- Greetings, Pokéfans! Michael here, and
in today's video I will be covering the
complete history and lore of the character who is
probably the Pokémon universe's most famous Pokémon master: Pokémon trainer, Red. First, let's start
with the basics. Who is Red? Simply put, Red is the
canonical protagonist of the Gen 1 and 3 Kanto games. Those being Red, Blue,
Yellow, FireRed and LeafGreen. He is not the protagonist
of the Let's Go Kanto games and is in fact a wholly
separate character. More on that later. Since Red is the
protagonist character, his name is not always Red. His name is whatever
the player character decides to call him
and his in-game team is whatever the player
character decides to use because the player
controls the team. The widely agreed upon
explanation for this is that every save
file of a Pokémon game is an alternate universe. So, there's endless iterations
of the character Red where he has different
names and teams and is sometimes
replaced by Leaf, the female character from
FireRed and LeafGreen. This is the case for
all Pokémon protagonists in the main series. They have default names which
the community widely uses to refer to these characters but they can actually
be named anything and their teams can be anything. But Red is a special protagonist because he is the only
single one that appears in other games, besides
the one he stars in. Okay, technically the
Black and White protagonist is the mentioned in
Black 2 and White 2 via the use of the
memory link feature and I also think through
just regular gameplay. But the character themselves,
never actually appears. They are never given
an official name, just uses the name
from your old save file and they don't have
an in-game team. You can't be battle them. Where as Red, is named
Red and you can fight him. Red is special because
he has an overarching general timeline that spans
over the course of many games and generations, not just the
games that he is the star of. I'm going to go over his
general event timeline or should I say, timelines. In Pokémon Omega Ruby and
Alpha Sapphire's Delta episode, a conversation with
Zinnia occurs that reveals that there are parallel
universes of the Pokémon world. More specifically, it reveals
that there are universes where Mega Evolution exists
and those where it does not. This implies that the
original Hoenn games of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald,
occur in a timeline without Mega
Evolution widely known as the Original Timeline. Then, their remakes Omega
Ruby and Alpha Sapphire occur in one with Mega Evolution
called the Mega Timeline. This duality of an Original
Timeline and a Mega Timeline was confirmed in
the Alola games. Anabel, the head
of the Battle Tower in the Emerald Battle Frontier was sucked through a wormhole
into the Mega Universe where no such Battle
Tower exists yet. The evil team leaders in
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were brought there
from universes where their plans succeeded. And the Hoenn team
leaders very distinctly have their original appearances and do not have Mega
Evolutions or Primal Reversions on their teams, meaning they
came from alternate versions of the Original Timeline. How this all relates to
Red is that he appears in both Original Timeline
games and Mega Timeline games. So, he has more
than one timeline. His life follows different
series of events. And these differences
are not just simply, oh, they're the same but in
one he uses Mega Evolution. They are substantially
different. I will go over his
story in both timelines but before I do, I
just wanna let you know that if you are watching this
video on the day it comes out, this is the last
day ever to pick up my Champion Time merch design. This
Galar-champion-jersey-inspired
design is an official Champion brand
products that I unlocked on Teespring and they
are super high quality. If you do not buy it today,
you will genuinely never have the chance to buy it again. So, click the link in
the description below or click the shirts below
the video to pick up this really awesome merch
design before it's gone in a matter of hours. But now that I've covered that, let's start with Red's story
in the Original Timeline, the one you're likely
are more familiar with. 11 years prior to the
events of Gens 1 and 3, Red is born. We know he is 11 thanks
to the instruction manual for the original Gen 1 games. He grows up alongside his
rival, named Blue in all cases where Red appears as
a non-protagonist. The two were either
rivals in infancy or they were friends
and played together until one day Blue
decided to become a bully. It depends on whether you
ask the instruction manual or Professor Oak. One day when Red is 11, he is invited to pick a starter
Pokémon from Professor Oak. In the Red, Blue, FireRed,
and LeafGreen universes, he selects Bulbasaur,
