Blue's Raticate

**Raticate** was one of Blue's recurring Pokémon.

## History

### As a Rattata

Sometime during Blue's journey, the former caught Rattata before facing Misty at the Cerulean Gym. Rattata was the final one on Blue's team to fight, and was seen using Quick Attack to rush through Starmie's Bubblebeam. Then, Rattata landed a powerful Bite onto Starmie, defeating the latter and giving Blue the Cascade Badge. Afterwards, Blue celebrated with Rattata after a hard fought battle.

Rattata was used as Blue's third Pokémon during the latter's third fight against Red. Rattata fought Paras and, after some back and forth, it managed to defeat the latter with a Bite attack. However, Rattata lost to Nidorino after one Horn Attack.

During Blue's travels through Route 6, Rattata fought a JR. Trainer's Pikachu and won. Afterwards, Rattata evolved into Raticate.

### As a Raticate

Following its evolution, Raticate proceeded to defeat more Pokémon that the Trainers sent its way. Afterwards, Blue took Raticate to the SS Anne for new challenges ahead of them.

In Blue's fourth fight against Red, Raticate was used as the former's final Pokémon. Raticate fought Charmeleon, and the two went back and forth. Charmeleon used Ember to try and burn Raticate, but it jumped out of the fire and defeated the former with Bite. Red brought out Nidoking and the two Pokémon fought, but Nidoking proves too much for Raticate. Nidoking managed to poison Raticate with Poison Sting and continued wailing on the latter, but things took a turn for the worse when the former threw the Mouse Pokémon overboard and into the sea.

Red and Blue were horrified over what happened as the former raced to Captain John to stop the SS Anne. Blue called for some Sailors to help him and even tried recalling Raticate back to its Poké Ball, but he was too far to reach his friend. As Raticate drowned, John stopped the ship and ordered the crew to get Raticate out of the sea. John brought out Poliwrath and had it perform CPR to try and save Raticate. Unfortunately, it is too late: Raticate drowned and there was nothing Poliwrath can do to revive him.

Raticate was later buried at the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. Red and Blue paid their respects to Raticate when they visited its grave marker. After Red helped Mr. Fuji and Mr. Fuji's Grandaughter drive Team Rocket out of the Pokémon Tower, Raticate made its presence known to Red. Red realized that Raticate was the spirit that was close to him when he first entered Lavender Town and apologized for killing it. Raticate forgave Red, especially after seeing the latter pay his respects to it with Blue days ago. With its spirit at peace, Raticate and Marowak moved on to the other world.

## Personality

Of all the Pokémon Blue owned, Raticate was his favorite of the group early in his journey. Even as a Rattata, Raticate was a skilled fighter and always pushed itself to do well for its Trainer. This made its death hard for Blue as losing a close friend broke the former and caused him to take a break from his journey.

Raticate has also been shown to be a forgiving being. After seeing Red pay his respect at Pokémon Tower, Raticate forgave Red for accidentally killing it as the incident on the SS Anne was an accident no one could have predicted.

## Trivia

* He is the first Pokémon shown to die in the series and is currently the only one to die while being owned by a major character.

 **Raticate** (Deceased)