Pokémon X and Y Are a Bit of a Contradiction

Hello! If my voice sounded weird in this one it’s cause I’ve had bronchitis. It’s been a struggle. Anyway, what do you think of my analysis? Any differing interpretations? Anything you think I missed? Art interpretation should be treated as a conversation, so, in addition to the questions I posed directly in the video, I've listed some discussion questions below to kick-start analysis beyond what I did in the video! If you have the means, any and all support on Patreon (link in description) means the world to me and really helps me keep this going. Currents perks are just name in credits, early access, Discord server, and update posts. I’m going to rework the Patreon in a few months so I’ll save the stronger pitch til then! 1. It’s pretty obvious that Pokemon Z was originally intended to exist, but what sort of things narratively do you think would have existed in it? 2. I cut a line in the script about “Holo Caster” sounding a lot like “holocaust” because I decided I really hoped that wasn’t intentional. I think drawing that direct a parallel between Lysandre and Hitler would make the both-sidesy centrism lines borderline sinister. What do you think? 3. Rideable Pokemon! What was their deal? 4. Were Dexio and Sina characters worth mentioning in the video? The game seems a bit confused about their purpose and I didn’t really understand the secret superhero thing but I could imagine there being an interesting angle.

i think the obvious answer to "why can lysandre's gyrados mega-evolve?" is that the gyrados is also a fascist

Your analysis of Team Flare drives home the point for me that Zygarde's absence from XY does the games a great narrative disservice. For me, Zygarde fills in a lot of the gaps in what main plot of the games is trying to do, since it raises a counterpoint to Team Flare's ideology. In terms of gameplay, both Team Flare and the player when using Mega Evolution derive power from scarcity and exclusion: while the games don't make much of it, Team Flare spend most of their appearances trying to create monopolies (on pokeballs, on energy, on pokemon themselves) from which they can derive the power to change Kalos. The games do have an introspective moment in which Lysandre likens this to the player alone wielding Mega Evolution - and denying Serena/Calem the chance to do so, highlighting how your own choices ultimately follow a similar ideology to Team Flare. Where I think Zygarde could have been such an interesting addition to the ideology of scarcity espoused by Team Flare and, to some extent, embodied by the player, is that its power comes from plurality and inclusion. Gameplay-wise, Zygarde is a collection of multiple cells and cores working together: thus in a reversal of Team Flare, Zygarde's power comes from union rather than separation. It is a potential metaphor for community, or environment - again, another kind of beauty that Lysandre fails to understand. Its beauty and its power is its ability to draw together, rather than to separate apart. Moreover, thinking in terms of lore, Zygarde becomes especially interesting when compared with Xerneas and Yveltal, who are natural forces, life and death, made individual as powerful pokemon to be dominated through capture. Where Zygarde differs is that, in Sun and Moon, it can only be assembled through the player collecting its cells: its natural force (whatever that may be: the games are not entirely clear but do classify it as the Order Pokemon which is interesting in and of itself as a trio with Life and Death) comes from union rather than binary separation. Where Xerneas and Yveltal's power have only brought pain to those like AZ and Lysandre, who have both viewed the world through a lens of scarcity and domination, Zygarde's power might represent the potential of the union of which it is a product. Zygarde is what Pokemon's central ideology (at least the one it outwardly espouses) has always been: it is coming together and nature in one - it must be assembled after exploration. Crucially, then, a Pokemon X and Y that integrated Zygarde into their narrative could have at the very least created a lot more space for disruptions of Team Flare's ideology of scarcity, highlighting the alternatives that the original games ignore. Suddenly, I think they become a lot more interesting if the opposition to Team Flare's fascism is Zygarde's plurality and inclusion. If Legends Z-A does use Zygarde, which I am assuming it will, I think it might be able to provide a much more cohesive counterpoint to what XY presents. Either way, thank you for the video - it was very interesting to think about a game I loved as a kid in a new light. Just like Zygarde, maybe your power comes from community - even though you worry your ideas haven't been original, I think that by choosing to share them you have enriched us all! Take care :D

Its ironic that Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire used Mega Evolution more than XY did... Strong trainers like Wally, Maxie, Archie, the Elite Four, and Champion Steven actually use Mega Pokemon during the main story. :(

