#the implications of colonialism in Pokemon

[loupy-mongoose]

Hello, new viewers, now and future! I finally buckled down and made something of a timeline for my story, so I thought I'd create an updated master post for the relational information on the Lindens.

This post contains spoilers for the backbone arc of my story. If you want to read through that first, here is a chrono link, and here is the first part if the chrono doesn't work. (I went through and made sure all the links work.)

IT ALSO CONTAINS IMPLICATION OF DEATH.

Randall, Akoya, and Lavender all have a human and a Mew form. (Or Mewtwo, in Lav's case.) Randy spends most of his time in human form.

The protagonist, Randall (Randy) Linden, was once a human. But when a sabotage went wrong, Randy was trapped and injured beyond help. Mo, a Mew friend of his, took Randy's memories to save him, overriding Mo's own.

Now Mo, with his own memories erased, lives Randy's life in his place. So Randy is essentially a human-turned-Mew.

Before that, Randy met Akoya, a shiny Mew from an uninhabited island in Hoenn. She and him became friends--Borderline lovers, but Randy stopped the relationship short of that due to his own values. (He didn't want to have a human/Pokemon romance, nor force Akoya to permanently become human.)

With research help from Randy and the facility he was working at, Akoya was artificially impregnated. However, the people there experimented on her, resulting in the baby being born a Mewtwo, which Randy named Lavender. (She is biologically not related to him, and she knows that, but she fully sees him as her dad.)

Three weeks after Lav was born, Randy "became a Mew". Later, after learning and adjusting to this fact, Randy decides he wants to be Akoya's mate. She goes a step further and offers to marry him--Marriage isn't a thing in Mew culture, but she was devoted enough to him to act on his culture and values.

Once he was comfortable enough as a Mew, Randy was open to trying for a kid with her. But after Lav's birth, Akoya was wary of having any more kids--The pregnancy with Lav was arduous and nearly killed Akoya.

Eventually, Akoya was ready to try, and they had the twins Monique and Midas.

Years later, after Momo and Midas have grown up, Randy and Akoya have another kid--Aneira.

Persim is Akoya's half-brother from her island colony. She has seven half-siblings, with a shared father.

Note: The years are strictly there as an anchor; I try to avoid mentioning years in my story as I am unsure how I want to go about it.

I'm sorry the timeline is so small. It's the only way I could think to fit it all in and give room for future events. X3

Thank you for taking the time to read this, if you did! If you have any questions/confusion or think something should be added, let me know and I'll try to get it answered! I'll continue to update this in the future as relevant events come to light~

[pokemonscience]

Cherheophilus antlia, commonly known as Squirtle in its juvenile form, represents a remarkable example of aquatic adaptation within the order Testudines. This species, endemic to freshwater habitats across several regions, exhibits a three-stage life cycle characterized by significant morphological and ecological transitions. The evolution of C. antlia's distinctive water-projecting organs, colloquially referred to as "water cannons," offers invaluable insights into the development of complex defensive and predatory mechanisms in aquatic reptiles. This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of C. antlia's biology, ecology, and conservation status, with particular emphasis on its colonial behavior and the implications of its widespread use in trainer programs.

[thenixkat]

See now my brain is wondering like? Yanmask is implied to be dead human souls. Yanmask’s og evolution is an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus ghost that punishes graverobbers.

We know that colonization is explicitly a thing in the pokemon world. Which would implies that the Transatlantic Slave Trade is a thing that happened in the pokemon world at some point.

Unova is the pokemon world version of New York. And its got a desert in it for some reason with a bunch of African themed ghosts.... 

“ The importation of enslaved Africans to what became New York began as part of the Dutch slave trade. The Dutch West India Company imported eleven African slaves to New Amsterdam in 1626, with the first slave auction held in New Amsterdam in 1655.[1] With the second-highest proportion of any city in the colonies (after Charleston, South Carolina), more than 42% of New York City households held slaves by 1703, often as domestic servants and laborers.[2] Others worked as artisans or in shipping and various trades in the city. Slaves were also used in farming on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley, as well as the Mohawk Valley region. “ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_New_York_(state))

I can’t not think about the potential implications of these things.

