10 NPCs in Pokémon Who Cheated...

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

I have always said that Cyrus' Crobat evolved because it loved him. It doesn't need him to love it back to evolve.

[@Woahahaha3]

And friendship isn’t a thing that means two things are inherently good. Bad people can be friends, and if crowbat was anything like Cyrus I’m sure it was a bad pokemon and loved how cold he was

[@jasonhuang6332]

Oooor He took it off a Team Galactic Grunt with a particular friendship with their Golbat Which is dark and cruel, but also very viable.

[@veilofmemory]

I was always of the mindset Cyrus was just very good at manipulation. Look at him running all of Team Galactic. He very much at age 27 knows what he's doing on a devastating scale. Manipulating a Pokemon into loving him would be an average Tuesday. Besides, don't tools always function better when you take care of them?

[@fabihanudrat3971]

Or cyrus manipulated his golbat into becoming crobat

[@Vic_Chaos_]

Cyrus having a Crobat doesn't automatically mean he cheated or that it constitutes a contradiction in his character. Ever heard of this thing that people do called "lying"? Cyrus could just as easily just be putting on a front to keep his Galactic grunts in line. He could just as easily view PEOPLE - not Pokémon - as tools. Or, he could be lying to himself when he claims that emotions make a person weak and that they're useless, even though he can't help but care about his own Pokémon. Or, he (probably) cares about his Pokémon and links that to his own weakness, which he projecte onto other people. Capturing Palkia/Dialga/Giratina to change the world as he sees fit at that point becomes more about changing the environment around him into something he thinks will help him escape his own feelings if inadequacy. Or maybe he just stole some kid's Crobat and tortured it into submission like he did with the lake guardians because he's a f'n villain, come on!

[@krysal1489]

The "friendship" stat is called "happiness". All the Golbat needs is to be happy. Maybe Crobat is just happy battling for Cyrus.

[@lpfan4491]

In japanese, it is just called a emotional attachment. Which is a concept as vague as what should count as anime. If your Mon has a positive image of you, then that counts towards the stat, which does not technically exclude something akin to an abusive relationship where the mon is being gaslit into liking you. Also, happiness is appearently a fan name and friendship IS the correct localized name. Unless one is playing Gen 2, then it's loyalty.

[@Akagami_blox]

​@@lpfan4491 Yes he is right

[@jerryreed6024]

Johto had a special radio signal that forced early evolution that lance was investigating

[@shadowoffob555]

That's what caused the red garydos

[@MrLukewhite93]

yeah i was going to point that out

[@dragnbreath1]

But it could also explain Lance's low level dragonites

[@Shinntoku]

I always read Cyrus' crowbat as Cyrus lying about not caring about pokemon. He claims not to, but he values his crowbat enough to let it evolve

[@DarukiNeo-il2jt]

It just needs walking for it to love him

[@albertonishiyama1980]

In Platinum there's a whole sidequest just about how Cyrus was traumatized during his childhood and didnt hate others untill grown up. This Crobat can just be a pokemon he got before the traumas.

[@tristanalain9239]

Exactly. I always viewed it as a sign of his delusional state of mind and hypocrisy.

[@chriskaz6473]

Traded it

[@caylinjohnson6453]

I think we assume we need to love the Pokémon but in reality they have to love us so maybe golbat was like your a ass but I like you

[@chineseman6580]

Gym leaders change their team based on who they face. This was literally clarified in the same game you face Blue. As the 16th gym you face and once champion, he’s obviously going all out because of who you are. That has no solid correlation on his teams for other trainers.

[@bobman717]

Imagine battling him in RBY with that team just to rematch him in GSC with random ground types lmao

[@kimberlyramin]

Not to mention, he's very new to being the Viridian City Gym Leader. There was likely an entire year's worth of job training to make sure he knew all the rules and regulations of being an official League gym leader, but even without any such education period, Giovanni was ousted from the role only 2 years before we battle Blue in his place. It's one thing to be able to train only 6 Pokémon to be a powerful and varied team in a relatively short time. It takes way longer if you're raising 8+ separate teams to fit certain criteria, not for the purposes of being the strongest, but for providing an appropriate but surmountable challenge to up and coming trainers. Blue very likely hasn't had enough time to train enough Ground Types to battle someone of the Johto player's level, so he has to use his original team to be an appropriate challenge.

[@GoldenKitty9]

1. the Crobat was stolen/gifted/traded post evolution(personally believe this), or evolved by loving Cyrus without being loved back(see it too much). 2. I'm not sure whether it being team rocket's experiments is canon or just popular explanation, but many pokemon evolved earlier than they could normally while being wild, which would allow anyone to capture them.

[@acekingbones]

The 1st part of the 1st claim cannot be true as he had a Golbat in his first battle. I think he just force-fed Golbat EV berries to force-evolve it, or maybe all the walking around Sinnoh met the requirements for the arbitrary friendship value to increase enough to evolve.

