Part 41: Omni's Asides - Blue

So since we're so close to the end, I'll be doing each of the RGBY saga's protagonists. Starting with Blue, because I find her interesting both in her promoted unused design-into-character status, and just how she plays into the story overall. For these, I'll carry on through to the latest appearances of each of these protagonists, to see how they've changed through the years from their initial introductions

NOTE: As with all my posts, the female protagonist is referred to as Blue, not the male rival. That's how it is and should be.

Pokemon Special Differences: Blue



We are introduced to Blue in the first chapter of Volume 2 just as Red's Ivysaur evolves, here she's playing the role of the flirt to scam the shit out of Red, establishing her personality off the bat as a trickster with a love of money and messing with the protagonist. She also brings her Wartortle to the table when confronted with Red's Snorlax, and I know this is rather simple to say, but her introduction does a lot to both sell her as a character and not undermine Red.




In the end, she gets the best of him by stealing his Cascade and Boulder badges, and in the end, she wound up tricking him by replacing his badges with Fakes! While Blue isn't as great in a straight up fight as Red (Literally no one is, it's the reason that his title as a Pokedex Holder is the Battler) she's ridiculously good at trickery and deception, and most of her pokemon exude that endlessly. Her Ditto's transform is almost used exclusively to trick others, and her Horsea's smokescreen allows her to make quick escapes.





Even outnumbered and surrounded, she never loses her cool. Also yeah she's just flaunting Red's badges as earrings like it aint no thing. Honestly it works with everything about her. Pokemon Adventures has been describes as PokePoke's Bizarre Adventure in its story structure, and if we continue along that thought then Blue plays a very convincing Joseph. She does everything she can to secure the win and throw off her opponents.







She shows decisive thinking under pressure. The moment the Tauros' ability was described, she had her counter. Also I love how she continues to fuck with Red, their vitriolic friendship never ceases to amuse because Blue always has a scam to play. Blue cannot be out thought or schemed, no matter how deep you run your web, she will have seen through it and beaten you already.




Now lets dive into her backstory, first, because it's neat and second because of the far reaching effects it would have on the franchise as a whole. When Blue was a 5 year old she was kidnapped by Ho-Oh under the orders of Mask of Ice, the villain of the GSC chapter. He also captured Will, Karen and Silver, along with two original characters, Carl and Sham. The children were trained as Boy-Girl pairs to serve MoI's needs but Blue and Silver, who had developed a sibling like relationship escaped together. However, upon Blue's return to Pallet Town? She discovered that no one even knew her, hell, the only thing they could talk about was Red and Green, both who were making names for themselves.

Something we haven't quite established is that like in the games, The Pokedex is not a common item, in RGB there were only two of them, and in fact the Pokedex has a very important function for any trainer. It was the battle screen from the Gameboy games, meaning a trainer could see how much health there pokemon had left and how much health the enemy had left, as well as levels (which are a thing in the manga), the Pokedex also has a function to stop evolution. This was actually a really cool thing established.

Regardless, Blue felt jealous seeing as had she not suffered, she also would have been out there having adventures, leading to her stealing Squirtle from Oak and winding up on the road like Red and Green. It is kind of funny how an unused character design who would have been the female protagonist, was used for a character in the manga specifically upset that she lost out on a chance to have a Pokemon Adventure like a game protagonist.

Blue does wind up recieving a Pokedex however, after making it through to the Semi-Finals, as covered in the Pokemon League Post, she faces Professor Oak, who identifies her fear of Bird types (You try being stolen away from your parents by a Ho-Oh and then trained as a child soldier by a psychotic in a mask made of Ice) and reveals her identity after defeating her... before subsequently giving her a Pokedex to make her officially one of his chosen few.

Blue is the Evolver as her knowledge of Pokemon evolution extends far beyond any of the other Pokedex holders, she pretty much instinctively knows how to evolve every Pokemon she comes across. It's a useful trait, but honestly it does feel a little strange given how we've established that Blue's real defining characteristic is her deceptive skills. she'd be a rogue through and through.

In the Yellow arc, Blue is the one who makes Yellow disguise herself as a Boy, to throw off suspicion of anyone looking for her as she was a aware of what the Elite 4 has done, and was acting as Yellows guardian angel until Green took over as her master. At the very end of the arc, she reports to Silver that Lance summoned Lugia, not Ho-Oh, meaning he wasn't the man who kidnapped them, she also reveals the Snubble she didn't use the entire arc, as GSC was just coming out.

