Do we know why Paul is such a jerk?

Question

If you remember Paul form the Diamond and Pearl seasons of the anime, you recall he was a total jerkwad. He treats his Pokemon like slaves and tools instead of friends. He frequently picks on Ash and friends. He borderline disowned his own brother. And he almost drove Maylene to give up training altogether. I've always wondered why he was so mean to everyone he met.

Comments

This question is an opinionated question, which is against the rules.

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I don't really see how this is opinionated

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This isn't opinionated, but it might be hard to answer since it assumes knowledge we might not have. I changed it slightly so it doesn't do that anymore. Cleared flags, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Answer 1

If you want a canon reason as to why, well I can't help you; maybe it was some sort of mentally scarring event in his childhood, maybe he never knew any better growing up, maybe he's that way just because. However, I suspect that the makers of the anime did it to make the audience side with Ash more than the rival character, because why would you support a jerk who abuses his Pokemon? However, this is all just speculation; I doubt we'll ever actually get a real answer.

Comments

From what I heard, Paul got mad at Reggie because he stopped training pokemon after losing a certain battle and became a breeder. Also, I remember Paul abusing only his Chimchar

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I think, and this isn't an uncommon opinion, that Paul was meant to represent how the more competitive side of players treated their Pokemon.

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I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case Dragoon, but I doubt that thing with Reggie was the only contributing factor to his attitude. Also, thats probably true, but still, abusing just one Pokemon still makes him an abuser of Pokemon.

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This is not true Dragoon, he also releases his Pokemon if they are too weak, like Stantler or Starly.

Answer 2

I think this is simply to make the audience side with Ash as well.
They did the same thing for Gary, after all.