Is Pokemon truly violent?

[VasTalonflame]

Hello all, VasTalonflame here,

I joined the garden to finally join the community of the franchise I have fanboyed over the last 12 years, hopping to add to it for the better, and better myself in the process. So as my first contribution to the garden, I pose a question: are we players and viewers defending a hidden evil, or does everybody have their pants tied in a knot?

If there is a thread based on this question I'll remove this and conversations on that thread.

 

[PyroPokeman]

Honestly, no. Whatever "evil" in Pokemon, in my belief, is all made up by those who don't understand the concept, which is pretty common. Seriously, I meet all these people, I read all this stuff on Pokemon being evil, but they choose not to delve into it before judging.
I will take back my statement the day Nintendo brings forth their devil Arceus to send all of their fans to the Underworld.

 

[Skittypaws]

A lot of people confuse the concept of evil in Pokemon. Pokemon is considered evil for many reasons. One, it costs lots of money to pay for all the games and cards when all they are is material that will be thrown away later. Two, it gives kids a reason to focus on it more than reading the bible and doing schoolwork. It interferes with family time and has kids staring at a computer screen all day when they don't need to. Another reason, a one more recent, it the concept of gods. When young kids are exposed to this mumble jumble of legends in the game, they think that these creatures are real and that Arceus is a real god or that Xneras created life.

It is nice to have make believe games though, as they are enjoyment and relieve stress. But when they interfere with our lives, our beliefs, and our well being, they are classified as evil.

 

[GastlyGibus]

In my opinion? No. I firmly believe that items cannot have any sort of moral or ethical leaning, as they are simply items. It's all in how the people, the ones with morals leanings, use said item.

What do I mean by that? Well, consider money as a great example. Money is a necessity. You have to have it to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and other services that could be considered essential. Money can be used for good or evil. I've heard it said that "money is the root of all evil," but I don't think that's true. I'd rephrase that to "the love of money is the root of all evil." Let's take guns as another example. Guns, despite them being purely invented for violence, can also be used for good or evil. I can use a gun to defend helpless victims from a crazed lunatic, shooting the aggressor in the leg to pacify him. In the same way, I can use it for evil, like to rob a bank or something. It's all in how you use it.

Back to Pokemon. Despite what people say, I don't think it can be evil. It's a simple turn-based role-playing video game, it has no capacity for good or evil on it's own. Christians (and I'm a Christian myself, so I can say this) love to decry Pokemon as satanic, evil, distracting, etc, but I honestly find no biblical evidence for their claims. Now, you can become obsessed with Pokemon, ignoring everything and everybody else in your fixation on it, and I suppose that could be considered bad, but again, it's all in how you approach it. Groups like PETA love to cry the Pokemon encourages animal abuse (seriously, PETA?), but completely fail to recognize that Pokemon battles are more like boxing matches in real life. The Pokemon are willing participants, and many in-game references say they enjoy battling. When groups like Team Rocket are shown abusing Pokemon for their own schemes, they are clearly portrayed as villains, and the game stresses that they are in the wrong.

It's all in how it's approached. There's a capacity for evil, but if parents are involved in their kid's upbringing and help them differentiate between right and wrong, it can be easily avoided.

 

[Skittypaws]

In my opinion? No. I firmly believe that items cannot have any sort of moral or ethical leaning, as they are simply items. It's all in how the people, the ones with morals leanings, use said item.

What do I mean by that? Well, consider money as a great example. Money is a necessity. You have to have it to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and other services that could be considered essential. Money can be used for good or evil. I've heard it said that "money is the root of all evil," but I don't think that's true. I'd rephrase that to "the love of money is the root of all evil." Let's take guns as another example. Guns, despite them being purely invented for violence, can also be used for good or evil. I can use a gun to defend helpless victims from a crazed lunatic, shooting the aggressor in the leg to pacify him. In the same way, I can use it for evil, like to rob a bank or something. It's all in how you use it.