[diangelique]

Public Knowledge ( information everyone can know )

Diantha is the current Champion of the Kalos League as well as acting defender of the region in the case of conflict. She acts as the representative and in many ways is Kalos’ “knight.”

Wikstrom is Diantha’s adopted older brother, they’ve known each other since they were children, and were both orphans in Anistar City. Wikstrom is Diantha’s “Shield” while she is the “Sword.”

Diantha speaks in a very eloquent way when in the public, though in private she flips between incredibly poetic to downright chill.

If you ever witness a time where Wikstrom and Diantha are nearby each other, you will hear them both talking in the most old fashion, prose heavy, way of speaking physically possible.

Diantha’s Gardevoir is named Erza. 

For some reason, places she has recently been will be reported to have small bursts of carbink activity. 

“Inspirational” “Designer” “Popular” All and more has she been described and must uphold. 

Has been known to be passive aggressive if she’s annoyed, and assertive and stern if she is worried or concerned on a matter.

Semi-Private Knowledge ( information that only a few people/select groups know )

Diantha is a bit of an alcoholic. Her favourite spirit is rum.

Diantha has no favour towards legendaries, she respects them as powerful beings, yet not as gods. They exist, yet are they reliable? She believes they are not.

On the side and as a hobby, Diantha writes and paints. 

Diantha lives in Wikstrom’s estate. The majority of the region of Kalos does not know where she lives. 

Diantha has met far too many mythical pokemon to count. It’s a “joke” among those close to her that she is a magnet for them. 

Diantha’s hair is dyed, it is naturally white, almost diamond-like. It has been described as delicate yet beautiful to those that have seen it. She takes a great amount of time to assure her natural hair colour is kept both a secret and her hair as a whole safe.

Diantha has a doublade, it is actually the sibling to Wikstrom’s aegislash.

Diantha prefers to wear pink and magenta when she is at home. 

Considered smoking, but found alcohol was her preference, not to mention the smell did no favours to her image. 

Due to over exposure to mega evolution energy both as a child and for battle, Diantha has an unknown sickness that is slowly depleting her lifespan the longer she uses her keystone. This sickness is something her private doctors are aware of, as well as close friends and doctors. She is estimated to die young, yet has the determination and hopes that she will grow old to see Kalos move forward to it’s next morrow.

Diantha has had occasional episodes of dizziness and has been required to leave battles early because of this. These are happening more often, even so, she does her best to avoid the public noticing. There is some speculation, but it is all chocked to rumour. 

Diantha has had Erza since she was a ralts. She found the runt behind the grave of her parents shortly after their death. 

Private Knowledge ( information that nobody knows )

As a child, she had fell within a pit and nearly died, saved by a Diancie who would lead the young girl through the tunnels and to safety with the colony till they could find a way for her to reach the surface. 

Diantha considers this Diancie to be a great friend, they still meet at times down near a crystalline lake, to speak about their troubles. The only other person who knows about this is Wikstrom. 

Diantha’s parents died in a tragedy involving a certain petrified tree. She still visits their grave.

Diantha met a victini when she visited a distant island under no region. She has not told anyone of this meeting, and believes it partial to a curse. The exact details aren’t even known and she is unaware of the complete implications.

She witnessed Zygarde while in the tunnels with the carbink and Diancie. Diantha wishes to fight it one day, to prove her worth as Kalos’s protector. It’s knight.

Diantha has a tattoo after being kidnapped when she was barely 10.

[maniacwatchestheworld]

So there are some things about Emmet’s character that makes me think that we should be a bit... Concerned about him... And here’s one of them!

I think that you can learn a lot about someone by looking at what kind of Pokemon they use, especially if you can find some sort of pattern or through-line with all of them. And for Emmet... Well... Here are some Pokedex entries for some of the different lines of Pokemon that we know he has!

