TRASH DYKE NATION

My History with the Pokemon Franchise

To talk about my history with pokemon, I kind of have to start at the beginning of my life, haha. I honestly remember little about my childhood especially prior to the age of 11, so some dates might be a little off and things that happened in my life might be out of order. Just thought I'd get that disclaimer out of the way. But anyways, pokemon has been a standout memory for me every since I developed sentience. I blame my uncle for my obsession with the series, and I couldn't be more grateful.

(My uncle's favorites were
Dragonite and Gengar)

We'd watch the anime together, and I'd pretend to be a cubone and would carry a stick from my tiny drum set around the house (my mother is perfectly fine and in good health by the way). The movies are still some of my favorite parts of the series, the second and third ones are especially fun in my opinion. Before I could even read my uncle had installed ROMs for pokemon Blue, Yellow, Crystal, and Ruby as well as the ROM hack Pokemon Quartz, along with some other VERY early fakemon hacks that he let me watch him play and eventually play myself. Well, for a while it was mostly just pressing the arrow keys and not knowing where to go, but I'd get the hang of it eventually.

As my interest in the games and 4kids dub grew, so too did my interest in other merchandise. I'd practically beg my mom to get me either the cards or a plush everytime we went to the store.

Going to Target was special because I'd always get a box of pokemon cards when I went. Like a lot of kids I contributed to getting them banned at my elementary school. I was a "quantity over quality" trader, where I'd trade a bunch of common cards for one or two rare cards. I was definitely scamming the other kids in hindsight. A piplup plushie I had gotten that used to make sounds was my favorite toy, and I still have it in my room today at 21 years old. I was always excited for scholastic bookfairs, because then I could beg for money to get the newest pokemon guidebooks. I also read the Adventures Manga first from the library, and then eventually came to own the first three arcs.

The first game I owned a phsyical copy of was Diamond, where I chose Turtwig as my starter. My older sibling had Platinum, and we'd stay up late into the night playing on the DS underneath the covers, hiding it under the pillow when my mom came to check on us. The bum DID trick me into trading my grotle for

an overleveled wooper that wouldn't listen to me, but ultimately this lead to quagsire being one of my faves. The first game that I beat (almost) on my own was pokemon SoulSilver, which is still my favorite game to this day. I say almost, because I got all the way to Red on Mt. Silver (where I also got my first shiny: A Ursaring), but just could not beat him. So of course, I asked my Uncle, who after adjusting my team a little bit was able to beat him in a couple of tries. Fighting Red is still one of the coolest moments in all of pokemon, and I remember finding him for the first time so vividly and this fight solidified Typhlosion as my favorite pokemon.

Later I would play pokemon Black and White with one of my best friends at the time I'm still close with today, and even came to own some of the now rare games like Pokemon Conquest.

I began using the internet almost exclusively to look up anything I could find about pokemon. Umbreon x Espeon Everytime We Touch PMVs and the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon anime specials were my favorite things to watch. This is also where I'd discover Pokemon Nuzlocke comics (at honestly much too young of an age), which I became absolutely captivated by them. I'd always liked drawing pokemon practically since I could hold a pencil, but this is when I would begin drawing my own comics, which is partially where I found my love for storytelling.

By the time I got to middle school, "eevee" or "umbreon" was apart of almost every online handle I had. I went almost exclusively by "Eeevee" in some online circles, and the avatar I would always use to depict myself would end up being some type of eevee pretty much every time. In general I was really attached to that particular pokemon at the time, as were a lot of pokemon fans my age. I even had an umbreon hoodie, with ears and all. Unfortunately I stopped wearing it after some... interesting comments were made regarding it, but it still stands to show how crazy I was about these pokemon.

Another thing I was really into was pokemon creepypastas. I would spend hours after school on the pokepasta wiki

(who else remembers when pokepastas got banned from the original creepypasta wiki due to the sheer number of them?) after school, against my better interest as this is around when I began to develop a severe anxiety disorder.

Hypno's Lullaby scared me the most, but I was also thoroughly spooked by Explorers of Death. In hindsight these stories are pretty silly, but they really did keep me up at night and give me nightmares at the time, so I guess they deserve credit for that. I grew very attached to EEeEE from Prevention of Evolution, and had a very long-standing sona based off the character.

Highschool is a bit of a blur to me, but I ate up a lot of what pokemon had to offer during my teenage years too. I stopped collecting the cards as much, but I still played every main-series game that came out after Platinum. I would play Moon and then Sword with my friends a lot, where a lot of my favorite pokemon were solidified. I love SWSH personally, and I've defended it on many ocassions. I just think it's a great time.

On April Fool's day of 2020, my friend Celadonk dropped a ROM hack he, myself, and some other friends had been working on for probably around a year prior to release (before Sword and Shield dropped): Pokemon Fool's Gold. I did some of the initial pokemon redesigns, backsprites, and a little bit of flavor text. It even got a really spiteful and angry TVtropes page. It's probably the biggest project I've ever worked on, which is kinda funny because I don't think most people who have played it have checked out my pals and I's other work. Either way, I'm still grateful for all the attention it recieved.

I fell off of pokemon a little bit in college, not because of anything specific, I just didn't have as much time to play the games as they came out. I also ended up giving a lot of my cards and plushies away to close friends as gifts as they were taking up a lot of space in my room. It wasn't until I dropped out that I started getting into it again, but even then my first bong had a pikachu on it and my laptop icon has remained a cyndaquil the entire time I've used it (most recently it's a drawing of cyndaquil by friend curiobug did).

As of recently, I successfully got my seven year old nephew into pokemon and he had a pokemon-themed birthday party, just like I did as a kid. I sometimes still get cards when I have a little extra money or my friends wanna do something fun. I started a soul-link nuzlocke with my friend andrewdoodle, on the ROM hack Emerald Seaglass.

There's been a few projects I've worked on too, like the Eeevee Lovers United art zine by Scoopie and a collaborative PMD project with streetcornerclown.

I'm really glad pokemon has been apart of my life for so long. Even if Scarlet wasn't my favorite game in the series, I'm still excited to see what they come out with next (even if I wish Nintendo would give Gamefreak more time to actually work on the games). It's been a constant in my life for so long and I don't think I could ever give it up. It means a lot to me as a form of escapism, self-expression, and as a piece of art you can project almost anything onto. In other words: I love pokemon, and I don't think anything will change that.

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