Welcome class to your Introduction to Bible Studies! It's actually my weekly Kanto column, but I'm sure regular readers are tired of this preamble by now. In short, for the past few months I have been playing Pokemon Blue all over again, imagining myself less as a trainer and more as a tourist, detailing whatever it is that makes Kanto so special. This week, we've been around the world in 80 pixels and find ourselves back in Pallet Town. You can read up on my first steps in Pallet here, and on the complete journey so far here. Without further ado, let's dive in.
You know, they say you can't go home again, but actually it was pretty easy. All I had to do was swim north from Cinnabar Island, where I spent last week, and boom - I was back in Pallet Town. It doesn't look any different, and most of the time, it doesn't feel different. Hell, most of the time I don't even complete the cycle of Kanto and instead Fly straight to Viridian. It's for this reason that I've often thought the strait between Pallet and Cinnabar is a better fit for Articuno's hiding place than having the Seafoam Islands between Fuchsia and Cinnabar, where everyone passes through, but also catching Articuno was the most magical part of the journey so far, so perhaps I shouldn't critique the Seafoam Islands too much.
I feel like my mission has waned a little bit as my journey has gone on. Pokemon is an easy game, but still requires a little bit of grinding and tactical choices. For the first three gyms or so, I was going into this adventure fresh faced and optimistic. Though Cerulean was a let down - Nugget Bridge aside - I remained buoyant about my exploration. The longer it has gone on, the more I have found myself in the midst of behind the scenes work - fighting trainers, levelling up my team, the agonisingly slow process of evolving Magikarp pre-XP share, and catching new 'mons for my squad. A few weeks ago I had an existential crisis catching Zapdos, and I realise now that I've been having one in slow motion this whole time.
At first, I could play through each area fairly quickly, with little busywork, then have a well-earned rest and write my little Pokemon column. The more it went on, the harder it was to distinguish areas from each other when so much backtracking is required, and the more resentful I quietly became over having to stop and analyse my experiences. I lost sight of the fact that I was going into each building to imagine them as a tourist, and instead explored each place as a writer on commission earning pennies per paragraph, desperately searching for something to write about.
Back in Pallet Town, it all comes home. There are only three buildings and little new to discover, so it's much easier to reach the tourist mindset. I head to my own home and wander up to my childhood room. I feel so much older now, seeing all of the trinkets. How I'd wanted to bring them all with me on this journey, and how glad I am now to have left them here. Pure, innocent, and untouched, their glassy eyes and stitched smiles gaze out at nothingness, content. Next door, I remember how petty my rivalry is, how close we once were, how impossible it is that two kids from the back sticks are now out taking on the world. This is our victory.
Even wandering through the grass and finding the tiny, insignificant beasts within it. I remember having to rush to Viridian each time all those months ago, in constant need of healing from creatures that now cannot register even a scratch. The way of all things - we are not trees, we do not grow by standing still. These are moments I have missed in Kanto previously. In the other towns, I was forcing myself to think differently about things I had done a hundred times over. But here, even by repeating myself, I found new ground. I head to the final leg of my journey with my head raised, my chest puffed, and my heartbeat alive with electricity once more.
