Twitch Plays Pokemon: A (very) short recap of the lore up to now

The last moments of TPP Crystal

My previous post, first in this blog but one of many over at Pop Trends, I said that it was, sadly, not likely for the Twitch Plays Pokemon streamer to modify the game ROM to include the same team as Red had when finishing Pokemon Red.I am incredibly happy that I was wrong. The streamer did change the characters, and when AJ Downs finally faced off against Red and sent out Zapdos, instead of the usual Pikachu, The Stream exploded in cries of joy. The Stream could finally help LazrGatr get its revenge against the Old Gods. I was, likewise, happy to see this happen, but for other reasons. Now, with the final battle including the original team, the lore created by the TPP community could be linked into a single overarching saga. That is what I want to write about today - the TPP lore.

There are different versions of the lore going around, and many of the variations revolve around how readers perceive individual characters, but all important plot lines seem to go back to single character interpretations. Was Flareon a false prophet? If Flareon was truly a false prophet, then everything done was the will of the Helix. However, if not, then the voices (the players) are evil and Flareon was only trying to protect Red. Is LazrGatr justified in his quest for revenge? If so, does that make his victory one of Pokemon? Or was he being controlled by Helix after all? Where does Joey's top percentage Rattata fall in all of this?

These are questions that I will explore at a later post. Right now, all I want to do is write an overview of the lore as I interpreted it, mixing in elements of the official Pokemon lore. Yes, it's just a summary of the TPP lore thus far, but whatever. Here it is:

Via Skypup

At the beginning of time there was only The Helix, and  The Helix willed everything into being. However, he was alone. In his loneliness, he created The Dome, an incarnation of all that was evil. In a battle atop Mt. Moon, Helix and Dome clashed, and when it was over all that remained were the remains of the world, an egg, and two fosils. From the egg came Arceus, who fixed the world and gave birth to Mew before ascending. Mew then created three birds to control the elements, and from himself created all the Pokemon, including humans, the non-evolving clever Pokemon.

Time passed and humans forgot that they had come from Mew. They began building and creating technology, until they invented Pokeballs. Humans would from then on use the help of Pokemon to develop, while they would allow Pokemon to battle each other in official battles to become stronger. It was then one morning when Red would set off on his quest to become a Pokemon master, but the voices descended.A thousand voices took over Red, voices sent by Helix. The voices controlled Red and forced him to select Abby as his starter Pokemon - Red really wanted a Squirtle.

Via Inferno988

Under the control of the voices, Red went from town to town, defeating trainers and capturing Pokemon, with the purpose of figuring out how to revive Lord Helix. Red captured a Rattata and called it Jay Leno, an Oddish he called Cabbage, and a Fearrow he traded for Dux the Farfetch'd. Of course, Red didn't do any of this - the voices did.

With a team of five Pokemon, Red acquired an Eevee. The voices commanded that it be turned into a Vaporeon, but Eevee had a sinister plan of its own - it would turn into Flareon and foil the voices. The voices then saw through the disguise and realized that Eevee was a Prophet of Dome. Luckily, Red was by then under the protection of Bird Jesus, the prophet of Helix. Flareon turned against Red, and managed to destroy Abby and Jay Leno. Unable to best Flareon by itself, Bird Jesus recruited the aid of Drowzee The Keeper, who managed to seal Flareon away while the voices decided how to best dispose of Flareon.

By /u/biohazrds (link unavailable)

With the aid of other a King of the Nidorans, a Prince of the Lapras,, and a Venomoth turned All-Terrain Vehicle, Bird Jesus and The Keeper destroyed The False Prophet. Then, following the command of the voices, Red managed to enlist the aid of the Archangel of Justice, Zapdos, the legendary bird that Mew had created to control the elements. AA-J would then guide Red to revive Lord Helix, but the voices would not be happy with the sacrifice. 

AA-J let Red to the PC to join his team, and in a holy act took the lives of twelve Pokemon, the twelve apostles of Bird Jesus, as a sacrifice. Finally, the voices were able to lead Red to resurrect the Helix. Lord Helix had risen. God was on Poke-earth. The Dome was now at bay. But the voices were still not satisfied. They commanded Red to become a Pokemon champion. So it was that the voices guided Red through the remaining Pokemon gyms and up to the Indigo Plateau, where Red defeated the Elite Four and Rival Blue to become the Pokemon Champion.

