The world of Pokemon is awful.

[TheRealCJ]

Okay, so I love Pokemon, the classic Pokemon games anyway (I just don't have the patience to "catch 'em all" given the sheer number of the things these days), and I had a little competition with a mate to see who could write the least-pokemon-related Pokemon fanfic.

Needless to say, it didn't work out so well. And I honestly think it's because the world of Pokemon is a terribly shallow place. Think about this:

- All children are pretty much expected to wander the earth alone capturing wild animals and getting into fights from the tender age of 12.

- All the very best and brightest scientists are all dedicated to researching Pokemon, and nothing else it seems.

- All crime is related to Pokemon. The two largest crime syndicates on the planet are both dedicated to getting all the pokemon, and somehow making money off of them.

- All hospitals are for Pokemon. There are no doctors, only nurses that work at automated healing stations.

- Everything, and I mean Everything is dedicated to Pokemon, I think the only shop not outright selling Pokemon items is the bike shop, and possibly the "casino".

- Fighting with these things is so ingrained that if you happen to have one on your person, no matter how badly sick and/or injured they or you may be, if another trainer sees you, you have to fight them. And if you lose, they have the right to rob you blind.

Given all these things, it's damn near impossible to write a story set in this world, about a character who isn't obsessed with them. Where are the people who make the cogs turn in the world? The accountants handling all the money that moves from trainer-to-trainer and making sure the [Weird symbol] stays fairly uninflated? Where are the builders and maintainers? Where is the freaking government?.

Hell, where are the farmers, the food distributors, the poor bastards who have to stand at a counter every day and bag groceries? Do they just eat pokemon?

As a world, it just doesn't work.

Edit: Gee, sorry for stepping on all your little fanboy toes people. I didn't know this was such serious business.

 

[Cenequus]

It's a freaking japanese game,of course most npcs are 10 yr old kids. You could write the same post about any game or even anime. Dunno why you seem so shocked lol,unless you're just trolling.

 

[EHKOS]

Just because they aren't shown doesn't mean they aren't there. And what about the power plant guys? They are there working!

 

[Space Spoons]

It's not really meant to work, or so I always thought. I mean, think about it; all the Pokemon games have been played from the perspective of a 10-year-old child who's obsessed with Pokemon. Why would that child bother to see anything that didn't have to do with his hobby?

 

[edman270]

yeah and...? sorry just don't really see the point

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Well, in Black and White they're now 16 years old when they're sent out, and one of the characters fathers freaks out about the idea of her leaving home and capturing pokemon. XD


Really, the world's fantasy. It doesn't need to be realistic.

I mean, how many people complain about floating bricks that when hit, dispense Mushrooms/coins?

 

[mr.mystery]

Tv tropes.com is that way------>

btw you dont have to play the games if you hate them.

 

[DKen2021]

Congratulations, you tried applying real world logic into a game for children that revolves around catching and training little critters. Have you also tried applying real world logic to how portals work?

A fictional world doesn't have to have logic in it. That why it's fictional. Trying to make the world more life-like really depends on the setting and/or story. I don't think a game about super-powered animals could have any realism to explain itself.

 

[BasicMojo]

yeah and...? sorry just don't really see the point

It's just one of those epiphanies you have occasionally. You know, the kind where you take a step back and re-evaluate one of your favorite games/books/TV shows/what-have-you against the standards of real-world application or functionality. It's fun for me, and I feel the need to share them with my friends sometimes.

Cut the guy some slack.

 

[TheRealCJ]

Tv tropes.com is that way------>

btw you dont have to play the games if you hate them.

If I like a game enough to write silly fanfiction about it, why the hell would I want to stop playing.

 

[Plurralbles]

How rude... (your bolded)

Anyway, I thought the games were moving closer to real world, you know, wiht the miltank ranch, the lighthouse, whatever.

I also think you're missing a lot. There are police in the world. Pokemon and man go to war together- maybe that's hte most important reason for training- kinda' like how hte japanese weren't too keen to invasde US soil even if they could because, "there's a gun barrel behind every blade of grass"- If pokemon are trained well, trainers can defend themselves and their communities. No one knows what goes on behind the scenes because you rare playing behind the eyes of a 10 year old(up until now) who wouldn't give a crap about any of that other stuff.

 

[Yarkaz]

yeah, as a world pokemon has no depth to it at all, and I think this is something worth examining, haters hating aside. Perhaps you should try your hand at some parody-ish fanfiction revealing a "darker" side of the pokemon world? That'd be fun to read.

 

[fenrizz]

It's not really meant to work, or so I always thought. I mean, think about it; all the Pokemon games have been played from the perspective of a 10-year-old child who's obsessed with Pokemon. Why would that child bother to see anything that didn't have to do with his hobby?

That actually makes a lot of sense.

Cheers good Sir.

