Weird Parts

Good point about how those locations can be unsafe. Really like the part about how levelling works in RPGs.

Anyway, the possibility of meetting high level Pokémon in a maze could be scary! You might not want to go that way maybe take like a train?

Lol Cerulean in Gold and Silver had Misty go on a date or something right? Kinda weirded me out, does no-one do the Kanto League anymore??

You're probably right. Most ROM Hacks are kinda cluttered with events so you can'tt focus on the region or legendaries.

Like the point about Cinnabar! It is sort of like an analogy. Also a kinda glitchy place, but it has the Seafoam Islands nearby.

Was just reading over this posst again, Luminesce! This a great point.

Things like films which occasionally bring the audience up are kinda cool. It can be more scary, because now they're like following you around.

Thanks, FlyingMurkrow.


True, it does give the League a slightly unconventional or less formal tint. It isn't just as generic 'League,' it's part of a location with its own 'politics' and traits.

This sort of means that turning such things into a repeatable 'formula' for more Pokémon games is actually ending up with something quite different. Although G/S, which retained Kanto, were a slight exception.

That said, replacing 'Gyms' with 'trials' is just repeating the Gym formula with a different name. And now with fetch quests and such. Meh.

Speaking of 'Giovanni,' there are a couple of elements of the novel 'Varjak Paw' which have a strange resemblance to things in 'Sun & Moon.' The lead female, Holly, also tends to spark the major conflicts by being abducted - in the first book by the Gentleman, in the second by 'Sally Bones.' Further, she also in the second and final book starts to take on a certain similarity with Sally Bones due to a historical relationship with her, and this changes her slightly to seem like Sally Bones. Who admittedly has a slightly peculiar name for a 'serious' antagonist. Of course, S&M also features a 'Team Skull,' and Lillie has a very similar progression to Hollie - including her eventually revealing her relation to Lusamine. Further, one of the more obviously eerie elements of Varjak Paw is the Gentleman, who kidnaps many cats and turns them into eerie, ghost-like dolls and models. Varjak, after learning of a cat's abduction, sees a 'realistic' replica cat - almost as if the abducted cat is turned into an undead cat. This somewhat resembles Mimikyu, a Pokémon imitating Pikachu while spookily surrounding itself with Pikachu memorabilia. Curiously, however, its name in this context also resembles 'Mew,' who uses Transform. Also, of course, one of its starters is a cat.

Varjak Paw is a novel involving the slightly ghost-like appearance of 'Jalal' who purports to teach Varjak 'the Way.' Nonetheless, they end up relying on a dog instead, despite the dog perhaps being less familiar with the Way. In this sense, the 'Way' as taught by Jalal seems to feature several limitations. Other than its being incoherent. It is highly similar to Ecco the Dolphin in some ways. Varjak's family have their house taken over by the 'Gentleman,' who for most of the novel remains a hidden figure. He goes off and is told by an Elder to seek out a dog to save them. It turns out that the Gentleman was carrying out abductions. Similarly, Ecco's family are abducted, albeit by aliens. They must seek out the Big Blue and Asterite to get them back. Both end with the abducted being let out of captivity. Ecco learns a few skills early on, like attacking with sonar, and eventually the Asterite also gives them the power to go without air (or act like a fish) and hence enter the aliens' abode. However, while Varjak 'wins' through a lucky intervention, Ecco wins through a segment which could involve careful timing and easily runs into danger. This is more similar to the end of the second Varjak book, where the intrepid Varjak faces someone who is vulnerable in the sunlight (although using the Way doesn't allow him to win earlier.) The Way is somewhat vaguely sketched out, which might explain its lack of effect, and Varjak has to rely on other factors to take on Sally Bones who violates several aspects of the 'Way' he is taught. Nonetheless, it tends to involve in essence 'silence,' or hiding oneself to the point of disappearance. There are various different glosses on this, but that is the basic common thread.

The Gentleman leaves, but is merely chased off. The cats are allowed free, but the Gentleman can merely re-locate. In addition, it seems slightly peculiar that their traps can be easily opened by cats. Anyway, this means that Varjak Paw comes off as a slightly provincial novel, with its 'ending' only decisive for a given area and for the moment. It also seems to turn a bit sci-fi, with cats who act like machines and dogs jumping through windows (why are there windows left clear around a secret area, anyway?) It also seems to understate the Gentleman, who is quite an eerie figure. His motivation and orientation towards the cats is mostly ignored, which furthers the sense of 'provincialism.'

