u can scroll btw!! ->
oh man where do i even start with pokemon. i was around 8 or 9 and i would watch so many pokemon walkthroughs on youtube through superskarmory and chuggaconroy ifykyk! so then when christmas came around, my dad got us copies of pokemon diamond and pokemon platinum. i got platinum - so yk i got that special experience with giratina.
that shit was so hard though i remember crying so bad i had to put on calming piano bc i couldn't defeat cyrus(distortion world was so trippy to me as a kid). also, my favorite spirit of the three is mesprit!!
because that was my first pokemon game, sinnoh has a special place in my heart too. that's why i adore cynthia, she was genuinely the only champion i remember really struggling against HARD. and her soundtrack is A BOOOOOOP. too bad i couldn't really hear it through for long because i'd always be in the red hp zone lmfao.
my first ever starter was piplup and i remember as a literal child i couldn't really get a grasp on the correct game meta or whatever, so i overtrained empoleon to level 100 and then spammed surf throughout the entire game. like, a literal TM move, and didn't really utilize any of empoleon's classic moves ._. and of course you cannot leave out the TM slaves... sorry bidoof.
my team was pretty standard lowkey .. like every other bitch: staraptor, empoleon, lucario, luxray, garchomp, milotic later down the line when i didnt have bidoof in there.
you really had to grind your team in order to prepare for victory road and the elite four, and i do miss that level of struggle and dedication it took to beat the game. i also love cynthia's team, i think it is so well rounded. through her, i found some of my favorite pokemon - togekiss, garchomp, and milotic. special shoutout to lucario too!
anyways, i ended up playing more games afterwards up until sword and shield. pokemon black and white (and 2) i think was definitely a top contender with me right up next to sinnoh as the storyline was sooooo good, and i still struggled a good bit to defeat the game. also, i had a slight crush on N not gonna lie, but who didn't. through this game though i found my love for hydreigon and he would remain in my team throughout the next few games in x and y(loved the character customization). i also remember this was the point i started competitively battling and watching all sorts of videos as well as being involved in discussions online for the meta, and MAN writing this out makes me miss it. i remember i would grind to iv train all of my pokemon, which meant i put a coin in my 3ds's circular thingy for long hours and overnight in order to mass hatch eggs to the point where it literally fell off. i had the light pink and white 3ds, and then the light blue dsi.
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(this isn't my photo, but i wanted to link it here for memoriezzzzzzz)
my light blue dsi btw had a massive permanent glitch dent in it because i remember getting so angry at this one girl on victory road that i jammed my stencil right into the screen during my temper tantrum LOL
and of course you know i indulged in pokemon go - that summer period in 2016 when everyone and their mom was playing it was the closest thing i think we all came to world peace.