With a franchise as massive as Pokémon, fans are bound to devise their own eerie content and twists. Some have created tales of hacked game cartridges, fake Easter eggs and even alternate dialogues for various games in the series, becoming makeshift Pokémon ghost stories and tall tales.
Fan theories are different — they struggle to find understanding within the universe of the games and its big mysteries. By working with subtle hints and clues, these theories can often become dark, exploring harsh realities and shocking implications behind the game's descriptions and vague world-building histories.
See also: 'Pokémon X' and 'Y' Are Polished But Play It Too Safe
For the Pokémon enthusiast in all of us gearing up for Halloween and the release of Pokémon X and Y, here are some of the most hauntingly creepy fan theories about the Pokémon games.
One of the big questions for the original Red, Green (Japan only) and Blue games is why there are only young children and the elderly running around in the games. While there are a few middle-aged women and men, Red, the main protagonist and player avatar, has no father to speak of, and Blue — Red's rival — does not appear to have parents. In fact, there seem to be very few adults besides the gym leaders.
Fans theorize the reason for the strange lack of adults is a war in the Kanto region, where the first games take place. Lt. Surge, the gym leader in Vermilion City, describes how electric-type Pokémon saved him during "the war." Since the games take place in a fictional universe, Lt. Surge is not referring to any historical conflicts.
Some speculate there was a war in Kanto with massive causalities, causing a gap in generations. This explains why Professor Oak gives a Pokédex to every new trainer who ventures out into the world. This would be an effective way to either collect or verify information lost during the war, and to determine which species of Pokémon survived the conflict.
Image: Nintendo
Lavender Town is the center of a lot of fan theories because of Pokémon Tower, a giant graveyard for dead Pokémon. In the Red, Green and Blue games, you find Blue in said graveyard and battle him — only something is different. His Raticate, which he has used in every battle up to this point, is now gone. Sure, Blue could have switched out his Raticate for stronger Pokémon or traded it to another trainer, but what if something more sinister occurred?
There's a rumor that in the original versions of the games released in Japanese, Blue asks if Red knows what it's like for Pokémon to die before they battle each other. The last time players see Blue's Raticate is on the S.S. Anne, which Red managed to escape before it left the dock.
The theory is Raticate was severely wounded in the battle on the cruise ship but was not taken to a PokéCenter in time, resulting in his death. The reason he is in Pokémon Tower in the first place is to bury and mourn his lost Raticate. Nothing says a kid's game quite like dead pets.
This is one of the most prevalent but creepy theories, and it concerns the Ground type Pokémon Cubone and its headgear.
In several Pokédex entries, Cubone is described as wearing the skull of its dead mother. The fact that it is an orphan is central to the Pokémon's characterization, and its evolved form, Marowak, is said to have toughened up from this lack of maternal care.
Some fans believe Cubone's final evolved form was originally Kangaskhan, which is why the two look similar in body type. Another theory is that only Kangaskhan babies that lose their mothers turn into Cubones, by wearing the skull.
This actually isn't an unusual way to become a different Pokémon — Slowpoke can only evolve into a Slowbro when a Shellder attaches to its tail. One thing we know for sure is Cubone is one Pokémon with serious abandonment issues.
There are several Ghost type Pokémon, but there's never a clear definition of what death entails in the Pokémon world. Pokémon can die, but their lifespans are unknown. One prominent theory on the Ghost type's purpose is that they help regulate the world around them.
Yamask is a Generation V Pokémon whose Pokédex entry claims it was not only once human and remembers its past life, but also the mask it carries is of its original human weep. The Pokédex also say that a Yamask will look at its mask and cry.
As if the dead reincarnating into Pokémon wasn't spooky enough for you, one Pokémon acts as the Grim Reaper of children. Duskull is a Generation III Pokémon described as enjoying children crying and, in an old wives tales, takes bad children away. Lampent, a Generation V Pokémon, will steal your spirit and hang around hospitals, waiting for people to die.
So, to recap: Some Pokémon are the dead coming back, and others are forces of nature come to facilitate death. Not creepy at all.
Image: Nintendo
N is a character from Pokémon Black, White, Black 2 and White 2. He is the puppet leader of Team Plasma, which wants two separate worlds for humans and Pokémon. There is a question about whether or not N is actually human and not just a Pokémon, Zoroark, casting an illusion. Consider the facts: In one part of the Black 2/White 2 game, you follow a Zoroark into a set of ruins and find N there, with the Zoroark missing. Their hair is similarly shaped, N was raised among Pokémon and can understand them, and he speaks unnaturally fast and awkwardly throughout the games.
