Motif+Narrtive=Theme?

[Lestersmodge]

Every main series pokemon game has its own thematic motif. This is stated in Bulbapedia, I'd say it's really not arguable.

Motifs with links to Bulbapedia summary

Kanto: Genetics and Engineering
Johto: Tradition and Mythology
Hoenn: Nature and Relationships
Sinnoh: History of the Universe, Myths, and legends
Unova: Relationships between Opposites
Kalos: Beauty and Harmony
Alola: Bulbapedia doesn't have anything listed yet and I actually haven't even played Sun and Moon so feel free to enlighten me

Less concretely determined, is the overall theme of any given game. This is what I really want to derive from this thread. I'm not an english major so I can't tell you if I'm really approaching this the right way but my strategy thus far has been trying to link motifs with narratives/character arcs.


As far as Kanto Im not sure exactly what message they're trying to get across. Frankly, I'm amazed they even had the foresight to give their first region a specific thematic motif, as if they planned to make more regions with differing themes from the get-go. Really makes you wonder how much they already had figured out when Ho-oh first soared across the sky in the anime.


However, I believe the narrative journey from the first games provided essential set up for Johto.

In Kanto, your rival goes through journey with little discipline or respect. This leads to the inevitable loss of his championship title. Oak then scolds him for his negligence and explains to him why he would ofcourse lose. Your rival storms off in anger without really learning anything. This parallels Giovanni, upon his defeat he pretends to give up his poor intentions when in reality he hasnt changed a bit.

As we get to Johto it's clear in every detail that time has passed. It's a new region, but connected both physically and personally to Kanto and its past. All the old Kanto folks are still in Kanto and people like Elm, Clair, Silver, Koga, and Lance all have ties between both regions. The motif of this new region has to do with traditon and mythology, though I think the mythology aspect, especially when showcased in a modern setting (like I presume any pokemon game to be in), is mainly there to represent the passing of time.

The introduction of a day/night mechanic, breeding new generations of pokemon, evolution occuring after spending enough time with your pokemon, the Week Siblings, any of the other features the use the clock, Celebi being able to time travel, Hoothoot: the literal clock pokemon, this all has little to do with tradition or mythology.

Time has passed since Kimono girls danced to bring forth mythical beings, and time has passed since the first time you roamed Kanto. Consequently, people have matured as well. Blue still loves battling but has finally gotten over his ego and seems to not take things for granted anymore as he mourns the destruction of Cinnabar Island. Giovanni finally gives up his evil plans, I think. They don't really talk about it. That's not super important though because he's the bad guy, the "what not to be like" guy. Because he had unresolved flaws, he raised Silver poorly, hence Silver being a dick. Despite that, even Silver turned his hatred of the weak into his passion to be strong, ending the potential bad parenting cycle his dad started. (almost)Everyone has matured. Everyone has gotten older. Possibly in real time?


I'm getting tired of writing so I'll skim over Hoenn, don't think there's much more going on here than what is explained by Bulbapedia. It's about exploring all types of landscapes and seeing everyone living happily with nature(Professor Birch especially because he's a rugged outdoorsman and in every game the field of research the prof. studies seems linked to the motif and these people are the highest authority in the land and everyone respects them) EXCEPT for Team Aqua/Magma. For whatever reason they don't want to live in harmony with nature. Rayquaza comes and he's like "dude what are you even getting at here?" and lays the smack down and then they realize water and land form the Reese's Cup that is Earth and Archie becomes Plusle and Maxie becomes Minun, Norman hands them each the Balance Badge, and now everybody gonna have a good time

Sinnoh has a bit more going on. Gamefreak was on a power-creep with their pokemon designs, they had made every animal into a pokemon by now, so they went all out and created God. But I think they went about this a little more gracefully than people give them credit for. As with all the generations, I strongly suggest you read the Bulbapedia blurb about the corresponding motifs. To sum up, symbolism and dialogue throughout the game reference various religions/cultures takes on the creation of the universe and everything in it.

