Nightmare Fuel / Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

Moment pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned

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Rotom Dex: "AYEEEEEEEEEEE! Zzzzztay away from me!"
Player: "Wh-what's wrong?!"
Rotom Dex: "Bzzt... It wazz just a dream..."
Rotom Dex: "Some old guy was taking me apart! It was horrible!"

Just like the previous games, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are Darker and Edgier and contains a lot of horrifying moments, particularly to do with the Ultra Beasts and surprisingly Ditto.

For the nightmarish Pokédex entries, check here.

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Main Story

If this isn't the real Acerola, then who or what is this thing?

• One trailer shows Acerola outside the backroom of the Pokémart where her trial takes place, repeatedly screaming at someone to "Get out!"
  • Sure enough, the context of this in-game falls under this, though not for the reasons you may thinking of. Acerola just suddenly appears in the building in front of the backroom midway through her trial, and it's you that she is insisting to get out while you're in the middle of the trial, all while facing away from you. You have the option to leave, but the more you insist on staying in and continuing the trial, the more harshly she tells you to run away, eventually gesticulating wildly as she does so. At that point, you have the option of taking a picture of her with the Poké Finder, and the minute you snap her photo, she vanishes. After you finish the trial and go back outside, Acerola insists that she never entered the building while you were in there (alongside her other claim of there not being a backroom in the building - which is actually true if you try going back inside, the backroom you previously entered no longer exist). Who or what it was in there that was apparently impersonating Acerola and trying to scare you out of the building is never explained, let alone the disappearing backroom.
• Nightmare Fetishist Lusamine on the ground, telling someone (seemingly her children) "Run. It's a monster!" She's referring to Necrozma, and she's not kidding, as it brutally overpowers and assimilates Nebby when the newly-evolved Solgaleo/Lunala tries to defend you from it.
• The music that plays while fighting Dusk Mane/Dawn Wings is insanely terrifying. It’s got an absolutely intense set of drums and organs, always sounding a pitch off, almost monstrous in a way. This does fit greatly, given the enemy is a forced and violent fusion.
• The Ultra Ruin, home of Guzzlord, which is heavily implied to be an alternate Hau'oli City destroyed by a power plant accident, implied by a destroyed notice board with partially faded letters that match up to the sign outside Hau'oli City Hall and several posters, as well as one TV-like screen near the edge of the map that actually shows the peaceful Hau'oli City you know. You only run into one other person there, who decided to stay in order to watch over the Guzzlord, as everyone else apparently flew off to a distant planet. Even the Guzzlord population has been decreasing, as it's implied they've started to run out of things to eat themselves, despite being Extreme Omnivores. Either that, or they've started to cannibalize each other. And the music is even worse. It's actually the Hau'oli City day and night themes reversed with a lot of static and fluctuating volume.
• While Pheromosa's Ultra Space looks quite beautiful, the music that plays is Dissonant Serenity incarnate.
• Ultra Plant is a straight up Death World with frequent lightning strikes thanks to the abundance of Xurkitree, some of them massive enough to walk on, which heavily implies the one you can catch is probably just a baby, and it's already as powerful as some legendaries. Also, given that the lightning can hit places you can walk on, you'd be forgiven for worrying about getting struck yourself.
• Basically any Ultra Space region you can enter. Imagine jumping from the portal into the cave or onto the field knowing you're hundreds or thousands light years from your home, and following the short path down to seemingly only life-form present there. And for generic version, the music definitely does NOT help.
• Lusamine still has her secret room full of cryogenically frozen Pokémon from Sun and Moon. While you could write this off as her being affected by Nihilego's toxins making her obsessed with preserving her Pokémon's beauty forever in that game, Lusamine wants nothing to do with Ultra Beasts in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and Nihilego only appears for one scene. At her most sane, Lusamine still has dozens of Pokémon that she "loves" frozen so they can't ever change even well into the postgame, though she thankfully eventually realizes that how she thinks of showing "love" to her Pokémon (as well as her kids) is wrong, as she is allowing an Employee in the lab to work on restoring the Pokémon.
• The side quest to get the Mimikyu-Z can be this with some shots of the Mimikyu following you. But the nightmare fuel gets horrifying if you choose the wrong answers as you proceed with the quest. Especially when you choose to try to look what is under Mimikyu's cloth when you progress. Granted, you get sent back to before you trigger that cut-scene but yeesh...
• Among the many reasons why Ultra Necrozma is brilliant utterly terrifying? When you speak to it to initiate the battle, it talks.
  Ultra Necrozma: Lie...lie...LIGHT!
• One conversation with Rotom Dex has it wake up from a nightmare. Depending on the answer you provide, you can either have a more lighthearted response that the nightmare was about an old woman overdecorating it and making it look gaudy, or if you choose the response above on the page quote, the nightmare was about an old man taking it apart.

