This Poker Ball is a death trap.

These cute little balls designed to capture our beloved Pokemon will be the last thing our little friends see before they die.

Hello internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that captures your heart with science.

And today, loyal theorists, I come to you guys with my head hanging in shame.

I've been host of this channel for over a year and a half at this point, and yet, somehow,

in that time, I've not done a single Pokemon episode. No, you don't count. This franchise was

my childhood. It's the series I probably put the most hours into in my three

decades of existence. How have I never covered this series properly? Well, friends,

that ends today. With Legends EA just being released, it re-sparked my passion for this

franchise and made me want to go back to one of the most basic parts of the series. The Humble Pokerball. You might be

wondering what is there to talk about when it comes to these things. They've made us do the

same catching tutorial about a dozen times. You throw the Pokerball, Pokemon goes in the ball,

three shakes, done. But have you ever stopped to wonder just how all this happens? I mean,

these are devices capable of capturing sentient elemental beings

against their will. That's some MCU levels of technological advancement that they make out

of fruit and sell to 10-year-olds. Watching the anime growing up, I'd always assumed that the

beam of light that came from the Pokemon somehow digitized the Pokemon so that they could get

stored in a PC. But then, while I was replaying Legends Archaeus in the buildup to ZE, I noticed this line from the professor. You'll recall, of course, that Pokemon possessed the odd power to shrink themselves down. With the poke-weckles we craft, we can make use of that power to catch them. What? They just shrink? That feels so hand-wavy. and wavy of thing you tell a 10-year-old to sort of justify the whole capturing creatures

against their will thing.

Don't ask questions to me.

You've gotta catch them all.

I mean, I suppose this is a game for kids.

...