Triplets and Pairs

While discussing about "Team Harmony" in the previous post, I happened on a certain realization. Quite a few Pokémon things can be grouped into triplets or pairs, with some depending on the interpretation. They seem to be in many places, whether or not they are immediately evident. It seems to make for an interesting bit of numerology, considering that many other Pokémon things also deal with numbers.

For triplets, the most immediately evident are the starters. They are always a trio of the same three types, and their evolutionary stages (save for some Mega Evolutions) are always three. Three also seems to be the maximum stage - again, not considering Mega Evolution - for many Pokémon, even if it's not immediately apparent; as an example, Vileplume and Bellossom evolve from Gloom, so they're technically third stage evolutions. And then there are trios of Legendary Pokémon scattered across the generations, one of the most famous being the birds of the first generation, which are also prominent in Go for their symbolism to the teams. For the first four generations, the paradigm of their generational games are also a trio of games, though a pair is released first. The number three is apparently quite pervasive.

Then again, the number two, as pairs, seems to be just as pervasive. Many Legendary Pokémon, notably the "box legends", can be considered as pairs and nothing more (Lugia and Ho-Oh), though some may be considered to have a third complement (Rayquaza for Kyogre and Groudon, Zygarde for Xerneas and Yveltal). A great deal of Pokémon also evolve in two stages rather three. And most notably, new generational games come in pairs, something that is still consistent even today. So too the number two is involved in many Pokémon things.

I'm not an expert in numerology, but I can at least sense some of the significance of these two numbers. It is easy to place the number two as "polar opposites", so anything consisting of a twosome is easily opposable: one can be of one thing or the other. For those who don't like to be polarized like this, they can state their preferences for the elements that are set as triplets. In that way, it makes us realize that not everything is simply one or the other, and that our choices make us a diverse lot, even when it comes to Pokémon.

Elements in twos and threes seem to be a hallmark of the Pokémon series. Their presence is so wide and so consistent that it's not implausible to expect that they will remain this way in the future as well. And why not - number-wise, they are strong and definitive ones. They certainly say and tell many things about Pokémon and everyone associated with them.