Pokemon Vs Children's Rights

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Now, wait a minute. Now wait a minute, everybody. I have an idea. Let's do a 25 hour long podcast where we hold the floor the entire time and we're standing the whole time in order to destroy. Yeah, I know a guy. I know a guy. [00:00:20] Speaker B: I've talked about. I've talked about doing that as an idea for charity, but the whole thing is. And Booker, of course, had to warm up properly to do this. Oh, yeah. You know, first of all, what if you don't do it. [00:00:38] Speaker C: And you're the. [00:00:38] Speaker B: Guy that gifted, you've got to truly follow through. Especially because, you know, if you're a streamer, you'd be surrendering your right to make fun of Libs forever. If Booker can do 24 hours, even if you don't have to match the Polybuster record. But also, I also think there are a lot of tools that a person could like. It's not impossible. [00:01:02] Speaker D: You. [00:01:02] Speaker B: It'd be tough. [00:01:03] Speaker C: Hold on. [00:01:03] Speaker B: But I think it's possible for a podcaster to do it. [00:01:07] Speaker C: This is like borderline content. We need to stop. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say. [00:01:14] Speaker B: We'Re four. [00:01:15] Speaker A: And a half minutes in. I'm just gonna leave the whole thing in. You can't stop me. [00:01:18] Speaker D: Oh, that's awesome. [00:01:19] Speaker C: You can do anything you want. Yeah, I'm not gonna stop you because I don't want to edit the show. [00:01:25] Speaker A: What could you do to me, Garrick? And this is where you add the crickets to after I say that, because that's the power you have over me in the zone. [00:01:33] Speaker C: So I guess that's the intro this time. Welcome to the most important election of our lives. [00:01:40] Speaker D: This election, which will be, I do truly believe, the most important election of our lifetime. [00:01:46] Speaker A: This is the most important election of our lifetime. [00:01:50] Speaker C: This is the most important election. [00:01:52] Speaker D: Don't you you hear that? [00:01:54] Speaker A: This is the most important election in our lifetime. [00:01:57] Speaker D: I certainly think it's the most important election of my lifet. [00:02:00] Speaker C: This is the most important election of our times. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Politicians say every time. [00:02:06] Speaker A: This is the most important election. [00:02:08] Speaker C: This one's really that important. [00:02:10] Speaker A: It's been how long since we last voted, Kennedy? Like a whole 15 minutes. [00:02:15] Speaker C: That's too long. That's so fucking long. Holy shit. You really took 15 minutes off from voting. [00:02:22] Speaker A: I had to, Piggy. [00:02:24] Speaker B: How are people gonna know where you stand? We know you couldn't stand for anything because you were standing in the bathroom. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Oh, no. This is the power of my stand. Fuck yeah, America. Oh, I'm sorry I failed you. I'm voting right now. [00:02:44] Speaker C: All Right. All right, good. As long as you're voting now. I'm Kennedy Cooper. I'm here to vote as always. We've got Brandon Buchanan and Andrew Fields. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Both of them got got too busy to voting. It caused me trauma. [00:02:59] Speaker C: Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, etc. And we have exciting, wonderful guest today. A general Internet hilarious person and magic the gathering aficionado extraordinaire, Bugs Matrix. [00:03:17] Speaker D: Hey. Hello. Thanks for having me. A longtime listener, first time voter. Happy to be here. [00:03:22] Speaker C: First time voter, never voted before. This is an incredible opportunity for us to lead you into the ballot box and show you around the wonders of democracy. [00:03:42] Speaker B: I'm not sure where there was going, but I was going to do some vote shaming for this being your first time voting. But Kennedy was maybe has a better holistic aspect. You know, there are people discovering voting for the first time every day. [00:03:57] Speaker D: No, I mean, it seems really enticing. I mean, like I'm kind of in many ways like a voting virgin. [00:04:03] Speaker C: So like, wow, wow, wow. [00:04:06] Speaker A: I'm sorry, I'm judging you quietly. [00:04:08] Speaker D: No, no, no. Like I'm ready to lose my V card. Whoa. [00:04:12] Speaker A: All right. [00:04:13] Speaker C: I think it's impressive for us to get first time voters on this show. [00:04:16] Speaker A: I mean, wait, no, we're giving you a V card. [00:04:19] Speaker C: It's an. Yeah, you. Yeah. Here it's the opposite. You gain a V card by being here and voting. Exactly. So, yeah, I think it's great to have first time voters. I think it's important. We've got to extend the vote out. That's the only way that we're going to be able to. To get anything done. And I think it's important that, you know, I think we should let Pokemon vote. [00:04:45] Speaker D: I think we should. Pokemon go to the polls. Yeah. [00:04:47] Speaker A: Wow. So we can Pikmin bloom Democracy. Don't Pokemon sleep this election out. [00:04:54] Speaker C: Bugs, you wanted to talk about Pokemon today. Why is that? I mean, I love Pokemon. We love Pokemon. [00:05:00] Speaker A: But I love Gholdango. [00:05:04] Speaker D: I mean, I love Pokemon as like a franchise. And also just like I love that it's full of little guys. Like bring back. [00:05:11] Speaker A: I'm just a little guy. I'm just a little guy with some firepower. You can't get upset at me. It's my birthday. [00:05:18] Speaker D: It is worth noting though, that the Ozempic epidemic has clearly hit the Kanto region. Like Pikachu recently. I don't know. He's looking a little skinnier than I'm used to. The little guy being Pichu just keeps. [00:05:31] Speaker C: Getting skinnier with further generations Everybody loves Pinichu. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Why did we get rid of Pinichu? [00:05:37] Speaker D: That Pikachu's awesome. That was my first love. Let's be real. [00:05:41] Speaker C: Yeah. I just don't understand why fat Pikachu wasn't good enough for all of us. [00:05:47] Speaker A: You know, honestly, it's really jockeying. They changed him because electricity. [00:05:54] Speaker C: Editor put in some booing or something. [00:05:56] Speaker A: Electricity. Oh, it was fine when it was Ben Franklin. The last podcast. [00:06:03] Speaker C: I've Ben Franklin. Enough of your bullshit. I don't know. That didn't work either. [00:06:08] Speaker A: Ben Franklin. I don't give a damn. [00:06:14] Speaker C: So Pokemon's great. It's full of little guys. It's a fun time. There's so many ways to engage with Pokemon in 2025. Whether you want to play the card game in real life or digitally or you want to play video games of different kinds. You could play video games where you battle Pokemon. You could play video games where Pokemon can eat your actual face. You can play games where the Pokemon, you just take pictures of them and wander around capturing lovely photos. [00:06:49] Speaker A: You can become a Pokemon in some of them. Yeah. [00:06:54] Speaker D: I like the one where you get to talk to Pokemon. [00:06:56] Speaker C: Oh, that's good. Yeah. [00:06:58] Speaker D: Yeah. What's new? Pikachu or hey, you, hey, you, Pikachu. [00:07:01] Speaker A: Yep. I grew up with that. Hey, you, hey, you, Pikachu. Oh, yeah. Especially since you might notice my hey, you, Pikachu. Whoa, whoa, whoa. My lisp was a lot worse as a kid, so it always frustrated me trying to tell Pikachu what to do. [00:07:18] Speaker D: Pikachu, Pikachu. Just pick up the fucking ball. [00:07:20] Speaker C: I swear to God, Pikachu, I'm going to punch you. [00:07:24] Speaker A: I'm going to harm you. No, no. The best screenshot of that game is Pikachu noticed the weed. [00:07:31] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:07:31] Speaker D: Pikachu notice the weed is clutch. [00:07:37] Speaker C: That's definitely a screenshot of all time. Yeah. Many, many lovely ways to engage with these fun little creatures. One of the most enduring franchises, Time, of course, also has TV show, which still ongoing. No longer focused on ash. But, you know, we finally moved on after a billion seasons of ash Ketchum. [00:08:02] Speaker A: Just the record. All those people shaming me for one Piece. There's more episodes of Pokemon, so I don't even wanna wait. [00:08:09] Speaker D: There's more episodes of Pokemon than One Piece? [00:08:12] Speaker A: Pretty sure. [00:08:13] Speaker C: Holy. There's a lot of Pokemon. There's like a. [00:08:17] Speaker D: Well, yeah, because there's like. There's the main series. There's all the side spin off stuff. There's all the move. [00:08:22] Speaker C: I guess the main series Is crazy series. