ULTRA BEASTS - How COSMIC HORROR Makes POKÉMON DISTURBING

[@TheYonderlander]

Finally, someone put into words why I love the concept of ultra beasts. I miss them so much. This isn't even the first time pokemon has touched on the theme of cosmic horror either. It's no shocker to say that gen 4 touches on themes like this too, with deities controlling the very fabric of our realities. And of course there's Giratina. But what came to my attention recently is the opening title screen of the game. Up until gen 4 and even after, there'd always be that swelling energetic pokemon title theme that we all know and love. Even SUMO, which has these interdimensional aliens at the core mythos, still has that uppity adventerous beat. But when you fire up diamond, you're greeted by a deep drone, red intimidating eyes, and the mere sillhouette of some being with untold power while what feels like pure power flowing through their form. Gen 2 utilized silhouettes too for ho-oh/lugia/suicune too but it had a much different vibe. And now we got (SV spoilers) Mountains of Madness vibes and possible reality warping themes in Area Zero. If those theories circulating right now are true? Man. We eating good tonight boys.

[@astrei_cat]

oh I see! I haven't played SV yet but I do love how gen 4 treats the cosmology of the pokemon universe!! you just gave me an idea for a sequel video, thank you!!

[@gabrieletomonis4981]

And don't forget Arceus itself might be an eldritch horror itself as well, just compressed into a more comprehensible form to us humans. Lockstin briefly touched upon this in one of his videos literally a week before sun and moon came out. About the possibility as to what the pokedex is referring to when it comes to Arceus' quote unquote "one thousand arms", whether if it's the Unown or if Arceus is really some kind of space god octopus, just hiding these arms behind its belt, in otherwords Cthulhu or even Azathoth. But in the context of that video, he was obviously referring to the Kumulipo chant, where the octopus is said to be the lone survivor of a previous world. And it's no secret that Azoth is only 3 letters away from being Azathoth. So it's possible that as every generation passes, we are drawing closer and closer towards Lovecraftian territory.

[@GameGodZERO]

it's really a shame Crown Tundra just yeeted them into max raid adventures for the 4th branch of it and not give them their own feature; seeing some of them just wandering around the overworld of the 3 open world areas like the Galarian form birds would have been cool af. Hopefully SV DLC can deliver, in a similar manner to how you can see the titans from afar in the base game

[@Vivian-eo3qc]

so TRUE! all

[@platina1027]

The Pokemon go ads made me appreciate the ultra beasts more. The clips of people screaming and freaking out just makes UB's feel more creepy and otherworldly. Especially the Xurkitree video

[@redstonecasey4713]

It's always been my headcanon that Stakataka's homeworld is a Dyson Sphere, that trillions upon trillions of the tiny little bricks have converted entire worlds into more of themselves with a single, shared purpose. The idea that the little walking castles you can catch in-game are but tiny fragments of a greater intelligence, a single massive hive mind that makes the Borg look like a couple kids with tin cans and string, is chillingly fun to think about.

[@astrei_cat]

omg that's actually such a cool concept, I love it!!

[@Vivian-eo3qc]

beautiful

[@MasterIsabelle]

Ultra beasts have a shit ton of potential that gamefreak isn’t using, since ultra beasts we’ve seen are “normal” Pokémon in their dimensions, they’re basically the rattata and caterpie of their dimensions, so that means there must be the dragonite equivalent of ultra beasts out there, and there can be frenzied ultra beasts boss fights, we could have a game about us being a regular resident in the ultra beast world

[@deadlydingus1138]

* should

[@redstonecasey4713]

I'd love to see a Pokemon Legends: Necrozma. Maybe you could be an Ultra Recon Squad cadet!

[@enderking6904]

Actually that makes it Scarier, they are “Normal” Pokémon in their dimensions. Which begs the question, which “Normal” Pokémon in our dimension is just a few steps away from eradicating all life.

[@Ucatty2]

@@enderking6904 grimer and muk. or the toxic guitar and bass lines

[@couldntthinkofaname360]

@@redstonecasey4713 As much as I would love a chance for gamefreak to have a completely fresh start, you know they’re just going to add literally nothing new and add like 10 “space” variants and that’s it because SV kinds dropped a lot of expectations

[@MrSponge56]

I was weird about the ultra beasts at first but reading their lore and seeing them in action seeing how terrifying they can be made me love them so much more lol

[@astrei_cat]

I absolutely agree!! the more I get into their lore, the more I enjoy them

[@adam.n-steve]

Okay. That's it. Someone make a Pokemon analog horror series where people in the 60s try to figure out what the Ultra Beasts are and how they could potentially endanger us.

[@ceecee6521]

What's even more interesting about Guzzlord is how with it devouring the remains of a city, you'd think Guzzlord was the one destroying everything. But then, why is one of the only people left in Ultra Ruins wearing a Guzzlord themed hazmat suit? Even more puzzling, why'd he nickname that Guzzlord "Mr.Glutton"? But the biggest clue as to what happened? The older generation of Ultra Ruins' past inhabitants showing disdain to even the mere mention of a certain power plant.

