Isn't it a little vain to be in love with your shadow? :3c

never even noticed that. So many wierd things, you learn when you look up the history of how the game came to be, like the Cubone/missingno thing

Yeah, the history of Pokemon is incredibly interesting IMO. Clefairy was going to be the mascot at first, there was originally going to be a female trainer option in R/G/B, baby Kangaskhan was planned to be its own Pokemon that could evolve into Cubone if its mother fainted a certain number of times, etc.

But wasn't the Clefairy/Gengar thing actually a freaky development coincidence? That's the most interesting thing about it.

It sure is cool from a lore point of view, though: little by little, a Clefairy's specter/shadow gains enough strength to manifest into a form that resembles the source.

Or they could be renegade tulpas, that manifest as a side effect of the Clefairy's mystical nature. That would solve the issue of how so many Ghastlys, Haunters and Gengars could exist: every Clefairy creates one, not just the dead ones.

Ignore the last sentence, everyone. I realized that the theory doesn't necessarily require a Clefairy to die for there to be a Gengar.

I just did so too late to revise my statement any more.

NOW he can!