12 Years - An Accumulation of Trans Thoughts
As one of the most mass-marketed franchises in the world that spawned multiple series and movies, Pokemon was a staple of children’s content and for me as a 6-year-old was the pinnacle of cinema. While spending most of the Summer days playing outside, rocket launching facts about the show to my friends back and forth, I could go home to crackling TV ready to watch more. Even when the show wasn’t on I could be reassured that if I found myself in any video store they would have that unmistakable holographic DVD cover that I could run for.
In the summer of 2022 after a nostalgic rewatch of Pokemon: The First Movie (1998) I found myself turning to old chat rooms and mid-2000s internet stomping grounds with one question in mind: Did anybody else feel like MewTwo was Trans? I thought about those summer days and about how much time had changed between then and now, particularly the way that the words of the main antagonist, MewTwo, sat with me. After awakening to learn that they were bio-engineered to be a living weapon for humans, MewTwo breaks free from control and begins a journey of self-reckoning as a creation of both medical science and their own making. In revisiting Pokemon: The First Movie (1998) I felt a familiar kinship to Mewtwo’s story and began to think about Mewtwo’s arch as a way to reflect on my own journey of self-creation.
