History WMG / PokemonGoldAndSilver

In the anime, it's mentioned that with all the men being trainers, the women took up a lot of jobs. Even if this isn't consistent with the games, the populace's general fascination with training must leave a lot of jobs unfulfilled by one person. So why does mom never work? Simple. She was apprehended, spent some time in jail, and is now on house arrest. Those items she buys you without checking with you first? A ruse to hide that she's saving your money for herself, who she can't comfortably support now, or she's secretly funding Team Rocket.

* Lorelei: they actually had a relationship, Lorelei being attracted by Giovanni's power and skill as a Gym leader (she probably wasn't E4 yet) and rugged good looks. Giovanni was also impressed by her skill and thought she could make a vital difference in Team Rocket (once again, still a young organization), and perhaps also be a good girlfriend/wife. After Lorelei became preganant with Silver, Giovanni thought it meant he finally had the hook he needed to pull her into Team Rocket, and revealed his plans and intentions to her (as she didn't previously know about his TR involvement), hoping it would make her more attracted to him. Needless to say, this backfired; instead, she was disgusted that he was a budding crime lord, and that she had fallen for a man so evil. She left him, and when Silver was born, not wanting the reminder of her involvement with him, she left him on his Gym doorstep. Giovanni took the advantage to start raising a heir to Team Rocket, the son of two great battlers.

This also goes into the matter of your father. Reformed (mostly) now, (or simply not wanting you to get involved for your safety), she's not telling you that your dad is a member of Team Rocket. Now, the boy may not even be hers: regardless of who mom is, Ethan appears in both games. She may have agreed to raise Giovanni's second kid after it got attached to her, so it wouldn't be subject to his or the mother's emotional abuse.

** Yes, that's what he's saying. The guy in question is in the Kanto remakes, when Red's eleven and Silver's eight or so. In the sake of fairness, Silver uses the same sprite in the Giovanni event (where we see him right after Red beats Giovanni the last time), so maybe he's just mature for his age? Or the guy in question didn't know much about Silver besides his hair color? He would also mistake Leaf for him if you played as her.

** Worth noting that in Yellow, all three starters are handed to the PC by NPCs for various reasons, in homage to the anime like the rest of the game.

* This is why Johto and Kanto are the only region to share an Elite 4, and you need 8 badges to face him. It would also explain all the bad organization like the Kanto gym leaders being stronger than the Elite 4, (although that can be explained as them using their best team for a man with 8 or more badges.) [[/folder]]

* Red's highest level Pokemon as well as the first one he calls out is Pikachu, suggesting that was his starter. He also has the fully evolved form of the 3 Kanto starters which you can only do in Pokemon Yellow. True they didn't want to give Red a definitive starter so they just gave him all four, but still his Pikachu..

* It seems the prestige and social image of the dragon clan members is so high, that literally any pokemon they end up using seems to automatically be considered a dragon type, solely for the notion that the dragon clan members use them. Literally, Lance has a Ampharos in the trading card game, and Clair uses one in Pokemon Stadium 2. It's a sheep, it isn't even reptilian, there is nothing even remotely draconic about it at all. And yet, as Mega Ampharos in X/Y it suddenly gains a dual dragon type. Why? Because Lance and Clair have one?[[/folder]]

* It seems the prestige and social image of the dragon clan members is so high, that literally any pokemon they end up using seems to automatically be considered a dragon type, solely for the notion that the dragon clan members use them. Literally, Lance has a Ampharos in the trading card game, and Clair uses one in Pokemon Stadium 2. It's a sheep, it isn't even reptilian, there is nothing even remotely draconic about it at all. And yet, as Mega Ampharos in X/Y it suddenly gains a dual dragon type. Why? Because Lance and Clair have one?[[/folder]]

* It seems the prestige and social image of the dragon clan members is so high, that literally any pokemon they end up losing seems to automatically be considered a dragon type, solely for the notion that the dragon clan members use them. Literally, Lance has a Ampharos in the trading card game, and Clair uses one in Pokemon Stadium 2. It's a sheep, it isn't even reptilian, there is nothing even remotely draconic about it at all. And yet, as Mega Ampharos in X/Y it suddenly gains a dual dragon type. Why? Because Lance and Clair have one?[[/folder]]

