Pokémon creeps me out! The Lavender Town Syndrome

Habt ihr schonmal von der "Lavender Town Suicides" - Legende gehört?

Angeblich kam es in Japan nach der Erstveröffentlichung der Pokémon-Editionen Rot und Grün am 27.02.1996 gehäuft zu Todesfällen unter Kindern und Jugendlichen zwischen 10 - 15 Jahren. Mehr als 200 sollen umgekommen sein. Diejenigen, die sich nicht das Leben nahmen, zeigten Symptome wie Verhaltensstörungen, Unwohlsein, starke Kopfschmerzen und und und... Untersuchungen  zeigten, dass alle Opfer eines gemeinsam hatten: Sie spielten in der Zeit vor ihrem Tod bzw. ihrer Erkrankung eine der genannten Pokémon-Editionen und befanden sich im Spielverlauf gerade in einem unscheinbaren kleinen Städtchen namens Lavender Town (jap. Shion Town).
  
Auslöser der Symptome soll dies hier gewesen sein:





Das ursprüngliche Theme enthielt einige Tonsequenzen, die von Erwachsenen aufgrund ihrer hohen Frequenz nicht mehr wahrgenommen werden konnten, während Kinder und Jugendliche sie unterbewusst sehr wohl wahrnehmen konnten. Nach einer Rückrufaktion der sich noch im Umlauf befindlichen Spiele wurde das Theme überarbeitet und fortan erschienen die beiden Editionen (und alle darauffolgenden) mit der neuen Version des Lavender Town Themes.


Dazu kommen noch seltsame Erscheinungen im Pokémon Turm:

-  The White Hand Sprite:
"Known in the code as WhitHand.gif, this was scripted to appear as a Pokemon on the third floor of the Lavender Tower. It is divided into four separate animations: an introduction (the “cry” a Pokemon unleashes before a battle), an idle, and two attacks. These attacks are unknown, as they are listed simply as “Fist” and “Brutal”. While viewing the animation has been proven to be hazardous, viewing the frames of the model has been proven to have no adverse effects. The White Hand is depicted as a shriveled, slightly decayed hand, with surprising attention to detail: flesh is peeling back from the bone, and several tendons dangle realistically out of the wrist. The first attack is the hand balling into a fist, then swinging forward. However, the “brutal” animation is missing several frames: The hand seems to open up, then cuts out. After a few seconds, it reappears, closed again. No record has been found of these missing frames."

-  The Ghost Animation:
"The Ghost Animation, coded as Haunting.swf, was intended to be placed in several areas throughout the tower, including in the center of a path on the second floor. However, players cannot interact with it, leaving many to believe that it was intended as a “background feature”. The ghost animation as well must be viewed in individual frames. It is comprised of 59 frames total. However, after extraction, around half of these frames have been revealed to be the standard ghost model used in Pocket Monsters. Around a quarter of the remaining frames are comprised of static, to produce a “fading” effect. However, interspersed with these bursts of static are several frames of screaming faces, along with images of a skeletal man in a cloak (hypothesized to be the Grim Reaper) and of several killed corpses. The meaning behind these are unknown- While under oath before the Video Games Commission Board, Lead Programmer Hisashi Sogabe testified as to having “No knowledge as to where these images surfaced.” Out of all the phenomena associated with LTS, this animation is the most speculated on: In his thesis “Video Games and The Manipulation of the Human Mind”, Dr. Jackson Turner argued that the images were intentionally placed in. Due to their brief time appearing on the screen, and the graphic nature of the frames, Turner theorizes that these were meant to subliminally influence players into becoming more frightened by the disturbing surroundings."

 -  The Buryman Script:
"Often referred to as its code, the Buryman script, the Buried Alive Model was to be found on the final story of the Pokemon Tower, in what has now been replaced with the Marowak ghost. According to the scripts assigned to it, the Buried Alive model was intended to be the “boss” of the tower. Once reaching the top floor, the following conversation would have taken place.
Buried Alive: You’re… Here.
BA: I’m trapped…
BA: And I’m lonely…
BA: So very lonely…
BA: Won’t you join me?
After this, the battle would have been initiated. Once in
“battle view”, the Buried Alive model appears to be a decaying human corpse attempting to crawl out of the ground. It has been programmed to have two White Hands, a Gengar, and a Muk. Strangely enough, a protocol for the Buried Alive’s actions after it was defeated were not written. In the case of the player defeating him, the game would freeze. However, a specific ending was written by an unknown programmer upon losing the battle. In this ending, the Buried Alive was to have stated, “Finally, fresh meat!” followed by several lines of gibberish. He was to have then dragged the player character into the ground surrounding him. The scene would finish with a typical “Game Over” screen; however, in the background, an image of the Buried Alive character devouring the player was to have been shown. Especially strange are the protocols for after this scene. The cartridge was to download this image to the small internal memory contained in the Gameboy, overwriting the title screen that normally accompanied a Gameboy turning on. Instead, whenever it was started, the player would view this image as the sound file staticmesh.wav was played. The intended purpose for this effect, unlike many of the other factors leading towards LTS, is unknown."


Eine andere Theorie, die die hohe Suizidrate zu erklären versucht, behauptet folgendes:
(das wird jetzt nur für diejenigen Sinn ergeben, die schonmal Pokémon gespielt haben)

Ganz am Anfang des Spiels, nachdem man sich gerade von seiner Mutter verabschiedet hat, muss man zunächst ein Stück Wiese betreten, bevor Professor Eich einen 'rettet' und einem sein erstes Pokémon überreicht. An sich ist das Spiel so programmiert, dass man in diesem schutzlosen Stadium ohne Pokémon nicht im hohen Gras von wilden Pokémon angegriffen werden kann, aber was wäre, wenn es in sehr sehr seltenen Fällen in dieser ersten Edition doch passieren konnte und dieses wilde Pokémon einem f**ing creepige Dinge sagen würde? Sehnsucht nach verstorbenen Freunden oder Verwandte wecken?



>> WANT TO BE CREEPED OUT TOO?






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Ein ♥ für ominöse Legenden.