# Prison or penthouse? The cruelty/kindness of Pok? Balls



## Black Wraith (Dec 4, 2013)

> The old concern is that Pok?mon, the cutesy kids game that has become nothing short of a global phenomenon, has a dark heart. Yes, its bevy of monsters have doe eyes and quivering smiles, but strip away the cartoon aesthetic and the fact remains that your character is charged with wounding animals until they are sufficiently weakened to be captured in a tiny ball. Then, having trapped the critter, you send them out to fight other pocket monsters in what must be the world?s most socially acceptable contemporary take on cockfighting (Pok?mon X/Y sold four million units in just two days). In this way, Game Freak is teaching postmodern generations how to hunt, trap and battle in a world where the children affluent enough to own a handheld device have little apparent need for such skills.
> 
> It?s a selective take on Pok?mon?s seemingly inexhaustible appeal and yet there?s something to it. Sure, apologists will argue that captured Pok?mon fight for you willingly, and that a complicated bond of trust and cooperation is formed through the trainer/monster relationship. But you could read this another way: as a digital introduction to Stockholm Syndrome. After all, no matter how big or small they are ? and even the original Pok?mon range in height from a mere 30cm (Pidgey) to 8.8m (Onix) and in weight from less than a pound (Ghastly) to nearly a ton (Snorlax) ? each monster is kept in a one-size-fits-all cage: a tiny Pok? Ball.
> 
> ...




What do you people think?


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## Robert Haydn (Dec 4, 2013)

I've always thought of wild Pokemon as homeless people. 

You can live in nature if you want, fighting over food and never reaching your full potential. Or you can join up with a human, see the world, be taken care of, and become way stronger than you ever would have alone.


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## Bioness (Dec 4, 2013)

Honestly if certain Pokemon wanted too, they could wipe out/rule over the humans. But they don't. Pokemon are also shown as having some kind of symbiotic relationship with humans.

I don't think Pokeballs are either penthouses or prisons, I view them more like cryogenic sleep pods, which put the Pokemon in a stasis while still allowing it to consciously be aware of the outside world.

However, given the choice between the two extremes I'll pick penthouse.


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## Island (Dec 4, 2013)

IIRC, it's stated somewhere that most Pok?mon _want_ to be trained and that wild Pok?mon are jealous of trained ones for that reason.

We get a similar blurb at the beginning of every game. A big part of battling is the relationship between the trainer and his or her Pok?mon.


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## Bioness (Dec 4, 2013)

Admittedly the entire franchise is just a massive case of stockholm syndrome.


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## Island (Dec 4, 2013)

Probably. It seems they noticed this around Gen IV and have since been adding dialogue and random fluff to make it seem more acceptable. Specifically:



			
				Sinnoh Mythology said:
			
		

> Long ago, when Sinnoh had just been
> made, Pok?mon and humans led
> separate lives.
> That is not to say they did not help
> ...



Then, .


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## Axl Low (Dec 18, 2013)

actually this is going to sound random
but what if Pokeballs are like equivalents of like a USB drive/memory stick/thumb drive /etc
like pokemon's conscious have to be activated like RAM/memory 

meh


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## Yami Munesanzun (Dec 18, 2013)

why are there people always trying to make Pokemon seem like an evil thing.


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## Axl Low (Dec 18, 2013)

because peta


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## Yami Munesanzun (Dec 18, 2013)

because who-what now?


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