A just ending

So there's been a little secret of mine that I've had for a while. It may change your perspective on me, but,  it relates to English, so I might as well spill it. 

Back in the January of 2009, when I was living in my birth state of New York,  I was going through a dark phase. My family was going through a bit of spat because our house had recently gotten robbed and many of our valued possessions were stolen. One such possession was my new Game Boy Advanced, that I had only just recently acquired over Christmas. It was basically the thing that I had prized the most, because rain or shine I was always on it, always having the time of my life when I played one of my games. It put me above my peers as well, because the Game Boy had only recently come out and almost no one in my elementary school had one. It really made me feel special whenever I got to whip it around them during recess or lunch, the feeling it gave me as they crowded around to get a better look, the thrill of being the popular one, the one on the cutting edge.

So you can imagine my complete despair when I couldn't find it in the aftermath of the burglary. Sure, the television was gone-I could live without that. My Dad's work computer had vanished meaning that important project he had been working on for the past week was obsolete. My Mom's valuable jewels had been targeted as well, but I didn't care that she sobbed over $300 worth of rock. What really ticked me off was that they stole MY Game Boy. It was perhaps all I had during those years, perhaps I was addicted, but understand it was the only thing I could get addicted too. 

Tensions were at an all time high at our once tranquil home. Everyone was blaming everyone else for the mess. Being as young as I was, the mood really must of affected me. I don't remember much about that time period-it seems to flash by now when I try to look back upon it. But, it was most obviously the darkest time period of my life. 

I was a dark cloud of anger. My classmates all left me when they found out I didn't have the Game Boy anymore. I remember feeling complete consuming rage because of this. Many nights I didn't sleep, crying about how I lost my "friends". Eventually, I realized that they didn't care about me. All they cared about was the Game Boy I had. In fact, they never cared about me in the first place. They only talked to me when I brought it out. The only words I heard were those begging for a turn. I never got any "Hey, How was your day?" or anything even remotely conversational. But I was content. My classmates talked to me and that made me somebody, you know?

Perhaps it was my fault. If I had been a little friendlier things would have never turned out this way. But I was always way too timid. I was crap at talking and I knew it. So when I got the Game Boy and brought it out they would talk to me. My screen talked for me. But the only problem is, the screen only said one phrase. 

"Play me"

When my Game Boy got stolen I lost even that. I lost my voice. I didn't know how to talk. I was no longer the kid who has a Game Boy, I was the loser. The idiot. The things I was before I had the Game Boy. The difference was that now I could feel it. Since I had once had a voice, going back was unacceptable. 

But I was back, I had lost the Game Boy! So I had to suffer the consequences of losing it. The whole thing seemed vastly unjust, as if God himself was picking on me.

I had a classmate who was named Brian Park. I hated him. He was everything I wasn't-rich, popular, charismatic, and he had all the toys. The kids would flock to him and beg him for a turn at whatever he was playing with. I got the smug satisfaction of taking that away from him. For once, I had the cool new thing. I was being flocked. 

He got a Game Boy. I think it was a birthday present or something. He brought it to school and played it during recess. The kids swarmed him again like he was freaking Jesus. Begging him, as they did to me, for a turn on it. 

I had to hear it. We had a small playground and no one really played on it.  So they all huddled in a corner in a huge disgusting blob and conversed there. I just couldn't stand it. One day, I just decided that if the Game Boy guy wasn't going to be me, it sure as hell wouldn't be Brian Park either. 

So when school ended that day, I stayed in the classroom, keeping an eye on Brian Park. He reached into his desk to put papers into his backpack. Then, the pencils. Eventually he pulled out what I was looking for. The purple shape of a Game Boy. 

Immediately I ran up to him and yanked it from him. It was easy, I think. He wasn't expecting it. I made a break for the door to outside, the stunned teacher and students not doing a thing to stop me. 

