Things that don’t make sense by Pokemon standards

[Bguy7]

I did always imagine the Trainers were stealing the kid's lunch money. What's funny about it is the rival goes through the area ahead of you, so the kid's getting robbed twice. And despite it all, the only thing he's worried about is his shorts.

At least when YOU lose a battle it's kind of explained (the Pokémon Center is free normally, because it takes half of a losing Trainer's money as a sort of fine for getting all their Pokémon beaten so badly). But it definitely makes little sense that Team Rocket would just willingly fork over hundreds of dollars when they lose.

Nobody's robbing anyone. It's just the rules of a Pokémon battle that the loser hands over a portion of their money. Yes, it's odd that Team Rocket would hand over money, but that's only because it wouldn't be worth the effort to program them any differently than any other trainer.

 

[Mega Altaria]

I did always imagine the Trainers were stealing the kid's lunch money. What's funny about it is the rival goes through the area ahead of you, so the kid's getting robbed twice. And despite it all, the only thing he's worried about is his shorts.

At least when YOU lose a battle it's kind of explained (the Pokémon Center is free normally, because it takes half of a losing Trainer's money as a sort of fine for getting all their Pokémon beaten so badly). But it definitely makes little sense that Team Rocket would just willingly fork over hundreds of dollars when they lose.

Depends on the game though but it's possible they would have batted some Trainers along the way and lost some of their money because of that.

I guess the money for losing a battle could be for transporting the player to the nearest Pokémon Center to recover their Pokémon soon after a loss.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

I guess the money for losing a battle could be for transporting the player to the nearest Pokémon Center to recover their Pokémon soon after a loss.

Isn’t the Pokémon Centre normally free though? Maybe if your entire team’s fainted (as after a loss), they charge you for it, as it takes more time to heal them all back to full health.

And despite it all, the only thing he's worried about is his shorts.

Youngsters: Liking shorts since 1996. XD

 

[Prof. SALTY]

Youngsters: Liking shorts since 1996. XD

I mean, I've liked shorts since 96 too but I ain't no youngster.

#ShortsEquality

 

[Mega Altaria]

Isn’t the Pokémon Centre normally free though? Maybe if your entire team’s fainted (as after a loss), they charge you for it, as it takes more time to heal them all back to full health.

You don’t have to pay to get your Pokémon healed so basically free healthcare for your Pokémon. Don’t exactly know how a Pokémon Center is funded but it seems that they’re self sufficient.

 

[shoz999]

You know how real-life animals have a few cameo appearances here and there in the Pokemon anime. Animals are mentioned in the Pokedex's categorization, mouse is a common example. GameFreak never really made much sense if there were real-life animals or not... well until I saw this...

Wait so what's in the Pokemon foo... oh no.

 

[Bguy7]

You know how real-life animals have a few cameo appearances here and there in the Pokemon anime. Animals are mentioned in the Pokedex's categorization, mouse is a common example. GameFreak never really made much sense if there were real-life animals or not... well until I saw this...

Wait so what's in the Pokemon foo... oh no.

I think it's just best to assume that all early series appearances of animals should be considered non-canon. They were done when the creators of the show were ignorant and somewhat lazy, as they didn't know what Pokémon was going to turn into to, and when there weren't enough Pokémon to take the places of random animals.

 

[Prof. SALTY]

You don’t have to pay to get your Pokémon healed so basically free healthcare for your Pokémon. Don’t exactly know how a Pokémon Center is funded but it seems that they’re self sufficient.

You do realize places in the real world have free healthcare right? It's probably government funded.

 

[Mega Altaria]

You do realize places in the real world have free healthcare right? It's probably government funded.

I wasn't taking about the real world in the first place but in the Pokémon world.There is no official evidence that there is no government in the Pokémon games. Based on that, it could be the case that the societies in Pokémon follow socialism where everything is handled by society including resources. It probably isn't some organisation that runs it but it's possible that the people help run it even though the nurses are part of a large family.

 

[Redstar45]

I wasn't taking about the real world in the first place but in the Pokémon world.There is no official evidence that there is no government in the Pokémon games. Based on that, it could be the case that the societies in Pokémon follow socialism where everything is handled by society including resources. It probably isn't some organisation that runs it but it's possible that the people help run it even though the nurses are part of a large family.

Um was pokemon special manga and pokeani sort hint on government or organisation in Pokemon universe ?

 

[Mega Altaria]

Um was pokemon special manga and pokeani sort hint on government or organisation in Pokemon universe ?

