Obedience

This article is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this article to add missing information and complete it. Reason: information in other manga; image of disobedience in the games

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Obedience is the Pokémon's willingness to listen to its Trainer's commands. While Pokémon usually obey their Trainers, they may disobey their Trainer if they do not respect them.

In the games

When a Pokémon is obtained in a trade, it oftentimes will not obey the player's commands if it is at too high a level and the player does not have the appropriate Badge or number of Badges. Having all eight Badges always makes all Pokémon obey the player. This rule stands to prevent players from trading in a high-leveled Pokémon trained on another game and easily beating the game.

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Emerald, Colosseum, and XD, Mew and Deoxys that were not met in a fateful encounter will always disobey the player, regardless of Badges. This exists to hinder players who cheat to obtain them.

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, Cyrus used the Red Chain to force Dialga and/or Palkia to obey him.

Badges

The Badges or number of Badges the player has affects their Pokémon's behavior. Usually the level at which Pokémon will obey the player up to is increased every second Badge (in Badge case order); however, in Generation V, every Badge increases the maximum level for guaranteed obedience. In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum only, obedience is determined by the number of Badges, not which specific Badges the player has. In all games, if the Trainer has no Badges, Pokémon up to Level 10 received in trades will obey the Trainer.

Badges by obedience level

Indigo League Johto League Hoenn League Sinnoh League Unova League Kalos League Up to Lv. 20 Zephyr BadgeHGSS Trio BadgeBW Basic BadgeB2W2 Up to Lv. 30 Cascade Badge Hive Badge Knuckle Badge 2 Badges Basic BadgeBW Toxic BadgeB2W2 Bug Badge Up to Lv. 40 Insect Badge Cliff Badge Up to Lv. 50 Rainbow Badge Fog Badge Heat Badge 4 Badges Bolt Badge Rumble Badge Up to Lv. 60 Quake Badge Plant Badge Up to Lv. 70 Marsh Badge Storm BadgeGSC Mineral BadgeHGSS Feather Badge 6 Badges Jet Badge Voltage Badge Up to Lv. 80 Freeze BadgeBW Legend BadgeB2W2 Fairy Badge Up to Lv. 90 Psychic Badge All Pokémon Earth Badge Rising Badge Rain Badge 8 Badges Legend BadgeBW Wave BadgeB2W2 Iceberg Badge

Disobedience quotes

The following table may be sorted by generation by clicking on the appropriate header.

Quote	Effect	Gen I	Gen II	Gen III	Gen IV	Gen V	Gen VI
<Pokémon> used instead, <move>!	The Pokémon uses a different move	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗
<Pokémon> ignored orders!	The Pokémon does not attack	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✗
	The Pokémon uses a different move	✗	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗
<Pokémon> is loafing around!	The Pokémon does not attack	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
<Pokémon> turned away!		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
<Pokémon> won't obey!		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
<Pokémon> pretended not to notice!		✗	✗	✓	✓	?	✓
<Pokémon> began to nap!	The Pokémon goes to sleep	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
<Pokémon> won't obey! It hurt itself in its confusion!	The Pokémon hurts itself	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

In the anime

In The Problem with Paras, Cassandra's grandmother mentioned that Pokémon will only obey Trainers if they respect them. This respect can be earned by obtaining more Badges. As shown in Bad to the Bone, this respect can be lost by losing the Badges. Unlike the games, however, numerous cases of disobedience in the anime have also been resolved through selfless acts of bravery or the Trainer simply coming to an understanding of what their Pokémon wants.

Examples

In the original series

Ash's Charizard refusing to battle

In Pokémon - I Choose You!, Ash's Pikachu was initially very hostile towards him due to having no respect for a beginning Trainer. It wasn't until Ash protected Pikachu from a flock of Spearow that he finally respected and listened to Ash.

Ash's Primeape was incredibly violent and virtually uncontrollable, and thus, Ash rarely used it. However, during the P1 Grand Prix, Ash saved Primeape from a dangerous fall, and it began to respect and listen to Ash.

Ash's Charmander refused to obey him after evolving into Charmeleon, and continued to disobey as a Charizard. When Ash commanded it, it would either ignore Ash's orders and use a different move, go to sleep, leave the battlefield, or attack Ash. After Ash stayed up all night to look after Charizard when it had become frozen in Charizard Chills, Charizard gained respect for Ash.

In Bad to the Bone, Otoshi's Marowak left its Trainer after he lost and failed to recover his Badges, as Marowak had lost respect for him. Marowak later returned when it saw how happy a group of Trainers and their Pokémon were together.

