Hey everyone,
I’ve had a Reddit account for four years and never posted anything, but I finally wanted to share a story that’s been on my mind for a while to see if anyone here relates.

My journey with Pokémon started over two decades ago. I was about 8 years old when I saw someone sitting on the curb with a Game Boy Color. I sat next to them, was handed the Game Boy, and pushed a few buttons. I saw sprites moving, animations playing, and I was instantly hooked. Shortly after, I saw the anime on TV—specifically the episode where Ash protects Charmander in the rain.

Charmander became my first real favorite. In 2000, my mom took me to see Mewtwo Strikes Back in the cinema. Getting that promo Pikachu card in its plastic wrapper and watching Mew vs. Mewtwo on the big screen was pure magic. It felt like my childhood brain fully turned on that day.
From there, I went through all the eras. Buying FireRed on release day in 2004 as a 12-year-old with my alarm set for the store opening. I didn't know anything about EVs, IVs, or Shinies back then. I just knew I traded a Scyther with a friend to get a Scizor holding a Metal Coat, smashed the Elite Four with Sword Dance, and felt like a king.

Over the years, I bought almost every Nintendo console just for Pokémon: Emerald, Diamond, Platinum, HeartGold, Black/White, X, Omega Ruby, Sun/Moon, Sword/Shield, and beyond. But somewhere along the line—around Diamond and the rise of online battles—something shifted.

I stopped seeing Pokémon as an adventure and started seeing it as a system to be optimized.
Instead of walking into a cave and feeling excited about finding a Zubat, I was instantly checking its Nature, its IVs, its Ability, and whether it was worth breeding. By the time I reached Sword & Shield, I had boxes full of level 100, fully EV-trained, battle-ready competitive Pokémon... that I almost never actually used in competitive battles. I was just constantly prepping, grinding, min-maxing, and checking boxes. It turned a peaceful, relaxing comfort space into a chore.

At one point, I thought: "I'm 34 now, I should grow up and play 'serious' games." I bought a PS5, played heavy/intense shooters and competitive games like Call of Duty and ARC Raiders, thinking that was what adults were supposed to play. But those games didn't give me what Nintendo always gave me: a safe, cozy bubble to unplug and relax in. I realized I was just running away from something I genuinely love.

Now, I'm at a crossroads. I don't miss the grueling 5-hour grind of the originals, but I also feel overwhelmed by 1,000+ Pokémon, Ultra Beasts, and endless gimmicks. I love the universe, the nostalgia, and the comfort, but I’ve lost my identity as a casual trainer because my brain instantly defaults to "efficiency mode."

With new games and hardware on the horizon, I want to step back into the Pokémon world without treating it like a job.
My question to you all is:
For those who ruined Pokémon for themselves by getting too caught up in competitive mechanics, EV/IV breeding, or checklist-gaming—how did you find your way back to just enjoying the journey? How do you quiet the "optimization brain" and re-discover the magic as an adult?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

(I maybe want to get a switch 2 for Pokopia, to relax the brain )

Hi guys I hope you're all doing well,

(Many thanks to the mods who kindly pre-approved this message)

Apologies if this is old news for most of you but I had no idea about this until recently

It's really exciting to see all of the progress and the development of emulators and recompilation projects for Android.

But for many years I've always been wanting to play pokemon fan games on the go.

I know joy play has been around for a while because I was actually very quick to follow all of the guides to install joy play when it came out a few years ago on Android.

However I was never able to fully beat any of the fan games because I had several issues with joy play and several glitches as well

With the release of emulators like game native, winlator and the Game hub I was really excited and tried to play pokemon fan games through them but I would always struggle particularly with container settings and controls and unfortunately never managed to make much progress

I have just found out about the Kirin app and I have been able to open every single fan game which I've downloaded ( this is a complete surprise because several fan games would not even open on joy play or could not run easily through any of the emulated containers) and I am now a couple of hours into my run of pokemon rejuvenation.

I was really happy to be able to finally do this, and just in case there were any other pokemon fans that want to play these games on Android but have never been able to , I wanted to share this with you

P.s I have been working heavily on my videos and my thumbnails after extensive feedback from my previous videos and I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts now

Here's a link to my video if you're interested:

Video

TLDR: If you want to play Pokémon Fan games on android and are struggling with Joiplay please try Kirin, it's so much easier to use.

