I hate nostalgia whoring so much!!

[redwoodalchan]

This has been bugging me for awhile, and now I feel it's about time I vented.

I've seen members of the Pokemon fandom do some pretty obnoxious things in my time, but if you really want to get in my bad graces there is no quicker way than by playing the nostalgia card and going off on one about how Generation I is the best and totally superior to the other generations in every way, and how Generation V and all them suck for not being just like Generation I. Like, it's one thing to have a favorite generation, or like the Kanto region or pokemon or people the best, but it's quite another to act like the Kanto games are objectively better than the others and to measure everything on a scale of how much like the Kanto games they are. I've seen some arguments for why the first-gen games were the best, and I've yet to find a single one that didn't either a) consist largely of arguments that only that particular fan and others who thought exactly like him/her was likely to care about; or b) boil down to "because they were there first" (or both)!

And it's seriously getting to the point that I've begun to hate things from the first two generations or so for no other reason than that they get so ridiculously glorified. I basically despise Giovanni, Blue, Charizard, and Mewtwo now, for no other reason than that the nostalgia whores hold them up as the best thing ever and bash everyone who came after with tons of unfair comparisons (yes, how dare villains actually have depth, or rivals actually be friendly, or a fire-type actually have something to make up for its weakness to rock rather than a double weakness against it!). No, Giovanni is not a better villain than Cyrus or N (or Ghetsis)! No, Blue is not a better rival than Barry, Bianca, Cheren, or Hugh! No, Charizard is not a cooler pokemon than Blaziken or Emboar! And no, Mewtwo is not automatically a better legendary than Giratina, Zekrom, or Kyurem! 

This is not to say that I don't appreciate the first generation of games for themselves. I get that the first generation of Pokemon games were very, very good for what they were. And I know how nostalgia for the old games feels. I still remember the first time my first-grade friend showed me what a battle in Pokemon Blue looked like. I remember my delight at opening my first Pokemon Yellow game, and all the hours I spent playing the first three generations' worth of games. But I don't think they're objectively better than the games that came after because if it weren't for some of the changes made in the newest editions of Pokemon from gens IV and V (like better villains, and something that actually resembles a coherent storyline) I never would have become a fan as an adult. Judging by some of these nostalgia whores' comments, though, I should apparently be ashamed of myself as a bad older fan and fashion lemming because I like the newer stuff and haven't enshrined my older gen games as the best thing ever.

And that, I think, is what's so bad about this whole business. If it were just a bunch of older fans reminiscing about how much they loved the first generation that would be one thing, but what gets me riled up is that they constantly make unfair comparisons between the newer generations and the older generations, uncritically glorifying the first game despite its many flaws and denigrating later ones as though Pokemon were nothing but a big nostalgia trip for them. The ones who argue that "they should have stopped at 150" or "they should have stopped at Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald" are the worst. Come on, guys! The whole reason why the Pokemon games were created in the first place is to make money for their creators! There's no way they were actually going to keep the games in stasis while other franchises grew and changed, or cut off their franchise prematurely, just to entertain your nostalgic fantasies!
 So, yeah! Enough with the nostalgia whoring already! The first generation is not objectively better than the later ones, so just shut up and enjoy the damn games!

Comments

[sarajayechan]

*applauds*

Really, I'm all for nostalgia. I'm the same way about TV, I don't like as much of the new stuff as I do the shows from the 90s and such. But these nostalgia stans get so annoying with all their bashing and whining about anything that came after the original 151/251. And as someone who was spoiled by the later games, Gen I doesn't do much for me outside of nostalgia kicks-the speed sucks, the mechanics aren't as developed, the bag is too small, glitches, the extremely broken Psychic types, etc.

[redwoodalchan]

One argument that I've heard repeated once or twice now is that the original games were better because they had the potential to be "harder"--that is, there were (for example) less instances where your pokemon just healed automatically and clear difficulty levels for each of the starters (Bulbasaur=easy, Squirtle=medium, Charmander=hard). The thing is, though, I don't necessarily buy that because I don't see any of the Pokemon games as being especially hard--pretty much any battle can be won if you strategize well and level-grind enough (awhile ago I picked up my old Red game and started with a Charmander, and I still beat Brock in one shot just by wearing his pokemon down and employing lots of Sand-Attacks).

