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PSA: Gou is NOT a psychopath

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Misty could be a bit of an asshole at times but I don't think I remember anybody calling her a psychopath.

Also that scene with Gou making an evil face is probably being played for laughs, I doubt it means anything, he's just annoyed he didn't catch Dewgong on the first shot I am assuming.

Probably, but still. Let's see what his reactions to later difficult captures is. If it's something like what happened in today's episodes, those who think he's a psychopath may be on to something. It would actually make an interesting story if he does go down a darker path like that in his capture goal.
 
I really didn't think I would have to say this, especially since most of the people here are pretty smart, but apparently I was wrong in that assumption. So, just to make things clear, I'd like to make sure that everyone in these forums understands that Gou IS NOT a psychopath. And at this point you may be wondering to yourself; "Why is he not one?" Well, to start, let's look at the qualities that make up a psychopath.

As stated by the 20-item Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a psychopath is a person that has a lack of empathy, is a pathological liar, has no sense of guilt, is impulsive and irresponsible, has reduced emotional responses and fails to accept responsibility for their own actions.

Based on this checklist, Gou only exhibits the quality of being impulsive and irresponsible, a trait that Ash also shares. Gou is a very emotional person, as shown by his respect towards Ash in episode 3 and excitement over catching new Pokemon, which crosses off having reduced emotional responses. Gou is a very empathetic person, as shown when he tries to save Scorbunny from being punished by the cafe owner in episode 4 and checks to see if his Metapod isn't hurt in episode 7 after it falls on the rock. Finally, Gou accepts responsibility for his own actions, as shown when he apologizes to his Scyther in the battle tournament. While Gou does have his issues, such as being socially awkward and being selfish sometimes, those are issues that a lot of people have, and don't automatically make someone psychotic. While it sucks that we don't see a lot of meaningful interactions between Gou and most of his Pokemon, he at least makes sure they're well cared for and doesn't treat them like dirt.

People on these forums believe that having emotional issues equals being a psychopath, which is completely false. As someone who has personally lived with a legitimate psychopath, seeing people misuse that term in order to make Gou look bad infuriates me, as I guarantee that almost all of you don't understand what you're saying when you call Gou psychotic. You can dislike Gou and call him selfish or insensitive at times, but PLEASE don't use a term to describe him that doesn't apply in any way, shape or form.

Edit: I'm not trying to say you can't dislike Gou. I have a couple of problems myself regarding his goals and captures. I just want to clear up misinformation so that people don't base their opinion on Gou based on false claims made by people in this forum.

Thank You!!!

It would look like we're dealing here with people that are either idiots or blissfully ignorant to call a character like Go a "psychopath" or even a "sociopath" do this people know what are these persons that exhibit these kind of traits?


They should be educated about mental health issues but the mods of this place it seems they don't care about such sensitive issues and let them roam with impunity, it's bad coming to this forum to have decent discussions and seeing this disgusting behavior by some members being displayed around like nothing.

This is the only place I've seen this outlandish and stupid, ridiculous claims about the co-protagonist of the current Pokemon Anime, not even on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other forums like Serebii, what a disgrace.
 
Totally agreed to ^. I never called him a psychopath, only a Gary Stu, twice, and I lean towards eating my words on that after the latest episode and discussions I had with other people.

But I do think that if Gou was actually a psychopath, the series could have had some very engaging and potentially interesting character development that I would personally much preffer to view than Ketchum(p) them all routine.

After PM06, a relevant question regarding the ethics of mass capture sprees arose. A question many, myself included would love to see being answered.
But it won't be, because everything Gou's doing is completelly justified by the show. The Pokemon like him, he's kind and gentle with them, et cetera. So why would anyone in the universe give a s**t about the ethics of mass capturing if they have, thus far, given positive results?

And that brings me to a question I wanted to ask in quite a while, because I don't think I ever heard any response to it anywhere...

What exactly are the benefits of having Gou capture so many Pokemon and the Pokemon liking him? What positives does the show gain from that?
 
Still no one gives an answer about why it's unethical...
I don’t like Pokémon being treated as collectibles for a dubious goal. Capturing a Pokémon was supposed to be this major occasion before now, it has been trivialised now. When Ash used to capture a Pokémon, various considerations about the Pokémon's conditions, it’s family were made.
And now, Go literally caught a Tailow before it could even process that it was caught by a trainer. No consideration if the Pokémon has a family it doesn’t want to leave or cares about something, or has some motivations of its own. Nothing. Earlier, every new Pokemon arrived with its own set of personality characters, motivation, screentime. Almost all of them were treated as important and deserving of attention at some point or the other.

