Pokémon’s Confusing Contradictions Are Confusing My Son

The Pokémon TV show and games show two different sides of the series—and it's leading to frustration while trying to play the games.

There’s a little moment in the Pokémon Legends Z-A trailer that changes everything. About 45 seconds in, a Pokémon attacks—and the opposing trainer gets his Pokémon to dodge.

That might not seem like a big deal. But it means everything to my son and I.

You see, my son has only just started playing the main Pokémon games — specifically, “Let’s Go, Pikachu”—after watching the anime for over a year. He was so excited to go off and do all the things Ash does.

Except… he can’t do what Ash does.

I don’t mean in terms of ability, or having a nigh-invincible Pikachu. I mean that the games won’t let you battle with Pokémon the way Ash does on the show.

That’s why the dodge matters. In his very first battle, my son saw the opposing Pokémon attack and, well, he didn’t like that. So in the next round, he wanted to tell his Pokémon to dodge instead of attacking. And then he looked at me blankly when I explained that you can’t actually dodge.

Oh sure, attacks miss, and you can raise your Pokémon’s evasion to make it more likely that your opponent will miss. And some Pokémon have certain moves that allow them to block attacks. But until Pokémon Legends Z-A, there was no specific, generalized command to dodge—even though Ash shouts “DODGE IT” in virtually every battle on the show.

This is part of the fundamental disconnect at the heart of the series. The games and the TV show are the two biggest and most popular forms of Pokémon. Together, they’re the reason it’s the biggest entertainment franchise in the world: bigger than Marvel, bigger than Star Wars. And yet the games and anime are often at odds with each other.

Admittedly, there is some sense to it. They should be true to their own mediums: games should be games, and TV should be like TV. From a certain point of view, it’s a good thing that one isn’t constrained by the other. 

But… Ash does a lot of stuff that just isn’t possible in the games. Some of it is cool! In one episode, he uses Electroweb — an offensive move — as a shield over his own Pikachu. He often gets Pikachu to dodge by using Quick Attack to swiftly move out of an opponent’s attack, which is quite clever.

Often though, it’s nonsense. Take this old episode that my son recently watched. Ash sends out a Cyndaquil (Fire) to battle a Dewgong (Water/Ice) and Pikachu (Electric) to battle Piloswine (Ground/Ice). This… shouldn’t work, at least not in that order. Dewgong’s Water is strong against Cyndaquil’s Fire, and Piloswine’s Ground typing means Pikachu’s Electric attacks do zero damage. Both of Ash’s Pokémon are at a severe disadvantage. 

Ash wins anyway.

Look, I’m not trying to nitpick a 20-year-old cartoon. But all of this is watched, digested, and added to my son’s understanding of Pokémon. And it’s… wrong. You can’t win battles that way!

One of the extra challenges here is that we’ve both seen his first Pokémon adventure as the first game where he’ll take the lead. He’s confident enough as a reader to not have me narrate things anymore. (The goal of being able to play a Pokémon game by himself was a huge motivator and really helped him improve his reading.)

I’m still there, happy to answer questions and offer advice, but he’s felt empowered to go his own way. He’s proud to take the lead, happy to show that he knows what he’s doing — and confused when it doesn’t work. 

To be honest, I’m not really sure how to help him. I’ve tried to avoid telling him it’s wrong, because that only triggers the understandable retort that “I saw Ash do it.” So I’ve tried to be gentle, explaining things as if it’s just an alternate path, but his response is one of understandable frustration: I saw it on TV. He used his Pokémon this way. Why won’t it work for me?

I just don’t have an answer for that.

Photo by Thimo Pedersen on Unsplash

There is a small irony to all this. I’m old enough to remember when Pokémon first arrived in the U.S.. I remember the doubts that it’d catch on, quickly followed by the panic that ensued when it did catch on, with American children captivated by this seemingly incomprehensible Japanese craze. The idea that the Pokémon anime served to brainwash children and indoctrinate them into the series was so widespread that there was a South Park episode about it.

In a sense, it’s true: the anime did hook my son into the world of Pokémon. The problem is it’s been teaching him the wrong lessons.

Undoing all that will take time. I’m sure we’ll have more frustrated outbursts on the way. So I’m looking forward to Pokémon Legends Z-A, because when it arrives, there is one thing I can finally show him.

I can teach my son to make his Pokémon dodge, just like Ash does.

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