Venia Silente
Inspectious. Good for napping.
- 1,229
- Posts
- 15
- Years
- Age 42
- on the second floor's nest
- Seen today
Due to the Dead: Rites and Customs in the Pok?mon World
While discussing material from a couple of stories in the sidelines, the idea came to discuss what do people do with death in the Pok?mon world. Death is a subject that eventually finds its way into pretty much anything and everything that has to do with life and the passage of time. It is not something to be avoided (childishly, should I say) and not even the Pok?mon franchise tries to put too heavy a veil before it, as we have seen from the very RBG games.
That said there's more than one angle I wanted to tackle. On the one hand, there is the issue of what happens to the dead and how does death itself work in a Pok?mon world, regardless of whether you are a Pok?mon or a Human. Memories, Lifestreams, reincarnation or resurrection, anything can come in. However what I wanted to focus on for this discussion was the social facet of death for those who "stay behind": what do humans and / or Pok?mon do with or for the dead?
There's so many potential interesting questions, and hardly a sole starting point except for the obvious that a character dies... and then how does the world carry on?
Are there particular beliefs and rites? Do they diverge across species, across regions or across the human-Pok?mon divide? In a world like Pok?mon's, is death in combat more valued than death from old age? (Now that's talk about giving an extra spin to a Nuzlocke...)
How do elements like the food chain (Pok?mon do have to eat others to survive), Pok?mon sapience or lifespan disparity (some Pok?mon may live for weeks; others will last for centuries) paint and change what do people and Pok?mon do in a Pok?mon world?
Moreover, no matter if death is truly "The End" in a / your Pok?mon verse, what do people think about it? Do they have their own ideas and expectations of what happens after, or what is the purpose of carrying on with it? Do they have any means to test such beliefs, or would they even care?
I would love to hear what do you do with death, or the after of death, in your writing, as well as opinions as to how some things would or should function from your perspective. In particular I would like to see the interpretations of those authors who have put some brain and work into the PMD verse. Of course I will contribute my own points as well, later.
(I swear I was going to raise this up to discussion like two weeks ago; you could say at least that narrative flame was "rekindled"...)
While discussing material from a couple of stories in the sidelines, the idea came to discuss what do people do with death in the Pok?mon world. Death is a subject that eventually finds its way into pretty much anything and everything that has to do with life and the passage of time. It is not something to be avoided (childishly, should I say) and not even the Pok?mon franchise tries to put too heavy a veil before it, as we have seen from the very RBG games.
That said there's more than one angle I wanted to tackle. On the one hand, there is the issue of what happens to the dead and how does death itself work in a Pok?mon world, regardless of whether you are a Pok?mon or a Human. Memories, Lifestreams, reincarnation or resurrection, anything can come in. However what I wanted to focus on for this discussion was the social facet of death for those who "stay behind": what do humans and / or Pok?mon do with or for the dead?
There's so many potential interesting questions, and hardly a sole starting point except for the obvious that a character dies... and then how does the world carry on?
Are there particular beliefs and rites? Do they diverge across species, across regions or across the human-Pok?mon divide? In a world like Pok?mon's, is death in combat more valued than death from old age? (Now that's talk about giving an extra spin to a Nuzlocke...)
How do elements like the food chain (Pok?mon do have to eat others to survive), Pok?mon sapience or lifespan disparity (some Pok?mon may live for weeks; others will last for centuries) paint and change what do people and Pok?mon do in a Pok?mon world?
Moreover, no matter if death is truly "The End" in a / your Pok?mon verse, what do people think about it? Do they have their own ideas and expectations of what happens after, or what is the purpose of carrying on with it? Do they have any means to test such beliefs, or would they even care?
I would love to hear what do you do with death, or the after of death, in your writing, as well as opinions as to how some things would or should function from your perspective. In particular I would like to see the interpretations of those authors who have put some brain and work into the PMD verse. Of course I will contribute my own points as well, later.
