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What sort of story forms from the arc question 'who can tell a Trainer what they can and can't do except a stronger Trainer?'

KrspaceT

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This is a phrase that has floated in my mind for a while now, and I feel like getting a read on it.

'Who can tell a Trainer what they can and can't do except a stronger Trainer?'

This is an phrase that has floated in my head as a phantom statement that defines and shapes the story it exists in. I'm curious though, if you were to think of a story that works with that phrase what comes to mind?

I have my own ideas, but I want to see your takes unbiased by my own.
 
The story that comes to mind for that phrase is one about the Pokémon world's past.
At the times the games take place there's very advanced technology that have let the evil teams even force subservience from legendary Pokémon but for most of history?
The most powerful Pokémon trainers were in charge. A trainer can't be everywhere at once so they enlist weaker trainers to enforce their rule. Some trainers were probably heroic or well intentioned and just wanted to keep people safe. Others...less so.

In short: monster powered feudalism, something I already figured was probably quite likely, if probably never officially canon.
 
Their own pokémon. They sure do seem like sapient beings capable of independent desires and morality to me.
This is something very worth discussion.

Realistically, a trainer whose Pokémon disagree with them is limited to whatever power they have on their own--be it physical, financial, whatever. If your powerful Hydreigon's response to being told to do something is a withering glare followed by still silence it's as good as not having one.
In practice this seems to be limited to Pokémon either feeling personally slighted in some way or thinking they've become too good for their trainer (the "obedience" mechanic in the games done to avoid overpowered tricks with trading, the most famous narrative example is probably with Ash's Charizard).
In general the main games are mostly uninterested in exploring Pokémon's own agency (the spinoffs--especially Mystery Dungeon--are obviously different) and often ignores that they even exist in cut scenes--the dumbest example I recall is when you defeat Xerosic then just watch him turn on the Ultimate Weapon when your Pokémon could very easily stop him.

The show obviously gives them far more initiative, and an early episode had one of the few examples I know of an official work where a Pokémon turns down orders on moral grounds (rather than just having a quarrel with their trainer), where large numbers of Pokémon--even Ash's--refuse to help chase wild Diglett out of their home (side note: I strongly suspect this episode was part of Takeshi Shudo laying early foreshadowing for his Pokémon rebellion plan before it got overturned).

To take it back to my "monster powered feudalism" comment: in this theory the "trainer king" on top has to manage both the other trainers under him and ensure his own Pokémon will back him (honestly not too different from an actual monarch needing to manage both whatever nobles owe him fealty and ensure the loyaly of his own household troops). That's probably not a huge problem though; real world military dictators find people willing to back them; this "trainer king" can surely find Pokémon willing to go along out of personal respect/the spoils, just like the evil team leaders always do.
 
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If we're talking in terms of straight up power, then essentially you're repackaging the question of why the biggest and most violent men can't do what they want, whenever they want. Which they don't, and never have, even in societies that expected the people in charge to be violent.

You can talk political philosophy all day, but something I'd like to point out here is that the official media almost never considers the logistics of actually owning and training pokémon, let alone rare and/or powerful pokémon. It's all abstracted, and for good reason - the point is that they're pocket monsters, and a pocket monster loses its shine when you have to think about the logistics of specialised diets and awkward grooming regimens. Just how many cooperative people does it take to keep a prize salamence in fully murderous condition?
 
Fact is, it's actually really really difficult to just fight your way to a position of power and maintain that position without the cooperation of those around you — and the idea that anyone competent at training pokémon would necessarily desire to rule others or be remotely good at it sort of feels contrived. It doesn't reflect the franchise canon or the way humans behave in the real world.
 
Actually, I need some clarification; is the question meant to be a in-story truth or is the story about the question?

If we're going for a realistic look Pokémon would be necessary for any sort of policing/military action, but that doesn't mean "the strongest trainer around is untouchable" or even "trainers always control the world"--though as I said I imagine there would be times and places where trainers are on top, similar to real world warrior aristocracies we've seen (hence my feudalism comparisons)--but it would not be ubiquitous.
 
Actually, I need some clarification; is the question meant to be a in-story truth or is the story about the question?

If we're going for a realistic look Pokémon would be necessary for any sort of policing/military action, but that doesn't mean "the strongest trainer around is untouchable" or even "trainers always control the world"--though as I said I imagine there would be times and places where trainers are on top, similar to real world warrior aristocracies we've seen (hence my feudalism comparisons)--but it would not be ubiquitous.

More ''about'' the question, if that makes any sense.

Basically in my own thought on the subject generally had two forms.

One was in relation to the idea of 'Right makes Might' and exploring a world where great individual power is limited to those who harness it via the powers of friendship and trust as Pokemon is want to say.

The other was basically from a brainstorm about multiship fics and sort of going the Targaryean route: if a person wants to marry more than one person at a time and has the strongest Pokemon, can you really tell them not to. Sort of like how the Targaryeans could get away with a lot when they had dragons.

A phantom statement, not the most concrete of things.
 
If I were to write a story related to this theme, it would probably involve the protagonist trainer going on a journey to find a more experienced trainer who at one point had similar goals to them, but ultimately hadn't accomplished them and had not been seen by the public in a while. Along the way, the protagonist would discover more about why what they initially set out to do was too lofty of a goal, but also learn to avoid mistakes that the more experienced trainer had made. Whether the two would actually ever meet or not, and how their interaction would go if they did could develop in a lot of different ways :p
 
This probably wasnt what you meant and old thread but this made me think of my verses Ethan. He manages to have both a superiority and inferiority complex at the same time (it makes more sense in my head)

but his goal is to beat red, the strongest trainer in Kanto and johto. Literally everyone told him he could never do it but he Didnt listen to them. He gets to the league and gets paired to battle against red in disguise (this is like an anime style tournament) and he loses to red. Miserably. even though red didn’t mean anything by this, this still kinda set Ethan’s mindset back to “I’ll never be better than red the best I can get is second“

yea I like thinking about Ethan hes so complex but also not
 
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