Pokémon regrets

[Sheep]

Do you have any Pokémon-related regrets? Can be for any part of the series. Maybe you wish you never chose that starter in X&Y because you didn't like what it evolved into, regret starting a new file in Platinum and losing all the Pokémon you transferred up from previous games over the years, or perhaps that plush or figure you got online was worse quality than expected and not worth your money.

What are yours?

 

[Syndaesia]

I regret not taking card collecting seriously when I was younger. The cards from the original base sets are worth an absolute fortune now, a lot of the later Black/White sets are VERY hard to come by, and...well, I like collecting things. If I had started when I was younger, and kept it up, I'd have quite the collection now. I'd love to take it up now, but buying cards from the base set to present is more than I can afford unless I win the Euromillions or something.

 

[bobandbill]

I regret not having my GSC saves backed up, rip those now. =( My dex collection...

 

[Roni]

I regret killing the first shiny I ever encountered instead of catching it (which is apparently the natural instinct of every other kid I think), because I scared it was a glitched mon or something and would crash my game lmao

 

[ReKoil]

Moon: regretted picking Litten the moment I saw the final evolution =(

I failed a Safari Zone shiny Golduck in.... Emerald, I think? 😔
It just wouldn't go in the ball and then just ran D=

Edit:
I once bought a Cynthia & Garchomp Nendoroid. A couple months after receiving it I somehow broke the neck of cynthia and the head snapped off.
I'm pretty careful with my stuff, so I've been wondering if I got sent a cynthia nendoroid that already had a broken neck and had been glued or something.
I'll probably never know for sure, but have a hunch it was.

 

[Zeostar]

I rushed all the way to the safari zone in Let's Go Pikachu because I was excited about how it would look, skipping many trainers along the way.

It didn't actually exist.

 

[Orion☆]

Games:
-The fact some of my early playthroughs were done via emulation, because now I can't transfer those Pokémon and have them with me. I really miss my Emerald team; I tried to recreate it while playing (an original copy of) Alpha Sapphire the first time, but it just wasn't the same.
-Some of my starter choices for first playthroughs. I picked Snivy in both Black and Black 2, but looking back, I wish I had gone with Oshawott. The anime and the PLA merch drive finally made me see just how precious it was, and even back then I didn't feel as attached to my Snivy/Servine/Serperior as I was to the rest of my team. ;_; I also regret having picked Fennekin over Froakie in Y, but this one is more subdued; my Braixen is my baby, but I just couldn't bring myself to fully evolve her and it's a miracle that game was so easy that I could cheese it with an Everstoned starter. It also gives me the chance to breed for a shiny Froakie sometime in the future, so I can have a black Greninja!
-Having released a Zoroark that a former friend traded to me like 11 years ago, simply because I didn't want to see their name anywhere in my game. It's not so much the act of scrubbing the OT's name (and the Zoroark's admittedly horrible nickname) that I regret, but of letting the Zoroark go, because I had put a lot of effort into training him. Sadly, I couldn't bond with him fully, and in hindsight, now I know why. Wherever he is, I hope he's enjoying being out and about in the Alola region, and I hope the wild Pokémon there call him a better name than the one he had.
-Not having pre-ordered the DLCs for Sword and Shield. I didn't trust Game Freak to do a good job on them, so I decided to wait until both packs were released. By the time they did come out... the situation with currency exchange in Argentina had become so messed up that I could not bring myself to buy them even though I did (and still do) want to.

Merch:
-Having bought that Gengar pendant I got like 5 years ago from a local convention. I swear it's cursed, because bad things happen every time I wear it - and now I'm afraid of getting rid of it because I know, I just know it will find its way back to me. It's gotten so bad, it has affected my liking of Gengar in general.
-Conversely, not having bought a Soul Badge pin alongside my Soul Badge pendant. Sure, they were both the same shoddy quality, but at least I would have had a nicer-looking Badge now, because my pendant is looking banged up and awful. (And again, I'm afraid of getting rid of that pendant because I probably won't find another like it ever again. Much like Koga himself, it's one of a kind.)

 

[Fairy]

I mainly regret not having the money to buy more sweet, sweet Pokémon cards.

 

[Devalue]

1. Not replacing the battery on Generation 2 games. Would have liked to see the Pokemon and first Hall of Fame clear.

2. Glitching Generation 1 games. Screwed up the Hall of Fame. Probably had Blastoise and Dugtrio, but who else? Jolteon or Magneton? Did Starmie make it on by then? Was there good team balance?

 

[Zed01]

The ones that come to mind are not transferring my teams from my first few playthroughs before resetting or selling my games, I only started to transfer and keep my teams during late Gen 5 and B2W2 days. What's even worse is that when Pokemon Bank first came out I used the free month of it we got to transfer a lot of my old Pokemon to Y, but I somehow forgot to get 4 of my 6 Pokemon from my first (and favorite) Black 2 playthrough team out of the Bank before the free month was over and they were lost forever because I didn't realize that they weren't in my Y boxes until months later and I didn't pay for a Bank membership until a year later so they were long gone by then. RIP Arcanine, Crustle, Jolteon and Lapras, at least I still have Serperior and Lucario with me as well as my first two shinies ever (Audino and Dunsparce) that were caught during that B2 playthrough.

I also regret selling some of my games back in 2013 but since I started casually "collecting" Pokemon games a few years ago I was able to buy almost all of those games again so I only have Black 2 left and I'll get that one as well soon so I don't regret selling them that much anymore.

 

[Sheep]

I have mega regrets about restarting my Platinum version. Kind of highlighted in the opening post already, but it had all my shinies and other very old Pokémon from the gen 2-3 days. Sigh. Teenage me was so desperate to replay Platinum lol.

