Realtalk though I don't play Pokémon nearly enough or even at all competitively to know what the hell I'm doing.
I just play them for the story?... or did at any rate. But yeah when I heard about Shinies first way back when Gold/Silver/Crystal came out I was like "pff yeah just like mew being under the truck hahaha" and then it turned out to be true and "WAIT WHAT!?"... the shiny thing at any rate.
and then there's Pokérus! Which AGAIN I thought was some kinda hoax/joke thing but NO, iT'S REAL and it hAPPENS and you can get inFECTED WITH IT and it's a GOOD THING!?
@Nine EVs were first in gen 3, but gen 1 and 2 had a similar system that I think was called stat experience.
@Rosemary Ahhh yeah that's the thing! Thanks. I'd forgotten about that bit ^^ But yeah again what the heck gamefreak
@Nine Well, the idea was that by exerting their, say, special attack, a pokemon would become better at using special attacks.
I don't know why the EV system is based on the pokemon you defeat, though, rather than what you actually do in the fight.
@Rosemary see the stat exp thing makes total sense! EVs and IVs just... don't. they're random, arbitrary, and make no thematic sense either and i hate htem so much
@Nine stat exp worked the same way as EVs, I think.
IVs are just meant to make each pokemon unique, so that not every freshly-hatched bulbasaur will have identical stats.
and THEN I learned about EVs and I just... My eyes just crossed and shit. I just cannot make head nor tails of it. it's ridiculous that there's these completely obfuscated mechanics and stats hidden away that are totally random and you get pretty much no fucking indication of in any of the games when they first existed (I think gen 2 or 3 had EVs first??) and yet they can be so integral to making good competitive pokemon