I work for a small independent video game shop in the middle of the city. In addition to selling games new, we also do trade-ins and sell things secondhand. Normally, there’s only one person in the shop at once, but during the winter, we two-man the store just to avoid letting things get too crowded by holiday buyers. (The exception was during a certain recent health crisis, where we had other ways to enforce a non-crowded shop, but that’s a separate story.)

During the holiday season of 2023, I was on a shift with the shop’s owner. A man came in and bought Pokémon Violet for the Nintendo Switch as a holiday gift for his son. We explained to him in no uncertain terms that sales were final; if his son was dissatisfied with the game, he could trade it in for store credit or cash, but he couldn’t get a return. The man accepted this and made some small talk while we were checking him out.

In mid-January of 2024, just as the holiday crowds were thinning out, the man came back in with Pokémon Violet in hand and a look of outrage on his face. I was baffled when he started swearing at us for how “inappropriate” this game was. He didn’t want a refund; he wanted us to take every copy of Scarlet and Violet off our shelves and burn them. (Whether or not that would render a Nintendo cartridge unplayable is left as an exercise for someone braver than me.)

After a few minutes, we managed to get this man to explain what exactly he took issue with. I try not to remember his exact dialogue for the number of slurs he used, but he claimed there were several trans characters in the game with no attention drawn to them, treated as the gender they presented as with no remarks on it. Bigot he was, this apparently made the game “inappropriate for children” and deserving of being destroyed, regardless of what the CERO, PEGI, and ESRB judges had to say about it.

My boss called him out for his a**holery and banned him from the store.

Now, I own a copy of Pokémon Violet myself, and I have no idea what this guy was talking about. In fact, when I got home that day, I immediately started a new playthrough, paying a lot of attention to every character I could see to figure out where exactly this a**hole saw a trans character. My best guess is that this bigot saw the one somewhat-androgynous male character (and that’s mostly because he lives on a snowy mountain and bundles up for the weather) and just made assumptions.

I have no idea whether that was deliberate on the developers’ part, but I’m certainly not going to complain about the fact that this game weeds out the a**holes.

My mother is a lunch lady at an elementary school, so I’ve heard a lot of stories about the kids. This one’s my favorite.

Mom was serving some first-graders, and one of them was wearing a shirt with Pikachu on it.

Mom: “Oh, I love your Pikachu shirt!”

First-Grader: *Stunned* “You know who Pikachu is?”

Mom: “Sure! And Pichu and Raichu! I play Pokémon with my daughter.”

First-Grader: *Even more stunned* “You’re a mom? How old’s your kid?”

Mom: “She’s twenty.”

First-Grader: “TWENTY?!”

My mother blew a seven-year-old’s mind that day.

I’m Australian and work overnights for a service station/supermarket. It’s a good job that pays well for a jaded, world-weary near-forty-year-old with no real direction in life.

This young mother — early twenties at the oldest — comes in just before midnight with her child — maybe three or four years old — to pick up some dog food and children’s acetaminophen. (That explains why the kid is awake so late and a little bit sooky and sad-looking.) They come up to the counter and she pays for her purchases. Her son holds up his stuffed Pikachu toy and says “Chu chu,” in the sad tone kids usually use when they aren’t feeling well. I look down at him and just go, “Pika pika?”

The kid’s face lights up, and he starts talking about his favourite Pokémon — Pikachu, Squirtle, and three others I’ve never heard of. He asks me what my favourite Pokémon is. (Charizard, if you’re wondering; I also haven’t really played since Gen 3, hence my ignorance about his other favourites.)

It just made my night seeing this poor kid who wasn’t feeling well perk right up about Pokémon. I even got a smile and a thank-you from the mum for listening to him talk about Pokémon for a minute.

My husband is playing with our Pokémon-obsessed son one day. Our son insists that he is a Pokémon, so my husband throws a plush Poké Ball toy at him to “catch” him.

Husband: “Ha, caught you!”

Son: “Nuh-uh, I broke out! I’m too strong.”

Husband: “Ahh, of course. You’re level 100 — way too strong for a little Poké Ball. But what if I use a Master Ball?!”

For those, like me, who don’t know the game that well, I’m told a Master Ball is a super rare ball that can catch any Pokémon on the first try.

Son: “You don’t have one!”

Husband: “Sure, I do. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have two Master Balls, or you wouldn’t exist.”

Our son runs up and circles my husband, making snatching motions as he runs around.

Son: “Now you don’t; I took your balls.”

Husband: “Oh, no! Well, so much for you ever getting a little brother, I suppose.”

Me: “Honestly, you only have yourself to blame for that one.”

We are so lucky that our son is more interested in playing than figuring out what all his father’s strange comments mean.

A customer and her young son, maybe four or five, have just gotten to my register. I have a roll of Pokémon stickers behind me that are left over from some promotion we ran. The boy sees them, and his eyes go wide.

Customer’s Son: “Mom! Can I have a Pokémon sticker?”

Customer: “Why don’t you ask the nice lady?”

Customer’s Son: *To me* “Can I have a Pokémon sticker?”

Customer: “[Son], remember the magic word?”

Customer’s Son: *Blank look*

Customer: “Remember what Grandma says to the nice shop people when she asks for something behind the register?”

Customer’s Son: “Oh! Discount!”

I can’t help but smile, but the customer looks mortified.

Customer: *Turning red* “No, no! It’s ‘please’! ‘Please’ is the magic word!”

Customer’s Son: “Okay! Please may I have a discount?”