Why do certain Pokemon only evolve when they're traded?

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Rellik

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This has always bugged me. I mean, I get the practical reason behind it. It's just a way of encouraging players to trade with other people, just like the version-exclusives. But as far as I know, there's never really been an in-world explanation. Any ideas?
 
Because those Pokémon want a fresh new start and hate their old trainer or something I don't know.
 
Rellik said:
Thread is about possible in-world reasons. I already said the practical reason was to encourage trading.
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There is no logical reason. It makes no sense in-universe. There was no explanation given in-universe. Just like a lot of things. So instead we will proceed to develop illogical reasons in this thread.

500 years ago, some guy named Alan the Barbarian of China (ABC) wanted to enslave a bunch of black people in order to build an ice cream factory for his kids. So he went to Africa to capture the black people, but all he found were a bunch of animals. These Pokemon were the ancestors (not-so-ancient ancestors to be exact) of all the Pokemon that now evolve through trading. Thinking "what the hell" he took them and proceeded to use them. Now, Captain Native America did not take too kindly to this, and his native sense triggered. Yes, from halfway across the world.

So he flew through the center of the Earth to confront Mr. ABC. After they fought each other in Mortal Kombat, ABC turned into a giant dragon, which was promptly killed by the armies of the Buddah. The Pokemon having been freed, this brought on such a sense of euphoria that it proceeded to cause them to evolve on the spot. As for those who only hold items when they evolve, well, they were so used to working with certain flavors (ABC made many flavors) that it became a tradition of sorts to destroy the things that went into them or use them as weapons. Hence, why the items disappear after trading (because they infuse with them).

Several hundred years later, a device to do this manually was created, but because there had to be motion for it to work and they also had to go from one person to another it was built into trade machines.

See? Not so hard. Just think of stuff and type it as it comes to mind. Then we'll have a bunch of explanations in lieu of an official one or one "that makes sense" (really, 9/10 fan theories suck, so we may as well go all out for the hell of it).

EDIT: Because GrnMarvl13 doesn't like me, I'll clarify that the whole "taken from a bad trainer and evolved due to euphoria then it became tradition to evolve when changing hands whether it was from a bad trainer or not" thing does indeed make some sense. If we assume something like that happened. Even in silliness, there's backing. I still think many fan theories are stupid, though. Including this one.
 
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The closest thing the anime has done with trade evolutions is that Pokémon that evolve with a hold item need to be in contact with the item for a long time for it to trigger evolution, kind of like a delayed evolution stone.

No "canon" explaination has been given for ones that don't need an item though.
 
Hmm... Nice question. Maybe something in the artificial trade machine stimulates a growth gene and they evolve? I don't know about items...
 
Yeah, I was thinking maybe these are unique species who respond to a certain type of radio wave or something that trade machines emit.
 
I think that is the only logical explanation. As for items, the item and the trade machine create a chemical that triggers evolution.
 
Maybe trading them forces them to evolve or something? That... probably doesn't make sense to anyone but it does to me...
 
IslandWalker said:
Hmm... Nice question. Maybe something in the artificial trade machine stimulates a growth gene and they evolve? I don't know about items...
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Ryuutakesh! said:
Yeah, I was thinking maybe these are unique species who respond to a certain type of radio wave or something that trade machines emit.
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I actually considered that, but the flaw in that argument is that we've seen examples of Trade Evolution Pokemon in the anime that presumably predate the invention of the Trade Machine, like the ancient, giant Alakazam and Gengar from that one episode early on in the series.

Takoto said:
Maybe trading them forces them to evolve or something? That... probably doesn't make sense to anyone but it does to me...
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Trading them does force them to evolve. The question is, why?
 
There's some mystical in-game talk about trading. Namely the braille thing in the ruins that talks about friends exchanging power.
Considering the nature of the relation of trainers and pokemon, I'd say trading itself could have some spiritual implications of some sort.

In the case of Porygon, it probably is as simple as rebooting or something for its new trainer and installing the upgrades while it's at it.
 
I remember in the Anime, Misty's Poliwhirl evolved into poliwag just by holding the King's Rock, she never traded it.. so I think its just for the Video Games and doesnt actually happen in the "Pokemon World"

Edit: Youtube of episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VppaijxCy0
 
This is pretty much what IslandWalker said:
Maybe the Pokemon has some sort of hidden gene/chemical within it that triggers when it senses that a trade is about to take place.
 
IslandWalker said:
I think that is the only logical explanation. As for items, the item and the trade machine create a chemical that triggers evolution.
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I know that Kadabra has an effect on televisions when it's nearby, so maybe it does have something in its genetic code that causes it to affect machines, or perhaps it can work the other way, making the machines affect it, which may be be the cause of evolution.
Somehow.
 
I think during the trade, Pokémon fuses with its items. For Haunter, he becomes a more concentrated gas. For Kadabra and Machoke, I don't know.
 
Miya902 said:
I remember in the Anime, Misty's Poliwhirl evolved into poliwag just by holding the King's Rock, she never traded it.. so I think its just for the Video Games and doesnt actually happen in the "Pokemon World"

Edit: Youtube of episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VppaijxCy0
Click to expand...

You'll see during the episode that Poliwhirl was holding the King's Rock beforehand (with no effect), and it is only after it emerges from the Poke Ball with King's Rock in tow that evolution is instigated.

As for real world explanations... Well how ELSE is Kadabra going to eat two bowls of cereal with only one spoon? Evolving to Alakazam when traded makes so much sense when you consider the other guy has the second cereal bowl.
 
I think they evolve because if their traded, then they feel weak and are not worthy of their old masters. They evolve when traded to impress and show their new masters that they are strong.
 
Lazyboy0337 said:
I think they evolve because if their traded, then they feel weak and are not worthy of their old masters. They evolve when traded to impress and show their new masters that they are strong.
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that would be a lot of mistreated pokemon if it worked that way, dont you think?
 
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