one of my favorite things about the pokemon universe is how the humans are esp. the bad guys
like mob boss giovonni can pull out a glock and waste my 10 y/o ass but he doesn’t he just accepts that i knocked out his cat and hands me money
I have my own theory that humans in the Pokemon world don’t even have a concept of direct violence. They settle all disputes through Pokemon battles, but also a human without pokemon is entirely helpless. This might lend its self further to the notion that humans can’t venture outside of towns without bringing trained pokemon to protect them. Like, can Pokemon world humans even throw a punch? I think the notion of humans ever directly using violence against one another without pokemon involved is something they can’t even think of.
In one of the movies ash just straight up clocks lucario
ash is innovative in a world where humans can’t punch
*steeples fingers* okay so I know this is a humorous fun joke but like…
Let’s think about this for a moment.
Mob Boss Giovanni probably has a gun. Given the level of technological development in pokemon’s universe it’s very unlikely that nobody invented gunpowder or ever thought to put it together into a weapon, or that Giovanni would procure one.
Let’s also assume the average ten-year-old bright-eyed pokemon trainer is not wearing a bulletproof vest, or has particularly impressive gun dodging abilities.
Giovanni shoots child, Giovanni probably dies immediately.
It’s established that there have been wars in the pokemon setting, and that they are absolutely devastating because of the sheer power of the pokemon involved and the lack of polite limits like sporting battles have. The Kanto region has seen a great deal less damage than the rest of the world in recent years, and my theory is that this is a direct result of how powerful Giovanni is and how much effort he has put into keeping lethal combat a long, long way away from his operations.
Most of the villains in the pokemon games are based on various sorts of terrorists (Aqua/Magma, Flare, Plasma), or sometimes street gangs like Team Skull. Team Rocket though, is clearly based on the Yakuza. Who are organized criminals, yes, with theft and extortion and shady real estate dealings all over the place, but got their start as a sort of neighborhood watch system. That continues to this day to some extent; Yakuza are typically the first on the scene of disaster relief and work to limit crime by non-members, not out of altruism, but for the simple reason that you can’t run a profitable criminal enterprise if everything around you is burning to the ground.
Profit requires stability. Losing a score today by maintaining the status quo means you can make more money tomorrow, while escalating the situation to lethal levels means creating a big heap of trouble for yourself and losing countless opportunities. That’s why you see grunts stealing both technologies and pokemon, you see them intimidating people, pushing people around, but not a single one carries a weapon and none of their pokemon ever uses a lethal attack.
So what can you do if you’re the head of the most powerful criminal organization in the world, de facto ruler of Kanto, and war breaks out in neighboring countries? My theory is that was the motivation behind the creation of Mewtwo. Because yes, he has superintelligence and potent telekinetic power, but what’s Mewtwo’s most dramatic signature ability in the movie? The creation of an impenetrable barrier. The only thing that could protect the islands against the biological weapons of mass destruction the rest of the world was unleashing against each other.
Now, given the established rules he works by, what do you do when a ten year old beats you in a casual sporting event? You give the kid fifty bucks, you promise to never do anything evil again, and you walk away. Yeah there would be some loss of face if this were a fight with a real rival or whatever, but you already established yourself as a Gym Leader and this kid is probably going to become Champion, so there’s no shame in declaring they passed your test and giving them a badge. Giving the kid a victory costs you basically nothing, and every other choice you have here would be expensive at best, potentially fatal.
OKAY! WHEN I STRIKE A POSE, THAT’S WHEN YOU DO THE THING SO I LOOK EXTREMELY COOL. DON’T BE LAZY AND FALL ASLEEP LIKE LAST TIME!
* no way bro, i got this. it’s gonna look awesome.
YOU BET IT IS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!
Hey @creativepitstop I was your UT Secret Santa! You asked for shenanigans with the bros, and that’s something I’m more than happy to deliver! I hope you like it! ^^
the day is literally not even over and i got something else to add:
The Mary Sue publishes an interview with Dwayne Johnson claiming that he thinks “snowflake culture” is “taking us backwards,” The Rock responds on Instagram claiming that the interview was completely fabricated.
ok so there’s a game me and my friends play called “don’t get me started” and basically someone gives another person a random topic and they have to go on an angry rant about it and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us at parties and car rides so I highly recommend playing sometimes with your friends
I love this idea. We used to do things like this in Improv.
Related game: “THINK ABOUT IT.” You’re given a random topic, and your job is to build it into an epic conspiracy theory, the crazier the better. You end your rant with a serious face and the command that your listeners “Think about it.”
Another related game: Illuninati. Similar to Think About It except you are given 2 completely different topics and you have to connect them to each other in a wild conspiracy rant