Relating this to the narrative, I'll start with Professor Rowan. Right off the bat you can see he exudes class. Ditching the lab coat he opts for a more gentlemanly outfit than his peers. This look is only complimented by his age, which by the way exceeds that of Oak's. Rowan uses bigger words than Oak, explores more complicated suject matter, and doesn't put up with shit from a 12 year old.

You think he's a formal, conservative, no fun having old man. But im gonna stop ya right there because you're forgetting the important character trait that he also is a big ol fan of Rage Candy Bars.

When you start the game Rowan scolds you and Barry for being reckless. All throughout the story he drills it into your head that you need to act more maturely. This culminates in Barry losing to Team Galactic and realizing he needs to be more realistic. He matures but still desires to be the best. His father "Tower Tycoon Palmer" serves as a look into the future for Barry. They fill out all the same character traits, they have the same desires. Palmer is just older. Barry wants to be like his father, older and more mature but still with a burning passion to battle.

The villain Cyrus on the other hand, once again falls into the "What not to be like" role. When faced with hardship he lost hope rather than reassessing and improving himself. He became a nihilist who failed to see the joy in anything. That's why he failed at destroying the world and that's why Rowan canonically strangled him to death with his big burly arms.

Rowan is a role model. Barry took in his teachings to great avail, as did his previous student Cynthia. Rowan's whole sentiment is that everyone has to grow up at some point, but the excitement doesn't have to end. He's ecstatic every time he comes across a new discovery. There's always something to be explored. Cynthia feels the same and is equally passionate in philosophizing about the out-of-this-world topics that plague the sinnoh region. No doubt, if she had never met Rowan she would have never become champion.

I haven't done much research in to 5th gen or beyond yet and I don't remember them well enough to suggest a theme that occurs in these games. Would love to hear anyone else's insight on these gens or any criticism on my points or really anything that promotes discussion because I don't want this thread to get locked and I'd also really would just love to hear what others think. Though if I were to gather anything from what I've looked into thus far, I'm sure Gamefreak would continue to preach themes of reaching maturity.

A journey in reaching maturity seems cliche, it has ofcourse been done a million times. But with Pokemon specifically I feel Gamefreak does this because of the unique fanbase. In the late 90's everyone got hooked on Pokemon and to this day that crowd still makes up a huge percentage of it's fanbase. I translate this as a comforting message that we all grow up eventually but pokemon will always be there as a means of celebrating youthful joy.

 

[Mova]

Alola's motif seems to focus on "family and change" according to an r/pokemon user. Many characters in Alola accept change as it arrives, for instance. Also, three plot-relevant characters are family members (Lillie, Gladion, and Lusamine); two siblings are trying to stop their insane mother without giving up on her by any means.

 

[Lestersmodge]

Alola's motif seems to focus on "family and change" according to an r/pokemon user. Many characters in Alola accept change as it arrives, for instance. Also, three plot-relevant characters are family members (Lillie, Gladion, and Lusamine); two siblings are trying to stop their insane mother without giving up on her by any means.

I'm assuming Lillie and Gladion are your rivals and Lusamine is the leader of the villainous team because I think in every game the rivals, villains and the professors are the crux of the story. Generally, the rivals and villains both start out with a character flaw (often paralleling each other). Eventually your rival takes in the teachings of the professor and resolves their flaw. While the villain fails to achieve their goals because they didn't listen to the professors advice. I'd be interesting in learning if Sun and Moon also falls into this formula.

 

[Worldie]

S/M took the "Rivals and Villains" to a different conception than previous titles.

The "evil team" aka Team Skull, with their leader Guzma, ends up actually being just a meme-fun element while it is shown that they are just a mere pawn in Lusamine's hand, who on other hand shows herself as a nice and clever scientist researching for the good of Alola, only to be revealed to be insane, with both her sons having ran away from her stealing things she was working on.
Hau, the "rival", actually ends up mostly being a companion / cheerleader rather than actually trying to compete with you.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Alola's motif seems to focus on "family and change" according to an r/pokemon user. Many characters in Alola accept change as it arrives, for instance. Also, three plot-relevant characters are family members (Lillie, Gladion, and Lusamine); two siblings are trying to stop their insane mother without giving up on her by any means.

