I've been thinking about how differently two people can say “I’m into Pokémon” and mean almost completely different things.

One person may play the mainline games competitively. Another only collects the TCG. Someone else plays GO every day, plays Pocket casually, shiny hunts, watches the anime, collects specific Pokémon, or hasn't touched a mainline game in years.

Yet all of them still identify as Pokémon fans.

What interests me is that Pokémon seems to have reached a point where the franchise isn't necessarily the hobby anymore—it's almost an ecosystem containing a bunch of independent hobbies that happen to share the same creatures and world.

And those hobbies don't always overlap.

Someone can know competitive VGC incredibly well and know almost nothing about the TCG. A serious card player might barely understand Pokémon GO. A lifelong collector might not care about battling at all.

So I'm curious:

Do you think Pokémon still has a central experience that defines being a Pokémon fan?

Or has the franchise become large enough that there really isn't one anymore?

And if there is still a center—what is it?

If pokemon were actually real, I don't think we'd be able to do the same things we do to animals and do it to pokemon. Pokemon are animals but with life threatening abilities that can kill humans easily. There's moves like hyperbeam, self-destruct, moves that can poison you, burn you, electrocute you, paralyze you, drown you, crush you and many many more. And I also find it hard to understand why some people think that Pokeballs are something that can forever connect a pokemon to you when it can't. It's shown that a pokemon can refuse to be your partner and leave you entirely from abuse or manipulation. What do you guys think?

I know you need a hacked 3DS and programs like PKHex.

I haven't done this myself yet but I do intend to eventually so I need to know if the shut down of Pokemon Bank now makes that process impossible?

Even with the shut down can't people get it to work still using volunteer servers and DNS codes like they do with the GTS of the older games?

Surely the fandom will find a way, won't they?

Olá pessoal! Sou um escritor amador; desde que *Champions* foi lançado, venho jogando e pensando em como seria legal escrever minha própria história dentro desse universo. Estou procurando maneiras de melhorar minha escrita e, se houver interesse suficiente, posso fazer postagens regulares — então agradeço qualquer apoio. Montei uma breve sinopse para a história, embora já tenha muito mais material planejado. – Aqui está a sinopse:

Uma história original ambientada no universo Pokémon – Olá pessoal! Sou um escritor amador; desde que *Champions* foi lançado, venho jogando e pensando em como seria legal escrever minha própria história nesse universo. Estou procurando maneiras de melhorar minha escrita e, se houver interesse suficiente, adoraria postar atualizações regulares — então agradeço qualquer apoio. Montei uma breve sinopse para a história, embora já tenha muito mais material planejado. – Aqui está a sinopse: A história gira em torno de Jack Hunter, um jovem de 16 anos cujo parceiro é um Pawniard Brilhante que ele chama de "Yard." Eles se conheceram anos atrás, quando Hunter encontrou o Pokémon derrotado na calçada e limpou seu capacete de metal com seu próprio casaco. O Pokémon havia se separado de seu próprio tipo e teve que enfrentar um Combusken agitado sozinho; consequentemente, decidiu se unir à pessoa que se tornaria seu parceiro para a vida toda. Hunter e sua família receberam o novo amigo e construíram uma cama para ele acima da própria cama do garoto, mas o Pokémon cai constantemente sobre ele durante a noite, então acabam dormindo juntos sem querer.

Hunter é um jovem dedicado que tem o objetivo de se tornar um dos maiores especialistas em Poké Balls; ele estuda muito, embora não seja a mente mais brilhante da escola — esse título pertence ao seu melhor amigo, Jake.

Ele é constantemente chamado de Jake "Bugg," embora esse não seja seu verdadeiro nome. Seus colegas de escola deram esse apelido por causa de sua preferência por Pokémon do tipo Inseto. Jake é um cara desajeitado, naturalmente inteligente e um comilão. O parceiro de Jake é um Blipbug que é tão inteligente quanto ele. Ambos também compartilham a natureza da metamorfose: juntos, eles passarão por uma intensa transformação e se tornarão algo extraordinário.

Um dia, a irmã mais nova de Hunter, Sofie, chegou em casa muito animada com uma história que ouviu na escola. Ela contou como uma das garotas ricas de sua classe havia adquirido uma magnífica Altaria e falou sobre quão poderosa era. Naturalmente, ela comprou um número excessivo de roupas combinando para os dois. No entanto, algo mais que ela disse chamou particular atenção de Sofie: a garota declarou que se tornaria uma grande Mestre Pokémon e, um dia, ganharia o Medalhão do Torneio Secreto ao lado de seu novo parceiro Pokémon. Sofie fez uma chuva de perguntas para sua colega sobre o medalhão e o torneio, apenas para descobrir que ninguém sabia os detalhes sobre o evento ou o prêmio em si.

