Pokemon Crystal (2000): Part 3

Warning: Satirical allusions to drugs and paedophile rings

Having 'visited' your dodgy neighbour's acquaintance, and been introduced to another man who gave you a strange machine and told you to seek monsters, your neighbour has given you a nighttime call summoning you back to his laboratory. On your way, while the creepy guy who offered to 'teach' you some things watches, you are stopped by the youth who shoved you outside the laboratory. On realising that you went to the laboratory in the first place...

Is he caught in this ring too, jaded by his experiences? Or is he a member of the ring, disappointed by its newest child? Either way, the creepy guy doesn't intervene when this youth attacks you, yet again leaving you defenseless with no support from the adults around you.

Eventually you get back to the laboratory. Your heart lifts when you see a policeman talking to your neighbour. Perhaps he's been discovered? If not, surely you'll have the chance now to tell him about the situation you've found yourself in?

 

No, he just wanted information on the youth who attacked you. Not to charge him with assault, he shows no interest in that, he only cares about an alleged theft. The police are on your neighbour's side, despite saying that the youth attacked you, the policeman just takes his name and thanks you for helping him. He then leaves before you have a chance to tell him anything else.

 

Abandoned once again with your neighbour, you hand him the egg. He is clearly delighted to have it, and thanks you for bringing it to him. Your role as a runner is over for now, but the professor now has something else in store for you. He has learned that his acquaintance's friend has met you, and now he thinks again about you.

   

   

Now seeing you as someone with promise, who can bring him more rewards evidently, he 'suggests' (again with no room for refusal) that you visit all of the gym leaders in the land, to train and prepare you for meeting the Elite Four who hold the greatest power and esteem. Just what 'training' is involved in these 'gyms' remains to be seen, it's likely at this point that they're a cover for something more sinister. Visiting gyms brings money, perhaps what your neighbour gets out of this is taking a cut of your earnings. Perhaps he hopes to make himself more famous if you visit more renowned leaders.

Now that you've brought him the egg, and now that he knows that you won't tell the police anything, he knows that you're not going to leave the network anytime soon. He taunts you with this:

 

Obviously she didn't say anything to him then, despite your telling her about why he called you in the first place. You tell her again about everything that's happened to you.

An adventure isn't what you'd call it. Is she deluding herself, or does she genuinely not care that you're in danger? To add insult, her only offer of help is to save some of the money that you make, before sending you on your way.

   

Again, none of the adults from your hometown, who all seem to know you, have intervened at all, despite at least some knowing what your neighbour is forcing you to do. Your mother wants you to go, claiming that it's an 'adventure' and only caring about the money that you'll bring in. The men who you've 'visited' so far are all big names, as a child you're sure that you won't be believed if you say what's happening, and they almost certainly know that. The police hasn't given you a chance to explain your situation. And now you're being sent to 'visit' eight leaders in preparation for the final four, and who knows what you'll be made to carry next. With nobody interested in your welfare, you head out alone again.

Pokemon Crystal (2000): Part 2

Warning: Satirical allusions to drugs and paedophile rings

Continuing on from last post, I'm replaying Pokemon Crystal. At the end of the last chapter, we'd just left our character's hometown under our dodgy neighbour's orders to 'visit' an acquaintance of his.

After an uneventful journey through the plains near your hometown, where in this instance no fewer than 6 animals attacked you with only a small pet to defend you, you reach the next town. A strange old man hovers by the town boundary, as if waiting for you. You can choose to ignore him completely. If you do talk to him, however, he suggests that he 'teach' you a few things...

This time you do have a choice. Agreeing to be 'taught', he'll briefly show you around the town, and then lead you to his house. Maybe he's just a friendly tour guide. Or maybe he's trying to lure you to his house without attention from the townsfolk.

If you say no, his disappointment is obvious, leaving little doubt as to what he'd hoped to 'teach' you:

You can talk to one of the passersby in the town, who'll tell you that your neighbour's acquaintance lives nearby. After you leave the town, another wanderer says that the acquaintance's house isn't far away. Why is this man that well-known in the area? Is he known for his misdeeds, or more likely does he have such a position in society that he can hide behind if accusations are made?

     

Unfortunately your only option is to carry on to his house, as the other route is blocked.

On arrival, it's clear that the acquaintance has been waiting for you and is delighted that you've arrived. Your neighbour must have passed on your details to him.

After a brief discussion, he gives you a strange object to take back to your neighbour. Unsure what it is even himself, he claims that he got it from a couple who live a few towns away. Are they involved in this network as well? Are they the masterminds, or do they just give the rewards to their 'employees'?

 

 Without giving you the chance to refuse the object or to ask questions, the acquaintance invites his 'old friend' to meet you.

   

Yet another strange man wanting to meet you, this time without warning? Knowing that a young child travelling alone would be there to 'visit' his friend, sent by the 'colleague' they contact through email, he decided to wait for you... Like your neighbour, he asks if you can do him a 'favour', without giving you the option of saying no.

He gives you a machine, and asks you to record all of the animals that you see on it. So now instead of trying to manage your way past the monsters that attack you, now he wants you to seek them, knowing full well how vulnerable you are? Twisted much. Maybe he hopes to keep you in a constant state of fear, to keep you under his control, to make sure that you won't try again to tell anyone about your situation. Given your character's mum's reaction to the news though, this isn't necessary since you know that nobody will help you.