It's a little sad that the series ends here because I think the Sun/Moon series tried a little harder in a narrative as well (ignoring USUM which completely redid and imo botched it). That game appears to have a theme about family relationships, which is an interesting contrast to the relationships between human and pokemon, the story starts with Luis's two children taking abused pokemon away from her and running off to create a new life and relationship for them. These two children end up alone, with Gladion seemingly lonely in his apartment and Lillie finding refuge with Kukui. In the games you meet the trial captains and they each show how relationships form the backbone of Alola (which honestly, is pretty much every region but regardless) and instead of proving your worth in a gym battle, you instead befriend them, create experiences and fight the totem pokemon afterward to gain their trust and earn your "badges". You even fight the "evil team" who in reality are just people unified in their relationships simply out of lack of options for those to console with. Po town is theirs, but it's a lonely town, an echo chamber. And in the end, Luisamine goes mad trying to find relationships that she ends up "befriending" otherworldly beasts. Where not even her loyal dog Guzma thinks this is a good idea, where she's abandoned almost everything, even her reputation as a sanctuary via the Aether foundation, and your job is to use the relationship you had with Cosmog/Lillie to go find Luisamine and stop her. It comes to the point where her children don't even refer to her as their mother, it's very sad, and in her last moments in ultra space she ends up seeing Lillie's beauty for the first time in ages.

Using Emolga in Sky Battles is totally cheating, like if you agree

Lysandre being able to Mega-Evolve his Gyarados actually makes perfect sense from a lore perspective, I think. You pointed out himself, he DOES care for his Pokémon. In nearly all conservative movements, more extreme the closer to Fascist you get, the core message is often "Care for your family and nobody else. Everyone else wants to hurt you, the world is a scary place, and people are inherently evil. You, Patriarch, are responsible for stamping out that evil in your own family and caring for them as we say your God intends." As I just alluded to, Fascism also often leads to abuse of the family, "for the greater good," while also stamping into said family that said abuse is "for your own good." Like a Stockholm syndrome kind of situation. That's the vibe I get from Lysandre, his team, and what his ability to Mega Evolve his Gyarados implies: A twisted kinship, an abusive love, a brainwashing. He almost certainly loves his Gyarados and it loves him back, but in the twisted "he only beat me because I was bad" kind of dynamic. That's the implication I got from what you believed to be the paradox between him willingly killing his own pokémon and still being able to mega evolve, anyway.

Something I liked about Pokemon Amie is that you NEEDED to use it in order to get the battle benefits... In later games, they just tied those features directly to the already existing "friendship" system. And because of this, by the end of a playthrough all of your Pokemon would be able to land critical hits and avoid attacks with minimal player input, simply because the friendship stat raises as you use them. It was nice to be rewarded for actually caring for your Pokemon rather than being given it for free.

38:16 If I could share my two cents... In Pokemon XY, Mega Evolution is explicitly stated to be powered by the bond between trainer and Pokemon. HOWEVER in Sun & Moon they added Pokedex entries for every mega form in the Alolan Pokedex. Many of these dex entries share horrifying details about the pain and suffering the Pokemon go through when they Mega Evolve. When I first learned about this, I was FURIOUS! They took something pure and good and made it out to be a horrible torturous thing. To this day I've considered it to be a retcon to spit in the face of Mega Evolution... But thinking about it more, maybe the reason Mega Evolution brings so much pain is because its used improperly. Despite the in-game explanation being "the bond between trainer and Pokemon," you don't NEED to have a bond with your Pokemon to use it. You can literally trade with someone, use a Pokemon you just got for the first time, and it will still allow you to Mega Evolve it. Maybe the Pokemon only feel pain when Mega Evolution is FORCED. Even the anime supports this idea... Because the only time they show Mega Evolution causing pain is in the Volcanion movie, where the villains use some strange device to force more than one Pokemon to Mega Evolve at the same time. They also have an episode where Korrina's Lucario goes out of control when Mega Evolved, and doesn't regain control until Korrina is able to properly bond with it. I don't think its a coincidence that Lysandre's Mega Pokemon happens to be a Gyrados either... Its Pokedex entry says "Mega Evolution also affects its brain, leaving no other function except its destructive instinct to burn everything to cinders." and "Mega Evolution places a burden on its body. The stress causes it to become all the more ferocious." Maybe I'm just crazy, and Mega Evolution is just evil... But in my personal headcanon, Mega Evolution is only as harmful as the trainer's intentions. A Mega Stone and Keystone is all that is required to use it, but a true bond is required to master it.

It says a lot of how forgettable XY's stories are that it's heavily rumored the stories were rewritten many times. Not to mention, it also has many loose ends which just reek of untapped potential. Will those ever be tackled in Legends: ZA? Only time will tell.