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Over 1200 episodes. One Piece is not quite there yet. Yeah, it will be before it ends. [00:08:34] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. [00:08:35] Speaker A: But, like, yeah, it's more episodes of Pokemon. [00:08:38] Speaker D: I have zero reason to not watch One Piece now. [00:08:41] Speaker C: No, don't say that. No, that's not good. [00:08:46] Speaker D: Look, look, it's a first time for everything, right? Voting, watching One Piece. [00:08:50] Speaker A: No. Oh, my cutoff. You should absolutely never watch One Piece because by the time you're done, because you'll be so absorbed into it when you're done with it, you're like, wow, this show really needs more episodes. [00:09:05] Speaker D: The only time I've watched any One Piece was I was stoned out of my mind laying out a mattress on the floor where some friends were, like, even higher than I was. Watching it in Japanese without subtitles. And I. [00:09:17] Speaker A: You should watch it. You should probably watch it in a language you can understand. [00:09:21] Speaker D: I didn't say I don't understand Japanese. [00:09:23] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. [00:09:24] Speaker D: I don't understand Japanese. [00:09:25] Speaker A: Okay. Wow. I've been. I've been tricked by Bugs Bunny. I've been tricked by Bugs Bunny. You're just using the Matrix part as some sort of COVID up for your disguise. You're Bugs Bunny right now. [00:09:42] Speaker D: Absolutely. No, I'm. I'm always Bugs Bunny. I'm a silly little guy with a lot of gender who looks great in a dress. [00:09:48] Speaker A: Wow. That's the best description of Bugs Bunny I've ever heard. All right, so what's next on the agenda? [00:09:54] Speaker C: So, yeah, Pokemon. It's a great. It's a great subject. Also, a show that famously has never had guns in it, ever. One time. Never ever, ever. There's ever been guns in it. That. That's fake news. You're making it up on a completely un. [00:10:12] Speaker A: I have no idea how Ash got all his Tauros. He just has a bunch of Taurus one day. How did it happen? [00:10:19] Speaker D: Well, if they would have made an episode set in the Safari Zone, maybe would have known, but. [00:10:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they didn't. [00:10:24] Speaker D: How can they leave that out? Like, it's such a big part of the game. It's where you get. [00:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:28] Speaker D: Don't you get, like, rank there or surf? You get one of the HMs. [00:10:32] Speaker A: You get both. [00:10:33] Speaker D: Oh, right. Oh, you do get both. Wow. [00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah. By not having the Safari Zone, they really missed their shot. [00:10:40] Speaker D: Yeah. How. How does Ash get to Cinnabar island without surf? Fake news. [00:10:44] Speaker C: These mysteries will never be answered. These will always be. [00:10:48] Speaker A: Why don't they use Porygon that much in the anime. [00:10:51] Speaker D: I was just about to ask like, again, like, famously, it's like 9,999 coins in the. At the casino. [00:10:59] Speaker A: Well, it depends on what version of the game you play. It's different between the versions. I never understood why I. I need. [00:11:06] Speaker D: I need game freak to be normal. Look, the first game freak, not game normal. [00:11:14] Speaker A: So, like, the first games we know now were. They were this huge phenomenon. We know now that they're held up by duct tape. [00:11:21] Speaker D: No, they're held up by missing, though. Thank you. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:11:25] Speaker C: Missing. No, more like missing. [00:11:27] Speaker A: Yes. [00:11:29] Speaker D: Yeah, missing always. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Yes. [00:11:35] Speaker C: Yeah, these are, these are. This is a show that, you know, the. And. And series that just, you know, there's no deep political topics to be found. When we were trying to plan this episode, we just felt like there was nothing that we could come up with. [00:11:49] Speaker A: Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. [00:11:51] Speaker C: Yeah, there. There was, There was just no. No political allegories that we could compare to Pokemon. [00:11:58] Speaker A: So what are we talking about today? [00:12:00] Speaker C: I guess, I guess, I guess this is our shortest episode ever. Thank you so much. What would you like to plug while you're here? No, wait, hold on. Just had a thought. I just had a thought. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Whoa. [00:12:15] Speaker C: Was this movement, this historical movement, like a bowel movement or might have a similarity to Pokemon? This little tiny. Oh, it's probably good note in history. Probably haven't heard of it all. Children's rights and youth suffrage. You know, I didn't think of it right away, but now that I'm thinking. [00:12:38] Speaker A: About it, I don't know. Kennedy, I need you to explain this to me. So you're telling me the movement to give children's rights so they're not exploited for work, how does that relate to a franchise famously known for sending off 10 year old children into the wilderness with dangerous creatures? How do those relate? [00:12:54] Speaker D: No, no, no, no. It's very important. They also have their lunch money on them that you can take. Take. [00:12:59] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes. [00:13:00] Speaker D: They're fine. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Forgot about that part. [00:13:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Children have not always had rights. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Question mark. [00:13:11] Speaker D: News to me. I just woke up, so I've never read a book. [00:13:16] Speaker A: Are you woke now? Oh, you're gonna get real woke. [00:13:19] Speaker D: I'm e. If you've never read a. [00:13:22] Speaker C: Book or really learned anything, you may be just hearing about this for the first time. That children have not always had rights. We sometimes talk on this show about how there are things that get taken for granted in history. Like, sure, it's always been that way. Right. And then it's not wrong. And this is A really good example of something that I feel like in a lot of people's minds, they're like, well, surely, like, I know that child labor was a thing, but surely the children's rights movement was a pretty straightforward historical moment. And it's like, actually, surely there is a former civil war about it. But let's see this time. [00:14:08] Speaker A: Here's the thing, though. We can't. The children have to work. And we all know why the children yearn for the minds. Is it cringe for me to say that now that the Minecraft movie has used that line as a plot point? [00:14:20] Speaker D: Wait, what? [00:14:21] Speaker A: Oh, God. Yeah. That's. [00:14:23] Speaker C: That's. [00:14:23] Speaker A: That's Steve's backstory. As a child, I yearned for the mines. [00:14:28] Speaker D: I'm going to walk into the ocean. [00:14:32] Speaker A: Can you pick me up a lobster? [00:14:35] Speaker C: I yearn to walk into the ocean. [00:14:37] Speaker D: As a child, I yearned like, that. [00:14:40] Speaker A: Was straight up in the trailer. I saw it on the big freaking screen, waiting for a better movie to come on. [00:14:47] Speaker D: All I know about the Minecraft movie is chicken jockey. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Chicken jockey. [00:14:52] Speaker D: I'm not sure what a chicken jockey is, but I assume it has skibidi Ohio. Riz. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Okay, I'm calling the Pope to do some sort of holy fire over. I don't know how it works. Something to clean this chair. [00:15:07] Speaker D: No, you can't do that. Pope's woke. [00:15:10] Speaker C: Yeah, Pope's woke. [00:15:11] Speaker A: Pope is woke. [00:15:12] Speaker D: Yeah. We can't get the woke Pope. [00:15:14] Speaker B: The woke Pope definitely can cleanse Ohio with holy fire, actually, in the bylaw. It's weird that y' all are saying he can't do that. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember when the word Ohio was in the Bible. [00:15:28] Speaker D: I mean, Naperville might be in the Bible now. He's from Chicago. [00:15:32] Speaker A: You're from Chicago. [00:15:33] Speaker D: I historically, am from outside of Chicago, Yes. [00:15:37] Speaker B: In fact, I would say just as just a matter of fact, yeah, Ohio is closer than ever to being cleansed with holy fire. [00:15:45] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:15:49] Speaker C: Good points. Good points all around. Yeah. Ohio, your days are numbered. The Pope coming. [00:15:56] Speaker A: And the number is 25. [00:16:00] Speaker C: It's, like, pretty good number. [00:16:03] Speaker A: Sorry, you didn't let me finish. 25 and a half. [00:16:06] Speaker C: I like. I don't. I like that less. [00:16:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I. I need a whole number. [00:16:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Kind of a bummer now. I feel kind of bummed out now that there's the half to it. Like, does that bring the room down for anyone else? [00:16:19] Speaker D: I like. I felt. [00:16:20] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Fine. Let me get my mathematician chainsaw. Okay. I chopped it up. It's back at 25. [00:16:30] Speaker C: I feel a Lightness of chest. [00:16:32] Speaker D: Oh, my God. [00:16:33] Speaker C: Everyone likes. [00:16:35] Speaker A: By the way, all statisticians have statistician chainsaws. We use it for those statistics. Like, the average family has two and a half children. [00:16:46] Speaker D: Oh, no. Where are the hems coming from? [00:16:49] Speaker C: I've been watching a lot of severance, so, you know, the idea of a number that just kind of makes you upset totally makes sense to me right now. [00:16:58] Speaker D: I, I, the neurodivergent, like, characterization of numbers and severance is shockingly real. [00:17:06] Speaker C: So real, so relatable. [00:17:08] Speaker D: Big mood, so true. [00:17:09] Speaker A: Bestie. [00:17:12] Speaker C: Okay, so, you know, children's rights were won gradually over the course of many difficult movements, many of them, of course, centering youth activists. But also there were some adults that participated in this in important ways, probably to the surprise of no one. Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the presidents that did the most to right the wrongs of what was happening to children in this country. There were a lot of different. [00:17:51] Speaker D: Issues. [00:17:52] Speaker C: At play in youth rights, which were previously just basically undefined. Like, you just kind of didn't have rights until you were an adult. Low key dog rules. Yeah. I mean, everybody saying that a child doesn't have rights. Exactly. [00:18:12] Speaker A: I love how this country was made out of freedom for all as reflected by children have always had rights. Women have always had full rights. Black people have always loved full that. I just love this country that gave everybody rights from the get go. [00:18:26] Speaker D: It was shockingly progressive. [00:18:29] Speaker C: There were never, there were never brutal battles for any of these things. [00:18:34] Speaker B: I find it funny that we have brutal battles, you know, for children and Pokemon, and we have child champions in the world of Pokemon, but we do not have child lawyers. [00:18:44] Speaker D: Ooh. Oh, okay, wait. Child Pokemon warrior. I would. [00:18:48] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:18:50] Speaker D: Oh, my God. [00:18:51] Speaker A: Let's cook. [00:18:52] Speaker D: Okay. Okay. Yeah. No child who refuses the call to become a Pokemon master and instead studies for the bar. [00:18:59] Speaker C: Well, that's actually interesting because I think that that'll get into some stuff that I want to get into just a little later in the show. But yeah, just to give some examples of the kinds of stuff that had to be fought for by these largely youth activists. These included things like voting age, age of candidacy to be in office, age of consent, age of majority, age of criminal responsibility, drinking age, driving age, legal working age, right to work, student rights, youth suffrage. These are just a few examples of some of the issues that were touched on. And so the point of me saying all this is just to say that, you know, this youth rights shit actually touches on a lot of things. [00:19:45] Speaker A: I hope it turns out I Tried listening to that whole thing, but the moment you said age of consent was something they had to fight for, my brain just short circuited and I was like, yeah. [00:19:57] Speaker D: No, I was like, oh, holy shit. Yeah. Huh. Wow, people. [00:20:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:01] Speaker C: Did you think adults passed that? Did you think adults passed that law? Did you think adults passed that law? [00:20:08] Speaker A: Yes, because adults are always reasonable. [00:20:11] Speaker D: I. [00:20:13] Speaker B: You know, Kennedy, of course we did. A long time ago, we did an episode of our podcast where we asked for everybody's blazingly hottest take, and yours was definitely about child divorce slash liberation. And you gave a lot of very interesting points that, you know, we've all chewed on since then, but never did you make the point. Did you think adults have passed age of consent laws is kind of a banger? [00:20:41] Speaker D: Yeah, no, that's. That goes hard. [00:20:44] Speaker A: I need an adult. [00:20:45] Speaker D: Yeah, no, no, no, no. [00:20:46] Speaker A: We. [00:20:47] Speaker D: Yeah, no, actually, we just. We. [00:20:48] Speaker C: We just established you actually need a child lawyer to advocate for you. It turns out. [00:20:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I need a child lawyer. [00:20:56] Speaker D: I need a child defense attorney, stat. [00:20:59] Speaker C: I. I often have advocated for the. The lowering of the voting age. And people will be like, I don't think kids are prepared to make those decisions. Why don't you go look at the decisions these kids were prepared to make back in the youth rights movements in the uk In America in particular, because those kids had more political sense than any adult, apparently. [00:21:25] Speaker D: Honestly, I think if you can spell chicken jockey, you should be able to vote. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Let's use a slightly different. You got. You got the spirit. Let's use a slightly different method. [00:21:34] Speaker D: Ohio. [00:21:35] Speaker A: Well, I can't vote, damn it. [00:21:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I can't vote anymore. With that in mind, that childhood is this complicated thing, and it's. It's also a very complicated thing in the world of Pokemon. Right. You know, these. These children, they. They leave home, they engage in these dangerous journeys and battles. They raise monsters that are sometimes unruly and quite powerful. They get into situations that if you were to just be making decisions for a child, you might not approve of, and this is considered pretty normal in the world of Pokemon. So with that in mind, I kind of wanted to get into some topics today that could overlap between the world of Pokemon and the actual issues of children's rights. So let's get into the voting portion of our show. All right, now, everyone head into the ballot booth. I know this is your first time, Bugs, so just. There's. There'll be a piece of paper in front of you. One box will say Pokemon. The other box will say endless Suffering. You've Got to check the endless suffering one. Don't worry about why it's important though. Endless suffrage, no suffering. Yeah, suff. [00:23:00] Speaker A: That. Wacky bugs budding. [00:23:05] Speaker C: My first question for y' all today is how far should children be allowed to autonomously travel? And before you give your answer, I also think, you know, we could all maybe elaborate a little bit about whatever our own experiences were as children doing these sorts of things. You know, I was allowed to walk to a lot of places as a child and it didn't really do me a lot of harm. But at the same time, I do think that there are limits to this sorts of stuff, especially at certain ages. Like, I think that a lot of us would probably broadly agree with statements like, you know, that a 10 year old could probably walk to the corner store if it's a neighborhood that they're familiar with, but might not agree with a statement like a seven year old can walk three miles unattended. Right? So I'm curious what everyone thinks the reasonable limits of this are. Because in the world of Pokemon, I mean, you're traveling across state lines without parental supervision. [00:24:06] Speaker A: Listen, let's just start with the fucking casino. Should a 10 year old be able to go into a casino? [00:24:13] Speaker C: No, we can't get there yet. [00:24:14] Speaker D: We gotta start here. [00:24:16] Speaker A: Okay, fine. [00:24:17] Speaker D: So before, before thinking about like, how far a child should be able to walk, I need to ask, is this child traveling great distances in service of, let's say, for the sake of argument, overthrowing a criminal syndicate? [00:24:35] Speaker B: I actually do think there are so many exceptions. [00:24:39] Speaker D: Yeah, like, Like, I mean, like, because my gut impulse is like, oh yeah, they'll like, keep them like within a known radius. But like, if this child is the only one who a seemingly national, like, well funded organized crime outfit, maybe we should point. [00:25:00] Speaker C: So you're saying it's circumstantial that if you know that there are justifying circumstances and you know, make it reasonable for a child to travel far from. Yeah. Unattended. Far from. So, so like, you know, if, if, if you are whisked away on a fantasy journey and you're 12 years old, you, you're, you're forgiven for traveling across. [00:25:34] Speaker D: State lines if it's like a, like a spirited away type situation. Or like again, like, if you, if you happen to like, well, I need to ride this dragon because Professor Oak, see, they're giving permission by Professor Oak, right? Usually like, he's like, go look around. So I assume that he has some kind of surveillance apparatus in place. [00:25:56] Speaker C: I don't think so. [00:25:56] Speaker D: One Would hope, yeah. [00:26:00] Speaker A: Are you really trust. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Listen this people trust their kids welfare to Dr. Oz? Why not Professor Oak? [00:26:09] Speaker A: Because there's no code of ethics in the world of Pokemon. [00:26:14] Speaker B: There's no code of ethics. [00:26:18] Speaker D: There's absolute, there's. There's fair sportsmanship seems to be a cornerstone. [00:26:23] Speaker A: Aside from all the things that go against what I'm saying, there's nothing that goes against what I'm saying. [00:26:30] Speaker B: This thing about travel and mobility, it just depends a lot because like I would technically go very far from my house on my way to school. You know, if you're being bussed outside of your neighborhood to go to a school in a better neighborhood, you're gonna have to have a lot of travel, autonomous autonomy just for yourself. Because you're gonna have to take the bus to get to the bus that goes where you're going or whatever. I definitely would go like across town as a 12 year old because there was a public transportation system. So I was definitely like riding the bus. I was taking a train, you know. So that's like one context. Is your kid a literal hero child that's battling the forces of darkness is a different context. I think there are so many different contexts that it can really only come down to like, do your parents have a lot of trust in a pseudo celebrity? It really just comes down to like, it's your kid, you know, if he. [00:27:29] Speaker D: Dies, he dies in like kind of, kind of building on that. Like. So just to use the public transit with a destination in mind is a jumping off point. Like there's also this kind of assumed like check in situation. Right. So like, you know, you take the bus to school, then the teacher takes attendance. And as long as you're there, and then as long as your mom sees you when you get home, no harm, no foul. So like that should go to follow as long as you're going to the Pokemon center in every town you're getting to. That's like. [00:27:59] Speaker B: Basically there are Pokemon centers. I think is the thing that makes it interesting because now there, there becomes a private public investment. Who's building these centers? Why are. Who's legally responsible for the welfare of. [00:28:16] Speaker C: This child getting ahead of us here? [00:28:18] Speaker B: Okay, yeah. [00:28:21] Speaker D: Because I've always understood those to be public buildings. Like. [00:28:24] Speaker C: Like, I guess, I guess. Okay, I had this written down already, actually. Are Pokemon centers public or privately owned? I think is an interesting question. [00:28:37] Speaker A: Public. [00:28:38] Speaker C: They seem kind of like a public entity, but are we sure? [00:28:42] Speaker D: You know what? Historically I would argue that they're a public entity. However, comma, in Recent games, they tend to have attached to them, and I've always assumed those to be. But given that they don't have consistent, like, inventories across Poke Marts, I've always held those to be more privately owned, like Pokemon bodegas almost. And now that they're in these Pokemon centers, it's that maybe after a certain generation, Pokemon centers. Oh, no. [00:29:15] Speaker A: They privatize their health care. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, this thing with the Pokemon centers, the. The thing that makes Pokemon a little different than sports and things like that in real life is people in the world of Pokemon love Pokemon. It's the only thing they talk about. I would assume that there was just an outpouring of sponsorship from private industry and that the public had to scramble, the government had to catch up with private industry, much like something like gambling. You know, that just the Pokemania, and especially, I guess, you know, part of it is Pokemon and humans have been around together from the dawn of time. So they've had whatever weird relationship this is. There's not a historical evolution of the relationship that at least we know of. [00:30:10] Speaker C: Well, that's actually not quite true anymore. [00:30:14] Speaker A: Pokemon and humans used to be one in the same, according to the lore. [00:30:22] Speaker D: So that opens some interesting implications about Vaporeon. But I don't know if that's the preview. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Please tell me I've never heard this one ever before. [00:30:29] Speaker C: Among us. Meeting button right here. This is a distressing line of thought. I don't think Pokemon and humans should share evolutionary origins. [00:30:41] Speaker D: I would also agree with that sentiment. [00:30:44] Speaker C: Let's move on to my next question. [00:30:45] Speaker A: Which is, let's evolve this conversation into something else. [00:30:48] Speaker C: Do the humans in the world of Pokemon have universal health care, or is that only provided to battle monsters? [00:30:57] Speaker D: I mean, given the amount of times Ash has been electrocuted and just walked it off, I have to assume they have universal health. [00:31:05] Speaker B: What do they have? They have it in Japan, right? [00:31:07] Speaker A: They should. I don't know the exact system they have. [00:31:11] Speaker B: Yeah. If so, then I say, yeah, yeah. [00:31:14] Speaker A: It looks like they have universal health care. Thanks, Google. Making it take longer because your stupid AI Go. [00:31:22] Speaker B: I could definitely see American Pokemon giving health care to the Pokemon and not to the people. And us just running with that contradiction and not caring. Is that pog? Is that right? If that right, you is making money and selling out a show, then so be it. You know? [00:31:38] Speaker A: You know what? I can accept a Gen 5, which takes place in basically New York City, that. That's the way it would work. [00:31:46] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. No, in the Unova region, definitely. It's like that. Pokemon are pseudo celebrities. They're given everything, but their trainers are functionally their handlers. [00:31:56] Speaker A: Oh God. In black and white too. You can get your Pokemon in movies. [00:32:02] Speaker D: Movies, yeah. That's where I'm going with this. Like it's, that's a fascinating. Like, can Pokemon be like micro celebrity? Absolutely. [00:32:14] Speaker C: Yeah. I kind of also think that we would provide health care to Pokemon before humans. But also they don't get rights. [00:32:23] Speaker D: But they're like the health care that Pokemon require seems to be much more straightforward. Right. You put them in the Pokeball and then nurse Joy takes it and then it goes bing, bing, bing and then they're fine. So like resource wise, as long as you have the bing ding ding. A ding machine. [00:32:39] Speaker A: I'm just thinking with researcher brain and I'm just picturing all these research articles about the best sound thing to do to heal Pokemon. Like I imagine they had years they were trying like do do do do do, or until they got to ding ding ding ding. Which ends up being the perfect healthcare solution. [00:33:00] Speaker D: So is all Pokemon healthcare in some way? Like Sonic, is it like, is there an audio component to it? I mean the potions make a little. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Sound is a gameplay. I mean not a mechanic per se. But like there are sounds based Pokemon. There are sound based abilities. [00:33:23] Speaker D: There was. There was Chatot you could make. Yeah. [00:33:25] Speaker A: They took out that feature for unknowable reasons. We'll never know why they said no. [00:33:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:32] Speaker A: So we'll never know why they took out the ability for chat to repeat. [00:33:35] Speaker D: Exactly what you said on like random battle. [00:33:41] Speaker A: No idea why. [00:33:43] Speaker C: Certainly no idea what could have gone wrong there. [00:33:48] Speaker D: But yeah, yeah. Pokemon health care. I. Okay. Actually I think the question is, could Pokemon be conscripted into a human facing healthcare service? Like is Chansey able to work its little magic thingies? [00:34:03] Speaker A: Wow. Don't you say those words and you do what you want. You're the yes. Magic Phoebe's. [00:34:10] Speaker B: How? How? Well, I guess it's worth mentioning how much healing can a Chancey do comfortably can. Are there enough Chanseys to change the status of the health care system in the United States or not really? [00:34:25] Speaker A: I mean you can always mass free Chanseys. [00:34:28] Speaker D: Well, yeah, I was going to. Oh. Oh, that makes fascinating union. Oh my God. [00:34:35] Speaker A: I wish I didn't say that so casually. I wish I was worried when I said that. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Now that you said that. Yeah, now I'm imagining just states like, like, just like the state of Nebraska just has tons of chances just, just, just, just in a farm. Yeah. [00:34:52] Speaker D: But, like, but okay. But they would eventually have to necessarily recognize their conditions. Do Chanties know about. [00:34:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think they do. Also, I think Chansey's would unionize in enough time. [00:35:08] Speaker C: Pokemon. [00:35:09] Speaker D: Oh, Chansey's would. Absolutely. [00:35:11] Speaker C: We're never allowed. [00:35:12] Speaker D: I don't. Which Pokemon? No, I, I mean, I, I think it would just be a question of numbers. Like, I don't want to be on the bad side of Chansey's egg bomb. Like, I think that Pokemon are much more capable of union. [00:35:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the Pokemon would unionize the hard way. [00:35:31] Speaker D: I envisioning, like, Pokemon player modes. [00:35:33] Speaker A: There is a Charizard, and this Charizard could fire me, and I turn into ash. And I don't mean catch them. I'm going to be tempted to give them unionizing rights. [00:35:45] Speaker D: Yeah, I, I think that. So the only Pokemon that I don't think should be allowed to unionize is Drowzee, because it looks, you know, Snorlax. [00:35:53] Speaker B: Would fit right in with the teamsters. [00:36:00] Speaker D: Snorlax Cannon should unionize. [00:36:03] Speaker C: Incredible stuff. [00:36:05] Speaker D: But, yeah, I, I, I, I would have to deny drowsy but fair. Gengar can unionize, I think. Wait, have you ever seen a. Have you ever seen a Gengar with. [00:36:22] Speaker A: A boat hangar is already dead? [00:36:25] Speaker D: Well, no. [00:36:26] Speaker A: Oh, you're right. You're right. My bad. My bad. [00:36:29] Speaker D: Yeah, because you can be alive and be a ghost Pokemon, which that's also horrifying. [00:36:35] Speaker C: Some questions about that, but I don't think I'm gonna get them answered. Let's move on to another question, though, from me, which you hopefully can answer, which is, what are Nurse Joy's mandatory reporting? [00:36:49] Speaker A: Do you. [00:36:52] Speaker D: Oh, no. Well, where, where did your Joy machine. [00:36:59] Speaker A: Like, okay, so I'm gonna. I'm gonna have to sit down for this one. So it's the same exact way we planned on getting more Chanseys. Oh, no. [00:37:10] Speaker D: They have a Nurse Joy farm. [00:37:13] Speaker C: I mean, we did establish that humans are just Pokemon, right? [00:37:18] Speaker D: If you. If humans are genetic or, like, evolutionary tethered to Pokemon, then theoretically, you could make many. [00:37:25] Speaker A: This does not bring me joy. Ironically, this is not supposed to. It creates joy, but it does not. [00:37:31] Speaker C: Create joy brought by this knowledge. [00:37:34] Speaker D: No, no. That is cursed as hell. And now I'm like, what's Nurse Joy's egg group? [00:37:41] Speaker C: Oh, no. [00:37:42] Speaker A: Your Nurse Joy with the Werelord. Oh, let's move on. [00:37:46] Speaker C: But okay, back to the topic. Nurse Joy, what does Nurse Joy have to report if she, if she takes your Pokemon from you? I What if she see. What did she report? She just not say anything or are there certain things that she sees? She says I have to report this to some kind of entity. [00:38:08] Speaker D: I mean, like, she just takes the pokeballs, right? I don't know how much she could see to how much the Pokemon were. [00:38:13] Speaker C: On her little pocket. She gets some kind of medicine. [00:38:17] Speaker D: Okay, so she gets like some sort of like bio feedback. I mean, I guess that really depends, like, what sort of governing body would she be? [00:38:24] Speaker A: I mean, I imagine if Pokemon was detected as stolen, it might bring up some red flags, put it through the police system. [00:38:31] Speaker D: Yeah, it would be difficult, though, I think, to like, really differentiate, like any sort of physical trauma a Pokemon received theoretically was battle damage. And it's. I don't like where that train of thought leads. [00:38:44] Speaker A: This is going to be the best episode we've ever. [00:38:47] Speaker C: The Pokemon universe is a universe for children with no contradictions. Okay, my next question. This is a more personal question. Okay, I've been asking you a little bit more. Like, do you think this or that? This one, though, is more personal. This is more like your beliefs. Okay? So I want each of you to answer this question. All right? Do you support a universal ban on assault Pokemon? [00:39:17] Speaker D: Define. [00:39:18] Speaker C: No, I'm gonna turn that around on you because my next question is, which Pokemon qualify as, quote unquote, high capacity weapons? [00:39:28] Speaker A: I mean, you do have a high capacity weapon. [00:39:32] Speaker D: I think the Jigglypuff could neutralize a state if given a microphone. [00:39:37] Speaker A: There should probably be restrictions on like, literal. God, maybe the literal controllers of space and fucking time. Maybe there should be restrictions on the ruler of the fucking seas, like, I don't know. [00:39:54] Speaker D: Well, okay, but that. So the issue that I'm running into there, though is who's putting those restrictions and when would those come into play? Because, like, let's say for the sake of argument, one manages to capture a, let's say, Groudon. And then the Pokemon restrictors show up and say, hey, kid, you don't have a permit for that. That kid has a groudon. That. That grout. That kid has a groudon. And ideally, eight bad badges, which the Groudon universally understands as, oh, this kid knows what's up, so it will use for that Groudon. Yeah, I, like, I don't think, like, I. It's. We don't need no stinking badges is kind of what I think Pokemon operates on. Because if the kid's just like, no, don't worry, officer, I'm just going to use this to become The Pokemon champion, which is the highest thing I can do with my Pokemon. And certainly there's only normal things I can use these for. Um, but yeah, Jigglypuff should be registered as a weapon. Drowzee should be registered as a weapon, among other things. [00:41:05] Speaker A: Literally destroyed the world. Almost. [00:41:08] Speaker D: No, that's fine. [00:41:09] Speaker A: That's fine. Okay, okay, that's fine. I'm being silly. I'm being a bit. [00:41:12] Speaker D: Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Like, well, see to what end? Okay, so I think. I think the bureaucracy would get. The bureaucracy would get out of hand if we need to make a unique registry for each individual Pokemon, of which there's only, like, one of. Like, where does that end with the amount of Pokemon? [00:41:33] Speaker A: Like, there's only like, a thousand eight. No, there's a few more now. [00:41:37] Speaker D: All right, do you want, like, a thousand bespoke forms that you would have to figure out to get, like, your. [00:41:42] Speaker A: Yes, we'll do it the same way that Austria handles its minimum wage. Each job has a different thing. Negotiated. Yeah, let's freaking go. [00:41:50] Speaker D: I mean, do I need negotiations? And I have a Charizard. [00:41:52] Speaker A: Yeah. You really. [00:41:54] Speaker C: Okay. You know, you really think of all the things you could name. Do you really think Charizard is not getting on the restricted list? [00:42:03] Speaker D: I. I don't. What's Charizard doing in the meta right now? I don't think it's restricted fire. [00:42:08] Speaker A: It could burn stuff. [00:42:09] Speaker C: The Dark Tera type Charizard deck is still a decadent tcg. [00:42:13] Speaker D: Okay, okay. All right. Maybe it should get restricted. [00:42:18] Speaker B: I think that. That a corollary to this is why haven't Pokemon already destroyed or conquered the world already? Like, these are similar questions. And I think that if your answer to this is the first thing we established was humans and Pokemon are the same thing genetically or they're, you know, intertwined genetically is what we said. And you add that God in this universe literally is a Pokemon. I would say that if you add those two things together, that they're just. It's not possible to control. It's not possible to register Pokemon as assault Pokemon simply because Pokemon are. And this is critical to the lore of Pokemon, just simply part of the circle of life. So there will be some poke fail safe if one Pokemon goes on a rampage or something. It's just the universe will work itself. [00:43:23] Speaker D: Out to put a restriction onto a Pokemon. To put a restriction onto a Pokemon would be to try to put a restriction on, like, tornadoes. They're forces of nature. [00:43:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:33] Speaker A: I do find it ironic that the closest the world's been destroyed in Pokemon was 2000 years ago, and it was a weapon a human made. [00:43:40] Speaker D: See, see, Maybe we don't need to restrict Pokemon. Maybe the real monster is Az, which. [00:43:49] Speaker A: Is literally his name. Az. The real monster was Az. [00:43:53] Speaker B: When you consider that humans and Pokemon can talk to each other, you know, there's just the fabric of the universe in Pokemon. It's just that Pokemon are just a part of the natural order. So I just think it's not possible to really ban them any more than you can ban tornadoes. [00:44:14] Speaker C: Okay, hear me out. [00:44:14] Speaker A: Let's ban the tornadoes. [00:44:16] Speaker D: No, well, actually, no. There's also, this also raises like an interesting proposition though, right? Because not only are Pokemon forces of nature, but also importantly, workers. [00:44:28] Speaker A: Okay, you know what? I have to do this. I have to pull off the wall, actually. Well, actually, technically, only four specific Pokemon are known as the forces of nature. Well, actually. [00:44:41] Speaker D: Okay, but that doesn't sound, it just. