Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow
| Video game fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pocket Monsters Red and Green Pocket Monsters Fire Red and Leaf Green Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee |
| Japanese name | ポケットモンスター 赤 ポケットモンスター 緑 ポケットモンスター 青 ポケットモンスターピカチュウ 2004 Remakes: 2018 Remakes: |
| Abbreviation(s) | RBY, FRLG, LGPE |
| Developer(s) | Game Freak; Nintendo |
| Release date | February 27, 1996 - November 21, 1999 (Japan) |
| Platform(s) | Gameboy, later multi-platform |
| Genre(s) | Role-Playing Game |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow (commonly abbreviated as RBY) are the games that started the Pokémon franchise. Initially released as Pocket Monsters Red and Green for the Nintendo Gameboy on February 27th, 1996, it later received an updated version, Pocket Monsters Blue, on October 15th, 1996, through the popular Japanese CoroCoro magazine. This version of the game was what became Pokémon Red and Blue in the American market, releasing on September 28th, 1998 alongside an anime series, manga series and trading card game.
The anime was an immediate smash hit, creating what is widely referred to as PokéMania from 1998 to around 2001. The games were very popular as well, and set a formula in place for following games in the series to improve upon.
Pokémon Gold and Silver would follow Pokémon Yellow in Japan on November 21, 1999, taking place three years after the events of RBY. The games were also later remade for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance in 2004 as Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen. In 2018, Pokémon Yellow would be remade for the Nintendo Switch to coincide with the popularity of Pokémon Go as Pokémon Let's Go! Pikachu and Pokémon Let's Go! Eevee.
Plot Overview
The player controls a protagonist that you name, (a young boy that is later canonically known as Red in Pokémon Gold and Silver,) and explores a fictional interpretation of the Kanto region in Japan. You start out with either Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle, given out by Professor Oak. His grandson, (who's later canonically known as Blue in Pokémon Gold and Silver in western markets and "Green" in Japan; see Green and Blue localization impacts on Pokémon fandom for more information), is also your rival and chooses his first Pokémon at the same time you do.
The games feature eight gym leaders who must be defeated in Pokémon battles before you reach the Elite Four, considered the four strongest trainers in the games aside from yourself and your rival. Along the way, you encounter and defeat the villainous, yakuza-like Team Rocket, led by eighth gym leader Giovanni. The games end with you becoming Pokémon Champion after defeating your rival, though Mewtwo, an artificially created and powerful Pokémon alluded to during the story, is able to be caught in the post-game. In total, there are 151 Pokémon, including Pikachu, Snorlax, and many others popular in pop culture.
The 2004 remakes add Leaf as a playable female protagonist and more post-game content. The 2018 remakes change the game mechanics significantly, emphasizing catching as many Pokémon as you want to through a motion-controlled swing of the Switch joy-con. It also features some characters introduced later on, such as Team Rocket admin Archer and Alola Trial Captain Mina, to further flesh out the world. Another change is that the games' protagonists are instead spiritual successors to the original ones: Chase and Elaine, with Trace being your rival. Red, Blue and the originally manga-exclusive Green are supporting characters.
Characters
Red is far and away the most popular character in RBY who's never had a prominent role in the anime series. Although he originally had no characterization, Pokémon Gold and Silver established him as a loner, almost monk-like figure, who went into hiding on top of a mountain soon after the events of the games. He serves as the games' "true" final boss and doesn't speak at all, with his pre-and-post-battle dialogue only containing ellipses.
Misty and Brock, the first two gym leaders, are very popular in pop culture due to being main characters in the original anime series, alongside series protagonist Ash Ketchum.
Blue is also very popular for fanworks. Characterized in the games as cocky, abrasive, and rude, fanworks focusing on him are often character bashing or analyzing of his character.