I read more of XY's narrative being about the dichotomy between Generosity vs Selfishness and Status more than outright facism though I do think Lysandre's ultimate conclusions do lead to that. Your friend group is all made up of essentially the proletariat who struggle to get anything done on their journey and turn to you as their friend who is the dragon in the group to help them, even still, they helped during the final confrontation despite their lack of skill and though they may not be dragons, they still are givers rather than takers. Lysandre's tears indicate that his hatred for people outweighs his love for pokemon, explaining why he's able to mega evolve his gyarados and that he views ridding the world of pokemon as necessary only because people will abuse their power afforded to them by pokemon which doesn't really work with the kalos internarrative but does apply to the greater pokemon metanarrative with the most recent villain, Ghetsis being the polar opposite. Viewing pokemon as only tools and having no care for them but believing only he should have access to them. To answer your question about the rest of the series, I am particularly fond of Scarlet/Violet's story for how it manages to make a cast of friends who actually weaves your ability to battle well into their stories and doesn't leave their arcs incomplete because you always win against them no matter what due to them having other goals in life. It's actually my favorite cast of characters in the series. This was a really good video! I don't normally trust most video essayists with pokemon since I find they often tend to miss the forest for the trees and only examine the text when analyzing the story or only viewing things separately instead of how they intertwine together and even if I don't agree with some of your points I do appreciate your holistic view of the game. I do think the music was a little too loud at times though. Keep up the good work.

I think I have satisfying answers for questions 1 and 4 you posited at the end of the video. Scarlet and Violet spend a lot of time doing anything but explaining the phenomenon of Terastalisation until the final hour, but that final hour is genuinely the best piece of writing and amalgamation of the game's themes in the entire series. This is accompanied by some genuinely really good dialogue between the game's rival characters (without spoiling much, the three rivals barely know each other outside their shared relation to you when you gather them all for the final quest, and the game does a really good job of rounding out their characters in their conversation). As for Monster Collector games that establish good writing and themes, I will never miss a chance to promote Bytten Studio's Cassette Beasts. The creature designs, like Pokemon, are based off of a mix of real/mystical creatures and more abstract human concepts. But Cassette Beasts decides to dig a layer further into the world these creatures exist, and within the story (again not trying to spoil) the biggest, heaviest and potentially most destructive human concepts become the biggest threats and therefore bosses. This alongside a cast of characters who have more far more charm than basically every Pokemon NPC (save again for the newest games, who Cassette Beasts still has beat but deserve a distinction about the earlier entries).

Here's a small bite of each game where I think it would be beneficial to you (with zero to minor spoilers): PSA: This is going to be mostly in order except for Legends Arceus which is gonna be last because it's most similar to the kind of game that you have been asking for to my understanding. That is to say it's a game that ties its narrative into the gameplay itself. Sun and Moon's Z-Moves work somewhat well mechanically with their lore because their supposed to be only achievable through connection to your pokemon (similar to megas in XY) but in SM, you have to complete trials and fight the island kahunas to get them (Some of which are genuinely tough fights) so you have to understand your pokemon's strengths to even get access to the big flashy mechanics (for the most part). Some of the Z-Crystals are just sorta found around the world (though they are in optional areas you have to return to after unlocking HMs or Pokerides in SM). The actual story of Sun and Moon is actually rather compelling personally since it delves into the themes of nature in a more satisfying way than RSE or XY do. It talks about how nature can be disrupted and/or helped by outside forces. We see it immediately with the alolan rattata and yungoos rivalry (Two pokemon caught on Route 1 who are both alien species to Alola), and we see it with the Aether foundation's activities. It also deals with parental abuse in a rather touching way honestly. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon narratively destroy everything Sun and Moon had going for it to focus harder on Ultra Space and the big alien monsters you find in Post Game sun and moon. The game, however, is EXTREMELY satisfying gameplay wise. Genuinely contains some of the toughest battles in the entire series. I wiped out several times while playing which RARELY happens in any other pokemon game. It's a TOUGH cookie. On the opposite end, Sword and Shield do a good job with showing off dynamax in gym battles and basically nowhere else depsite the game telling you there are huge dynamax dudes destroying things, you're told to ignore it and move on with the gym challenge. You do not interact with the rampaging pokemon. You do not see them. You don't even get to see their impacts. Just a pic of a news paper saying Leon (the champion) is so epic and awesome for solving the crisis. The actual story in Sword and Shield is laughable and forgettable almost to the extent of XY but SwSh is probably more memorable because it's written SO badly, I don't think I've seen ANYONE defend the writing of the entire story as a whole (I have seen valid defenses of specific moments and characters though but just about everyone seems to actively hate SOMETHING about SwSh's story). These games can also be trivialized on complete accident if you engage with the dynamax raids a lot. I did not do that very often at all so my playthrough was Scarlet and Violet try to tell several stories at once through the open-world design and basically takes the mult-rival concept from XY and fleshes it out more to give them each their own chapter of gameplay. Nemona follows the typical gym route and is super simple but most people tend to agree she's perfect that way (She REALLY loves to battle). Penny is a bit anti-social and got bullied a bunch so she ties into Team Star who I can't talk much more about without spoilers. Arven's story turns back to child abuse eerily similar to Sun and Moon but it takes a COMPLETELY different turn (poor guy). I have not played the DLCs personally because the game runs SO BAD I couldn't go back to it after beating it the first time. If the next Nintendo system is more powerful and backwards compatible then I'll get to that. FINALLY, Legends Arceus takes place in a time where people and pokemon did not get along very often so people are shown to be afraid of pokemon and it's your job to help people understand them. The game changes the pokedex mechanic to require you to actually interact with pokemon in order to complete their pokedex pages. Jubilife Village (The home base of the game does actually grow and evolve after completing side-quests for the people in the town. You get to gift different people some pokemon that are actually visible in town from that point forward. They maintain all visible aspects (size, shininess, etc). It's honestly super cool. Unfortunately, the story you're actually forced to progress is much less appealing and is kinda lame tbh. The game overall kinda feels like a good tech demo rather than a full complete game. However, despite all of that, if you want something genuinely NEW and INTERESTING from pokemon, PLA is the way to go.

