The Outrage
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Alternatively titled the Cryptozoology Classification Project
I'll just copypaste what I had on my blog:
It would be so much easier if we didn't have a single umbrella term for Legendary Pokemon (which I recall was originally a fandom term before being adapted into the canon). Considering that we throw around a lot of fanon terminology like 'pseudo-legendary' to either refer to things like Dragonite or in the more literal sense, Phione, I don't understand why we don't just adopt English equivalents of the Japanese terms mentioned in the first part of this article.
This would solve quite a bit of problems, primarily Pokemon being classified as 'gods' in the Pokemon World. No where is Mew called a 'god', yet fans call it that because its a legendary and because it 'has all the DNA' of all the Pokemon. Yeha, because ancient people were able to do extensive DNA analysis.
Next, Pokemon like Heatran which really isn't as lame as any of the legendary birds who are all under the "mirage" category would be seen more like a cryptid like Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster, except they're proven to exist like the Okapi.
So how would they be classed?
I'm intentionally leaving out my list (though quoting it later because I would like to make changes to it because I want an actual fandom discussion out of this.
I think all of these are pretty much self-justified by the original defenition of 'Legendary Pokemon' and like I mentioned, I think the fandom should just keep the term 'Legendary' for these while adopting the new term 'shinwa no Pokémon' for it as there is no real difference other than it being Sinnoh's.
Now notice how legendaries that are classified in my list as Legends usually have the game's plot surround them or that the dex entries actually refer to their amazing abilities as something stated in legend (Regigigas for example in DP states 'There is an enduring legend that states this Pokémon towed continents with ropes')
So really, we're just separating from our old classifications into maboroshi no Pokémon, which more recently have been called 'Mirage' Pokemon, however they seem to be viewed more like our real-world Cryptids so I think we should just adopt that term for it.
Now this is what I have problems with due to overlap with the 'Legendary' category, though its not like people haven't worshiped the common house cat as a god before.
Things like Deoxys is justified in that it is a space virus, hence newly discovered and not many people would know about it. It isn't featured prominently in myth.
Ignoring the whole DNA thing with Mew, it is also basically referred to as a cryptid in the RB entry stating "So rare that it is still said to be a mirage by many experts. Only a few people have seen it worldwide." Now this isn't really one of those BS dex entries. By extension, Mewtwo gains this title due to being its clone.
Considering Jirachi's entries actually state that its powers come from legends, it may not actually belong in this category.
I'll just copypaste what I had on my blog:
It would be so much easier if we didn't have a single umbrella term for Legendary Pokemon (which I recall was originally a fandom term before being adapted into the canon). Considering that we throw around a lot of fanon terminology like 'pseudo-legendary' to either refer to things like Dragonite or in the more literal sense, Phione, I don't understand why we don't just adopt English equivalents of the Japanese terms mentioned in the first part of this article.
This would solve quite a bit of problems, primarily Pokemon being classified as 'gods' in the Pokemon World. No where is Mew called a 'god', yet fans call it that because its a legendary and because it 'has all the DNA' of all the Pokemon. Yeha, because ancient people were able to do extensive DNA analysis.
Next, Pokemon like Heatran which really isn't as lame as any of the legendary birds who are all under the "mirage" category would be seen more like a cryptid like Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster, except they're proven to exist like the Okapi.
So how would they be classed?
I'm intentionally leaving out my list (though quoting it later because I would like to make changes to it because I want an actual fandom discussion out of this.
I think all of these are pretty much self-justified by the original defenition of 'Legendary Pokemon' and like I mentioned, I think the fandom should just keep the term 'Legendary' for these while adopting the new term 'shinwa no Pokémon' for it as there is no real difference other than it being Sinnoh's.
Now notice how legendaries that are classified in my list as Legends usually have the game's plot surround them or that the dex entries actually refer to their amazing abilities as something stated in legend (Regigigas for example in DP states 'There is an enduring legend that states this Pokémon towed continents with ropes')
So really, we're just separating from our old classifications into maboroshi no Pokémon, which more recently have been called 'Mirage' Pokemon, however they seem to be viewed more like our real-world Cryptids so I think we should just adopt that term for it.
Now this is what I have problems with due to overlap with the 'Legendary' category, though its not like people haven't worshiped the common house cat as a god before.
Things like Deoxys is justified in that it is a space virus, hence newly discovered and not many people would know about it. It isn't featured prominently in myth.
Ignoring the whole DNA thing with Mew, it is also basically referred to as a cryptid in the RB entry stating "So rare that it is still said to be a mirage by many experts. Only a few people have seen it worldwide." Now this isn't really one of those BS dex entries. By extension, Mewtwo gains this title due to being its clone.
Considering Jirachi's entries actually state that its powers come from legends, it may not actually belong in this category.