[@kyurei4478]

Cosmic horror really is my favorite type of horror. To me it is the quintessence of what fear essentially is. The fear of the unknown, of what you have no way to predict or comprehend. This is exactly why the 7th generation of Pokemon is much better than what many people give it credit for and it also expanded the lore of the franchise to make it extra-dimensional, which is insanely cool to think about.

[@galaxygato9642]

Gen 7 gave us Pokemon so much potential and opened up so many possibilities to explore other worlds! I think it would be cool if pokemon made a game exploring the worlds of ultra beasts!

[@kyurei4478]

Like a kind of Pokemon Legend Necrozma could be awesome !

[@deadlydingus1138]

We need more ultra beasts. They’re all so cool and wacky.

[@Glory2Snowstar]

I absolutely adore the Ultra Beasts and anything to do with cosmic horror. Being able to make them my FRIENDS is probably the peak of Pokemon conceptually and I can’t wait to watch this. Thank you so much.

[@sygiliph2495]

I absolutely love the Ultra Beasts. Their designs, Pokedex entries, origins from real life, and those shorts from Nintendo showing the Ultra Beasts invading Earth in the style of a sort of ARG is just... YES. Edit: also, Ultra Beasts have another layer to them, as each one is based on an invasive species in Hawaii, where the Alola Region is based on. All except Poipole and Naganadel, who are vastly different to all Ultra Beasts. Lower base stat total, a friendly Starter Pokemon rather than a true Eldritch Horror that yearns for blood, and based on Wasps that do not live anywhere in Hawaii.

[@galaxygato9642]

It would be cool seeing more ultra beasts based on invasive species especially since they made the current ultra beasts look so interesting!

[@gg_sam7847]

I like to imagine that the Ultra Beasts were locked away in pocket dimensions by Giratina because they became too powerful and disrupted the "balance" of the universe beyond the point where they would naturally recover

[@Scarcheeze]

Missingno is a lovecraftian entity that destroys every Multiverse.

[@YahBoiCyril]

They not as scary once you run in to them in the anime. They may not follow the rules of our dimension, but they do have rules of their own and follow their basic needs the way normal Pokémon do, and returning them to their own dimensions usually just involves figuring out why they’re acting the way they are. Many of them actually don’t seem comfortable in normal space to begin with.

[@YahBoiCyril]

There are a few terrifying ones though.

[@JackieOwl94]

Which this makes sense, considering they adapted to their own planet

[@NEETmoreAnime]

I named my Nihilego "Lovecraft" because that's the first thing that came to my mind when it was first shown in the story. Great video!

[@Pedingo_]

great video man! Gen7 is one of my favorites of all time and seeing the ultra beasts when I was 13 years old really made my jaw drop. Really liked the concept of multiversal aliens and even made me a little scared. I wish gamefreak did this more times

[@JackieOwl94]

I loved them when they came out. I really wish they did more with ultra beasts in future games on the next Gen console. And I love the horror aspects they put in Pokémon sun and moon, but not the downplay in the sequels/quasi-remakes….

[@theleastgothgoth6572]

Great video! Can’t wait to give the rest of your stuff a watch

[@astrei_cat]

I'm glad you enjoy my content!! and that's a really good question, I really like xurkitree's design, but I think guzzlord's context is really interesting, so yeah!

[@BlueNip]

Never got into Sun and Moon but once i heard about these creatures I was fascinated by the concpet. The only mainline game i've played was Diamond. Hope ultrabeasts come back at some point with more emphasis on exploring the worlds they inhabit. Will def add this concept to my GURPS ttrpg world of pokemon.

[@polaknasieci1331]

Sadly we probably aren't going to be seeing them for a while, our best hope right now is a Legends game set in Alola, but hey, at least the paradoxes are really cool too, especially the unhinged conspiracy theory pokedex entries.

[@ctv186]

I'm trying to imagine what a Cthulu looking pokemon would look like.

[@Nightmare-hq4oq]

thinking abt Eternatus after u brought up Ultra Beasts made me realize Eternatus is also an Ultra Beast like necrozma and by this logic the earliest Ultra Beast is Deoxys from gen3

[@GameGodZERO]

Eternatus even uses an unused concept design for Necrozma; was super disappointing they didn't expand on that connection in Crown Tundra and UBs were just haphazardly tossed into max raid adventures

[@Nick-jt5nb]

What I love about the Ultra Beasts is how the game emphasizes that they're technically speaking not even Pokémon. The Poké-balls, which can function on even the direct gods of the Pokémon world, struggle to even comprehend these foreign entities. Only the specialized Ultra Balls (called Beast Balls in the english translation), designed from a Cosmog itself, are effective, and those in return can barely catch actual normal Pokémon.

[@wilt3d_shr00m]

I remember first getting to the ultra ruin and, man...I really had no idea what was coming. stepping out, hearing the distorted reversed music that I had soon realized was a main theme made my heart drop. I felt very ...doomed, like as if i was in the city myself. very scary and dark for a pokemon game, honestly I would pay any amount of money for a pokemon game based entirely off of ultrabeasts

[@Scarcheeze]

I hope you make this channel more like scp foundation but in Pokémon stuff making a video about multiverse,history,cosmic horror,theory and phenomenons in Pokémon multiverse.

