If you raise a farm animal to be food… don’t name it, or there will be tears when the time comes. Or you might have an oversized heart and can’t butcher it at all, after which point you starve. Problems either way. In Pokemon we don’t slaughter our ‘mon for food — well, unless we do, but I guess that’s still not our ‘mon — but we do seem to spend a lot of time fighting over them on message boards. Or maybe I don’t chat online about Pokemon enough to say that. Maybe it’s just me fighting about it while everyone else gets along. Let’s not be judgmental now!

Some time ago I made an article talking about why it is that I — and I assume some other people — prefer the original 151 Pokemon in general over the later generations. A lot of people didn’t agree, and in fact a few seemed to get pretty cheesed off about it. Some subjects are sensitive, but at the time I didn’t get exactly why this one was. I’ve seen other fandoms where this exact kind of debate about old–versus-new is not so heated.



“NYAH if you like this Pokemon!” / “NYAH if you don’t like that Pokemon!”

Thing is, when I wrote that article I was just getting back into Pokemon after a long hiatus from it. I got into Pokemon around the first major hype train for it in America when it was first introduced over here, and then never touched it again for years until I got Pokemon White.

But thanks to my time with that game, and that I’ve spent pondering this topic since, I believe I’ve come to understand why many hate it (to the extent that they do) when people criticize the later Pokemon generations — or any Pokemon generation as it happens — and by extension I think it’s also a major reason why Pokemon is awesome, even today regardless of how much some people — like me — criticize the new Pokemon. The reason relates pretty directly to why you shouldn’t name animals slated for slaughter. And no, the punchline is not nicknames… although they are related.

The key word is… attachment.

So for a long time, one of the Pokemon in Gen V that I thought was pretty stupid-looking was Krookodile. I was fine with its two prior forms, but that last one just looked… ehh… weird. It’s a ridicilous-looking red croc-man with weird-looking upturned slanty eyes that look like shades. I think it’s design is off. Speaking critically, it still does. But emotionally, I can’t hate him anymore. Not after Kremlin.

Kremlin — you know kinda like Kremlings from Donkey Kong Country, but with the G dropped because I guess sometimes government buildings just have cooler-sounding names than fictional crocadiles — was the nickname I chose for my Sandile (which, of course, eventually evolves into Krookodile). I am a nicknaming fiend and I named almost every single Pokemon I caught. A Woobat named Valentino, a Hypno named Nietzsche, a Serperior named Ouroboros, a Scolipede named Atropine. So many Pokemon I battled over and over with, with my cool little names and the vague hints of personality they seemed to generate in my mind through a mix of how their name sounded, what moves and stats they had, and what happened during battles; my Valentino single-handedly won me a hopeless battle against Skyla’s Swanna by charming her and winning as the last bat standing… the little stud.

And here I am gushing about a stupid little puff-of-fur bat with a weird-looking heart-shaped nose. And you know what? I got attached, and I don’t care that he looks stupid. HE’S AWESOME. GO VALENTINO! Kremlin turned out to be just as much of a badass as Valentino was.

The phenomenal thing is… I never actually evolved Kremlin all the way into Krookodile. And yet one day when I saw fan art of Krookodile again for the first time in a while — a Pokemon I’ve always rolled my eyes at for being stupid-looking — I immediately thought of Kremlin even though he never got to that form… and I actually thought the picture was awesome. While I didn’t immediately think about the significance of that… when I realized what had actually happened there, it floored me.

The significance of whether or not my Pokemon were particularly well-designed seemed to melt away pretty fast when I became directly attached to them. Maybe this phenomenon was augmented for me because of my incessant nicknaming and my tendency to self-insert and roleplay a little whenever I play RPGs, but clearly I’m not alone because tons of people I know are actually really fond of their Pokemon. Hell, maybe I should have thought about this whole attachment thing long ago, because I STILL reminisce about my Butterfree back in Pokemon Yellow, nigh invincible thanks to Harden…

When people criticize a Pokemon, it’s not the same as criticizing designs in most other games. Oh in other games people do still become super attached to characters and their traits, or various creatures, or even game mechanics. Look at how some people love the horse Epona in The Legend of Zelda or turn-based battle systems in JRPGs. But the thing is, in Pokemon we RAISE the things. They’re our babies, our partners, our champions. We become attached to them, even downright fond of them. In a way that’s the entire magic of Pokemon, and in some ways at least, I think it’s kind of the secret to its success.

There are lots of other monster collecting games. Monster Rancher, Spectrobes, and Shin Megami Tensei to name a few. I can’t speak much about Monster Rancher or Spectrobes overall, although I will say that the monsters I have seen from them do not tend to be especially charming, but usually more just “cool” or “badass” in one way or another (though there are exceptions). And the demons you collect in the Shin Megami Tensei series are… well, demons. They’re weird or creepy in most cases and serve as tools for combat rather than friends to train. Many of these games don’t even feature the evolution mechanic at all.

I suppose that’s probably the dividing line. While it’s cool to collect and train wicked monsters, it rarely creates the same level of charm. Do you think a newborn boy would be so adorable if he were born as a large full-grown man? I think part of why our Pokemon latch onto our heartstrings so well is because most Pokemon are initially caught as these cute little things that gradually evolve into scary killing machines. Very few Pokemon lines’ first evolutions are particularly fierce-looking. We’re essentially raising babies into adults. Talk about attachment.

That’s a funny thought, isn’t it? The idea that maybe the entire secret to the success of Pokemon, a series that some have accused of being shallow and childish, might actually be kinda psychologically deep? Obviously I’m no authority on why Pokemon’s successful, but the idea makes sense. Though I doubt I’m the first person this thought’s occurred to.

So if I’m right at all, it means that whenever I insulted — or appeared to insult — the Pokemon of the later generations, on some subtle level it might come along roughly the same lines as it would if I insulted people’s babies. I called their beloved Pokemon — whom they’ve become attached to for all of their qualities — stupid-looking. Something like that might make things feel a little more personal than it would with another series.

As I said I still stand by my statements in that article (though I might phrase them differently today); I still think that many of the later Pokemon after the first Generation seemed to set themselves apart from the original 151, with many more weird-looking, outlandish, and downright cartoony designs than you ever saw in the originals. These weren’t style choices that were bad in and of themselves, but rather ones that looked strange next to the original ones. To me, they just didn’t belong in a world together… from a purely design-oriented perspective, anyway.

But you know what? I don’t wonder anymore why the series has remained successful regardless of how weird-looking its central creatures have become to me… because now it’s obvious. It’s because in one way or another, your Pokemon are your babies, and it doesn’t matter what your baby looks like; you love them for what they are.

A parent’s love is unconditional. In a way, falling in love romantically is the same: When you connect with someone and fall in love with them, it doesn’t matter how imperfect they might be. Whether it’s romantic love or parental love, it’s the same thing. Maybe some people would cringe at the idea of “loving” your Pokemon — fan and nonfan alike — but in a way when we become passionate about any hobby we put some amount of love into it. We love the cars we build, we love the poems we write, we love showing our skill in sports, we love relaxing with video and board games, and yes, I think we love our Pokemon. It’s all the same thing. The logic of why the design is “bad”, whether or not it’s correct (and plenty of people would disagree with my criticism of later Pokemon so that can explain it as well), doesn’t even enter into it because love is an emotion.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

It’s weird to say that, that I “love” my Pokemon, because Pokemon isn’t even one of my favorite series, but it doesn’t even matter because GUYS KREMLIN IS EVOLVING!!!



(Amazing fanart of Kreml- I mean Krookodile by hobermen on Tumblr!)





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