In the Advanced Generation series

In Candid Camerupt!, Ash's Corphish attacked Vivi's Marill at full force even though Max, who had borrowed Corphish, had explicitly told it to go easy on the Aqua Mouse Pokémon.

In Exploud and Clear!, Guy's Loudred stopped obeying him after it evolved into Exploud, and ran off. However, after Guy jumped in front of Team Rocket's cork gun to protect it, it came to respect him.

In the Diamond & Pearl series

In the Diamond & Pearl series, Dawn's Swinub frequently disobeyed her after evolving into Piloswine, and continued to disobey as Mamoswine. In Trials and Adulations!, Mamoswine was injured during a battle against a wild Aggron. Dawn and her Pokémon used the first aid skills taught to her by Brock in Doc Brock! to help Mamoswine recover, and later attempted to protect Mamoswine against Team Rocket. As a result, Mamoswine gained respect for Dawn, and under her instructions, it was able to defeat Aggron. From then on, Mamoswine still has a tiny bit of a rebellious attitude, but when Dawn is in danger, it does not hesitate to help her.

In the Best Wishes! series

Excadrill refusing to battle

In the Best Wishes series, Iris's Excadrill refused to battle, as he was ashamed of when he lost to Drayden's Haxorus. When sent out of his Poké Ball, he would simply stay curled up as a drill. In Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster!, he gained respect for Iris after her apology, and he began to obey her.

Later, Iris caught an Emolga who disliked battling, and would use Volt Switch to force another Pokémon into her place when sent into battle. She was also fond of using Attract to infatuate the opponent, and avoid actually battling. Since in the Club Battle tournament, only one Pokémon could be used, Emolga couldn't use Volt Switch without being disqualified; as a result, she actually listened to Iris's commands, and she continued to in later battles.

Luke's Zorua ran off and refused to listen to him after Luke continued to make Zorua play male characters, when as a female, she only wanted to play female characters. Zorua listened to Luke after he apologized.

Bianca's new Escavalier, which had just evolved from a Karrablast by trading her Shelmet for it with Professor Juniper, attacked her when she tried to greet it. Professor Juniper recommended that it have a Double Battle with her new Accelgor, which also evolved during the trade, against Ash's Boldore and Cilan's Crustle. Through half the battle, Escavalier refused to listen to Bianca, which resulted in Accelgor being injured while trying to protect it. Seeing what Accelgor was willing to do for it, Escavalier started to listen to Bianca's commands so it could protect Accelgor as well.

Iris's Dragonite initially refused to listen to her, particularly during the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup. He attacked with the moves he wanted to use, rather than the ones Iris commanded, which eventually resulted in Iris's loss against Ash. Slowly but surely, Dragonite started trusting his Trainer, and by Unova's Survival Crisis!, he started to obey Iris.

In the XY series

Froakie abandoning one of its previous Trainers

Ash's Froakie, prior to joining Ash's team, was notorious for being troublesome, going through several Trainers that it proved unsuitable for. Either the Trainer would end up returning it to Professor Sycamore for being disobedient, or it would abandon its new Trainer and return to Professor Sycamore itself; the latter had happened when it met Ash in Kalos, Where Dreams and Adventures Begin!. Even willingly joining Ash's party didn't automatically ensure its obedience; in A Battle of Aerial Mobility!, when a wild Fletchling upset Bonnie by stealing a berry that she was trying to feed to a Dedenne, Froakie attacked the Tiny Robin Pokémon and refused to obey Ash's instructions to back down and leave it to Pikachu. However, Ash realized that the Bubble Frog Pokémon was only trying to stick up for Bonnie and the two came up with a strategy that ultimately resulted in Froakie's payback and Fletchling's capture. This confirmed to Froakie that it had found the right Trainer and it subsequently obeyed Ash without question.

In the manga

In the How I Became a Pokémon Card manga

In PW05, Tsubasa trains a Pidgeot which does not obey him as it belonged to his grandfather.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

There have been some instances where Pokémon don't obey their trainers, most commonly this has been the case for traded Pokémon.

In A Tale of Ninetales, Red and Blue's Pokémon get accidentally traded between them. Blue's Pokémon do not obey Red because they do not respect him. In Ampharos Amore, Silver and Gold trade their Pokémon. In the next round, the Pokémon Gold traded to Silver, Polibo, does not react to his commands.

In addition to disobedience caused by trading, there have been some instances where Pokémon do not obey their original trainers.

In Gyarados Splashes In!, Misty's Gyarados, now Red's Gyara, does not obey her. This is a result from Team Rocket's experiments involving Pokémon in which the Pokémon in question had been used, causing its rage.

Pearl's Buizel, Zeller, does not obey him, having turned hostile towards humans after Team Galactic detonates the Galactic Bomb and its home is destroyed.