Tuesday, August 20, 2024

The (Blinding) Light of Evolution

Evolution is a matter that is familiar to many Pokémon fans with all its ubiquity and necessity. It's also associated with certain aspects or elements, and one of them happens to be a bright one: evolution also brings with it a certain kind of light that is manifested along with the process. In fact, in some respects, that light could just be considered to be one that is very (too) bright and thus "blinding". And that becomes the focus of the discussion in this post.

When a Pokémon evolves, some kind of element and play of light is involved. Even in the early first generation games, this was made possible by just quickly flashing sprites, while later games have additional particles, flashes, and shading. Meanwhile, Pokémon Go has the Pokémon ascending into a ball of light and then descending with its evolved form. In the anime, the Pokémon becomes enveloped in light as its form changes, with the light fading away to reveal the evolved form. In this way, the process does present a bright vision.

The "blinding" aspect is presented by the nature of the light itself. It is apparent that if the Pokémon is sufficiently large enough, its evolution process can block out even daylight (or any other kind of light), at least in places and even times with little amounts of that. And then, of course, there is the shaded backgrounds as seen in later games and Pokémon Go, suggesting that for any person seeing it, the evolution process is all that can be seen. As such, the evolution process becomes something that serves to dazzle with its own light.

It is no surprise, then, that in the Mystery Dungeon games, at least in the early ones, there is a specific place where Pokémon are directed to go in order to evolve, and it's called Luminous Cave. As expected, the place consists of a great beam of light - from above, nonetheless - in an otherwise dark cave; the Pokémon come and respond to the queries given by the "spirit" of the light, and if they fulfill the criteria, the light washes over them and they evolve. The place literally affirms the essential quality of light as it becomes apparent in the process.

Light and Pokémon evolution, then, go hand in hand - whether the latter brings forth a copious amount of the former or the former brings about the initiation of the latter. And if the conditions are right, that light may just be a "blinding" one with a great amount of brightness. The association with light thus brings about a special quality about it, even for those who consider the process as being a familiar and integral one across many Pokémon happenings.

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