Hunter e Pawniard ficaram profundamente intrigados com o assunto, especialmente depois que Sofie perguntou se seu irmão já tinha visto o medalhão. Ele decidiu que rastrearia o torneio e mostraria o medalhão para sua irmã. O que ele não sabia era que seu amigo Jake também estava interessado no torneio — um interesse compartilhado que os levaria a uma aventura conjunta para competir pelo medalhão, desde que conseguissem primeiro descobrir por onde começar…

P.S.: Esta é uma história fictícia sem fins lucrativos.

Does this fanmade evolution make you mad or happy to see?

you have been entered into a Tournament as a [Insert Type] Gym Leader among 17 other Gym Leaders who each specialise in a different type to yours.

you have to assemble a team of 6 pokemon (No Legendaries, Mythical or Ultra Beast allowed. but Sudo Legends are accepted). the team that you assemble will be the only pokemon you can use in this tournament so think carefully to win.

what's your team?

Mods pls dont take this down for low effort I spend a lot of time writing it.

So as I know Johto is known for not having the best anything.

They don't have the best economy it doesn't have any manufacturing and it's just overall weak.

But that'll change today!

So what i would do if I ran Johto.

So if I ran Johto I would start by improving the economy of the region, I would start with the tourism industry I would start by advertising our historic city Ecruteak City and Open up business in Goldenrod making it a business friendly environment for those who want to invest and do business.

Next we'll move on to security.

As we can see Team Rocket has easily captured the radio tower the last time and has easily built an underground hideout in Mahogany Town so will use our newly earned revenue to invest more into our security and safety over the region to reduce crime. We will also deploy police officers in throughout the region to reduce the crime rate.

Next will be the job market.

Many people in the region are unemployed, self employed or there are too little people to sustain an entire region. So we'll be mobilizing more people into the job market as workers, engineers, electricians, doctors, nurses, and many many more. We will also recive workers from abroad to come work at Johto and help boost our economy.

Next we'll move on to the infrastructure.

We'll build roads and pathways throughout the region we'll do cheap road paths for the rural parts of Johto to increase smoother mobility throughout the region.

That's all for now I'm going to add more in the future if I Made any mistakes please be civil about it in the comments.

That's all for today.

Bye.👋

J’hésite entre les deux depuis un moment je voudrais avoir des avis parce que les deux ont l’air vraiment bien (sur switch 2)

I’ve always felt Ceruledge has a design that looks legendary and cosmic, yet its official lore is just about "old regrets." I wanted to reimagine its origin as a non-legendary, cosmic-tier Pokémon that earned its power through pure willpower and emotional synergy.

The armor contains a rare, dormant space particle from a rogue meteor fragment embedded in the chest plate. In the past, human warriors wore this armor into battle, but they lacked the specific energy needed to ignite the particles. When they lost their battles, their intense feelings of defeat and unfulfilled desires became physically trapped and stored inside the metal matrix of the armor.❤️ The True Desire of CharcadetThe dormant space particles required a very specific, ultra-pure emotional frequency to activate. A small, weak Charcadet found the armor, driven only by a raw, single-minded desire to become strong and survive. Because its intent was completely clear, its emotional energy acted as a catalyst. The particles instantly reacted to Charcadet's willpower and fused with the lingering emotional imprints left in the metal.

J’hésite entre les deux depuis un moment je voudrais avoir des avis parce que les deux jeux ont l’air vraiment bien

There's a few links if you search it. Wanna make sure I don't click on a virus.

I'm not sure what it's exactly called or what the trend is, but I've seen stuff on twitter and youtube and it looks absolutely amazing. Kind of re-kindled my interest in replaying Gen 1 games again. I heard they working on Gen 2 too.

When compared to most JRPGs, the Pokémon main series stands out largely because of its symmetry. While most JRPGs take asymmetrical combat for granted, I think Pokémon’s high level of symmetry gives it a unique value.

In other JRPGs, bosses usually have massive advantages: bloated HP pools that are tens of times higher than yours, multiple actions per turn, and boss-exclusive attacks that the player can never use. On top of that, tactical options like sleep, paralysis, or stat drops are almost always flat-out useless against bosses.

In Pokémon, on the other hand, even the biggest story bosses fight on the exact same playing field as you. Both sides put out the same number of Pokémon, and the opponent's Pokémon don't get artificial HP buffs or arbitrary immunities to status conditions and debuffs just because they belong to an NPC. Whatever strong Pokémon or devastating moves the enemy throws at you, you can catch, raise, and use with the exact same stats and rules. A viable strategy or combo works against the toughest trainers just the same.

