clarification on that bit on gender and contemplations on other stuff
If anyone actually bothers to read this lmao
Dialga: This question was pretty much inevitable.
Palkia: Iâm honestly fine with being referred to as an âitâ.
Giratina: Why the hell should we worry about âitâ being âdehumanizingâ when weâre not human to begin with?
Something that I knew would eventually get brought up is the genders of my interpretation of the trio. The simple answer is encapsulated in the prev post: theyâre dragon gods. Gender is a societal construct; sex is for reproduction. Legendary entities that represent the fundamental laws of the universe donât really have a need for either society or reproduction. So as with the games, theyâre all officially non-binary/genderless.
That said, my designs gravitate towards one or the other. One reason is that iâm not creative, bold, inspired, or talented enough to really translate that genderless attribute into humanoid form. Another is that someone pointed out to me a while ago that Palkia has a low waist-hip ratio, stiletto clawed feet, and some designs will feature a more prominent chest. That and the gendered color-coding Pokemon started doing with blue males and red/pink females, like with the menu screens starting from Gen III, the Eon Duo, Jellicent in Gen V, and Team Skull Grunts in Gen VII.Â
That said, Iâm not a huge fan of these reasons, as you could also make the counterargument that Palkia looks somewhat phallic. So I kinda wanna get into an Extended Rant⢠on why I choose to depict my OCs the way, even though no one probably cares lmao
It starts out with the Kanji/Hanzi for âUniverseâ: ĺŽĺŽ, UchĹŤ in Japanese and YÇzhòu in Chinese. You might recall it if youâve read Pokemon Adventures.Â
You might also remember if you visited that one dude on Route 228 in Diamond and Pearl who gets yeeted out of his house by Cyrusâs contrite grandfather by the time Platinum rolls around. Okay, realistically, barely anyone probably does (that guy wasnât that memorable), but he basically says the same thing as Cyrus in the panels above: ĺŽĺŽ, coined by the ancient Taoists, esoterically means something like âthe totality of extensionâ + âthe totality of durationâ. In other words, the ancient Japanese/Chinese word for âuniverseâ is lit. âspaceâ + âtimeâ. This is actually a somewhat obscure, unnecessary detail that even many native speakers seem to be unaware of. It also ties in heavily with the Yin-Yang é°é˝ of Taoism.
I know Taoism is more a Gen V theme, but itâs a concept implicit throughout the franchise, hence games generally come in twos, sharing complementary/opposing or dualistic/dichotomic themes. Even trios tend to have the third member as the odd one out or mediator. Thereâs much more to the Yin-Yang than just Truth/Ideals and I sorta wish Game Freak would explore it more to really unite the franchise as a whole around the interconnected theme of both diversity and harmony.
The Yin-Yang isnât strictly about Truth/Ideals as much as it is about the fundamentally dualistic nature of existence and the oneness implicit in the inseparability of coexisting complementary concepts. Thus, truth and ideals are two sides of the same coin, as are time and space as relativity revealed. The Yin-Yang is vague enough to basically be an umbrella representation term for any complementary duality. It should be noted that the feminine Yin and masculine Yang donât refer to stereotypical/conventional notions of femininity or masculinity, but rather requires an abstract interpretation.
The Yin-Yang is composed of an active component, and a passive/reflective/receptive one. More easily understood in that one aspect creates the body and the other gives it life. One which shapes/nurtures/mothers being and one which animates/directs/fathers it. Abstract interpretations of the feminine Mother and masculine Father follow suit. As do dualistic concepts like particle and wave, existence and essence, ovum and sperm, object/entity and idea/concept, magnitude and direction, defense and offense, nature/tradition and technology/advancement (Gen I & Gen II), space and time (Gen IV), truth and ideals (Gen V), night/moon and day/sun (Gen VII), and shields and swords i guess (Gen VIII).
