Vryheid 4/30/13 . chapter 9
There sure is a lot of nitpicking going on in the reviews for this story. For a story that isn't even 10k words long I don't see why some people find necessary to write a 5 page essay tearing through the grammatical details of every other sentence here. Personally, I think the idea and authentic perspective gives this enough color to make the piece very intriguing, but the lack of a proper ending (or real conflict for that matter) has left me disappointed. If the "inheritors" really are Hypnos and this really is modeled after gen 1 I'd be interested to see how one of the statistically weakest Psychic types (seriously, Pokemon like Starmie, Alakazam, and Slowbro are all vastly superior) managed to conquer civilization. We've been given bits and pieces of information so far, but from what little we know I think it's a hard sell.
So I ask, why so sure they're hypnos??
Well, it's mainly process of elimination. We know it has to be psychic because they read minds, teleport and use possession abilities. It has to be from RBY because you explicitly say so. It's not going to be Mew or Mewtwo because they're legendary, they don't breed, and they never would have had a problem with the "subtle" mental manipulation Deus had trouble with with Nidorino. It's not Alakazam because that's explicitly ruled out in Chapter 8, and it's certainly not Jynx because they're a 100% female species. No ability to reproduce interspecies means no "parents" as described by Deus.
So right off the bat, we've reduced the possible Pokemon to Exeggutor, Hypno, Mr. Mime, Slowbro, or Starmie.
Then we get this statement of what Deus is doing right in Chapter 1:
"pulling on clothes and smoothing down fur ruffled in the process."
"fur" could possibly interpreted as any form of hair (or extremely thin fur covering if Slowbro happens to have one), so the only guaranteed Pokemon ruled out here is Starmie.
" where one arm pulled out a chair and he sat down."
This pretty much rules out Exeggutor. No arms.
Now at this point we're left with Slowbro, Hypno, and Mr. Mime. Then we get this statement:
"One boy's tail even thumped the ground once, like a baby's."
Now that just throws everything out of whack now doesn't it? Physically speaking it means that Slowbro is the only possible answer, as it's the only multigendered Psychic Pokemon with eyes, arms, "fur" (maybe), legs, and a tail. However, the "children" in the story appear to grow up simply by aging (there is no mention of Shellder at all) and they don't act remotely like the slow, unintelligent Slowbro described in any other media. Not to mention the total lack of water abilities. I have a very hard time buying them as a possibility either.
I'd like to think that Deus was hallucinating or has no idea what a tail is, because them being Hypno would at least help the following line make some degree of sense:
"only like a clever hypno, her, not an adult, not the same"
We also have traits which would make sense for the species, such as the following:
"This he woke to, pulling in and processing his dream by habit"
Hypnos/Drowzee are well known for eating and manipulating dreams, so this would make sense in character. There are other little character traits that fit in with their design and personality as well. The main problem with this theory is that they're never shown using pendulums, which obviously they would be, but they may have developed to the point where they don't need them anymore or Deus may simply take it for granted to the point where he doesn't feel the need to mention it.
This whole train of logic, of course, makes a few assumptions:
1. You didn't invent a new species/development of Pokemon
2. You didn't radically change the "rules" of Pokemon (such as allowing Mew/Mewtwo to breed or giving psychic powers to non psychics)
3. The narrator is reliable (but honestly, it's pretty obvious by the end that he isn't)
4. Your author notes are reliable
5. The writing itself is entirely accurate (how am I supposed to know if you intended all these details?)
Well, anyways, the most fun with this work was trying to make sense of it, but I feel like the writing is so cryptic at times that I don't make any progress regardless. I could be totally wrong of course but I don't really want to believe it. Imagining them as Hypnos at least helps most of the details fall into place. Because I tend to believe in Death of An Author (look it up on tvtropes) I'm pretty much not going to accept any other possibilities unless you explicitly write them in the actual story or have a better list of evidence that someone else wrote.
There sure is a lot of nitpicking going on in the reviews for this story. For a story that isn't even 10k words long I don't see why some people find necessary to write a 5 page essay tearing through the grammatical details of every other sentence here. Personally, I think the idea and authentic perspective gives this enough color to make the piece very intriguing, but the lack of a proper ending (or real conflict for that matter) has left me disappointed. If the "inheritors" really are Hypnos and this really is modeled after gen 1 I'd be interested to see how one of the statistically weakest Psychic types (seriously, Pokemon like Starmie, Alakazam, and Slowbro are all vastly superior) managed to conquer civilization. We've been given bits and pieces of information so far, but from what little we know I think it's a hard sell.
So I ask, why so sure they're hypnos??
Well, it's mainly process of elimination. We know it has to be psychic because they read minds, teleport and use possession abilities. It has to be from RBY because you explicitly say so. It's not going to be Mew or Mewtwo because they're legendary, they don't breed, and they never would have had a problem with the "subtle" mental manipulation Deus had trouble with with Nidorino. It's not Alakazam because that's explicitly ruled out in Chapter 8, and it's certainly not Jynx because they're a 100% female species. No ability to reproduce interspecies means no "parents" as described by Deus.
So right off the bat, we've reduced the possible Pokemon to Exeggutor, Hypno, Mr. Mime, Slowbro, or Starmie.
Then we get this statement of what Deus is doing right in Chapter 1:
"pulling on clothes and smoothing down fur ruffled in the process."
"fur" could possibly interpreted as any form of hair (or extremely thin fur covering if Slowbro happens to have one), so the only guaranteed Pokemon ruled out here is Starmie.
" where one arm pulled out a chair and he sat down."
This pretty much rules out Exeggutor. No arms.
Now at this point we're left with Slowbro, Hypno, and Mr. Mime. Then we get this statement:
"One boy's tail even thumped the ground once, like a baby's."
Now that just throws everything out of whack now doesn't it? Physically speaking it means that Slowbro is the only possible answer, as it's the only multigendered Psychic Pokemon with eyes, arms, "fur" (maybe), legs, and a tail. However, the "children" in the story appear to grow up simply by aging (there is no mention of Shellder at all) and they don't act remotely like the slow, unintelligent Slowbro described in any other media. Not to mention the total lack of water abilities. I have a very hard time buying them as a possibility either.
I'd like to think that Deus was hallucinating or has no idea what a tail is, because them being Hypno would at least help the following line make some degree of sense:
"only like a clever hypno, her, not an adult, not the same"
We also have traits which would make sense for the species, such as the following:
"This he woke to, pulling in and processing his dream by habit"
Hypnos/Drowzee are well known for eating and manipulating dreams, so this would make sense in character. There are other little character traits that fit in with their design and personality as well. The main problem with this theory is that they're never shown using pendulums, which obviously they would be, but they may have developed to the point where they don't need them anymore or Deus may simply take it for granted to the point where he doesn't feel the need to mention it.
This whole train of logic, of course, makes a few assumptions:
1. You didn't invent a new species/development of Pokemon
2. You didn't radically change the "rules" of Pokemon (such as allowing Mew/Mewtwo to breed or giving psychic powers to non psychics)
3. The narrator is reliable (but honestly, it's pretty obvious by the end that he isn't)
4. Your author notes are reliable
5. The writing itself is entirely accurate (how am I supposed to know if you intended all these details?)
Well, anyways, the most fun with this work was trying to make sense of it, but I feel like the writing is so cryptic at times that I don't make any progress regardless. I could be totally wrong of course but I don't really want to believe it. Imagining them as Hypnos at least helps most of the details fall into place. Because I tend to believe in Death of An Author (look it up on tvtropes) I'm pretty much not going to accept any other possibilities unless you explicitly write them in the actual story or have a better list of evidence that someone else wrote.