The only sort of organisation I remember from the anime is the one that runs the Pokémon League. However my main focus was on the games where it didn't seem that there is a body that runs the Pokémon Leagues and we only see the Gym Leaders, Elite Four and the Champion in the games.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

I think it's just best to assume that all early series appearances of animals should be considered non-canon. They were done when the creators of the show were ignorant and somewhat lazy, as they didn't know what Pokémon was going to turn into to, and when there weren't enough Pokémon to take the places of random animals.

Pokémon definitely showed some traits of Early Installment Weirdness in its older seasons, as TV Tropes calls it.

The only sort of organisation I remember from the anime is the one that runs the Pokémon League. However my main focus was on the games where it didn't seem that there is a body that runs the Pokémon Leagues and we only see the Gym Leaders, Elite Four and the Champion in the games.

Drayden is said to be the mayor of Opelucid City, which does at least hint that the Pokémon world has some forms of government.

 

[Bguy7]

I wasn't taking about the real world in the first place but in the Pokémon world.There is no official evidence that there is no government in the Pokémon games. Based on that, it could be the case that the societies in Pokémon follow socialism where everything is handled by society including resources. It probably isn't some organisation that runs it but it's possible that the people help run it even though the nurses are part of a large family.

There's a system of currency in the Pokémon world. You can't have currency without a government to regulate it. Just because we never see a government, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

And even if the Pokémon world follows some sort of governmentless socialism, that would still imply that the healthcare system is completely free. Actually, it means everything would be free...

 

[Mega Altaria]

There's a system of currency in the Pokémon world. You can't have currency without a government to regulate it. Just because we never see a government, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

And even if the Pokémon world follows some sort of governmentless socialism, that would still imply that the healthcare system is completely free. Actually, it means everything would be free...

People in the Pokémon universe are very cooperative so there is no need to regulate currency with a government and it doesn’t need to exist in the Pokémon universe. But hey, there’s still a police force that exists in the Pokémon universe and you might as well say that the police run the government in the Pokémon universe.

Still the people will regulate the currency because of the cooperation. There would be some few oddballs but the crime rate in the Pokémon universe is observed to be much lower than that in the real universe, even though most crime is centred around criminal organisations. So it’s easier to deal with them and it’s all fine since the player character is capable of taking on a criminal organisation independently.

I would say it’s difficult to apply such a real life principle to a fictional work due to in-game limitations. And as a fictional work the Pokémon universe is more idealised than the real world.

 

[Bguy7]

People in the Pokémon universe are very cooperative so there is no need to regulate currency with a government and it doesn’t need to exist in the Pokémon universe. But hey, there’s still a police force that exists in the Pokémon universe and you might as well say that the police run the government in the Pokémon universe.

Still the people will regulate the currency because of the cooperation. There would be some few oddballs but the crime rate in the Pokémon universe is observed to be much lower than that in the real universe, even though most crime is centred around criminal organisations. So it’s easier to deal with them and it’s all fine since the player character is capable of taking on a criminal organisation independently.

I would say it’s difficult to apply such a real life principle to a fictional work due to in-game limitations. And as a fictional work the Pokémon universe is more idealised than the real world.

Here's the problem with your analysis. What we see of the Pokémon world is an extremely limited scope. We see the world through the eyes of a 10 year old kid who only ares about training and battling Pokémon. The reason we don't see things like government or more traditional crime is because those are things that aren't relevant to becoming a Pokémon master. Any world looked at though limited the eyes of one kid with a specific goal would look more idealized than the real world.

I'm not necessarily saying the Pokémon isn't more idealized, it certainly is. It's just that we can't make certain assertions, such as the lack of government, when there's just no reason for us to be seeing a government in the games or show to begin with.

 

[Mega Altaria]

Here's the problem with your analysis. What we see of the Pokémon world is an extremely limited scope. We see the world through the eyes of a 10 year old kid who only ares about training and battling Pokémon. The reason we don't see things like government or more traditional crime is because those are things that aren't relevant to becoming a Pokémon master. Any world looked at though limited the eyes of one kid with a specific goal would look more idealized than the real world.

I'm not necessarily saying the Pokémon isn't more idealized, it certainly is. It's just that we can't make certain assertions, such as the lack of government, when there's just no reason for us to be seeing a government in the games or show to begin with.

