If a meowth can talk, why can't other pokemon?

[Master Cyrus]

Asides from Slowking and Maybe Arceus, no pokemon can physically talk. Meowth of team rocket says it took a lot of effort and losing most of his battling skills to get the ability. There doesn't seem to be a genetic component to it so why can't say a 5000 IQ alakazam or a four brained metagross teach themselves to talk without crippling their battle skills? For that matter why hasn't any other pokemon tried to do it?

 

[Hidden Mew]

I always thought that other Pokemon just didn't have a strong enough motivation to push themselves into talking like a human. The only reason Meowth did it was because he thought that the Meowth he had a crush on would like her more if he was more human-like. I don't think most other Pokemon would strive to become more human-like. They can communicate with other people fairly well in most situations, so they wouldn't need to talk for them. Plus, it would result in losing most of their battling skills if Meowth is any indication and that might not be something they'd want to lose. As for Alakazam and Metagross, maybe their intelligence goes so much towards their attacks that they wouldn't be able to learn how to talk without losing their psychic powers.

 

[Magma Bomb]

I always thought the battle skills thing was just a joke on the RPG limitations of the games, if I'm not mistaken he stated it when the anime still ignored the four moves rule. I always found funny how a Pokémon with an IQ of supposedly 5000 can only know as many moves as everyone else.
By the way, straight to the point, I see it using this logic. If Meowth learned it, then I think every Pokémon can speak human language as well, but most of them are just not interested.

 

[Jenneta]

Can't Darkrai and a few other Pokemon talk in the anime? Or is that just in the movies/I'm being stupid?
Anyways, I agree with everybody else here. I think they can ALL talk, but they just really don't need to/have any motivation to. :3 It would be cool if more of them did, though.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Can't Darkrai and a few other Pokemon talk in the anime? Or is that just in the movies/I'm being stupid?
Anyways, I agree with everybody else here. I think they can ALL talk, but they just really don't need to/have any motivation to. :3 It would be cool if more of them did, though.

I don't remember any of the Darkrai appearing in the anime talking like the one in the movie. Sometimes, Pokemon are able to talk in the movies, but not in the show. It's usually to help move the plot along further than if they couldn't talk like with Shaymin or Zorua, although there are cases where there are at least explanation as to why they can talk such as telepathy in cases like Jirachi and Lucario. While having more talking Pokemon sounds kind of cool, it would also kind of weaken the significant of Meowth being able to talk.

 

[DracoMan]

Asides from Slowking and Maybe Arceus, no pokemon can physically talk. Meowth of team rocket says it took a lot of effort and losing most of his battling skills to get the ability. There doesn't seem to be a genetic component to it so why can't say a 5000 IQ alakazam or a four brained metagross teach themselves to talk without crippling their battle skills? For that matter why hasn't any other pokemon tried to do it?

Just FYI, the Gastly of Maiden's Peak and Manaphy from Pokémon Ranger could talk. In Manaphy's case, not only was it a legendary, it was also very young, and linguistic skills are best learned in childhood.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Personally, I think the reason they don't have Pokemon other than Meowth talk (save for anything Mystery Dungeon related) is because they don't like any talking animal tropes such as the common "talking dog" cliche. That, and they only want the human characters such as Ash to be relatable, since the viewers are human themselves (because apparently, it's IMPOSSIBLE to relate to characters that aren't human or humanoid, like in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, whose entire cast consists almost entirely of talking multicolored ponies, isn't it?)

Despite my own theory, I heard a rumor from someone that there aren't any other talking Pokemon because of a strict rule made by TPCi after the first two seasons that only Meowth is allowed to talk and no other Pokemon in the anime can't (anything Mystery Dungeon related doesn't apply to this rule), which is why in the movies Pokemon like Lucario and Zoroark communicate telepathically without having to move their mouth at all, which I continually find off-putting to this date, because, while it made sense with Mewtwo because he was a Psychic type, Lucario and Zoroark aren't (though Lucario can learn a few Psychic type moves), and it just bothers me that what could be considered a talking animal isn't actually talking at all.

I find this ironic, considering that 90% of Pokemon say their own names and pronounce them in the manner of a human language, which heavily implies that they have the proper vocal structures to learn a human language. They can't learn a human language instantaneously because, like in real life, it takes a while for someone to learn a foreign language, for instance, it takes months, sometimes years, for an English speaker to learn how to speak German, so it would make sense for a Pokemon to learn basic English within a few years. Not to mention that it's heavily portrayed in the anime (but never stated) that all Pokemon are clearly sentient and more intelligent than regular animals to some extent.

Despite this, one thing that DOES bother me is HOW Meowth learned how to speak English in the first season episode "Go West, Young Meowth" in which he had to forget how to use the move Pay-Day in order to talk, which I find total nonsense for a Pokemon to forget a move just to learn how to talk, since talking is apparently a move in the same manner Splash and Strength are, it's like completely forgetting how to play tennis just to learn how to speak German. While this was back in the first season of the anime and can easily be retconned nowadays, I still find it ridiculous that a Pokemon would have to cripple it's battling abilities just to learn how to talk.

