SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

[stage7_4]

This thread is to discuss the hidden or unsolved mysteries encountered in Pokemon media, from strange places that never made sense to bizarre occurrences of the paranormal. Our goal is to solve these mysteries, case by case!

In essence, this is like a TvTropes Wild Mass Guessing thread. Sorta.

To keep this from being just a Simple Questions/Simple Answers divergent, try to keep topics constrained to either things that simply have no answer or have answers so obscure or complicated that they no longer qualify as "simple."

Some examples to get the ball rolling:
1. The mysterious: The church in Hearthome. This church (if it really is a church) contains absolutely nothing, but when entered the background music stops and all the residents make obscure remarks about friendship and bonds. What was this place for?

2. The obscure: The cave with the Sunny Day TM in the original Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. This is a reference to a Shinto legend regarding the sun goddess Amaterasu, but isn't obvious to Western audiances.

3. The bizarre: The men dancing for no reason at the entrance to Black City/White Forest. While the true reason is to prevent entry until after you beat the game, why are these over-weight middle-aged men dancing for no reason? Is it a flash-mob? Existential crisis? Secret conspiracy? Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing appreciation club? Pokemon fight club? DOES HAVING A REASON DEFEAT THE POINT?!

4. The conflicting: Tauros (a quadraped) and Miltank (a biped) are considered FANON a breeding pair in that they are opposite gender versions of one pokemon (like Nidorans). But, how? Retcon gone wrong? Are there any real animal examples of this?

*better example: Miltank's Firered and Silver Pokedex entries list it giving birth to live young instead of eggs. Are we just to assume the Pokedex is the stupid writings of 10 year olds and not the work of actual pokemon scientists?

5. The never explained: The Shadow Triad's identity is never revealed, and despite numerous references to being the First-gym trio they show up in a flashback in B2W2 pretty much just to debunk the theory. Are they just lying? Could it be some enemy-without Persona shadow confrontation Deus Ex? Like the licks to the center of a tootsie pop, the world may never know.

6. The dummied out: Altering cave was meant to contain different pokemon based on mystery gift events to be hosted at various places. Except no country ever held these events, so it's just a cave full of Zubat.

Anyway, post your strange mysteries of Pokemon or your own theories to them (or the factual answer, if there is one). This isn't constrained to the main series games, or even the games at all. Post your wild theories of the Pokemon Snap guardian signs or whatever happened to character X in the anime if you want.

MOD EDIT: Index of mysteries, courtesy of HelenTheHero and WaffleTitan. This is meant to cover the mysteries we've discussed so far, and on which pages the discussion occurred:

Index of Mysteries
as of
7/18/2015

Character Related

Hide

Ghost Girl
2, 14, 42, 43

AZ's Size and Age
4, 6, 42

Emma (X/Y)
9, 30

Lack of Father
6, 13, 14, 50

Pokemon Champion
17

Looker
18, 30, 42

ORAS Cameos
20

Norman
26, 27

Pheobe/Grandma
40, 43

N
24, 30, 45, 46, 47, 48

Pokemon, Pokemon Related, and Dex Busting

Hide

Pokedex Entries
1, 10, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 42, 47, 48

Original Pokemon
5, 6, 7, 23, 33, 35, 38, 39

Darkrai Killing a Girl
1, 43

Multiple Legendaries
4, 5, 23

Deoxys
8, 13, 18, 26, 36

Evolution
11, 12

Genesect
13, 31, 46, 48

Forces of Nature Trio
13

Malevolent Pokemon
15, 16, 17, 34

Mega Evolution
23, 24, 29, 33, 36, 37, 47

Kyogre and Groudon
24, 25, 34, 36, 37

Unown
31

Marowak's Death
32, 33, 43

Zygarde
37, 49, 50

Mewtwo
38, 41, 42

Starters
43

Ancient Pokemon
48, 49

Mysterious Pokemon
49, 50

Diancie
51

Gradual Evolution
51

The World and Technology

Hide

Breeding
2, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 23, 27, 31, 32, 39, 40, 41, 42

