A Look Inside The War On Pokemon

camera site: / seethisthruuu bird site: / afewbruises
patreon: / hazelyt
sources: pastebin.com/G...
song list: i.imgur.com/QI...
and yes i know the book is on the guy's wikipedia in the clip i used. either it wasnt there the first time i checked while taking notes or i just missed it every time except while watching it back after upload. oh well.

[@melissahourihan2344]

I love how he’s like “POKEMANS IS MAKING KIDS VIOLENT” and then is like “a pastor chopped up a pikachu with a sword in front of a crowd of children”

[@shaobues]

I guarantee you at least one of those kids hit their sibling with a stick going "chop it up! chop it up!" if it is true

[@solarmoth4628]

The bible has much more graphic violence than pokémon. Has the pastor even read it? 😂

[@connorbeith3232]

@@solarmoth4628 "Violence is ok, as long as it teaches you about The Lord."

[@emberdragon4248]

"Violence is bad, unless it gives us more control over people. Then it is sacred and holy"

[@nisnast]

A SWORD A F*CKING SWORD WHAT HOW

[@b3b3j4y]

Big shout out to my mom. My cousins were, but not anymore, part of an evangelical church that made them wear skirts and I remember my aunt being like, “you let him watch Pokémon? but it’s so violent. they kill each other!” and my mom said, “well, there’s a nurse and she heals them and I don’t think they actually die”. Lol so I love that my mom actually somehow picked up the bare minimum from what she must’ve heard while I played the VHS tapes.

[@justinwatson1510]

I wonder if your aunt would have objected to your cousins watching The Passion of the Christ? Lol

[@bijoukaiba]

Aunt: But they kill each other! Mom: No, that's only under Nuzlocke rules.

[@SirGrimLockSmithVIII]

W mom

[@emberdragon4248]

@@bijoukaiba Best reply so far

[@marinablack181]

I can't believe they made them wear skirts, what an important story aspect

[@leoly9518]

When i was growing up i was "banned" from pokemon because at the time my parents were really into a local Christian community and all the kids were "banned" from xyz popular things they didnt like. But i was secretly obsessed with pokemon, i used to hide in a storm drain with the neighbours kid and he would let me play red on his gameboy. My favourite pokemon was ponyta and since i wasn't allowed to watch it myself he taped the anime episode with the ponyta races for me. So what im getting at here is the power of kids who like pokemon can be stronger than the will of parents who dont.

[@crypticcorvid]

That story is beautiful.

[@leoly9518]

@@crypticcorvid haha i used to live near a beach so those big concrete tunnel ones were everywhere

[@crypticcorvid]

@@leoly9518 Ohh, that makes sense, lol!

[@Xx_Oleander_xX]

Ponyta is valid as hell

[@rickydo6572]

That's some "Kids Next Door" shit.

[@syntheticteapot]

The weird thing is that since latin America went through somewhat of an anime Renaissance during the day, my dad would watch the shows with me when anime began to become popularized in the US. My best memories are watching pokemon on Saturdays and dragonball-dragonballz after school with my dad. It was nearly every day that we had our time together and it's so special to me. My mom almost got freaked out about pokemon but then my dad and I looked at her and were like, "it's fiction."

[@tejdandekar]

Your dad is a chad

[@greg6500]

I tried to introduce my dad to Dragonball Z, we didn't get past the opening title sequence. "Whos that? Is that the same guy?! Why is he so angry?"

[@ritacirocavalcante]

Moral panics in third world countries were far less influential overall. Kinda hard to be scandalized by fictional violence when actual violence is happening just across the street.

[@Nadia1989]

@@ritacirocavalcante True. We see the real deal, capital "v" violence every day, so anime "fights" are nothing.

[@syntheticteapot]

@@ritacirocavalcante I mean in the 2000s the moral panic caught up and a lot of anime was banned among a lot of religious groups. Especially in Mexico for some reason

[@Noxyfied]

I’m glad Hazel is looking at another niche franchise

[@azimulhoque1497]

Hopefully this pokemon thing can find its footing outside of japan after all this controversy

[@thomp]

@@azimulhoque1497 ​ I know! I really hope they release some merch of that yellow cat. He looks cute. Maybe a plushie or a t-shirt.

[@azimulhoque1497]

@@thomp i was hoping that weird pink balloon that sings could become the face of the franchise or something

[@shoxy-the-pinecone6113]

I know right, I’ve never heard about this whole Christianity stuff, seems interesting

[@piranhalettuce]

@@azimulhoque1497 Yeah I hope this pokeyman thing becomes popular around the world, I have a feeling that people are going to like that lizard with it's tail on fire.

[@eldritchexploited5462]

One thing I love about pokemon, and something I feel like drives these evalgelical types away is that it fosters a lot of empathy towards creatures that are considered frightening or othered. No matter what a pokemon looks like, whether it be cute and fluffy like a mareep or more insect-like and bizzare like an araquanid, they're all seen as being capable of being appreciated and loved by people, and the player is ENCOURAGED to do so by the games mechanics straight up making high friendship with your team incredibly overpowered. You can see how an insular group who's pathologically afraid of anything "impure" or "unholy" would have no time for a franchise that's built on the principal of beauty and worth being utterly subjective and not prescribed by an authority. Like, my adoration of creatures like snakes, spiders and bats was first encouraged by pokemon forcing me to look at those sorts of creatues and seeing a potential friend and not something to be reviled and shunned. TLDR; Pokemon is thematically centered around empathy for "the other" and evangalism fundamentally cannot have true empathy for anything not "pure".

[@syntheticteapot]

Even Jesse and James were considered empathetic characters in the show. Yes, they did bad but even ash would do the right thing and even helped James when he didn't want to marry. The episode when Jesse and James are brought to tears when ash was considering evolving Pikachu, Pikachu slaps the thunderstone away, and then ash vows to beat any raichu on behalf of all Pikachu. The lesson that meowth is loved just the way he is among the inept bad guys helps show that people, even if working on the side of bad, are humans who need support and love. Even in the episode where team rocket helps ash get into Erika's gym showed they really aren't all bad. They even put aside their differences with ash to help Orville the pidgey to achieve his dreams. It's so sweet and nice. Over and over they are put in situations where their core empathy takes over and they end up helping one another, despite how Jesse and James were working on behalf of an evil corp.

[@dvillines26]

this is the same crowd of people that actively denounced Mr. Rogers as evil, so yeah, evangelicals hate empathy, generally. Understanding people who are different is anathema, because in doing so it causes their whole set of paper thin arguments to crumble. Their worldviews are strawmen that go up in flames at the slightest spark, and they know it, which is why they so aggressively condemn ANYTHING they perceive as promoting open-mindedness and/or critical thinking.

[@Xx_Oleander_xX]

Maybe that's why alot of nerodivergent kids gravitated towards the series so much. The show and games made it clear that every pokemon no matter how strange or annoying was someone's favorite.