[sarajayechan]

Seriously? Some of the new games can be plenty hard, too. I mean, Unova: First gym, automatic type disadvantage, the monkey you get to combat that is underleveled. Then in the sequel, Cheren can easily KO your entire team if you haven't trained enough. Oh, and Roark aint no walk in the park either. Sinnoh? Platium has so many roaming legendaries that if you wanna get 'em all, you've got your work cut out for you.

[redwoodalchan]

Well, in my Platinum game I remember Roark was the only gym leader I couldn't beat in one go. I didn't beat him at all until I'd evolved my Chimchar into Monferno. And that's the thing--Roxanne and Roark are actually really, really difficult to defeat if you don't have a type advantage, something that wasn't true of Brock in Generation I (his pokemon didn't know any strong rock-type attacks, they were really slow, and the move Bide is pretty useless if you know what to expect from it and only do a bit of damage at a time).

[guardians_song]

Charmander is supposed to be HARD? (I though Squirtle was the easiest, frankly. Ice Beam and Dig gave it the ability to cover all its weaknesses with ease.) I did a near-Charmander solo once (I used a Pikachu to help with Misty, and I had a Kadabra of moderate strength for Revive fodder), and by the endgame, I was literally defeating Gym Leaders with Rage for entertainment. (Erika's Gym was hilarious. Ever beaten an entire Gym with 24 uses of Ember?) I wasn't even level-grinding. I was just doing a solo.

They do have the potential to be harder, but that's because they had more classic-retro-RPG jerk-moves. Mt. Moon, for one, with its easy-to-get-turned-around-in tunnels, jerk-move trainers (meet Hyper Fang Raticate!), and long-hard-slog through several floors at low party levels. :X It's not really that they were better games, but that they came from a different philosophy. ...Out of curiosity, have any of the Gen1ers been introduced to Etrian Odyssey? They might like it enough to not bother arguing about Pokemon...

[shamanicshaymin]

The second somebody says, "There are only 150 Pokemon! (151 if you count Mew!)" I get the hell out of there before I start strangling that person aka Homer & Bart. I like Gen I as much as anyone else, but it's not a goddamn crime to love the latter games too. I like Giovanni and Cyrus, I love Mewtwo and Darkrai. Hell, my two all-time favorite Pokemon are from Gen IV and many mons I like are from Gen V. In fact, I can say with complete honesty that some Gen I Pokemon were boring from when I was 11 and are still boring today. (If it wasn't for Brock, I would've forgotten the Geodude family even existed)

Personally, I'd like to see Mewtwo blow them all to smithereens, whether in his regular or "awakened" form. That'd be satisfying.

[redwoodalchan]

It really is a shame about Giovanni because I do want to like him. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff you can do with him and the rest of Team Rocket, but the nostalgia brats make it so hard because they can't stop going on about how awesome Giovanni was and how Cyrus and (especially) N are losers for daring to be sympathetic and have actual depth of character and come on the scene once their childhood was over. The fact that Giovanni has been outdone by pretty much every villain who followed him in pretty much every way never seems to cross their minds.

[guardians_song]

Of course not! Gen II is the best, and there are only 251 Pokemon! :B ...*dodges flames*

More seriously, I admit that I dislike the third and fourth gens for the pettiest of reasons - I don't like the change in art style. On the other hand, I think Black and White are totally awesome, and that X & Y look like they'll continue that trend. I'm shrugging off the rest as growing pains in jumping from GB to GBA to DS. :P

(I do note that there is a difficulty-level variance. Though I haven't played RBY or GSC in a while, HG/SS is, in my opinion, significantly harder than RSE or DPP. That game punished you if you weren't at the correct levels, whereas RSE, with the exception of the occasional freakish trainer, let you breeze through relatively easily. ...Could just be that I built a better RSE team than my HG/SS one, though.

...But, by the same reasoning, B/W is much nastier... Oh jeez, Leonora alone. D: So I don't understand why the Gen 1ers are still complaining...)