What existed first - Pokemon or Humans?

[Mewtwo_The_Destroyer]

Did humans evolve from pokemon, or are they not originally from the same planet? Supposing the Sinnoh myths are true and Arceus created the universe (or at least the pokemon world), and all the powerful legendary pokemon, and probably through mew all other pokemon, but where did the humans come from?

And how comes humans are the dominant species when pokemon are far more powerful, some of which have powers that defy the laws of physics and many are at least semi-sentient. And consider how dangerous these creatures would be if they were real, like if a trainer pissed off its Charizard, its basically a walking flamethrower, that would roast a human being!

 

[mjunior3]

From the entries in the Pokedex, Pokemon came first. Arceus and Mew created everything.

But, humans and Pokemon have fought each other before, based on the dex entries of Terrikion, Cobalian, and Virizion, plus the story of the Hero in the library of Canalave in D/P/Pt.

 

[Endolise]

There is a hiker in Platinum who suggested this based on his research:

"The way I see it, our world began when the spirit within people was born.
When that spirit came to be, there followed awareness about the world.
Within the newborn spirit, time and space were intertwined as one.
People and Pokémon, too, were but the same presence.
As I understand it, people and Pokémon shared the spirit and awareness.
They should have understood and accepted each other then.
Because they shared the same spirit, people and Pokémon intermingled.
People took the place of Pokémon, and the opposite also held true.
That interpretation could give us an idea about how our world came to be.
A Pokémon is said to have shaped this world.
Could that Pokémon be the physical form of the original spirit?
Hmm... The spirit came to be, and from it, time and space were born...
That seems to point to legendary Dialga, the Pokémon of time, and Palkia, the Pokémon of space...
And they lead back to Arceus, the Pokémon that made them arise.
Oh, there were also Plates, weren't there?
One Plate read 'Three beings were born to bind time and space.'
Those three beings I read to mean the three Pokémon of the lakes. It's about Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf.
The myth describes how they gave spirit to the world, shaping it.
But it all starts with Arceus, the first. It is known as the Original One."

That is probably the closest we will ever get to a clear, definitive explanation.

Arceus and Mew created everything.

Maybe Arceus, but not Mew. Mew was never said to have created anything.

 

[Missingno.Fan]

Humans evolved from Mankeys. Duh.

 

[The Admiral]

The Megami Tensei series. Oh wait this is about something different entirely.

Since this is a world where creation myths are apparently true and the creator-god species exist, it's pretty clear that, in-universe, Pokemon existed before humans. Even if you take the scientific approach, there were animals* before humans, and since there don't really seem to be a whole lot of non-Pokemon "animals"* in-universe, yeah, it was Pokemon first. They just may not have been the same as modern Pokemon.

*Technically, humans are animals, too; the word "animal" in the main post body refers to non-human animals.

 

[Bulba the Great!]

Pokemon definitely came first. As to hoe we became the dominant species: Human will to survive and greed. By expanding and learning to capture and control unruly Pokemon, humans forced themselves to the top of the food chain, just as we did over here in the real world.

That's my theory.

 

[*~Silver*~]

There was a story in one of the Sinnoh books in the library that described people evolving from Pokemon. If you're like me and didn't actually read the stories, you can check out a video TheJWittz made about it on YouTube.

 

[BlackStar80]

Obviously pokemon, why do you think you get fossils?

I will be honest, I wasn't sure at first, but on the game: Aerodactyl, shieldon and Tirtuga and Archen are all from fossils, formed over 1000 years ago...

It says so on the game Poekmon Black and I'm not sure if it does on the second one, but I think it DOES...

 

[Minedreigon]

There was a story in one of the Sinnoh books in the library that described people evolving from Pokemon. If you're like me and didn't actually read the stories, you can check out a video TheJWittz made about it on YouTube.

] I saw that. Judging by that, pokemon came first

 

[Mewtwo_The_Destroyer]

Ok so pokemon came first, i can go with that, i wasn't sure either way but that's cool. But, is pokeworld supposed to be Earth, whether its this real earth or in another dimension / parallel universe or whatever, is it Earth? I'm assuming it is considering various real locations have been mentioned before such as South America being where Mew was first discovered, and a Meowth episode being about him in Hollywood.
So therefore where on Earth exactly are the pokemon regions located? I know they are supposed to be based on real places in Japan, but in-universe are they actually the equivalent of Japan or other places that we just don't have? And again how comes Pokemon in general seem to be a fairly new discovery, where the regions they live on hidden or something up until contemporary history?
Also, if it is Earth, then does it share the same history as we do, eg. Dinosaurs existing millions of years ago, and the same historical characters existing? If so how do pokemon fit into all that?

