Legendary Pokémon
In the world of Pokémon, a Legendary Pokémon (Densetsu no Pokemon) is a Pokémon that is rarely if not uniquely found. They are often the final entries in a regional Pokédex.
Alternately, a Legendary Pokémon may refer to the Pokémon Arcanine, whose Pokédex description is described as "legendary", much like how Squirtle is described as a "Tiny Turtle Pokémon". In this article, we describe the former.
Types of Legendary Pokémon
The Trinities
| Trinities: | Defense/Water | Attack/Fire | Speed/Electricity |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Legendary Birds: | Articuno | Moltres | Zapdos |
| The Legendary Beasts: | Suicune | Entei | Raikou |
| The Legendary Golems: | Regice | Regirock | Registeel |
| The Majestic Trinity: | Kyogre | Groudon | Rayquaza |
| The Deoxys Trinity: | Deoxys in its Defense Form | Deoxys in its Attack Form | Deoxys in its Speed Form |
The Pairs
| The Shadow (Diver) | The Light (Rainbow) |
|---|---|
| Lugia | Ho-Oh |
| The Female | The Male |
|---|---|
| Latias | Latios |
| The Copy | The Origin |
|---|---|
| Mewtwo | Mew |
The Unique
| The Voice of the Forest: | Celebi |
|---|---|
| The Star of the Seven Nights: | Jirachi |
| The Prince of the Sea: | Manaphy |
| The Wave-Guider: | Lucario |
|---|
| The Symbols: | Unown |
|---|
Notes
- Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Lucario are seen as very special Pokémon.
- The Unown are legendary in the anime only.
Video games
In the Pokémon video games, Legendary Pokémon are generally unique to a single game, and are often encountered either leading to the final part of the RPG portion, in which the protagonist makes his or her way into the Pokémon League competition, or after the conclusion of the main RPG portion. Legendary Pokémon are also found at a very high level, and thus takes considerable effort in order to catch the Pokémon. Because of their uniqueness, if a Legendary Pokémon is knocked out while attempting to catch it, the Pokémon cannot be caught again without starting a new game or reloading the save file made before the encounter. Because of their rarity, they are also powerful, and some multiplayer competitions may ban the use of Legendary Pokémon on a team.
Legendary Pokémon fall under 3 categories:
Waiting
The Pokémon waits for you to come to it (usually at the end of a dungeon), to engage it in battle, one must "talk" to it. After the battle, whether one has caught it or not, the Pokémon will be gone.
A few other Pokémon, such as Snorlax and Sudowoodo, can also be caught this way (although, they are not legendary).
Roaming
The legendary Pokémon moves from place to place. One could play the entire game without seeing it, but once it has been seen, it can be tracked with the Pokédex. As long as one does not catch or KO a roaming Pokémon, it will continue to roam and one can battle it again in the same status as the last time one fought it.
Unobtainable
These Pokémon cannot be caught at all (with the excetion of Mew in Red,Blue,& Yellow via a glitch), and do not count towards having a complete Pokédex, for example, Pokémon Red and Blue are advertised as having 150 different Pokémon, but Mew is Pokémon #151.
Legendary Pokémon are always genderless (with the exception of Latios and Latias), and cannot be bred, ensuring their rarity. Like other Pokémon, Legendary Pokémon may be unique to a single version of a game. Some Legendary Pokémon, such as Celebi or Jirachi cannot be caught using the game alone, and thus have a further distinction as Unobtainable, although they can be obtained in other ways (such as from a Nintendo-organized promotion). Thus, to "catch 'em all" and to fill the Pokédex means to have had possession of all of the Pokémon at one point, including the Legendary Pokémon, but excluding the Unobtainables.
In the animated series
In the animated series, Legendary Pokémon are often depicted as Pokémon that only exist as part of local folklore that the protagonists encounter. Other times, Pokémon are depicted as legendary because of their unusual moves (eg. a Surfing Pikachu), unusual (or uncommon) method of evolution (eg. Slowking), or the accomplishments of their Pokémon Trainers. Thus, this definition differs considerably from that of the video game, where rare and semi-rare (and in a few cases, common) Pokémon have been depicted as legendary. Truly Legendary Pokémon are often the centerpieces of the various Pokémon movies, and many of these Pokémon make their theatrical debut on the big screen, followed by an appearance in a television episode. Many Legendary Pokémon are able to articulate human speech through some form of psychic communication, despite some of them lacking the Psychic type.
Although there are Legendary Pokémon that are depicted as being unique, some, like Lugia are not. However, common to all Legendary Pokémon is their immense power which often dwarfs the power of the various other Pokémon involved in the plot. Their vast amounts of power also means that it is difficult, if not impossible, for a trainer to catch, breed, or raise a Legendary Pokémon and keep it under their control. For that very reason, a variety of villains (especially Team Rocket) attempt to capture Legendary Pokémon, but they invariably fail in the end (though this is often due to the Legendary Pokémon being assisted by humans and other Pokémon).
Aside from Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi, Legendary Pokémon are usually larger in the anime than their video game Pokédex entries indicate, sometimes substantially so. The most extreme example is in Pokémon: The Movie 2000. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are under 7 feet tall in the games, but each appears to be approximately 20 feet tall in the movie. In addition, Lugia, which is just under 18 feet tall in the games, is also enlarged in the movie, though not as substantially.
In the very first episode, Ash sees Ho-Oh, even though Ho-Oh did not yet exist in the RBY games at that time. He sees Ho-Oh right before beginning his adventures in Kanto, and recognizes it, since he saw a picture of one in a city in Johto. This may indicate that Ho-Oh is the highest of all Pokémon in the animated series, and if the series ever does reach a finale, it may be with Ash finally meeting the "Legendary Pokémon of Rainbow Colors."
The Unown
The Unown are unique in that, while considered non-Legendary in the games, they are rated as Legendary Pokémon in the anime. While their individual power is unclear (and probably far below that of other Legendaries), as a group they wield phenomenal reality-warping powers. A large group of Unown, who are the focus of the third movie, even manage to create an Entei that is seemingly just as powerful as the genuine Legendary Beast of fire. This duplicate Entei is also an intelligent creature with a will of its own, not simply a mindless puppet.