Pokémon fans have cottoned on to a curious fact about Gengar, and I can’t decide if it’s wonderfully creative or just hideously sad.
After a Redditor posted to the message board about some similarities between Gengar and another Pokémon, other users were quick to point out the truth behind the theory.
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The original post had a split image of Gengar and Clefairy with madeymorgan saying how similar they looked.
Perhaps coming as a surprise to some, fans in the thread pointed out that Gengar is a ghost-type Pokémon.
“Gengar's a ghost Pokémon. He's an undead Clefairy,” said rnelson.
Another Redditor exclaimed, “AHHHHHHH!!! D: I will never be able to unsee that!”
While this theory points to a darker side of Pokémon, others stepped in to clarify that Gengar is actually a shadow version of Clefairy.
Does this mean it’s not Clefairy’s ghost after all?
“He IS called a shadow Pokémon in the dex for a reason. It is Clefairy's shadow,” said another user.
The similarities are there for everyone to see, and it’s not like we haven’t seen darkness in the world of Pokémon before.
You only need to look at Mimikyu’s loneliness and Cubone’s grief over its mother to see how bleak this cute universe can get.
“Must suck how overshadowed it is by its own shadow,” points out WasherDryerCombo, referencing the popularity of Gengar who seems to be everyone’s favourite ghost-type Pokémon.
The dark lore goes right back to the original game, as this Redditor shows;
“People completely forget that in Pokémon Red, Blue, Green (later FireRed and LeafGreen) in Lavender Town the tower is haunted by the ghost of the orphaned Cubone's mother. You eventually fight this ghost, and it is a level 30 Marowack.”
So, there you go, now you won’t see Gengar without thinking of Clefairy.