Politics in Pokémon
Politics in Pokémon
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!
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aside from the very ham-fisted stuff in B/W/B2/W2, the closest thing to a political narrative (certainly not communist, but fairly interesting) in Pokémon I've seen is a ROM hack called Rocket Edition
I've played it, it's really good in terms of offering some explanations to some of the narrative that isn't explained in the original games, and is actually what kinda inspired me to write my own story since in that game the Champion is kinda like the head of state.
Also I'm not talking about any political narratives in the games, I'm talking about what political positions people might hold in the Pokémon world itself, what could be considered left or right, since Pokémon add a completely different layer to politics.
any serious political story would need to disregard some things from the games (the minuscule "cities", the NPCs who stay in the same area forever, etc.) and then explain how 10-year-old children can safely roam around holding animal fights, whether Pokémon are sentient (and why Pokémon can be stored as data, although you could probably discard that plot point), etc.
in terms of political alignment, considering there doesn't seem to be much work being done by humans, left-wing movements would likely be focused on the material conditions and rights of Pokémon
Of course. The games are like that because they're handhelds (meaning a limited population; the entirety of the Unova region is 949!) with kids (hence the 10 year olds) as their target audiences. I'm obviously not a kid, so I'm bound to think about these things in more detail. The anime and mostly the manga give a better practical insight on how certain things would work.
There are humans who work plenty of non-trainer jobs, who else would make the goods necessary for trainers to use them? Pharmaceutical companies would be the ones making the Potions and other health related items. Silph Co in Kanto effectively has a monopoly on Pokéballs, which were originally made in Johto by hollowing out Apricorns.
A company having the ability to mass produce this many Pokéballs would certainly have workers in them, there's even a factory in Kalos. Would the mass production of these things cause an ecological crisis because of the amount of Apricorn trees that would be necessary to make them or would they have to invent another method that might cut corners on safety or workers rights for the sake of making a profit?