And somehow every Pokemon post capture turns friendly to Go. The general sentiment can be represented by a variety of words, I don’t feel like writing a lot since it has already been done by a lot of people.

I just don’t like this trivialising of Pokémon, and how Go doesn’t give a damn about whether or not the Pokémon wants to be captured.

When Ash and Go were stranded on the Dragonite island, Go simply accepted that he "lost" Dewgong as if it was a minor detail and fully ready to carry on life as usual, whereas Ash would’ve immediately launched a search somehow if one of his Pokémon went missing.
 
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When Ash and Go were stranded on the Dragonite island, Go simply accepted that he "lost" Dewgong as if it was a minor detail and fully ready to carry on life as usual, whereas Ash would’ve immediately launched a search somehow if one of his Pokémon went missing.
Hold up, that actually happened?? I thought he’d just withdrawn it to not piss off an island of Dragonites by bringing their kryptonite in... oh jeez...
 
Hold up, that actually happened?? I thought he’d just withdrawn it to not piss off an island of Dragonites by bringing their kryptonite in... oh jeez...
Well, Go goes "I guess we lost Dewgong!", is slightly dismayed for a few seconds and continues on life as usual, with an addition of exploring and drooling over the prospect of capturing dragonite.
 
He realized that he couldn't catch Dragonite and that Dewgong had separated from him, so he moved on. He had no way to find Dewgong without forcing one of the Dragonite to roam the sea.

It's okay to be attached to the idea that "you befriend a Pokemon and then catch it", but that is not the norm. It's about time the anime acknowledged that... again. It's also quite obvious that a Pokemon won't stay inside a Poke Ball unless it is willing to do so, so the psycopath claims are nonsense (especially when Go only use those Poke Balls temporarily to transfer the Pokemon to a park they can choose to leave at any time).
 
When Ash and Go were stranded on the Dragonite island, Go simply accepted that he "lost" Dewgong as if it was a minor detail and fully ready to carry on life as usual, whereas Ash would’ve immediately launched a search somehow if one of his Pokémon went missing.
Well, Go goes "I guess we lost Dewgong!", is slightly dismayed for a few seconds and continues on life as usual, with an addition of exploring and drooling over the prospect of capturing dragonite.
Wow, I'm surprised I missed that part. Upon re-watching the episode, that segment really highlights another aspect of negative development for Gou. To be fair, that negative and black development for Gou could result in some interesting character development especially if it happens along a Lawrence III path.
He realized that he couldn't catch Dragonite and that Dewgong had separated from him, so he moved on. He had no way to find Dewgong without forcing one of the Dragonite to roam the sea.
Or he could, you know, be at least a bit concerned about Dewgong instead of jumping straight to business and discarding it like it were some used tool. I don't think the Dragonite would even mind going out to rescue Dewgong, there's no "forcing" since they seem to love to rescue people after all. The episode highlights the fact that they're not affected by the storm they created. If this were Ash, the first thing on his mind would be to find some way of relocating his lost Pokemon before conducting his original goal.

To just accept that it's lost just like that despite being the trainer of the Pokemon pretty much tells you a lot of negatives about the character and how doesn't want to bother with responsibility, how he's only capturing for his selfish purposes and desires. What would he have done if they had to get back? Captured another "ride" Pokemon which he'd promptly abandon or add to his zoo?
It's okay to be attached to the idea that "you befriend a Pokemon and then catch it", but that is not the norm. It's about time the anime acknowledged that... again. It's also quite obvious that a Pokemon won't stay inside a Poke Ball unless it is willing to do so, so the psycopath claims are nonsense (especially when Go only use those Poke Balls temporarily to transfer the Pokemon to a park they can choose to leave at any time).
The anime world-building always went out on a limb to treat Pokemon like proper beings and showcase the value of friendships and co-operation between Pokemon and humans. So for them to suddenly do a 180 on their world building and treat Pokemon like collectibles is pretty much an antithesis that's jarring at best and downright horrible at worst. I don't know how and why you're fine with such poor writing. So no... there's nothing to "acknowledge" if it's a contradiction of the world-building, the friendship and bonding angle has always been the norm. And the psychopath jokes hardly originate from what you've described, maybe pay attention to some comments that actually describe the problem (like @PkmnTrainerV did above which you promptly ignored).
Still no one gives an answer about why it's unethical...
There have been many answers to this in other threads which you've never bothered reading up on or just deliberately ignored and then followed it up with remarks like "non-sequitur" or "Nope!".
Here's one, here's one more, here's another. I could find a lot more but honestly, it seems like a waste of time trying to convince you.

