With so much bad news out there, it's great to get some good news once in a while. One Reddit user shared their experience with Pokemon Gold and a Growlithe/Arcanine that helped them remember their childhood fondly.
User nickc27584 posted in r/Pokemon on Sunday a heartwarming story about his reunion with a Pokemon from his childhood. When he was a kid, his friend let the user catch a Growlithe in their game, which the user accidentally named "Grow." The friend traded Growlithe (evolving it into an Arcanine) over to the user's game when he got a Game Boy Color and Pokemon Gold, which the user then trained "with the most care" up to level 100.
The user says that training Grow helped him through his "awkward teenage years" as they battled friends together and beat almost all of Pokemon Stadium 2. The Arcanine went undefeated all the way up until fighting Mewtwo, even when taking three Hydro Pumps, something the Fire-type dog Pokemon is weak to. Even when Gen 3 came out and the user couldn't transfer over his Arcanine, he'd still play Pokemon Gold every once in a while to look for new things to do with his Pokemon friend.
Sadly, the game's battery died and wiped the entire Pokemon game's save file, deleting Grow the Arcanine from existence. The user felt upset about this, having nostalgic memories of getting through the rough teen years with a pixelated friend always by his side. In his adult years, the user booted up his Pokemon Stadium 2 game and saw Grow in the registered party slots, which enabled him to record the Arcanine's stats and make an exact copy for Pokemon HeartGold and, while not the same Pokemon, served as a forever "immortalized" version of his favorite Pokemon.
The post ended with a shoutout to all the "great Pokemon lost due to a corrupted game or a depleted battery," and was awarded several Reddit awards including Gold and the "Made Me Smile Award." The post currently has 3.8k upvotes, and most of the comments praise the story for being "wholesome" and wishing for Grow to be OP's "friend forever." Nintendo is famous for creating many games that users call "wholesome" or "uplifting," and this is a perfect example of that.
Other commentators shared stories about their own Arcanines, and some users even said the story brought them to tears. u/CB92257 pointed out how important the ability to transfer Pokemon is, not just for metagaming and moving around Event Pokemon but also for people's "first or even favorite Pokemon." It's moments like this that bring people back to classic franchises like Pokemon over and over, not just for the enjoyment of playing but for nostalgic moments and seeing old friends again.