Anyway, Varjak Paw does hence have some similarities to the game. Less so than to Ecco the Dolphin, perhaps. Appropriately, the climax involves experimentation on Pokémon, which is however a worn and tiresome theme by this point in the franchise. The alien theme is handled far worse than Ecco the Dolphin - the aliens in this game are slightly passive and innocuous. This is compensated for, again, by using loud words. However, if Mimikyu is a Pokémon resembling the 'cat dolls' of Varjak Paw, then can it be seen (being a ghost) as somewhat like a dead or 'pickled' Pikachu? That might seem quite a notable symbol, although it isn't explicitly noted elsewhere. It seems also slightly troubling how Lillie just happens to stray or get lost from time to time, and then it turns out they ran into 'Team Skull' in a way which allowed them to be taken. Seemingly in Alola, if people stray slightly into unknown territory Team Skull are likely to show up. This means that the villains with their sense of a 'universal' presence actually give off a much more threatening aesthetic than the game's 'plot' allows them. They are wasted on this game. In addition, the game's events tend to be slightly all over the place, so who's drawing them all together? There seems to be the sense of a scheme slightly deeper than the one presented, which ends up too 'domestic' and unstable to do this.

This seems to also connect things to the Mewtwo plot-line. Mewtwo trapped Pokémon to experiment and use 'cloned' versions of them, quite like the Gentleman in Varjak. They also start the film with an abduction and 'missing person' poster. This mirrors some of the 'missing' people and things around Cerulean. In that sense, the aesthetic is also very similar to Varjak's Gentleman. Ash, however, unlike Varjak doesn't really learn abilities of that form, and their major battles end in defeat without much change. Well, they're Ash, that's how they operate in the anime and generally. Their continually remaining fixed in certain ways while time passes gives them a certain 'ghost-like' quality which is usually effective. While they might develop as a 'character' in the film, they don't develop much at Pokémon battles - and their 'character development' is irrelevant because Mewtwo mostly voids it anyway. Hence, the film prioritises other things, which it can do. Nonetheless, you hence have something like the 'Gentleman' without a 'Varjak.' They hence end up more or less winning comfortably for most of the film, and eventually start to even harm the trainers (Mewtwo has attacked humans before, but weirdly seems to hold back.) Even when the Pokémon are freed, they retain the upper hand. Eventually they just have to give up, which isn't really a satisfying ending. It also seems problematic - usually turning someone to stone would kill them outright. Given that there are apparently high stakes, it's a tame ending. Also, it also has to go into weird sci-fi territory to get where it's trying to go, making up stuff which has nothing to do with the basic premises of the film or with Pokémon battles. To get the desired outcome, the film essentially just makes up the rules as it goes along. This trivialises most of the 'protagonists' (other than Mew, who's a tag-along and has an unclear relation to the others.), apart from Team Rocket who are only so in a somewhat ironic way - they're scared of Mewtwo. This kind of film is also something which can't be done too often - after a few runs the world of Pokémon just comes across as hilariously unstable and continually threatened with total destruction, etc., which firstly means that it's insecure enough to be severely damaged and secondly that these films start to become more comical than anything. Especially given how tenuously they tend to end. Hence, although the third film is at least slightly more domestic, by this point Pokémon films come across as empty melodrama. This shouldn't mislead one into characterising Mewtwo Strikes Back in that fashion, however. It's more competent. Mewtwo is a 'villain' with a fairly unique aesthetic, and is granted the spot-light for most of the film where they hence express this. It can hence come across as 'lyrical,' albeit in a dark manner.

Incidentally, a couple of observations about Mew. While 'Mew' has a name resembling 'me,' or the player and others seeing themselves in the game, it also has moves like 'Metronome' (which seems to further identify them with the 'trainer') and 'Transform.' This is slightly creepy. In addition, most 'scary stories' around Pokémon involve the trainer appearing in the game or the game responding to them personally - for instance, the 'glitches' which try to kill them. Hence, Mew seems relevant to them. Finally, 'Mewtwo' also draws on this use of Transform, etc., by using 'cloned' versions of Pokémon which have dark markings. This also involves things like darkening Charizard until they look somewhat like 'blood.' This is in some ways similar to Cinnabar, where through a journey at sea one can encounter illegally strong Pokémon - although in this context seemingly without such a trainer.

On a lighter note, Mew also has a movelist opening with 'Pound,' akin to the place where Mewtwo was kept before breaking out. The two are similar in some ways, but Mewtwo eventually relents on their project and appears more vulnerable in the later. Mew is also more willing to fight than the protagonists, and hence seems tacitly disapproved of. Mewtwo essentially hijacks the programme which sought to revive Amber and uses it to create powerful Pokémon, but seemingly ends up with too much affection for Amber to carry this through. It does work, though. In the games, both Mewtwo and Red are more dispassionate and are found in isolated areas. This comes after a long, isolated journey on Red's part. They seem to enjoy that element. Anyway, though, 'Amber,' seems to resemble 'Mew' and so on in involving identification. In that sense, the experiment failing to revive 'Amber' and instead leading to a cloned 'Mew' seems slightly frightening a conceit. In addition, the sequence where Amber shows Mewtwo the Pokémon in an innocuous manner is highly similar to the short which the audience has just been shown. It also takes place in a different area from the main film, which is seemingly where the clones are 'loading.' Hence, the audience might be in some manner invited to identify with the character of Mewtwo.

In any case, this all makes the film more intricate than you might expect.

Never noticed the 'Mew'-Transform-etc. thing before! Maybe Mewtwo is actually a different side of Mew?