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In the world of Pokémon, a Legendary Pokémon 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.
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Types of Legendary Pokémon
Legendary Pokémon, in addition to the conventional ways of categorizing Pokémon, are also grouped loosely through their backstories. These groups include:
- The Legendary Birds (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres)
- The Legendary Beasts (Raikou, Entei, Suicune)
- The Regis (Regirock, Regice, Registeel)
- The Mews (Mewtwo, Mew)
- The Protectors (Lugia, Celebi, Ho-oh)
- The Trinity (Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza)
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 are most likely to be genderless, 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 posession 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.