Pok?mon Umbral Discussion 11: Silence! I Keel You!

[Dracorion]

You admitted yourself the negative connotations of the word monsters. It's an insult to pokemon, as Menarker said, "A sort of "FUCK YOU".

Now, people don't use terms with negative connotations unless they don't like the thing they're insulting. You don't call a black person a nigger if you don't hate them. So for Impact to call pokemon "monsters" before he would've had to dislike them, and now he's claiming that that's all in the past, as in not in the present, meaning he changed his mind about pokemon being "monsters". My question is what made him change his mind.

[Geminex]

You admitted yourself the negative connotations of the word monsters. It's an insult to pokemon, as Menarker said, "A sort of "FUCK YOU".

Yes, I admit that. Though considering that even when you use their "proper" name, you call them "monsters", there's really not very much offense. Not nearly as much as there is in derogatory terms for black people.

And hell, while he was still in Raindale, he wasn't aware of any negative connotations. It wasn't really a "fuck you". It was a description.

[Dracorion]

Originally Posted by Geminex

And hell, while he was still in Raindale, he wasn't aware of any negative connotations. It wasn't really a "fuck you". It was a description.

This is what I needed to know. Although you gotta admit it isn't exactly evident from Impact's explanation.

In defense of the term pokemon, that's what they've been called since forever, it doesn't really carry negative connotations anymore. Everyone's just used to it. The fact that there's people like Renny who love and care for pokemon proves that there's no insult in the word.

And Pokemon doesn't inherently sound very insulting. I mean, would you feel more offended if I called you a Pokemon or a monster?

[Menarker]

Well, then the question is... Why did Impact choose to be a Slayer, out of all professions like a snagger or a trainer or some other non-pokemon related profession like a merchant or doctor? The choice to be a Slayer is pretty much forthcoming collabrative evidence. Your job is to personally put down or downright kill pokemons. It's much easier to believe that Impact did know what the term was or that he used the term with the intended negative emotion like hatred or revenge if his future was to go a step further and deal powerful and even lethal blows to them as a career.

[Geminex]

"Needed to know"? How?

Though I'd imagine they weren't called Pocket Monsters until pokeballs were developed. How long ago was that, would you say?

I mean, would you feel more offended if I called you a Pokemon or a monster?

That depends. If the norm is "monster", then pokemon would be worse. If the norm is "pokemon", then monster would be worse. No word has inherent negative connotations, those exist only in interpretation.

But anyway, let us end this line of conversation, it is getting boring.

As our characters grow more awesome, we're totally gonna need theme songs, for when we're all being awesome.

Edit:

Well, then the question is... Why did Impact choose to be a Slayer, out of all professions like a snagger or a trainer or some other non-pokemon related profession like a merchant or doctor? The choice to be a Slayer is pretty much forthcoming collabrative evidence. Your job is to personally put down or downright kill pokemons. It's much easier to believe that Impact did know what the term was or that he used the term with the intended negative emotion like hatred or revenge if his future was to go a step further and deal powerful and even lethal blows to them.

*game show buzzer*
Wrong line of argument! Logical fallacy, right there. You're assuming he hates pokemon, and looked for the profession that would most easily let him kill pokemon to avenge himself. Even if your character could formulate this train of thought (which he can't because it uses OOC knowlege, the only sign that you have so far of him disliking pokemon is his utterance), it'd be wrong. His goal was to fight crime. The only available job was slayer. Or do you suggest he should have gone trainer? How would that make sense? He went slayer to join the police force, to fight crime. Kill pokemon is an added bonus.

[Dracorion]

Originally Posted by Geminex

"Needed to know"? How?

Because if Impact didn't know the negative connotations, there's no reason for him not to have referred to them as monster if everyone else was.

Although Menarker makes a good argument. It's much more likely that he did know the connotations, especially considering his career choice.

Originally Posted by Geminex

As our characters grow more awesome, we're totally gonna need theme songs, for when we're all being awesome.

Well, I haven't decided on anything yet, but I'm reserving Clash Under the Big Bridge.

