totodile, the Big Jaw pokemon, is my favourite pokemon of all time. i have lots and lots of other favorites, mind you… but totodile has a lot of sentimental value to me. because of this, i consider it my de facto first partner pokemon.

...but, with that said, my first pokemon journey was technically not in the johto region. i started playing pokemon during generation 1, at the lovely age of 5. my gameboy and i took on the kanto region in a certified Small Child Playing Pokemon manner: by pouring exp into my starter (a charmander who likely grew into a charizard alarmingly quickly) and ignoring all else. generation 1 will always be special to me, and i am profoundly grateful that my parents let me indulge in the pokemania of the '90s, but... given my age at the time of my first couple of playthroughs, i can’t say that i experienced the game in the way the devs intended. (i’d be happy to just play pretend with my pokemon team in an in-game town for like, a solid week. forget gym badges and beating the elite four. honestly, it was extremely powerful stuff.) subsequent replays of red, blue and yellow taught me more about the plot, largely in part because pokemon is a heavily text-based game and my reading skills grew over time.

when i was introduced to generation 2, i was around 7 or 8 years old - and my reading skills were a whole lot better. growing up in the caribbean during that time period, news about stuff like games took a long time to reach us. it sounds unbelievable compared to how stuff is now, but kid-jamie truly had no idea that there was going to be new duo of pokemon games, much less a whole additional pokedex of pokemon added to the original ~150. my aunt - who lives in the u.s. and was going to pay us a visit in the caribbean - called my mother and asked if i had the "new pokemon game" already. i didn’t, and that was how i learnt about generation two.

with my mom’s help, we looked up pokemon gold and silver online. in our search, we somehow didn’t see the starter pokemon, but we DID see pictures of… sentret. lmfao. and some in-game pictures of the graphics and such. i dreamt about sentret all night long… i still remember the dream, even now. anyway, my aunt arrived and, to my IMMENSE gratitude, gifted me pokemon silver version. immediately, i booted up the game and went through the opening sequence. then it was time to choose my partner pokemon. i looked through my options, and… then i saw it.

i was immediately drawn to it. i remember thinking that it was like charmander’s chunky, cute cousin. the patterns over its eyes were so stylish to me, and its sharp teeth just looked plain cool. AND THAT POSE. GAH. TOO GOOD. i chose my very own totodile, and, later on, i’d play pokemon gold with chikorita and then cyndaquil. i adore all 3 of the johto starters, but totodile made a lasting impression. that impression - compounded with my love for the game itself - made for a truly formative experience. i played the game as it was meant to be played, following its storyline and meeting some trainer characters that would go on to be ultimate faves. (points at the rival character in particular. LOL.) it was my first full-fledged pokemon adventure - hall of fame included, though i didn't manage to defeat red at the top of mt. silver until many years later. naturally, i still made time for pretend play... such is the power of childhood...

i loved my experience with gold and silver, and my love for gen2 only grew when i got crystal version. not only was it set in the region(s) i loved so much again… i could also finally play as a girl character. immediately, i knew that i was going to pick my favourite starter of the trio. totodile and i were going on a whole new adventure.

totodile was part of a whole lot of my imagined scenarios while playing crystal version. one cherished daydream of mine was one in which i imagined myself walking around national park with my partner pokemon - my totodile, who, at that point, was a feraligatr. (i totally include croconaw and feraligatr in my adoration for totodile, haha!) the first time i arrived at that park in-game, it was night time. the dreamy music coupled with the gorgeous pixel graphics made for a totally magical experience.

seeing totodile's portrayal in the pokemon anime was also amazing. its high energy demeanor was hilarious to me, and i genuinely thought it had one of the best cries in the series. (fun fact: i was able to imitate that cry perfectly. other kids at my school would have me perform it for them on command.) it was just too cute for words, and i loved all the mischief that it'd get up to.

my love for this little croc has only grown with time. i have a totodile family collection, and, well, all of the other stuff featured in the totodile zone speaks for itself. one of my very first masuda method hunts was for a shiny totodile (he's named matcha, and he took ~200 eggs to hatch in my copy of pokemon sun), and my very first full odds shiny hunt ever was for a totodile in crystal version (shoutout to anchor!). i completed pokemon emerald's pokedex in order to rng manipulate for a shiny totodile reward from professor birch, who then went on to become one of my ribbon masters... in addition to the shiny croconaw that i rng manipulated for, along with a shiny feraligatr that i shiny hunted naturally and raised in gen9. and you'd best believe that whenever totodile was available as a starter in future games, i'd raise at least one! while i am absolutely not part of the "dexit" crowd who doomposts over the national dex not being present in every single pokemon game, i was always pretty heartbroken whenever totodile wasn't featured in one of the new pokemon games. thankfully, this also made for intense joy whenever totodile was included in a new generation.

needless to say, i love totodile and i consider it as my genuine first partner pokemon. if i was placed in the pokemon world and made to spend my childhood off on an epic adventure, i would unquestionably march on over to my local Pokemon Professor(tm) to pick up a totodile - just like i did all those years ago when i booted up pokemon silver for the first time.