I saw a few recent questions about some of the “god” (well, your thoughts on them), and I thought I’d pick your mind on one of the ones that has baffled me since I first saw it: Giratina. Dialga is time, Palkia is space, and Giratina is… Antimatter? I mean, I know what antimatter is (to an extent, I mean, even scientists are trying to figure that one out), but what exactly is Giratina’s function? What is the “Reverse World”? What do you think would happen if he no longer existed?

The way Giratina is described in Diamond and Pearl always had me thinking of it as a death god figure, kind of like Hades in Greek mythology – dark and terrifying, but not actually evil, and in fact vital to the maintenance of cosmic order.  The way Platinum portrays it (mostly in Cynthia’s speculation) seems to be saying that Giratina basically maintains the Distortion World as a ‘photo negative’ of the real world that can be used to restore any damage done to it on a cosmic level, which is why Cyrus’ attempts to take apart reality in Platinum fail.  If memory serves, the game uses the analogy of DNA, which has a similar system going on (errors can be detected because the two strands no longer match up right).  As for what would happen if the Distortion World no longer existed… well, I think that’s asking the wrong question.  Logically, it would be possible to use the ‘real’ world to repair or rebuild the Distortion World in just the same way.  The only way to destroy one would be to take apart both at the same time (as Cyrus attempts to do).

Basically, Giratina is kind of important for maintaining the stability of reality, as the caretaker of the Distortion World.  The Pokédex says that it was “banished for its violence” but I actually don’t think that’s true, because Arceus (presumably) has given it a vital role in the cosmology of the Pokémon universe.  Of course, as frightening as Giratina is, it makes sense that humans who encountered it might get the wrong idea about its nature and powers, hence the whole ‘death god’ thing.