The Pokémon series is known for having some strange and downright disturbing stories in its universe. Sinister clues suggest deeper and darker events are occurring in the Pokémon World and many of the creepier Pokémon found in the franchise are often the culprits.
By no means is this list comprehensive, but it’s a snapshot of some of the creepier sub-plots occurring in various games in the franchise. Between the ghost children, Ditto takeover, Pokémon burning alive, and a predatory Hypno, you’ll be glad you don’t live in this terrifying world.
10 Hypno Kidnaps A Girl
Hypno’s tendency to kidnap children was alluded to in the Pokédex in Pokémon Red & Blue, but any doubts about this behavior were removed in Pokémon Ultra Sun & Moon. On Melemele island, you encounter a strange school rumored to be the home to a lot of supernatural occurrences.
Most prove to be red herrings but, in one room, you encounter an illusion created by Hypno and, after scaring it off, find a notebook hidden behind the shelves. In it is a diary entry of a student commenting that a young girl was taken from the school by a Hypno, perhaps the same one you scared off.
9 Lumiose Ghost Girl
One of the more infamous easter eggs in the game is the ghost girl found in Lumiose City. In one of the buildings, the player will enter a room where the lights flicker, the music fades and a girl appears immediately behind you. She mutters something about you not being the one she’s looking for and moves on.
Many players theorize that this girl was somehow reanimated through AZ’s machine and others postulate she could be a remnant of the ghost girl found at the Old Chataeu. In either case, the idea that a ghost girl is wandering the world searching for someone in particular is a terrifying concept.
8 Unknown Story Of The Unown
In Pokémon Silver, players can engage on an interesting side quest to track down Unowns of various shapes through the Ruins of the Alph side quest. When standing outside the ruins, strange noises will be emitted over the radio and are said to draw out Unown.
Solving the puzzles enables the player to catch the 26 different Unown types and reveals a strange message. It’s written by a clan/cult of humans who worship Pokémon and abandoned the ruins to supposedly protect them. It’s a strange side story that raises more questions than it answers.
7 Creation Of Mewtwo
One of the best-known subplots in Pokémon is Mewtwo’s backstory in Pokémon Red & Blue. Players slowly uncover this story when they find a laboratory on Cinnabar Island in ruins. The scientists were researching ways to create new Pokémon via cloning and it resulted in the creation of Mewtwo.
Mewtwo destroyed the lab and killed the scientists before taking up residence in a cave. It’s unclear if the destruction was intentional or accidental, but the implication that mankind can create powerful Pokémon they can’t control is a terrifying concept that’s explored throughout the franchise.
6 Bill Is A Pokémon
When players first encounter Bill in Pokémon Blue & Red, they find he’s used some crazy device to transform himself into a Pokémon. It's meant to be humorous, but raises some terrifying possibilities. Did Bill obtain the powers of a Pokémon? Could he have been captured by a Pokeball?
The Pokémon world is no stranger to the concept of humans becoming Pokémon, Kadabra’s Pokédex entry suggests it was once a boy who woke up a Pokémon and many of the ghost Pokémon were once humans. But this is the first instance where a machine, that could be mass produced and replicated, can turn humans into Pokémon. Let’s hope none of the criminal organizations or cults find out about this.
5 Child’s Sandcastle
In Pokémon Ultra Sun And Moon the player can explore the beach and come across a small child standing next to a crude sand castle. The child invites the player to see what he’s made and doing so triggers a Sandygast attack.
After successfully defeating it, the child is seen with his back turned to the player. The strange child states that he thought he could get the player to collect sand for him too, mentions there’s more “prey” to be found on the beach and promptly disappears. It’s unknown if the child was a projection of the Sandygast, if it was using Sandygast to kidnap humans to build sand castles for him, or some other devious plot.
4 Ditto Body Snatchers
In Pokémon Ultra Sun & Moon, the player comes across a police station where one of the officers comments that some of the others have been acting strange. As the player begins investigating, it turns out that Dittos have actually replicated humans and taken their place.
After finding the Ditto Five, the officer makes the comment that he’s grateful the creepy Pokémon couldn’t speak as it made them easy to identify. But he does mention if they ever learned human speech it could be disastrous. Given the game zooms in on a particular officer while he’s saying this, and that many Pokémon have proven to develop human speech, it raises some terrifying possibilities.
3 Burned Alive
The fact that Pokémon can die is a concept that has been around since the early games, but is kept vague. Pokémon Gold & Silver broke the mold by giving players a detailed account of how the three legendaries died.
It turns out Entei, Raikou, and Suicine were all burned alive when the Burned Tower caught flame with them inside. These poor creatures were engulfed by the flames and burned to cinders before Ho-Oh came along and reanimated them.
2 Great War
One of the most prevalent fan theories in Pokémon Red & Blue is that most of the adult men are missing because they were killed during a great war. It’s a concept that was hinted at, but never really fully explored until Pokémon X & Y when AZ reveals the superweapon he created obliterated the factions on both sides of the war.
It’s not clear what the war was about, but theories regarding cloning research and the creation of new Pokémon had something to do with it.
1 Slowpoke Tails
In Pokémon Gold & Silver, the player can come across an individual selling Slowpoke Tails as food items for some serious cash. It’s revealed that Team Rocket is harvesting the tails from Slowpoke in Azalea Town and the player disrupts their operations.
Probably in response to fan outcry at the horrific treatment of Slowpokes, the game-makers retconned the incident in Pokémon Sun by stating that Slowpokes are like lizards whose tails fall off harmlessly and everybody eats them.