Raticate.

0:00What if I told you the saddest story in the original games is one you were part of.

0:02And you walked right past it when you were ten.

0:04Remember the S.S.

0:06Anne.

0:08The fancy cruise ship, trainers in every cabin, and your rival popping up out of nowhere like he always did.

0:10Their team included a Raticate that day.

0:12And you knew that Raticate, because you'd been beating it since it was a scrappy little Rattata near the start of your journey.

0:14Every time you two crossed paths, it came back stronger, because after every single loss, that kid went off somewhere and trained.

0:16And then you beat it again on that boat, and forgot about it by dinner.

0:18You always won.

0:20That was kind of the whole point of him.

0:22Here's what the game shows you next, without ever saying a word about it.

0:24The next time your rival finds you, it's in Lavender Town.

0:26Inside the tower.

0:28And if you played Gen 1, your stomach already knows what that tower is.

0:30It's the one place in all of Kanto where trainers go to say goodbye.

0:32Look at his team in that battle.

0:34The Raticate's gone.

0:36Not benched, gone, and it never shows up again for the rest of the game.

0:38And then there's what he says to you in there, maybe the strangest line in the whole game.

0:40He snaps at you.

0:42Asks what you're even doing in a place like this, when your Pokémon look perfectly fine.

0:44Your Pokémon.

0:46Fine.

0:48Why is that where his head goes?

0:50Fans did the math on this decades ago.

0:52A brutal battle on a crowded ship, half an ocean from the nearest Pokémon Center.

0:54And then a boy, standing in that tower, with an empty slot on his team.

0:56Nintendo has never confirmed it.

0:58They've never denied it either.

1:00It's been thirty years.

1:02And if it's true, then the last battle that Raticate ever fought, it fought against you.

1:04It spent its whole life trying to beat you, one kid's whole heart poured into one stubborn rat, and it never got to win once.

1:06You didn't know.

1:08You were ten.

1:10So was he.

1:12And while you were running up that tower chasing your next badge, he was standing on the second floor, saying goodbye to a Pokémon he'd raised from the very beginning.

1:14So settle it.

1:16Coincidence, or canon?

1:18If you say coincidence, explain what he was doing in that tower, and good luck.

1:20And if you're on team canon, then you know what the comments are for.

1:22Tell Raticate you're sorry.

1:24You're thirty years late, but it still counts.

1:26And go a little easier on your rival from now on.

1:28He was ten too.