Above all, I just want a story, not a barrel of jokes of varying quality. The rest written below is just a heartfelt polemic of me saying more of the same however it applies as much to this one as any other 'joke metagame' you could pull to. The only reason I'm speaking on this one in particular is in fact because it's so short and universal that such a fact in itself may be a great meditation point for which to consider these aspects.
There is plenty of interesting observations throughout its 10 minute runtime on the labor exploitation riddled in profit driven AAA design and how it can create a system of control and suffering. Its cushioned by taking its own world lightly and picking fun at its own existence. This mixture of comedy and labor concerns may on the surface seem like a great form of messaging especially considering the natural aversion people are going to have to 'serious' or 'dark' depictions of the world of Pokemon after the PETA satires Pokémon Black and White (2012) and Pokémon Red, White, and Blue (2013). Not to mention the manufacturing of Game Theory type videos that depict the world as more malicious for free clicks. Or even the no doubt multitude of poorly written ROM Hacks that often try and fail to convey 'dark' depictions. As a result, regardless of the authors own probable bias for prop jokes and dad humor, there is an argument to be made that treating the world of Pokemon and its production with any degree of desperation is in itself poor form.
I disagree with this. GameFreak often takes the franchise itself seriously in small bursts before quietly recapturing them for better sales latter. For example Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (2005) shows a world of open abuse and genetic mistreatment of pokemon in a much more drab way through 'shadow pokemon', which have had the doors to their heart shut out by messed up science experimentation (think Alphys True Lab experiments if you dont know). Or even earlier, Pokémon: The First Movie (1998), a real tear jerker for many fans for its more dark treatment of genetic sentience along with vengeful mistreatment for Pokemon as a legitimate class. There are at the very least very serious animal testing themes and animal to human bonding stories the world of Pokemon tries to keep serious about. These moments however have been recaptured, Pokemon Go uses the Shadow Pokemon feature but ripped from their initial narrative meaning it both justifies and creates amnesia over the initial reference point. The same goes for MewTwo who in the partial remake film Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution (2020) had much of their musings truncated and turned more into a gruff biped antagonist to be punched.
So if GameFreak is allowed to be serious, I don't think we need to hold back either. In Another Pokemon Game you have a strained 'joke' from one of the workers belaboring why they cant make it in Bitsy and a few people boycotting outside. However the narrative arc does not allow the protagonist to partake in this boycott, nor does it really give room for the possibility that Bitsy should be used as a lot of the jokes in the game reveal an insecurity at its own Bitsy world like the inability to code in Bitsy, the recycling of content, and incorrect sprites. This is because the world is in a tension with its humor and its (meta)narrative design aspects often blurring how the one should or would be with the other.
In that way this 'metahumor' is probably fine for most people in the same way a Mel Brooks film would be. I can't help but this self disparaged referentiality and reliance on easy meme humor (ex. I've fallen and cant get up', She learned it on Mumsnet, etc.) is a disempowerment from the potential of critique. I've felt it as much in Mel Brooks as I have in Stanley Parable or here. Furthermore, I cant help but feel that works as such defang genuine analysis of cultural necrosis within the corporate capture of a franchise. For example when hotelbones discusses the capture of the Muppet franchise in her bitsyessay Man or Muppet (2022) she reflects how
"Then their creator died, their franchise was subsumed by the corporate need to gain capital and they have been swung around carelessly without any understanding for why they existed in the first place on sex joke television shows and life insurance ads"
This is a sincere attempt at grieving over the puppeteering of her favourite characters into corporate husks and how it relates to her life, that's rare. Reflections like Another Pokemon Game as often well crafted as they can be are far more common. Something is preventing us from going all in.
The question for me is ultimately not 'is Another Pokemon Game saying the right things' or 'why are we grieving over our own fictions in the form of jokes'. The issue is moreso why we seem unable to vault over our own sarcasm and laughter to say what's really bugging us. Why can't we ever bring ourselves to be angry and miserable about this stuff and reproduce it in our art and words? Why be so dodgy all the time? It's impossible for me to read Another Pokemon Game as anything other than an intensely repressed work that feeds into a system that there will always be another Pokemon Game and that in a way that should be soothing in itself because at least people are trying. What is there to make of a 'story' that has fatigued its audience over the course of decades? What are we supposed to make of this story via slow time that seems unchanging and unfazed? Maybe this quote from Fisher will aid us here:
"The struggle here is not only over the (historical) direction of time but over different uses of time. Capital demands that we always look busy, even if there’s no work to do. If neoliberalism’s magical voluntarism is to be believed, there are always opportunities to be chased or created; any time not spent hustling and hassling is time wasted. The whole city is forced into a gigantic simulation of activity, a fantacism of productivism in which nothing much is actually produced, an economy made out of hot air and bland delirium." (Ghosts of My Life p. 167)
In order to pull ourselves away from this time force, we should dare to be angry and ferocious in our lives and our memories, my favourite pokemon as a kid was Jigglypuff who was always angry and evasive from everyone trying to pin her down. I want to be a Jigglypuff in life. There should be more mindfulness in the present and I think that reall is found in boycotting the new Pokemon games and films, if for no other reason then escaping nostalgic delirium. It's a road to nowhere, paved in labor crunch and the penman's ash.
