Now I know how this sounds. Are you serious? Pokemon a kids game has a connection to the Enneagram?! You're reaching now. Hear me out first. In this post I will connect how things found in PoKeMoN Games going forward from Generation 3 to now is a great analysis in the lens of the Enneagram. (For those unaware, Generation 3 is the introduction of the Hoenn Region and included the games Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen.)
Image Courtesy of Gaming Industry News (gameindustry.com)
I know not everyone is heavily interested in PoKeMoN so I'll briefly describe how the games work overall. I'm only going to discuss the main line PoKeMoN games to keep continuity. The basic plot of PoKeMoN games, starting from the originals Red and Blue is: you start the game as a new PoKeMoN trainer, who's a kid roughly 10-12 years old. The Regions Professor gives you 1 of 3 possible PoKeMoN, usually referred to as a Starter PoKeMoN. You are tasked with filling out a PoKeDex, an encyclopedia documenting the PoKeMoN in the game and collect information on all of them in the game. To grow your PokeMoN across the game you end up battling other mons and trainers. Your goal is to become the Regions Champion, the highest accomplishment in the games. You also end up having to fight against the Villains in order to protect and save the Region.
PoKeMoN has recently celebrated their 30th Anniversary when Red and Blue version had released in Japan in 1996. In their celebration they ended up releasing FireRed and LeafGreen to the Nintendo Switch, most of the new generation of fans growing up have likely never actually played those games on the original software, which was the Game Boy. When Nintendo ended up releasing the Nintendo DSi back in 2009 across the world, they had ended up getting rid of the Game Boy slot on the bottom portion of the handheld.
Unless fans had a GameBoy Advance, GameBoy SP, or any other devices in the Game Boy line, there was no way to play those games without running it via and emulator and trying to play it on the phone; that or ending up going on selling sites like Ebay, Amazon, or other sites and spending a pretty chunk on both to actually play the games legally. In February 2026 they had added FireRed and LeafGreen to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 for a little more than $21 USD, with fans receiving the news with mixed results. I purchased LeafGreen.
As I played it, I ended up making some connections to the game and the Enneagram itself. PoKeMoN consists of Types, at the now current generations to my knowledge there is around 17 types: Fire, Water, Ground, Ice, Grass, Electric, Ghost, Bug, Flying, Psychic, Steel, Dragon, Fairy, Rock, Poison, Normal, and Dark. Um, Brandon there's 9 Enneagram Types. If you break it down by the Subtypes you get 27. I know, but that's not the point. Each Type has limitations, weaknesses or disadvantages, advantages or strength, and also can be multple Types. No Type is inherently better than any other Type. PoKeMoN trainers can win battles by using Items, Strategies, and Movesets in an effort to win the battle.
Um wait, if PoKeMoN are the Enneagram Types, then what is the Trainer? You play as the Trainer who controls how the battle happens Brandon. I am aware and that is what had held me up for a bit. I asked ChatGPT what it would say trainers are, it gave me 3 options: The Conscious Self, Life Circumstances/Enviroments, or Self-Awareness. While each option has merit, I think if we imagine the trainer as Self-Awareness it helps us get a more precise metaphor in the bigger picture.
We, the fans, are the trainers. We started as new fans, unaware of how PokeMoN works in battles, ignoring moves that don't deal damage in favor of hitting pokemon for damage and the bigger number the bettter. If I have a Charizard and come across a Rte 1 encounter, Flamethrower is overkill but child-self had made a good decision with that. As we grow up, we learn that sometimes dealing damage isn't the best approach when we can use strategies, items and different moves to fight the opponent. Now a lot of people are interested in seeing how 1 PoKeMoN may fight against the entire game, or can a singular type fight and survive through the game. Remember me saying no Type is better than another?
PoKeMoN are Enneagram Types but how else are they different? In the games, we see Statistics, Abilities, Movesets for each PokeMoN. You can catch two of the same PoKeMoN, such as Pidgey on Route 1, and none of the PoKeMoN are exactly identical. Think of those as the hidden aspects of the Enneagram Types. Statistics are like the Types Tendencies, Abilities are like Instincts in the Enneagram. Movesets are how the Enneagram Types choose to Cope, i.e. their Coping Strategies.
Statistics are what most trainers look at and that is what we look at too usually for Type Tendencies. Type Tendencies are how we usually look to people on the outside, think of how the Enneagram Types are portrayed in the Literature and Media. I'm a 4, I tend to be Melancholic, Creative, Withdrawn. Statistics also are how every PokeMoN is perceived, i.e. Jolteon, an Electric type has been known as a very Speedy PoKeMoN versus Gyarados, a Water/Flying Type, has a high attack stat and Blissey is known as a "Tank" meaning that they can take a lot of damage from both Physical/Special Attacks.
Abilities are also how each PoKeMoN present in battle or in the actual world in PoKeMoN. An example of how the Abilities look is Psyduck. Psyduck has 3 abilities, Damp, Cloud Nine, or the Hidden Ability Swift Swim. Swift Swim Psyduck is faster when the weather effect is raining. So it's faster than the average Psyduck. Damp Psyduck can fight against moves that lead to self-explode and their ability prevents them from occuring versus the Swift Swim Psyduck would be vulnerable to getting attacked by those moves. A Cloud Nine Psyduck also ends up getting the weather effects negated. A notable example is that in Generation 4, in Pearl, Diamond, and Platinum the Route to Snowpoint City has constant Hail. A Cloud Nine Psyduck negates the affects of that effect so instead of Psyduck taking Damage if it had a different ability, it is going to be only affected by the moves used in the battle itself.
And finally Movesets are coping strategies. In battles, the moves are how we fight against other PoKeMoN. Some moves are offensive, some are defensive, some deal damage, others do not. Some moves are multi-turn. Some moves don't directly affect the opponent immediately. In terms of the coping strategies we employ, we deal with life in a similar situation. Unlike real life that each Enneagram Type can use any strategies, in PoKeMoN movesets are selective. Ekans, a Poison type, can not use the move Fly, a Flying Type.
I've talked long enough though, there is so much I could add into this. l'll probably end up breaking this blogpost down into smaller peices so I could talk more versus doing a book length blog at this rate. Thanks for looking at this and I hope you join me for more. I may also down the road transform this blog into a video for my YouTube Channel, Enneagram Talk with Brandon. The Enneagrm is a great tool at personality profiling and understanding more about yourself.