Read at: AO3
Pokemon Sun and Moon, which were released for the 3DS in 2016, were set in Pokemon Alola, a kind of Pokemon Hawaii. These games were full of small details speaking to the Hawaii of today, like the presence of mongoose and rats during the day and night respectively. The overarching conflict in these games (involving a scientific corporation opening a portal to other worlds) also speaks to both Hawaii's ongoing trouble with invasive species, as well as tensions with foreign scientists building their observatories on sacred land.
Nothing in Sun and Moon, though, really gets at the root of Hawaii's difficulties. The demands of the tourism industry, for instance, or the fact that many locals cannot afford their own land due to resorts and wealthy outsiders buying it all up. This is to be expected because Sun and Moon is a game for children; it cannot afford the time and complexity to dissect these issues.
Broken Things, though, does. Still ongoing at over 600,000 words, it's an epic travelogue set in a version of Alola that's much closer to the Hawaii in our world. We see the bubbling tension between science, capitalism and Hawaiian nationalism; class conflict between children with money and children who are poor; the attention of privileged and powerful people who are well-meaning but do not, can not understand.
The overarching plot is long, tough to follow, and probably overstuffed, with many moving parts including an existing Aztec empire that never fell. What stands out to me most about Broken Things is the characters, and not just the humans but the Pokemon. Like Pixie, an Alolan Vulpix who will hurt others to ensure that her trainer's love will remain hers. Or Kekoa, a prickly local trans guy who hates everyone, including you.
This is a spiky story in which even the characters you like disappoint you constantly. Genesis, a traumatized heiress growing out of her family's religious cult, misgenders people she doesn't like. Cuicatl, the closest that this story has to a heroine, is relentlessly self-destructive at the start. It can be a tough read! But it's also often a fascinating one, set in a world reminiscent of girllikesubstance's Pokemon stories but with its own distinct feel.
Since Broken Things hasn't ended yet, I don't know whether it'll fall to pieces or if it's going anywhere necessarily. I took a break around Chapter 27. I'll be back, though, because I find its commitment to friction fascinating, and also because Pixie is (as she says) a very good fox.