Poll of the Day > What would life be like if Pokemon were real?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think we'd have massive issues if Dialga and Palkia fought.
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way more fun
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omg lmao you should work for Dorkly!

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It'd make eating meat more uncomfortable... plus all the fun stuff would probably be illegal. For starters, developed nations certainly wouldn't let kids go out on adventures with dangerous animals and, even more fundamentally, Pokemon battling in general would probably be banned and Pokemon ownership would very likely require special handlers licenses. (So in some regards it'd be more like Monster Rancher, except without monsters fighting in tournaments because, again, that would probably be illegal.)

In fact, whenever I see really neat in fiction and think, "Wow, this would be cool if it were real," my next thought is almost always, "Well, the government would find some way to make it suck."

That said, even in the absence of battling, they'd make for cooler pets assuming that even that would be legal.

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Better than what we have...

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Certain Pokemon would probably be illegal to own. There'd probably be a specific division of the government focused on taking down world-ending type Pokemon.

Zeus posted...

It'd make eating meat more uncomfortable...

Why do you think that?

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SpeedDemon20 posted...

Why do you think that?

Well, in the world where Pokemon are real, do you see any animals besides Pokemon? >_> I guess it's less of an issue when other animals exist, but even then Pokemon are kind of an uncomfortable bridge where the taboo around eating them could spread to similar animals (ie, eating beef in a world where miltanks and tauros exist would feel a little weird given their proximity to cattle)

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Zeus posted...

Well, in the world where Pokemon are real, do you see any animals besides Pokemon? >_>

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Animals_in_the_Pokmon_world

GameFAQs doesn't like that link, I guess.

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Not hard to see what the link should be. The two broken characters is the accented e. Let's see if GameFAQs likes this.

Hm, nope.

If you can punch in that character yourself, or copy it from somewhere, the link will work though.

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I would have a Bulbasaur and be happy, I know that much.

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Furries would have a field day

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Mead posted...

Furries would have a field day

Do NOT go into the tall grass.

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I guess it depends. Living in a pokemon world would probably be like the show. But if they came to our world, it would be a mess. I'm just assuming the regular ones right now. I feel they would try to round up all of them. Some for scientist to study, some for zoos, and some that rich people would steal. But I don't think they'd be able to. Like Zeus said, you would probably need a license. But I'm sure they would be people that didn't have one. And whether or not battling was legal, they would have battles. Probably underground.

Eventually, they'd probably make the pokemon work. In the Pokemon world, pokemon work with their trainers sometimes. In this world, I feel they wouldn't be as nice to them. Oh. And I think criminals would use them to help out. So, eventually, regular people would want them to defend themselves. There would probably be a lot of death from pokemon and stuff... And probably a lot more, as well...

And bringing in the Legendary pokemon is it's own problem. Though, I don't know if they'd be able to take it down unless they caught it with a master ball. The problem is that they might be hard to find and capture, especially if they work together with other legendary pokemon. And while most legendary pokemon fight the other one, some seem like friends. Like the OG bird trio, the dogs, and Latios and Latias are friends, as well, right? Though, I could be wrong about them being friends. But maybe they all would be to stay alive...

Zeus posted...

Well, in the world where Pokemon are real, do you see any animals besides Pokemon? >_> I guess it's less of an issue when other animals exist, but even then Pokemon are kind of an uncomfortable bridge where the taboo around eating them could spread to similar animals (ie, eating beef in a world where miltanks and tauros exist would feel a little weird given their proximity to cattle)

They sure like eating Slowpoke tails, IIRC...
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Culinary arts would reach new levels of innovation

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Terrifying.

Have you read some of the pokedex entries?

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Llamachama posted...

Terrifying.

Have you read some of the pokedex entries?

Yeah. Some of them are pretty bad. Wed also have a lot of dead or missing children...
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I'd totally get me a Koffing.


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Id fly around on my charizard all fuckin day

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Everyone would be dead since Slugmas are apparently hotter than the sun

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post apocalyptic like the tv show

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Do we get anime character resilience to compensate? If not humans probably go extinct before civilization could form. If they were brought in now we'd probably hunt most of them to extinction for our protection. Having something like alakazam alive is a serious problem. Psychic and ghost pokemon particularly would be a huge hassle for murder investigations. Even if you can prove a pokemon used psychic on someone, you can't find out who it was since it leaves no trace presumably.

We would probably study electric pokemon to figure out how they produce so much energy off of so little food and we would reverse engineer it or just harvest the pokemon for their electric generating organs.

With effectively free energy and the help of 5000 IQ alakazams (if we didn't hunt them to extinction) we would probably have an entirely automated workforce. Basically paradise on earth if we survived them.

