Journey to catch them all — Episode (9)
The primary goal of this series is to complete the Dex — a challenging yet achievable feat. However, like everything in life, this journey has taken unexpected turns, branching into new and intertwined directions.
Back to our life/games analogy, I’ve noticed that two things aren’t mirrored properly between the two worlds: saving and resting.
Thanks, random trainer.
Chasing the dragon
As a child, one of my favorite things was watching pro wrestling — especially The Undertaker. This mythical character, raising the dead and claiming souls, felt like pure cinema to me.
Each year, the biggest event in wrestling, WrestleMania, took place. I didn’t care about any other matches — only The Undertaker’s, because he had the legendary streak going.
21–0 was the record: 21 straight years without a loss at WrestleMania. Sometimes, it felt expected that he would win; other times, it was nail-bitingly exciting, wondering what would happen and if it’s finally the year. And then, there was that one time… the one time we gasped.
Here’s the interesting part — The Undertaker had been wrestling for 22 years. Most of his generation had long retired, yet he remained — a living legend. By this point, those who grew up watching him had either become fans of the entire show, drifted away from wrestling as they got older, or no longer watched regularly but would still tune in for his matches, drawn in by the mystique of ‘The Streak.’
I was part of that third group. And this match? It was the nail in the coffin for me. I stopped watching — this felt like the natural ending to his story.
But then… they kept it going.
He won two more matches after that, reaching a meaningless 23–1. Then came 2017. I got interested again, drawn in by rumors that this would finally be his true retirement. He wrestled once more. He lost once more. But this time, it felt different — a ‘passing of the torch’ moment. The match was cinematic, choreographed to symbolize the end. And then… it was over. 23–2.
He left his gear in the ring, raised his hand one last time, and walked away.
However, he came back the very next year.
And then, two years later — AGAIN. Seriously?
Watching an interview few years later (Short snippet here), a colleague of him (Triple-H) said that “He kept returning because he wasn’t impressed wis his performance, it’s chasing the dragon. it’s never healthy”
Loss of scope
The problem with chasing dragons is that it can create tunnel vision — one so consuming that you lose sight of everything else, where anything short of slaying the dragon feels like absolute failure.
It does not matter how far you have come or how many medals you have collected along the way, you seek that eternal “final” glory.
There’s a famous Spanish story, Don Quixote, about a man who mistook windmills for giants and charged at them, believing he was on a noble quest. Like chasing dragons, his obsession blinded him to reality, turning everything else into mere background noise.
At least for him, the windmills were real. It’s even worse when you forget what you were charging at in the first place — worse still if what you’re chasing was never there to begin with, letting life slip by unnoticed.
To give a Pokémon-related example — midway through Scarlet & Violet, the Pokémon rush hit me hard. I went all in, buying both Sword & Shield and Arceus. Now, I’m left with a pile of guilt, having spent all that money. Desperate to justify it, I rushed through Arceus — not to enjoy it, but just to get it over with… and I did.
While preparing for this blog post, I read stories from people about their Pokémon journey. To my disbelief, everyone loved Arceus, remembering it as the game that rekindled their love for Pokémon.
“What else have I been rushing through?” That’s a question I ask myself daily
I’ve made it a habit — wherever you’re headed, whenever it may be — just take a moment. In the midst of everything racing through your mind, look up. Even if only for a glimpse.
Saving and resting
One of the smartest design choices in video game history was the introduction of checkpoints and save systems, eliminating the harsh consequences of failure — or at the very least, preventing something from being completely ruined.
Saving gives players, the freedom to experiment, take unexpected turns, or even do nothing for a while — secure in the knowledge that they can always reload and pick up exactly where they left off.
Similarly, resting and healing are just as trivial — often just a potion or a time-skip slider to recover.
Even in Pokémon, where there’s an attempt to create an atmosphere ✨ around healing — Poke Stops with people to talk to, a change in music — players barely notice. They walk in, move in a straight line, mash (A)(A)(A), then head right back out.
Real life really dropped the ball on both systems. I’ve seen nothing as fragile as reality — everything is changing, everything moves fast, and everyone is riding their horses full speed ahead.
Healing is costly, recovery is hard, and without an obvious health bar, it’s easy to keep pushing your horse to the limit. Stopping to rest? Getting off your horse just to pause? That doesn’t make sense — who would do that?
Trotting your horse
I started this blog post because life felt so intense around me — I wanted to do something grounding. But before long, I wasn’t just doing it for the experience — I was trying to impress myself with it. Then it became about writing something better every day, crafting more connected stories, constantly asking how, how, how.
And in that cycle, I realized — I had skimmed through so much in the last five years.
So, as a Pokémon related skimming, let’s set a goal that’s fun, something that forces me to shift my perspective.
My goal? To catch Arceus.
And to catch Arceus, there’s no shortcut — I have to 100% Legends: Arceus.
But before that — I’m currently playing Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl with my wife,It’s fun watching her experience an older game with its classic mechanics (BDSP is a remake of Gen 4), especially since she’s only familiar with the newer ones. It feels like revisiting a piece of my childhood. I’m grateful to have someone like her to share this part of my life with.
Updates
In the last few days there has been a ton of progress in the Dex, Most notably is Cresselia which was something unexpected to get out of Pokémon Go.
Total left is: 151! (Just a mere *scattered* generation left 😀)