Multiverse
14, 15, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 36

Timeline
20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 31, 40

Couriway Station
2

How is the Pokemon World Run
2, 19, 25, 26, 49

How do TMs Work
3, 4

Real Animals
4

Pokemon War
6, 43

Pokemon-Human Relation
6, 7, 34, 39

Stolen Submarine
7, 8

Tipping
8, 9

Mirage Island
9

Pokemon World Tournament
9, 10

Transportation
13, 32

Pokeball
13

Route 14 Story
14

Sea Mauville
16, 17, 27, 45

The Champion
17

Weather
20

Super Training
21, 22

Religion
26, 27

Strange Occurrences
30, 36

Death
43, 44, 45, 46, 47

Pokemon as Food
3, 4, 35

Strange Souvenir
12, 31, 50

 

[Cresselia~~]

They didn't explain why N or Concordia/ Anthea could communicate with Pokemon neither.

It is also confusing as to whether Jynx has legs/ feet. (Has feet when using certain attacks in Stadium, but no legs was shown in Pokedex or other games)

How exactly do Hitmonchan and other male only Pokemon breed in the wild, where there is no Ditto?

Back in gen 1, it was said that Ghost Pokemon were only gaseous Pokemon that resembles ghosts, rather than real ghosts. But in later gens, they seem more and more like real ghosts. (With more association with death, or suggested that the Pokemon is from a dead person)

 

[EnGarde]

4. The conflicting: Tauros (a quadraped) and Miltank (a biped) are considered a breeding pair in that they are opposite gender versions of one pokemon (like Nidorans). But, how? Retcon gone wrong? Are there any real animal examples of this?

This is fanon, not supported in-game. For example, Illumise and Volbeat are breeding pairs, since illumise can be bred for either more illumise or volbeat. Similarly, nidoran-f can be bred for nidoran-f or for nidoran-m. However, if you breed a miltank, all you'll ever get is more miltank. No tauros.

 

[stage7_4]

This is fanon, not supported in-game. For example, Illumise and Volbeat are breeding pairs, since illumise can be bred for either more illumise or volbeat. Similarly, nidoran-f can be bred for nidoran-f or for nidoran-m. However, if you breed a miltank, all you'll ever get is more miltank. No tauros.

Guess I should change it to "forgot to fact check." There is a Miltank mystery though, so I'll change the post to reflect it.

 

[stage7_4]

It is also confusing as to whether Jynx has legs/ feet. (Has feet when using certain attacks in Stadium, but no legs was shown in Pokedex or other games)

Sorry to double post, but I wanted to add to the Jynx mystery since there is a lot to ponder about it's design (except the obvious recoloring that we won't get into).

In the anime, it had a foot once (but this is pre-retcon):

but after that it's stated only darkness is seen in it's XY and Battle Revolution models (according to Bulbapedia) and it has no Pokedex footprint.

Another mystery is these weird dress spikes that have become more prominent with each generation (really becoming noticeable in Gen 4 onward). Compare this one from Gold:

to this one in Heartgold:

to this one in XY:

Why does the dress have hip spikes? WHY GAMEFREAK, WHY?!

 

[Codraroll]

Two words:

Underground Path.

A few more, to clarify:

There is a notice!

...Uncouth Trainers have been holding
battles in the Underground Path.

Because of rising complaints by local
residents, the Underground Path has
been sealed indefinitely.

Signed, the Celadon Police

It's for the Underground Path connecting routes 7 and 8 (better known as the tunnel between Celadon City and Lavender Town(ish)) in Kanto, from GSC. What the actual FRIG was the point of having this notice there? There's a level gap in GSC, the second strongest trainer in the game has his strongest Pokémon at lvl. 58, whereas Red has his weakest at 73. The games direly lack grind-able trainers to level your Pokémon up to the par of Red's. This secret location would be the perfect spot to have such battles, as per promised on the flyer, but no. The location wasn't even coded into the game.

Pattern Bush is another location I'd like to whack the designers over the heads with. "They say the patterns hide a secret". Nope, they don't. The patterns appear completely random, there's no code or secret to it at all, it just apparently looks like a circuit board. With the (un-alterable) Altering Cave at the end of the same route, you would think Pattern Bush's supposed secret and Altering Cave were connected somehow, but no.

