Pokémon Evolution/Capture/Release Thread

[Nichole the Otter]

Anime has shown that evolution isn't mainly connected with training. We've had Pokemon evolve during their first major anime battles with barely any battling before (Mallow's Bounsweet).

I think Wattrel definitely evolves sometime later as most anime birbs do. Hatenna could go either way, but given her story of being worn down by strong emotion, I think she has room for development, which can result in evolving.

HZ really seems like they won't give the characters many Pokemon (even Friede has only two). The heavy focus on partner Pokemon is heavily affecting bigger teams.

I agree this is becoming a problem. It seems like with the increasing focus on one single “ace” Pokémon, usually the character’s starter, they are neglecting their other Pokémon. It’s definitely why we saw Cilan, Serena and the Alola cast have teams with no less than three Pokémon, and even Goh only had the Galar starters as his consistent on-hand Pokémon.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I agree this is becoming a problem. It seems like with the increasing focus on one single “ace” Pokémon, usually the character’s starter, they are neglecting their other Pokémon. It’s definitely why we saw Cilan, Serena and the Alola cast have teams with no less than three Pokémon, and even Goh only had the Galar starters as his consistent on-hand Pokémon.

tbh, if only a small amount of Pokemon are going to get focus, maybe it's for the best if the characters stick to two or three. Heck, we've actually had a few notable cases of teams of two or three where one of the Pokemon is still sorely neglected: in the Alola saga Sandy the Eevee practically did nothing once he joined Lana's team despite the buildup he got leading to his joining the main cast while Popplio got to evolve twice and gain her signature Z-Move, same thing goes for Mallow's Shaymin even though that one actually only joined Mallow after Tsareena had already fully evolved (which in a way kinda makes its case more egregious); then in Journeys Yamper disappeared into the background once Chloe's Eevee became her designated lapmon and Goh's Sobble did very little once it evolved and Grookey took its place as Goh's shouldermon, even infamously spending practically all its time as a Drizzile training offscreen just so that they could justify it evolving into an Inteleon literally the next and last time it got a limelight episode.

 

[Daren]

tbh, if only a small amount of Pokemon are going to get focus, maybe it's for the best if the characters stick to two or three. Heck, we've actually had a few notable cases of teams of two or three where one of the Pokemon is still sorely neglected: in the Alola saga Sandy the Eevee practically did nothing once he joined Lana's team despite the buildup he got leading to his joining the main cast while Popplio got to evolve twice and gain her signature Z-Move, same thing goes for Mallow's Shaymin even though that one actually only joined Mallow after Tsareena had already fully evolved (which in a way kinda makes its case more egregious); then in Journeys Yamper disappeared into the background once Chloe's Eevee became her designated lapmon and Goh's Sobble did very little once it evolved and Grookey took its place as Goh's shouldermon, even infamously spending practically all its time as a Drizzile training offscreen just so that they could justify it evolving into an Inteleon literally the next and last time it got a limelight episode.

I tend to agree. I think that part of the "ace problem" is that most casts have just had way too many characters between the main cast and their Pokémon, Team Rocket, rivals, and so on. If no one on the cast is going on a badge quest and therefore needs a large party keeping it smaller may be a wise idea.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Having smaller teams can work for characters with non-battle related goals, but it is a bit of a shame to not have characters with full teams, if only because that does mean fewer battles.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

if only because that does mean fewer battles.

How true that is. This series is utterly battle-starved at this point.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Speaking of Evolutions there was a new Japanese popularity poll and guess who was at first place?

We may see Liko's Sprigatito evolving at some point!

https://twitter.com/pokemon_GW/status/1740656490556567945?t=nsrwT1vkkmdf4OXxq07lZQ&s=19


Some other notes about this Poll

Looking at that poll Dot's Quaxly might be evolving too. Yet another evo for the Water Starter for the 4th Gen in a row!

Speaking of the other Water Starters really glad to see my precious Primarina and Inteleon are still liked over in Japan even after all this time (At least comparatively to most other Alola and Galar Pokémon). They're really representing their respective Gens Starter reps


Also damn this could be the very generation where a Fire Starter stays in its base stage. Who knew Fuecoco would end up being such a huge hit?

And speaking of other Fire Starters... oh Charizard... even with all the Shilling you get. How the mighty have fallen...

Also cracking up at Terapagos not even making it to the Top 100 despite being a legendary, the face of the Indigo Disk DLC, and currently has a main role in the Anime

Also interesting that Ogrepon's has two different forms in the Top 100. If they had counted the votes of both forms as one, Ogrepon would've been in 2nd place

 

[Articfoxgamez]

The poll isnt even a particularly large portion of the fanbase it isnt going to decide who gets to evolve or not, especially because having one protag will a fully evolves starter and the other with base stage would be so incredibly lopsided.
(Also theres always recency bias with these no way in hell fuecoco would be second place without it)

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

The poll isnt even a particularly large portion of the fanbase it isnt going to decide who gets to evolve or not, especially because having one protag will a fully evolves starter and the other with base stage would be so incredibly lopsided.