Archeops:

Well that’s kinda neat! Archeops may be a famously terrible Pokemon, but knowing that they’re actually quite intelligent is nice.

Tynamo (pre-evolved form of Eelektross):

Oh! That’s actually pretty cute! A whole school of baby Tynamo will work together to ward off predators by shocking them together where they couldn’t by themselves! Neat!

Durant:

I mean... I suppose that’s fair... Not like Durant stand much of a chance against Heatmor anyway, so of course they would need to work together to survive. Typical ant behavior, I suppose.

Joltik (pre-evolved form of Galvantula):

Oh... That’s actually pretty concerning... Without other Pokemon to leech electricity off of, Joltik would be completely defenseless against predators. Flying-types/birds especially. They rely on the static electricity of others to survive...

But worst of all is the Klinklang line. (Also before you tell me that Klinklang is Ingo’s Pokemon, while they share most of their Pokemon, Emmet and Ingo actually have different Klinklangs.)

Klink (pre-evolved form of Klinklang):

Klang (pre-evolved form of Klinklang):

The two gears that make up Klink and Klang are separate living entities. And if they’re ever separated for too long, they’ll die... That’s certainly something!

By themselves, any one of these entries are fine. But when looking at them together, they make a pattern. All of Emmet’s Pokemon at some basic level NEED to rely on others to survive. In the best cases it’s to act as hunting partners or to protect themselves as a colony. But in other cases... Well...

To me this seems to imply that Emmet is a fairly dependent person, so he ends up being attracted towards other Pokemon that need someone else to survive just like him... And I think that we can all surmise who that person Emmet thinks that he needs to be able to live would be... (Though a much less charitable implication could be that he’s just so desperate to feel like he’s needed that he’s surrounded himself with Pokemon who are inclined towards dependency so that they’ll rely on him, though I personally don’t think that would be the case.)

For the record, there is no such pattern like this with Ingo’s Pokemon. Just about the only pattern that I can find with those Pokedex entries would be that those Pokemon can all murder you in pretty horrific ways. But to be honest, that’s pretty standard stuff in regards to Pokedex entries. (Like half the Pokemon on this list could qualify for that too, so it’s really not an unusual pattern to see.) And this is not the first thing about Emmet that I’ve discovered that makes me think that he may have issues in regards to being overly dependent on others either. It’s just some more interesting supporting evidence that I’ve managed to dig up... And may be another reason to worry about how Emmet is doing in Ingo’s absence...

[freifraufischer]

Pokemon Has Done a Colonialism Before...

In the hype for the new Legends Arceus game I’m seeing a lot of American pokemon youtube content creators all excited that the game appears to be set in the pokemon world equivalent of the Japanese colonization of Hokkaido, and that we may meet the Pokemon equivalent of the Ainu people.  Hokkaido is known to be the real world geographical inspiration for the Sinnoh region, the headquarters building we see in the games looks a lot like the Japanese colonial government house and the game centers around “the first settlers” and a scientific exploration of the region.

And all these guys seem to think that will be really cool.

And all I can think about is Pokemon Sun and Moon.  The last generation of main series pokemon games before they went to the UK was set in Poke-Hawaii.  It’s central conceit is that unlike the rest of the Poke-world this region does not have a Japanese style gym progression system like all the other games but you as the player character go on a region specific rite of passage with trials and trial captains and facing trials with island kahunas.  But you see the professor, your characters closest (useful) ally wants to prove that the trainers of this region are just as strong as all the others so he wants to build a copy of the system he saw in Japan Kanto including building a new headquarters on the most sacred mountain in the region.  

Among other lovely details of these games (which I love for other reasons but am aware of the colonialist narrative) include:

An antagonistic group of street thugs based on Korean BBoy culture (which itself is based on African American urban rap culture).  They have taken over a town just to destroy everything in it including the house they live in.  Because you should totally trust Japanese media depictions of Korean culture much less Korean culture based on black culture to be aware of the implications they are painting.

