Trivia time! Which Pokémon came first? The answer may not be what you think.
According to the Pokedex, the answer seems clear-cut: Bulbasaur, the cabbage-like Pokémon, is number one. So it's gotta be the Pokemon that comes first, right? No, actually. The "first Pokémon" varies depending on how you look at it, and what criteria you use to determine the first Pokémon. Pokedex-wise, yes, Bulbasaur is the first Pokemon; it comes before all others. But that's just an arbitrary number, isn't it?
As Pokémon veterans know, lore-wise, the answer is a bit different. Looking at Pokedex entries, "the first Pokémon" could be two different Pokémon. Arceus, for example, is pretty much Pokémon's version of God. Known as "The Original One," Arceus is said to have created the Pokémon universe. Here's Bulbapedia on Arceus' Pokedex entries:
So the first Pokémonis this menacing-looking thing, right??
Nope. That's because Pokémon lore isn't exactly consistent. That's probably why, according to Pokémon lore, the legendary Mew could be also be considered to be the "first" Pokémon—it's the ancestor of all Pokémon, and its DNA contains the genetic code of all Pokémon. Here are some of Mew's Pokedex entries, for proof—scientists in Pokémon seem to believe Mew came first, before all other Pokémon:
This would make for a pretty good first Pokémon, right? Well...
If we go outside of the games themselves, the answer is radically different. There, Mew isn't the first Pokémon, but rather the last one. In real life, the first Pokemon is not what appears in the Pokedex first, or what legendary Pokémon is said to have created everything. In fact, the first Pokémon ever designed in real life—the first monster written into the code of the original games—is surprisingly ordinary. It's Rhydon. Edit: whoops! Got RhyHORN and RhyDON confused.
So really, the Pokémon that "came first" depends on who you ask. There's no wrong choice. It's just not a given that it's Bulbasaur, either.