As anyone who plays Pokemon knows, Pokeballs are spherical objects that can contain Pokemon. But how do they work? And what is inside them?
Taking a look at the majority of Pokemon fanfiction shows many different explanations for both. Some are just plain crazy (a Kids WB commercial once had Ash being sucked into one and finding himself in a forest with all his lost socks, including the mascot sock for Kids WB), some are possible (one story suggested that since Pokeballs are made from apricorns, that apricorns have the ability to absorb energy from surrounding Pokemon, an ability that was upgraded to capture Pokemon), and some are just cruel (another theory has it that inside a Pokeball is an endless void where Pokemon are unable to sleep or move).
However, as things go, none of these theories are actually right due to official information and some common sense.
It should be noted that when I use official information, I have a priority list. Above anything else are official statements. Following that is information from the actual games. Below that is information from Pokemon Special (The creator of Pokemon himself stated that Special was how he thought of the Pokemon world). Finally, the anime sits at the bottom of the priority list, due to the twisting of facts it occasionally performs.
Now, on to the Pokeball. Here are the exact quotes from the Pokeball trophy entries in the Super Smash Brothers series.
The Melee entry:
208: Poké Ball [Pokémon Red & Blue]
"These balls are used to capture and contain wild Pokémon. Most Pokémon must be weakened in some way before they can be captured, but once they're inside a Poké Ball, they enjoy their new home, since Poké Balls contain an environment specially
designed for Pokémon comfort. Master Balls are the strongest type."
The Brawl entry:
Poke Ball (Pokemon Red/Blue, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl)
An item used for capturing Pokemon and calling them out to battle. Pokemon
live in these items which, despite appearances, actually contain a wide,
comfortable, Pokemon-friendly world inside them. In Super Smash Bros., Pokemon give temporary support to whoever calls them out. You never know which Pokemon you'll get, but some of them are devastatingly powerful.
As these two entries quite clearly spell out, Pokeballs contain a wide, comfortable environment specifically designed to comfort whatever Pokemon is inside.
Now then, this information tells us what’s inside the Pokeball, but how does the Pokeball work? Here’s where the common sense part of the explanation comes in.
Note that the Melee description states that inside a Pokeball is an environment specifically designed for Pokemon comfort. Yet one can clearly see that a comfortable environment for a Magmar would be quite different then a comfortable environment for a Glaceon. So how does it work? Are there custom Pokeballs for every Pokemon type?
The simplest answer that can be though of is that Pokeballs convert their target into data, check with the Pokedex to find out what kind of Pokemon it is (leading to the Pokedex page you see), and then load up the appropriate environment.
But how did I think of data of all things? Simple: look at how the Pokemon Storage System works. That system is proof that it is indeed possible to turn Pokemon into data. Yet wouldn’t it be incredibly taxing to have the Storage System constantly digitalizing and undigitalizing Pokemon? Wouldn’t the Storage System eventually overload from the strain?
But wait! If the Pokeballs already digitalize the Pokemon, all the storage system does is transfer the data.
Now the question is how the Pokemon digitalizes a Pokemon. For this purpose, I will be using information from the anime, as there is no official statements I know of, the games state nothing, and Pokemon Special doesn’t really go into detail (though since we can see the Pokemon inside the Pokeballs, once can imply the Pokeballs of Pokemon Special are either different, or are made of material that are essentially windows into the real world.
We have seen three types of light in the Pokemon anime. These lights aren’t just for show if I am correct.
The red light appears to be the one handling the data conversion, as it is used for capturing and returning. It appears to induce a stunning effect to make the process easier, as seen in the anime where Jessie is hit by a red beam and temporarily unable to move.
The white light appears to be the reverse of the red light, turning the Pokemon back to normal.
The blue light appears to be some sort of system wipe, releasing the Pokemon (whether or not the Pokemon will want to go seems to depend on its bond with the trainer in the anime) and (in the games anyway) rendering the Pokeball used useless.
Also, the Pokeballs seem to be able to recognize Pokemon, resulting in anything not Pokemon just sitting in the ball if it’s small enough (like the riceba- er, I mean doughnut), or just getting bonked on the head.
If I were to take a guess, the red light digitalizes the Pokemon bit by bit (which is why the Pokemon must be stunned, or else it will move, resulting in an error. This error probably ends up just auto releasing the Pokemon, lest the system crash or the Pokemon end up messing itself up. Due to this, you probably need to weaken the Pokemon prior to capture so the stun will have greater effect. One could theorize this is how the more advanced balls work, each with a greater stunning ability) before compressing the resulting soup of data into the ball. The Pokedex is then scanned, and an environment is formed.
I wonder what Pokemons do inside their Pokeballs -
09-09-2010, 01:33 PM
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