Okay this is more of a review on my end, and my opinions of these categories.
Pokémon are usually seen of pretty powerful, but there exists three categories of pokemon that are the most powerful. I will explain the Differences and Similarities between these 3 categories:
So what do you think of this wall of text?
Pokémon are usually seen of pretty powerful, but there exists three categories of pokemon that are the most powerful. I will explain the Differences and Similarities between these 3 categories:
- Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon
- Members: Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Garchomp, Hydreigon and Goodra
- Pseudo-Legedaries are called such because their stats rival that of True legendaries, but there are couple things that set them apart. They are usually used either by Champions, (Steven's Metagross, Lance's Dragonite(s), Cynthea's Garchomp and Diantha's Goodra) certain E4 members or by the leader of the antagonist team (Ghetists's Hydreigon). Either way you won't be seeing these pokemon until the endgame.
- Differences: Unlike the other two categories, they are the final stages of their evolutionary lines, and thus can be bred. In contrast legendary and Mythical pokémon are single stage and they cannot be bred. This disqualifies this group for being considered true legendaries, hence the Pseudo prefix.
- Similarities to Legendaries: The only thing they share with this group is their BST of 600 and that most of them are Dragon-type. (With the others Psychic or Dark, a common and uncommon typing for Legendaries, respectively)
- Legendary Pokémon
- Members: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Raikou, Suicune, Entei, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Latias, Latios, Regirock, Registeel, Regice, Regigigas, Deoxys, Groudon, Kyorge, Rayquayza, Cresselia, Heatran, Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Tornadus, Thunderus, Landorus, Terrakion, Virizion, Cobalion, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Xerneas, Yvetal and Zygarde
- Legendaries are the group associated with myths and legends. With Mythical Pokemona s a subset of this group. Unlike psudo-legendaries who have 600 BST as a maximum, the group as a whole as 580 as the Minimum, however. They are considered unique in lore and mechanics as you could only get one per save file, Likewise they cannot breed. As such they are the group that the other groups are compared to.
- Differences: They are Unique as compared to Pseudo-Legendaries. They are infertile for most cases. Some of them make up the only Roaming Encounters in the franchise and another group have a role in the plot from Hoenn onwards. They often have starring roles in the Moves of the anime, but not all of them have that distinction and not all the movies have them as the star, but all the movies do involve a legendary in some shape or form.
- Mythical Pokemon
- Members: Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, Darkrai, Arceus, Victini, Keldio, Meloetta, Genesect and Diancie (plus 2 others that I will not list)
- A subset of Legendary pokemon that are so rare their existence is commonly doubted. As such, they share the same traits with the mother group of Legendary Pokemon. Until Generation 5, this term did not exist in the west due to conflation with their mother group, but the groups were distinct in Japan prior to that. A sure sign that a pokemon is in this group and not the regular Legendary group is its exclusivity to mystery gift events, whether by being hidden in an area that need an item to find, or more commonly, just by directly using the Mystery Gift themselves.
- Differences: They are event only, regular legendaries are not. Likewise their minimum BST is 600, a little higher then that of their mother group.
- Similarities to Legendariles: Inability to be bred or Breed (Manaphy is the exception of the latter but as it cannot evolve to Manaphy, Manaphy still counts as a Legendary). 600+ BST. Unique to the save file
- Not Legendary or Pseudo-Legendary
- These are pokemon that are often confused for legendaries for some reason or another. Usually because of the anime or simialr stats. These are my opinions and might seem nitpicky.
- Unown: The first case of this confusion is Unown.
- Reason for confusion: Being the driving force of the 3rd movie
- Why it is not a (psudo-)Legendary: BST is too low, can be caught multiple time sin the same file
- Phione: Another notable case of confusion
- Reason for confusion: It can only be obtained by breeding a Manaphy
- Why it is not a (pseudo-)Legendary: low BST, cannot evolve into Manaphy (and even if it did it still wouden't count because it needs a third stage, and thus Manaphy would wind up stripped of it's Mythical and Legendary status)
- Lucario and Zoroark
- Reason for confusion: Being the star of a movie each (though in the latter case Zorua might have been the star instead)
- Why it is not a (pseudo-)Legendary: low BST, and both are 2 stage pokemon, not 3 stage. You can also catch wild Riolu and Zorora more than once as of Gen VI.
- Volcarona
- Reason for Confusion: The way you can catch a wild Vocalona in the Unova games are simialr to how you catch legendaries, it even gets a level boost after you beat the E4 like the Swords of Justice. On top of that it is Alder's Ace.
