one of the squares in today’s pokédoku (a daily grid-based pokémon puzzle) asked me for a dragon-type pokémon originating from paldea, the region featured in 2022’s pokémon scarlet and violet. my guess was cyclizar, which fit the criteria, but after failing the overall puzzle by one, i went through each square to see other correct answers i could have given. that’s when i saw it: frigibax.

“who the hell is frigibax?” i asked myself, immediately opening a tab to bulbapedia to reacquaint myself with the new-ish dragon-type. the only problem is, even after reading through the encyclopedia’s entire entry on frigibax, i still have no idea who the hell frigibax is. i play through every pokémon game to completion right at launch, and i’ve never seen this little weirdo in my life.

not only that, but i’ve also never seen arctibax or baxcalibur, the pokémon i’ve since learned frigibax evolves into at levels 35 and 54 respectively, either. an entire line of pseudo-legendary ice/dragon pokémon i can’t for the life of me ever remember encountering. i’m sure i finished pokémon violet, which apparently means i defeated a baxcalibur at least twice during battles with elite four trainer hassel near the end of the game, but my mind is still drawing a blank.

is this a symptom of there being too many damn pokémon to keep track of, or just the side effects of an aging brain that, let’s be honest, isn’t all that good at recall to begin with? either way, frigibax: you just made the list.