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5th Gen Pokemon Liberation

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"Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of Trainers... They get pushed around when they are our "partners" at work... Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?" -Ghetsis of Team Plasma

Team Plasma did not ultimately practice what they preached, but what do you think about the larger idea of Pokemon liberation?
 
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I mean, I could understand the idea if Pokemon looked like they really hated being captured by humans and having to obey them, but there's so many examples of that not being the case, and instead Pokemon seem to love humans and become friends with them, I think that's why I'm certainly against Team Plasma's ideology.
 

Nah

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The flaw in the logic that "Pokemon must be liberated from humans because humans just use them as tools" is that not everyone abuses Pokemon and treats them like they're just some tool to be used.

It's not awful to bring it up though. It should get people in the Pokemon world thinking about their relationship to their Pokemon. Do they, the individual, treat their Pokemon like tools? Do they respect each other? How can the relationship be improved? Those are questions everyone should think about, especially the last one.

Even if the case was that most people do in fact view their Pokemon as little more than slaves, "liberation" is still ultimately not the best answer, as it seems that apparently in the Pokemon world, people and Pokemon together can achieve far greater things than either can do alone. So more people and Pokemon having healthy and mutually beneficial relationships is better than separating them and not changing anything else. Though if it was the case that most people are abusive to Pokemon, good luck changing that society.
 
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The members of Team Plasma who follow N and truly believe in Pokémon liberation get major props from me. I get super attached to pretty much every Pokémon I ever get, so I have a hard time releasing even breedjects (thanks Wondertrade).

It's definitely interesting that in B2W2 they establish that Poké Balls do give the Trainer some degree of control over the caught Pokémon... Of course, not everyone is awful to their Pokémon, but the power of Poké Balls does make it easier for bad people to abuse them.
 
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Now to play the devil's advocate.

I was thinking about the 12th movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life lately, and it reminded me of this thread and the question of pokemon being enslaved, particuarly the theory that the pokeball brainwashes the pokemon.

Its not a far stretch. In the aforementioned movie we saw Pokemon visibly unhappy in a time that proceeded the invention of the pokeball. It is system we would immediately recognize as slavery, where pokemon were threatened and chained.

Maybe the system of exploitation never really ended, but just became more sophisticated and subtle with the advancement of technology. Just because you break someone's bones does not mean you succeed in breaking their spirit. There were pokemon like the villain's Brozong who ultimately stopped complying even at the risk of feeling their trainer's wrath. Maybe what we learned as humans is to hold a pokemon's soul in captivity through the pokeball, not just their bodies by prodding them with a rod. Though is gen 1 we did see some trainers still carrying the whip.

A pokeball is not a Pokemon's natural habitat. Its a tool used to confine them, I think everyone would at least allow this much. When we encounter a pokemon we want in the wild we generally take them by force, it's not up to them whether they want to come with us or not. While there are some situations where Pokemon seek out trainers and express interest in joining their team, this is rare. Pokemon almost invariably try to flee, fight back and break out of their pokeballs.

There is no question of a Pokemon working with a trainer of their own free will at this stage. Yet as soon as pokemon are captured they come out calm and obey their trainer's every wish, even though they may have literally gone into the pokeballs kicking and screaming. What could have happened in such a short time to change their mind?

Before pokemon even have the chance to get to know you, train a single level or take one footstep out of the pc Pokemon are yours to command. There are Pokemon of all different species, sizes, genders and natures, yet the overwhelming majority of them as soon as they are captured are set to a default friendship value of 70. It does seem like something is being done to them once they are trapped in the pokeball to change them.

It's not as though we have not seen a pokeball change a Pokemon before such as the case with the dark ball in the Celebi movie. It gives you something to think about...

If a pokeball is potentially brainwashing the Pokemon then it undermines the arguement that Pokemon are happy with their trainers because they have been compromised, and can't realistically be expected to evaluate the situation in the same way that you or I would. It would be like drugging a person, then taking their money from them or molesting them, and saying that they look like are happy eith you doing these things to them. To say the least it may not be an agreement that this person would enter into if you had not impaired their judgement.

"Pokémon are nature. Poke balls are civilization. Humans who are used to civilization don't relinquish it easily. Of course, both nature and civilization are important. But what will happen to a world taken over by Team Plasma? People will be forced to throw out Poké Balls--a product of civilization. I want to know what that looks like! And I want to enjoy it!" - Zinzolin of the Seven Sages
 
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