Do you think its a good idea that the anime downplays older legenedaries now?

Cybersai

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Remember back in the second movie how Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno were all considered special? And now how all 3 of them seem like rather average or common Pokemon that nobody really cares about anymore?

One thing that is evident in both the games in the anime, is that every time new legendaries are introduced, the older ones seem less important by comparison.

In the anime, we've seen Ash take down an Articuno in battle in the Battle Factory, we've seen Brandon own all 3 Regi's in Pokeballs, and we've seen Celebi be captured by TR's mechas of all things in that BF episode. We've also seen that mother Lugia in Johto be captured by Butch/Cassidy. We've also seen like 4 Deoxys land on Earth and whine about how they have no friends, lol.

About the only older legends that still seem special are Mew, Mewtwo and Ho-oh, and its getting to the point where all the others are "downplayed" in a way that they're not important anymore.

What do you think about this?
 
That's just more ridiculous things fans invent
Cresslia is new ans was shown as the most ridiculous legendary ever, caught in TR's net and that's it...
Articuno was there to advertise FRLG, the Regis for Emerald... not to make us think they're not "special" or "important"
You just think too much into it and try to find such things to write about
Sometimes legendaries will be shown this way and sometimes the other way...
 
Frankly, I never liked the idea of there being multiples of Legendaries. It just makes them so much less special than what they are in the games. In the games you have one, in the anime you have like five of each. It's ridiculous.
 
Frankly, I never liked the idea of there being multiples of Legendaries. It just makes them so much less special than what they are in the games. In the games you have one, in the anime you have like five of each. It's ridiculous.

Well, even the games implied that there are multitudes of Legendaries (Let's see, Entei was stated to reproduce around the time of year a new Volcano is created [as well as all three members of it's species appearing in Johto, Orre, Fiore, and Kanto], the Regi's are somewhat obvious [one set is still sealed away in Hoenn, one set's under Brandon's possession, one set's in Sinnoh, Buck owns at least 4 of each pokemon in the Regi trio, a set in Fiore, and a set in Almia], Mew was implied to have multiples at least before the start of Red, Blue, and Yellow, not to mention it's appearances in Hoenn, Kanto, Pokemon Island, and Fiore, Celebi appeared in Johto, Orre, Fiore, and Almia, Lugia and Ho-Oh both appeared in Sevii Islands, Johto, and Orre, the weather trio (that is, Kyogre, groudon, and Rayquaza) had appeared in Hoenn and Fiore, at least, the Lati@s were implied in the Dex to have more than one of their species (as well as having multiple genders), not to mention the fact that they appeared in Hoenn and Sinnoh (The Latter of which was under both Cheryl and Mira's command (at least six, total).), the birds had eggs in Pokemon Snap, and they also appeared, besides Kanto (and Sevii islands, in Moltres case), in Hoenn (albeit under Brandon's care), Orre, and Sinnoh, the last one they were both owned pokemon AND roaming pokemon. Cresselia, she had multiples in both Almia AND Sinnoh (at least 7 Cresselia exist). Shaymin, well, it appeared in both Sinnoh and Almia, and it's also implied via dialogue that Shaymin also dwells in Kanto, and possibly Hoenn as well, Darkrai had at least one in Sinnoh and at least one in Almia (and seeing how Cresselia is it's counterpart, it's obvious that it's probably going to have a similar amount of its species.), Regigigas has four in Sinnoh (one sealed in the temple, one visitor, one under Palmer's command, and one under Riley's command.), as well as one in Almia. Dialga and Palkia have both appeared in Sinnoh and Almia, Heatran, aside from appearing in Sinnoh AND Almia, was hinted at also having multiples of it's species. Manaphy and Phione, well, that's a no-brainer. Deoxys appeared in Kanto, Hoenn, and Fiore. It's also implied that Sinnoh may have had Deoxys at some point, due to the meteors. Only ones who have not been shown or implied to have multiples thus far are Mewtwo, Arceus, Giratina, Jirachi, and the Pixies. Even then, only Mewtwo is confirmed to be one of a kind throughout all the games that take place in the regular Poke-verse (Not counting Mystery Dungeon or Stadium).).

So, really, Legendaries having multitudes wasn't really the Anime's fault. Even the games were a bit guilty of this (And it's not just by older generations in regards to the new ones. I mean, over half of the legendaries listed in here had multitudes (or were implied to have multitudes) in the same generations they debuted in.)
 
That's just more ridiculous things fans invent
Cresslia is new ans was shown as the most ridiculous legendary ever, caught in TR's net and that's it...
Articuno was there to advertise FRLG, the Regis for Emerald... not to make us think they're not "special" or "important"
You just think too much into it and try to find such things to write about
Sometimes legendaries will be shown this way and sometimes the other way...

Uh, no, it's not.

Back in Kanto, the three legendary birds were...well, legendaries. They were viewed as these one-of-a-kind Titans, whom, as we saw from the movies, were incredible in power and part of some large scale elemental balance of the earth. They were considered vital to the world's stability or corruption, and their roles were thus viewed as massive.

Then suddenly Doc Brock comes, and there's a random Zapdos casually cruising around Sinnoh. But does the above story and plot that Zapdos tied into depict a Pokemon that likely has some other kind of it's species just roaming about Sinnoh so casually? It doesn't, at all.

