You notice that pokemon are at such a low levels at the beginning areas of your adventure, but when you revisit those areas in certain sequels (such as Gold and Silver and Black and White 2) the pokemon are at much higher levels? Is it possible that every area in the pokemon world goes through cycles of the pokemon being weak and strong? If so, do you think aspiring new trainers use this to gauge the appropriate time to start their journeys?

Y’know, I was rereading some old questions and comments the other day and someone else actually made a similar suggestion ages ago; I meant to give it more thought than I did, but I sort of forgot about it and never picked it up again, which is a shame because it’s a really interesting idea.  Let’s remedy that, shall we?

In ecology, there’s a concept called ‘succession,’ which describes the way ecosystems respond to change.  After an ecosystem is disrupted or damaged – by a forest fire, an earthquake, human activity, whatever – the first organisms to recolonise the damaged area are ‘pioneer species,’ very basic, hardy organisms that can survive anywhere because they just don’t do much, things like lichens, mosses, and soil bacteria.  They’re followed by species that depend on them – ants, earthworms, shrubs and grasses, then small vertebrate animals after that.  All those boring little organisms are necessary to build up the rich soil that allows larger plants to grow, and those plants are necessary to support large herbivores, and a wide variety of herbivores is necessary to support things like big apex predators, so the community builds up slowly and gets more and more complex.  In ecological theory, the ultimate result of succession is a ‘climax community’ – a complicated, high-biodiversity ecosystem containing numerous specialised organisms which is in a state of equilibrium and, assuming it’s left alone, won’t develop any further, because that particular combination of species is perfectly balanced for the local climate.  There’s actually some debate about whether true climax communities really exist; some ecologists think that all ecosystems are in a state of constant change, or that the kind of stability envisioned by climax theory would take centuries or even millennia to develop, which is simply unrealistic (even without human intervention, natural disasters disturb communities all the time).

Basically, then – high level and particularly evolved Pokémon are only likely to be found in more ‘mature’ ecosystems, because that kind of longevity and prosperity depends on having a rich environment filled with things like nutritious high-energy plants and specialised organisms with complex interactions.  Moreover, because it takes a long time for Pokémon to level in the wild, those conditions have to be sustained for years, even decades, before you actually start seeing really powerful ones.  Once they do exist, though, their very presence stabilises the ecosystem because their powers allow them to make efficient use of resources and provide buffering against natural disasters – or, in some other cases (I’m looking at you, Tyranitar), they might throw the whole thing out of whack again and begin the process of succession anew!