Why do certain Pokemon only evolve when they're traded?

[Lazyboy0337]

that would be a lot of mistreated pokemon if it worked that way, dont you think?

true. However, the pokemon arn't mistreated, they personally feel mistreater.

example: You are benched in football because you played too much. You feel bad, but you arn't mistreated.

 

[Miya902]

eh, then the pokemon needs to not be such a drama queen then. xD

 

[Werewolf Hero]

Energy overlode from the thade device. That is my idea.

 

[pokechamp116]

I think there is something to that "power between friends" thing. It would explain evolution and the boosted XP. as fo items, they're just little energy boosts/jumpstarts.

 

[Legacy]

I agree that it's just a video game thing designed to promote trading. I don't think it would happen in 'the real Pokemon World.'

But for the sake of argument, maybe there is just some trigger in their DNA that promotes evolution when a Pokemon goes through the very emotional occurrence of getting a new trainer.

I'm sure something of that magnitude would be sort of traumatic/exciting to the Pokemon. If the Poke is owned by a trainer it doesn't like or doesn't fit well with, perhaps the act of a trade to a better trainer would stimulate some kind of happy emotion. If the Poke likes its trainer or is used to its life with that trainer, perhaps such a drastic change in lifestyle or the sadness it feels would stimulate the same evolution.

 

[Infinity`]

There is no logical reason. It makes no sense in-universe. There was no explanation given in-universe. Just like a lot of things. So instead we will proceed to develop illogical reasons in this thread.

500 years ago, some guy named Alan the Barbarian of China (ABC) wanted to enslave a bunch of black people in order to build an ice cream factory for his kids. So he went to Africa to capture the black people, but all he found were a bunch of animals. These Pokemon were the ancestors (not-so-ancient ancestors to be exact) of all the Pokemon that now evolve through trading. Thinking "what the hell" he took them and proceeded to use them. Now, Captain Native America did not take too kindly to this, and his native sense triggered. Yes, from halfway across the world.

So he flew through the center of the Earth to confront Mr. ABC. After they fought each other in Mortal Kombat, ABC turned into a giant dragon, which was promptly killed by the armies of the Buddah. The Pokemon having been freed, this brought on such a sense of euphoria that it proceeded to cause them to evolve on the spot. As for those who only hold items when they evolve, well, they were so used to working with certain flavors (ABC made many flavors) that it became a tradition of sorts to destroy the things that went into them or use them as weapons. Hence, why the items disappear after trading (because they infuse with them).

Several hundred years later, a device to do this manually was created, but because there had to be motion for it to work and they also had to go from one person to another it was built into trade machines.

See? Not so hard. Just think of stuff and type it as it comes to mind. Then we'll have a bunch of explanations in lieu of an official one or one "that makes sense" (really, 9/10 fan theories suck, so we may as well go all out for the hell of it).

EDIT: Because GrnMarvl13 doesn't like me, I'll clarify that the whole "taken from a bad trainer and evolved due to euphoria then it became tradition to evolve when changing hands whether it was from a bad trainer or not" thing does indeed make some sense. If we assume something like that happened. Even in silliness, there's backing. I still think many fan theories are stupid, though. Including this one.

You'll see during the episode that Poliwhirl was holding the King's Rock beforehand (with no effect), and it is only after it emerges from the Poke Ball with King's Rock in tow that evolution is instigated.

As for real world explanations... Well how ELSE is Kadabra going to eat two bowls of cereal with only one spoon? Evolving to Alakazam when traded makes so much sense when you consider the other guy has the second cereal bowl.

I never understood why this happens. In the anime though, they obey different rules than in the games. It just makes things move smoother. There isn't a correlation between anime physics and game mechanics.

 

[Yamato-san]

you know what really bugs me about the lack of an in-canon explanation? Even in spite of that, trade-evolved Pokemon still manage to exist in the wild somehow or other. Even in the games, where three-stage evolutions are close to non-existent in the wild, you can encounter a wild Ganger via dongling (to say nothing of all the wild Haganeil and Hassamu that can be encountered as of Diamond/Pearl).

As for real world explanations... Well how ELSE is Kadabra going to eat two bowls of cereal with only one spoon? Evolving to Alakazam when traded makes so much sense when you consider the other guy has the second cereal bowl.

XD

 

[Vance]

Like you said, to promote trading.

 

[DracoMan]

Maybe its like what Cynthia said: "When every life meets another life, something will be born." I really hope I don't have to explain the relevance here.

 

[Dopey]

There's no logical reason. They wanted to sell their products, so they made it mandatory to trade to finish the game. Thats all.

 

[V Faction]

To further illustrate what I mean by:

Well how ELSE is Kadabra going to eat two bowls of cereal with only one spoon? Evolving to Alakazam when traded makes so much sense when you consider the other guy has the second cereal bowl.

 

[Spiny]

^I lol'ed, hard

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

So, that brand would be from Kellogs. Hmm, I've always thought it would be from Nestlé.

 

[Rimbaum]

I don't really follow the anime, and have just started getting into the Pokemon Adventures manga. So, let's assume for a moment that the worlds shown in the anime and manga follow the rules laid out in the games.

I've seen some good ideas in this thread so far. The idea that there's a spiritual or psychic bond between pokemon and trainer, and altering that bond via the pokemon changing owners as a trigger for evolution seems like a good possibility, especially for pokemon like Alakazam and Gengar.

Then again, there's also a pretty good reason why the anime and manga (from my experience so far) have avoided trying to answer this question: it was a gimmick to promote the games, and there is no reason they can come up with that doesn't sound tacked-on badly.

In my personal opinion, and speaking as a worldbuilding geek, that's how it should be done. It's an obvious gimmick that could easily be removed from fan-made attempts at recreating the Pokemon world without having any real impact on the world itself. If you can find a way to fit trade-evolutions into your story and version of the world without making it sound tacky or cheap, then go for it.

 

[Autumn Torterra]

The reason differs by pokemon
For graveler and haunter the trading compresses them into a more solid shape
For kadabra it learns a lot by observing the digital trasnfer of pokemon and its new iq evolves it.
For machoke his power contraint belt doesn't fit in the link cable.
For all that evolve by trade with item the item is bonded by the compression.

Note: Link cable causes compression

 

[062regrahc]

what about with wi-fi trades, or the wireless thing that came with Fr/Lg

 

[Autumn Torterra]

what about with wi-fi trades, or the wireless thing that came with Fr/Lg

For a pokemon to be traded wirelessly it has to be turned into data which also has to be compressed or it would be too big to be digitally moved.

 

[hehey]

My guess is that the traumatic experience of being traded away like an object triggers a biological response in some pokemon to grow stronger (so that you woint be given away again).

 

[Inon]

My theory is that when a pokémon is traded, it transform into some weird mass, some pokémon have unstable DNA, so, when transformed into mass and re-transformed into actual DNA, it changes, thus making the pokémon different, and for items is simple, the item fuses with the pokémon as they become mass.

 

[-Gray-]

Well, you see, Machoke got bored in the Union Room and decided to try lifting 4 300lb weights at a time. So by evolving, he gets stronger AND can pick up four things at a time. He then evolves after the trade to show off so he'll always be first in line in battle.

That's how Machoke evolves. Live with it,.