[@Andulvar]

@@acekingbones Ah yes, because a character like that wouldn't get rid of his Golbat to make way for a Crobat through a trade which enforces his idea that Pokemon are just objects to be used.

[@GoldenKitty9]

@@Andulvar Yeah, that was the thought. I bet some of his team was swapped without us noticing for ones with better IVs too, haven't looked at the actual game data but if someone does and proves me wrong, that either means he didn't have the opportunity or did it BEFORE we first encounter him because he would totally do that.

[@vorco8120]

Another theory could be that a grunt in the team is the one who looks after his Pokémon and it was the grunt’s love and affection that helped Golbat evolve and Cyrus is just using his Pokémon whenever he needs to battle. Makes sense when you have a high ranking officer in a group who can’t be bothered to train his own Pokémon so he has grunts do all of the training and caring for the Pokémon while he only uses them whenever they’re needed.

[@GoldenKitty9]

@@vorco8120 YES!! That is so much better! I love brainstorming potential new headcanons with random people in the comments.

[@Sanicfan9192]

Blue giving the earth badge actually makes sense in Japan, since there it’s called the green badge and blue is called green in Japan.

[@RoninCatholic]

It's because he's replacing Giovanni, the Ground specialist gym leader, and doesn't feel any compulsion to change the team that won him the Pokemon League aside from trading his starter to Red so they can both complete the Pokedex.

[@Sanicfan9192]

@@RoninCatholic I’m just talking about the badge

[@RoninCatholic]

@@Sanicfan9192 The badge is tied to the gym, not the leader.

[@Sanicfan9192]

@@RoninCatholic ok

[@BurstFlare]

1. Cyrus having a Crobat isn't a rule break, others have come up with explanations for it that still fit his character, such as his Crobat strongly trusting Cyrus even though they aren't friendly with each other. 2. Neither are Lance's Dragonites, there are *many* fully-evolved Pokemon that can be found in the wild at levels below their evolution level, even in the first generation. And while this is well after the Jhoto games, you yourself have stated that wild Dragonites can be found as low as Level 10. And if they can exist in the wild at levels that low, it's not a cheat. 3. I mean, was that even a rule in the first place? Sure, all the other Gym Leaders use a specialty, but there was never any mention of it being required. It could just be something that's highly recommended, but not out-right required. And the only reason he hands out the Earth Badge is because he's Giovanni's replacement. 4. Pretty sure this is a developer oversight or just laziness on GameFreak's part. Not the NPC's fault at all. 5. Can't argue with that. 6. Seriously, stop with this. Just 'cause it's impossible for us players doesn't mean others in the Pokemon world can't get these underleveled evolved Pokemon. 7. *NPCs you can only encounter through Glitches should not freaking count!!* You're not supposed to encounter them in the first place! On top of that, this guy might literally just be a result of the game trying to read data as trainer data that was never meant to be trainer data in the first place! 8. Okay, so I ended up watching Dobbs' Pokemon softlock video to face-check my point for this one, and his footage showed that trainer *retaining* his position *in the generation 1 games,* so... yeah, I think this one's outright false. Though I dunno about the Let's Go games. 9. Okay, let me explain this one. Move Tutors exist. Sure, none of them teach this move, but if a *person* can teach a *Pokemon* moves, then I don't see why Bertha couldn't have taught her own Rhyperior how to use this one. 10. Yeah, she's clearly breaking League rules just 'cause she's a sore loser.

[@Dw7freak]

If he's gonna get on Lance for anything, it should be that his Dragonite in Gen 1 has Barrier on its moveset. A move that it can't learn in any games. The only problem with Bertha's Rhyperior is that the only way it can learn Rock Wrecker is through level up. It can't be bred onto it, as to breed a level up move down to a pre-evo, the pre-evo must also be able to learn the move. Though, if a mon can appear before its evo level, it's possible for them to learn moves early. There's also the fact that in gens 6 and 7, Rock Wrecker became a level 1 move for Rhyperior. I'd also include Blaine in the list. Only for locking his gym and the only key being in the derelict house next door. Blue's team in GSCHGSS is just his Champion team from RGB without any starters. He isn't really doing a gym challenge as much as he's doing a league battle. We know that gym leaders choose their teams to suit the opponent, otherwise Cheren in B2W2 would have a high level Stoutland in the first gym. And the type limit actually hurt Jasmine as she went from a Rock gym to a Steel gym when her ace Onix evolved into Steelix and she quickly caught 2 Magnemite in the adjacent route to have enough Steel-types for her gym challenge.

