tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post1102293914086014955..comments2024-02-26T20:52:27.680-08:00Comments on Thinking Inside the Box: The Pokemon Series's Pokemon BreedingThe RPGeniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-72409876565138840482017-06-01T09:25:26.107-07:002017-06-01T09:25:26.107-07:00Hey Cryogonal (and mew but it can learn every tm) ...Hey Cryogonal (and mew but it can learn every tm) a genderless Pokémon can learn attract for some weird reason. In the original Pokémon mystery dungeon (and some of the newer ones I think) there were no genders so attract worked on everything, it got pretty broken<br /><br />Also I am aware of that the way you worded just came of as you being confused on why those things were part of a breeder's job Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-74789415593661448282017-06-01T08:00:22.742-07:002017-06-01T08:00:22.742-07:00Hmm...well, if we do want to go solely with the Ce...Hmm...well, if we do want to go solely with the Celebi did it explanation, which makes the (shamefully heterosexual-only) Attract ability make a whole hell of a lot less sense, then I guess breeding is less like rape and more like the non-sexual components of a forced marriage enacted for heir-producing purposes. Which I'm still against, albeit with a little less disgust.<br /><br />Hm...I'm fairly sure I remember that it was specifically breeding in the anime. It was the episode where Brock got his Vulpix that the breeder lady had bred. The episode's even called the breeding episode by fans.The RPGeniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-73661424297047197072017-06-01T02:20:45.495-07:002017-06-01T02:20:45.495-07:00Also what your thinking about for the anime is the...Also what your thinking about for the anime is the act of raising a pokemon just like the other function of a the day careAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-72052452063768083672017-06-01T02:13:50.185-07:002017-06-01T02:13:50.185-07:00Uhhh well Game Freak's official explanation on...Uhhh well Game Freak's official explanation on eggs is that the stork did it with the said stork implied to be celebi. There's also an NPC that describes an egg not an actual egg rather a cradle and no one actually seen the act of a Pokémon laying an egg.<br /><br />There's also breeding rates where the chances of a Pokémon to actually lay an egg. Obviously incompatible Pokémon can't lay eggs but depending on how well Pokémon actually get along (which depends on some factors) if a pokemon get along well they have a higher chance of producing an egg. If they have a poor relationship they have a lower change of producing an egg. The change rolls every 256 stepsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-16703661780171995642017-05-29T21:48:52.102-07:002017-05-29T21:48:52.102-07:00Hm, well, you certainly are correct in many regard...Hm, well, you certainly are correct in many regards (particularly given elephants and some birds). But in my defense, elephants, smarter birds, dolphins, octopuses, whales, and primates are not (to my knowledge) bred in a way such as I described and such is relevant to the rant, so I don't think my statement's too off-base. Although I'll grant you that pigs are smart enough to be iffy at best, and I DO think that we breed them (since they're a livestock animal), so you may have a point about my statements being ill considered, after all.<br /><br />Honestly, pigs are probably smart enough that we shouldn't be eating the delicious little porkers. I wouldn't be surprised if a few hundred years from now, people look back at us as savages for making pigs and octopuses a part of our food supply.<br /><br />Anyway, you raise a fair point that our ability to measure intelligence and the degrees of self-awareness that go with it is still incomplete, if not outright in its infancy. Nonetheless, I do feel that Pokemon are frequently implied to have an intelligence on par with humans, and as such the question of breeding's morality with at least some of them is different than that of breeding's morality with the real life animals that we do breed, given that even if I'm underestimating those animals, I doubt whatever level of sapience they reach which I've overlooked is at a human level the way some Pokemon quite apparently are.The RPGeniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-59999579610268712542017-05-29T10:10:28.588-07:002017-05-29T10:10:28.588-07:00I agree with most of your conclusions, but have a ...I agree with most of your conclusions, but have a problem with one of your assumptions. Real-life animals don't lack as much intelligence as you seem to think. For example, elephants are drawn to the skulls of other elephants (somewhat similar to your cubone example) and ants join together to create "living" rafts to survive floods (or even help a queen ant travel across water safely, with the queen standing on top of them; this is similar to your Absol example). Some birds have also demonstrated puzzle-solving capabilities. Not that some pokemon aren't generally more intelligent than real-life animals. <br /><br />It's difficult to measure the exact intelligence of real-life animals because science would need to find an empirical way to measure intelligence since animals have different ways of communicating (language is rare in animals).