Talk:Deity Pokémon

Deletion discussion

The desciption in the tag says it all. People look at our classification pages with an extreme amount of scrutiny, so we need to be very intentional with the ones we have. This is essentially a few trivia points about some random Pokemon being referred to as gods in various contexts, often with that context stripped away in an attempt to place them all together. It's not a good practice to be doing, and the notable things could either be listed in the Pokemon's respective biology and characteristics sections, or in trivia on the individual pages, or even the region pages. It shouldn't be a collected page trying to create a tie that simply isn't there. ^Maverick_Nate 00:46, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

I think it's interesting info to collate, but I don't like the title "Deity Pokémon". As you say, I think it creates the idea that these Pokémon somehow form a defined group or specifically all are deities in some way, rather than sometimes simply being called or worshipped as such.

Is it possible this info could be folded into some sort of article such as Worship in the Pokémon world a la Death in the Pokémon world? Driftin Soul (talk) 00:59, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

That's a neat zag for this idea. but it would be nice to expand it into something with a wider scope. Religious traditions in the Pokémon world? As an alternate suggestion (that potentially pulls some content specifically from Death in the Pokémon world.) ^Maverick_Nate 01:04, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

Yeah! That would work also; my title idea was just a quick spitball but you pretty much landed on the intent of my idea. I was thinking having a subsection listing specifically which Pokémon have been called or worshipped as deities would be a good fit. Driftin Soul (talk) 01:09, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

How much content would there really be for such an article? Pokémon usually tries to avoid religious references. I'm in favor of nixing this page and all the content on it, personally. Storm Aurora (talk) 01:11, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

I like the idea of "Religious traditions in the Pokémon world".

It could also mention the Trainer classes like Sage, Channeler, and Hex Maniac.

There's also a church in Hearthome City and a few temples. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 01:32, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

Well, off the dome:

1. The idea of religious tradition at all, which, while rarely mentioned, definitely is still mentioned at times.
2. The Diamond and Pearl Clans, societies founded on shared religious beliefs and major factions in a core series game. To a lesser degree the Celestica/ancient Sinnoh people figure in here also.
3. Various shrines, such as the ones in Ilex Forest, Celestic Town, or the Abundant Shrine
4. Hearthome City's "Foreign Building", specifically already mentioned by us to resemble a church or cathedral
5. The existing content of this page

That's just quick spitballing, I would be surprised if there weren't more examples from other media such as manga series or the anime, or more game examples that are escaping me at this present moment. Driftin Soul (talk) 01:33, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps it would be beneficial to incorporate deity notes into the biology of the respective Pokémon or create category sections for them, so the information is not wasted. How does that sound? Jacob9594 (talk) 02:52, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

Whatever the result is, this information will never be lost, since it's already only some random content collected from Pokedex entries and other sources ^Maverick_Nate 03:41, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

Some more things of note:

1. Santa Claus is a character in the anime
2. Some Pokémon have designs inspired by real-world religions or derivations thereof, such as Jirachi, Infernape, Chingling, Hoopa, or Oranguru
3. The Japanese name of the Elite Four literally translates to Four Heavenly Kings

Driftin Soul (talk) 03:44, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

i disagree on the Elite Four thing being mentioned as a religious reference. yes, the name 四天王 can literally translate to Four Heavenly Kings and historically referred to a quartet of Buddhist gods, but the name today has also been divorced from the religious connotations and is often used to refer to any group of four high-rank peoples. (see this Legends of Localization article.) anZAsquiddles 2222(:D)SSSS (talk) 05:02, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

If we move this to "Religious traditions in the Pokémon world", will this page include even the real-world religious references that are not treated as religious in-universe?

Chingling is based on a suzu bell, but I don't recall it being used as a suzu bell in-universe. Strictly speaking, there is no religious tradition in the Pokémon world involving Chingling (unless I missed something). But if people want to add examples like this, maybe they could be listed in a separate section or something.

If we decide to have a list of references to real-life religion that are not treated as religious in-universe, I would suggest including Elite Four (Four Heavenly Kings) anyway, even if the meaning has drifted like that.

This page can also include meditation. Some humans and Pokémon have been known to meditate, including Ash in AG023. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 06:18, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

I feel there's two distinct topics here: "List of religious references in Pokémon" and "Belief systems and traditions in the Pokémon world". Landfish7 12:22, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

That can work for some uses. Jacob9594 (talk) 12:28, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

(resetting indent) In any case, I support deleting this page in the interim, as the content already exists on other pages, and full articles covering the topics mentioned in this discussion would likely take a very different form than this, and may be better suited for development in the Draft space. Landfish7 17:51, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

I will likewise support the deletion for the reasons listed above. We don't need a page whose only purpose is to list Pokémon that have been referred to as deities in any language. These can be listed as part of a page with a larger scope, like the aforementioned "Belief systems in the Pokémon world" idea. Dougbro1 (Talk) 01:30, 3 September 2025 (UTC)