Ash and Dawn?

(Also theres always recency bias with these no way in hell fuecoco would be second place without it)

I agree on this

 

[Dr. Gro 3001]

If Horizons does decide to give Liko and Roy's Pokémon enough attention, I could see both of their starters evolving to their middle stages. It makes for a decent end point when the series ends. Show that they made some progress, but also show that they have room for improvement.

 

[BigDocFan]

If Horizons does decide to give Liko and Roy's Pokémon enough attention, I could see both of their starters evolving to their middle stages. It make for a decent end point when the series ends. Show that they made some progress, but also show that they have room for improvement.

Would be nice to have a main characters grass type starter evolve for a change, we haven't had this since DP

 

[nickdt]

Speaking of Evolutions there was a new Japanese popularity poll and guess who was at first place?

We may see Liko's Sprigatito evolving at some point!

https://twitter.com/pokemon_GW/status/1740656490556567945?t=nsrwT1vkkmdf4OXxq07lZQ&s=19


Some other notes about this Poll

Looking at that poll Dot's Quaxly might be evolving too. Yet another evo for the Water Starter for the 4th Gen in a row!

Speaking of the other Water Starters really glad to see my precious Primarina and Inteleon are still liked over in Japan even after all this time (At least comparatively to most other Alola and Galar Pokémon). They're really representing their respective Gens Starter reps


Also damn this could be the very generation where a Fire Starter stays in its base stage. Who knew Fuecoco would end up being such a huge hit?

And speaking of other Fire Starters... oh Charizard... even with all the Shilling you get. How the mighty have fallen...

Also cracking up at Terapagos not even making it to the Top 100 despite being a legendary, the face of the Indigo Disk DLC, and currently has a main role in the Anime

Also interesting that Ogrepon's has two different forms in the Top 100. If they had counted the votes of both forms as one, Ogrepon would've been in 2nd place

Its not only Charizard too, Greninja has fallen even harder.

Another take from this is that Decidueye and Incineroar aren't in top 100 either.

Lucario, Gengar and Gardevoir stay consistent.

Another interesting thing is that Talonflame, Noivern, and Hawlucha also have fallen from grace, considering Sylveon, Greninja, Goomy and Goodra are the only Kalos reps in the top 100.

In terms of starters (Counting the lines, not the individual Pokemon)
Fire - 4 lines in the top 100
Grass - 3 line in the top 100
Water - 5 lines in the top 100 (4 of which are from the last 4 generation)

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Ash and Dawn?

Also, Ash and eventually Serena got their respective Kalos starters to their final stages while Clemont's Chespin is still a Chespin as of the last time we saw them.

 

[Daren]

Would be nice to have a main characters grass type starter evolve for a change, we haven't had this since DP

Hopefully it would end better than it did that time.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Its not only Charizard too, Greninja has fallen even harder.

Greninja was a weird case actually, during that poll you voted for one pokemon per reigon, Greninja had so many votes because it was only against other gen 6 Pokemon, which there weren't many.
I think this is true anyways unless I've been lied to.

 

[nickdt]

Greninja was a weird case actually, during that poll you voted for one pokemon per reigon, Greninja had so many votes because it was only against other gen 6 Pokemon, which there weren't many.
I think this is true anyways unless I've been lied to.

I don't think thats true, since then Greninja would probably be higher because the amount of Pokemon to choose from is lower than for example for Gardevoir.

Like, look at how many gen 4 Pokemon are in the top 20 compared to Kalos (3 vs 1).

Like, the first Kalos mon is Sylveon at number 4, while the next one is Greninja at number 29.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Hopefully, this comes sooner rather than later:

 

[BigDocFan]

Hopefully, this comes sooner rather than later:

View attachment 180794

Would be nice to see them all fully evolve

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Would be nice to see them all fully evolve

Agreed.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Its not only Charizard too, Greninja has fallen even harder.

Greninja hasn't gotten much attention from TPC since Generation 6 whereas Charizard STILL gets consistent shilling from TPC to this day

The fact that Greninja was not only skipped over for an entire Generation (it wasn't in ANY of the Gen 8 games) but the fact that it's also gotten a huge Nerf to its Hidden Ability AND also lost its Battle Bond form in this current Gen has also not helped its current reception either.

As such it's not surprising at all that it's popularity has dwindled

 

[nickdt]

Greninja hasn't gotten much attention from TPC since Generation 6 whereas Charizard STILL gets consistent shilling from TPC to this day

The fact that Greninja was not only skipped over for an entire Generation (it wasn't in ANY of the Gen 8 games) but the fact that it's also gotten a huge Nerf to its Hidden Ability AND also lost its Battle Bond form in this current Gen has also not helped its current reception either.

As such it's not surprising at all that it's popularity has dwindled

And that is also my entire point with Greninja

Its only popular because of the form. If it wouldn't have received said form, it wouldn't have peaked in popularity compared to other Kalos mons, which we see now.