 

[Darth Darkrai]

U Would think that Legendaries could Talk without using Telepathy U think because they are smart and would have the Power to Talk.

 

[garrison-san]

Personally, I think the reason they don't have Pokemon other than Meowth talk (save for anything Mystery Dungeon related) is because they don't like any talking animal tropes such as the common "talking dog" cliche. That, and they only want the human characters such as Ash to be relatable, since the viewers are human themselves (because apparently, it's IMPOSSIBLE to relate to characters that aren't human or humanoid, like in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, whose entire cast consists almost entirely of talking multicolored ponies, isn't it?)

Sorry, you lost me there. Humans and pokemon can't speak a common language in the original games. I don't think there's very much more to it than that.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Personally, I think the reason they don't have Pokemon other than Meowth talk (save for anything Mystery Dungeon related) is because they don't like any talking animal tropes such as the common "talking dog" cliche. That, and they only want the human characters such as Ash to be relatable, since the viewers are human themselves (because apparently, it's IMPOSSIBLE to relate to characters that aren't human or humanoid, like in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, whose entire cast consists almost entirely of talking multicolored ponies, isn't it?)

Sorry, you lost me there. Humans and pokemon can't speak a common language in the original games. I don't think there's very much more to it than that.

The games and anime are set in different universes, I was talking about the anime universe specifically and never mentioned the games (when I mentioned Mystery Dungeon, I was talking about the PMD anime specials), mainly considering that the game universe follows video game logic and the Pokemon in the game universe act a bit more like trained animals. In the anime, however, the Pokemon follow a bit more of a realistic logic and have minds of their own, not to mention the way they act in the anime and movies shows they at least have some form of sentience and intelligence as opposed to regular animals.

Not meaning to get mad at you, I was only stating my opinion and stance on this situation, I'm sure all fans have their own portrayal of the Pokemon world, be it based on the anime, the games, or their own fan-fics, this is how I see the situation on the existence of talking Pokemon in the anime.

 

[garrison-san]

The games and anime are set in different universes, I was talking about the anime universe specifically and never mentioned the games (when I mentioned Mystery Dungeon, I was talking about the PMD anime specials), mainly considering that the game universe follows video game logic and the Pokemon in the game universe act a bit more like trained animals. In the anime, however, the Pokemon follow a bit more of a realistic logic and have minds of their own, not to mention the way they act in the anime and movies shows they at least have some form of sentience and intelligence as opposed to regular animals.

All I'm saying is that, in not having talking pokemon (aside from Meowth and a few other exceptions), the anime is merely being faithful to that particular aspect of the games. I don't think it has anything to do with the writers being afraid that viewers wouldn't be able to relate to non-human characters, as you were apparently suggesting (if that was the case, then they probably wouldn't have bothered with the predominantly human-free Pikachu shorts...on top of which, giving them the ability to speak human languages would effectively negate their non-humanness).

If all of the pokemon in the anime were anthropomorphised to the extent that Meowth is, then it would remove a lot of the appeal to me, to be honest. I like that the pokemon exist in their own world, which humans only vaguely seem to understand.

 

[TPrower]

Jynx's Pokedex entries state that it makes vocalizations that sound like human language. In the Mystery Dungeon games, it's all incomprehensible, which doesn't make sense by anime standards, since, despite Pokedex entries on certain Pokemon, like Lapras, all Pokemon in the anime have shown the ability to understand human speech.

Some Pokemon that have otherworldly or otherwise magical abilities, like Psychic or Ghost types, might be able to get away with it, but, in my opinion, too many Pokemon with the ability to speak human English sort of nullifies the novelty, if it wasn't already to begin with.

 

[Combusken]

By the way, straight to the point, I see it using this logic. If Meowth learned it, then I think every Pokémon can speak human language as well, but most of them are just not interested.

I always thought that other Pokemon just didn't have a strong enough motivation to push themselves into talking like a human. The only reason Meowth did it was because he thought that the Meowth he had a crush on would like her more if he was more human-like. I don't think most other Pokemon would strive to become more human-like. They can communicate with other people fairly well in most situations, so they wouldn't need to talk for them.

^ I was going to write something like that, but you all put it better than I could.

 

[garrison-san]

On the subject of Meowth, I'd say that his gift of the gab is basically just an excuse to have a talking pokemon on the cast (for chemistry/comedic purposes, chiefly). In the context of the show, the implication does seem to be that, in learning to talk and walk upright, he bastardised himself. Humans, generally speaking, do not seem to accept him as their equal, but he's not really in his element with other pokemon either - as Meowzie put it, most harshly, his efforts to become more human were in vain; he merely became a freak Meowth, an outcast to both worlds.

The talking Gastly was, I think, likely just an experiment. This early on in the series, I'd hazard a guess that the writers were still figuring out how they wanted to portray the more supernaturally-inclined pokemon types.

