Pokémon aging and death. ;;

[moon]

Do you think pokémon can age?

In the first games, professor Oak says that he used to be a trainer when he was young but now he only has three pokémon left. Namely Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. That implies that these pokémon have been with him for many years but they still look pretty fresh and young.

In the anime, there was a Pikachu named Booca or something that was way older than Ash' Pikachu since it had been with its trainer for many years.

In the games, there is the Pokémon Tower in Lavender town and Mt Pyre in Hoenn that are graveyards for pokémon. So apparently pokémon do die. But do they die of age?

There was also a MAROWAK GHOST in the RBY games, that was not a Ghastly or Haunter but an actual lost spirit of a deceased pokémon. Do you think pokémon can become ghost pokémon when they die, or actual ghosts? Or both?

Is their age related to their level somehow? Or their stage of evolution; are all baby pokémon young and all fully evolved pokémon adults?​

 

[milkymew]

Do you think pokémon can age?

In the first games, professor Oak says that he used to be a trainer when he was young but now he only has three pokémon left. Namely Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. That implies that these pokémon have been with him for many years but they still look pretty fresh and young.

In the anime, there was a Pikachu named Booca or something that was way older than Ash' Pikachu since it had been with its trainer for many years.

In the games, there is the Pokémon Tower in Lavender town and Mt Pyre in Hoenn that are graveyards for pokémon. So apparently pokémon do die. But do they die of age?

There was also a MAROWAK GHOST in the RBY games, that was not a Ghastly or Haunter but an actual lost spirit of a deceased pokémon. Do you think pokémon can become ghost pokémon when they die, or actual ghosts? Or both?

Is their age related to their level somehow? Or their stage of evolution; are all baby pokémon young and all fully evolved pokémon adults?​

he's called pooka.

also, i just think that the higher the level and stage of evolution, the shorter they live. however, it still takes dozens of years for a lv.100 pokemon at stage 3 to die of old age.

 

[Aether★]

Definitely Pokemon aren't immortal, well maybe besides some Legends. Also they aren't eternal, they have to die at some age.

 

[Golem Lord]

A Relative, but not well-thought, conclusion I have drawn is the only Pokémon that shouldn't be able to, at the very least, die from aging is Arceus. I only have drawn that conclusion is because Arceus is a depiction of God.

Where as I won't press on into the God topic, other Pokémon do die eventually. The Lifespan of Legendary Pokémon does have to be significantly longer than the rest of the Pokémon due to the fact that it seems they've been around for so long. As O07_eleven brought up, it's not likely that the lifespan is relevant to the level or evolutionary phase. This is more likely based on, by my thought, size and maybe some genetics. Though it is obvious, especially after Lavender Town and this conversation, that, unfortunately, Pokémon do eventually die. But this is exactly why there is Pokémon breeding.

And, this is a theory I just came up with, please don't spite me (I'll lose all my talking PP), what if some Legendary Pokémon breed and keep themselves going by such methods? I mean, hell, if you take my three Zapdos' in FireRed for example, why not? Maybe the reason we can't breed them in the games is because they've already bred and created another version of themselves in a separate part in which we cannot reach, or if they're just unwilling? What if they actually have genders, but just don't show them? There's an obvious excuse for multiple Arceus Pokémon, going off the God idea, I suppose, being able to be anywhere at anytime in any place in multiple forms?

 

[Zeffy]

In my opinion, a Pokémon's death works the same way as a human's death. Therefore, they can die of very old age, ailments, and other 'special conditions' (like Charmander's flame being put out, etc). Legendary Pokémon, however, could be different but I don't think there has been any mention of a legendary Pokémon's death; only deep slumbers. So perhaps when a legendary Pokémon is very weak, like being in the brink of death, it 'hibernates' to restore their power once again.

Death itself is a pretty touchy subject though. There are multiple reasons for it yet no one seems to care; they just don't want to die.

 

[Khoshi]

Well, that ghost of the Marowak was of a Pokemon that was killed - as it didn't die on its own, and was killed by Team Rocket. Then, if you factor in the graveyards(Pokemon Tower, Celestial Tower, etc), then you think Pokemon die on their own in time.

It's really confusing...also there's Pokemon that die in alternative ways, e.g. Charmander's tail going out, and Spoink not bouncing.

 

[Pikayosh]

maybe those pokemon in the tower died from something else and not age plus Lucario seems to live for long time if I remember correctly from the movie he was in with mew and legendaries probably live forever example groudon even better example dialga maybe pokemon can only age not die from it Dialga could possibly make pokemon live forever and those pokemon died from something else or they all just live for a very long time.

 

[zdude18]

in my opinion there are certain legendaries who can die and certain ones that cannot. dialga, palkia, and arceus must live because they control the worlds. as for normal pokemon, i think its interesting to think about when they die, perhaps that is why ghost pokemon exist. as it is a kids game/show death is not normally acceptable for the kiddies although it happens sometimes or the pokemon is revived (celebi, darkrai). good question though. i like thinking about these kinds of things.

 

[Brendino]

I really don't think that the way that Pokemon age is all that dissimilar to real life animals, or even humans. I assume that they can and do die of old age, alongside other factors like accidents, disease, or yes, even being killed (just not in battle). For the latter, using the example of the Marowak that was killed my Team Rocket, it was never stated that they killed it in a Pokemon battle, just that they killed it (if Team Rocket has no problem cutting the tails off of living Slowpoke, killing a Pokemon doesn't seem all that surprising).

As for how long Pokemon live, though, is really tough to guess. We can assume that legendary Pokemon have very long life spans, with some of them most likely being immortal (Arceus and Giratina are the first two that come to mind). Other than that though, we're given very few clues about how long certain Pokemon live. The only real example I can think of is Alder's Volacrona, but even then, we don't know exactly when he got it or when it died, but maybe with this we can assume that Bug Pokemon (just like real bugs) don't live quite as long as other animals.

