of other, sentient beings, organic & inorganic, developed a universal concept between them -- I think that can be interesting.

 

[Midorikawa]

Maybe the Pokémon see it as a representation of your power and skill.

In the Pokémon adventures manga, in earlier arcs the badges actually have power. Like literal power. So maybe it’s soemthong like that, that they exude a controlling power.

 

[ThreeThousandFish]

Maybe the Pokémon see it as a representation of your power and skill.

In the Pokémon adventures manga, in earlier arcs the badges actually have power. Like literal power. So maybe it’s soemthong like that, that they exude a controlling power.

Thank you very much for the response. I much appreciate the effort.
Agh, the Pokémon mangas continue to allure me! That concept, that badges contain & emit power, fascinate me and makes me want to explore & study. Thank you for sharing that!

 

[Nicolas721]

In the original drafts of the games, battles were everything, but as the series evolved Pokemon became more like animals that could be used for a very vast number of purposes. The relationship between Pokemon and trainers became more personal and thus the original concept of obeying Pokemon was pushed to the background, but was likely kept until XY so players wouldn't rush the game with an OP Pokemon.

Therefore, I assume that (in the first drafts) the Pokemon League was the most important thing in the world and that Pokemon would know they would have to fight there, so they would choose trainers worthy of their respect.

 

[Envoy]

I mean, it’s a game mechanic thing completely and utterly. I wouldn’t think about it too hard.

Having said that, the idea is that a badge is proof of your strength/skill and Pokémon inherently respect strength/skill. So, seeing proof of yours would make them more likely to listen to you (given that they enjoy battling and of course want to win.)

How do they make the connection that badges=strength? Idk. Maybe it’s instinctive or something. Like how the more scarred some animals’ horns are, the more respect they get because it implies they’ve won many fights.

To completely bs an explanation, Im’ma say badges were fashioned after shapes that researchers noticed Pokémon inherently react to.

 

[ThreeThousandFish]

I mean, it’s a game mechanic thing completely and utterly. I wouldn’t think about it too hard.

Having said that, the idea is that a badge is proof of your strength/skill and Pokémon inherently respect strength/skill. So, seeing proof of yours would make them more likely to listen to you (given that they enjoy battling and of course want to win.)

How do they make the connection that badges=strength? Idk. Maybe it’s instinctive or something. Like how the more scarred some animals’ horns are, the more respect they get because it implies they’ve won many fights.

To completely bs an explanation, Im’ma say badges were fashioned after shapes that researchers noticed Pokémon inherently react to.

Oh, I am aware that Badges are purely an aspect of gameplay and needn't any lore or logical explanation; I simply enjoy discussion about possible reasons for such things.

I like your analogy of the scars of horns (or other appendiges of battle) in animals in relation to the respect, thus authority, that they receive from fellow members of their species! I suppose Pokémon, as a collective group, could have behaviorally adapted to recognize badges, or have always reacted to badges as you suggest, due to their apparently inveterate integration with societies of humans. Thanks for your contribution!

 

[BigBadButterfree]

I always thought that the badge was merely a symbol/certificate of the trainer’s skills. Like, yes, from a gameplay standpoint they’re used to hinder what you can use until you have a specific badge, but I guess “lore”-wise, it’d be more like the gym leader recognizing that you’re capable of training that level of Pokémon and giving you the badge to prove as much. Similar to a license or something. You don’t get a license to drive a car until you’ve proven that you can in fact drive the car. If that were translated into the way Pokémon does it, it would be like “oh, you reached this point, here’s a class D driver’s license” and you would suddenly be able to drive a car. I think it makes sense when you do separate the logic of a “real-world” application and the in-game implementation.

 

[Midorikawa]

That whole idea of scars and stuff makes a lot of sense. Could be that as they’ve bonded with humans throughout time and adapted to te changes that come with it, their ancestors learned of human symbols of power and that has spread into their DNA.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I think the biggest part of it is the influence of human culture on Pokemon. Pokemon you catch yourself can be trained past the level limit and still obey you, it's just Pokemon from other trainers that won't. Being from another trainer means that they've seen someone else with badges and know what they mean, so if your badges aren't at the same level as their previous trainer's, it gives them the impression that you're weak.

 

[Drakon]

Once idea I saw was that it actually brainwashes pokémon into obeying their new trainer. Granted, I really don't like that idea because it sounds really skeevy to do that to your pokémon but it's the most likely explanation. My personal idea is that pokémon recognize the badge as a symbol of the trainer's prowess.

 

[Life]

like what a lot of other people have said, it's because the more badges you earn is the easiest way to translate your skill as a trainer, and the more skillful you are, it's likelier that high-leveled pokémon will listen to you.

if it's a question of how can a pokémon understand this, then i'd argue that a) they don't, but because your skill goes up naturally when you earn a badge, they are (more or less) noticing your skill while in battle rather than the badge you earn, or b) they are smart enough to recognize a new gym badge/win and respect you for it.

 

[Matleo]

I would make the Obiedence thing rather be based on experience and not badges only.
For me the badge thing was ok but after so many generation if you evolve your pokemon too quickly it could be interesting if The Obedience thing would need longer, lets say more battle experience then only Badges?

Not only Badges but happines of all team memebers and also their achievements.

Or till the pokemon looses some battles.

 

[Greninjaman]

I think it's more a game mechanic than any thing. Look at the anime. Ash's Charizard was disobedient even after Ash got the Earth Badge.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I think it's more a game mechanic than any thing. Look at the anime. Ash's Charizard was disobedient even after Ash got the Earth Badge.

It's true that this is a game mechanic, but ThreeThousandFish is asking why it's that way for the games' universe.

 

[Greninjaman]

It's true that this is a game mechanic, but ThreeThousandFish is asking why it's that way for the games' universe.

Hmmm. Well, if the person were to get a high level legendaey before the first gym, then they will be able to just roll right through the early game.

 

[Envoy]

Hmmm. Well, if the person were to get a high level legendaey before the first gym, then they will be able to just roll right through the early game.

You’re giving a Doylian answer to a Watsonian question.

 

[Greninjaman]

You’re giving a Doylian answer to a Watsonian question.

Huh?

 

[Midorikawa]

Huh?

He’s saying your answering the question from our perspective rather than the characters of the games perspectives.

For example: Hilda receives a level 50 watchog. It won’t listen to her at all, no matter what she does. Then she gets the bolt badge. Suddenly it listens to her until level 51 when it stops listening to her. Hilda then ponders why that’s so.

So we’re ponderomg what she’s pondering.

 

[Greninjaman]

Hmmm. I guess I must have misread the question.
I don't then.
Perhaps it's more about respect.

 

[Envoy]

Huh?

It’s a turn of phrase. The gyst of it is that you’re giving a game mechanics answer to a lore question.