Greenlit: Spooky Halloween/October Article(s) Ideas

I've been brainstorming ideas for October or Halloween-themed articles. The main ideas I thought of were:

• Article(s) on the "spooky" locations in the main series (probably not focusing on Lavender Town because that's very overdone); could be about lore, wild Pok?mon, etc.
• Spooky non-Ghost-Type Pok?mon
• Friendly/cute Ghost-Types

I'm not quite sure which would be the best; the "location" article could potentially be numerous articles focusing on different areas throughout the month but then we'd have to pick maybe 3 so I'd have a week for each leading up to Halloween. What do you all think? I'd love for any feedback on what you think would be the most interesting to read and learn about.

Hiroshi Sotomura said:

I think we ought to translate the <a href="http://www.pokemon.jp/special/mystery/">Mystery Files</a>. :O

Or use some of their content as a basis for scary stuff.

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Wow, this all seems very interesting! But it's a lot of information, too. I may not be able to translate it all accurately. If we go with this idea, we may have to pick just one to go with.

Seeing that they have something on Cynthia makes me think, though, if maybe an article on scary characters (that aren't related to ghosts or Ghost-Types) could be interesting?

I'm personally not interested in any of these ideas as I don't really care for holiday articles that serve no real purpose in my eyes.

However, this is a minority opinion and I think that you should do it anyways! So +1 to whatever you decide on.

Rivvon said:

I've been brainstorming ideas for October or Halloween-themed articles. The main ideas I thought of were:

• Article(s) on the "spooky" locations in the main series (probably not focusing on Lavender Town because that's very overdone); could be about lore, wild Pok?mon, etc.
• Spooky non-Ghost-Type Pok?mon
• Friendly/cute Ghost-Types

I'm not quite sure which would be the best; the "location" article could potentially be numerous articles focusing on different areas throughout the month but then we'd have to pick maybe 3 so I'd have a week for each leading up to Halloween. What do you all think? I'd love for any feedback on what you think would be the most interesting to read and learn about.

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An idea I had ages back was a summary article/article series of said spooky places/Ghosts in the games. Wouldn't be a bad month to consider it, although I may be too busy to help much right now with it.

Scary/creepy pokemon list would be neat. Parasect at the top. :V Less sure about the last idea - could you elaborate?

Hiroshi Sotomura said:

I think we ought to translate the <a href="http://www.pokemon.jp/special/mystery/">Mystery Files</a>. :O

Or use some of their content as a basis for scary stuff.

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Echoing Rivvon - translating may be timely but it's an interesting idea.

SirBoglor said:

I'm personally not interested in any of these ideas as I don't really care for holiday articles that serve no real purpose in my eyes.

However, this is a minority opinion and I think that you should do it anyways! So +1 to whatever you decide on.

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Using holidays and whatnot as a theme for articles is quite fine, and arguably fun to do as well, which is a good enough purpose imo. =p

bobandbill said:

Scary/creepy pokemon list would be neat. Parasect at the top. :V Less sure about the last idea - could you elaborate?

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Well there's always spooky spooks during the Month of Halloween, but there's a lot of appeal to cute, "friendly" ghosts as well (think of like the cute Halloween "mascots" that form, like smiling round ghosts and cute black cats). While people love to hear about the scary, maybe even morbid, Pok?mon, perhaps an article about cute and friendly Ghost-Types could be a breath of fresh air. Maybe it doesn't even have to focus on Ghost-Types, but Pok?mon that fit the Halloween theme (like Braixen and Delphox).

Although honestly, I am kind of liking the "spooky locations" series idea a bit more myself at this point. It would just be a matter of narrowing down the locations to use.

Rivvon said:

Well there's always spooky spooks during the Month of Halloween, but there's a lot of appeal to cute, "friendly" ghosts as well (think of like the cute Halloween "mascots" that form, like smiling round ghosts and cute black cats). While people love to hear about the scary, maybe even morbid, Pokémon, perhaps an article about cute and friendly Ghost-Types could be a breath of fresh air. Maybe it doesn't even have to focus on Ghost-Types, but Pokémon that fit the Halloween theme (like Braixen and Delphox).

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I can get behind that then. I'll +1 that, but would like to here how you plan to structure such an article (if you're still keen on writing it).

Although honestly, I am kind of liking the "spooky locations" series idea a bit more myself at this point. It would just be a matter of narrowing down the locations to use.

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I could see it being a series with one location focused on per article, which is started this month and finished whenever. I suppose Lavender Town is the easy option as a starting point, but I don't think it's necessary to go chronologically. Open to suggestions.

friendly cute ghosts...

bobandbill said:

I can get behind that then. I'll +1 that, but would like to here how you plan to structure such an article (if you're still keen on writing it).

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After seeing that someone else requested it above, I went ahead and checked out the Pok?dex entries for the Ghost-Types, but it seems they all have some bad intentions! The only one that seemed rather neutral is Pumpkaboo, but it would be hard to make an article with that theme focused solely around the one Pok?mon.

