Re: Relative strength of humans vs. Pokémon
Linoone isn't dumb. It can't change directions easily because of the way it runs. I thin we can all agree a crocdile in real life is NOT dumb at all. It is ((one of for some people)) the craftiest and most intelligent predators alive. Yet when it runs it can't make a 90 degree turn on a dime. That has nothing to do with brain power. It is because of its stubby legs and the way they are positioned.
Yeah, it's mostly Rhyhorn that gets the "so dumb it can't turn" treatment by the Pokédex; the Linoone entry says nothing about intelligence, just that it can't turn. I'm guessing the reality is more like "can't turn
very well when running at full speed," and it just got exaggerated (like many Pokédex entries are.)
It does seem a bit silly that Linoone isn't good at turning even though Zigzagoon is
specifically noted for running in a zig-zag pattern, though... evolved Pokémon should be
more capable than their unevolved forms, unless there's a really good reason for them to be worse at something (like, say, a Gyarados hiding... a Magikarp would be way better at that simply because it's actually small enough to fit behind/inside things. XD)
And Magikarp MUST swim against a current. I don't know entry says it can't but several say it is strong enough it can and that is how it evolves.
That's exactly my point: the Pokédex is unreliable and contradicts itself all the time. A Pokédex entry (Pearl version to be specific) says they can't swim against currents, even really weak ones... but if Magikarps couldn't swim against a current, you'd never find them in rivers or near waterfalls (which is exactly where you usually find a ton of them.)
1) Trained pokemon are said to be restrained by pokeballs, this explains things like lance's dragonite hyper beaming the grunt,
This is only said once, as far as I can remember, and only in reference to Dialga and Palkia (which are both quite a bit more powerful than your average Dragonite; the rules on how Pokémon on that level work are most likely special cases, rather than something that can be applied to everything else.)
And even in that case, it seems more like the issue was "a Poké Ball won't guarantee that I can actually use Dialga/Palkia's powers" rather than "if I catch them in a Poké Ball, their powers will be limited." The Red Chain was pretty much
forcing them to use their powers, to the point where Dialga/Palkia wanted Lucas/Dawn to catch them or even knock them unconscious just to stop it because they
couldn't prevent themselves from doing it.
It might have even been forcing them to overexert themselves (I seem to remember a line in that scene about Dialga/Palkia looking as if they were in pain) and push their time/space powers far beyond their limits in an attempt to do something that would normally be impossible for them, considering that Mewtwo is on the same level as Dialga and Palkia stats-wise (and
more powerful in Special Attack specifically) and yet he barely even managed to destroy a single building. And he was actually
trying to hurt people to get back at them for torturing and experimenting on him his entire life... so I doubt he'd be holding back.
The Red Chain is pretty much mind control (only worse, because you're still aware of what you're doing and that you don't want to do it.) Poké Balls, on the other hand, aren't guaranteed to make a powerful Pokémon listen to your orders, especially if they don't respect you (represented in the game mechanics by high-leveled Pokémon slacking off or going to sleep instead of fighting for you if you don't have enough badges yet.)
If there is a limiter, it doesn't really make sense that the same would apply to
all Pokémon. It's been said even as far back as R/B/Y and G/S/C that wild Pokémon are usually weaker than trained Pokémon, that freshly-caught Pokémon are weaker than those that trainers have been with for a while (though that one could be taken either way), and that it's the combination of the trainer and the Pokémon working together that makes Champion-level Pokémon so powerful compared to the usual for their species.
And if there is an actual power-limiting mechanism in the Poké Balls, it's probably only there to prevent things like Kyogre's rain-inducing powers from becoming active even when they're
inside a Poké Ball. In that case, it most likely wouldn't even turn on if the Poké Ball contained anything below Kyogre/Groudon/Regigigas-level, because limiting the power of a Caterpie is just silly.
