The Pokemon War - the who's what's when's where's why's

[sidehammer]

So there was once a Pokemon war. Lt. Surge talked about it; he even almost died, if not for his Pokemon. While I'm aware of Surge being an American stereotype held in Japan at the time, it has never been refuted by Game Freak (that I'm aware of) and so I consider it canon.

So here's what I wanna know:

WHO?: Who fought the war? Is Surge a Kanto native and fight to defend it in the past, or did he settle down there for its relative peace and quiet? Which countries participated? Any bits of flavor text you've gleaned some theories from? Let's have some thoughts.

WHAT?: Which Pokemon would be best for warfare? Almost all have pretty devastating destructive potential, but which would be the best? Also, there's availability to take into account; which Pokemon are the most readily available or numerous? I'm guessing there were a lot of Geodude using self-destruct out there, but probably fewer Clefable or Farfetch'd. The WHERE's and WHO's play into this as well, given the regions in which the Pokemon are found. I mean, if Kanto were to bomb Unova, I bet Dragonite's gonna' do the bombing while Staravia tried to knock them out of the sky. This is probably the broadest of the categories.

WHEN?: Surge was what? Thirty? Early forties? Assuming child soldiers weren't used, it's reasonable that Surge joined the military around eighteen or so. So we can reasonably assume it at least ended in the preceding twenty years. Thoughts?

WHERE?: I've never heard of any old battlefield. Or of any towns that were recently rebuilt after bombings or high Pokemon-induced property damage. This is related to WHO? but, lets have some thoughts anyway.

WHY?: What was the war about? Resources? Politics? Religion? These people have the science to convert matter into energy and back without incident; it's pretty reasonable to say they probably have replicator tech that the crew of the Enterprise would envy, so that could (could) rule out resources. Politics and religion is tough. Pretty differing philosophies out there. Thoughts? (Personally, I thought N from Black/White was pretty friggin' creepy)

What do you guys think? I know there's no way to know for sure, but I'd like to see what everyone thinks.

 

[Fedarik]

Occums Razer suggests that because Surge is the only person the mention this "War" maybe it's all in his head. Maybe he's a schizophrenic and made up the whole thing to cover up some deep dark childhood trauma.

Fedarik

 

[Hiatus]

Occums Razer suggests that because Surge is the only person the mention this "War" maybe it's all in his head. Maybe he's a schizophrenic and made up the whole thing to cover up some deep dark childhood trauma.

Fedarik

That is certainly possible, but I'm not exactly sure how believable I find it to be. Pokémon world is just like ours, consisting of feelings, emotions, and so forth, and those could always lead to things such as happiness, peace, crime, and war.

Has Surge actually participated in any war, though? Without any official word, I suppose this would be sort of hard to prove.

 

[Xebelleon]

My guess? Pokemon rangers versus some Pokemon hunters/trappers/poachers. Just because "Team Them" are in the games we play, anime/mange enjoyed, does not necessarily indicate such like minded persons have never united before. Rangers, and other good guys with jobs (scientist, RBY engineer) were likely to use useful Pokemon based on the odd physical and anatomy characteristic.

Tough skin, drill ability, fierce attitude, train of thought, smarts, fly speed, agility, dexterity, body size, weight...

Would not surprise me too much if a Team Them concept, for sake of stealing from trainers, instigation towards the manipulation/restriction of civilian lifestyle... had those civil leaders and role models rise up in unity against these jerk bags making life difficult.

Perhaps even: "Hey! You moonshot blitzed Clefairy guts too close to Pewter City! Gross! War it is, b*'s!

 

[Fedarik]

Something has just dawned on me. There is this guy who mentions the army also...

"image removed"

 

[sidehammer]

War's a serious thing. It's almost hard to believe anyone in the Pokemon World would go to war; with most of them, I can see them risking their own lives, but risking their Pokemon would seem sacrilegious in their world, IMO. Only a very small minority treat Pokemon badly, or risk them over themselves, so, based on what I've seen, it strikes me as somewhat improbable that there would be actual killing. While the manga (Pokemon Special is da bomb! Red the Battler FTW!) was considerably darker than the anime or games (even with all the weird stuff), most villains were only villains until they realized how they were hurting Pokemon and stopped, albeit after one or more smackdowns to drive the point through. A real war only really happens when both sides believe they're right and are willing to die, and kill, to prove their points. Most people in the Pokemon World are so touchy-feely that I'm not sure they could follow orders to let a Pokemon die or to kill one. But the canon says there WAS a war, as Fedarik was nice enough to post a screencap of proof, so how could it have started?

Some pretty interesting theories so far. Lets keep going! :)

 

[Alpha_Spike]

I think its just like how in the show they have stated at least two years have passed since Ash first started his journey, yet he is still the same age he was when he started. The war is just something spoken of, but not actually to have happened, or was retconned to not have happened.

 

[sidehammer]

Do you think they would have used conventional weaponry? Machine guns? Tanks? Bombs? How effective would weapons like that be against Pokemon? For that matter, how effective are Pokemon attacks against humans? In the anime we see Ash get fried by Pikachu and Charizard all the time (probably more; I stopped watching when they changed voice actors--too surreal!), and Team Rocket blasts of on many occasion. In the manga they portray them as more devastating, but still, I can't recall anyone dying. Thoughts?

 

[Xebelleon]

Why use a bomb or gun when
- Fire Pokemon, like Slugma, are usually hot
- Poison Point, Iron Barbs, Rough Skin
- shooting a gun as an attack, but things like priority and Mirror Coat vs dumb humans
- Squeeze your Surskit! The enemy approaches!

 

[sidehammer]

True. To tell the truth, I can only remember one instance of there being a gun in Pokemon, and that was in the Wild West episode that America wasn't allowed to see a long time ago. Team Rocket used gadgets and such, but I can't recall any other guns? Can anyone else?

So what Pokemon would YOU use to go to war?