[@RetroLiminal99444]

They should do something similar but with the paradox Pokémon.

[@CeaselessEntertainment8468]

in the anime ash finds himself fighting literally 4 guzzlords and his mind is still intact

[@Baconator9k]

Cosmic horror is about the horror of the unknown, and that the unknown is worse than you could ever have imagined. It’s not about science or what’s possible, it’s about things that are so far outside of our reality that have unknown power, but are clearly very very dangerous.

[@fireballofficiall]

Why did Pokémon GO’s trailer make Nihilego so adorable?

[@noradi123]

Talk about cosmic horror & lovecraft horror, do Volo storyline count as a lovecraft tales?

[@Parelily]

Ultra beasts are so good they’re not weird enough to not look completely unlike a Pokémon but weird enough that you can tell they’re not supposed to be there

[@neutralmob4739]

Sounds like chaos gods realmes from warhammer. But with pokemons

[@NatureWonderCH]

Wanna know something really disturbing about Xurkitree? Those structures in his dimensions? They are not wires or structures... they are GIANT FUCKING XURKITREES, the Xukritree we encounter, the one that is 12 feet tall might be only an infant and THOSE things be the adults

[@AllenBlackjack]

I remember in 2016 when I saw Nihilego and literally loved the shit out of it, especially after playing Bloodborne

[@3ch033v3]

Bro the Ultra Beasts are made for Analog Horror/Creepypastas. It’s like they were built to be perfect for it…

[@torterratortellini6641]

I want to make a fanmade ultra beast based on the scrapped elh ghost from Luigi’s mansion. Got any name ideas?

[@halloween_BoI]

Great Video really enjoyed

[@Scarcheeze]

Hello,can you make a video about Pokémon Scarlet and violet about multiverse and phenomenon happening in paldea .

[@twotoned_echos]

All these years later and Ultra Beasts are still one of the coolest concepts introduced in Pokémon. Gen 7 had it's flaws but I love Sun and Moon for introducing Pokémon that were far, far more alien than the already existing alien Pokémon. Really hope we see a continued exploration of Ultra Beasts- heck- imagine a USUM prequel taking place in the Ultra Megalopolis with a canon bad ending (GF would never lol), or a game that's 100% world-hopping with a Pokédex fully comprised of extra-dimensional Pokémon. However, I also feel that UBs being a Gen 7 thing is probably a good decision. Just like with the few alien Pokémon and even the Gen 4 Creation Trio + Arceus to an extent, creating only a few Ultra Beasts only add to the mystery of the Pokémon universe as a whole.

[@Slendermangaming666]

i like pokemon, i like the goofy little monsters

[@Slendermangaming666]

the cosmic horror pokemons when my Level 100 Crobat shows up:

[@andresmarrero8666]

Cosmic horror in pokemon goes way beyond the ultra beasts and into nearly every pokemon including legendarys through the pokemon. Try describing Dialga without saying it is a pokemon. I can guarantee that your attempt would sound very much like a lovecraftian elder god. Pokemon can be described as cosmic horror wrapped in friendly bonds. That world is very inhospitable to visitors.

[@wurmturm]

common astrei banger

[@astrei_cat]

yo thank u

[@lucastheunfunnyguy]

Man what the hell is happening in aloha 💀💀💀💀💀

[@timtenthousand]

i like it, Picasso

[@Cyberix7]

Good video

[@astrei_cat]

thank you!

[@R4WRXD__]

ohhoho this seems fun

[@michelecastellotti9172]

See, this is why i hate how pokemon is handled, yes it is primarily for children but MANY of the plotlines are VERY mature, between abusive parents (Ghetsis and Lisamine), crazy and absolutely horrendous experiments on living beings (Aether foundantion, Team rocket, Team plasma), ancient gods of which power is beyond our understanding and that can change reality to an extent with but a puny fragment of said power (Z-moves, Mega evolution and even dynamax are HEAVILY inspired by the color out of space), pokemon has the potential for cosmic horror stories that arent gory but can still leave that sense of dread, and no other episode than the... i think 2nd movie (the one with the unown) is a better example of it, Ultra beasts come from dimensions where humans do not exist (never have or anymore), so their presence is dangerous to us for a myriad of reasons, no other example would make this more clear than the backstory to Agent looker in Oras and Gen 7, there we see 2 characters from the og gen 3 (already established to be set in a different dimension from the one in ORAS which is the same as XY and Gen 7/8) that arrived here trough an ultra portal during an attempt to stop a rampanging, unstoppable pokemon (a Guzzlord likely) that attacked the battle frontier in emerald, where they lacked the means to repel such a creature, we NEED to see more of this in mainstream pokemon anime, hell the final arc of SM was one of the best in the whole pokemon anime history!

[@thesmilyguyguy9799]

:)