L – Legendaries

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Legendary Pokemon are incredibly rare, and very powerful Pokemon that are often the cause or focus of the myths and legends of the Pokemon world. In game and anime terms, this means that there is usually only one of them, and they live in very remote places, or are very good at avoiding humans, or only appear under special circumstances (these ‘event’ Pokemon are sometimes called Mythical Pokemon because they appear to rarely that their existence is doubted, but calling them Legendary Pokemon is not wrong)

In the games, this means that there will be certain legendaries based on which game you are current playing, and you generally only get one shot at catching them. Hence, when you get the master ball, you save that thing, save it until you find the legendary, because there’s a good chance it’s the only one capable of catching it.

In the anime, the legendaries tend to appear in the movies rather than the TV series, usually one or two depending on where within the world they are. Quite often there will be pairs of legendaries – Latios and Latias for instance – who will appear together. The movies are pretty good at showing off just how powerful they are compared to other Pokemon, and this happens in the games as well.

In the games, generally the legendary Pokemon can’t breed, especially after being captured. However, in the anime it is shown that they can breed, so instead of being unique, they are just rare. Hence why some trainers are shown to have legendary Pokemon as part of their teams. In the anime & movies the legendaries only tend to show themselves to special trainers (usually Ash Ketchum, the main protagonist of the anime) or villainous teams seek them out (See Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, and Movie #1 & the TV Special Mewtwo Returns to see how well that goes for him).

So, who are the legendary Pokemon?

• Legendary Birds – Articuno, Zapdos & Moltres
• Mew Duo – Mew & Mewtwo
• Legendary Beasts – Entei, Raikou & Suicine
• Tower Duo – Lugia & Ho-oh
• Celebi
• Legendary Titans – Regice, Registeel & Regirock
• Eon Duo – Latias & Latios
• Weather Trio – Groudon, Hyogre & Rayquaza
• Jirachi
• Deoxys
• Lake Guardians – Azelf, Mesprit & Uxie
• Creation Trio – Dialga, Palkia & Giratina
• Lunar Duo – Cresselia & Darkrai
• Sea Guardians – Manaphy & Phione
• Heatran
• Regigigas
• Shaymin
• Arceus
• Victini
• Swords of Justice – Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion & Keldeo
• Forces of Nature – Tornadus, Thundurus & Landorus
• Tao Trio – Reshiram, Zekrom & Kyurem
• Meloetta
• Genesect
• Mortality Duo – Xerneas & Yveltal
• Zygarde
• Diancie
• Hoopa
• Volcanion
• Magearna – The first Pokemon to be revealed as a Generation 7 Pokemon!

Yeah, there’s quite a few. 54 in total (16 of which can be considered Mythical Pokemon), which potentially more to come in generation 7!

 

Pokemon of the Day

L is for Lapras

Resembling a plesiosaur, it is a large sea creature with a blue spotted hide, long neck, and shelled back. Instead of legs, it has flippers, which it uses to swim with, or occasionally, slid along long ice paths that it can create. Lapras is a very intelligent but gentle Pokemon that travels in pods in the wild, using song to communicate with it’s other pod members, although it can understand human speech. As well as being water/ice type, it can sometimes develop psychic abilities such as telepathy.

One of the reasons I love Lapras is because it’s the ‘travel’ Pokemon. In the anime (and often since I give it surf, in my games) it is the Pokemon that they use to travel between islands and across water ways. Also, it’s super cool to watch it slid across ice, and it’s generally a graceful Pokemon. Also, wouldn’t you just love to ride on the back of a Pokemon like that? I would!