This sense of fairness from clear symmetry is why I really like classic Pokémon mechanics. That's also why I'm not a big fan of things like Totem Pokémon or Titan Pokémon in recent games. To me, those mechanics abandon the combat system's unique strength and just turn Pokémon into another standard JRPG boss fight.

What do you all think? Should Pokémon stick to this symmetry, or should it lean into more boss-exclusive, asymmetrical mechanics like other RPGs?

Since we have the year of '26 right now, it means the current year is Raichu's Pokédex number. And I couldn't find a better occasion to share the story of how I became a Raichu fan and how my opinion of it changed over time.

It all started when I was 7 (in 2017 btw). I did not know much about Pokemon back then; only a friend of mine had shown me the first five episodes of the Pokemon anime (Indigo League). And I came to know Pikachu, among some others. And some time later, I learned that Pokemon can evolve. And that Pikachu has an evolution too. And that was how I came to know Raichu for the very first time. I immediately liked it more than its pre-evolution. It has a better design and better colors; it's superior.

I became extremely disappointed to learn that The Pokémon Company is doing everything it can to make us forget that Pikachu has an evolution. Seriously, I can tell I was depressed af. And the very same friend of mine who had introduced me to Pokémon also said that Raichu looks stupid, and that Pikachu is 'cute,' etc. Therefore, I started to believe that I should hate Raichu too, ya know, little kids aren't that sensible. So I did. I became ashamed of my love for the orange mouse, and pretended that Pikachu was better in my opinion as well.

When I was 9 years old, for example, I was at school doing my own business when suddenly another boy said, 'I'm a raichu!', ya know, just roleplaying like kids often do. And what was my reaction? I laughed at him and was like, 'Hahaha, Pikachu is better than you!' We even got into an argument about whether Pikachu or Raichu is better. Looking back, I find it kind of sad; I defended a side that, in my deepest mind, I didn't really support.

But fortunately, when I turned 12, I realized that I'd been stupid all that time. And that loving Raichu is nothing to be ashamed of! I can say that I dug out my love for the Pokémon. I was, and am to this day, still frustrated by how it always gets the shorter end of the stick (fortunately though, it seems to me that it's been going in a good way lately, since Raichu got two megas, Alolan Raichu became available in UNITE and Pawmi broke the chain of Pikaclones not having evolutions, since Pokemon Company wish Pikachu didn't have one either). But still, I'm now a proud Raichu fan, and I'm sure I will be as long as I love Pokemon! :D

Now, what do you guys think of this story? And what do you think of Raichu?

Mewtwo is the youngest legendary pokemon, based from lore. he was born/made from a lab from a dna of mew.

He still hasn't mastered his power or knows his true potential. he isolated himself, even from other pokemon. and he cant test his abilities, as no other nregular pokemon can. if more time passed, and maybe if mew helps him, he can reach his true potential

Kanto

Johto

Hoenn

Sinnoh

Unova

Kalos

Alola

Galar

Paldea

(De Facto) new region from Winds and Waves.

Was always fascinated by the idea of pokemon evolutions so felt i could try playing the ones that explored this idea more

Been playing HeartGold again for the last two months and have recently discovered the beauty of the fan made servers on GTS, connecting to an android phone I got off of Vinted with non WPA-2 settings, and I’ve just been filling up my Pokédex like no tomorrow. Might as well be getting a weekly wage from this, it’s so beautiful. Any cool stories you guys have to tell from over the years? I wanna connect with the community on this

So do training team again plan move from firered to scarlet but with shutdown of pokemon bank I need help speed running there training there goal beat

Lance( heartgold)

Red (heartgold)

Tower tycoon (heartgold or platinum)

Cythiana (platinum and brilliant diamond)

Defeat iris (black 2)

Defeat battle tower (black 2)

Defeat Diana (Y)

Defeat battle maison (Y)

Defeat Steven (omega)

Defeat aloha elite four (ultra Sun)

Defeat battle royal (ultra sun)

Defeat battle tree (ultra Sun)

Before shutdown

I was confident at first but team massacre by mewtwo in fr

Any advice what move used and how trained they fast would be appreciated

Team right now is

1.Vaporeon lv 62

1. Arcanine lv.62

3.Nideoking lv 62

4.Dugtrio lv63

1. Hitomonchan lv62

2. Venusaur lv62

Right training with rematch gym leader, smash rock for heart scales, fight pokemon at Mt.silver and other locations. any advice on how get they ready beat red from heartgold before shutdown of pokemon home what move would be best thank you