The PokéRogue transphobia drama and politics in Pokémon

[@Phenrex]

@cecilily I know this video is a few months old, this is Momo. Honestly, I was receiving a lot of DMs around that time and was overwhelmed with it all so I just autoclosed DMs for a while. Heres some additions i have for this video [albeit a few months late]. 1. Megalith is french, and while I am not making excuses in french the slur associated with neurodivergent people [like me] is a commonly used word for "slowing." This led to him being very desensitized to using it in english even as a slur but he has not [to my knowledge] used it since it was called out and addressed. 2. The "Community Manager" truly was appointed hastily by a staff member and did not properly vet their post before posting it while representing the "entire team." I myself was disgusted by the post. That post didnt represent me or anyone else that is a part of the team for that matter. 3. Pokemon are not genderless in the game due to coding limitations rather than out of deliberate distaste. "Removal" implies we initially had genderless pokemon and they were taken out of Rogue, in reality they've never been coded in the first place. The reason sighted by the dev team for male Garde not being present was due to balance concerns since female Kirlia cant evolve into Gallade. 4. Art is inherently political as the act of creation is putting yourself into what you create and that act in and ot itself IS inserting politics. 5. Im sure you saw but we got to announce new nonbinary protagonists for the game, theyve been delayed a few times due to me having surgery / autistic burnout / working on other assets but they are still being planned! Im so excited to write their dialogue as well! 🎉🎉🎉 6. There were, as I recall, 4 mods at the time with 100k people in the server. Someone else mentioned this. We had many times requested to find more mods before this shit show but despite our pleadings we didnt get more mods until after Sam stepped down.

[@cecilily]

Thanks for this! I'll be sure to pin it for extra context.

[@carnivallegf]

are you going to be able to pick what rival you want next update?? I rly wanna see the girl rival but I don't wanna play as the boy character 😭😭😭

[@Phenrex]

​​​@@carnivallegfUnfortunately for this specifically, while that is something on the radar [we fully intend to add it at some point in the future] there are really big features and changes planned for the game that require our full attention. This is why the new rival and protagonist are delayed for the time being, and the rival free select is something we want to implement with full intent so there might be changes with different protagonist rival pairs [meaning additional dialogue] or other such things depending on the direction we end up going. Mind you this is just me speaking as a singular person and my thoughts. I REALLY do want selectable rivals though.

[@NameInWorkshop]

If you don’t mind me asking, what were the technical limitations that prevented genderless Pokemon? I’m wanting to get into Computer Science, so I’m just curious as to how the code prevents Pokemon from being gendered?

[@SugeryGold]

@@NameInWorkshopthey just haven’t coded it in and are working on things deemed more important at the moment

[@GooseEnthused]

Gotta say the removal of ungendered Pokémon is very funny because it produces trans shedinjas. They roll the gender for the shedinja instead of just using the nincadas gender. Very funny

[@Ezekiel_Allium]

in fairness, it makes a kind of sense considering the Shedinja is something else possessing the shed nincada shell, on the other hand it's very funny to say this soul eating monstrous shadow creature has a gender

[@postaldudeirl]

​@@Ezekiel_Alliumisnt shedinja just the skin itself taking life? most dex entries say that anyway so its still just really dumb anyway😭

[@ruskah0307]

​@@Ezekiel_Alliumits bug skin. the most masculine ghost in the world could possess, mfer thats literally shed bug exoskeleton

[@Ezekiel_Allium]

@@ruskah0307 ??? What in god's name are you talking about? Why are bug exoskeleton's masculine???

[@ruskah0307]

@@Ezekiel_Allium that is literally the opposite of what i said

[@Rennar3210]

Is removing nongendered pokemon and male feminine pokemon not more political than leaving them as they are? Is that not the very injection of politics that they claim to hate?

[@yungmuney5903]

🎶🎶"Don't say that he's hypocritical, say rather that he's apolitical."🎶🎶

[@historiansayori2089]

@@yungmuney5903🎶Once the rockets are up, who care where they come down? That’s not my department, says Werner von Braun.🎶 (couldn’t resist since I like the song 🙂)

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

@@historiansayori2089what’s the song’s name?

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

Agreed.

[@williamqin5051]

​@@Aaa-vp6ug "Wernher Von Braun", by Tom Lehrer. It's a classic

[@cawingcrows2072]

It's so goofy that they removed the genderless pokemon, magnemite is literally a floating magnet LMFAO

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

They were afraid of the Attractive power of Cryogonal. (Get it, because it learns Attraction. It's just like me fr fr)

[@cawingcrows2072]

@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 real LOL

[@Shnarfbird]

Huh? I just booted it up and Regice, Magnemite, Cryogonal, even Meloetta don't have a gender symbol.

[@ArthurPhoenix]

@@Shnarfbird Ah, looks like from the change logs on the wiki that they've been slowly implementing genderless and genderlocked pokemon over the last handful of patches. I'd be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one and bet that it was simply easier to make both genders available to every pokemon and sort out the minutia later. There's an awful lot that hasn't been implemented yet after all.

[@XenithShadow]

Yeah think thats likely misinformation, since last i checked most legendaries are genderless and there is certainly some legendaries in the game at minimum mewtwo and rayquaza.

[@lucianofrancesco4742]

Talking about "not exposing children to any kind of ideology" while not including genderless Pokemon and Thanos-snapping any male Gardevoir is quite ironic, isn't it?

[@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

I mean in PokeRogue's case it makes it way less luck dependent to get Gallade, since stone evos are inherently luck based. I think if Gallade was in gen 3 it'd make sense to have it be a split Evo then a Dawn Stone Evo (which only works on Male Kirlia and Female Snorunt). So while it sucks for trans rights that male Gardevoir aren't a thing anymore, from a game design perspective it makes perfect sense

[@valentingigena6058]

​@@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan no it doesnt, you could just cancel the level evolution of garde and wait for a dawnstone if they didnt change the gender thing

[@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

@@valentingigena6058 my point is that in PokeRogue it's RNG based to get that Evo stone. You could literally not get it during a run if you're unlucky. This is a quality of life feature since it's focused on battles. If you want to use Gardevoir it makes it easier to use. Same with Gallade. Snorunt's evos have this change also. It just makes using the Pokemon you want to use easier. That's it. It makes sense logically from a GAME DESIGN STANDPOINT

[@valentingigena6058]

@@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan but my man its the same for every stone evolution, if he wanted to remove rng for that aspect he would remove every stone evolution

[@helior1118]

@@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan Well I wouldn't really say removing male Gardevoir does that? For example if you just encounter Gardevoir, there's no reason why that can't be male, right? I can understand not letting male Kirlia evolve into Gardevoir, but that doesn't really mean that male Gardevoir itself has to be removed. Same for female Glalie, too, for the record.

[@BPTK162]

Adding to the politics seen in anime and manga, it’s not a coincidence that so many children are the heroes of the story. I can’t remember the source here, but after the atrocities committed by the Japanese Government themselves in World War II, you can see a lot of mistrust in adults being the saviors in Japanese media. Pokémon is on the lighter end of that scale, but you could write an entire thesis of child heroes in anime and manga.

[@cecilily]

This is an amazing point! When doing some research, I saw some people arguing that that is the obvious reason why we barely see any fathers in Pokémon (except for Norman, who could fall into an overworked salaryman father stereotype)

[@bunnybreaker]

**Akira enters the chat**

[@handsoaphandsoap]

Good point, though I think in Pokémon’s case it’s just a marketing decision. Pokémon is marketed towards kids, hence why the playable character is a kid. Pokémon’s political statement is moreso in it’s ecological theming.

[@firepuppies4086]

@@handsoaphandsoap i mean there was also the whole thing about plenty of the Gym Leaders being in Team Rocket.. or Lt. Surge existing

[@neoqwerty]

@@handsoaphandsoap Ecological was mostly Hoenn. I know Black/White was ALLLLL about an allegory for animal rights and coexisting with animals, Gen One was literally just "remember when you caught bugs and created bugfighting rings with your childhood friends???" (no really, there's an interview! basically virtual bugfighting but the bugs wanna fight and be your friends), X/Y had a "the horrors of war" background theme that suddenly foregrounds when someone pulls out the evil in history's past and re-enacts it instead of learning from it and not doing it... Also "marketed toward kids" /points at Pokemon Tower, where dead pokemon go get buried, there's orphaned cubones and a vengeful dead mother haunting the top of the mass burial site/memorial, and in Gen 2 we find out that the graves were dug up and relocated in the name of ~progress~. Remember that Japan's idea of "for kids" is a lot more cerebral than the english-speaking North American-like countries, after all Astro Boy was for kids and involves parental abandonment, an allegory for minority rights, talks of commercial exploitation and slavery, and identity crises right out the gate.

