Revisiting Kanto - Silph Co.’s Magic Is Made Mundane By Capitalism

thegamer.com:

We’re back once again in Kanto, continuing our adventure across Pokemon Blue’s iconic setting. I’ve been spending the past few months playing through Pokemon’s first outing over again, trying to see it through a tourist’s eyes to discover the source of its magic. Last week we got to Saffron City and I mused over the gentrification taking place as the working man’s Fighting Gym had been pushed out by the cheater cheater pumpkin eaters of the Psychic Gym. Today though, we dip into Silph Co., to once again match wits with Team Rocket.

Silph Co.’s biggest challenge is the cavalcade of trainers within it. Though I’ve avoided writing too much about the individual battles in this saga, Silph Co. comes packed with over 30, so it does take a chunk of the story out to ignore them completely. However, there are a couple I’d like to give special focus to. The first one is against your rival, which we’ve written about at TheGamer before. Your Kanto rival clearly has a real distaste for you personally, but he’s not a villain as your Johto rival is. Yet still, rather than stop Team Rocket, he chills out on the floor below, because all he cares about is kicking your ass and giving you a wedgie. You have to respect it.

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The second battle follows on from this, and is against Giovanni himself. When I first clashed with G-Money in his very chill Celadon HQ that he did not deserve, I was disappointed by how much of a pushover he was. He has buried himself in my brain as one of Pokemon’s toughest challenges ever, though this may be aided by how strong he is in the much more recent Pokemon Go. Having hit Fuchsia City ahead of Saffron, I was levelled