• jaeme
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    The main series pokemon games have a move called Frustration which increases damage the less friendship the user has with their pokemon.

    Why does this move exist in a game about friendship and loving the creatures you capture against their will? soviet-hmm

    This problem could just be solved by making pokemon not real creatures in the world but just spirits. Unfortunately, it seems that pokemon society is not vegan so it's also canon that people just eat pokemon.

    • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      One game's villain has a pokemon that uses a maximum-damage Frustration. Friendship's default value isn't zero, meaning gamefreak has gone out of their way to say "this guy canonically abuses his pokemon"

    • iridaniotter [she/her]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Unfortunately, it seems that pokemon society is not vegan so it's also canon that people just eat pokemon.

      It's way funnier than that. The Pokémon company has anthropomorphized Pokémon so much that they feel icky about killing them. But they also have chronic carnism brain. The result? They've recently designed a Pokémon with a limb that falls off so humans can harvest their meat without feeling bad. There's a scene in one of the shows where a character straight up drinks Shuckle juice from its orifices. Actually, that carnist design goes back a couple decades. People will literally come up with the most ridiculous explanations in their FANTASY world instead of just making it vegan.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      In that game the frustration move is bc the badguys did some evil techno-magic to the mons that makes them angry and aggressive, and if you treat the shadow pokemon well it will "open their hearts" and they'll lose the frustration move. It exists bc the bad guys hurt the pokemon's feelings to weaponize their alienation.

      And making them spirits isn't any better. Kami aren't any less individuals with feelings than animals or pocket monsters.