[@BurstFlare]

@@Dw7freak "We know that gym leaders choose their teams to suit the opponent, otherwise Cheren in B2W2 would have a high level Stoutland in the first gym." Didn't we also see this in Origins, with Brock taking only two of six prepared Poké Balls when Red challenged him? "And the type limit actually hurt Jasmine as she went from a Rock gym to a Steel gym when her ace Onix evolved into Steelix and she quickly caught 2 Magnemite in the adjacent route to have enough Steel-types for her gym challenge." Yeah, the Steel type was too new for her to really have a good team centered around it. Though honestly, we don't know for sure the reason she changed specialties. IMO, I don't think it'd be too far-fetched for her to have continued to be a Rock-type specialist, just with the addition of a Steelix. I mean, multiple members of the Indigo Elite 4 (in both the Kanto and Jhoto games) used Pokemon that didn't match their specialty type. That's about all I really have to comment on.

[@johnstudent6968]

10. There is a second Johto gym leader in the same boat: Everyone's favorite normal type gym leader, Whitney, cries and refuses to give you the badge at first if you manage to beat her miltank on your first try.

[@BurstFlare]

@@johnstudent6968 First off, I'm pretty sure it's just if she loses in general, and second, no, she's not refusing to give you the badge, nor is she demanding you do something else to "prove you deserve the badge", she's simply just too busy crying and being upset over her loss to give it to you right away. She gives you the badge without any issues once she's calmed down, so no, she's not breaking the rules.

[@johnstudent6968]

@BurstFlare Ah! Thanks for clarifying that to me. It's been a while since I played Gen 2 games/remakes.

[@jamesalexhowlett]

Cyrus could have taken the Crobat from another trainer. My headcanon is that lance’s dragonite evolved from the lake of rage rocket radio signal.

[@calvinmcneil9824]

Or he caught it in Alola (wild pokemon call for help)

[@TRVPHAUS]

no bro he literally has a golbat in the early game.. lol also ain't no such thing as a "head canon" that literally goes against and contradicts what canon actually means. dumb.

[@faeril2389]

​@@TRVPHAUSdude, think about it. He could have gotten rid of said golbat once he got his hands on the crobat. He doesn't exactly care about his pokemon enough not to replace them as soon as he got something better.

[@TRVPHAUS]

@@faeril2389 bro that makes literally no sense. quit coping.

[@ivanbluecool]

Cyrus is a tsundere. Crobat is clearly able to see through his lies Flying type champion lance had a game shark. Or he went to yhe future and got a level 5 Dragonite Blue is about as earth as flint is fire or his electric buddy Everything in x and y needs to go Gameshark Sore loser Elite four cheat yet again Clair cheating is why she never gains her dragon certificate

[@saralehmann1871]

You did a little mistake at 4:24 The one on the left isn't Avery, it's Bede. Avery is the one with the big hat and the floating Pokéballs.

[@dramaticScar]

Fun fact: Lance is, technically speaking, a flying type master in Johto

[@TK1258-EXP4]

Bird Keeper Lance

[@GMSryBut]

Pokémon existing despite not having the level to exist yet is NOT cheating, or are you telling me the Viridian Forest is cheating with it's Metapods and Kakunas at level 4-6 and in Yellow a Pidgeotto at Level 9?

[@brendanboomhour7606]

Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heartgold, Soulsilver, they all have underleveled evolved pokemon too, especially in Kanto

[@Alegriacaptions]

There's a whole bulbapedia page on "illegal" Pokémon (wild or trainer) if you need more examples

[@youtubestudiosucks978]

Why was there an elderly treeko in pokemon advanced if pokemon dont evolve by aging alone? Sure, a pokemon cqn choose to run away all the time and evolve by aging in theory, the same theory that doesnt work once you see a first stage pokemon looking like it's 90 years old

[@Alegriacaptions]

@@youtubestudiosucks978 that's not relevant.

[@youtubestudiosucks978]

@@Alegriacaptions claiming that anything you dont like isnt relevant does nothing but show thqt you'd willingly ignore cannon to serve your head-cannon. It's something that happened within cannon that needs to be adressed too. Pretending like it's not happening doesnt make it magically vanish

[@darkcloudsxiaoisbestgirl4846]

I mean, it only reflects the Crobat's feelings not his.

[@bluntslt8023]

True

[@brandonbaggaley2317]

About some Pokémon owned by NPCs being under leveled for them to be in their final form. In the Alola games, players can catch a level 5 Salamance. I repeat: a LEVEL 5 Salamance.

[@Hero_of_Comedy]

I recall a friend telling me about an aroma lady in Ruby/Sapphire who could jump up the unclimbable ledge if she spots you for a battle to her left.

[@Tyrant820]

It's true she does. The aroma lady leaving mauville going towards the water

[@renakunisaki]

Isn't there one in the sunken ship that walks through a wall?

[@DebeshMishra03]

Well the only instance of Lance cheating you provided was something with a potential explanation. But what doesn't have an explanation? Him having Dragonite with the move Barrier in Gen 1. And yes it was an impossible move until an event distribution happened to specifically give this version of Lance's Dragonite which knows Barrier. Bro broke the rules so hard that the universe itself changed to fix the paradox.

