The spectacle of nostalgic
entertainment that is Pokemon Go is inescapable right now. Everyone I talk to
is enraptured by the new mobile game as they frantically collect new Pokemon
and obsess over evolving them into more powerful forms. Watching the young
adults of my generation be returned to a state of pre-pubescent enthusiasm for
Pokemon is a phenomenon equal parts disturbing and fascinating to myself. While
I am rather unimpressed by the game itself and somewhat perplexed by the
immensity of its popularity, I have to admit that the magnitude of Pokemon
images present upon social media has definitely reignited my interest in the
franchise. But after over a decade of ignoring the world of Pokemon, I find
myself re-approaching it with a more mature and critical speculative interest.
I find myself questioning aspects of its world-building such as how Pokemon
reproduce, whether they evolved from other animals, whether they eat other
animals or one another, whether they are sapient or not, and if so, what are
the ethics of Pokemon hunting and fighting. Setting these questions aside (for
a later blog essay I predict), I want to consider this process of rationalizing
our nostalgic childhood interests.
Specifically, I want to examine the aesthetic rationalizations of nostalgia
for Pokemon by looking at some reinterpretations of Pokemon by speculative
artists. What I am referring to is the popularity of realistic depictions of Pokemon. Such artistry involves reimagining
Pokemon in such a way that they are rendered more compatible with our real
world perspective. This necessarily involves a less cartoonish representation
of the Pokemon in favor of one with more detail. This may further develop along
two aesthetic styles of either natural
reduction or alien extrapolation. By
the former I refer to the reimagining of the Pokemon according to categories
and forms familiar to historical evolutionary biology. In contrast, the latter
refers to a redesign of the Pokemon according to its more exaggerated and
supernatural characteristics. Extrapolating from these features, the artist
provides a speculative skeleton (so to speak) upon which to rebuild the Pokemon
according to more naturalistic principles. The result is something more
understandable in its function but almost always more alien in its appearance. Either
of these two aesthetic strategies allows for Pokemon to be considered as mature
phenomenon compatible (relatively speaking) with a naturalistic and scientific
understanding of the world largely overlooked from the cartoonish child logic
of Pokemon.
This examination of realistic
Pokemon depictions is tangentially related to my interest in and promotion ofworld-building artists. While technically fan-art, such art is therefore not to
be considered an act of original world-building per se. But it does nevertheless
provide a degree of detail and sophisticated speculative logic that could warrant
the identification of world-reinforcing.
Such world-reinforcement may even extend beyond the visual as artists provide textual speculation to complement and
justify the appearance of their Pokemon. As before in my world-building series
of essays, my focus was on various Deviant Art members and one artist in
particular was predominant interest to me. RJ Palmer, otherwise known by his
Deviant Art profile as arvalis, is easily recognized as the most accomplished
realistic Pokemon artist. His portfolio encompasses hundreds of Pokemon in the
franchise and his beautifully-detailed prints are even available for purchaseas art books. Please check out his profile and gallery as his artwork is too
extensive for me to do adequate justice in this essay alone. What I would like
to focus on is Palmer’s personal approach to rationalizing Pokemon both
visually and textually.
Of the two strategies I identified
above, Palmer’s Pokemon are depicted according to the natural reduction
approach insofar as they are reduced to familiar archetypes of biological
science. To label they a reduction however would be a disservice to the
incredible amount of detail he renders them in. Palmer’s Pokemon are
immediately recognizable as the equivalent of familiar real animals such as
dinosaurs, amphibians, birds or insects or some chimerical amalgamation thereof.
Even seemingly inorganic Pokemon such as Voltorb and Magnemite are reimagined
akin to armadillos and crabs respectively. On most of his prints, Palmer goes
into detail rationalizing the biology and abilities of each Pokemon insofar as
they can have naturalistic explanations. Such complementary texts can often be
quite humorous as Palmer admits will occasionally concede the impossibility of
an acceptable naturalistic explanation for the Pokemon. To use the
aforementioned Magnemite-as-crab he only has to say “Magnemites are hovercrabs”.
