Video Game / Pokémon FireRed: Rocket Edition

Surrender now, or prepare to fight.

Pokémon FireRed: Rocket Edition is a ROM Hack of the US version of Pokémon FireRed created by Colonelsalt.

One fateful morning in Pallet Town, a newborn hero takes his first steps along his journey to becoming a Pokémon Master. With a love for Pokémon battle, and a burning desire to be the very best, he takes on the region’s Gym Leaders, and eventually conquers the Pokémon League. A well-trodden tale if there ever was one… but it is far from the whole story.

Behind Red’s seemingly simplistic Pokémon adventures lies a darker, more sinister plot–one that its original hero never hears of, but which holds significance for both him and the fate of the Kanto region. Sociopathic scientists, revenge-hungry nurses and corrupt Gym Leaders are just a few of the characters who show their true colors once Red turns his back, and the very people who appeared most friendly and considerate through his naïve eyes may in fact be secretly harboring the most malicious of intentions.

What is the connection between Lance, Giovanni and Professor Oak? What exactly happened during the Great Pokémon War? How was the mysterious Mewtwo created? Not to mention: what is the fate of the hundreds of Trainers Red so ruthlessly defeat? The answers lie in the story behind the story, and it begins deep in Kanto’s criminal underworld...

In Pokémon FireRed: Rocket Edition, you play as a member of Team Rocket. Where you cheat, lie and steal your way to the top as you engage with the thriving gang scene of the Kanto region. Featuring a story that takes place at the same time as the original FireRed, Rocket Edition will play with your expectations and allow you to experience the classic story from a whole new perspective. Along your journey, you will unravel secret conspiracies, explore a side of Kanto you’ve never seen before, engage with familiar characters in unfamiliar situations – and, most importantly: steal their Pokémon!

You can download the hack here and here. The uncensored version of the game (see the "Bowdlerise" entry below) can be obtained from Colonelsalt's website here.

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Tropes used in Pokémon FireRed: Rocket Edition:

• Adaptational Badass: Some trainers are much more formidable here than they ever were in the original game.
• Adaptational Context Change: The reason S.S. Anne's Captain (Arab) was throwing up wasn't due to seasickness, but Admin Proton's Koffing hitting him up with Poison Gas after you beat the captain in battle since the smuggled goods were in his possession after he noticed them in the cargo hold.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The game focuses on characters and pokemon that were introduced during Gen 1, with almost no Gen 2 and onward pokemon being found in-game, especially in the wild ^note There is at least one, however; Wobbuffets reside in the lower level of the cave by Cerulean City.. Regardless, during the game, you'll still encounter various characters and pokemon from Gen 2 and the Johto region, despite the story taking place in Kanto. Examples include...
  • A young Silver.
  • The cries of certain Gen 2 Pokemon can be heard in the S.S. Anne.
  • The R/S/E Trainer Battle music can be heard when you engage Mew in battle.
  • Some late-game trainers carry Gen 2 pokemon.
  • Pokemon that got new evolutions by Gen 3 are also available, such as Crobat and Umbreon. The sun stone, which was also introduced in Gen 2, can also be found and used.
  • Prof. Elm shows up during The Stinger.
  • Zig-zagged in the case of the Rocket Executives/Admins, Archer, Ariana, Petrel, and Proton. The original game and Gen 1 did have a Rocket Executive/Admin trainer class ^note (Gen 1 had Team Rocket Executives, but Gen 3 changed their titles to Rocket Admins instead.), but this romhack gives them both their names, characterization, and appearances from the Gen 2 remakes, which came out years after the original Pokémon: FireRed.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • After defeating the player, Red seems to make off with two fossils instead of one like in canon, but it's actually subverted since the Fossil Maniac was lying to the Rockets about that. You get to find him later in Pewter City Museum, pay him back for it, and take a Fossil yourself.
  • But what Red really is guilty of is Blue's Raticate's death during their battle at the S.S. Anne, wounding it so badly that it couldn't recover by the time Blue made it back to the Pokemon Center (not helped by all the hubbub of all the other passengers).