Once the friend leaves to give his radio show - allusions to public figures hiding a shady life, perhaps - you are left alone with the acquaintance. Without giving you any chance to escape, claiming that your pet needs to 'rest', the screen goes black.

   

Dark.

Finally you can leave, but not before he plays on your emotions:

Before you rush off, your curiosity is piqued by the strange coins from where the other man stood.

  

Are these men part of a global network? How many other 'trainers' have been brought into this depraved situation across the globe? Is this 'egg' meant to be a reward for good 'work', or could it be a warning or a threat? You can't ask questions, only do as you're told and pass on the egg. You're getting the idea of how things work now.

As you leave, your neighbour phones you. A quick look at the clock shows that it's now 11.30pm. He needs you right away. He won't say why, you can't ask why, you can't refuse.

With no choice but to do as he says, you head back towards your hometown.

Pokemon Crystal (2000): Part 1

Warning: Satirical allusion to drugs and pimping involving children (not explicit) 

Like many other young girls, I was excited to see that a Pokemon game would be coming out which finally let you play as a female character! No more would my accomplishments be as a male! Hm, typing that out I could do a whole other blog post on that... but I'll move on.

14 years later, I had a long commute into work each day in the first half of the year, and ended up playing a lot of Pokemon Crystal to pass the time on the train. Recently while watching a friend of mine play a newer Pokemon game, I pulled out Crystal for another playthrough. Looking at it with this blog in mind, there are a fair few things that are concerning.

Let's begin when you wake up and head downstairs. Regardless of what time of day it is (in this playthrough it's past 9pm), your mum stops you and says that your neighbour wants to see you. Despite it not being made clear how well you know this neighbour, and despite her not knowing what it is that this neighbour wants from you, she sends you off alone.

Maybe it's just me, but my mum wouldn't send me to meet strange men alone as a child.

So you leave your house, and see someone peering into the windows of the lab you've been sent to. When he catches you looking at him, his response is to shove you away. It's not made clear how old this person is - is he an adult pushing a young child? Even if he's a child himself, why does nobody come to intervene? There are other people milling about the town, surely the woman near the town edge would have seen this happen, or at least have heard the commotion.

Having established early on that nobody will help you when you're in trouble, you head into your neighbour's lab. Glad to see you, your neighbour asks if you can do him a favour, and asks you to help with what he calls his 'research' (throughout the game we never see him working...). Here you are given the illusion of choice. If you select no, he pleads with you until you agree. You can say 'No' as many times as you want to, and still you cannot leave.

Eventually you realise that saying no will not change anything. So you agree to help. Before he can get you to do anything for him, an email comes through for your neighbour. Are you spared for now while he's distracted? No. He comes straight back to you, and orders you to visit an acquaintance of his, an older man who you've never met. The acquaintance has supposedly discovered something that he desperately needs to share. He sends you, a young child, out alone to meet an adult who neither of you know, for the adults' own gains.

   

At best an allegory for using children as drugs' runners, at worst pimping through an online network.

Your neighbour then gives you a small animal to take with you, claiming that this will protect you against the wild animals outside of your small village. Great, so we're now sending a young child out at night, bearing in mind that it's implied that they've never left their hometown before, where there are not only strange adults who may want to hurt them, but wild animals too? And they're expected to defend for themselves this way? The small pet that the child's been given will do nothing to protect them against adults with bad intentions.

Before you can leave, your neighbour forces you to take his phone number. Any hope of escaping the situation that you find yourself in has gone. He has your number, and can contact you day or night as he wishes.

At last, you are able to leave, or so you think. As you approach the door out of the lab, your neighbour's 'assistant' (again, we never see him working) hands you a potion. He doesn't offer it, he forces you to take it, despite you not knowing what this is. At best, an allegory for drug dealers trying to get a young child hooked on drugs. At worst, drugging the child before they meet the people they're sent to 'visit'.

Finally, having been attacked and ignored by adults when physically hurt, tried in vain to say 'No' numerous times before agreeing to help with 'research', being sent to an older stranger's house with only a small animal for company, and with drugs in hand, you leave the laboratory.

Of course, you do the sensible thing of heading straight to tell your mum what happened. Your mum's response is not as supportive as you'd hoped: after briefly being speechless, her response is to praise you for being the type of person who others rely on.

   

Is this a twisted way of saying that the character brought this on themselves? Despite now being aware of the situation, and knowing what her neighbour has said to you and forced you to do, she turns back to chatting with her friend once, to her mind, the conversation is over.

You're aware that your mum's friend has heard everything. Her reaction isn't helpful:

Will she warn her daughter (late teens/early adult), now that she knows what helping your neighbour with his 'research' involves? The fact that she doesn't say anything to help you, however, suggests otherwise. She doesn't seem shocked or horrified, so maybe she knew of her neighbour's intentions. This makes it worse when you consider that she was there when your mother told you that your neighbour wanted to see you.

You can try talking to your mother again, but her reaction stays the same. Nobody in town will say anything helpful, or move to stop you from heading out alone at night. With a heavy heart of the task ahead, you leave your hometown for the first time.