Otherkin NPC in Pokemon SwSh (mild spoilers)
Beethoven - 2019-12-03 20:47:38
So, I've been thinking for a long time about this NPC in Ballonlea who presents very obviously otherkin
https://twitter.com/Beethoven2__/status/1196569316612689920?s=20
https://twitter.com/Beethoven2__/status/1198005345244737537?s=20
https://twitter.com/Beethoven2__/status/1198006041385918464?s=20
First, he says he wanted to be a pokemon at one point, then you can tell him that he can be one.You then go off and grab a fire type tracksuit and go to him and he feels SUPER affirmed.
He spends his entire interaction with you by coming up with justifica!tions on why he could be called a pokemon!
basically i love this guy
vagabondsun - 2019-12-03 22:44:41
Whenever this kind of stuff comes up in Big Video Games it always makes me curious about the process that led to it being there. Were any of the people involved alterhuman? Was it one person with a novel idea or a whole writing team? How many drafts and revisions did it have to go through to survive out to the other side like this? Did any of them even think it'd be interpreted this way, or that it'd be meaningful? We'll probably never know.
But regardless it's awesome that it's there and I hope that there are a lot of nonhuman people who see it and feel affirmed (or people for whom it awakens something in them :v)
Beethoven - 2019-12-04 01:00:55
right? it's very interesting, because it's very obvious somebody on the team was alterhuman in some way, likely nonhuman, but i mean they wouldn't let someone put up an otherkin rights poster
honestly pokemon awakened so much in me when it comes to my being otherkin, the second i finished the lucario movie i was fantasizing about being lucario
if pokemon's had that much effect on just me, imagine somebody who's had enough time to actually get into game dev, and into game freak to work on it themselves after watching movies like the first one with Mewtwo (that's probably the closest old equivalent) and having that seed planted in themselves in some way
Juushika - 2019-12-05 23:00:59
I've absolutely talked to non-alterhuman folk who resonate with [animal/character/non-human entity] as [touchstone/metaphor/point of comparison]-and I think an argument could be made that this falls within other-hearted (and therefore alterhuman) umbrellas, in behavior if not identity, but they aren't involved in the community and don't identify that way.
My point is that it's totally possible to be interested in or resonate with or depict in fiction things which aren't necessarily a part of your identity, even if they could be. Especially in Pokemon, which has always had a level of meta in its NPCs, like the NPCs who talk about how sad it would be to imagine/live in a world without pokemon; NPCs who project further into the world/idea of pokemon seems like a logical continuation.
Don't get me wrong though, this NPC is 100% alterhuman and I love and respect them, and if he did sneak in b/c of an alterhuman dev then I could not be happier.
Vyt - 2020-04-14 17:29:45
I also thought this when I played Pokemon SwSh!
I haven't played a lot of main series pokemon games, so I don't know if this holds up in those. But in the mobile game Pokemon Masters, Valerie has a very clear pokekin/alterhuman narrative. Her story chapter focuses entirely on her expressed desire to be/become a pokemon (which other NPC's react to as unusual). She talks about how she's used fashion design to deliberately help herself feel more like a pokemon. The conclusion of her chapter is in helping her realize using sync moves can be another way to help her feel closer to being a pokemon herself.
This video features some of her voice lines, including "I've always wanted to be a pokemon"
I think it's way to clear and explicitly spelled out to not be deliberate