[Menarker]

Well, like I said, Renny has nothing to do with it. This is all OOC discussion trying to jigsaw pieces of info into whatever form of logic we can. Whether it actually comes out right... will be determined at a later point. Otherwise, I would just point to your bio page which clearly shows Impact hating on pokemon... a lot. :3

What I'm saying that the choice to be a Slayer does not help Impact's case, because at worst, he's revenge seeking monster hating racist. At best, out of all the careers that he has chosen, he chosen a law enforcement in a field specific against Pokemon. Even if he was a saintly Slayer, it's more or less assurance that whatever happened in Raindaile impacted him strongly and that he probably understood the meaning, even if he didn't actually believe in it. Unless you want to say that Impact reason for being a slayer was something more like "I want to wear a uniform and drive a car with flashing blue and red lights that go WOO WOO WOO WOOOOO!" And by your admitance, killing pokemon is a bonus. Quite a bold statement that killing any sort of being with sentience as a "perk" of a job.

I don't have much of a selection of background music, since being hard of hearing, I don't listen to music that much and thus have a poor variety to choose from. At best, I would choose some sort of video game music. Don't know which one at the top of my head. Probably Cave Story's "Last Battle"? For more heart warming music, I select some from Lufia 2, FF6. And for a "Destiny" sort, something from Lunar Eternal Blue.

EDIT: Got some ideas here. Of course, if you think my choice sucks, feel free to suggest some yourself.

Character theme. Yes, I chose a town song.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEWxevMs0iE

Depression: "Geothermal" http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/xm.php *You have to scroll the songs a bit for anything from this url.*

Sense of Destiny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvXKF...=43&playnext=3

Epic Battle: "Last Battle" http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/xm.php
OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBnYG...eature=related

Outside Battle Desperation AKA Critical Junction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbQL_...eature=related

[Geminex]

I would point out that the bio is simply a psychological evaluation of Impact, made by the military. What it says isn't 100% accurate. For those of you protesting, I'd point you to Matt's backstory, which says jack-all about him, but we're going to accept whatever he comes up with anyway.

And yes, Impact hates pokemon. But he represses this hatred up to a point where it doesn't control him. Channels it, if you will, into short-term and long-term goals. I'm sure I've explained this before. Any actions he takes won't be hate-driven, unless he's going absolutely berserk.

Think of it this way: Impact's actions will have 4 motivations:
Primal: Motivated by pokemon-hatred, very rarely shows itself directly, but influences his likes and dislikes
Instinctive: Driven by training, usually only comes into effect when in a combat situation
Short-term: Driven by a desire to stop people from getting harmed by pokemon, usually effective during missions, when not in combat, and, frequently, in between missions
Long-term: Driven by a desire to cure society of pokemon. This has the most emphasis

Basically, any action he takes is driven by a combination of those 4 motivations, he sort of balances them out. He places the most value on Long-term, usually, but that depends on the situation. Bookmark this page, because I'm sure as hell not going to explain it again.

Oh, and when he turns evil, "Freeing society from pokemon" will be gradually displaced by "power".

Anyway, his decision to become a Slayer was short-term and long-term. His actions in combat with pokemon will be instinctive and short-term. Appreciation of pokemon death will be hatred-driven, but unless he loses control, he won't intentionally cause pokemon death.

[Menarker]

Hehe. Funny situation... Given how the rest of you guys are practically undergoing verbal PvP in the van, Renny is going to end up the best friend of everyone, just because he isn't in the same room. Impact and Pierce will have butt heads too many times, Matt might be seen as an questionable enigma with a pointed tongue and all that sort of thing. Charlotte... well, everyone fears her or think her unpredictable or restrainable or something. Just by process of elimination, Renny will end up being best friends just because while his hugs and enthuasiam is distasteful, his behavior toward everyone has typically been helpful, earnest, honest and very civil with practically no barb in his words. Funny since otherwise, Pierce and Impact both hate Renny for the most part.

*Shrugs* Just seemed amusing to me.

EDIT: AB is going to run out of sexy pics at the rate that we fill up these threads. ^^;

[Astral Harmony]

Hello, guys, I'm back.

I mostly read what's been posted here and I don't really have anything to say in response. Keep up the good work.

Now I'm off to update.