Fanfic / Pokémon Strangled Red

Pokémon Strangled Red is a creepypasta based off the Pokémon video games. The unnamed narrator plays a hacked version of a classic game.

The narrator finds a Pokémon Red cartridge in the trash. Since they never played this particular game before, they take it home before realizing that the game is hacked. Furthermore, they can't continue the game from where the previous player left off; whenever they hit the "Continue" button, they just get a message: "No."

Frustrated, the narrator starts a new game. But to their surprise, they like most of the alterations made to the game. Instead of playing as a silent protagonist who could be anybody, they play as a fleshed-out character, Steven, with his Charmander, Miki, his brother, Mike, as a rival, realistic relationships and dialogue with various NPC characters, and a cool sprite to boot. And from context clues, the narrator is able to infer that the hacked game takes place a year before the actual Pokémon Red and Blue games.

As the game goes on, Miki proves to be a powerhouse. She handles type disadvantages extremely well, and evolves earlier than is typical for members of her species. And Steven gains an actual reputation from his wins, with NPCs he's never met before eventually recognizing him. And to top it off, Steven beats Mike in the championship battle at the Pokémon League in a way that the narrator prefers to the Pokémon Red and Blue way.

After the match, Mike persuades Steven into trading Miki to him so the two of them can complete their Pokédexes. But the trade is interrupted by a loud Snap!, and the game apparently freezes.

The narrator restarts the game, and finds that they are resuming play from a year (in game time) after the previous scene. Steven is visiting the grave of Miki, who is implied to have died as a result of the failed trade. He appears to have completely given up on everything he achieved due to his grief, which doesn't seem to have gotten any better. And the narrator draws some chilling conclusions about why some things in the vanilla Pokémon Red and Blue are the ways they are.

After a time wandering around aimlessly, wondering what they were supposed to be doing, the narrator does eventually find the path forward. Steven does know a way to bring Miki back, and goes for it. But he ultimately pays a terrible price.

In December 2022, Reidd Maxwell, creator of game adaptations of Pokémon Lost Silver and Easter Egg - Snow on Mt. Silver revealed the beginning of development of a game based on this creepypasta.

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Pokémon Strangled Red contains examples of:

• A Boy and His X: Steven's Pokémon journey revolves heavily around his Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard, Miki. And her death traumatizes Steven so much that he descends into madness.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The Pokémon Strangled Red game is initially presented as this in-universe, with Steven seeming to be a cooler version of Red, the protagonist of Pokémon Red and Blue. It's subverted almost immediately, however, when Steven talks to Red's mother. He realizes that this hacked game takes place in the same universe as Pokémon Red and Blue, only a year earlier, with Red looking up to Steven in a big way.
• Appeal to Nature: Chillingly lampshaded by the narrator when, directing Steven to Lavender Town to resurrect Miki, they see an NPC say:
  "Sometimes dead is best."
• Back from the Dead: Subverted with Miki. Steven uses the power of Missingno to resurrect his deceased Charizard, but it's revealed at the end that she isn't really alive again.
• Blunt "No":
  • When the narrator tries to open the save file of the previous player, he's just met with the word "No." Upon playing the game, he discovers why.
  • Steven gives these to people who try to give him items in consolation for Miki's death.
  • Lastly, when the narrator selects "M@#$" and selects the "Close" option, they're also met with this.
• Break the Badass: What happens to Steven during the Pokémon Strangled Red game. He beats the Pokémon League, only to throw everything away out of grief after Miki's death.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Downplayed with Steven and Daisy Oak after Miki's death. Their continued relationship is only referred to in passing.
• But Thou Must!: At the moment when Mike begs for Steven to trade Miki with him, the narrator is given the choice to select "YES" or "NO" to it. "NO" is selected twice, though the narrator just chooses "YES" after futilely doing this, just to advance the story.
• Cain and Abel: The hacked game's ending clearly implies that Steven kills Mike.
• Came Back Wrong: Miki comes back from the dead with the name "M@*#." And when she is described at the end of the game, she is described as "horribly glitched."
• Chaos Is Evil: Missingno, "that atrocity of broken data," causes Steven to become a monster when he uses it.
• Cruel Twist Ending: In-universe, the aftergame for the Pokémon Strangled Red hack is this. After winning the championship, Steven first loses Miki in an accident, then he turns into a monster in trying to bring her back to life, and finally kills Mike by strangulation.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option: The final menu for "M@#$" consists of four options: "Status," "Switch," "Close," and "Strangle." The narrator discovers that, to finish the game, she must choose the last option.
• Dark Is Evil: After trying to bring Miki back from the dead, Steven's face turns jet black.
• Dead Sidekick: Miki, for Steven. Her death sends Steven into a depression that he never conquers.
• Deconstruction Fic: The story addresses several things within Pokémon video games, especially Red and Blue:
  • How can the computer systems involving the storage, transfer, and trading of Pokémon be seamless if computers (especially at the time when the first Pokémon games were made) can crash? And if a computer crashes while handling a Pokémon in one of these ways, what would the consequences be?
  • Why was there no defending champion for Blue to challenge when he beat the Elite Four in the original games?
    "The answer was right there. The previous champion just gave up."
  • The infamous Missingno glitch is given a sinister role toward the end of the story as well.
    Steven: [thinking] IT can bring her back... IT can do anything...

