For the Birds

A lot's been going on in the last week of January. To begin with, Rebecca and I celebrated our four year anniversary. I know that she's been wanting to go on vacation to Africa for a while now, so I decided to do something wild and romantic and took her to the Rainforest Café at Yorkdale Mall (you're welcome!). A few days later was the premiere screening for Petty Thieves, a short film I co-wrote and have been working on for almost two years.

To top everything off, I managed to catch both a Moltres and an Articuno in quick succession.

Talk about a good week.

Neither of the Legendary Birds were particularly difficult, but they weren't exactly a cinch. Both did take a few tries and about a hundred Ultra/Dusk balls between the two of them. But that's not important. What's important is that the mighty Moltres (Jean Grey) and Articuno (Shiva) have fallen. As I caught Zapdos (Rayden) some time ago, this means that I now possess the three Legendary Birds.

Now, if I remember my Pokémon: The Movie 2000 correctly, catching all three Birds is a fairly inadvisable thing to do. Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres are essentially guardians of nature, and to catch even one of them would be to throw the world's balance out of flux. Catch all three, and that could spell the end of the world.

But then again, and this is the important thing, do I look like I give a fuck?

So okay, maybe I've left the world in eternal chaos, but the fact remains that I now have all the first and second generation Legendary Pokémon. In fact, with the exception of the Legendaries that can be caught by trading a Kyogre and Arceus, the only one I have left to catch in SoulSilver is Latios. I'll probably give it a proper go in the next few days, but if it proves to be too frustrating I may just use my Master ball, because why not?

The fact that I've almost exhausted all the available Legendaries is just further evidence that it's almost time to make the jump to the Hoenn region of Pokémon Ruby. But in the meantime I'm still making progress in SoulSilver, mostly by leveling up and evolving Pokémon. Since last update, I've evolved:

I.M. Buizel into a Floatzel
Shelob into a Gastrodon
Dr Bong into a Bronzong
Shrub Zero into an Abomasnow
Skitty into a Delcatty
Terezi into a Lickilicky
Mr Tickle into a Tangrowth
Aloysius into a Mamoswine
Finneon into a Lumineon

... and I've also hatched another Tyrogue named JCVD, whom I evolved into a Hitmonchan. I also managed to finally get Trainer Blue (aka your generation 1 rival [aka Gary Motherfucking Oak])'s phone number, which means every Sunday night I get to really challenge myself to a fairly intense battle at the Saffron city gym.

So yes, a good week all things considered.

Pokémon Count at 133:53 hours of gameplay: Seen 381, caught 287
Professor Oak says: If you Headbutt a tree, sometimes a Pokémon might fall out! 

More like Relican't

So far, these past twelve days have mostly been devoted to fighting rematches against the various gym leaders. The results have been fairly positive; my lineup has been slowly but surely increasing in power, while I've managed to evolve other weaker Pokémon, getting closer and closer to filling out my Pokédex. I realize that my Pokémon would get stronger a lot more quickly if I didn't stick an EXP share on whichever weak Pokémon I was trying to evolve at the time, but hey, this way I'm multitasking. And since last post I've managed to evolve...

-my Gulpin, Kirby, into a Swalot
-my Wurmple, M'rrgla, first into a Silcoon and then a Beautifly
-my Dratini, Toothless, into a Dragonair
-Magmus, my Slugma, into a Magcargo
-my Snubbull, Throw Mama, into a Granbull
-my Teddiursa, Bear Jew, into an Ursaring
-Rocksteady, my Rhyhorn, into a Rhydon
-and finally Kim, my Chinchou, into a Lanturn



On top of that, I've unlocked the White Lake on my Pokéwalker, and was then able to catch a Chingling and Buizel. Two fairly useless Pokémon I no longer have to worry about.

I also managed to catch a level 40 Relicanth named Muddy via Pokémon Talk on the radio. Now, when I was told that “a wild group of Relicanth were spotted on route 12”, my first thought was “what the hell's a Relicanth?” This is particularly noteworthy since I had assumed I was familiar, at least on a face-recognition basis, with all 493 Pokémon. But I had completely forgot what a Relicanth was.

When I saw the Pokémon, though, I realized why.



I kinda feel bad for the Relicanth. It's obviously a Pokémon no one cares about, especially not the concept designers. Thankfully, it doesn't evolve into anything, which means I don't have to look at its stupid face ever again.

Finally, I can check another legendary Pokémon off my list. Yesterday, I caught a Zapdos, one of the three legendary birds from the original games. What's more, I did so on my first try, using maybe 5 Pokéballs, tops. The experience was... bittersweet.



A common complaint I've seen regarding the Pokémon franchise is their oversaturation of so-called “legendary” Pokémon as new titles are added. When the original games were released, there were only four legendary Pokémon, with a mysterious fifth super-rare. These were supposed to be the ultimate Pokémon – the ones who, according to the second Pokémon Movie, held the world together (or something). They hid in the deepest recesses of caves, in mountain peaks, etc. Catching them was a Big Deal.

Generation II, Gold and Silver, introduced 6 more legendary Pokémon. These were also very important entities, protectors of the world, majestic Pokégods walking among us mere mortals.

With Ruby and Sapphire, 10 more legendary Pokémon were introduced. They were... also kind of important? Somewhere along the storyline it's implied that one of them will bring about the end of the world. Or something.

Finally, we get Pearl and Diamond, which introduce 14 more Legendary Pokémon, bringing the total up to 35. I dunno, somewhere along the line the importance of these Pokémon got kind of lost on me. Kind of like the hatches in Lost; the first time you see one is pretty crazy, but by the time they introduce, like, the 17th one, you forgot why you cared in the first place.

Nowhere was this more evident to me than when I caught Zapdos. In SoulSilver, they seem to have more legendary Pokémon than they have locations in which they reside.

When I caught Ulysses (Lugia), he was waiting deep in the bowels of an island, summoned by mystical clerics. When I caught Gwaihir (Ho-oh), he had flown to the top of a sacred tower. When I caught Dr. Mabuse (Mewtwo), he had exiled himself to the lowest depths of a mysterious cave.

Zapdos, on the other hand, was just chilling outside of the Power Plant. Kind of like Jay and Silent Bob hanging outside the Quick Stop.



Not exactly my definition of Legendary.

Whatever. I'm not about to look a gift Rapidash in the mouth. Another Legendary caught.



Only... 30 more to go?


Pokémon Count at 78:24 hours of gameplay: Seen 327, caught 181
Professor Oak says: If you break rocks, some Pokémon that were hiding there might come jumping out!

You already said that, Professor!