  • Surprisingly, Oak is more callous to his own grandson and doesn’t comfort him over Raticate. When Blue loses his Champion title, he sadly mutters to himself that he just wanted to hear his grandfather say how proud he was, which tragically never happened.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Blue here is portrayed more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who uses his assholish rival persona as a facade in order impress his grandpa. And it is revealed near the end that he did treat his Pokemon with care and respect.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the games, Ariana is just a loyal admin to Giovanni. In here, it's implied she's married to him, thus making her Silver's mother.
  • Agatha is Daisy's (and Blue's) grandmother. Ergo, she and Oak were actually a couple before they divorced.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Bill, the Day Care Man, Lt. Surge, and Blaine are all revealed to be affiliated with Team Rocket.
  • Lance is a conqueror from Johto who took control of Kanto after a war.
  • Agatha at the very least sympathizes with what Team Rocket is doing, though it's downplayed since she doesn't really aid them per se. However, after realizing he truth of Oak's actions and Red's origins, she immediately comes to their defense and sends out Ghosts to prevent people from accosting Oak.
  • Koga conspires with Team Rocket due to the Secret House keeping Surf way hidden out of the hands of prospective trainers, which affects Koga since his badge grants the ability to use Surf. Because of how hard it is to get the HM, that means Trainers don't challenge him since it's pointless anyway. His plan is for you to sneak in and seize as many H Ms as possible from the Secret House. On return, he gives you a forged Trainer ID (name Mohammed Smith) that enables you to battle gyms and their Leaders (and even steal from them).
  • Prof. Oak is the Big Bad of the game, trying to use Red in a ploy to take control of the Kanto region.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: If you steal a Pokemon from Erika she'll actually flirt with you instead of getting angry, claiming she likes "men who go after what they want".
• Anti-Frustration Features: Didn't feel like actually doing corporate espionage to net yourself a Water-Type without stealing secrets from the other Fishing Gurus? Well, if you spare the Super Rod owner, you get a shiny Magikarp from him, and it's already level 20, so it's ready to become a evolve to Gyarados! Especially helpful since you'll likely have no other options to get more Water-Types otherwise.
  • If for some reason you lost a Pokemon with Surf, an NPC in Cinnnabar's Pokemon Center will sell you a Goldeen for 1000 Pokedollars. However, this turns out to be a subversion and Kaizo Trap of sorts, because the game glitches out once you try to leave the Pokemon Center. So you better be sure you're Arceus-damned ready before you accept the mission to fight the Catastrophe!
• Anti-Villain: While you are a member of Team Rocket, your character can technically become this in-game by being merciful and co-operating with the police.
• Benevolent Boss: Giovanni, to an extent. When his Grunts do a competent job, he rewards them, just don't get on his bad side...
• Battle Trophy: After you defeat Mr. Fuji, he wonders if you intend to bring him to Giovanni and if his skull will be mounted on his wall.
• Best Served Cold: Oak's surrender to Lance in the Kanto-Johto war was all part of the plan in order to ensure that his Designer Baby Red would not be discovered. Oak would be ridiculed and mocked, but he will live. And after ten years, he will have his revenge by dispatching Red to become Champion, and essentially have him be a Puppet King with Oak pulling the strings.
• Big Bad: Prof. Oak turns out to be an even greater threat than imagined. He's not just content with revenge against Lance, oh no. With Red, he plans to spread his influence to the rest of the world in due time once he's done with Kanto and Johto.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Lance is a conqueror who took control of Kanto ten years ago. He intended to let Team Rocket become a big problem, so that he could arrest them at the best moment in order to build good PR. However, his plan is effortlessly thwarted by Oak.
• Blackmail: In the Pokémon Mansion, while looking for Blaine, you find a letter to him from Prof. Oak about him being aware of Blaine's ties with Team Rocket and wishing to meet ASAP so that Oak doesn't leak it.
• Blood Knight: Mewtwo, who was depraved of challenge ever since his exile at Cerulean Cave. When you arrive, he sincerely hopes for a challenge.