When I was outside, I heard the yells of Brian Park behind me, yelling at me to give it back, something I was very reluctant to do. I had quite the head start on him, but like everything else he had over me, he was also faster. 

My feet pounded against the gavel of the parking lot, as I ran as hard as I could down to the street. On the opposite side there was a thick forest. My plan was to make it there and hide it some place where he'd never find it. But, I never got there. Brian Park's slimy hand grabbed my left shoulder as I was 3 feet from the street. 

So I chucked it. I panicked, I must have been thinking I could throw it far enough into the forest. Of course, I didn't. It landed in the street. 

Brian Park threw me to the ground and my hand banged painfully against the gravel of the parking lot. As I fell, I swear I caught a glimpse of his face. Completely trepidation, but dead-set on getting the Game-Boy back.

I didn't see the rest. But I heard it. In the following moment I heard Brian's panting and his feet pounding the ground as he sprinted into the middle of the road. I heard the car as it sped down the road. I heard the horn blare out into the day and the screeching of the brakes. I heard the sickening, bone-shattering crash and the screams that accompanied it . I heard the silence that followed....

And I herd u liek mudkipz

That's right, none of that is actually true. Except the part where it says I lived in New York at the time. I just trolled the heck out of you, and you just believed I was a murderer. What? I can't be silly once in a while? I'll have you know it took a long while to come up with this. I was thinking about it all during my B3 block. I mean, it's actually your fault if you believed it. Come on man-2009? I was freaking 11 at the time....I definitely would have the arm strength to throw it into the woods by that age. 

What I got to connect it to Pokemon? Well, that's just what I plan on doing. 

OK, first of all, I want to Mr. Mullins (v.) my future Pulitzer prize winning short-story up there. How did you, the reader, feel when I killed that Brian Park? 

Or better yet, what would you think if I just walked up to you and told that I killed someone?

Well if your anything like a normal human, you were probably a bit appalled or sad, shocked, dismayed, maybe even angry. You probably thought I was a big jerk and that what I did was stupid and morbid. After all death is bad. You should mourn and respect the dead At the very least, it's definitely not something to be celebrated, right?

But then why is it, that the majority of my English class (I don't know how the A4 kids felt) celebrated the fact that the grandmother died in "A good man is hard to find" by Flannery O'Connor? 

If anything, we should be even more so appealed. The murderer was a dangerous wanted criminal and the victim was by all means, an innocent elderly grandmother.

Or was she?

She doesn't do anything illegal to make her look bad. Instead, it's her characterization that makes us all despise her. It's the way she tries to use fear to get the to vacation to Florida. It's the way she spites the family by wearing her best cloths when they refuse. The way she degrades her family throughout the trip, the way she lies to get her family off the road to Florida, the way she fakes injury to gain sympathy after the accident, how she pleads for her own life, not caring about her family, how she almost single-handily got all of them killed. 

Above all, though she has the gall to view herself as a "lady" and the irony that the reader feels when she says "A good man is hard to find" because she is the last person who should say what good is!

So who in Pokemon is worth of being compared to this hag? 

Well, believe it or not, death happens in Pokemon. Latios died in the fifth movie. Sir Aaron and Lucario both died in the eighth movie. Ash himself has died almost as many times as Doctor Who. There are numerous graveyards for Pokemon in every game. The list goes on.

But in all those cases, the deaths are just like the how it should be. It leaves you utterly depressed and remorseful for them. Every character was in your mind, good. So every Character makes you feel like you lost something. 

Every character except one:

The leader of Team Galactic, Cyrus

Maybe you've played Diamond and Pearl and want to argue that nothing happened to him. Play Platinum. Maybe you've played Platinum and argue that he doesn't actually die-he just loses his soul. But isn't losing your soul worse than death? 

On to the comparison though, and I do realize it's not going to be perfect (Chris), but if you want to try and make a better Pokemon comparison be my guest. 

