Game news Pokémon: don’t believe everything you read on the Internet, the creepy story of Typhlosion finally has an origin and it’s not that bad
Published on 10/20/2024 at 3:25 p.m.
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The “TeraLeak” that affected Game Freak leaked a lot of information, including documents on the history of Little Monsters. On the Internet, Typhlosion is portrayed as a “killer”, “rapist”, and “pedophile”, have the creators of the franchise really reached that point?
Typhlosion in the dock
Last week, Game Freak suffered the biggest data leak in its history: “TeraLeak”. What has been released on the web is not only the source codes of several games, but also scenarios on the lore of Pokémon. One creature in particular is at the center of attention: Typhlosion, a fire type that also has a version of Hisui, fire and ghost. And in the escape that interests us here, a small scenario called “original sin” escaped. If you have read people portraying Typhlosion as a “pedophile”, “kidnapper”, “rapist” and “killer”, this is not the case, rest assured. The text that leaked to 4Chan was actually poorly translated by automatic software. Several crucial pieces of information were missing from the English translated version that were present in the original Japanese version.
Everything comes from Japanese mythology
The writers at Game Freak were inspired by Japanese mythology and in particular the Yokais (Japanese demons), the Noppera-bos and Mujinasto write about Typhlosion’s past. These mythological monsters are capable of transforming into objects and even humans. In these folk tales, the girl deceived by the creature transformed into a human is between 16 and 20 years old, an age range which respects the sexual majority in Japan.
I contacted a few professional translators (Japanese to English), who checked the facts, and clarified some details: Typhlosion did not kidnap any child to molest; but rather, disguised as a hermit, he saved a young woman during a snowfall by bringing her to his home.
Long before the “Tera Leak,” fans were aware that, in the past, “the lines between Pokémon and humans were still blurry.” The two formed, in fact, one and the same species. In Game Freak’s version of the Mujinas stories, Typhlosion encounters a lost girl in the forest and transforms into a man. The latter offers to accommodate her for the night, which she accepts. When going to bed, the man asks his guest not to try to see his face, so as not to reveal his true identity. In the end, the duo stays together, living apart from humans. The girl guesses soon enough that her host is actually a Typhlosion, but that doesn’t scare her away. One fine morning, she gives birth to a baby (this passage is not developed in more detail in the leaked scenario). When the girl’s father comes to look for her in the forest, she asks the Typhlosion to let himself be killed by the father’s weapons, the Pokémon obeys and perishes…
And yes, this is indeed a story imagined by your favorite successful studio.This is not the first time that Game Freak has made references to Japanese mythology. For example, Ninetales echoes Kitsune, a fox with magical powers or several monsters from the license which have strong similarities with Kappas (amphibians) or Nekomatas (beings close to cats).
