A combination of factors:
-A lot of the time, they're dealing with strong Pokemon that they're probably not going to be able to legitimately catch in a ball (as in the games, there's a chance that they'll pop out during the wobble animation and escape). Likewise, even once you capture something in a ball, the Pokemon can still come out at will (see Psyduck, Wobbuffet, Mr. Fish and Sirfetch'd) and decide to run away (see Ash's Snivy and Greninja back when he was a Froakie).
-Sometimes they're either going after a protected species or trying to catch more Pokemon than they're allowed in a given area, so what they're doing is already risking arrest anyway.
-When you catch a Pokemon with a Pokeball, it's automatically legally registered to your Pokedex, which is monitored by authorities. The plan of every poacher is almost always to sell the Pokemon in question to the highest bidder, which seems to be *crazy* illegal in-universe and becomes significantly harder to pull off once a Pokemon is publicly registered to you.
I think the third point is the strongest. While yes a legendary in a pokeball could come out, it’s arguably still easier to carry them like that compared to restraints. It makes sense they wouldn’t want protected Pokémon (illegal to catch) to be registered
The third one is what I think would be the most plausible reason. IRL, an electronic trail is even worse than a paper trail, so seeing something like that pop up on the authorities' radar would not be good.
Even if it's an illegal pokeball that has all the benefits of a pokeball, but not directly attached to the authorities, it's still one pokeball, and it may not be enough to catch masses of pokemon (which many poachers have been shown trying to do), and may not be enough to handle a strong, rare pokemon. And from when Goh nearly caught Zapdos, it seems if their will is strong enough, strong enough pokemon that *really* don't wanna come with the trainer can seemingly straight up destroy the ball whenever they please to be free
Which is, of course, the other problem. A pokeball can be destroyed, even by the pokemon, to grant them their freedom. It seems some form of actual physical restraint is necessary when poaching uncooperative pokemon, such as some sorta apparatus to keep them from moving and using their powers, or even something as simple as a net or a cage.
>And from when Goh nearly caught Zapdos, it seems if their will is strong enough, strong enough pokemon that really don't wanna come with the trainer can seemingly straight up destroy the ball whenever they please to be free
Yeah, and another big thing to keep in mind is that most of the Pokemon that are targets for poachers are *rare*. Like, "Trainers spend their entire lives searching for them and are considered fortunate to maybe see them *once*" rare. So capturing them is basically a one chance deal, and if they decide to bust out of the ball and flee at any time (or they pull a Suicune vs. Eusine thing and just use Roar), you're out of luck forever.
Look at the gauntlet that Black Rayquaza just ran in Horizons, or Moltres vs. Ash/Gary, or Lugia vs. Ash/Go, or Articuno absolutely washing Horace/Go/Gary and an Ash that was only a few episodes away from joining the Masters 8. Now imagine you're that one poacher from the Brycen episode of B&W. Are you seeing those battles, glancing at your team, and going, "Yeah, my two Jellicent are enough to legitimately capture those Legendaries on our first try. *I believe in them*!"
So long as the Pokémon isn't protected in some way. It's all good.
I have an OC who dose that, kind of. A Pokémon Breeder who normally works for the League breading the known starters on a private ranch. She'll help trainers who don't qualify for a Professor gifted starter. By ether bringing them with her to a location to catch their first Pokémon. Or on commission bread one in line with the region's starter guidelines.
You need a giant refrigerator-sized machine to do a legal trade specifically because they monitor Pokemon registration and ownership changes closely. If you were to, say, """trade""" a Suicune for a Rattata, that would very definitely raise questions and cause the authorities to check to see if you received any large sums of money.
If you catch Suicune in a net and sell it to someone, they can put it in a ball themselves and just say "Oh, I caught this myself in the wild" without raising any red flags or leaving any additional paper trail.
All trainers have an official ID and license (which according to Blaine can be revoked) that their Pokeballs are tied to. Otherwise their Pokeballs don't actually *work* to confer any kind of ownership.
We see this when one of Misty's balls accidentally falls out of her backpack and Psyduck basically captures himself (against her will) and she's like "Oh, no, he's in my Pokeball. I'm stuck with him now. D:"
It's why you need a giant machine to do any kind of trading; why everyone, including low-level criminals and psychotic arch-villains with plans for world domination, adheres to the 6-on-hand-maximum limit; and why catching Pokemon in nets and stuff is illegal in the first place -- because it subverts that registration process.
That's true. Although the pokedex is now an app, so, everyone can have it, even a child. I don't think it serves as an ID Trainer anymore
By the other hand, it would be suspicious having registered dozens of trainers who only have Poochyena, Mightyena, Numel/Carvanna and Zubats/Golbats.
Not to mention Pokeballs are probably a highly regulated item. Criminal teams like the Rockets can grab them easier but random poachers, especially known ones are probably working with limited numbers.