P.S: Awaiting that obligatory "non-sequitur" snark.
 
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Dewgong is a Water-type Pokemon, for pete's sake. It was in no danger; Go obviously assumed that it had just left.

Panky.. said:
The anime world-building always went out on a limb to treat Pokemon like proper beings and showcase the value of friendships and co-operation between Pokemon and humans. So for them to suddenly do a 180 on their world building and treat Pokemon like collectibles is pretty much an antithesis that's jarring at best and downright horrible at worst. I don't know how and why you're fine with such poor writing.
From the get-go we saw Ash catch Caterpie, Pidgeotto, Krabby, Tauros, Muk and Snorlax without befriending them first. This didn't prevent him from befriending the Kanto starters and Lapras, so there is no contradiction. It is no surprise that his bond was closest with Pikachu and the starters (although certainly Butterfree, Pidgeot and Lapras got nice departures), which is fine. That's what happens when you have more than 6 Pokemon. The same thing is happening with Go on a wider scale; the only problem is that Go doesn't have a permanent Pokemon other than Scorbunny so far.

If it bothers you, okay. That's your problem at this point.
 
Dewgong had separated from him, so he moved on. He had no way to find Dewgong without forcing one of the Dragonite to roam the sea.
Dewgong is a Water-type Pokemon, for pete's sake. It was in no danger; Go obviously assumed that it just left.
Well, I’m sure your reaction would be different if Ash lost Squirtle in a storm and never searched for it, and carried on with life as if nothing happened. People would be calling him careless.


It's also quite obvious that a Pokemon won't stay inside a Poke Ball unless it is willing to do so, so the psycopath claims are nonsense (especially when Go only use those Poke Balls temporarily to transfer the Pokemon to a park they can choose to leave at any time).
Citation needed.
The Pokemon are officially bound to their Pokeballs and can’t simply leave on their own accord as far as we know. The Lab’s a place to store Pokemon, much like Oak’s ranch stores Ash’s Pokemon without them being able to leave randomly.

And somehow every Pokemon being “willing to get into a Pokeball” after initially it didn’t want to get captured and the only thing that changed was Go throwing 100 more Pokeballs at it is unrealistic to say the least.
 
Dewgong is a Water-type Pokemon, for pete's sake. It was in no danger; Go obviously assumed that it had just left.
This is not a question of danger. This is a matter of a trainer not caring about the whereabouts of his captured Pokemon, not showing any sort of concern at all and never taking responsibility for it, merely treating it like a boat. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would call Ash a horrible trainer and there would be massive outrage if he did the same as Gou (not that he ever will), but somehow Gou doing it is completely fine to you?
From the get-go we saw Ash catch Caterpie, Pidgeotto, Krabby, Tauros, Muk and Snorlax without befriending them first. This didn't prevent him from befriending the Kanto starters and Lapras, so there is no contradiction. It is no surprise that his bond was closest with Pikachu and the startes, which is fine. That's what happens when you have more than 6 Pokemon. The same thing is happening with Go on a wider scale; the only problem is that Go doesn't have a permanent Pokemon other than Scorbunny so far.
You just has to bring in OS... sheesh. I know OS has a lot of these issues but again, these problems have mostly to do with early installment weirdness (you know, in the series that had nonsensical stuff like "aim for the horn", "knocked out due to Sleep Powder" etc?). I never held OS in high regard but at least they can be excused because the anime was pretty much fresh concept back then, and these issues were immediately fixed from the second year onwards.
Was it executed badly back then? Absolutely. Should it be excused? Maybe yes, especially when you consider that they started to acknowledge the "bond with your Pokemon" aspect in later series (even Unova to some extent). On the other hand, there's absolutely no legitimate excuse for a well established series 20 years down the line to make such mistakes.

If these writing decisions are indeed deliberate then they can be seen as negative character development and be acknowledged as such, which the writers aren't doing and touting Gou as "one of the good guys". Oh yeah, I also don't see Gou befriending any Pokemon properly at this point. Any "befriending" happening will be as a result of poor writing (his Pokemon automatically accepting him for no reason), very vague (like with Scyther) or non-existent where he discards the Pokemon (Dewgong).
If it bothers you, okay. That's your problem at this point.
Or maybe it's a writing problem, which you're still denying. I'm not the only one with a problem with poor writing.
 