Back to Pokemon. Despite what people say, I don't think it can be evil. It's a simple turn-based role-playing video game, it has no capacity for good or evil on it's own. Christians (and I'm a Christian myself, so I can say this) love to decry Pokemon as satanic, evil, distracting, etc, but I honestly find no biblical evidence for their claims. Now, you can become obsessed with Pokemon, ignoring everything and everybody else in your fixation on it, and I suppose that could be considered bad, but again, it's all in how you approach it. Groups like PETA love to cry the Pokemon encourages animal abuse (seriously, PETA?), but completely fail to recognize that Pokemon battles are more like boxing matches in real life. The Pokemon are willing participants, and many in-game references say they enjoy battling. When groups like Team Rocket are shown abusing Pokemon for their own schemes, they are clearly portrayed as villains, and the game stresses that they are in the wrong.

It's all in how it's approached. There's a capacity for evil, but if parents are involved in their kid's upbringing and help them differentiate between right and wrong, it can be easily avoided.

Not always. A friend of mine's brother was taught to not be obsessed with Pokemon games, but once he had a fast food job he spent it all on video games because his friend's told him too. A parent can only teach so much to their kids. That is where my previous opinion comes into play. A lot of it has to do with the individual.

Please don't hate me though, I agree with your thoughts. I was just adding.

 

[GastlyGibus]

Not always. A friend of mine's brother was taught to not be obsessed with Pokemon games, but once he had a fast food job he spent it all on video games because his friend's told him too. A parent can only teach so much to their kids. That is where my previous opinion comes into play. A lot of it has to do with the individual.

Please don't hate me though, I agree with your thoughts. I was just adding.

I supposed I should have mentioned that as well. It's a combination of the individual and the parents/guardians raising him. However, I think the responsibility lies with the parents more so than the individual. Not saying it's all up to the parents, but the way a child is raised leaves such lasting impressions that may not even be felt until much later.

I'm reminded of a certain musical number that I feel is relevant to the discussion. xD

 

[S.S. Shadow Minun]

I don't think so. Most Pokémon are not violent, but this depends on their personalities.

 

[Ghurlag]

The responses so far are hilarious.

1) The OP asked if the games are violent. That is, do they have violent content. When he mentions 'hidden evil' it seems he's fairly clear he's talking about violence. That is, the accusation is roughly that the Pokemon games foster an acceptance of violent behaviour involving animals.
2) Everyone (bar SS Shadow, who actually answered the question, albeit shortly and a little off-focus) has responded that the games are or aren't 'evil', invoking everything from the Bible (I'm not even going to go there) to people becoming obsessed with the games.

Answering the topic question: Are the games violent? => Do they contain violent content?

Well, certainly, there's no getting around the fact that the games centre on a series of Battles, which are inherently violent events (whether or not there's permanent damage, it's two or more creatures trying to hurt each other). All the 'Pokemon are friends' stuff is largely a bolton to this key element.

That said, Pokemon violence is by no means gratuitous violence. A colourful animation plays, and a health bar goes down. It's very tame. And arguably the mechanic whereby the player character the player identifies with is not the one doing the battling (their Pokemon are) puts another level of removal between the player and any violence. So while Pokemon does definitely contain violence, it's a very muted, removed violence, in sharp contrast to what you could find in any number of other video games.

Moving to the hidden evil part. Is the way violence is portrayed in Pokemon a problem? Does this muted violence make it seem safer? Does Pokemon lead people to justify animal abuse somehow?

I can't say for certain, of course, but it seems highly unlikely. Pokemon is a fantasy game, and claims that people's relaxing fantasies lead them astray are always dubious. Pokemon has attracted this criticism more because it's a large, popular franchise than because it really deserves it. Some points worth considering: First, in the Pokemon games, the player's direct interaction with Pokemon is mostly positive -- you train and care for your team, you heal them after you're attacked; Second, violence is present throughout children's media, so the muted nature of Pokemon violence might make it more of a salve than an encouragement -- rather than watching people shoot at each other (something a child could try and ape if somehow it got hold of a real gun), you watch fantasy animals do battle.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

No offence, OP, but I am not really sure what you are asking. Are you asking if it is violent by our standards or society's? If you are asking us, a POKEMON community, you are not going to get a lot of unbiased answers.

