Flopping toward glory

I love Magikarp. Unironically, Magikarp is my favorite Pokémon.

I was 21 when Pokémon Red/Blue came out for the Gameboy. I grabbed a copy because the mechanics of the game reminded me of my old favorite Gameboy game (The Final Fantasy Legend) having no idea about a cartoon or anything.

Bulbasaur was my starter of choice and off I went.

There were, obviously, so many fun little creatures to discover (and kidnap, and force to fight each other) that it felt like even if you saw Rattata every third second while grinding through the early bits of the game, you knew there were 151 different out there.

151 different fun creatures. And one million Rattata, I swear. Just endless amounts of those things. And Pidgey. They bought them in bulk for the game, I think. They wouldn’t stop. I…I’m gonna just move on, because otherwise I will sit here all day and just rant about the early grinding in the first Pokémon game and we all have better things to do.

Somewhere along the way, happily playing this silly game, I ended up with Magikarp.

Dude seemed useless.

Just kinda flopped at everything and not even in a threatening sort of way. Could you eventually learn a few moves that might be useful? Yes. Were they limited and weak? Also yes.

Which is when I learned to love Magikarp.

Before I explain why let me get this one bit out of the way – yes Magikarp evolves into Gyrados. Yes, Gyrados is really cool, too.

And huge.

And effective.

But, for me, Gyrados has exactly zero to do with why Magikarp is awesome.

No, rather, Magikarp is awesome for being Magikarp, not because there’s something bigger and more dangerous on the other side.

See, Magikarp is, for the most part, useless. Ridiculous looking you could even say. I mean there are plenty of water type Pokémon, but how many look like they’re about to die on land? Magikarp sure does. They flop around, gasping for water, thudding against the ground. That’s how they travel on land, even. Flopping like a goldfish you dumped out of the tank (which is the point of course) at all times.

It’s kinda horrible, when you think about it. You’re just dragging this gasping, shuddering, being around and forcing it to fight.

And yet Magikarp abides. It keeps going. It pushes forward, not because Magikarp can become Gyrados, but because Magikarp doesn’t give up.

Will they win a fight? Probably not (though yes there is that person who beat Pokémon Ruby with just Magikarp that one time). But will they back down?

Certainly not.

Magikarp, for me, represents the braveness inherent in choosing a fight you can’t win.

Magikarp is the struggle of loving yourself, even in failure, and accepting that failure is part of the process.

Magikarp is knowing your bad days, but learning how to make them into good ones, as best you can.

Magikarp is all of us, feeling like we’re not in our element, but pushing forward regardless, and doing what we can.

Magikarp is learning to rely on your friends, but still knowing you contribute, too.

Magikarp is special, and deserves respect, and isn’t just some fish to be laughed at.

Magikarp is the bravest of us, doing the best they can, and then trying again, and again, and knowing that with the help of friends, and some time, the job can get done.

So yeah, out of 905 (or more at this point?) Pokémon created Magikarp is the best of them, to me. Because Magikarp can show us the best of ourselves, if you’re willing to look.