Team Rainbow Rocket

• The villain teams from the Team Rainbow Rocket story were all taken from worlds where they succeeded in their goals without interference from a young trainer. Even the Omnicidal ones.
  • And they all have their games' legendaries on their teams. Kyogre and Groudon for Archie and Maxie, Dialga or Palkia for Cyrus, Zekrom or Reshiram for Ghetsis, Xerneas or Yveltal for Lysandre, and Mewtwo for Giovanni.
• The man who started the series' darkness turn, Cyrus, is back and working with Giovanni.
• Ghetsis, Abusive Parent extraordinaire, has Lillie in his clutches.
  • It's not for a long time, but why he has her in his clutches makes it much worse. After being defeated by the player, he breaks down in a similar manner as he did in Black and White, but snaps out of it long enough to push Lillie into the corner and demand that the player throw their Pokemon away, implying he'll kill Lillie if they don't comply. Given that he does this after his team is downed, it's heavily implied he'd kill her with his own two hands.
  • If Ghetsis is ruling Unova in his universe and has Zekrom/Reshiram under his control, then what happened to his world's version of N?
  • Ghetsis declares his intentions to make Giovanni into a "king" he can support and control, just like N. Given that Ghetsis is skilled at polite flattery that Giovanni would likely respond to, the thought of Ghetsis managing to pull this off is just plausible enough to be terrifying — and it wouldn't just be Unova they were ruling, but multiple alternate dimensions.
  • And as final cherry on top, unlike any of the other villains, Ghetsis faced no backlash from his scheme coming to fruition, making him the only villain to have unambigously and completely won in their universe. Brrr...
• Omnicidal Maniac Lysandre is also back and working with Giovanni. And he once again attempts to use the Ultimate Weapon in this world.
  • Look at his expression when the battle with him begins. Either the guy never had as pure intentions as he originally claimed, or succeeding in his goals in his own world has led him to fall deeper into his own madness.
• Worst of all: Giovanni.
  • Him somehow managing to get all of the other team bosses (Archie, Maxie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre) on his side.
  • His fight opens with Giovanni giving the camera one hell of a Slasher Smile.
  • "The opposing foe's Mewtwonite X/Y is reacting with the key ring!"
  • The Rainbow Rocket quest's ending has Giovanni shrug off his defeat and plan to extend his goal to another world, meaning the player's victory was just a setback at most.
    • Better yet, as per this trailer for an upcoming update to Pokémon GO, we seem to have finally gotten our answer for where Giovanni decided to continue his plans: Earth itself.