[@vesselthanatos3033]

Pchal's reaction to this video: "this is how you play around the trans-phobic crit range"

[@yunobeat]

I spat out my drink lol

[@beingmegucaissuffering.5326]

He would say that

[@Bird_in_a_Trenchcoat]

mfs will say "politics shouldnt be in games" when metal gear is literally one of the best game series ever made

[@EnbyOccultist]

They say it as if Fallout: New Vegas isn't a game that's entirely about nothing but politics

[@ThatFont]

@@EnbyOccultistThe Fallout game series broke a lot of boundaries as far as inclusion goes and I’m glad people are finally recognizing the representation after all these years.

[@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato]

​@@EnbyOccultist I mean, didn't people hate New Vegas? Or am I getting it confused with a different Fallout game?

[@manologamerss5801]

​@@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyatoYou 100% are, it's among the most popular shooter RPGs out there.

[@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato]

@@manologamerss5801 Oof, ty for clarifying!

[@IchorBloom]

Hey, I was there and somewhat directly involved and thought I could add some more context. 1. the transphobia was there but not nearly as rampant right after the announcement, but then about 5 or 6 hours after the announcement someone posted a document with screenshots of sam being openly transphobic on several occasions and justifying it with his religion aswell as saying and defending using the r-slur. 2. for the day or so after the announcement there was pretty much only one mod on at a time, their mod team was only 4 people for a server with several thousand members, right after the announcement Lost in thought (the mod at 6:40) was the only mod there for hours, and Mega was the only mod on for the entire next day. 3. Lost in thought is not only a moderator but the head moderator and has not received and repercussions for his actions. 4. While talking about trans topics in a positive sense got you banned or muted, transphobia went completely unpunished. one of my friends got a 7 day time out for posting an emoji with a trans flag in it that WAS AN EMOJI FROM THE SERVER. 5. it took i think 4 days for them to completely lock the server and before those 4 days there was nearly no moderation. 6. staff kept making announcements about every hour and had didn't communicate with each other about it whatsoever resulting in a ton of confusion from everyone. All of the announcements about it except for one have now been deleted. 7. sam pretty much dumped all of the responsibilities onto a dev called pancakes, he was the only one in a position of power who was queer and opposed to the transphobia in the server but he has extreme social anxiety so nothing was done for awhile. (shoutout pancakes he's great) 8. most mods were aware of sams position on trans people and didn't do anything about it. 9. about a month before all this went down, there was a pretty normal announcement and people were spamming reactions on it as people always do, the only reactions that were getting manually removed were the trans flag ones and multiple people (me included) were timed out for talking about it. 10. the servers staff are almost entirely different from what they used to be and there seems to be a significant amount of queer people on the team now, the only person who is still on the team despite their bad actions is LostInThought. bullying or asking about it to the staff provides nothing and causes only more fuel to the fire.

[@cecilily]

Thanks a lot for sharing it! I'm keeping an eye on the comments as they come, but if it's the case, I might pin yours for extra context if that's OK!

[@IchorBloom]

@@cecilily sure idm :3

[@VHCosta]

Number 4 is WILD

[@alorravex6672]

This definitely got lost in all the aftermath, but Lost did express that he handled the situation in completely the wrong way and disclosed that he is married to a trans woman and never intended to harm the trans fan base of the game

[@TheMarshmallowMushroom]

r-slur as in the ableist one?

[@AmariArts]

I think my favorite part about the situation is backlash against the lead developer featuring trans art of amoonguss.

[@cecilily]

It all comes together in the circle of life...

[@sushicaps]

yes!! trans amoonguss came from wolfey's win in Orlando regionals were his amoonguss survived a near-death hit from an amoonguss to win the final game vs his opponent, who was outed as a transphobe afterwards :3

[@stacystealer]

​@@sushicaps cool wolfey lore thank you

[@plaguous6386]

@@sushicapsshe made a video on that lmao that’s actually how i found this channel

[@cecilily]

@@sushicaps this sounds like an exciting story!! I think I might have watched a video about this somewhere....

[@zartoru_]

12:28 Oh god I hate the "I don't want to hear about politics, I just want to play video games" being trans isn't a political opinion, the fact trans people deserve to be treated with the same amount of respect as anyone else isn't a political opinion Like imagine if instead of transphobia it was like racism, like people spitting racist shit and the mod team just started banning people saying racism was bad. I just don't get what's going on in their brains

[@Stathio]

Genuinely? I think I might have actually seen that happen too in some form of online communities- I've seen someone punished for calling out (not saying- for calling out someone else's use of) a racial slur, and blaming them for "witch-hunting" instead of actually addressing the slur being used itself. It's messed up all around. We're all in this together.

[@NA-ys9ib]

But it is a political opinion and it's good! The true problem is pretending politics is this icky that has no bearing on real life. Like, I'm sorry you can ignore the state of the world around you

[@Abyzz_Knight]

​@NA-ys9ib I'd personally clarify that while politics in media isn't bad in itself. The topics of things like someone's right to exist as a gay or trans person being a political issue is definitely a bad thing.

[@doukzu]

Nah for real. The same "I don't want to hear about politics, I just want to escape" applies to trans people. I get to be a genderless fuck in BG3. That's my escapism. It isn't political... at least not in this context.

[@TheaBlum]

@@NA-ys9ib Being trans is not a political opinion, it's merely an expression of identity. The reason people respond this way when people talk about trans issues it's because they don't see being trans as a genuine expression of identity and experience, they see us as political actors. Conservative opponents to trans rights have made trans issues inseparable from healthcare legislation, bodily autonomy, etc. There's nothing inherently political to being queer, and there are certainly portions of politics that apply to us very well, but conflating queerness with any specific ideology gives us stuff like this.

[@matiaspereyra9392]

This reminds me of that legendary tweet from the guy with The attack on Titan pfp (armin of all characters) that said "anime is supposed to be an escape from the politics of the real world, adding black people defeats the purpose" talking about a character based on the very real historical person, yasuke, the black samurai

[@miyakosuzushima]

Say you’re racist without saying you’re racist. (Referring to the person who made that tweet.)

[@slavishentity6705]

What the fuck

[@derpydragon1227]

Yasuke likely isn't black tho... Nobody knows if he's black. The person who wrote the 'book' support this is literally running away from Japan rn, and the only supporter of the book is a communist. If anything, its racist to assume Yasuke was black. Japanese people are also backlashing against this fact as well.

[@Abyzz_Knight]

​@@derpydragon1227 Except we do. Various historical accounts support that Yasuke was black. fragmentary accounts in the letters of the Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis, Ōta Gyūichi's Shinchō Kōki (Nobunaga Official Chronicle), Matsudaira Ietada's Matsudaira Ietada Nikki (Matsudaira Ietada Diary), Jean Crasset's Histoire de l'église du Japon and François Solier's Histoire Ecclesiastique des Isles et Royaumes du Japon. Also if Japanese people are backlashing against the ideathat Yasuke was black then why is Yasuke repeatedly depicted a black in Japanses media? The only people getting mad are people in the west who don't know anything about Japanese history.

[@gasterg.continent3118]

@@derpydragon1227 to group all of japan together despite the fact they also have varying political alignments, other ideals, are individuals just like every other country is at best reductive and at worst racist.

[@benrueter2321]

Still remembering when I got banned for saying "group estrogen session when"

[@squeaks5677]

Can I join? 👉👈

[@tavvviaiavia]

ok but group estrogen when tho

[@limitlesschaos9]

LMFAO

[@A_Fren]

Group estrogen session NOW!!!

[@TheAsvarduilProject]

Group estrogen session when?

[@cloudt.6669]

Video Games being apolitical, as a fan of Final Fantasy VII, is hilarious to me. People _do_ realise that the core message of Ff7 is tremendously anti-giant corporations, right?... Almost anything that's classifiable as a dystopia is inherently political by nature. Gen 5 games are already super laced with commentary on environmentalism if you're willing to dig deep. if one is willing to analyse, there almost always is a set of morals at play in any story. Sure, purely mechanical games probably are the closest you can get to apolitical (something like Tetris), but even the vaguest amount of story will likely forcefully include a set of morals, and those morals are not possible to separate from policy.

[@phillipanselmo8540]

pokemon has had environmentalism ever since gen 3

[@cloudt.6669]

@@phillipanselmo8540 for sure, I only pointed to 5 because of how blatantly the story focussed on it.

[@RampagingFlippy030]

there';s...a difference between poltical messages are(FF7, Gen 5) and what people usually mean when they say political messaging(trump jokes, trump analogues, something about patriarchy)

[@cinnastag]

@@RampagingFlippy030 except that's blatantly idiotic. Politics is politics...and patriarchy LITERALLY falls into the same boat as environmentalism

[@RampagingFlippy030]

@@cinnastag yes but actually no. one is sociological issues, like war being bad or the nature of the human condition. The other is "haha trump have small hands."

