>>56380302"zoomer seething" is correct but it needs a little more elaboration.
Gen 1/Pokemania is a major cutoff point among Pokefans, as you have pointed out we were an actual cultural phenomenon. It's not something that you can explain by simply pointing out at the games, the anime, or whatever else came out of it, "you had to be there" fully applies when it comes to a time where everyone was getting into Pokemon for the very first time, literally on every corner in the world no matter from where you are from. For the people who were there, it's what they will always remember fondly. That was "Pokemon" if you are old enough to experience it, and nothing managed to ever replicate the same feelings.
The second group of people instead missed on all of this, and eventually they will confront the "genwunner" either IRL or any online community. The guy who will inevitably tell you the franchise peaked at the very beginning, much to the younger fan's confusion and befuddlement as they cannot possibly see anything more than crusty old gameboy games and a really whimsical series of animated episodes, doing nothing particularly impressive by comparison. From his perspective, the genwunner is nostalgic at best and completely delusional at worst seeing just how "better" the franchise got over time. It doesn't sound reasonable when you take it out of context and analyze "Gen1" for what it is, but it makes perfect sense if you focus on how the "genwunner" lived through it instead.
