Why do you never see your Dad in the Pokemon games?

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Antmagic1

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    In the main series Pokemon games, you never see your dad. There are no mentions of him being there, either.
     
    One of the ideas floating around is that a huge war occurred a few years before the beginning of the Pokemon timeline, so a lot of the player character's fathers were shipped off to war and were killed.

    Another idea I occasionally throw out there more as a joke than anything else is that the player character doesn't have a mortal father; that they are the result of some immaculate conception between a deity and the player character's mom.

    I'm sure that there's other ideas as well, and people will post them.

    I have to wonder though why Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald are so far the only games where you do actually have a father (though he is almost never at home, dude just sits in the Gym all day, e'ry day).
     
    Salt&PepperDiner said:
    I have to wonder though why Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald are so far the only games where you do actually have a father (though he is almost never at home, dude just sits in the Gym all day, e'ry day).
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    Nice theory! I've never played much of R/S/E, so I didn't know you had a father in those games.
     
    In Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, your dad is the fifth gym leader, but he is mostly at the gym; however there are rare times, somewhere story related, he'll be at the home and you can talk with him, til you progress a bit further.

    I personally think that Game Freak really never much thought of having a father character for the main character (with the exception of R/S/E, since he was story-connected). Regardless, when I was a kid... and played Pokemon Yellow, I was so hellbent on finding Red's dad and thought that one guy in the north forest gate was your character's dad, since he makes a reference to your family.
     
    I personally think that your father's a busy person, seeing as in conventional families, the father is the worker of the family, bringing in the income. I think he's just at work all the time, though I've never heard of a father who's worked a full 24 hours.

    That whole war thing sounds like a nice theory, though it seems like the theory only mentions Kanto, making every other player character besides Red/Leaf have a possible father. Maybe it's as simple as your mum being a single mother, and Dad abandoning the family prior to your birth.
     
    I like the idea that the player's father was a world-renowned trainer and traveled the land, guiding and teaching along the way, his only flaw being he couldn't settle down, forcing the player's mother to raise his child on her own. Kind of a negative theory for a children's game, but there's no solid evidence, in the games at least, to prove it to be false.
     
    The war and the busy breadwinner theories sound very plausible. Lol maybe the pokemon world is a matriarchal society. Or maybe all the fathers worked for the evil teams and your mom probably broke all contact with him hence lack of a fatherly figure. This could explain the presence of a father in Hoenn because I think any same dignified man would wanna join either Aqua or Magma lmao
     
    I think it's just because they needed 1 parent in the household, and since mothers are normally thought of as children's caretakers, they picked the mother. In other Nintendo games, there usually aren't any parents (like Zelda, for example), yet the characters in Pokemon are supposed to be 10 years old (or <18 yrs) so it would be weird if they lived by themselves.
     
    The Mom probably murdered the Dad and buried him under the house. Or he divorced her and moved away. Either works, really.
     
    I enjoy the theory of the player character's father being a travelling Pokemon Master as it gives a huge credibility boost to the actions the player character can take as Pokemon Training could be considered a skill-trait in the family, much like how the Player Character of X and Y is comfortable with riding Pokemon such as Rhyhorn and Mamoswine.
     
    Like CureYoshiDarkness said, in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald you do see your dad, and battle him too. Although, it is something I've always wondered. Why in every other game, they've made your dad's identity a secret.

    Although, there is this theory that people have floated around, about a war in the Pokémon world that happened before the events of the first games. Basically, according to the theory, the protagonist's father was killed in the war or he's still overseas, fighting.
     
    Maybe dad's off fighting evil samurai and mom is just at home cooking noodles for the Pokemon professor. I think the Pokemon Professor should be the grandfather of the main character, but then again, I don't make video games for a living :(
     
    evander14 said:
    Maybe dad's off fighting evil samurai and mom is just at home cooking noodles for the Pokemon professor. I think the Pokemon Professor should be the grandfather of the main character, but then again, I don't make video games for a living :(
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    Come to think of it, the Pokemon Games have a really odd thing for Grandparents as well. If there is a Grandparent and a Grandchild, it's pretty much guaranteed that there won't be a parent there to bridge the gap. I can't even think of a parent character that bridges the family gap in any of the games, except for the family in Ruby and Sapphire.
     
    Dr. Silver said:
    I enjoy the theory of the player character's father being a travelling Pokemon Master as it gives a huge credibility boost to the actions the player character can take as Pokemon Training could be considered a skill-trait in the family, much like how the Player Character of X and Y is comfortable with riding Pokemon such as Rhyhorn and Mamoswine.
    Click to expand...
    I have to say, this is an interesting idea, but the problem I have with it is: if your father is a Pokemon Master, why do we never hear about it? Shouldn't he occasionally be on TV? Perhaps someone (or even your mom) would mention it to you on your journey? Why does no one seem to know that you are the son/daughter of a famous Pokemon Trainer?
     
    Salt&PepperDiner said:
    I have to say, this is an interesting idea, but the problem I have with it is: if your father is a Pokemon Master, why do we never hear about it? Shouldn't he occasionally be on TV? Perhaps someone (or even your mom) would mention it to you on your journey? Why does no one seem to know that you are the son/daughter of a famous Pokemon Trainer?
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    It could be along the lines of Wally and his father. His father is a massive bigshot in the Sinnoh Battle Facilities, yet no one ever comments on it, not even his mother as far as I'm aware. Maybe people know that the famous trainer has a son, yet no one knows what that son looks like.
     
    Dr. Silver said:
    It could be along the lines of Wally and his father. His father is a massive bigshot in the Sinnoh Battle Facilities, yet no one ever comments on it, not even his mother as far as I'm aware. Maybe people know that the famous trainer has a son, yet no one knows what that son looks like.
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    Do you mean Barry?

    But you still make a good point.
     
    Have you ever heard the theory that refers to a possible bind between the Red/Blue/Yellow protagonist and Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket? It's based on some misterious words that Giovanni says when you beat him in the 8th gym, before leaving, but I don't remember now! (Of course I think it's just one of the thousand legends of these games, but it's interesting to see things in a different way sometimes).
     
    albyrevolution said:
    Have you ever heard the theory that refers to a possible bind between the Red/Blue/Yellow protagonist and Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket? It's based on some misterious words that Giovanni says when you beat him in the 8th gym, before leaving, but I don't remember now! (Of course I think it's just one of the thousand legends of these games, but it's interesting to see things in a different way sometimes).
    Click to expand...
    Giovanni's son is confirmed to be Silver, the rival character from Gold/Silver/Crystal/HeartGold/SoulSilver:
    https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Silver_(game)

    Unless you were talking about something else?
     
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