[not to talk randomly for a second but sometime i could really go on an essay style rant about my beliefs in pokepastas as a perfect childhood trauma metaphor and that would immediately explain like 90% of every narrative decision made for our parts of this blog. it would be an awesome essay i feel very strongly about this]
i did end up ranting about this on discord while falling asleep so. fuck it im posting it w some edits. none of this is objective this is abt my thoughts and interpretations ♡
to ME. glitchy red is about a child’s anger for being abandoned after being promised the world. blue tears is about a childs agony in the face of loss and failure to meet expectations and the need to blame someone for it. snow on mount silver is about a child pushing too far to prove himself until it destroys him. (re)lost silver is similarly about a child losing himself completely in a quest to fufill the expectations put on him and the dawning realization that it’s too late to turn back. fallen leaf is about a girl forced to realize she was the unloved child despite being no different than the other, and her anger at this injustice. abandoned loneliness is about paranoia and distrust and pushing others away when you need them most (blue) and also about caring for another no matter what the danger or destriment until it destroys you (leaf). strangled red is about how grief destroys a child and how it rips them away from their “potential.” i could keep going for like any given pokepasta and go SO much deeper for all of these and more but you get the idea
the entire fucking point is every mainline pokemon game is about a bright eyed kid with all the potential in the world going out and living up to it. its about going into the world, paving your own path, and becoming the greatest, becoming the champion, doing everything you were meant to do, living a life of thrills and heroism and power. people in this world depend on those children and their strength and their perseverance. failure is literally not an option in these games. and you don’t really think about that because it doesn’t matter! you play through the fantasy and have fun throughout and you come out with a happy ending, having done everything right.
but imagine being that child in universe. imagine the weight, y'know? all of these meanings i pose boil down to one thing- expectations. expectation to succeed, to be strong, to be independent, to be kind, to be present, to be everything everyone ever needed of you.
and THAT’S where pokepastas become such a strong metaphor for childhood trauma, for me. at least the trainer centric ones. because most of the time, and in the case of every one that i grew up with, the premise can be boiled down to, in one way or another, failure to meet those expectations, and the catastrophic effect it has on the child and/or world that depended on them. yknow?
trying so hard to meet then that they kill you.
failing to meet them entirely and how it destroys you.
realizing they were impossible to meet from the start.
its all about the weight of the world and their own destiny on a kid’s shoulders, them realizing it’s there, and ultimately collapsing under that burden. ultimately failing. whether it be death or corruption or pain or purgatory or anger it’s an eternal and lingering punishment and it’s just so cruel. because they were just children. and this was so unfair from the beginning- you just never realized it. cause you weren’t supposed to. cause you were a kid too. kids are so blind and eager to please that it’s hard to realize you’re hurting until it’s too late. six feet under, past the point of no return, utterly forgotten, and covered in blood.