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I've found myself thinking. A lot of people ask why so many are critical of the new games, their restrictive and infantilizing direction. Why Pokémon, unlike many other series, has so many fans that just put up with a lot of things they wish were different, why they follow a series they by all appearances hate. Why they're so attached to a property despite it refusing to be what they want it to be. Some point to nostalgia, others to brand loyalty, others even to mental issues, but I think it's something else. Something that is embodied very well by these threads. It's hard to describe, but I think that what's so special is how alive the world is.
Look at the types of images that are posted here, the abundance of their kind. Pokémon is a series about battling, large competitions, powerful monsters and evil teams, and yet so many people are inclined to draw the inactivity instead. The moments of the calm, not of sound but of heart. I think this is because in them we see the world we're told about but not shown. The grandiose world we've collectively pictured, where not only the high points are remarkable, but just the simple moments of everyday life are filled with joy. It is almost as if what we're given is less created media, and more akin to samples of a world that really is out there, just out of reach. I think the yearning for that place that feels like home is what captures so many, and what drives people to oppose whatever may drive away that feeling. It is not a feeling of nostalgia, but one of melancholy, that draws to it,
