Ditto Daycare. Either there's a fundamental flaw, or I've missed something.

[Jimlaad43]

We all know that you can put a Pokemon in a daycare centre with a Ditto, and they'll breed. However, when a Ditto sees another Pokemon, it transforms into an exact replica of it. As it stays Genderless, this must mean that the exact replica includes the same sexual parts as the Pokemon it is copying.

You can see where this is going.

So how can they produce eggs if all the sex is homosexual? Both using the same...ahem...parts, the Ditto Daycare perk is actually a bit weird.

As the title says, this is either a fundamental flaw, or I've missed something somewhere.

 

[Jukain]

It's been assumed that Ditto isn't being an exact copy, but rather becomes the opposite gender version of said pokemon in order to breed with them. According to the game's coding, this is not what's happening, and Ditto is actually counted as the female for all pairings, including the ones with other female pokemon. What's even more of a mystery is that Ditto can reproduce with other pokemon that have no gender, but yet can somehow breed with it EVEN THOUGH THEY CAN'T BREED WITH ANYTHING ELSE, NOT EVEN THEIR OWN KIND. This is one of the craziest aspects of breeding and makes any attempt to even try to explain it moot. This one pokemon can override all other rules just so you can breed the pokemon they want you to breed. In fact, this one pokemon makes even bothering with egg groups moot when you can just use Ditto for EVERYTHING. Not to mention what these kinds of things would mean for pokemon in the wild, although one can be convinced that breeding in the wild is not the same as it is in the Day Care. To this, though, I ask why? I know real life animals have problems breeding in captivity, but they don't change how they breed entirely. Even if you consider that sort of thing moot too, why would even a fantasy creature have two ways of breeding depending on whether it's captured or not? I don't have to explain it, it just is? This is exactly why I've come to reject official explanations. If you take it too literally, you end up running into a hole every time. I might be silly for even wanting an explanation, but I'd rather have that than laziness.

In my own theory, the complications that necessitate the presence of Ditto do not exist. Everything has to have an opposite gender counterpart, and the genderless pokemon often reproduce asexually. Legends reproduce sexually, though, at least the lower ones do. Stuff like Xerneas and Reshiram are beyond the concept of life and death, and don't need to reproduce. Ditto to me is just what it was originally: a being capable of turning into any other pokemon. I'm sure it still can breed with anything that at least still requires sexual reproduction, and it becomes their opposite gender counterpart. For it's own species, though. The game makes them unable to breed each other. I, however, make them breed asexually. They just split and form more Ditto.

 

[GhostFingers]

I, however, make them breed asexually. They just split and form more Ditto.

if that were true though, surely we would have seen a captured/trained Ditto mitose into two (possibly after an event to trigger the process like an evolve). What would you have then? Ditduo!

 

[Jukain]

I didn't say it had to make sense for the game. That is the last thing on my mind.

 

[Te-em]

Ditto can transform with some limitations maybe, like only to what it sees, with some exceptions. Then, does it see everything of the target Pokemon, like its gender? Is everything visible to it? It has to make some exception to the copy, and maybe some guesswork. With the ability to transform, this Pokemon can adapt itself very well to its environment, and uses the ability to transform to find a mate easier. I am curious, however, if it is a female Pokemon, why the offspring is not of the same species, but actually the copied species instead. Can Ditto only create children of their own species if they mate with each other? because they do not when they mate with other Pokemon. I would guess that it transforms its own DNA, and when this is passed on to the child it stays transformed.

(Can they mate with each other, even if they are genderless? They should, or they would be extinct. Unless they divide like cells.)

 

[Stratelier]

My headcanon is that Pokemon breeding as we know it is only how Pokemon reproduce in captivity, and does not necessarily correspond to how they might naturally reproduce in the wild. This applies to legendary Pokemon as well, some of whom are members of a species (e.g. Latis) and not intrinsically unique individuals.

As far as why the offspring is always the species of the mate, that is conceptually (no pun intended) simple: Ditto is not able to truly clone the target species's DNA -- at least not in its entirety.

And, at the risk of invoking rule 34 one could also speculate that Ditto don't physically need to Transform in order to mate/reproduce. If they're occupying the female role, they are the ones that create the Egg (which is basically a clone of the father's DNA, and if we assume an XY chromosome model then the offspring can easily be either gender). If they're occupying the male role, they provide the fertilization of the mother's egg while her body takes care of the rest on its own.

 

[Hex Maniac]

Ditto probably adapts to whatever situation, in this case that's breeding, and the most beneficial for breeding would be copying the other pokémon while being of the opposite sex. Since they get the DNA of the species they're imitating, the babies aren't copies either.

In the wild it's probably different. Sure, yeah, wild pokes could breed with Ditto if they wanted to. But is it likely? Dittos don't seem to abound all over whichever region we're talking about, so most wild pokémon don't even have a Ditto around to breed with so they breed with their own species. Dittos also wouldn't get much of a benefit from transforming to breed in the wild (given that the offspring is not of their species) so the most immediate reason for transforming would probably be to defend themselves from attacks.

Additionally, there's a lot that goes into mating in lots of animal species in the real world like courting displays, nesting, stuff like that. Some of it is instinct but some also seems to be learned (like some animal species can't communicate well with their own kind or are rejected by them if they've been raised by humans in captivity) so Dittos may not get that benefit compared to other wild pokémon.

In captivity, there probably isn't much of a point to all that stuff, since presumably the non-Ditto pokemon has only one pokemon to breed with around and they're probably encouraged to breed over fighting. Just like two pokemon of the same species can fight in the wild and lots of factors could make them NOT want to breed under those conditions but once you put them in the daycare they breed anyway.

Plus, I'd bet most of it is just due to game mechanics. Being able to breed with Ditto makes breeding less of a chore, people who want a challenge can always stick with egg groups. Using Ditto and not using Ditto have different benefits depending on the angle you're going for. Egg groups aren't pointless because if you take breeding seriously and want to work with stuff like egg moves, you'll need to do more than just a stick a Ditto with a random pokemon in daycare. Just as with anything else about breeding, some people don't care much about IV breeding or shiny breeding and others do.

As to Ditto not breeding with himself, I'm not sure of the reason, maybe they just reproduce differently. If Dittos were initially created artificially like that theory about Ditto being a failed attempt at cloning Mew suggests, it could be related to that. Again though, it's probably game mechanics, plus I think the games have tended to make Ditto somewhat harder to acquire (like X&Y, where you get Ditto close to the end of the game for the first time) so breeding infinite Dittos could end up being annoying.