Sorry for being gone for a few days. Looks like I have a lot to respond to. Here we go...
Why should the X in Lv X represent a number?
Why should X be a variable?
Why should X be a number? Cause levels are numbers, lol. Levels are numbers, they just are. When you gain a level in the game you never see, "Ditto grew to level GOD. Ditto is trying to learn the attack Let There Be Light, but Ditto can't learn more than 4 moves...". No, you see, "Gengar grew to level 50. Gengar wants to learn Destiny Bond, but Gengar can't learn more than 4 moves...". You don't level up into words, it is always a sequential number that you level up to.
Levels are numbers, therefore if we see something that isn't a number, it must be representing a number, and therefore would be called a variable.
I can see why the original question was asked but am completely mystified by the subsequent attempt to justify the opposite answer to one that we (almost) all accept.
I believe that the Japanese language routinely omits redundancy. In other words if it is obvious then it isn't stated. The idea of placing a second Lv X ontop of another one is obviously absurd in normal play to the designers so they didn't waste any text telling the players not to be so daft as to try it.
- I top up my car battery with water. But I'm not going to drink the resultant mixture. I don't need a label on the battery to tell me not to be so dumb as to try. I don't need lots of redundant text on the cards to tell me not to try and evolve a pokemon twice with the same type of card.
Again, it's not really the argument that it does or doesn't make
sense, it's that the card says I
CAN Level Up again, yet the rules team is saying that the card is wrong.
Its not evolving its Leveling UP. Leveling up has its own rules which aren't all printed on the cards. So what is the problem???
Yeah, and no where does it say (to my knowledge) that I can't level up a Pokémon more than once. So why can't I?
X=X
Lets say X=100.
You can't level a Pokemon from level 100 to level 100, thus you can't level up a Pokemon to X twice.
X =/= X though. Read my earlier posts on how you can have one Torterra that's Level 46 and one that's Level 65, even though they are both X.
X is not always a variable, you know. Is the X in X-Files a variable? Maybe it is! Maybe the hidden equation for the file number of each case is (X = whocares). How about the one in Extra? Extreme Makeover? Maybe every porn site ever has a CUBED X variable!
Your math teachers probably told you that "math is everywhere." This is not what they meant.
(Granted, it would have been better had they printed the cards as Lv. 100s, and I totally give you props for trying to argue an utterly hilarious point, but still, man....geez....)
Yeah, those X's are letters and part of a name. However, we already know that Torterra LV. X is not a name, that it's real name is just Torterra, and the LV. X is just the level. And as I have stated the obvious fact that levels have to be numbers, that means that it must be representing a number, aka a variable.
Trust TC, when there is a question about a card, they consult with PUI folks. If there is a question from the PUI guys, they consult with the PCL folks.
But they have already said that they
haven't consulted with PCL, cause they don't feel they need to on this issue. I trust the rules team to be able to accurately and logically interpret cards for rulings, however, they are blatantly overriding a card, not just clarifying something about it, and there hasn't been a sound logical reason yet either.
Leveling up an X to an X is not "advancing" the game and is not leveling up. X=X
Ditto can claim it's a variable, but we have said it is not.
While in the end, you could be right, you still don't have the authority to make that call. Only PCL can make comments about what the intent of cards are.
I have already proven why it would have to be a variable (levels are numbers, letters are not numbers unless they are variables, since the level is a letter, that letter must really be a number, which means it is a variable) and for you to say that it's just not, without a logical argument, would require you to know that the intent of the card is something different, which you can't unless you've asked PCL.
Levelling up actually does not look at Level.
It tells you to put the card on the Pokemon, refering to it by name. Let's take an example, Lucario... "Put ... on LUCARIO", now that new levelled up Lucario in play' name is still Lucario. If you have another level up card in your hand that says to put it on Lucario, you are doing exactly that. So per what's written on the actual cards, you CAN do it.
So for PUI, or PCL or whoever to just come out with a rule that says you can't "just because I said so", is completely ridiculous. Logically speaking, which should always take precedence over "just because I said so", you/they are WRONG.
As I have said, this is the real issue. That no matter what the logic for Leveling Up is, the card blatantly says I can do it. PCL can change this, cause they can do anything, as we have seen, but that's because they are the creators of the cards. However, they are the only ones that can. Otherwise we have no logical basis to make rulings off of and the whole system is worthless and rulings are just made on whims.