Charmander, or Squirtle. Then, Blue selects the one with the type
advantage over Red's. In Yellow, Blue ends
up with an Eevee while Red gets a Pikachu. And then Red's journey begins
through the Kanto region on a mission to defeat
all of the gym leaders. He first defeats
Brock in Pewter City. Then, Misty in Cerulean City. And then, the next
five gym leaders, those being Lt. Surge, Erika,
Sabrina, Koga and Blaine in any whatever order he
wants, I'm pretty sure. The only caveat is that he
must defeat Koga before Blaine, because beating Koga is
required to have Surf and you have to have Surf
to be able to reach Blaine. During these adventures, Red battles Blue on
several occasions. Additionally he takes on
the villainous Team Rocket. He fights them in Mt Moon, declines a membership
offer on Nugget Bridge, reclaims a stolen item
from one in Cerulean City, raids their hideout in Celadon, ousts them from the Pokémon
Tower in Lavender Town, and shuts down their takeover
of Silph Co in Saffron City. Twice during his
Team Rocket battles, Red defeats the leader
of Team Rocket, Giovanni, once in the hideout
and once in Silph Co. After the Silph Co defeat,
Giovanni isn't seen again until Red gets seven badges. At which point, he
returns to Viridian City to find Giovanni there
as the final gym leader. Upon being defeated, Giovanni
disbands Team Rocket, meaning Red was mostly
single-handedly responsible for taking down this entire
criminal organization. Red then traverses
through the Victory Road and defeats the Elite
Four at the Indigo Plateau only to discover that
Blue has become Champion just prior to Red arriving. After an epic battle,
Red comes out on top, becoming the Kanto
Pokémon Champion. I should mention there's
an alternate version of Red in these Kanto events
displayed in Pokémon Origins. Which is mostly the same but there are some
distinct differences. Number 1, Red it starts with
Charmander specifically, not any of the
other three options. Number 2, Red loses to
Giovanni in Silph Co, then Team Rocket flees
at their own accord Number 3, Red canonically
completes the Kanto Pokedex, including catching Mewtwo, whereas game Red does
not necessarily do so And finally, Number 4, Red
has a Mega Charizard X. That last part means
that Pokémon Origins is its own separate
universe version of Red, separate from the
Original Timeline. Because there are
things about it that conflict with
the Original Timeline. First off, Red talks a
lot, which is unusual. But secondly, he
has a Mega Charizard and Mega Evolution does not
exist in the Original Timeline. However, there are other reasons why he can't be a part of
the Mega Timeline either, which I will cover
later in the video. But back to Original
Timeline game Red, in the FireRed and
LeafGreen version of events, Red then goes on to
explore the Sevii Islands quashing the remaining
Team Rocket stragglers, but also assisting
Celio and Bill with creating a long
distance trading network between Kanto and Hoenn. And then, he disappears. We don't know at what
point exactly he does, but at some point in
the three years span between the Gen 1 events
and the Gen 2 events, Red leaves and doesn't really
tell anyone where he's going. He abdicates his position
as Champion to Lance and we know he retreats
to Mt Silver to train with no one but his
Pokémon at his side. He isn't seen or heard
from for quite some time, with his mother even
confirming that she herself hasn't heard anything
from him in awhile. Then, three years after Red
becomes the Kanto Champion, the events of the Generations
2 and 4 games occur. But we only really care about
the events of the Johto games, Gold, Silver, Crystal,
HeartGold, SoulSilver because those are the
games where Red appears. These events focus on
the Johto protagonist, whose default names are
Ethan, Kris, or Lyra but of course have
infinite names for all the various cartridge
alternate universes. This character sets
out from New Bark Town, defeats all the gym leaders and the resurgence of
Team Rocket in Johto, defeats Lance to become
the new Pokémon Champion, then earns all the
Kanto gym badges resulting in 16 total. Professor Oak then
allows the character to explore Mt Silver, a dangerous place
packed to the brim with very strong wild Pokémon. On the summit, the Johto
protagonist finds Red, now age 14 due to the
three-year time difference and they begin a battle
without exchanging words. Red's team varies slightly depending on whether
it's Gen 2 or Gen 4. In both instances
he has a Pikachu with all three fully
evolved starters, meaning any one of them
could be his starter since all versions of Red
start with one of these four. He also has a Snorlax
in both Gens 2 and 4, likely one of the two that
blocked his path at one point during his Kanto journey. In the Gen 2 games, his
final team member is Espeon, potentially the evolved