Cyrus is the antagonist of the previously stated Diamond and Pearl series, and the leader of Team Galactic, a criminal organization that wants to make a new world that will eliminate all conflict in the world. Basically, their purpose in creating a new world is to make it a perfect utopia where everything is in harmony. The only downside is that they have to summon two legendary Pokemon to summon the distortion devil Giratina to destroy the current world, and that's kinda illegal.

That might not seem so bad, right? Except that's not what Cyrus wants. That's just what Cyrus wants Team Galactic to believe. The real reason Cyrus wants to create a new world and destroy the current one is for him. He believes that the soul is the reason for all the conflict in the world, so he wishes to create a new world to destroy the soul of every living thing in the current one.

Cyrus summoning Giratina to destroy the world

So if you want  similarities between the Grandma and Cyrus there it is right there. They both lie to get what they want. They are both selfish. But the main one is the irony.

The Grandma says that being good is hard to do, implying that she is the good one, when clearly she's not.Cyrus is reversed. Cyrus says emotions are useless and should be destroyed but he is using the emotions of others to achieve that goal. He calls for their compassion to keep them motivated, so he can achieve his goal of eliminating it. Right there is the example of what the soul can really do for a person, but he is too blind to see it. Too full of himself to believe he's wrong.

His own Lieutenant even sees the irony 

As Saturn puts it, "So, it's you... I've heard about you and what took place at the Spear Pillar. Our leader, Master Cyrus, hated the very idea of spirit. He hated spirit for being incomplete. And yet, using fiery exhortations, he rallied the spirit of others. What he hated most, he used to control others. Isn't that ironic? That fascinated me. I wanted to see what he would do. And I did. At his side. But it's over. A world without spirit... Who would want such a thing?! So, what now...? What to do with Team Galactic? But I've learned that extremism is never the solution... Perhaps we should really be searching for new sources of energy. Instead of lying about it through our commercials."

Cyrus was too blind and too plain stupid to see the truth in front of him, so maybe he deserved what he got. I didn't feel a single bit of regret when I saw him lose his soul. He got what he asked for.

After Cyrus get his soul annihilated, the game does explain his motive in more depth. You do realize that he's not all that bad-he just had a bad life. It does make you feel sorry for him somewhat. It makes me wonder about the Grandmother's background. Maybe she had a reason for acting the way she does. After all, there was very little background information in that story.

Without the back story though, Cyrus and the Grandmother are one and the same. They were both self-righteous hypocrites to the extreme, and they got a just ending.

Maybe I am morbid after all.

Pokemon=HITLER

Here's part two.


Last time, I made the connection between Pokemon and the devil. This time I'll compare Pokemon with the next closest thing: Hitler.

Now, really  Pokemon's references or coincidences to Hitler have been banned in Western and European culture. So I had to dig up some Japanese content. There are three main references to Hitler. none, obviously, were anywhere near the time period of World War II. Japan was one of the Axis powers, being an ally of Germany and the country that America famously nuked to end the war with. The people who banned the  material stated that it was an obvious reference to Hitler and it would cause a lot of international tension had it gone through. It almost sounded as if Pokemon would cause World War III. It's one of the most ridiculous things that I have ever thought about, but evidently, there are a lot of people who feel this way, because it's been banned it most countries.

The first reference is the card "Koga's Ninja trick" part of the deck "Gym Expansions" released in 1999. The controversy is in the top left corner.

.

As you can see, there is a very subtle symbol that appears very much like a swastika. It is safe to assume the Japanese did this on purpose. At the very least, they knew about it. So why would the card editors let this go through? Is it because they are still following the ways of the Nazis, as some people say?

Well, if you look at the swastika's history, it was originally a symbol intended for peace. This card, is in a way peaceful, as it protects a Pokemon that you currently have in play. In doing so, however, you throw another one into the pit. 

