Poké Balls aren’t just used to contain Pokémon—they’re crucial to the overall goal of the series, which distills down to the catchphrase “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” Basically, players are out to capture wild Pokémon and train them so that they become cuddly fighting machines that spring into action at a moment’s notice. Once a Pokémon has been captured by a Poké Ball, it becomes its home when it’s not fighting on behalf of its trainer. There have been various fan theories offered up over the years as to what happens to Pokémon once they’re inside, and even a few official-ish explanations. When a trainer wants to recall their Pokémon into its Poké Ball, they press a button and it opens, then a beam of light shoots out hitting the Pokémon. The creature glows and is pulled inside before it snaps shut—the process sort of reminds us of the traps in “Ghostbusters,” or the transporters in "Star Trek”. Anyway, this sequence, plus the fact that the Poké Balls seem to be electronic devices, implies that the Pokémon are transformed into energy and stored inside in a non-physical form, almost like data on a USB thumb drive. This is further supported by the fact that Pokémon can be transferred from the Poké Ball using computers and sent like email attachments—talk about objectification. In the description for the Poké Ball item found in “Super Smash Bros. Melee” on the Nintendo GameCube, it’s mentioned that Poké Balls “contain an environment specially designed for Pokémon comfort.” This has led fans to (understandably) theorize that the balls contain a sort of “virtual reality” that replicates the Pokémon’s ideal environment. So, a fire Pokémon—there are several types, including water, fire, grass, and electric—might find a world of molten lava and flames awaiting them upon being recalled into their ball. Anyway, the future might hold hope for an answer to the never ending thirst of pokemon knowledge.