I'll answer by trying to be as unbiased as possible. By anime and video game standards? No, Pokemon is not violent. The first generation had some stuff that couldn't be done today due to overprotective media watchdogs, but I still wouldn't go as far as to call those games "violent." The worse that happened was the mentioning of Cubone's mother dying at the hands of Team Rocket, and the keyword is "mentioned." We didn't see anything happen and I don't remember losing sleep over reading that. Yes, I am also aware of Pokemon Adventures. I am not ignorant to it. Yeah, it's canon in its own AU-ish way and I know a lot of people wish it were made into an anime because of its content. That's probably the only piece of Pokemon media that I've read that has violent content, and even then, it is NOTHING compared to the more gruesome stuff I have read in other graphic novels.

TL;DR, no, Pokemon is not violent. I also like it not violent. If I wanted to play something with a lot of violence in it, I would play Halo and be posting on their forum boards.

 

[Skittypaws]

actually, in the long run, I guess there really is no right or wrong answer. It depends on the eye of the beholder. For me, it is just a fantasy game and nothing else. Its fun and there is a lot of hidden quests that intrigue me. I do not worship it or deem it more important than life. Of course now I am getting off topic....

Pokemon is just a game. People can have opinions and that will never stop.

 

[cityvillain]

Well if you want to over think about it. Pokemon is about you catching Pokemons (mostly you taking them away from their natural habitats),
locking them inside a ball, using them as your weapon to battle other people with their Pokemons too, having their life in battle only decided by you;
nope not evil at all. Ofcourse you can take my answer sarcastically if you want to.
I guess my point is, it all depends on how you interpret the game's content. You see Mario stomping on goombas, killing koopas who are all just enslaved
by Bowser. Does that make him evil?
Or how about let's take the question in our real lives. The military supposedly "defending" us from whatever threats out there, killing other lives and affecting
millions of civilians and disrupting the natural environment. Does that make them evil?
So at the end of the day, it all depends on how we interpret it. I personally see nothing "evil" about the Pokemon franchise. After all, the greatest legacy
that I believe the Pokemon has taught to us is to value friendship. To value the people and living things around us. To be value nature and be more in touched with them.
So is that legacy evil? I don't think so.

 

[Winterdaze]

Your OP is very confusing. Is the issue here that Pokemon media contains violence, whether the violence is suitable for the target audience, or some other controversy lobbied from say, moral guardians or animal rights groups?

Because the answer to the first question is yes, Pokemon media in all incarnations contains violence, and the main focus of each iteration (the battles) is fundamentally violent. It's not a simple matter of saying "it doesn't offend or disturb me, so it's not really violent", the violent content is still there. I would not be surprised if the inordinate amount of effort that goes into dispelling the possibility that Pokemon are forced to fight, don't enjoy it or are subject to injury or mortality, and redirecting focus to the relationships between trainer and Pokemon are there to divert attention from the inevitable cockfighting comparisons that are a colossal elephant in this particular proverbial room. You could also argue they exist to make the franchise palatable in the first place, realistic depictions of animal violence can make people uncomfortable very quickly. Just look at the horrified responses to the screams of pain in that scene in Pokemon: The Origin where Charmander almost dies in its battle with Squirtle.

But overall, the cartoony violence in Pokemon is par for course compared to most other games marketed at children. There's nothing egregious about Pokemon compared to pretty much any other game on the market in that respect, if people have problems with Pokemon based on the assumption that video game violence=evil purported by media watchdogs everywhere, well, I don't know what to tell them.

