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
there’s no pocket for me to BE in, there’s no LOBBYING involved, there’s no SUPPRESSION campaign because you don’t need one! traditional methods suppress themselves when you make modern pokéballs 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 pokéball industry- Silph and Devon are not monopolies, if they weren’t in constant competition their magic monster domination spheres wouldn’t cost two bucks a pop. the ball spec is a public standard, and Bill Masaki’s storage system based on that standard is an open-source project. they’re only the two largest players because they’re able to leverage economies of scale. you still get smaller operations like the Laverre City Poké Ball Factory, with better regional supply chains and local brand recognition, making room for themselves in the market.
sm FUCKING h at y’all 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; you’re going to head on down to the Mart and get some Ultra Balls, which will do the trick but aren’t well tailored to the job.
I’m 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 wouldn’t hold my breath for that Shellder.
look y’all 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 pokémon from the wild, as a backstop against another Knight of Veilstone coming along. there was a time when you’d never lay a hand on a ball yourself until it was clear you respected pokémon, whether tame or in the wild. but now, a “pokémon journey” is open to practically every teenager, even if they’ve got not interest in treating their team with trust and love.
the worldwide rise in the last century of organized crime and apocalypticcults who use pokémon 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. it’s a miracle that the powder keg hasn’t already gone off by now.
Oh that is rank historical revisionism - what, do you think artisans’ definitions of “respect” 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 “bond” with Pokémon. And when we start seeing apricorn balls develop in Johto, which borders Kanto - Kanto, where we know there’s 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 Pokémon in the interest of maintaining class disparities. I mean, have we already forgotten the Aether Foundation’s 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 “rescuing” Pokémon from local disenfranchised populations, as if taking Pokémon 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 that’s 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 “elites” was forced to be subservient to their “betters” 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.
…that 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 Pokémon world has yet to ban cocaine in drinks.
if its 1:00am when you’re reading this you know what to do!
that’s right! it’s research traditional methods of moroccan architecture, which follow strict mathematic structures and formulas to create stunning tilework and arches, often also utilizing a special form of clay endemic to morocco famed for its sculptural qualities which are difficult and even impossible to reproduce in other regions! additionally, the cultural significance of the various motifs and colors used throughout moroccan architecture, both in religious and in secular buildings, are distinct and highly formalized, honed over many h
FUCK YEAH MOROCCAN ARCHITECTURE
have you looked into muqarnas yet?
yes! i was actually referencing muqarnas when speaking about the clay! morocco’s carved clay and plaster muqarnas are famous for their intricacy and detailed fretting!
Sometimes muqarnas are carved wood. Regardless, Moroccan architecture is ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.
ANOTHER THING about Kirkwall Gang… (And obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I am speaking in a very generalized sense)
Origins crew, a trail mix squad. A few of them are textually described as lookers, but most are not really defined by their appearance/you’re not led to pay their appearance much mind. There’s other shit going on. Awakening crew much the same. Inquisition even more so, in fact the characteristics that are framed as attractive in this squad isn’t necessarily visual at all, but in competency.
Kirkwall Squad? Comparatively sexy. Isabela is there the whole time. Varric’s shirt is completely open. Why waste a perfectly handsome elf? Someone mistook Anders for a prostitute in a brothel. Avelines arms. Merrill’s everything. Sebastian is a prince in shining white armor. Women practically catcall Carver in the street. “You Wanna Fuck Me So Bad It Makes You Look Stupid” Hawke.
This is FUNNIEST TO ME when in the mindset that da2 is framed by Varric’s personal narration. He said “oh also we looked amazing. Like sexy but not even trying. We were trying, but like it was practically effortless.”
I REPEAT I’m not saying there were no handsome sons of bitches in the other games, nor am I attempting to diss your most favoritist squad if you prefer the others. I am saying the Kirkwall Gang got the Sexy Treatment, most likely by Varric.
Interesting to call this “confiscating” when it’s just making the rich pay their fair share, especially considering all the stolen wealth from the bottom 99% and historic tax evasion.
Besides the obvious, the hidden benefit of this is that it provides an endpoint to runaway growth.
The biggest problem with capitalism, the reason it’s so destructive to the planet and to the workers and even, ultimately, to the capitalists, is that, after a certain point, the money’s just a way of keeping score. The number at the bottom of the column has no bearing on what you can buy or do; as a result, there’s no such thing as enough. The number can always be bigger.
Under this proposal, once you hit $1 billion, you’ve won capitalism. You beat the game, achieved the maximum score; you’re finished. There’s nothing more you can accumulate. You now have to find a purpose in life other that the relentless pursuit of profit. (And if we’re really lucky, it might be something that actually benefits other people, but even if not, it’s unlikely to be as damaging as whatever it is you were doing to get that $1 billion.)
Instead of companies expanding endlessly, like tumors, there’s a point where, when all the major stakeholders are maxing out on profit, it makes sense to just hold steady. Keep doing/making/selling whatever it is you do/sell/make, but stop trying to do/sell/make more of it every year.
The problem with a tumor–what makes it cancer–is that it keeps growing and growing, until eventually it’s taking up so much space and consuming so many resources that the surrounding tissues can’t function. The tumor doesn’t have to do anything better than the other tissues in order to crowd them out; it just does it faster. Stop the uncontrolled growth, and it’s something you can live with.
Stopping the uncontrolled growth of capital means more opportunities for multiple businesses–big and small–operating in the same sector, since it doesn’t make sense for any one company to gobble up too much of the market share. That, in turn, means more choices for customers–and workers, since they can take their skills to another employer doing similar things. It means less waste, as there’s no longer an economic upside to spewing cheap goods out of a fire-hose before you even know whether anyone wants to buy them. That could mean slower, more thoughtful use of resources in the first place, but at minimum, it’s going to mean not manufacturing products only to immediately throw them away.
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
