Valentine’s Day is a chance for you to show your affection and appreciation to that special someone in your life, and that’s just as true for Pokémon fans as it is for everyone else. With 2024’s Valentine’s Day now having just passed, lovers of Nintendo’s biggest franchise – now nearly three decades old – on Reddit are sharing how they celebrated the occasion with Pokémon-themed gifts and cards. Mostly, they’re really cute… though some fans have also taken the chance to use Pokémon as a means of expressing a more physical side of their love.
Take, for example, this card that one Pokémon enthusiast received from their partner. It’s a brilliantly drawn Heracross – a gen 2 Pokémon with dual bug/fighting-type – with a message reading ‘Throw me around’ above it. (Check it out below!)
Now, firstly, this is a reference to the fact that as a fighting Pokémon Heracross has immense strength, which it levers by tossing its opponents to the ground. In the context of it being a Valentine’s card, it can also be interpreted in more salacious ways too, obviously. So we’re stuck between appreciating the talent that’s gone into the card, and questioning the use of Pokémon as a way to express physical desire. But, whatever floats your boat.
On the other end of the spectrum, other fans shared their more straightforwardly innocent Valentine’s art including drawings of an extremely cute (and in love) Nidorina and Nidorino – extremely heartwarming, if you ask us. And, of course, there’s another fan who’s shared their Pokémon-themed Valentine’s card design with Hydrapple on the front, which reads ‘You’re the Hydrapple of my eye.’ Perfection.
Of course, for all the people who don’t have someone in their lives to celebrate Valentine’s Day with – or if you don’t celebrate it even if you do – one of the best ways of expressing self-love is through replaying whatever you think the best Pokémon game is, and just letting yourself be immersed in that world. Who could ever say no to that, whatever day of the year it is?
Either way, until next Valentine’s Day comes around, we’ll be busy speculating about a new Pokémon game and the potential Switch 2, as well as replaying the Pokémon games in order in between all that.