One of the greatest mysteries of the pokemon world is the question of what, precisely, is at the center of every Tangela. With the naked eye, only blackness and a pair of unnerving, floating white eyes can be seen, staring back as though to tell people not to look closer. Examination of live Tangela is literally impossible, as the vines will block any attempts to view it. Examination of dead Tangela is no more possible, for the body disappears at death, leaving only a pile of vines; this bizarre trait has led many to speculate that Tangela are controlled by a sort of visible soul.
The modern age has brought new ways of viewing and understanding, but for Tangela it has created more questions than answers. Attempts to view them by X-ray have or other techniques have resulted in a series of mechanical errors too common to be reasonably seen as coincidence. Some have theorized that Tangela themselves do not exist, and that they are a myth masquerading as a real pokemon, for many of the errors found with mythical pokemon such as Missingno are also found when attempting to view Tangela. Those who claim to have found the nature of Tangela universally differ on their accounts, and no experiment alleging to show their true nature has ever been successfully reproduced.
Whether they are the spawn of hell wrapped in vines or the cousin of the pokemon on Cinnabar Island's coast, or merely a black ball similar to a Shellder or Gastly, the mystery of Tangela's core will likely remain a subject of speculation for generations to come.