Pokemon’s Lavender Town is notoriously spooky. From the Creepypasta tales surrounding the apocryphal Pokemon Green to the anime depiction of ghosts incarnate, the atmosphere of Lavender Town is uncanny, weird, and deeply unsettling.
This year, however, saw the release of Pokemon Let’s Go, the most recent iteration of Pokemon Generation 1. It is true that the uncanny atmosphere of Lavender Town persists after the events of Generation 1, as the soundtracks in Gold and Silver — set three years after Gen 1 — attest to with their toned down yet still eerie instrumentation. Ultimately, though, things seem to be a little better at this point in the Pokemon timeline.
Let’s Go builds on the bridge between Gen 1 and Gen 2 that made this so by directly confronting and actually resolving the horrors of Lavender Town. This is because Let’s Go brought a whole new take on Lavender Town, which ultimately succeeded in taming the horror imbued in the infamous setting. In particular, the story of Cubone’s mother was changed slightly — slightly, but enough to make a serious difference.
For those who aren’t familiar with the story of Cubone and its lost mother, Generation 1 Pokemon games have always featured a story in which Lavender Town’s Pokemon Tower has been overrun by terrifying ghosts. The player, however, can cause the ghosts to materialize if they have the Silph Scope.
After obtaining the item from a Team Rocket base, it becomes clear that the unsettling omens plaguing Lavender Town came about due to the fact that a late Marowak couldn’t rest. It is implied that this Marowak was brutally murdered by members of Team Rocket and was unable to ascend to the afterlife due to the fact that it feared for its now-orphaned Cubone.
In Pokemon Let’s Go, the whole sequence of events that takes place in Lavender Town is changed. Aside from the spooky music and immaterial wraithlike ghosts, Cubone’s tale is given some real love, making it incredibly touching and bittersweet in the most heartfelt way. Often known as the “scary” part of Pokemon, Let’s Go’s Lavender Town gives Cubone a real presence for the first time ever, as it climbs the steps of the Pokemon Tower searching for its dead mother. It is implied that Cubone knows that she was murdered, but is tragically unsure of what this means for it.
These tragic elements are important because they are made central to the horror her. Cubone is kidnapped by Team Rocket and taken to the Celadon Game Corner. It is the unplayed parts of this that contain the real scary stuff, as Cubone’s fate is uncertain. In an effort to set Cubone free, the player infiltrates the Rocket base and defeats Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket.
Although this is what players must do in order to get the necessary Silph Scope item in previous games, in Let’s Go you go there with the sole purpose of saving Cubone from the unseen horrors of being held prisoner by his mother’s murderers. After bringing Cubone back to Lavender Town, is is briefly reunited with the spirit of its mother, who materializes for just a moment, but long enough to reach out to Cubone. Marowak then takes on the form of an ethereal golden light before transcending to the afterlife. Cubone, irreparably and understandably hurt, receives some closure at least.
Feeling sorry for Cubone, your rival will offer to raise it, to the extent that their final Pokemon team includes a Marowak. With the help of your rival, Cubone was able to channel its loss into newfound strength. The previously unwritten parts of Lavender Town’s horror story are given a narrative for the first time in the history of Pokemon. Lavender Town is still scary, but there’s meaning in the horror. Cubone’s own horror story doesn’t end in tragedy but in new hope. Let’s Go tames the horror of Lavender Town without being overtly cheesy or cringy. It’s a sincere way of giving Cubone closure and highlighting the transition between Lavender Town’s iterations in Gen 1 and Gen 2.
Ultimately, the horror of Lavender Town is stripped of its power for the most part, as the touching story upon which this part of the game is based on comes front and centre. The horror is still very much there; however, it’s tamed by a cathartic tale telling the story of the bond shared between parent and child, and the recognition of the fact that, as Japanese author Haruki Murakami would say, “Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of it.” From Marowak’s untimely and unjust death at the hands of Team Rocket, Cubone draws strength, which culminates in Marowak’s restless soul being soothed. As a result, Lavender Town’s Pokemon Tower becomes calm once again, which is reflected in the ambiance of the town at large. On a more microcosmic level, though, Cubone’s overcoming of its own horror story is what makes it strong.
In Pokemon Let’s Go, the things that made Lavender Town so scary in the 90s have been completely flipped on their head. The uncanny music is tamed by Cubone’s evocative tale, and the resolution of this tale offers more in the way of a sense of remedy than any previous iteration of Gen 1 offered. Although Mr. Fuji has always concerned with the wellbeing of a newborn Cubone, this is the first time Cubone is actually present in the flesh, which accentuates the tragedy imbued in the story, but by the same logic accentuates the bittersweet resolution, too.
As a result, Lavender Town’s original horror value belies something far deeper here. The horror isn’t lost, and new players will still be able to recognize the uncanny nature of the haunted town, but they’ll also be able to tangibly see the ways in which their impact on the story manifests itself. Cubone, despite having gone through tragedy, says farewell to its mother and develops a bond with a loving trainer, allowing it to evolve into a Marowak itself by the end of the game. It’s subtle, but it’s truly sweet. Amidst a plethora of remakes that seek to make their tales scarier, Pokemon Let’s Go tames the horror of its most emphatically horrific part. It subverts the origins of the tale, converting them into something that’s tangible, meaningful, and most importantly of all, not so scary once you take the first brave step to embrace it.
