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What will the newest Gyarados clone be?

Will there ever be a version of Gyarados that is both Water AND Dragon?

Has anyone completed a Rage of the Broken Heavens Master Set for Unlimited?

Does Gyarados L1 Unlimited exist?

Why is Magikarp more popular in Japan but Gyarados is more popular in almost every other country?

What ever happened between Brock and Professor Ivy to cause their breakup???

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Just like with most other fantasy worlds where we project our values onto them and that are created from our inner most desires that are not realized in our real world with real power systems…

Pokemon is an egalitarian and philanthropic world. The question as to how things or done, financed, or supported are questions that are silly to me, because they come from the perspective of our world. Are gym leaders paid? How are certain infrastructural elements accommodated? How do things get done when so many trainers spend so much time engaging in frivolity?

Do you realize we could achieve all of this and significantly so, so much more if it weren’t for our economic systems and struggles over power and control, influence? Fantasy worlds realize the most achievable. Pokemon is no different from the innumerable cases where the societies are egalitarian, people make ordinary incomes and businesses, have a self governing body, and it affords significant amounts of leisure and the capacity for infrastructural beauty, support mechanisms, surplus of products and medical services, etc.

Use your imagination people. I like being cheeky too but when it comes to fantasy it’s always beautiful and is tantamount to escapism not because it isn’t realistic but because it realizes the full potential we as a species can accomplish. And fantastical unreal Pokemon and stuff. Come back for more drunk brendan questions at 10pm on a thursday any time.

And yes it is stupid that vine whip had 10pp. That’s just silly.

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I think this is similar to the discussion of hard magic systems vs soft magic systems in world building. Some fantasy worlds have a world with rules laid out, with clear guidelines set so the reader/watcher/players can learn and understand how the world works and know what to expect in the situation. There is consistency and there are limitations; when you understand the boundaries of the world, the result makes sense and if done well, it can be very satisfying.

Soft magic systems on the other hand don’t go into the details, and doesn’t provide answers to how things work, or why (and the creator might not even bother to know the answers) which is mysterious, and leaves lots of space for fun and wild fan theories. Humans love to pick things apart and try to understand why something happens (e.g. myths and folklore). When people want to know the answers in a world that hasn’t provided them, like in the Pokemon world, we wind up with fun shower thoughts. Of course you can still enjoy the story without knowing the answers to how/why things work, but we as a species are curious :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Some people prefer hard magic systems so when faced with the wider Pokemon world, we aren’t fully satisfied with the answer “it’s fantasy, just accept it happens this way”. Of course with a world that has spanned decades, different mediums, and different creators, it won’t necessarily be entirely consistent, so if fans want to apply logic to the world with their theories we wind up with some interesting scenarios :sweat_smile: both hard and soft systems can be handled well, or clumsily (I think Pokemon does it well)

And of course you can have a mix of both. I’d say the Pokemon evolution/battle mechanics are relatively hard, but the wider world is soft. Lovely and magical and comforting (see, Pokemon Concierge) but still a soft system - watching that show left me with lots of questions about how things work, which the franchise won’t ever answer consistently lol.

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And yes, I love the fan theory that it is an egalitarian world where basically everyone in the Pokemon world has UBI (universal basic income) so those who want to go become a trainer are financially supported and able to. Not everyone will make money from being a trainer (looking at all those NPCs along the routes who lose terribly each time) but at least with this theory I don’t feel like I’m taking all their money… :sweat_smile:

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On that note:

  • Assuming Johto and Sinnoh, etc existed during Gen 1, (XY talk about a war centuries ago) then you simply were not taught about them in Gen 1? Or were you not aware of them? Perhaps they had been enemies of Kanto, and off-camera (outside of the game narritive) they were improving relations.
  • With each new generation, in the early games, we were seeing a post-war society slowly recovering from a global war.
    • Children had pokemon as friends because there was not much trust.
    • Children travelled the world instead of getting jobs because there were no other activities for them to do.
    • Education and Intelligence is severely limited after mass casualties from war - This explains why a 10 year old needed nearly 20 years of practice and training before winning his first major tournament.
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Oops, sorry if i got a bit too grim, im sorry. :sob:

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Additionally

  • As games progress, we see a major increase in male main characters… Perhaps that’s because they’re slowly adjusting and finding new work after the war.
  • A society advanced enough for matter-energy conversion (storing PkMn in PC) should have plenty of automation for labor but instead, use PkMn to accomplish menial tasks. Perhaps the war destroyed most industry, and this is the only solution.
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