So how much of the mythological capabilities of a given legendary Pokémon DO we actually believe in, anyway? (If you can’t get into that question there, get into it here! I’m curious!)
ohhhhhhhh boy
so… what I was alluding to there is that I would eventually
like to do a series on legendary Pokémon, where I look at everything we know
about each of them (core games, TV show, movies, even spinoff games and the TCG)
and decide “well, what actually are this Pokémon’s powers and how does
it fit into the world?” And in
particular, I would like to take seriously the idea that characters in the
games and anime don’t know the truth either. Because I’m not convinced Arceus
created the universe, and I’m not convinced Kyogre created the oceans,
and I’m not convinced Yveltal can destroy all life on earth, and I’m certainly
not convinced that Mew is the ancestor of all Pokémon. As far as I’m concerned, all we know is that
there are people who, rightly or wrongly, believe those things. But there isn’t a simple answer to this question,
because… well, that word “given” is important. The answer’s not the same for all of them,
because we don’t have the same information about all of them. And I don’t even mean, like, some of them
have appeared in a larger number of movies or episodes of the TV show; I mean in-universe
the sources and reliability of the information are not the same. Like, in Arceus and the Jewel of Life,
the unreliability of history and legend is a theme of the story; in my
opinion, that movie kind of invites us to disbelieve stuff the
characters tell us about Arceus, in a way that isn’t really the case for, say, Manaphy’s
role in Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, which seems pretty
clear-cut (although the nature of the titular Temple is less so). You kinda have to look at everything we know
about each one – or at least each duo/trio/quartet. And the truth is, I don’t know when I’m going
to be able to do that properly. My
schtick is the Pokémon reviews and, wouldn’t you know it, there’s gonna be a
whole bunch of them that need doing in about two months, and I feel like more
people care about those. You can see why
I might be interested in maybe coming up with a shorter format for them.