Pokémon Black and White on the Relationship Between Humans and Animals (video game argument)

Many people love the Pokémon franchise, but most do not consider the lessons taught in the Pokémon games. However, many such games, particularly those of the series’ fifth generation, teach a variety of valuable lessons. PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond, for example, teaches about the powers of friendship, and the primary lessons in Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version are about the importance of both truth and ideals. In this essay, I will focus on a less explored lesson that these two Pokémon games, colloquially referred to as “Pokémon BW”, teach: the lesson that people can be friends with Pokémon and, by extent, pets.

The primary conflict in Pokémon BW occurs against an organization that works to separate Pokémon from their trainers due to their belief that keeping Pokémon as partners hurts them. The king of this team, N, uses Pokémon to battle as a means of separating other Pokémon from their trainers, but he releases his Pokémon after each battle so that they can continue to be free. Eventually, however, the player character and their Pokémon partners show N through their friendships that Pokémon and humans can get along and that Pokémon do not have to be removed from their trainers to be happy.

This lesson extends beyond the world of Pokémon into the real world when seen through the lens of pets. However, one must ask this question: if we apply what Pokémon BW says about Pokémon to real pets, is it still accurate? That is to say, do pets and their owners need each other just as much as Pokémon and their trainers do? I believe that the answer is “yes”, but only on the condition that the pets are domesticated and that we consider only pet ownership and not breeding. Pokémon breeding is merely a side feature that a player can choose to use if they wish, and it is never mentioned in Pokémon BW in terms of its morality. This is most likely because there is no way to depict animal breeding as moral, certainly not in a game for children. As for whether or not Pokémon BW sufficiently explores the difference between human relationships with wild animals and those with domesticated animals is up for debate. The difference between these two types of animals is never mentioned, which may lead people to believe that Pokémon BW encourages the ownership of wild animals. However, Pokémon are implied to be inherantly domesticated, which makes the message about the relationship between Pokémon and humans more applicable to that between pets and humans. It would be preferable for that particular message to be a bit clearer, but, regardless, I believe that Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version depict the relationship between pets and humans in a positive, realistic, and beneficial way.

(This is my dog, Gracie. She is a westie. Feel free to leave lots of nice comments about her!)

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