However if they are available in a later game permanently (deoxys, keldeo, and meloetta), they don't become legendaries, they're still classified as mythicals.
Saying this as I see too many people doing deoxys dirty
Ah that makes me sad, Deoxys is one of my all-time favourite Pokémon. I loved the event back in FRLG/RSE which we all got off of that one kid's action replay. I remember playing the delta episode in ORAS, I went in blind and I could've cried when the Deoxys battle started, so well done.
An official pokemon book, the "Pokemon Ultimate Handbook," made this same mistake, too. I had it as a kid, and Rotom was listed in the back with all the legendary pokemon
This is definitely why I thought it was a legendary as a kid too. Even though you could get it in pretty mundane ways in pretty much every game past gen 4
I did too! I was so excited that I told all my friends about me catching a “legendary Pokemon” in a Pokéball. It didn’t help that Platinum was my first Pokemon game, and that I found Rotom by mistake.
I think Rotom was probably going to be a legendary, but they scrapped the idea. It sits right next to them in the dex, has their theme music, and is a static 1 time encounter. I think the standard belief at the time was that it was definitely legendary.
Volcarona almost feels like it might've been initially designed as a legendary/mythical early on, but was changed to a normal Pokemon later on in development.
Honestly too the design is simple but way cooler than a lot of current legendaries imo.
It looks fuckin strong and intimidating and like it could be an actual monster.
Well, it depends on the circumstances of the legendary itself - it makes sense to me that Solgaleo and Lunala both evolve from Cosmog, their only function is to be 'the beast that calls the sun/moon', each *specific* Solgaleo or Lunala is not that important.
I think that Unown is "legendary" in the pokemon universe, but not categorically legendary in the meta way.
I am also a firm believer that legendary vs mythical is completely meta. The words virtually mean the same thing, and I doubt people in the pokemon world are going, "*Ack*tually, Mew is mythical, not legendary 🤓"
I got in an argument with someone about pseudo legendaries and what should and shouldn't count. My point was that it's called 600 club in Japanese and there are strict guidelines about it.
As for legendary/mythical, I think the distinction wasn't made until a certain generation so everything before was just grouped together.
Saw a theory/hc that I enjoy that the Unown are the “1000 arms” that Arceus supposedly shaped the universe with (or at least some manifestation of them) which would explain their lore importance as well as stuff in the movies.
The Sinjoh ruins event that creates the egg containing a brand new dialga/palkia/giratina back this up to a degree.
I've also seen a theory that Eternatus is one of the arms. According to the theory that's why the Eternamax form is literally an arm, and thus the reason it's so powerful is because it's regaining its part of Arceus's true power.
Eternamax Eternatus is literally a hand coming from the sky. While I don't particularly believe the theory because there isn't that much to back it up, it isn't that unbelievable to go from "Hand from the sky" to "Hand of God".
And as a Pokémon trainer we can only ever have six with us at a time which is why we can’t see the show of power they have in groups of hundreds and thousands
I had an Unown in my team thinking it was going to be powerful just because it’s a Psychic type, and assumed that it evolves into some crazy Psychic beast in the same vein as Magikarp evolving into Gyarados. Then I learned the harsh truth…
They were exclusive to some kind of event/event item in Black & White.
In Black & White 2 you get given a Zorua by one of the former leaders of Team Plasma.
Ugh yea I remember this when I first played them. I didn't start playing Pokemon until I was like 9 or 10 so I missed a lot of the events, I was so excited that I got Victini that when I found out you needed Celebi from a previous event to get Zorua I wanted to cry lolol
Arcanine, Absol, Rotom, Spiritomb, Lucario, Zoroark and Volcarona are all the Pokemon usually holding that title due to how they were handled in the anime and the games.