[@GoldieTamamo]

On the flip side, you've got balloons (Drifloon) that are a shout-out to Junji Ito's hanging balloons, which, according to their Pokedex entry, grab the hands of children and drag them to the afterlife. The thing about Pokemon, is that it's inspired by Onmyodo's concept of shikigami (summoned familiars from Japanese esoteric magic practice, derived from Chinese Daoism), kaiju (giant monsters from a genre of films that serve as natural disaster/nuclear energy/nuclear warfare/international political commentary), and gashapon machines (trading/collectables). Not to mention creator Satoshi Tajiri's childhood experience with running around in graveyards trying to catch beetles for Insect fighting, a real-world Japanese phenomena that informs the 'cockfighting' element of Pokemon. So there's a fair amount of ghost story/urban legend smuggled in, along with the critter safari. Basically, there's a lot of missing context for some evangelist who knows next to dick about Japan's urban legends, ghost stories, mythology, and the cultural context surrounding the creator's life experience leading up to making the game. It's of course going to read 'alien as fuck', and there's definitely para-religious elements within the series, like the Lavender Town segment of the first gen games, climbing through an indoor pet-cemetary while fighting off spirit-possessed miko (the "Channeler" trainers). Pokemon's lore is a far darker subject than you might at first like to imagine. It's not as simple as people being insular; and, to give the evangelical devil his due, it's a case of straight up culture shock that in retrospect was probably par for the course, given some of Pokemon's themes at the time. Keeping in mind this was the 90's, during the time of the whole 'Satanic Panic' mass hysteria. Fear porn surrounding entertainment media being the work of a Satanic attack was 'lucrative' for a certain demographic in the 90s, much the way certain threat narratives can be lucrative for unscrupulous demagogues, today. My personal wish is that both Nintendo and fans of Pokemon stop trying to pave over that cultural 'darkness' by making Pokemon look like an inoffensive theme park attraction. But given how profitable a mainstay the series has been for Nintendo, that's probably wishful thinking on my part.

[@Gloomdrake]

Every Pokémon could potentially be someone's favorite Pokémon

[@salome.artist]

As someone who was a small child obsessed with pokemon, and then had to put her beloved pokedex book and pikachu tshirt in the bin because it was 'evil' thank you for this video. Not even bible belt American here, we had this in Britain!? I am literally addressing this in therapy right now... hugs to everyone in the same boat

[@Code7Unltd]

>we had this in Britain!? Having some knowledge on media in Europe, I suspect it's because English-language media is cheap to import from the U.S. (Americans have a similar thing with Spanish media and Mexico) at the time and conversion to PAL was easy for broadcasters, never mind that moving the video from broadcast systems M to N would worsen quality (hence the poor quality of CBN tapes when ran on broadcasters in the Eurozone).

[@ajc94]

There definitely are some religious nuts in the UK but I'd like to think fewer than the USA. In general Brits don't really care about religion. I don't have any friends who go to church

[@luccagiovani]

I am interested in the thoughts your therapist has on this subject. If you don't mind sharing

[@rabidfurify]

@@Code7Unltd I think the surprise here is being directed at how rare it is for religious moral panics to make their way to the UK rather than being surprised that an English-dubbed anime was being shown

[@noremac7216]

I have a friend who shredded all of his Pokemon cards after a pastor convinced him he was going to hell

[@caitlineder6950]

As a person whose first special interest was Pokemon and also as a person who was raised in the evangelical Christian trenches, what can I say other than that I am Ready for this video

[@birdytiger]

A-frickin-men to that

[@theothertonydutch]

I grew up with the free reformed church (netherlands) and while it wasn't that bad in my family, I had friends with parents who were totally against stuff like Pokemon or Dragonball Z and I am pretty sure that movement in anti-fun was imported from TV evangelicals from the US. The 90's were a trip! My mom once watched Dragonball Z with me and while Picollo was charging up my mom was like "Does that man need to poop?"

[@SECONDQUEST]

I love that "special interest" is just something we can drop into causal conversation.

[@ElectronerpProductions]

@@SECONDQUEST we're all autistic here

[@alivingbreathingdrugpsa1383]

Same

[@waaurufu]

I can absolutely believe that the pastor's son destroyed his copy of Pokemon because I did a similar thing as a kid. My fundamentalist Christian mom hated my Yugioh cards and I felt so much guilt over it that I ripped up the one she hated the most and brought the rest of the deck (she bought for me) back to the store to be returned. And my mom was proud of my decision. I get a pit in my stomach every time I think about it.

[@jaschabull2365]

Damn. Which card was the particular target of her ire, if you recall? (no worries if you'd rather not talk about it).

[@waaurufu]

@@jaschabull2365 I don't remember its name but I remember it was a skeleton and the deck it came from was a pre-made deck with the original Blue Eyes White Dragon as its signature card.

[@AnimeboyIanpower]

@@waaurufu Skull Servant?

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

This sucks and I'm really sorry it happened. You got through a hard situation as best you could. Hope you are able to enjoy your interests without that pain now

[@slowyourroll1146]

Have you spoken to her about it since then and does she still believe that it's a devilish franchise?

[@TheWeeabooJones]

I've always wondered what it would have been like if Shin Megami Tensei was the successful game of that timeframe. I'm sure it would have been way more wild

[@andrejg4136]

I think we would have to invent new words for the levels of apoplexy that would have been achieved.

[@Yixdy]

There's no way, every Nintendo game had even just the depiction of a cross altered or removed entirely back then, Nintendo of America would have stroked out even attempting to completely re-write everything in those games and then some. Damn I'd have loved SMT as a child though.

[@EdenNeedsAYoutubeHandle]

@@Yixdy The first and only SMT game that got localized in the 90's was the Jack Bros spin-off for the Virtual Boy. I imagine the only reason it got past Nintendo was because it revolved around two cutesey mascots based on european folk tales, and as such forwent the religious imagery the franchise was otherwise known for. But also because there were only, like, 10 Virtual Boy games in existence, so they couldn't exactly be picky about how much of the console's library could make it overseas lest they have no library in the overseas market at all. (Not that it did much to salvage the VB's sales in the end...)

[@thecthuloser876]

Maybe. But there's I've seen one of these pseudo-documentaries on rock music, where the people mention both Madonna and Venom. Venom, despite being the band that defined black metal, was actually explicitly said to be less spiritually dangerous because it was explicit.

[@alexbubble6952]

@@Yixdy SMT was also on the Sega CD. So Nintendo would never have had to have played into it.

[@flyingace1234]

I remember my mom's then Boyfriend asking me to explain Pokemon to me. He was a British Bobby who worked near a school with a card shop and so he had seen the merchandise be the center of some crime/drama, and was just curious about what the big deal was. He later said he was asked to give a presentation at the school on 'diversity' and wanted to use pokemon as an example about how different types of people could live together. We joked about how 'How do you do fellow children' the entire thing was, but I still fondly remember spending some rainy British weekends hanging out with him and playing with the starter decks he got from the shop, while we both struggled to follow the rules booklet.

[@kirbypopstarian1198]

Thats really sweet :)

[@ThexDynastxQueen]

Grew up during the 90s Pokemon craze. Briefly was living with a cousin and their mother was anti-Pokemon cause Jesus and it made me further appreciate my mom for looking at all the screaming of "SATAN!" and going "Nah, she's having fun". I still have my cards and some are valuable but I'd never sell them despite really needing it because she bought them for me. Still remember her liking to watch me excitedly open packs and explain which cards were which. We had our issues but my hobbies and what I enjoyed were not one of them, I miss that basic level of acceptance and wish all kids could have it.

[@blueberrypitbull87]

There are still new sets coming out you should start collecting more

[@ThexDynastxQueen]

@@blueberrypitbull87 I don't have money for that or really anything including a rental ergo the thought of selling my cards which I have established will be buried with me so...future archeologists look forward to that treasure hunt lol.