Speaking of the Sevii Islands, they were full of those. The "door blocked by crates" house in Seven Island (and its counterpart in Mossdeep City) were intriguing, there had to be something going on behind that door. Oh, wait, it does - in Japan only.

Also in Mossdeep, we had the Space Centre and the White Rock. Neither served any purpose, which I found deeply disappointing back when I put hundreds of hours into Sapphire and Emerald.


Also, I guess the Ghost Girl in Lumiose counts a lot, but I expect her story to be told via the inevitable Hoopa event, or at least in "Z/X2Y2". Same would go for Couriway Rail Station (why?), the hidden message in Lumiose Rail Station (what?), the inacessible power plants (they even had doors, for frig's sake!) and the inexplicable mention of a Lava Dome Pokémon in Jaune Plaza. Loads of unanswered questions, but we're pretty much guaranteed to get another game to answer them.

Last, I expected Bulbapedia to figure out the exact number of residents in Lumiose City any day now. It took them embarrasingly long for being the definite Wiki for all things Pokémon, and long remained a mystery, but it seems the final number is 416.

 

[Lady Vader]

4. The conflicting: Tauros (a quadraped) and Miltank (a biped) are considered FANON a breeding pair in that they are opposite gender versions of one pokemon (like Nidorans). But, how? Retcon gone wrong? Are there any real animal examples of this?

While they may not be breeding pairs, they are counterparts as proven in X and Y thanks to horde encounters (Miltank appears in Tauros hordes).

On the mysterious ghost woman in Lumoise, I think her statement of "You aren't the one," would really work if we have Pokémon X2 and Y2 instead of Z since that would most likely mean new protagonists (they are the ones, not Calem or Serena).

A similar mystery that was answered is the ghost girl on Marvelous Bridge in Unova. I do love how they make you go, "OMG GHOST!", then get a reasonable explanation (it was just Abra using Teleport), only for Black 2 and White 2 to reveal that not only is she dead, she was killed by Freddy Krueger Darkrai.

 

[EnGarde]

While they may not be breeding pairs, they are counterparts as proven in X and Y thanks to horde encounters (Miltank appears in Tauros hordes).

This doesn't mean much. Sudowoodo appear in trevenant hordes, and the only relation between those two is that sudowoodo looks like a tree.

 

[radicaledward]

It's a classic but I don't believe the truck in RBY was ever explained. It was so out of place and unexpected, especially in a game that used so many repeating patterns and sprites.

Also, I hope someday we get to revisit and find out where the Sinjoh Ruins are.

 

[Empoleon_master]

5. The never explained: The Shadow Triad's identity is never revealed, and despite numerous references to being the First-gym trio they show up in a flashback in B2W2 pretty much just to debunk the theory. Are they just lying? Could it be some enemy-without Persona shadow confrontation Deus Ex? Like the licks to the center of a tootsie pop, the world may never know.

Speaking of the Sevii Islands, they were full of those. The "door blocked by crates" house in Seven Island (and its counterpart in Mossdeep City) were intriguing, there had to be something going on behind that door. Oh, wait, it does - in Japan only.

WAIT, WHAT?!?!!?!? Tell me!!!! D:<
I need to know wtf is behind those stupid crates!
Also, wasn't there some stupid cave in FRLG's sevii islands that had nothing in it but common, and useless pokemon that supposedly changed pokemon inside it with the e-reader cards? I'll probably never know as I never got an e reader. :/

 

[Celever]

A similar mystery that was answered is the ghost girl on Marvelous Bridge in Unova. I do love how they make you go, "OMG GHOST!", then get a reasonable explanation (it was just Abra using Teleport), only for Black 2 and White 2 to reveal that not only is she dead, she was killed by Freddy Krueger Darkrai.

Wait what? She was killed by Darkrai? I just did some research about the Strange House... It only mentions Darkrai in the book, and doesn't talk about how the girl died anywhere! :s

Even though Game Freak thinks out its games incredibly well, it isn't the best at continuity throughout the generations. And the Pokédex is really just whatever they want to put in it I think, like the live birth with Miltank.

In the inevitable gen 1 re-remakes they'll probably answer Mewtwo's mega-evolutions, too imo.