form of the Eevee that he received in
Celadon City as a gift. In Gen 4, his final
team member is Lapras, likely intended to be the Lapras
that he received as a gift while fighting through Silph
Co to defeat Team Rocket. After the Johto
protagonist defeats him, Red once again disappears. But he reappears on the
summit for another battle each time the Johto protagonist
defeats the Elite Four. Red is then not seen in any
mainline Pokémon games again until Black 2 and White 2,
which occur several years after the events
of Gens 2 and 4. We know this because
Caitlin ages substantially from her appearances in
Gen 4 to Black and White. And then, Black 2 and White 2 occur two years after
Black and White. We don't know exactly
how much time has passed, but we know that
it's enough time for this seemingly young
child to age into an adult, and then two years
stacked on top of that. One weird thing though
is that Red's sprite in Black 2 and White
2 is nearly identical to his sprite in
HeartGold and SoulSilver. So, he doesn't have any visible
aging like Caitlin does. However, he has to have aged
because both him and Caitlin appear in HeartGold
and SoulSilver, so if she got older so did he. I think the identical
sprite situation was just due to the
devs deciding not to
give him a new one. Either due to time
constraints or laziness. We do know for sure
that he did age though we just don't know by how much. We can estimate maybe
like six-ish years based on how Caitlin gets older
but we can't know for sure. This older Red has
returned to public life and is a participant in the
Champion's Tournament portion of the Pokémon World Tournament
alongside other Champions, including Blue, Lance, Steven,
Wallace, Cynthia, and Alder. While the number of
Pokémon he can use changes depending on
the battle format, he rotates between the
same six species of Pokémon that he had in HeartGold
and SoulSilver. And that is the
last time we see Red in the Original Timeline
because Black 2 and White 2 were the final two
Original Timeline games. Well, technically,
Sword and Shield could be in the Original
Timeline, we just don't know. They don't have Mega Evolution
which is a tick in favor of Original Timeline but
it could also be just because they just choose not
to use Mega Evolution there because they have Dynamax as
a option they like better. We just have to wait for more
info in the Expansion Pass maybe in order to figure out
where Sword and Shield lie in which timeline. But anyways, that
completes Red's journey in the Original Timeline. But now for his journey
in the Mega Timeline. In his first appearance in
the order of game release, not chronologically, is
in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Both him and Blue,
now grown-ass men, have been invited to work as
the bosses or Battle Legends in the Alola Battle Tree. Blue mentions that
both himself and Red were both Champions of the
Kanto region, in our own days, confirming that they no
longer hold that position. If the Alola
protagonist battles Red before entering the Battle Tree, he uses the same six species
of Pokémon that he used in both HeartGold, SoulSilver
and Black 2, White 2. As a boss within the tree,
he rotates around usage of all those team
members except Pikachu. And all three Kanto
starters may Mega Evolve at some point or another, further confirming that
this is a Mega Timeline Red. But here, Red is an adult, at the youngest
in his late teens. What happened prior to him
and Blue coming to Alola to work at the Battle
Tree besides him and Blue becoming Kanto
Champions at some point? That implies that events
unfolded similarly in the Mega Timeline as they
did in the Original Timeline. But a pair of games proves
that to be not true, Let's Go Pikachu
and Let's Go Eevee. First off, I should mention
that these games are in the Mega Timeline because
they include Mega Evolution and despite the
different catching and sometimes battle mechanics, they are still mainline games. Pretty straightforward
logic there. Let's go, Mega Timeline. These games feature events
that are extremely similar to the Original
Timeline Kanto events but with one glaring difference, Red and Blue are not the
protagonist and rival. The protagonist is instead
the Let's Go protagonist, whose default name
is Chase for the boy and Elaine for the girl,
and the rival is Trace. But these characters are
not just pseudo re-designs where they wholly
replace the original ones and the original ones
seemingly seized to exist, like how Lyra replaced Kris. These are completely
separate characters which we know
because Red and Blue appear in Let's Go as NPC's. Blue appears and is
interacted with quite a lot, even ending up as the
Viridian Gym Leader like he does in the
Original Timeline. And this Blue has already
gone on his journey. Trace even says at one