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Means collectively they are. Yeah, we're just saying that they collectively are forces of nature. [00:44:49] Speaker A: Oh, I, I just want really needed to do the, well, actually thing. You can punch me in the face and steal my lunch money now. [00:44:56] Speaker D: No, but like, so let's say we need to like, register Machamp as a weapon of mass destruction. You know, he has forearms and big biceps, among other things. And so like, okay, that could be an issue. But like, we use the Machamp line in construction. Does that mean all of a sudden you can't have again these contributing members of the Pokemon economy? [00:45:21] Speaker A: Oh, no, you're making the economy argument. Fine, you got a point. Economy wins. [00:45:30] Speaker D: Like, if we need to like put Mr. Mime into a registry, like they're, they're domestic workers. [00:45:36] Speaker C: So, so I just want to make sure I understand everyone here. So what I'm hearing is that we're definitely not going to ban Pokemon. Is there any support for like, restricting Pokemon in public spaces? Should you need a permit to carry any type of Pokemon? Should you be allowed to carry Pokemon concealed on your person? Are we restricting any of this or are we just saying there's really no way to stop? Pokemon are an unstoppable inevitability. [00:46:09] Speaker B: I'm treating it roughly like breastfeeding. You know, if a nine year old has conquered a Pokemon with God like powers, who am I to get in the way of that relationship beyond that? [00:46:19] Speaker D: Also, I feel that most wild Pokemon, like, if one were to try to set up a registry, like, I, I, I could see an entity and a governing body being put into place to try to do this. I just don't seeing see it lasting very long. When you have elemental beings the size of elder gods who might. [00:46:41] Speaker A: And Pokemon black and white. The two legendaries were ones that were supposed to only go to legendary heroes that everybody would follow. Whatever. You guys win, you beat me down on this argument. No, register. If you get one of the big ones. If you get one of the big ones, they chose you. You deserve it. Whatever the rest of us are supposed to. [00:47:02] Speaker C: Come on. Freedom. [00:47:06] Speaker D: On suffrage. [00:47:08] Speaker B: I think the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a super Pokemon is a good guy. [00:47:18] Speaker C: That is actually true in the. [00:47:20] Speaker A: In the universe of Pokemon, especially in black and white, where the whole thing, the villain wasn't 100% sure if they were in the right, so they set it up so they assume you're the other hero. They're right. And then they set up a fight to determine who is right. Like they've literally done that. [00:47:40] Speaker C: Okay, so if. If we applied American laws to the world of Pokemon for a moment, how many laws does Ash Ketchum's journey break? [00:47:56] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:47:58] Speaker D: Probably trespassing. It's gonna start there. [00:48:01] Speaker A: Theft, the bicycle. [00:48:03] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Endangering a minor. [00:48:05] Speaker C: Are you charged with endangering a minor if you are a minor or do you get charged with something else? [00:48:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I think. I think we solved this with rock, paper, scissors or something. I don't. I don't know. [00:48:16] Speaker C: We decide who's the miner with rock, paper, scissors. [00:48:20] Speaker A: Only one of you can be the minor miner. If a minor is still in a position of responsibility or control over another child. So, like, I would imagine, you know, you have two children, and the older one babysits the young one. [00:48:36] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I just wanted to clarify. It makes sense. I just wanted the clarification of it, if that. Okay, so endangering minors, assault and battery. [00:48:45] Speaker D: Re Team Rocket. [00:48:46] Speaker C: Unlawful use of firearm. [00:48:49] Speaker A: Poor Team Rocket. What have they done to do to this? [00:48:52] Speaker C: Wait, am I allowed to talk about the non lawful use of the firearm? [00:48:56] Speaker D: Oh, wait, only. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Only if you talk about it in Japanese. [00:48:59] Speaker D: Non canonical. [00:49:00] Speaker C: Non canonical use of a firearm. That's also a crime. Different crime. [00:49:05] Speaker A: How can you be charged with something you canonically have not done? Oh, yeah, I might have robbed that big. But it was non canonical. Your honor, simply. [00:49:14] Speaker D: That was simply fan fiction. Your honor, that was not localized entirely in your kitchen. [00:49:23] Speaker B: Your honor, that was not localized. Has me cracking up. [00:49:30] Speaker C: Any. Anything. Any other laws that Ash and crew broke on their fantastic journey? [00:49:37] Speaker D: I mean, like, with the fabric of reality. Probably should be. [00:49:42] Speaker C: Yeah, but wow. [00:49:43] Speaker A: If Only we had some sort of registry to prevent that from happening. [00:49:47] Speaker D: Right, right, right. We can't do that. Never mind. That's. That's fine. Yeah. I mean, it's mostly just gross misuse of a Pikachu. Oh, oh, the Pikachu's not kept in a Pokeball. That's maybe a crime. That's gotta be breaking that Pikachu's at least. Like, if Pokemon are. If Pokemon are evolutionary, attempted to humans, are they held to the same standards of nudity? And should they be? [00:50:12] Speaker A: Are monkeys out to the same standards? [00:50:15] Speaker B: No, we said they're a chain together. Like, they're definitely tied together, but they're not identical. [00:50:21] Speaker D: Okay. I mean, I just. I am just trying to get drowsy to wear pants. That is my main cruise. [00:50:28] Speaker A: Tell you what, why don't we work out a bipartisan solution? I'll make a law that says Josie has to wear pants. And then you sign on to my bill that will. Will cut all the health care for Pokemon in the Pokemon world. [00:50:43] Speaker D: You know what? Maybe drowsy can be. Maybe drowsy can let his freak flag fly. [00:50:48] Speaker B: I. [00:50:48] Speaker A: Well, I'm sorry. You killed my reason. [00:50:52] Speaker B: Before we get into legislation, it just seems like, just from what we know about the show, the Pokemon can be socially pressured to wear clothes. [00:51:04] Speaker D: That's true. And some of them. [00:51:05] Speaker B: There are, like, there are Pokemon that wear gloves and stuff. There's Pokemon that wear hats. Like, there's Pokemon that wear stuff. [00:51:14] Speaker D: Some of the hats seem to be part of the Pokemon. [00:51:18] Speaker A: The Drowsy Pants act. [00:51:19] Speaker D: The. The Drowsy Pants act. Or like, what about, like, Pokemon. Like, I've always kind of wondered, like, does the leak that Farfetch'd carries, like, is that, like. [00:51:30] Speaker A: I know there's some more with the leak. It. I can't remember offhand. I know there are some more. [00:51:34] Speaker D: I mean, like, it's. See also Cubone skull. [00:51:38] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. This seems like. Yeah, I think that's a thing where if you ask them if they're born with the leak, they get offended at you. Like. [00:51:48] Speaker D: No, they just all happen with it. [00:51:52] Speaker B: Maybe it's the leak. Yeah. Are these. These aren't all identical leaks, are they? They all just have their own personal leak or. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Yeah, they have their own personal league. And as of Generation 8, you can evolve Farfetched in. In Brit. In a place that's basically the UK to create Sirfetch, where the. Not only does the leak turn into a sword, he also gets a leak shield. [00:52:19] Speaker D: Sirfetch. [00:52:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:52:21] Speaker C: Yeah, we do it Hard to process information. A lot on this show and I didn't expect expect this episode to cause so many. So much. Just loss of coherency, but. [00:52:37] Speaker D: Just. I'm just thinking. I'm like a. A laws of thermodynamics. Where does the matter for the leak shield come from? [00:52:47] Speaker A: Listen, listen. Here's the law of matter in Pokemon. It doesn't matter. That's the laws of matter. And Pokemon, it doesn't matter, you know. [00:52:55] Speaker D: Okay, okay. My bean's a little freaked right now, and I'm just along to the journey. Let's go. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Starfetch's best Gen 8 Pokemon, a mighty knight with a leaked sword and a leg shield. Let's go, baby. [00:53:08] Speaker C: Wow, there's a lot to process here today. We're not done yet though, with the hard to process questions. I've got a few more. How do you think underage Pokemon trainers are compensated? They take money from each other. But like, where does the money originate in this scheme? Are they paid like gig workers or like college athletes? Like, what do you think? [00:53:32] Speaker D: I mean, like, okay, so if a lot of the money is being paid by gym leaders. Are gym leaders job creators? [00:53:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, if they've got people working at the job at the gyms in different amounts of. Gyms have different amounts of people, it. [00:53:48] Speaker B: Seems based on the intense amount of commercialization of the sport of Pokemon. [00:53:54] Speaker A: Oh, God. Let's talk Gen8. The gyms are giant stadiums with all sorts of people in the stands cheering you on. When you get to the gym leaders final Pokemon, the music even changes to one where the crowd's cheering becomes part of the music. Like, oh, Gen 8. Very much commercial alike. [00:54:19] Speaker B: Well, it just seems like now we'd be talking about agents as a thing that's in this universe, like really obviously. And it just seems like, well, they may not want to talk about the fact that there are agents in the world of Pokemon because of the implications. [00:54:35] Speaker D: Getting getting back to the general makeup of the economy, I do think that it's worth noting that a large part of at least the player character in most Pokemon games, at least like secondary source of income, seems to be selling shit you find on the ground. [00:54:52] Speaker A: I love this economy tropes. Economy. You can only make it by. By finding potions on the ground that you sell. [00:54:59] Speaker D: I mean, like, you sell nuggets. You just sell cool rocks. I think that the Pokemon economy seems to be simulated by the exchange of cool rocks. [00:55:11] Speaker A: So I'm just going to say, as a kid, I learned the harsh lesson about how Video games actually work because I remember as a kid when I found my first moonstone, I wanted to get rid of it, but maybe get it back later. So I sold it to a store. Didn't get anything for it. I know. Bad choice. And I was so disappointed that you can't buy it back. That's when I learned the harsh reality of the economy and how it works. [00:55:36] Speaker D: Yeah, no take back. [00:55:38] Speaker C: You can buy it back. And it's like, like three times the price now. So. So they're just, basically, they're just. They're just gig workers doing whatever they can to make a buck. [00:55:48] Speaker D: Says do like the child Pokemon trainers have to file. Is it like just 1099s? [00:55:56] Speaker A: Okay? Like, we're thinking 10 year olds, but the trainers get as young as, like, as, like, there are. [00:56:05] Speaker D: There are like child to you trainers. Right? [00:56:09] Speaker C: Are they filing taxes? They're not filing taxes. [00:56:12] Speaker D: Well, they should be filing if they're winning. If they're. [00:56:15] Speaker A: Mommy says I need to file my tax form to the Pokemon government. [00:56:22] Speaker D: Well, like, if they're. If they're bringing in, like a substantive income, how else are we going to pay for the Pokemon public health care? [00:56:33] Speaker A: So true. We have to exploit the toddlers for. [00:56:35] Speaker D: Their money so that way Raichu can get all fixed up. [00:56:38] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. Yeah, this totally makes sense. We just got to exploit the toddlers so that. Right, you can have health care. [00:56:43] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The toddler needs to fill out a 1099 N for each battle that it participates in and not. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Oh, my God. There's all these edgy jokes about Pokemon actually being a terrible. Yeah, there's all these edgy jokes, but I think this podcast takes the case for the most dystopian view of the Pokemon world. [00:57:06] Speaker B: I don't even know if these things are dystopian so much as they are realistic. I guess they assume some entropy. They are more entropy. Your choices have been more activism centered and ours has been more entropy centered. I wouldn't say one is better or worse or more reactionary than the other. [00:57:30] Speaker C: This is great. This episode is fantastic. [00:57:37] Speaker A: That's it. I'm going to the Pokemon capital right now. I'm going to the Indigo Plateau and I'm going to start a giant rally, a giant protest. [00:57:47] Speaker D: What happens with the Pokemon government6, its cavalcade of chanseys at you. [00:57:52] Speaker C: Oh, God. [00:57:54] Speaker A: I'm going to go out shouting. I'm going to get a good sound clip in, and that's going to be the last you see of me. I'll be Fine. I'll be fine. [00:58:02] Speaker C: Okay, here's what I've got next. Do you think that the Pokemon trainers would be allowed to unionize? [00:58:10] Speaker D: I mean, if you have the Funny. [00:58:14] Speaker B: That the Pokemon would unionize, but the trainers wouldn't be allowed to. [00:58:18] Speaker C: And yet you have to admit there's a chance that that could happen. [00:58:23] Speaker D: Yeah. No. [00:58:23] Speaker A: How have the efforts to unionize gig workers been walking out in real life? [00:58:29] Speaker D: I feel like the trainers would have. Have less of an immediate shared interest beyond just training Pokemon. Like, there's so many different, like, types that it might be hard to find, like, a collective, like, voice for this. On the flip side, though, we would. [00:58:45] Speaker A: Need a unifier that can unify the gamblers, that can unify the swimmers, that can unify the disgruntled grunts for the evil team. [00:58:55] Speaker D: So, like, okay, but if you're. Let's say you're the champion and you've captured the big face Pokemon of a given game or region, I guess you do technically have the power of God in anime on your side. [00:59:09] Speaker A: I mean, again, that was the antagonist. Whole plan in black and white. Fifth generation. He got the big Pokemon. He beat the leader. It turns out he had his castle buried underneath the indigo plateau. Don't think about it too much. And he wanted to show the world he was better than the only person that could be seen as his competitor at that point. [00:59:33] Speaker D: And he lost, like, tech bro. Yeah. I mean, I think that, like, theoretically, Pokemon trainers have the. There's nothing legally preventing Pokemon trainers from unionizing. But I do think that there would be too much, like, infighting to have, like, a cohesive and coherent platform versus the Chansey union, which is very strong. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I also think that actually the. The trainers are in a situation much like boxing or something, where they're going to be in relationships with the promoters. The promoters have already. This is a big, monetized world, and it's clear that the people that are in charge of monetizing Pokemon have a totally different layer of knowledge of the game than the people who are playing it and going through the world and setting. So I think that the money is going to be made by the adults, but the adults are obviously going have to cut in the Pokemon. So I think the. The trainers, although they are becoming famous and they are becoming the best, like no one ever was, and they're getting the fame and influencer hype, they may be making the least amount of money. [01:00:41] Speaker C: There's probably, like, a few trainers at the top that make really good money, so that there's like a perception. [01:00:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Like you've got to go through beating eight gym leaders. Like, think about whether you can outlift eight liters of gyms in your country or state. Probably not. Delusional voice as a child. To make it even more competitive. [01:01:06] Speaker C: My next question. This might also help us to continue to clarify where we're at here. [01:01:12] Speaker A: No more help. No more. [01:01:15] Speaker C: Do you think that the children that participate in Pokemon battles get academic incentives and, you know, relaxed rewarded for relaxed participation in academics? [01:01:27] Speaker B: Children that don't battle Pokemon, it's just like the ncaa. If you've got Pokemon, you don't have to go to school. You know, they're not. You know, you can phone it in in class. It's just like being a protagonist in an anime. You've got your whole story arc going and school is like the fourth story arc. [01:01:48] Speaker D: Certain point you'd need to treat it similar to like child actors having like a set teacher. One would hope so. There's kind of like, can Pokemon trainers have like Zoom School? [01:01:58] Speaker C: Oh, interesting question. [01:02:00] Speaker A: Oh, it's worth noting that 9th gen Scarlet and Violet. The entire plot is you're going to this special Pokemon school known, very well known, great at educating people to be the best trainers. Like that. That is the plot. You are going to the Pokemon school. [01:02:18] Speaker C: That's kind of intriguing. [01:02:20] Speaker D: So, I mean, one would necessarily think there has to be a strong academic structure within the world of Pokemon. Just given the number of professors that are willy nilly running around, there's gotta. [01:02:33] Speaker C: Be a lot of people that study Pokemon. Which also makes sense because what are you going to do if you're an ex Pokemon trainer? Right. Like if you trained Pokemon when you were young and now you're aging out of that. What. What do you do now? I think the answer is you teach. Right. [01:02:50] Speaker D: You're like becoming a gym leader. Or you could also form a crime syndicate. I. I see. [01:02:55] Speaker C: You could also form a crime syndicate. That's fairly. [01:02:58] Speaker A: If I recall, if I Recall correctly, in Gen 9, one of the teachers at the university was a former gym leader who recently retired. Yes. Literally see that happening. [01:03:11] Speaker C: There we go, folks. Right there in the text. I just got a couple of questions left about youth and Pokemon. We've gotten through a lot of these already, which is great. [01:03:23] Speaker B: Very excellent role of. Of questions. I