Modern Macbeth

In my modern-day version of Macbeth, the setting would be in Pallet Town. Duncan is the top Pokémon trainer in the world, and he rules over all of the Pokémon. They used to run wild and free until Duncan decided that he was higher on the food chain than them and took over the land. He uses them for competition against other trainers around the world. The Pokémon are desperate to regain their freedom, and they’re willing to do anything and everything in their power to do so. One ambitious squirtle, known as Lady Macbeth, wants her freedom more than any of the other Pokémon, but she doesn’t just want her freedom. She craves power. But the fact that she’s a female Pokémon makes it to where she has no say in anything. So, she contemplates every possible way of gaining power over the land, and the conclusion to which she comes in her head is to gain it through her rad boyfriend, Macbeth, who just so happens to be a Pikachu. Pikachus are loved all across Pallet Town, because there are very few of them in that area of the world. So what they say is usually taken into account more so than that of others. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plan and scheme for days on how to take the place of Duncan as ruler of Pallet Town. Their final plan is to kill Duncan. Macbeth, at first, is squeamish about the mere idea of murdering him, so Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s masculinity.

After she finally persuades him to kill Duncan, they have to make the plan full-proof. So, they invite Duncan to their house to help them practice their attacks for the next tournament. While Macbeth is practicing with him, Lady Macbeth distracts Duncan, and Macbeth strikes him with a quick attack and then finishes him off with a thunder bolt. Once he realizes what he has done, he isolates himself for a couple of days in order to cope with the reality of what he had done. After his seclusion, he kills again in to lessen the extremity of the first murder. So, Macbeth becomes king over the Pokémon, and he becomes corrupt. He eventually evolves into a Riachu and rules by tyranny. His becoming king had ended any possibility of the Pokémon regaining their freedom. Once Macbeth has been corrupted, he is essentially unstoppable. The amount of power instilled in him has ruined him for good. He even ends up killing his best friend, Banquo the charmander, simply because he knew about everything that had been going on and all of the murders that Macbeth had committed. Macbeth didn’t want anybody but his wife and himself to be privy to that sort of information. Things that would have, at one point in time, shattered him, had no effect on him whatsoever; he murders the family of Macduff, the bulbasaur, because he had fled to Lavender City. Macduff, though, keeps his cool for the type of situation and dealt with it like an honorable Pokémon would deal with it. He deals with his emotions first, and then goes to Macbeth to take revenge. Macbeth had been avoiding Macduff because he was the only person that struck any fear in him. There was an epic battle between the two, but Macduff ended up taking Macbeth out with a vine whip and a razor wind. This just shows you that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I chose to set Macbeth as a Pokémon story because I grew up watching Pokémon, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and still do enjoy it, as a matter of fact. So, I believe something like this would even catch the eyes of young children and get them to be more appreciative of Shakespeare’s work through a more simplified version. I used Pikachu for Macbeth because Pikachu was the main Pokémon in the show, and Macbeth was the main character in the play. Lady Macbeth was a squirtle because if a Pikachu and a squirtle were to be in a relationship, it’d be highly dysfunctional. If they were to get into fights, their tactics would be irrational, as Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s tactics were. The electric charge along with water would wind up killing the two. Macduff was a bulbasaur because bulbasaur is a chill Pokémon, but when he needs to handle a situation or battle, he does so in an extremely intense manner.