Lavender Town facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lavender Town |
|
|---|---|
Lavender Town as it appears in Pokémon Red and Blue
|
|
| Other name(s) | Home Of Spirits |
| Genre | Japanese role-playing game |
| Type | Village |
| First appearance | Pokémon Red and Blue |
| Last appearance | Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee! |
Lavender Town (Japanese: シオンタウン, Hepburn: Shion Taun, Shion Town) is a special village in the world of Pokémon Red and Blue video games. It's known for being a bit spooky, almost like a haunted location. Lavender Town is home to the Pokémon Tower, which is a place where trainers can say goodbye to their Pokémon friends who have passed away.
Contents
Lavender Town in the Games
Lavender Town is a village you can visit in many Pokémon games. These include Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, and later games like Gold, Silver, Crystal, and their remakes. Unlike most happy towns in the Pokémon world, Lavender Town has a serious and sad feel.
The Pokémon Tower
The main feature of Lavender Town is the "Pokémon Tower." This tower is a graveyard for Pokémon, filled with many tombstones. Trainers often visit to mourn their lost Pokémon. Inside the tower, you might find ghost-type Pokémon. In the original games, this was the only place to catch them!
To deal with the ghost-type Pokémon in the story, players use a special item called the Silph Scope. It's hinted that the village is haunted by the spirits of Pokémon who have passed on. One important story involves a Marowak Pokémon. It was sadly defeated by Team Rocket, and its spirit is looking for its child, a Cubone. This sad story is shown more clearly in the remake games like Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!.
Lavender Town is often the first time players learn that Pokémon can die. It's also one of the few towns in the games that does not have a Pokémon Gym.
Other Features of Lavender Town
In later games like Pokémon Gold and Silver, the Pokémon Tower was replaced by the "Kanto Radio Tower." Lavender Town also has a "Name Rater," who can help you change the nickname of your Pokémon. There's also a care home for Pokémon who have been left behind.
Lavender Town in Other Stories
Lavender Town and its Pokémon Tower have appeared in other Pokémon stories too.
- In the first season of the Pokémon anime series, the main characters visit the tower to find ghost-type Pokémon for a tough gym battle.
- It also shows up in the Pokémon Adventures and The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga series. In Pokémon Adventures, it's clearly shown as a place where many Pokémon are buried.
- The Pokémon Tower is also a main setting in the second episode of Pokémon Origins, where the story of the orphaned Cubone is fully shown.
The Music of Lavender Town
The background music for Lavender Town in the Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow games is very famous. Many people find it quite unsettling or spooky. In 2012, Brittany Vincent from Bloody Disgusting said it was the second-scariest video game song. She noted that its "calm" tune is still a top scary memory for many gamers.
The music was made by Junichi Masuda. It uses unusual sounds and strange chords to create a very eerie feeling. Shubhankar Parijat of GamingBolt put the song on his list of creepy soundtracks from games that aren't even horror games. Jay Hathaway of Gawker mentioned that listening to the music on repeat can give you a "vague sense of dread." Kevin Knezevic of GameSpot called it "one of the area's most unforgettable features."
In Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal (and their remakes [[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]), the Lavender Town music was changed. It became much happier because, in the game's story, the Pokémon Tower was taken down and the Kanto Radio Tower was built instead. Many remixes of the theme have been made on YouTube. It was even re-recorded for the Pokémon Go Halloween events in 2017, 2019, and 2020.
Fan Theories: Blue's Raticate
A popular fan theory about Lavender Town involves the player's rival, Blue. In the Pokémon Tower, you battle Blue. Fans have noticed that Blue's Raticate, a Pokémon he used in every battle before, is missing from this fight and all future battles.
Also, when Blue meets the player in the tower, he says, "Your Pokémon don't look dead! I can at least make them faint!" This has led many fans to believe that Blue's Raticate might have been defeated in a previous battle and that Blue came to the Pokémon Tower to bury and mourn his lost Pokémon friend.