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professor oak would be a pedophile

Raw_Egg posted...

professor oak would be a pedophile

Maybe he should stop asking children if they are a boy or girl...
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YoukaiSlayer posted...

Do we get anime character resilience to compensate? If not humans probably go extinct before civilization could form. If they were brought in now we'd probably hunt most of them to extinction for our protection. Having something like alakazam alive is a serious problem. Psychic and ghost pokemon particularly would be a huge hassle for murder investigations. Even if you can prove a pokemon used psychic on someone, you can't find out who it was since it leaves no trace presumably.

I'm pretty sure psychic detectives would figure shit out.

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The first person to mess with someone who had a Gardevoir would basically destroy the world...
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like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1r8AWWb_Qc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDHkTLQnqB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIQFZY6dlg8

because your all terrible

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Zeus posted...

I'm pretty sure psychic detectives would figure shit out.

How? Nothing in the parts of the show I've watched indicate this can be done. I think they can potentially find psychic waves in active use, but just looking at a body and figuring out whose psychic power did it? Don't think I've seen anything indicating that can be done.

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Well, there are many psychic powers in the pokemon world. And some people in that world are born psychic. And with the number of psychic moves that have probably could figure it out. The problem is, they could probably figuer out which pokemon (Like saying it was Alakazaam instead of Hypno), but not which exact pokemon (As in which Alakazaam). Unless there is only like one Alakazaam in the area...
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YoukaiSlayer posted...

How? Nothing in the parts of the show I've watched indicate this can be done. I think they can potentially find psychic waves in active use, but just looking at a body and figuring out whose psychic power did it? Don't think I've seen anything indicating that can be done.

When somebody sets a fire, how do they figure out who did it? Even if there's no physical evidence on the body, you're going to have other evidence around the scene of the crime. And there's nothing more distinct about a psychic attack than a lot of other Pokemon attacks.

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i'd find it pretty awesome and very interesting

one can see what life would be like if Pokemon were real, by watching Detective Pikachu

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Zeus posted...

When somebody sets a fire, how do they figure out who did it? Even if there's no physical evidence on the body, you're going to have other evidence around the scene of the crime. And there's nothing more distinct about a psychic attack than a lot of other Pokemon attacks.

Except psychic attacks are all range and have no physical object. With just about everything else you can tell direction and find out almost exactly where the attack came from by examining the body. An alakazam with binoculars could be a mile away and cause psychic force to hit his victim from any direction. Also arson does typically leave physical evidence. Fires can almost always be traced to their source.

Of course, I've mostly been talking about blunt trauma from a psychic attack but IIRC in the show they have pretty exact control. They could easily just make someone commit suicide. Psychic pokemon are pretty busted in the show. Then again, they never really try to use it for murder. If you can control the origin of the psychic force, applying that inside anythings body would basically be instant death but they never show that being done of course since its a kids show.

Oh, and theres plenty of pokemon that are smart enough and sized effectively to use guns and other tools so we would have that to look forward to.

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Detective Pikachu.

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It would be something incredible

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peta would go insane

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Zeus posted...

[in response to being asked why it would make eating meat more uncomfortable] Well, in the world where Pokemon are real, do you see any animals besides Pokemon? >_> I guess it's less of an issue when other animals exist, but even then Pokemon are kind of an uncomfortable bridge where the taboo around eating them could spread to similar animals (ie, eating beef in a world where miltanks and tauros exist would feel a little weird given their proximity to cattle)

Lets not beat around the bush though. Pokemon are intelligent enough to understand human language, and may even be able to do so WITHOUT much training (wild ones seem to effectively know at least the names of attacks as soon as they are caught). While most of them cannot speak human language, many of them seem like they aren't far from it and in a few cases could even become able to speak if they wanted to enough (like Meowth). This is even ignoring that there are some which do talk, most of which are legendaries and/or which are involved in the plots of a movie.

There is something generally more disconcerting about killing and eating something that understands your language on top of generally seeming to be more intelligent than normal animals.
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Probably restriction on certain types of Pokemon they'd probably be very expensive and required certain licensing. I imagine 10 year olds wouldn't be allowed to wander around alone either.

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LinkPizza posted...

But if they came to our world, it would be a mess.

Our world has such fights. Have you ever witnessed a cock fight? And has it ended in a mess?

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Sephiroth C Ryu posted...

While most of them cannot speak human language, many of them seem like they aren't far from it and in a few cases could even become able to speak if they wanted to enough (like Meowth).

I think psychic Pokmon can speak telepathically...

HornedLion posted...

Our world has such fights. Have you ever witnessed a cock fight? And has it ended in a mess?

Those are illegal... And these fights would be very different... I mean, two chickens or dogs fighting is one thing. Two monsters (some with the power to destroy the world or end humanity, while shooting magic fire, water, etc. is a completely different thing...
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LinkPizza posted...

