The Original Pokemon Rival Is A Fraud And I Can Prove It. | Pokemon Investigation

Today's strange and unusual deep dive will explore the validity of the Pokemon FireRed LeafGreen Rival's early game bragging. Does he really have 40 Pokemon? Let's find out.

Pokemon hasn't had a rival quite like the original introduced in the first generation of games. Blue perfectly sets the stage for what a competitor and strong trainer looks like this in the world and would be used as a model for every Pokemon game to come. Known for his sharp attitude and incredible teams, Blue has been a fan favorite character since his original release with good reason. He's pretty cool.

In your third encounter with him, he makes the bold early game claim that he already has 40 Pokemon at 2 badges. Long has it been wondered if this is actually true, or if he's up to no good. Today we explore his story and the validity of that claim in the latest Pokemon Investigation taking place in gen 3 pokemon. Let's dive in!

Follow me around the internet:

Gameplay comes from Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Gold, Pokemon, Silver, Pokemon Crystal, Pokemon Emerald, Pokemon Ruby, Pokemon Sapphire, Pokemon FireRed, Pokemon LeafGreen, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, Pokemon Ultra Sun, and Pokemon Ultra Moon. #pokemon #pokemonscarletandviolet #pokemonemerald

[droomish]

let me know if there are any other individual lines of dialogue I should spend 20 minutes looking at. kind of a thing at this point

[buggedibeat]

Blue is a rich kid, he probably had all the fishing rods from the start.

Also maybe the reason you can only find 2 moon stones is because he picked up the rest.

Smell ya later!

[hatandhoodie_]

The Moon Stone argument kinda falls apart when you consider that perhaps there were only 2 Moon Stones in the cave _because_ he already took the other ones.

[Ha-lsle]

I like how blue lived rent free in your head enough to do this tedious grind only to get 39 you are one step behind him after all “smell ya later”

[vitorjjgameplays]

Considering that version exclusivity doesn't apply to Rival, since he ends up with an Arcanine regardless of whether you're playing FireRed or LeafGreen, he could easily have picked up both an Oddish and a Bellsprout on Route 24, as well as a Sandshrew and a Ekans on Route 4.

[acrios]

One important thing to note, your rival was ahead of you. So he arrived in mount moon before you and very well could have found 6 stones and left you 2. Found items are also not dispensaries and can only be picked up once. He also could have gotten to the guards to saffron before they got thirsty allowing him tp pass through giving him access to Celadon early too.

[jorgerichmond]

The Rival is not bound by version exclusives. When you catch Ekans and Oddish he catches Sandshrew and Bellsprout too.

[tracyh]

I think the fact that Blue is carrying a useless abra of all things during one of his rival fights more than demonstrates the fact that he is willing to sacrifice strength temporarily for greater success in the future. Imo, he has at least one other pokemon evolved in the box that he simply isn't using right now because he's focusing on training pokemon he sees greater potential in.

[TheRealTKTwilight]

I like to think Blue's total at that point was somewhere between 36-39 and he just rounded up so it sounded more impressive since that's just the kind of guy he is

[MFMegaZeroX]

The rival didn't say "unique" kinds, so its always possible that he meant that he was counting like 8 Ratattas and 12 Pidgeys or whatever

[kevh]

We already know version exclusivity doesn't apply to Blue, since if you're playing LeafGreen then Growlithe can't be found in the wild, yet he still finds one.

[pompeocavaliere]

consider this: In Lavender town, your rival can have an exeggcute, which CANNOT be caught at that point. Your rival can either A) trade pokemon you do not have access to you, or B) he has caught pokemon that you do not have access to.

[midnari]

Blue was actually pretty friendly if you've played the game again as an adult. He helps you out, gives you advice, etc. He's just a Tsundere.

[daboss]

You actually just proved that it's feasible for him to have 40 by that point. I expected a lot less then 35ish; considering he's not constrained to game logic (could already have better fishing rods, access to trades and items you didn't, and doesn't have to worry about version exclusivity), it's absolutely possible for him to have 40, with the other evolutions in he box, since he's trying to fill the pokedex.

[GIRru]

One thing worth noting is that Blue is always ahead of you in his adventure. With things like trades or stones, its entirely possible he had access to more opportunities and took most of them and only leaving you with any he didnt need

[altoidsours]

I always thought Blue was being a bit friendly in that encounter and trying to give you advice. In fact, when I replayed through Fire Red not too long ago I was shocked that Blue...wasn't all that mean. He gives you tips, gives you free items sometimes, etc. The only thing that could be rude is "smell you later, " but that just seems to be his catchphrase. He says that to other people in later games.

[cymes]

Bill's teleporter accident is actually a reference to the horror movie called "The Fly", where an unfortunate scientist accidentally gets his genome combined with the one of a housefly.

[joebradburnii]

My problem is that your rival isn’t bound by the rules of the game. Version exclusives, items. Both in lore and logic, he has access to things you just might not.

[diogoalmeida]

In universe, i could say: There are *Other* traders out there, who may not want to trade with you at all because he traded with them first! You only find the ones he didn't even bother with.

[mlgmrm]

the items "dropped" by trainers that you find could be a fraction of what they were because your rival, who always seems to be ahead of you, could have helped himself to things you couldn't get...