In the GSC arc, Blue is in correspondence with Silver, you know the man with the Abra at the Elite 4 in GSC who'll warp you back to town? In the manga that's Blue in disguise, she sends Silver away so that he wont be involved in the battle to come, again, she sees herself as his big sister, and hell on anyone who tries to hurt her little brother. When ambushed by Will and Karen using Ho-Oh and Lugia, she reveals that she worked hard to overcome her fear of birds, having capture Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres herself! Lending one each to Red and Green the three mirror the GSC trio using the legendary Beasts in their battle vs Mask of Ice's forces.









Speaking of Family, you've probably been thinking it's pretty weird that her family hasn't come up, especially since she was kidnapped. The FRLG arc rounds off this plot development, as Blue goes to meet with her parents she finds them snatched away by Deoxys and defeats, her Pokedex stolen. Red and Green return to Oak's lab and also have their Pokedex's removed. Beaten and battered around the Sevii Isles she finally awakens to reveal that one, she's aware of what Red and Green have been doing this entire time, and two, she's not going to let herself be depressed because something went wrong, she'll find her parents with her own hands. She also thanks Red, who's been down in the dumps the entire arc doubting himself, for caring so much about her. It's a true showcase of just how much she's changed as a character, gone is the deception and the ice around her heart as she confides in her true friends.






After helping Red escape from the battle tower, she reunites with him and Silver in the ruins of the crashed Airship, only for tragedy to strike as, once more before reuniting with her parents, she is turned to literal fucking stone by the remaining Team Rocket admit Sird, who also attempted to capture Mewtwo. This formed the basis of the Emerald arc, as Oak seeks a way to locate Jirachi and wish his fallen comrades back to the land of the living. Unfortunately the Emerald arc also has fucking Emerald. But it also has Gold and Crystal being amazing together as always, so it's still worth a read.

She's finally given a mention in HGSS, where it's revealed that, living up to her title as the Evolver, she sussed out how to evolve Silvers Sneasle and Murkrow. Her latest appearance has been in the ORAS arc, showing up to question the revived Maxie and Archie along side Red and revealing that the two of them have mastered Mega Evolution.



On the whole, Blue, despite not being THE main character, makes her presence and arc felt throughout the series more than Red, and Red is still a great character. On top of that she's got a unique style of fighting her foes, and a great personality and genuinely funny attitude. and while I have many favorite characters in Pokemon Adventures, Blue still sits near the top, maybe it's because I lucked out on getting Pokemon special in the library as a youngster and I got to grow up with her antics, but I think she's a strong enough character that even from a neutral point of view, she stands at the top.

Now. I realize this has been running long enough, but since we're doing the Protagonists, I wanted to Analyze their team composition and just what they mean for the characters overall.

Blastoise - Her Starter, which in Adventures doesn't mean her first. Blastoise breaks the mold she has going on, but even early on she manages to use it in deceptive ways, such as flying with its cannons. We can see Blastoise as her Beatstick for when the others can't handle things.

Wigglytuff - Her first pokemon, Wigglytuff is mostly used for transportation by inflating like a balloon, especially since she doesn't wish to rely on Flying types. Very much falls into the category of a utility pokemon for Blue, being used to travel, not to fight.

Nidoqueen - We're actually introduced to Blue's Nidoran female while she attempts to have it flirt with a Fisherman's Nidoran male and use it to con him. In that way it follows her general deception theme, more importantly it fits her Evolver theme, being one of the many pokemon she owns that Evolves with a Moon Stone.

Granbull - Traded from Silver in exchange for her Seadra (which further evolved under Silver's care into Kingdra) Granbull is sort of a deceptive pokemon, Snubbull and Granbull are considered quite 'Cute' despite being... well... Snubbull and Granbull. Also as Blaze Dragon pointed out, Granbull's japanese name sounds like Blue.

Clefable - Beyond continuing the theme of Pokemon evolving with Stones, Clefable is also hilarious in that Blue used RED'S moon stone to do it, pretty much without telling him what would happen. Even when she's on his side she's still scamming him.

Ditto - another pure utility Pokemon, from pretending to be Mew, to transforming into a fake arm, to transforming into a person, Blue uses her Ditto amazingly well, and she's probably gotten the most use out of it beyond a breeding bitch than anyone in Pokemon history.