Dose this Forum Holds anything Sacred? (Religious references in Fiction)

[TrainerRyan]

Looking over the rating system and don't see anything directly addressing Religious References. I want to know because I have an Idea of a future chapter of Pokemon R/B that involve Fossil Pokemon and some parodies to Scientology. What is this sites rules about RL Religion being refferenced in our work, and what rating should we put on our story if we are aloud to?
Also, since I brought up Religion, might as well ask about putting Political Parodies in our Fictions too

 

[Garren]

Most people don't even consider Scientology a religion, so I doubt you'd have any complaints. It's pretty much universally viewed by everyone except its most loyal followers as a huge money-making cult.

 

[Persephone]

Ignoring whether or not some groups count as actual religions, I would not consider those things to be issues that would necessarily make a work more 'mature' or bar younger groups from reading, but I would definitely include some kind of a disclaimer. It isn't so much that a twelve year old couldn't read a satire of their religion due to the shocking content but rather that some groups might not want to read a satire of their religion, or any religion, and that due to the subject matter there is a high chance that someone takes offense to it. If you're fine taking that risk, sure, go ahead. Just make sure readers know what they're getting into.

Politics is (shockingly) safer unless you're satirizing a specific platform or philosophy. In which case you will probably offend a substantial portion of its adherence out of reading it, which you should be aware would happen. If you're satirizing a specific candidate or party you should be aware that not everyone in the world (or even that country) will have any idea what you're talking about.

In terms of generally dealing with politics and religion in a work from a world-building or sociological perspective, I don't think there are too many issues. Most places where humans have lived and formed groups had things that could roughly be defined as 'religion' and 'politics,' so having them makes sense for developing a realistic community of humans. I still wouldn't go on a twelve-page dissertation about fictional religion or politics in the same way I would not go on one about fictional plumbing systems or the biology of an animal.


And also, cults or abusive religious situations can be a trigger so the disclaimer warning is even more important when dealing with those.

 

[PiccoloX]

For Team Plasma to have been Knights and for the moral implications they posed I'd suggest starting there for a religious reference. You have at least 5 different god Pokemon, so for anything relatable you'll have to ignore the Pokemon and focus on the people. Before Pokeballs, what would life have been like? Did people actually worship some Pokemon while seeing others as demons? What would these worshipers think of Pokeballs? Personally, to them, I think it'd sound like you took all RL deities, trap them on paper and trade them like cards.

 

[Baby Seals]

My fanfics make numerous references to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Mostly I mention it when a character is talking about their religious affiliation (most often, my characters will be Catholic, since I am Catholic myself). In the fanfic I'm writing now, Hilbert has taken an acting job, and one of his main friends there identifies as Muslim. You couldn't tell this guy is just by looking at him, though - he dresses like anyone else. He's got a Turkish first and last name. Several of my Kalos characters have Arabic first names because France, the region Kalos is based on, has a large North African immigrant community. Same reason why my Unova characters often have Italian last names (because New York has a lot of Italians - I'm from New York and I'm of Italian heritage myself).

There's no fanfiction police - you can basically do whatever you want with fanfiction as long as you follow the rules of the website it is posted on. And many of the things that aren't allowed on Pokemon fanfics here will usually be allowed in Pokemon fanfics on FanFiction.Net.

 

[The Dude]

Religion is ripe for parody and mockery, as well as great drama. Since the world of Pokemon doesn't appear to have any of our world's religions, we might well imagine analogues based off them, centered around the worship of the legendary Pokemon, presumably.
So, like, PokeJesus. Of a sorts. Don't be too obvious.
Alternately, pull a full on Golden Compass. DO IT.

 

[TrainerRyan]

Since the world of Pokemon doesn't appear to have any of our world's religions
.

Didn't Brock made a referance to Noah's Ark

 

[Beth Pavell]

I think he did once, briefly. I don't think there are any forum rules regarding this sort of thing. Personally I find attacks on "religion" a bit tasteless - what I find more amusing is poking fun at the trappings of religion. His Dark Materials (Commonly known as The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife etc) directly attacks the organisation of religion, Good Omens laughs blackly at the apparent disregard the powers of Heaven and Hell have for humanity, the classic Irish sitcom Father Ted makes light fun of Irish Catholicism ... and to my mind, all these are better for it for being observant in their approach rather than merely laughing at belief itself

 

[Drakon]

As long as you aren't writing a hate filled screed, you should be fine.

On that note, I avoid religion in my Pokémon fics because it wouldn't make sense for real life religions to he present.

 

[Persephone]

...why not? Guyana, a nation that is an odd mix of Protestants and Hindus, is Dex-confirmed. That's at least two religions indirectly in the game. Legend worship in a conventional sense wasn't confirmed until Gen V in an odd case with Kyurem, and arguably the early legendary Pokemon were based on Shinto kami. How does it not make sense that real religions would exist in the Pokemon world?

 

[Karpi]

...why not? Guyana, a nation that is an odd mix of Protestants and Hindus, is Dex-confirmed. That's at least two religions indirectly in the game. Legend worship in a conventional sense wasn't confirmed until Gen V in an odd case with Kyurem, and arguably the early legendary Pokemon were based on Shinto kami. How does it not make sense that real religions would exist in the Pokemon world?

I mean, you could argue for pokemon-based analogues of real religions, but you aren't obligated to make exact parallels. My Guyana can be filled with pagan nature worshippers if I want, in comparison to a Poke-christianity in Poke-Japan. And I could also rewrite Poke-history and have the Poke-Enlightenment have a far greater effect on Sinnoh than other regions, leading it to be a nearly completely secular society, even though that's the opposite of what we see in the anime.

Just make things up the way you want to. You don't have to fit every random scrap of information (that was most likely intended to be meaningless) we're given into your own fictional world. Unless you want to. By all means go ahead.

 

[Karpi]

...why not? Guyana, a nation that is an odd mix of Protestants and Hindus, is Dex-confirmed. That's at least two religions indirectly in the game. Legend worship in a conventional sense wasn't confirmed until Gen V in an odd case with Kyurem, and arguably the early legendary Pokemon were based on Shinto kami. How does it not make sense that real religions would exist in the Pokemon world?

I mean, you could argue for pokemon-based analogues of real religions, but you aren't obligated to make exact parallels. My Guyana can be filled with pagan nature worshippers if I want, in comparison to a Poke-christianity in Poke-Japan. And I could also rewrite Poke-history and have the Poke-Enlightenment have a far greater effect on Sinnoh than other regions, leading it to be a nearly completely secular society, even though that's the opposite of what we see in the anime.

Just make things up the way you want to. You don't have to fit every random scrap of information (that was most likely intended to be meaningless) we're given into your own fictional world. Unless you want to. By all means go ahead.

 

[The Dude]

Legendary worship is really the obvious way to go if you want to include religion in your fic.
Some could be loosely based, rhetoric and ritual wise on actual religions. I could see two opposing sects, one worshipping Reshiram, and the other Zekrom, semi-analogous to Islam, that are somewhat similar but have an intense feud going based on doctrinal differences. and then a weird, mystic sect that stays out of the fight, that instead praises Kyurem.
The set of legendaries from Sinnoh: Palkia, Dialga, Giratina, Darkrai, Cresselia, Shaymin, Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit, Arceus form their own interesting pantheon of gods.
If you're gonna have a Christian analogy, Mew seems the obvious choice. Makes Mewtwo, in that view, a sort of Antichrist figure. although don't actually write Mewtwo as evil. Mewtwo isn't evil. I really don't cling much to canon for things, but MEWTWO IS NOT EVIL.