Pokémon Evolution/Capture/Release Thread

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I'm still bemused that a Pokémon becoming incredibly popular due to having a bunch of evolutions resulted in attempts to shove the evolutions out of the spotlight in favour of the base form.
Truly a decision of all time.

To be somewhat fair, it's really only the anime and Gigantamax Eevee that have truly completely shafted the Eeveelutions in favor of Eevee alone: the special Z-Move and the Partner Moves at the very least involved Eevee harnessing the powers of its evolved forms meaning that they were still being acknowledged as an important part of its identity, and in Pokemon Unite it's the Eeveelutions who are playable instead of Eevee. Gigantamax Eevee on the other hand not only robbed us of a potential new evolution for the critter, but it didn't even incorporate the previous ones into its design or G-Max move like Extreme Evoboost did. And of course there's the anime having two non-evolving Eevees in a row that don't do anything because reasons.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Although, the group is primarily based out of Kanto. Roy actually is from there and Liko goes to school there. It would make sense if the majority of their team consisted of Kanto Pokémon because that is the region where they come from.

It really wouldn't. They are going to travel around the world, so ideally they won't be staying at Kanto for a good chuck of the series. Most of the crew have Pokemon that aren't from Kanto too. While Roy is from Kanto, that doesn't mean that he has to get more Kanto Pokemon. Goh is from Kanto, but his first Pokemon was still Scorbunny and he's still largely associated with the Galar starters more so than any of his other captures. They already established that Liko isn't going to in-person classes at her school and we know that she's originally from Paldea, so she has much less association with Kanto compared to Roy.

More importantly, they just don't need to have more Kanto pandering. There has been so much focus on Kanto for years and it would be much more fitting to use the new leads to promote new Pokemon instead. If they do want to feature more Kanto Pokemon, they can use Friede or one of the other crew members instead of Liko and Roy.

Well, Scarlet and Violet already gave the anime a perfectly good Eevee-promoter in a silver platter via Penny, so the anime staff would be insane to not use her for that purpose, especially since other game characters such as Nemona have already been confirmed to appear. Sure, in the games Penny has a team of Eeveelutions that's missing a couple of them plus Eevee itself, but I don't think it'd be too difficult for the anime to add the three missing members and have the whole line on rotation.

Imho this would probably be the best way to showcase Eevee in Horizons, since it kind of allows everyone to have their cake an eat it: the Eevee not evolving this time around is fine due to all of its evolved forms also being prominent and the entire family is showcased by a character who is actually proactive and has an arc and development. This all means that Eevee can stay unevolved without issue since all the evolutions are present too anyway, they also could actually do cool and important stuff this time around instead of just staying useless lapwarmers, and the Eeveelutions themselves don't get Raichu'd for a third time in a row.

...Sadly, I don't really have high hopes for the anime to not screw this up somehow. They're probably just going to give Liko a non-evolving Eevee who isn't going to serve any purpose besides allowing Sprigatito to get off her shoulder and evolve all the way. Or worse, Penny is still the designated Eevee advertiser but gets completely stripped of what makes her interesting and unique as a character in favor of making her timid, helpless, and demure and never really grows out of that and her entire Eeveelution team is absent in favor of giving her only an Eevee that doesn't evolve or even participate in a battle just like Sandy and Chloe's Eevee before it.

Using Penny to promote Eevee would be a smart way to go about featuring it while still naturally showcasing its different evolved forms at the same time. It would also allow for them to showcase Eevee battling, something that the last two Eevee didn't really get to do, and potentially showcase Penny's strength as a trainer given that she would be capable of raising multiple different Eevee into their different evolved forms.

Admittedly, I don't have the highest expectations for how the anime could handle Penny either. While I'm really glad that we are getting Scarlet/Violet characters, I'm not really sure how well they can adapt the Team Star storyline. I'm sure that Team Star will be featured at some point, if only because every evil team has been shown in the anime. Even Team Yell got to appear in Journeys and they were annoying road blocks instead of anything fun or interesting like Team Skull were. But I'm not sure how well they could adapt the storyline when neither Liko or Roy are going to be students at either Paldea Academy, so it would be kind of hard to cover that storyline well if they're going to be traveling around the world instead. Penny being stripped of what makes her an interesting character would not be a stretch either since other series have done that with other characters from the games. It would be disappointing if they just gave Liko an Eevee to hold in her arms to justify Sprigatito evolving. They basically did that with Lana and Popplio.