[@ActualKuma]

I love how this video went from "drama" about the pokerogue situation perfectly transitioning to a video about "all video games are political actually" had me hooked the entire time

[@JHorst-r2u]

Was the pun intentional?

[@rfurthegamer3412]

Dang I shouldn’t be checking comments at 5:49 Cause I hate those “all games are political” videos. Like I fucking know I wanna watch a video on pokerogue or fucking other shit.

[@NoBrainer7]

wow, as a trans ally, it just pains me to see transphobic people saying things like "don't make this political", when the thing that really shouldn't be political is being trans, someone transitioning really doesn't affect anyone negatively and it just hurts that it's not a widely accepted thing, and instead a political debate. I really wish religion and traditional values didn't affect people's morals, because they don't have to, and shouldn't

[@TheMemeCritic]

@NoBrainer7 Of course Religion will affect people’s Morals, it’s the most Important thing in the Life of a religious person as you are a paying tribute to the being who established the Possiblity of all Life. Also Someone being Trans does affect the Person they are dating, as you need to tell them Information like this, in case they would be prefer to have Children or are Religious.

[@scottygagnon4287]

@@TheMemeCritic I technically agree with what you are saying, but I dislike the way in which you said it.

[@abrawolf]

​@TheMemeCritic you could make similar argument about having to talk about other medical conditions, religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexuality, even libido

[@The_Endless_Now]

It's not a very reliable move. You say it doesn't affect anyone negatively, but with a 41% chance of recoil damage, it simply doesn't fit into any established meta. Best have your Pokémon learn Iron Defense instead.

[@NoBrainer7]

@@The_Endless_Now so true

[@ArKkoKase]

it's weird how we get pokémon drama regarding transphobia twice in such a short time pokémon is such a queer-friendly franchise, no wonder why so many bad apples stand out

[@pickletickler1026]

what was the previous transphobic drama?

[@ArKkoKase]

@@pickletickler1026 there was a guy that competed against wolfyvgc in a recent tournament whom was exposed for making transphobic comments on discord the 'amoonguss says trans rights' meme came from that

[@umbriel706]

I’m not exactly surprised tbh, its fandom is admittedly one of the absolute worst. It compares to League of Legends and Smash in sheer toxicity and it’s a miracle people haven’t gone out of their way to put it on full blast like they’ve done before with Smash or Undertale

[@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato]

​@umbriel706 I feel like the Pokémon community is worse than the LoL community sometimes 😭

[@AverageEggmonEnthusiast]

Same with the ableism. I’m not saying every Pokémon fan is neurodivergent but theres clearly some overlap…

[@HoodlumCallum]

Fantastic video, loved hearing what you had to say

[@cecilily]

Hey there! Really happy to read this from you :)

[@iohu11]

My two favourite poketubers interacting

[@ilexdiapason]

always a relief to see a creator you like openly supporting trans people

[@laraprisma6381]

Also, the fact that a POKEMON fangame is at the center of a transphobia drama leaves me shocked because Pokemon is the game with a huge number of LGBT fans! and don't forget the trans icon, Sylveon!! Yeah, to this day I'm shocked that there are people like that in this community.

[@The_Endless_Now]

You didn't even spell Sylveon right.

[@NoBrainer7]

yea and there is that one character who is canonically trans in the Japanese version of X and Y, that was cool

[@aigis0423]

@@The_Endless_Now wow. That's not at all important but thanks for letting them know.

[@laraprisma6381]

@@The_Endless_Now sorry then, I have difficulty writing names and words correctly.

[@laraprisma6381]

@@NoBrainer7 YES!!

[@Bengt2509]

8:15 REMINDER:thats part of gardevoir’s skin/fur/whatever, its not a skirt/dress

[@Worsterest]

reminder to who? it’s quite obviously designed after a dress too like look at mega gardevoir

[@Bengt2509]

@@Worsterest its designed after a dress sure, but its not a dress. if my skin forms in the shape of clothes, i’m not wearing clothes, i’m still naked. Also its a reminder to anyone who forgot/a note for those who didn’t know

[@Mr.Brothybear]

@@Bengt2509 Isnt Biology Fun!

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

Reminder Gardevoir wasn't even in the Human-like Egg group until recently (Gen 8 I think)

[@Worsterest]

@@Bengt2509 are you an animal? animals are usually naked yk

[@neuplop]

Who is more political, someone saying "Trans rights" or someone getting offended by it and making it a mountain from a grain of sand?

[@maddi-lion]

came for the pokerouge discussion, stayed for the insightful discussion on how atomic-trauma influenced pokemon

[@thomasherrington7237]

I'm a christian and I think its wierd how sam framed this, because god enjoys art and can use art to do good things. The idea that 13 year olds are gonna get ideologically shifted in a negative way by trans discussion is perposterous. I like the politics in games and wish more people would acknowledge it. I love the video, thanks for informing me ma'am!

[@crispycoacoa]

Indeed, at first it seemed fine like "okay, you wanna devote your life to the lord, sure whatever floats your boat" but after the rest of the message and the context it defiantly felt like he was using his religion as an shield to excuse his close-minded views which is so.. unfortunate to see Christians that do that-

[@sintheemptyone8108]

@@crispycoacoa It would be, until we take into account the context that his response initially was more to the whole gacha aspects of the game. From what I've gathered, the whole anti-trans thing was the result of the trans political activists' speculation on Twatter. I hate when you give my kind the free pass to use their background as a shield. These autists need to learn to process their problems instead of throwing them at other people.

[@kaku.bmodel]

it highly offput me and made me tilt my head when sam said "i'm abandoning this because i want to abandon all aspirations to focus on my religion" - ofc i'm not judging. i'm just confused, because there are so many devs and artists and creative people who are religious and in fact, like you said, god encourages this sort of thing

[@LiEnby]

They might be “negatively effected” by learning its okay to be themselves and to not mistreat others 😂

[@elsa_g]

In the first part I was thinking he wanted to reprioritize his life to focus more on family and volunteering time directly helping people locally. Sad it was transphobic instead.

[@Metahunt638]

The “think of the children” excuses are so stupid, I’m living with a homophobic family right now (not discussing my age, just know I’m above 13) and I was never really exposed to queer people except at school where I met my best friend, they later came out as bi around 3rd grade. I didn’t understand what it meant really, and here I am being gay as freak. And no them coming out didn’t effect me knowing I was gay.

[@Dimensional-rifter]

Does your family know you're gay? just a simple question

[@Metahunt638]

@@Dimensional-rifter yes and no. My mom does but my dad doesn’t. I didn’t choose for my mom to know. If I could I would go back in time to stop her from being so nosey. And my dad would definitely disown me.

[@squeaks5677]

You deserve love and support, I’m so sorry that your dad would react that way.

[@Metahunt638]

@@squeaks5677 Thank you! ❤️

[@absolutezero9507]

It has nothing to do with religion or politics that's just shitty parenting. Me and my family are Christian and conservative. They know I'm bi and have been harassed for it. They don't necessarily agree with me being gay but love me

[@StylusShade]

Steph Sterling of "The Jimquisition" has made several videos where they go into detail about the politics of video games (mainly criticizing companies and gamers for trying to sweep the politics under the rug), and T. B. Skyen has made a few videos about the politics of "League of Legends." You should definitely check them out. Also, "art without politics is just decoration." I love that quote.

[@hyperswag506]

I just popped onto the server to look through it, and there's a trans flag Groudon emoji on the server, which makes me think at least not *all* the modteam is bigoted. Maybe, though, this was added after the events to accommodate people who got justifiably angry at the moderation situation.

[@Veinelso]

Iirc the leader of the mod team is married to a trans woman and there are some trans people on the mod team too, he acknowledged that the way the he acted on the trans rights discussion was wrong but it was a kinda of desperation thing, the mod team was ridiculously small and had the server basically on fire with a lot of racism and discrimination. Everyone that works on the game nowadays is super chill and pro trans rights

[@bab__beaaa]

"Art without politics is just decoration" 👏👏👏 Super excited already for the next one 🔥

[@an0bserver2000]

its honestly so depressing that the average cis person sees the way i was born, an immutable characteristic, as an "ideology". i didnt choose to be trans, i just want to exist without being othered everywhere i go.

[@edmundthearchwizard]

I mean I think the average cis person doesn’t actually give a fuck. But the ones who actually talk about do believe it’s an ideology. It’s really a case of skewed data, the people who are the loudest are the ones actually heard.

[@an0bserver2000]

@@edmundthearchwizard in my experience the average cis person sees us as freaks.

[@edmundthearchwizard]

@@an0bserver2000 that’s the internet for you. You’re going to see mostly the people that have had opinions. And like. A cis person who’s a trans ally is less likely to post about that then a transphobe. Like I said, sampling bias. The vast majority of people are just living their lives and don’t particularly care. Unfortunately, the politicians care, and their voices are the ones that are amplified and listened too. Most people don’t see you as freaks. Because most people aren’t jackasses. But the jackasses have the power, so it’s then that you see, and it’s them that talk.

