An Aqua Grunt in αS made a reference to Poseidon and that got me thinking about the Pokémon world's increasingly tenuous connections to our world.

[Red Knight]

Specifically, it was one of the grunts at Slateport Harbor that Archie and Shelly sic on you to buy time while they escape with the submarine. The grunt said, "I can fight like Poseidon even on land!" And after I predictably annihilated him, he said, "Poseidon is not so good at battles on land!"

This reference to Poseidon has interesting implications. We know that many Legendary Pokémon are revered as gods, and to my knowledge, gods that are explicitly not Pokémon are never mentioned.

Now, in the early generations, the games made occasional references to places in our world. For instance, Mew was found in the jungles of Guyana, a Silph Co. Scientist complains about having been sent to the Tiksi Branch in "Russian no-man's-land" (and yes, Tiksi is an actual settlement on the Arctic coast in Siberia, near the Lena River, the Soviets built two military airfields there, and to this day it is the northernmost settlement with a population of over 5,000 people), and Arcanine's PokéDex entries state that it is revered in Chinese legend as late as Heart Gold. Heck, the Pokémon world's Kanto directly takes its name from its equivalent in our world. But by Gen 6, most such references had been phased out, indicating that Pokémon takes place not in an alternate version of our world, but in a completely different world with little in common with our world: not its history (for a start, Unova, Galar, and Paldea seem far less imperialist than their real world counterparts, though granted the latter two regions did not yet exist), not its geography (last I checked, New York City and France don't have deserts smack dab in the middle of them), not its mythology (we don't hear about Arcanine being revered in certain parts of the world again until Sun, which only describes it as appearing in "ancient Eastern folklore," clearly evoking China but distancing itself from the actual place), not in any respect, aside from the now seemingly inexplicable existence of Nintendo and Game Freak that continues even in Scarlet and Violet.

I don't think they started actively retconning direct references to our world until Gen 7 (see the Arcanine example above), but they were definitely moving towards that in Gen 6. Which makes this reference to Poseidon all the more curious. It suggests that either a people in the world of Pokémon venerated a humanoid god of the sea in Poseidon, or a people worshipped a Legendary Pokémon like Kyogre or Lugia and referred to it as Poseidon for one reason or another. Perhaps there was even some syncretism involved, either between multiple Pokémon or between a Pokémon and a non-Pokémon deity. And in any case, whoever worshipped Poseidon had enough influence on global culture that someone in Hoenn, which is based on Kyushu in Japan and thus has almost nothing to do with Greece, would casually refer to him. (Granted, again, the Pokémon world's geography is different to ours, but there are still enough similarities, such as a China-like region being associated with "the East", that I find it unlikely that Hoenn and a hypothetical Greece-inspired region would be much more closely related.) Like, imagine if someone in Paldea or something made a similarly casual reference to Susanoo, the traditional Japanese god of the sea.

Also, side note regarding the comment that "Poseidon is not so good at battles on land!" Poseidon was also closely associated with earthquakes, so the grunt is mistaken on this front. He just sucks at battling. Plus, a single Mightyena doesn't exactly evoke the wrath of Poseidon.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

Huh, that's interesting...I don't remember seeing that quote (or a theme-swapped equivalent thereof) when I played Omega Ruby. Regarding the retcon, the longer a world runs and the more people get involved with creating it, the more likely it is that stuff won't be consistent. Even one creator can make a choice they regret later; when you add many creators (even different generations of creators, depending on the work's timespan), you get a "too many cooks in the kitchen" situation. The real explanation for retconning out the real-world references is more than likely that new people came in with a different worldbuilding idea and/or the old guard started changing their minds about how good an idea it was in the first place.

Of course, this explanation is no fun as far as theorizing goes, so I'm happy to ignore it for the sake of speculation! I have sometimes wondered what the Pokémon world versions of real life stories (mythology, literature, pop culture) would be. In the case of the real-world references...what if Poseidon was not a god, but a mythically strong Pokémon Wielder who specialized in Water Types? What if "China" is just the old name for the roughly-equivalent Region (like how Hisui is an old name for Sinnoh)? What if Guyana is just one of many names tossed out for the poorly explored area where Mew was found, and it only coincidentally matches the name of a real world location? If you choose to not just accept the boring, real life logistics explanation, the phased-out real-world references give a lot of food for thought...

 

[Red Knight]

...what if Poseidon was not a god, but a mythically strong Pokémon Wielder who specialized in Water Types?

Interesting that you specify a Pokémon Wielder, as opposed to a Trainer. That implies things about this theoretical Poseidon. None of which paint an especially flattering picture of them.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

Interesting that you specify a Pokémon Wielder, as opposed to a Trainer. That implies things about this theoretical Poseidon. None of which paint an especially flattering picture of them.

In Scarlet and Violet, I believe Raifort mentions the Ruinous Quartet being sealed with the help of Pokémon Wielders, which could imply it was an ancient term for those who fought using Pokémon before such a thing was common...not necessarily with all the baggage involved when the term first popped up in Legends.

I would say the term could be fitting for a Poseidon counterpart with all the baggage, though. The Greek pantheon always struck me as a very morally questionable bunch...

 

[Red Knight]

In Scarlet and Violet, I believe Raifort mentions the Ruinous Quartet being sealed with the help of Pokémon Wielders, which could imply it was an ancient term for those who fought using Pokémon before such a thing was common...not necessarily with all the baggage involved when the term first popped up in Legends.

I would say the term could be fitting for a Poseidon counterpart with all the baggage, though. The Greek pantheon always struck me as a very morally questionable bunch...

I mean, just the term "Wielder" as opposed to "Trainer" implies a much different relationship with their Pokémon, in my opinion. This could be indicative of a cultural shift with how Pokémon and the people who raised them to do battle were perceived... or it could be an indictment of those who specifically treat their Pokémon as weapons to be wielded, rather than companions to be mentored and trained. It's been a bit so I'd need to check, but I'm pretty sure the term "Pokémon Trainer" is used in Legends: Arceus.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

I mean, just the term "Wielder" as opposed to "Trainer" implies a much different relationship with their Pokémon, in my opinion. This could be indicative of a cultural shift with how Pokémon and the people who raised them to do battle were perceived... or it could be an indictment of those who specifically treat their Pokémon as weapons to be wielded, rather than companions to be mentored and trained. It's been a bit so I'd need to check, but I'm pretty sure the term "Pokémon Trainer" is used in Legends: Arceus.

I would also need to go check, but I think Volo says something about the player being a Trainer rather than a Wielder, which would paint Wielder as the worse option. On the other hand, Raifort's use of the term would seem to imply something morally neutral, or even good. Maybe the term had different shades of meaning across different time periods and cultures? Paldea is presumably quite a distance from Hisui/Sinnoh, after all.

Oooooor maybe it's just context of the story. If you're trying to dethrone Arceus and become a god, you're definitely the bad guy. If you're trying to save the Region from walking incarnations of destruction, you're the good guy, even if you could use a few lessons on friendship.