Paul's Torterra
シンジのドダイトス Shinji's Dodaitose
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Paul's Torterra
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Paul's Torterra (Japanese: シンジのドダイトス Shinji's Dodaitose) is a Pokémon owned by Paul and his first partner Pokémon as well.
History
Pre-series
Torterra, while still a Turtwig, first became partners with Paul when he started out as a Pokémon Trainer. Whilst both young and inexperienced, Paul and Turtwig experienced Reggie's battle against Brandon at the Battle Pyramid, taking Reggie's loss to heart and striving to become better.
Traveling through the Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto regions, Turtwig competed in each of the region's League Conferences and evolved into Torterra at some point during these adventures.
It debuted in Top-Down Training!, where it was used in a battle against Cynthia's Garchomp. Quickly launching a powerful Giga Drain attack to exploit her temporary immobilization following her earlier use of Giga Impact, Torterra was initially able to bring the Mach Pokémon to her knees. This was followed up by a tremendous Frenzy Plant; however, Garchomp proved too powerful for Torterra and was able to withstand the attack with her fins before knocking out Torterra with a single Brick Break attack to the head. It was treated to recovery by Nurse Joy and Cynthia commented on how powerful Torterra was.
Torterra battling Cynthia's Garchomp
In Glory Blaze!, Torterra helped Paul's brutal training of Chimchar. It fired Hyper Beam for Chimchar to dodge, followed by a Leaf Storm which trapped and badly injured Chimchar. In Smells Like Team Spirit! it was used in the semi-finals of the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition. It was paired off with Ash's Staravia and was up against Brock's Croagunk and Holly's Farfetch'd. Paul showed total disregard for Ash, ordering Torterra to blast Farfetch'd with Hyper Beam, not caring that Staravia was hit as well. With Farfetch'd out, Croagunk challenged Torterra and managed to damage it with a powerful Brick Break to the head, similar to its battle against Garchomp. Before Croagunk could follow up, Torterra recharged and hit Croagunk with Leaf Storm, winning the round single-handedly.
In Aiding the Enemy!, Torterra saw the battle between Ash's Turtwig and Paul's Honchkrow. It also witnessed the evolution of Turtwig and his loss of speed. Later on, it used Frenzy Plant against Paul's Weavile in a practice battle to improve Torterra's reflexes; however, it remained distracted by Ash's Grotle who was in the Pokémon Center at the time. While Ash's Grotle was training to become faster, Torterra came forwards on its own to show him that a Pokémon could still be powerful by coping with its lack of speed with strong defense. To prove this, it battled Ash's Gliscor in a practice match. After teaching this, Torterra returned to Paul's camp. Paul, while curious as to where Torterra had gone, did not push the issue.
In Pedal to the Mettle!, Torterra was Paul's first choice of Pokémon during his and Ash's Full Battle. Ash substituted Buizel for Gliscor, who used Sand Attack and its ability to fly to dodge Giga Drain. However, Paul and Torterra used Frenzy Plant to lull Gliscor into a false sense of security and when Ash continued to attack at close range, Torterra Crunched Gliscor's tail and used Giga Drain to sap energy to recover. However, Gliscor used Fire Fang to injure Torterra, and was recalled by Ash. Staraptor went up against the disadvantaged and tired Torterra, but it became aware that Paul predicted this and Torterra hit with a super-effective Stone Edge before Paul recalled it.
In Evolving Strategies!, it fought against Ash's Chimchar, where it was shown to control its Stone Edge at will to mow down its faster opponents. It was protected by Electabuzz and managed to absorb Chimchar's Flamethrower, forcing Ash to retreat for Gliscor again. However, Paul does not toy with Gliscor this time and it is knocked out with a single Frenzy Plant. Ash deliberated and chose to send out Pikachu, but Torterra was recalled and not used for the rest of the battle.
In Battling a Thaw in Relations!, Torterra was at Reggie's house, along with Weavile, Ursaring, and Honchkrow. It was unhappy to hear that Paul had lost in the quarterfinals of the Lily of the Valley Conference.
Personality and characteristics
Unlike the majority of Paul's Pokémon, who are either brutal like their Trainer or completely indifferent towards Paul's attitude, Torterra is calm and somewhat kindhearted, as it actually went out of its way—against Paul's wishes—to help Grotle cope with his lack of Speed upon evolving and taught its pre-evolved form how to use Defense to make up for the lack of Speed.
Nevertheless, Torterra remains completely obedient and loyal toward Paul, and despite its occasional acts of kindness, it follows its Trainer's orders without hesitation. This was seen when Torterra, along with Paul's other Pokémon, were ganging up on Chimchar as part of the Chimp Pokémon's harsh training, despite Chimchar being visibly exhausted and injured. In spite of this, Torterra did not express pleasure in these brutal methods, unlike its teammates.
While it was never directly referred to as Paul's strongest Pokémon, his treatment of it indicates that he holds it in high regard. It was used during Paul's battle against Cynthia's Garchomp at Amity Square, and even though many of Paul's other Pokémon had already fallen to the pseudo-legendary Pokémon, he continued battling. When Torterra was defeated, Paul forfeited the battle. Torterra also boasts great strength and longevity, shown most prominently in its Full Battle performance against Ash, and was praised by Cynthia as being exceptionally well-trained. It was one of the very few Pokémon that Paul showed consistent respect for, and throughout its appearances, it wasn't scolded or reprimanded by its Trainer once.
Appearance
Moves used
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| Using Stone Edge
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| Using Giga Drain
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| A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.
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Artwork
Trivia
- For DP085, Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia is about Paul's Torterra. He writers this senryū about it: 「シンジとは ふるいつきあい ドダイトス」 "Shinji and Dodaitos have been friends for a long time."
- This is the second time one of Ash's rivals have had an evolved form of a first partner Pokémon that Ash owns. The first is Gary who owned a Blastoise. It could also be noted that both Pokémon were the rival's first partner Pokémon, they are both turtle-like Pokémon, they both were seen for the first time in their final form, have never been seen in their mid-evolved forms which are also seen to be owned by a main character and were seen in their first form in flashbacks.
- However, with Gary and Blastoise, it was never actually confirmed until a later episode that the Squirtle in the flashback was his.
- With the exception of Crunch, all of Torterra's moves have, at some point, had 5 PP in the games.
See also
