Posted by Rick at 10:24am Sep 9 '09I'm not a huge fan of Pokemon, the cartoon. I never liked ash, I hate misty, Brock alright but they treat him like crap.
On the other hand I do like the games, the're RPG light and simple enough you can pick up whenever. Their is also some great fanfiction out there that does pretty good work with some of the characters.
One is called Pokemon revolution by Farla: basic layout is experimental pokemon starts revolt pitting pokemon vs. human. go to fanfiction.net to find out the winner
There is also another guy who idea was to give humans the pokemon's powers: he called them "masters". It was a good story, though the name of the story and author escapes me at the moment. Its also on fanfiction.net.
So that's where I'm coming from, which leads us to what I actually wanted to write
I have a theory about Pokemon. To those of you who don't know the gist of the whole thing is x child goes on pokemon journey enslaving/making friends with critters/monsters all over the land. They then find other "trainers" to have these creatures fight in semi gladiator and/or puppet style of combat. The loser are fainted/knocked out as opposed to being killed (that be the fanfiction).
So basically this is PETA's worse knightmare. Young children are being encouraged to go out and catch innocent animals and then to make them fight each other in brutal combat. Though that where the differences come in.
One: Pokemon aren't animals, they monsters. Literally Pokemon means pocket monster. They have a definite sentience to them that make them more then mere animal (a great plot point in some of the fanfiction mentioned)
Two: the humans are made of sterner stuff. From an RPG perspective you might say humans on their world are more resistant to energy, fire, water, ECT. From what I've seen on the show, they don't fear being blasted by these creatures. Now they had a gun on the show which they were afraid of, and they have been seen being more careful with the more physical pokemon. This makes me think they can be physically overpowered, but their skin can somehow take being flamethrowered.
Things like evolution and religion wouldn't translate between that world and ours. I realize its a story element, trying to point out a flaw in our system, but I don't buy it...moreso the religious aspects. Read some of Farla's work, she focuses on things like certain pokemon represent evil and they get slaughtered for it. I just don't see that thinking or any religion that encourages killing the powerful pokemon to last that long.
All before was from an artistic perspective. From a business perspective, who cares. Do you have any idea how much you can make hocking stuffed animal merchandise and relatively simple nintendo games?
On the other hand I do like the games, the're RPG light and simple enough you can pick up whenever. Their is also some great fanfiction out there that does pretty good work with some of the characters.
One is called Pokemon revolution by Farla: basic layout is experimental pokemon starts revolt pitting pokemon vs. human. go to fanfiction.net to find out the winner
There is also another guy who idea was to give humans the pokemon's powers: he called them "masters". It was a good story, though the name of the story and author escapes me at the moment. Its also on fanfiction.net.
So that's where I'm coming from, which leads us to what I actually wanted to write
I have a theory about Pokemon. To those of you who don't know the gist of the whole thing is x child goes on pokemon journey enslaving/making friends with critters/monsters all over the land. They then find other "trainers" to have these creatures fight in semi gladiator and/or puppet style of combat. The loser are fainted/knocked out as opposed to being killed (that be the fanfiction).
So basically this is PETA's worse knightmare. Young children are being encouraged to go out and catch innocent animals and then to make them fight each other in brutal combat. Though that where the differences come in.
One: Pokemon aren't animals, they monsters. Literally Pokemon means pocket monster. They have a definite sentience to them that make them more then mere animal (a great plot point in some of the fanfiction mentioned)
Two: the humans are made of sterner stuff. From an RPG perspective you might say humans on their world are more resistant to energy, fire, water, ECT. From what I've seen on the show, they don't fear being blasted by these creatures. Now they had a gun on the show which they were afraid of, and they have been seen being more careful with the more physical pokemon. This makes me think they can be physically overpowered, but their skin can somehow take being flamethrowered.
Things like evolution and religion wouldn't translate between that world and ours. I realize its a story element, trying to point out a flaw in our system, but I don't buy it...moreso the religious aspects. Read some of Farla's work, she focuses on things like certain pokemon represent evil and they get slaughtered for it. I just don't see that thinking or any religion that encourages killing the powerful pokemon to last that long.
All before was from an artistic perspective. From a business perspective, who cares. Do you have any idea how much you can make hocking stuffed animal merchandise and relatively simple nintendo games?