[@DaveGrean]

... Satan? That's weird. At least D&D or Yu-Gi-Oh had occult inagery, but cutesy cartoony pokémon? In my experience it was mostly a racist thing; adults were always extremely critical of, nearly disgusted by, Dragon Ball and Pokémon because it was, in their words, "Japanese"

[@Pooky1991]

@@DaveGrean my dad has JWs in his family and be trying to follow their doctrine sometimes. I remember collecting Yugioh Cards my mom let me buy when i was younger, but he threw them all away when my back was turned. I was pissed, because i genuinely liked the art on cards at the time and looked forward to getting new ones. Even now he complains about bringing demons in the house when i watch horror movies or read horror novels

[@emberdragon4248]

@@DaveGrean And yet everything they own is made in China

[@collinbeal]

God that small segment about overworked parents and teachers hating the effect Pokémon had on children because they didn't have the wherewithal to turn it into a learning tool as they were too busy to become involved with the children's interests hit me like a truck. My parents straight up threw away all my sibling and I's Pokémon paraphernalia when we started to regularly squabble about it, but they were working separate shifts from one another, had to have a regular babysitter for us, and were about to get a divorce in like half a year. Needless to say, my sibling and I, who are both autistic (undiagnosed until adulthood both) were absolutely devastated by this, and I think it even traumatized me a bit, along with my Mom's boyfriend throwing away all my baseball cards, which was later a special interest of mine. I've been really weird about my possessions ever since, and it took being in a long-term relationship to finally make me ease up in that regard. Thank you for the great content as always. Would you ever consider making a video on the 4chan-birthed eroge visual novel Katawa Shōjo?

[@darrinjackson5139]

I guess it depends on how tainted it is by 4 chan.

[@chaptap8376]

Look up the video "Why aren't there any good Christian games?". It has some very good insights into that first sentence. Hardline Christianity in general seems to despise any activities, even hobbies and leisure, that doesn't somehow tie back into glorifying God and espousing their own virtues.

[@Dreigonix]

@@darrinjackson5139 Katawa Shoujo is incredibly sweet and you can actually barely tell it came from 4chan at all. I highly recommend it.

[@Dreigonix]

@@darrinjackson5139 Katawa Shoujo is actually really good. It’s to the point where if you weren’t told that it originated on 4chan, you would never be able to guess; it’s not bigoted or hateful or anything, and in fact pretty much goes _against_ the spirit of 4chan with its central idea of showing the humanity of disabled people. It’s definitely the most wholesome and uplifting thing to ever come out of the site.

[@Go_away_loser]

I grew up and am still a Christian. My mom, who fell into the skepticism, decided to buy a game boy and a copy of Pokémon blue (I had red) and play it herself. She actually ended up falling in love with the game and we traded Pokémon and stuff. It is like one my fondest memories of my mom.

[@andersonrusnell3102]

That's awesome

[@mecoolguy3780]

that is seriously so cute.

[@EmeraldLavigne]

"""Fell into???"""

[@monster3339]

oh my god thats the cutest thing :,)

[@TweedleDeedleyDee]

@@EmeraldLavigne not everyone speaks English as a first language, man

[@ViridianCrisis7]

My moms old boss when I was a kid was a no magic, no Pokémon, no American Dragon Jake Long type and it always struck me as exceedingly odd. Like his daughters couldn’t watch any of that but Narnia was chill bc THAT magical fantasy is coincidentally a Christ allegory

[@Bighomie39]

Uhh, Narnia's a Christ allegory on purpose. Like, The Last Battle is a version of Revelation that makes sense to people who don't rigorously study the Bible.

[@ViridianCrisis7]

@@Bighomie39 I was confused when I read this because yeah I’m fully aware of that. However, I see that “coincidentally” wasn’t the best word choice. The point remains that this fantasy story with magic and witches and satyrs is fine solely because its also a Christ allegory. If that wasn’t very clearly stated to be C. S. Lewis’ intention when writing this it would be rejected by those types Christians immediately.

[@CosmicVoid_119]

american dragon was the shit love that show

[@zach7]

@@ViridianCrisis7 Being one of these types of christians must be so fucking boring. imagine only being allowed religiously aligned material in your life, and how limiting that is. It also obviously encourages the kid to believe that everything outside of what's approved is immoral or something.

[@roonkolos]

I'll never forget how my one pastor heard about how evil pokemon was Being a man of faith he felt it was his duty to know how bad it was. He ended up holding a small local tournament about a week later ♡ A lot of parents were trying to say he fell from Faith which he rebuttled with something "did you actually look into it or did you just listen to what the television told you to believe?" He was a man of the cloth but he was also known for being VERY blunt XD I miss him

[@chaptap8376]

Sounds like a good man. Really sad how people like those seem to be the exception, at least in conservative communities. Hope the angry parents didn't negatively impact him in any meaningful way.

[@fly_8659]

What a legend! Had there been someone like that in my life, I'd probably still be a Christian.

[@mimimalloc]

I remember even as a kid finding it really funny that Pokemon was the target of a whole demonic scare while multiple climaxes of Digimon Adventure involved a digimon that was a literal devil at different power levels (his strongest form being unleashed when the time represented the number of the beast)

[@daniellewilliamson4215]

In fairness, I'm pretty sure if you sat a Christian down and showed them the scenes where the angel Digimon help beat the evil devil Digimon with the power of faith and friendship they'd be VERY on board

[@kostajovanovic3711]

Damn, Vandemon was such a great villain

[@trashboat5388]

With that said digimon being based off of griffith from berserk

[@idontknowleavemealoneplease]

Ahh that classic awkward moment when you were going over to a friend's house for the first time and you pull your Pokemon cards out of your backpack (not knowing that your friend's parents were evangelical nutcases) just for your friend's mother to lose her shit and make you leave and never come back. Hard to believe it was over 20 years ago. I remember it like yesterday.

[@terrenceswiff]

"My son threw an absolutely destructive tantrum and I have never been more proud. Now he will surely never be violent."

[@HeruruMeruru]

I grew up with secular Jewish parents so I never had anyone tell me I couldn't like Pokemon even in Hebrew preschool, but later on I did have a weird Evangelical babysitter that wouldn't let me play Pokemen or literally anything with magic in it, but I just hid it from her, lmao. It was still kinda traumatizing being told that Satan was out to get me (for... playing Pokemon) at such a young age, though and trying to convert a child you're looking after is really damn scummy.

[@shizachan8421]

I...I don't want to disturb you, but what if she didn't mean Pokemon when she said that Satan was out to get you?😬

[@blue1584]

That’s so messed up for a babysitter to do that, did you ever tell your parents about it?

[@zach7]

This is very typical of evangelicals and the more hard core types.

[@JayTorin]

I was raised Christian, no longer am, and the only thing I'll say in her defense was that if she was on the younger end, like a teenaged, then she might have genuinely been trying to do it out of a place of being scared for a kid she liked. I used to work myself up to the point of tears thinking of people who would end up going to hell simply because they died without having the opportunity to convert. They tell you some wild shit in church and it's so normalized you don't even realize how wild it is until you get out

[@Xenofauna]

BOY DOES THIS TAKE ME BACK. I had all my Pokémon stuff taken away in middle school (just before Gold and Silver came out stateside) because my grades were constantly so terrible. Joke's on my parents though: I actually had ADHD and I immediately found something else to fixate on.

[@YoshiTheOreo]

I would say that was warranted. What was the new fixation that you found? Did they find out during your K-12 years or afterwards?

[@sechernbiw3321]

To be fair, I was introduced to Pokemon by my cousins when we were growing up in the late 90s, and their mom is a *super* hardcore "dinosaur bones were planted by the devil to trick people into Darwinism" Fundamentalist Young Earth Evangelical Creationist, and she was totally on board the Pokemon craze. She thought Pokemon was wholesome and taught kids good lessons about friendship, loving animals, and not altering God's beautiful creation through cloning or creating GMOs. They were all far more obsessed with Pokemon than anyone else I knew. She was nearly as concerned about Satan being around every corner as the pastors in this video, but somehow she thought the Pokemon were on God's side and were actively helping to fight Satan.

