The Internet Trying Is To Determine If A Man Set Himself On Fire In Protest Of Pokémon Sword And Shield

The weirdest viral rumor, with absolutely no solid evidence supporting it, regarding Pokémon Sword and Shield backlash involves a player reportedly so upset at the cut Pokémon and rumored poor quality of the game that they set themselves on fire outside a Gamestop.

On Sunday, an account called @Pray4Dio appeared on Twitter saying they were the brother of online user known as "RealDioBrando," aka "Charlie." According to the brother, RealDioBrando (henceforth called "Dio") set himself on fire outside a Gamestop on November 15th as part of "some bizarre and painful protest."

Pray4Dio went on to say that Dio would likely survive and that he's gonna need "lots of therapy." He also wrote, "(my brother) always had the need to go one step beyond with voicing his pleasure or displeasure. He always assumed he had to be the most vocal and loudest to prove a point. 5% of the time he was right. The other 95% though…"

This seemed in line with what Gamefaqs users and Twitter users knew of Dio. On Twitter, Dio had several accounts which were ultimately suspended. He posted that he hoped all Rick and Morty fans were attacked due to the Mcdonalds crap. He also stated Super Smash Brothers encouraged pedophilia. It wasn't clear if it was sincere or massive trolling.

Posting the Pray4Dio tweet to the board, user PKSaltstorm wrote that "Dio was a constant detractor of GameFreak and Pokemon. If you were active in this board in the summer, you might remember him." The thread was titled, Someone set themselves on fire to protest SW/SH. Though there was no mention of Sword and Shield's relation to the story in Pray4Dio's post, the timing of the alleged self-immolation and Dio's alleged vocal detraction of the games lends the theory some credence.

Still, the story is unconfirmed. There have been no news stories about a man setting himself on fire in front of a Gamestop published in the past few days. Commenters on Gamefaqs, Twitter, and 4chan remain split on the validity of the story. For many, the fact of the matter is that the anti-Sword and Shield fervor is so intense, it's not impossible to imagine someone mentally unwell enough to pull the stunt. Others were convinced it was a terrible hoax, as the lack of news coverage seems impossible considering the content of the alleged story. At the time of writing, there's no confirmation one way or the other; in other words, it's a perfect example of Poe's Law at work.