That's devaluation, how the hell could fans create that?
 
i hate it that there are multiple legendarys it makes them sort of common
 
I think it's pretty lame. I personally like the idea of legendaries being just extremely rare Pokémon, but with powers far beyond anything else. I think the whole titan thing is lame with how many Pokémon there are, and I don't like them being treated like they were a just a Dratini like in Doc Brock. It's even worse when they can't decide which Pokémon are which.
 
Well, with a show like this, there's bound to be retcons.

And if there was just one of each legendary, it would probably cause some continuity problems. Just because there's more legendaries than just one it doesn't mean that you'll be able to find a Groudon on your backyard.

They're still extremely rare and powerful Pokémon, but it wouldn't be a surprise if (like in case of Noland's Articuno and Brandon's Regis) the legendaries would actually be more powerful in the wild, and lose their potential when used by trainers.
 
Then suddenly Doc Brock comes, and there's a random Zapdos casually cruising around Sinnoh. But does the above story and plot that Zapdos tied into depict a Pokemon that likely has some other kind of it's species just roaming about Sinnoh so casually? It doesn't, at all.

That's not the anime's fault, you can blame Platinum for making the birds not so special anymore. I don't think there's even a reason why they're suddenly in Shinou, they're just randomly flying around so the anime did the same thing.
 
That's not the anime's fault, you can blame Platinum for making the birds not so special anymore. I don't think there's even a reason why they're suddenly in Shinou, they're just randomly flying around so the anime did the same thing.

They put Suicune randomly in the early Drifloon filler too, not to mention Deoxys and whatever other legends I'm forgetting that randomly appear in Sinnoh. Heck, even the Darkrai in the ep where Swinub evolved almost downplayed the one from the 10th movie.
 
That's not the anime's fault, you can blame Platinum for making the birds not so special anymore. I don't think there's even a reason why they're suddenly in Shinou, they're just randomly flying around so the anime did the same thing.

I specifically blamed the anime?
 
This whole thread is about the anime downplaying the older legendaries, so I assumed you were blaming the anime.
 
To be fair, the legendaries of each generation always have a greater role in the "ultimate scheme."

The ability to control time and space seems a hell of a lot more important than simply being a legendary elemental bird...
 
Not only that, but it doesn't have to break continuity. After all, Oak, our first Pokemon expert, said at first there were only 150-odd pokemon or whatever, even though you can now see Hoothoot and Taillow in Kanto now. So, as knowledge increased, or at least as pokemon's actual ranges were determined, we can have "legendaries" be just rare powerful pokemon that we just assumed were titans. I mean, the Orange Islands WORSHIPPED the birds (or at least it looked like they did). That's bound to color your ideas about them.
 
Its a bit interesting I think, just look at the fire and/or ground legendaries in order.

We went from Moltres, to Ho-oh and Entei, to Groudon, to Heatran.

Each one is essentially more powerful than the previous. With each passing gen, Moltres looks more and more pathetic, especially compared to something like Groudon which was said to create the land, or something like Heatran.

Ho-oh is still considered special though, pretty much because of the way the anime treats it. And of course both Mewtwo and Mew are seen as very powerful. But the others...they get downplayed in both importance and power.
 
You'd think the creaters had any idea that eleven years later, a "legendary" bird like Moltres would become something like Groudon and Dialga. The older legendaries had their time to be legendary. Back then it didn't matter if they contributed anything to the world. As long as they held that prestigious title.
 
Ho-oh is still considered special though, pretty much because of the way the anime treats it.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Ho-oh is considered special JUST because of the anime. After all, isn't it one of the few pokemon that can actually "create" something? When the Brass Tower was hit by lightning, three pokemon died in the flames. Not only did Ho-Oh bring them back to life, but it gave them completely new bodies.

Furthermore, what about Entei? The Gold or Silver entry says one is born each time a volcano erupts. So not only did Ho-oh revive and recreate, but it also created an entirely new species of pokemon. That's extremely impressive, especially when you look at Heatran's origins. Although it came forth from a volcano as well, Heatran wasn't intentionally created like Entei was. It just "kind of happened" as they formed the earth together. Also consider that Ho-oh formed Entei all on its own. Heatran only came into existence because of a bunch of pokemon working against one another.

All and all, Ho-oh has definitely been outshined by "an ultimate creator pokemon", but it's still capable of doing something the others sure can't. Plus think of it this way Scott...what are they going to do with the next generation of games? You brought up an excellent point, but I don't think this pattern can any longer continue. Not with "the creator the universe" in there. Either they'd have to say Arceus ISN'T the creator of the universe and it was just a myth (wouldn't put that past them) or they're going to just make a pokemon exactly like it in some way (which would defeat the point). Personally I thought the idea of a god pokemon was dumb for a number of reasons (ex. "I caught god in a pokeball!"), but now there's really no other place to go than down. Well...unless they create a devil pokemon to counter Arceus, but even then...what comes after that?
 
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That is true. Since the legendaries get more and more powerful and special with each passing gen, there's not much further they can go with this.

I guess that is up to GameFreak to figure out. They expanded the mythology so far, so fast, that now they're driving themselves into a corner.
 
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