I excluded Gen III because among the classical elements, earth and water are both traditionally considered reflective/feminine, with fire and air being active/masculine, but i suppose if you factor in Primal Reversion in Gen VI, it works. With the Aura Trio, I read something unrelated but interesting about how apparently Ohmori Shigeru hinted at parallels between the Weather Trio and Aura Trio. Canât find the source though. Blue - Seas were the first (Alpha) source of Life; Red - fiery, desolate Lands signify the Death of all in the end (Omega); Green - Order/Balance mediates between two forces of nature that can be malevolent/chaotic left unchecked, with the trio master possessing abilities that cancel out the other two.Â
Going off the rails a bit more, speaking of color-parallels, thereâs probably going to be one of the subtractive colors between Gen VIII and the (highly probable) Gen IV remakes this generation, with Cyan - Dialga, Azelf, Lucasâ accents, Za-cian; Magenta - Palkia, Mesprit, Dawnâs accents, Za-mazenta; Yellow - Giratina, Uxie, Barryâs accents, whoever the third member of the Gen VIII mascot/box art legendary trio is going to be. I wonder how theyâre going to incorporate the parallels tho
Anyway I digress. The ancient Daoists associated feminine Yin with ĺŽ/Space and masculine Yang with ĺŽ/Time by virtue of insisting the feminine aspect precedes, but even disregarding that, Space fits in with the Yin criteria of that which represents the body and Time fits in with the Yang criteria of that which initiates life.
So while theyâre genderless, Dialga represents the concept of masculinity and Palkia femininity in their most pure, abstract, and universal form according to the Dao. While this doesnât make Dialga a dudebro and Palkia whatever the hell the feminine equivalent is, in my mind, Palkia has a strong maternal instinct and Dialga is very much a dad. Giratina is weird chaotic goth aunt/uncle who gives u ur first taste of alcohol just to spite grandpa and reads fanfiction with candles and a glass of wine like itâs a fucking literary hour.
Thatâs my logic and explanation behind it anyhow. The distinction goes something like Palkia will concern itself more with the state or properties of something (who, what, where) whereas Dialga will concern itself more with the role or activity of it (when, why, how). As time and space are, however, theyâre deeply intertwined and cannot be separated.
I might move this bit to a separate post somewhere down the line since this has already dragged on long enough, but Iâll share some thoughts on Giratina here and tie it in with the overarching topic of assigning gender roles lol. According to Game Freak, Giratina represents antimatter, but there are some inconsistencies. I know this shit has to be taken with a grain of salt because of Pokemon logic/science and whatever, but I gave it some thought regardless. My personal headcanon is that Altered Giratina represents dark matter/energy and Origin Giratina represents antimatter. Whatever tf Gira represents in Pokemon lore is based on a combination of the two, with the Reverse/Distortion World probably alluding to the idea of an anti-universe. Antimatter and dark matter are not really the same thing, but theyâre both trippy cosmic constructs that sound somewhat similar, so ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ . I wanted to make a distinction because while antimatter doesnât distort spacetime any more than normal matter, itâs speculated that dark matter (actually dark energy) does, and is responsible for the rapid expansion of the universe.Â
This would also go along nicely with Gira complementing the the Spacetime twins while also complementing Arceus. It would also fit as justification for Giratina having to switch from Origin to Altered Forme upon entering the universe presided over by Dialga and Palkia, not because of the shift in spacetime stability, but rather due to the violent, annihilating reaction that occurs when matter and antimatter come into contact with one another. Itâs by no means a perfect resolution hc, but it is one that Iâve gotten attached to.
Anyhoo, I designed Giratina to appear more androgynous (or at least attempted to). However, going by that masculine active/feminine reflective duality highlighted in the Yin-Yang, Origin Gira, with antimatter a reflection of normal matter, appears a bit more feminine-androgynous, whereas Altered Gira, with dark matter an active driving force for the expansion of the universe, appears a bit more masculine-androgynous (though iirc it hasnât shown up yet and iâm not too great with consistency regardless). That was my idea behind it in any case. Origin Gira wears a binder under that big dastardly overcoat. i guess itâs technically genderfluid.
Digressing a bit, but another artistic choice was the skin tone of the trio. 0 points for subtlety on my part, but the color is Cosmic Latte, the average color of the universe. Like that bit on gender, I wanted to base it on some aspect of reality. I juggled between that and pure black with stars for freckles, but in the end iâm a lazy piece of shit who cuts corners for a living, so i settled on Primordial Clam Chowder because it was easier lmao. thatâs why they pasty af
Anyways, if you have any design ideas or you wanna see a member of the trio in another form, feel free to submit your ideas or a magic anon or whatever!Â
TL;DR tbh this wasnât even a structured rant it was just me going off the rails and sharing random useless deetz. this isnât even a tl;dr. what the fuck