Not just that, but your friendly rival, Hau, has family "issues" too. His goal and reason for taking the Island Challenge is because he wants to be strong enough to battle and defeat his grandfather, Hala the Kahuna of Melemele Island. In addition to this, Hau eventually opens up to the player about how he doesn't really know his father as he left Alola being unable to take it being the son of a Kahuna. While Hau looks up to his grandfather and wants to be like him, one must wonder if Hau's reasoning for wanting to defeat Hala is in some way to get closer to his father, doing something he was unable to do.

Also Team Skull is just a hot mess of family and societal issues. Unlike other teams, Team Skull treat each other as family much like how street gangs do. Team Skull is made up of youths who failed or reject the Island Challenge which is treated as a rite of passage (of course there has to be more to failing the Island Challenge, plenty of people don't complete it yet live perfectly fine lives). A notable example of this is with the Skull Admin Plumeria, all grunts referring to her as "Big Sis" and her referring to all the grunts as her little brothers and sisters, even calling them lovely dumb. Though a notable exception to this is Guzma. Guzma is quite harsh to the other grunts, often beating them as punishment. Yet, the grunts still show respect to Guzma and following his authority. While exactly why isn't gone into, Guzma has more to his backstory: his father beat him. Sometimes with golf clubs. And eventually Guzma got kicked out/ran away from his home after having enough and fought back, beating up his father. In a twisted way, Guzma being harsh to his grunts could be a way he shows he cares about them, as that's how he experienced "care" growing up. Finally, post game, after Guzma disbands Team Skull it looks like Alola realized they probably shouldn't have gave up on the youths of Team Skull as they did and starting to help rehabilitate them.

Also just in general everyone in Alola call each other cousin, uncle, and auntie; showing the closeness of the community.

ANYWAY, my vote is for Unova. If only for addressing (though then sort of dropping) the "cock fighting" people have joked/claimed Pokemon has supported over the years as well for having a more complicated story than other Pokemon games that goes into what is right, wrong, and/or idealistic.

 

[nickdos]

The first theme for Sun/Moon is family relationships as everyone mentioned above, all major characters have it motivating their actions and defines their past. We see their character arcs throughout the story and them coming to terms with their situation.
The second theme is ecosystems, the new pokedex entries often refer to the relationship of the pokemon to other pokemon and humans, be it predator-prey, cooperation or rivalry. According to official interviews the theme of UBs is invasive species. You could say that most of them are based on parasites and pests for their ecosystem, whatever that is. You could say an ecosystem is one big family too I guess.
Good thread idea OP

 

[Pikachu315111]

Just to quickly give my faults on each region and how they use their themes:

Kanto (Genetics and Engineering): While I see it, I don't ever feel Kanto's themes were at the forefront and were meant to have an affect on the game experience. If anything, it's more of a trait of the Kanto games then a theme, a small piece of a whole. Its also used to explain why certain Pokemon existing (Voltorb family, Magnemite family, Fossil Pokemon) or can do things (Ditto transforming and Eevee having multiple evolutions). Also explains why Mewtwo is the strongest Pokemon: he was artificially made to be, going against all other "natural" Pokemon. Winged Mirages, Dragonite, and Mew are strong but they're BST is only a leap of points above the Starter's final evo, but compare theirs to Mewtwo BST which is a pole vault jump! But otherwise Kanto feels more natural than engineered.
Honestly, if I were to ask to come up with a theme for Kanto, I would say it's "Discovery and Being The Best". Why are you on your journey? To help Professor Oak fill the Pokedex. Why are you battling? To become Champion, aka the best trainer in the region. This is also the goal of your rival and Giovanni. The most important figures are the Gym Leaders and Elite Four, strong trainers who progressively get stronger and stronger as you defeat them. Team Rocket's general deal is using their brutality and numbers to intimidate and fluant themselves over others. You explore various locations to catch stronger and stronger Pokemon, including Pokemon of myth. Finally it all cumulates with you encountering Mewtwo, a Pokemon who solely exists to be the best and only way for you to get to it is for you to become the best which involves exploring the entire region of Kanto.

