Ghosts in the Pokémon world

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A ghost in Pokémon Origins

Ghosts (Japanese: ゆうれい yūrei) are souls of dead beings that have not yet gone to the afterlife and appear to the living. They have appeared in numerous Pokémon media. Some of them seem to come from Ghost World.

In the core series games

The Marowak ghost in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!

Lavender Town

In the Generation I games, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, before getting a Silph Scope, several unidentified ghosts (in reality, wild Gastly, Haunter, or Cubone) appear in the Pokémon Tower. Another stronger ghost is revealed to be a mother Marowak, which haunts the tower as a result of her death at the hands of Team Rocket.

The identity of the ghosts can be revealed with the Silph Scope. Without the Silph Scope, ghosts appear as wild Pokémon in the Pokémon Tower, but cannot be battled. In Generation I and III, whenever the player orders a move against an unknown ghost the player's Pokémon will be too scared to move; additionally, if the player throws a Poké Ball (including a Master Ball) at an unidentified ghost, it will simply dodge the ball. Even with the help of the Silph Scope, the Marowak ghost cannot be caught. In Generation VII, if the player is touched by a ghost, they are warped back to the first floor of the Pokémon Tower. Additionally, ghosts home in slowly on the player's location and (unlike even unmasked Ghost-types) can pass through walls while doing so.

During the course of the game, the player must obtain the Silph Scope and becalm the ghost Marowak by battling itRBYFRLG/reuniting it with its child, Cubone.PE

Additionally, a girl in Lavender Town asks the player if they believe in ghosts, later mentioning a white hand on their shoulder.

Oddities

In the Generation I games, the Pokédex still records the seen data of the wild Pokémon even without the Silph Scope.

The ghosts do not have a cry in the Generation I games, whereas they emit the cry of the undercover Pokémon in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

If the Generation I games are played on a Super Game Boy (or on a Game Boy Color, in the case of the international releases of Pokémon Yellow), the ghost has the same color palette as that of the Pokémon it is hiding. This means that a ghost can be seen with two different and legitimate color palettes: that of Gastly and Haunter, and that of Cubone and Marowak. If the ghost appears due to a glitch, a third palette is used.

Furthermore, in Generation I, players can exploit the ghost glitch to make the ghost reveal itself by viewing the stats of any Pokémon in the player's party, and then returning to the battle. However, this glitch is only graphical as it is still impossible to battle or catch a ghost.

Also in Generation I, if the player uses a Poké Doll against the ghost Marowak, it will disappear even if the player didn't have the Silph Scope.

One of MissingNo.'s forms in Generation I uses the ghost's sprite as a front sprite.

Quotes

  • When trying to attack a ghost without the Silph Scope
"Get out...... Get out......"RBYFRLG
"Get out... Begone..."PE

Directly before encountering the Marowak ghost

"Be gone... Intruders..."

Sprites

050Diglett.png This section is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.
Reason: Upload brown version of the Generation I sprite as well, which appears when the ghost is Cubone or Marowak
Ghost I.png LitGhost.png
Sprite from
Generation I (Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar color palette)
Sprite from
FireRed and LeafGreen

Old Chateau

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl, the Old Chateau is known to be haunted, scaring many citizens of Eterna City. In the chateau, occasionally, the ghosts of a little girl and a butler appear in the rightmost bedroom on the second floor and in the dining hall, respectively. They cannot be interacted with and move by floating.

The little girl appears when the player enters the fourth room from the west, which is next to the bedroom where she randomly "appears". When this happens, she looks to the left, where the player is, then moves towards the exit, never being seen on the other side. This can only occur when the player enters this particular room because the game loads a different map depending on the room entered, and the little girl is only programmed to appear in the map of the fourth room.

The butler appears to be sitting at the other side of the table in the dining room. The player walks forward and he starts moving to the left—leaving the game window—as if going to the kitchen area, but never appearing there.

Sinnoh Route 217

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl, if the player re-enters the house near the Ice Rock after obtaining the Spell Tag from the woman inside, the woman has disappeared. The nature of the item, in conjunction with Ace Trainer Olivia's comments of hauntings in the area, implies that the woman was a ghost, specifically a Yuki-onna.

Quotes

"...A person...? ...A rare sight... ...Thank you for visiting... ...A gift..."