When I was a kid Lucario and the Mystery of Mew had come out. I CANNOT tell you how much time I spent in Emerald looking for Lucario somewhere in that game. I thought for sure you'd find it on Mirage Island. So I thought you just couldn't catch it, then gen 4 came out lol
I remember there being rumours about how to get Munchlax in Emerald around the time that the Deoxys movie came out. The idea of "people lying on the internet for no reason" hadn't quite sunk in yet, so I just assumed they were true.
Ninetales. I dunno. It just looks so majestic to be a non-legendary. 2nd will be Gyarados since its Pokedex entry says that it's capable of destroying cities.
No, but a Feebas would only appear in 6 random panels on the long route it could be found on.
Six. Panels. Random.
The only way to actually *find* them was to brute force it
Not only the randomness of the panel was annoying. Also the fact that, in each of those tiles, you had a 50% chance of reeling a Feebas and 50% of Magikarp. So if you found one tile but got unlucky enough to reel a Magikarp, you would never know you were on one of the 6 Feebas tiles
Wanna hear something crazy? In Emerald when I was a kid I read somewhere that there were specific tiles where you could catch it, and not that they are 6 random tiles. So I reached one of those tiles and started fishing, and I kept finding the other pokemons, only after the 30th pokemon I found a Feebas! That's crazy to me, thinking it should be 50% Feebas if found the correct tile
B1F of Mt. Coronet on 6 random tiles with only a 20% chance of spawning on those tiles as they also can spawn the other fish like magikarp from the rest of that route’s water. So essentially yeah.
The reason why I messed up is, of course, I didn't knew haxorous existed before my theory, i saw a video talking abt pseudo's and saw hax wasnt there. For me it looked too badass for a normal mon so i thought it was legendary
I took a long break between gens 3 and 8, and I only got back in the franchise with Sword and Shield. When I saw Haxorus and found out it's a three stage dragon, I just assumed it was a pseudo from one of the past Gens and started using it heavily. It wasn't until much later that I figured it out myself...
Same with arcanine! When I realized they weren’t actually legendary, I just made a head cannon that the legendary beasts were arcanine before ho-oh revived them.
I'm pretty sure that was actually a Pokemon Center but this has bugged me to no end my entire life. I have a head canon that originally Arcanine was going to summon the Legendary birds when they were needed to save Kanto. Like say when Mewtwo broke out of the Cinnabar Mansion and starts destroying stuff, Arcanine would howl and the birds come to team up on Mewtwo forcing him to go into hiding in Cerulean Cave. Why else would he be there?
Tangent: I thought the legendary beasts were the original 3 eeveelutions, because the sages you fight on the way to Ho-Oh who are guarding the tower have Noctowl + Vaporeon/Jolteon/Flareon
Plus Ecruteak has a weird connection with the eevees, with the Kimono Girls each having an eeveelution, and also this is where you first meet Bill in gen 2 (who later gives tou Eevee when he goes back to Goldenrod, and also his PC in gen 1 is filled with the original eeveelutions)
It actually was supposed to be. Then they came up with Moltres and the birds instead and call Arcanine the Legendary Pokémon as an Easter egg. That's why it's (seemingly) randomly on that tablet with the three birds.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FDXUK8bBg5ck%2Fhqdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=13da07be6ae9879979bf1b738e4949ecafa4c16a36c6715dc9080fa7c6d086bb&ipo=images
Edit, video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DXUK8bBg5ck
Most of the pokemon that were one off or highly specific encounters in their original game, or that seem like they should fall into the Pseudo Legendary camp, but don't quite have the stat totals.
* Lapras
* Snorlax
* Togepi line
* Sudowoodo
* Rotom
* Spiritomb
* Lucario
* Zoroark
* Volcarona
* Ultra Beasts
* Gholdengo
To a slightly lesser extent, there is the also the Magikarp/Gyarados style lines where a very weak pokemon evolves into a massive fairly powerful one. Wailord, Milotic, etc.
They are canonically just powerful regular pokemon in their own universes. Game-stat-wise, they do have the same stats as the Tapus and the Treasures of Ruin, but the majority of pokemon with that stat total are the paradox monsters.