[@calvin1228]

and isnt it the same with his Aerodactyl knowing Rock Slide in GSC

[@krysal1489]

@@calvin1228 yeah, but that one at least obtained the move as a learnable move in gen 3. Dragonite still can't just casually learn Barrier.

[@calvin1228]

@@krysal1489 but thats gen 3 not gen 2

[@krysal1489]

​@@calvin1228 yes, I am fully aware. My point is, Dragonite never, in any gen at all, learned Barrier by natural means, while the other eventually did. Dragonite is just actually a worse form of cheating on Lance's end.

[@professorhaystacks6606]

Was looking for this one. Sadly missed that event but always annoyed me that you still can't (in practical terms) get a Barrier dragonite.

[@LinkageAX]

Re: crobat - youve never been in a toxic relationship

[@renakunisaki]

Or traded

[@SomeGuy712x]

(8:31) An Escape Rope doesn't work there since you're not in a cave or building, and if you're able to Fly, then that means you've beaten Lt. Surge, who requires Cut to reach. Anyway, had the devs thought of this, an easy solution would've been to put a one-way ledge next to that trainer there that you could jump down from above, preventing any possibility of a softlock situation.

[@m2dauffin2]

Yeah, pretty sure the video already explained this buddy.

[@renakunisaki]

Teleport would work, but I don't know if you can get it that early.

[@SomeGuy712x]

@@renakunisaki You can if you caught an Abra and have it in your party with you there. As for TM30, it's found on Route 9, which you can't reach until after being able to use Cut outside of battle anyway, so if you don't have an Abra (or its evolutions) with you, Teleport isn't an option here.

[@AlaskanHuzky]

His crobat could have been caught after it had evolved or traded or stolen. No need for stupid friendship if you just steal some one else evolved pokemon.

[@etcetera1995]

Yeah, nah, the Crowbat isn't a broken rule. It's non-verbal storytelling. Either the Crobat evolved because it loved Cyrus without getting it in return, or he's lying about feeling nothing, or he simply stole it from someone else who raised it with love and care.

[@duyanhpham9227]

Regarding Lances dragonites in gold and silver being 47-50 remember how gold and silver are sequels to red and blue three years later and those same dragonites lance used back in red and blue where they where 56-62 so we need an explanation how their levels went down instead of how they evolved before level 55.

[@DaShirtBoy1]

Ditto trick. He exploited a glitch to catch a L7 Dragonite and leveled it up.

[@danielgloyd4529]

Inflation. Remember, GSC takes place 2 years after RBY. Experience just doesn't get you the same amount of levels as it did 2 years ago in Kanto. That's what happens when the big beraucrats on the idigo plateau give free health care pokecenters to all but don't really have the taxes to pay for it. They just keep printing pokedollars, and the average Jhoto middle class trainers can't even afford potions, much less evolution stones. Everyone tries to blame the 2nd generation for having a bad level curve. But they are just doing the best they can with the experience available. People need to wake up and vote the elites out of the elite 4 and put it back in the hands of the everyday citizens.

[@Xylarxcode]

I always liked that Blue was the only gym leader to have multiple types on his team. He doesn't want anyone rolling in with a team of his countertypes and walk away with a badge like that. He takes the challenge seriously and he wants the people that visit his gym to do the same. He is, after all, a former champion himself, no matter how brief his time was. It makes him stand out and it fits his personality of wanting to do things his way and not giving a shit if that conforms to the norm or not.

[@generalwarhammer9722]

1:20 He’s the final elite 4 member of the KANTO region

[@luisdanielacosta6363]

Actually Crobat doesn't need to be loved but to feel loved. Despite everything Cyrus shows in the games that he can make people feel usefull and beloved when they're just tools of him. That's why plasma grunts follow him after all, so his Golbat could be the same thing

[@krysal1489]

if you're going to fact check bro (which I did too), at least get the right team name. Team Galactic.

[@jodygrottino8257]

Maybe Cyrus's Crobat just happens to like being treated bad, maybe he's a masochist? 😂😅

[@rabbitcorp.103]

The crowbar doesn't need him to love him, crowbat just needs to be happy with him

[@Kyoko_]

Cheating is definitely the wrong word for what's happening here...

[@novaozuka]

What's funny about Clara having setup toxic spikes is that I led with my shiny Cinderace before I knew anything about it. My Cinderace at the time was holding Heavy Duty Boots and knew Court Change.

[@garchompelago]

I heard a fan theory somewhere that Lance's 2 other Dragonair in his team evolved in advance despite being underleved since it was exposed to Team Rocket's radio signal which forcibly evolves Pokemon within its vicinity. Again, thats just a theory and it does seem to hold up because a. The wild Pokemon seem unaffected b. The player character was also there and his/her Pokemon was also unaffected.