A group of largely well meaning but ultimately antagonistic scientific wildlife protection people.

GOLF everywhere.  One of the major Hawaiian native issues right now is their land being bought up by Japanese investers to build golf courses.

Given this track record... I really really don’t trust these game developers to handle colonialism closer to home.

[transgenderer]

what would you want to be the next Pokémon legends game?

okay so like, the obvious choice is unova, but i actually think this would be a really good choice! i like unova but i think they sacrificed a lot of the new-york-iness of new york, which i GET, pokemon is very nature-y, so it cant just be a big city, but i think this is sort of a loss, it makes the region feel sort of generic, which is too bad, cuz NYC is so *un*generic. so i think there are basically two choices you could make, both of which have some problems but would give the game a lot more personality

so, option 1, you just do the same thing as PLA, its early-colonial new york islands/penninsulas, the area was super lush and like forested and stuff aiui, so that could be cool, theres some minor geography which you could exaggerate, dense forestry, travel between the islands, etc. this would have some obvious weird and colonialist implications, the same way PLA does, representing real acts of colonization, which came with lots of violence, as peaceful expansion into mostly empty territory, but obv game freak was already fine with that, so they could just do that. have some natives, try not to be too offensive about it, whatever, could totally work. plus you get to do the colonial aesthetic which could be fun, buckles and pilgrims and muskets and all that. maybe even play with the english/dutch thing, have two hostile groups expanding into the area in addition to the scant natives? theres potential here (oh plus theres those ruins in the desert right? so maybe you could see those in progress or while still used or something)

but option 2, which i prefer altho i think its a lot riskier, could be really fun. basically, you go the opposite direction as the sinnoh/hisui thing. jump way into the future, where the previously mostly wild unova region has got more and more urbanized, and now its a megacity! buuuut the gameplay is basically the same as PLA! its just this time youre documenting pokemon behavior and stuff *in a city* and theres people everywhere and they can give you items and quests and stuff, and theres all sorts of different pokemon habitats and the different boroughs of the city, like maybe theres poison types in the sewers and like pidoves on the streets and zigzagoon in the alleys and you could do a whole bunch of regional forms adapted to city life and different ways the megacity has adapted to areas too, like maybe an ice skyscraper in the far north and something like the desert tower in the desert or something! maybe have a huge conservatory for grass types, etc, theres really so much potential for cool design choices here

[impactrueno]

Considering that Galar is supposed to be based on the UK there are very few instances of British inspiration? I was expecting to be tripping over tea and crumpets, maybe the odd person calling me Mate, after all Kalos in XY was very identifiable as Pokemon France with building aesthetics, specific cuisine and the odd bit of French sprinkled in. What we do get however is a lot of Indian inspired stuff... which would imply Pokemon Queen Victoria did a Pokemon genocide on Pokemon India. Colonialism

really?? i felt it was pretty british

i mean im not british myself but from what ive seen things seem pretty identifiably british. the gyms are soccer football inspired, they got that teapot and corgi pokemon, fairies, unicorns, team yell are punks, the towns look unmistakably european...

on one hand having some indian stuff thrown in there makes sense, but on the other hand like you said that carries some strange implications to say the least. but is there really more indian stuff than british?? that doesnt seem right...

[gfesgersgersg]

My Thoughts About Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals

I recently revisited a game from my childhood: Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals. I never finished this game when I was younger, because I found it too scary to progress. As strange as it seems, this game’s first hour started my interest in science fiction, and I still enjoy the genre in books and games today, despite never finishing the game.

I played up to what I’d call the start of the end of the first act of the game, getting up to the Corona vortex on the planet Genshi. This is probably a super biased article, as I think about this game a lot. It reviewed poorly with critics and I think this was probably justified. It is also worth mentioning that I did not play the first Spectrobes game.

If you intend on playing this game, spoilers are ahead. The short version is that I enjoy the characters, but the last parts of the game are far weaker than the start. The gameplay is largely uninteresting, and the game isn’t really something I would recommend anyone play.

