pokémon headcanon

[kuruk22]

Just to get it all down for future reference... a work in progress (will add on as it develops).

Not definitive (I might break my headcanon to go in another direction for some fics), but this is what I believe... most of the time.

Comments

[solarpillar]

I know that this is just your personal notes to self, but I can't help but want to comment on one aspect:

Red battles by using physical cues and movements to give his pokémon orders, making verbal commands superfluous.How does this work? Does he make sounds with his physical cues or something? You see, on a battlefield, there less occasions for turn-to-the-partner-eyes-meet-information-exchanged thing then you believe, especially if your partner just stands there and do not move around to put himself in a more visible position to his partner. In an organised team sport like soccer, hockey or basketball the physical cues work because everybody's moving and everybody's paying attention to everybody (in theory at least, I remember at least two occasions where people lost track of the puck...). In a League-sanctioned official Pokemon battle, the Pokemon are moving on the field and the trainers are standing outside and in the same position. This is why Akira [Ace/cool-trainer type character in first season of the anime] used the crackling

[kuruk22]

I've noticed that this is a bit fallacious. The way I justify it to myself and anyone who asks is that Red has a bond with his pokémon that transcends the need for commands. While he does make movements to communicate with them, it's more of an echo of something already in motion. I believe that Red and his pokémon have a bond that puts them on the same wavelength - he doesn't so much as "command" as give his pokémon free reign because they're doing what he'd order them to do anyway. The only caveat I put on this is that when he wants them to change strategies (i.e "attack," "defend," "speed," etc.) he makes noise with his movements to cue them in through auditory perception or grab their attention so they can see what kind of signal he's giving them. Most of the intense training he puts them through is to teach them these paradigms so that, when they fight in an actual battle, they know what to do without being asked. This is a bit tricky in some cases, especially when I write him as a young kid battling with Pikachu for the first

[solarpillar]

So... When he can communicate with his Pokemon without the training or the verbal/visual commands... It's bit like minor control of the force aura flow? Can we have Darth Red, the Arch Sith Lord? *ahem* No, it sort of makes sense as in PokeSpe the trainers have to tap their life force into the Pokemon in order to "control" them, AKA guiding subtle parameters like accuracy, strength and others. Some characters died in the Hoenn arc from using legendary because it requires much more life force than usual. Green seriously tired himself in the FRLG arc from tapping energy into Red's venusaur to make its power intensity the same as the other two. He looked like if he was dying. And in RGBY arc Green once made his scyther's normal attack able to cut ghost via similar technique. Silver was able to read the life force of Pokemon without a pokedex (as in the lugia case) and know where to throw a PokeBall (the point where most life force is concentrated) to make it the most effective (this concept is now called critical catch, but it was back

[kuruk22]

In my Big Bang fic, I'm going off of what you outlined here - Red taps into their life force and directs them that way, though it's purely instinctual.

I subscribe to all of your numbered theories about Red (and pokémon training in general), hence my mention of Red having Aspergers syndrome. Some individuals - Wikipedia has a pretty good article on historical figures who were speculated to have autism and another on confirmed individuals here - with Aspergers and autism are extremely brilliant because their condition has wired their mind in a certain way. The HBO movie on Temple Grandin comes to mind, which articulated what I'm attempting to here very well... There's a scene where the actress playing Temple Grandin describes how she came up with the idea for sweeping curved corrals and more humane methods of cow slaughter because she thinks the way they do. It was this unique connection, in addition to her intelligence, that allowed her to conceptualize and implement these ideas. I believe that situation parallels Red's. Red's

[solarpillar]

But Asperger's is in the autism spectrum isn't? And the signature symptom of autism is lack of interest in other humans because they are not attuned this way. But Red here is obsessed with Green, even if he cannot truly communicate with him, so what does this mean? Did Red classify Green as something other than human? Why didn't Red see Green as an "incomprehensible other kind" AKA human and avoid/ignore him like he would with other humans? Why all the attempts of communication?

[kuruk22]

It is, and while it does put him in a position where it's incredibly difficult to communicate with other humans, he still wants to relate to them. Not all of them, mind you. But in regards to people who he's grown up with and have shown him love and acceptance at some point - Green, Leaf, his mother, Professor Oak - he very much values their presence in his life and wants to keep them there. I don't think all autistic people don't want to relate to others, I just believe that the way their brain is wired makes it extremely difficult to.

[solarpillar]

Sorry, that was a lack of research from my part. It appears that only non-Asperger autists are not interested in humans and Aspergers are interested, just not good at it