I bought Brawl mainly for online (as Wii did not have an online fighter) and for Pikachu. I played Pikachu briefly in a rent in Melee, but I really didn't get into the game series.
Seeing Trainer being a playable character and using the pokemon was really cool I thought. Though I really liked Pika pi.
I did okay with Pika, but wanted to do pretty good with PT. I had played PT and did some nice moves, but recovering was hard for me with PT. Much more than I anticipated. So I dropped PT. I went back to PT a second time just messing around. I guess I couldn't get enough of hearing Ivy and Squirt say various portions of their pokemon name when fighting. I was a fan from the anime, so that helped keep the interest in PT.
Yet I dropped PT again due to recovery errors, and feeling I wasn't making much progress in Brawl and my wins were not very much. I sort of became huffed, and played lack luster. Then one day I decided I would try PT again and this time stick with PT no matter what. With determination I worked on improving my recoveries. This did work itself to where I got that under control and was doing better. I started to surge ahead in FFAs, and started to do okay in 1 on 1s. Then I came here to Smash boards under advisement from the best Pika player at the forums where I mod. So exploring around and practicing made it even better. I have played IRL and Zeph from the forums here. I played Washy in the tourney. So I have worked to develop my PT and I even recently beat one of my most hated characters, Zelda and with Pokemon Trainer.
I was glad I came back a 3rd time and held on to make the best of it.
If Smash 4 ever comes, I hope PT and the 3 pokes Squirtle, Ivy and Charizard are in it.