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A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
On the night of September 19th, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were making the long drive home through the countryside of New Hampshire when they saw a mysterious light in the sky. Closer inspection revealed it to be a brightly lit flying saucer, and it hovered above them close enough for Barney to see humanoid figures in the windows.
They arrived home at midnight, much later than they should have. They had no memory of the events immediately after this close encounter, and noticed puzzling things – rips in their clothing, magnetic marks on their car.
Betty began to have strange dreams shortly after the incident, and after talking to several UFO investigators and Air Force Officers, they agreed to undergo hypnosis. Both of them revealed while hypnotized that they remembered being taken aboard a spaceship, meeting inhuman creatures, and being probed and experimented on.
Perhaps they were just two people who drove home too late at night, experiencing sleepy hallucinations and saying under hypnosis what they thought people wanted to hear, conflating their own memories of an airplane with science fiction they’d seen on TV. Perhaps they were truly taken aboard a space ship in one of the first recorded alien abductions. Either way, they changed UFOlogy and pop culture forever.
I’m Luke Summerhayes, and I love Elgyem.
Some form of extraterrestrial life has existed in pop culture as long as humans have been aware that the stars in the night sky are other bodies like Earth. In antiquity, we imagined gods or other humans placed there by gods. After Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, writers like HG Wells speculated that aliens might have evolved in wildly different forms of life.
As alien life became more prominent in pop culture, right as humanity began building flying machines and rockets, real-life sightings of flying saucers and even their occupants began to be reported. From the Hopkinsville Goblins we talked about back in the Sableye episode, to the Grey aliens of the Hill encounter, alien life has been a staple of science fiction and pseudoscience for more than 100 years.
Elgyem is a psychic type Pokémon with a squat humanoid body and bulbous head, like one of the greys, with a metallic blue-green colour and multicoloured lights on its fingers and for eyes, as one might see on the side of the spaceship in Close Encounters or the face of the martian in the 1950s version of War of the Worlds.
As part of the fifth generation, this Pokémon is tied to Unova, the first region based on the United States rather than Japan. Some Pokémon we talked about already had associations with pre-Colombian American folklore, but UFOs and Cryptids are the peak of the USA’s folklore.
Black
It uses its strong psychic power to squeeze its opponent's brain, causing unendurable headaches.
White
This Pokémon had never been seen until it appeared from far in the desert 50 years ago.
These initial descriptions don’t suggest anything too unusual about the Pokémon’s origins. The desert location, though, hints towards the Nevada Desert and Area 51, where the government supposedly tests experimental technology or holds alien captives, depending on who you ask.
Black 2
Rumors of its origin are linked to a UFO crash site in the desert 50 years ago.
White 2
The crash in question is presumably inspired by the Roswell incident, in which a supposed UFO crashed in the desert near the town of Roswell, New Mexico. This infamous event, the official story for which is that a weather balloon crashed, supposedly involved an alien spacecraft and recovered bodies.
Later Pokédex entries seem to question the idea that Elgyem is literally an extraterrestrial creature which arrived from another world.
Ultra Sun
It controls tremendous psychic power. Most reports of alien sightings are actually just people mistaking Elgyem for an alien.
On the other hand, Sword does suggest that Elgyem comes from somewhere other than Earth.
Sword
If this Pokémon stands near a TV, strange scenery will appear on the screen. That scenery is said to be from its home.
Perhaps Elgyem are indeed extraterrestrial in origin, but people misinterpret sightings of them as sightings of more intelligent and malevolent aliens which don’t really exist.
In the anime, an Elgyem appeared which could predict disasters and warn people about them through psychic visions, even saving Ash’s life by showing him a vision of falling through a bridge. This is reminiscent of Mothman, a mysterious creature which was sighted repeatedly in a small American town in the run-up to a deadly bridge collapse, leading some to suggest it was a portent of disaster.
The name Elgyem is a phonetic spelling of the acronym L G M, or little green men. The Japanese name for the Pokémon is Ligrey, as this is a little gray. It can get slightly less little when it discovers the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything at level 42 and evolves into Beheyem.
Beheyem is a rusty, brownish metallic cover, with a head that’s slightly more angular, looking like a cross between an alien and an actual spaceship. It has what appears to be a collar and coattails, resembling a trenchcoat-wearing government agent of the kind that may show up in an alien encounter story, or like the common alien outfits seen in Japanese tokusatsu fiction like Godzilla movies or power rangers.
Like the aliens encountered by the Hills, or the Men In Black both of myth and of the popular films, it is able to manipulate memories.
Black
It can manipulate an opponent's memory. Apparently, it communicates by flashing its three different-colored fingers.
White
It uses psychic power to control an opponent's brain and tamper with its memories.
It also apparently engages in the classic alien behaviors of stealing cattle and making crop circles.
Sword
Whenever a Beheeyem visits a farm, a Dubwool mysteriously disappears.
Shield
Sometimes found drifting above wheat fields, this Pokémon can control the memories of its opponents.
Like me, Jay liked Elgyem and Beheyem for their interesting alien origins. He might well have used them on his team, though. Beheyem has phenomenal special attack and a bit of bulk. It isn’t the fastest Pokémon, but with the ability Analytic, it does more damage when it attacks second. It can also use trick room to reverse its speed, or make sneaky use of future sight and teleport to switch in and out against opponents.
In the anime, we don’t see Beheyem being especially powerful fighters, but we do see them in an actual flying saucer, which they crash and so hypnotise a whole town to find missing parts.
The name Beheyem comes from another Acronym, this time B E M, or bug-eyed-monster. More monstrous, frankly more alien, aliens appeared in earlier science fiction, before TV and movies made the trend for alien characters who can be played by human actors more popular. The Japanese name is Obem, with oh meaning large, in contrast to the previous form being little, and bem being B E M read as a word, just as Japanese people read U.F.O as ufo.
I’ve always been intrigued by cryptids, UFOs and alien abductions, reading about them even as it gave me nightmares and kept me from sleeping. I love seeing Pokémon that take inspiration from this modern mythology. Even so, it gets weird as the Pokémon seem more like advanced, sentient creatures. What am I doing capturing them and making them my pet? It’s all a bit wild.
Original music for Luke Loves Pokémon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork is by Katie Groves. Funding is provided by listeners at Patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius. For just a dollar a month, supporters can listen to episodes a week early and also help cover hosting and fees, making it possible for me to keep making episodes every week.
I love hearing from listeners! Get in touch about upcoming Pokémon on twitter or facebook at LukeLovesPKMN. Drop a comment if you’re watching the video, or a review on apple podcasts or spotify. Coming up are Litwick and Axew, so please get in touch about those or any other monsters.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Elgyem. And remember, I love you too.