Tuesday, October 1, 2024

What Do You See?

The question posed as the title of this post is simple and innocuous enough, but it has a bit of an obscure origin. It is asked by a certain elder character to a certain youth character with the intent of getting the latter to describe not only what is visible ("to see") but also what is happening ("to observe") in order to get the big picture. That said, neither of these characters are involved with Pokémon, although some might already know who they are if they read my blog. Yet with the concept the way it is, it becomes a wonder if it can be applied to Pokémon, and that becomes the purpose of this post.

For a Pokémon Trainer locked in a battle, it seems the concept applies as clear as day. Regardless of what kind of Pokémon battle is taking place, they have to be observant of their own Pokémon, those of the opponent, and how the two interact. There have been moments in the anime where Ash's thought process was displayed, and that is essentially as if the elder was asking the question to Ash at those very moments. As for other Trainers, the manifestation of the answers will be different, even if the question is the same.

More broadly speaking, the question may be posed to any person involved with or interested in Pokémon, real or imagined. It would be a way of getting them to point out the things that play into their involvement or interest with regard to Pokémon, and how that is manifested in their perspectives. In fact, that seems pretty much what I'm doing on this blog, responding to the posed question in relation to a Pokémon topic of choice... or in this case, a certain philosophical train of thought.

With that, a particular case example could involve a Pokémon Professor - say, Professor Oak - talking to a research assistant. Like any researcher worth their salt, they have to be able to consider the possibilities of interpreting what they are seeing in addition to what is actually seen. Come to think of it, both parties almost exactly fulfill the role of the elder and youth characters I mentioned - but that's starting to get off track.

Visibly seeing some things is rather key to Pokémon regardless, but if the elder and youth characters have something to say in general, observing what ties things together is just as key, as is the overall understanding of things - whether it's their things or Pokémon things. In that respect, the answer to the question may not be simple enough even if the question is fairly simple. Now, it seems I have to answer the question for myself.

What do you see? - I see interactions, dynamics, and relationships among passionate people and wondrous creatures...

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