Game Freak's flagship creature-collection RPG series Pokemon has been in the news recently thanks to a number of announcements made during a Nintendo Direct last week. However a more somber reason to discuss the franchise emerged not long after when a fan from Singapore discovered a decapitated Snorlax plush in the street.
The headless Pokemon was found by Jepoy Camaliga and posted to the Nintendo Switch Singapore Facebook group on January 10. Deemed the "Sleeping Pokemon," Snorlax was introduced as number 143 of the original 151 monsters in Pokemon Red and Green. If it's known for anything, it's being big and cuddly, eating, and sleeping — often in the middle of the road.
In a way the broken and discarded plush is reminiscent of that PlayStation 3 being used as a doorstop discovered in December. But Camaliga at least has a sense of humor about the whole thing, suggesting maybe the Pokemon anime's protagonist Ash had to use the Hidden Machine Cut to stop Snorlax from being a blockade.
Snorlax has always been popular since it was introduced in the late 90s. That popularity has led to it receiving plenty of special treatment: A Z-Move in Sun and Moon, an entire event dedicated to the introduction of its Gigantamax form in Sword and Shield, and the distinction of being the Dynamax partner for Game Freak designer and programmer Shigeki Morimoto.
In fact the lovable roadblock has seen a large amount of toys and plushes in the past, most recently wearing pajamas at Build-A-Bear Workshop.
Is it any wonder, then, why the Internet has lashed out against the enigmatic figure who damaged this poor Snorlax plush once the photo began circulating?
That said, out of any tragedy inevitably comes some silver lining. In this case it seems entirely possible that Twitter user John Chapman may have landed on a gold mine of a Pokemon spin-off idea:
With the success of a noir film in Detective Pikachu last year, maybe it's time for the Pokemon franchise to branch out further and give us a dark, gritty mob movie about the demise of poor Snorlax in Singapore.