• Didn't See That Coming: Instances are littered throughout the story:
  • The realization that the game found in the trash was not an unaltered copy of Pokémon Red.
  • Not being able to continue the game with the previous save file.
  • Not being able to enter Pokémon Tower when Steven first reaches Lavender Town.
  • The loud snap sound that interrupts Steven's trade of Miki to Mike.
    • Steven's appearance and circumstances after this point.
  • The use of the phrase "Screw them" when the narrator tries to direct Steven into one of the houses in Pallet Town when he leaves home at night.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Steven killing Mike in the end over the accidental death of Miki.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Steven's reaction whenever anyone offers him either words or gifts in consolation for Miki's death.
• Drama Bomb: Miki's death.
• Duels Decide Everything: Steven and Mike use a Pokémon battle to resolve an argument over the respective merits of Charmander and Squirtle.
• Ending Fatigue: Invoked in-universe when Steven is wandering around after Miki's death.
  "I pondered for a moment if this was really the ending, Steven doomed to do nothing but wander Kanto in misery, haunted by memories, forced to listen to everyone's concerns about him."
• Evil Makes You Ugly: After bringing Miki back using Missingno, the formerly handsome Steven undergoes a shocking transformation:
  "He was hunched over, his bangs obscuring his face, his hair was wild and feathered out. Between his bangs, there wasn't even a face at all, just black, two red eyes looking straight forward, a white grin contrasting with the darkness."
• Excessive Mourning: Steven for Miki. Not only does he give up all he has to grieve, but in the year that passes since Miki's death, Steven's outlook has not improved. Lampshaded by a comment from an NPC:
  "Still mourning I see..."
• The Eeyore: Steven falls into depression after losing Miki.
• Face–Heel Turn: Steven will do anything to bring Miki back, even using an unnatural power and killing his own brother.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Red's mom to Steven. At the beginning of the hacked game, she gushes to Steven about how her son looks up to him, but she won't talk to him at all after he loses everything out of grief.
• Foreshadowing: The tear across Charizard's neck on the game package.
• Game Mod: The hacked Pokémon Strangled Red game.
• Genre Savvy: The narrator demonstrates this, as while they don’t outright break the fourth wall, they note the similarity of the eponymous game to Pokémon Creepypasta conventions.
• Glitch Entity: Subverted with Missingno, who is given an actual gameplay purpose in the Pokémon Strangled Red hack.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: A routine Pokémon trade for two trainers to complete their Pokédexes results in Miki's death.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Invoked by Mike to convince Steven to trade Miki for his Blastoise.
• Heart Symbol: Stated to be shown in the hacked game when Steven and Daisy kiss.
• Impossible Task Instantly Accomplished: Steven catches Missingno with no Pokémon with which to battle, just by saying, "Mine."
• Inexplicably Awesome: Miki. She evolves earlier than most members of her species, plus, she's unusually powerful and resistant to super-effective attacks.
• It Makes Sense in Context:
  • When the narrator tries to continue the hacked game from where the previous player left off, he is perplexed to find that he can't. He just sees the word "No" on the screen. Upon playing the game, he finds out exactly why continuing was impossible.
  • Also, the game logs in 8,765 extra gameplay hours after the one year time skip. As lampshaded by the narrator, there are 8,765 hours in a year.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: During particularly creepy and/or suspenseful scenes, the narrator notices that the music has stopped.
• Jump Scare: The loud Snap! sound that interrupts Steven from trading Miki.
• Kid Hero: Steven, just like the protagonist of any real Pokémon game.
• Leet Lingo: Using Missingno changes Steven's name to "S!3v3n," and brings Miki back as "M@#$."

