>>58152071
>In lore Lugia wasn’t even a water monster
Game lore, sure, but that wasn't Lugia's original lore. Lugia's association with the sea came from the fact that Lugia was designed in large part thanks to Takeshi Shudo who worked on the anime and wanted to unveil a new Pokemon for the second movie. He corresponded with Game Freak and eventually the concept for Lugia was created, however while in-game Lugia would go on to be a counterpart to Ho-oh and given the Psychic type for the purposes of game balance (AKA because Psychic stronk) Shudo had always envisioned it as a maternal figure and embodiment of the sea, ultimately wishing for it to have the Water type and a feminine voice, contrary to the Psychic typing and masculine voice it would receive.
His mental state was always a bit weird but this contributed greatly to his reasoning for leaving the anime and ultimate led him down a downward spiral of drugs and eventually a brain breed, complications from which killed him in 2010.