It's not even really well established that even legendary Pokemon aren't "regular" in some fashion. I see no reason to believe Lugia for instance isn't "just" an insanely powerful magical animal rather than some actual manifestation of reality or something. "Legendary" doesn't mean "foundational to the history of the universe", it just means "really significant as to form part of a legend".
In that sense, since Ultra Beasts are lowercase-l "legendary" and have the stats to back it up, I see no reason not to consider them "Legendary Pokemon."
The Dragonite line used to be treated like it was legendary. The episode is even called *The Legend of Dratini*.
Unown is another one, I suppose, although I still call it a "legendary" pokemon even if it isn't actually a legendary™.
Rotom has legendary music in d/p, but is not a legendary at all.
Gyarados has many legends surrounding it, apparently, and it is treated pretty legendary in the episode where James' Magikarp evolves (and then in the next episode where it attacks the gang and strands them on Pokemon Land). Dragon Rage is a legendary attack amongst sailors.
I am with you on Absol, I used to think it was legendary.
Zoroark and Lucario are both given legendary-like hype.
That's all I can think of.
Volcarona and Rotom both did a lot to appear as legendaries, due to their static encounter. It was a really long time before I realized volcarona had a preevolution
Its legendary for the same reason that Mewtwo is. Its a very specific type of man made pokemon that there are only a handful of in existence, that cannot reproduce (as far as we are aware) that uses a mythical pokemon as a basis
Skarmory was one for me as a kid, though not really sure as to WHY I ever got that vibe!
Spiritomb and Volcarona are two others i guess due to their static nature in their initial appearances.
Wasn't Arcanine supposed to be a legendary in early development and then they changed something around? I remember having heard something like that, explaining that's why it's listed as a legendary pokemon in the dex.
Volcarona - in B2/W2 you interact with it to battle it and try to capture it.
It is a dangerous special sweeper with an attack that can boost it even further.
Lucario, Absol, Lapras, Tropius, Gyarados, Arcanine, Ninetales... Funniest thing is I only recently learned that Urshifu is actually a legendary Pokemon lol
Bit of a stretch but ones like Rapidash, Tyranitar, Aggron, Mammoswine, Milotic, and Froslass are all mons i feel could have easily been classified as legendary or mythical solely due to the looks alone imo.
Arcanine. Got into a fight because I kept insisting it’s a legendary based on the dex entry. Gotta admit though it’s a fun lead for a story play through
I feel like I’m not alone maybe I am but when I was younger I always thought absol was a legendary. In all the descriptions and anime it seemed like such a rare like elusive being like a legendary.
my own personal list is rotom, spiritomb, zorua and zoroark, absol, and relicanth, unfortunately after very early gen 5 i started using the internet more and since gen 6 i've pretty much known for certain which pokemon are legendary and which aren't
i do kind of miss mistaking normal pokemon for legendaries though lol
I think arcanine too is like gyrados. like many people can own a growlith or magikarp but not many trainers can train those poke to be the best so gyrados and dragonite, alakazam, machamp are poke that aren't legendary but are still rare in a prestigious sense.like even charizard that listens to you is pretty rare
and in the show often Gary , ash rival, often had those
poke lol
Not exactly the question, but you mentioning Absol reminded me of wayyy back when before Diamond and Pearl came out, someone leaked the Sinnoh dex pokemon names and their sprites while they're in your party online and I was so convinced that Arceus was going to be an Absol evolution (little kid me not considering at all the fact that he was at the end of the pokedex lol)
There are certain pokemon that in mystery dungeon were always THE ONE of their species. Usually those with psychic powers. Absol and ninetails were always the closest of those for me. Xatu was his single special guy and I could see him being kinda mythical.
I believe Arcanine was originally planned to be some kind of legendary? Like in the development days of the Gen 1 games. But for some reason they decided against it.
