me explaining to the other trainers that apricorns are unknown outside of Johto because of deliberate suppression by the Silph and Devon corporations to present artificial pokeballs as the only means of capturing pokemon and establish regional monopolies after they eliminate renewable sources
(via @itsbenedict)
eternalfarnham replied to your post
youâre in the pocket of Big Ball, I see
thereâs no pocket for me to BE in, thereâs no LOBBYING involved, thereâs no SUPPRESSION campaign because you donât need one! traditional methods suppress themselves when you make modern pokÊballs available. you might as well start accusing AT&T of deliberately suppressing the noble traditional art form of the goddamn semaphore.
not to mention OP demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the market realities of the pokÊball industry- Silph and Devon are not monopolies, if they werenât in constant competition their magic monster domination spheres wouldnât cost two bucks a pop. the ball spec is a public standard, and Bill Masakiâs storage system based on that standard is an open-source project. theyâre only the two largest players because theyâre able to leverage economies of scale. you still get smaller operations like the Laverre City PokÊ Ball Factory, with better regional supply chains and local brand recognition, making room for themselves in the market.Â
sm FUCKING h at yâall granola-crunching conspiracy theorists. you probably also believe Super Potions cause autism.
Ok, but it is a shame that artisanal balls are basically off the market now. Like, you have to ride the monorail and hike through a half dozen routes just to find someone willing to sell you a Fast Ball. Believe me, when your boss at the power plant needs five Electrodes by Tuesday you are not going to want to make the trip to Alola; youâre going to head on down to the Mart and get some Ultra Balls, which will do the trick but arenât well tailored to the job.
Iâm with you that modern catching techniques are better, not to mention more humane, but there genuinely is a loss from more niche balls becoming harder to find. Maybe someday the long slowpoketail of consumer demand will be met, but I wouldnât hold my breath for that Shellder.
look yâall are missing the point. mass production of silph balls crowding out traditional apricorn craftsmanship is, if anything, more a side effect of the real problem: that capture artifacts are too easy to get your hands on these days. $2 basic balls are a problem. before modern ball tech you had to go to an artisan, yes, but part of their job was to care about who had the power to recruit pokÊmon from the wild, as a backstop against another Knight of Veilstone coming along. there was a time when youâd never lay a hand on a ball yourself until it was clear you respected pokÊmon, whether tame or in the wild. but now, a âpokÊmon journeyâ is open to practically every teenager, even if theyâve got not interest in treating their team with trust and love.
the worldwide rise in the last century of organized crime and apocalyptic cults who use pokÊmon as their muscle is a direct result of capture artifacts becoming a mass produced market commodity rather than a mechanism for preserving the sacred trust between humans and the wilderness. itâs a miracle that the powder keg hasnât already gone off by now.
Oh that is rank historical revisionism - what, do you think artisansâ definitions of ârespectâ were constructed in a vacuum? We already had rhetoric as far back as the warring states period in Ransei about how only the soldierly classes, overwhelmingly descendants of nobility and taught from birth, had the intangible qualities necessary to âbondâ with PokÊmon. And when we start seeing apricorn balls develop in Johto, which borders Kanto - Kanto, where we know thereâs been extensive cultural cross-contamination with Auroran and Dragnoran expeditions - surprise, suddenly only a small population has the intangible qualities necessary to use them, too.
That notion was, and remains, a tool to limit general access to PokÊmon in the interest of maintaining class disparities. I mean, have we already forgotten the Aether Foundationâs pseudo-conservationist nonsense? Their attempt to manipulate natural resources and establish a power base in Alola, while they were modernizing and taking their place on the world stage, was founded on this exact rhetoric of ârescuingâ PokÊmon from local disenfranchised populations, as if taking PokÊmon away from places like Po Town would improve things instead of increasing competition between trainers and decreasing safety.
Do you want more disillusioned kids joining gangs? Because thatâs how you get Teams!
Artisanal balls and anyone who supports them are tools of the aristocracy to suppress the common folk. In the days when a ball could only be made by hand by an expert, only the wealthiest could afford pokemon, and as a result anyone not born into the âelitesâ was forced to be subservient to their âbettersâ for protection.
The release of the $2 pokeball meant that the balance of power shifted to the common citizens. If any child can wield the power of a god, the military and the government and the wealthiest businessmen have no power over them.
More than that, instead of power being determined by the wealth to acquire pokemon, power comes exclusively from the dedication, effort, and empathy required to train them to high levels and to maintain their loyalty. If a person simply buys their pokemon, then those pokemon will either stay at low levels forever, or refuse to obey the human because there is no respect between them; the most powerful people in the world are those who caught a critter at level 2-5 and then devoted their life to raising it into a world power.
And as a beautiful side benefit of this, standard of living has increased across the board. Since every household has at least one minor pokemon in the family and there are increasing numbers of professional, working pokemon joining cities and other civilized areas and working to improve them, every aspect of economy and industry has been enhanced by their supernatural capabilities. Electricity is generated cleanly and in abundance for everybody. Pollution is cleaned up almost completely and instantly. The production of farms, mines, and workshops is multiplied, even as safety standards improve. Yes, every few years another potential apocalypse comes about and needs to be prevented by a couple of brave teenagers, but outside of those incidents the world is damn close to utopia.
âĻthat was all fascinating to read and I would like to see more like it, please
for instance; what the hell is in lemonade that makes it a more powerful healing alternative to regular potions
Opium
See, unlike in the real world, the PokÊmon world has yet to ban cocaine in drinks.
this website is INCREDIBLE
