Tag:2023

Some fanworks are a love letter to canon…

…This, however, is hatemail.

That’s the quote that the Pokeau skit compilations, or the ‘Hellzones’ open with, at least as of Hellzone 6. I, uh, stole it from an AO3 tag that was reposted on Tumblr, but it really resonated with me for some reason.

I’m not old enough to have lived in a world without Pokemon, but approaching 30 years is pretty impressive. And it feels like for almost half of those nearly 30 years, Pokemon has been something I just can’t get out of my mind.

From a kid imagining stories sitting tucked out of the way somewhere in the school playground, to an adult to only seems to get motivated to do things when they involve their weird pokemon people – the one thing that hasn’t seemed to have changed is how Pokemon has brought out a love of storytelling in me. Even if at this point I’ve molded a lot of it to fit my own agendas and desires, Pokeau will ultimately be tied to what’s in its namesake.

I’m pretty adamant about how I’m not very happy with the directions TPC has been taking (as well as the video games industry at large – it’s a symptom of a larger problem with AAA games), and often feel disconnect in social media fandom spaces, but ultimately, it’s… not really about Pokemon anymore? At least, kind of.
It’s about the stories I’ve created and skills I’ve gained and friends I’ve made. Which, ironically, are some of the core themes of Pokemon as a series itself. So, uh, scratch that – it’s still about Pokemon.

So… thanks, Satoshi Tajiri! Because one autistic person’s idea, 27 years ago, and lead to a whole lot for a whole lot of other autistic people’s ideas. Which happens to include mine.

(This is a new ‘diary’ style of entry! This one is marked as ‘housekeeping’ because it’s the first, but in the future, these will be marked as ‘diary’ and accessible through my personal section of the website.)