• Bowdlerise: The game features politically incorrect humor and themes. The moderators on the Pokecommunity forum took offense to some of this humor ^note Specifically, the moderators took offense to a part of the game that used the word "gay" as an insult. years after the initial release and forced the creator, Colonelsalt, to censor the work. The creator's website features the uncensored version of the game for those who wish to play it.
• The Bus Came Back: After getting fired from Team Rocket by Giovanni due to being instrumental in the failure at Silph Co., Ronnie makes a return appearance at the Indigo Plateau as an independent goon, and you later ask for his help in getting through the guard to the Elite Four to stop Red.
• But Thou Must!:
  • You have to keep Shigeki's whereabouts a secret in order to find the Catastrophe. You're not allowed to say no.
  • At the beginning of the game, players are tasked with obtaining a Flying-type Pokémon in order to Fly to Mt. Moon. The game then points the player towards defeating and stealing a flying-type Pokémon from a young girl. While it is possible to catch a flying-type Pokémon, specifically Pidgey ^note by collecting items from the starting town, selling them, buying a Great Ball from the Mart, and going into the grass to the east of the town to encounter one, Mt. Moon will not be available as a Fly-able destination until you complete your first theft.
  • After your first encounter with Red, When Petrel asks you if you can identify him, he'll call you out for lying if you say no, and Bitch Slap you before asking again. He'll keep doing this until you say yes.
• Call-Forward: Lance intends to take down Pokemon Tower and replace it with an entertainment enterprise (a.k.a. the radio tower seen in GSC).
• Canon Character All Along: With mixes of Ascended Extra, Shigeki was an old man when Mewtwo was born. At the end of the war, he was disgusted and fearful from the things he'd done and seen and fled, abandoning all his ties to his past life as a scientist, far from the public eye. For a quiet secluded life with his granddaughter, hoping the demons of his misdeeds would never haunt him again. At first, it's assumed that this guy would be someone else entirely and be exclusive to this ROM hack, but as it turns out, he's the old man who taught Red about catching Pokemon.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Remember the Silph Scope you got for getting past Marowak in Pokémon Tower? It becomes needed again when Agatha sends out Ghosts to stop the press and your group from getting to Oak.
• Child Soldier: It's revealed that Oak made one out of a human boy with unique and unwavering qualities, raised for Pokemon battle, not subject to the same limitations as a normal human Trainer. He would coldly and objectively devise battle strategies, push his Pokemon to their limits like a dispassionate puppetmaster, controlling their actions by afar, as if by the click of a button. This clone turns out to be Red, and his mother (since Oak could not grow him in the lab alone into a grown boy) is a sterile widow from Pallet loyal to Oak since they were young, who would adopt Red as her own child. Red would only be imprinted the following thoughts; Oak is a trusted father figure, and that his word, for his own good, is law.
• Darker and Edgier: Naturally, as the game has you experience events from Team Rocket's POV.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • The fate of Blue's Raticate remained ambiguous canonically. But here it dies because of Red.
  • Agatha is killed by Prof. Oak near right before the climactic battle, as opposed to simply vanishing from the series after Gen 1.
• Developer's Foresight: If you actually do manage to beat Red in your first battle against him in Mt. Moon - legitimately or not - Red will actually talk in post-battle dialogue, accusing the player directly of cheating and asking them to just pretend like Red won to keep the plot on track.
• Didn't Think This Through: Once Blue becomes champion, someone notes that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let anyone who beat the current champion to become the new head of the government. Blue himself clearly has no idea how to actually run a government and didn't consider that he'd have to do so if he became champion.
• "Die Hard" on an X: The Silph Co. takeover. In this game, you are spearheading it.
• Dirty Coward:
  • During the Kanto-Johto war, according to Archer, Mr. Fuji turned to Lance's side the moment Oak called for surrender, and willingly gave away confidential scientific information in return for a state-sponsored retirement fund and a safe small-town home in Lavender Town.
  • Professor Oak himself is considered one since his surrender to Lance during Kanto-Johto war for most of the game.
• Disappeared Dad and Missing Mom: Blue's parents are nowhere to be seen because they died in the Kanto-Johto war.
