Source of feature image: Amino Apps
We all know that theory in the Red and Blue Pokémon games where Blue’s Raticate dies.
It goes as follows:
Red beats Blue on the S.S. Anne. After Red wins, Blue rushes off the ship and tries to heal his Raticate. However, it is too late. Raticate died and the next time you battle Blue, Raticate is not in his party. You see Blue mourning in Lavender Town, but it is all subliminal – it takes more than a kid to understand that you killed his Raticate. Blue then becomes self-absorbed on becoming the best Pokémon trainer there is. No matter how much he tries, you always beat him. At the Elite Four, you beat him for the final time and his own Grandpa tells him he didn’t love his Pokémon enough.
It is a rather heartbreaking theory, which in my own opinion is wholly true and intentional from the creators of the Pokémon brand. Most importantly, there is an alternative ending to the Red and Blue series that confirms this theory.
Back in the day when dial-up internet was around and there was only 151 Pokémon in existence, I was scrolling the internet looking up MissingNo Or MISSINGNO cheat codes.
MissingNo was an unintentional glitch in the game where you could find a Pokémon called MISSINGNO and multiply certain items in your Poké box. Finding MISSINGNO and even capturing MISSINGNO resulted in unintended consequences, resulting in game glitches, the entire game restarting from the beginning to other weird encounters throughout the game.
When I was searching for MissingNO cheat codes, I stumbled upon an article titled, “The Alternative Ending”.
The article didn’t go into much details but warned the reader to not attempt. All you needed to do was have 6 Raticates in your party and find MissingNO. After you find MissingNO, the article said to let MissingNO kill all your Raticates. After that, the article said to find out what happens next, but caveat, this will alternate your entire game making the game unplayable.
Out of pure curiosity, I got six Raticates and found MissingNO. After MissingNO killed all my Raticates I was transported back to the Poké Center and had my Pokémon healed.
Nothing happened. I was bummed out. I was ready to shut my game off and call it quits. However, I walked my character out of the Poké Center, outside of Cinnabar Island. That is when things got weird.
My game automatically restarted. However, instead of the original opening to the game, it was, well, eerie. Lavender Town music was playing in the opening scenes and instead of having Pikachu on the start screen it was a Raticate on its back in a pool of what looked like blood.
When the game started instead of playing as Red, you played as your rival Blue exiting the S.S. Anne. Distressed music was playing with sounds of subtle screaming in the background. In the corner of the game there was a timer of a Raticate with six minutes and sixty-six seconds left. The goal was to get to the Poké Center and heal your Raticate before the timer ended.
At this time, I was distressed. The music got louder and sounded more distraught. My screen darkened like I was in Rock Tunnel. I only had a couple minutes left and that is when I saw the Poké Center.
I thought I was going to make it, but all was futile. When I got to the door of the Poké Center, the timer went right to zero.
A loud buzzing noise went off and the screen went black.
When the screen reappeared, I was in Lavender Town mourning the death of my Raticate. Red then appeared and we battled.
Red beat me. Hands down. There was no hope.
The screen went dark again and then reappeared. It was another battle with Red.
Red won again. No chance for me.
It did this several times until the final battle at the Elite Four.
After a hopeless battle Red wins, yet again. At this point the Lavender Town music was playing again. Professor Oak then enters and tells Blue he didn’t love his Pokémon enough and that is why he lost.
You then watch as Blue exits the Elite Four.
At the next cut scene Blue is outside of the docks of the S.S. Anne. It appears as if it is raining. The water looks choppy. Distressing music haunts the scene. Then Blue jumps in the water, drowning himself.
The game shut off after that. I tried turning it back on, but it was fried. It didn’t work.