Pokémon

• Mimikyu's new Z-Move, called "Let's Snuggle Forever", is as creepy as it is hilarious. It involves Mimikyu sneaking around, causing the opponent to become distressed, before leaping out and lunging at the opponent, eyes flashing menacingly. Then it completely engulfs the opponent in its costume and beats them up underneath, before spitting them back out; recall how the 'dex mentions people dying after seeing what's under there. Oh, and you might think it's a Ghost-type Z-move, right? Wrong. It's Fairy-type.
• Necrozma changes form by becoming a mind-controlling parasite that assimilates other Pokémon, and overpowers and assimilates Nebby when the newly-evolved Solgaleo/Lunala tries to defend you from it.
• In a similar manner to Supernova, Ultra Necrozma's Z-Move takes almost 50 seconds from start to finish, and is effectively a Fantastic Nuke dropped on the opponent. Its name was localized as Light that Burns the Sky, and perhaps befittingly, the Pokémon that uses it was made one of the most powerful Pokémon in the franchise.
  • To show how powerful it is, after the player character assumes the pose for the Z-Move, a large surge of power erupts and actually staggers them. In comparison, the player character still maintains the pose for the execution of all other Z-Moves.
  • And during the move itself, Necrozma charges up by absorbing light from the surroundings, reducing the background scenery into pitch black until the attack hits. It shows that Necrozma is indeed capable of completely depriving any locale of light.
• Pokédex entries in the original Sun and Moon already became notable for their general increase in morbidity, but a lot of the entries in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are even worse than before. Of particular note are the entries for Mega Evolutions, which go out of their way to emphasize that you either caused your Pokémon to suffer excruciating pain or injuries due to forced transformation or that your beloved companion isn't there anymore because you brainwashed them into becoming what amounts to a barely-sentient weapon of mass destruction.
  • Mega Gengar isn't your friend. No, seriously. If it feels like it, it can and will place a curse on you, or worse: kill you.
  • Mega Gyarados not only completely loses its mind, but it's also in hellish torment because of the stress that comes with its new body shape. It can also split ships cleanly in half as it zooms out of the water at Mach speeds.
  • Mega Scizor's power will eventually cause it to completely melt down.
  • Mega Houndoom can burn its opponents into nothing but ashes with its new power. It's also in severe pain due to its incredibly high internal body temperature almost literally burning the poor thing alive.
  • You see those extensions on Mega Tyranitar's back? That is its back, completely split open. It also runs entirely on destructive impulses and can get so frenzied that it can no longer understand its trainer's commands.
  • Mega Sableye's chest gem has grown so big that it's ripped open a hole in its skin. OUCH.
    • Which isn't really all that new, given that it is part of Sableye's Mega Evolution animation.
  • We finally have an explanation for why Mega Salamence becomes more brutal: it viewed its two wings as beautiful, and it's pissed because of what they have turned into.
  • Mega Metagross will do anything to win. If it thinks it's about to lose, it resorts to Taking You with Me, digging its claws into the opponent and never letting go as it initiates a self-destruct sequence.
  • Mega Lucario brutally beats its opponents without any sort of mercy, as Ash's Pikachu can attest. Makes you want to think twice before teaching your Lucario Close Combat, doesn't it?
  • Mega Garchomp is re-emphasized on its wings melting into scythes.
  • Mega Absol has an intimidating aura that is said to cause fainthearted people to die just by glancing at it. This may explain why Absol is a Reluctant Warrior who really doesn't like Mega Evolution in the first place.
• The sight of the enormous Totem Araquanid arising from the depths and looming over you can be more than a little disconcerting. Going through the trial, you'd expect the Totem Pokémon to be a Wishiwashi, like in Sun and Moon. And right as the school forms, another shadow, larger than the school of Wishiwashi looms behind it. The water breaks, and Araquanid rises, looking ready to impale you with its leg.
• Why is Necrozma so angry? Because its light was completely drained by the ancestors of the Ultra Recon Squad in ancient times and literally broke its body. Meaning for the rest of its existence, it has to either absorb light and destroy worlds in the process, or live a hellish existence in pain and in an incomplete state. And even if the protagonist is able to catch it and quell its rage with the Z-crystals, that still doesn't heal its injury, meaning it will never truly be whole.
  • Necrozma's first form becomes Harsher in Hindsight when you see what its true form looks like: drained of all its light, the original black Necrozma is literally a misassembled skeleton with its head forming the torso, its feet forming the hands, and its shoulders being its wing "bones" jammed into its eye sockets.
• Blacephalon is Nightmare Fuel taken up to eleven for anyone with a fear of clowns.
  • Blacephalon gets even weirder when you use Pokémon Refresh to boost its affection towards you. Most Pokémon get a sad look in their eyes if you pat them a certain way, but being humanoid, Blacephalon shakes its head and makes evasive gestures with its hands. Alternatively, it clenches its hands and stomps its feet angrily in a way that just looks off.
  • The Pokédex outright says that it attacks people. This thing does not feed on Pokémon, it is specifically adapted to hunt down humans. And with it looking like a clown, it's not too big of a stretch to think that it evolved its look and mannerisms to attract children. This monstrosity is absolutely the Pennywise of the Pokémon world.
• In Ultra Space, we can see some Xurkitree in the background far away. The one we can catch is about 12 feet tall. It is tiny compared to the others.
  • The way the Xurkitree move is pretty unsettling as well. There's something so off about the way their long spindly limbs flail about...
• The Ditto Five are a quintet of Ditto who are going around impersonating and replacing people. According to the police detective on the case, he says they're not doing it out of malice, just out of a severely misguided admiration of humans, but the thought still remains that here in Alola, someone you know very well and talk to every day could be a Ditto, as the detective found out firsthand when his partner at the police outpost wound up being one of these impersonators.
  • At the end of this sidequest, the detective notes that finding the impersonators was possible because Ditto can't talk, but he also mulls over the idea of a Ditto being able to understand human minds and possibly being able to speak like them. That alone is an unsettling thought, but the camera slowly and ominously pans over to his smiling partner, effectively implying that he could very well be such a Ditto.

