Brock's lack of Rock Pokemon

[owenpeterson]

Has anyone here noticed that Brock has very few Rock type Pokemon on his team despite being Kanto's Rock type Gym Leader. His only Rock type Pokemon are Onix, Geodude, and Sudowoodo. But Onix evolved into a Steelix, a Steel type Pokemon, thus canceling out the Rock type. And Geodude never evolved into a Graveler, let alone a Golem. Pretty much all his other Pokemon are non Rock types. It's very hard to understand the writers when it comes to these decisions.

Personally I would like to see his Geodude evolve as well as him catching other Rock type Pokemon like an Omanyte, Kabuto, Aerodactyl, Rhyhorn, Shuckle, Magcargo, etc.

Why are the writers preventing Brock from having more Rock type Pokemon?

 

[szmty]

Has anyone here noticed that Brock has very few Rock type Pokemon on his team despite being Kanto's Rock type Gym Leader. His only Rock type Pokemon are Onix, Geodude, and Sudowoodo. But Onix evolved into a Steelix, a Steel type Pokemon, thus canceling out the Rock type. And Geodude never evolved into a Graveler, let alone a Golem. Pretty much all his other Pokemon are non Rock types. It's very hard to understand the writers when it comes to these decisions.

Personally I would like to see his Geodude evolve as well as him catching other Rock type Pokemon like an Omanyte, Kabuto, Aerodactyl, Rhyhorn, Shuckle, Magcargo, etc.

Why are the writers preventing Brock from having more Rock type Pokemon?

Sadly, I don't think we'll see him capturing anything else, since his character has practically been put in a bus since the end of DP :|
It would be nice to see him again someday, but he'd be in the role of a Pokémon Doctor rather than a trainer.

 

[Jukain]

Brock's premise on the show was not as a Rock gym leader, but rather as a pokemon breeder. I imagine this was so they could play around with featuring lots of different kinds of pokemon, since they already had Misty for a mono-type. I think they later discovered mono-types don't work so well for a show, or at least they weren't willing to expand on the concept. Anyway, Brock was never supposed to be a specific type other than when he was a gym leader. He could've theoretically had any type of pokemon, but his character devolved into little more than a walking running gag, and he ended up getting less and less pokes. If he ever returns again, which there is very little possibility of that happening, I am unsure what they will do for him if they will ever show him using a pokemon again. He already has a Chansey, which is one of the more common pokes of his profession. If they wish to expand on this, I welcome it, since only two poke families have ever been used in the pokemon medical profession in the entire show. It needs more pokes to represent it.

 

[garrison-san]

Has anyone here noticed that Brock has very few Rock type Pokemon on his team despite being Kanto's Rock type Gym Leader.

Well, he's not. He abandoned that path in episode 5, stating that he gets more pleasure out of raising pokemon than in battling them. And most of his rock type pokemon are now under the ownership of Forrest (who actually is the gym leader you refer to). Given that Brock's interest in being a gym leader was discarded so early on, I think that it's a moot point.

Mono type teams tend to be dull and restrictive, imo, so I'm personally quite happy that they didn't go down that path with Brock. Not that Brock's team was ever handled too brilliantly, but at least he brought in a bit more variety than Misty.

 

[Elric von Bek]

You can also look at it like this: Brock had Geodude and Onix for gym challenges, and then Vulpix and his other, varied types based on personal preferences.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Brock was really only the Gym Leader technically only in his debut episode and stopped in favor of going after his own dream of becoming a Pokemon Breeder. As to why he didn't have more Rock types when he was the Gym Leader, I guess that they wanted to keep his initial team the same as his team from the video games, especially when he was the first Gym Leader Ash faced. Unlike Misty, he never showed interest in only catching and raising Rock types since he was more interested in raising and caring for Pokemon in general, so I never had too much of a problem with how he didn't have too many Rock types.

It's possible that the writers thought that two characters with single type focused teams might be boring too or that Brock focusing only on Rock types would be too redundant with Misty focusing primarily on Water types. Granted, his team was still full of forgettable Pokemon, especially Zubat and Vulpix, but there was a bit more variety at least. I doubt that we'd see him capture anything new now that he isn't part of the cast and is traveling to be a Pokemon Doctor, but maybe seeing his Chansey evolve into Blissey would be nice.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Reason why Brock never had many rock types in his pokemon team was because he was never supposed to be type specialist. Single poke type trainer or strived to become master of specific type like Iris or Misty for example did.

Brock used to be gym leader running it before joining Ash on journey, but that was mostly to continue family tradition. Of Pewter gym being supposed to be home for rock pokemon and to take care of numerous younger brother and sisters he was left with after parents left them. Feeling it was his obligation and duty to stay there and take care of family and gym, since there was no one else there to do this poutting his own dreams on hold. Later part kinda draws similarity with Misty situation and Cerulean gym returning and taking care of it not having anyone to rely on due to irresponsible older sisters putting her own goals on stand.

As soon as chance occured to leave gym when Flint returned, it became obvious how Brock desire was to become top pokemon breeder in world. Learn and explore on various pokemon creatures and different types, learn about their physiognomy. How to prepare various pokemon foods, medicines for right pokemon type and take care of them in extracting their inner beauty and strength through thrust, grooming and optimal shape.

