Now that the franchise is dead, can you look at it from a detached perspective and assess its influence?

For me, Pokemon defined my childhood. I used to beg other kids to borrow their GameBoy colors and train their Pokemon because my mom wouldn't buy me one. I was so fucking happy when she finally got me an Advance SP. I fired up Silver and I was literally ecstatic . By that time my classmates had gotten over Pokemon but it was all new to me. Lugia was my favorite. I trained her to lvl 100. I played it everywhere and anywhere.

By high school I had to hide my love for Pokemon to avoid ridicule, mainly playing at my home computer through emulators. Even though I didn't like gen 3 I still logged hundreds of hours in.

Now that I am in college my new friends are better people. They were slightly incredulous when they found out but when asked I shrugged and said "I was a huge fan as a kid and I never lost the passion" and they accepted that. I played White on my 3DS for a while and I skipped W2 completely. I was SO excited when they said gen 6 would be 3D. I waited impatiently for every screenshot and trailer.

Yesterday I saw the news. I was never a regular here at /vp/, mainly visiting when big news was expected, to look at the banter, but I'd still like to say goodbye. Goodbye to all of you. They can never take back beating Gary for the first time. They can never take back going through the Rock tunnel successfully, or barely beating the Elite Four and seeing the end credits.

They can never take away the memories.


THE END