Thread: Does the 4 moves limit exist in the anime?

I was just reading a post by user piplup in the 'bagged than tagged' thread saying that croconaw's watergun was replaced by hydro pump, meaning that pokemon have to forget attacks to learn new ones but i remember back in the orange league Drake's dragonite used something like 10 moves in one battle and there must be other examples too.
So does the limit exist or not?

I think it only exists as a guideline, not as a strict rule. There were other battles (such as Charizard vs. Dusdclops) where you could definitely see a limit. Charizard's moves in that battle were Dragonbreath, Overheat, Seismic Toss, and Steel Wing. Note the conspicuous absence of Flamethrower, which Charizard has known since before Ash had it.

It's a much more recent thing than the Orange Islands period.

I'm going to say yes. We've seen Pokémon gain a new move and then never use a past one from then on. Take Buizel for example, it learned Ice Punch and then never used Water Pulse again. That is most odd considering that it outclasses Water Gun in every way I believe.

I wouldn't say so, technically. They seem to 'forget' the moves, but it's mostly due to them not using them as much.

Take Pikachu, for example. At one point, it mainly used Thunderbolt, Thunder, Iron Tail and Quick Attack. Pikachu learns Volt Tackle. Quick Attack disappears from use for a while. Then, about a hundred episodes later or so, Quick Attack is used frequently again, and we see a slow decline of using Thunder, and it is currently being used sparingly.

The 4-move limit does exist. I haven't seen Ash's Pikachu use Thunder ever since learning Volt Tackle. (from what I've seen in the anime, its current moves are Quick Attack, Thunderbolt, Iron Tail and Volt Tackle).

Originally Posted by Alyxy

and we see a slow decline of using Thunder, and it is currently being used sparingly.

It hasn't been used in at least 100 eps +. That isn't sparingly...

It doesn't make a lot of sense to have only 4 moves in the anime. So it isn't used. The pokemon can't use all the attacks it learns but 4 is alittle too small.

Originally Posted by Alyxy

I wouldn't say so, technically. They seem to 'forget' the moves, but it's mostly due to them not using them as much.

Take Pikachu, for example. At one point, it mainly used Thunderbolt, Thunder, Iron Tail and Quick Attack. Pikachu learns Volt Tackle. Quick Attack disappears from use for a while. Then, about a hundred episodes later or so, Quick Attack is used frequently again, and we see a slow decline of using Thunder, and it is currently being used sparingly.

When was the last time pikachu used thunder and agility?

Originally Posted by Ranger Jack Walker

It doesn't make a lot of sense to have only 4 moves in the anime. So it isn't used. The pokemon can't use all the attacks it learns but 4 is alittle too small.

It's sticking to the mechanics of the games more. DP has done it more than the other sagas have.

Originally Posted by Rafia

When was the last time pikachu used thunder and agility?

I guess ever since the Battle Frontier saga. If Iteru's right.

But I haven't seen Agility used since the Johto region. Mostly because up until they started making the attacks look more detailed (Corphish's orange Bubblebeam), Quick Attack and Agility had looked identical, just that Quick Attack had a tackle to follow through after dodging the attack. I guess the writers thought Pikachu didn't need it anymore because they had more creative ways to dodge attacks, and the fact that he already can dodge with Quick Attack.

The 4 limit obviously exist in the anime, at least in the DP series and I expect this to continue for the BW series too
BTW, said post was my post ( "Bagged Then Tagged" Review Thread )
Khoury's Pokédex clearly didn't mention Water Gun at all, so I really can't see how any more obvious can it be... it's not like Croconaw only used 4 attacks in that battle, the Pokédex pretty much said it doesn't know Water Gun anymore because it learned Hydro Pump
Piplup also didn't use Bide since it learned Hydro Pump... and I'm sure we can find more examples
And while there may be a few rare exceptions, I'm pretty sure they decided to stick to the games' 4 limits and in BW will work even harder to follow this rule, no matter how "ridiculous" it may be in the anime (personally I think special moves like Counter Shield can make up for lost attacks)

Originally Posted by Piplup

The 4 limit obviously exist in the anime, at least in the DP series and I expect this to continue for the BW series too
BTW, said post was my post ( "Bagged Then Tagged" Review Thread )
Khoury's Pokédex clearly didn't mention Water Gun at all, so I really can't see how any more obvious can it be... it's not like Croconaw only used 4 attacks in that battle, the Pokédex pretty much said it doesn't know Water Gun anymore because it learned Hydro Pump
Piplup also didn't use Bide since it learned Hydro Pump... and I'm sure we can find more examples
And while there may be a few rare exceptions, I'm pretty sure they decided to stick to the games' 4 limits and in BW will work even harder to follow this rule, no matter how "ridiculous" it may be in the anime (personally I think special moves like Counter Shield can make up for lost attacks)

I hope they don't follow that limit.More attacks means more variation, but if they do follow it, they should come up with more attacks like counter shield.
i will edit my first post to give you credit for bringing up that info and giving me the idea for this thread. :)

It's ok, no need to credit me XD thanks anyway...
While at first I also thought it may be annoying, I think that it's not as bad as it seems
Especially with stuff like Ember or Water Gun... Flamethrower and Hydro Pump are like the same attacks only imroved... so why still use the old ones? it makes sense they are "forgotten" for the new ones, since it's like the Water Gun "evolved" into Hydro Pump XD
Of course, when we have stuff like Pip learning Hydro Pump and losing Bide for it, that doesn't really makes sense like the previous example... I still think they should've made Pip learn Drill Peck to replace that poor old Peck... especially since it'd be a nice development (first it used a normal Peck, then from DP 11 it learned to make its beak bigger, I'd think next step would be learning Drill Peck)

Although it isn't explicitely stated, it seems quite clear that the writers are now sticking (sorta) to the game mechanics.
I don't think its such a bad thing, although I don't agree with the choice of which move is replaced. As Iteru said, Ice Punch should have replaced Water Gun, not Water Pulse.

Yes it exists, yes sometimes the moves that are forgotten are questionnable.

But quite frankly, it doesn't bother me. Do we need to see Piakchu use Thundershock and Thunder when they look exactly the same as Thunderbolt? Agility and Quick attack are the same too? Why would Infernape use Flame Wheel when it can use Flare Blitz? Why would Torterra use Razor Leaf when it can use Leaf Storm?

The moves aren't forgotten, they're just replaced by something better and become obselete which is how I always looked at it in the games and in the anime.