Pokémon

Disclaimer: This is not a post about the ethics of being a Pokémon trainer, Team Plasma, etc.

But there is an interesting group, specifically in S/V: Team Star. From what I've seen, Star does appear to be somewhat left-wing, although it is kinda hard to place real-world political labels on a cartoon game made for U13s. I'd like to hear comrades' opinions on these things

Imagine being an enemy Pokemon that gets hit by an itemizer orb. One instant, you were a living organism, the next, you're an object. This raises all kinds of existential questions that get scarier the more you think about it. At what point are you killed by the process? The best case scenario for you is that you die the instant the magic hits you and the rest is moot.

But if that doesn't happen... Hoo boy. Will you feel your body being compressed and transmuted into an Oran Berry? Will you feel the excruciating pain as your nerves are destroyed at the atomic level to be turned into plant cells and sugar? The Lore in PMD very heavily implies the existence of some sort of life energy that animates living things, so what if that life energy stays in the thing you're turned into? Object Pokemon like Chimecho and Trubbish exist, so it's entirely possible that your life energy can just keep on existing inside the item you're turned into. Imagine being stuck as an item, conscious, but unable to move and with no senses to tell you about the outside world. Nothing but your own thoughts to keep your company. You're initially terrified of the prospect that you'll be eaten if you turned into food or used up in battle if you're an orb or something. But after days, weeks, months, without sensory input or anything but your own increasingly incoherent thoughts, mind broken by complete isolation, you begin to crave the sweet release of death. You begin to desperately hope that you'll be gobbled up by the next explorer that happens by you, or deployed in a battle, or at least be taken to the recycle shop, anything that will let your aura escape and your life to end--at least you hope that's what will happen when your "body" is destroyed. But it's not like you can do anything to cause or avoid it, nor will you be able to see it coming anyhow. You just hope that you won't be able to feel pain in this state, but in the Pokemon universe, not even that is a given.

I love Pokémon, it's my special interest, I've been playing since Gen 1 and have pretty extensive knowledge about the Pokémon world.

However since becoming a communist I've realized that a lot of things are missing from the world, including basic functions on how everything works. Just the presence of police implies there are laws that have to be enforced, which in turn implies people write those laws, etc. We know that there was an industrial revolution, which led to capitalism, being the economic system in all Pokémon regions, meaning all of the contradictions that come with it. There was a war that took place, as alluded to by Lt. Surge, who might actually be from Unova.

In the manga there's the Pokémon Association (PA), a legislative body that determines the laws involving Pokémon, similar to Congress here in the U.S., with each region apparently having its own PA.

In the anime they have the Pokémon Inspection Agency (PIA) that inspects Gyms to see if they're up to par.

They don't explicitly talk about politics and political views (obviously because the series is marketed to kids) but I think exploring these mechanisms could be really interesting, if not for the fact that Pokémon adds another layer to politics because they're creatures with a material effect on the world.

Some people might be more left leaning when it comes to economics and social issues, but might be more right leaning when it comes to trainer regulations.

I'm curious to know what other people think, I'm actually writing a story that explores some of these themes so I'd love to get some ideas!

Invidious:

https://invidious.namazso.eu/watch?v=ya0wUeVfCTU