Zoroarks have been known to appear as humans in the Black and White games and can sometimes copy the speech patterns of whom they are pretending to be. It would make more sense for a Pokémon to want to separate the world, seeing how often they are abused and used as tools to gain power by their trainers.
As many Pokémon fans know, Mewtwo is the product of an experiment on a pregnant Mew — or, if you want to go by the anime, an experiment to recreate Mew from genetic material. Some fans theorize there's evidence of previous successful experiments, to a certain degree.
Ditto — a Generation I Pokémon — can transform into anything, and it looks like a misshapen blob of pink goo. Both Mew and Ditto can use Transform, but Mewtwo cannot. Ditto is also found in Pokémon Mansion on Cinnabar Island, where Mewtwo was creating, meaning it may have been involved in the experiments there as well.
Essentially, Ditto's very existence may be a result of a failed science project.
Image: Nintendo
If someone were to compile a list of the most annoying Pokémon, Wobbuffet would likely be near the top due to its shrill voice and its nearly constant presence in the games. This Generation II Pokémon has a bright, incredibly durable blue body and a dark tail adorned with designs that look like eyes. But are they just designs?
Some fans theorize the blue portion of Wobbuffet is not the actual body, but merely a decoy for the real body — the tail. This would explain why Wobbuffet has such a high endurance for attacks. Several Pokédex entries add that Wobbuffet will protect its tail at all costs, which would make sense if that's where its brain was.
Wobbuffet's eyes on its blue body never move or change shape, and the black tail always peeks out from behind, so it's plausible its real face is on its tail. If this theory is true, Wobbuffet is now more disturbing than annoying, and that's not a good thing.
In the first few games, Mt. Moon is one of the more mysterious areas in the Kanto Region. Located in Pewter City, the mountain has rare Moon Stones and Pokémon fossils. But why is this the only particular landmark to contain these unusual finds?
One theory is Mt. Moon isn't a mountain at all, but rather a dormant volcano that erupted centuries ago, covering the area in magma and giving Pewter City its rocky namesake. Others guess a meteor struck the area, leaving behind Moon Stones and causing a mass extinction of Pokémon living there, leaving behind the fossils to be revived later. A third and certainly more bizarre theory is that Clefairies came from space and colonized Mt. Moon, bringing with them Moon Stones and make it their home.
Or you can believe all three happened at different times in Pokémon history, because nothing is set in stone.
There has always been an unquestioned relationship between humans and Pokémon, with humans as the masters and Pokémon as the fighters, breeding machines and beauty contestants. Why do humans have dominance over Pokémon? Despite being of many different species, Pokémon are able to communicate with each other, showing a level of consciousness shared by humans, and there are just as many Pokémon as there are humans, if not more.
One theory is humans are just non-evolving Pokémon. After all, humans can learn abilities, attack and have to heal from injuries. The only reason human-Pokémon are dominant is because they can build structures and create Pokéballs.
Another theory is that humans are not native to the world of Pokémon. It is possible that humans invaded the regions or the entire planet where Pokémon were, after their own living conditions became hostile. This would explain why there are plenty of Pokémon fossils but no human ones ever mentioned. Essentially, this theory says humans came and enslaved an entire world full of innocent creatures for the sake our livelihood and entertainment. Doesn't that just warm you heart?
Image: Nintendo
MissingNo (an abbreviation of "missing number") is a glitch first found in the Red, Green and Blue versions of the game, but it also appears in Pokémon Yellow. A generally accepted theory is that MissingNo is a Pokémon that the developers created but didn't pan out, and they never removed it entirely from the game's code.
Some believe Marowak was supposed to evolve into Kangaskhan in the original game (which makes the above Cubone theory true). They made a last-minute decision to make Kangaskhan its own Pokémon that wouldn't evolve, and so the programmers, rather than changing all code, moved the evolution to a number that didn't exist in the game, creating a missing number — or MissingNo.
A more disturbing theory is that MissingNo is what happens when Pokémon are left in their Pokéballs for an extended amount of time. Since Pokémon can be transferred and stored electronically, it is assumed Pokémon are either made up of or have the ability to be translated into data. Therefore, the theory is that a Pokémon left in its Pokéball too long will have its data corrupted and will become a MissingNo.
Makes you wonder whatever happened to that old copy of Pokémon Yellow, doesn't it?
Image: Flickr, kittykatfish