Giratina! The reality-bending Ghost/Dragon Pokémon is a real fan favourite, with an intriguing lore and story behind it. It’s popularly thought from lore that it represents anti-matter!
But does it, though?
Is Giratina as bad as it’s portrayed to be? What really transpired in Pokémon lore? To do that, let’s delve into Giratina’s profile and story.
In the Gen 4 games, the deranged cult leader Cyrus tries to reshape the world using the powers of Dialga and Palkia. This ends up opening a portal that leads to the Distortion World, home of Giratina, where it exists in its Origin Forme.
In the Distortion World, all sorts of weird stuff happens. Chunks of land and bodies of water float midair, with some facing sideways or even upside down. Surprisingly, you can still walk on them!
Breaking down Giratina’s Distortion World
The Distortion World is essentially a different dimension that acts as a mirror-reverse of our world. It’s technically attached to our dimension. but also completely separate when it comes to the laws of physics.
In this strange place, gravity behaves radically and affects people individually rather than a whole, thanks to omnipresent exotic matter. So, two people can inhabit areas where the pull of gravity is different at the same time.
Additionally, plants, rocks, and buildings appear and disappear out of the blue, resulting in a baffling and endless maze. However, this maze is not actually dangerous.
While most liken this to a perfect representation of antimatter, the fact that people can enter it freely without being harmed makes this a myth. This area is built of a mysterious form of exotic matter that has strong antigravitational properties and interacts with regular matter abnormally.
This gives an idea about why the usual laws of physics go out the window here. While its origins might not be completely clear, the Distortion World is a source of dimensional unity with our world. As such, if we were to damage something in the Distortion World, something catastrophic would take place in our world and vice-versa.
The Distortion World’s only permanent resident is Giratina, a monster that is a living personification of the Distortion World itself. In fact, its form changes based on the gravity of the area it is located in.
A handful of explorations have ever been made to the Distortion World since Giratina is the only entity capable of opening portals between the two worlds at will.
In the games, you’re told that space and time are being warped in the Distortion World, and let’s keep this in mind for later 💡
So, what leads people to believe that Giratina is the Pokémon of anti-matter? Well, in the Sinnoh Origins myth, it is said that soon after Arceus created Dialga and Palkia matter was wished into being by these two Pokémon of time and space.
Now, the physical process that creates matter from pure energy also creates a mostly equal amount of anti-matter. Knowing this, it seems obvious that Dialga’s and Palkia’s wish for matter gave rise to Giratina, to manage anti-matter. Basically, a mirror image of matter.
However, there’s evidence that this assumption is wrong! In the Gen 4 games again, Champion Cynthia informs the player that according to myth, “Giratina came into being at the same time as Dialga and Palkia.”
This is far too early to be created solely to look over the yet-to-exist antimatter. Another argument for Giratina being the antimatter Legendary has to do with Arceus banishing it because of its violence, destruction, and the danger it posed. Many assume that this destruction was courtesy of antimatter connecting with matter.
Note that matter and antimatter coming into contact with each other is disastrous and causes both to be completely annihilated.
While this is a fair explanation, there’s nothing stating this scenario flat out. However, the biggest piece of evidence is that Cynthia tells you full-fledged that the Distortion World is a world of antimatter.
So, is Cynthia wrong here?!
Yeah, she is. She does mention that she’s “studying Pokémon mythology, just out of curiosity.” So, she’s not an expert.
And surprisingly, this isn’t the first time it happened that stuff said in the games was wrong! For instance, in Pokémon Black and White it is said that Kyurem fell from a meteor from outer space but then in Black and White 2, it’s revealed that this theory was wrong. In fact, Kyurem is just as old as Reshiram and Zekrom, and they all came from one original dragon.
It’s all just like real life. There are five different theories about how the moon came to be. There are plenty of well-known astrophysicists (Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking) who claim that one of these theories is the true one, but then other experts say otherwise.