The Good

The music in this game is fantastic. The game always has some music playing, no matter what’s going on. Among my favourites are the character-specific tracks that play during dialogue, and the track that plays when you solve a puzzle. The music goes a long way toward selling the game’s environments, too. The music on the populated planets in the Nanairo system largely sounds upbeat, and reflects the planet you are on. This contrasts with the music on the planets that are “beyond the portals”, which sound quite alien. The music on Hyoga is calm and slow, fitting with a cold, lifeless planet. The music on Fons is calm but more sombre, and is very foreboding, fitting with the point in the story it is encountered. The music on Darkmos and Nox both fit with the artificial themes of these planets and are opposites somewhat to Fons and Hyoga.

Some good tracks would be: Ready For Action!, Hyoga, Darkmos and Fons.

The environments in this game are pretty impressive for the Nintendo DS. A lot of the backgrounds are 2D, which shows, especially in the city on Nessa, and on Fons. However, they look great in my opinion. Most impressive are the safe areas, such as Kollin and Colony. These environments really sell the Nanairo system as a real place.

The characters in this game are excellently written. By no means is the story a masterpiece, but the game’s characters entirely carry its story. Rallen and Jeena make a great duo, with entertaining banter. They reference each others’ quirks and joke around with each other. The supporting characters are good too. Commander Grant is very serious but clearly likes Rallen and Jeena. Cyrus and Webster are characters Rallen has history with, making for some funny moments and a nice “redemption” for Webster. Hank and Professor Kate are nice, and again, their friendship feels realistic in the sense that they act like they have known each other for a long time. While they’re not particularly deep, the High Krawl are good villains. They’re imposing throughout the story, and the mystery of their campaign against the Towers of Nanairo is intriguing. Maja is the main villain throughout, and she seems equally aloof and desperate in her attempts to get Rallen to side with her. Strictly from a characterisation perspective, she provides a good view into the internal conflicts between the High Krawl. Jado is a (probably intentionally) forgettable character in the early parts of the game.

The Bad

The excavation system is an interesting take on obtaining collectable monsters. This game’s status as a Pokemon clone is a largely inconsequential part of the experience to me. In Spectrobes, I didn’t feel any attachment to my spectrobes by the end of the game, simply using them as tools to get to the end. Partially, this could be because of Rallen not being a blank slate character. They’re more his spectrobes than mine. There is also the issue of the monsters themselves not really being unique. They’re nice designs, and unique to the game for sure, but my spectrobes ended up all looking the same. They’re not that unique from each other mechanically either, with the only differentiations being the typing and the evolution status. The child spectrobes are a good feature, however. Child spectrobes take on the role of searching for fossils, and don’t just sit in your storage waiting to be evolved.

The game’s characters are good, as discussed earlier, but its broader plot isn’t. It revolves around creatures known as Krawl, which feed by eating entire star systems. They’ve done this many times and are now focusing their efforts on the Nanairo system. This is OK, not particularly deep, but I see no issue with this. Beyond the Portals introduces new characters, High Krawl, who are capable of communicating with the humans living in Nanairo. Maja, at least, sees Rallen as an equal by the end of her involvement in the story, but continues to gloat about the inevitable complete genocide of Rallen’s home star system. The others are a bit more aloof, positioning themselves above the humans living in Nanairo. This is all a little far-fetched, but still OK. The High Krawl are seeking to destroy structures on each planet just called Towers. This allows them to open a new portal each time, into another star system. From these portals, Krawl will emerge from their current home on planets they have already consumed.