 

[RileyXY1]

It just doesn't make sense for Liko and Roy to have Paldea-only teams unless they decided to completely ditch the world traveling format midway through the saga. And I'm expecting them to have mostly Kanto mons because the Kanto mons are the most recognizable to non-Pokémon fans. It's simply a matter of marketing.

 

[Eitarou]

There is literally nothing stopping them from having captures in eps where Liko and Roy just so happen to be in Paldea. It's not complicated.

 

[BigDocFan]

I don't mind Liko and Roy not having a full Paldea team, but would love to see them catch Mankey and Pawniard and have them fully evolve at least

 

[SlyGecko]

It just doesn't make sense for Liko and Roy to have Paldea-only teams unless they decided to completely ditch the world traveling format midway through the saga. And I'm expecting them to have mostly Kanto mons because the Kanto mons are the most recognizable to non-Pokémon fans. It's simply a matter of marketing.

OK , it's time for me to put my hat in the ring. That reasoning makes 0 sense because of 4 reasons
1. Non-Pokémon fans would probably only know of only a few kanto pokemon. Most notably Pikachu and Charizard as they are the most popular Kanto pokemon. Both of which belong to Friede.
2. We have plenty of characters who can show off the older pokemon for "marketing" so Liko and Roy can have more newer pokemon mixed in with one or two older ones
3. Kanto doesn't need the marketing. Paldea does as it's the newest region and needs the attention.
4. A world tour does not mean 80% Kanto, 15% paldea, 5% everything else. That was a huge issue with Journeys as they focused too much on Kanto.

 

[Hidden Mew]

It just doesn't make sense for Liko and Roy to have Paldea-only teams unless they decided to completely ditch the world traveling format midway through the saga. And I'm expecting them to have mostly Kanto mons because the Kanto mons are the most recognizable to non-Pokémon fans. It's simply a matter of marketing.

There's really no harm in having them only capture Pokemon when they travel to Paldea. That would potentially give them time to flesh out their Pokemon and the other regions they'll travel to in between capture episodes. It also wouldn't really be hard to include Paldea Pokemon outside of Paldea. They could be abandoned Pokemon or traveling around other trainers while still being wild and deciding to travel with Liko or Roy instead. It would not be that difficult either way.

Why would they want to market the anime to non-Pokemon fans? They aren't really interested in trying to use Kanto Pokemon to appeal to the older fans who are only familiar with the generation one Pokemon. It especially doesn't make sense when they already have Pikachu and Charizard as part of the cast. Pikachu is the mascot of the franchise and Charizard is easily the most popular starter, so if they want to appeal to people who really like the first generation, they already have that covered with its two most recognizable Pokemon.

More importantly, why would they care about Kanto pandering that much to the point where it takes more priority over the newest Pokemon? Up until Journeys, there was no issue with giving the main focus to the newest generation. Yes, they were set in their respective regions, but I don't think that the world tour format means that they have to give more priority to Kanto. That was a huge mistake in Journeys and repeating it in Horizon would be such a waste. The priority should be given to the newest region with new Pokemon, characters and locations for them to adapt, not have them spend the majority of the series in Kanto or other older regions. If they really want to feature older Pokemon, they have other crew members to do that. Using Liko and Roy to showcase newer Pokemon instead of older ones, most of which do no need the extra attention, would be fine. There are over a thousand Pokemon at this point. There is no good reason for them to rely so much on the nostalgia of Kanto.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Why would they want to market the anime to non-Pokemon fans? They aren't really interested in trying to use Kanto Pokemon to appeal to the older fans who are only familiar with the generation one Pokemon. It especially doesn't make sense when they already have Pikachu and Charizard as part of the cast. Pikachu is the mascot of the franchise and Charizard is easily the most popular starter, so if they want to appeal to people who really like the first generation, they already have that covered with its two most recognizable Pokemon.

Everything you, Ghost, and Sly has said about this whole thing I absolutely agree with, though I wanna add to this in particular. These non-Pokemon fans and older fans are NOT the targeted demographic. Pokemon can be enjoyed by everyone, but most of the marketing and all is geared towards kids about 6-12. Not the older fans (a good handful of which are sick of the Kanto pandering) or the non-Pokemon fans there's no reason to market towards.