[@dylanfoote243]

I love this theory. Maybe because the player wasn't there long enough for the signals to affect the pokemon in your party or maybe the pokeball acts as a barrier to the waves, like how lead is used to prevent any additional X-rays going into your body when the doctors take X-ray images of your body.

[@johnathonkelley5234]

I've seen stage 2 mons evolve as early as 13 to 17 and they normally do that around 20 or so in the wilds

[@aminadabbrulle8252]

Yeah, Cyrus doesn't care about his Pokemon... Pokemon that he specifically kept with him even after remaking the world, as seen in USUM.

[@nebelwanderer4974]

5:35 Wait there's Team Plasma in ORAS? I thought it was Team Aqua and Team Magma?

[@dannigro8794]

Crobat was very loyal to his trainer and on the team for a while it had nothing to do with how the trainer felt about him

[@DustinC23]

I have a theory on SOME of the underleveled evolutions. Each Gym and Elite Four has a Level Release, which removes the level cap at 50. But what if it has a secondary use to set your pokemon to a certain level, which is why a pokemon that's not suppose to evolve yet are evolved.

[@dylanfoote243]

My take on the Cyrus issue is that you can easily manipulate someone through dark psychology. Pokemon should be no different because in the manga, anime and most games, you can easily see that pokemon have emotions. Pokemon, just like humans, have emotions that can be twisted to meet an end. I personally feel like my head cannon fits Cyrus's persona to a "T". Another thought is this, maybe Crobat is sentient enough to know from good and evil, but can't differentiate between Cyrus' motives. Let's call this Stockholm syndrome?

[@TheMGSlow]

1:49 That is incorrect. Dragonite can be level 1 in Pokemon Go. Level 40 was the old level cap before it was bumped up to level 50. Hell any Pokemon that can be caught in the wild (which includes legendary's like the Galar forms of Zapdos/Moltres/Articuno, the lake trio, lati@s during a specific event) can be level 1.

[@KABIGON4445]

Look I've heard about the Cyrus one a lot. That's why I developed my own logical theory. In games friendship increases by literally anything like level up, using items, TMs or literally just walking. So if we use that logic it's possible for him to have that maybe he walked too much or used items a lot. And obviously leveled up in the meantime.

[@krysal1489]

but also, it's not friendship, it's happiness (or in Japan, emotional attachment). The only requirement is that the Pokemon has to be attached or happy with its trainer. It does not have to be mutual.

[@Xeroisawesome]

I can't believe you brought up Johto Lance's underlevled Dragonite, but not Kanto Lance's Barrier Dragonite.

[@geoffstonehouse5829]

Any friendship pokemon could have been traded to them. It's not like they can unevolve.

[@yourturningpoint777]

Great video! I hope to see a sequel to this video!

[@SlayerMantis]

About Cyrus's Crowbat. Its probably not like that at all. If you talk to the friendship NPC (I think it was outside of Sangem town) The NPC basically tells you the trainer how your pokemon feels about you. Which means that Crobat considers Cyrus its friend. Or, he got someone else to become friends with a Golbat so it would evolve and traded for it. Or, he stole is from someone else.

[@DanCoder-h2u]

Cyrus: the golbat loved him enough to evolve even if it was one sided Lance: the guy hung around the rocket hideout where Magikarp were forced to evolve

[@WhoElseButZane]

Lance is a Dragon Master. Hes able to bring out the potential of dragons earlier than an average trainer

[@superspy4776]

This guy say transfer Dragonite from Pokemon GO....that existed somewhere in 2016 release, while the Pokeman Red and Blue on the GameBoy Color predate that era. I know it just a video, but I just found it funny how Lance can time travel or something. I got a good laugh out this. Like and sub. Keep up the good work!

[@gravajaumbros]

Clair likely broke Pokemon League rules by refusing to give you the badge, but we actually can't really be sure. The elder's comment could have been more that Lance would disapprove of the behavior whether or not it was officially allowed. And the Pokemon League functions differently in different regions. In Galar trainers are told a specific order that they are to obtain badges in accordance with the league challenge, while Kanto has no such rule, many people not even realizing during their playthrough that Koga is supposed to be battled before Sabrina (and Paldea definitely allows whatever gym order you like). In Kalos you're able to defeat Korrina in battle, but because she wasn't battling you in her capacity as a gym leader, you don't get the badge until you beat her properly in her gym. Galar even mentions, though you don't really see the details of it, major league gyms (those part of the league challenge) and minor league gyms (like Avery and Clara are in charge of), which likely have different rules governing them. So, was Clair cheating or breaking the rules of the Johto Pokemon League. Most likely, yes. Can we be certain of that? Technically, no.