Cynthia assumed this antimatter connection was the correct theory just like me telling you her theory was wrong! With that being said, let’s unravel why Giratina can’t be antimatter and is instead… gravity!
Hop back to the statement that Cynthia made in the Distortion World: “Space and time are being warped”
How could this possibly be? Dialga and Palkia were never in the Distortion World with the player, so how could Giratina manipulate them?
If the Distortion World were antimatter, then your body coming in contact with it would cause you and the world to explode! Giratina wouldn’t even have to touch anything really, just coming in contact with our world’s air would cause it to explode and cease to exist.
That’s what happens when matter and antimatter come into contact… they merge and no longer exist. It’s the one true way to annihilate matter completely. Also, antimatter wouldn’t cause all of these distortions in gravity, that’s not what antimatter does, duh!
So, clearly, the Distortion World is not made up of antimatter, This again begs the question: How can Giratina manipulate space and time here? Why is water flowing sideways? Why are all the land masses acting funny?
Actually, the explanation is very simple!
IT’S GRAVITY.
Indeed, Giratina is the lord of gravity in both the Pokémon and Distortion World.
You see, the universe is composed of a spacetime fabric, and when there’s any form of matter (heavenly bodies like the planets), the fabric bends. It’s like placing a heavy ball on a large, stretched cloth. The curve or dip of the body (ball) exerts a force around it. If you place a smaller object near the dip caused by the ball, it spirals/falls down it, right?
This force is gravity. Gravity is the strongest where spacetime is most bent, and it disappears where spacetime is flat. This is the very basis of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which, in a nutshell, states: “Matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how to move.”
Randomized pockets of gravity fluctuating all throughout the Distortion World explains the sudden changes to the land, water, and your ability to walk on them. It also covers the changes to space and time.
Elaborating on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the force of gravity acts as a distortion of space and time (yes, that’s literally what the theory states). So, the more gravity there is in an area of space, the more time there is to go through when traveling through that area. This is known as time dilation.
Gravity also squishes space together more, so the more gravity there is, the more space there is to go through as well!
Giratina controlling gravity explains both the time of creation and the banishment it faced at the hands of Arceus. Gravity is a phenomenon affecting both time and space, and it would have needed to be created in the same event as time and space.
Oh, and did you know that Giratina learns a certain move? 😉
Gravity also has a very strange power to it, in that an infinite amount of work and thus energy can be derived from it if it were to condense enough in a certain area of the spacetime conglomeration. Black holes are a result of gravity running awry and unchecked, becoming stronger and stronger until space and time are warped to gravity’s will.
Arceus didn’t banish Giratina because antimatter was annihilating matter. Rather, Giratina’s gravitational forces were causing chaotic conditions too harsh for life to form, and a nightmare for Dialga (time) and Palkia (space).
That’s why Arceus moved Giratina to an alternate emptier universe – Distortion World. There, Giratina’s incredible powers were safely contained as our world went through its delicate forming phase. If Giratina stayed in our world, it would have created a black hole down the line.
After spending countless millennia in the Distortion World, Giratina learned by trial and error how to properly control its gravitational powers. The platforms that the player walks on in the Distortion World were previous mistakes.
So, Giratina can safely come into the Pokémon world without causing mass destruction. It has gained experience in its solitary confinement 😎
All in all, Giratina is just a misunderstood Legendary who doesn’t deserve the dark cloak of mistrust it’s been given. It’s rather an awesome Pokémon! 🙂
If you’re interested in reading more lore, design, and science pieces on some of the most popular Pokémon, then check these out:
Dragapult | Morpeko | Cresselia | Mega Salamence | Dialga & Palkia Origin | Garchomp | Baxcalibur | Hydreigon | Zygarde| Druddigon | Naganadel | Gardevoir | Drampa | Enamorus | Wooloo & Dubwool | Houndoom
Have fun, trainers!