[@AnimeboyIanpower]

Apparently, she never met Mewtwo...

[@sechernbiw3321]

@@AnimeboyIanpower She blamed Giovanni for the cloning, and identified him with the devil and with evil power hungry scientists and soulless big corporations. She saw Mewtwo as a troubled sinner saved by Ash's christlike sacrifice. She basically thought Ash was Jesus. I can actually kind of see the similarity. She also thought Mew was the Holy Spirit. I remember all this especially because of how excited she would get preaching about Pokemon in the car. I don't remember most of what she said, but I remember her talking about kindness to animals a lot. I learned to draw largely from drawing pokemon with my cousins at the time who are some of my oldest close friends, and her cat gave birth in 2001 to a kitten my family adopted and had with us for nearly two decades, so it was a very memorable experience.

[@keltzar1]

@@sechernbiw3321 In retrospect the first Pokemon movie is surprisingly easy to fit into Christian theming what with the literal sacrifice and then resurrection that happens in it.

[@SiGa-i1r]

She let pocket monsters fly under her radar then. See SCINTILLAM DEI's "Pokémon is satanic." And he (I) did videos on why belief in alleged dino "fossils" is gullible and illogical. I used to believe in Barney most of my life. Now, I try to help others grow out of it.

[@SiGa-i1r]

​@@keltzar1Ash was sacrificed by Mewtwo (Anti-Christ) and Mew (the unholy father). I explain in the videos aforementioned. They give a superficial story but imply a sinister message.

[@kikiash2425]

If Phil doesn't like stories where characters are pictured (or told about) being blown to pieces, poisoned, maimed, butchered, or killed with bloody fury he probably wouldn't like kids reading the bible

[@TheMightyWobb]

No but see they deserved it because they were enemies of god /s

[@AnimeboyIanpower]

I believe the word "hypocrite" is what best describes Phil Arms.

[@icravedeath.1200]

We should all be praying to haruhi instead.

[@jaxonanderson7220]

I feel bad for the people who went through this as kids seriously hope you guys are doing alright.

[@adreamer5920]

I used to live under my grandmother's house and while my parents were fine with me playing video games of all kind, my grandmother would frequently lecture me on how my games and other hobbies were the work of the devil and that my brother and I were being brought to the side of evil. All I had on my Gameboy Advanced though was Pokémon, Rayman and Castlevania and Castlevania is literally about using bibles and crosses and holy water to fight demons, so I really don't get where she was coming from on that one.

[@bustoo]

Demonic imagery is still bad in their eyes. Like if possible they never want to see anything depicting anything remotely like hell. Unless it's a really old book like the divine comedy, or it's spoken or written like a priest would do. Makes absolutely no logical sense. The point of the game is how bad these things are and defeating them. It's like being afraid wolfenstein turns people into nazis while talking about nazis majority of the time.

[@gorimbaud]

Which Castlevania?

[@HeruruMeruru]

I mean fundies threw a hissy fit over Doom, which is about going straight into hell and slaughtering demons. By their logic Shin Megami Tensei II must be the most holy and righteous Christian game of all time because you kill the Abrahamic God at the end. :P

[@phyllotaxis]

One of the devs of Doom (Sandy Petersen) is a devout Mormon, that's exactly what he's said about working on it.

[@GatorMilk]

@@HeruruMeruru To be fair, coming from an Esoteric perspective, that is unbelievably based.

[@vicbaez]

The funny thing about the pastor including a pokedex at the end is that it accidentally created a super usefull guide for an pre-internet era. Not even nintendo power could help you that much.

[@amuletangeldevil]

This reminded me of my catholic friend from middle school whose parents wouldn't let her read a book if the description called the villain "diabolical" or own the "evil" characters of a fantasy toy line. I used to smuggle my twilight books to her. We drifted apart but I hope she's doing well.

[@wispyone3702]

I'll never forget being 5 years old, finishing watching an episode of power rangers just for it to switch to an episode of pokemon advanced and my grandmother screaming at my mother to cover my eyes and turn off the tv. She would just turn off the TV but it truly instilled in me that pokemon was NEVER to be interacted with, which is why its funny that 5 years later I would be arguing with my grandmother on how to pronounce Gyarados and Serebii

[@superneonbuck]

As you lightly touched on at the end of the section about Phil Arms' book: there's a lot that goes in behind the scenes in christian fundamentalist families, especially in the South, that's just very troubling and sad. With the resurgence of Christian Nationalism, I'm concerned this will only get worse. Even the Satanic Panic is coming back again in full force. To any one reading this who had to suffer through a rough upbringing, religious or otherwise, my heart goes out to you. I wish you all the courage and strength to find help, heal, and break the cycle.

[@meg2249]

Like every single extreme fundamental Christian family I knew growing up is now divorced with the main reason being the good ‘Christian’ father had affairs… like every single one of them despite having multiple children… They just like to feel powerful and in control of this mess called life and extreme fundamentalism gives them the tools and dogma to appear to do so.

[@bookmew1081]

Christian Fascism needs to be opposed because it is the real satanic enemy that preaches hatred & evil. Those Christian Nationalists give Christianity a bad reputation & that's exactly what they want to do. We need to fight them so that they don't turn the cross into a swastika & then accuse everyone other than themselves of being a devil spawn. I only now find myself confronted with these people as an adult, maybe they were defeated by the time I was a little girl?

[@gendraconis7869]

the Satanic panic is coming back WHAT???? I need details.

[@piragintheevercorpulent1526]

@@gendraconis7869 A lot of evangelicals are buying into insane conspiracy theories about Satanist cabals and stuff. There's too much to explain but that's the main gist of it. The worst part is that it's informing a lot of political decision making from both voters and politicians who want to appeal to that base.

[@jelleschoenmaker3956]

@@gendraconis7869 q-anon and the big lgbt-backlash, the whole target situation right now too though that one will probably be forgotten pretty quickly

[@eduardor9390]

I remember when I was a child in 2001 a guy actually coming to my school and doing a presentation saying among other things that Pokémon was evil or whatever. It was quite remarkable, as it was the moment I realized supposedly respectable adults could be f***ing morons.

[@elieli2335]

It is so weird to me, as a a Christian who grew up in a conservative house hold, to watch this video and have first hand experience on this subject… most of my early childhood was my parents desperately making sure I didn’t interact with “Pokymans” This was an amazing video please keep up the good work

[@DreadnaughtZero]

My family is Christian as well, with my mom being born again Christian in the past couple of years. She never stopped me from playing Pokemon because she took a look at it herself and saw the anime. It was so absolutely harmless and actively promoted reading, math, and the like.

[@nightmarerex2035]

@@DreadnaughtZero its all becuase christans have "evolution" but what inspired pokemon was bug metamorphasis which is created by god irself! if i lived in alt universe and owned pokemon i would change that immediatly and see so meany dang more customers!

[@FreezeMango-BlazeLychee]

This phenomenon is quite universal it seems, as in mid-to-late 2000s Russia, while there was a little Pokemon craze, the boom of anime culture was enormous. In a short amount of time, just like Pokemon in the US, it got popular to the point of media covering it in their articles. But, usually they covered it in a bad light. Most of it was related to teen suicides, as anime and manga like Death Note were blamed in the general media for being the cause of teenagers harming themselves. It got to the point where religious icons, which I should add always go to the news in their special orthodox clothings - black robes, gold chains and usually they also have a big beard, got on the news to tell how anime corrupts the youth and they actually should go to sermons. Most of the time it felt like they don't even know what they're talking about Now I remember that there was a big Pokemon GO craze across the country in 2016 and some truly cringeworthy news were made as a result of it. Extremely religious people once again were at the forefront of speaking against the corruption of youth by these satanic programs.