Marvelous Bridge and Strange House

In Pokémon Black and White, on certain occasions, the spirit of a young girl will be standing on Marvelous Bridge, and will disappear if the player walks towards her. An old lady in the Bridge Gate to the east of the bridge will explain that the young girl used to play around the area with an Abra before the bridge was built. In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the girl will appear in the Strange House, where she will refer to Abra and the bridge before telling the player to return the Lunar Wing there, which will trigger a battle with Cresselia.

Quotes

First encounter
"An everlasting dark dream... An endless dream of darkness... Dad, Mom, Abra... Where are you...?"
Second encounter
"In the dark dream... I heard my dad’s voice... Forget about the Lunar Wing... Please stay here with me..."
Third encounter
"Oh... The Lunar Wing... I can’t take it now... But it'll be OK... Please return the wing to the Pokémon... I was waiting on the bridge so I could return it myself..."

Pokéstar Studios

Several Pokéstar Studios movies in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 feature ghosts, most prominently in the Ghost Eraser Series. One also appears in the Big Monster Series, played by New Actress Callie.

Sprites

Spr B2W2 Haunted Janitor.png Spr B2W2 Haunted Preschooler.png Spr B2W2 Haunted Gentleman.png Spr B2W2 Old Statue.png Spr 5b2 Majin.png Spr B2W2 Weird Light.png
Kadath Celaeno Arkham Old Statue Majin Weird Light "???"
B2W2 Spirit Pokéstar Red.png B2W2 Spirit Pokéstar Green.png B2W2 Majin Pokéstar.png B2W2 Weird Light Pokéstar.png
Red Spirit Green Spirit Majin Weird Light "???"

Lumiose City

In Pokémon X and Y, on the second floor of the Fighting Dojo building in Lumiose City, a Hex Maniac will appear, say "No, you're not the one," and float away.

Phoebe's room

In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, a ghost girl appears in Phoebe's room just before the initial battle against her.

Hau'oli City

In the Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon Special Demo Version, there's a girl in Hau'oli City Marina who says she wants to sail to meet her parents again, but she's nervous about boats and asks to be seen off to her journey. She thanks the player for encouragement by giving them a Comet Shard and walks away, just to disappear behind a passing Machamp.

Trainers' School

In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the player can meet a little girl accompanied by a Drifloon at the Trainers' School, who will ask the player to solve seven mysteries around the school. Once all the mysteries have been solved, the girl will give the player a pair of Wise Glasses just as the school's security guard shows up. The girl disappears, and the guard tells the player they were alone the whole time.

Hammerlocke

In Pokémon Sword and Shield, a girl named Paula in Hammerlocke asks the player to deliver a letter to a boy named Frank in Ballonlea. The boy turns out to be an old man who knew a girl named Paula, but she hid from him how sick she was. If the player returns to where Paula was, they'll find a Reaper Cloth.

Pokédex entries

Some Pokédex entries refer to ghosts, spirits, and the souls of the departed.

  • Yamask arose from the spirits of people interred in graves in past ages. It carries a mask that used to be its face when it was a human.
  • Galarian Yamask is said to have formed when an ancient clay tablet was drawn to a vengeful spirit.
  • Sinistea was born when a lonely spirit possessed a cold, leftover cup of tea.
  • Spiritomb was formed by a mysterious spell that punished 108 souls and bound it to a stone.
  • Phantump was formed when the spirit of a child that perished in a forest possessed a rotten tree stump.
  • Pumpkaboo's body is inhabited by a spirit trapped in this world.
  • Drifloon was formed by the wandering spirits of people and Pokemon.
  • Dhelmise is said to be reborn as a Pokemon from the soul of seaweed adrift in the waves or merged with debris from a sunken ship.
  • Legends suggest that Froslass was formed when the spirit and lingering regrets of a lost woman who died in the snowy mountains possessed an icicle.
  • Basculegion got possessed by the souls of other Basculin from its school that could not withstand the harsh journey upstream.
  • Hisuian Typhlosion will occasionally eat wayward spirits, but it’s believed that spirits consumed this way are then purified by the Pokémon’s flames and returned to where they belong.
  • Hisuian Zorua is a once-departed soul returned to life.