[@Houlgravely]

Being trans isn't an immutable characteristic. It's an unfortunate flaw in your genetic composition that makes you want something that isn't normal and then turn the other 99% into bad guys when they don't want to change their definition of what a man or a woman is. An "immutable" characteristic would be something like race. Being trans and saying "I'm x" loudly in public when most people would say you are not "x" is a violation of their rights and way of life whether you want to admit it or not.

[@edmundthearchwizard]

⁠@@an0bserver2000that’s the internet for you. You see the voices that are amplified, and negative opinions get more traction. For every person who believes that trans people are freaks and screams about it, there are many who don’t care and just quietly go about their lives. Most people just don’t care, but unfortunately, the politicians care and tell everyone else what to believe, and some people listen to them. But not most people. The average cis person does not believe that you are freak. Because the average cis person isn’t a jackass. But it’s the jackasses who run the world, and therefore their voices are amplified more than others. So, don’t just lump everyone into one group and brand them as “The enemy”. Cause that’s what they do.

[@UmbreonMessiah]

I'm coming back to this video because I had a fridge thought and realized how *hilarious* it is that the original dev genderlocked Gardevoir to female, given he was doing it because of his "religious beliefs" and such.... Gardevoir's original Japanese name is *SIRKNIGHT.*

[@IgorDemozi]

- Wait, it was all politics? *points gun* - Always has been.

[@gordonwiley2006]

I love to be a truly unbiased and apolitical enlightened being. I have never taken an action or communicated anything, I sit motionless in a blank void and literally nothing ever occurs. I hope that the people who seek to avoid politics can find my path, as it is the only chance they have.

[@umbriel706]

Not everyone can reach this state unfortunately, people in the political spectrum will always wish to fight those with different ideals without even attempting to get to know the other individual. (Though, I absolutely do not support transphobia and homophobia)

[@Il_Carino]

"The politics were always there" I got chills

[@alexisstephen8552]

idk how PokeRogue devs ended up transphobic when Ivy has that much tgirl swag

[@comyuse9103]

its literally the reason i played the game despite not liking the baseline pokemon gameplay

[@sometijng]

She has?

[@comyuse9103]

@@sometijng she does and i can't explain it much more than that

[@ShinigamiRyan]

Groomer spotted.

[@brisingr0962]

God why is the world so transphobic. It feels like every day that goes by there’s another drama…

[@unoriginal2552]

​@@zilit9589 phobia means fear or irrational dislike. You're not going to tell me a hydrophobic material screams when it encounters water, are you?

[@enn1924]

Tbh I find it very annoying to see players spamming "trans rights" or "you got killed by a girl uwu" in games because suddenly the whole lobby goes to shit as people start fighting just because some obnoxious people can't shut the fuck up

[@firewolfandrewb]

@@unoriginal2552 If hydrophobic material doesn't scream when is encounters water then I have oil I need to throw out.

[@cryosen]

@@enn1924 get annoyed at the people getting mad at trans rights then

[@aigis0423]

@@cryosen This. There's nothing wrong with saying trans rights as long as individuals don't do it to an obnoxious degree. But people who get angry at people for saying something innocent for no real reason are the folks you should be irritated at.

[@brony4869]

'stop shoving politics into media' is actually code for 'stop making cool stuff that i want to enjoy that has political messages that are different to my own. I was also too media illiterate when i was younger to have noticed the political messages in all art and media and especially that was in the things i mindlessly enjoyed and i want to continue to pretend those messages weren't always there'.

[@fillerpoint555]

Pokémon fans: Gamefreak is useless, the fanbase could do a much better job with the franchise! also Pokémon fans:

[@comyuse9103]

to be fair pokemon desolation and pokemon rejuvenation are both better than anything gamefreak has ever put out (even if they are very fanfic-y), and i am pretty sure there is a (half-finished) open world pokemon RPG (as-in you make real choices and they count, different endings and all that jazz) out there too.

[@MrGamerofmusic]

“Keep politics out of my (insert thing)!” Is an entitled statement that puts the person stating it. Only wants what matters to them, to be discussed. Basically. It boils down to. “Nuance is for me, not for your problems”

[@squeaks5677]

Rules for thee, not for me.

[@justcallmekai1554]

It's also just completely incurious about the world and by extension people. At that point it just sounds like you wanna be in an ignorant nostalgia bubble because you wanna be 9 years old again. That's why that argument conveniently stops at when "they were growing up". Acknowledging it's a constant would mean they would be blatantly wrong.

[@link3895]

I've never liked the people that gripe about "bringing politics into my video games" when anything even remotely queer related comes around. For LGTBQ+ this stuff isn't politics, it's LIFE, saying it's politics shows exactly where someone stands on the subject.

[@CesarR1037]

I don’t want to be reminded of the state of the real world when I’m playing POKÉMON. If people are so passionate about these issues, there’s millions of places you can go to show support.

[@felixhenson9926]

It's both.

[@beanman9936]

@@felixhenson9926 the politics of... being happy?

[@handsoaphandsoap]

​@@CesarR1037 Queer people existing is not political. Queer people living is not political. Excluding us from media, however, *is* a political decision. Queer erasure has a long, and *highly political* history that you are actively participating in by making statements such as the one you're making here, that we should just go exist somewhere where you don't have to look or think about us.

[@arahman56]

@@CesarR1037 So in the Jim Crow days...black people should have stayed off media discussion? Because racists made their existence political? Why is the first thought always "appeasing bigots"?

[@ozzypuff8957]

DAMN That Regis theory. KZbinrs that actually get into japanese pokemon media are PEAK content, I loved all the info you put in this vid.

[@cecilily]

Thank you!!

[@ozzypuff8957]

also, to hell with transphobes.

[@greyscaleadaven]

Glad someone is covering this comprehensively, as from what I've heard it's not just a bad situation but quite a complicated one too. Like there are many queer people involved with the project from what I've heard despite the leadership's actions recently. I'm curious to hear what people have to say, going to likely update this comment after I finish the video with some post-watch thoughts. Thanks! EDIT: To start I haven't made any edits to my original comment. Mostly because I don't feel the need to change my first impressions. As it turns out, the situation was a lot less complicated than I thought it would be. I did play the game all the way through in a vacuum from all of that and enjoyed the game. I don't feel the need to regret doing that, it would make me quite a fickle person to react that way. But I am a big fan of the arguments this video makes. I don't think I need to extrapolate too much on why, so instead to prove the point further I'm going to list off all the generations and an example of how their conflicts may relate to politics (very loosely I'm not a historian so not aiming for perfect accuracy): Gen 1: Lt. Surge and Koga establish the pokemon war. Team Rocket also uses pokemon like Electrode or Weezing, both pokemon that explode often. Rattata and Raticate may represent war criminality in spreading diseases, this is more of a stretch however. Gen 2: This is the gen I know least about lorewise, just being transparent. But a lot of the Gen 1 parallels carry over with team rocket. The Radio Tower might connect to some paranoia people had at the time about radio waves affecting us. I'm sure people from Japan themselves know more about things like the Burned Tower, Bell Tower, or Whirl Islands. I'd rather not try to assert politics I'm not familiar with necessarily. Gen 3: explained in the video, also in general holds commentary on Team Aqua's mentality vs Team Magma. Extremist activism being the main focus. Archie and Maxie parrot exaggerated ideologies to garner support. They're a parody of flat earthers or extremist groups who incite violent or hateful outcomes. That is most definitely politically relevant. Gen 4: God. Giratina is literally an embodiment of the ruler of the underworld. Religion is inherently political. It's also political to pose the question of who gets to control gods. If we had access to that power, wouldn't someone wish to inherit it? Also, is it worth creating a new world if no one is there to inhabit it? The depictions of these gods are also eldritch and esoteric, not euphoric or nightmarish like religion would traditionally paint them. The distortion world is just weird, not an evil place. Giratina was locked away for causing Dialga and Palkia to fight and is vengeful for a time. But as we learn in PLA, it becomes more inclined to fulfill its role in keeping the balance of matter instead of disrupting it. Gen 5: Ghetsis is a politician, using rallies and posing moral questions to audiences in order to sew power. He also manufactures N from birth to be the new king and hero of Unova. This can be seen as an attempt at neo-oligarchical takeover, but also as nepotism and the inherent advantages that can just fall into someone's lap because of generational power. N is however also an insightful commentary on isolation and how anyone can be victimized by abuse. Gen 6: Another war. This time it's actually nuclear and that's exactly how it ends. All to serve a selfish king's cause. Wars can be fought over a single life, killing thousands or more. AZ is the literal aftermath of pursuing his 'noble' cause, being abandoned by even the one he wanted to save. Lysandre reflects this hubris, except he wishes to start over similarly to Cyrus. He wants to cleanse and rebuild, sounds oddly familiar to a lot of the people behind atomic bombings. Gen 7: Lusamine uses her privilege to get what she wants hiding behind the guise of a preservation organization. Phillanthropy and wealth allows her to escape most criticism. Her kids and the people closely around her know a different story, but need significant support to even address the corruption let alone root it out. In the anime, it becomes even more nuanced with it focusing more on the grief of her estranged husband taken by the ultra wormholes driving her to pursue UBs to a fault even when she is a flawed but empathetic person. Also, Team Skull is a commentary on how people who don't fit into a system can be so harshly outcast and band together to drive counterculture movements as a result. The Island Challenge and Z-Moves are forced onto them, regardless of whether that's a good thing or not. It's something inherently interesting to think about. Not everyone is going to like a system that rewards being chummy with those in power. Gen 8: The games don't make this particular argument, but the Darkest Day arc in Journeys does. Rose grows up poor with his brother, Peony. Their father dies in a coal mine cave-in. Rose then makes it his personal goal to never let that happen again, thus leading to him summoning the darkest day. Is risking the world worth saving those forever working in dangerous conditions to give us our luxurious lives? That's the question posed at least. Also, Leon among others are commentaries on the political nature of public figures. Rose has Leon in his pocket, one of the most dangerous men in the region. He raises him to be a champion just like Ghetsis did with N. Leon is brought up to hold the power he does. Another commentary on how being adjacent to power in turn grants privilege. Gen 9: AI is very relevant right now. There are a lot of questions posed, like what does it look like when AI achieves sentience and how will we tell the difference from the real thing as it progresses? Also, the school's infrastructure is inherently political, with Geeta being a figure who is shrouded in mystery and seems to run just about everything. But the biggest point of contention is scientific research and how far we should be pushing that. Turo/Sada, Heath, and Briar point out the importance in ethical practice. All three in different ways made groundbreaking discoveries but pushed things too far and faced consequences for their hubris in the process. When we find something like this, another question is posed. Who should see it? Area Zero's real interior was covered up for a very long time by the League. In many ways, it's clear that it still is after the events of the game. This somehow became very long, again I apologize if I got stuff wrong because I wasn't really planning on writing an essay about politics in pokemon today. Regardless though, it's a proof of concept that not only pokemon is political, but all games have politics ingrained into their stories and design. Even if it's unintentional, artifacts of the time will always hold relevancy in this way.