I think psychic Pokmon can speak telepathically...

Those are illegal... And these fights would be very different... I mean, two chickens or dogs fighting is one thing. Two monsters (some with the power to destroy the world or end humanity, while shooting magic fire, water, etc. is a completely different thing...

And lets not forget that anyone can effectively catch legendary Pokemon and potentially massively screw things up if they get a Dialga or something equally powerful.
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DiduXD posted...

I think we'd have massive issues if Dialga and Palkia fought.

The thing is, as the Pokemon series portrays it, even though these Pokemon that have the ability to cause great disaster's exist, they kind of just don't unless you go really far out of your way to mess with them.

Given, Pokemon is written fairly poorly. The world is portrayed as a utopia, without really going into depth as to how that was possibly achieved. Pokemon battles are excused with the hand waved explanation of the Pokemon enjoying competing with each other through battles, even though many people clearly use them as weapons.

Anyway, I think the world would be far more entertaining, but the big governments around the world would definitely try to prevent normal people from interacting with, or owning Pokemon, because it would be a gargantuan loss in their ability to maintain and enforce their power.
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DiduXD posted...

And lets not forget that anyone can effectively catch legendary Pokemon and potentially massively screw things up if they get a Dialga or something equally powerful.

Which is why we would either have to hope no legendary pokemon existed. Or hope they all work together to keep each other from being caught...
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We'd have had to hunt them to extinction to get this far.

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You forget, there are pokemon like muk. They can generate from toxic waste.

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We would have to rethink the laws of physics. That is if our civilizations survives the reality warping squirrels and the time manipulating raccoons.

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YoukaiSlayer posted...

Except psychic attacks are all range and have no physical object. With just about everything else you can tell direction and find out almost exactly where the attack came from by examining the body. An alakazam with binoculars could be a mile away and cause psychic force to hit his victim from any direction. Also arson does typically leave physical evidence. Fires can almost always be traced to their source.

Except you can figure out the direction by context and there are going to be physical traces at the scene. Psychic Pokemon are shown as always being in line of sight of their target and, I might add, you do have some psychic attacks with a projectile effect (Psybeam, for instance). Not to mention that some other elemental attacks are depicted as not being projectile so they'd have the same advantage.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Of course, I've mostly been talking about blunt trauma from a psychic attack but IIRC in the show they have pretty exact control. They could easily just make someone commit suicide. Psychic pokemon are pretty busted in the show. Then again, they never really try to use it for murder. If you can control the origin of the psychic force, applying that inside anythings body would basically be instant death but they never show that being done of course since its a kids show.

The only psychic depicted as having mind control iirc was Mewtwo. That said, some of the ghost Pokemon could conceivably take over peoples' bodies as well. However, if you're trying to fake suicide by merely controlling a person's body, it's going to show in some way.


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There would be a lot of boys and girls taking trips in the woods and mountains.

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Zeus posted...

It'd make eating meat more uncomfortable...

First thought on my mind. That said, I wonder how Miltank steaks taste and texture would be like.

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Zeus posted...

Except you can figure out the direction by context and there are going to be physical traces at the scene.

How? You can cause the psychic force to act on the target from any direction. I could be in front of the target and cause psychic to shove him from behind or below. You could use future sight to kill someone after you've left the area.

I can't personally think of any other non projectile ranged attacks but perhaps their might be one two. I guess cold snap or whatever the insta KO ice move is might work that way but I assumed the cold emanated from the user which might be traceable by looking for the edges of the cold damage.

Given how people in the real world sometimes get away with making a murder look like a suicide, I have no doubt that causing the person to kill themselves would be a lot easier to get away with. I wanna say sabrina was controlling someone directly in the anime. She was even able to shrink people down to miniature size indefinitely.

Oh right, psychic pokemon can also teleport and levitate so we could have an alakazam with all 5000 IQ teleport into the air inside someones home, never touching the ground to leave any traces, and then use psychic to mind control the person into killing themself. The crime scene would contain no traces of the pokemon, no one could have seen them arrive because they teleported into a building from elsewhere, and there'd be no proof psychic was even used to kill the target since they were just mind controlled to commit suicide. It's a sealed room case with zero evidence. In fact, if pokemon can learn sabrina's trick, they could shink down the victim and teleport away with them so there isn't even a body left to analyze. Maybe teleport the mini corpse deep underground or mind control a pokemon that can use acid to melt the body away.

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Zeus posted...

It'd make eating meat more uncomfortable.

I could go for some Tauros sirloin or Peking psyduck right now.

Actually, the anime made it clear that people ate Pokmon for food. It may take some getting used to, though.

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