So, I brought this up in PMs with another forum member, but I kinda wanted to see what you folks as a whole thought.
A friend of mine essentially holds thusly: because Pokemon Reborn is based off Pokemon, a kids' franchise, but has very dark themes, inappropriate for children (murder, suicide, and terrorism mainly), she holds that Reborn is a perversion of Pokemon, and is thus immoral.
I strongly disagree, in part because I'm a stubborn asshole, but in part because I believe that fan creations are products of the fans. Nintendo and their brand a franchise had an extremely heavy hand in inspiring the work (for obvious reasons), but aside from mechanics, characters, and a name, Reborn shares minimal ties with the Pokemon mainstream franchise. I think it's unfair to take all the time and hard work that went into making Reborn the game it is - with it's story, characters, setting, and unique aspects, both in mechanics and feel - and writing it off as just a "perverted" Pokemon game made by "sick" people who, in her mind, should have nothing to do with the Pokemon franchise at large.
Honestly, I think it's a positive thing, that Reborn exists. It puts a new and infrequently seen spin on the world of Pokemon, does it with amazing craftsman ship on the part of the dev team, and shows that the fandom as a whole is aging and maturing. We're not the 10 and 11 year olds who first saw Ash get saved from a flock of Pidgeottos, and I think we should be able to express ourselves however we see fit, even if it's wildly different from the source.
I might be missing something, but I'm curious to see what you friends think about this.