WisteriaFlowers
Youngster
- Pronouns
- she/her/hers
Hope this is allowed, cause I'm basically necroing the thread.
I first read the Envy of Eden on fanfiction.net when 2024 amid the Pro-Palestine college encampment on my Campus and then I found this again on here when that Trump was inagurated in and I know this was written around the time of the 2020 BLM protests.
Because of the context that I found myself in while reading these works, my favorite and least favorite chapters are simultaneously vii. nonconformist and xi. necktie because of how upront these chapters are about dealing with real life issues through the lens of Pokemon.
A lot of EoE is about these real life topics (abuse, institutionalized inequality, how easy it is to depersonalize a group who humans have told is other, the "right" ways of protesting, etc), but these two chapters could have left out the Pokemon and it would still be pretty applicable (ACAB, miscommunication through cultural difference; colonization and acceptability politcs). However, because of how relevants it's been (how from 2020-2024 the police state has gotten more brazen about their abuse of power), it hits all that much harder and more importantly (to me) the catharsis seen in some of your pieces isn't there and it leaves me shaken after reading it.
My favorite of the new chapters is Nepeta because Tourmaline was one of my favorite POVs and my favorite of your OCs. The art performance in Nepeta was also appreciated. Art as a form of resistance is one of my favorite things and I'm glad that N's Team Plasa was able to do stuff like that so Pokemon were able to perform without the expectations of human-centric guidance, that it was Pokemon-lead. Pokemon Contests and Pokemon Musicals may not necessarily have the pain aspect in the games, but they are human-driven endeavors intended for human consumption.
xvii. enharmonic (end) was a new ending for me. xv. nocturne was the traditional ending for me. I do like that enharmonic has given Hilda some spine, something more concrete for her to be the Hero of Ideals, but I think N's sacrifice was only a reprieve for humans and hopefully cartharsis for Pokemon to finally have their voices heard (even if humans may not understand). What this story has been telling me is that half of the battle of understanding one another (pokemon-pokemon, human-pokemon, human-human) is the willingness/desire to understand or allow for communication and Hilda/Cheren/so many of the humans in the world just do not. The Bisharp gardening Lady not included, she was willing to try to understand the Bishard and they reach consensus/understanding of what the Bishard wanted. However, my pessimism was informed by the fact that Trump got elected again and how a lot of POC were voting for him. I hope that people will start to the listen, that the shock of hearing Pokemon voices is enough, that they don't only listen to pokemon like Ace (ACAB) or Vaselva (groomed from birth), but to disenting voices as well. And that this will give way for Pokemon to understand each other, since their dialects have been a barrier to Pokemon-Pokemon communication.
xv. nocturne did feel like a good place to stop when I read it, as the origin of the Nocturne Lament and as the origin for multiple understandings of the same event/story/myth.
Sacrifice (Nocturne Lament) is another constant theme in this story and N reverses the constant Pokemon sacrifice by sacrificing his Voice, but what about Hilda? Pokemon (Dear Amara) were sacrificed for her, but they are not her sacrifices to give. I do think it was significant that it was her mother's story that convinced N to reconsider what exactly he and Reshiram (and Zekrom) would do. It paralels with Vaselva who earlier (in the second chapter) remember her mother's warmth and trying to remember the name her mother gave her. I guess the sacrifice then for Hilda was forgetting her mother's stories because they were not what the dominant culture wanted (if I remember correctly, her mother was Native). However, she was still able to remember in the end, but Vaselva wasn't. Imbalance still reigns.
I wonder than, if the human equivalent of the Nocturne Lament is Might Makes Right, since it seems to be the Ideal that Hilda has accepted and aspired to achieve. Like the story of the sundered dragons is great, but those are two pokemon who are each other's equals. As it is now, Pokemon are not equals to humans aside from singular instances (and the human-pokemon dragon culture that was razed by other humans). Might of course, refers to human-decided might. Political and Pokemon Fights, not physical might. Which ties in to the whole strength = Pokemon, Power = Humans thing that xv.nocturne discusses.
Sorry that this isn't as detailed an analysis as so many of your wonderful commenters have done, but Envy of Eden when I first read it a year ago has rocked how I've understood Pokemon and has currently shaped how I see the franchase and how I interact with Pokemon fanfic and the games. Like when I was playing Legends of Arceus and there was a little voice in my head how maybe the Pearl and Diamond Clans had the right way of Pokemon-Human interactions and maybe the Galaxy Team and their invention of Pokeballs should have been shunned. As for fanfic, this was the first of the Pokemon have intelligence and have unequal relationships with human style fanfics and inspired me to read more from your suggestions list (I call this N Was Right-lite fanfics in my little bookmarks folder). I read this fanfic more than a dozen times and each time it has shaken me to the core. Thank you so much for writing this and sharing this wonder work of fiction.
