Pokemon Intelligence in battle?

[qazwsxed]

Well...take pokemon like Alakasam, which have an IQ of 5000, and Metagross, which is said to have 4 brains, which its intelligence rivals a super computer. If that's the case, then why do naturally, highly smart pokemon, like those two, wait for orders from their trainers in battle?

Which...okay. I can understand the bonds between pokemon and trainer and all that, but, from natural intelligence that high, why do they even need a "trainer"? Couldn't they have the intellligence to do things and battle on their own?

Any thoughts?

[Drago]

Because the average ten year old boy in Kanto has an IQ of 10,000.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

Well of course they can battle on their own which they have to in the wild.

But high intelligence doesn't have to necessarily mean you're a good fighter. When you do an IQ test it usually won't include the testing of your combat skills. So it's quite possible that Alakazam or similar highly intelligent Pokémon have other abilities than fighting.

If the above is true it would only be understandable that such Pokémon would rather listen to their trainers in fights as they exepect them to know more about the opponents' Pokémon as well as combat tactics in general.

[nsmbwii]

A trainer's job in a fight is to direct commands to help the pokemon. Even low IQ pokemon like Rhyhorn can generally understand this.

Instincts or normal behavior for that pokemon can also influence battles to an extent. Using a Seviper and Zangoose together most of the time spells disaster, but this is not always the case.

[Blademaster]

Pokemon are like soldiers, and their Trainers are like generals. The former may be smarter, but the latter still calls the shots. That's just how it works in Pokemonlandia.