A "Gastly" Tale

Pokemon has been giving us fun, joy, and rage, since 1996. It has one of the largest fan-followings in all of pop culture. This has led to some interesting writings, theories, creepypastas, altered roms and more. Some things are light hearted, some are deep theories and some are just plan out scary. This time on Jenny’s Journals, I thought it would be fun to jump into the world of Pokemon, and its fandom. Welcome to the wonderful world... of Pokemon!

Pokemon was created by Satoshi Tajiri. The idea for this Poke-verse comes from his childhood hobby of bug collecting. He spent six years creating Pokemon Red and Green, and nearly bankrupted Game Freak in the process. During the games creation, Tajiri did not take a salary, and lived off his father’s income. Many times, there was barely enough to pay the employees, and five members left the team over the course of production.

All “main” Pokemon games have the same basic formula. You are a boy (or girl as of Crystal version) who is about to set out on their own adventure! You are given a choice between three starting pokemon. The starting pokemon change in each game, but there is always a fire type, a water type, and a grass type (except in Pokemon Yellow, then you’re stuck with a Pikachu). You travel the countryside, battling other trainers, collecting new Pokemon, level grinding and battling the gym leaders to earn badges.

I think the reason Pokemon has such a great following is its ability to appeal to a wide range of ages. Its a simple enough game for children to play and follow, yet underneath lays a huge metagame for the more advanced players. I got my first Pokemon game when I was 12 years old and loved it, but six months after I got it, my Game Boy and game vanished. To my shock, my mom wanted to see what the fuss was about and got addicted as well.

Now that we know a little bit of history, let’s dive into the more interesting side of this article.

With so many Pokemon in existence, how are we ever to keep track of them all? No worries, thanks to the Pokedex! The Pokedex is a portable database of all known Pokemon that the player carries around with them. Each entry comes with a little description, and some of them are straight up creepy. Let’s take a look at a few:

Banette

“Banette generates energy for laying strong curses by sticking pins into its own body. This Pokémon was originally a pitiful plush doll that was thrown away. It seeks the child that disowned it.”

Ok...that’s depressing..
Drifloon
Oh look, it’s a happy balloon Pokemon! How bad can its entry be...

“It tugs on the hands of children to steal them away. It is whispered that any child who mistakes Drifloon for a balloon and holds on to it could wind up missing.”

Oh ...
Ok, one Pokemon that steals kids out of almost 700, thats not too bad right?

Duskull

“Duskull can pass through any wall no matter how thick it may be. Once this Pokémon chooses a target, it will doggedly pursue the intended victim until the break of dawn. If it finds bad children who won't listen to their parents, it will spirit them away--or so it's said. It loves the crying of children”

There are a lot more odd entries in the Pokedex, for those brave at heart check them out.


There are some interesting fan theories out there that I admit are really interesting reads.

The first is pretty short, from the original games. Your rival for this game was Blue (Or Gary, or whatever else you named him) and he would pop up from time to time to battle you. For much of the game a Rattata/Raticate in his party. After a trip (and battle) on the S.S.Anne, the next place we meet up with Blue is Lavender town. This is Red/Blue’s final resting place for dead Pokemon. There he says this “What brings you here? Your Pokemon don’t look dead”. After, you battle your rival and his Raticate is missing. Some theorize that you in fact killed his beloved Pokemon on the S.S.Anne, having injured it in the battle, and your rival was unable to get it to a Pokemon Center in time, but others say he just realized that his Raticate sucked and switched it out of his party.

The next theory is amazingly written and well thought out, yet is not about the games. Its about the Pokemon anime series. While it is too long to post the whole thing here is a link:
http://cartoonoveranalyzations.com/2009/04/09/pokemon-explained/

In short, Ash (or Satoshi as he is called in Japan) is dreaming the events of the anime while he lies in a coma.

It’s time to go back to Lavender Town for a good old “creepypasta”. Theres a rumor going around called “Lavender Town Syndrome”. According to legend, shortly after  Red and Green was released in Japan, children began showing odd symptoms and eventually many committed suicide. What caused this? The music in Lavender Town. It had a high frequency only children and young teens could pick up, causing the syndrome. The game was fixed in American and later releases, and no longer causes the problem. Of course this is just a tall tale...right? I admit Lavender Town's music always creeped me out...

Another couple of creepypastas feature someone finding an “unusual cartridge” and the game itself is both odd and a bit terrifying. The best known are Chaos Black and Lost Silver. Here are links to both stories:
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Pokemon_Lost_Silver
http://tinycartridge.com/post/866743831/super-creepy-pokemon-hack

They make for a fun ghost story, and some have even created hacked roms based on these tall tales. They can be found all over the internet, but I will not be linking them here. Google is your friend in this case.

There are many other Pokemon legends, lore and real creepiness out there, all thanks to its wonderful fandom.  Thanks for reading!