#{hope you sleep well ^^} — The Missing Numbers

<a href="https://possiblyfunny.tumblr.com/" style="text-decoration:underline;">possiblyfunny</a>: Y'know what? Another one-I actually don't know what to do with this. Like, I have the idea in my head, but I don't know how to write it or what to call it... The Fisherman's Origins theory? Sure, we'll go with that. (Hopefully, this doesn't get to be too long.)So! Ran the Fisherman—or Yellow as he's also known—caught my interest the moment I saw him. Now, I'm not really sure why, but out of all the Kanto trainers we've seen so far, I honestly didn't expect him to be there. Like Red, Blue, Fire and Leaf I all expected, along with Steven and Mike—but Ran? I had no idea. He was a surprise—but a welcome one. He and his cute little Raikachu thing. :)But anyway, after seeing the second part of the "character positions in a nutshell" thing, it got me thinking. What is he doing here? I think Ran's existence has finally made it set in that there's so much more going on here, in both the past and the present. Now, this might get a little messy because I'm not quite sure how to type all of my thoughts and reasonings out, but I will try to keep this manageable.Okay. I think that something significant happened between the removal of Red/Red's Banishment and the creation of the newer gen world with Fire and Leaf—that being the creation of Ran/Yellow. Pokémon Red was made in 1996, and Pokémon Yellow was made in 1998, two years later. If the timeline of Missing Numbers follows the timeline of the games in chronological order according to the release dates, then that puts the creation of Ran/Yellow in between Pokémon Red and FR/LG.It couldn't be before, because Red was already the protagonist at that point, there would be no reason to create him, and it couldn't be after because Fire and Leaf were already created by then, so the only answer I can think of is in between.My guess is that before the "transfer" from Gen 1 to Gen 3 (at least, I think it's Gen 3?), Arceus tried (keyword: tried) to make another protagonist to replace Red, got pretty much all of the way done, but then realized that the world of Generation 1 was too unstable and flawed for his perfect vision. Therefore, he discarded his old work and created a new modern world, casting poor Ran aside and forgetting about him entirely. Then, without Arceus's blessing to be a protagonist, the once-destined-to-be-hero had to go out and make a life for himself, leading him to become a humble fisherman instead of a Champion.Now, I don't think Ran got the Blue treatment—as in he was from Gen 1 but was sort of "remade" and updated for the next generation—but I also don't think he was discarded completely. At least, not in the way Red was. There's no way Ran would have ever been remade for the new generations. After all, Arceus has made it very clear that he does not want, nor does he see the need for a second protagonist. Instead, what I think happened is that, while Arceus fully intended to delete/banish Ran/Yellow as he did Red—seeing him as flawed—Ran meant so little to him that he simply forgot to do it. A small, unintentional and very painful mercy that allowed Ran to live his life as the forgotten variable in Arceus' perfect world. (At least, that's the vibes I get from the flavor text underneath his reference.)All of this was also going off to the idea that he was somewhere in the new world, though, I might be wrong; maybe he's trapped in Glitch City, too, just sailing across glitchy seas. Ran/Yellow appears to be made of old data like Red is and also doesn't appear to be the most stable (if his Pokémon is anything to go by), but he definitely isn't glitched-out/broken like Red is—and maybe it's that extra stability that gave him what he needed to slip under the radar and survive in the modern world. Or maybe he's just THAT unimportant to Arceus? Who really knows? Not me, that's for sure. Okay! I think that's it? Hopefully, it is. I've been writing this for like, two-ish hours and it's 6 am. It did get long. Whoops! (All this for a character I know nothing about! Ah well, at least it was fun.)Just a couple of notes before I finish this up completely: I'm not gonna spoil it—I learned my lesson from last time—but the message in Red's part of Starry's newest art piece... I'm just gonna... take that as evidence for one of my past theories. Hope you don't mind-And another mini-theory/observation: is it just me or does it feel like Ran/Yellow was Arceus's prototype of Fire? He kinda looks like a mix between Red and Fire, having longer, darker hair and colored eyes (like Red, who has long black hair and red eyes) with a calm, stoic, put-together exterior (like Fire.) It might just be me, though. Okay, that should really be it this time. If I forgot anything and I remember it, I'll just put it in the comments. There are my ramblings for now. Have a good day, y'all!