The Game Freak leak that spawned the Pokémon Typhlosion meme

The story that started the Typhlosion memes featured one of these Pokémon disguising itself as a man, kidnapping a human described as a “girl,” and placing a spell on her to make her forget her family and much to sleep. Eventually she woke up with a child in her arms and the Typhlosion called her his wife.

And that’s why you may have seen drawings of a Typhlosion seemingly dealing with allegations that he sexually abused a minor.

Origin and distribution

The Game Freak leak occurred on October 13, 2024, when hackers stole massive amounts of data from the company and made it available to the public. Documents revealed never-before-seen Pokémon, details about upcoming games and TV shows, and code sources for old games, as well as strange lore that didn’t make it past quality control.

On the day of the leak, Twitter user @GireumNewTown posted the text of the proposed Pokémon mythos. At least two other stories also spread, involving interspecies relationships between magical creatures and humans.

Similar to memes like the Vaporeon copypasta, the pocket monsters in these stories became the butt of jokes and incorporated into a running gag about being horny for Pokémon. The trend has exploded over the past few days and shows no signs of slowing down.

Cultural context

While some people have serious concerns about what’s going on with Game Freak’s employees, others believe that these stories were written to resemble real-world myths. The main theme of these stories seems to be an attempt to explain that humans and Pokémon have a close historical relationship.

The introduction to the Typhlosion story states: “Long ago, when the line between Pokémon and humans was unclear…” At the very end it says that all Typhlosions are half-human.

These and other strange stories show how humans get closer to Pokémon and learn to get along with them, often as a result of deadly violence and the birth of human-Pokémon hybrids. This is not unlike many Japanese myths, as well as the wild examples of Greek and Norse folklore.

Back when these types of stories first emerged, people’s view of consent was different than it is today. But there’s also a clear reason why this leaked lore didn’t make it into the official canon.

Unfortunately, people in general still don’t have a great understanding of the topic of sexual violence, and some people are rather lighthearted about it in their jokes, so be careful.

Typhlosion meme examples

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