Other notable characters include the remaining gym leaders and Elite Four: Lt. Surge, Erika, Koga, Sabrina, Blaine, Lorelei, Bruno and Agatha. Lance, the last member of the Elite Four, receives a much more prominent role in Pokémon Gold and Silver as the Pokémon Champion, thus is more associated with those games than RBY. Characters introduced later are also in fanworks set in the RBY storyline, such as Koga's daughter Janine, Elite Four Will and Karen, as well as the remaining Team Rocket admins Ariana, Petrel and Proton. Minor characters also may appear, such as Bill, creator of the Pokémon PC, and Daisy, Blue's sister.
Popular Relationships
See List of Pokémon Relationship Names for more ship information.
Gen ships, such as Blue Oak & Red, Blue Oak & Leaf, the Oak Family and the Kanto Trio are all very common in the fandom.
Romantic ships, such as Blue/Red (NamelessShipping), Blue/Leaf (ConflictingShipping), and Leaf/Red (BurningLeafShipping) are also popular. Rarer are ships between the NPCs, which include Erika/Sabrina (FemmeGymShipping) and Koga/Lt. Surge (ToxicboltShipping), among many others shipped by fans. For more pairings, see each characters' individual pages.
Lance, Red and Blue are also particularly popular for self-shipping.
RBY Fandom
This article or section needs expansion. |
Popular Tropes & Fanon
- Mew under the truck: popular rumor involving where one could catch Mew, the legendary 152nd and otherwise uncatchable Pokémon, which was programmed into the game but could only be obtained in limited-time events. For more information, see That Time Some Players Thought Mew Was Under A Truck In Pokémon by Heather Alexandra on Kotaku, Archived version.
- Blue's Raticate: popular rumor involving the absence of Blue's Raticate from his team as the game goes on. For more information, see here, Archived version.
Subjects of Fannish Interest & Meta
In the fandom, RBY are known to be the most glitchy games in the series. They pushed the capabilities of the Nintendo Gameboy to its limits, resulting in one exploit being able to rewrite the games' memory banks, leading to game crashes and corrupted save data.
One Pokémon, created to be filler for spots in the game code that could technically be Pokémon but were never intended to be used as such, named MissingNo., was a widespread rumor in the early days of the fandom during the 90s. Said to set the item quantity in whatever was in the 6th Bag slot by 128, thus being very useful for item cloning, corrupting the Hall of Fame data, and being part 'bird-type,' an elemental type not found in any Pokémon game, the rumor was later proven to be true though online forums for the games and official confirmation of its existence by Game Freak. The strange Pokémon has inspired a wide breath of fanworks, mostly fanart. For more information, see MissingNo. on Bulbapedia.
Example/Notable Fanac
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fan Communities/Fan Events
- Twitch Plays Pokémon, an online game and social experiment in which an emulation of the Pokémon console games is streamed on Twitch and collectively controlled by the viewers of the stream via commands entered into the chat in 2014 and following years.
Fan Blogs
Fan Fic
- The Lost Mermaid and Her Dragon by KuraOkami13, Archived version (2012-16), where Lance and Misty are stranded on an island together. Eventual Misty/Lance (KingdraShipping). Rated T and its genre is Drama/Romance.
- Uniquely Consequential by Cryptographic_Delurk, Archived version (2020), where Blue's gym keeps on being messed with (graffitied, TPed) and he doesn't know why. Blue & Agatha. Rated Gen.
Fan Art
General Fanworks
Doujinshi
- WarCrimes by Coelasquid, Archived version (2023), an English-language doujinshi where Lt. Surge meets Giovanni again after many years away. Features Lt. Surge/Giovanni, (dubbed by the author as WarCrimesShipping). Rated Explicit with dark elements. More information is available here on Tumblr, Archived version
Wikis
- RGBP on PixivEncyclopedia
- FRLG on PixivEncyclopedia
- LPLE on PixivEncyclopedia
- Pokémon Red and Blue Versions on Bulbapedia
- Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Versions on Bulbapedia
- Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! on Bulbapedia