• Disk-One Final Boss: During the first half of the game, Lance is set up to be the main antagonist, as Giovanni's main goal is to topple his rule. However, it's later revealed that Oak is way more dangerous than him.
• The Dreaded: After your first battle against him, Red becomes this for the player, who won't even bother challenging him until the Pokémon League. Though Red is also this to the entirety of Kanto since no one can properly defeat him in a regular Pokemon battle.
• Dumb Muscle: Ronnie is this. He is eager to prove himself, but he feels the need to assault and rob everyone he can. Generally it wouldn't be a problem for a Team Rocket Grunt, but he picks on people he can't rob yet and attacks important people like Daisy, Professor Oak's granddaughter, bringing the heat down on Team Rocket. Even after Giovanni personally chews him out, he's too stupid or too in denial to realize how bad of a job he's doing.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Catastrophe, A.K.A. MissingNo, is a gargled pile of glitchy mess that spreads through its surroundings. It was made by Mr. Fuji and the other Mewtwo Project scientists years ago, and it haunted everyone involved ever since. And when you fight it, it is indeed pretty glitchy. It even has a unique move called Super Glitch, which is guaranteed to Freeze your Pokemon without being Ice-Type.
• Failed a Spot Check: You get to listen in on the meeting between Steven and Lance on the S.S. Anne... and neither of them notice you (particularly Lance, who even turns in your direction during the conversation).
• False Teeth Tomfoolery: The Safari Zone Warden has a set of gold teeth like this. To get into the Safari Zone, you need to get the jump on the Warden from behind and shock his teeth out. That way, he can't warn the employee at the gate of your inauthenticity.
• Friendless Background: According to his mother, Red has always been so interested with Pokemon battle and not much else. This netted him very few friends besides Blue, and they weren't good friends, either.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Throughout the story, you rise up the ranks from a minor Grunt to an Admin to an Executive, and eventually the Leader of Team Rocket.
• Gangbangers: Two biker gangs occupy Cycling Road, the Tops on the side next to Celadon, and the Bottoms next to Fuchsia. The Tops hold respect for Team Rocket, while the Bottoms do not unless you beat Julien, but this will cost you your reputation with the Tops.
• Gone Horribly Right: Mewtwo was made by Kanto's scientists in an effort to win the war against Johto. However, while they managed to give it a desire for bloodshed and dampened its empathy, it did not harbor any loyalty to their cause and soon escaped, driven by a desire to find worthy Pokémon opponents and sought refuge in what became known as Cerulean Cave.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Team Rocket is very much a criminal organization, but several members (including the player character, depending on your choices) have Noble Demon qualities to them; on the flip side, many of the "heroic" characters are far more shady than they were in canon.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Saffron City guards can be bribed for a paltry sum. And the Safari Zone entrance guard is fooled by you having a forged Employee ID even with your Rocket uniform... though he does check with the Warden first.
• Hero Antagonist: Red is this to our main character.
• Heroic Mime: Like in the main series, Red barely speaks. However, there's a dark reason for this...
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Where Shigeki is, according to Mewtwo. To be precise, he's the Old Man in Viridian City, the one who teaches young trainers how to catch Pokemon.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Your first encounter with Red in Mt. Moon is this, as his Pokémon are many levels above yours.
• Insurmountable Waist-High Fence
  • Trying to use the Underground Paths will have you blocked by two people getting cold feet in deciding to enter or not.
  • Trying to go to Pewter City from Mt. Moon before you complete your mission for Bill will have you stopped by a friendly Biker warning you about the cops just ahead asking people about Team Rocket's activities in Mt. Moon earlier.
  • If you try to go to Lavender Town for Vermillion City through Saffron before you acquire the stuff needed for Lt. Surge, you're blocked off by a couple advertising snacks and fountain repair inspection talking to their respective border guards respectively.
  • While you can get past where Ronnie is waiting for you after you battle Blue at Nugget Bridge via Fly or Teleport, you can't advance the plot until you talk to him, but you can see the cop guarding the house Ronnie's team just robbed and are still prevented from approaching him.
