Question

What happens when you defeat a Pokemon? Do they just die?

Answer 1

I will answer as objectively as possible:

Fainting (FNT) (Japanese: ひんし near death) is a status condition in which a Pokémon is no longer able to battle.

In the Pokémon anime, fainting is referred to as being unable to battle (Japanese: 戦闘不能 unable to fight). These Pokémon are not always unconscious, but merely do not have the energy, ability, or other reasons to continue battling.

A Pokemon you faint has not died, rather (as fainting implies) the Pokemon is knocked out. In the Anime, when Pokemon are unable to battle, they are often out of energy and can no longer fight for that reason.

Furthermore, Japanese refers to fainting as "near death", meaning not dead, but harmed in some way. In some other languages, fainting is called "fake death", meaning the state that they are in isn't death, but deathlike- their heart rate is low and they are unconscious.

In theory, if a Pokemon kept harming them whilst they fainted, they could die, but that is too cruel for any of the ~10 year-olds we play as in game to ever do (unless you are a psychotic sociopath; luckily, the games, being kid's games, do not allow you to do such a vile act of heresy).

So, when you faint a Pokemon, they are most likely out of energy or unconscious. Luckily, those Pokecenter Ladies are expert nurses with super advanced medicine and technology to heal all of your Pokemon's wounds, broken bones, and brain injuries (or at least, I hope that's what they do...). For wild Pokemon, well, they have to survive the wounds you inflict them to survive. If they can get over the wounds, they survive, if they can't, they die (basic Darwinism).

Source

Hope I Helped! :P

Comments

Don't forget that wild Pokémon are left to die! And that time Pikachu almost died in Sinnoh because of that battle with a Raichu. There's also that murderous Pokémon they call Yveltal.

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I stated that some wild Pokemon may die, but it can't be true that all die (you'd wipe out all the Pokemon in Route 1). Some animals help their injured friends so that they can get back to health, and some injured wild animals still survive :P

"That Pikachu almost died in Sinnoh"- I already explained that some fainting Pokemon almost die. :P

Yveltal isn't fainting Pokemon when it kills them, it sucks the life out of Pokemon (although, it has never officially killed a Pokemon in Game), and in the anime, this isn't counted as fainting (and Xerneas revives the dead Pokemon); and therefore is irrelevant when asking the questions: "What happens when you defeat a Pokemon? Do they just Die?" :P

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I guess you're right. Xerneas only saved Pikachu in the movie, which means all the other Pokémon stayed stones (aka, they stayed dead). Unless my memory is wrong.

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Wild Pokémon on Alola also call for Tapu Lele and stuff.
Maybe in the other gens the Pokémon with a healing ability?
And pretty much every generation has a Pokémon with it.

Why does Tapu Lele not get heal pulse lol.

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Plz say to everyone these are spoila's, me am vury sensitif to spoila's

Answer 2

If you defeat a Pokemon then it will faint but it wont die. If a Pokemon faints then it can be revived by taking it to a Pokemon center, using revive, revival roots etc. At first gamefreak made it that the Pokemon would die but when they realised that it will bear a great impact on children they changed it.
Note: just in case if you don't know
GameFreak is the creator of Pokemon(game)
Revives and others are items used in Pokemon game
Hope I helped.

Comments

I think they are asking about wild Pokemon, not other trainer's Pokemon. Also, Game Freak never said that Pokemon die after battle; but they have mentioned Pokemon dying of old age and sickness. :P

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I can't see the word NPC or trainer pokemon anywhere in the answer. Don't know where you see it. Again I read somewhere that gamefreak did that. I think it's bulbapedia or aa.... I can't remember. However I will find it soon. And what do you mean by "they are asking" shouldn't you be saying "he is asking".

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Taking a Pokemon to a Pokecenter to revive it implies that trainers do this, unless you mean to say that wild Pokemon go to Pokecenters when they faint (despite them not being able to move) and not taking time to recover their injury, like regular animals. :P