Pokemon Teaches You That Your Childhood Is Wrong! Part 1 of the Pokemon Double Feature

Leading off of my Transformers article from last week, I have to ask you all this first: Have you ever seen the death of Optimus Prime in the 1986 movie? It was an out of nowhere turn to a show that liked to play things safe. Many children were devastated that their hero, (despite being a murderous hypocrite fighting against the good of the universe) had died right in front of them. It signalled a new step for the franchise, and in the years to come this sacrifice would become a core part of all incarnations of Optimus. Just a few years ago we witnessed the latest "Death of Optimus" in the form of the Pokemon franchise, with their Black and White games.

The Pokemon franchise is notable for it's story of animal abuse, the enlisting of children and animals into warfare, and the abuse of God-like power for the pettiest of desires. It also had a kick ass opening theme that to this day resides in the hearts of anyone who has heard it. Black and white decided to take each and every one of these elements and deconstruct the fuck out of them. Of course, being a Pokemon game it had about all the subtlety in this of a man who wants to blow up the universe (seriously Cyrus? How did you lead so many people into your plot to pull suicide bomb a universe?) but we here at Haberdashery are not known for side-stepping the most vital of cultural truths!

Pictured: The most vital of cultural truths

The theme song itself is even deconstructed in the character of Cheren, a boy so determined to be the very best, like no one ever was, that he has no other ambition within him towards anything else. The Champion himself chastises Cheren for being an aimless kid who think he's SO much smarter than everyone. I think this kid keeps a video-log of hot-dog eating contests in his pokedex just so that he doesn't starve.

Not that he's the only rival with both serious emotional problems and a hammer squared at the shit we've just accepted for a decade and a half. Bianca works 2 fold both for showing us A) How someone who followed the whole "A Trainer's job is to love their pokemon" schpiel would actually fall into this universe, and B) What it's like when your only parent isn't a fucking drone.

Bianca's arc through the story is about becoming more self confident in herself and all her strengths. She's been held back by her father for most of her life and the game strongly implies that the reason the three friends start their journey at their later age is because the player and Cheren wanted to wait until Bianca was brave enough to step away from her father. Professor Juniper, who later becomes a mentor to the girl, helps Bianca register her Trainer card and leave town without her father knowing. As the game continues, Bianca starts to believe that leaving town was a mistake and that she's not a good trainer. It just goes further from there because within the first few cities she has her pokemon stolen away and her father shows up to drag her all the way back to Twinleaf Town. That would be a rough day for anyone, not to mention someone with serious confidence issues.

Being the subject of creepy fan art did little to curb these issues

For once in the game we're seeing how an actual criminal organization would affect someone, and how an adult may react when told that their daughter had just been ambushed by a bunch of thieving knights running around with hamsters that can erupt volcanoes. Sure, the guy's a controlling dick, but at least he has an opinion beyond "Oh, that's nice dear."

But standing up to her father is not the end of Bianca's journey, no sir. It's through her strength and kindness that she is able to mobilize the gym leaders for the fight against Team Plasma. Yes, in the final confrontation, Bianca discovers the strength of kindness and trust while Cheren discovers that being the best at something doesn't matter if you aren't doing anything with that skill.

So you see, Pokemon Black and White take us through an emotional journey where we are first eager to explore, but are struck down like a nail as we see that not everyone can explore, and some people just can't handle the world they see when they look outside. But the duo also reconstructs the pokemon experience for us! After seeing a criminal empire more akin to eco-terrorist group change the world around us and hurt characters that we care about, we rediscover the thrill of pokemon as we assemble a team from all across Unova, take the fruits of our labours and defeat Ghetsis in the last stand for the pokemon world! The series is well constructed in the way that we can go into the elite four losing ourself in the scope of everything around us, being truly hopeless of our impact in the pokemon world. But then, when the final battle comes, I for one was in true belief that that I could single-handedly stop Ghetsis from taking over the world, even after I had seen his influence throughout Unova. And when i defeated him, I felt like a super-hero!

Specifically this one

So yeah, Black and White teach you that your childhood was wrong. Being the very best like no-one ever was is a foolish goal, not all parents are mindless drones, sometimes everything can look hopeless, sometimes you'll fail and it'll seem as if you don't belong. You'll go through life constently second-guessing yourself as you get more introspective. But you know what? Life is an adventure, and that's what makes everything else so awesome!

So yeah, a surprisingly introspective tale of adolescent growth and childhood wonder from Pokemon. Stay tuned for the second part of our double feature, where we step back in time and tell you that your childhood was even more wrong.