The Magic of 25

I love all sorts of numerical or mathematical phenomena, as can be attested by some posts on this blog. Today, I'd like to share another one. It concerns a specific number that has a special meaning, and that number would be 25. And if it's on this blog, it has to have some sort of Pokémon connection, and it does... perhaps in more ways than one.

For anyone who has played the main series Pokémon games long enough, it's not hard to know what the number 25 refers to. #25 is the index number for Pikachu, the de facto series mascot, in the National Pokédex. Even so, it does seem like this index number is rather coincidental - after all, Pikachu could have easily been placed on a number slightly closer or farther than that. But if you ask me, it's a happy coincidence; the Pokédex is arranged roughly by appearance, and one does encounter Pikachu fairly early on in the first-generation games with a little fortune and knowledge (or always first in the case of the Yellow Version), so Pikachu is arranged where it's supposed to be. I can't ask for much more than that; it's magical.

25 is fairly interesting as well in other ways. Mathematically, it is a square number and the sum of two other square numbers, all of which have factors that are consecutive; it's something that those who study math can attest while learning about them, perhaps as part of learning the Pythagorean theorem. Elsewhere, 25 is one-fourth of 100 (thus, 25%), and 25 is the number of years in a silver anniversary. This very last part might become very relevant to Pokémon in a couple years or so, so I won't go into too great of a detail right now. For the others, it might be fanciful to think that Pikachu can be used to reinforce the concepts, but that's a bit wild.

The point is that the number 25 is important Pokémon-wise, as it is a number linked to (one of) the most well-known out of all the creatures that bear this label. As a Pokémon fan, I find it hard not to think of one when I think about the other, and I'm sure this applies to a number of dedicated fans out there as well. It's a fancy number for a Pokémon that can be fancy as well.

Oh, and that other bit of importance? This is the last post for this month, which happens to be the twenty-fifth month that I've maintained this blogging endeavor. That makes it a full 25 months of blogging about Pokémon(-related) things. It's as if I had planned it, but I really didn't. I guess it's still magical that way.

One year ago: Et Tu, Shuffle? (Thy Hath Bugs)
Two years ago: It's Been a Month...