The Pokemon franchise is a veritable multimedia empire, with even its hugely successful games dwarfed by its shows, films, and merchandising. Its ubiquity across the childhoods of so many millions has made Pokemon ripe for theorycrafting, with a sizable portion of fan speculation taking the series’ established lore to radical heights.
When Pokemon first burst onto the scene in 1996, its show and a host of merchandising soon followed. The simple core concept combined with an immense bestiary of lovable creatures brought on the ‘Pokemania’ phenomenon, ensuring the franchise’s worldwide dominance over pop culture. With how integral it was in the childhoods of many teens and adults today, older fans can’t help but look back at the series with fresh lenses—reinterpreting all the elements that confused or went over their heads as kids. From the chilling atmosphere of the original Pokemon‘s Lavender Town to hidden lore unearthed by plotholes, there are few corners of the franchise that fans haven’t mined for theories and fanon.
Pokemon’s Wild Fan Theories Explained
The Player Killed Gary’s Raticate
The murder of Gary’s Raticate is central to one of Pokemon‘s oldest fan theories. The theory posits that, due to the Raticate disappearing from the rival’s lineup after their fourth encounter, the player must have killed them. This is spurred on by the fact that Raticate is the only Pokemon to disappear from the rival’s squad, as well as the fact that the fifth encounter takes place in Pokemon Tower—a cemetery for the little creatures situated in the eerie Lavender Town. The player’s rival even asks “What brings you here? Your Pokemon don’t look dead!”, bringing into question why he himself is there.
Lavender Town’s infamous gloom envelops this theory like a miasma, and if it were true it would upset the perception of child-friendly fun Pokemon relies on. However, this theory is one that may be too wild to believe. For example, YouTube user KoolGoldFinch long ago noticed that Gary’s Raticate and Rattata levels don’t suggest an evolution, meaning that the rival would already have swapped combatants before. Moreover, there are far more powerful Pokemon than Raticate, so swapping them out makes more sense than the critter’s death.
Nurse Joy Is A Pokémon
Many fans have come to the conclusion that Nurse Joy is a Pokemon, with one of the earlier recorded instances of this theory being a Reddit post by user Bkwordguy. Though fans have many theories as to why there are so many identical Nurse Joys running around, this one posits that ‘Nurse Joy’ is a type of Pokemon—just an exceptionally humanoid one. This hypothesis, which is also used to explain the abundance of Officer Jennys, checks out in a number of ways; Pokemon are established as having largely uniform characteristics and behaviors, not to mention that Pokemon like Meowth have developed speech.
The Great Pokemon War
One line of dialogue in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen sparked many fan theories. In this game, Lt. Surge references how Electric Pokemon saved him ‘during the war.’ This war, one that apparently saw humans use Pokemon in combat, has major implications for the lore if true. Even with the darker descriptions riddled throughout the Pokedex, this is inserted into the player’s face in a way that really breaks the wholesome facade. Further, the concept of war seems to have been largely dropped from future games, with this instance being its sole mention.
The biggest speculation around this Pokemon war by fans is that it’s the reason that there are so few adult men in areas like the Kanto region, particularly in earlier generations. It’s also been suggested that the impetus behind this war was a rivalry between Johto and Kanto. Whatever the reason, it had to have been incredibly significant to be denoted via ‘the war,’ rather than a more specific moniker.
