gull
@gull

i wonder if so much of my kanto/johto thinking comes from the fact that like... unlike every other region in pokemon they exist in like. direct conversation with each other. gen 2 brings so much to the table with johto that's clearly meant to contrast with its geographic neighbor, and then when you go to kanto the changes there make it all the clearer. and then we're in a post-johto world now, and you can't really go back to kanto anymore without at least thinking about johto, about how much things will change further in three years' time. no other pokemon region really has a second it's paired with, that it's framed against in vibes and theme and stuff, and i think that's what makes johto and gen ii kanto so compelling to me.

i wonder: what if they made a Pokemon 3? not in the RSE sense, but like... another game continuing the continuity of johto and kanto, a return to see just how much more kanto can pave over itself and just how much the forces of Societal Progress further affect johto. i want to see what becomes of all the places! i want to see how much they still try to hold to these locations of importance, or even if they end up getting Radio Towered, etc. too. the more i think about them the more i really do actually want to return to kanto yet agian, not in a gen 1 nostalgic sense because we've had plenty of that but in a really progressive kinda sense, yknow? i want to watch the pokemon world change, and have even more things to say about itself and the places within it. and it's hard when every region is such a fresh start

sometimes i wonder if i'm the only one who's thought this hard about it. like. i can't be, right? this is all absolutely intentional stuff baked into these games for children that i am reading into?


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in reply to @gull's post:

this is a really cool perspective on kanto and johto. and ymmv on whether or not authorial intent even matters at all, since it's our imaginations that bring these places to life, but I think that yours has done so wonderfully.

thanks!! i just feel like i don't tend to run into people that have thought about gen 1/2/their remakes from this angle this much, y'know? gen 2 is my favorite generation because of just how compelling i feel its setting is when you start stewing it over and processing it. i don't usually do like that much deeper thinking of my own about games and their worlds unless they invite me to but boy howdy do i seriously think gsc do a good job at inviting me to

it's part of the reason i always kind of feel disgruntled when i see some youtube video thumbnail and title complaining about a part of gen 2 that i just don't think about! not because i don't think they're right to have their own feelings about game difficulty or level curves or when pokemon are encountered in the game or any of that but just because that's not why i specifically am here in the Gen 2 Likers Zone, it gives me the same kinda feeling as seeing someone talking about a discourse i've not heard a peep about because i'm not in those circles

i was a Tiny Baby* when these games came out so there is a part of me that suspects i have placed too much nostalgic importance on it but the way the ultimate battle in GSC is against An Avatar Representing The Player's Past Victory And The Pokemon Anime's Protagonist was my first exposure to metafiction and affected me in a way that i don't think a medium besides video games could have

*i played Blue when I was four and Silver when i was six

I wonder how much of the changes in kanto is the local mafia being in chaos so people can build a better place rather than worry about their friend getting kidnapped to work at the cash factory or something