Has anyone noticed this? I know G1 had some pretty depressing undertones (Lavender town and stuff), but the ones in G5 aren't displayed in plain sight and are just straight out creepy.

Here's a quote from Someone in Black Tower Area 1: (The character is a "lady", so it's a rich person)

"I love watching poor people squabbling about thinking they can have a piece of my money. Such entertainment! Oh! So glad you came! Maybe I can grace your existence with the honor of battling me."

Not really the exact quote, but it was something long those lines.

Speaking of which, every single speech bubble in Black City (Black 2) is really creepy.

"Money can't buy you everything, but having lots of it can certainly fetch you most things."

"Is there a job that makes more money?! I want more money if I'm going to do the same job!"

"Welcome to Black City， home to dreams, greed, and more greed. I am it's boss, so you could say I'm a whirlpool of greed."

There's this in Black/White 1 (in Nimbasa at the challenge building) :

"My partner is in ashes now, but his spirit lives on!"

Then, there's this in Black 2 in Driftveil:

"Two years ago, I released my Pokemon under the orders of Team Plasma. I know they must be lonely out there on their own, but it's better than to leaave them behind when I die."

Oh, and this on Skyarrow Bridge:

"Goodbye Castelia... Goodbye old me...“

Not only that, but she's standing on the edge of the bridge. Was GameFreak/NIntendo trying to imply suicide.

And there's that man trying to fraud you into buying a bottle of water for 300$. His dialogue goes from pathetic to eerily sad for a game aimed at a younger audience.

I'm not really complaining, as it adds quite a bit of depth to the game-world, but has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, I have on occasion noticed text like this in the Gen 5 games. I am hoping for more text like this in the 6th generation of games.

Yes i have and it's not gen 5 people don't realize it but pokemon has many dark things hidden in it and i love them all. I am a bit weird but it makes the game more interesting.

The dark undertones remind me of Majora's mask. The real difference between the two is MM doesn't try to hide the darkness.

Still not darker then gen1
Team Rock killed Cubone's Mom

Don't forget Ghetsis tries to friggin' impale you with icicles!

Wait, you're interpreting rich and greedy trainers as "dark"? They've been in almost every gen thus far.
And about the "goodbye old me" thing, it's referencing that the person is most likely starting a new life away from castelia. Of course the death stuff is relatively dark, but there's been much worse in other pokemon games.

The girl who opened the portal to another dimension was creepy.

This thread should be marked as a SPOILER ALERT but anyways:

I think overall it got a lot darker, and in my opinion Ghetsis is the darkest villain yet in the series. Other than Team Rocket (who were straight out criminal), the previous organizations had almost comical goals that were clearly wrong. Like Team Aqua/Magma expanding the oceans/land for the sake of a "better world", or Team Galactic attempting to destroy the world and create a new one because the current one isn't perfect. Team Plasma's goal was actually something worth calling into question: are Pokemon better off without humans, are they simply tools, are these battles no better than cock fighting (you know, forcing chickens to fight for our amusement)? It was actually a valid moral question. And Ghetsis, the one pulling the strings for selfish desires, was truly sick in the mind. Ghetsis took an innocent child, N, called himself N's "father", and isolated N from humanity like some sort of twisted social experiment, forcing him only to see humans abuse Pokemon. He warped N until the boy was convinced humans are horrible to Pokemon and all Pokemon would benefit from being free of humans. All so Ghetsis could essentially control and enslave humanity by being the only one left in control of Pokemon. Even by Black and White 2, after N realized the truth, it's clear N has been completely warped and deprived. He may realize that he was wrong about humans but he can't fit in society and has very difficult internal struggles. I mean, it's essentially like forcing a child to watch people beat animals for the child's entire childhood and never allow them to make any friends. They're gonna be completely warped for life, and he spent years doing this, screwing with a kids mind for what, 18 years? Meanwhile, Ghetsis showed no regret in how he used and abused a child and manipulated his entire organization, as he continues on his ridiculous goal and, in fact, essentially genetically alters an innocent Pokemon (Kyurem) and tries to freeze over an entire region to realize this goal. Don't forget Genesect, Team Plasma's genetically altered ancient Pokemon. Sure, Team Rocket killed Pokemon (Marowak) and cloned Mewtwo, but Ghetsis is arguably much darker than Giovanni, who seemed to have given up his evil ways and retreat after finally being thwarted. I don't think Black and White just has dark undertones, it's a darker generation overall.

Oh, there is also the young ghost girl who sometimes appears on Marvelous Bridge in Black/White and in the Strange House in Black/White 2, it never talks much about her death or why she's wandering as a ghost, all it really mentions is that she had an Abra, but it's the only human ghost yet mentioned in the series.

^ i totally agree and i thought the same thing to about it and still do, not to mention the words he chooses to say to N

tbh I think half of the discussion I've heard of 5th gen is talking about how unexpectedly dark it is.

Part of the reason it seems darker is because of the focus on story and some morals that were sometimes questioned in the anime.

I think they're trying to lay out Troll Bait for PETA with Team Plasma.

Here's some food for thought.

That is not true at all or even like that in pokemon.

The rich/greedy stuff just sounds like satire, and lame satire at that. Then again, Pokemon games were never known for their scripts.

Thus why it's called Game Theory.

It is.

Still ( and no offense on this) it is one that doesn't make sense and seems like a rant more then a theory.