[@christiancinnabars1402]

Gen 8 is also very political in that its plot is centered around the energy crisis that our world today is _very_ worried about. Rose's father dying in a coal mine cave-in is a very symbolic event. In the games themselves, Rose talks about how the region's power will eventually run out, so he intentionally unleashes a literal doom's day event in the hopes of capturing a being that can supply _infinite_ energy. This raises some questions: Is securing infinite energy worth potentially sacrificing thousands, if not millions of lives that will be caught in the crossfire? And if that is bad, then why is coal fuel, the leading energy source today, acceptable when it injures and kills many people annually as well - many of which are victims to the environmental damage caused by coal mining and aren't even workers themselves - and _doesn't_ provide infinite energy? From Rose's perspective, going from depending on one energy source that _routinely_ kills many people and has a very limited well, to another that has a one-time cost of killing people in return for a bottomless well that would last for all time is an obvious choice. The issue then is, do people even _have_ to die in the switch? Which then goes on to my personal interpretation of what Eternatus even symbolizes. Because a lot of politics in games aren't always directly said as is. I think Eternatus is a stand-in for _nuclear power._ _The_ most politically divisive topic in the whole field of energy. It is an unknown being that wreaked havoc on the region in the past, and had to be banished and sealed away due to it being uncontrollable, but not without leaving a lasting impact on the surrounding area in the form of invisible particles. Then, due to concerns on maintaining energy in the region, it has to be brought up again and studied. Eventually, it is reawakened again, in hopes that the technology nowadays can handle and contain it. _Very_ closely mirrors the real world history with nuclear power. It is even part Poison-type to mirror radiation and the sickness it can cause. And true to modern nuclear technology, Eternatus _is_ eventually caught and contained with _zero_ casualties. Similar to how instead of holding together nuclear equipment and waste storage with sheet metal and duct tape like they did in the past, modern equipment has been shown to _very securely_ process nuclear energy and store nuclear waste. Meaning Gen 8 can be taken as a piece for pro-nuclear power, with a _big_ emphasis on having it land in the right hands. So yeah, Pokemon damn well can be political.

[@greyscaleadaven]

​@@christiancinnabars1402 Yeah! That's why I really enjoyed the Journeys interp of it, because they did make it more overt why his motivation was so strong. I like that idea with Eternatus, that would make a lot of sense and provide a more nuanced conclusion about the strained rumors and relationship with that kind of power. It's also interesting that Rose's team was filled with steel types, all of which are built to counter Eternatus. He clearly planned on taking it down himself but failed. I think this also harkons back to what the video was talking about, the history of Kaiju connecting with nuclear power. In fact, that is what makes the Darkest Day so scary in the first place. It forces pokemon across the region to Dynamax, causing mass destruction with Max Moves and unstoppable power. Dynamax is directly inspired by Kaiju and was likely very involved in that design process for gen 8.

[@jienougaplanteenpot7807]

I feel like everyone is missing one of the biggest blatantly political message of pokemon (or at least the most "relevant" one considering it comes from gen 1) which is... Mewtwo? The genetically enhanced clone bioweapon that was created around the time when real-life research on cloning and genetics made leaps of progress? And if you think that's just a coïncidence, I'll just point to Solid Snake MGS1 and Shadow SA2 who were created roughly at the same time and shares the exact same story and message (and MGS1 and SA2 were nothing if not political) mfs will literally hear "I see now the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant, it is what you do with the gift of life that determines what you are" and go "PoKeymAns nEveR hAd PoliTiCs in iT!1!1!!"

[@grapegardens9923]

@@christiancinnabars1402 I have to say, I am surprised that "Eternatus is nuclear power" isn't a more common take, especially given that the Dynamax phenomenon that its responsible for takes inspiration from Kaiju movies, a genre that has a history with criticizing the misuse of nuclear power.

[@squeaks5677]

Giratina reminds me of Lucifer from Paradise Lost, the “Fallen Angel”

[@TheRealKingDedede]

The folks who talk about “not exposing children to any kind of ideology” are the same people who drag their kid to church and try to force their belief system onto them regardless of what they believe

[@table2.0]

“Trans people are too political!! It goes against my beliefs!!” But also “I’m Christian and I need to spend the rest of my life serving God. Also READ THE BIBLE” Like.. what does your chosen faith have to do with someone else’s innate identity? And how is Christianity less political?

[@shellder_gaming]

Christianity is arguably more political than trans

[@Syiepherze]

Probably the most blatant reference to war in the original games is Lt. Surge - Lt. Surge is literally an *American* soldier who fought in "the war" (probably meant to allude to the Vietnam War or even the more recent Gulf War IRL). The reference to his nationality was retconned out much later in Let's Go (2018) - His Gym is in Vermillion City, which is chiefly equivalent to IRL Yokohama (as shown in the Worlds 2023 trailer) - Yokohama was one of the first ports opened up following Matthew Perry's historic arrival, which ended Japan's isolationist Sakoku period. - The shipyard built in neighboring Yokosuka (with French cooperation) would be succeeded by the US Naval Base since the Allied occupation. The Yokosuka base played a pivotal role in the Korean and Vietnam wars

[@HastorBin]

Trans rights, you all are precious and valid

[@robertgidoiu]

They wont let you hit lil bro 😭🙏

[@HastorBin]

@@robertgidoiu You woke up and chose violence 😥

[@insanecarousel]

thank you detective dick gumshoe from hit game ace attorney

[@Worsterest]

W

[@shooooooooopi]

bro really thought he’d hit 😭

[@SirPhysics]

To quote Hbomb: "Politics is objectively fun and all gamers love it all the time. And the people who say they hate seeing them in games actually love politics even more, they just wish they were seeing different politics." It's crazy how so many people genuinely believe that 'apolitical' means 'something that reflects my own ideology back at me so completely that I don't need to think about anything.'

[@Bengt2509]

From what i’ve heard there was both actual transphobia and transphobia that was accidental due to bad phrasing

[@cinnastag]

And both should be apologized for, just differently, and learned from

[@bubbletea_]

so funny when gamers think they're "above politics". while it is totally okay if you mainly enjoy games for things outside of their political messages, i find it really sad that people want to shun politics out of art. part of why politics in art is so important is BECAUSE politics is not a thing most people are going to be thinking about for 99% of their day. it's a way for the common person who already has their own life stuff to deal with to explore and be enlightened on political concepts.