Side Quests/Random Encounters

• On Route 16 in Ultra Moon, there is a small child who asks you to check out the sand castle he's built. The sand castle in question is clearly a Sandygast, and if you agree to check it out, it attacks you. After defeating or capturing the Sandygast, the child becomes disappointed that he couldn't trick you into adding more sand, then walks off while talking about finding "more prey".
• In the waters outside the abandoned Thrifty Megamart, you can find a swimmer (whose gender depends on whether you are playing as the male or female protagonist) surrounded and being attacked by three Frillish. After the player rescues them, they noted that Frillish have invisible stingers in their tentacles with paralytic neurotoxins. According to the Pokédex, these neurotoxins are used to drown prey. If the player had not intervened, they could have died.
• One quest has you solving the seven mysteries while looking for ghosts, most of which turn out to be everyday occurrences or mischievous Pokémon… until the end, when it's revealed the girl and her Drifloon are ghosts. Though it's implied by the end that you helped her move on.
  • Even though you help stop them and reveal they're just false alarms and pranks, the quests caused by mischievous Pokémon can be particularly terrifying, because unlike the other quests, which are just caused by misunderstandings (the burning lights are really just a girl burning love letters, the cursed PA system is actually just a man trying to fix said PA system, with his creepy "you- ...can't get out" message being him trying to tell his Slowpoke, who is sleeping in front of the way out, that he is stuck in the room because of it), the ones caused by Pokémon are, on some level, actually real.
    • The quest regarding stairs that keep taking you to the same place was caused by a Gastly. When the player investigates it,the game gives them a message that there's suddenly cold air blowing from downstairs. No matter how many times you try to go up or downstairs, you remain on the second floor of the school. The player then finds a piece of paper with black stains on it, hinting at the order they need to collect items in the four corners of the hall. If you grab the items in the right order, Gastly attacks you, and the cold air stops. If you collect them in the wrong order, the game tells you that you did something wrong, and that "the cold air has gotten stronger..." Imagine if someone never found that note, or didn't understand what it was saying. They would be trapped on the second floor of the Pokémon School forever, feeling an ever-intensifying cold wind blowing...
    • The quest regarding a cursed diary was caused by a Drifloon pulling a prank based on a fiction novel. When you read the diary, everything that the story mentions eventually happens in real life. The book mentions a cracking sound, which the Drifloon replicates. The book mentions seeing something pass by out of the corner of your eye, at which point Drifloon flies across the screen quickly. Not too bad, until you get to the final section. The book mentions constantly hearing a scratching sound across the floor. At this point, the lights in the room go out, leaving the entire area pitch black. The player then hears a single scratching sound... Before the sound begins to repeat over and over again, as rapidly as the game will allow. The player is then given two options; Cover your ears, or run away. Regardless of which action you take, the Drifloon attacks and the mystery is solved, but these two options really hammer home the pure fear the player must be feeling at the moment.
  • Even before The Reveal of the girl being Dead All Along, the second-to-last mystery (really the last one you take an active part in) has a "ghost class" in session in one of the school's empty classrooms, with the ghost children's dialogue being very eerie. And then it turns out the teacher is actually a Hypno and the entire class was its illusion. Considering Hypno as a Pokémon has been likened to a pedophile on a number of occasions, this makes this segment of the quest (and the Hypno's part in the ghost girl's backstory as revealed in a hidden diary entry) extra unsettling.
  • The background music for the side quest sounds like it came straight out of a horror movie when you started it. Not only that, some actions that you need to do also seem like things you had to do in a survival horror game.
  • Lastly, after you finish the seven mysteries side quest, if you came back to the class where the Hypno's class was, and check one of the small cupboards (which doesn't even look like it has anything to check), you will find, as mentioned above, a rather creepy hidden diary entry about the girl you helped. Apparently she would just mysteriously come and go with Drifloon and Hypno. No one ever saw her family.

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