Finally, silence.

Via Kiyokon

Creator Unknown

But it was not yet over, for Helix still held influence. Sometimes, the voices would return, ever so briefly, and tell Red to spread the Word of the Helix. In defiance, Red fled to the highest place on earth - Mt. Silver. There, there was silence. Finally, it was truly quiet.

But this action of defiance displeased Lord Helix, and the voices were angered. Time passed, and Lord Helix extended his influence. Despite being on top of Mt. Silver, his will exuded forward, calling Pokemon to him, and molding people to his will. The voices, however, were even more displeased than Lord Helix. They felt doubly betrayed. Their chosen avatar, Red, had escaped them in Mt. Silver. Their lord The Helix had abandoned them. And in retaliation, the voices, acting independently from The Helix, chose a champion in the Jhoto region - AJ Downs.

It had been three years from Helix' resurrection when AJ heard the first voice - 'up', it said. Slowly, all the voices descended. They commanded him - get a Totodile and avenge us. You are now our avatar. You are our chosen. But AJ was defiant. At times, he showed signs of defying the voices. Still, he was overwhelmed, and all he could do was follow the voices. LazrGatr, he called his Totodile.

Via Quad Force Five

The voices comanded AJ to become the Jhoto champion, and so he did. Seeking a stop to the voices, he followed their commands in the hopes that they would stop. Under the command of the voices, AJ captured several Pokemon - Lord Omelet the Togepi, Admiral Sentret, and other young Pokemon.

The Admiral quickly became their protector, and he took LazrGatr under his wing. Together, they grew strong, and the voices didn't like it. They forced AJ to release The Admiral. Without him, LazrGatr was forced to lose his innocence.

LazrGatr grew stronger, in defiance to the voices who often commanded AJ to release him. But AJ was strong most of the time. Until one day AJ could not hold on to his sanity, and in a dark forest, he released the young Lord Omelet to fend by himself in the wild. LazrGatr would not have it. On that day, he rebelled against the voices. He would kill the gods that the voices worshiped, and then kill the voices themselves. And so they went, AJ and LazrGatr, trying to fight the voices and, more often than not, failing.

LeChuck999

Via Abber Apostle

With the support of his friend Joey and the aid of his borrowed Top Percentage Rattata, AJ became the Jhoto champion, then he went to Kanto to hunt for the voices. After asking around, he discovered that the former avatar of the voices, Red, had risen to the top of Mt. Silver. That is where he went.

Partly guided by the voices and partly led by his need for silence, and with LazrGatr with revenge in his heart, AJ climbed Mt. Silver. When he reached the top, he completely lost his mind. The last thing he saw was the blank stare of Red's eyes. AJ had been fighting the voices, he could no longer. He was overtaken. His mind was pure anarchy. And so they clashed.

LazrGatr wanted to destroy the god of the voices who had brought him so much suffering. But he was not alone. He had friends. Burrito Assassin always kept him focused. He had also gathered a group of unlikely allies. Brian, the Pidgeot who spent his life under the shadow of Bird Jesus. Solid Snake, a proud steel Pokemon who wished to test his strength against the best. And Katie, a Dragonite who set off on a journey to avenge the cruel death of her father, Lance's Dragonite, at the hands of All Terrain Venomoth. In a battle that lasted a day and a night, AJ came out victorious. LazrGatr had killed the gods.

Via Xeno on Tumblr

Slowly, the voices began to flee. From fifteen thousand voices to ten thousand, five thousand... the voices were scared. They saw what LazrGatr had done to their god, and they saw that he wasn't finished. LazrGatr went on a rampage, killing all the remaining gods. Lugia. Celebi. They all fell to LazrGatr's mighty leer... and then the voices were gone.

AJ returned to his home. He returned Joey's top percentage Rattata. He lived out the rest of his days in silence.

And Red, Red returned home. Finally. There were no voices. There were no kings. There were no gods. There were only 'Mon.

But it would not be over. The voices had not been completely defeated. Slowly, they implanted dreams in the mind of May, a young female Pokemon trainer in the Hoenn region. She would be the voices' next vassal. What would happen... no one knows.

Via Artegan

"Trecko"