>>46081318>What exactly about adding little bits of darkness or conflict equates to making the whole world suck? Even in kid's franchises this is a staple of making an engaging narrative and universe. Wouldn't the existence of things like Team Rocket or Mewtwo make the world some grimdark tryhard edgefest by that logic?No, anon. There's a difference between something being "dark" and something being unpleasant for the sake of it. Making ten year olds pay taxes, having crime shit all over the place, and Gym Leaders constantly in fear of losing their jobs to the point of bribing other people to lose is edgy in a way that's just unfun. iirc Misty was originally implied to have slept around with a lot of people in this version, which is also overtly edgy because it doesn't add anything except for just making them miserable.
The story of Mewtwo's creation, that's a good amount of edge I think. Mewtwo is an abomination of the natural order and a folly of science, but in the anime (or at least the movie) Mewtwo is shown to have conflicting emotions and feelings over what it does and why it does it, and it ultimately wants something more than just "REEEEEEEEEE KILL ALL HUMANS", which is why after the Movie it settles for just protecting Pokemon on it's island and living in peace.
If Mewtwo was just an irredeemable murder machine who mangled humans who encountered it and killed everyone, that'd be fucking retardedly edgy. Team Rocket in the games is edgy, yes, but because the rest of the world isn't a glorified edge fest it works because it sticks out and makes it clear that they're the bad guys in the world. Shudo's vision is just painting a giant black shit. Team Rocket would be par for the course in that world. But in the more colorful, whimsical current world of Pokemon, they stick out as clear and vicious bad guys who are still realistic in their goals and don't have overtly edgy plans. In that environment, they work.
