Can the Rival *Really* have 40 Pokemon on the SS Anne?

It's also basically canon that Blue used trades because he has an Alakazam which can only be obtained through trading

The fact that the rival was able to successfully annoy a huge chunk of the fan base and live rent free in there heads for over 20 years is very fitting. "smell ya later"

The entire point of the 'I got 40 Pokémon' line is that the rival is always meant to be one step ahead of you. So, I think it's perfectly fitting for the player to only just barely not be able to reach that number (without trading, excessive grinding, etc.)

the funny part is they realize trades are a one-time event. they don't imagine he could have found people we didn't

Your rival is canonically ahead of you the entire game. Therefore you get all the left overs. He easily could have gotten way more stones, trades, fossils and accessed routes before Snorlax got there. Likely your rival has at least 4 moon stones, both fossils and got the trades since he declined them.

I always found this discussion a bit pointless. We battle Blue in the Pokémon Tower, where he has an Exeggcute, at a point where the roads to Fuschia are blocked by Snorlax. But he has already been there and obtained a Pokémon that can only be caught in the Safari Zone. This means that he either got that traded to him (which means he can get 40 Pokémon by trading a bunch just like we trade for Mr. Mime), or he accessed routes and cities before we can. Which means he can literally have gone anywhere to get those 40 Pokémon and the possibilities are endless.

I think people also forget that the rival also just probably isn't restricted by version exclusives

"40 types of Pokemon? At this part of the game, on this part of the map, at this time of year, localized entirely in your Pokedex?" "Yes." "May I see them?" "No. I don't take you seriously, so I'm not going to use anything higher than level 20 in this fight."

I'd also make the argument that, as the professor's grandson, he'd have much better resources. The anime shows him as being wealthy, so it'd make sense that he'd have fishing rods from the start, adding several additional Pokémon to his dex count.

I always felt that this was their way of telling the player "This is where you should be if you're catching them all."

I never liked how this challenge just outright bans trading. It's such a central mechanic that even Blue/Green does it to get an Alakazam. Plus this video proves that he has the version exclusives since in all games if you traded over you would have it.

The fact that people consider he HAS to take the exact same path as us, while he could have been venturing on routes we haven't visited yet . . .

gary is just too much of a chad to let a shrubbery prevent him from traversing public road infrastructure

Wait a second, the rival HAS to participate in trading. He has an Alakazam at the end of the game!

1) No reason to believe Rival is doing the exact same route, we do find him on a cruise going to a tour we don't follow... 2) No reason to believe he doesn't have rods. We get ours from NPCs hand-outs, he's canonically rich.

The premise Blue lied relies on assuming Blue followed the exact path we did, but there's evidence that's untrue, so he was likely honest.

Something to keep in mind, the world as we see it is how it is AFTER the rival passed through already. He very easily could've taken npc trades that are inaccessible to us, because he took them already, and we never knew of them because they were gone by the time we got there.

As a Kanto pioneer back in the day, I have some thoughts regarding Gary's Pokedex: -Gary is wealthy. He could very well have more access to other tools and items, like the Super Rod that help him catch more pokemon -While Gary did not get Cut from the Captain, he supposedly got it from somewhere. See the above point. He also could have traded for a Pokemon with Cut, and perhaps Fly too -The mechanics of fly are dependent on the trainer's experience, not the flying pokemon in question. It takes you to places you have been before. Maybe Gary has already visited Fuschia and Celadon? -For that matter, we do know that Gary visits all the Gyms before we do. Presumably Vermillion's too. Perhaps he even had it done before you could cut the brush - Gary trades for at least 1 pokemon later, 2 depending on if he has Charizard or not. Maybe he trades for some others? Some that you just don't get access to? -Why would he not use stronger pokemon on his team? Ones he has to trade for or level up to catch? Maybe he just doesn't feel like it -Gary, as an NPC, isn't limited to the same mechanics the player is. He actually lives in the world. -Gary does move places faster than the player. Maybe he got to Fuschia before Snorlax got there? -Theory, but Kanto has a 'Living Pokedex', lorewise. Any place a pokemon is available, all forms of those pokemon are available. So any place you could catch Pidgey, you would also have a very tiny chance to catch Pidgeot, etc. So maybe he could've actually CAUGHT 40 kinds outright, as text suggests -There are still some pokemon Gary may not be able to acquire, because they are not CATCHABLE. Mr. Mime, Farfetchd, Jynx, fossils, etc. -Breaking the entire theory, if you assume that all of the other regions and pokemon retroactively existed all this time, then maybe Gary has some non-Kanto pokemon in his collection, like Marill or Steelix?

he went in front of us so probably had more access to moonstones

The "trades only being usable once" argument also works against the player: maybe the rival did some trades before the player so the player doesn't have access to them anymore.