Leading to catch all kind of different pokemon types(poison, bug, steel, normal, water etc). As part of his quest of learning as much as he can about all kind of pokemon species and exploit their qualities in different, alternative way which dont necessarily include battling.

That was Brock dream later on through observation of nurse Joy and medical treatments realizing how that way he will be able to provide better welfare and abbility to help pokemon. So it made sense to me why he didn't sticked mostly to rock pokemon catching all kind of different ones.

p.s. On side note regarding mono type trainers i disagree with above users how their teams or story is prone to be "dull or limiting". Even if Brock had mostly rock types i would have been fine with it personally because this specie has some of most interesting pokemon liking their sturdy and solid nature. Especially more ancient ones (like Kabuto, Omastar, Archeops or newer ones like Tyrantrum) or those with creative design such as Cradily, Binacle or Magcargo imo.

And looking back I thought it was actually pretty neat to follow type specialist for change in main cast which had as life calling desire to overcome type flaws mastering it(Misty). It provided fresh and interesting alternative to follow different breed of trainers on screen.

Not to mention with some of them like water(most affluent, highly versatile type) gives rich pool of pokemon to choose from. Since many are dual types, having access to various attacks and techniques from other specie, enabling to make balanced and varied team or unique kind of competitions(like underwater battling).

 

[Master Cyrus]

I more concerned about the walfare of anyone who tries to challenge the pewter city gym at this point since forrest doesn't appear to have any noob level pokemon than for brock to use rock types.

 

[Muur]

Monotype is boring and what kind of breeder would he be if he didn't have multiple types

 

[Hidden Mew]

Monotype is boring and what kind of breeder would he be if he didn't have multiple types

I agree. While there is potential in making a single type team actually work, such as giving them diverse attacks and including Pokemon with different secondary typing to further help, the writers never really took advantage of that. Granted, I think that there is more potential in making single type teams work now than there was when the series started since there are a lot more Pokemon with secondary typing and more attacks that they could to make a single type team be more diverse, but I don't think that they would handle that particularly well and they show no interest in going back to a single type team again. Since being a Breeder doesn't really focus on just one type, it wouldn't make much sense in the context of Brock's goal to have only Rock types.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Well yeah, i suppose i can understand why mono teams would be considered boring in other people eyes. Especially if there is not much variety in their attacks or more significance instilled in story which accompanies those specializing in single type.

Althoiugh to be fair i still think mono trainers and team can provide creative and interesting storyline if used adequatelly. Especially from certain types like normal, flying or most numerous one water which has wide diapason of pokemon to choose from, many sharing dual type characteristics and as franchise grew and expanded game wise pool of available techniques, defense moves and creative designs drastically increased.

And we already saw some pretty innovative competitions in anime inherent to single type. Like pokeringer which in clever way incorporated use of flying types measuring their speed, agility and combat abilities. Or water tournaments like Whirl Cup which imo provided fresh, new way of seeing pokemon battle, use iurface to their advantage and make best use of it. Or those rare moments of underwater battles like vs Coastline gym leader Dorian or in third movie featuring entirely different environment, pressure and surface to which you need to adapt.

I mean many gym leaders and E4 members have pretty unique and versatile pokemon roaster for one type trainers covered through diverse techniques. Some even managed to bercome champions using single type(like Wallace)which i consider very cool.

And regardless of poor handling of some pokemon, imo Misty as only type specialist in cast so far had pretty diverse team collection for that time being cue to see trainer who adores certain specie so much trying to become powerful trainer with it. Made of amphibious and aquatic pokemon(which could be more featured like Goldeen in Orange or Whirl islands but choosed not to), those with leviating abilities like starfish pokemon,. Having species with psychic moves, roc abilities like Corsola, heavy hitters(Poliwhirl)etc. With premise behind her dreams of becoming water master, or for mono trainers in general having multiple interesting routes to take things forward as ill cover down below.

Im going of tangent in here, but im trying to say how if Brock was mono type specialist resorting to in this case rock pokemon wouldn't be necessarily bad persay. If anything through type specialist specific pokemon type can be better explored. Making multiple fun routes to have character grow forward. Like trying to understand specific pokemon nature, their habits and how to connect on closer level(manga did that with Suicune and Misty if im not mistaken). Introduce tournaments revolving around certain type having showdown of all kind of various pokemon of that specie making it challenging to win battle due to none having big type advantage over the other. Be gym leader in training or trying to become E4 member battling evaluators with experts like Wallace, Bruno, Lance etc taking you as student eventually.

Than again pool of rock types as whole is pretty limiting and small in comparison to other much more abundant and widespreaded pokemon. Not having much material to work with.

Anyway i agree with everyone how for Brock collecting only rock pokemon would go against his character, affinity and dreams he wanted to accomplish. Because Brock was never interested or showed some particular attachment or love for certain pokemon specie. Wanting to meet, observe and learn about all kind of varous pokemon. Meet new unique creatures with many recognizing in Brock character sincere intensions, solidarity and kind heart.Through affection and joy as showed with Pineco, Lotad, Crobat etc.

Through devotion, care and patience raising up pokemon to be in top form as recogniozed and successful pokemon breeder.

Still i wouldn't have mind if Brock caught one more rock pokemon aside from Sudowoodo, which i feel are often unrepresented in anime compared to some other types. Along with paving tribute to his former occupation as Pewter town gym leader that way.