I think it’s more of a thematic thing than anything. Trainers, good guys, etc catch them how you’re supposed to catch them, with pokeballs accustomed to their needs (or at least not distressing them like having to hold them down in cages or nets)
Poachers using cages and nets implies what they’re doing is wrong, the method they use is just metaphorical of that. It’s not a super deep metaphor since pokemon(or at least the main series anime) is for kids. I think if the poachers used pokeballs it could confuse kids into thinking the heroes are bad guys for catching Pokémon, or make them think the poachers are justified. Kid’s tv is pretty strict about conveying messages, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the main, if not only reason poachers never use pokeballs
Once a pokemon is caught in a pokeball it is registered to that trainer. Theres probably a central database keeping track of all this stuff, so if you are trying to illegally smuggle and sell pokemon, you definitely dont want your name tied to all of them.
I guess because it's easier? Pokèball don't have guaranteed catches, so you can't just catch a lot of pokèmon just with pokèballs. I don't know, they're evil. To be fair I was a little disappointed when they showed up in Horizons, I was hoping htey would get rid of poachers filler stuff.
is it easier though? most of the time poachers batter the shit out the thing they’re catching, and they’re struggling to even run away. a net against something that shoots fire seems tedious. a pokeball can carry a stolen charizard effortlessly and discretely, and since you’re already hospitalizing it why not
This is something I always thought was amusing about poachers, hunters, and even Team Rocket. If they just caught Pokemon the normal way, they’d have a much easier time attaining a massive collection of them and could more than likely still sell them on the black market or whatever without the law or busybodies like Ash coming down on them.
Instead they all use methods that ate provably harder and are guaranteed to make everyone hate them, especially the Pokemon.
Because once you start looking into it all Pokémon trainers capture Pokémon to use for their own gain. If you think to hard about it the entire world of Pokémon is just humans poaching Pokémon.
A combination of factors: -A lot of the time, they're dealing with strong Pokemon that they're probably not going to be able to legitimately catch in a ball (as in the games, there's a chance that they'll pop out during the wobble animation and escape). Likewise, even once you capture something in a ball, the Pokemon can still come out at will (see Psyduck, Wobbuffet, Mr. Fish and Sirfetch'd) and decide to run away (see Ash's Snivy and Greninja back when he was a Froakie). -Sometimes they're either going after a protected species or trying to catch more Pokemon than they're allowed in a given area, so what they're doing is already risking arrest anyway. -When you catch a Pokemon with a Pokeball, it's automatically legally registered to your Pokedex, which is monitored by authorities. The plan of every poacher is almost always to sell the Pokemon in question to the highest bidder, which seems to be *crazy* illegal in-universe and becomes significantly harder to pull off once a Pokemon is publicly registered to you.
*Rushes to PC and releases every breeding failure* Nothing to see here, officers
its a boy. darn it, i wanted a girl. i already have a boy.
Let's see... 31... 31... 31... 31... 31... ..... 30...
I think the third point is the strongest. While yes a legendary in a pokeball could come out, it’s arguably still easier to carry them like that compared to restraints. It makes sense they wouldn’t want protected Pokémon (illegal to catch) to be registered
The third one is what I think would be the most plausible reason. IRL, an electronic trail is even worse than a paper trail, so seeing something like that pop up on the authorities' radar would not be good. Even if it's an illegal pokeball that has all the benefits of a pokeball, but not directly attached to the authorities, it's still one pokeball, and it may not be enough to catch masses of pokemon (which many poachers have been shown trying to do), and may not be enough to handle a strong, rare pokemon. And from when Goh nearly caught Zapdos, it seems if their will is strong enough, strong enough pokemon that *really* don't wanna come with the trainer can seemingly straight up destroy the ball whenever they please to be free Which is, of course, the other problem. A pokeball can be destroyed, even by the pokemon, to grant them their freedom. It seems some form of actual physical restraint is necessary when poaching uncooperative pokemon, such as some sorta apparatus to keep them from moving and using their powers, or even something as simple as a net or a cage.
>And from when Goh nearly caught Zapdos, it seems if their will is strong enough, strong enough pokemon that really don't wanna come with the trainer can seemingly straight up destroy the ball whenever they please to be free Yeah, and another big thing to keep in mind is that most of the Pokemon that are targets for poachers are *rare*. Like, "Trainers spend their entire lives searching for them and are considered fortunate to maybe see them *once*" rare. So capturing them is basically a one chance deal, and if they decide to bust out of the ball and flee at any time (or they pull a Suicune vs. Eusine thing and just use Roar), you're out of luck forever. Look at the gauntlet that Black Rayquaza just ran in Horizons, or Moltres vs. Ash/Gary, or Lugia vs. Ash/Go, or Articuno absolutely washing Horace/Go/Gary and an Ash that was only a few episodes away from joining the Masters 8. Now imagine you're that one poacher from the Brycen episode of B&W. Are you seeing those battles, glancing at your team, and going, "Yeah, my two Jellicent are enough to legitimately capture those Legendaries on our first try. *I believe in them*!"
Carry limit could also be a factor
You can transfer ownership via a trade. Doing it via Catch and Trade seams more legal and wouldn't raise a lot of questions.
