Being that this was on my mind today, I figured id make a thread with a discussion on this topic, seeing as im sure everyone here has experienced this before.
Smpratte spoke of these several times in his various youtube uploads, noting little things like how Marill was originally called “Pikablu” by many before the actual western release of the second. There were also many theories and various tales around the video games, how to get the fabled Mew in Red, Blue (Green), and Yellow version, and probably many others which ive never even heard of.
So I figured with all that mind, id love to hear what “theories” you’ve heard growing or, or just anything relating to Pokemon during that time frame that was word of mouth and not necessarily true, but still fun to indulge in!
Ill start with a funny weird one that I heard from two of my old friends who lived a few houses away from my mother’s growing up. These two kids were both brothers, each a year apart and both were 1-2 years older than me, so i looked up to them for a lot of my growing up interests. When Pokemon hit, they had everything before me, so I always looked to them for advice with the games, where to get cards, etc. One day the episode of Pokemon where Scyther and Electabuzz were part of dueling gyms in some random town. Theres a part where the trainer’s Scyther cuts through a bottle of ketchup that Pikachu was oddly enjoying thoroughly, and then Pikachu gets upset while everything keeps moving forward. The younger one of the brothers up the block told me that with that specific part, in the Japanese version of the show, Pikachu actually gets cut in half and becomes Cyber Pikachu, but was actually censored in the US version. I was in shock, and he proceeded to have his brother back him up, saying thats why they added ketchup because it was easy to disguise the actual blood from the cut that took place. I sort of believed them, but I always had my doubts, but to this day whenever I see a meme or something with Pikachu and Ketchup and i cant help but laugh about that ridiculous tale. They said they heard it from kids in their school, and I took that information everywhere i went until a bunch of people corrected me on the matter. Still, i just find it funny now overall and great memories of an awesome time of life.
So thats my input, and I love to hear more various theories, whether related to the video games, anime, cards, anything! Hope this could bring out some smiles and good nostalgia feelings all around!