A long time ago, back when I was in sixth grade (1998), I saw this welcome screen in Pokémon Blue for the first time:
And now, in my fourth year of doctoral studies (2013), I finally realized Professor Oak’s dream of a complete National Pokédex in Pokémon HeartGold.
The Pokémon series has had the biggest impact on my life in terms of video games. Pokémon Blue was my first video game, and it was amazing. My memories of it are wonderful, even the memory of trudging through Mt. Moon only to get ROFL-stomped by Misty over and over again. Journeying through Kanto, battling trainers, filling my Pokédex – it was all magical, if I may be embarrassingly honest. This was also around the time I didn't know what I was doing in terms of playing RPGs, so I declare it a miracle that I was able to beat the Elite Four and the Champion.
I was one of the first people to get Pokémon Gold when that came out, and the Generation II games, to me, are about as close to perfect as one can get. I got to see a new region of the Pokémon world and then I got to return to Kanto again. There was both new and nostalgic content. This time, I was a lot better at video games and I remember the Johto League being much easier than the Kanto League was, though I think the Generation II games are easier than the Generation I games are even when taking skill into account.
Later, I won Pokémon Crystal from a sweepstakes and I thought that was the end of my Pokémon career. I didn't have a whole lot of interest in the Generation III games because there was no way to trade between them and the Generation II games, unlike with the Generation II games trading back to the Generation I games. But then FireRed and LeafGreen came out, and nostalgia won out. I re-started my Pokémon journey from LeafGreen and seeing all my memories of Pokémon Blue under the Generation III engine was great. I also finally played through Pokémon Emerald and I really enjoyed it, even though I still say Generation II was the best.
Around this time I was growing up and I had less time to devote to video games. I decided I should stay away from Generation IV. So for the longest time, Pokémon LeafGreen was my “final” game, the one with my Master team and as complete a Pokédex as I could get. But then HeartGold and SoulSilver was announced. They were re-making my favorite games in the series. And all resistance crumbled – I played through Pokémon Platinum and did a lot of migrating from LeafGreen into HeartGold. Playing HeartGold was as magical as playing LeafGreen was, seeing my childhood memories come back to life.
It should therefore come as no surprise that I'm going to make a shrine to Pokémon. I want this to be my flagship shrine, a shrine to the best game series I have ever played. The issue is what form the shrine should take. Originally I decided to write a fan-fiction piece set in the world of Pokémon, written in the form of various primary documents, but I kept running into problems because the Pokémon world makes absolutely no sense when you think about it. Even when you suspend your disbelief and accept the notion of super-powerful monsters that can be carried around in little spheres, stored in computers, and made to battle one another by 10-year-old children, the setting still makes no sense.
Want to see what I mean? Let's consider Team Rocket as an example. A 10-year-old invades the hideout of a multi-region-wide criminal organization with his Pokémon. Let's assume that Team Rocket is extremely strong, such that even the police can't stop them. Then how is it that a run-of-the-mill trainer can just go into their hideout and destroy them? Why hasn't literally anyone else in the world (a world where training Pokémon is pretty standard) done so? Why doesn't the Elite Four or the Champion just show up and kick their asses?
Let's assume that the player character is somehow more skilled than is anyone else on the planet. Alright, so my Charizard just defeated a Grunt's team. What's stopping the fully-grown Grunt from just tackling my 10-year-old (in-game) ass? Is it my Charizard? If so, does that mean…I sic my fire-breathing pocket monster on the Grunt himself after I beat him? Let's remember that Charizard's fire breath can melt boulders. If I command him to use some fire attack on a human, that human is going to vaporize.
Speaking of insanely powerful attacks, Pokémon are routinely using these attacks on each other. Official battles in stadiums, unofficial battles on the roadside, serious battles against megalomaniacal syndicate bosses – they all involve unleashing incredible amounts of power. How does a Pokémon survive this kind of thing? How does a Grunt's Zubat survive a Charizard's Flamethrower attack, which can melt rock?
And even when you consider a Pokémon Center as having magical healing powers, a Pokémon is going to have some serious trauma from being melted/vaporized even if it is physically restored to full health. Continuing, the Grunts are evil, sure, but their Pokémon aren't. Isn't the protagonist just beating up a sentient animal shield?
That brings up my next point. Are we capturing innocent animals from the wild and forcing them to fight each other for personal gain? That's not a child-friendly idea. And besides, what part of capturing a Pokémon makes it loyal to the trainer? If I captured a Gyarados, let's say, what's stopping the Gyarados from just turning around and eating me the second I release it from its Poké Ball? Does the ball brainwash the Pokémon? That's not a child-friendly concept either.