The first of the High Krawl to appear in the story is Jado, who is shown as being aloof but hapless. When defeated, he simply appears to die. This is a ruse on his part, and he is actually one of the most important characters to the story. Problem is, he barely appears. On Malik, at the very end of the game, he reveals that he has been hiding inside your patrol cruiser for the entire game. This is a bit of a head-scratcher. At this point, you fight him again and he admits defeat. Thus, he appears twice, but seems to warrant more of a presence. Next up is Gelberus, on Nessa. He is pretty inconsequential. He destroys the tower, opens the first portal, and you defeat him on Hyoga. After this is when Maja becomes the antagonist in earnest. She appears after both Jado and Gelberus’ defeats, gloating about how these events make her more powerful. She introduces the concept of Dark Spectrobes, and is first fought in an unbeatable fight on Daichi. After this, you go on a wild goose chase through Fons and Darkmos before beating her on Nox. Maja is more powerful than Rallen, but wants or needs his power for something. Beyond destroying or ruling the universe, this is not specified. Still, it is a good enough reason for her to not just kill Rallen. After Maja is defeated, Rallen and Jeena recover the Dynalium, which is a weapon that can penetrate a planetary shield of some kind. After some fetch quests to make a large Dynalium, an assault is carried out on Malik, where Krux resides. Krux reveals that he is a Spectrobe Master like Rallen, but uses the Krawl for their numbers. The implications of this aren’t discussed in-game. Rallen defeats Krux in hand-to-hand combat and the game ends. None of this plot is particularly interesting at any point. The best part is Maja’s story arc, which seems to build up to a twist that doesn’t happen. The High Krawl are treacherous toward one another in a way that isn’t really used for anything interesting. Internal conflicts within the High Krawl could be a good way to introduce some uneasy alliances between the NPP and certain High Krawl. I don’t expect the plot of this game to be filled with complex intrigue, but its perfectly good characters have wasted potential.

The game has some nasty difficulty spikes around Fons, halfway through the game. It’s mentioned that Rallen should evolve his spectrobes after Fons is cleared, but the Krawl on the planet are much higher level than yours at this point. Up to this point, the game is balanced well, providing good balance with no need to grind. The battling in general leaves a lot to be desired. The type matchups are obvious and shallow, and the systems leave little room for strategising. The real time battling system seems cool at first, but ends up being a matter of running up to an opponent and mashing the A button. The camera in this mode is awful and frequently leaves you facing nothing at all. As such, battling in this game feels like a chore needed to progress, rather than a fun challenge.

The level design isn’t fantastic either. While many environments are visually impressive, they’re often too big, with very little in them. There isn’t anything to find other than randomly dispersed fossils and minerals. Especially later in the game, the constant backtracking through these big, empty areas feels like an attempt to pad for time. This is exemplified by the final planet, Malik. You’re asked to traverse the exact same room around 10, maybe more, times by going through the portal that is spinning to the left in each. This is not fun to play. A lot of the game’s tasks feel like busy work rather than actual gameplay. This should not be an issue. The game has more than enough content to justify itself, without this bad filler. My other issue with the levels is that the Krawl respawn continuously. This creates a feeling that you’re not actually helping these planets. At least, the populated Nanairo planets should be clear of Krawl if you remove them.

Conclusion

To conclude, Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals is not a particularly good game. It is a mediocre Pokemon clone in gameplay terms, and in plot terms has wasted potential. The game has excellent characters and music and a well realised world. It falls short probably due to attempting to ride the Pokemon train, rather than trying to be more unique. The game’s plot doesn’t really fit an RPG formula at all. This game is just one of many obscure Nintendo DS games, and I don’t even really like it, but it will hold a place in my heart forever. I suppose something to draw from this could be that no matter how mediocre a piece of media, it can still have an impact on someone, somewhere.

[stoweboyd]

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff review – we are the pawns | James Bridle makes Shoshana Zuboff's new book even more frightening that she does herself. He starts by observing that the internet giants have sucked up all the free social exhaust to their own advantage:

In a move of such audacity that it bears comparison to the enclosure of the commons or colonial conquests, the tech giants unilaterally declared that these previously untapped resources were theirs for the taking, and brushed aside every objection. While insisting that their technology is too complex to be legislated, there are companies that have poured billions into lobbying against oversight, and while building empires on publicly funded data and the details of our private lives they have repeatedly rejected established norms of societal responsibility and accountability. And what is crucially different about this new form of exploitation and exceptionalism is that beyond merely strip-mining our intimate inner lives, it seeks to shape, direct and control them. Their operations transpose the total control over production pioneered by industrial capitalism to every aspect of everyday life.