 

[RileyXY1]

There's really no harm in having them only capture Pokemon when they travel to Paldea. That would potentially give them time to flesh out their Pokemon and the other regions they'll travel to in between capture episodes. It also wouldn't really be hard to include Paldea Pokemon outside of Paldea. They could be abandoned Pokemon or traveling around other trainers while still being wild and deciding to travel with Liko or Roy instead. It would not be that difficult either way.

Why would they want to market the anime to non-Pokemon fans? They aren't really interested in trying to use Kanto Pokemon to appeal to the older fans who are only familiar with the generation one Pokemon. It especially doesn't make sense when they already have Pikachu and Charizard as part of the cast. Pikachu is the mascot of the franchise and Charizard is easily the most popular starter, so if they want to appeal to people who really like the first generation, they already have that covered with its two most recognizable Pokemon.

More importantly, why would they care about Kanto pandering that much to the point where it takes more priority over the newest Pokemon? Up until Journeys, there was no issue with giving the main focus to the newest generation. Yes, they were set in their respective regions, but I don't think that the world tour format means that they have to give more priority to Kanto. That was a huge mistake in Journeys and repeating it in Horizon would be such a waste. The priority should be given to the newest region with new Pokemon, characters and locations for them to adapt, not have them spend the majority of the series in Kanto or other older regions. If they really want to feature older Pokemon, they have other crew members to do that. Using Liko and Roy to showcase newer Pokemon instead of older ones, most of which do no need the extra attention, would be fine. There are over a thousand Pokemon at this point. There is no good reason for them to rely so much on the nostalgia of Kanto.

It just wouldn't make sense for them to have only Paldea Pokemon in a world traveling saga. I'm not expecting that unless they fully ditch the world traveling format and just have the entirety of Horizons take place solely in Paldea going forward. I'm expecting them to at least get the other two Kanto starters (with Liko getting Squirtle and Roy getting Bulbasaur) along with Liko getting an Eevee to be her primary shouldermon.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

It just wouldn't make sense for them to have only Paldea Pokemon in a world traveling saga.

They already aren't having exclusively Paldea/Gen 9 Pokemon in Horizons: Freide has both of Kanto's mascots, and literally the only non-Gen 9 Pokemon currently part of the Volt Tacklers' crew are the Paldea Starters and Pawmi. And then there's the Explorers, who so far have only one Gen 9 Pokemon in Amethio's Ceruledge while the other two promonent members both have Gen 1 Pokemon as their mains.

Taking all of the above into account, there's really no need for Liko and Roy's teams to be needlessly packed with older Pokemon, especially Kanto ones, when almost every other character around them is already promoting older Pokemon.

 

[Hidden Mew]

It just wouldn't make sense for them to have only Paldea Pokemon in a world traveling saga. I'm not expecting that unless they fully ditch the world traveling format and just have the entirety of Horizons take place solely in Paldea going forward. I'm expecting them to at least get the other two Kanto starters (with Liko getting Squirtle and Roy getting Bulbasaur) along with Liko getting an Eevee to be her primary shouldermon.

I think that you're too focused on the world tour format and ignoring that other characters in the crew exist. As I mentioned before, Ash's Journeys team really had nothing to do with the world traveling aspect of the series. It was all about giving him popular fan favorite Pokemon at the end of the day. It did not really mirror the fact that he was traveling around the world, especially when most of them were caught in Kanto and only two were caught in Galar. Similarly, Liko and Roy's teams don't have to reflect older generations or the fact that they're traveling around the world. There are other characters that they're traveling with, most of which already have non-Paldea Pokemon, who they can use to promote older generations. Liko and Roy can still have Paldea Pokemon while the characters they travel with feature older Pokemon. It would still mirror the world tour format, assuming that is something that they're interested in reflecting in the first place, while still giving priority to the most recent generation. They don't have to ditch the world tour format to justify their Paldea teams.

There is absolutely no need to give them more Kanto Pokemon to Liko and Roy when Kanto is already so overexposed and they have other characters that they can use to showcase them besides the two leads. Liko getting an Eevee as her shouldermon is more of a possibility than giving her a Squirtle, if only because of the trend of giving female leads an Eevee in the past few series, but that would also be not ideal. Not just because of the Kanto pandering, but having another Eevee that just exist for the girl to hold onto instead of doing anything with would be boring. I'd prefer them to keep Sprigatito unevolved instead of doing that and I like Sprigatito's evolved forms.