[@vorco8120]

Lance is not the only trainer to have under leveled evolved Pokémon. Remember that in the anime Pokémon would evolve after getting certain amounts of experience or under various circumstances. Meaning that they didn’t follow an exact leveling system. We as human players playing these games need a specific set of rules for us to understand when our hard earned Pokémon will have worked itself hard enough for them to evolve, not to mention that games are running calculations for specific events to trigger. That’s where the specific leveling system comes into place. The games need to know that when a Dragonair reaches level 55 that’s when our Dragonair has to evolve. But that doesn’t mean that the trainers in the game need to abide by that same rule. We as players need to have a specific set of evolution rules to abide by in order to understand what goals and milestones we need to reach in order to get specific Pokémon. NPC’s in a Pokémon game do not need to follow those exact rules. I can’t tell you how many NPC’s have under evolved Pokémon in their teams I’ve faced, nor can I tell you how many NPC’s have had Pokémon who have passed the exact level that their Pokémon should have evolved. There’s a mechanic in several games that the NPC’s tell us in how we can stop our Pokémon from evolving. What if the NPC’s know of a mechanic in which they can allow their Pokémon to evolve sooner than usual? What if the Pokémon who evolve with a certain level of friendship show that very mechanic? What if Lance and every other trainer who have under level evolved Pokémon just so happen to have loved their Pokémon so much that their Pokémon evolved more rapidly than our own? We cannot limit fictional characters in a game to our set rules because we have to follow the set rules that the games themselves have to follow. But the fictional characters have their own set of rules, their own plot mechanics that they have to follow because that’s what was programmed for them. I say this for those who strictly want to abide by what happens in the game. Well what happens in the game is whatever the developers say they want to happen. The same goes for an author with their own characters, in their own book. If they don’t want the hero to always win, then their hero will not always win. Plain and simple. The readers have to deal with that. Us as Pokémon game players must deal with whatever the developers say we have to abide by in their games. We play their games, we play by their rules.

[@scottofastora6327]

1:12 CORRECTION: Lance is the Champion of the Indigo league in Johto. Three years ago before the Indigo league merged with Johto after being discovered. He was the final Elite 4 member of K A N T O !

[@itsmuffintime6414]

For Lance's dragonite, my headcanon is that it's kind of a unique ability peoples from the viridian forest have (as seen with Yellow in the pokemon special, or pokemon adventure, manga. Yellow can heal his pokemons without the need for a potion, a berry or a pokemon center. He can just heal them.).

[@IronWolf123]

A theory about Cyrus' Crobat is that it evolved not from friendship but from a strong trust between it and Cyrus which caused it to evolve believing the link was strong enough for it to be trusted to evolve

[@VangolaGear]

My personal theory is the cheaters that use pokemon that are underleveled is that they are using level limiters. Think about it. When we battle other players our pokemon are limited to level 50 even if they’re level 100, which also gives them access to moves that they wouldn’t have at level 50. So maybe they use these level limiters to even the playing field with where they think trainers should be at when confronting them. This also explains why when you rechallenge the elite four and gym leaders after beating the game they will have the same pokemon but MUCH stronger. It was the same exact pokemon you fought before, just the level limiters removed.

[@Damini368]

In terms of game coding the flygon definitely breaks the rules, but it doesn’t necessarily have to from a lore perspective. If he trained it to hold back when attacking and play dead/defeated after a certain point, it could feasibly give the impression of being a weaker level than is actually is. I don't really begrudge the developers for going with an aesthetic choice while balancing the game to the player's expected level in either case.

[@PetProjects2011]

That worker is allowing those other NPCs through because they gave him some lemonade.

[@BV-Auto]

"If you're not cheating, you're not trying"

[@TeamRocketHQR]

There's a bit of a answer on the Dragonite level thing. In the leaks about 4 years ago they looked into the code for red/green and such. For example Raichu was going to evolve into Gorochu at lvl 40. Same for Dragonite if I remember right. They did find proof in that Gorochu back sprite too. Also TRU did a Dragonite event back in the day where you got one at lvl50 in a cherish ball too.

[@sandy_nes31]

I heard once that Cyrus could've just played pretend with Golbat only for it to evolve, which... Yeah, pretty sad.

[@thesailormercury2]

or just hear me out if could be a one side love or he secretly love his bat and being a mucho guy he is he does not want tell everyone.

[@OmegaX5000]

I always figured that Cyrus lent his Golbat to one of his Admins or Grunts until it evolved, since they don't share the same ideology as he does in regards to emotions. Most of the game, Team Galactic doesn't even know what their motivation even is, save for gather anything that could bring them great amounts of power, yet they follow Cyrus anyway! As for Lance's underleveled Dragonites, I figured that he was in the process of training up a new squad of Dragonair after retiring his previous Dragonair and Dragonite from the gen 1 games during the 3 year timeskip between games, and these new Dragonair were affected by Team Rockets radio wave experiments, artificially evolving them prematurely.