 

[stage7_4]

The pokedex has a TON of weird entries, we could almost start another thread on it. Magcargo's "hot as the sun" skin (which would ignite our atmosphere), Alakazam or any pokemon having an IQ over 200 (IQ is a ratio, not a power level. You can't have one over 200, and genius is around 140 depending on the kind of test, above average is above 100).

That's why my personal theory on it is the thing is being written by 10 year olds on the fly with little concept of science.

 

[Codraroll]

^I think there already is a couple of "Weird Pokédex entries" threads. Search a little 'round OI, and it's amazing how many aspects of these games we've discussed. I'm actually surprised mysteries didn't get a dedicated thread until now.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Sorry to double post, but I wanted to add to the Jynx mystery since there is a lot to ponder about it's design (except the obvious recoloring that we won't get into).

In the anime, it had a foot once (but this is pre-retcon):
View attachment 21857
but after that it's stated only darkness is seen in it's XY and Battle Revolution models (according to Bulbapedia) and it has no Pokedex footprint.

Another mystery is these weird dress spikes that have become more prominent with each generation (really becoming noticeable in Gen 4 onward). Compare this one from Gold:

to this one in Heartgold:

to this one in XY:

Why does the dress have hip spikes? WHY GAMEFREAK, WHY?!

The weird dress spikes had got me confused since Gen 1!!
I still don't know what they are. lol.

Actually, Jynx had been shown as a void since Stadium 2 in the Pokedex. And in the SAME GAME, she has feet when using certain attacks via cheat code.
The feet look the same to the anime feet, so it was hers, rather than other Pokemon's.

-------

Pokedex entries:
That's why there's this widely believed fan theory that says Pokedex was written by the 10 year old main character.

 

[Lady Vader]

Wait what? She was killed by Darkrai? I just did some research about the Strange House... It only mentions Darkrai in the book, and doesn't talk about how the girl died anywhere! :s

While it never straight out says, "Yep, Darkrai killed that little girl," there are clues everywhere. I mean, look at her quotes. They heavily imply it. Plus, she says she had need for the Lunar Wing, but does not need it anymore. The Lunar Wing is the only thing that can counter Darkrai's nightmares. And don't forget Darkrai's ability literally hurts those who are asleep. (Kinda makes you feel awesome when you saved that kid in Platinum)

The pokedex has a TON of weird entries, we could almost start another thread on it. Magcargo's "hot as the sun" skin (which would ignite our atmosphere), Alakazam or any pokemon having an IQ over 200 (IQ is a ratio, not a power level. You can't have one over 200, and genius is around 140 depending on the kind of test, above average is above 100).

That's why my personal theory on it is the thing is being written by 10 year olds on the fly with little concept of science.

This actually leads me to something that people ignore at times. Some dex entries are legends, not fact.
A good example is the infamous Shedinja:

Shedinja's hard body doesn't move - not even a twitch. In fact, its body appears to be merely a hollow shell. It is believed that this Pokémon will steal the spirit of anyone peering into its hollow body from its back.

Now, everyone and their grandmother has commented on how when we send out a Shedinja, we see its back and now we have no soul. But reread the entry: "It is believed..." That's not the same as fact. Every version of this dex entry has similar wording but never says that this is true. Many of the stranger dex entries are like this.

 

[Codraroll]

I always took the quotes of the little girl as being terrified in the moments of death, not necessarily dying from a nightmare. It isn't really implied anywhere that she was killed, there could be tons of other sicknesses, injuries or defects that caused her death.

 

[Karxrida]

While it never straight out says, "Yep, Darkrai killed that little girl," there are clues everywhere. I mean, look at her quotes. They heavily imply it. Plus, she says she had need for the Lunar Wing, but does not need it anymore. The Lunar Wing is the only thing that can counter Darkrai's nightmares. And don't forget Darkrai's ability literally hurts those who are asleep. (Kinda makes you feel awesome when you saved that kid in Platinum)


This actually leads me to something that people ignore at times. Some dex entries are legends, not fact.
A good example is the infamous Shedinja:

Now, everyone and their grandmother has commented on how when we send out a Shedinja, we see its back and now we have no soul. But reread the entry: "It is believed..." That's not the same as fact. Every version of this dex entry has similar wording but never says that this is true. Many of the stranger dex entries are like this.