And for whether or not age is related to a Pokemon's level and strength, I'd say somewhat, but not entirely. Obviously you aren't going to see Pokemon pop out of an egg at Level 100, but if a Pokemon's IVs (genes) are higher than others, they'll have a higher ceiling to hit, and might become stronger than older Pokemon at a much younger age.

 

[Amore]

Hmm...I'd imagine they probably live for quite a long time...maybe around 65 years for your average pokémon? Dragons probably live a bit longer, Tentacool / Tentacruel live forever (you'll get it if you've heard about jellyfish being immortal), Arceus, Dialga, Groudon etc. are practically immortal.
I think legendaries is probably where it gets interesting. All the deities live forever...but what about Lati@s, and the trios? They can't breed, so presumably they live forever too. I quite liked how the movie showed Celebi being a bit like Doctor Who...Jirachi apparently hibernates for thousands of years, and Manaphy breeds - presumably it has a much shorter life span. Although how do you get a Manaphy egg? I think there must be some weird process, like a Phione gets eaten by a Clamperl :P

...too many mysteries, prefer not to think about them all tbh.

 

[OfficialKatsunori]

May I introduce a theory...
Pokémon live longer than humans. Let's say 150-200 years.
This would cover how they're able to always be in the grass and various other standards set by both the anime and the games.

Legendaries usually live centuries, then go through a process of molecular deterioration, in lay English, they evaporateinto sparkles.

They reincarnate later.

Anything I didn't cover, feel free to ask.

 

[PheonixDeath1]

This thread made me sad face

 

[moon]

This thread made me sad face

I'm sorry to hear that, but we think it's interesting to discuss concepts and theories around pokémon and their world here so I hope you think it's okay that we touch the topic of age and death as well. We all realize that pokémon are made-up creatures anyways ^^

as if, pokémon are totally real in some dimension!

 

[PiemanFiddy]

Do you think pokémon can age?

In the first games, professor Oak says that he used to be a trainer when he was young but now he only has three pokémon left. Namely Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. That implies that these pokémon have been with him for many years but they still look pretty fresh and young.

In the anime, there was a Pikachu named Booca or something that was way older than Ash' Pikachu since it had been with its trainer for many years.

In the games, there is the Pokémon Tower in Lavender town and Mt Pyre in Hoenn that are graveyards for pokémon. So apparently pokémon do die. But do they die of age?

There was also a MAROWAK GHOST in the RBY games, that was not a Ghastly or Haunter but an actual lost spirit of a deceased pokémon. Do you think pokémon can become ghost pokémon when they die, or actual ghosts? Or both?

Is their age related to their level somehow? Or their stage of evolution; are all baby pokémon young and all fully evolved pokémon adults?​

Well in the anime/manga, unless I'm missing something:

-Ash nor Oak nor Ash's mother can age
-The only 2 pokemon I know of that Ash has evolved are his Caterpie and Charmander.
-No characters have shown any sign of aging, and birthday's appear to just not exist.
-It's been shown in the manga that Gary (or Blue's) Evee had died.


In the games/manga:

-It's somewhat clear that your character can in fact age, but there's never been a direct sequel to a main series pokemon game and therefore there can't be any physical evidence to suggest that they CAN. (except B/W and B2/W2, but the protagonist is different)

-In the first game, there have been multiple implications that some of Gary's pokemon died, as well as the Marowak in Lavender Town. Every game onward hasn't really had any other hint to that fact since they were starting to appeal to a younger audience at that time.

-In multiple other pokemon games, including the first, it's shown that there are many old or middle-aged men/women roaming around as pokemon trainers.. which begs the obvious assumption that age exists in the games, but not the show.


So yeah, I haven't the faintest clue why Gamefreak or Nintendo won't be clear on this subject. It's like the Legend of Zelda timeline all over again.

 

[moon]

Well in the anime/manga, unless I'm missing something:

-Ash nor Oak nor Ash's mother can age
-The only 2 pokemon I know of that Ash has evolved are his Caterpie and Charmander.
-No characters have shown any sign of aging, and birthday's appear to just not exist.
-It's been shown in the manga that Gary (or Blue's) Evee had died.


In the games/manga:

-It's somewhat clear that your character can in fact age, but there's never been a direct sequel to a main series pokemon game and therefore there can't be any physical evidence to suggest that they CAN. (except B/W and B2/W2, but the protagonist is different)

-In the first game, there have been multiple implications that some of Gary's pokemon died, as well as the Marowak in Lavender Town. Every game onward hasn't really had any other hint to that fact since they were starting to appeal to a younger audience at that time.

-In multiple other pokemon games, including the first, it's shown that there are many old or middle-aged men/women roaming around as pokemon trainers.. which begs the obvious assumption that age exists in the games, but not the show.


So yeah, I haven't the faintest clue why Gamefreak or Nintendo won't be clear on this subject. It's like the Legend of Zelda timeline all over again.

This thread is mainly touching the subject of pokémon aging though, not humans. As it is pretty clear and obvious that human character in the games and most manga can age. The anime is a different matter, but we're not talking anime strictly here, rather the concept of pokémon as a whole :>

And yeah, in the manga pokémon obviously die and in the anime pokémon can sometimes reach high age. The proofs are conflicting though, as with the starter trio still being you after having been with Oak for many years in the games, while a Pikachu (Pooka :p) was really old after having been with a trainer for long in the anime.

 

[ProjectMisfit]

All of you are making wonderful theories about this. Anything I would have said has been covered. I personally go along with the fact that Gary's pokemon died in R/B/Y. The fanfiction I'm writing is going to involve some pokemon passing away, so this is also helping with that.