Unity Power

There's been a lot of talk about "unity" in the most recent of times, whether it's to resolve the current conditions of the world or other things that are pertinent to the communities of humankind. It's a spirit that is arguably in extreme need at the moment, wherever one may be. Such a spirit reminds me of something specific related to Pokémon, which would be called "Unity Power", as per the title of this post. I'll explain this shortly, but what's important is that in the spirit of unity, the Pokémon thing is what came to my Pokémon-influenced mind.

"Unity Power" is a hidden Skill in Pokémon Shuffle that is possessed by Ash-Greninja (and some others), and as such requires the use of a Skill Swapper to allow the Pokémon to make use of the Skill. Its function is to allow it to deal more damage to the opposing Pokémon. It's a neat Skill, in the same way that Battle Bond for Ash-Greninja in the main series games is a neat Ability, though their functions don't exactly correlate. Even so, the spirit of the Skill vis-a-vis the Ability has a certain correspondence, which becomes important to this post.

That spirit is certainly one that is "linking", hence "unifying". It parallels the relationship of Ash and Greninja in the anime, which has a similarly unifying quality. Those who watch the anime will know that along with their unification, great achievements were made, however much things turned out anticlimactic in the end. Of course, one in the games can stand and stride to make more successes along the lines of Ash and his Greninja, and most importantly realizing them into fruition instead of them remaining as ideals.

Much of the talk that has gone on recently about "unity" are therefore justified. To rid the world of concurrent problems of many people due to one thing or another, no less than a concerted effort is required. Everyone has to work together to resolve the current conditions to make them better just as Ash-Greninja deals damage to its opponents. And even after they've been resolved, there may still be lots to do to preserve that unity, especially in order to stave off potential problems in the later future.

It's hard to not see that there's been a lot of divisiveness in the world today, whether that was born out of the onset of current conditions or the fallout of certain happenings. Calls for unity are therefore not unreasonable in the hope that it may lead to many things becoming fixed. While the way to fix them may not necessarily be in the same way that Unity Power grants the power to Ash-Greninja to do more things, similar spirits may just be called for, in order that some fixing does take place, hopefully for the longer term.

One year ago: Cosplay: Aishiteru Minna

Two years ago: SwitchCon

Three years ago: Private vs. Public Raids?

Four years ago: The Times They Are a-Switchin'