In the side series games

Pokémon: Magikarp Jump

A ghost appeared in one of the random encounters titled "Be Gone!". When the player turns on and off the television repeatedly, the television will show static, and when the player continues doing so, the television will be repaired. After the next training session, the ghost will appear and ask the player and his Magikarp to go away.

In the anime

Main series

In The Tower of Terror, a Haunter took Ash and Pikachu's souls out of their bodies after they had been struck by a chandelier. Here it was shown that ghosts can fly around and remain in the form they took while living; however, living beings cannot see them.

First real ghosts appeared in The Ghost of Maiden's Peak. The titular character was a spirit of a woman who was waiting on a cliff for her husband to come back, but he never had.

The ghost of an Orange League Champion, Captain, was featured in A Shipful of Shivers.

A ghost girl appeared in Ghoul Daze! where she wanted to kidnap people and Pokémon into the spirit world. A wild Dusknoir, despite its reputation, wanted to protect innocent beings from this demon.

Ash and his friends met a ghost named Lon in Scary Hospitality!. He once lived at the Scary House over 200 years ago, and now haunted it as a ghost. Although his true identity as a ghost wasn't revealed until close to the end of the episode, it was hinted at by his lack of a shadow. Unlike the ghosts described above, Lon was a very friendly man.

Acerola owns a Shiny Mimikyu named Mimikins, which first appeared in Why Not Give Me a Z-Ring Sometime?. Mimikins is the ghost of a deceased Mimikyu, allowing it to float and pass through solid objects.

In Run, Heroes, Run!, the spirit of Sofu, the grandfather of Hapu and former island kahuna of Poni Island, was summoned by Tapu Fini to oversee Kiawe's trial. After the trial, he observed Kiawe and Ash alongside the ghost of Kiawe's grandfather, before the both of them faded away.

Pokédex entries

Episode Subject Source Entry
EP023 Ghost Ash's Pokédex Ghost Pokémon are in a vapor form. Their true nature is shrouded in mystery.

Pokémon Origins

The white hand in Pokémon Origins

A ghost appeared in File 2: Cubone. It played the same role like in the games, being dormant in the Pokémon Tower and warning intruders to stay away from Team Rocket, who had taken it over. One resident of Lavender Town noted that she saw the ghost after sneaking past Team Rocket Grunts at night, and fled in terror. Blue also ran away upon seeing it. Red attempted to fight it, but his Pokémon's attacks were ineffective against it. When Blue returned to give Red the Silph Scope, Red was able to identify the ghost as the spirit of Marowak. After Marowak's child, Cubone, came rushing in and embraced its deceased mother, Marowak's spirit departed for the afterlife.

Also, when a woman at the Lavender Town Pokémon Center told Red that he had a white hand on his shoulder and Red turned to look, the woman and the man she was with disappeared, implying that they were ghosts as well.

Pokémon Generations

The ghost of the little girl in Pokémon Generations

In Pokémon Generations, two ghosts appeared in The Old Chateau. The first ghost was the one of a Butler, who invited Cheryl to stay for the night at the Old Chateau. After treating her to a "meal", he escorted her to her room before sinking into the floor. Next, the ghost of a little girl appeared, floating in the air behind Cheryl after she picked up and read a note. The little girl then changed to a terrifying appearance and attacked Cheryl.

The ghosts possess the ability to create illusions, as the Old Chateau appeared to be inhabited while actually being in a dilapidated state. They also made Cheryl believe she was eating a feast and had an illusion of a Haunter chase her.

In the manga

Magical Pokémon Journey

Main article: Sandy (MPJ)

The spirit of a young girl named Sandy owned a Raichu in her former life. They were separated when her parents left it in a box by the sea. They promised to meet, but before they did, they were both killed by a tidal wave. They appeared again in Heavenly Pokémon and The Miraculous Color of the Sky ~Best Friends~.

Trivia

  • In Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, interacting with the door of the former Day Care on Route 5 yields the text, "What's this? House for Sale... Nobody lives here." However, there are two women in the house, an old lady, who will rush to the player to give them Cleanse Tag, and her granddaughter, who says her grandmother believes in evil spirits. This text doesn't appear in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.
  • Vulpix's Pokédex entry in Pokémon Moon suggests that it can spew flames that seem to resemble the spirits of the deceased, which are sometimes mistaken for real ghosts.


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