@Mr_NutterButter Yeah I think with the stories especially the Typhlosion and Rapidash ones that is extremely reminiscent of Japanese and Ainu folk religion, where there's a lot of stories about unexpected things happening to people and how to deal with the brutality of life. Ainu stories, called Yukar, in particular (really just going off of Ainu stuff because it's stuff I know about) revolve a lot around "animals are near-immortal deities and basically do everything we can but better when we're not looking, curse you if you fuck them over, give us gifts for being nice to them, and frequently interact with our society in ways we cannot comprehend completely." Not too dissimilar from Pokemon as a concept of "supernatural animals" I think.

There was another document in the leak that was basically research and summaries on real folk religions which included Ainu, and the stories read a lot like Ainu Yukar. And those get pretty out there, like any kind of folk religion whether Asian or American or European, stories like that explain the unexplained in nature, and teach lessons about how humans live and interact with others and with nature... and they do teach harsh lessons and have harsh content. But yeah, it never really seemed to be a problem for anyone in human history until stuff started getting sanitized in modern times. But I guess, sure, for a children's video game it can be weird to get that deep.

Beyond the jokes though, retards I unfortunately come into contact with genuinely go "yikes" at the stories and I always forget that normalfags are pretty thin-skinned and retarded. But it does serve to remind me that Pokemon in the beginning did cause a bit of a mini Satanic Panic in itself.

Well, I always think overly deep, I just found the connections to other random stuff I know of pretty fascinating, it tickles my autism...!