 

[RileyXY1]

I think that you're too focused on the world tour format and ignoring that other characters in the crew exist. As I mentioned before, Ash's Journeys team really had nothing to do with the world traveling aspect of the series. It was all about giving him popular fan favorite Pokemon at the end of the day. It did not really mirror the fact that he was traveling around the world, especially when most of them were caught in Kanto and only two were caught in Galar. Similarly, Liko and Roy's teams don't have to reflect older generations or the fact that they're traveling around the world. There are other characters that they're traveling with, most of which already have non-Paldea Pokemon, who they can use to promote older generations. Liko and Roy can still have Paldea Pokemon while the characters they travel with feature older Pokemon. It would still mirror the world tour format, assuming that is something that they're interested in reflecting in the first place, while still giving priority to the most recent generation. They don't have to ditch the world tour format to justify their Paldea teams.

There is absolutely no need to give them more Kanto Pokemon to Liko and Roy when Kanto is already so overexposed and they have other characters that they can use to showcase them besides the two leads. Liko getting an Eevee as her shouldermon is more of a possibility than giving her a Squirtle, if only because of the trend of giving female leads an Eevee in the past few series, but that would also be not ideal. Not just because of the Kanto pandering, but having another Eevee that just exist for the girl to hold onto instead of doing anything with would be boring. I'd prefer them to keep Sprigatito unevolved instead of doing that and I like Sprigatito's evolved forms.

They could also have other characters showcase the Paldean Pokémon too, particularly the characters from the games themselves. Episode 10 confirms that they aren't fully abandoning the idea of bring in game characters.

 

[Hidden Mew]

They could also have other characters showcase the Paldean Pokémon too, particularly the characters from the games themselves. Episode 10 confirms that they aren't fully abandoning the idea of bring in game characters.

While showcasing newer Pokemon with Scarlet/Violet characters would be nice, I think relying on that entirely to showcase Paldea Pokemon would be more limiting. I'm still not sure how much focus or screentime characters like Nemona are going to get, so it would still be more ideal to give some Paldea Pokemon to the main leads.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Besides, most of the characters from the SV games don't have teams that are completely made up of Gen 9 Pokemon (heck, Penny doesn't have anything introduced past Gen 6 by virtue of her team being all Eeveelutions, and Nemona is unlikely to have a Paldea Starter in this iteration due to how those are all being used by a main character already), so even if the game characters turn out to be more prominent than the world traveling framing device suggests, they're still not very reliable for properly showcasing Gen 9 Pokemon.

 

[BigDocFan]

Nemona could easily have a Starter Pokemon I feel, maybe middle stage evolution or fully evolved

 

[RileyXY1]

I'm not even expecting Liko and Roy to have full teams anyways. I'm only expecting them to have 2-3 Pokémon each.

 

[Nichole the Otter]

I'm not even expecting Liko and Roy to have full teams anyways. I'm only expecting them to have 2-3 Pokémon each.

I'm guessing it's because smaller teams are easier to develop, which likely explains why most of Ash's companions didn't have full teams. Goh in fact had only the Galar starters as his consistent team, with Dawn being the last companion to have a full team.

I still feel they'll catch a lot of Pokemon, but maybe some of them will not be consistent team members like what we had with Goh.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I'd just like to see someone catch a Pokemon soon. We've gotten Liko and Roy's first wins. Its time for a capture. I still like the idea of Liko with Armarouge as a counterpart to Amethio's Ceruledge, as well as a Tinkaton considering Amethio has a Corviknight.

 

[Eitarou]

I'd rather her get a team that suits her as a person rather than just be tailor-made to counter someone else's. Also, if she needs something to counter Ceruledge, Meowscarada's right there. It's technically a better option type-wise.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm guessing it's because smaller teams are easier to develop, which likely explains why most of Ash's companions didn't have full teams. Goh in fact had only the Galar starters as his consistent team, with Dawn being the last companion to have a full team.

I still feel they'll catch a lot of Pokemon, but maybe some of them will not be consistent team members like what we had with Goh.

To be fair, most of Ash's companions didn't have battle active goals, so if some characters like Cilan, Iris or Serena had full teams, a lot of them would have faded into the background or had little to no development. It was hard to give Ash's teams consistent development despite being the main lead and battling much more frequently, so trying to do that with three full teams would have been challenging to say the least.

I don't see Liko and Roy having a rotating team like Goh did. That made sense given how many Pokemon Goh had, but I don't think that they'll do the same thing for Liko and Roy.