ThePokemon lore leakshave shaken the PokeWorld to its very core. Who knew that all this time, the deviants writing Ash/Lucario love stories on AO3 hadn’t been far off from whatGame Freakhad been writing this entire time?
From tales ofPokemon/human relationsto epic sagas of revenge, these fablesborrow liberally from real world mythologiesto tell twisted tales ofTyphlosion tricksand Slakoth sadness. I was worried that the storiesmight have ruined some of my favourite Pokemonand, as TheGamer’s resident Cyndaquil stan, that I wouldn’t feel the same about my beloved starter knowing that Game Freakplanned this darker lore all along.
Some of this depth adds to the world, but other parts are a little too explicit for me. But what about people with Pokemon tattoos? Imagine loving a ‘mon so much that you get it etched permanently into your skin, only for, well,thisto happen. I reached out to some inked PokeFans to see if the leaks have changed how they feel about their favourite monsters, and the tattoos themselves.
The first person I contacted goes by ‘LilSlothie’, and has the full Slakoth line tattooed on her. At the time I sent her a message, she wasn’t aware of the lore leaks, and doubted their veracity. I appreciated her cynicism in our world of misinformation, but I hadn’t planned on explaining these dark tales to anyone when I started researching this article.
“I’m glad the woman kept the Slakoth and raised it, if I had one I’d look after it, Slakoth are my babies,” she tells me. “I’d love to live at the Slakoth lake! But I think this is false info you’ve been given as I highly doubt Pokémon would release a backstory of Slakoth Pokémon so morbid and dark.”
Peter, who has a Hisuian Typhlosion tattoo, is a little more understanding of where Game Freak was coming from.
“[I] don’t have Twitter, so I can’t read [the] context, but if this is just draft lore and based on myths, I don’t really care,” he says. “How many stories do we have in Western culture about gods and mythical figures transforming to sleep with women? Since it seems it was pitched and shot down, it sounds like someone did their job.
“To be clear, I do not agree with the story. I just understand where [Game Freak was] trying to go with a mythical story.”
Peter likes the idea of the direction that Pokemon was trying to take, if not necessarily the content within them. But even if that wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t impact his feelings about his tattoo.
“My tattoo is for my first starter back in Pokemon after a long time away,” he explains. “No influence [from] Typhlosion’s lore or flavour text. I’m sure there were tons of pitches that were rejected for good reasons. Can’t blame world builders for pitching ideas. IP holders filter out what they want to keep and embrace. To be honest, as an adult, I would want the world to grow as I have. I didn’t stay a 10 year old boy. My world views have changed. Why not add a little lore as long as it is family friendly?”
“Sounds like they had a brainstorming session like writers of shows do. [It] didn’t make the cut, so it’s not really a worry to me.”
While her feelings on the leaks are different, LilSlothie agrees with Peter regarding her ink.
“[It] doesn’t change a thing,” she tells me. “I always have and always will obsess/love the Slakoth line and IF the story were true, I’m glad Slakoth line would fight back since people are being d*cks and I would love to live at Slakoth lake! They will always be my number one babies.”
My final interviewee is slightly different in that she got her tattooafterthe leak was revealed, and clearly knew all about it before we began our conversation.
“I had already planned the tattoo before the leaks, the design was ready,” Paula explains. Her ink features Cyndaquil, Quilava, Typhlosion, and Hisuian Typhlosion. “They are my favourite Pokemon, and the leaks happened the day before I was scheduled to tattoo if I remember correctly. It was just a funny coincidence.”
“If anything, it made me want the tattoo even more. Not saying I agree with what the Pokemon do in these stories, but it’s not like the leaks are canon. And even if they were, and it was not a mistranslation, it’s just a way of telling folklore stories and fairy tales in the Pokemon world, like Greek myths.”
Paula understands that the timing for her tattoo could have been better, but some non-canonical lore leaks are easy to laugh about.
“I mentioned it [to] my artist, and we laughed together because it really doesn’t matter in the end, it’s just funny how everybody is blowing things out of proportion,” she says. “If you are not hurting or offending anyone, people should just enjoy things they like and not care about the opinion of others.”
With her parting comment, Paula echoes the thoughts of many Typhlosion fans when discussing the leaks, the potential mistranslations, and the non-canonical nature of anything left on the cutting room floor: “Leave my boy Typhlosion alone, he’s innocent.”