[@zach7]

Honestly I think the extremely religious people get upset that people aren't obsessed with their cultist mindset as much as they are, and are jealous of anything that detracts from that.

[@shaandahar9091]

MORE HAZEL LETS GO THANK YOU

[@MooImABunny]

@5:40 Man, hearing hazel say "can you hear God's heart breaking" along with the SpongeBob fail music is priceless. Best 2 seconds of 2023, I'm calling it

[@AngelCopout]

Man, I'm almost at 30, and it's nutty to think I've been into Pokemon since before I learned to write my name. I'll probably still be doing nuzlockes and speedruns years into the future. Something about it just keeps pulling me back.

[@bustoo]

They really went above and beyond to make something special. It's not perfect but they did not need to put the amount of depth into these games that they have at all. In gen 1 raising a pokemon to 99 with just hard candies made them weaker then doing the battles. I found that out and it made the pokemon seem so much more lifelike. Like if I spent time with this pokemon it got stronger. Then years later I get back into pokemon and learn that it's just rare candies don't give EV and EV training is a thing. That's multiple layers of significant depth.

[@eminempreg]

Sammee, pokemon was literally the reason I learned to read so well and ended up reading grades above my peers. Cuz I wanted to play the games so bad but I couldn't ask my brother to read it all for me 24/7

[@zix1257]

yeah pokemon helped me learn to read even. too bad the games are consistently mediocre now.

[@bookmew1081]

I was introduced to Pokemon in 1998 & probably a fan before I could even speak as I was born in 1997.

[@loziclec.1295]

I was actually talking to my mom about this the other night. "It was really cool of you to let us enjoy Pokemon back then." "People were all like 'oh, it's violent,' but it's not any worse than the Road Runner cartoons from when we were kids." "It's a good thing nobody arguing against Pokemon knew about the gambling mini-games." "The what?"

[@kristopherwillis8075]

😂😂

[@rollerbladinghamster]

This week's been tough for me, but a hazel upload on a friday night made it all better

[@LettaLeeJoy]

I know this topic looks and is very funny in hindsight, but I actually have a pretty painful history with it. When I was six years old I went to a Christian "private school" in Florida while all of this was going on. I say "private school" in quotes because it was just a glorified daycare center the church my dad worked at ran that taught preschool through the first grade... It was not a good start to my educational career. Anyway, I was a kid who loved Pokemon in an environment surrounded by adults who all thought Pokemon was demonic. Let's just say the result of that was the single worst, and possibly most traumatizing year of my life, the effects of which followed me well into adulthood and more or less set me up to struggle with school for the rest of my time in it. Like, the adults were laughing when they heard their kids tried to poison me and that I was regularly crying during school. To my parents credit, they never made me stop playing Pokemon despite all the hate they got for it and they did eventually pull me out of the school and send me back to public schools despite being dead set against public schools at the time. I guess adults encouraging their kids to treat their son like a monster was less appealing than me being taught about evolution; who'd of thunk? It's nice to be able to look back now and laugh at how crazy this whole thing was when at the time it did me a lot of very real damage that I'm honestly not sure I'm ever gonna be able to completely work through. So seriously, thanks for this. It's genuinely a helpful look back for me. 😊

[@thatitalianlameguy2235]

Obviously pokémon compelled those children to poison you, duh (seriously wtf)

[@LettaLeeJoy]

@@thatitalianlameguy2235 Lol. Yeah there you go. The demons infesting my soul were causing the other kids to act out. It's just logic. 😜 But seriously yeah it was pretty fucked up. The portable we were in had just been sprayed for bugs and they found a Cheerio on the floor that they knew would have just been sprayed. They tried to get me to eat it and I was only stopped when the teacher realized what was going on. To be fair I don't know if that little bit would have been enough to actually hurt me, but those kids thought it was and were actively trying to hurt me. Childhood whimsy. 🙃

[@caramel9154]

how you doin?

[@LettaLeeJoy]

@@caramel9154 Much better. 😉

[@caramel9154]

@@LettaLeeJoy groovy!!

[@bathestyles6525]

31:21 “Yeah, because the Bible’s boring as shit, and Pokémon is cool and fun.” This is my favorite line lmao. I hated when our Youth group leaders gave us shit for not being super passionate about the Bible lol

[@justanotherhtffan]

I tried reading the bible randomly a few years ago bc my phone was in the shop being fixed at the time, and I had nothing better to do and the bible was the only reading material around. I had to physically stop myself from nodding off and falling asleep at least three times. Shit was bland as wet oatmeal. People who act like it’s some engaging, amazing piece of literature are lying to themselves. 💀

[@profl0g1c38]

@@justanotherhtffan I mean.. it depends where you start and the translation you're using. For example, some of the books are historical accounts written more like a story, whereas elsewhere your literally reading a lawbook. And no matter where you start, its kinda hard to make anything out when its written in victorian english or whatever. But yes, its not novel, and people that act like its magically fun to read probably havent read it

[@gendraconis7869]

@@justanotherhtffan I second this like I felt it was more boring than reading how to kill a mockingbird for crying out loud lol

[@diegoxavier9107]

@@profl0g1c38 Must've read Leviticus, lol

[@thatitalianlameguy2235]

​@@justanotherhtffanjust go to the interesting chapters man, some dude gets a thousand foreskins. FORESKINS! And there's so much sex!

[@meccuterrin]

10/10 music choices all around. Also "Pokemon Industrial Complex" is an amazing phrase. I'm definitely gonna be using that one.

[@Code7Unltd]

>"Pokemon Industrial Complex" is an amazing phrase Doubly true after the Scarlet & Violet fallout. Remember the tie-in merchandising deluge that was ruined by scalpers before it?

[@ChrisHilgenberg]

Maybe the cards that Phil blowtorched would have been worth enough now for the therapy those kids were going to need as adults; great video as always

[@drinks_menu]

I’ve talked to multiple people about this and, Pokémon taught a lot of us how to read, or at least helped us learn a LOT faster. (Reading is required to play the game, everyone is playing the game, better learn quick! Etc…)

[@leetri]

It helped me learn English. Back then, none of us kids knew a word of English, so we played through the games purely by guesswork and intuition. I wanted to understand what all those words meant though, so it pushed me to get into learning English early.

[@kristopherwillis8075]

​@@leetriNice 😁

[@friendlyninja5048]

Even being raised Christian, I'm thankful my parents were never like this and promoted independent thinking and questioning dogma. My heart breaks for Phil's son. Poor kid just wanted his father's approval! Also, Catholicism is pretty solid overall when it comes to Pokémon. In 2013, Pope Francis reaffirmed this by giving the series his blessing.

[@rockisheaven]

Part of me wonders if Phil Jr even speaks to his dad anymore if this is what their relationship was like.

[@technicolorwerewolf]

If I had a nickel for every time my home state showed up in a Hazel video in an evangelical Christian, puritanical sense, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. (In a purely slash j way, I promise Colorado isn't an Evangelical hellhole. This video's been a joy, the Pokemon Panic is a time in history that's deeply interesting to me. Great work as always!)

