Ethical and Moral Issues in Pokémon

Oct 2, 2010
Glen Miller

Pet or Slave? - All - Star Matches

Pokémon has taken the world by storm in its 14-year run. But, in all of its popularity, has morality and common sense blinded us to its darker side?

Ever since Pokémon debuted in 1996, it’s been a world-wide phenomenon. Children, teens, and even adults indulge in the video games, manga, anime, and card games that have made Pokémon such a success. It’s been so huge that even a few huge, blatantly horrible elements have been ignored—some of which are key components to the Pokémon Universe.

Pokémon Battles

In the Pokémon world, there are two main goals: catch all the Pokémon, and become the best Pokémon trainer in the world. In order to accomplish that second goal, trainers must capture and enslave, for lack of a better word, a team of Pokémon to use for battle. That’s right: these animal-like creatures provide entertainment and fulfillment in the form of brutal fighting that ends when all of one trainer’s Pokémon have fainted. Most regions sport eight gyms whose leaders specialize in a certain type of Pokémon. For example, the eight gym leaders in the first games: Brock, Misty, Lt. Surge, Erika, Sabrina, Koga, Blaine, and Giovanni are represented by Rock, Water, Electric, Grass, Psychic, Poison, Fire, and Ground type Pokémon, respectively. Each gym leader must be defeated in order to obtain all eight badges. These badges are subsequently used later in the game to defeat the Elite Four and the Champion. Once the Champion is defeated, the trainer is declared the new Champion, but at what cost? The abuse and injury of his own pets?

PokéBalls

As stated above, the primary goal in playing Pokémon is to catch them all. In order to do so, there must be some method used. The solution in the Pokémon games? PokéBalls. PokéBalls are small, orange-sized, hinged balls that are used to confine Pokémon of any size—ranging from the smallest: Diglett at eight inches and Gastly at one-fifth of a pound to the biggest: Wailord at 47’7” and Groudon at 2094.4 pounds. How that’s even possible is beyond understanding. It’s amazing that the PETA of the Pokémon world hasn’t pushed for a ban on PokéBalls. Confining such large creatures to such small, small spaces is a cruel and unusual punishment. There aren’t even any holes poked in them. It’s worse than leaving a dog in a car with the windows rolled up in the middle of summer.

It is unfathomable why a person would feel comfortable treating these animal-like Pokémon worse than they would ever imagine treating their own pets. That children playing the game rarely see these parallels is shocking. It is amazing that various religious leaders from several denominations have condemned Pokémon for the sacrilegious messages is supposedly sends while completely ignoring the fact that the whole game revolves around animal abuse.

Sources:

"CESNUR - Pokémon, Religion and Culture." CESNUR - Centro studi sulle nuove religioni - Center for Studies in New Religions. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2010.

"The Official Pokémon Website | Pokemon.com." The Official Pokémon Website | Pokemon.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2010.

Glen Miller - I am currently a junior studying writing and legal studies at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. I am due to graduate in ...

Comments

Oct 18, 2010 10:57 AM

Guest :

Come on, it's a video game and applying real life logic to it is a completely stupid thing to do. There's always someone who has to complain about a harmless video game and call it animal abuse. If you actually did your research before you wrote this garbage article, you wouldn't have made fans like myself laugh at all of your misguided arguments. Bottom line, of you don't like it, don't play it.

Oct 18, 2010 2:02 PM

Glen Miller :

Don't get me wrong; I understand it's a video game and that it's all fake; none of it's real. My purpose wasn't to complain but only to relate a fictional world to a real world. My goal was to show that there is a way to view Pokemon that may not have been the creator's intentions. It wasn't, in fact. He based collecting the Pokemon creatures on his hobby of collecting insects. The battling concept was probably added to make things more interesting.

Also, I too am a fan of Pokemon. I find the world of it fascinating.

I respect your opinions, and you are entitled to them. However, even though I agree that too much thought is being put into this article, I do wish that in the future, you state your opinions in a more professional manner. Calling someone's work garbage is far from polite and discredits yourself. Voice your criticisms in a constructive manner, and your opinions would be better received.

Thank you.

Glen.

Jan 11, 2011 9:29 PM

Guest :

After reading this article,all I can say is,ARE YOU SERIOUS!Listen, I don't know about you but I grew up watching and playing pokemon.And while I may not have much time to play anymore at the age of 18,I am still a very devoted fan.My childhood was ****, and the only thing that made me happy was gaming, especially pokemon and its anime.It's just a game, you can't try to relate reality to ficition, it just dosn't work.And if your really worried about enslaving and abusing computer generated animals then you should really do your research and watch the anime, because in it you find that a lot of these animals willing join the main charactor with only a short or no battle at all.But beyond that you will find that in the series the charactor develops long and meaningful relationships with his "pokemon".
So, next you want to cut down somthing you apparently know nothing about,
DON'T,because if you can't care enough to go over all fact, then you have no right to complain about it.