• Jerkass: The main character, due to their affiliation with Team Rocket. But depending on your actions, he may or may not have a decent side to him.
• Just Think of the Potential!: Despite the threat Missingno posed on all reality, Bill can only think of the ways the player can use its power, like dominating his way to the top of Team Rocket, or even a chance against the Elite Four.
• Karma Houdini: Ronnie is a Stupid Evil crook who sics several times his Raticate on people who can't defend themselves. Contrary to the main character, he's not arrested at the end of the game. In fact, it's even hinted that the main character ends up blamed for some of Ronnie's crimes. Downplayed in that he does get fired from Team Rocket.
  • During the trial at the endgame, while Oak manages to successfully hide his secret experiments, as well as his murder of Agatha, his violation of his ban to Pokémon Battle means his license is revoked again, his research won't be funded, and he is banished from Kanto.
• Karma Meter: The amount of crimes you commit in-game as well as Pokémon you steal determines your bounty (which is how you're measured up), as well as your ending.
  • You can decrease your bounty by either bribing or surrendering stolen Pokémon over to certain Police officers across the region, and they have gifts to offer when you keep your bounty at 0 for long enough. The "handing over Pokémon" deal can be exploited somewhat by catching low-tier Pokémon to fork over, as one Rocket Grunt NPC explains.
  • On the other hand, the Rocket Base in Celadon has its own rewards system for having a high bounty on your head, as well as its own store since a high bounty means regular Marts will refuse to sell to you.
  • At the end of the main game, during your trial, if your bounty was very high, you can end up spending up to a maximum of '130 years in penitentiary. If your bounty was zero, however, you only spend one year in prison.
• Kick the Dog:
  • As a member of Team Rocket, you have the option to engage in this. However certain instances make it unavoidable: Your first battle has the game forcing you to steal Pokémon from a little girl, made even worse by the fact that they were both given to her by her mom for her birthday. You cannot access Mt. Moon until you do, Even if you somehow bought a Great Ball at the Department Store (by selling an Ether you can find in the city), then catching an avian Pokémon east of Celadon and teaching it Fly, Mt. Moon won't be accessible until you steal from little Suzy.
  • Ronnie sics his Raticate and has him use Hyper Fang on Daisy after you defeated her in a Pokémon battle and she's defenseless. She's only wounded ultimately, but it's still a mean move.
    • That particular move is done again with the League guard blocking people from challenging the Elite Four while someone's currently challenging them. Except this time, it's for "greater good" purposes to stop Oak from taking over Kanto with Red as his proxy.
• Knocking on Heathens' Door: There's a preacher for Arceus who serves as your healing station in Pallet Town.
  • A different one is also at the entrance of Victory Road, serving as your healing station there.
• Laughing Mad: Giovanni undergoes this for a moment after firing Ronnie for his incompetence bringing down the operation on Silph Co. before declaring Team Rocket HQ is setting up in Viridian Gym, where they will take out Red once and for all.
• Manipulative Bastard: Prof. Oak in spades.
• Missed Him by That Much: Blue and Blaine missed out on the whole Missingno affair because they were busy inside the Cinnabar Gym battling. "Thankfully", the player is willing to show Missingno to him, and he instantly regrets it, adding that he's seen Missingno a long time ago when he was a kid, to the surprise of Blaine and Blue. The latter remembered seeing one of them at the large basement area under Oak's Lab, where he was doing experiments.
• Mistaken for Cheating: One of the side missions has a Nurse assume her lover is cheating on her after seeing him with a blonde, who turns out to be a Jynx whom he watches for a friend.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: While down in Oak's Secret Lab, you come across a couple of statues whose eyes glow red when you bypass them, but otherwise do nothing. However, upon passing the fifth one, it comes to life, revealing it to be a Guard Robot of sorts, and engages you in a Pokemon battle. You can even steal from it too after defeating it.
• No Time to Explain: After you leave Silph Co once you've been promoted to Executive, and after Red passes you by to enter Silph (to undo all your progress), you get a call from Bill to come to the Pokemon Lab ASAP, and that he doesn't have time to explain. Only once you arrive does he explain (along with Blaine and Mr. Fuji) his plot to capture... not Mewtwo (he'll leave that to Lance and Giovanni), but Missingno.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Giovanni and his admins are genuine when they say they fight against Lance's rule, most of the rank-and-file grunts joined the organization for the money or For the Evulz.