So yeah there is no denying Pokemon is violent, but it's a very mild fantasy violence that is easily divorced from any kind of violent reality. If Game Freak had been a hair more on the cynical side the franchise could have easily veered off into something uncomfortable, but what is there is tempered by a lot of idealism and positive messages so as to not bother you. At least, if you try not to think about it too much.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

The pokemon beats the crap out of each other so yes it is a bit violent. Is it evil? Nope. The pokemons wants to battle. There is no one who tries to push them into it. They choose that. And pokemon also is about friendship and taking care of the pokemons.
If you should call a game violent or evil, then do it to GTA or all these noumerous zombie games.

 

[VasTalonflame]

"Evil" or "violent" was a wrong word to use on my part. Reading all the responses I wish I glanced over what I wrote before posting, my bad...

My opinion is a mix of what has already been written, of course the games are violent, 99% of games are all violent in some way or another, but I don't think they are as bad as some make it out to be. I suppose it's all about how one perceives it.

My apologies for any confusion I may have caused... I probably should have chose a different topic for my first thread, should I?

 

[Drakon]

The violence in Pokèmon is very tame and stylized, even by kid's media standards. Saturday morning action cartoons like Batman Beyond tend to have "harder", more realistic violence.

It's not violence free like Animal Crossing but it's not Call of Duty either.

 

[Peaceful Giraffe]

Just remember it isn't Halo and you're good.

 

[Plush]

Animals fighting each other? We never see what really happens after a pokemon battles or in the pokemon center in the games but some of the anime episodes the pokemon get pretty messed up. I remember crying at the first pokemon movie when the pokemon fought to collapsing and that "My brother" song played. Ash always said there was a difference in the battles but I never could grasp why there was a difference. They were still beating each other up and injurying each other till one collapsed/fainted.

But I would call it violent. It is the same as any other animals fighting in real life. We could say dogs want to fight, humans just train and breed them to be better fighters. Same with other animal rings.

But the difference is this is a game, yea the concept is violent but we don't see the violence. We just get the adventure and the sportmanship and training to become better than others like boxers/wrestlers do, but instead of us we live through cute animals/pokemon.

 

[Miar]

The violence differs from canon to canon. But in general it's toned down. Mons in the games show no lasting injuries. In the anime, little more than scuffs.

And on the characters' end, no. They're desensitized to the violence since it's an official rule-bound sport (which makes dex entries like Pawniard/Bisharp's more jarring), and it's very easy to heal them.

 

[White Crow]

Pokémon has no explicit violence, that's why it's rated E (Everyone), the concept of constant always fighting might be tended to think of violence, but as it says in the game box is just mild cartoon violence.
But if we are to think deeper there are two things to consider in your question:
The franchise in general:
The games and anime show a pinkish world where kids go around the world alone catching and fighting with potentially deadly animals, there's no blood or death.. Only fainting, even a ghost said to steal life fights for you. You save the world and become a hero and the most powerful trainer.

The manga shows a more realistic tune at the idea of pokémon, the world is dangerous, and the 'mons bleed and die so if you are familiar with it, there's the only violence you're going to get out of it.

If you want to take the concept of pokémon in real life:
-You catch animals and train them to fight with other animals to help you be the best.
-As a kid you wonder in a world full of danger on your own.
-If you take a look at the dex, many of these creatures can kill you with no effort, so death can be around the corner.
-The fight between pokémon can lead to the death of one, think about a fight between a bisharp and a watchog. Bisharp can behead it or stab it to death, gruesome.

Maybe it doesn't have much to do, but I remembered the Pokémon Black hack and it seems those words fit in here:
There is something overly protective about the pokémon world:
The pokémon are weapons, but they are your friends.
They fight to the death, but never die.
They are always waiting for you at the pokémon center, healed and ready for another adventure.

 

[Gligarman]

I still think that Ash Vs. Paul was the most violent battle since Mewtwo Strikes Back (assuming of course that nothing was cut from the Japanese version). It's also my favorite!