Isn't the whole point in the game that Oak just invented it and needs you to fill it up?
this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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As an excuse to get you out of the house so he can spend time with your mom.
Like, he has a charmander, squirtle, and bulbasaur sitting right fucking there on the table. If it was actually about filling it up, it should have at bare minimum 3 entries in it
Too bad for Oak, she's already taken by Mr. Mime. Unless...
Mr. Mime has terrible dirty talk game. On the other hand Oak’s bedroom talk gets her Squirtle going like Hydro Cannon.
Dint Dusknoir already taken his soul, like ripped from his body,.
I mean you said it he’s more about filling her up.
Which makes absolutely zero sense, and goes against the anime. Most of the Pokemon in the in-game world have already been caught by one of the various trainers, gym leaders, or elite four members you fight along the way. And in the anime, the Pokedex is used to identify some wild Pokemon before Ash or his friends capture it, not after.
More like the anime goes against the game, which was first.
The anime and manga are a little more accurate, in that some pokemon had no data, but all the common ones were easily looked up.
more like tricorder, but it seems to have data after you capture already, just like field work, reconfirming sightings or statistics(biometrics) of real life animals.
Basically Wikipedia
Crowd-sourcing the collection of data in a controlled, natural fashion through a non-scientist user is likely a lot more valuable and realistic than observing or collecting data about non-wild Pokemon in a laboratory, by themselves in the wild, or through other known resources.
If you didn't organically and intimately interact with a Pokemon without bias/filtering the situation through the lens of science, how can you truly claim any understanding?
From the user's pespective, the lack of available data by default ensures that the user collects the best data, even if it does briefly explain the Pokemon upon observation - likely to serve as a warning of potential danger or to provide a brief explanation to avoid user bias to appearances.
Aren't most pokemon already caught?
And studied too, but the dataset and scientific understanding of most Pokemon is still mostly incomplete. There is a lot of data that can still be garnered from handing out the Pokedex and encouraging users to catch and interact with Pokemon.
It's assumed that the Pokedex gathers some level of information autonomously on the interactions between trainers and the Pokemon they encounter and catch. The 6 Pokemon limit and sending excess Pokemon to the lab is likely another way to enable further research, with a steady supply of new subjects caught and interacted with in a specific, organic, and non-biased manner.
Instead of being taught about specific Pokemon prior to going out on their journey, trainers are taught about how to battle and catch Pokemon - the full breadth of literature could be sought out by them, but they are encouraged and incentivized to just go out into the world and explore.
I think the six pokemon limit was just because the most popular belt style could hold 6 pokeballs on it.
-total fan theory
It's a regulation thing for Trainers and the League, normal people don't have to worry about it.
Just as stylistic choices for the anime could be considered, it'd also be fair to point out that a lot of the universe was designed in line with the RPG elements of the games - and 6 was the maximum amount that made sense on the small Game Boy screens.
I'm definitely going further to rationalize everything in-universe here than I ever have in my head and everything just came out naturally with no prior thought or exposure to other fan theory.
Really everything I posted is wild speculation, but it's a fun exercise to try to make sense of how the world in Pokemon works according to the anime and games. Not many fantasy universes are arguably akin to a utopia like Pokemon, but still have darker elements at play - with real world parallels if you look closely enough.
Oh, absolutely 6 was because of the game boy limitation, but in universe I think coming up with the wackiest of reasons is great. Sort of like the 'ash is in a coma' one.
Huh, never heard that one. I love it 😂
Thanks for sharing!
Oh, god. That's like the original pokemon horror meme that I remember from 4chan. It's a really fun ride.
I also meant that you don't '''interact''' with wild pokemon most of the time.
It's a surveying tool. It logs the creatures you encounter and provides relevant information as a reward when the special capturing device registers and tags the creature. From this data they can understand populations, territories, genetic variations, migration habits, etc.
Shouldn't pokemon be catch, tag and release, then?
That's the funny thing, you DO release them. Alternatively, you have 6 with you and within range of the 'dex or stored and cataloged in a PC. The whole thing is tracked.
It has to already have all the data in it; it's not like Ash (or Red/Blue/etc) actually wrote anything in it. It just doesn't let you access the data until you're near or have captured a pokemon it had data on. Because it also doesn't have data on some of the unique pokemon from what I recall from one of the movies. Tho it does have data on Mewtwo in the game, and that mofo was made in a supposedly top secret lab. Oak must have been involved in his creation... 🤔
My perception was that he gave him a display to view his encyclopedia. Professor Oak hadn't logged any Pokemon yet, but then when you threw a PokeBall the Pokemon was transported into the storage somewhere, Professor Oak would study the Pokemon and make the data available to Ash. The issue with my line of thinking is that the transported Pokemon being stored don't get healed over time, so Professor Oak is like huh, that's Pikachu is fucked up, oh well I already studied it so no point in caring about it at all.
He only gets data, but does not have the tools the pokecenter does to heal them. Like, a doctor could diagnose you over the phone or a zoom call; but they can't administer medicine that way.
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Professor Jimmy Wales.
Guess what? Wikipedia was empty as well when it was created. People like you had to fill it themselves.
pretty sure from digging in the back of my mind it had like very few articles written by Wikipedia themselves and not completely empty from the start.
Yeah sure. But compared to now it was basically empty.
I posit all pokemans have a qr code or somethin on them that tells their stats, and the pokedex scans them.
The real scam was getting children to do all the research for their encyclopedia.
In the show it already has most of the data, I don't think it's ever elaborated on there either. The pokedex can be used as a trainer id somehow.
In first handful of games it needs to be manually completed. Owning a pokedex is quite rare though so it's not a crowdsourced task. Not entirely sure why it's not. It's made clear that the people with a pokedex at this time are favored by the professors. No connections or fateful encounters, no journey.
During the fifth generation I would say it had changed just based on the atmosphere in the first set of gen 5 games where it's acknowledged that the professor works with parents to enable their children to go on journeys. In the following two games going on a journey really seems to become a rite of passage, compared to the first four where the player character is very fortunate to have the opportunity.
By generation 8 the pokedex is now a public application that can be put on your phone, meaning it's probably crowdsourced at that point.
I thought the Pokedex was also available at the computers in the clinics, but maybe I'm remembering wrong. So the Pokedex is just a portable viewing device of the information, and the phone just made it a single app.
Nah, there was just an option to get the Professor's rating at the computers based on your progress. It's doesn't really do anything, and the feature gets removed later on.
In later games you'd want to talk with the professor(s) directly for item rewards, and the little screen certificates you get for a full completed dex have always come from the fourth wall breaking gamefreak employees in the game.
I'd always thought it was a rite of passage, just like in the show. In the show, Ash got Pikachu because he woke up late and all the other kids that were starting their journeys took all of the other starter pokemon. If I recall correctly it was at age 10 that kids start their pokemon journey.
In the game, the only 2 kids in Pallet Town started their pokemon journey at the same time. I always thought the games followed the show like that. I always thought it strange that your only competition with your rival was battles and not number of pokemon seen/caught in the pokedex.
I always thought the games followed the show like that.
Game came first.
Not sure how your comment us relevant. I'm talking about following that idea. That doesn't necessitate release order.
In the show ash uses it to tell him about Pokémon
Oak: "The impressive part is that you learn all of the animal's secrets when you capture it. Speaking of which, Mr. Ceo..."
POKEBALL SOUND
"Your bank accounts, and your existence, are now mine."
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