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.
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:
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.
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