Have you ever played Pokemon like it's "meant" to be played?

Oh, guess I'll have to barge into this conversation here. I assume I'm the only person on this forum who's actually read the Pokemon manga?

Gold is the name of the protagonist. It's canon, the official manga has him named as Gold. The rival is silver, that's how it is in the official manga. Gold is not Silver ans Silver is not Gold. The games have them as default options simply because that's the name of the games.

In case anyone wants to know, Red is the protagonist of the G/R/B/Y games. Even if you can start him out as Yellow, Green, Blue, or Red. Red is the canon name for him. Green is the canon name for your rival. Yellow and blue are characters that didn't appear in the games at all, both of which are female characters.

By the way, the creator of pokemon, Satoshi Tajiri, stated in an interview that he prefers the manga adaptation of pokemon than the anime. His envisioned world of pokemon more closely compares with the manga version, which is entirely different than the anime series and actually follows the storyline of the games more closely.

 Manga characters

LF> graphic pokemon version. where the attacks actually DO something.
*insert evil laughter here*

You might enjoy reading Pokemon special.

 Hurt Pikachu

[spoiler=Arbok hit by a slash attack, in the same page is a Psyduck hit by Arbok's acid]

[/spoiler]