[@jesseallen-w9v]

The way I see Cyrus' crobat is he sees it as a tool/weapon. So he would take care of it and make sure it doesn't get too hurt for too long. So like giving berries, massage in DPPt, and aby number of things that would fall under "maintenance"

[@Sononono]

Cyrus is evil, his Golbat was also evil and agreed/vibed with his plans, his ideals and his overall charisma, then evolved due to that, none of that is canon but that easily has to be the best explanation regarding how he got a Crobat

[@fadeleaf845]

I like the Battle SIM's Machamp you use in one battle that has access to Swords Dance in one fight. Less of a cheat since it's a virtual training environment but clearly someone trying to construct a battle lacking the planning to make it legally possible

[@CinnaSwirls]

We need more gym leaders like Blue. We need gym leaders who specialize in a tactic instead of a type. We need some goofy gym leaders who only use quadrupeds or something.

[@Cathenahren]

I was as angry as you can be when I had to face Lance with a Dragonair that was at level 52. But considering that Lance is a trainer that specializes in training dragon pokémon, it may very well be possible that due to his skill and expertise he could manage to evolve not one but two Dragonairs into Dragonites. Regardless, it was not a pleasent experience battling him in the pokémon leaugue.

[@RobotMusic10110]

Pokemon can evolve early. You can see this in Pokemon Yellow by walking around in Veridian Forest. You'll sometimes run into Pidgeotto who are far too low level to have evolved. There are other examples too but I can't think of any right now.

[@ericwallet9972]

Lance was a biggef cheater due to moves. His gen 1 dragonite had barrier, which is the only time dragonite ever had the move. And his gen 2 aerodactyl had rock slide, which it could not learn until gen 3.

[@perfsvn]

Lance's Barrier-knowing Dragonite has left the chat...

[@angrydood3322]

Lance's Dragonairs evolved due to Team Rocket's modus operandi at Lake of Rage in Johto which forced Magikarps there to evolve into Gyarados... He was investigating it when you encounter him in the game... Just a theory by many though. haha

[@silvertalon215]

I like to imagine Cyrus talks a big edgy game but behind closed doors he's a big softie with his pokemon.

[@jirredvang901]

I just tell myself npcs follow the law of the anime, they just have the pokemon when it's convenient

[@RyanAtlus]

I'm not a lore expert, but is it possible Blue just took over Viridian Gym temporarily, or simply was the only valid candidate willing to take over at the time?

[@nykyrian8278]

Also since that game friendship evolution is also called happiness evolution. Cyrus may not believe in friendship and see them as tools. But their are people who still see their tools as invaluable to doing their jop and take very good care of them. Ergo Golbat could still be very happy.

[@davidboozer2410]

You can get a dragonite at level 1 in Pokemon Go. If a pokemon can be caught in the wild in Pokemon Go, it and all of its evolutions can be obtained at level 1.

[@Kiriemy]

If cyrus doesn't love his pokemon doesnt mean the crobat doesnt love the trainer, there are lot kind of love and loyalty is one of them

[@RaxusPrime29]

It's not said enough but friendship evolutions are always such a pain. Way too much focus and attention needed on these pokemon while the rest of your team misses out on a lot of xp and usage

[@tomongvue6934]

Maybe Cyrus doesn't love crobat but because he walks around with it all over, friendship is maxed out.

[@KefkeWren]

I personally believe that the mechanics regarding evolution and movesets are non-diegetic. When you look at the anime, you'll see pokémon to do things that aren't supposed to be possible on a regular basis. Like Sabrina's Kadabra using Teleport to have her pokémon evade attacks. Or pokémon learning moves and evolving without battling. I see it as the mechanics representing how the player character trains _their_ pokémon, but not the full limits of what's possible in the Pokémon world.

[@MasterofInterspace]

No pokemon ever evolves because you love it enough. Are you telling me Little Timmy that just caught his Golbat and named it loves the pokemon less than Speedrunner 57 running up and down the road at 20x game speed to max out the friendship value?

[@ericcardinal9138]

for jacred, technicaly, i'd say "jacred" ain't cheating. the player is. after all, he's fought if the player use a glitch, implying the fight can't occure if the player don't cheat.

[@Yokai0711]

Lance is even more of a cheater when you consider his Aerodactyl is illegal. In G/S/C his Aerodactyl has Rock Slide on the move set, which Aerodactyl can not learn until Gen3.

[@fadeleaf845]

And the Gen 1 Dragonite that knows Barrier, a move it could never learn until an event gave you his illegal Dragonite

[@MismiMan]

In Pokémon Yellow you can fish a Gyarados lv.15, which only knows Tackle.

[@gloweye]

Lance cheats more than just underlevelled dragons - his Aerodactyl also has Rock Slide in games where it can't know it under those circumstances.

[@Diorge_za887]

You can break some laws by fishing a level 19 gyarados at vermilion in pokemon LG,no bugs and glitches,just fishing.