 

[Ilyak1986]

When you think about it, the creator (Satoshi Tajiri) created the world based off of his hobby of collecting bugs.

So when you step back and think about it...who manufactures the characters' clothes? Who funds the criminal syndicates? Think about how many different goods and services we here in the real world need.

However, the show doesn't focus on that, because it focuses on the one hobby of some children.

Of course...the idea of a kid taking however many years on a never-ending pokemon catching quest instead of staying in school...

Then again, here on planet earth, we don't have animals capable of blowing up the world like they have HoOh, Lugia, Mewtwo, Arceus, etc...

 

[KeyMaster45]

*snip*

Dear god, I've...I've never actually thought about that before. You just kinda subconsciously assume that all that's in place and only when you step back do you realize that something is most certainly askew.

Here's my half-baked theory about their world I just thought up on the spot.

The world of Pokemon is an illusion. All those kids and adults running around catching the little bastards are all part of a high security prison where children with unnaturally high levels of aggression are sent. In their world their unnatural aggression is identified by the age of 12; and so instead of euthanizing them their government does the humane thing and locks them in a simulation where their aggression can be played out and channeled through the brutal pitting of powerful animals against each other in all out death matches.

Over time some grow out of their unnatural aggression and are removed; others never do and so are left in the simulation and grow up within it. All memory of their past lives erased; all non-pokemon trainers in the simulation are either AI meant to interact with the children(the Joys and Jenny's of the world) or the various psychiatric specialists that work for the prison.(the scientists all dedicated to Pokemon)

Of course since all the trappings of the world are merely a facade and indeed have their holes, such as the absence of any kind of formal government or other normal signs of society. The administration of the prison must undergo "updates" to the simulation and add new "regions" for the children to exist in; thus keeping the ruse in tact. Each time a child is sent to a new region their perception of the world is reset and they are sent back to square one as trainers. They continue to believe that they grew up in this facade world and find that all of it's workings make perfect sense to them. With the ruse successfully in tact they begin again with the end goal of the simulation eventually rehabilitating them.

 

[TheRealCJ]

*snip*

Dear god, I've...I've never actually thought about that before. You just kinda subconsciously assume that all that's in place and only when you step back do you realize that something is most certainly askew.

Here's my half-baked theory about their world I just thought up on the spot.

The world of Pokemon is an illusion. All those kids and adults running around catching the little bastards are all part of a high security prison where children with unnaturally high levels of aggression are sent. In their world their unnatural aggression is identified by the age of 12; and so instead of euthanizing them their government does the humane thing and locks them in a simulation where their aggression can be played out and channeled through the brutal pitting of powerful animals against each other in all out death matches.

Over time some grow out of their unnatural aggression and are removed; others never do and so are left in the simulation and grow up within it. All memory of their past lives erased; all non-pokemon trainers in the simulation are either AI meant to interact with the children(the Joys and Jenny's of the world) or the various psychiatric specialists that work for the prison.(the scientists all dedicated to Pokemon)

Of course since all the trappings of the world are merely a facade and indeed have their holes, such as the absence of any kind of formal government or other normal signs of society. The administration of the prison must undergo "updates" to the simulation and add new "regions" for the children to exist in; thus keeping the ruse in tact. Each time a child is sent to a new region their perception of the world is reset and they are sent back to square one as trainers. They continue to believe that they grew up in this facade world and find that all of it's workings make perfect sense to them. With the ruse successfully in tact they begin again with the end goal of the simulation eventually rehabilitating them.

... And to make sure new versions are bug free and viable, they release beta versions to the general public, disguised as a children's game.

we're through the rabbit hole here people...

 

[Pearwood]

I'm not really big on quoting internet celebrities but honestly Yahtzee summed up stuff like this pretty perfectly so I may as well.

"That's not fun. Games are fun."

You may as well question why levelling Pokemon seems so easy if you take the time to grind yet NPCs who do nothing but stand in grass 24/7 have lower levelled Pokemon than you, it's just a frame to keep gameplay flowing.

 

[TheRealCJ]

How rude... (your bolded)

See: the first half dozen or so replies.

 

[TheRealCJ]

When you think about it, the creator (Satoshi Tajiri) created the world based off of his hobby of collecting bugs.

So when you step back and think about it...who manufactures the characters' clothes? Who funds the criminal syndicates? Think about how many different goods and services we here in the real world need.

However, the show doesn't focus on that, because it focuses on the one hobby of some children.

Of course...the idea of a kid taking however many years on a never-ending pokemon catching quest instead of staying in school...

Then again, here on planet earth, we don't have animals capable of blowing up the world like they have HoOh, Lugia, Mewtwo, Arceus, etc...

Well, it's not really a "children's hobby" in-universe, is it?

Fully half the trainers who force you to fight them are adults, probably more.