 

[Endolise]

Ok so pokemon came first, i can go with that, i wasn't sure either way but that's cool. But, is pokeworld supposed to be Earth, whether its this real earth or in another dimension / parallel universe or whatever, is it Earth? I'm assuming it is considering various real locations have been mentioned before such as South America being where Mew was first discovered, and a Meowth episode being about him in Hollywood.
So therefore where on Earth exactly are the pokemon regions located? I know they are supposed to be based on real places in Japan, but in-universe are they actually the equivalent of Japan or other places that we just don't have? And again how comes Pokemon in general seem to be a fairly new discovery, where the regions they live on hidden or something up until contemporary history?
Also, if it is Earth, then does it share the same history as we do, eg. Dinosaurs existing millions of years ago, and the same historical characters existing? If so how do pokemon fit into all that?

Junichi Masuda has actually commented on this matter, saying:

"We actually don't think of the world of Pokémon as Earth. If we were to do that, we would kind of be limited by what we could do. By thinking about how physical objects work on Earth and how various elements work on Earth, we would kind of be limited to that if we thought of it as Earth. We think of it as a place that is really similar to Earth, but is a different planet of its own with people in it who may be similar to people on Earth, but they have different values so they care about different things. It's the type of place, the Pokémon world, where problems we face on Earth just wouldn't happen. There wouldn't be global warming, water shortages, or anything like that. It's a world where the people in it really want to work together with each other. Their value system is such where they would prefer to work together and eliminate these problems rather than feud."

That being said, we do know from a piece of text in Red and Blue that the moon landing occurred in the Pokémon world on the same date that it did in the real world.


As a side-note regarding the original question, I was looking through Lucian's Bulbapedia article today and I happened upon this quote (of a quote):

"Ah, hello. You’re here to read, too? Books are wonderful things. The thoughts of people written in books stretch beyond time and space. I was just reading an analytical tome on humankind. It examines the human species from cultural and social perspectives. This is a thought-provoking quote: 'It all began without humans. The end will also be without humans.'"

So there's that, for what it's worth.

 

[Mewtwo_The_Destroyer]

Man this just sounds even more complicated, so it is like Earth but it isnt! It has some of the same history but not all, very confusing.

 

[Endolise]

Man this just sounds even more complicated, so it is like Earth but it isnt! It has some of the same history but not all, very confusing.

I just think of it as an Earth-like planet with a vaguely similar flow of history.

 

[Mewtwo_The_Destroyer]

Yeah i would think of it as a regular Earth-Like planet but not actually Earth, but then there is actual places from Earth mentioned which kinda makes it Earth rather than Earth-like.

 

[Typhlosion1996]

Well, imo, its both, humans created pokemon, and arceus n mew created the pokemon world

 

[Ace Trainer Alex]

According to pokemon history, Arceus created the world, with assistance from his own creations: Palkia, Dialga, Giratina. Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf gave intellect and emotion to mankind. Without a world, there'd be no mankind for the sprites to give these to. So I'm gonna say that Pokemon came first.

These are from the Bulbapedia:
"In a vortex of complete chaos and nothingness, a single Egg comes into being, which then hatches into Arceus, the first Pokémon in existence. Arceus then creates Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, giving them power over time, space, and antimatter respectively. Giratina, as punishment for its destructive nature, is sent by Arceus to live in the Distortion World. Dialga and Palkia then succeed in creating the universe and Pokémon world and retreat into their own dimensions afterwards, with a point of access being at the ancient Spear Pillar in Sinnoh.

Arceus creates Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, giving knowledge, emotion, and willpower to all living things that come into existence in the Pokémon world. The three dive into caves at the bottom of Lake Verity, Lake Valor, and Lake Acuity in Sinnoh, giving them the name "lake guardians"."

 

[telivisionhead]

Arceus created the world/universe. He created some pokemon, Like dialga,giritina,palkia,azelf,uxie,mesprit,kyrouge,rayquasa,groudon, maybe mew and maybe a bit more.
Mew then made the rest of the pokemon while Arceus made the world.
Pokemon were just randomly around and then maybe pokemon evolved into people. It makes sense, look at gardevoir,machamp,mankey,jynx and more.
Humans and pokemon were really close, apparently humans were actually MARRIED to pokemon......
Maybe that's why pokemon obey their trainers to, because they humans have a very close bond with pokemon or even USED to be a POKEMON

 

[Endolise]

kyrouge,rayquasa,groudon

Actually, we don't know where the Weather Trio came from. They could have been made by Arceus, but none of the myths have mentioned that. My assumption is that they either evolved from Mew or formed naturally from their own respective elements.

 

[UbersSuck20]

I think Pokemon appeared before humans, since lolArceus created the Pokemon world. Humans must've appeared in the same way they appeared on the Earth.

 

[Ace Trainer Alex]

Actually, we don't know where the Weather Trio came from. They could have been made by Arceus, but none of the myths have mentioned that. My assumption is that they either evolved from Mew or formed naturally from their own respective elements.

From Bulbapedia again:
"Kyogre is formed by the pressure in the deep sea trenches, Groudon is formed deep inside the Earth, likely from hardened magma and earth, and Rayquaza is formed by the minerals of the ozone layer. Rayquaza proceeds to fly around in the ozone layer, occasionally coming to rest at Sky Pillar."