2. Pokemon Societies
It would be insultingly anthropocentric to assume that the only societies in the world of pokemon were those created by humans. These societies may not, however, come in the same form as human ones. Many pokemon are migratory, and in higher cases could even be thought of in the same way as many of our world's historical tribal peoples. The fact that they live differently to our modern ideal of civilisation does not make them any less for it.
Take, for example, a flock of Fearow. Each flock has an elder, most likely the grand-sire of the rest of the flock, who through age and experience is intelligent enough to lead them through the migration. They move from an area that they know is relatively safe, leaving behind young Fpearow to grow and mature on their own. Then, every so often they return, taking the new Fearow with them on the next journey. At the base level, this is, obviously, reminiscent of many animals in our world, and does not need all that much in the way of higher thought. However if there are higher levels of social interaction between the members of the flock, we begin to see the development of a society.
For contrast, though, take a tribe of mountain-dwelling Graveler. As rock-types, Geodude and its evolutions have extremely slow metabolisms, and require little in the way of food. They live on a diet of various stones they dig themselves, and supplement this with certain types of berries. While they aren't dextrous enough to personally cultivate these berries, they have established a mutually beneficial relationship with the local Budew and Roselia. The excretions of the rock-type pokemon are rich in minerals that would otherwise be impossible for the plants to access, and on the rare occasion that a Shiny stone is unearthed, the Graveler present it to them to evolve to a Roserade. The population grows, and individuals live longer, and eventually the relationship begins to develop into a fully-fledged alliance.
The flip side of this, though, is the presence of predators. A flock of Skarmory, for example, as steel/flying types – and being both immune to the Roselia's poisons and strong to the Gravelers rock-type – would have little issue preying on the fledgling alliance. So, perhaps, they enlist the help of a local pack of Vulpix, led by a wily old Ninetales. In exchange for protection from the steel-types, and a promise not to prey on the Roselia, the Vulpix are provided with some of the berry crop. Because honestly, the Graveler don't eat that much and it was getting out of hand anyway. Oh, and then the big, mean rock-types don't have to ruffle their precious fur. And now, rather than reflecting the actions of animals, we begin to see a reflection of our own societal development.
And this is a single, isolated case, within an extraordinarily complex world – without even considering humans and our annoying habit of messing around with the natural order.
And here lies an issue that I've seen come up a few times. People seem to always assume that somehow, either humans or pokemon 'happened'. But personally, I find it much more interesting to consider the implications of humans and pokemon developing side by side. How much different would society be, and how did it manage to come to a point that it is so much like our own?
Take War, for example. Would the availability of pokemon make war even more destructive? Or instead, replace it with ritual combat; a stylised testing of the strength of the alliance between a tribe and their local pokemon. That is, a 'pokemon battle'.
The unique development of pokemon means that in addition to the Darwinian survival impulses we're familiar with – that is; to eat, to reproduce, to be safe from predation, etc. – there would be an additional criteria: to Battle. To test its limits is the easiest way for a pokemon to improve itself, and the most readily available way to do this is to fight. So, in order to better facilitate this, there came the establishment of the first 'Pokemon Gyms': where pokemon and their companions can come to test themselves against stronger, willing opponents without actually putting others at serious risk.
Eventually, we could even see the development of a close coalition between a select group of humans and pokemon, tasked with keeping the peace, and ensuring that combat does not escalate to a largely destructive scale. These were the first iteration of what we now call 'The Elite Four'.
And so we can see that it's not too much of a stretch to think that we could, actually develop into a society quite like that depicted in the pokemon games – considering the limitations imposed when you actually want to make a game playable. While the anime is technically a better medium for this, I prefer to pretend Ash Ketchum never existed.
Now, fair warning, the next chapter is where I start to earn that NSFW tag.