[DING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
In last week's episode, we talked about the Pokemon war
theory.
Let's see what you had to say.
youcanscienceit, MrZerointerviewer,
and Tom Hanusa all bring up a really important
and, I think, interesting point, which
is that it's hard to talk about a fan theory claiming
that Pokemon takes place in a post-war nation
or region without confronting the fact that Japan itself is
a post-war nation and that there are
these characteristics in the game that echo
many of the characteristics which you can say
exists in some form or another in Japan itself
that, to us, seem conspicuous, but to the creators of the game
are just-- that's just what their life is like.
That is just what the characteristics of their region
are.
And you know, I think that this relates to a larger thing
that we'll see with a lot of the fan theories we talk about,
that, you know, when audiences perceive some kind of lack,
when there is some characteristic that
is present, but not explained, we use fan theories
to fill in those dramatic gaps.
And I would be curious to know if Japanese viewers of Idea
Channel, if Japanese players of the Pokemon games
see these characteristics as conspicuous
as many American viewers.
Like, is-- basically, I think I'm
asking is if-- is this theory a fan theory in Japan, as well?
I wonder.
Mike Abbo and Boss1000 bring up the Kalos War,
which is a war that's supposed to have
happened 3,000 years in another region of the Pokemon universe.
It is canonically supported.
So to say that Pokemon is supposed
to have happened after the conclusion of a massive war,
the Kalos War makes that a true statement in some sense.
But from what I understand-- and I don't know a whole lot
about this particular piece of game lore,
because it sort of came to pass after I stopped playing
the Pokemon games-- is that it doesn't respond point for point
to the arguments that people are making to construct the Kanto
War theory.
But I could be wrong.
What I do like, though, is Boss1000's take
on the thing, which is that, you know,
it's possible to see how the Pokemon writers
or creators responded to their own game
the same way that their fans did,
sort of looking at it as maybe a little too
twee or perfect or nice and saying, oh, you know,
we have to put something in the past that
makes the situation a little bit more
dire, a little bit more fraught.
And I think the Kalos War theory-- or the Kalos War,
rather-- you know, accomplishes that goal.
Entropy Curse and Max Klein both talked
about how people not discussing the war is in no way
any kind of proof or confirmation
that the war did not actually happen,
that it is perfectly understandable, if not,
in certain cases, desirable to want to put that kind of thing
as far behind you as humanly possible.
And I think that this is absolutely fair and that there
could absolutely be a kind of cultural understanding that
develops between the members of a culture that,
this is just a thing that we don't-- we just don't talk
about.
But I still don't know that it makes sense
that there would be no cultural signifiers of the war
of any kind, that there would be no media,
no, you know, statutes, no memorials, no anything, really.
But, you know, again, if we're going down this theorizing road
and we're saying, like, there is an understanding
between everybody in this culture,
that this is not a thing that we don't talk about, then, yeah,
that absolutely extends to people
who build infrastructure and make monuments and architects.
So yeah, sure, absolutely.
darkmyro adds the additional fan theory
that it is possible to view Team Rocket as some sort
of government-funded operative-- set of operatives
or organization, which is a thing that I love and am now
going to go back and replay the first game thinking about this.
I love it.
Now, as far as the question of why
players would want there to be a war in the recent past
of the Pokemon games, there were a lot of really, really
good responses.
And they generally fell into one of two categories.
The first was kind of strictly narrative, almost,
that there are things about the story that
make more sense in some way if you
posit that there was a war that took place before them.
And then the second was kind of related
to affect that there is a certain feeling that players
want, and they can get it from imagining that there
was a massive conflict.
Now, as far as the first group is concerned,
Sanjay Rd wrote a really great comment about the Poke Ball
and how you could see its invention
as a piece of technology could be very, very controversial
looking back at the history of Pokemon and the relationship
that they have with humans being on the same level
in a lot of ways, especially if you consider the theory
that humans are in some ways Pokemon,
it's possible to see how the Poke
Ball is a technology of enslavement, entrapment,
imprisonment.
And so it's, yeah, more than appropriate as a thing worth
going to war over.
Also in that first group of comments,
pokegnome2 writes a really great comment
that touches on this idea that imagining
a war in the recent past justifies
the use of Pokemon as combat beings in some way,
that it's hard to imagine that the world exists as it does
without such powerful things being used for more
significant combat in some way.
And this really kind of holds true for me.
I think that this is the-- this is
the justification that, if I had to choose one, I might go with.
dkdrock and Orion Kaelin both write comments that
fit into that second category.
And they're kind of about what we want from the game.
And I think that there's this very arguable idea
that we might want a Pokemon war of some kind
because our experience of the game as adults is much simpler.
It is much less grand than it might
have been when we were younger.
And so we want something more from it,
whether or not it's grit or complication.
And I think that this is weirdly, like,
kind of beautiful.
Because it fits into the dictionary definition
of clinical nostalgia almost, that there
is this place that you want to go back to,
and you can never go back to it.
And the thing that we maybe want to go back to
is this feeling of playing the Pokemon games as a kid, which,
you know-- like, I remember doing
it having this feeling of like, wow, this game is huge.
There's so much here.
It's so complicated.
And going back to it now as adults,
maybe we don't have that as much,
whether it's because we're familiar with the game
or just because we realize its true nature in some way.
But I don't know.
Yeah, I think-- I think that this
is a really interesting take on it
and one that I feel very deeply.
Doesn't mean it's right, but I can empathize.
Thank you, John, for noticing.
And thank you, stephen, for drawing that shirt.
I had no idea you watched Idea Channel.
You made what is maybe my favorite t-shirt.
And I'm not just saying that because there's
a chance you're watching this.
I actually do legitimately love it.
Wait.
Hey, Stephen, Idea Channel has t-shirts now.
[INHALES]
[MUSIC PLAYING]