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OS and now this series following the games is "weirdness"? What is the point of Poke Balls if every trainer is supposed to befriend their Pokemon before they ask them to join? Do you honestly believe that only villains in the anime are allowed to use Poke Balls without asking permission? Maybe you should have taken the hint about this series when they announced Go's goal. Even catching a dozen of Pokemon means that what you're asking for isn't feasible. Deal with it.

Well, I’m sure your reaction would be different if Ash lost Squirtle in a storm and never searched for it, and carried on with life as if nothing happened. People would be calling him careless.
Maybe because Squirtle has an actual history with Ash? Dewgong seemed more interested in his female counterpart. I found it sweet that he came back.

Your lives would be a lot easier if you just accepted that Go's Pokemon (aside from Scorbunny and possibly Scyther) are meant to showcase their species every now and then. They aren't Go's best buddies, but they aren't held prisoner, either. Citation needed if you think otherwise.

Also, a psycopath is an unstable and dangerous person. Surely this thread should be renamed "Is Go a sociopath?" and the answer would still be no. He's been helpful to others no less than Ash has, particularly the passengers of that Galar train and Jiei.
 
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Aside from the OS Pokemon, Ash's Taillow, Starly, Pidove, Palpitoad and Fletchling accepted him after being caught. So did May's Wurmple; Jessie's Wurmple, Seviper, Yanma, Woobat and (I think) Pumpkaboo; Cilan's Stunfisk; Dawn's Togekiss (whose issues were more about having a personal performance style); a lot of Pokemon Paul caught; several CoTD. It's a quirk that the anime shares with the games, and it has been a thing.

Go and Dewgong got separated in the water. I'm sure Go would have rescued it if he thought it was in danger, but it's not like Dewgong could have drowned. Go could have shown more concern, but would likely think that Dewgong have swum away to catch up with that other Dewgong it was crushing on, since it clearly cared more about her than Go. Which is most likely exactly what happened - Dewgong showed up on the beach much later on, complaining about a broken heart.
 
When Ash and Go were stranded on the Dragonite island, Go simply accepted that he "lost" Dewgong as if it was a minor detail and fully ready to carry on life as usual, whereas Ash would’ve immediately launched a search somehow if one of his Pokémon went missing.
What the...... What are the writers trying to make Gou look like here? Because its nothing good i'll tell you that.
 
Stepping away from Go/his motives/methods/what the writers have chosen to do with him for a moment here...

I strongly agree with OP: psychopathy (and sociopathy) are mental illnesses which are already highly stigmatised in society at large.

We simply can't use those terms as substitutes for our diss-word(s) of choice. Replace the word psychopath with another mental illness or protected characteristic or slur and see how nasty that looks. Even the most superficial Google search evidences that Go does not have an antisocial personality disorder, but by continuing this absurd discussion we're propagating the use of "psychopath" and "sociopath" as derogatory terms. Even if it's out of ignorance, it's not ok and we have to choose to do better.

Can we as a community just agree not to use these terms in this way any more and make a separate love/hate Go thread to carry this discussion on?
 
What the...... What are the writers trying to make Gou look like here? Because its nothing good i'll tell you that.

Oh please. You've already admitted that you don't even watch this series anymore so I doubt you're at all concerned about how Go is portrayed.

As for the Dewgong thing; here we go again with the Go hate squad reaching for the stars. Dewgong was never in any danger to begin with since it's a marine Pokemon that would naturally know how to swim for safety on its own. Sure it would've been nice if Go had showed more concern for it after it got lost for a short while, but the people saying that Ash would've been more worried about Dewgong if it was his Pokemon are trying to push a 'Go should be more like Ash' narrative on us, which is hilarious because if Go did act more like an Ash expy, you can bet those same people would be first in line to bash Go about that as well. :rolleyes:
 
Oh please. You've already admitted that you don't even watch this series anymore so I doubt you're at all concerned about how Go is portrayed.
Just because I don't watch it doesn't mean I don't care about whats happening in it.

As for the Dewgong thing; here we go again with the Go hate squad reaching for the stars. Dewgong was never in any danger to begin with since it's a marine Pokemon that would naturally know how to swim for safety on its own.
It would had been good if Gou made sure that Dewgong was safe first before going to what he was doing.
 
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