Besides proving Lt. Surge incorrect and bankability, there’s another ignored reason Pikachu wasn’t made to evolve also when it shed to Raichu.
Whenever someone asks a Pokémon follower why Ash never ever evolved his Pikachu, a number of responses show up. Some may offer the in-story reason as well as say Pikachu wanted to verify it can win without advancing. Others might point out just how Pikachu could shed its cuteness as well as marketability if it evolved. Nevertheless, another answer to this inquiry isn’t used as typically.
At the end of the day, the Pokémon anime is an ad for video games. This not just means flaunting personalities and story elements from the games, but also specific auto mechanics for how the games are meant to be played. It shows gamers these sorts of lessons while likewise amusing them with engaging tales, which might be why the actual reason Pikachu wasn’t evolved flew under lots of people’s radar.
Why Didn’t Pikachu Evolve Initially?
A number of the reasons for Pikachu rejecting to evolve were given in Episode 14, “Electric Shock Showdown.” At the time, Ash was buffooned by Lt. Surge for not advancing his Pikachu and also making it solid as soon as possible; to drive his point house, the Fitness center Leader defeated Pikachu with its progressed form Raichu. Later on, Ash and Pikachu were given a Thunder Rock so that the latter could advance, also, but they ended that doing so just to win would make them not much better than Lt. Surge. They ended up beating Lt. Rise as well as his Raichu in a rematch, verifying that Pokémon do not require to advance to win. Nevertheless, that had not been the real lesson of the episode.
The real lesson was in specifically just how Ash handled to win. It’s because Pikachu was able to find out speed-based relocations like Agility and also Quick Strike, which it could only discover as a Pikachu. Lt. Rise couldn’t show his Raichu these steps since he evolved them as well promptly. With this advantage, Ash as well as Pikachu were able to outmaneuver their challengers as well as earn the Thunder Badge.
This difference between Pikachu and also Raichu is based on a mechanic from video games. Certain Pokémon can only learn actions as their pre-evolution. This holds specifically true for Pokémon who develop with evolutionary stones like Pikachu; after it evolves into a Raichu, it can’t discover any type of relocations by leveling up. Even if the Relocate Pointer existed at that time, it could not learn anything special. It’s challenging, but the reward for battling with as well as leveling up Pokémon in their weak, unevolved types till the time is right is often too great to pass up. Ash maintaining his Pikachu from evolving so it might learn actions like Quick Strike as well as Dexterity was suggested to be a showcase for this vital video game mechanic.
As for why Pikachu continued to be unevolved after defeating Lt. Rise’s Raichu, that can be credited to the factors every person thinks. For something, the episode itself showed that Pikachu could be just as qualified in a fight as Raichu, so progressing was now a lot more an issue of individual choice. This lesson concerning not needing to evolve to win can be translated into all sorts of life lessons like doing what really feels right or not taking shortcuts. Besides this, evolving Pikachu into Raichu would likely cause it to shed its cuteness and marketability; that will likely never ever be mentioned in the anime itself, yet there’s a negative reality to it. These sorts of factors, while not nearly as suitable to video games, can leave an even more enduring impact that goes beyond a solitary anime episode.
Factors like these also put on “Electric Shock Showdown,” but the lesson regarding finding out relocations is still the special key takeaway for that particular episode. Even a similar episode from Diamon and Pearl, “Pika as well as Goliath,” couldn’t rather recreate the ethical of “Electric Shock Face-off;” it had Pikachu in a similar way win by outmaneuvering the opponent’s Raichu, but the factors had much more to with anime reasoning than video game technicians. This might not have been an important life lesson, yet it was something viewers that were doing their very own playthroughs of Pokémon Red, Blue, as well as Yellow would greatly appreciate.