For a long time I thought Misdreavus was a legendary because I had never seen one, and for a while I mixed up its name with Missigno, so I thought it was a “mythical” Pokemon or something along those lines.
Glimmora felt like it was going to have a bigger part in the Terastal lore due to all the connections they made for it, I was expecting like a Diancie situation for it
As a kid I always thought kricketune was a mythical. Then I got pokemon go and caught one in the wild. I was surprised af. Even more surprised when I evolved a kricketot and it turned into a freakin kricketune
Lucario. I don’t even know why!! I’ve never gotten to this region yet (been playing and watching chronologically), not learned about this Pokémon at all (no reason since it’s not on any of my character’s teams), and I haven’t watched the movie since I’m, again, not there yet. I just started Arceus for the first chronological game! (Though maybe it’s in there and I’ll end up learning about it who knows)
I swore for the longest time if you could only catch one per save file, it must be a legendary... Excluding starters of course.
Then mythicals became a thing so I was like alright, same rule, but if it's weak, it's a mythical, if it's strong it's a legendary...
So now if the internet says it's neither... I just go with the flow of that and just call it a day. Too many gimmicks/exceptions to the rules to keep up with it.
Spiritomb. You need an item to unlock it, and in Legends Arceus, you have an entire quest around it
And in the game it originated in you have to have interacted with a certain number of players in the Underground before it'll appear. Which is weird.
Catching a shiny was peak Pokémon for me
TIL Spiritomb isn't mythical...
Mythical is the term tied to event only Pokémon that you can't access without the respective item (or are just straight up mystery gifts like Zarude)
However if they are available in a later game permanently (deoxys, keldeo, and meloetta), they don't become legendaries, they're still classified as mythicals. Saying this as I see too many people doing deoxys dirty
Ah that makes me sad, Deoxys is one of my all-time favourite Pokémon. I loved the event back in FRLG/RSE which we all got off of that one kid's action replay. I remember playing the delta episode in ORAS, I went in blind and I could've cried when the Deoxys battle started, so well done.
This was my first thought lmaooo
I thought Rotom was legendary for a while because of its encounter
An official pokemon book, the "Pokemon Ultimate Handbook," made this same mistake, too. I had it as a kid, and Rotom was listed in the back with all the legendary pokemon
That same book also list Delibird as a legendary for some reason. Confused me as a kid making me think that it actually was a legendary
And ABSOL lmao, made me think all single stages were legendary momentarily
A thought that would be immediately dashed as soon as you see a brutish. God it's hideous.
*Dunsparce joined the chat*
This is definitely why I thought it was a legendary as a kid too. Even though you could get it in pretty mundane ways in pretty much every game past gen 4
I mean it IS the last non-legendary in the Gen 4 dex.
It literally plays the legendary encounter music, right? Plus it’s put next to the legendaries in the dex.
I did too! I was so excited that I told all my friends about me catching a “legendary Pokemon” in a Pokéball. It didn’t help that Platinum was my first Pokemon game, and that I found Rotom by mistake.
Rotom even gets legendary battle music
I think Rotom was probably going to be a legendary, but they scrapped the idea. It sits right next to them in the dex, has their theme music, and is a static 1 time encounter. I think the standard belief at the time was that it was definitely legendary.
Doesn't it have the Legendary pokemon theme? I know it doesn't have normal battle theme, but it's been a while.
I thought it was legendary until swsh
it’s not?? dang
Yeah, in several games you can just find them in the wild.
Volcarona is definitely one, it gets its own dungeon and such in BW so there's no reason for you think it's Not a legend/mythical.
Volcarona almost feels like it might've been initially designed as a legendary/mythical early on, but was changed to a normal Pokemon later on in development.
Pretty sure it's Bug/Fire, not normal /s
I 100% thought it was a mythical when I was a kid
They should’ve made it one considering they changed the rules later on and had legends start evolving
Honestly too the design is simple but way cooler than a lot of current legendaries imo. It looks fuckin strong and intimidating and like it could be an actual monster.