[@Yixdy]

Hey there, fellow Colorado native. Honestly I'm sort of shocked as well, but that's just because CO is very not religious, typically found to be the #10-#8 least religious state. And anecdotally I'd say top 5 least amount of "bible thumpers" in the country, as our religious folks tend to be more conservative (not in a political/right wing way lol.) I've also spent years living in the south, and hoo-boy, if you ever want to experience culture shock without leaving your own country, just head on down to Alabama or something.

[@luxill0s]

If you really want to experience culture shock without leaving the country, go to Mississippi. I have the unfortunate circumstance of being forced to live in this cesspool of a state

[@yickel]

To be fair, it was Colorado Springs in this story, which isn't exactly *not* an Evangelical hellhole.

[@korrochime2432]

@@yickel yeah. i have a friend from there and every time she talks about her childhood i get more and more horrified. colorado springs has one hell of a culture and is a nightmare if you're any kind of minority

[@lizardqueen273]

​@@korrochime2432​This really rings true as someone who's lived in Colorado Springs all my life. I've been lucky to grow up with a very loving and progressive family (the only reason why my parents are still here is my dad's job, but I wouldn't be surprised if they move a few cities over once he retires) but as far back as elementary school I'd run into kids saying heinous shit because they were parroting what their family believed. I guess maybe there's some small amount of progress since this past mayoral election we elected the center-right leaning independent over the far right Republican.

[@adamgraham6204]

Pokemon literally taught me how to read. I got obsessed with the games and also a book on the first 151 pokemon. So I guess the demonic powers were very useful for me!

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Reading is the devil entering your body. Through the eyes.

[@gota7738]

I think my first interaction with american evangelical Christianity from over the pond was when when my mam asked whether he friend was right in hearing that Pokémon was satanic, and everyone else in our church was like "...no?" Despite having grown up in a Christian household, American Evangelicalism still feels more alien than any other denomination or even religion.

[@blueberrypitbull87]

Religion is an ancient barbaric fairytale that is responsible for the death of millions. It needs to go away.

[@gota7738]

@@blueberrypitbull87 ...Ok?

[@eminempreg]

American evangelicalism (and really American Christianity) in general is a breed of its own. Like it's wild tbh

[@MrChristianDT]

And that's the weirdest thing- Evangelical isn't even a denomination or sect of Christianity, just a religion-based lifestyle. Churches of just about every single sect of Christianity are capable of being Evangelical & these kinds of conmen are the spokespersons for it. That's what sucks so much.

[@greg6500]

You aren't wrong, Its like if a religion could suffer a fugue state.

[@joshwhalen17]

"I find Theology interesting; I've seen Neon Genesis Evangelion." If I could travel back through time and make this my senior yearbook quote.

[@clockworkcake8057]

please continue making youtube videos, these are genuinely enriching. i have learned more from you than i earned in my middle school english class.

[@ninefoldrin5507]

I have a relevant story as someone who grew up in a deeply Christian environment during this time! I was in first grade when Pokemon came out. Naturally, me and all of my friends started playing. My parents were a bit skeptical of it, due to how invested me and my friends had gotten with it. The fact that I could tell what Pokemon came out by its sound, or that I could tell my friends how to fight a Pokemon just by hearing them talk over the phone about it, these things were a bit weird to my parents, but they didn't stop me from playing it (surprisingly I think). The big change happened in second grade. I went to a Christian school at the time, so anything that affected one person religiously affected us all in some way. Someone at the school got a chain letter email. Email was still new and chain letters were constantly circulating and the religious crowd was especially susceptible. All it took was one pastor taking the bait and forwarding it to his church email list and, since it came from The Pastor, it wouldn't be questioned much, and never openly. When it reached my school, it was already pastor-approved and had the same effect as it would on a church. The letter told a story. A group of missionaries had gone to Africa to witness to an unnamed "tribe" and brought a bunch of toys with them for the kids. The toys were just generally basic shit that kids were playing with in America, and apparently Pokemon cards as well. I'm 99% sure it was definitely the cards, not toys or plushies, but the cards. You know, those things that your supposedly non-English speaking children wouldn't be able to fucking read? But hey, missionaries are dumb so... Anyway, when the kids got the cards, the people in the village started freaking out. They were identifying the pokemon as the demons from their pre-Christian religion. The letter urged parents to keep Pokemon away from their kids because Pokemon were demons, and a surprising number of parents at the school did. My mom let me decide on my own. She figured it was only a game and even though she had some misgivings, I don't think she fully bought the story in the letter and figured there's nothing wrong as long as it stays fantasy and I'm not acting weird with it. My best friend, however, ended up fully rejecting Pokemon. Because of him, I also rejected Pokemon. My mom was proud of me for rejecting Pokemon as "evil" just on the principle that I was rejecting "evil." Tbh, I could absolutely believe the story about the kid smashing his game with a hammer (though it was definitely embellished). That shit happens in hyper-religious environments. I didn't play Pokemon again until Soul Silver had already been out for a while. Missed out on a lot of fun times, but I've made up for it and gone back to all of the Pokemon I missed out on.

[@SaberToothPortilla]

I didn't expect to hear the phrase "Blasting Rope" in this video, or possibly my life. Not unhappy about it though. Glad to see the video as always!

[@marcomah]

Last video I left a sincere but kinda nitpicky comment about the use of "in the west" and "English speaking word" interchangeably in few instances and I have to say I really appreciate the way you were very precise in your wording for this video. Maybe very few people will care or notice but it makes a huge difference. Also great research work as usual! I had no idea about the Italian bishops position about Pokémon and I'm Italian myself.

[@comensee2461]

I was in middle school when Pokemon came out and it exploded overnight. Everyone and their dog had Pokemon cards and the little handheld grow your own Pikachu toys. I played Pokemon Red and Blue on the PC via emulator almost every day after school and it got to the point where I memorized every single Pokemon and their transformation. Eventually the school banned bringing the cards + toys in because people were stealing stuff left-and-right. When I logged on the internet (AOL back then) I used to roleplay in chat rooms as my own Pokemon. Also, I know its alt + 138 for the è ... still have that memorized after over 20 years. I saw the Pokemon movie in the theater. By the time I was in high school though the fad was dead for me. I still have my original generation 1 Pokemon cards in my closet.

[@dr3dg352]

When I was in first grade around 2000, I couldn't solve a single word problem. Throughout second grade I taught myself the Pokemon TCG, and by third grade I was placed in upper level math. Today I'm in accounting. Pokemon absolutely has the potential to enrich our lives, and I'm so glad I grew up with the cards.

[@Yuzu-or4tt]

This is EXACTLY what I needed to keep my funky little brain stimulated. Praise be hazel for another banger 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️

[@FrNSICs]

i was raised catholic, and was on the verge of losing access to pokemon as a child before my parents found out the pope had given it his blessing. shoutout to the pope i owe him for that one specific thing

[@ruairip7722]

Every Hazel deep dive is a rabbit hole I'm never prepared to go down

[@vworpin9945]

I remember I was waiting for the bus one time when some drunk dude asked me what was on the back of my jacket (it was a pokeball) and after I told him his eyes lit up and he said that he knew it was a demonic symbol and that he also knew about Pokemon being a ploy by some shady organization to get childrens blood since witches apprantly love chowin down on childrens blood. He then insisted that it wasn't a bad thing that I liked pokemon as long as I knew what the background was and sat awkwardly across from me on the bus.

[@vienlacrose]

These people are either fucking loonies, or intentionally trying to scare you into submission. Either way, they need to fuck off.

[@BlackRaven6695]

What year was this?