[@Trinthegay]

I was actually there while people were arguing about Sam in the server. I remember the same mod that was using the r-slur in your video (Megalith) swearing up and down that he'll try hia damnedest to make the server as trans friendly as possible. On a side note, I definitely appreciate a video essayist who happens to be queer and makes videos about queer Pokemon. I love this.

[@Trinthegay]

@@mimejrtwemiwmiw5634 Is he, though? Because I do respect him trying to make it a trans safe space, but using the r-slur doesn't make him better than Sam.

[@mimejrtwemiwmiw5634]

The r word honestly doesn't bother me that much. Sure it's offensive if it's used to demean people who are challenged, which Mégalith did not. But otherwise it's a an efficient word to talk about stupidity. In French, "retard mental" is the appropriate word to talk about challenged people and I believe Mégalith is a native French speaker, so I really don't see any bigotry or intent to harm in the way he used it

[@Trinthegay]

@@aetoreous I KNOW RIGHT? You'd think that a children's game that promotes positivity and loving everyone wouldn't be filled with so many hateful people.

[@snivy5588]

"Pokémon Is not political" Garbodor, weezing and muk : the Pokémon horrors of contamination Zorua and zoroark hisui, lapras, farfech's: the Pokémon mass hunting Made them nearly/totally extinct Consola galar and cursula: the Pokémon coral dead for contamination Mewtwo, sillvally and genesect: the Pokémon horror of the science Tauros paldea: the bullfight pokemon Galar Fossils: the bone wars Pokémon Mr rime: the Charlie Chaplin Pokémon (known anti-n*zi) Empoleon: Pokémon Napoleon Rattata and raticate alola: the invasive species Pokémon in Hawaii Toxtricity and obstagoon: the punk Pokémon Jynx: the gyaru Pokémon Copperajah: a indian Pokémon in US Half of paldea Pokédex: latin-american in spain and Portugal Braviary: the american bald eagle Pokémon Team Rocket: Yakuzas Kadabra, Jynx and porygon: the censored Pokémon Arceus and giratina: god and satan All the 5 generacion: self explanatory Pokémon in general: the satanic panic thing For name a few, if you don't want politics Pokémon you should eliminate all of this Pokémon and More, and like half of the human characters

[@wa_akii6873]

not to forget zygarde, the protector of the ecosystem

[@aromanticfranziskavonkarma]

I'm in the middle of my first SWSH playthrough and I haven't gotten to him yet but isn't Piers' whole shtick that he's in a punk band alongside being a gym leader??

[@tysondennis1016]

I kinda find it funny that they made the most trans girl coded character design for one of their NPCs, and yet, they are like that.

[@pokefanmelody]

okay as a transfem with no knowledge of the game, and not currently the attention span to watch this- PLEASE elaborate i need to see this gal

[@darlhiatt8136]

​@pokefanmelody the rival in Pokerouge appears starting at wave 8 of the game, next at 25, and recurs at several other intervals through the 200 wave classic mode. So if you wanted to see her yourself it wouldn't take too long to meet her. The rival will always be the opposite gender as the one you choose starting the game unfortunately, so you'd have to pick male to see Ivy, but if you don't want to play I'm sure there's other you tube videos showing the game. Either way though Ivy does have a good design and I was pretty surprised to see a full on new character designed for this type of game.

[@asierx7047]

My favourite part is that Ivy's outfit is a feminine version of Hau's clothes, down to the hair color. She literally looks like if Hau transitioned after the events of Sun & Moon

[@PhantomAkiraP5]

@@asierx7047 And got his skin bleached*

[@pinky_pluggy7848]

​@@darlhiatt8136 I played the game (didn't get to level 200, tho) and I don'r get it/gen

[@carpettoaster]

I discovered this channel an hour ago and I check videos to binge watch instead of working and "44 seconds ago" is the blessing i receive. I haven't even watch the video yet, but you're so cool, I hope you get super duper duper big!

[@cecilily]

Well, I'm just rewatching the video to check for problems in the CC so I guess we will watch it together

[@luigitime9592]

its weird how you didn't point out that godzilla's breath is literally called "atomic breath" as he uses it a lot

[@YuubiTimberwolf]

There is no game that is not political, politics affect everything in our life. "Don't bring politics into this server/pokemon." is a wild statement that just reeks of a narrowminded view of the world and games. Pokemon is political, Gender plays a role in Pokemon, Pokemon had Villains that were on a path of genocide, be it humans or pokemon, we had villains that promote capitalism and use pokemon to make money, we had villains wanting to terraform the earth to benefit one side or completely end all for a fresh start, we had a group of teens and young adults being outcasted and stuck finding their own way withoud any help,.... It's insane, Pokemon and all games are political by nature.

[@louc.6735]

we literally had scientology crossed with corporate culture crossed with heaven's gate as the enemy of Pokemon Platinum, idk what people are on about.

[@dizzyheads]

I think it's more like Don't bring IRL politics into the game

[@theforgivingwarrior]

Tell me how the 1995 game Doom 2 is political, it should be easy. If you can't do that, your point is bullshit.

[@yosha101]

@@theforgivingwarrior The plot of doom is literally "Mega corporation fucks up and summons demons that are going to kill everyone on mars" and Doom 2's plot is "That massive fuck up is now specifically going to destroy earth as well", this could be construed as criticism of big business and their lack of morals, enviromentalism since the exploitation of Mars' resources somehow summoned them blah blah Now time for some ad hominem since I shouldn't even be entertaining what you're saying in the first place: "this response is such a clear tell that you have no capacity for thought" (Now that I think about it, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal lean even further into that exact reading, that the UAC is ultimately at fault for the demon invasion no matter how much "The ends justify the means" stuff they spout for the hell energy)

[@metabiospark]

​@@theforgivingwarrior Hell on earth exists because mega corps on mars dug too deep and decided that the profits were worth LITERAL HELL. This gets expanded in the remake and Doom Eternal as a result of the earth's governments poor resource management and desperation for an EASY renewable energy.

[@AltrTheEgo]

You know, looking back on it I thought it was weird my kirlia evolved into a Gallade through level up in my run.

[@UmbreonMessiah]

To be fair, this is still "a thing" but that's mostly because the current dev is still getting around to fixing all the crazy shit that this guy left in.

[@PedroOver9000]

the sheer amount of people so quick to dismiss this as being "harmless" for the sake of keeping their magic animal game intact is simply disgusting

[@RichardWaugh-vd2df]

it is harmless? like what your are talking crazy bro

[@neoqwerty]

@@RichardWaugh-vd2df Tell that to the metagame, locking male Kirlias out of being a special sweeper or tank is an awful choice, there's moves and abilities that only affect the opposite gender and forcing Gardevoir to be always female means you've just kneecapped Gardevoir with male Attract/Cute Charm parafusion hax.

[@RichardWaugh-vd2df]

@@neoqwerty no not really just use a female one then and for the early game that’s not huge problem (many prevo pokemon have this moveset problem) only 2 abilities rivalry and cute charm which well just swap out your pokemon

[@Impy_Lucy]

@@RichardWaugh-vd2df Sure, it's not THAT big of a problem - but it didn't have to be a problem at all! They could've just kept things as is, and literally nobody would've complained.

[@RichardWaugh-vd2df]

@@Impy_Lucy nobody should’ve complained in the first place because it literally doesn’t affect anything and is just a qol feature

[@RatOfTheWoods]

One of my favorite things [trans] video essayists do is slowly trick their viewers from discussing a pop culture topic into making thought-provoking points about society, politics, art, etc/gen Politics is inherent to everything we as people are, it's inevitable w the culture we live in. Taking the time to understand that is invaluable

[@cecilily]

I call it the "Hbomberguy plot twist" 😅

[@CesarR1037]

That’s the literal definition of indoctrination and propaganda. If you want people to think the same way as you, convince them, don’t TRICK them. Just as you said, this is a cultural issue and nothing to do with who you vote for.

[@Stathio]

@@CesarR1037 Encouraging someone to think about a subject is indoctrination and propaganda now? Better get that lobotomy then! Also... there's literally no trickery- if you'll read it, it's right there in the video title. When they said "trick their viewers" in that comment, they were clearly meaning it jokingly, not literally.

[@comyuse9103]

@@CesarR1037 trans issues have everything to do with who you vote for if one of the 2 options wants to kill trans people.

[@miigi-p4939]

​@@CesarR1037except when you vote for people against queer rights

[@rinkuraku5251]

I really hate "Being trans is against God's will!" I with so many medical issues that were fixed or at least mitigated by medical science. Having the wrong parts down there is just one of the things that it was apparently "God's will" I had. What makes my being trans any different than me being born severely cross eyed that needed surgery to fix? It's a medical issue, not a sin.And if having a medical issue is God's will, if getting treatment for it is wrong, then I guess I'm wrong. But it won't stop me from getting that treatment.

