Pokemon Black and Blue

[isthatyoudan]

This may be Pokémon related, but it's also more of an important discussion.

So, anyone seen this before?
https://features.peta.org/pokemon-black-and-white-parody/

It's a game that PETA made, basically saying that Pokémon is a video game version of animal abuse. I'm guessing their point is that, like how some say that violent video games make people more violent, that Pokémon can make animal abuse seem fluffy, cute, and ok.

What are your thoughts on this game and idea? Do they have a point or do you disagree?

I disagree with this. First, I don't see kids all over the world abusing animals because of playing Pokémon, and Pokémon is not influencing the governments or anybody in that way. Also, the game mentions that the trainers don't care about the Pokémon. Yet there are many moments in the anime where Ash deeply cares about his Pikachu and Pikachu cares about him. I just watched Prof. Oak give this huge speech about Pokémon needing kindness and care. So, I disagree entirely. They have no points, in my opinion.

I'm curious about what others' ideas are.

 

[uoneko]

ugh god that site is awful. even though pokemon are only characters, it still encourages abuse.

 

[icomeanon6]

This is PETA's bread and butter: drawing attention via sensationalism.

If PETA wants to make the point that forcing animals to fight is wrong, they don't need Pokemon to do it, in fact the Pokemon element probably dilutes their argument. The thing about Pokemon battling is that it's cartoon/fantasy violence as opposed to realistic violence.

The entire pretense behind cartoon violence is that it's a contrived situation where things that are otherwise objectionable become safe and okay. No rational person who ever watched a Tom and Jerry cartoon ever thought that it endorsed lighting a cat's tail on fire. Heck, Bugs Bunny's a straight-up sociopath but he hasn't warped his audience in any way. Similarly, no kid who ever wished Pokemon were real would ever turn to dog/cockfighting to address that wish. Children are drawn to the Pokemon game/show's adventure, friendship, flashy powers, and the absence of death or even serious pain, and only a crazy person would ever suppose they'd find those in animal abuse.

In short, PETA's making themselves look like message-illiterate extremists by attacking something that's completely innocent. It's bad argument, bad marketing, and very typically PETA. (Disclaimer: I totally think that PETA are message-illiterate extremists.)

ugh god that site is awful. even though pokemon are only characters, it still encourages abuse.

PETA's site doesn't encourage abuse, it's satire. It's pretty vapid satire, but it's still satire.

 

[uoneko]

imo, it just disgusts me. i really don't care if it's satire.

 

[maccrash]

imo, it just disgusts me. i really don't care if it's satire.

there's a line between not caring and missing the point, and you're crossing that line, really, if you're thinking that. I'm not tryna insult you or anything, but you've gotta look at satire for what it is, a mockery of something. sorry. (0

but seriously though what they did with Pokemon is like taking a kids movie where some guy smokes in it and then perverting it to show that the movie is endorsing smoking which 'kills your lungs' and then they make a whole movie where there's like a hospital and everyone has holes in their throats and lung cancer and they're like "yeah I smoked because I watched that one kid's movie where that one guy smoked" and what the ♥♥♥♥ am I talking about

also is PETA even satire tho

also also I'm pretty sure that people have stopped even caring about PETA's shenanigans

 

[Lusus]

I seriously doubt anybody will take PETA seriously after playing the game.

 

[Guest123_x1]

Although I know this game has been out for quite awhile now, I'm sure this isn't going to make much of an impact on the Pokémon franchise. Besides, how many people really take PeTA seriously?
The only thing they're really successful at is forcing Hollywood to stop using furs. Case in point - they forced Merv Griffin Enterprises to stop offering fur coats as prizes on Wheel of Fortune in 1990 (which was rather important as the show was taping at CBS Television City in the same stage as The Price is Right at the time.)
In fact, there was a more recent parody of Pokémon, titled Pokémon Red, White, and Blue: Loosely Connected to McDonald's. This certainly won't be the last time PeTA attacks an Nintendo franchise, that's for sure.

 

[uoneko]

there's a line between not caring and missing the point, and you're crossing that line, really, if you're thinking that. I'm not tryna insult you or anything, but you've gotta look at satire for what it is, a mockery of something. sorry. (0

but seriously though what they did with Pokemon is like taking a kids movie where some guy smokes in it and then perverting it to show that the movie is endorsing smoking which 'kills your lungs' and then they make a whole movie where there's like a hospital and everyone has holes in their throats and lung cancer and they're like "yeah I smoked because I watched that one kid's movie where that one guy smoked" and what the ♥♥♥♥ am I talking about

also is PETA even satire tho

also also I'm pretty sure that people have stopped even caring about PETA's shenanigans

i am looking at satire for what it is, and my opinion still stands. there isn't a line between those two things. i understand, and i don't care. don't tell me i don't know what it is when i gave no evidence of not understanding what satire is.
i can still be aware it's satire while disliking it.

