Doesn’t Dragonite look so friendly? Don’t you just want to hug it and cuddle it? Look, it’s even waving at you!

DON’T FALL FOR IT.

Dragonite is death incarnate. Dragonite is in the category known as pseudo-legendary, which means it has the stats of a legendary pokemon, but it can be caught multiple times within the same game, and doesn’t require attendance at any special Nintendo events. The Dragonite, along with its pseudo-legendary brethren, have a stat total of 600, which means an average of 100 base points in each stat. This is as high as any pokemon can get without actually being legendary. To add to that, the Dragonite is (as you might have guessed) a dragon type pokemon, which means it has very few weaknesses, many strengths, and the possibility of learning some of the most powerful moves in the game.

Why doesn’t everyone just use Dragonite, then? A lot of people do, really, but the rules of some leagues do not allow pseudo-legendaries. Also, one of the major weaknesses of dragon types is, ironically, dragon. If you load up your team with dragons, you’ve created a majorly exploitable hole in your strategy. Still, a well-trained Dragonite can be a terrifying opponent to face.

I face a Dragonite constantly, and the sight of it still sends shivers up my spine. You see, I have this friend enemy arch frenemy. His name is Kelesk, and we met playing World of Warcraft six years ago. He was a tank, I was a healer, and it was a match made in hell. We have gotten into terrible flaming rows over and over, year after year, that have made everyone around us not want to talk to either of us for days. Have you ever had a screaming match over Ventrilo? (For those who are unfamiliar with Vent, think of it like walkie-talkies; you have to hold down a button to talk, and let go to hear the other person.) I have. It was possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, but I’ve done it, with him. There’s never been a time when we have not been in direct competition with each other. Ever since Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver, one of our arenas has been pokemon battling, and the cornerstone of his team is his beloved Dragonite.

It might seem like we hate each other, but that’s really not the case (anymore). Somewhere along the line, we both realized that the reason we’re always in competition is we both see so much potential in the other. Competition is a way to try and coax it out of each other. If we didn’t have this fundamental respect for each other, we wouldn’t have bothered to keep in touch all these years. I’m even drawing him a little comic to explain all that stuff about EVs and IVs I talked about in the Blissey post, because he’s bad at math. I could keep the information to myself, of course, and gain an edge in our battles, but that wouldn’t be right. It’s not a real victory unless we both start on equal footing. That’s the crux of battling in Pokemon, and in life: we should all strive to be our best, and help each other along the way; if someone doesn’t have what we do, we should endeavor to change that, so all our victories can be celebrated.

Every time I see Dragonite, I think of Kelesk, and I think of everything we’ve gone through together. Friendship, hatred, struggles, respect, love; all these things are Pokemon.

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April 5th, 2011 by Cassie