Pokemon Food

[gmoyes]

Yeah different authors have different ways of answering this question:

What do people eat for meat?

So what do you do? Pokemon eating other pokemon for food makes sence but what about us humans? How do you handle the fact that your charicters are eating a pokemon the they could have been friends with if they had a chance? Are your charicters used to it being a fact of life? Do they just not eat meat? Does the meat come from some other source?

 

[BynineB]

Well, regular animals can exist in the Pokemon world, and that would be an easy answer to the question. Also, consider that you could be friends with a cow just as you could be with, say, a Miltank.

 

[Red Charizard]

I think that there is some organic, artificial way of creating meat in the Pokemon world. Sort of like veggie-burgers and stuff like that. It's hard to kill and eat something that feels emotion like humans. Plus, Pokemon would be able to fight back before they're sent off to be killed, wouldn't they?

 

[JX Valentine]

Soylent Green.

No, seriously, I just go by Bynine's answer. There's real-world animals in the Pokémon world, just in fewer numbers. (Aquarium in Cerulean City, anyone?) My headcanon goes on to state that Pokémon are sometimes eaten by humans, but these tend to be a delicacy just because Pokémon are usually harder to kill thanks to the whole "potential dinner can breathe fire" problem.

 

[Gelatino95]

It's hard to kill and eat something that feels emotion like humans.

...Are you implying that animals don't have emotions? You cold, cruel person... Not that I'm a vegetarian or anything, but that's just cruel.

Anyway, I just include meat in my stories and don't specify where it came from. Easy solution.

 

[AlexOzzyCake]

Pretty sure real-life animals must exist in the pokemon world since Sandshrew is the "mouse pokemon" and zubat is a "bat pokemon", I think?

 

[Magiclapras]

Well, who eats mice or bats?

I kinda hafta agree with BynineB too. You just don't see them much. Unless dolphins are considered a rare species.

 

[Treecko's Awesomeness]

I just include meat in my stories and don't specify where it came from. Easy solution.

I agree. If the anime can do it, so can we. Everything that doesn't have an explanation doesn't need one. Give me ambiguity, or give me something else!

 

[shengar]

People seem quite troubled in this matter. Most of the reasons are because pokemon have emotion like humans and can be befriended. But regular animal too can befriended as well. But remember that most evolved pokemon are too feral to begin with, in my pokeuniverse at least. Regular animal can hardly be found in pokemon world, I think.



The best solution is: Just never state clearly where the food come from. People won't bother it that much.

 

[Firebrand]

I felt strange dealing with this in my fic, in fact, my protagonist Cole had the same qualm mentioned in the OP, that he would be eating something that under different circumstances could have been his traveling companion. There's a scene where some of his pokemon kill and eat a bouffalant, and Cole has to leave because the sight disturbs him so much.
To avoid this, I made Cole a vegetarian. He eats berries, salads, veggie burgers, etc. Personally, I DON'T think animals exist in the pokemon world, at least not after the creators figured out what they were doing. Outside of early gen 1, there has been no references/appearances of normal animals. In fact, I can only think of three.
1) Cerulean Aquarium
2) Ghastly's Red pokedex entry (it says it can smother an Indian elephant)
3) An early Spearow card shows it stepping on a worm

 

[Chibi Pika]

Heyy, an incarnation of this topic that hasn't turned into a raging debate.

(Don't mind me, I've just been on this forum for too long.)

Well, I'm surprised at the amount of people here who stand by the theory that there are animals in the Pokemon world. It used to be a very uncommon theory. Even though, canonically, it could go either way, it's at least supported by the fact that, well, humans are animals after all.

(And then there's the General Pokemon Discussion forum, where people try to claim that humans are actually Pokemon, which aside from being totally silly, is disproven by canon five times over.)

So yeah, if there were animals in the Pokemon world, they'd be fairly uncommon, due to having to compete with Pokemon and all. I'm sure there'd be a few niches for them, though (insects come to mind--they're so small that they'd fulfill a lot of roles way better than Pokemon would.) So it's not a stretch to say that humans would have some domesticated they could use for food.

This is of course assuming that Pokemon have near-human level intelligence, (obviously animalian Pokemon could be killed and eaten no problem) because aside from the obvious moral issues with killing a fully sentient creature, there would be no logical way to breed Pokemon for food, considering they would know what was happening and could just use their nifty powers to escape or fight back rather easily. The concept of hunting and killing wild Pokemon would still be open, though--I'm sure there would be people in that world who wouldn't care about the moral issue. And anyways, Pokemon kill Pokemon for food. :/

So in a world with sentient Pokemon, the options are: people are vegetarian and eat meat substitutes (and also things like Chansey eggs and Miltank milk. I'm sure farms could cut deals with groups of these Pokemon to provide them with care in return for these products), or people have access to animal meat one way or another.

But of course, as everyone else has mentioned, you don't really have to mention where the food comes from. I don't even think meat has shown up in my fic, since the main character is an unofficial trainer, can't win money from battles, and mostly just lives off cereal and ramen. xP

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[Treecko's Awesomeness]

I personally agree that there are no animals in the pokemon world. As to the argument of 'the mouse pokemon' ect., I think that the most likely explanation for that would be that people classified pokemon into different groups. Example: "Hey, pikachu, sandshrew, ratata, plussle, minun, ect., all look similar. lets make a name for that group... how about mice?" As for the problem of writing meat into your fic, just don't say anything. My fic includes a scene where the characters eat bacon, and since the pokemon in my fic can talk, it would be kind of creepy if they were eating a tepig or a spoink. My personal explanation that is not used in my fic is that bacon is so awesome, it has transdimensional properties. It doesn't exist in the pokemon universe normally, but its awesomeness carried it over from our dimension.