[@vworpin9945]

@@BlackRaven6695 this year lol

[@SassySlayer69]

Omg "couldnt stop blasting rope while reading" had me rollinggg. Never change, Hazel.

[@LucasDimoveo]

I wasn’t allowed to play Pokémon or with Yugi-oh cards as a kid. My siblings and I basically started an underground card/game trading system in our home and with kids from other Pentecostal households. They basically made us “criminals” and liars for nothing

[@machoke666]

I'd love to see a Poké-tuber tackle the topic of the Pokémon Industrial Complex from an in-world perspective. Like who funds Pokémon gyms, and the Battle Frontier, and so on

[@shizachan8421]

Its the shiny pokemon lead by a cabal of legendary shinys who want to introduce a new pokeworld order to slowly replace the non-shiny pokemons.

[@Unquestionable]

I had just started high school when Pokemon came out and it didn't blow up for another year or so but being a huge nerd was already excited for it. When my younger siblings got into it my mom asked me about it since random news stories tried to cause a moral panic over it. After explaining the general show and game she found it a huge step up from the shit I was into at their age which were basically glorified toy commercials.

[@bottlecaps1044]

Bro Pokemon is the reason why I became such a nerd and wanted to read books. Even as a kid I was super sweaty (or rather really attached to my Pokemon and wanting to know them better) so when Ruby and Sapphire had natures I had to look up the big words like "impetuous" and "impish". Then in 4th grade I was the youngest kid to read a fastest reader award in my city.

[@jefferyjones8399]

I played Pokemon with my mom. I played red and she played blue. We would battle and trade with each other. The bit about the kid connecting to their mom hit home. These religious zealots will tear down anything that doesn't fit their narrow worldview and cash in on it.

[@TJTheEmperor]

I bought one of Phil Arms' DVDs as a gag gift for a friend a couple years ago. Two weeks went by without so much as a peep from him regarding whether he shipped my order, or even whether my order was received. Long story short, I never got the DVD, and it is, to this day, the only purchase I've ever had to escalate to a dispute with PayPal.

[@pumpkinkat7331]

Hazel is one of the best KZbinrs ever, and you can't make me think otherwise, probably my favorite

[@e.l.studios455]

yes

[@kostajovanovic3711]

Oh, she's there

[@jillbp96]

I grew up in a very strict evangelical household with parents that mainly got their teachings from televangelists and their books, the only church I attended irl with them was pretty much the same vibe too. My mom really bought into the anti-pokemon scare and it wasn't fun. I eventually slipped a pokemon movie past my dad one day when we were out and I just remember one of the worst arguments I've blacked out of my memory and then watching the movie shortly after. After a while it was just accepted that I liked pokemon, it was definitely one of my first special interests. I'm thankful for whatever lead the change in heart my mom had because Pokemon definitely means a lot to me to this very day. I appreciate that you touch upon the greater fundamental issues with this way of thinking because it's really important to talk about. The whole thing was much more than just simply not being allowed to watch something. The guilt I would feel still for liking pokemon and hearing people I'm supposed to listen to decrying it. There was still a tight leash on a lot of media as well. I got Yu Gi Oh cards confiscated because they looked "too scary" even though I was really into the art as a kid. Even deeper than that are the fundamental issues with the belief system that ultimately lead to self hatred and abuse. Some of the stuff I suffered as a kid and was told to deal with because of biblical justification is awful. It's complex and really difficult to mentally deal with at times. I remember my interest in Pokemon cards even only became acceptable when the collector's market was a thing and both my parents thought I could be making money for them as a small child. I always wanted to play the TCG with real people and I never got to do that, even to this day honestly. It's something I want to change. Pokemon was always a great presence of good for me though. To be able to play a game where I saw values I could connect with such as being closer to nature, taking care of ourselves and each other, etc. really impacted my life for the better. I definitely think in a way Pokemon helped me escape the hell I was raised in. It gave me a lot of hope for the day I could go out and be on my own and face the world with new friends. Pokemon taught me to adapt to new situations when my younger sibling used my master ball to catch a Mankey on Victory Rd.. Catching Mewtwo in the post game just became that much more rewarding though. Definitely resonates with a lot of the rest of my life as well in some sort of analogy. I have lots of thoughts on this and could go on and on but the real meat of it is I appreciate this video so so much. It was really cathartic and I'm just glad you made it.

[@RedSpade37]

The thing that gets me about this "trope" is that the actual video games and music that literally teach you about the Occult and Witchcraft pass them by, completely unnoticed. There are many games that teach you the actual meanings of Tarot cards, for instance, and there are rock bands, like Inkubus-Sukkubus, that teach you actual chants and spells commonly found in Wicca, just to name one of many. The "fundies" never bring those games or those bands up; they only bring up whatever the pop-culture darling of the day is... Wonder why that i$?

[@weeaboh]

when i first got pokemon yellow as a small kid (born in '93), i was too impatient to train my pokemon by grinding, so when i went to school my mom would play my game for me to level them up. i beat the game with a team that my mom helped me raise. when one of my friends at the time (some asshole kid) saved over the file, i remember being so distraught because my mom had spent her valuable time on it. my parents would indulge me and buy me pokemon cards any time i was with them at a gas station or a place that sold them. i didnt realize until much later how lucky i was that my parents not only bought these things for me, but encouraged me to have fun with it. it's still a casual hobby for me at 29.

[@bea3558]

I was raised catholic and thankfully my parents never really cared about moral panics like this. I'm glad you made this more than just "haha crazy religious evil man" and addressed what causes people to stoop to reactionary guff such as this.

[@Yagami0fth3Dead88]

The "Pokémon means pocket monsters" arguments for it being satanic is always funny to me, since when I was a kid I was very afraid to watch anything with monsters in it, to the point where I cried because I didn't want to go see Monster's Inc. So one day my dad told me that Pokémon meant pocket monsters and it blew my mind as a kid and also helped alleviate that fear.

[@TheKasl]

I do want to apologize to my 2nd grade teacher for when a classmate and I used a link cable to trade under our desks during math class I do NOT want to apologize to a friend’s mom who said I couldn’t come over anymore after I brought a Pokemon tape there.

[@doctorplague6967]

I wasn't one of the kids who suffered from this, on the contrary my mom was big on Pokemon. (Sometimes she'd even force me to change the channel I was watching because Pokemon was on and she wanted to watch it too-). But I did meet a bunch of kids who traded and kept Pokemon merchandise like it was contraband. Hiding it in hidden pockets within their bags and jackets so their parents wouldn't see it. It was kinda bizarre to me because I was fully allowed to show it off and keep that stuff. And the moment their parents loosened on it most of the kids just lost interest in Pokemon. They liked it but when it wasn't forbidden anymore it lost it's luster for most. Which was a bizarre moment from my perspective.

[@gingeralice3858]

My gaurdians as a child were religious fanatics who buyed into this bs and yeah by the time they started to just let it go I was already a teenager, almost high school aged... I wasn't playing pokemon anymore lol. I wanted to watch anime like Bleach. I remember that becoming the next thing they freaked out over. They asked me if watching anime made me want to cut people LOL and they weren't even high on anything like the televangelist who wrote that book was.