• One-Time Dungeon: Silph Co., just like in canon, but for different reasons. After Red clears Team Rocket out, you cannot enter the upper floors again.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Turns out this is the case for Oak and Agatha, whose son and daughter-in-law died in the Kanto-Johto war. They swore to avenge them. As we know from Giovanni, Oak eventually turned back on his word, and Agatha resented him for it.
• Perspective Flip: What the whole game is; you're going through the events of Fire Red, but under the lens of a Team Rocket member.
  • It all culminates to the point where Prof. Oak is congratulating Red for his success as Champion and his admonishment for Blue. Given everything we've learned so far, we now know he's lying outright. As they then leave to register Red as Champion like in canon, you, who have been right behind Oak, get to see Blue again as he breaks down from his grandfather's rejection.
• Post-End Game Content: Despite being sent to prison at the end of the main story, you get one of these courtesy of Prof. Shigeki bailing you out. However, you'll lose money in proportion to your bounty (or at least until you have 0 Pokédollars if you have less than that). If you don't have any bounty by that point, you are rewarded with a Nugget.
• Protagonist Without a Past: We basically don't know what our pink-haired protagonist's past was like outside of being a new recruit of Team Rocket's numbers, but even then, we don't know why he joined them.
• Related in the Adaptation: Missingno. is just a glitch that doesn't even have anything involving Mew, and to an extent Mewtwo and (speculation-wise) the Dittos. In this romhack, it's a failed clone of Mew, just like the Dittos, but one that failed so badly, with reality-breaking abilities to boot, Shigeki had to seal it in the oceanic depths near Cinnabar.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: After Red's attack on the Rocket base, one Rocket Grunt believes Red compensates for his lack of social skills by being really good at Pokemon.
  • Oak also claims Red to be suffering social disabilities in exchange for his talent so that he can speak on his behalf.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the subduing of Missingno, Mr. Fuji thinks it's time to bail out.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Missingno, courtesy of failsafes by Dr. Shigeki, though he does fear the can would fail eventually. So when the player confronts him, he hands the task of subduing it to them.
• Secret Room: Profesor Oak had a secret lab beneath his own (public) Lab, accessed by a button on a bookshelf. During the Mewtwo Project, Oak had invited Blaine to come with him, but he refused since he didn't want to divide his focus between Mewtwo and whatever Oak was working on. Blue himself has been there as well when he was young, and beheld a Missingno in there.
• Sidequest: There are quite a few of these, but here are the biggest ones.
  • First is the Underground Path sidequest involving two rival "brothel" services. The manager in the Horizontal path talks about how the younger manager in the Vertical Path had poached one of his girls, specifically the one from Hoenn, and wants you to bring her back to him. When you confront this manager, Cooltrainer Julien, he'll attempt to bribe you with 5000. If you accept, you fail this sidequest, but it affects another sidequest later on. If you refuse, you battle him, and the Hoenn girl returns to the other manager (but not before she asks you if you can help her find some other job), and he rewards you with an Amulet Coin (remember to get this first if you're going to complete the sidequest below).
  • Second is from the Pewter City Pokémon Center nurse. She believes her boyfriend, the cop in Viridian City, is cheating on her, and you're tasked with beating him up. Once you find him, then battle him, the situation is cleared up when it turns out the other woman is actually a Jynx an old man is tasking him to look after for a bit. The cop then asks him to clear up the situation with the Nurse in Pewter. Once you do, she rewards you with a Red Flute. The Nurse then asks you if you can find some other beautiful girl who can take her shifts since she wants to visit her boyfriend but can't due to the work hours. You have to approach the Hoenn girl from the Underground Path sidequest (if you didn't accept Julien's bribe), and inform her of the job. She's ecstatic to go, but you have to fight the manager first, who doesn't want her to leave. Once you beat him, he concedes and lets her go. When you meet her again at the Pewter City Pokémon Center and talk to her, she'll gift you the Strength HM.
