The Poké Ball is a technological marvel, a high-tech invention created by humans and refined over hundreds of years. With every generation, they seem to evolve more and more, from the original Poké Ball to the Great Ball, Jet Ball, Net Ball, and so forth, culminating in the Silph Co. triumph of the Master Ball, able to catch any Pokémon with a perfect success rate.
Poké Balls can be sent into the digital realm to house any extra Pokémon you have, and they can be placed on a glowing board by Nurse Joy to heal the damage they may have taken during combat. These aren’t simple items; they are pieces of advanced engineering crafted by geniuses and sold to the everyman.
In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, taking place several hundred years before the modern day, we are given the ability to craft our own Poké Ball variants from resources we collect around the world. I want you to think about what I just said about how advanced they are, and I want to think about what you might use to build one if you were a fifteen year-old traveling through the wilderness. If the first thing that came to mind was a hard fruit, a colored rock, and a piece of iron, I want whatever you’re smoking, because that makes no sense. But that’s exactly what it takes in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Go figure.
Poké Balls are supposedly made from a woodlike fruit called an Apricorn, a rock known as a Tumblestone, and a chunk of iron (which is for the clasp that holds it shut). The real-world equivalent of this would be smashing an apple and a piece of quartz together, and then throwing the result at a deer or bear to capture it. How does this work at all?
Over the years, society stepped away from the fruit-based ball and turned instead to synthetic components, removing the wood grain look on the bottom. If you can wrap your head around the weirdness of how these are made, this evolution in appearance actually makes sense.
With that, I’m going to shift topics to a theory I heard about the Poké Ball and its living counterpart Pokémon known as Voltorb.
Voltorb — as well as its evolved form Electrode — is known primarily by the fact that it looks nearly identical to the traditional Poké Ball. These have been electric-type since the original games, but there is a Hisuian region variant in Arceus that is electric/grass. The Hisuian variant resembles the old-time wooden nut look that the Poké Balls have in the game.
No one truly knows the origin of Voltorb, but it is believed to be have been created when an energy pulse mutated a Poké Ball enough to give it life, Frankenstein-style. That is an absolutely horrifying thought, if I do say so myself. Imagine living a few blocks from a power plant, and suddenly your garden starts making noises and shooting electricity when you come near. Then it starts growing eyes to stare with, watching every move you make.
The Voltorb entry on Bulbapedia.net states that the insides of their bodies house many seeds, which also kinda freaks me out. Are the seeds sentient or just normal seeds? Are they like eggs? How does Voltorb give birth? If you just plant one of the seeds, does it grow a Voltorb tree or a regular Apricorn tree?
I have more questions than answers. But considering how horrifying some of the known details are, maybe it’s better that way.