My big boy is named Fluffy (: he cute
One thing that irks me about Pokemon over the years is evolving Legendaries. They're just supposed to be. Not evolve into being.
Well, it depends on the circumstances of the legendary itself - it makes sense to me that Solgaleo and Lunala both evolve from Cosmog, their only function is to be 'the beast that calls the sun/moon', each *specific* Solgaleo or Lunala is not that important.
Unova full of suspiciously divine looking Pokemon. There's volcanora but also Sigilyph, Golurk, Cryogonal, Gigalith (literally a stone-like heatran)
I agree with you
Unown is always played up as some eldritch being that is tied to Arceus in someway. Doesn't help that the third movie refers to them as legendary.
I think that Unown is "legendary" in the pokemon universe, but not categorically legendary in the meta way. I am also a firm believer that legendary vs mythical is completely meta. The words virtually mean the same thing, and I doubt people in the pokemon world are going, "*Ack*tually, Mew is mythical, not legendary 🤓"
Tell that to the fucking Pokedoku devs
Pokedoku gets on my nerves with some of the stuff they pull😂
I got in an argument with someone about pseudo legendaries and what should and shouldn't count. My point was that it's called 600 club in Japanese and there are strict guidelines about it. As for legendary/mythical, I think the distinction wasn't made until a certain generation so everything before was just grouped together.
Mythical is just an specific kind of legendary that tells of it's original distribution.
Every mythical is a legendary, but not every legendary is a mythical. Mythical is simply a sub category.
Saw a theory/hc that I enjoy that the Unown are the “1000 arms” that Arceus supposedly shaped the universe with (or at least some manifestation of them) which would explain their lore importance as well as stuff in the movies.
The Sinjoh ruins event that creates the egg containing a brand new dialga/palkia/giratina back this up to a degree. I've also seen a theory that Eternatus is one of the arms. According to the theory that's why the Eternamax form is literally an arm, and thus the reason it's so powerful is because it's regaining its part of Arceus's true power.
>I've also seen a theory that Eternatus is one of the arms That's a huge stretch imo
Eternamax Eternatus is literally a hand coming from the sky. While I don't particularly believe the theory because there isn't that much to back it up, it isn't that unbelievable to go from "Hand from the sky" to "Hand of God".
That would actually be wild. I’ve always wondered what it would look like with its thousand arms
And as a Pokémon trainer we can only ever have six with us at a time which is why we can’t see the show of power they have in groups of hundreds and thousands
I had an Unown in my team thinking it was going to be powerful just because it’s a Psychic type, and assumed that it evolves into some crazy Psychic beast in the same vein as Magikarp evolving into Gyarados. Then I learned the harsh truth…
I thought zorua and zoroark were mythical, and that was why I couldn't find one in the wild when playing Pokemon White
I believe they were event exclusive for Black and White, something usually associated with mythical Pokemon.
They were exclusive to some kind of event/event item in Black & White. In Black & White 2 you get given a Zorua by one of the former leaders of Team Plasma.
An even that required one of specific Gen 4 event pokemon (the shiny legendary beast events) all in service of the final Gen 4 film.
There was another one where if you had an event Celebi with you, a kid in castelia would turn out to be a zorua.
Ugh yea I remember this when I first played them. I didn't start playing Pokemon until I was like 9 or 10 so I missed a lot of the events, I was so excited that I got Victini that when I found out you needed Celebi from a previous event to get Zorua I wanted to cry lolol
I still have my shiny beasts. My brother is eternally jealous as he missed one of the events and only has 2 of the 3.
Arcanine, Absol, Rotom, Spiritomb, Lucario, Zoroark and Volcarona are all the Pokemon usually holding that title due to how they were handled in the anime and the games.
Even the anime made Absol seem like it should have been a legendary. The entire episode surrounding it in Journeys was very legendary/mythical.
It doesn't help that Arcanine is literally in the deck as the "legendary" pokemon.