[@ivanbluecool]

This is why they aren't invited to regionals

[@Chrisuan]

what the hell are regionals

[@krysal1489]

​@@Chrisuan VGC tournaments in specific regions

[@carlosfedericogimenez5081]

The thing about Cyrus is that while he claims that emotion is nothing but a flaw of the world he himself is guided by that flaw, he wants to get rid of emotion because he views it as the source of the strife and pain of the world, even if he doesn't realizes it he loves the world, the pokemon, the people and hates the fact that they suffer because of that "imperfection" of the world he wants to change it to remove that flaw to save them, if you look at the rest of his team this idea of him caring about others apears as well: to evolve murkrow into honchcrow you need a rare stone, something you are not gonna try to obtain unless you wanto your pokemon to become stronger, gyarados is THE pokemon you have to work hard to get no trainer that considers his pokemon as mere tools is going to put the effort into raising a magikarp to evolution yet Cyrus did, weavile can only be obtained by trade, the very mechanic that shaped the core of the games filosophy, a mechanic that exist as a manifestation of the conection between humans someone who thinks that connection is meaningless won't trade back a pokemon even if it's for strength, his crobat evolves because he doesn't need to express his conection to it with words or ideals his actions say that for him, the world is flawed and Cyrus is flawed in the same way and his team reflects that

[@Foolishpleazure]

There is another one in Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green.A trainer (who's name/location I forgot) has a Rattata that knows the move "Hyper Fang",except that it isn't the right level to know Hyper Fang,and is therefore ILLEGAL!!!

[@dragonshinerthewyvern1597]

maybe cyrus is lying about not caring for his pokemon to seem tough and scary, or maybe he stole it or had it traded to him. maybe the crobat is also evil and they're buddy buddy about it. who knows, but it's def possible in several ways

[@frantheman1287]

Nahh just becasue Cyrus is a cruel pr¡ck doesn't mean his Gobat didn't/couldn't love him enough to evolve. Friendship doesnt necessarily mean its a good partnership. Golbat might be perfectly fine being used as a destructive force of evil ao to him THAT is all the love he needed to evolve.

[@Kali_Krause]

Regarding Lance, in the Johto games, his Aerodactyl knows Rock Slide. Aerodactyl doesn't get Rock Slide until gen 3

[@Iluvmetal4life]

@BrocksCorner please do this same vid, but on the anime.

[@djmk211]

Toxic spikes aren't an issue. Just use Steelix

[@Zancrowkami]

We called it friendship but taking in account that is the pokemon who evolved, then we could say it's how about the pokemon feels about us. Furthermore the friendship Stat goes up mostly by winning battles, you can call it friendship, but could be something like respect or trust as well. If Cyrus has won many battles and the Golbat just trust him as a great partner or even respect him enough, then it could evolve

[@Dethneko]

Elite Four uses lawyers! It's super effective!

[@frantheman1287]

2:53 the exact logic applies to Giovanni. He used a Kangaskahn (normal) then the rest ground types. Why?

[@sethjackson2266]

I mean...I wouldn't say exactly...blue had way more types and more diverse team. Gio was just a little change.

[@frantheman1287]

@sethjackson2266 true but in other games he also got a Persian which is nothing like his other pokemon. You could make the argument that in Gen 1 they just had to use whatever was at hand and Kangaskhan looks identical to a Rydon/Nidoking/Nidoqueen.

[@heroofthevoir7041]

I could honestly see Cyrus maybe having the golbat evolve maybe when he was a child and back when he still cared for his pokemon before he had his twisted ideals

[@Fantasy_Flan]

Theres always a possibility that some of these pokemon could have been caught in the wild. I know most evolution pokemon cant be caught in the wild, but whose to say that they are so rare that the player never sees them. Maybe that 1 in a million Crowbat just chilling in a cave one day.

[@VCV95]

I read Cyrus having a Crobat as a cheeky designer making commentary on "friendship" in Pokemon.

[@SquarecowStudios]

Was it ever specifically stated that gym leaders HAVE to use just one type? I thought gym leaders could use a diverse team like Blue's, but that most choose not to because they have a favourite type.

[@brayancruz5856]

Using items on a pokemon raise its friendship. Making your pokemon fight longer than it needs to by healing it would raise its friendship... so..

[@Warriormon87]

Maybe Lance is such a good dragon trainer he can evolve his dragonite early. Maybe the level 55 evolve is just for people with no special skills at training dragons.

[@Gallagor]

cyrus is a criminal, its never stated he evolved that crobat. just that he has it might have stolen it from a guy that loved his pokemon

[@zacziggarot]

Right from the start your first one doesn't make any sense because I've gotten a lot of Pokemon to evolve from "friendship" without actually caring about them. 😂

[@HyperJohnua]

for lance we have to remember that team rocket was using radio waves to force pokemon to evolve, there for those waves could have forced lances dragonites to evolve.