I had a brother who was 11 years older than me. He went off to college before I got old enough to appreciate hanging out with him and we never really connected or anything. After he came back from college, I was 11 and super into Pokemon.

I was also very much in that annoying pre-teen phase. He used to always try to connect with me over Pokemon, he'd ask me to explain the game, what I was doing, what's the point, etc.

I used to always refuse to talk to him about it, "whatever, you won't get it" and was just genuinely an asshole, as characteristic of that age. So we never really connected over Pokemon because I was too busy being a douche.

Anyways, two years later my brother died in a car accident. It was pretty gruesome. I was only 13 years old, so it didn't hit me as much as it hit my parents and older sister. They had also more of a chance to get to know him and stuff, so I understand.

He still lived with us when he passed, he was just staying in a separate guest house. My mom went out to clear his stuff a while after he died and she gave me some of the stuff she thought I would like to have. One of the things she gave me was a really old Gameboy with a copy of Pokemon Yellow. I always thought it was his friends or something, turns out it was his. I went through the save and he had named the character after himself and was genuinely trying to play it (I'm assuming to try and get to know me better). He didn't get far, only up until Cerulean City. His starter was named after me.

I can honestly say that I didn't appreciate it much back then, I probably called him a noob for not getting far enough, but today at 28, that gesture makes me cry every time I think about it.

TL;DR: Had an older brother who played pokemon to try and relate to me. Died before we could ever talk about it and be buddies.