Japan does have good relations with Germany, but during that time period it was more due to trade. As a matter of fact, Germany hates Hitler for what he did to their country. In fact, this card is banned in Germany as well. It is hard to believe that Japan would idealize him if his own country and their ally didn't. 

Although the swastika is more linked to the Nazis than peace. Japan must know that, being a major role in WWII. Perhaps they thought that somehow the viewpoint has changed in other countries. Evidently, it did not.

The edited version of the card is here:

 The second and third Hitler references are both arbitrary in my opinion. Both involves the "Hail Hitler" salute.

The first instance is in the game with Registeel, an ancient golem that is know for being made of harder material than any metal, and is know for it's sky-high special defense stat.

Here is it's Japanese pose                                                                                 Here is it's international pose

To be fair, it is a lot like Hitler's pose. The arm is outstretched in a line with the palm facing down. Weather Pokemon designed it this way on purpose is something I can't tell you. However, I'll have to say probably not. For one, Registeel is nothing like Hitler. It's been buried in the ground for thousands of years and protecting the people of Hoenn or other sacred locations (in the movie). It should be noted that the main argument that it is a symbol for Hitler is that it is part of a trio (Regice Regirock) that represent the Axis powers (Japan Italy). The trio serves under a powerful but incompetent  legendary Pokemon called Regigigas. It's argued that Regigigas is the symbol for communism itself, as it is useless early, but dominating later in the battle. The ones who spoke out against the legendary golem trio stated that Pokemon was trying to promote communism and were implying that if Hitler had succeeded, he would be remember in the world as a hero, as opposed to a villain. But like anything else that these people claimed, there was no solid proof that it was fact and the Pokemon company merely settled for changing the pose to avoid any trouble.

We've gone through the game, we've gone through the card, now it's time to go through the show. In the Advanced Generation series, episode 13 dubbed "All things bright and Beautifly!" The infamous Team rocket makes what can be seen as another Hitler pose, in their fantasy of winning a contest.

 In Team Rocket's fantasy, Jesse (female in the red hair) is imagining that they have won a contest and become famous. She then believes that by winning a contest, she'll become famous and attract attention. She plans to use that attention to recruit members to the criminal organization Team Rocket and gain a promotion from her boss. In this scene, she along with her trusted partners James (purple-hair) and Meowth (the cat) are unifying all of her gathered recruits and rallying them to take over the world. This comparable to Hitler, obviously, because he was pretty much doing the same thing. He unified Germany and rallied to take over the world. 

Is it a stretch? Quite possibly. There have been many scenes in movies or TV shows, or even other cartoon that get away with this. And many of those scenes have a pose similar to Hitler's as well. But the fact that this was a cartoon from Japan, meant it had to be changed. Even though Team Rocket always gets thwarted and is considered a main antagonist of the series, there must be no reference to Hitler in anything they export overseas. Here is the edited picture: 

The differences are that James hand is tilted to the side, Jessie has both her hands raised and the recruits are just....there. The message of unification is still there, albeit not as strongly.

It is definitely questionable to say Pokemon is worshiping Hitler after only three pieces of evidence, none of which are very strong. But, the possibility is there. From reading literature, the ones who banned the content know they're a thousand ways to interpret anything. Some of the ones who made the decisions probably don't even feel that way themselves, but they understand the dangers of interpreting.Someone, somewhere may see the first picture and claim that it's Hitler. By, filtering all of that content out, it makes it a million times less likely that they will. It's really all based on the viewer.

Arnold Friend would be seen as a devil by a some people. That wouldn't stir up controversial like this would. It may even be the author's intent. However, many others see Arnold Friend as just some predator that happened to be there. That itself is justifiable. 

 Just as changing Pokemon made sure no one would see WWIII, Changing one thing about Arnold Friend would make sure no one could see as anything else but what he was. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But then if one of those words are changed, you end up with a completely different picture. If Joyce Carol Oats had changed Arnold Friend in one way, it would quite possibly change the theme of the whole story.