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Gold: They say that during past wars, Gyarados would appear and leave blazing ruins in its wake.

Time for some honesty: I had a hard time getting into Gold and Silver.

Don’t get me wrong, I played them — 2000 was still the heyday of the Pokémon series, although it was beginning to wane in popularity among my age group. Pokémon was still fun, but kids were starting to grow out of it and get into other interests, as they do. Such it was with me, to the point that I honestly can’t remember, to this day, if the version I played as a kid was Gold or Silver. (If I had to guess, I would say it was Silver, but the fact that I still own a copy of Gold makes me doubt.)

So what did I actually play in the second generation? Crystal, of course.

Crystal: It appears whenever there is world conflict, burning down any place it travels through.

It was a big deal, back then, to get to play as a girl. It was much easier to connect with the game and immerse myself, to really feel like I was the one collecting the gym badges and fighting Team Rocket and, yes, catching the Red Gyarados.

I don’t honestly remember whether I trained the Red Gyarados in this generation. One would assume I did, because come on, how awesome is it. Unfortunately, it was simply too long ago; those memories are lost to time.

We know now, of course, that there’s nothing about the Gyarados itself that’s out of the ordinary past its coloration. It’s just a Shiny Pokémon, and its inclusion in this game is to introduce the concept to players in a way that makes it stand out. The encounter rate for Shiny Pokémon is 1 in 8,192, a rate low enough to make finding one pure chance. Having one be part of the plot clues players in to their existence, while also making it clear that they’re something special.

Which begs the question: why Gyarados?

Silver: Once it appears, it goes on a rampage. It remains enraged until it demolishes everything around it.

If you think about it, the plot doesn’t actually require a Gyarados. Sure, Team Rocket’s plan is to try and evolve all the Magikarp, but this is Pokémon; one silly plot can be exchanged for another without issue. They could have just as easily been trying to incite a bunch of Miltank to stampede, or a group of Ursaring to rampage. Gyarados here is incidental.

So, then, why Gyarados? Why pick this Pokémon to introduce the concept of Shiny Pokémon?

Simply put, I think it’s because Gyarados was already an iconic, immediately identifiable Pokémon by the time Gold and Silver came out. Many players had, by that point, either bought or caught a Magikarp and raised it to level 20. Perhaps they’d caught Gyarados in Yellow. Maybe they’d seen it in the anime, or in the first movie.

Secondly, Gyarados is very different as a Shiny Pokémon. If you know what Gyarados looks like, then you know it’s supposed to be blue. When you see one that’s not, you immediately know something’s different. Add that to the legendary destructive power of a Gyarados, and it’s a frightening sight to come across one that’s bright red.

They could have picked another Pokémon — but I don’t think any would have been as effective as Gyarados.

Travel to Hoenn