Trainers that really shouldn't be trainers...

[Krookodile]

This is NOT what you think it is.
It's about Kindergarteners (trainer class).

According to the anime a trainer can't get a pokemon until he's 10. This was proved further when Max came along. But then kindergarteners come and they're like four or three, and they have pokemon? What is up with that?

 

[Metabee]

Maybe the laws are different in Unova. That's the best explaination I could come up with...

 

[Morru]

This is NOT what you think it is.
It's about Kindergarteners (trainer class).

According to the anime a trainer can't get a pokemon until he's 10. This was proved further when Max came along. But then kindergarteners come and they're like four or three, and they have pokemon? What is up with that?

Or their Pokemon were only lent to them, like the Tubers from R/S/E.

 

[Kamikazen]

Or their Pokemon were only lent to them, like the Tubers from R/S/E.

Yeah I think they could've rented them. Considering most of the Kindergarteners are near the day care.

 

[Mr. Slowpoke]

Or maybe the rules are diffrent in the games...

 

[Ferbgor]

Maybe their teacher lent them those pokemon to practice for when thier old enough to be trainers.

 

[SilverChromeX]

Rebellion!

Tch. Don't you know anything? Kids these days are becoming rebellious earlier in their years. They screw the rules and started their Pokemon Training early. Society's new norm is letting your iddy-biddy bed-wetters walk out of the house for say...a good chunk of their childhood...to embark on a Pokemon Journey. The earlier the better they say! Although they do pretty gruesome as Pokemon Trainers.

 

[Azure Butterfly]

There are no such rules in the games, and I think one of the other mediums said that they could still own Pokemon, just not win badges.

 

[#Daisuke#]

Anime =/= Games

Only Anime canon states that trainers must be 10 before they can own a Pokemon. The Game canon says no such thing. That's why there are little kindergarteners, tubers, and twins running around only to be beaten by someone at least 5 years older than them.

But I like the theory that the kindergartener's Pokemon were lended to them. It makes sense.

 

[Data_Error]

Easy: their teams are comprised of their pets, or possibly Pokémon kept at the day-care for the kids to play with. Technically not theirs, they just battle with them.

Alternatively, the games don't always work the same way as the anime, so there might not be an age restriction on trainers' licenses in the game-Unova.

 

[Moonlight Umbreon]

I think they're just their pets and they aren't real trainers. Or maybe it's just that game rules are different than anime ones.

 

[FireMeowth]

Even the anime doesn't follow this rule - kids waaaay younger than Ash have been seen to have Pokémon.

Anyways, there's no Trainers that shouldn't be Trainers.

 

[Krookodile]

Actually, they only befriend them or use them for school studies.

 

[Drakon]

I think it is the same way the law in certain places allows children to hunt with guns. They use them under adult supervision but are otherwise technically are not allowed to have them.

 

[Alex800]

the pokémon probably just belong to the kindergarten teachers or something and the kids got to play with them. I think the kindergartners are adorable :3

 

[Garren]

I always thought the general agreement was that those kids couldn't be officially recognized as trainers (compete in tournaments and gyms and the like), but I doubt there'd be anyway to outright ban them from using Pokemon for recreational battling.

That's how it was in the Anime too, I believe, since I remember a few younger characters making that point a few times.

 

[Fletcher.]

Actually, they only befriend them or use them for school studies.

...Proof? Honestly, they're probably just their pets. I remember one kid, Tuber Percy I think?, in the Battle Frontier saying that his dad caught his Pokemon for him.

But yeah, the "10-years-old-or-GTFO" rule is anime-only. Never in the game has it been stated that you have to be 10-years-old to be a Trainer. It likely is that you can only participate in the League with a Trainer License, but it is never stated how old you have to be to get it.

Yes, this means that the protagonists aren't ten.
People need to stop thinking that.
/off-related tirade.

 

[HexagonStephen]

The game never said that a person must be at least a certain age to have Pokemon. There are trainers in every game who are younger than the player. The 'Must be at least 10' rule is only from the anime.

But yeah, the "10-years-old-or-GTFO" rule is anime-only. Never in the game has it been stated that you have to be 10-years-old to be a Trainer. It likely is that you can only participate in the League with a Trainer License, but it is never stated how old you have to be to get it.

I agree. Although, I hadn't thought about the Trainer Card... It would make sense if a person must be a certain age to acquire one.

 

[LichenLeaf]

I agree with the theory that the little kids pokemon are just pets. Or, some come out and say, someone else got the pokemon for them. And the gym challenge doesn't apply until you're ten, both in-game and in anime. And as for Max in the Anime, his dad was a Gym Leader, which meant Max couldn't have gotten one anyway. Can't show gym leader kids special treatment. And I didn't like him anyway...

 

[Owain]

i think that there's no age requirement in the games, as said before in the R/B/G/Y manual, it only states that the protagonist is 11, not that it has to be 11, as going by the game, i don't think giving you a starter was planned because of your 11th birthday, if it means, then you and Rival are born in the same day xD!