G
Goddra2
Guest
I’ve been looking through the forums here, and am deeply impressed by the intense devotion to and intelligent curiosity about God.
Now, some of you might here think I’m a little anal-retentive here, but I’d like to bring up a certain point (or several) on a certain franchise that we call Pokemon.
First off, I want to tell most people that Pokemon, while transmitted in a similar medium (or media), is NOT the same as either Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh. The presence of monsters in each of these franchises is about as damning as similarities to the Batman and Spider Man - they wear tights, use tethers to fly, etc. Just to clarify, Digimon differs from Pokemon in that it is developed for more of a niche of the world - those interested in digital pets (like Tamagotchi), where as Pokemon is fairly more worldwide. Yu-Gi-Oh, on the other hand, is more rooted in ancient Egyptian paganism spirituality and occult, to use the terms loosely.
Please - it annoys me when people blindly loop them together and then blast them.
Having said that, there do exist people in the world who have a decent issue to take up with the Pokemon franchise, which I will attempt to address, here.
Now, some of you might here think I’m a little anal-retentive here, but I’d like to bring up a certain point (or several) on a certain franchise that we call Pokemon.
First off, I want to tell most people that Pokemon, while transmitted in a similar medium (or media), is NOT the same as either Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh. The presence of monsters in each of these franchises is about as damning as similarities to the Batman and Spider Man - they wear tights, use tethers to fly, etc. Just to clarify, Digimon differs from Pokemon in that it is developed for more of a niche of the world - those interested in digital pets (like Tamagotchi), where as Pokemon is fairly more worldwide. Yu-Gi-Oh, on the other hand, is more rooted in ancient Egyptian paganism spirituality and occult, to use the terms loosely.
Please - it annoys me when people blindly loop them together and then blast them.
Having said that, there do exist people in the world who have a decent issue to take up with the Pokemon franchise, which I will attempt to address, here.
- Pokemon stands for Pocket Demons.
a. No. Not in the slightest. It stands for Pocket Monsters.
b. The Pokemon in the world of the franchise are the natural inhabitants; the alternate version of our own systems of fauna and flora. They are NOT demons. - Humans control pokemon, turning them into mindless slaves.
a. Pokemon are not slaves. They choose to follow humans.
i. While it may seem a little counter-intuitive, Pokemon “captured” in the poke balls actually do so mainly by acquiescence (they let themselves be captured). They are impressed by the “trainer” (the human who catches them) and they join his team.
ii. This is, in essence, a special kind of contract – not of the demonic variety; in exchange for the services of the Pokemon, the trainer will help them to achieve growth of their own.
iii. Much of a pokemon’s strength is based on mutual loyalty and fellowship – Pokemon choose to help their trainer. - Pokemon battles are like dogfights or cockfights. They fight until one stays down.
a. Well, no. It’s more like falconry or competition, in a way. And the staying down part is called “fainting”, which means that the pokemon simply no longer wants to fight. For those of you animal-lovers out there, the Poemon get to go to a special, spa-like place to be rejuvenated.
i. As stated before, Pokemon have free will. They choose to fight at their trainer’s command. It’s more like sparring in martial arts than dogfighting.
ii. They fight in the wild just like regular Pokemon battles, except in the latter, they receive directions from a trainer who tries to help them win. It’s simply basic competition.
iii. Pokemon CAN and HAVE chosen NOT to fight, or even to follow their trainer’s general commands. Anyone familiar with the early TV series will recall that Ash (the main character) had a Charizard (a large dragon-thing) that absolutely refused to follow orders for most of the whole first season, and much of the second, until Ash proved himself to it, resulting in many funny and somewhat empathetic scenes in which Charizard costs Ash the match, usually by leaving the “field of battle” and falling promptl asleep. For a second example, there was an episode in which the pokemon of many different trainers not only refused to obey their trainers, but most even refused to leave the poke balls they were in. The reason? They refused to assist in the building of a dam that would cause major damage to a nearby colony and habit of wild pokemon.
1. This occurs even in the games – primarily as an anti-cheating measure, trainers who traded for super-powerful, high level pokemon (trading pokemon is no more sinful than trading players on an official basketball or baseball team), who did not have certain badges (emblems that signified respect and acknowledgement by certain, recognized trainers called Gym Leaders), would be unable to efficiently direct the new Pokemon, because the traded pokemon would have no respect for a novice trainer. This results in the Pokemon either: lazing about, simply refusing to follow orders, going to sleep, using a technique not intended by the trainer, or, rarely, following an order (that’s a one-in-five chance of success).
That was my point. That’s why I said the demon thing was not a legitimate argument. People make up reasons to attack shows, rather than discuss them with their kids. Unless something is seriously offensive to a whole lot of people, the person who finds it offensive should re-examine their own viewpoint and see if they may be over-reacting.