Moments in Pokemon that stuck with you

[Bubble Ba'ath]

The first is back in 1999 when I finally got my Blastoise to level 100 back in pokemon blue. He was the very 1st pokemon I got to 100 and I still have him on my save file to this day.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

Oh boy:

8. Elite Four Karen's Quote
"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with their favorites. I like your style. You understand what's important."

This quote stuck with me throughout my life, and it pushes me as a Ghost-type specialist (ironically, Karen is Dark-type specialist). I obviously want to win my battles, but not at the cost of using pokemon I don't like. I want to enjoy the game, as well as win.

7. Reaching Kanto in Pokémon Silver
I was only 11 years old when this happened, and it blew. My. MIND. I had no idea we were gonna be able to return to Kanto, and I almost cried when I checked the map and saw where I was. I was so happy to be back, and so shocked to later discover how much had changed.

6. Roulette Goddess Dahlia
My all-time favorite human character. Seeing her for the first time was astonishing. I thought she was so beautiful, and it was heartwarming to see a Pokémon character with my skin tone (or close enough lol).

5. Pokémon Black & White Opening
It. Was. LIT. Not only was it amazing to behold, it was my realization that Pokémon was finally headed towards a darker, more mature route, and while we haven't reached 'T for Teen' yet, BW certainly proved we can.

4. Po Town
Hands down the most depressing thing I've ever witnessed in Pokémon, and one of the most in any video game ever. Here, we discover Team Skull is nothing more than a group of homeless teens running away from pain, abuse and loneliness. The worst of it was the one girl contemplating suicide on the mansion roof. The quote was removed in USUM, so even Game Freak knew it was too much.

3. Bede's League Card
I thought of Bede only as a spoiled rich kid until I got his League Card and learned of his past. The kid had it bad, and he looked to Rose as a father figure, only to be betrayed just so Rose could save his own a**. Poor Bede.

2. The Fate of Professor Sada/Turo
The first time I ever actually cried over a Pokémon game. I had to literally sit my Switch down and process for a few minutes. It really messed me up. It also made me feel so much for Arven.

NUMBER ONE MOMENT: Playing Pokémon Silver for the First Time
Pokémon Silver is such a magical, wonderful game for me, even today. It's unlike anything I ever experienced, and even with its many flaws, I love the game deeply. The very first time I played it, at just 10 years old, it changed my life forever. So much of who I am today is because of this game, including my career as a music composer. It remains one of my favorite video games of all-time .

Well, I might as well add it in:

9. AZ's Death
The second time I cried over a Pokémon game. After well over a decade, we finally get AZ back just to lose him by the end of the game. The sad part is I knew he was dying the moment I saw him coughing, but it still hurt so much when it happened.

 

[Luthor]

I think one moment that stuck with me was from the anime when Ash's Grotle learned Rock Climb. The reason is stuck with me is that I originally saw it in the episode "The Lonely Snover!" but I saw it with the Japanese opening song "Together" and the way they synced up the song and the action was great. Also it was before they went overboard with Rock Climb and all it did was make Grotle able to move faster and able to climb a cliff (not make the ground rise up like it did later). So its always stuck with me (this episode and Candice's gym battle) as before rock climb went a bit too flashy

 

[Victreebong]

So the animator who did the Pikachu Re-Volts and Bye Bye Psyduck episodes will always be part of my adolescent consciousness. Not only were those incredibly well animated episodes for the series (especially at the time), they played to the strengths of what would become otherwise run of the mill critters in a far too large creature roster. Golduck was a stud, and Drowzee, DROWZEE, got elevated to hive mind mega boss.

 

[Pokemonfanforlife7]

 

[Pokefan_1987]

The Fate of Professor Sada/Turo
The first time I ever actually cried over a Pokémon game. I had to literally sit my Switch down and process for a few minutes. It really messed me up. It also made me feel so much for Arven.

The game does sprinkle a lot of clues about it. You never meet them in person and the system which is deep underground somehow detects the Herba Mystica being used. Arven shows a lot of resentment and disrespect since he might have seen the dragons in the past but never fully saw the incident
The final reveal that Turo/Sada were killed in the freak accident involving the bad dragon and the heroic koraidon/miraidon dragon escaping out of the machine portals sometime in the past somehow striking them. The end boss A.I. believing the machine is still worth guarding. But how did it tame the pokemon owned by their real versions + the dragon + the dragon

Also the hidden conclusion: If you bring Terapagos to the top the crystal ponds on top of Ogre Mountain. It triggers a short period of a actual memory of the dead professor or maybe alive to shortly talk to he players and exchanges the book that Briar owned with their newest paradox findings. If only Arven had been part of it to be allowed to meet his parent.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

The game does sprinkle a lot of clues about it. You never meet them in person and the system which is deep underground somehow detects the Herba Mystica being used. Arven shows a lot of resentment and disrespect since he might have seen the dragons in the past but never fully saw the incident
The final reveal that Turo/Sada were killed in the freak accident involving the bad dragon and the heroic koraidon/miraidon dragon escaping out of the machine portals sometime in the past somehow striking them. The end boss A.I. believing the machine is still worth guarding.
But tame the pokemon owned by their real versions + the dragon + the dragon ?
Also the hidden conclusion: If you bring Terapagos to the top the crystal ponds on top of Ogre Mountain. It triggers a short period of a actual memory of the dead professor or maybe alive to shortly talk to he players and exchanges the book that Briar owned with their newest paradox findings. If only Arven had been part of it to be allowed to meet his parent.

See, my initial thought was Professor Turo (I had Violet) had been kidnapped or something, or maybe he was stuck in the future. Never did I consider he was dead, and not only dead, but 10 years prior to the start of the game!

What really messed me up is realizing the reason Arven hadn't heard from his dad all those years is because Turo was dead the whole time. And Arven didn't even know.

 

[Luthor]

See, my initial thought was Professor Turo (I had Violet) had been kidnapped or something, or maybe he was stuck in the future. Never did I consider he was dead, and not only dead, but 10 years prior to the start of the game!

What really messed me up is realizing the reason Arven hadn't heard from his dad all those years is because Turo was dead the whole time. And Arven didn't even know.

Plus they really committed to the tragedy for Arven even after. They easily could found a way to have kept the AI around living in area zero but instead they made it so it definitely wasn't still around (so the ai couldn't be arven's substitute parent) nor did they bring back Arven's other parent in scarlet or Violet. They haven't even brought back Sada and/or Turo into pokemon masters at the time of writing.