007 | Outskirts of Goldenrod City | Video / Action;

[usedlaserbeam]

[It's late afternoon on the outskirts of Goldenrod City, where Yagyuu has evidently been out training his team; it's a somewhat unusual sight to see them all out of their Pokeballs at once, but at the moment the full roster has been released to roam around the open expanse of field chosen for today's practice grounds

Comments

[video]

[sfaccendato]

Ah, congratulations. Espeon are quite lovely.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

I take it you have some familiarity with them, Oshitari-kun?

[video]

[sfaccendato]

I have one myself, yes. He evolved about a month ago.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

Then let me extend my own congratulations in turn--albeit belated ones. Was that an evolution you selected for him, or one he chose himself?

[video]

[sfaccendato]

He decided it himself. Given how many options there are for Eevees, it seemed the polite thing to do.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

That does seem to be a trend, letting the Eevee choose for itself. I wonder if that implies something about the nature of these Pokemon--or at least, the way trainers tend to perceive them.

[video]

[sfaccendato]

Most people seem to consider them highly intelligent pets, really. They're much more aware than the games seemed to imply.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

There's no denying they're intelligent, certainly. [Well, okay, except for Akaya's Wooper--] Albeit some considerably more than others.

Still, to give one that level of autonomy--to assume it not only knows its own destiny, but has the capacity to conceive of several and choose from among them...I'm not sure I'd be comfortable taking it that far.

[video]

[sfaccendato]

So rather like humans, in that sense.

Why, have you seen any particular reason to think they don't?

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

Isn't there a moral argument to be made, that if they're truly sentient, then it's hardly ethical to capture and train them the way we do?

[video]

[sfaccendato]

Perhaps, but do you really think that would stop most people? Particularly given how little the Pokemon themselves seem to mind.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

I don't think it would stop them, no. Just that it'd imply something about the character of the person that knowingly continued.

[video]

[sfaccendato]

True enough. Though given that essentially everyone here participates in battling, it would imply something about the characters of quite a few people.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

Or about their susceptibility to participate in a system that condoned such activities.

[video]

[sfaccendato]

Or that, yes. I imagine it would be much easier for most people to go along with if it was an acceptable societal norm.

[video]

[usedlaserbeam]

And which theory do you subscribe to, Oshitari-kun? Are people inherently cruel, or merely blindly following a herd mentality wherever it may lead, even to the point of atrocity?