Jan 23, 2011 1:27 PM

Guest :

Hey Glen, Eat A D*ck

Feb 6, 2011 1:39 PM

Guest :

wow...whoever wrote this needs to go back to their padded room and put on their huggy jacket.... :3

Feb 11, 2011 6:43 PM

Guest :

Don't Fuck, Pokémon is the best idea of world

Feb 12, 2011 8:20 AM

Guest :

I have been a fan of Pokemon for a very long time, and I can't really remember a time when I didn't laugh at how outlandish the idea of the Pokeball was and how abusive the whole goal of the game was to the animal-like Pokemon. I'd always been aware of the darker side, but it never really deterred me from playing the game. I can see the danger of letting a child play it and the influence that it may have, but I have been playing it since I was a child and I absolutely love animals to the point of them being one of my passions. I would never actually do it in reality, capture them and battle them, but the thing about Pokemon is that most of them actually seem to enjoy fighting. They love their trainers and one of the best ways to increase the 'Love' meter is by having it be the first Pokemon that appears in battle. Real animals would not enjoy such a life, but Pokemon seem to thrive in that kind of life in my opinion.

Feb 13, 2011 9:42 AM

Guest :

Personally, I agree that the concept is kind of funny. But I as a child never noticed, so i have grown to like it. so it just makes me laugh, not dislike the game any more. But nevertheless it is still true, that the concept is very bad. And it also has slutty ten year old girls leaving home with a boy >.> But at least in the new one they are older i think..

Feb 19, 2011 2:47 PM

Guest :

You do realize that the pokeballs are larger on the inside and minimize the pokemon. Heck there's even a ball called a Luxury ball.
And the pokemon fight each other just like ppl fight each other. They dnt do it till someone dies they fight like boxing. Till one person gives up or faints.

Feb 19, 2011 2:47 PM

Guest :

Mar 18, 2011 4:39 PM

Guest :

I'm pretty sure the pokeballs digitize the pokemon into data, and therefore do not confine them, and more over, all my pokemon are happy as pigs in shit, so this is absolute bunk. Go complain about boxing. Or real abuse.

Mar 24, 2011 3:54 PM

Guest :

Pokemon are stated many times during the story of the games to be friends and partners. There is even a tower built to house the remains of deceased Pokemon, where the trainers can pay their respects to their lost friend. Even if the Pokemon are hurt during battle, or "faint", they can be taken to a Pokemon Center, and are restored good as new, all injuries forgotten. So, really, what's the problem? This is hardly dogfighting, at least the trainers care enough to heal their Pokemon after each battle, and take care not to harm another trainers Pokemon irreparably, which apparently doesn't happen, anyway. Trust me, these monsters are quite capable of defending themselves, and if they were truly averse to it, I'm sure they could always just eat the trainer. And I am an animal lover. Stories of animal abuse on the news drive me mad. If we treated animals in the real world with half the respect Pokemon get, this world would be much better off.

Mar 24, 2011 3:57 PM

Guest :

The poke balls are implied to have some kind of contained reality within them that suits the Pokemon being stored. They're not just being crammed into a little ball.

Mar 30, 2011 6:33 AM

Guest :

GAHAHAHA. By your logic, almost every game ever created is horrible and cruel. Do you feel bad for the 100,000 grubbs i killed in Gears of war 2 to get the seriously 2.0 achievement?Not to mention all the hundreds of other games i have played. Dont forget aswell, pokemon may like the idea of teaming up with a person and fighting other pokemon. Remember, in the original series, Ash's Charazard loved fighting strong pokemon and wouldnt listen to Ash at all coz he is a girl
If it was real you would have a valid point. But its not. please try to remember it is just a game

Jan 22, 2012 4:03 PM

Guest :

I can understand the point and know I really am not saying anything not already posted, but I found this article extremely interesting. The first argument you seem to make is the cruelty of having the animals fight eachother, like dog-fighting or boys who catch bugs and put them into a small container to watch them kill eachother. (Now that I think of it, that last one uses the same inspiration for pokemon, bugs...) Yes, you may say, it is a sport, but we are forcing other pokemon to do it for us. But pokemon for the most part "do" enjoy it. Within this fictional world, it's what they do. What is more, they are used for protection from wild pokemon. Only training allows them to do best defend their masters. (Don't complain over that term. People who absolutely adore their pooches are fine with a culture refering to them as their dog's "master.") Finally, no one dies.
Next, for those terrible capture mechanisms, the pokeballs. No one knows what's actualy inside those things, so its purely up to the fans. If you honestly hate pokemon, go ahead and believe it's animal cruelty and they're basically kennels that leave some pokemon with their flesh squished onto the ball's walls. (That sounded very odd going through my head, "ball's walls.") On the other hand, I saw a particularly funny comic of a charmander, sitting on a sofa in a library, smoking a pipe while reading some random piece of classical literature, only to be interupted from its enjoyment by being summoned from its pokeball. In a world with teleporting devices, insta-heal machines, and animals possessing power over the elements, anything is possible.
Finaly, have an issue with a phrase you used, "capture and enslave, for lack of a better word." For your purposes, writing a document accusing the pokemon franchise of animal cruelty, this may be true. There may be no better word than enslave to support your case. But in the world of pokemon it has been stated time and again that the pokemon are the trainer's parters. After all, what would you expect from a franchise aimed at children with the predominant theme of "friendship?"
Read more at Suite101: Ethical and Moral Issues in Pokémon | Suite101.com http://glen-miller.suite101.com/ethical-and-moral-issues-in-pokemon-a292683 #ixzz1kEcTYPGO

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