[@zillycat8534]

Yes! I believe in God, at this point idk if I even call myself a Christian because I don’t want to be associated with all the hatred Plus I am far more on the spiritual side If you do even a little proper research from reliable sights, it’s clear that transitioning has saved so many lives Of course, some people do de transition and that hurts them, but it’s an incredibly low amount of people, and even less of them become transphobic because of it I’ve had a lot of trans people in my life, and the before and after when I see it is astounding! They are so much happier now, more confident too. It is not wrong for someone to want to change things in their body. Because if it is, then I am wrong too, as I have severe anxiety, depression, and Pmdd, (also inattentive adhd) because of this, I have to take meds otherwise I am MISERABLE. We may as well just tell parents that give birth to children with severe fixable medical problems, that letting them die would be better Sorry for the rant, very passionate about this 😅

[@toz_lmao]

God made trans people for the same reason he made wheat and not bread I personally am not a Christian, but in their vision, an all powerful all knowing god wouldn't make mistakes like that, so that's what I think

[@theguywhoasked2597]

​@@toz_lmaothere's a reason for everything he does even if it's odd I mean Jesus was fucking tweaking out when god wanted to sacrifice him (this is according to the Bible btw I don't consider myself heavily religious even tho I was raised that way)

[@toz_lmao]

@@theguywhoasked2597 It's understandable tbh. Getting sacrificed isn't pretty cash money

[@princeapoopoo5787]

Fun(?) fact, September 11th is another day where encounter rates are lower in Diamond and Pearl! It isn't just Japanese history/politics that gets this nod, but worldwide as well.

[@xkower8181]

Damn, honestly the 2nd part of the video completely overshadows the whole pokerogue drama, it's that good. The Hoenn theories and the Ambassadors of Kawaii stuff was mindblowing. Honestly the latter got me imagining like a Fairy/Dark type Anglerfish pokemon but I think that could have been a bit too much on the nose lmfao. Good as shit video!

[@cecilily]

This is great to read, thank you! I was a bit hesitant to take such a bold deviation from the main topic, and I am very happy you enjoyed :)

[@patawon5782]

I actually didn't know about Junichi Masuda modelling Hoenn after Kyushu. The 3rd gen games were a huge part of my childhood, and the parallels between the weather and nature saving Kokura honestly made me tear up. Thank you for sharing these insights and highlighting more from other creators like Normose, this is an incredibly thoughtful video

[@TBG1]

I never expected to see an accurate representation of german politics on a yt channel of a non-german person, let alone a POKEMON video. Wow. Kudos for being so real

[@AnimatorBlake]

I love how most announcements in the discord now have tons of trans pride emojis on them all the time

[@JustJohn816]

27:00 Holy shit I got chills when you said that (referring to the weather)

[@elizapetersen8302]

This is probably my favorite video in the vein of "everything's political, dipshit" essays.

[@wfjhDUI]

I find these cases of religious fundies who manage to keep it to themselves pretty interesting (Brendan Eich is the classic example in my mind). It's somewhat beyond their control so I feel oddly sympathetic to the ones who keep in private and feel like maybe it's wrong to actively out them, but once it's out, there's no going back -- we can't just pretend we don't know about it and we certainly can't expect that of others.

[@reddawn1873]

gen 1 Story about animal Is trafficking gen 3 a way about climate change gen 4 Genocidal nihilism and Creationism gen 5 argument about this series and Animal abuse gen 6 I believe messiasm?

[@Satanika]

I've been almost 20 years on the internet looking for pokémon content daily, I never heard of the implications of the regis locations or corelations between pokémon dates and irl dates, the more you know

[@cecilily]

You should really check out Kaka's video on this, he goes into more detail than I did! The link is in the description :)

[@WhirlyBeepBoops]

I was there and was so confused. I'm Christian, yes, but I'm all for trans rights. I don't think I myself was muted, and I definitely wasn't banned. I tried to be positive in the sea of chaos, but it was absolutely crazy in there. So you can see how conflicted I was.

[@squeaks5677]

Christianity doesn't stand for the oppression of outcasts, at least not the type I was raised in.

[@Coolskeleton2030]

​@@squeaks5677same

[@jacksonvoet8312]

@@squeaks5677 You are the true bearers of the message of goodness among a legion of the corrupt. I may not believe, but I salute you nonetheless.

[@quendi5557]

The deep dive into how politics shaped the pokemon franchise was fascinating. And your point that "Politics makes art better" is something I whole heartedly believe. I got in an argument a few months back and it was about politics in franchises. The person I was arguing with was complaining about "Politics" ruining franchises, I still to this day don't understand how he didn't see that the franchises he was talking about were political from the start. This was a really cool video and thank you for making it.

[@kaled8839]

politics does make art better when it's implemented well, like the metal gear series, but so many times it's just not. Whenever it has absolutely no nuances AND it's the centerpiece, the art in question just feels like a soulless mouthpiece that a soulless corporation made for money. A good example for this I think is The Boys after season 1, where they just want the main villain to be trump after one of the good writers of the show left. Most people who make the argument of politics ruining franchises really have no idea that politics forms their favourite franchises too, and that's because it's implemented well into the media with nuance, reason for existing the way it does and how it's integrated into the environment. Basically your statement is correct, but I think it only really applies to art that has actual passion behind it.

[@neoqwerty]

@@kaled8839 That's just called shitty writing, and if the politics are shoehorned in believe you me it's not the only thing in the story that's a dumpster fire. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to write for their project (cough cough Fallout Frontier that mod's programmer should have been banned from touching the script).

[@Flasa]

As a Brazilian ally who just discovered your channel, I’m so happy to see someone from our country spreading abroad with such deep and well-explored content. Parabéns pelo seu canal! 😃

[@early_morning_sd_team]

If I had been exposed to trans or nonbinary people when I was younger perhaps it would have been easier to untangle mess that is how I identify. I am Nonbinary and it was so confusing to figure out. Rights are not political, until the government decides that they aren’t protected. We are heading into a scary time especially if project 2025 actually comes into fruition.

[@SomeGalNamedEve]

I hate that my very existence is considered political.

[@Zistheone2]

Tamahero's retrospective video on Gen 3 also mentions that Team Aqua & Magma's storyline is most likely inspired by the Isahaya Land Reclamation conflict that was taking place during Gen 1 & 2's development

[@imarandomperson761]

That was an incredible video !! When you brought up people complaining about politics in video games I was praying that you'd point out how politics are everywhere and how silly it is to hold an apolitical position, and well I was definitely not disappointed, in fact I learned so much more than I expected. 10/10 video you're super underrated

[@LotteYansson]

As a Shin Megami Tensei player who NEVER chooses the Law alignment, being told that being queer is against God's will just makes me even more proud of being so.

[@Aquageo555]

Honestly genderless pokemon are typically artificial and legendary pokemon. I never got the impression they were ever ment to be transgender.

[@DakumunDahBat]

it's less about transgender, and more of the "there are only two genders" thing, I think.

[@coraline2770]

How can you be so transphobic you remove pokemon lol

[@bcharizard1]

10:15 I adore that custom CC addition of “Great job, by the way!” When talking about Momo being head artist for the game. It’s like a little Easter Egg and it makes me happy :)

[@Illusn]

I was only vaguely aware of drama going on with Pokérogue, but you covered it, and by extension the politics of Pokémon and Japanese media very well. It hadn't actively considered the cultural impact of nuclear bombs on Pokémon before (despite being aware of the Regi theory). Also, absolute jumpscare seeing my old art at 37:01. It always surprises me to see it crop up in the wild, but I'm glad that it's appreciated.

[@cecilily]

It so nice it was made by you! I found it through Google images, and thought it was super cute! I didn't have any way to contact you, but made sure to leave the signature in each case, happy that you enjoyed the video ✨️

[@DingoTheDemon]

The G in Sugimori is a hard G, if it were pronounced like Sujimori then it would be spelled that way in Hepburn (Hepburn is the name of the system we use to represent Japanese words in the roman alphabet).

[@krystofsobotka3069]

It's really silly that anyone would say they want their games or any media "apollitical", because there isn't even such thing as that. Unless you're watching a kitten playing in the grass, most things will be political, even as unassuming games like the first Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario World, or hell even Animal Crossing (before it was butchered later on) has a major political thing going on. 95% of all media you consume has some kind of a political message behind it, like it or not.

[@Stathio]

Yeah, THAT bigoted fandom drama type stuff is exactly why Nintendo takes action against fangames etc. This is why we can't have nice things. Also, Vivian from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a canon trans woman in English now, so that increased show of support of trans people through that makes me so happy! And I've been saying this for ages- that whole 'no politics allowed!!' mentality is just... impossible. Politics informs everything in our lives, especially art- even in ways we might not immediately recognise. At this point, when people say 'keep politics out of my entertainment' etc., they basically just mean 'keep politics I *don't agree with* out of my entertainment'. They should say what they actually think instead of hiding behind a nonsense impossible statement like that. To paraphrase an insightful reddit comment I saw about that whole issue- 'According to some people, there are two races: white and political. Two sexualities: straight and political. Two genders: male and political.' That's the best way of explaining the hypocrisy of the 'no politics allowed' people in a nutshell that I've yet to see. As a trans person, I *WISH* I didn't have to be political- it's a dark cloud which casts a shadow over our entire lives which we'd LOVE to escape from, but others force it upon us- ironically enough, exactly *BECAUSE* of these 'no politics!' mentalities.