- Why it is not a (pseudo-)Legendary: For the same reasons as Zoroark and Lucario.
- Reason for Confusion: The way you can catch a wild Vocalona in the Unova games are simialr to how you catch legendaries, it even gets a level boost after you beat the E4 like the Swords of Justice. On top of that it is Alder's Ace.
- Flygon, Aggron, Slacking and Haxorus
- Reason for Confusion: 3 stage pokemon with more than 500 BST. In fact Slacking is the only pokemon to surpass the 580 and 600 threshold. Also some of these pokemon were used by Steven, Alder and Iris all champions.
- Why it is not a (pseudo-)Legendary: Unlike Slacking, the other 3 have less than 580 BST. All 4 are 3 stage pokemon that could be caught in wild, disqualifying them from Legendary status. Slacking ironically is 10 points too strong to be a Pseudo-Legendary, as it is stronger than most legendaries in general, but it's Slack Off ability holds it back.
- Reason for Confusion: 3 stage pokemon with more than 500 BST. In fact Slacking is the only pokemon to surpass the 580 and 600 threshold. Also some of these pokemon were used by Steven, Alder and Iris all champions.
- Rotom
- Reason for confusion: In the Gen IV games, you can only encounter 1 Rotom per save. also the battle music is the same as that of battles with legendary pokemon
- Why it is not a (pseudo-)Legendary: Low stats, even in it's alternate forms the stats can only go as far as 520. They a can also breed.
- These are pokemon that are often confused for legendaries for some reason or another. Usually because of the anime or simialr stats. These are my opinions and might seem nitpicky.
- Misc. Notes:
- Manaphy is the only Legendary/Mythical pokémon to breed, an exception to the rule usually involving them and breeding, though again, it helps that Phione can;t evolve into Manaphy
- Some Legendary pokemon have a family of sorts, separated into duos and trios. The trio leader may be within the trio itself or outside it
- Keldio's relationship is unusual in this regard. It is an apprentice to the Swords of Justice rather than its leader (which is Cobalion)
- Dragon is the most common type among Psuedo-Legendaries, Dragon, Flying and Psychic are the most common types among Legendaries and Psychic is the most common among the Mythical subset.
- Regarding Smogon's Tiers. Most of the pokemon sent to Ubers typically have 670 or higher stats, they are also banned along with Mythical pokemon and slightly weaker Legendary pokemon (Kyurem and Zygarde) from VGC format.
- Some Legendary Pokemon have a relation of a regular Pokemon, such as Manaphy and Phione, and Diancie and Carbink, and Ho-Oh and the Legendary Beasts with the original Eeveelutions
- Until recently Legendary Pokemon consist most of the pokemon with Signature moves. And even then most Legendary pokemon have Signature moves.
- The only ones that don't are Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Raikou, Suicune, Tornadus, Thunderus and Landorus
- That said some of the signature moves are shared with other legendaries and sometimes regular pokemon. The Swords of Justice all know Sacred Sword and share it with Aegislash, Ho-Oh and Entei both know Sacred Fire, and by events, Lugia, Darkrai, Arceus and Victini know the moves of Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem
- Usually, there would be a Mythical pokemon with 100 in each stat, however Gen IV had 2 (Manaphy and Shaymin) and Gen VI has none
- Due to the Tanabata festable in Japan, Jirachi seems to have more then average events then others, but the distributions are irregular. The recent one is a Jirachi with Wish, Cosmic Blast, Play Rough and Heart Stamp
- As the original Mythical Pokemon, Mew seems to have the least amount of distributions, Celebi and Manaphy are also rarer than average.
- While the Mythical Pokémon are usually obtain by mystery gift directly from a distribution, or from an item there are more esoteric distribution requiring spinoff games. Pokémon Ranger and Pokémon Colisseum/XD are used for this purpose (though the Pokémon obtained in the latter were Ho-Oh and Lugia not considered Mythical Pokemon). a More recent case was the Pokéscraps event from Japan invoking codes found on merchandise to get a Shaymin, Keldio and Victini.
- Deoxys was a Mythical Pokémon before Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but as it can be caught in those game via the Delta Episode and without timed distributions it became a normal legendary Pokémon
- Although I said that Mythical Pokemon has 600 BST at the minimum, Keldio's BST is 580. The same as the Swords of Justice, this might be a hint at its apprenticeship in the latter group
So what do you think of this wall of text?
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