Well it’s Halloween once again, and for this year I thought I’d do a special post for Pokemon Cupboard. I was actually planning to do a four-week series on Ghost Pokemon throughout the generations of the game, but the day I had planned to start the series I was having trouble with a fanfic, so the series was more or less canceled. But I still wanted to do a special post for Halloween. At first I was just going to do a post on Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar, but I decided that it wasn’t very original. I may do that for next Halloween or just cover them in an Interesting Specimen post. So instead I’m going to do a post on Pokemon Tower.
Nothing is forever in this earthly plain of ours, not even Pokemon. So in Generation One when a Pokemon went to that big Pokeball in the sky, its body was interred in the Pokemon Tower, a seven-story graveyard for Pokemon. The tower wasn’t just a gravesite though; it also housed several wild Pokemon. Back in the days of Red, Blue, and Yellow, Pokemon Tower was the only place to find Ghastly and Haunter in the wild. It was also a good place to find a few Cuebone. An odd trait about the wild Pokemon of Pokemon Tower was that appeared as actual ghosts that could not be battled or captured unless their disguise was undone by a device known as the Sliph Scope.
This disguise even applied to the Cuebone living in the tower, which was a little odd. But I think all the Ghastly and Haunter just cast a mass illusion on all the wild Pokemon living there to protect the Cuebone. Why do the Cubone need protection you ask? Well, Pokemon Tower has a bit if grizzly history behind it. A few years before the events of the games, Team Rocket raided the tower and attempted to capture all the Cubone so they could sell the skulls they wore on the black market. During the attack a mother Marowak died protecting her children from being captured. As a result, the ghost of that very Marowak began to haunt the second to top floor of the tower, blocking access to the top floor. The only way the player can get past the ghost of the mother Marowak was to use the Sliph Scope to reveal her identity and defeat her in battle, thus calming her spirit and allowing her to pass on.
In Generation Two, the Pokemon Tower went through a major and rather shocking change. What was once a mass grave became a radio tower for the Kanto Region (which both umchan and I think is completely messed up). With the conversion of the tower, all the graves were moved to a new location in Lavender Town, the House of Memories. As a result, all the wild Pokemon that were living in the tower fled to the surrounding routes outside Lavender Town. It’s completely mind-boggling how such a shocking change could take place in the short time between generations. My theory is that big business weeded its way into the town.
In Other Media: The Pokemon Tower has had a few appearances outside the games. Of course it appeared in the anime, but it was quite different. In the anime the tower was not a mass grave, but an old abandoned mansion built to have horns on the top and evil-looking eyes carved into the front (rich people, right?). The tower was also home to a mischievous Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar. In the episode, Ash tries to capture one of these Pokemon to gain an advantage against Sabrina. In the process, Ash and Pikachu get hit by a chandelier and technically die. At that point, Haunter pulled their souls out with its floating claws and Ash and Pikachu ended up having an out of body experience. Haunter became one of my favorite Pokemon after that episode.
From what I’ve read, Pokemon Tower has had a couple notable manga appearances as well. In the Pokemon Adventures mange, the tower is once again a mass tomb, and a ghost reanimates the corpses of the Pokemon buried there into zombies. That Pokemon Adventures manga sure has some weird plotlines. In the Magical Pokemon Journey manga, the tower is once again a burial site. In the story, Pikachu and its friends help reunite the ghost of a Raichu with the spirit of its dead trainer.
Other Burial Grounds: Pokemon Tower is not the only Pokemon cemetery around. All the other regions in the Pokemon World accept Johto has a burial site all its own for departed Pokemon. In the Hoenn Region, most if not all Pokemon are laid to rest in Mt. Pyre. No actual ghosts have been known to haunt Mt. Pyre, but it is home to several different wild Pokemon, the most notable being Shuppet and Duskull. The mountain is also the place where the Red and Blue orbs that awaken Groudon and Kyogre are kept.
The Sinnoh Region has its own version of the Pokemon Tower, known as the Lost Tower. Like the Pokemon Tower, Lost Tower is home to a lot of Ghost-type Pokemon, as well as a few Zubat, Golbat, and Murkrow. There are also two overseers at the top floor of the tower that give out items to trainers. Lastly we have the Celestial Tower in the Unova Region. The Celestial Tower is not quite as tall as the Pokemon Tower, but does have a bell at the top which mourners can ring in remembrance of their dearly departed Pokemon. The tower is also home to several Litwick and Elgyem, and in Black 2 and White 2, Mesprit can be found at the top of the tower once the Elite Four have been beaten and certain events happen.
So that pretty much wraps things up for this post. I may do more posts on locations in the future. Happy Halloween!
