Have you ever read the Cave of Dragonflies’ theory on history of pokemon training? It seemed to match-up most of what you said on how pokemon’s reasons to train. I know the franchise especially the show and manga tries to show the partnership a mutual beneficiary relationship but I felt its efforts were lopsided depending on which form of entertainment especially the game, but since its gameplay and the show being for kids.

I can’t say I have, but let’s take a look… Go go gadget Google.

You mean this, I imagine?

Hmm.

Yes, I think I would agree with most of that; it makes a great deal of sense.  The theory on apricorns is… interesting, put it that way. I never thought to imagine them as a carnivorous plant that consumed Pokémon as an energy source.  Apricorns and apricorn trees are normally portrayed as entirely benign; I can acknowledge the possibility that they are extremely dangerous to the unwary, but it’s still difficult to swallow (particularly given that Pineco and Beedrill have been shown not merely living in but outright infesting apricorn trees).  It’s a very clever explanation, though.

There are only two other points that I have real trouble accepting.

One is that ‘experience points’ are a real and measurable property of Pokémon distinct from any real world phenomenon; I remain convinced that experience and levels are just abstractions designed to simplify the process of growth and evolution for the purposes of gameplay, and that we’re supposed to imagine Pokémon as getting not stronger exactly but more skillful and more confident.  I am likewise convinced that evolution is prompted by emotional and psychological factors in many (most?) species, and closely tied to that increase in confidence and self-awareness.

The other is that humans are in some sense ‘outsiders’ in the Pokémon world, who evolved in our world and were somehow transported there.  It’s true that humans are generally treated as being fundamentally different to Pokémon in some sense that’s never quite defined, but I think that the general feeling created by the franchise is that humans and Pokémon are ‘supposed’ to be together, that they developed together (granted, this could be a result of human cultural indoctrination, but honestly I’m not yet willing to rule out the possibility that the Pokémon world is the result of a Judaeo-Christian style creation by Arceus).  I don’t think it’s impossible for humans to have evolved in the Pokémon world at all (putting aside the fact that it would be an astonishing coincidence), in spite of their obvious physical defects in comparison to most species of Pokémon; actually, I think that this suggests that the ability to train and command Pokémon came first, followed by superior language ability, upright stance, advanced vision, weaker musculature, and all the other attributes we associate with the evolution of anatomically modern humans.

But that’s just me.  The Cave of Dragonflies version does make a lot of sense.