Go into the woods and fight some strangers, son.

You're allowed to return home anytime you want. Just walk your character into their bedroom, tuck them into bed, save, exit to the main menu, and delete the save. Congratulations, you have just completed the alternate ending to Pokémon.

I know I'm replying to my own comment but this reminded me of a joke I once read about the first Bioshock game (Bioshock spoiler incoming)
- The VR game Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners has a series of decisions at the end. On my first playthrough I managed to fuck up everything and everybody.
  
  Well, this being a VR game, I just put a pistol to my temple and pulled the trigger. Figured that was a valid choice after fucking everything up. I got a standard game over screen, but as far as I'm concerned that's how the story ended that particular playthrough.
The NEET ending.
Shouldn't you also, I don't know, go to school, graduate and become an accountant or something?
- Does Pokemon even have accountants? They don't have real banks... only Pokebanks...
  Can you collect interest on your Pokemon?

Yeah, but you know, danger in the pokémon world is relative.

The worst thing that can happen when you face mafia/terrorists/wannabe dictators is they will make your rat fight theirs. I guess they'll take your lunch money every time you lose, so that's a thing.

Haha oh nooo. The official lore can be surprisingly fucking dark. Even in the games, the reason Jubilife exists is because wild Pokémon smoked an entire village. Burnt the fucking thing to the ground and gave the Galaxy Clan's commander PTSD.
Also in the beginning of Arceus, your rival has only just recovered from hospitalisation after they took a thunderbolt from a Shinx.
Then there are literal wars that break out. And some of the Pokédex entries. And the mangas go fucking dark too at times.
The losing your lunch money is just a game mechanic.
- I like the way it's handled in PL:A. Before Pokémon have developed a symbiotic relationship with humans, they will straight up just attack you in the wild.
- The whole lore is an absolute mess, to be fair.
  There's Pokémon who should be ridiculously dangerous to even get close to, but no safety measures are required whatsoever and people use them all the time with no consequences. Villains are ready to destroy the world or whatever it takes to reach their goals, but they still won't attack you, or anyone opposing them, directly with their Pokémon. And that's just two of the huge holes in the worldbuilding.
  I love the series (well, at least up to XY), but the lore constantly swings between "happy-go-lucky kids-friendly game" and "deep character-driven narrative/creepypasta material", with no coherence between the two. And I love both sides, but trying to make sense of it all is pointless unless you go full theorycrafting and make up your own headcanon.
  You can't even use secondary sources because everything has their own canons and you can't make sense of the game through manga information, for example (even though I really wish the game plot was as good as Pokéspe's).
I wonder how many trainers simply starve to death because they suck at battling
- Team Rocket is a lot more sinister when you realize they’re running around causing generations of children to starve in the wilderness
- That's why so many of them became bug catchers and fishers.
Watch out you don't get licked by Haunter.

Meanwhile professor oak:

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Professor Oak: I don't want to marry a single mother!
Ash's mom:
Is that why there's already heavy breathing behind the slammed door?

not true the mom does not give him a rat professor oak does.

Also prof oak is almost certainly giving it to your mother.
- Professor Oak is giving it to Ash's mother. You play as "Red."
Uhm, it's always the professor? Or there is some exception?

I would ague this is almost a perfect comic

Did OP genuinely not think it was close enough to illicit the comparison that they needed to explain it?

I wouldn't have gotten it without the last panel. I know nothing about pokemon except memes.
I grew up with pokemon and I didn't get it until then. I watched the series before streaming so I never watched the beginning and the gameboy game is in vague memory (I had the gameboy color which had like 4 colors or something)
I've never played Pokemon, so, yes.
- Was the explanation panel funny then?
  What about a last panel with him fighting a turtle with his rat (yelling at the rat to do thunderbolt for all I care).
Maybe they just wanted an even number of panels! /j
- Otherwise it would be odd

Momma had a hot date

I feel like this comic would've been better if they didn't feel the need to dedicate an entire panel to explaining the joke.

For those that would get it without the last panel, definitely. Unfortunately mainstream appeal necessitates the explanation.
/r/comedyamputation

Meanwhile the kid collects more rats, each one more powerful than the last, instead of collecting other animals

He also like short because it's comfy and easy to wear
Until he finds the top 1% of rattatas.

And the 10 year old wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

To catch them is his test. To train them is his cause.

but a fucking cool electric rat

That's also how Spartans became adults, somehow!

I wonder what Professor Oak's been doing while I've been gone?

And in the latest games you go to school and then they want you to explore the whole region. They absolutely shook up the plot by making the headmaster want you to explore rather than your mom! It's revolutionary!

/S

I love that your Mom is like, "enjoy your school days, honey!" Whenever you visit from uncovering insane time travel bullshit or exorcizing demons or whatever.

Pikachu is known as the electric mouse, he's not as rat

Maybe this isn't Ash. Maybe this kid's mom only had a Rattata lying around.
Ash got Pikachu from Oak, anyways.