Johto (Tradition and Mythology): A much more apparent theme, Johto oozes (Japanese) tradition with its locations and characters (with Goldenrod City being notable for not being traditional and had some of the most advanced technologies of the times like a manget train and radio station). This gives it a distinct feel from Kanto, which felt like it had progressed more into modern times and more notable uses of science (and more seperation between natural and manmade). Though oddly enough, though the aesthetics are traditional, the player character uses advanced technology like the PokeGear to help them on their journey in a few notable ways. In terms of the gameplay it also goes out of the way to break what would later become game traditions. This is the only game where you have Gym Leaders who don't give you their Badges upon beating them. Also it's the only game to share a Pokemon League, future games having their own. Finally, it's the only games that let you revisit a previous region. It also shows how traditions can be destructive via the remnants of Team Rocket. They're desperately trying to get Giovanni to come back and restart Team Rocket, seemingly unable to move on by clinging onto a grand vision of another. In the end, this is what destroys Team Rocket's.
The mythology aspect is downplayed but is there and plays an important part in Johto's identity. This is the first game where we get Legendaries that are treated as deities and two being just as powerful as Mewtwo (in terms of BST). These Legendaries are also connected with Johto's tradition, you needing to go to locations of worship or do a ritual to encounter them (at least in the remakes). Not just that, the games has a sort of "making a legend" vibe where the protagonist from the Kanto games, Red, is treated as a legendary trainer. The finale of the game isn't becoming Champion, it's defeating Red thus becoming a new legendary trainer.

(I'll continue later)

 

[Pikachu315111]

(I think I'm just going to do one of these once a day)

Hoenn (Nature and Relationships): Out of all the regions, Hoenn is the one that represents its theme the best. Hoenn had a wide display of environments and the relationships between not only the parts of nature but nature and mankind. Cities and towns feels just as much as part of the environment they're in; Fortree City and Pacifidlog Town notable for being made in the trees and on rafts in the middle of the ocean, respectively. Mauville City may be the exception being the most technologically advanced, possibly to show the difficulties with humanity expanding into nature (New Mauville having development issues and the Mauville City in ORAS having to build itself as an apartment complex). Of course, the theme comes to a head in the actual story of the game where Team Aqua and Team Magma are trying to expand the seas and land, respectively. This naturally pits them against each other, representing the complicated relation the land and seas have with one another. However, while this relation is balanced as is, both teams want to tip the scale to their side which is shown to have devestating consequences. A not-so-subtle aesop about humans drastically altering nature to their liking. But the sky is also a factor into this, as in Emerald and the Delta Episode it is its embodiment which is used to resolve the issue threatening the planet. Since the player was needed to spur Rayqauza to do this, it could be yet another metaphor that people should rise up and work together with each other and nature when the world is in danger. The final overall lesson seems to be that, while everything is balanced as it is, people are also just as part of nature as is their actions to change it enough to their liking. Understanding the limits of our relation to nature (and nature to nature) and coming to action when something goes over that limit.

 

[Lestersmodge]

I've been lookin at a lot of pokemon designs recently seeing how some of them could play into their gens motifs, it's a lot more than you would think actually. 1st gen has plenty but there pretty straight forward usually combining an animal with some power and calling that genetic engineering. Johto has a few as well. I already mentioned Celebi and Hoothoot. Xatu is obviously an example of Native American culture. If ur willing to lower your standards like me, you would consider baby pokemon to play into the motif of time passing as they can only be obtained through breeding new generations of pokemon. Also every pokemon affected by the day/night cycle. Even Teddiursa(i don't think his encounter rate is influenced by time of day tho I could be wrong) has a moon on his face(which is adorable because he's like a teddy bear and u carry it to bed with u at night) and Ursaring has a full moon. Gen 3 has a ton of pokemon that come with counterparts, symbolizing balance. Things like Cascoon/Silcoon, Plusle/Minun, Illumise/Volbeat pretty much everyone this gen has a partner. My favorite example is Seviper and Zangoose because Mongooses(fuck u it's not "Mongeese" i googled it) are the natural prey of snakes, Zangoose even has immunity to poison.