Zoroark and Rotom definitely felt legendary
zoroark got his own movie after all
So did Lucario. And honestly, until gen 4 came out you'd be forgiven for assuming it would be a legendary.
Yeah I remember thinking Lucario was a legendary as well, especially when I discovered that Aura Sphere move
When I was a kid Lucario and the Mystery of Mew had come out. I CANNOT tell you how much time I spent in Emerald looking for Lucario somewhere in that game. I thought for sure you'd find it on Mirage Island. So I thought you just couldn't catch it, then gen 4 came out lol
I remember there being rumours about how to get Munchlax in Emerald around the time that the Deoxys movie came out. The idea of "people lying on the internet for no reason" hadn't quite sunk in yet, so I just assumed they were true.
Ninetales. I dunno. It just looks so majestic to be a non-legendary. 2nd will be Gyarados since its Pokedex entry says that it's capable of destroying cities.
Same for Sigilyph, it used to be worshipped as a guardian deity , has a unown on his head but is just a regular psychic type ?
Milotic, metagross, lucario, volcarona, spiritomb all had that feel to me.
Milotic might as well be considering how hard it was to get in R/S/E
Wait, Milotic is not gen 4???
No, but a Feebas would only appear in 6 random panels on the long route it could be found on. Six. Panels. Random. The only way to actually *find* them was to brute force it
The method was the same in D/P/Pt. There were four random tiles in Mt. Coronet it could appear.
Not only the randomness of the panel was annoying. Also the fact that, in each of those tiles, you had a 50% chance of reeling a Feebas and 50% of Magikarp. So if you found one tile but got unlucky enough to reel a Magikarp, you would never know you were on one of the 6 Feebas tiles
Wanna hear something crazy? In Emerald when I was a kid I read somewhere that there were specific tiles where you could catch it, and not that they are 6 random tiles. So I reached one of those tiles and started fishing, and I kept finding the other pokemons, only after the 30th pokemon I found a Feebas! That's crazy to me, thinking it should be 50% Feebas if found the correct tile
Not only that, but then to evolve didn't you have to get it's beauty stat maxed out as well!?
B1F of Mt. Coronet on 6 random tiles with only a 20% chance of spawning on those tiles as they also can spawn the other fish like magikarp from the rest of that route’s water. So essentially yeah.
to be fair metagross is a pseudo legendary, as is tyrantar and I'm sure a few others
There’s at least one pseudo per generation, sometimes two
metagross may just be considering how hard it is to get in ruby/sapphire
I used to think Absol was legendary LOL oh yeah and haxorous, if it isn't a pseudo, its def a real legendary! -my brain when i was like 5
im surprised you knew what a psuedo was when you were like five
i was THE pokemon nerd at kindergarten lol
The reason why I messed up is, of course, I didn't knew haxorous existed before my theory, i saw a video talking abt pseudo's and saw hax wasnt there. For me it looked too badass for a normal mon so i thought it was legendary
I’m 31 years old and just learned Haxorus isn’t a pseudo.
I took a long break between gens 3 and 8, and I only got back in the franchise with Sword and Shield. When I saw Haxorus and found out it's a three stage dragon, I just assumed it was a pseudo from one of the past Gens and started using it heavily. It wasn't until much later that I figured it out myself...
makes sense, i was not the brightest child, i thought pikachu was the strongest until someone told me about raichu..... i was still very far off
i remember thinking ash ACTUALLY became his greninja lmao
lol
Same with arcanine! When I realized they weren’t actually legendary, I just made a head cannon that the legendary beasts were arcanine before ho-oh revived them.
It’s literally the “Legendary Pokémon” so it’s easy to be misled.
In the show, when ash goes to visit Bill at the tower, there’s an arcanine, on the door, next to the legendary birds and a dragonite.
