The Pokemon Go App, or How I Learned To Let Go Of The Past and Love Pokemon Again

That is right people. I have gotten the Pokemon Go App. I haven’t battle anyone yet, but I’m working on getting a Gloom, Ponyta, and a Vulpix. (Some of my favorite Pokemon.) So yes, the hardcore Digimon fan has gotten the Pokemon Go app, and she is loving it.

And don’t think this means I now favor Pokemon over Digimon now. In fact, one of my hopes for the future is that the people behind Digimon will be inspired to create their own app similar to Pokemon Go so I can play with my favorite anime monster fandom. I also still stand by my belief that Mewoth not knowing how to use Payday because he learned human language is stupid.

But how did a hardcore Digimon fan like myself ended up with Pokemon Go app? And how is it I’m learning to love Pokemon again?

Well, to tell this story we need to go back to my childhood in the late 90s and early 2000s. in time when overalls were acceptable fashion, internet was dialed up, and TVs only had 99 channels.

And during this time I was a causal Pokemon fan. I mean causal. I didn’t play the card game and only played the video games a few times. My source on Pokemon information was the anime, which I could only watch at my Grandparents’ house because they had the WB and my parents didn’t. I do remember have a few Pokemon toys, but I wasn’t defintely not a hardcore fan.

Then out of nowhere Digimon appear before me. This show showed up right when I need it the most and spoke to me in a way Pokemon couldn’t. It wasn’t that Pokemon was bad it was just I need Digimon in a way that I didn’t need Pokemon at the time. It was one of my early fandoms and I still love it to this day. It also helped that I could Digimon wherever I went.

So like every fangirl, I tried to share my love for it with others. This didn’t end well. Most kids snubbed Digimon for being a ripped of a Pokemon, and my shy self wasn’t skilled in arguing against them about it. I had a lot of labels put on me that marked me as the weird kid, and being a Digimon fan was one of them.

Time past, and even as I grew older and didn’t see the people of my childhood anymore, I found myself starting to hate Pokemon. It wasn’t something I did on purpose. I just started to associated Pokemon with a bad part of my childhood subconsciously. Something that just brought me sadness and pain. While Digimon was the show that gave me hope that I would find friends that loved the same things that I did.

What was worse was I didn’t realize I was carrying all these feelings with me or even that was my true reason for disliking Pokemon. I just thought it was a classic fan war. You had to pick a side. There was no liking both. Though part of that mindset might come from the sport side of my family, who will always cheer for the UK Wild Cats no matter what happens.

So with all this baggage I was unknowingly carrying with me, why did I ever consider getting the Pokemon Go app?

The answer is obvious to both a Digimon and Pokemon fan: Friendship.

If you recall from the debate videos that me and Spokette did between Pokemon and Digimon. You will know that we are very close friends. She loves Pokemon as much as I love Digimon.

Due to all stuff going on in my life, I have to move back to New Orleans from Kentucky, where Spokette lives. Meaning we weren’t going to see that much of each other. I could tell she was very sad about this, and I wanted to do something for her to make it easier. During this conversation she had mention that she had watched Digimon. I was shocked because it wasn’t something I had asked her to do, and while it not going to be her new favorite TV show, she did seem to like. So I thought, why not get the Pokemon Go app that way when we do see each other would always have something to connect with by battling our own Pokemon.Plus it was free so I didn’t think it would that big of a deal for me to get it.

Now I know what you are thinking. Emily, you can’t battle with other trainers yet unless they own a gym. Well, see I didn’t know that at the time since I wasn’t really part of the Pokemon fandom. I thought the app was going to let me do that. I was wrong.

But, you know what? I’m glad I didn’t know because there is a chance I would have had second thoughts about getting it. As I have been running around trying to find Pokemon that are awesome to show to Spokette, I have started to remember what Pokemon was really like for me as a child. It wasn’t something negative or mean spirited, it was something that was fun and joyful to be part of.

It has also forced me to look inward to unpack the bullying I was still carrying with me. I had wanted to believe that I had put that past behind, but the truth was I had not. However, knowing that has just empower me to unload the last bags so that I’m finally free from that.

So with each new Pokemon I capture, I guess I’m rally recapture the joy I had as a child. We all have to grow up, but there are some things we can still cling to from childhood. Joy should definitely be one of those things.  You can’t feel that if you’re carrying negative things from the past.

So don’t be surprise if you see me post about my Pokemon journey because this is one adventure I need to go on. If there is one thing I have already relearn is that Pokemon and Digimon fandoms do share the same source: Friendship.