* It seems the prestige and social image of the dragon clan members is so high, that literally any pokemon they end up losing seems to automatically be considered a dragon type, solely for the notion that the dragon clan members use them. Literally, Lance has a Ampharos in the trading card game, and Clair uses one in Pokemon Stadium 2. It's a sheep, it isn't even reptilian, there is nothing even remotely draconic about it at all. And yet, as Mega Ampharos in X/Y it suddenly gains a dual dragon type. Why? B[[/folder]]

** How does this link to CultOfPersonality though?
*** Have you not seen how many people in Johto and Kanto have dragon types? It's just Lance, Clair, and a bunch of Cooltrainers that hang around the Blackthorn Gym itself. Most of them openly idolize Clair and Lance. From the way they talk, I do get the impression that there's a bit of CultOfPersonality solely for the excessive fan-following centered around the Blackthorn dragon clan, and around Lance and Clair in general. Seeing as no other trainers seem to have dragon types, apart from the ones that surrender themselves as fanatics only. It's a bit suspicious if you ask me.
*** On a slightly related note, why do Lance and the dragon clan elder talk about how Pokémon should be treated with friendship and compassion, yet the blessed user of the clan (Clair) gives you the rising badge that makes all Pokémon obey you without question? I wasn't aware obedience was a compassionate strand of true friendship. Also the quiz they ask you in that den has other contradictory questions to their previous attitudes as well. For example, asking you which is more important in pokemon and trainers, strong, weak, or both. The right answer being both (so the clan think you're compassionate) despite Clair's attitudes seeming more gravitating towards strong pokemon, and refusing to even admit she had lost against you because her pokemon were weaker. Another question is which is more important in raising pokemon: love, knowledge or violence. SHE OWNS A POKEMON GYM, the whole theme of that is using pokemon to battle to prove your own supremacy. I would have agreed with her if she was just a NPC handing out a TM or something, but coming from a clan that supports a gym leader that's hypocritical to the core. But when I started to think about it, it made me realize. That's why all the Cooltrainers in her gym are so pathetically weak compared to Clair. I mean the clan is telling them "you have to accept strength and weakness, and love and knowledge is more important than violence", meanwhile Clair has elevated up in social prestige so much because of the cult influence, she can effectively focus completely on strength and violence, directly contradicting the dragon clan's mantras that it enforces on others, and not one person bats an eyelid, because they will always see her as a 'charismatic leader'. Same goes for Lance. That's why Clair and Lance grew to be so powerful, and why their fanatics are weak. Lance and Claire don't follow the same rules they tell others to uphold, so they boost up in strength while the others remain stationary. The Blackthorn dragon clan represents one of those 'can preach but can't practice' all-talk cults perfectly. The fan-following around them is only because the people of Johto and Kanto haven't woken up yet.
*** Supported by the increasingly common presence and ownership of dragon types in all other regions since, where the prestige of dragon users has noticeably gone down. People are wising up.
**** Is it just me, or does 'blessed user of dragon pokemon' sound disturbingly similar to 'glorious leader of our nation'? If we consider the Pokemon League the 'public sector' of the Pokemon world, Clair would essentially be the appointed head of council for Blackthorn city, and her clan would be a state religion.
[[/folder]]

**** Is it just me, or does 'blessed user of dragon pokemon' sound disturbingly similar to 'glorious leader of our nation'.

