Anime Evolution Cancelling

[Chet Weaver]

Anyone else find it odd that Piplup had to use Bide to cancel his own
evolution, and this was giving him health issues? This strikes me as
inconsistent with how evolution cancelling was handled in previous episodes.
Of course, the only example I can think of was in the episode "Bulbasaur's
Secret Garden," when Bulbasaur meets up with other Bulbasaurs who evolve in
a full-moon ritual and he attends but chooses not to evolve. (Unless BSG is
the episode where they get Bulbasaur. I forget) This didn't seem to cause
him any issues, aside from the Venusaur getting mad at him and smacking him
around, nor did he employ any sort of technique.

I suppose this had more to do with their individual situations rather than
the phenomina as a whole. I don't recall Bulbasaur being conflicted at all,
and the evolution event only happened once. Piplup starts to evolve several
times during the episode, and apparently had been for a while, and each time
he seemed to be following some cue. That is to say, it would've been
appropriate to evolve at that time. One of these cues was when Dawn
appeared eager to have Piplup evolve, even if she was saying she would
patiently wait for him on his own time. I'm guessing that Piplup's desire
to evolve to please Dawn was conflicting with his desire to stay as he was
when he first acted to protect her, which is why he kept starting to evolve
and then stopping.

As for why Piplup kept using Bide, I suppose it's just how he reacted to
evolving and didn't know how to stop. Bulbasaur was wild while Piplup was
raised in a lab. Bulbasaur may have learned how to cancel evolution on his
own by seeing it in the wild, but Piplup may never have had that
opportunity. Piplup may have panicked when he realized he was changing and
instinctively used Bide when cancelling his evolution. Not knowing exactly
how he was doing it, he superstitiously used Bide each time just to make
sure and associated it with the process. It was this unnecessary energy
expenditure coupled with his own angst that was fatiguing him so much. This
is the only justification I can think of, since as far as I know Bide
doesn't prevent damage or status effects. I could also compare his behavior
(doing this secretly) to a bullemic or a cutter, but that might be taking it
too far.

... Great, now I'm picturing Piplup cutting himself to keep from evolving.
>_< That's just messed up.

Anyway, if it wasn't for his compulsive use of Bide, he probably wouldn't
need an Everstone, either. I know Bulbasaur (and pretty much every other
Pokemon on this show, I might add, especially the one CARRYING the item that
allows it to evolve) doesn't. Piplup could cancel efficiently if he
unlearned the Bide thing, but that might take a lot of therapy and training
for something that seems to happen randomly without warning that he can only
fail at once. Granted, Everstone is a crutch, but it's the most viable
solution given their situation and lifestyle, and they almost never use Held
Items anyway. The whole episode was probably just to introduce the
Everstone concept anyway, and you'll probably never even see it again unless
some plot revolves around it.

-- Chet Weaver

"What's the fun of being cool if you can't wear a sombrero?"
- Hobbes, Calvin & Hobbes

Diamond Trainer Name: Minnie
Friend Code: 0988 8637 4610
Progress: Sinnoh League Champion (Feb. 15, 2009, 302:7 Hours)
Location: Resort Area
Time: 312 Hours since April 22, 2007
PokeDex Completion: 153/213
Score: 20383
Current Goal: Complete National PokeDex
Event Pokemon Collected: "Lucario" Mew, "Rise of" Darkrai, Gamestp Deoxyx,
TRU Dragonite, "Sky Warrior" Shaymin

[William Rendfeld]

I suppose those are fair in-story justifications. Me, I just chalk it
up to differing directorial intent.