Politics of Pokémon fans' emotions: (getting) mobilized by hype and salt
The present article explores the ways Pokémon fans participate in the production and diffusion of emotional regimes tied to logics of mobilisation for the future of the franchise through an emotional labor which draws on resources provisione by the Pokémon brand. We examine the two main emotional regimes at stakes with the « captation » of Pokémon audiences, that of hype and salt, two expressions borrowed from the fans’ discourses. This paper draws on observations of the Pokémon Trash community, mainly its Facebook page and its website. We also rely on the qualitative analysis of YouTube comments scraped from the comment sections of the Pokémon Sword and Shield trailers, as well as semi-directive interviews of Pokémon fans. Through a work of anticipation, fans participate in the production of their own dispositions to hype and further to the collective enthusiasm and impatience for the games to come. However, fans’ expectations are heterogenous, and a disjunction between these expectations and the resources provided by Pokémon leads to salt, which fuels mobilisations against the brands’ choices, such as when fans launched the #BringBackNationalDex. The success of the last Pokémon games despise such opposition raises questions about the extent to which fan participation actually skews the power balance toward audiences.