Thread: Theory: The Professors lost their data,

After reading a few posts on here about theories, I decided to make a theory myself, please tell me what you think.

At the beginning of each Pokemon game, the regional professor will ask you to go on a journey to fill your PokeDex, not taking no for an answer. Not only that, but they give you various rewards for completing said PokeDex.

Perhaps the data was wiped from their researches and they need you to go out and gather data. This would explain why, unlike in the anime, you can't get any data unless you capture it and learn more about its behavior.

What are your thoughts on this?

The chances that every single professor in the games had the exact same thing happen to them seems too unlikely for this to be legit, imo. I guess it's always a possibility though.

I always thought they just wanted you to find out about the Pokemon. Their natural habitats, size, etc.

The info is in the Dex, they put it there.

hmmm, that's a very interesting theory

Probably they need more data. Or, they need to keep you busy catching/trading pokemon, so you don't go to school studing to be a Pokemon Professor ( they won't lose their jobs! )

I'd say it's unlikely that they all lost their data. Also, the Pokédex getting the data...the pokédex shows text and classifications, which are language specific - how would the Pokédex know such things just by pointing it at a Pokémon? It has to be pre-registered. I'd say the completing the Pokédex thing, is more like Professors wanting to know exactly how many Pokémon are available in their respective regions, and where.

It's probably just for further research. Also, they might be hoping that you'll find a legendary or rare Pokemon.

My theory: They still do have data - but the more individual trainers they can get to receive data on Pokémon through capture, the more complete their records are (naturally). They're just asking for you to add more to their records. "Unlocking" the 'dex entries is their form of a reward system to encourage you to capture more 'mons for research.

I think they're just lazy and they need to give trainers something to do. And the older professors just have terrible memory loss that occurs every time they talk to a new trainer.

...Or they're all robots.

Maybe not "lost" their data, just want to add more to it. D: From a different point of view. Children might see Pokemon differently from adults.

It may seem weird in games, but wouldn't you be pissed off that everytime you catch a new Pokemon, you'd need to send it to Professor? That's how it is shown in manga at least. So I think it's simplified just for gameplay purposes.By catching Pokemon, you discover their personal traits (nature, ability, moves, experience, etc) and trainers use Pokedex for that.It's very rare to find two completely identical Pokemon (unless you're using cheat device).Maybe they're doing something like a statistical research?

I think it's just that the profs suck at fieldwork and need someone else to go in and record all the pokemon in the latest model of the dex that is incompatible with the old version.

Originally Posted by Ryuutakeshi

I think it's just that the profs suck at fieldwork and need someone else to go in and record all the pokemon in the latest model of the dex that is incompatible with the old version.

Yeah, pretty much. I picture the Professors going "Oh man, there's so many Pokémon out there, and so much information on them! Maybe someday I should catalogue that information! Or better yet, I can get my grandson and neighbor to do it for me!"

i guess, but we dont really need to look into it, they only send you on that journey so that you can HAVE a journey

My totally random theory that I call Why-the-professors-give-Dex's-even-though-you-don't-want-to-do-it:

Someone hacked all of the professor's computers, made a virus that wiped ot all of the memory on it, crashes and freezes the computers, and they loose all of the data, and have to get new data. So they used a spinner, and the arrow landed on "Have Kids Do It", and they have you complete the entire Dex. End of story.


That's my theory. I don't know if it's true, but that's what I came up with.