The UFO-Inspired Pokemon That Creeps People Out

Over the last 24 years, there have been plenty of creepy things about the Pokémon franchise: There's the ghost child who appears during Phoebe's cutscene in Pokémon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby. There's the Lumiose Hex Maniac in Pokémon X/Y, which shows up behind you and then suddenly disappears. That creepy character was followed by the Mt. Pyre Hex Maniac in Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby. There's also Mimikyu's unknown eldritch horror, not to mention the fact that literal ghosts exist in the Pokémon universe. But there's one Pokémon that really freaks people out, and it's been around since Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.

Pokémon has had its fair share of creepy Pokédex entries, with some Pokémon being depicted as far more violent and disturbing than you would think — for example, Glalie is literally made out of negative emotions. Even with all this, Sableye takes the cake when it comes to creepy Pokémon.

Sableye is a Dark- and Ghost-type Pokémon that lives in caves and feeds on rocks and gemstones. It has sharp teeth and blue gemstone eyes, plus a red gem on its chest. It is generally feared "since it is said to steal a person's soul if they look into its eyes." In Sapphire and Emerald, Sableye can be found in Granite Cave, Cave of Origin, Sky Pillar, and Victory Road.

Sableye is known as the Darkness Pokémon in conjunction with Murkrow, as they are both Dark-type Pokémon and are similar in their sinister design elements. Before the Fairy type was introduced in Pokémon X and Y, Sableye had no elemental weakness. In the game, this could be hacked to give Sableye the Wonder Guard ability, making it impervious to any damage except by super effective moves, although using the move Foresight would "expose its Dark-type vulnerability to Fighting."

Sableye is based on the Hopkinsville Goblin Case, an extraterrestrial encounter that allegedly occurred in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1955. A group comprised of two families showed up at a police station claiming they had been holding off a group of 12 to 15 creatures that were attacking one family's farmhouse, yet when the police arrived, there were no signs of creatures, only evidence of gunfire. The creatures were described as having "large, pointed ears, clawlike hands, eyes that glowed yellow and spindly legs."

It's clear that Sableye was inspired by the case: Looking at an artist's renditions of the "little green men," as they were called by newspapers, it looks eerily similar to the Sableye design. The creatures were compared to gremlins, which is where the name "Hopkinsville Goblin" came from. Skeptics at the time claimed that the case was just an instance of mistaken identity: There are numerous conclusions that the apparent aliens were just encounters with great horned owls, which "stand about two-thirds of a meter tall" and have shining eyes.