No other explanation is possible or needed. Sometimes we simply need to resign
ourselves to the simpler logic of our childhood rather than force
rationalization our nostalgic interests in order to reconcile it with the
influence of more mature ideologies. What follows are some of my favorite
examples of Palmer’s artwork and explanation texts but I strongly recommend
that you explore the entirety of his gallery as well.
Voltorb
“Voltorb as they exist now is a
direct result of Pokemon trainers, more specifically the invention of the
Pokeball. These Pokemon have adapted their coloration to mimic that of
discarded Pokeballs commonly found on training routes. The benefit of
such patterning is that wild Pokemon have developed a fear or uneasiness of
Pokeballs, making their ability to roll into a ball and take such a shape be of
great help in warding off predators. Pokemon professors have argued that
this adaptation is irrefutable proof that Pokemon can and will adapt to a world
full of Pokemon trainers, conversely conservationists argue that man should no
longer train Pokemon. Regardless of the debate Voltorbs make for great
companions to electrically inclined trainers.”
Trevenant
“Trevenant is a very unique
cephalopod Pokemon. Only needing to return to the water for breeding
these Pokemon have evolved the ability to live terrestrially. Their soft bodies
are easily damaged, calling for the use an unusual defensive adaptation.
They have a specialized beak that allows them to bore into trees and wear the
pieces as a specialized armor. As a result they take on the appearance of
moving trees with demonic tendrils sprouting from them. A ghastly sight
to be sure, culminating in the uneducated believing them to be haunted trees or
some such nonsense. They have one major natural predator, the elusive
Pacific Northwest Slaking that is rarely sighted by Slaking enthusiasts.”
Mime Jr.
“Some find Mr. Mime charming and
cute, Mime Jr. on the other hand is a disgusting abomination. The
juvenile Mr. Mimes have yet to develop their barrier ability and as such have
the most repulsive false head on their tail that they use as a threat
display. Its effective in nauseating Pokemon and trainers alike. In
fact only the professors with the strongest will and sturdiest stomach can
endure their presence for long.”
Gastly
“None of the Gastly family are
actually ghosts, but have just been claimed to be. Gastly and Haunter on live
in caves and empty towers, appearing only at night. Their forms are very hard
to make out as they have deceptive camouflage; Gastlies appear to be little
more than a head at first glace, though in actuality are a very large poisonous
bat. Each member of this family possesses a helium bladder, giving them the
ability to float and taking on a ghostly appearance. Gengars do not occur in
the wild, they are the result of a trainer taking their haunter to a new
region, this results is a radical shift physique. Though Gengars do possess the
ability to levitate, they are much heavier than their kin and can only levitate
to avoid attacks. Each of them can produce a poisonous cloud by ruffling their
fur, releasing dried toxic saliva into the air; though Gastlies seem to do this
most commonly. They are hyper carnivores, preying on anything they can find,
most commonly their relatives, Zubats."
Ditto
“Mewtwo is imperfect. He was created
in an attempt to clone the ancestral Pokemon, Mew. Mew's origins are not known,
what is known is that within its DNA lies the building blocks to all Pokemon.
Mew has the appearance of an embryo and it seemingly never ages. Mewtwo did not
receive this genetic perk. At first hatching it appeared to be a perfect
success, though the clone started growing. It eventually grew too strong to be
kept under restraint, in its escape destroyed the research facility it was
created in. In this purge it freed other undeveloped Mew clones. The cloned
sludge, left without a body or identity, yet still with the incomplete building
blocks of all Pokemon wander aimless seeking others of their kin. They are
known as Ditto and have become a plague on wild Pokemon, killing an absorbing
their prey and filling their broken DNA with strains from the world's Pokemon
species.”
Blastoise
“Blastoise is supposed to be able to
aim his cannons and fire water jets to propel himself in a direction, very much
like a real life squid. So he intakes large supplies of water through his mouth
and stores it in a specialized organ in his chest under the shell. Blastoise
primarily eats shellfish, earning his nickname as the shellfish Pokemon, he
holds onto a Shellder in this case and blasts water to help him pull it off its
rocky home. “
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