#and this isnt getting into poor story and gameplay integration and other stuff like underutilized characters (you know exactly who i mean) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vaugarde · 9 days

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okay so as a gen 5 stan who does adore the story in bw and bw2, and now that gen 5 has experienced both a vicious hatedom that wouldnt hear a single positive thing about the games, and now a super protective fandom that insists they were perfect and had zero flaws... can we admit now that the bw1 story at least was. a little mid.

#just a little. just a little.#i am saying this as someone who adores it and loves the characters a lot #...... but good god team plasma kinda sucks ass as an evil organization #bw2 is sorta better about them with the split factions but in the first game theyre so obnoxious and come across as strawmen #the game talks about how the world is nuanced and not black and white and its not good to take extreme sides #but then. it sorta does that with the protagonists? by refusing to talk about abused pokemon that werent hurt by team plasma?#obviously they are wrong. the game hammers it in with a mallet. but is it really nuanced if our stance is ''ha ha thats silly''#and yeah groups like plasma exist irl but like. as someone who cares abt animal rights and stuff a lot. i feel like they fumbled it here #the answer shouldnt have been ''well ig some pokemon get hurt. we wont talk about them though. watch the grunt kick a munna''#it shouldve been about animal welfare. like maybe instead of becoming assistant professor; bianca couldve become a nurse joy #or she couldve joined some organization that rescues and rehabilitates pokemon from abusive trainers. maybe the reformed plasma from bw2 #and before someone goes ''erm its a kids game they cant do that :/ thats too complicated'' first of all- the anime showed a malnourished te #tepig #kids can handle a bit of text next to a skittish lillipup thats like ''its scared of humans'' or something and its being cared for by someo #someone''#plus the side games were tackling much heavier shit at this point #also again they were apparently fine with a grunt kicking a munna and bragging about how he loves doing that so.#like even as a kid i felt like that scene was really over the top and stupid #team plasma feels less like an attempt to do commentary on harmful animal rights ideas that lead to ecofascism and dont care abt the animal #true needs #and more like gamefreak read a lot of obnoxious critical pokemon posts like ''lmao training is like dogfighting'' and ''this promotes anima #abuse!'' and just made a strawman out of those people. and like i agree thats all stupid but it sorta hurts the message of the game #that the world is very nuanced and taking extremes is bad and reductive.#and this isnt getting into poor story and gameplay integration and other stuff like underutilized characters (you know exactly who i mean)#idk. again i still adore the story and have a huge soft spot for it. but i think the only reason people say its perfect is out of defensive #defensiveness and not having engaged with a ton of video game stories. and pokemon stories not being fantastic in general #like i think pla is better put together story wise than this game and its got less going on than this #echoed voice

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