The problem is that this scope is not limited enough to prevent the player from witnessing events of crime and evidence of the existence of a government and that it has no effect on the goals of the player. You can't just say that there is a regional government in the Pokémon universe without any evidence of it. However I have realised that there is evidence of local governments in the Pokémon universe, for example, Drayden as the Mayor of Opelucid City. These governments play a limited role as they only govern one city/town. And I said that most of the crime we see in the Pokémon universe is from criminal organisations and at one point we have seen Team Magma/Team Aqua grunts steal the Devon Parts in RSE/ORAS. However we do see that they're not heavy crimes. There is no set goal a Trainer should achieve even though the story leads them to becoming the Champion of their region. There is no set definition of what defines a Pokémon Master but it involves achieving some sort of great feat. A Trainer does not have to focus solely on battling and training but can also focus on Contests. Really it's up to you to decide what your Trainer will do since you're the player.

 

[Bguy7]

You can't just say that there is a regional government in the Pokémon universe without any evidence of it.

You know what else there's no evidence of in the Pokémon world? Bathrooms. We don't see bathrooms anywhere in the Pokémon world. Does this mean we should assume they don't exist, or does it simply mean that it's not part of the scope of the games, and therefore not shown? I think one of those answers is clearly obvious over the other.

Just as we can assume that bathrooms exist, the same can likely be said about government and "heavy crimes."

There is no set goal a Trainer should achieve even though the story leads them to becoming the Champion of their region. There is no set definition of what defines a Pokémon Master but it involves achieving some sort of great feat. A Trainer does not have to focus solely on battling and training but can also focus on Contests. Really it's up to you to decide what your Trainer will do since you're the player.

That has nothing to do with my point.

 

[Mega Altaria]

You know what else there's no evidence of in the Pokémon world? Bathrooms. We don't see bathrooms anywhere in the Pokémon world. Does this mean we should assume they don't exist, or does it simply mean that it's not part of the scope of the games, and therefore not shown? I think one of those answers is clearly obvious over the other.

Just as we can assume that bathrooms exist, the same can likely be said about government and "heavy crimes."

I can tell you haven't played X and Y before because of that.

That has nothing to do with my point.

It was my emphasis on what you said about limited scope. Not all Trainers focus very intensely on battling and catching Pokémon and are quite open to the world around them. It's not like you can assume that they are completely blind to their surroundings and not know of the existence of crimes and a government.

 

[Bguy7]

I can tell you haven't played X and Y before because of that.

I have played X and Y. Obviously I'm forgetting something about it. Instead of making a snarky comment, how about you remind me?

It was my emphasis on what you said about limited scope. Not all Trainers focus very intensely on battling and catching Pokémon and are quite open to the world around them. It's not like you can assume that they are completely blind to their surroundings and not know of the existence of crimes and a government.

We're talking about game design here. Government and crime outside of the typical evil organization have little to nothing to do with the narrative and mechanics of Pokémon games, and are therefore ignored by the game developers. It doesn't matter if there are some random side options you can chose to focus on, because they all have just as much of a focus on government and crime as being a trainer does. Maybe the kid themselves, if they were real, wouldn't be completely blind, but they're not. This is an artificial world with an extremely limited scope. There's no reason for the developers to go out of their way to include random aspects of the world like that.

 

[Mega Altaria]

I have played X and Y. Obviously I'm forgetting something about it. Instead of making a snarky comment, how about you remind me?

I know it must have been a while.

We're talking about game design here. Government and crime outside of the typical evil organization have little to nothing to do with the narrative and mechanics of Pokémon games, and are therefore ignored by the game developers. It doesn't matter if there are some random side options you can chose to focus on, because they all have just as much of a focus on government and crime as being a trainer does. Maybe the kid themselves, if they were real, wouldn't be completely blind, but they're not. This is an artificial world with an extremely limited scope. There's no reason for the developers to go out of their way to include random aspects of the world like that.

I wasn't going to say anything about game design in a broad sense but I was going to focus more on how the economy is run in the Pokémon world and its implications. But now we're here, since Pokémon is targeted at kids, there is no need to include mature themes and very complicated ideas into the Pokémon games (even though there has been very few exceptions but they are not integral to the Pokémon world). Whether these themes do or do not occur is left up to our own interpretation because there's no way the developers or anyone affiliated with or employed at Game Freak, The Pokémon Company, Nintendo or any other official handler of the Pokémon franchise would reveal their interpretations of such detail to the public and if they did, then it will be treated as canon. It's clear that our interpretations of the Pokémon universe are incompatible with each other and there is no necessity to correct someone over non-canon information as it is not set. If we continued, I know this won't go anywhere near a resolution. And this comes from the official Pokémon support page.

It is the intent of the Pokémon creators, that questions that have not already been answered within the video games, animated movies, or TV shows, be left to the imaginations and interpretations of Pokémon fans.

However I am still firm that such crime and regional governments do not exist in the Pokémon universe. There is no obligation for me to agree with your interpretation and we should be left to our own interpretations of the Pokémon universe.