Forums → Art, Music, and Writing → Collaborative Tadpole Tank; current count: 25

Thanks! It looks great, and I mean the Eevee and the tank.

Lol My polliwog looks like the ugly duckling here.

Yaaay heres mine but it might have died from me shaking the bag too much with excitment

You know what, you just committed pokemon murder. That's right murder!

By the way, I'd keep that Polliwog contained, I've never seen a black one before.

Its not black but really dark blue :P anyways I wonder why pokemon never die, with all those supernatural abilities one would think they would...

Pokemon do die.

In the games, going by the built-in game mechanics, your pokemon can only "faint". This may be interpreted as being called back by their trainer when they're getting dangerously hurt so as not to lose them, or by player-added rules as the pokemon actually dying (see also: Nuzlocke challenge).

There are several ingame references to pokemon who have died, right from the first game (Pokemon Tower being the prime example). The manga also have both pokemon and characters actually getting hurt.

Most likely reason your team won't actually die by damage or age is because it would be silly from a gameplay point of view (like the critter you spent months breeding the perfect set of IVs for, or your awesomely nature'd shiny that you've carefully EV trained - suddenly they die; yeah, no, wouldn't be good for the sale of more pokemon games). And the anime is dumbed down for kids, so real hurt doesn't really happen in that.

I've never seen a black one before.

@dying pokemon:
From an... in-universe point of view, I doubt most trainers would force their pokemon to battle to death for silly little badges and a few pokedollar. Rather it seems logical they do fall unconscious when the pain is too great, or being hit with enough force, but I usually think that (at least good trainers) would know when their pokemon is in danger of getting seriously hurt, and would call them back.
After all, there is no reason in fighting on with a pokemon that can barely move and not fight or defend itself at all, and it would seriously hurt the relationship between pokemon and trainer.
Of course, there is the cases where pokemon will fight on even after their trainer would have called them back, because of honour or wanting to do this for their trainer.
However, in such a case, if the trainer really do want to call them back, they would most likely not be able to resist the pokeball.
/pokenerd

Since this is part of discussion....what about with Team Rocket? They [the pokemon] obviously don't like the trainers that are commanding them. Do they have some sort of specially-made pokeballs that force them to fight, even unto death? Or do they too see the futility of keeping a harmed pokemon on the battlefield? But they are mercenaries with negative karma.

Oh yeah. Tadpoles. But I promised Gantic I'd make a heart for the hearts project...I suppose this one is going to be running for much longer than that, so I'll just add Polywag to the list!

what about with Team Rocket? They [the pokemon] obviously don't like the trainers that are commanding them.

Team Galactic does a bunch of pokemon stealing, many of their grunts talking about their pokemon as being stolen ones given to them by their superiors. They don't care about them, they complain about them being weak when they lose to the protagonist, and are generally some outright jerks about pokemon.

Zoph, do I have to draw a polywag? Or can I draw a real tadpole?

Feel free to draw a real tadpole, but if it isn't blueish and has a spiral on its belly, I won't be adding it to the tank. Realisticish Poliwags are welcome, though~

okedokey. I will start now!

Ok, I finished finally.


Good?

They don't care about them, they complain about them being weak when they lose to the protagonist, and are generally some outright jerks about pokemon.