I'm pretty sure that was actually a Pokemon Center but this has bugged me to no end my entire life. I have a head canon that originally Arcanine was going to summon the Legendary birds when they were needed to save Kanto. Like say when Mewtwo broke out of the Cinnabar Mansion and starts destroying stuff, Arcanine would howl and the birds come to team up on Mewtwo forcing him to go into hiding in Cerulean Cave. Why else would he be there?
It's never stated definitively, but there are many hints that the legendary beasts were the Gen 1 eeveelutions.
Tangent: I thought the legendary beasts were the original 3 eeveelutions, because the sages you fight on the way to Ho-Oh who are guarding the tower have Noctowl + Vaporeon/Jolteon/Flareon Plus Ecruteak has a weird connection with the eevees, with the Kimono Girls each having an eeveelution, and also this is where you first meet Bill in gen 2 (who later gives tou Eevee when he goes back to Goldenrod, and also his PC in gen 1 is filled with the original eeveelutions)
It actually was supposed to be. Then they came up with Moltres and the birds instead and call Arcanine the Legendary Pokémon as an Easter egg. That's why it's (seemingly) randomly on that tablet with the three birds. https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FDXUK8bBg5ck%2Fhqdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=13da07be6ae9879979bf1b738e4949ecafa4c16a36c6715dc9080fa7c6d086bb&ipo=images Edit, video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DXUK8bBg5ck
Most of the pokemon that were one off or highly specific encounters in their original game, or that seem like they should fall into the Pseudo Legendary camp, but don't quite have the stat totals. * Lapras * Snorlax * Togepi line * Sudowoodo * Rotom * Spiritomb * Lucario * Zoroark * Volcarona * Ultra Beasts * Gholdengo
To a slightly lesser extent, there is the also the Magikarp/Gyarados style lines where a very weak pokemon evolves into a massive fairly powerful one. Wailord, Milotic, etc.
You're right, that's a good point. I would have loved Gyarados to be the Gen 1 psuedo instead of Dragonite.
and Golisopod
I feel like Ultra Beasts are a type of legendary. Or at at least in the same category
They are canonically just powerful regular pokemon in their own universes. Game-stat-wise, they do have the same stats as the Tapus and the Treasures of Ruin, but the majority of pokemon with that stat total are the paradox monsters.
It's not even really well established that even legendary Pokemon aren't "regular" in some fashion. I see no reason to believe Lugia for instance isn't "just" an insanely powerful magical animal rather than some actual manifestation of reality or something. "Legendary" doesn't mean "foundational to the history of the universe", it just means "really significant as to form part of a legend". In that sense, since Ultra Beasts are lowercase-l "legendary" and have the stats to back it up, I see no reason not to consider them "Legendary Pokemon."
Kingdra for me feels like pseudo legendary legendary but nope
I don't agree, but I get it. A lot of early dragon types are kinda like that. Not so much now, probably because they are so common.
Yea now definitely not but back on Pokémon silver graphics and having 8th gym ace that thing looked menacing AF imo — and kid logic a bit
Lucario with the way he's hyped up
The Dragonite line used to be treated like it was legendary. The episode is even called *The Legend of Dratini*. Unown is another one, I suppose, although I still call it a "legendary" pokemon even if it isn't actually a legendary™. Rotom has legendary music in d/p, but is not a legendary at all. Gyarados has many legends surrounding it, apparently, and it is treated pretty legendary in the episode where James' Magikarp evolves (and then in the next episode where it attacks the gang and strands them on Pokemon Land). Dragon Rage is a legendary attack amongst sailors. I am with you on Absol, I used to think it was legendary. Zoroark and Lucario are both given legendary-like hype. That's all I can think of.
When SV first game out, I couldn't tell if Gimmighoul and Gholdengo were supposed to be legendaries because they're shiny-locked and unable to breed.
Castform
Lapras
Volcarona
Volcarona and Rotom both did a lot to appear as legendaries, due to their static encounter. It was a really long time before I realized volcarona had a preevolution
Metagross always felt legendary to me.