The extraction is so grotesque, so creepy, that it is almost impossible to see how anyone who really thinks about it lives with it – and yet we do. There’s something about its opacity, its insidiousness, that makes it hard to think about, just as it’s hard to think about climate change, a process that will inevitably undo society as we currently understand it, yet is experienced by many of us as slightly better weather. Likewise the benefits of faster search results and turn-by-turn directions mask the deeper, destructive predations of what Shoshana Zuboff terms “surveillance capitalism”, a force that is as profoundly undemocratic as it is exploitative, yet remains poorly understood. As she details in her important new book, ignorance of its operation is one of the central strategies of this regime, and yet the tide is turning: more and more people express their unease about the surveillance economy and, disturbed by the fractious, alienated and trustless social sphere it generates, are seeking alternatives. It will be a long, slow and difficult process to extricate ourselves from the toxic products of both industrial and surveillance capitalism, but its cause is assisted by the weighty analysis provided by books such as this. Combining in-depth technical understanding and a broad, humanistic scope, Zuboff has written what may prove to be the first definitive account of the economic – and thus social and political – condition of our age.

Bridle uses Pokemon Go as a metaphor for a constructed reality used to program and control our behavior, like a giant Skinner box. This controlling force is now atmospheric: we breathe it.

For Zuboff, this dread force is not merely a higher expression of capitalism, but a perversion of it, and while some might regard that as special pleading, she is at pains to clarify where it differs from more equitable and mutually beneficial forms. As a consequence of placing her analysis within economic theory and a wider history of both capitalism and totalitarianism, she introduces a number of useful terms into the discussion which do much to move it forward. Much of the debate around Google, Facebook and their ilk, for example, has been framed in terms of privacy – as mere control over information about the self – and while many of these arguments are venerable and well-articulated, they’ve also been mostly lost. It seems people are very willing to give up their private information in return for perceived benefits such as ease of use, navigation and access to friends and information. Zuboff recasts the conversation around privacy as one over “decision rights”: the agency we can actively assert over our own futures, which is fundamentally usurped by predictive, data-driven systems. Engaging with the systems of surveillance capitalism, and acquiescing to its demands for ever deeper incursions into everyday life, involves much more than the surrender of information: it is to place the entire track of one’s life, the determination of ones path, under the purview and control of the market, just as Pokémon Go players are walked, lit by their glowing screens, straight through the doors of shops they didn’t even know they wanted to visit.

When this logic of invisible coercion is applied to the social sphere, its implications become even more disturbing. The belief that human behaviour can be perfectly modelled, predicted and controlled entrains as a consequence the collapse of equitable relations between individuals and trust in institutions, and the substitution of algorithmic certainty for any semblance of participatory, democratic society. There is no appeal to collective, contestable decision-making or to responsible business practices under this purported perfection of human behaviour. Surveillance capitalism, run as the code for everyday life, erases both free will and free markets – an outcome as horrifying to confirmed believers in “good old” capitalism, such as Zuboff, as to those of us who weren’t so sure about the original in the first place.

We have to rise up in opposition to surveillance capitalism.

[magonumberfive]

rivalbede

replied to your

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[I have written a every academic essay that let me...

okay so what are your thoughts on the interregional relationships of the kanto regions and alola? how do you think real life history affects that

[ I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really know shit’s fucked about Hawaii or it’s relationship with Japan, but I will say there’s an inherit danger for looking for the direct links of Japan’s imperialism age and the implication that it could hold on the Pokemon region just because of the extremely specefic circumstances of Japan’s expansion. 

