This is pretty much only true for Greek gods; Coyote, Raven and Anansi tend to be represented as animals, except when it's time for trickery. Also *gestures broadly to Ancient Egypt* I don't know what's going on over there, but you might want to have a look before you assert which direction the dude-to-animal arrow goes.
I know that a lot of mythology is open to interpretation but this is just categorically wrong.
Most versions of the story I was referencing have the selkie exist as a seal as her natural state, then she takes off her pelt to be a human for a day, then a guy hides her pelt and that forces her to stay as a human, then she is usually very sad on account of wanting to return to the sea, then she finds her pelt and immediately returns to the sea never to be seen again, often abandoning her human children!
In at least one version, when the selkie finds her pelt, THE CHILDREN SHE HAD WITH THE HUMAN GUY TURN INTO SEALS AND SHE TAKES THEM WITH HER!
No. Absolutely not. Please refresh your database of Orkney folklore.
correct, which is why these stories were safely stashed away in a server until some hacker decided to do some crimes at Game Freak. Right? These aren't published materials, in fact they bear all the hallmarks of exploratory materials. Somebody, wanting to explore and expand the themes of Pokemon commissioned these stories, and then, DECIDED NOT TO PUBLISH THEM IN ANY WAY! Most likely they were never meant to be published but instead were used, or not used, as inspiration for what would eventually end up in the games (also likely why they are all so similar). With the art leaks everyone seems to understand that these are unused concepts, nobody's saying "This guy who is drawn in a completely clashing style was almost in the game"
because we know he wasn't, this is clearly exploratory design. But for some reason this is not extended to the written stuff. Pokemon fans are treating all this stuff like it's canon.
Lastly here, I obviously couldn't tell you for sure, but do you think that maybe these stories that attempt at fleshing out pokemon mythology have remained relevant to the team? Like maybe they are a point in Gamefreak's path that would eventually lead to the lore rich, ancient world of the highly acclaimed Legends: Arceus? You know, the one with a Typhlosion who is literally a spirit? Could that be a thing that happened?
And the result is an entire generation whose mind is blown when they're asked to imagine a character who is a person, a spirit and an animal at the same time.
put the swans back in, kids need to know the ancient lore.
(tagging @axl-ion so they know I responded)
