>>40186192Actually no, the truth is more curious than what you think.
He got that conclusion because his original vision was indeed changed, originally he planned for the protagonist and other trainers like Team Rocket Grunts and Sabrina to wield a whip because the concept was to fight Pokémon with that.
The author of the adventure manga had access to the scrapped stuff of the first game but with changes, the examples are: The Safari Zone image is very similar to the one of the first Pokémon logo, Blaine working with Team Rocket and being linked with Mewtwo and Fuji, Team Rocket having control of Silph and etc.
