zuzuzee:

(( None of us are attacking one another in writing our opinions on this matter, we’re not imposing our own ideas on anyone. I said that this is what I think. This is what makes sense to me, but in no way was I saying that this is law, and it has to be done. I did say that this was just my opinion. :|

What you said about Sergei was exactly what I was trying to say. When an author goes out of thier way to make real world references to unreal locales but not actually implicitly state the actual names of the real world locales they’re referencing, its a great feat of writing and merges a character into the world with a sense of familiarity to our own. Great to read.

I think something was lost in translation here or not read properly. This was just a debate in the heart of all things, not an imposition. No one was telling people NOT to do it outright, it was a suggestion not to do it in character but to stick with the regions we’re given.))

((Theres no Japan, no China, no Earth countries in the Pokeworld. ^^; You can refer to your accent’s sounding like real world equivalents, but in the end your character can’t come from those countries, because they don’t actually exist in the Pokeverse.))

((This statement felt the way I described, but I guess my ‘i no engleesh’ foreign card came in play somewhere during reading. CASE CLOSED, sorry for being picky at your remarks, I guess at the time I just wanted to point out that there are in fact real places referenced in games, so certain reasoning isn’t as far-fetched or OOC as some more immersive story-tellers may deem them.

Now what are all these OOC messages on Malcolm’s blog good lord, I need to go back to writing with no capitalization and punctuation before things get too civil.

Sorry, followers! I’ll get back to regular Malcolm shenanigans now.))

ariadnearca:

boozeooka:

[…] so saying “No, you CAN’T have your character from this and this country”, in face of the facts that some of these countries have been referenced in the game canon, even if in “young canon” (although I wanted to note some, like the Pacific Ocean in Poliwrath’s Dex Entry,…

Uh

I’m… not really that submersed in Pokémon lore (for years the anime and cards were my only access point, to my embarrassment) and I hadn’t realised, originally, that there were so many in-game references of that variety. When I posted the above message - it really wasn’t meant in a preachy way because I get it now/got it then that there’s no right answer for how included real-life countries should be in the Pokéverse. I knew when I was writing that post that canon dictated I had no right to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do, and I really wasn’t attempting to, I was just trying to voice my own position. Albeit one that made me come off as judgemental.

As for the rest of what I said, it was pretty rude I guess (…)

((To be honest I was referencing Alex’ posts rather then yours in regards to the rather definite and harsh opinion of “this cannot be done”, when, as I mentioned, headcanon shenanigans are pretty hard to contain to a single theme or motif, especially given the particular universe and references within it and the raw amount of people who are interpreting it within End Run.

I can understand your stance on the ways nationalities are shown, I experience my own such patriotic-fueled irate on occasions, but from what I’ve seen, despite some heavier stereotypes being incorporated into characters, all of these pretty much bring out positively quirky or likable sides of the stereotypically-represented nationalities, rather then being used to ridicule or belittle them. S’all in good fun, no?))

ariadnearca:

(reblogging anew to spare interrogateelliot more alerts to only loosely-connected discussion)

zuzuzee:

I think if we have to reference countries from our world to describe certain aspects of our characters we do so, but OOC. Theres no Germany or Africa mentioned in the pokeverse, so we don’t say they’re from there, we use the regions that they’ve released/made and write our stories there.

The implication of ethnicity in the pokeverse I got was that it was multicultural, as in different races didn’t come from specific countries (humans I mean) they were just… there. It was just like that.

So, I think its ok to describe your character, out of character, using references from our time/world, just not YOUR character describing themselves or coming from our own countries when they clearly aren’t part of the universe (ie, they aren’t visited in the games/anime/whatever just mentioned in redundant pokedex entries that were made when the game’s canon was young).

This is just what I think.

Yeah, this is my feeling on the matter. 

I do think a big part of my problem with this whole situation though are that the ones who are most likely to bring real-world countries into IC conversation are the ones who are most blatantly bandying about silly stereotypes without much research. I mean, to start with a counter example - Sergei and his backstory is pretty much the best thought-out piece of backstory culture in this thing and it is directly based on a real-world culture… but he didn’t grow up in Soviet Russia, he grew up within the Pokémon regions, and references such. Whereas other people are just making constant in-character references to being very Scottish/English/French etc and it’s pretty painful to watch - especially when it’s your own nationality that’s being, essentially, parodied. XD; (…)

((last OOC I swear, I just don’t want to dispute these things on my artumblr since that is not it’s purpose.

Fair points are being made and I have to say I much more prefer this creative solution for ethnicities that ie. YoungSherlockHolmes brought forth, however as it is with expanded universes, some people will interpret things differently so saying “No, you CAN’T have your character from this and this country”, in face of the facts that some of these countries have been referenced in the game canon, even if in “young canon” (although I wanted to note some, like the Pacific Ocean in Poliwrath’s Dex Entry, persists even in GENV), sounds like a rather rude imposing of your own headcanon on other people because you don’t like they’re idea.
I’d say this is a similar situation to Pokemon design interpretations. I see something I wouldn’t really agree with, but I don’t go telling people they can’t draw something the way they do just because it doesn’t follow the original design as much as I would like it to.
Headcanons Follies! If someone takes the imaginitive route like Sergei’s author, awesome! Great job on incorporating this element from our world into this fictional one. If somebody decides to reference real-world countries on account of in-game references being dropped - no problem, they can do that as well, they are entitled to as authors of their own expanded universe headcanon. Does this complicate things on a larger ER-universe-unity scale? Yes, probably, but it doesn’t need to be a problem either. Some of us will do our thang, others will do theirs and both parties will just stick to their own solutions.))

kantosrunawaybride:

((Thandie Newton is about as close as I’m gonna get, I think. She works pretty well, though!))

((Young(er) Clint Eastwood, punk.))