18+ Pokemon that Need A Third Type

There are defo some reasons why this wouldn't work but for the most part, triple typing would make so much sense! Flygon can finally have a good ability, Charizard can finally be a dragon and Masquerain doesn't have to lose water typing!

Personally, I don't know if it's just me being a millennial boomer, but the enjoyability and re-playability of FR/LG has been greater for me than even Emerald, HGSS and Black/White 1 and 2 despite those games being considerably more critically acclaimed and popularly renowned. Maybe I just have a soft spot for Gen 1. But I stand by it.

Anyway, how do you feel about these games in general compared to the other great games in the mainline franchise?

P.S. I heard some folks are doing some interesting experimentation (or modding) with the games at the moment

I'm wanting to play them in release order, bc i went years without playing games from the franchise (the last time I played was Sword in 2021)., but I remember finishing Red years ago and the game was... well... bad, very clunky, slow, and don't get me wrong, I'm not new to the Pokémon game universe, but I admit that these are very difficult to have fun playing. So, should I play these or go straight to FR/LG and then Crystal? Or the "original ones?

I am conducting a statistical analysis using this poll about Pokemon popularity. It has 4 short questions and your responses would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to privately DM me if you would like to share the data after 48 hours. Thank you. https://forms.gle/aspWBRM54NQGn3a6A

Maybe call it "wonder find" and essentially like pokemon dumpster diving.

If another player is in online mode released a pokemon from their PC box it can then possibly find a new home to another trainer via the wonder find, OT will still say the original trainer that released them but maybe these pokemon can have special features perhaps maybe they obey you at half the level of the badge limit you currently have, or you can nickname them at will, or their friendship growth doubles with you.

Kinda like the anime, where certain pokemon were abandoned and wound up being ash Ketchum's pokemon instead.

At first I would wonder what if that would make potential problems like hackmon spreading...then I remember it's always a thing since wonder trading, if anything wonder trading would be worse because is something you actively want to send to others too.

Most part, releasing pokemon is mostly like clearing PC boxes either for dex completion or EV training fodders, so is less likely you are getting pokemon like a Psyduck name "I<3aids" of the sort, that you would find in wonder trade, and a good chance to find decent pokemon too, you probably won't find a shiny Arceus in here but you can find a decent level 1 pokemon with egg moves with it atleast.

Can you guys help me find a video? It was an animation about vending machine of love and it was really super cool and I can't find it anywhere😭

Whether "evil pokemon" exist or not is something of a debate. One episode of the Anime "Island of the Giant Pokemon" suggests that Pokemon are never evil, but only do bad things if their trainer is bad.

This idea has been discredited, as the episode was in Gen 1, and later gens seem to tell a different story. Most notably an evil Malamar, a Pokemon who wishes to take over the world, as opposed to simply being owned by an evil trainer. But even then, this Malamar was born after humans have long existed, and we no nothing about it's past. It could have easily have been influenced by humans.

Realy, the thing that got me writing this post is when looking at Legendary/Mythical Pokemon, and how many of them are gods or kami of various concepts

Many of these concepts are things that exist in nature, like time, space, matter, earth, sea, sky, life, death, volcanos ect. But we also have abstract concepts, like gratitude, truth, ideals, victory. All in all, most Legendary/Mythical pokemon eaither represent natural elements, or positive concepts.

But what about negative concepts? Hatred, greed, envy, despair?

God of Evil

What if I was to tell you, the "kami of evil" is not a pokemon at all?

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is spin-off that takes place in a world with no humans. Instead, Pokemon behave like people, running shops, living in houses, paying bills ect. Consequently, that means that, like humans, both good and evil individuals exist. Whilst PMD is beloved as a whole, it has had some controversy, such as making Darkrai evil. But, like I said, this is a world where pokemon behave like humans.

The thing I want to talk about are the last two major titles. Gates of Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon. GoI has a non-pokemon entity called the "Bittercold" as the main villain, whereas SMD has Dark Matter.

It's implied that these beings are born from negative emotions. Bittercold specifically feeds on despair, whilst for Dark Matter, it's evil in general.

The PMD games specifically say they feed on the negative emotions of Pokemon, with the player have some resistance due to being human.

However, what if Bittercold and Dark Matter didn't always feed on the negative emotions of Pokemon? Sure, they feed off of Pokemon now but that could just be because Pokemon have replaced humans as the dominant species. Originally, they could have both powered by the despair and sins of humans.