  • Third is the Cycling Road sidequest, only available once you're an Executive. You first talk to the Tops gang leader, who will inform you about a saboteur from the Bottoms messing with them. But to talk to the Bottoms leader, you have to fight four of his "Falcons" on the Road (they're blue compared to the standard pink and the Tops' yellow) before his goons blocking the way will let you meet him. After battling him, you can talk to Julien from the Underground Path sidequest, who was also blocked off by Bottoms Bikers. If you rejected his bribe, he'll battle you again, then reveal he's scapegoated you as the responsible saboteur. If you accepted his bribe, he'll recognize you, then inform you of a Bottoms impostor posing as a Tops Biker being responsible for the Tops' troubles. Confront that rat Biker Ruben (talk to him multiple times in a row), beat him in battle, and you'll out him. The Tops' leader will gift you the Strength HM as a reward. This makes this sidequest and the above mutually exclusive.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Clearly on the cynical side. Kanto is crime-ridden, police is corrupt, people are often apathetic towards the rampant criminality, the leader Lance plans to sell some parts of the country to big companies, and when the Villain Protagonist thwarts the Big Bad's Evil Plan he's still arrested even if the player chose to avoid stealing Pokémon.
• The Stinger: After the main ending, there is a call for Bill as he mentions making sure none of the others rat Oak out in court. He's already made copies of Oak's research notes and blueprints. There's also mention of developing another clone in three years' time. With the arrival of Professor Elm, it's implied that this new clone will be Ethan/Kris/Lyra.
• Stupid Evil: Ronnie often goes overboard when trying to be the tough criminal. Due to the series' more realistic tone, it's quickly deconstructed when his wanton acts of villainy ends up bringing too much unwanted attention toward Team Rocket.
• The Unfought: The only characters not from Team Rocket (be it part of the story, an optional boss or as a postgame boss) you are unable to fight in the game are Elite Four Members Lorelei and Bruno.
• Turn Coat: Just before you reach the Silph Co. President, turns out Bill has beat you to it, and took a copy of the Master Ball blueprints and a prototype for his own. He also claims he holds no loyalty to anyone but himself, and has notified the police so they can retake the building. You successfully battle him before he can get away with it, though, and he's forced to leave.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Lance doesn't care that you've just foiled Oak's Evil Plan, and saved Kanto. He still has the main character arrested, even if his bounty was zero.
• Unusual Euphemism: Giovanni calls Ronnie a "worthless, simple-minded little Bad Egg..." for taking a Silph Card Key that wasn't even his to use, and drop it right in front of Red, thus enabling him to liberate Silph Co. from Team Rocket. Because of that, Giovanni sends out Nidoking and fires Ronnie on the spot.
• Villain Protagonist: Your main character in a nutshell, though his degree of villainy partly depends on the player's actions.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: At the end of the day, Blue just desperately wants his grandfather to say he's proud of him. It's even the entire reason he went on to become the Pokemon Champion.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Red is revealed to be a clone, and it comes to bite him.
  • During the climax, in an attempt to stop Oak's mad plot, Blaine and Fuji intercede and argue that Red is not human because he was not conceived naturally.
  • Early on, a NPC suggest that his mutism may be a symptom of autism, an idea which is supposed to follow the player through the game as, at the very end, the judge rules that Red's physical and mental differences ("birth defects", as they are called in-game), are what makes him decidedly not human, and as a result of this ruling, all his accomplishments are denied to him.
• You Are in Command Now: After Giovanni's defeat at Viridian Gym just as you were called to him, he retires from Team Rocket and leaves behind a briefcase with money, and a letter to you congratulating your progress, as well as a last will to take on the Elite Four, deliver his revenge on Red, Lance, and Oak, make a mark on history for Team Rocket, before disbanding it for good. Deconstructed in that not everyone is receptive of this change.
  • In terms of Gym Leader position, Ariana takes the reins, and before you can even challenge her, you must defeat all the other Gym Leaders first. Once you defeat her, she follows Giovanni's example and vanishes.

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