u/OganessontheNobleGas

Since we have the year of '26 right now, it means the current year is Raichu's Pokédex number. And I couldn't find a better occasion to share the story of how I became a Raichu fan and how my opinion of it changed over time.

It all started when I was 7 (in 2017 btw). I did not know much about Pokemon back then; only a friend of mine had shown me the first five episodes of the Pokemon anime (Indigo League). And I came to know Pikachu, among some others. And some time later, I learned that Pokemon can evolve. And that Pikachu has an evolution too. And that was how I came to know Raichu for the very first time. I immediately liked it more than its pre-evolution. It has a better design and better colors; it's superior.

I became extremely disappointed to learn that The Pokémon Company is doing everything it can to make us forget that Pikachu has an evolution. Seriously, I can tell I was depressed af. And the very same friend of mine who had introduced me to Pokémon also said that Raichu looks stupid, and that Pikachu is 'cute,' etc. Therefore, I started to believe that I should hate Raichu too, ya know, little kids aren't that sensible. So I did. I became ashamed of my love for the orange mouse, and pretended that Pikachu was better in my opinion as well.

When I was 9 years old, for example, I was at school doing my own business when suddenly another boy said, 'I'm a raichu!', ya know, just roleplaying like kids often do. And what was my reaction? I laughed at him and was like, 'Hahaha, Pikachu is better than you!' We even got into an argument about whether Pikachu or Raichu is better. Looking back, I find it kind of sad; I defended a side that, in my deepest mind, I didn't really support.

But fortunately, when I turned 12, I realized that I'd been stupid all that time. And that loving Raichu is nothing to be ashamed of! I can say that I dug out my love for the Pokémon. I was, and am to this day, still frustrated by how it always gets the shorter end of the stick (fortunately though, it seems to me that it's been going in a good way lately, since Raichu got two megas, Alolan Raichu became available in UNITE and Pawmi broke the chain of Pikaclones not having evolutions, since Pokemon Company wish Pikachu didn't have one either). But still, I'm now a proud Raichu fan, and I'm sure I will be as long as I love Pokemon! :D

Now, what do you guys think of this story? And what do you think of Raichu?

Since we have the year of '26 right now, it means the current year is Raichu's Pokédex number. And I couldn't find a better occasion to share the story of how I became a Raichu fan and how my opinion of it changed over time.

It all started when I was 7 (in 2017 btw). I did not know much about Pokemon back then; only a friend of mine had shown me the first five episodes of the Pokemon anime (Indigo League). And I came to know Pikachu, among some others. And some time later, I learned that Pokemon can evolve. And that Pikachu has an evolution too. And that was how I came to know Raichu for the very first time. I immediately liked it more than its pre-evolution. It has a better design and better colors; it's superior.

I became extremely disappointed to learn that The Pokémon Company is doing everything it can to make us forget that Pikachu has an evolution. Seriously, I can tell I was depressed af. And the very same friend of mine who had introduced me to Pokémon also said that Raichu looks stupid, and that Pikachu is 'cute,' etc. Therefore, I started to believe that I should hate Raichu too, ya know, little kids aren't that sensible. So I did. I became ashamed of my love for the orange mouse, and pretended that Pikachu was better in my opinion as well.

When I was 9 years old, for example, I was at school doing my own business when suddenly another boy said, 'I'm a raichu!', ya know, just roleplaying like kids often do. And what was my reaction? I laughed at him and was like, 'Hahaha, Pikachu is better than you!' We even got into an argument about whether Pikachu or Raichu is better. Looking back, I find it kind of sad; I defended a side that, in my deepest mind, I didn't really support.

But fortunately, when I turned 12, I realized that I'd been stupid all that time. And that loving Raichu is nothing to be ashamed of! I can say that I dug out my love for the Pokémon. I was, and am to this day, still frustrated by how it always gets the shorter end of the stick (fortunately though, it seems to me that it's been going in a good way lately, since Raichu got two megas, Alolan Raichu became available in UNITE and Pawmi broke the chain of Pikaclones not having evolutions, since Pokemon Company wish Pikachu didn't have one either). But still, I'm now a proud Raichu fan, and I'm sure I will be as long as I love Pokemon! :D

Now, what do you guys think of this story? And what do you think of Raichu?

Hi! I joined this subreddit only yesterday, and I did bc I use Firefox as my main browser. Let me tell you why.

I used to be a Chrome user, much like most folks. But in 2023 I got a new laptop, and it only had Edge and Firefox installed, so I decided to give the latter a try. And while my browsing experience wasn't much different from Chrome, I realized that I value Firefox for two reasons. Firstly, unlike Chrome, it's made by a non-profit organization focused on privacy, not collecting users' data. And besides, Firefox is one of the very few non-Chromium based browsers. In addition to supporting Google, I'm also supporting a smaller company with its own search engine. So from that point on I will always install Firefox on any new device I get.

Also, nice to meet ya all!