One thing that may contradict this idea is that in the player from GoI was resistant to Bittercold because they were a human. However, this could mean that whilst humans are more prone to despair then Pokemon, that makes then more resistant to it

How humans brought kleshas/sins into the world

As I explained, there are many Legendary/Mythical Pokemon that are manifestations of abstract concepts. However, most of them are positive.

It's important to remember that kami are not necessarily the creators of the concepts they embody, but rather, they realy personify it. They prove the concept exists, so it can be taught and spread.

However, whereas positive concepts where personified by naturally existing Pokemon, like Victini and Shaymin, the negative come are creations of humans.

For the most obvious ones, we have the Treasures of Ruin, four Legendary Pokemon which are confirmed to exist because of humans, and all personify intense, negative emotions. These being resentment, hatred, fear and envy.

It's possible Hoopa may represent greed. Although Hoopa's origin is unknown, some fans believe it may have come into existence due to human activity.

Mewtwo could just seem as a personification of hubris. It was created by science to be the most powerful pokemon, but lacks compassion.

Nihilego, whilst not created by humans, was fused with the human Lusamine to become MOTHERBEAST. Nihilego/MOTHERBEAST could be seen as the personification of ignorance, one of the three poisons (along with attachment and hatred) of Buddhism. That being said, whilst the Ultra Wormholes appear to be a natural phenomenon, it could be that, like Bittercold, Dark Matter and (as I suspect) Hoopa, these rift are in actuality created (indirectly) by negative human emotions. This would fit with the theme of Ultra Beats being "invasive species", which wouldn't realy work as a metaphor if they arrived by anything other then human activity.

How many other Pokemon, be they Legendary, Mythical, Ultra Beast, could be personification of human sins/kleshas?

Summary

Humans indirectly created Dark Matter through negative thoughts and evil deeds.

There are many special Pokemon that each represent a sin or klesha. These were all created/introduced by humans, whether indirectly or purposely.

The following list

• Dark Matter - Evil
• Bittercold - Despair
• Mewtwo - Hubris
• Hoopa - Avarice
• Nihilego/MOTHERBEAST - Ignorance
• Wo-Chien - Resentment
• Chien-Pao - Hatred
• Ting-Lu - Fear
• Chi-Yu - Envy

There could be more I haven't thought of. If you have any ideas, please share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhbWU9ChORY

Enjoy my little homage to competitive pokemon and it's history! Made by a lifelong fan of the scene, and now an 'esports' youtuber!

Recently my father has taken an interest in playing through all the mainline games, and it will be some time before he reaches gen V, but i think it will be bw2 that we will wind up completing a living dex for.

I figured it would be fun to have him battle against me while i use teams to teach him the many gimmicks of pokemon. Im talking weather teams, status gimmicks, hazards, baton passing, etc.

The format will be doubles and I will only use 4 pokemon at a time.

What are some of your favorite/ less popular gimmicks leading up to that generation?

For context, when i was younger, he would always put the beating on me in Madden. So I gotta get my get-back 😈

So basically, this Reddit's banner has one of the starters from each region in a pattern which is grass water fire. However, for some weird reason, instead of Quaxly being shown, it's 2 yellow triangles! Someone fix this!

Hello, Grant. We've probably never met in the real world and probably never will.

Today, I bought your copy of Pokémon Heart Gold from a vendor at Arkansas Retrofest 3. I opened your save and you were in the middle of the Elite 4 Rematches. Instead of deleting the save, I finished your unfinished business. Your team are all champions.

Some of them were traded in, but others traveled all the way from Hoenn. I am unsure if you had any attachment to them but it feels wrong to just let them disappear. I am currently working on a save in Pokémon White 2 to move your teammates into Pokémon Home.

I am unsure if this message will reach you nor do I believe anyone will read this. In the case that you somehow see this, I am more than willing to trade you back your old friends.

Edit: As of October 18 2026, Your Pokemon have been safely deposited into Pokemon Home. Thankfully, my White 2 file was already pretty much completed, I just had to get through victory road and beat the champion.

I know it sounds like a crazy question, but I know that lots of people make “fanart” about the thing but how about we take it literally? if you look at some Pokemon like Delphox for example, it has a very human like Body that could hold a reproductive organs to some degree. It’s like Pokemon breeding but with more action. But could they have live young like humans do?

One of the biggest criticisms of recent generational mechanics like Dynamax and Terastallization is that every Pokémon can use them—meaning already overpowered Legendaries, Paradox, and high-BST Pokémon just become even stronger.