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-88746812090155240112017-05-28T22:01:17.528-07:002017-05-28T22:01:17.528-07:001. An arranged union enacted against the will of t...1. An arranged union enacted against the will of those it marries will usually produce offspring (often that's the main goal, in fact, of those forcing the marriage), but that doesn't make it less wrong or prove that the union is one which the spouses wanted.<br /><br />It's also a fallacy to suppose that the Pokemon eventually and inevitably submitting to a trainer's breeding whims implies consent. It can just as easily indicate a lack of knowledge in the creature that it deserves that right. In an episode of Steven Universe, for example, we see Steven visit a zoo kept by aliens in which the humans, who are born and kept as exhibits with no concept of choosing to do anything but what their (admittedly benevolent, from all appearances) keepers tell them to do. Part of this is the "Choosening" ritual, in which these human beings are directed by their keepers on who is to hook up with who. Because of their situation, they have no idea that they deserve the right to choose who to love for themselves, and so they always simply go along with what they're told. But this internalization of the idea that they lack rights of self determination does NOT mean that they actually should lack those rights. And it may very well be that Pokemon assume that being bred is all just a part of being some 11 year old's slave pet. Which...well, I mean, it IS, actually, but that's just why the whole scenario is messed up.<br /><br />Also, I'd like to point out that the question of the eggs from the daycare center aside, there's clearly also a more directly understood form of breeding going on in the Pokemon world, as evidenced by the trainer type, Pokemon Breeder. Even if we could rule out consent issues from the daycare situation in the games, the implication of the Breeder trainers is of a system to which my criticisms still apply.<br /><br />2. You can disregard some of what I mentioned as far as proof of Pokemon sapience, but not all of it. My points on Primarina and Rotom are taken from hard evidence in the game, Mimikyu's lore is taken from a promotional song officially created by Nintendo (and, supplementally, Mimikyu's appearance being a costume is confirmed by his Ability in combat), and I'm fairly sure that the part of Cubone's lore I invoked is backed up by NPC dialogue in the games. The official word from Nintendo might be that Pokemon are not sapient, sentient creatures, but I'm afraid that the official word from Nintendo is also that Pokemon ARE just that, and in the face of such a logic discrepancy, one has to default to the more likely and logical of the 2 possibilities. And since the possibility of Pokemon being intelligent and self-aware has hard, demonstrable evidence, while the possibility that they are not is just a plot theme (and from a series with a penchant for weak-ass plots that occasionally collapse in on themselves as they backtrack for the sake of justifying a status quo), I stand by my assertion: Pokemon are thinking, self-conscious beings with a human-level awareness.<br /><br />3. While my joke's humor hinged on implying such, a solid sex ed course is not about teaching the basic how-to of reproduction (or rather, that's a significantly important but ultimately small part of it). It's more about teaching the potential consequences of sex, the methods of practicing safe sex, the understanding of alternative sexualities (and the basics of sex for them), mentalities and relationship dynamics to be wary of, and bringing young adults to an understanding of sex as a part of who they are as a physical being, and as something that is neither shameful nor dirty.<br /><br />Considering that sex and our understanding of how it affects and relates to ourselves is a major part of our mentality and sense of self, I'd say Sex Ed, like English and History and the arts, is at LEAST as important as Mathematics. Neither knowledge nor wisdom should ever exist without the other, but if I have to choose between them, I'll pitch my tent in wisdom's camp every time.The RPGeniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-49365303124197608192017-05-28T21:09:09.252-07:002017-05-28T21:09:09.252-07:00I'll spare you the degenerate senpai jokes.
A...I'll spare you the degenerate senpai jokes.<br /><br />As messy as this is, consent isn't really the issue here. That the pair produces an egg at all is indication of consent, as no mention of coercion or guidance exists. They are simply let out of their digital prison(>_>) and left to their own devices. That they always eventually consent, without personalities being a factor, is a gameplay expedition. Because really, this facet of the game is inexcusably time-consuming as it is.<br /><br />Magcargo is hotter than the sun, Alakazam has an IQ stat I shall assume is impossible, and Raichu is racist towards Indian elephants. The Pokédex sadly is a shoddy lore dump, and anything it says should bow to any other in-game information and implications. This is no Bioware codex.<br /><br />Breeding has always been "I dunno how this egg showed up, kid, but you want it anyway?". This is so younger kids aren't pushed into The Talk several years earlier than desired by the parents, with the Breeder trainers not having any stated connection to breeding itself. It's goofy, but plays its part. As for sex education in America, it does suck, but even half-assed parenting on the whole should render it a quaint redundancy; even a solid sex ed course should be a waste of any student's time. I'm more worried about how we all learned Algebra ten years later than we could have.Ecclesiastesnoreply@blogger.com