Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are coming in less than a month, and they will allegedly include the highest number of new critters to date after Gen 5, with over one hundred monsters making their debut. After the big Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Pokedex leak, it became apparent that Gen 9 will have a strange distribution of types, with some of them getting only a handful of new species and others getting a bit too many. One could argue that this was always the case with new Pokemon games, and while there's some truth to that statement, if all the Gen 9 leaks prove to be true, there will be a discrepancy between how many Dark-types and Ice-types are present, for example.
Ghost-type Pokemon are somewhere in the middle of that distribution, but one thing to consider is that Gen 9 games will seemingly have several critters that acquire Ghost as their secondary type once they evolve. Out of the 19 Pokemon revealed for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet so far, Ceruledge is one of them, and many fans are already looking forward to using it on their teams due to its design and type combination. However, Ceruledge has a counterpart in Armarouge, and they both allegedly evolve from the same Pokemon, which could be a pure Fire-type. As such, Gen 9 should address the plot hole that surrounds Pokemon that gain Ghost as their type when they evolve.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Pokedex Should Further Explain Ghost-types
Pokemon games have been featuring Ghost-type critters since Gen 1, and while many of them throughout the generations always had this type from the get-go, like the Gengar line, others acquired it when they evolved. The earliest example of this comes from Gen 3's Shedinja, a Pokemon that can only be obtained when evolving Nincada into Ninjask and having at least one free slot in one's party. Shedinja is the former husk of Nincada, and it has one of the most peculiar gimmicks in the Pokemon franchise thanks to Wonder Guard and the fact that it only has 1 HP at all levels.
Thematically, it makes perfect sense for Shedinja to be a Ghost-type Pokemon, even if its base form never was one, and that's because Ghost creatures in the Pokemon universe tend to have transparent bodies and move through solid objects, as a ghost would. This doesn't necessarily mean that all Ghost-types Pokemon are dead, but some are, and it's often something that's associated with critters that acquire Ghost as their secondary type when they evolve.
Not all pocket monsters who acquired Ghost as a secondary type throughout the franchise had a strong connection with it, both thematically and in terms of Pokedex entry, whereas others like Alolan Marowak just made sense thanks to their history. Critters like Decidueye and Hisuian Typhlosion evolve into Ghost-types without having a strong correlation with them, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet should address this for some of their Ghost critters, even if it means breaking the taboo about Pokemon dying.
Based on the Gen 9 leaks, a great candidate would be Primeape's rumored evolution, which is set to acquire Ghost as its secondary type. According to Pokemon Sun and Moon's Pokedex, some Primeape specimens become so angry that they die as a result, but they end up being serene in death. This should be the approach to Primeape's evolution in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, so that the creature is defeated in battle and then evolves into a new Pokemon that's Fighting/Ghost. Overall, the Paldean Pokedex should try and fix this plot hole regarding Pokemon that evolve into Ghost-types rather than ignoring it like in past games.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.