 

[maccrash]

i am looking at satire for what it is, and my opinion still stands. there isn't a line between those two things. i understand, and i don't care. don't tell me i don't know what it is when i gave no evidence of not understanding what satire is.
i can still be aware it's satire while disliking it.

okay, but I never claimed that you didn't now what satire is, I'm just saying that you're missing the point of satire in the first place. and it's perfectly fine for you to dislike something satirical but I feel like you're disliking it for the wrong reasons, which is of course no business of mine but I just kinda cringe a bit when I see people bustin' a satire because of how much it falls victim to the tropes it's trying to make fun of or something. and I don't even know if that's what you're doing, really.

and, for what it's worth, you did give Quite Some Evidence of not knowing what satire actually is (I'm not claiming you don't)

 

[uoneko]

it doesn't matter when it's satire if it still displays something as sickening as animal abuse. satire belongs in politics and something within that range.
"disliking it for the wrong reasons" my ass. the whole thing is a goddamn reason to dislike it. i don't see what's even likable about it in the first place. it's literally a game about abusing animals. there's no need to make fun of something as awful and triggering as that.

 

[maccrash]

okay I apologize and I am done with this simply because there is absolutely no point to this argument and it would be nothing but detrimental to continue

 

[Aeroblast]

PETA is simply a trash heap of an organization that does not deserve an ounce of attention. It'd be best to ignore their foolish endeavors.

 

[Majestic Electric]

I think what bothers me the most about this horrible game is the fact that instead of actually going out and saving / protecting ACTUAL animals, PETA is wasting their money by criticizing a game about fictional creatures. I mean, come on! It's a kids' game. Have they even seen any Pokemon media? Both the games and anime mention that Pokemon are our friends and partners, which is completely the opposite of what PETA claims. If they did their research, they would have known this. Seriously, what were they thinking? -_-

 

[Corrin]

Everyone with an ounce of common sense knows that Pokemon isn't animal abuse, PETA just want attention.

 

[Altairis]

I remember when this came out. If I recall correctly, a version of this was created right as Pokemon Black and White were released, which makes this seem to me more of an attention-grabbing scheme rather than something made to promote a real message. I was disappointed. PETA actually spent time and money creating and advertising this instead of actually doing something real. As far as I know, there's no "proof" that playing Pokemon leads to animal abuse, yet there's plenty of proof that it exists elsewhere.

 

[twocows]

Isn't this pretty old? I remember hearing about this a few years ago.

Anyway, this is typical of PETA. They'll do just about anything for attention. What's worse, they don't seem to have any problems with causing real harm to people for their little crusade. Apparently, they think animals are more important than people. Screw that.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Does anyone else find it funny how this came out around BW which has an evil group that people like to think of as Pokémon version of Peta?

Anyways I find Peta to be a bunch of hypocrits who don't actually care much about the animals in their shelters as much as they say they care about animals.

 

[isthatyoudan]

I mentioned the Pokémon because that's the focus of the site, but did anyone look at the other games? One of them was a cooking mama one that tried to encourage vegetarianism. The game involves cooking a turkey dinner in a really gross way, littered with trivia about how bad they say eating meat is. At the end, it says something like "now you know how gross eating meat really is." When I played this game, I had so much fun! To me it did the opposite of what they wanted it to do!

This actually happened:
Game: Move the mouse back and forth to cut the turkey's neck off.
Me: hee hee hee hee hee (moves mouse back and forth with great intensity)
Game: Did you know that thousands of turkeys are...
Me: I DON'T CARE NEXT GAME!!!!!!

So, it's not too great if a game has the exact opposite effect that they wanted it too...

 

[Neil Peart]

PETA is no better than the NRA in my eyes. Organized blowhards acting out of their own self-interest under the guise of doing good.

 

[Leo the Lion]

Oh. THIS. I knew someone would talk about it. Some day.
So, my toughts: Pokemon is pretty. Cute. With some secrets that can be a bit sad, or even the story (If you didn't cry with the old man in Anistar city, you are a cruuuuel person (?)). Making a game to show that it is evil is just sad. Also, in my opinion, PETA is just like a little kid that wants attention.