Why Sabrina Uses A Whip In Pokémon Red & Blue
Sabrina used a whip in Pokémon Red & Blue, but it was dropped by the second generation of games, as it was a remnant of an idea that was scrapped.
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The bond between a Pokémon and its trainer is supposed to be sacred, yet some Gym Leaders had to be extra persuasive in the days of Pokémon Red & Blue. Sabrina was one of the most feared Gym Leaders in Kanto, especially since she was the only one who was armed, as she entered battle sporting a huge whip.
Sabrina is the Saffron City Gym Leader, and she uses Psychic-type Pokémon in battle. She’s generally the sixth Gym Leader fought in the Kanto region, but she was originally planned to the final Pokémon Gym Leader before they had their order switch around. Sabrina reappeared as a Gym Leader in Pokémon Gold & Silver, where the player could battle her during the second half of the game. She has appeared in all of the remakes, as well as the Pokémon Let’s Go games. Sabrina also had a memorable appearance in the early seasons of the Pokémon anime, and one of her Pokémon trading cards needed to be censored, as she accidentally appeared to be flipping the bird.
One of the most memorable aspects of Sabrina’s original appearance was that she fought with a whip. She wielded a whip in Pokémon Red & Blue and Pokémon Yellow before it was dropped entirely. Whenever Sabrina appeared in a remake, the focus was put on her psychic powers, rather than her Catwoman-style weaponry. Sabrina wasn’t the only one, as other trainers in the first generation of games had whips in their battle sprites, like the Cool Trainers.
Why Pokémon Trainer Designs Included Whips
The reason trainers possessed whips is due to an early design idea for the series that partially made its way into Pokémon Red & Blue. According to an interview with Ken Sugimori (translated by GlitterBerri), the original idea was for trainers to fight alongside their Pokémon. A similar mechanic was used in the Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei games from the same era, as human party members could add monsters to their team. The concept art for Pokémon Red & Green shows a trainer fighting with a whip. An early character model for Red wielding a whip also appeared in the leaked beta for Pokémon Red & Green, showing that this idea stayed in the games for a while.
The reason this idea was scrapped was that it took focus away from Pokémon. Sugimori and the other developers felt this removed the appeal of the Pokémon, so it was removed. A couple of the whip-wielding designs made it into the games, as well as with characters like A.J. in the anime. The whips were kept for aesthetic reasons, as well as matching the imagery of a circus ringmaster. It’s likely that it was dropped due to the growing concerns about Pokémon representing animal cruelty, as the franchise swiftly entered PETA’s radar when it became an international hit. Sabrina’s whip was dropped, and any references to humans beating Pokémon were taken out entirely. It’s okay for people to eat Pokémon, so long as they don’t whip them first.
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