After the waring states period started to come to an end, Toyotomi Hideyoshi lead a campaign to conquer china (and I think Korea? I think the idea was mostly china but Through korea which really soured their relationship). Not only did he hunger for power, but it was a way to keep samurai employed without the constant war in the country, considering the whole hierarchy was very important to the island and everyone knows at least a bit about how important samurai were to the Japanese people. 

That didn’t really work. Tokugawa Ieyasu realized the importance of a unified nation and started his campaign to sort of deify himself in the eyes of his people and to establish the Tokugawa Shogunate as an absolute power that wouldn’t be uprooted. It was kinda fucked with propaganda and the rewriting of history, but also Japan had this big boom of prosperity. 

And then America happened. Conquest and cutting the world into pieces for the sake of colonies was in. Japan realized that if it didn’t want to be destroyed, it had to conquer, and it was easy to appeal to the history of Japan as warriors, conquerors, proud people with a rich unique history ect ect. 

But in the Pokemon world there’s no real evidence of any of this. Hell, Hideyoshi, Ieyasu and Nobunaga all just...exist in Ransei? Tohjo fucking Whomst. 

Tohjo is also noticeably NOT an island, which was a big advantage and factor in Japan’s ENTIRE history. Basically you would have to consider an entire alternate history of Kanto and the rest of the world. 

It’s been a hot second since I played Alola too, but isn’t implied that they’re like? Halfway around the world from Kanto with the opposite day night cycle and Mom says something about it being the opposite? If Kanto did have an outward expansion, I imagine it would keep islands close to itself like the Orange islands from the anime. Maybe Hoeen.

WE NEED A MAP GAMEFREAK 

[loupy-mongoose]

Weird question, but would we be able to get 1 strange and interesting fact we haven't heard before about each of your characters?

Ooo, that’s an interesting and fun one to think about~

I’ll go ahead and give one for every (main) named character so far. (Excluding future babies.)

Keep in mind I’m going off my memory with these. My memory is generally pretty reliable, but there is a chance I’ve shared any of these publicly. If that’s the case, let me know and I’ll think of something else. (Chats don't count. If one of these was heard in a chat with me, then it doesn't count as publicly mentioned.)

WARNING; Mention of death (Jerry) and suicidal implication (Akoya). (What. You never said they had to be fun facts. ...Don't worry, those are the only two that are more downcast in nature.)

Randy: He was 2 years old when he saw a Mew for the first time (he barely remembers it though), and 3 when he learned what exactly it was he saw.

Akoya: She almost let the lab fire reach her on purpose, with her survival instinct preventing it in the nick of time.

Lavender: If she were to meet a (green) shiny Mewtwo, she'd be jealous of them.

Momo: She likes the feeling of static shocks, but doesn't like the way it poofs her fur.

Midas: There is a subject in which he will be bolder than Momo.

Persim: He may have eventually taken a medicinal role in the colony if he'd stayed.

Sulfur: He's known Randy and Lavender all his life, as he hatched under Rowan's care a couple years after they arrived. His mother is the Lucario mentioned in this writing.

Tol: The disk on his head acts as both a suction cup and a strong muscle/set of muscles to cling to the underside of things.

Linda: Instead of roses, I draw the "flowers" of her hands as bushels of feathers or specialty petals.

Jerry: He doesn't seek death. He's just unusually familiar with its inevitability, and doesn't fear it.

Branch side:

Jovie: Her favorite game/prank to pull is Psychically throwing water globs at people. Especially in the summer time to help cool them down.

Nicodemus: Unlike the Movie Mewtwo, Nico never made clones of any Pokémon, and Amber doesn't exist. So there aren't any of those other 'twos for him to think about or remember.

Pari: She would normally be disguised as a different Pokemon when first meeting strangers, but we all caught her off guard. Her disguise of choice is Floette.

Cody: He is based on a Mii that showed up in my family's Wii for seemingly no reason. (We had access to the Check Mii Out Channel growing up, so I can only assume we downloaded him from there.)

BONUS FACT: In a way, I've shown another character that will appear on @trials-of-vj, but not in the form of art. :3