I could see it being a series with one location focused on per article, which is started this month and finished whenever. I suppose Lavender Town is the easy option as a starting point, but I don't think it's necessary to go chronologically. Open to suggestions.

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If anything, I'd start with Lavender Town to get it over with. Like I already said, it's been overdone. I'd probably tackle such a series like this:

1. Lavender Town, with focus on how it appears in gen 2 (if I can find anything suggesting that ghosts communicate through radio waves, bring up how the Pok?mon Tower was replaced with a Radio Tower)
2. Old Chateau, focusing on the book about Rotom, the ghosts of the old man and girl, and how there's an Antidote in the trash can hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder how they died
3. Strange House, and the girl who needs a Lunar Wing
4. Not sure how I would categorize this, but just the strange goings-on of Kalos and Hoenn; the ghost girl in Lumiose City (both in the Fighting Dojo building and one of the hotels--and the fact that a girl says the same thing she does in Mt. Pyre), the creepy message in the train station, and the haunted apartment in Mauville Hills

Please let me know what you think!

Rivvon said:

After seeing that someone else requested it above, I went ahead and checked out the Pok?dex entries for the Ghost-Types, but it seems they all have some bad intentions! The only one that seemed rather neutral is Pumpkaboo, but it would be hard to make an article with that theme focused solely around the one Pok?mon.


If anything, I'd start with Lavender Town to get it over with. Like I already said, it's been overdone. I'd probably tackle such a series like this:

1. Lavender Town, with focus on how it appears in gen 2 (if I can find anything suggesting that ghosts communicate through radio waves, bring up how the Pok?mon Tower was replaced with a Radio Tower)
2. Old Chateau, focusing on the book about Rotom, the ghosts of the old man and girl, and how there's an Antidote in the trash can hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder how they died
3. Strange House, and the girl who needs a Lunar Wing
4. Not sure how I would categorize this, but just the strange goings-on of Kalos and Hoenn; the ghost girl in Lumiose City (both in the Fighting Dojo building and one of the hotels--and the fact that a girl says the same thing she does in Mt. Pyre), the creepy message in the train station, and the haunted apartment in Mauville Hills

Please let me know what you think!

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I'd say do the Old chateu cause SHINNOH CONFIRMED!

There's a lot of interesting theories on it that I think are worth looking into.

My favorite is that Charon is responsible for what happened and when Rottom became a oven it burned the house down, the butler and child die of smoke poisoning in an attempt to get the antidote. Rottom disappears after this and Charon moves on.

Z25 said:

I'd say do the Old chateu cause SHINNOH CONFIRMED!

There's a lot of interesting theories on it that I think are worth looking into.

My favorite is that Charon is responsible for what happened and when Rottom became a oven it burned the house down, the butler and child die of smoke poisoning in an attempt to get the antidote. Rottom disappears after this and Charon moves on.

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Well it's meant to be a series. It would be hard to justify picking just one as technically none of them are relevant at the moment (unless you want to argue that gen 1 is "always relevant," but again, Lavender Town has been covered way too often by now).

Rivvon said:

Well it's meant to be a series. It would be hard to justify picking just one as technically none of them are relevant at the moment (unless you want to argue that gen 1 is "always relevant," but again, Lavender Town has been covered way too often by now).

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Ah, something I forgot in discord is you could discuss Haouli cemetery.

The game implies that Ride Pokemon killed the Old Lady's husband and that's why you wear helmets.

You also get fling for it, making the sad story even sadder. Plus there is a theory that the old man is also Hapu's grandfather who died suddenly.

All could make for something interesting.

Rivvon said:

After seeing that someone else requested it above, I went ahead and checked out the Pok?dex entries for the Ghost-Types, but it seems they all have some bad intentions! The only one that seemed rather neutral is Pumpkaboo, but it would be hard to make an article with that theme focused solely around the one Pok?mon.

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What mean ghosts.

If anything, I'd start with Lavender Town to get it over with. Like I already said, it's been overdone. I'd probably tackle such a series like this:

1. Lavender Town, with focus on how it appears in gen 2 (if I can find anything suggesting that ghosts communicate through radio waves, bring up how the Pok?mon Tower was replaced with a Radio Tower)
2. Old Chateau, focusing on the book about Rotom, the ghosts of the old man and girl, and how there's an Antidote in the trash can hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder how they died
3. Strange House, and the girl who needs a Lunar Wing
4. Not sure how I would categorize this, but just the strange goings-on of Kalos and Hoenn; the ghost girl in Lumiose City (both in the Fighting Dojo building and one of the hotels--and the fact that a girl says the same thing she does in Mt. Pyre), the creepy message in the train station, and the haunted apartment in Mauville Hills

Please let me know what you think!

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This seems sensible to me. Could go with an article per generation/set of games (for the regions with remakes), but Kanto and Johto together as Johto... lacks spooky areas. Ruins of Alph are mysterious but not really 'spooky', and you can discuss how Lavender Town changed as you said.

An addition to Old Chanteau in DPPt is a house in one of the snowy routes, iirc. You get a Spell Tag from an NPC in the house and when you return to the house she's gone. As if she was never there...