*** On a slightly related note, why do Lance and the dragon clan elder talk about how Pokémon should be treated with friendship and compassion, yet the blessed user of the clan (Clair) gives you the rising badge that makes all Pokémon obey you without question? I wasn't aware obedience was a compassionate strand of true friendship. Also the quiz they ask you in that den has other contradictory questions to their previous attitudes as well. For example, asking you which is more important in pokemon and trainers, strong, weak, or both. The right answer being both (so the clan think you're compassionate) despite Clair's attitudes seeming more gravitating towards strong pokemon, and refusing to even admit she had lost against you because her pokemon were weaker. Another question is which is more important in raising pokemon: love, knowledge or violence. SHE OWNS A POKEMON GYM, the whole theme of that is using pokemon to battle to prove your own supremacy. I would have agreed with her if she was just a NPC handing out a TM or something, but coming from a clan that supports a gym leader that's hypocritical to the core. But when I started to think about it, it made me realize. That's why all the Cooltrainers in her gym are so pathetically weak compared to Clair. I mean the clan is telling them "you have to accept strength and weakness, and love and knowledge is more important than violence", meanwhile Clair has elevated up in social prestige so much because of the cult influence, she can effectively focus completely on strength and violence, directly contradicting the dragon clan's mantras that it enforces on others, and not one person bats an eyelid, because they will always see her as a 'charismatic leader'. Same goes for Lance. That's why Clair and Lance grew to be so powerful, and why their fanatics are weak. Lance and Claire don't follow the same rules they tell others to uphold, so they boost up in strength while the others remain stationary. I kind of get the vibe that the Blackthorn dragon clan is kind of a 'can preach but can't practice' all-talk cult too. The fan-following around them is only because the people of Johto and Kanto haven't woken up yet.

*** On a slightly related note, why do Lance and the dragon clan elder talk about how Pokémon should be treated with friendship and compassion, yet the blessed user of the clan (Clair) gives you the rising badge that makes all Pokémon obey you without question? I wasn't aware obedience was a compassionate strand of true friendship. Also the quiz they ask you in that den has other contradictory questions to their previous attitudes as well. For example, asking you which is more important in pokemon and trainers, strong, weak, or both. The right answer being both (so the clan think you're compassionate) despite Clair's attitudes seeming more gravitating towards strong pokemon, and refusing to even admit she had lost against you because her pokemon were weaker. Another question is which is more important in raising pokemon: love, knowledge or violence. SHE OWNS A POKEMON GYM, the whole theme of that is using pokemon to battle to prove your own supremacy. I would have agreed with her if she was just a NPC handing out a TM or something, but coming from a clan that supports a gym leader that's hypocritical to the core. But when I started to think about it, it made me realize. That's why all the Cooltrainers in her gym are so pathetically weak compared to Clair. I mean the clan is telling them "you have to accept strength and weakness, and love and knowledge is more important than violence", meanwhile Clair has elevated up in social prestige so much because of the cult influence, she can effectively focus completely on strength and violence, directly contradicting the dragon clan's mantras that it enforces on others, and not one person bats an eyelid, because they will always see her as a 'charismatic leader'. Same goes for Lance. I kind of get the vibe that the Blackthorn dragon clan is kind of a 'can preach but can't practice' all-talk cult too. The fan-following around them is only because the people of Johto and Kanto haven't woken up yet.

*** Have you not seen how many people in Johto and Kanto have dragon types? It's just Lance, Clair, and a bunch of Cooltrainers that hang around the Blackthorn Gym itself. Most of them openly idolize Clair and Lance. From the way they talk, I do get the impression that there's a bit of CultOfPersonality centered around the Blackthorn dragon clan, and around Lance and Clair in general. Seeing as no other trainers seem to have dragon types, apart from the ones that surrender themselves as fanatics only. It's a bit suspicious if you ask me.

Except it's not. Not at all. Clair and Lance probably received their Dratinis, before they even began serious training, by their clan while they were extremely young (in fact, in the mangas, this is canon). They basically got a Dratini handed to them, purely for being born into the 'right family', while other people struggle to even find one, grew to become adults with a good decade of years of training behind them, and then the clan look down on people who don't have Dratinis and Dragonairs as amazing as they do, as well as persuading the general populace to do the same thing. All while constructing this notion that the members of the elite family should be respected and praised (even admired and worshiped), for no other reason, other than being born in the right family and inheriting that family privilege. Kind of like a metaphor for most of society's socioeconomic inequality really.

Except it's not. Not at all. Clair and Lance probably received their Dratinis, before they even began serious training, by their clan while they were extremely young (in fact, in the mangas, this is canon). They basically got a Dratini handed to them, purely for being born into the 'right family', while other people struggle to even find one, and then the clan look down on people who don't have Dratinis like they do, as well as persuading the general populace to do the same thing. All while constructing this notion that the members of the elite family should be respected and praised (even admired and worshiped), for no other reason, other than being born in the right family and inheriting that family privilege. Kind of like a metaphor for most of society's socioeconomic inequality really.