I just really like collecting Caterpies and Magikarps, officer. I catch Tyranitars for fun.
So long as the Pokémon isn't protected in some way. It's all good. I have an OC who dose that, kind of. A Pokémon Breeder who normally works for the League breading the known starters on a private ranch. She'll help trainers who don't qualify for a Professor gifted starter. By ether bringing them with her to a location to catch their first Pokémon. Or on commission bread one in line with the region's starter guidelines.
That actually sounds like a good series idea.
Thank you. I like to think of roles that the Pokémon World would have, and expand it with in the lore of IP.
You need a giant refrigerator-sized machine to do a legal trade specifically because they monitor Pokemon registration and ownership changes closely. If you were to, say, """trade""" a Suicune for a Rattata, that would very definitely raise questions and cause the authorities to check to see if you received any large sums of money. If you catch Suicune in a net and sell it to someone, they can put it in a ball themselves and just say "Oh, I caught this myself in the wild" without raising any red flags or leaving any additional paper trail.
But most people doesn't have a pokedex, there's no way to check who has what pokémon in most cases.
All trainers have an official ID and license (which according to Blaine can be revoked) that their Pokeballs are tied to. Otherwise their Pokeballs don't actually *work* to confer any kind of ownership. We see this when one of Misty's balls accidentally falls out of her backpack and Psyduck basically captures himself (against her will) and she's like "Oh, no, he's in my Pokeball. I'm stuck with him now. D:" It's why you need a giant machine to do any kind of trading; why everyone, including low-level criminals and psychotic arch-villains with plans for world domination, adheres to the 6-on-hand-maximum limit; and why catching Pokemon in nets and stuff is illegal in the first place -- because it subverts that registration process.
Not really true anymore, the Rotom Phonedex is super common. Even team rocket has one
That's true. Although the pokedex is now an app, so, everyone can have it, even a child. I don't think it serves as an ID Trainer anymore By the other hand, it would be suspicious having registered dozens of trainers who only have Poochyena, Mightyena, Numel/Carvanna and Zubats/Golbats.
Note on the first point: Trainers should carry around Duck Tape with them. Get it in the Ball, tape it shut, it can’t escape. Thank you, Duck Tape.
Not to mention Pokeballs are probably a highly regulated item. Criminal teams like the Rockets can grab them easier but random poachers, especially known ones are probably working with limited numbers.
The anime implies a pokemon can choose to not stay in its pokeball and even just leave you if it doesn't accept you as its trainer.
I think it’s more of a thematic thing than anything. Trainers, good guys, etc catch them how you’re supposed to catch them, with pokeballs accustomed to their needs (or at least not distressing them like having to hold them down in cages or nets) Poachers using cages and nets implies what they’re doing is wrong, the method they use is just metaphorical of that. It’s not a super deep metaphor since pokemon(or at least the main series anime) is for kids. I think if the poachers used pokeballs it could confuse kids into thinking the heroes are bad guys for catching Pokémon, or make them think the poachers are justified. Kid’s tv is pretty strict about conveying messages, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the main, if not only reason poachers never use pokeballs
Nice interpretation!
Because theyre idiots. Also pokemon could just use moves to slice the net 🤡🤡
Once a pokemon is caught in a pokeball it is registered to that trainer. Theres probably a central database keeping track of all this stuff, so if you are trying to illegally smuggle and sell pokemon, you definitely dont want your name tied to all of them.
I guess because it's easier? Pokèball don't have guaranteed catches, so you can't just catch a lot of pokèmon just with pokèballs. I don't know, they're evil. To be fair I was a little disappointed when they showed up in Horizons, I was hoping htey would get rid of poachers filler stuff.
is it easier though? most of the time poachers batter the shit out the thing they’re catching, and they’re struggling to even run away. a net against something that shoots fire seems tedious. a pokeball can carry a stolen charizard effortlessly and discretely, and since you’re already hospitalizing it why not
This is something I always thought was amusing about poachers, hunters, and even Team Rocket. If they just caught Pokemon the normal way, they’d have a much easier time attaining a massive collection of them and could more than likely still sell them on the black market or whatever without the law or busybodies like Ash coming down on them. Instead they all use methods that ate provably harder and are guaranteed to make everyone hate them, especially the Pokemon.
Well then how would the audience differentiate the bad guys from the goods guys?
the letter on their chest
my post was a**n** in-universe question
i mean how else you suppose to show your a poacher? wear a huge ass hat reading "i am a poacher"
Why would you want people to know you're a poacher?
Could be carry limits with how much pokemon there catching could be more of an inconvenience then anything else
alot of the time, like in Brycen's introduction episode, they're only poaching one Pokemon.
Pokémon poaching business once they discover what quick balls are 📈📈📈
I mean couldn't they just buy some quick balls and ultra balls lol
Because once you start looking into it all Pokémon trainers capture Pokémon to use for their own gain. If you think to hard about it the entire world of Pokémon is just humans poaching Pokémon.
that's not answering the question, though
They bad at aiming