Also... I regret giving away that knockoff Pichu plush I had. My grandpa bought it for me when I was around 11ish when I was visiting him back home since I wanted it really badly, and then later on when I was around 17 we had some guests with kids stay over that loved Pokémon and they wanted it pretty badly too. I felt pressured to give in and let them have it. Which is a really sweet thing to do normally, but my grandpa passed away fairly young from lung cancer and now I don't have that plush in memory of him anymore. :(

 

[Palamon]

I regret not saving a game where I had a shiny Torchic on it because I didn't want to delete my current Emerald save file. I basically failed a shiny by not saving the game when I got a shiny Torchic...lol.

 

[papper]

I restarted soul silver completely forgetting about my shiny delibird. rip sakura may we reunite one day 😔

 

[Acooltent]

I regret lending my copy of soul silver to a "friend" of mine. He later moved away and I never saw it again. And with how expensive the game is nowadays, I'll probably never get another copy.

 

[Sheep]

I regret lending my copy of soul silver to a "friend" of mine. He later moved away and I never saw it again. And with how expensive the game is nowadays, I'll probably never get another copy.

Oh darn I'm sorry I know the feel. This made me remember another regret of mine too, giving away the second movie special Mew TCG card to someone in grade 4 because they wanted to 'look at it', only for them to never give it back. :(

 

[icycatelf]

Getting rid of a Pikachu plush I bought with my grandpa just because the highlights scratched off its eyes.

Trading away the bootleg Southern Islands Wartortle my dad got me years ago. I've especially regretted it since realizing in recent years that Wartortle's my favorite Pokémon. I got another since, albeit with a different foil pattern, but it's not as significant as it would've been has it been the exact one. Might've even been my favorite card, even if counterfeit.

Giving away my electronic Mew plush and Squirtle candy dispenser when I gave away all my "toys" in middle school. A lot of my old toys came back to me when my younger cousin got rid of his collection, but these two disappeared.

Trading a Typhlosion card for "a rarer version of Ancient Mew that came from a regular booster pack" and giving away a Meganium card because the corner, which I'm sure I could've easily repaired now, started peeling. Must've caught on something while I was rearranging my binder, and I just couldn't stand having damaged cards in my collection. :/

Transferring my full-odds Gen. IV Shiny Mothim to HOME/not cloning him before transferring. I haven't been able to use him for years! T_T

My biggest Pokémon related regret though? Opening a pack of cards intended for my cousin and swapping out the Shining Gyarados I found there for one or two of my own regular holos. After all, I'd never pulled a Shining Pokémon and he'd already pulled a Shining Kabutops. I get sick thinking about it. On top of that, I sold it for $10...

 

[Orion☆]

Some more new regrets that I had forgotten about when I first posted:
-Having traded a Mimikyu to another former friend of mine. It wasn't such a big deal at the time because they needed one for their Sw/Sh Dex, but... that Mimikyu was the brother of my Mimi from my first Shield playthrough and the half-brother of my Mimi from my second Shield playthrough. And now I've got both of them plus their mom in one file, and their other brother is... not there. It gives me a pang of sadness thinking about it.
-Not having bought either that Cyndaquil plush with fluffy flames or that chibi Typhlosion plush when I saw them at cons before the pandemic. Now, I'm super glad that my Mimi was my first Poképlush in a long time (especially because my mom bought him for me) and I don't think I'll love any other plushies I have as much as I love him, yet... I found out that the Quil line are my favourite starters, and I do often wonder if my Mimi wouldn't like to have a little buddy to play with, especially knowing that now Typhlosion has a Ghost-type form. (On the other hand though, it allows me to potentially make a special custom plush myself in the future!)
-Having let a lot of my former friends in the Tumblr/Twitter side of the fandom influence my opinions about the franchise - games, Pokémon, characters, you name it. I've only gone no-contact with most of them recently, so I'm still dealing with the aftermath of it. I'm getting better at forming my own opinions without caring what others say, yet sometimes I can't quite shake the feeling of "oh my god, what would they think if they knew that [insert personal opinion contrary to former friends' here]?", and still compulsively check social media (despite having no accounts anymore) to know what people think of my current favourite things. That was not the brightest moment of my life, but I'm gonna hold myself accountable and at least try to move on from it.

 

[TwilightBlade]

My only major regret might be buying Ultra Moon after not even finishing Moon. I didn't finish Ultra Moon either. I've picked genVII up several times, but it's just lacking what the other games have.

I haven't started over a file that had shinies, but I did have a shiny Grimer flee from me in original Crystal. Grimer is one of the few Pokémon coded to attempt to flee 10%. It was supposed to be a mechanic for the Fast Ball. I always thought the Fast Ball was for speedy Pokemon, not for something like Grimer...fled on the first turn.

 

[Sheep]

My only major regret might be buying Ultra Moon after not even finishing Moon. I didn't finish Ultra Moon either. I've picked genVII up several times, but it's just lacking what the other games have.

I haven't started over a file that had shinies, but I did have a shiny Grimer flee from me in original Crystal. Grimer is one of the few Pokémon coded to attempt to flee 10%. It was supposed to be a mechanic for the Fast Ball. I always thought the Fast Ball was for speedy Pokemon, not for something like Grimer...fled on the first turn.

Omg, so sorry. I feel like I had a shiny Geodude explode on me at one point because I thought I could weaken it first, but honestly cannot remember if it was a dream or reality lol. Either way, should have just thrown an Ultra Ball. Shiny regrets are the worst. D:

 

[colours]

my big regret rn is not getting a shiny zacian/zamazenta when those were being given away. i think at that moment i was feeling pretty lazy/busy due to work and by the time i got there to get the codes, gamestop ran out, so... :c