bite sized: the esoteric lore of pokeman ft. the technofunkboy

Hello, I am Paul, otherwise known as the TechnoFunkBoy. And the boys of the podcast have asked me to do a deep dive on a very popular video game series and explain the lore to people who may be unfamiliar with it. I know it's hard being new to a game series and not understanding what came before. If this is you, this series will do the trick. Our story begins with the Nintendo Company, who started out making playing cards. After a while, they started making video games, but decided that people would probably rather play cards. So they devised a new game for cards called Canasta, but eventually realized there was already a game called that, so they changed it. After a while, they realized they made more money in gaming, so they went back but brought with them this new idea, thinking that maybe they could make a hit game based on a card game, like online casino games and Mario Brothers. Thus, they came out with a game that would continue on for decades and millions of copies sold. The Pokeman. The Pokeman begins in a small town where Ash, at the ripe old age of 10, is kicked out of his house and told to get a job. Ash has no skills, so he decides that he'll have to go into the woods to survive and beat up bug collectors for their money. I will be Ash no more, he says. I will be the Pokeman. He says this because he goes through the pockets, or pokes in Japanese, of the kids he is stealing from. The Pokéman needs an accomplice, but he has no friends except for Gary. But Gary is a rival, a special kind of friend that beats you up instead of helps you. But he finds several monsters in the woods, so decides to pick from them. In the games, these are your starting forest monsters. You can pick Charmander with the power of fire, Squirtle with the power of squirts, or Bulbasaur the ferocious toker with the power of plants. Ash picks a yellow rat instead, and Charmander says, fine, pick a rat. So Ash calls him Pikarat. As Ash travels, he gets other forest monsters for his party, and eventually a secret organization of law enforcement starts looking out for him. 2 of these agents were known as Team Rockin' because they were a former rock band in the '80s. After playing a Live Aid concert drawing attention to the evils of monster fighting, they decide to change careers and help stop the practice, thinking this would help protect the world from devastation. Team Rockin' is made up of Jesse James, Roxy James, and their cat Fluffers. Normally, the monsters of this world can only say their own name, but Fluffers is special and can speak and often provides raps to Team Rockin's songs where he says the name of other monsters to taunt them. Eventually, Team Rockin' turns their talents against Ash himself, composing the Pokéman rap. Ash realized he has to get stronger, so he went to a gym called the Rock Gym, which is Japan's version of CrossFit. Others belonging to the gym are the members of the '90s rap group Onyx. Their special attack is slam, slam, da da da. There he meets the gym leader Brick, who gives Ash a medal for breaking rocks and tells him, Pokéman, If you get more medals, you'll win the game. And thus Ash leaves his thieving ways and decides that betting on monster fights is a better career. So he sets off with his companions, Pikarat and Karen, who is looking for the manager to complain about her stolen bike. Along the way, Ash's army grows, and many of the monsters have become iconic. Diglett is what mine workers call children who work in the mines. since they are minors. Ekans, Abra, Ponyta, Nyan Cat, who can shoot rainbows out of a Pop-Tart, Kirby, Yoshi, and Matt Damon. Matt Damon! The Pokéman gets stuck on a sinking ship, but he has an idea to save himself and his army of forest monsters. He uses a Magikarp as bait to draw in a massive sea monster then forces the monster to carry them to shore. They find Gary on the boat and he needs help. We have to help him, Brick says. I agree, says Karen. Pika, says Picarat. So Ash decides to help and let Gary come too. Since the sea monster carries Gary too, Ash calls it Garydos, since dos is Spanish for 2. Finally, Ash gets all the medals, one of rock, the other various types of metals, and he has become a master at monster fight betting. But what's this? Someone has released big elemental birds that are destroying everything. Everyone turns to the only person who can help, the monster-fighting gambler, Pokéman. To quell the monsters, the Pokéman must find the power of one even greater than them, Yu-Gi-Oh! In time, Ash learns about the original Force monster, Mew. One of the other monsters who is desperate for attention says, hey, I'm Mew also! Even though he looked nothing like Mew. Ash says, you're not Mew! And Pikarat says, pika! This was a mistake though, because Mew also is a powerful psychic monster, and he uses his psychic powers to rip a hole in time and space. Ash falls through to face his greatest challenge yet— the X-Men! That is where we have left him, but the Pokéman will return in Avengers: Secret Wars. for the next exciting chapter. And that is the history of the Pokéman, Nintendo's most profitable IP. Please continue to subscribe to this channel for more educational content like this. Thank you.