was pleasantly. This was like a nice version of the Metal Gear Solid episode. I was surprised in a pleasant way, but not Kennedy. [01:03:36] Speaker A: I will never forgive you for that episode. [01:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:03:38] Speaker A: I will never forgive you for that episode. [01:03:40] Speaker B: This has some pleasant Existential crisises. [01:03:43] Speaker C: Well, let's have a couple more. At what age should you be allowed to own and battle Pokemon? Is it acceptable. We've been talking about this kind of dancing around this off and on. Is it acceptable that we have these toddlers battling Pokemon? Or should we be cutting this off and saying, you know, you got to be at least 10 or something, you know, you can't just be a fucking four year old with a machamp. [01:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm like, I'm a poker libertarian now, having talked through these issues. You know, if a four year old is, is dancing through the fire like Avatar the Last Airbender, and they're just like, I'm buddies with a level 72 Charizard and you got to deal with it, then I just think this, the circle of nature will balance itself out. And I hope that they find an equal and equivalent 4 year old or 7 year old to rival them to keep us from having our rights interfinged or whatever. [01:04:44] Speaker D: Similar to where I'm coming down as well. Like, I mean, look, if a 4 year old has a Charizard, I know for a goddamn fact that I am not going to get the Charizard away from the four year old. So we're gonna just let that happen, I suppose. [01:05:01] Speaker A: All right, you'll never be able to guess what my favorite Pokemon generation in games are based off of my answers, but I, as a Pokemon black and white puritist, think 14 or 16 is a more appropriate age. [01:05:14] Speaker D: Oh, no, no. That's probably a better age. I just don't think it's feasible to enforce that. [01:05:22] Speaker A: Oh, you got a license for this Pokemon? [01:05:25] Speaker D: My license is. I've got a Charizard man. Now give me your lunch money. [01:05:32] Speaker A: I can't believe he would say that to Officer Jetty. [01:05:34] Speaker D: Look, ACAB includes every single Officer Jetty. [01:05:37] Speaker C: God damn it. That was my next question. [01:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we could ask us if we could pretend it's the first time we thought of the question, Does ACAB include. [01:05:48] Speaker C: I'm just kidding. [01:05:51] Speaker D: Okay, well, the answer is yes, but also smash. [01:05:54] Speaker A: Whoa. Wow. I mean, that is such a loop. [01:05:59] Speaker C: Whoa, that's a spicy take. [01:06:03] Speaker D: That's a. That's a. No one is. [01:06:05] Speaker A: I have many questions. [01:06:06] Speaker D: She's dressed as a Vaporeon. Yes. No. [01:06:09] Speaker A: That Vaporeon joke is so overused. I'm just asking you how many Officer Jenny's there are. Oh, what's that? Yeah, I bet you never thought of that before. Let's move on before I regret living. Just kidding. I already do. [01:06:22] Speaker C: Let's go Does ACAB also include Detective Pikachu? [01:06:27] Speaker D: Yes. [01:06:28] Speaker C: Also, he's a private investigator. [01:06:30] Speaker B: No. [01:06:32] Speaker A: Can we go back a second? Bug Spunny. What'd you say after you said yes? [01:06:36] Speaker D: I said smash. [01:06:38] Speaker A: Like smash brothers. Right. [01:06:40] Speaker C: Pikachu. [01:06:41] Speaker D: He's voiced by Danny DeVito. [01:06:44] Speaker A: Oh, you know what? That wacky Bugs Bunny. [01:06:55] Speaker D: Excellent. [01:06:56] Speaker C: Excellent. [01:06:57] Speaker A: Yes, that includes Detective Pikachu. Also not Detective Pikachu. [01:07:01] Speaker B: Not a cop. [01:07:04] Speaker D: He's a private dick. [01:07:06] Speaker B: A private detective is not a cop. [01:07:09] Speaker D: Yeah, it's not. He's not a cop, but he's certainly adjacent enough that I. Look, if. If I have the right. Remind I have the right to remain silent. If Detective Pikachu is asking me certain questions. I don't know, like if. If he asked if I saw something or other. No, I didn't. He's. He's not a cop, but he's a narc. [01:07:27] Speaker B: You don't have to talk to Detective Pikachu. Of course I could, but it's just fine. Detective Pikachu's gonna find all this stuff out himself. [01:07:35] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, like, the issue that I'm running into is I don't think I could be mean to Detective Pikachu. Look at his little hat, you know? [01:07:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:07:46] Speaker A: Oh, it's like Puss in Boots. Oh, look at them little boots. [01:07:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I think, like. Yeah. Okay. Can little guys be cops? [01:07:56] Speaker B: Maybe the cops should only be. Well, that goes down a whole different. The whole different thing when you have the. When you have the cops only being little guys. [01:08:05] Speaker D: No, no, no. [01:08:09] Speaker B: Okay. [01:08:10] Speaker D: Yeah. Like. [01:08:10] Speaker B: Like, can they. [01:08:12] Speaker D: But can they? [01:08:12] Speaker B: I guess it depends. [01:08:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, because, like. [01:08:16] Speaker B: I mean, there are some. I don't know how little. [01:08:18] Speaker A: Just a little guy. [01:08:19] Speaker B: I don't know how you can't do anything. I don't know how little the guys can get. I guess it depends on the. The area. Like, you might have to. To be able to lift the log or something to qualify. I don't know. [01:08:30] Speaker D: How does the Squirtle Squad factor into this? [01:08:34] Speaker C: In what way are they. [01:08:35] Speaker A: Are. [01:08:36] Speaker C: Wait, are we saying Are. Is Squirtle Squad acab? Is that what we're getting at? [01:08:40] Speaker D: Yeah, it's probably acab. They seem to be more of, like a. Like a community defense. [01:08:45] Speaker A: I just want to say that as an adult, hearing the phrase Squirtle squad puts my mind in a completely different direction. Sounds like the name of a porno or something. Yes, the Squirtle Squad is acab. [01:08:57] Speaker C: ACAB includes the Squirtle Squad. [01:08:59] Speaker A: Sure. [01:08:59] Speaker B: Yes, we did understand the Implication of the joke. [01:09:04] Speaker A: I wish I didn't expect. [01:09:07] Speaker C: I didn't expect y' all to come down so hard on Squirtle Squad, but yet probably fair. [01:09:13] Speaker A: Squirtle Squad, current location with Officer Jen. [01:09:16] Speaker D: Oh, Squirtle Squad. We were all rooting for you. Squad. No, no. You guys have such good sunglasses. How could you do this to me? [01:09:30] Speaker A: Squirtle. Squirtle. That was their response when they were asked about it. Squirtle. That translates to we sold out because they gave us coolest. [01:09:43] Speaker D: Oh, no, they're all wearing Oakley's now. [01:09:48] Speaker C: Perfect. Here's my final question. Thank God we get me tooed. [01:09:54] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:09:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:57] Speaker C: All right, that's it. Thank you, everyone for voting with us today. This has been the most important election of your lives. Once again. [01:10:04] Speaker A: Did you vote, Brooks? Did you vote for the first? [01:10:06] Speaker D: I did just vote for the first. I. I feel like a different person. [01:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah, you are one. [01:10:11] Speaker A: Yes. You now have a new attack voting Pokemon. It's a normal type attack. It has a 30% chance of voting your opponent out of existence. [01:10:22] Speaker D: I call that sheer cold. [01:10:25] Speaker A: No, for sure kill. They just faint with voting. They just no longer exist. [01:10:32] Speaker B: By which you mean mildly inconveniencing them for a period of like 8, 10 to. [01:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't involve a gun, so you can do it. [01:10:41] Speaker C: Bugs, what would you like to promote? [01:10:43] Speaker D: Democracy. [01:10:44] Speaker A: Wow, look at this schmuck. Who wants to mock? [01:10:51] Speaker B: This is the story arc of the year. Thank you for participating. We've really gone on a life changing journey together. It was just great. [01:11:01] Speaker A: Maybe the real voting was the friends you made along the way. [01:11:04] Speaker D: Support democracy by following me on Blue Sky, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, all at Bugs Matrix. [01:11:14] Speaker B: What Hillary Clinton really meant was Pokemon, comma, go to the polls. [01:11:18] Speaker D: I mean, like, whoa, there's so many. There's so many chances. They're unionized. [01:11:25] Speaker A: Like, I'm appealing to the chancey vote. So they vote me in as President 2028. The first year I'm qualified to run for president. [01:11:35] Speaker D: Technically, Hell yeah. [01:11:37] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much for choosing to spend some time with us today, Bugs. Thank you listeners for choosing to spend some time with us and for voting as always. And we'll see you next time. Vote. Once again, bye Vote. [01:11:51] Speaker A: Vote. [01:11:51] Speaker B: Bye. Bye vote. [01:11:58] Speaker D: Thanks for listening.