referring to the chapter about Lysandre being able to use a Mega Evo; a """Potential""" narrative answer that came up in my head is that- "Is the game trying to tell me that even with all the not-fascim, that Pokemon bond still exists? Do his Pokemon... agree with him???" Strictly speaking from the position that the narrative should be reinforced by the gameplay, and with the truth that the creators of the game obviously wouldn't want players to come to the conclusion of "Oh, they didn't tie the narrative to the gameplay properly, its just to show off the new gimmick", are we supposed to forcibly tie the narrative to the gameplay ourselves?? Is that what we're supposed to realize in this story, along with all the implications it comes with??? Clearly this is an insane conclusion to come to, but genuinely what else is to be expected when you try to make your player base have the belief/understanding that the narratives are intrinsically linked to gameplay all the time , but couldn't follow through that ideal, for one reason or another? Making an insane and even more ridiculous narrative answer for why gameplay is a certain wayTM, is something I genuinely don't like, but the other choices are to come to the conclusions of "Yeah, this doesn't make any sense and they did it just for drama/show" or "This doesn't make any sense, they must not have put much thought into this part of the narrative"

Serena saying "If both sides have something to say, maybe it's best to meet halfway..." on Victory Road is genuinely the funniest moral I've ever heard. She literally tells the player that one meme about how we should compromise and let the fascists do a little fascism.

I always assumed that the reason Lysandre used Mega Evolution, was because he was brute-forcing it. I figured that was what the weird machinery he wears exclusively for that final fight was meant to do, to force the phenomenon to occur with a less stable bond. The anime also has moments where it shows that Mega Evolution isn't impossible without the power of friendship, but rather, has consequences if used without that bond. Unfortunately, that was not explained in the game's writing, and that is a problem.

I'd like to comment on Lysandre's use of mega Gyarados, as I believe it does actually make sense. It is not that he does not care for Pokemon (especially his own), but rather that he has no way of separating humans and Pokemon when using the ultimate weapons for his ultimate goal. He believes the sacrifice of Pokemon is worth it, if it means the people he perceives as filth shall be eliminated. It is for this reason that he cries, he believes he has to sacrifice the innocent Pokemon he likes so much, to reach his ultimate goal. Also, I think most of your problems with the story fall under ludonarrative dissonance. Look it up if you haven't heard of it before.

I mean, I did use the money-, EXP-boost and egg hatching O-Power alot tbh.

I wonder if you've heard of the leaked, scrapped plot of XY that was on 4Chan, that was given credit because it partially predicted Alola. If you haven't, give it a read, the scrapped plot is so weird and so cool.

I do think it's a bit sad how you tabbed out RIGHT before Sun and Moon, which imo has one of the, if not THE best story in Pokemon. If I had to recommend you one more Pokemon game, it'd either be that or Gen9 along with the DLC. Even with all the flaws of Gen9, I DO genuinly think the story and writting ESPECIALLY the characters are really good there.