[@neoqwerty]

It means "keep out the politics I don't agree with and can actually spot despite my poor media literacy", to slightly correct you, because the amounts of people I've seen who miss the politics of things like Gundam (anti-war), Getter Robo (nuclear energy, changes from nuclear fears to nuclear hope if respected as the country moved from its war trauma to renewable energy that's safe if properly handled and secured, with side double-message of "imperialism nightmare bad" and "global cooperation good") because they didn't bother to go past giant robots go brrrrrr is. Really telling.

[@tueboys1]

The demonstration of how a silly collectible monster game is actually tied to the horror of the nuclear bomb and how kaijus are an expression of the post ww2 terror was incredible! I learned so much and even though I shared your starting point that art is political wether we want it or not, I never knew about the Hoenn region inspiration or even the Japanese theory of the regi trio. Such a great video!

[@TheRageHunt]

No lie I was planning on clicking off bc I thought I knew where you were going. But you hooked me and I watched the whole thing. And learned something. Good work and ty.

[@Kulkogo]

I can’t even breathe without _some_ great fangame getting into drama…

[@Sincald]

Excellent video, especially the deeper dive into the inherent politics and counterculture in Japan. I had never heard about Masuda's Hoenn-Kyushu correlation and the weather trio fan theory, or the origin of kawaii culture being for rebellion and facilitating activist organising. And the parts about "apolitical" being a political position, and that creators of art are unavoidably products of their own political environment! Just a lot of great stuff, thank you Cecilily 🙏

[@suelime8207]

Oh, thanks for almost literally projecting my thoughts lol! Also i wanted to add that despite the gradual shift in quality that the series have (as it usually goes for, you know, the longest something manages to stay alive under capitalism), it's wild to me that game freak has really went out of their ways to include political readings in EVERY single mainline games Like, one of the main thing on why i used to be super on the fence about Gen 6 is because i thought (maybe in short sighed way) that megas and their pokedex entries were compromising the idea that only a trainer and/or a pokemon should get to decide it themselves and not something forced or hurtful at any point (ie the red gyarados story and the whole friendship evolution mechanic revolving around respect and trust) But even then i wasn't fully seeing the reading that (even if it WAS made to be super edgy to sell more merch obviously), mega evolution being the nuclear fallout consequences brought by the firing of the Ultimate Weapon really was ultimately about facing the trauma of genocide, not turning a blind eye to the very real and visible physical impact forced on nature that “technological achievement” used for war ultimately bring, and still trying in the end to find ways to care and coexist by never forgetting about the consequences of cruelty

[@suelime8207]

Also i forgot because i got carried away, but thanks for the work you put into this vid, it really shows and it's super great as a result!

[@LiEnby]

I dunno maybe they should not try so hard to make existing as trans “political”

[@twideslauriers7875]

fr tho, a lot of gamers want to have their cake and eat it too. they want games to be taken seriously as art, but they don’t want anybody to actually analyze the themes or acknowledge what being art means.

[@iancalhoun7644]

For someone who only subscribed a week or so ago, following the Amoongus video, I'm really excited for this. You have found a great niche in this community, keep it up!!

[@nanto_naku]

Your video made me scream upon the realization that the weather trio (my favorite legendaries) were an allegory to that event, amazin video, you gained a new subscriber. I really really love pokemon

[@TheDawn15]

I honestly do not understand how someone can like or love Pokémon and be transphobic. Hell, I honestly don't how ANYONE can be transphobic at all.

[@jacksonvoet8312]

But Pokémon especially. Most of the Pokémon fandom’s toxicity is about the games or metagaming and such, so this was surprising. Then again, I’ve encountered a singular homophobic Kirby fan before, so maybe they just hide in holes until they get a chance to be obnoxious.

[@DakumunDahBat]

@@jacksonvoet8312 they are like the goblins from lord of the rings lol. They just don't show up until the time is right XD

[@jacksonvoet8312]

@@DakumunDahBat Yep. And they never show up in the biggest spotlight. That one Kirby fan I saw was on a good, but not extremely renowned artist on Deviantart, starting an argument in a place where there wasn’t even a discourse about it, and blocking anybody that talks back. That zealot was a coward who uses religion as a way to feel superior to others. But I digress, any fandom can have bad apples, and the Pokémon fandom is no exception, even in areas unsuspected.

[@fortello7219]

I did not expect that Gardevoir thing. That feels really gross. Gardevoir is specifically meant to be an androgenous pokemon, it's only Gallade that is gendered and even then it weaves in gender non-conformity

[@Aogami20]

"Everything is political" feels like a reductive statement but it's really not. Being able to ignore politics, or not seeing politics in media you enjoy is not apolitical; the politics are just invisible because you're in the majority. If you're cis hetero white and/or male, you are the default and media that showcases people like you appear apolitical when really choosing to make media that features people like you is still a political choice. it's just a choice that reinforces societal norms instead of drawing attention to them by being different.

[@marine7859]

"Video games are apolitical" Tell that to all the jRPGs like the Tales series and Final Fantasy series, to the Fire Emblem series. To even games like the Kirby series, or the latest absurdity in both political and queer content, the Splatoon series. Nintendo really said "hold my beer" and not just confirmed that one of the main female characters is a lesbian, but also gave a canonically-nonbinary main character in Side Order. There is absolutely no "removing the agenda" from these games that kids and teenagers play, it's been in there all along and it gives them positive representation to better learn about the world and potentially better identify with. People can die mad, it won't change anything. Also Pokemon itself, while being particularly unremarkable on the representation front, has a trans NPC in one of the recent generations. There's a female trainer at one of the battle arena type deals that said she used to be a Black Belt-- a consistently male-only trainer class! Removing genderless Pokemon is also a crime because that means that either Porygon and various legendaries don't exist... or they get the binary imposed upon them. How /dare/ that be done to my favorite virtual duckies!

[@Stathio]

This is (one of the many reasons) why I love Nintendo!

[@DakumunDahBat]

and she also said "science is amazing!" or something like that

[@DakumunDahBat]

@@Stathio I want to love Nintendo...but the lawsuits are making it REALLY hard. from fan games, to ruining whole lives, to the palworld lawsuit, it's just hard to love them,

[@lizzzbenoist]

I know this video is months old now but I wanna add to the whole, politics in pokemon thing, cause we all know gen 5 and gen 7 but let me point out that Gen 1, the very beginning of the franchise, had political or at least, social themes. For starters, Lt. Surge, duh, shouldn't explain further. Second, in Gen 1, certain more evil or mean trainer classes such as the Team Rocket Grunts or the Bikers were shown with whips in their sprites, implying that they used those to hurt their pokemon, so there you go, implied animal cruelty issues even before gen 5. And of course Team Rocket, as a whole, not only being the frickin MAFIA, but also being shown as having enough power and influence to use different businesses throughout Kanto as covers for their operations, such as the Celadon game corner or Giovanni even being able to be a Gym Leader, alongside of course, their usage of Pokemon for profit. So basically, social and political themes have always been there in Pokemon, and while not the deepest or better written, they still serve the important role of expanding the pokemon world and allow kids to learn in a fun way about more complex topics that they could be used to.

[@Kniffel101]

There were so many mind blows in this video. Especially the correlation between Hoenn's legendaries and Hiroshima/Nagasaki is freaking insane. 36:26 Did Nishida-san actually not design Dragonite? That would explain why they are so different! Would love to see her take on a 3rd evo, in that case!

[@underdarkness7692]

Unfun fact: the weather that saved Kokura wasn't just luck - it was in large part due to the excessive firebombing of Yahata, a neighboring town, the day earlier causing smoke plumes being blown in the direction of Kokura to create a morning mist.

[@hivickb]

Fantastic video! I think you did the topic a great service by including a bit about the history of politics in pokemon in addition to simply covering the pokerogue controversy.

[@st.altair4936]

_Everything_ is inherently political, on account of being perceived by humans. Nothing exists in a vacuum. I find it weird how some people shy away from talking about it.

[@DakumunDahBat]

the particles in space exists in a vacuum. Sorry, I had to say that XD

[@lucasparadox6823]

​@DakumunDahBat so that's the solution... We send the Transphobes to... *Tim curry voice* SPAAAACE!

[@chrisheartman9263]

HE WAS COVERING HIS ASS SO BADLY, LIKE THAT'S CORPORATE SPEECH FOR "I am not responsible for what happens the moment I'm posting this letter" LIKE BRO