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We all know that most conflicts in official Pokémon media are almost always resolved through the use of the series' titular magical creatures in a battle of some sort, rather than through more "realistic" methods such as, say, hand-to-hand combat, or using a gun or a sword or some other deadly weapon. Obviously, this is because: 1) Pokémon battles are what the series revolves around, not gunfights, swordfights, or fistfights; and: 2) Pokémon is a generally kid-friendly franchise, which precludes most of those aforementioned things from happening anyway. However, in the wild world of fanfiction, these restrictions are no longer necessarily present, which means that there are opportunities — and perhaps even temptations — to expand the scope of conflict and violence beyond solely Pokémon battles.
Said opportunities — and temptations — are numerous. For example: why should a villainous team leader risk the fate of the world and their meticulous evil plan for it on some Pokémon battle, when they can just whip out a gun or some other suitably deadly weapon and instantly take out their nemesis before they can even call out their Pokémon... or at least use said weapon to shift the balance of power in their favor? Or better yet, why not have some random grunt do the same thing instead, long before they even reach the villainous team leader in the first place?
Or, for a somewhat edgier example, there's also the opportunity — and the temptation — to feature more "realistic" forms of violence in more common and smaller-scale conflicts. Why challenge someone who's threatening you to a Pokémon battle when you can just punch them in the face or pull out a knife and either: 1) knock them out and end the conflict right then and there; or 2) pin them to the nearest wall or tree and make them beg for mercy/interrogate them for important plot details/etc.?
Finally, there's also the opportunity — and maybe the temptation — to take some of the more fantastical elements of the series and use them in more "realistic" (and often more violent) ways. Like, say, using a Pikachu's Thunderbolt to electrocute someone... or using a Voltorb's Self-Destruct to blow up a building or a car... or even using the Ultimate Weapon from the Kalos games in the same manner as real-life nuclear weapons (as a deterrent used by the protagonists, the antagonists, or some other powerful faction... or possibly even as a trump card for one of the more villainous groups, in a particularly terrible scenario).
That all said, there's very much the question of whether or not these forms of violence and conflict should be featured in Pokémon fanfic... or to put it another way: whether a Pokémon fanfic with these things ceases to truly be a Pokémon fanfic as opposed to a Someone's-Darker-and-Edgier-Version-of-Pokémon fanfic. And even if this can be said to be "true", there's another question: does it even matter? Is there a need to reconcile the possibility of having things like guns, knives, fistfights, etc. in Pokémon fanfiction with canon's enforcement of a world revolving entirely around relatively innocent Pokémon battles? I do have my own thoughts on all of this, but I think I want to see what everyone else's thoughts are before I fully share my own (and because I've probably taken enough space on this post already ). So what are everyone's thoughts?
Said opportunities — and temptations — are numerous. For example: why should a villainous team leader risk the fate of the world and their meticulous evil plan for it on some Pokémon battle, when they can just whip out a gun or some other suitably deadly weapon and instantly take out their nemesis before they can even call out their Pokémon... or at least use said weapon to shift the balance of power in their favor? Or better yet, why not have some random grunt do the same thing instead, long before they even reach the villainous team leader in the first place?
Or, for a somewhat edgier example, there's also the opportunity — and the temptation — to feature more "realistic" forms of violence in more common and smaller-scale conflicts. Why challenge someone who's threatening you to a Pokémon battle when you can just punch them in the face or pull out a knife and either: 1) knock them out and end the conflict right then and there; or 2) pin them to the nearest wall or tree and make them beg for mercy/interrogate them for important plot details/etc.?
Finally, there's also the opportunity — and maybe the temptation — to take some of the more fantastical elements of the series and use them in more "realistic" (and often more violent) ways. Like, say, using a Pikachu's Thunderbolt to electrocute someone... or using a Voltorb's Self-Destruct to blow up a building or a car... or even using the Ultimate Weapon from the Kalos games in the same manner as real-life nuclear weapons (as a deterrent used by the protagonists, the antagonists, or some other powerful faction... or possibly even as a trump card for one of the more villainous groups, in a particularly terrible scenario).
That all said, there's very much the question of whether or not these forms of violence and conflict should be featured in Pokémon fanfic... or to put it another way: whether a Pokémon fanfic with these things ceases to truly be a Pokémon fanfic as opposed to a Someone's-Darker-and-Edgier-Version-of-Pokémon fanfic. And even if this can be said to be "true", there's another question: does it even matter? Is there a need to reconcile the possibility of having things like guns, knives, fistfights, etc. in Pokémon fanfiction with canon's enforcement of a world revolving entirely around relatively innocent Pokémon battles? I do have my own thoughts on all of this, but I think I want to see what everyone else's thoughts are before I fully share my own (and because I've probably taken enough space on this post already ). So what are everyone's thoughts?