I first read the Envy of Eden on fanfiction.net when 2024 amid the Pro-Palestine college encampment on my Campus and then I found this again on here when that Trump was inagurated in and I know this was written around the time of the 2020 BLM protests.
Because of the context that I found myself in while reading these works, my favorite and least favorite chapters are simultaneously vii. nonconformist and xi. necktie because of how upront these chapters are about dealing with real life issues through the lens of Pokemon.
A lot of EoE is about these real life topics (abuse, institutionalized inequality, how easy it is to depersonalize a group who humans have told is other, the "right" ways of protesting, etc), but these two chapters could have left out the Pokemon and it would still be pretty applicable (ACAB, miscommunication through cultural difference; colonization and acceptability politcs). However, because of how relevants it's been (how from 2020-2024 the police state has gotten more brazen about their abuse of power), it hits all that much harder and more importantly (to me) the catharsis seen in some of your pieces isn't there and it leaves me shaken after reading it.
My favorite of the new chapters is Nepeta because Tourmaline was one of my favorite POVs and my favorite of your OCs. The art performance in Nepeta was also appreciated. Art as a form of resistance is one of my favorite things and I'm glad that N's Team Plasa was able to do stuff like that so Pokemon were able to perform without the expectations of human-centric guidance, that it was Pokemon-lead. Pokemon Contests and Pokemon Musicals may not necessarily have the pain aspect in the games, but they are human-driven endeavors intended for human consumption.
xvii. enharmonic (end) was a new ending for me. xv. nocturne was the traditional ending for me. I do like that enharmonic has given Hilda some spine, something more concrete for her to be the Hero of Ideals, but I think N's sacrifice was only a reprieve for humans and hopefully cartharsis for Pokemon to finally have their voices heard (even if humans may not understand). What this story has been telling me is that half of the battle of understanding one another (pokemon-pokemon, human-pokemon, human-human) is the willingness/desire to understand or allow for communication and Hilda/Cheren/so many of the humans in the world just do not. The Bisharp gardening Lady not included, she was willing to try to understand the Bishard and they reach consensus/understanding of what the Bishard wanted. However, my pessimism was informed by the fact that Trump got elected again and how a lot of POC were voting for him. I hope that people will start to the listen, that the shock of hearing Pokemon voices is enough, that they don't only listen to pokemon like Ace (ACAB) or Vaselva (groomed from birth), but to disenting voices as well. And that this will give way for Pokemon to understand each other, since their dialects have been a barrier to Pokemon-Pokemon communication.
xv. nocturne did feel like a good place to stop when I read it, as the origin of the Nocturne Lament and as the origin for multiple understandings of the same event/story/myth.
Sacrifice (Nocturne Lament) is another constant theme in this story and N reverses the constant Pokemon sacrifice by sacrificing his Voice, but what about Hilda? Pokemon (Dear Amara) were sacrificed for her, but they are not her sacrifices to give. I do think it was significant that it was her mother's story that convinced N to reconsider what exactly he and Reshiram (and Zekrom) would do. It paralels with Vaselva who earlier (in the second chapter) remember her mother's warmth and trying to remember the name her mother gave her. I guess the sacrifice then for Hilda was forgetting her mother's stories because they were not what the dominant culture wanted (if I remember correctly, her mother was Native). However, she was still able to remember in the end, but Vaselva wasn't. Imbalance still reigns.
I wonder than, if the human equivalent of the Nocturne Lament is Might Makes Right, since it seems to be the Ideal that Hilda has accepted and aspired to achieve. Like the story of the sundered dragons is great, but those are two pokemon who are each other's equals. As it is now, Pokemon are not equals to humans aside from singular instances (and the human-pokemon dragon culture that was razed by other humans). Might of course, refers to human-decided might. Political and Pokemon Fights, not physical might. Which ties in to the whole strength = Pokemon, Power = Humans thing that xv.nocturne discusses.
Sorry that this isn't as detailed an analysis as so many of your wonderful commenters have done, but Envy of Eden when I first read it a year ago has rocked how I've understood Pokemon and has currently shaped how I see the franchase and how I interact with Pokemon fanfic and the games. Like when I was playing Legends of Arceus and there was a little voice in my head how maybe the Pearl and Diamond Clans had the right way of Pokemon-Human interactions and maybe the Galaxy Team and their invention of Pokeballs should have been shunned. As for fanfic, this was the first of the Pokemon have intelligence and have unequal relationships with human style fanfics and inspired me to read more from your suggestions list (I call this N Was Right-lite fanfics in my little bookmarks folder). I read this fanfic more than a dozen times and each time it has shaken me to the core. Thank you so much for writing this and sharing this wonder work of fiction.