Artistic License

In another game series that I play, there is a term that gets around and is used to describe and relate how some parts of the games appear to their conceptions. The term is the same as the title of this post: "artistic license". I was prompted to think of this term as I was considering what to mention in regard to the "progress" of Mauville City. When really considered, it seems the term can and does apply to Pokémon (and its games in particular) in certain ways as well.

The term concerns the depiction of in-game objects, things, and places as they appear or function, and its comparison with how the actual forms of those would appear or function. For example, a place in the game may look a certain way with certain things, but in actual conception would appear very different despite still having the same things. Granted, the latter's idealized version may take a stretch of the imagination, but it's also that imagination that gave rise to at least parts of the former's realization; this discrepancy is what is covered by the term "artistic license".

As to how this is realized in Pokémon, the simplest example would be the cities and towns found all over. It's not that hard to imagine that these cities and towns are more or less like cities and towns in the real world; however, as they appear in the game, these cities and towns look much simpler for their purposes. That is where "artistic license" comes in, as the appearance is altered to suit the work, only including the necessary aspects. If the example of Mauville City is to go by, it would be that either the rectangular structure would be somewhat larger and contain more things than what are shown, or that there would be minor settlements outside, or both. The case for other cities and towns would be similar.

"Artistic license" will always be present so long as the realizations are different from their ideal conceptions, but that doesn't seem to be a bad thing - it just means the idealized situation is imaginatively bigger and more detailed/complex than what can be realized. Such is what seems to be the case for that other game series, and also the conception of cities and towns in Pokémon. It's still something to be considered between our imaginations and the depicted reality.

One year ago: I Found You, Black and White