The Pokémon franchise has been around for a long time and, for the most part, has been considered a kid-friendly franchise. The game series doesn’t feature gore, strong visual violence, or any of the other things that make up T or M rated games. At its core, this franchise is pretty innocent, especially for kids who don’t take the time to read all the Pokedex entries about ghost-type Pokémon.
With that being said, the games have actually been pretty dark at times, especially in the case of the first few generations. There were even some spin-off titles that had players following the story of a former criminal.
10 Slowpoke Tails
Slowpoke tails are supposed to be a delicious delicacy in the Pokémon world, that many people will pay ridiculously high prices for. In nature, slowpokes naturally lose their tails after a set amount of time and grow new ones, but in the Gen II games, Team Rocket members invaded the Slowpoke Well.
It was here that they cut off the tails of the poor slowpoke to turn a fast profit.
9 Lake of Rage
Once Team Rocket had successfully injured the slowpoke population, they moved on to Mahogany Town and decided to cause havoc at the nearby lake. There they used a radio signal that literally sends a Gyarados into a rampage that caused him to terrorize swimmers and capsize boats.
While the game doesn’t state whether any injuries occurred or not, Gyrados has historically been shown to be incredibly violent when enraged.
8 Kyogre And Groudon
In Gen III, players were tasked with stopping either Team Magma or Team Aqua from trying to reshape the world. Magma wanted to use Groudon to create more land in a series of violent eruptions; Aqua wanted Kyogre to pretty much flood the world. Needless to say, both teams learned that these Pokémon didn’t obey humans well.
The world almost ended because two teams of humans thought that they knew what was best for Earth.
7 Taking Hostages
When players really stop and think about it, there have been a lot of hostage situations throughout the games. Starting with Silph Co. in Gen one, the evil groups within each game regularly took over buildings and threatened those who were inside so that they wouldn’t fight back or escape.
Everything from weather centers to a Pokeball factory has been taken over by a criminal organization.
6 Wiping Out Most of The Population
Team Flare is the criminal team from Gen VI. Instead of just wanting to get rich, the leader of Team Flare wanted to kill millions of people in order to make the world a better place. In fact, Lysandre, the leader of the team, strives to try and wipe out a chunk of humanity until he is sealed inside of the Team Flare HQ.
Lysandre may, and his plan to lower the population may just be the darkest plan that an enemy team has ever made.
5 Inventing The Snag Machine
The snag machine is a horrible device that exists in the Pokemon Colosseum titles. The invention of this machine gave team Snagem the ability to literally steal any Pokémon they wanted, even if they already had a trainer. If it wasn’t for Wes destroying the Snagem base and stealing the machine, things would have been a lot worse.
Pokémon are viewed as family members by many trainers, so the invention of a brainwashing machine is pretty evil.
4 Shadow Pokemon
Shadow Pokémon are one of the darkest things to come out of the franchise, as their existence is plain abusive. To make a Shadow Pokémon, Team Cipher makes them undergo an experimental process that removes their will and turns them into nothing but a shell.
While Pokémon, who undergo this process, are much stronger, they lose the ability to think or feel for themselves.
3 Silver Stealing a Starter
Silver is one of the saddest rivals in the whole series. When he appears in Gen II, the player can find him peering into the lab of Professor Elm, from whom they get their first Pokémon from. After the player chooses their partner, a robbery will occur where Silver steals another one of the starters.
While theft is mentioned in the Pokémon world, Silver is a young child who seems to be completely on his own.
2 Abandoned Silver
For players lucky enough to meet Celebi in Heartgold and Soulsilver, an additional bit of story is given on Silver. In this scene, the player watches as Giovanni chooses to abandon the young boy. This is the only time a child is shown being abandoned in the game, and is rather dark.
While this is meant to help flesh out Silvers’s backstory, it is an event that some players feel was a bit too dark.
1 Cubone’s Mother
One of the most well-known events that happened in Gen I was the death of Cubone’s mother at the hands of Team Rocket. This happened after the team decided to take over the graveyard in Lavender Town, where they accidentally ended up killing the Pokémon and turning it into a malicious ghost.
This is one of the few times a dead Pokémon is shown in the series, especially within the game.
NEXT: 10 Pokémon That Have Changed Since Red & Blue