EDIT: Oh, and I thought I should link this bulbapedia article.

 

[JX Valentine]

I personally agree that there are no animals in the pokemon world. As to the argument of 'the mouse pokemon' ect., I think that the most likely explanation for that would be that people classified pokemon into different groups. Example: "Hey, pikachu, sandshrew, ratata, plussle, minun, ect., all look similar. lets make a name for that group... how about mice?" As for the problem of writing meat into your fic, just don't say anything. My fic includes a scene where the characters eat bacon, and since the pokemon in my fic can talk, it would be kind of creepy if they were eating a tepig or a spoink. My personal explanation that is not used in my fic is that bacon is so awesome, it has transdimensional properties. It doesn't exist in the pokemon universe normally, but its awesomeness carried it over from our dimension.

EDIT: Oh, and I thought I should link this bulbapedia article.

Curiosity speaking, but doesn't that article contradict what you're saying about animals? I mean, the article cites examples where real-world animals appear in canon and even states multiple times that it's hinted.

Not saying that your view is wrong, of course. In fact, it's always interesting to see both sides of the debate addressed in fic. I'm just saying it's rather nutty that in the same post where you say you believe animals don't exist, you link to an article that says they most likely (or actually) do.

Although I do have to ask. If there's no mice and scientists are attempting to group a bunch of Pokémon together, how would they know to call them mice? Or is it much like this in your headcanon?

As for the concern about how to address the subject of eating meat in fanfiction, that depends. Some people like to establish a very detailed headcanon, where they've figured out pretty much everything they possibly can about the world they're using. (It's all part of the game, after all.) It might not have anything at all to do with the story, and if that's the case, then, sure, you can go with or without mentioning it. Other times, the question could be used to play up humor or for any other reason if it's actually relevant to the plot. For example, it actually serves as a plot point in my own fic...

Spoiler: Not that anyone would particularly care, but!

...Because in my headcanon, as I've mentioned earlier, eating Pokémon isn't exactly common. A number of people consider it a delicacy due to the aforementioned "my potential dinner can breathe fire" problem, but others consider it taboo because Pokémon are seen as intelligent beings and close companions to the human race on levels animals can't achieve. In other words, humans eat meat from animals because they consider it the more morally acceptable alternative. However, the fakemon featured in my plot actually eats Pokémon meat and only Pokémon meat, and they need to do so on some level of frequency due to the amount of energy their powers spend. Because the main character is not only turned into one of these fakemon and because he's one of the kinds of humans who are entirely "POKEMON ARE MY FRIENDS," it becomes a massive problem when he finds out what he's actually been eating.

Point is, sure, a story could go either way, but it's a lot of fun thinking about that question (if only for headcanon purposes). And people who include it in their fic for one reason or another are some of the cool kids in my opinion.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Spoiler: Not that anyone would particularly care, but!

...Because in my headcanon, as I've mentioned earlier, eating Pokémon isn't exactly common. A number of people consider it a delicacy due to the aforementioned "my potential dinner can breathe fire" problem, but others consider it taboo because Pokémon are seen as intelligent beings and close companions to the human race on levels animals can't achieve. In other words, humans eat meat from animals because they consider it the more morally acceptable alternative. However, the fakemon featured in my plot actually eats Pokémon meat and only Pokémon meat, and they need to do so on some level of frequency due to the amount of energy their powers spend. Because the main character is not only turned into one of these fakemon and because he's one of the kinds of humans who are entirely "POKEMON ARE MY FRIENDS," it becomes a massive problem when he finds out what he's actually been eating.

Quite the contrary! I care! That sounds like an awesome concept. Actually, the entire concept of the moral dilemma of killing Pokemon is one that I find fascinating, and really wish I could incorporate in my fics (even though I'm not entirely sure how I would go about that, as the only ways I can think of to do so have been well-trodden by other fics.)

Somewhat related, I had been planning on a random scene in a way later chapter where a Pokemon is fed animal meat because the typical processed Pokemon food is in low supply because of their current situation, and it's mentioned that animal meat isn't very healthy for Pokemon (their overefficient metabolisms aren't designed to break it down properly, so they can't get the energy needed from it. And Pokemon need craptons of energy,) or some other pseudo-sciencey thing that I've been meaning to write an article on for quite a while.) The Pokemon (who was raised by humans), is confused because he had honestly never thought of what his food was made of before, and then asks that what does that mean Pokemon food is made of...? (Incidentally, my theory is that it's animal meat blended with berries. You know the specifically Pokemon world berries, which seem to be a convenient energy source for Pokemon.)

In any case, even though the killing-Pokemon dilemma never comes up as a plot point in my fic, the reason I've put so much thought into all of this is because the question of why animals/humans and Pokemon, two radically different classes of creature, exist in the same world is actually an extremely crucial plot point in my fic.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[Treecko's Awesomeness]

Curiosity speaking, but doesn't that article contradict what you're saying about animals? I mean, the article cites examples where real-world animals appear in canon and even states multiple times that it's hinted.

Yes, it does contradict my opinion, but I thought it was relevant to the thread, so people might as well get both sides of the story.

Although I do have to ask. If there's no mice and scientists are attempting to group a bunch of Pokémon together, how would they know to call them mice? Or is it much like this in your headcanon?

Ah, I love the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, and that's one of my favorite parts. Anyway, my idea was that they wanted a name for a group of pokemon that were similar to each other, much like real world species of mice. The fact that they came up with the name "mouse" for this group was as much of a coincidence as the whale coming up with the same words as English ones.
Your fic sounds interesting, and if I get the time, I'll try to read it and leave a review! I was actually thinking about writing a oneshot about how pokemon came to earth, but I have a fic to write that I'm working on quite a bit, and I don't really have the time right now.