Hoenn - in ORAS there's a ghost girl seen in cutscenes when battling Phoebe.

I also wonder if a fifth article is viable for non-main-series cases of creepy/spooky stuff. Only one I think of atm is... Magikarp Jump of all things (the secret event involving the television). Any in the MD/Ranger games?

Z25 said:

Ah, something I forgot in discord is you could discuss Haouli cemetery.

The game implies that Ride Pokemon killed the Old Lady's husband and that's why you wear helmets.

You also get fling for it, making the sad story even sadder. Plus there is a theory that the old man is also Hapu's grandfather who died suddenly.

All could make for something interesting.

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While it's certainly dark and sad, it's not what I would call spooky or fitting for this article. That theory is the first I heard of it too, and... I don't recall any hint that supports such a relation (and again, it doesn't fit this article).

bobandbill said:

What mean ghosts.
This seems sensible to me. Could go with an article per generation/set of games (for the regions with remakes), but Kanto and Johto together as Johto... lacks spooky areas. Ruins of Alph are mysterious but not really 'spooky', and you can discuss how Lavender Town changed as you said.

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Yeah, Johto doesn't really have traditionally "spooky" places, which is why Lavender Town would have been the best to include with it (namely its changes).


Something has come up though; I'm going to be attending a professional gaming convention in November so I'll need a lot of time to prepare my portfolio. So a series of articles won't be very viable for me right now. What I can do instead is make one longer article about something spooky.

I was thinking focusing on spooky gen 6 stuff. Gen 6 is technically irrelevant now, but it's recent enough that it can be overlooked to some degree, and it also includes the Lumiose ghost girl, which is a popular enough topic that it can draw in viewers.

I imagine the topics to go something like this:

1. Kalos general: the scary house on route 14, and if I can find enough lore on it, the Lost Hotel
2. Hoenn general: the discounted lease apartment in Mauville Hills
3. To continue off of Mauville, the creepy happenings of Sea Mauville
4. The Lumiose ghost girl: Kalos (Dojo upper floor; hotel); Hoenn (Mt. Pyre)
5. The creepy message on the back of the train billboard, and if it could possibly be related to the ghost girl(?)

Let me know what you think!

Rivvon said:

Yeah, Johto doesn't really have traditionally "spooky" places, which is why Lavender Town would have been the best to include with it (namely its changes).


Something has come up though; I'm going to be attending a professional gaming convention in November so I'll need a lot of time to prepare my portfolio. So a series of articles won't be very viable for me right now. What I can do instead is make one longer article about something spooky.

I was thinking focusing on spooky gen 6 stuff. Gen 6 is technically irrelevant now, but it's recent enough that it can be overlooked to some degree, and it also includes the Lumiose ghost girl, which is a popular enough topic that it can draw in viewers.

I imagine the topics to go something like this:

1. Kalos general: the scary house on route 14, and if I can find enough lore on it, the Lost Hotel
2. Hoenn general: the discounted lease apartment in Mauville Hills
3. To continue off of Mauville, the creepy happenings of Sea Mauville
4. The Lumiose ghost girl: Kalos (Dojo upper floor; hotel); Hoenn (Mt. Pyre)
5. The creepy message on the back of the train billboard, and if it could possibly be related to the ghost girl(?)

Let me know what you think!

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Sounds pretty solid to me. The Expanded sea Mauvile lore was one of my favorite parts of ORAS.

Also sounds good to me. One note however is that the article series idea doesn't have to be this month, just merely started this month. We can continue with it after Halloween.

Pumpkin Spiced Memes said:

Loving the Gen 6 love! It's definitely being overlooked right now and it does have a huge chunk of spooky happenings like you've mentioned, i reckon one large (maybe even longform?) piece would work much better anyway. For me this is definitely the best way to go, how will you write it though? Through the perspective of a player for example?

Also guys, Rivvon may be writing this but if you have any other ideas for spooky articles then let us know in here (:

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Thanks! I was thinking of trying to write it through the perspective of the ghost girl, but I'll have to work hard to give it that narrative style spin while also presenting information (and making it clear by the end that it's through her perspective at all).

Z25 said:

Sounds pretty solid to me. The Expanded sea Mauvile lore was one of my favorite parts of ORAS.

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Thanks! Sea Mauville definitely sits on that border of "reality vs. supernatural, but still terrifying when you read into it."

bobandbill said:

Also sounds good to me. One note however is that the article series idea doesn't have to be this month, just merely started this month. We can continue with it after Halloween.

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Thanks! I'd also love to continue a series like this, probably an article for each generation of spooks, but how would we justify it past Halloween?

Rivvon said:

Thanks! I'd also love to continue a series like this, probably an article for each generation of spooks, but how would we justify it past Halloween?

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I think just by deciding that it's an interesting topic and fun to write about, haha. I don't mind "seasonal" articles written during other parts of the year after all.

Mightyena looks somewhat ghost like.
Also Umbreon, as it is based on a black cat.
The graveyard in Sun and Moon looked really out of place and was frightening, maybe include this for one of the areas.
Another thing you might do is include the pokemon based on candy, to represent the candy you get on Halloween.