I'll have to say that even as an adult in Gen VI I got back to shiny hunting (mostly now Masuda Method), but I think I always have a story with mine no matter how stupid it was. My first one was a Pumpkaboo because I just loved the color palette (ok that was a bad one). Then, my second was a Honedge because that very week I was trying to get the Shiny Pumpkaboo, I got that one AND a Shiny Scyther that I wasn't even trying for. I decided to see how lucky I could be so I set myself a two day limit and got it that very day. My third was a Gible. While the colors for that were, eh, especially as a Garchomp, I wanted to do it because I had a Shiny Garchomp on my main battle team in Gen IV and V that was just the best Pokemon ever on them and that everyone used to call my signature Pokemon. So I wanted to update it as well as make it legal for Gen VI tournament play if I were to compete in it. Finally, my last one was a Shiny Pidgey. That one I did because of an inside joke when I was a noobish fanfic writer who wrote myself capturing one in a self-insert trainer fic (that now I cringe at reading). I showed it to my best friend and she IMMEDIATELY brought up the Shiny Pidgey. So, hearing that Pidgeot was getting a Mega Evolution, I decided to Masuda myself a usable Shiny Pidgey.
Now, to get to some of my Unpopular Opinions now that story time is over.
- My favorite generation was Gen IV. I liked how big the worlds felt in both games compared to the first three and it looked like there was real VARIETY for the first time in the map layout for those games. I wonder if I'm one of the few that LOVED the marshlands and the snow routes. I also loved Mt. Coronet. I loved the pseudo-3D look since it made it feel bigger and less cramped than the previous games. I loved the Pokemon. I loved Team Galactic. It was just the perfect generation for me. I loved HGSS for improving what used to be my favorite games (Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal).
- I kind of got my own headcanon for Team Flare that really improved it in my mind. Team Flare is a downright cult. While the non-Rocket teams were also cult-like, Team Flare REALLY had the makings of being a cult since they loved to keep their members out of the loop of the real plan when you listen to the grunts. The grunts just thought they were going to make a more beautiful world. On the outside it doesn't sound bad especially with the way us humans were messing it up. Then you learn what Lysandre wants to do and how he plans to kill off most of the world in order for it to flourish with most humans destroyed. Then you think back and ask yourself "Did any of the grunts even know what Lysandre was doing to achieve their goals?" I'm thinking they were just told the vague plan of being told they were making a more beautiful world and then when they joined they were just given tasks. I think even a few grunts mentioned they didn't know what was going on in their own organizations. Only the truly trustworthy grunts that prove their worth would become admins and even learn a fraction of Lysandre's plans.
- I have a thing for Klink and it's evolutions. I only wished they got more moves. I admit that Gen V had probably the most unique Pokemon compared to some of the others. While some people might complain about "Duurrrr, new vendor trash!" most of the non-repeat designs were new Pokemon based off of new things and it was exciting to see what was made as Pokemon here.
- I love cross generation evolutions especially ones the introduce a new niche for both the original and the evolution (like Porygon-Z and Porygon2 now that Evolite was made). I hate how Mega Evolutions are the lazy way of fixing up weak Pokemon instead of making a new generation. It can be used to fixed up third stages, but not Pokemon like Mawile, Sableye, and Audino which had plenty of abilities to just evolve and become better that way.
- Gen I was just that - the very beginnings of Pokemon. I don't call the original original good or bad compared to latter generations. It had a LOT of rough corners, but that's to be expected for the very first game from a company that probably didn't expect it to be as popular as it is now. However, it doesn't hold up to latter games. On the other hand, I felt FRLG to be a downgrade because of all the restrictions in the game and how a lot of it just feels weaker compared to RSE in terms of gameplay (I HATED the whole trade problem and evolution problem. I hated no time even compared to the much weaker version compared to GSC).