What all this boils down to is that my shrine, in which I try to address some of these things, is going to be more adult-themed than are the games/anime. I'm going to have to take several liberties with the source material for some of this to make sense, so bear with me.
Without further ado, I present to you my shrine to Pokémon. Oh, yeah, and my general habit of sprinkling references to other works throughout my shrines holds, so keep on the lookout for them. ^_^
I was one of the first people to get Pokémon Gold when that came out, and the Generation II games, to me, are about as close to perfect as one can get. I got to see a new region of the Pokémon world and then I got to return to Kanto again. There was both new and nostalgic content. This time, I was a lot better at video games and I remember the Johto League being much easier than the Kanto League was, though I think the Generation II games are easier than the Generation I games are even when taking skill into account.
Later, I won Pokémon Crystal from a sweepstakes and I thought that was the end of my Pokémon career. I didn't have a whole lot of interest in the Generation III games because there was no way to trade between them and the Generation II games, unlike with the Generation II games trading back to the Generation I games. But then FireRed and LeafGreen came out, and nostalgia won out. I re-started my Pokémon journey from LeafGreen and seeing all my memories of Pokémon Blue under the Generation III engine was great. I also finally played through Pokémon Emerald and I really enjoyed it, even though I still say Generation II was the best.
Around this time I was growing up and I had less time to devote to video games. I decided I should stay away from Generation IV. So for the longest time, Pokémon LeafGreen was my “final” game, the one with my Master team and as complete a Pokédex as I could get. But then HeartGold and SoulSilver was announced. They were re-making my favorite games in the series. And all resistance crumbled – I played through Pokémon Platinum and did a lot of migrating from LeafGreen into HeartGold. Playing HeartGold was as magical as playing LeafGreen was, seeing my childhood memories come back to life.
It should therefore come as no surprise that I'm going to make a shrine to Pokémon. I want this to be my flagship shrine, a shrine to the best game series I have ever played. The issue is what form the shrine should take. Originally I decided to write a fan-fiction piece set in the world of Pokémon, written in the form of various primary documents, but I kept running into problems because the Pokémon world makes absolutely no sense when you think about it. Even when you suspend your disbelief and accept the notion of super-powerful monsters that can be carried around in little spheres, stored in computers, and made to battle one another by 10-year-old children, the setting still makes no sense.
Want to see what I mean? Let's consider Team Rocket as an example. A 10-year-old invades the hideout of a multi-region-wide criminal organization with his Pokémon. Let's assume that Team Rocket is extremely strong, such that even the police can't stop them. Then how is it that a run-of-the-mill trainer can just go into their hideout and destroy them? Why hasn't literally anyone else in the world (a world where training Pokémon is pretty standard) done so? Why doesn't the Elite Four or the Champion just show up and kick their asses?
Let's assume that the player character is somehow more skilled than is anyone else on the planet. Alright, so my Charizard just defeated a Grunt's team. What's stopping the fully-grown Grunt from just tackling my 10-year-old (in-game) ass? Is it my Charizard? If so, does that mean…I sic my fire-breathing pocket monster on the Grunt himself after I beat him? Let's remember that Charizard's fire breath can melt boulders. If I command him to use some fire attack on a human, that human is going to vaporize.
Speaking of insanely powerful attacks, Pokémon are routinely using these attacks on each other. Official battles in stadiums, unofficial battles on the roadside, serious battles against megalomaniacal syndicate bosses – they all involve unleashing incredible amounts of power. How does a Pokémon survive this kind of thing? How does a Grunt's Zubat survive a Charizard's Flamethrower attack, which can melt rock?
And even when you consider a Pokémon Center as having magical healing powers, a Pokémon is going to have some serious trauma from being melted/vaporized even if it is physically restored to full health. Continuing, the Grunts are evil, sure, but their Pokémon aren't. Isn't the protagonist just beating up a sentient animal shield?
That brings up my next point. Are we capturing innocent animals from the wild and forcing them to fight each other for personal gain? That's not a child-friendly idea. And besides, what part of capturing a Pokémon makes it loyal to the trainer? If I captured a Gyarados, let's say, what's stopping the Gyarados from just turning around and eating me the second I release it from its Poké Ball? Does the ball brainwash the Pokémon? That's not a child-friendly concept either.
What all this boils down to is that my shrine, in which I try to address some of these things, is going to be more adult-themed than are the games/anime. I'm going to have to take several liberties with the source material for some of this to make sense, so bear with me.
Without further ado, I present to you my shrine to Pokémon. Oh, yeah, and my general habit of sprinkling references to other works throughout my shrines holds, so keep on the lookout for them. ^_^