[@acidsilencev2]

Always a pleasure to see a hazel video pop up

[@ASNS117Zero]

Yeah, my entire childhood revolved around butting heads with these types in some form or another. Pokemon as a craze was my first real forray into dealing with the lunatic strain of evangelicals, though, and middle school aged me, fresh off the release of Red and Blue, just was not prepared to deal with that. It completely and totally ruined my relationship with half of my family for over a decade, which became FAR worse in my highschool years when I discovered Dungeons and Dragons around the time when 3.5 was really getting big. That being said, I am not at all ashamed to admit that to this day, I have a DEEP distrust for these people, and I'll never let my guard down around them. When I was in highschool, my friend group formed an after school get together group where we took advantage of an empty classroom to play our D&D after school once a week. One of the parents found out about it, and not only did they take it to the school district to break it up on the grounds of being 'satan worship', they literally beat their own son so badly that he came to school the next week with half of his face swollen black and blue, badly screwed up ribs, and was totally banned from associating with any of us. Of course, the school was told that he had simply 'been in an accident' and it was left at that, but we all knew the truth, and it was confirmed to us a couple years later when we were all old enough to tell our parents to fuck off legally if we wanted. From my experience where I grew up, this wasn't really even that rare among those people. I've several other examples of seeing this kind of behavior first hand, and have heard many stories of it second hand, and I don't even live in the bible belt, I live in fucking Michigan. The silver lining for me personally is that my mom simply didn't care, and my father was both never home and a catholic, so I didn't have to deal with that madness directly. Now, as an adult, I keep these people at a distance from my persona life, and they're a big part of the reason I live in an armed household.

[@alexcallender]

Me watching the majority of this video: "Wow, I grew up in a Christian household *in the bible belt* during the height of Pokemania and I don't personally remember any of the misguided fear or overbearing prudishness. In fact my parents were wholly supportive of my early admiration for both Pokemon and Harry Potter, even buying me the original 1st edition base set unprompted. Maybe things were different for me because we were Catholic?" Me @40:43 : "AYYYYYY TOTALLY VINDICATED" Another banger video Hazel. I know I can always count on you for high quality fascinating content which more often than not appeals to my personal tastes. Honestly your style is impeccable; keep up the good work (no pressure tho). You are sincerely appreciated.

[@Dreigonix]

“CAN YOU FEEL GOD’S HEART BREAKING?!” I can. Because MY HEART’S A BATTLEGROUND- wait, wrong game!

[@hivemind1979]

"Maybe the book was so good that the previous owner couldn't stop..." Crying. They're gonna say crying. "... blasting ropes"

[@amberisvibin]

"The Pokemon Industrial Complex" is now part of my vocabulary thanks

[@yannickvanhoutte4403]

I actually first heard of Pokémon through news flashes on the Porygon episode! Months later, my younger brother happened on an episode while zapping through channels (I believe it was an episode where Ash tries to train someone else's Paras), and me remembering the news broadcast and recognizing Pikachu went full "we can't watch this, it's dangerous!" Maybe the only time in our life my brother's refusal to ever listen to me ended up being a good thing, we loved Pokémon for many years since! :')

[@miimiiandco]

This is the war Surge was talking about.

[@dougduck8111]

My dad fucked up a lot but I'm glad he loved video games. So much so that he would even borrow my GBA for business trips and brag about all the progress he made in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. 🥰

[@Sponsie1000]

Reading the title l thought this was a major fan-theory about "the great pokemon war" Surge mentions in the first game,, but this was cool too

[@blackdressbess195]

I was just slightly too late for the Great Pocket Monster invasion of the late 90s. But Arms' story of how he discovered Pokemon is an almost one-to-one story of when my Father (also a preacher) was very disturbed when he heard the characters in Last Airbender talk about the "Fire Lord" (who could only be Satan), and from then on researched the plot with its reincarnation cycles, spirits, and eastern devil magic. Needless to say, he pretty quickly banned it. Invader Zim was somehow still acceptable though.

[@statesminds]

My mom and I used to go to a Pentecostal church when I was a kid and during a Sunday school the teacher told me that I could not watch or play Pokémon anymore because it was Satan’s way to get to children and they were evil spirits inside the poke balls or something. I told my mom later i never wanted to go back and she’s a huge Christian but even she thought that was dumb hahah. I never went back afterwards ever again. That’s a quick way to push people away from your religion. And it’s funny to think that they freaked out this badly about the censored and edited version we got in America

[@eeveecurry]

“THIS POKÉMON IS LITERALLY NAMED SQUIRT-LE” SHUT THE FRONT DOOR OH MY GOD XD I think my mom was happy about me drawing Pokémon like Jigglypuff and Pikachu because she and I would show them off to my doctors and her coworkers ;w; Very lucky our Judeo-Christian neighborhood and Irish Catholic family didn’t care a whit about the ‘satanic panic’ angle on this stuff. Great video as always!!

[@Amusing_Alias]

Hazel I hatched a shiny growlithe on scarlet version while this was playing haha this video is officially blessed with shiny luck

[@juanjuri6127]

youtube commenters posting their Ws

[@moondrop_garden7760]

I swear hazel deep dive are my thoughts at 5am doing geometry homework

[@zobuzobu5817]

It took years, but I finally found this lovely channel again. Now I am at peace

[@galacticpopcorn9981]

Sometimes I wonder why Shin Megami Tensei was never brought to the states in the 90s, then I remember the Satanic Panic over Pokémania.

[@Takoto]

As someone who has had their special interest as Pokémon since it first hit the west... but also have lived my whole life in the UK, when I found out about the whole "Pokémon is of the devil!" stuff, it was perplexing. Also really cool to see you talking about Pokémon stuff!

[@sorubro2193]

Your cat has a retail Boss face, I love it

[@kyoyameganebereznoff]

You actually made this a tolerable watch for me; fundie content usually makes me really anxious. Thanks for another great video.

[@aeroga2383]

Pokemon is so big that there's bound to be mindless legions foaming at the mouth when you mention the name. It's funny how nothing has really changed

[@jacobflack7747]

Glad to see a new upload, and I haven't seen anybody cover this topic in depth

[@7upjawa]

I think it is pretty funny that it was only through the release of Gen 7 in in 2016 (around 20 years after) that pokemon ever made actual reference to evolutionary biology, rather than just misnamed Metamorphosis. With the regional variants of pokemon, they finally showed off the idea of divergent evolution. It wasn't until this past month with the release of pokemon S+V that they finally hammered home the concepts of evolution by showing off the concept of convergent evolution with Wugtrio, a pokemon who has adapted to a similar niche and appearance to Dugtrio despite no relation in ancestral orgin. If any of the people outcrying about the use of the word "Evolution" had actually paid any attention to the content of the games, it would actually have taken then over 25 years to actually find anything to really get mad about.

[@Dylanquinn666]

"In my day cartoon characters were pure and innocent like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. These days they've been replaced with far more sinister characters like...... Jigglypuff..... and..... Chansey."

[@Code7Unltd]

>pure and innocent >Bugs Bunny In the words of a certain rabbit... "What a maroon!" In honesty, there's a reason that parents were mocked by children for referring to every console as a "Nintendo"...

[@AtmaDragoon]

Oh damn, can't believe I've gone all this time not knowing that Clefairy trades hitting and using psychic powers for hiding when it evolves. Thanks, Buying and Selling the Souls of Our Children: A Closer Look at Pokémon!

[@annoyinggirl7790]

on the ending note, pokemania has so much 90s attitude, early internet, and whatever else was in the mix. It's like the simpsons, whatever was happening from 1996 onward is a lot of material to cover in hazel videos

[@skippyminccino5771]

hazel saving my week once again

[@jimmy3people0]

you're concerned about Phil's kid being unsupervised with a hammer, but when _I_ was nine years old and visiting my grandparents in upstate NY, I'd take my grandpa's hatchets and try to get them to stick into trees when I threw them, and I turned out fine. uh. I think. also oooh, The Chariot shoutout, very nice