There is plenty of interesting observations throughout its 10 minute runtime on the labor exploitation riddled in profit driven AAA design and how it can create a system of control and suffering. Its cushioned by taking its own world lightly and picking fun at its own existence. This mixture of comedy and labor concerns may on the surface seem like a great form of messaging especially considering the natural aversion people are going to have to 'serious' or 'dark' depictions of the world of Pokemon after the PETA satires Pokémon Black and White (2012) and Pokémon Red, White, and Blue (2013). Not to mention the manufacturing of Game Theory type videos that depict the world as more malicious for free clicks. Or even the no doubt multitude of poorly written ROM Hacks that often try and fail to convey 'dark' depictions. As a result, regardless of the authors own probable bias for prop jokes and dad humor, there is an argument to be made that treating the world of Pokemon and its production with any degree of desperation is in itself poor form.
I disagree with this. GameFreak often takes the franchise itself seriously in small bursts before quietly recapturing them for better sales latter. For example Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (2005) shows a world of open abuse and genetic mistreatment of pokemon in a much more drab way through 'shadow pokemon', which have had the doors to their heart shut out by messed up science experimentation (think Alphys True Lab experiments if you dont know). Or even earlier, Pokémon: The First Movie (1998), a real tear jerker for many fans for its more dark treatment of genetic sentience along with vengeful mistreatment for Pokemon as a legitimate class. There are at the very least very serious animal testing themes and animal to human bonding stories the world of Pokemon tries to keep serious about. These moments however have been recaptured, Pokemon Go uses the Shadow Pokemon feature but ripped from their initial narrative meaning it both justifies and creates amnesia over the initial reference point. The same goes for MewTwo who in the partial remake film Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution (2020) had much of their musings truncated and turned more into a gruff biped antagonist to be punched.
So if GameFreak is allowed to be serious, I don't think we need to hold back either. In Another Pokemon Game you have a strained 'joke' from one of the workers belaboring why they cant make it in Bitsy and a few people boycotting outside. However the narrative arc does not allow the protagonist to partake in this boycott, nor does it really give room for the possibility that Bitsy should be used as a lot of the jokes in the game reveal an insecurity at its own Bitsy world like the inability to code in Bitsy, the recycling of content, and incorrect sprites. This is because the world is in a tension with its humor and its (meta)narrative design aspects often blurring how the one should or would be with the other.
In that way this 'metahumor' is probably fine for most people in the same way a Mel Brooks film would be. I can't help but this self disparaged referentiality and reliance on easy meme humor (ex. I've fallen and cant get up', She learned it on Mumsnet, etc.) is a disempowerment from the potential of critique. I've felt it as much in Mel Brooks as I have in Stanley Parable or here. Furthermore, I cant help but feel that works as such defang genuine analysis of cultural necrosis within the corporate capture of a franchise. For example when hotelbones discusses the capture of the Muppet franchise in her bitsyessay Man or Muppet (2022) she reflects how
"Then their creator died, their franchise was subsumed by the corporate need to gain capital and they have been swung around carelessly without any understanding for why they existed in the first place on sex joke television shows and life insurance ads"
This is a sincere attempt at grieving over the puppeteering of her favourite characters into corporate husks and how it relates to her life, that's rare. Reflections like Another Pokemon Game as often well crafted as they can be are far more common. Something is preventing us from going all in.
The question for me is ultimately not 'is Another Pokemon Game saying the right things' or 'why are we grieving over our own fictions in the form of jokes'. The issue is moreso why we seem unable to vault over our own sarcasm and laughter to say what's really bugging us. Why can't we ever bring ourselves to be angry and miserable about this stuff and reproduce it in our art and words? Why be so dodgy all the time? It's impossible for me to read Another Pokemon Game as anything other than an intensely repressed work that feeds into a system that there will always be another Pokemon Game and that in a way that should be soothing in itself because at least people are trying. What is there to make of a 'story' that has fatigued its audience over the course of decades? What are we supposed to make of this story via slow time that seems unchanging and unfazed? Maybe this quote from Fisher will aid us here:
"The struggle here is not only over the (historical) direction of time but over different uses of time. Capital demands that we always look busy, even if there’s no work to do. If neoliberalism’s magical voluntarism is to be believed, there are always opportunities to be chased or created; any time not spent hustling and hassling is time wasted. The whole city is forced into a gigantic simulation of activity, a fantacism of productivism in which nothing much is actually produced, an economy made out of hot air and bland delirium." (Ghosts of My Life p. 167)
In order to pull ourselves away from this time force, we should dare to be angry and ferocious in our lives and our memories, my favourite pokemon as a kid was Jigglypuff who was always angry and evasive from everyone trying to pin her down. I want to be a Jigglypuff in life. There should be more mindfulness in the present and I think that reall is found in boycotting the new Pokemon games and films, if for no other reason then escaping nostalgic delirium. It's a road to nowhere, paved in labor crunch and the penman's ash.
Erato_Heti
1 year ago