• Living Legend: Steven becomes this as the narrator keeps playing the hacked game. NPCs start to recognize him on his first meetings with them. They even remember and have compassion for him after Miki dies, but Steven wants none of this.
• Messy Hair: Steven's hair becomes like this after Miki's death.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After the botched trade with Steven that kills Miki, all Mike says when Steven talks to him is "I'm so sorry."
• Nightmare Face: Steven gets one after he tries to bring Miki back to life. His face is darkened with a Slasher Smile and his eyes glow red.
• No Antagonist: The whole story basically consists of a kid playing a video game. Unlike most Creepypastas, the game itself is not haunted, but a simple (if unsettling) ROM hack. Meanwhile, the in-universe story is kicked off by a tragic accident, with the closest thing to a villain being the Player Character after his Sanity Slippage.
• No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Basically everything in the hacked game after the Elite Four.
• Nostalgia Filter: Averted. While the narrator is excited to finally play Pokémon Red, they're impressed with the "improvements" of the hacked game instead.
• Oddball in the Series: Is one for the trilogy it’s a part of. The original Strangled and the final instalment Door’s Open are written as closer to ritual creepypastas, and describe instructions for finding special(but fictional) secrets in Pokemon Red and Silver, respectively. Strangled Red meanwhile, is about a hacked game, and is written from the perspective of a narrator who is learning things as they go.
• Oh, Crap!: The narrator, when they first see Steven's face after using Missingno:
  "I couldn't look away, my eyes glued to his, not breaking contact for some time. My vision was getting blurry until I couldn't see very well, my face grew wet. I was crying, like a baby."
• Playable Epilogue: The Pokémon Strangled Red hack completely redoes this part of the original Pokémon Red game to feature Miki's death and Steven's fall from grace.
• Plot Hole: When walking back to Pallet Town from Lavender Town for the final scene, it is mentioned that Steven travels through Cerulean City. However, in Pokémon Red and Blue, it is impossible to walk back from Cerulean City to Mount Moon and Pewter City, and thus to Viridian City and Pallet Town. However, since Steven can swim without the aid of a Pokémon, it's possible that he can also make this return trip.
• Precision F-Strike: In universe, the narrator treats Steven’s utterance of “Screw them” as this.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: The hacked game details Steven's rise to glory as Pokémon Champion and subsequent fall from grace, becoming a depressed shell of his former self after losing Miki and resorting to using Missingno. to resurrect her, corrupting himself into a fratricidal Humanoid Abomination in the process.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Steven's eyes turn red after he uses Missingno.
• Rejected Apology: Steven never says this outright, but his actions make it clear that he doesn't forgive Mike for Miki's death.
• Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: A malfunction of the very complicated process for a simple Pokémon trade is responsible for Miki's death.
• Sanity Slippage: After Miki dies, Steven loses it and his ID shows he keeps changing in appearance and he slowly goes to the point he has to bring her back to life.
• The Scottish Trope: The characters in the hacked game (including Steven) all refer to Missingno as "IT."
• Shout-Out:
  • At the beginning, the narrator talks about Pokémon Creepypastas, specifically mentioning “the one about a version where you get a ghost as a starter”.
  • During his trek to resurrect Miki, an NPC in Lavender Town tells Steven, "Sometimes, dead is best."
• Sibling Rivalry: Mike is Steven's rival and brother.

• Spoiler Title: Downplayed with the hacked game, Pokémon Strangled Red. The title makes it obvious that someone gets strangled, but never says who.

• Take That!: A small one at the beginning of the story, where the narrator talks about the cliché acts of creepypastas.
  "Some are ridiculous, silly stories about individuals dying after playing a game, or the game talking to them. God, don't these writers know less is more when it comes to these stories?"
• Tears of Fear: After the narrator witnesses Steven's Nightmare Face, they are said to be shocked, trembling, and "crying like a baby".
• Teasing Creator: In-universe. In this particular hacked game, Steven refuses to go into Pokémon Tower in the "regular" part of the game, saying "I have no reason to be here" if the player tries to move him inside. Lampshaded by the narrator:
  "This was weird, I mean hell, there are a million places in Kanto that you really have no need to be, little random houses with nothing but children NPCs for example. Why was it here that Steven wouldn't enter?"
• Teens Are Monsters: Deconstructed with Steven, who may be a teenager (his age is never stated; him dating Daisy may imply he’s older, but it’s also possible he’s 11 like Red is in Red and Blue). He uses Missingno to bring back his deceased Miki, and it controls him so that he kills his own brother with his bare hands.
• The All-Concealing "I": Nothing is known about the narrator. The narrator is referred to as "they" on this page for simplicity because their gender is unknown.
• There's No Place Like Home: The legs of the aftergame when Steven travels from Lavender Town to Pallet Town.
• Time Skip: In-universe. A year passes after Miki dies. Interestingly, the skipped year is tacked onto gameplay time.
• Trespassing Hero: Invoked by the narrator when Steven refuses to enter Pokémon Tower. If Steven can go into a bunch of houses containing nothing useful, why was the one place where he has "no reason to be" a place to catch Pokémon that don't appear anywhere else in the game?
• Try Everything: In-universe, this is what the narrator does when Steven is first shown after Miki's death. He can't pick up or receive items, battle wild Pokémon, or get useful information from any NPC character, so he lays down on the bed... which turns out to be the way forward.
• Villain Protagonist: Steven becomes this after Miki's death. He tries to use Missingno to bring her back, violating the laws of nature and soon murders Mike.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After Steven captures Missingno, most NPCs won't talk to him. Heck, most of the trainers he meets on the way turn their backs when he passes.

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