Mindy (Pokémon)

Submission 2,400

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About

Mindy is an infamous NPC in the Pokémon franchise that has long drawn the ire of the games' fandom. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Platinum, Mindy offers to trade the player a Haunter in exchange for Medicham. Traditionally, Haunter only evolves into Gengar via a trade. However, Mindy's Haunter is holding an Everstone, which prevents it from evolving. This led to intense frustration from players and led to the creation of memes characterizing Mindy as a scam artist and a troll.

Origin

In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, released on September 28th, 2006, and later Pokémon Platinum, the player can meet an NPC named Mindy in Snowpoint City^[1] who offers to trade her Haunter for the player's Medicham. Since the first generation of Pokémon games, Haunter has only evolved into Gengar upon being traded. However, Mindy's Haunter is holding the "Everstone" item, which prevents a Pokémon from evolving, and she does not relay this information to the player before the trade. This led players to express frustration that they had been tricked by Mindy.

One of the earliest known threads online about Mindy was posted in GameFaqs^[2] on April 5th, 2009, by user PerfectBlank (shown below).

Spread

Over the following 15 years, Mindy generated a significant anti-fandom among Pokémon fans. On October 24th, 2015, the subreddit /r/FuckMindy^[3] was created, devoted entirely to expressing anger at the character. The subreddit gained over 23,000 members in eight and a half years. She also became a notable antagonist in the Pokémon fanfic Pokémon Shattered Dimensions.^[4]

The Mindy anti-fandom also led to the creation of memes about the character. For example, on May 20th, 2019, Redditor GeneralBrownie posted an I Miss The Internet edit to /r/Pokémon,^[5] gaining over 960 points in five years (shown below, left). On June 13th, 2021, Redditor Massive-Pattern-7369 posted a Traumatized Mr. Incredible edit to /r/pokemon,^[6] gaining over 6,500 points in three years (shown below, right).

Mindy was also the subject of multiple Trade Offer memes in 2021. For example, on April 21st, 2021, Twitter user @UltimaShadowX^[7] posted a Trade Offer meme about Mindy, gaining over 960 retweets and 7,100 likes in three years (shown below, left). On November 27th, Twitter user @Vivivooovoo^[8] posted an edit that gained over 1,000 retweets and 6,200 likes in two and a half years (shown below, right).