point that in the past Blue already defeated
the Elite Four. Which means that, there you go. It aligns with the
Alola version of events that Blue is a former champion. Another big piece of
information is Blue saying that when he went on
his initial journey, Professor Oak hadn't
created a Pokédex yet. So, he was forced to
scribble down map locations on a piece of paper. That info combined with the
fact that the Team Rocket events unfold as the player
progresses through Let's Go means that the creation
of the Pokédex coincides with the Team Rocket events. So, that means that Red and Blue are older characters
in this timeline. They were born two to
three years earlier and therefore went
on their journeys two to three years earlier. All these boils down
to one big revelation, Red did not defeat Team
Rocket in the Mega Timeline, the Let's Go protagonist
and Trace did. That's why Origins conflicts
with both timelines and has it's own separate thing. Him having a Mega Charizard means he's not in
the Original Timeline but him defeating Team Rocket means he's not in
the Mega Timeline. Origins completely separate. Now that we know all this, we can walk through Red's
progression of events for the Mega Timeline. Red, Blue, and
likely Green as well, start their Pokémon
journeys from Pallet Town. Red picks Bulbasaur, which
we know from his final team in Let's Go, Blue
picks Charmander and
Green picks Squirtle. Red then goes on
his Kanto journey absent of any Team
Rocket issues. Down the road, both him and Blue become the Kanto
Champion, at some point. But to my knowledge, we don't
actually have confirmation of which one was champion
first but it's implied that it happened the same
as in the Original Timeline. Blue becomes the champion
and then Red defeats him. It's actually possible
that Red was the Champion that Trace defeated in
order to become the Champion but I honestly don't
think this is super likely because Trace says, "I defeated the Elite
Four and became Champion!" not "I deleted the Elite
Four and the Champion." Therefore, I think the
most likely, not confirmed, progression of events is
that Red became champion and then dipped out, like he
did in the Original Timeline. And rather than filling
that role with Lance, they just left it open. So, Trace just had to
beat the Elite Four. Red then does who-knows-what
until showing up out front of the Pokémon League once
the player has defeated at least six Master Trainers. His team is noticeably different from any other team he's had, swapping out Blastoise
and Charizard for Machamp and Arcanine. His Venusaur goes Mega thus
being his strongest team member, further indicating that
Bulbasaur was his starter. Red then continues to
periodically battle the player character,
reappearing every time they beat the Elite Four
until several years later, once Red and Blue
have become adults. They're invited become
the Battle Masters at the Battle Tree and
moved to Alola to do so. Sometime prior to that, Red swapped his
Machamp and Arcanine for Charizard and Blastoise, potentially doing
some trading with Blue since Blue has both Arcanine
and Machamp in the Battle Tree. And that concludes Red's
Mega Timeline story, but he makes a few other
appearances in spinoff games. First is Pokémon Stadium 2,
where he is the final boss of Gym Leader Castle. His teams are almost
completely different from any team he has elsewhere, with only Snorlax and
Espeon being familiar. I personally don't think his or any other characters'
appearances in the Stadium games should be counted even
as remotely canon. His other spinoff appearance
is in Pokémon Masters, wearing his dope
as hell Sygna Suit. He has a reputation here, and his sync pair
Pokémon is Charizard. However, this Red
is like Origins Red. He conflicts with both
the Original Timeline and the Mega Timeline,
in the same way actually. Masters Red has a Mega Charizard
X but is also confirmed to be the one to
defeat Team Rocket due to Flint mentioning
it in the sync pair story. Therefore Masters is again,
its own offshoot universe, separate from the Original
and Mega Timelines. So there you have it,
that's the complete history and lore of Pokémon
Trainer, Red. I hope he makes
another appearance in the main series
game sometime soon cause it's always fun to see
him and learn more about him. Thanks so much for watching. And an extra special thanks
to my patrons over at Patreon who are helping support
me during a time that is difficult
for YouTube ad rates. If you wanna help support
me in the same way, the link is on the
description below. Also, pick up a
Champion Time Shirt. Today is the last day, if you're watching this
on the day it came out. Do it or it's gone. All right, that's
all I have for now. So, until next time my friends. Gotta catch them all.
Ok nerd
Or you’re just wrong Edit: or your from a different timeline where you’re right.