As a ranger, it is my deeply held belief, based on observation and experience, that Pokeballs are an under-estimated danger to pokemon and the environment. They can cause harm even when used properly and with good intentions. When used by someone with criminal or otherwise nefarious intent, they make causing harm ludicrously easy. Let's do a little comparison, shall we?

How do you get it? Pokeballs can be bought for money in Pokemarts, and are often handed out for free at promotional events. Capture stylers are given only to certified rangers.

What about more advanced versions? Some types of Pokeball require a certain number of League badges to purchase. Others are gated only by cost alone. Capture stylers have built-in limits that can be gradually removed by senior rangers once a ranger has proven experience and risen in rank.

Who regulates it? Pokeballs are produced by the Silph and Devon corporations. While they have some cooperation with the Pokemon League, and are regulated by government, their fundamental motivation is profit. Capture Stylers are regulared by the Ranger Union. Even if one could mass-capture using a styler, it would not benefit the Union to do so.

How many pokemon can you catch? While league battles allow only a fighting team of six, a person can buy and own as many pokeballs as they can carry. Even for the highest-ranked rangers, the maximum number of friend Pokemon is 7.

Can you take pokemon somewhere unsafe for them/the environment? Capture stylers prevent taking a pokemon out of it's native habitat, a limitation removed only for Top Rangers. A brand-new trainer could catch a magikarp and then immediately release it into the desert if they wanted.

What happens if you capture a wild pokemon? With a pokeball, the pokemon is now permanently registered as captured by the trainer. It can be released. Depending on the training experience, it may or may not be safe/appropriate to release back into the wild, even in its native habitat. With a capture styler, the pokemon remains wild. It can temporarily assist a ranger, and then return immediately to its natural environment and behaviors.

What if you try to catch someone else's pokemon? A pokeball prevents re-capture of an already registered pokemon. A capture styler can be used to capture an owned pokemon (this is often done to return lost pokemon, or soothe agitated or injured ones) but it does not change the ownership of the Pokemon.

Is there skill involved? There is strategy in Pokeball capturing, especially via battle. But theoretically, one could still bombard even a legendary pokemon with enough pokeballs and capture it by sheer statistical chance. Proper use of a capture styler requires education and training. Even if someone stole a capture styler, they would not automatically be able to use it.

What if someone "bad" tries to catch a pokemon? Anyone can buy and use a pokeball regardless of intentions. A capture styler conveys the intentions of the ranger. No matter how skilled/experienced, a person could not capture a pokemon they wished to harm in an unmodified/unhacked styler.

What about evil teams? Criminal organizations where pokeballs are readily available (Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, etc.) have simply used regular pokeballs for purposes of robbery, poaching, etc. Evil teams in regions where capture stylers are popular (Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia) have either heavily modified an experimental styler (Super Stylers) or needed to invent and produce an entirely new capture system (Gigaremo, Capture Gauntlet). This vastly limited available supply to team members, and speed of plans. I'm going to repeat that bit. Without access to pokeballs, evil teams found it easier to make, manufacture and distribute their own inventions than to use capture stylers for crime.

What happens if you defeat a criminal using a pokemon? Defeating a criminal (such as an evil team member) in a trainer battle may lead to an arrest, but they may also run away and keep the pokemon they own. When using a styler to capture pokemon controlled by other means (e.g. gigaremo units) the pokemon return to the wild.

Tepig - What are some of your favorite foods? Which ones do you crave the most?

Fennekin - Is there anything you like to chew on that you probably shouldn’t?

Oh, all sorts of rumors. The most outlandish was, I believe sometime around my initial assignment to Paldea, rumors that I was not entirely human. I take it as a compliment to my efficiency.

I like bitter foods a lot! Nanab bread, Yago fruit, curry with rawst or aguav berries. Though if I had to pick a favorite it would be malasadas- blame the Alolan side of the family for that one.

Rock music helps keep me pumped when working with minimum mandated breaks (thank you iDRAG)

Reminds me of home

Reminds me crises can be resolved

The shops sell mostly items relevant for capture or battling, trainers go out and capture everything they see as well as battling wild pokemon to train their team, at a battle you might get a free pokeball from a mascot, or you can outright win a TM (made by Silph Co). And you get a badge which is the way to be able to buy more expensive pokeballs at the Pokemart...

I have a minute, so I thought I'd talk about ranger advocacy groups (or RAG's, or just rags if you're being casual). The Ranger Union has official subtypes and groups- things like operators, top rangers, marine rangers, aerial rangers, and sometimes temporary boards or groups convened for a specific goal or purpose.

Ranger advocacy groups are simpler and more flexible. The only requirement to register a rag with the union is for at least three rangers to sign a document saying so. Some have members that are not rangers, but 3 rangers is the minimum. All of them have to be self-funded. They are meant to be, well, interest and advocacy groups. Ways for people who are interested in a particular topic or goal to get together with like-minded people.

Some rags gave been around for decades and have full-blown newsletters and mailing lists and systems. Some are just three friends in someone's basement who thought it would be fun to have a little club. So the kind of advocacy they actually do, and what is expected of members, really depends on the group.

The Union website maintains a list of all registered RAGs, but that list is absolutely massive (since the registration requirements are so minimal) so I'm just going to highlight some of them.

Some of the biggest:

Political Engagement and Action RAG (PEARAG or Pol-RAG) Look, there are a billion different politically-based rags for every political party or issue you can think of. PEARAG is the oldest, biggest, and most generic. They work a lot with Union PR to advocate and lobby on behalf of rangers/the union to political candidates and non-rangers. They tend to organize voting drives or do canvassing, working for things like pro-ranger bills. I'm not a member because I find it better to do smaller-scale stuff, but if you're involved in political advocacy at all these guys are everywhere. The cosmic background radiation of political action. Pokemon League RAG The league doesn't have a foothold in Fiore, Almia or Oblivia. But basically everywhere else, there's often a RAG for rangers interested in pokemon training, battles, and coordinating with the League in some way. I don't know a lot about it but it sure does exist.

Route, Street and Path Safety RAG Rangers do a lot of work when it comes to routes, streets, roads and paths. We keep paths clear of tall grass, we clear blocked paths, we make sure people have safe passage through regions. So it makes sense that one of the biggest rags is focused on that aspect of the work. This rag has a lot of non-ranger members: often engineers, construction workers, city employees, and anyone else invested in Making Roads Work. Not a member but I appreciate their existence. (Again, all rangers do work that affects the streets, the RAG is just an organization for people who have a particular passion for that topic and want to do something in particular about it).

I'm personally a member of:

Injured and Disabled RAG Of all the rags I'm a member of, this is definitely the biggest. One does not have to be disabled to join. They have been around for almost as long as the union itself, and have constantly been working on supporting rangers with disabilities. They're responsible for all kinds of workplace protections, being able to register a support pokemon, and basically all improvements to disability leave. If you've ever benefited from accommodations as a ranger thank IDRAG right now and go donate to them.

Fiore Regional RAG What it sounds like- being invested in Fiore as a region and discussing what ranger actions would be helpful for the region as a whole.

Stigmatized Pokemon RAG This is a really nice one! Some pokemon get bad reputations. Sometimes it's entire types, like Dark, Bug or Poison. Sometimes it's individual species get commonly treated as unnecessary, unpleasant, or even evil. This rag is trying to push against that! We've done things like educational presentations, letter-writing campaigns, or just...calling out pokemon stigma in the moment. One of my friends through this RAG is a writer as a hobby and is actually working on publishing a children's book about Trubbish.

((ask game))