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.

Okay.  So.  Time supposedly flows with the beat of Dialga’s heart.  No word on the direction of causality involved there, though.  Does Dialga’s heartbeat cause time to flow, or does the flow of time cause Dialga’s heart to beat?  It’s a trick question, of course, because human conceptions of cause and effect function within a ‘normal’ time stream (whatever that means) – if neither one can possibly come ‘first,’ then neither one can be the ‘cause’ of the other in the sense that we understand the word, so it seems that they just happen together.  If Dialga is alive, time flows, and vice versa.  Any action taken that hurts Dialga is, by its very nature, harmful to the natural passage of time, and anything capable of altering the flow of time is, again by its very nature, harmful to Dialga.

Time, from a human perspective, is basically a way that we have of measuring change.  We invented ways of measuring time in order to keep track of the movement of the earth around the sun.  If time ‘stopped,’ though, every means we could possibly have of measuring time would stop with it, including our thoughts, so realistically, how would we ever know?  It very well could have happened sixteen times before I had breakfast this morning!  Unless there’s some objective way of keeping time which is standard throughout the universe, doesn’t rely on local frames of reference, and keeps changing regardless of any disruptions, the idea of time ‘stopping’ is meaningless anyway.  Dialga’s heartbeat could be that perfectly objective timepiece.  Of course, that would mean that Dialga never really ‘travels’ through time at all, because time itself is defined by Dialga’s lifespan – he’s just aware of, and experiences, every moment of his own existence simultaneously.  Nor does he ‘control’ time, any more than humans can ‘control’ the beating of our hearts – it’s just what he is.

I thought about this quite a bit when I was writing about Black and White, and when I reviewed the Victini movie.  In both the games and the movie, Reshiram and Zekrom are basically interchangeable, as are their values.  This is necessary so that the same story can be told whichever one N partners with, and is made possible largely because the writers seem to have a very loose interpretation of what ‘truth’ is.  I think this is the real problem, rather than anything in their physical designs; both Reshiram’s ‘truth’ and Zekrom’s ‘ideals’ basically boil down to “the way you believe in your heart the world should be,” so there’s nothing to distinguish them conceptually.  Zekrom stands for ideals and Reshiram stands for truth, but ultimately both of them admire and reward the same things in their human partners: the desire for change, and the will to pursue it.  Honestly, I don’t think they’re forces of ‘truth’ and ‘ideals’ at all; I think they personify conflict itself in a way so abstract and primal that our pathetic little human minds just give up and start arbitrarily assigning them to pairs of opposites like light and dark, male and female, or passion and serenity, in an effort to explain their nature in terms we can understand.  Since playing the sequels I’ve actually come to think that the fuzziness of their boundaries is intentional; you can see this, for instance, when you meet Drayden in the sequels and he talks about how, in spite of their long-standing and bitter opposition, Reshiram and Zekrom aren’t even all that different, and don’t really need to be enemies at all.  I think the fact that you have difficulty remembering which is which is sort of the point; the whole thing, I suspect, is supposed to be an allegory for the wastefulness of conflict.

All that said, I don’t really like the way Reshiram and Zekrom were handled.  If I had been running Black and White, I probably would have demanded significantly more divergence between the two games in the way the story unfolded, to give room for Reshiram and Zekrom to look for and cultivate different qualities in their chosen heroes – Reshiram respects intelligence, discipline, pragmatism and an analytical worldview, while Zekrom respects confidence, passion, determination and an idealistic worldview.  N could actually fit either of these – he can earn Zekrom’s trust through his desire to change the world for the better and his dedication to his cause, while he can command Reshiram’s respect through his undeniable brilliance and his ability to view the world with mathematical objectivity.  I think I would probably work this by playing up different aspects of N’s personality on the different games, to make it more obvious how he fits each dragon.  Then, starting from the point when the player obtains the Light Stone or Dark Stone (which I might put earlier in the game), Reshiram/Zekrom will begin sending the player visions or dreams that require difficult moral choices (“who do you save and why?”-type dilemmas with no ‘right’ option, both choices leading to a different explanation from the dragon about why you suck), basically with the intention of moulding you into a hero who suits their preferences.

Hmm.

It’s… kind of an all-or-nothing tactic?  Like, in theory, a Stantler with a Focus Sash can kill absolutely anything with this move, barring entry hazards, weather damage and multi-hit attacks, which strikes me as a terrible thing to give to any Pokémon.  The smart thing for the opponent to do is always to switch out against Stantler until it runs out of Doom Bell PP – which means that the smart thing for Stantler to do is never actually to use Doom Bell, and instead to exploit the fact that very few Pokémon will willingly stay in against it by spamming Calm Mind or Thunder Wave.  You get this irritating game of chicken, where Stantler is daring an opponent to stay in, try to kill him, and risk being Doom Belled, and the opponent is daring Stantler to use Doom Bell and risk running out of PP for it without killing anything.  Worse, it’s clearly a very good idea for Stantler with this move to have Substitute as well – so the opponent is in a situation where they can either switch out and risk letting Stantler set up a free Substitute, making him even more annoying to deal with, or not switch out and risk instant death.  I actually think a lot of Stantler might wind up not having Doom Bell at all – just something along the lines of [Calm Mind | Psyshock | Thunderbolt | Substitute/Energy Ball], keeping one of the attacks secret until very late in the game, and just exploiting the fear of the possibility of Doom Bell, since optimal tactics for the damn thing involve not using it.  I’m… not convinced it’s a good idea.

If it’s any consolation, Stantler’s not… that bad.  His movepool is solid and he has two great abilities; his stats are just a bit lacklustre.

Also… why a bell?  As far as I know Stantler doesn’t have any sonic powers or any flavour related to bells or ringing… he doesn’t even learn Heal Bell.

Well, that seems to be more or less what happens, except that there are no male Kangaskhan, which would mean that actual Kangaskhan eggs are a weird anomaly that only ever happen with hybrids, and most of them just clone themselves ad infinitum.  They’re just… kind of a strange species.

So… what you’re saying is that the egg doesn’t actually hatch into a Kangaskhan at all; it hatches into a ‘Kangaskid’ or whatever you want to call it, and that prompts an existing Kangaskid to leave its mother’s pouch and ‘evolve’ (offscreen, as it were) into an adult Kangaskhan, producing another Kangaskid in the process?

It’s… an interesting idea; the trouble is that, in the games, there doesn’t actually need to be another Kangaskhan present in order for an egg to hatch.  You can be wandering around with nothing in your party but a Kangaskhan egg and, say, a Magcargo, and when the egg hatches, you’ll still get a complete set of Kangaskhan + baby (in the anime, on the other hand, there’s nothing all that unusual about seeing a Kangaskhan without a baby, so there’s nothing that needs to be explained anyway).

Would it help if they started calling it “the Cheri Pokémon"?

I assume you mean by this Rattata, Sentret, Zigzagoon, Bidoof and Patrat?  Hmm… Well, Patrat has those crazy eyes, and I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of demon-thing.  It scares me.  I think Rattata is just a really big purple rat; like, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t do anything that a normal rat doesn’t.  Bidoof is Bidoof.  Zigzagoon has the zigzag thing, which I guess is kind of interesting.  I suppose I quite like Sentret.  It’s a meerkat, only it’s not, because it’s also a bit like a whole bunch of animals.  It’s not just an animal that’s been pasted into the game with minimal thought or development.  Also there is that episode of the anime where a Sentret hijacks Team Rocket’s giant Arbok-shaped destructo-tank, possibly the most ludicrous device they have ever deployed (which is saying something), and goes on a rampage.  That was, on reflection, pretty awesome.