If anything the Pokédex is an Unreliable Narrator; some of the things it says seem to be legitimate while others are extremely dubious.

 

[Mova]

Also, I hope someday we get to revisit and find out where the Sinjoh Ruins are.

It might not have been stated, but those ruins are likely somewhere in the Japanese regions north of Kanto and Johto, but southwest of Sinnoh. This is only assuming that the Pokemon world is portrayed as an Earth-like world with Pokemon added.

Here's a mystery, that was never elaborated upon: Why doesn't the planet on which the Pokemon live have an official name, not including the title of "the world of Pokemon"? I mean, that title is way too obvious to be an official name.

 

[stage7_4]

(in a 1920's radio announcer voice. Like the narrator in Legend of Korra)

A hot tip led me to investigate the Lumiose City train station. Local rumors state that there's grafiti on the back side of the train timetable to the north. The message seemed rushed, stating "I'm going to go for help. Wait in the usual place." In interviewing nearby witnesses, the only clue I uncovered was from a school boy near the northern train-track. "It should be someplace right around here, right?"

Who wrote this message? What is this boy looking for? Where's the "usual place"? Why hasn't the local detective agency, founded by Interpol agent "Looker", been investigating this? What sort of trouble are they in to warrant this secrecy? Is this an obscure reference to the movie "Stand by Me?"

And what does this mean for Republic Lumiose City?

 

[Hulavuta]

Not to poop on anyone's parade but quite a few of these "mysteries" are just mistakes or over-thinking or gameplay and story segregation. I didn't play BW1 so maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know why the Shadow Triad can't just be elite Team Plasma members but have to be the brainwashed Gym Leaders a la The Winter Soldier. Don't get me wrong, it's great if you think they are interesting characters (I do too) and are interested in creating theories about their past, but there's not really any more burning mystery about their past any more than there is of anyone in Team Plasma (the sages for example).

I guess what I'm saying is that we should make a distinction between actual mysteries and things that just aren't explained. The name of the planet may never be mentioned but it's really not that important. Most characters don't have their entire life stories revealed but that's not really important either. Vague notes and locked doors are good mysteries because they hint to something else but hold back the whole story. Contradictions (for example, how Mewtwo, a man-made Pokemon, can have mega stones)and out of place objects/locations are also good mysteries. Just because something is not explained doesn't quite mean that it demands an explanation. N's powers are not really explained, but in the Pokemon universe, Sabrina and a bunch of other trainers are shown to have psychic powers so it's not that quite out of the ordinary. It's just something that is accepted about the Pokemon world, and while it may be weird for us, it isn't for them.

Okay, sorry for the rant so I'll get to a mystery that has really bugged me for a while: The Unown. And I guess this is kind of a given considering being a mystery is their entire shtick, I mean their name is literally based off of the word Unknown, so...

But anyway, it's so freaky how they resemble the alphabet...in HGSS it's shown that they were created directly by Arceus so did they copy the language of humans? Or perhaps in the Pokemon world, ancient humans based the alphabet off of the Unown? Really weird.

In the third movie, I always wondered why the Unown were helping Molly Hale out. Like, what were their motivations? Did they care about her, or did she somehow have the power to control them? If we're allowed to cross canon, I think the fact that the Unown are directly linked to Arceus gives a few answers, like where they came from and how they can create things. It gives a lot of room for theories.

Hail Hydra

 

[stage7_4]

Not to poop on anyone's parade but quite a few of these "mysteries" are just mistakes or over-thinking or gameplay and story segregation. I didn't play BW1 so maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know why the Shadow Triad can't just be elite Team Plasma members but have to be the brainwashed Gym Leaders a la The Winter Soldier. Don't get me wrong, it's great if you think they are interesting characters (I do too) and are interested in creating theories about their past, but there's not really any more burning mystery about their past any more than there is of anyone in Team Plasma (the sages for example).