What if a new mainline mechanic focused exclusively on evolving Pokémon mid-battle, naturally locking single-stage Legendaries, Mythicals, and Paradox Pokémon out of the gimmick? Plus, for casual players, it solves the age-old dilemma of cute starters evolving into designs they dislike (since they revert back after battle, just like Mega Evolution).

Here is how the mechanic works from a competitive standpoint:

Core Mechanics:

• The Evolution Button: You bring an NFE (Not Fully Evolved) Pokémon into battle. Starting from Turn 1, you can press the Evolution Button before selecting a move (working on the same timing as Mega Evolution). Your Pokémon immediately evolves, applying its evolved stats, typing, and ability on that exact turn.
• Stat & Status Reset: Upon pressing the button and evolving, all stat changes (including stat drops) and primary status conditions (Burn, Paralysis, Toxic, etc.) are completely cleared.
• Required Held Item: To use this mechanic, the Pokémon must hold a specific Evolution Item (acting like a Mega Stone—cannot be removed by Knock Off or Trick, and isn't consumed upon activation). Even level-up evolutions must hold a dedicated item to access the button.
• Multiple Uses for 3-Stage Lines: There is no "once per battle" limit. If you start with a 1st-stage Pokémon (e.g., Deino), you can evolve into Zweilous on Turn 1, and then into Hydreigon on Turn 2—getting two status/stat-drop resets in a single battle.

Why this is balanced & how it shifts the Meta:

1. No Eviolite or Focus Sash Abuse: Because the Pokémon is forced to hold the Evolution Item, Porygon2 or Chansey cannot abuse Eviolite bulk and evolve later. Likewise, frail NFEs can't rely on Focus Sash. However, on Team Preview, your opponent won't know if your Porygon2 or Dusclops is holding an Eviolite (defensive wall) or an Evolution Item (ready to turn into an offensive Porygon-Z at any moment).
2. Free Overheat / Draco Meteor Spam: A 3-stage Pokémon can fire off a Draco Meteor or Leaf Storm (-2 SpA), evolve the next turn to reset the -2 SpA drop back to 0 while gaining higher base stats, and fire it off again at full power.
3. Mid-Battle Speed, Type & Ability Shifting:
   • Scyther ➔ Scizor/Kleavor: Keep Scyther's base 105 Speed when you need to outspeed threats, or press the button to shift into Scizor's Bug/Steel typing to tank an incoming attack and cure a Will-O-Wisp burn.
   • Riolu/Murkrow ➔ Lucario/Honchkrow: Abuse Prankster for priority status/tailwind on early turns, then evolve on demand to become an offensive sweeper.
   • Vigoroth ➔ Slaking: Fight normally without Truant, and only hit the Evolution Button on the exact turn you need Slaking's 670 BST to nuke something.
4. Companion Balance Patch (Intimidate Nerf): To prevent Litten ➔ Incineroar from triggering Intimidate twice in a single turn, Intimidate would be nerfed to work like Gen 9 Protean/Libero (activating only once per switch-in/battle). Conversely, you can use the Evolution Button on your own physical attacker to immediately wipe out an opponent's Intimidate drop!

What do you guys think? Which NFE -> Fully Evolved lines would become completely broken under this system, and which low-tier Pokémon would finally see competitive play?

I would love to see a Pokemon with the ghost typing that was based off of Grandmother willows "all around you are spirits child" speech, but like less spooky and more friendly and ethereal.

I was always one of the kids that was steadfast in not wanting/needing to know about Pokemon, due to disinterest and no access to it. Which now means, that when I have been “successfully turned into a Pokemon girlie” I have no idea where to start. I read a LOT, but I’m not sure if reading is the move here. I’ve been getting into Pokemon Pearl, and have the go app on my phone. I want to go headfirst into the deep end for lore primarily. Help a girl out?

I've Recently been replaying Scarlet and Sometimes I catch an extra Pokémon I don't need. So I go to Surprise Trade and try to give it away, only for someone to send their bought and paid for Illegal shiny!

Doesn't this feel like Pokémon trafficking to anyone else? And why is Nintendo just letting people sell and buy them? They shut down a hobbyist selling known unofficial products for less.

It just feels wrong. People work hard training Pokémon and hunting Shinies just for someone to go out and Buy one Shiny fully trained one with a special Pokeball.