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198189 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.198189 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ All Rights Reserved 2024 180 pages Doctoral Dissertation Academic theses Text eng Mitchell, Shawn Patton Baker, Aaron Goggin, Peter Gilfillan, Daniel Arizona State University Partial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2024 Field of study: English This dissertation establishes that the texts in the Pokémon franchise form a rhizome as described by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their book A Thousand Plateaus. In a rhizomatic system, every element in a system connects to every other element in the system, and new and potentially deeper meaning is created by these connections. Beyond a series of individual texts that share characters, locations, and game mechanics, the Pokémon franchise represents a single rhizome of non-hierarchical, linked texts that generates substantive meaning via the intra-actions between texts. One aspect of this dissertation is defining exactly what constitutes a rhizomatic connection. Surface level, inconsequential interactions do not create significant, meaning-making, rhizomatic links. Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism provides a foundation with which to better inform what is and is not a significant rhizomatic connection. Specifically, rhizomatic connections are not interactive, but intra-active. The rhizomatic nature of the Pokémon franchise is further established by drawing maps that reflect the rhizomatic connections between the texts. These maps do not just reveal a connection between every point in the rhizome, as this interconnected network is a given (since they all are Pokémon texts), but establish the foundational basis for the rhizome. For Pokémon, this foundation is the linked elements of capturing, battling, and training which are present in every Pokémon text. Pokémon’s rhizomatic nature explains the franchise’s proclivity to explore contrary dichotomies and attain thematic and ideological cognitive dissonance, particularly concerning global consumer capitalism. Pokémon’s frequent commentary around complex contemporary societal situations is one reason why the franchise connects so well with its audience and explains its popularity. Exploring the rhizomatic structure of Pokémon generates insights concerning textual authorship in a franchise, transmedia literacy and control around what has become the single most profitable entertainment franchise in history. As media and modern society become more networked, globalized and rhizomatic to better reflect each other, understanding the paradigms which define these complex systems is essential for both the artists creating new media and the scholars who study these texts. Film Studies rhetoric and composition Agential Realism Cinematic Universe Media Studies pokemon rhizome Video Games “Gotta Catch ‘Em All:” Theorizing Pokémon as a Rhizomatic Franchise