The line I was most impressed with however was Porygon's. This shit is so rad. What represents genetics and engineering better than a manmade pokemon? In gen 2 the cleverly represented the in-game and real life passing of time via Porygons polygons being smoothed out with the improvements in technology. In gen 4 less connection to the motif but the possible theme I explored about discovering new and exciting twists on what u already now is certainly apparent apparent. Rowan whose whole thing is discovering new exciting forms of evolution would lose his mind seeing
Porygon Z. You give Porygon 2 weird bootleg game disc and it evolves through glitching out.

Ps: Look at the Pokedex descriptions of Porygon 2 in Silver and Crystal. They say it sometimes "exhibits motions that were not programmed". I bet those fuckers knew they would make Porygon Z before Y2K even dropped.

 

[Worldie]

Ps: Look at the Pokedex descriptions of Porygon 2 in Silver and Crystal. They say it sometimes "exhibits motions that were not programmed". I bet those fuckers knew they would make Porygon Z before Y2K even dropped.

Not unlikely to be true. Remember that games are generally in development years/months before they are released, even during the development of the title before, so it's very possible that when they designed Porygon2, they were already thinking of giving it another evolution later on.

 

[Gokuzbu]

Scattered unintelligent thoughts

Wally is a sickly boy who is helped by going out for an adventure in nature.
Castform changes with the weather. The weather institute is people trying to understand nature.
Hoenn was the first region with natural weather outside and inside of battle.
Diving let us see a new ecosystem.
Most towns and cities have a nature theme like living in trees, on water, by a volcano, near fallen ash, a port by the sea.
Secret bases are integrating with nature.
Moves like Nature Power were introduced showing the benefits of working together with the land.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Sinnoh (History of the Universe, Myths, and Legends): One of the things Sinnoh is best known for is when Legendaries started to become oversatuated. Sinnoh had thirteen Legendary/Mythical Pokemon, with one being related to the previous generation's trio all whom you needed to catch it. While at the time this seems a bit much, looking back at it now via its theme it makes more sense. Sinnoh's focus on mythology tried to add an overall lore to the franchise which before than it was light on. So it makes sense so many new Legendaries/Mythicals would be included as they're Pokemon which legends and stories would be about. The story of the games naturally also focuses on this theme; Team Galactic's, or rather Cyurs's, plan using the Legendary Pokemon part of the Pokemon World's creation myth to reform the universe in their/his own image. It was all so grandiose... yet, I feel it also fell short. While they put as much thought as needed into the creation myth, all the other extra Legendaries/Mythical Pokemon don't really have that strong of a myth/story about them. Also, until Platinum, there were no repercussions for Cyrus taking control of Dialga and Palkia. In Hoenn we saw the weather starting to go crazy and it played creepy music to build the atmosphere the end of the world was happening. But here the gods of time and space are summoned and chained... and nothing really happens (Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia used the idea of them controlling time and space a bit more effectively, Palkia more than Dialga). Platinum sort of changed that with Giratina dragging Cyrus into the Distortion World, but that was more adding a new dungeon than showing the effects of trying to take control of a Legendary's power. Nothing really else to say, they built the region on it being about myths but really it's just the central creation myth (that's nothing special in terms of creations myths) and all the other Legendaries barely have anything else to them. The other myths they made up in Canalave Library was neat but they didn't amount to anything either. Maybe in the remakes they can spice things up.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Whoops! Forgot about this:

Unova (Relationships between Opposites): An interesting thing about Unova's theme is that it's a theme which needs to be done with two versions. A major criticism about Pokemon is that it's "one game for the price of two", you need both versions of the game (whether buying both yourself or trading with someone) to 100% complete the Pokedex. And for four generations the main difference between Pokemon was just a few Pokemon, only exception to Ruby & Sapphire which had different villain teams... and than Emerald combined both stories together. However overall the locations all stayed the same.
In Gen V, GF decided to use them having paired games by focusing on opposites/parallels. While only have one villain team, many aspects of visuals of the game were different between versions, and importantly the story. A major part of the theme are the concepts of "Truths and Ideals", with the player and the leader of the villain team, N, both representing one or the other. That's where the relationship between opposites come in, as N and Team Plasma use the belief they align with to justify their goal of separating Pokemon. Now while the player aligns themselves with the opposite belief, it's not because they solely represent that belief but rather the player is a representative of that belief to try and convince N that he can't just solely base his goal on one belief and by combining the two together will he understand why the things the way they are. N shows the differences between Truths and Ideals while the player shows the relationship between the two.
But as I said, this is just one difference between versions. There are other notable differences, though three which I can think of happen late and post game: the appearance of Opelucid City, the Opelucid Gym Leader, and whether you have Black City or White Forest. In Black version, Opelucid City is futuristic looking (and music is more techno), Opelucid Gym Leader is Drayden, and has Black City which focuses on trainer battles. In White version, Opelucid City is more traditional looking (and music is more classical), Opelucid Gym Leader is Iris, and has White Forest which focuses on capturing Pokemon. The latter is most notable as it changes the player's experience, either having an easy place to grind or catch Pokemon not in the regional dex. BUT, going to back how things are related, you can connect the games together and players can visit the other version's specific location, participate in their activities, and even get NPCs to come to their specific location which changes what battles/catches you can do.
And to further hammer this point in, Gen V didn't have a third version but instead a second pair of games which were sequels! The differences between the games were made even more apparent with several locations having a different appearance. The story also remained separate, not including the other dragon but instead focusing the relation on N's dragon and Kyurem. Oddly, in this aspect the version differences actually feel a bit more hollow, just visual for the most part and how the region had changed according to what the previous version set their path to be. The only other notable difference is Black City and White Forest getting a multi-level battling area. Black City gets Black Tower where players have to rise up the tower while White Forest gets White Treehollow where players have to go further down through the tree's roots. It's not as drastic as a difference between whether you battle or catch, but it does show that no matter the goal there's a relation to what the goal is.

Kalos (Beauty and Harmony): With the games jumping to 3D, GF took the opportunity to focus on making the region look visually appealing and having each location have its own kind of feeling. Kalos is a beautiful region, each location have layers of detail both major to subtle that makes them different from one another. For the first time your player's clothing is customizable, letting you choose what you think would look best for your avatar. However the most important aspect to this theme is the story, where Lysandre's end goal is to preserve the beauty of the world. This is where the theme of "harmony" comes in. While the locations are beautiful, it's from talking with the NPCs do you get there's a sense of harmony between the people of the region and nature in order to achieve the level of beauty it has. But not only do you get a sense of harmony but also conflict, those little moments that show even in a beautiful place there are problems that the beauty might unfortunately mask. The story focuses on this as Lysandre's end goal is to preserve the beauty of the world by eliminating everyone other than the human members of Team Flare. Lysandre essentially wants to eliminate harmony in order to keep things, which he sees as beautiful as it can get, the way it is. But Lysandre's vision of beauty is a hollow beauty, because it's not the visual beauty that makes Kalos great but the harmony that it took between all people and Pokemon to create that beauty. Lysandre believes people are selfish by nature and the world is heading toward catastrophe of resource conflict, but even he breaks when your rival pointed out that despite Lysandre's belief, in order to achieve Mega Evolution he has to do the thing he said people naturally don't do, sharing. Another layer to this theme is AZ's story, where his grief over the loss of his Floette lead him to selfishly create a machine that caused massive destruction and made only those who uses it immortal via from all the lives taken. The Ultimate Weapon is the very opposite of beauty and harmony, despite its appearance and initial reason of creation. Finally the ending credits is music to a song that reinforces the theme of harmony to create a beautiful world.

Now I'm not going to cover Alola just yet, though I'm posting this on the day just before the final Gen VII games are released, Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, so after I play those and let the experience sink in I'll (hopefully remember to) come back and post my thoughts on Alola's theme.