For the sake of filling in, the Shadow Triad=Striaton Trio theory popped up due to a scene at the end of BW1 where Bianca summons all the previous gym leaders (including both dragon ones) to stall the Plasma Sages. All come, except Striaton trio because "Bianca couldn't contact them in time" or something. Based on the presence of the Shadow Triad in the castle at the time, some came to believe that the Striaton trio are the Shadow Triad, using their gym leader status as a cover. When early B2W2 information was coming out, some thought their resignation as gym leaders had some connection with Plasma's defeat.

Then memory link came and dumped on that theory, giving us a flashback with both groups in the same place. It was handled so trollishly (the Triad actually state that they have no real reason to be talking with the Striaton trio) that it almost seems Gamefreak threw it in specifically to debunk the theory. Some still think they may be connected and the flashback is just a lie due to how convenient the whole thing is.

So at this moment the only thing about the Triad we know is that they were a part of Ghetsis orphan recruitment projects like N and those sisters (specifically, he saved their lives and they swore eternal loyalty type plot or whatever).

But you are right in that it's not really a mystery (or at least, not as worth investigating) due to Gamefreak coming in and taking the teeth out of the dog. And in order to make this thread better and a more long-lasting part of the OI board, I welcome any moderator input. Personally I feel caught between wanting to keep the discussion open and encourage creative theories and investigation, but also wanting to discourage just wild shots in the dark on anything and everything. I feel my attempts at humor are being misread too (of course the men dancing for no reason aren't a Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing-fight club).

Plus everything can have a hidden meaning, but it might be relevant only to you. Anyway, just wanted to clear that up. On with the investigation!

 

[Hulavuta]

Oh, I'm flattered, but I'm actually not a mod of this forum. Just a guy who loves Orange Islands ;)

Anyway, like you said, it's not really a mystery so I guess that's that, haha. I do agree with everything you said though! And I do think theories that aren't answers to mysteries are worth another thread though, if you'd want to make it. I just don't think they belong in this thread.

 

[SnoopingGil]

The Black Tower (and by extension its counterpart, White Treehollow) pops out of nowhere between Black and Black 2, and by the way people talk about it, you'd think it was an alien artifact. If I remember correctly, someone in the Black Tower says that the upper floors are "beyond our control", or something to that effect, and there's a Psychic in the lobby who keeps ranting about how he can feel power emanating from the building. To top it off, the floor plan randomizes itself every time you enter, so unless you can remember where the elevator is, you'll probably get lost inside...

My headcanon is that the in-universe equivalent of Smogon built the tower to collect more usage statistics. :P

Come to think of it, Black City and White Forest are rather mysterious by themselves. They occupy the exact same physical location and only one of them can exist at any time in BW2, but people still talk about them as if they were separate places (iirc when you recruit people from Black City to go to White Forest they talk about wanting to take a vacation in the forest, and vice versa). What happens to the people living in one location when it's "inactive"?...

 

[Empoleon_master]

The Black Tower (and by extension its counterpart, White Treehollow) pops out of nowhere between Black and Black 2, and by the way people talk about it, you'd think it was an alien artifact. If I remember correctly, someone in the Black Tower says that the upper floors are "beyond our control", or something to that effect, and there's a Psychic in the lobby who keeps ranting about how he can feel power emanating from the building. To top it off, the floor plan randomizes itself every time you enter, so unless you can remember where the elevator is, you'll probably get lost inside...

My headcanon is that the in-universe equivalent of Smogon built the tower to collect more usage statistics. :P

Come to think of it, Black City and White Forest are rather mysterious by themselves. They occupy the exact same physical location and only one of them can exist at any time in BW2, but people still talk about them as if they were separate places (iirc when you recruit people from Black City to go to White Forest they talk about wanting to take a vacation in the forest, and vice versa). What happens to the people living in one location when it's "inactive"?...

They're both active in same universe but are bridged by inter dimensional travel because pokemon.

 

[Codraroll]

Another mystery, and this is one of the old ones:

What is up with the move "Tombstoner"/"Tombstony"? All we know about this mysterious move, titled "Die-Die Beam" in Japanese as far as I know, is that it is not TM28, neither in Generation I nor III. It is one of the few moves ever to change spelling. Will it ever see use in Pokémon canon, or will it remain an obscure joke from Blaine, the franchise's resident master of riddles?