Halloween RetroVision – The Death of Blue’s Raticate

With it being Halloween, I thought that I’d bring to you one of the creepier theories from the world of Pokémon.  Game Freak are well known for enjoying the creepier side of storytelling, with the mysteries of both Lavender Town, and the Ghost Girl from Pokémon X & Y still unexplained.  Yet, there’s a wealth of other spooky tales and theories that are not as well know, with many of these taking quite a dark stance.  “The legend of Blue’s Raticate” is exactly one of those stories.

At the beginning of Pokémon Red / Green / Blue you meet and name your rival.  In the anime he is known as ‘Gary’, but by default he is most commonly known as ‘Blue’.  Throughout the game you have a number of battles with Blue whilst on the quest to become the Pokémon Master.  But one of these battles may be more significant than the others.

SS Anne Manga
Red preparing to board the S.S. Anne in the manga adaption of Pokémon.

After you have defeated Lt. Surge and his voltaic team, you head to the SS Anne where you encounter Blue.  In this battle he uses a LV20 version of his starter, a LV19 Pidgeotto, a LV 18 Kadabra and a LV16 Raticate.  But the next time you battle him this team has changed.  Upon reaching Lavender town, one of the few towns in the Kanto region to not have a gym, Blue’s team has one startling omission.

Throughout the game Blue’s team changes little, his Pokémon grow and evolve but only one member is ever dropped, Raticate.  In Lavender town you encounter Blue whilst climbing the Pokémon tower and are challenged to a battle.  During his monologue he mentions the death of Pokémon whilst looking at a gravestone.  As the battle progresses you see that his team now contains a LV25 middle evolution of his starter, a LV25 Pidgeotto, a LV23 Gyarados, a LV22 Growlithe, a LV20 Kadabra.

Lavender Town
Kanto’s haunted Lavender Town. The home of the Pokémon Tower, which acts as the main gravesite for Pokémon.

It is odd that Blue finds no space in his team for his rodent companion considering he has a space left in his allowed six.  So what has happened to the Raticate he used to train with?  Could he have traded it to another trainer?  Or simply just lost faith in his Monster?  Possibly there is a more sinister answer, YOU killed it!

The story goes that while fighting on the SS Anne you severely injure his Raticate, without a Pokémon Centre close by the Pocket Monster fell victim to it’s wounds.  The wounds your Pokémon inflicted.  This is further supported from the encounter with Blue being located next to a grave.  Maybe it’s possible, he was just paying his respects to a dead friend?

Stuart Drake

Not very good at writing about games and even worse at them. Is that going to stop me doing either? Absolutely not! You can follow this Pokémaniac on Twitter and Instagram via @Boogbn

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