 

[Sakuraa]

Meowth we saw learn to speak. Slowking speaking was never explained if I remember correctly. We know the Chatot species can mimic human language. Some legendaries can speak with telepathy, probably because they have different abilities than normal Pokémon. The Pokedex also mentions that a few other Pokémon can talk. In addition some Pokémon games and even manga display Pokémon speaking. So overall, it doesn't appear that it is that rare or difficult that a Pokémon can learn to speak the human language.

Anyway, back to Meowth, he only learned to talk to impress Meowzie. I assume that no other Pokémon has tried to do so since then because they haven't had an actual reason to.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Meowth we saw learn to speak. Slowking speaking was never explained if I remember correctly. We know the Chatot species can mimic human language. Some legendaries can speak with telepathy, probably because they have different abilities than normal Pokémon. The Pokedex also mentions that a few other Pokémon can talk. In addition some Pokémon games and even manga display Pokémon speaking. So overall, it doesn't appear that it is that rare or difficult that a Pokémon can learn to speak the human language.

Anyway, back to Meowth, he only learned to talk to impress Meowzie. I assume that no other Pokémon has tried to do so since then because they haven't had an actual reason to.

I certainly agree with you, it's definitely possible that all Pokemon are capable of speaking, but they don't HAVE to learn how to speak. As you said, Meowth was trying to impress a girl Meowth, which is why he learned how to talk, but remember that the Pokemon world is huge and we're only seeing it through the main cast's point-of-view, so it's definitely possible that other Pokemon asides from Meowth have learned to talk, be it on their own or their trainer taught them how to speak, we just don't see them because they aren't really important to the story.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I certainly agree with you, it's definitely possible that all Pokemon are capable of speaking, but they don't HAVE to learn how to speak. As you said, Meowth was trying to impress a girl Meowth, which is why he learned how to talk, but remember that the Pokemon world is huge and we're only seeing it through the main cast's point-of-view, so it's definitely possible that other Pokemon asides from Meowth have learned to talk, be it on their own or their trainer taught them how to speak, we just don't see them because they aren't really important to the story.

It's possible, but then I think talking Pokemon would be a bit more common or at least people like Pokemon researchers and professors would have heard about it and Meowth speaking wouldn't be as shocking.

 

[Genwunner]

I think it was meant to be a symbol of how you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and you can accomplish your goals.
Of all the characters in the cartoon, Meowth is probably the only one to have been shown achieving one of their big goals.
Yes he paid a price, but you do in life, I think this shows Meowth to be one of the most determined and strong willed characters in the show.

It cheapens that if suddenly more and more Pokemon were able to do what he worked so hard for.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

I certainly agree with you, it's definitely possible that all Pokemon are capable of speaking, but they don't HAVE to learn how to speak. As you said, Meowth was trying to impress a girl Meowth, which is why he learned how to talk, but remember that the Pokemon world is huge and we're only seeing it through the main cast's point-of-view, so it's definitely possible that other Pokemon asides from Meowth have learned to talk, be it on their own or their trainer taught them how to speak, we just don't see them because they aren't really important to the story.

It's possible, but then I think talking Pokemon would be a bit more common or at least people like Pokemon researchers and professors would have heard about it and Meowth speaking wouldn't be as shocking.

It's possible they may talk in secret, with only their trainers knowing about it, remember that we are only seeing the Pokemon world through the point-of-view of Ash and his friends, not seeing everything else that's going behind the scenes. It's clearly implied that there are other talking Pokemon in existence, ones that DON'T use telepathy like the Pokemon from the movies (especially since I see telepathy as the cheap way out of the talking animal trope).

One thing I've noticed is how in older seasons, people were always shocked and surprised about Meowth being able to speak, but in later seasons, almost nobody reacts to this and they just accept the fact he's a talking Meowth. Either this implies that they've seen this situation occur before with another Pokemon, or the writers are just lazy, most likely the latter.

 

[Hidden Mew]

It's possible they may talk in secret, with only their trainers knowing about it, remember that we are only seeing the Pokemon world through the point-of-view of Ash and his friends, not seeing everything else that's going behind the scenes. It's clearly implied that there are other talking Pokemon in existence, ones that DON'T use telepathy like the Pokemon from the movies (especially since I see telepathy as the cheap way out of the talking animal trope).

One thing I've noticed is how in older seasons, people were always shocked and surprised about Meowth being able to speak, but in later seasons, almost nobody reacts to this and they just accept the fact he's a talking Meowth. Either this implies that they've seen this situation occur before with another Pokemon, or the writers are just lazy, most likely the latter.

It could be a secret among their trainers, but a part of me still thinks that the idea of Pokemon learning how to actually talk would be more of a big deal among the Pokemon researchers and professors. I wouldn't say that the writers are lazy about how few people react to a talking Meowth. It could be more like how it would get old if everyone they ran across were shocked at the fact that there is a talking Meowth, even though it would be kind of nice if they had people react to Meowth more often.