Musings on Pokey + morality.
Something that jumps out at me about Pokey's dialogue is the way he qualifies people. He doesn't describe them much morally. And well, duh, but is it really that straightforward?
While Pokey's brand of evil sounds frivolous and banal, he also mentions "so-called justice" and he uses the corruption of humanity (that he causes) in M3 as an excuse to kill them, despite that not being his motive. But Pokey doesn't say humanity is evil, he says they're weak. If the evil comes in the way they end up acting because of being weak, it's an interesting thing, I'll come back to that.
Another thing that jumps out at me about Pokey's dialogue is his weird baby talk that comes out sometimes. "I promise to be good". "Please dote over me more. Please talk to me like good boys and girls, you know, just like me". Pokey uses terms often applied to morality, but is actually referring to "niceness" of behavior. About himself, he says he's "trouble-making". So, he wouldn't describe either himself or other people by morality. In both cases, you could say that the person he describes would "stumble" into evilness by accident, so to say (by trouble-making/weakness).
That's being less harsh. Pokey tends to protect himself, but it's an interesting thing to also protect people you mean to kill. To me, it makes sense because Pokey seems to be inspired by people (similar to the people) that Eb and M3 portray as corrupt. People who know and handle money, powerful people (advising for Monotoli, his whole M3 plan, Pokey would be inspired because that would be why he has this knowledge). These terms, to Pokey, in my opinion, would also describe his dad. If it's his dad, and if Pokey also draws inspiration from that, meaning he would also see a good side to that, the hesitation makes sense.
But what does Pokey think is evil? Implicitly, power itself. He thinks power is evil. He assists the "strong and able" but he's helping Giygas, who's mystically fated to lose, Pokey himself being the last resort. He's helped corrupt people throughout the game that Ness beats. Despite evidence to the contrary, to Pokey, the side of malevolence, to put it in a way, is inherently more powerful.
To me, it makes sense that this association from Pokey would come from being abused. Pokey, being traumatised, and/or cowardly, if you want to put it that way, would be logical to have an adversion to evil, then, if, to him, it's something that people can't help, and if it brings up that sort of association to him.
Corruption. He likes it and he doesn't.
So, this would explain why he chooses not to qualify in that manner, but also why he brings up that sort of thing. So he won't act as a moral agent and that's why his motive is finally other and superficial (being bored, playing with Ness/Lucas) despite having much to think about in relation to so-called justice.
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