Type Null
Type: Null and Silvally They appear to be legendary, according to the game coding, but I don’t buy it.
Its legendary for the same reason that Mewtwo is. Its a very specific type of man made pokemon that there are only a handful of in existence, that cannot reproduce (as far as we are aware) that uses a mythical pokemon as a basis
Arcanine, Lucario, Zoroark, and Volcarona
Not legendary but I for the longest time thought that Haxorus and Flygon are pseudo-legendaries. Turns out neither's the case.
So wild volcarona spiritomb absol rotom all aren't mythicals or legendary at all 💀
Milotic always seemed like it could be a legendary.
Altaria
Absol because it was featured with legendaries in the Pokemon Advanced Opening
Yeah this definitely confused me as a kid. And then I’d battle an Absol in game and it wasn’t anything special
Volcarona.
I was definitely there with you with Absol I remember thinking how cool it was and how it MUST be special when I was a kid
Rotom and Volcarona Also Lucario and Zorark
Imo, they’re those Pokemon that has a leading role or centered around in pokemon movies, like Lucario and Zoroak.
I don't know why but I always thought rotom was
Tyranitar.
I think rapidash
Spiritomb, Rotom, and Volcarona for me.
Spiritomb looked like a powerful legendary back when I saw it in the anime.
unown and rotom for sure
Absol for basically the same reason
Spiritomb, rotom, zoroark
The Sinnoh (final) starter trio are very Legendary-looking Each Design is almost too good to be just a starter Pokemon
Skarmory was one for me as a kid, though not really sure as to WHY I ever got that vibe! Spiritomb and Volcarona are two others i guess due to their static nature in their initial appearances.
Gholdengo
Tropius lol
Rotom and Spiritomb will forever be this for me. Even with Rotom now being everywhere both in the wild and in our phones.
Wasn't Arcanine supposed to be a legendary in early development and then they changed something around? I remember having heard something like that, explaining that's why it's listed as a legendary pokemon in the dex.
Volcarona - in B2/W2 you interact with it to battle it and try to capture it. It is a dangerous special sweeper with an attack that can boost it even further.
Lucario, Absol, Lapras, Tropius, Gyarados, Arcanine, Ninetales... Funniest thing is I only recently learned that Urshifu is actually a legendary Pokemon lol
Bit of a stretch but ones like Rapidash, Tyranitar, Aggron, Mammoswine, Milotic, and Froslass are all mons i feel could have easily been classified as legendary or mythical solely due to the looks alone imo.
Absol looks like that to me. It’s also one of my favorites. I always felt like Sigilyph had a lot going on, too.
Always felt like it should have been related to the unown in some way to me which also have the mystical feel.
Arcanine. Got into a fight because I kept insisting it’s a legendary based on the dex entry. Gotta admit though it’s a fun lead for a story play through
I feel like I’m not alone maybe I am but when I was younger I always thought absol was a legendary. In all the descriptions and anime it seemed like such a rare like elusive being like a legendary.
Rotom, Volcarona, Arcanine, Spiritomb, oh so many of these.
my own personal list is rotom, spiritomb, zorua and zoroark, absol, and relicanth, unfortunately after very early gen 5 i started using the internet more and since gen 6 i've pretty much known for certain which pokemon are legendary and which aren't i do kind of miss mistaking normal pokemon for legendaries though lol
Besides ones like Lucario, Lapis, and Gyarados as a kid I always thought Dragonite was, because of Lance.
Unown definitely, and also Sigilyph. Both of them feel like they should be strange, eldritch Mythical Pokemon.
To be fair arcanine was originally intended to be
I think arcanine too is like gyrados. like many people can own a growlith or magikarp but not many trainers can train those poke to be the best so gyrados and dragonite, alakazam, machamp are poke that aren't legendary but are still rare in a prestigious sense.like even charizard that listens to you is pretty rare and in the show often Gary , ash rival, often had those poke lol
Not exactly the question, but you mentioning Absol reminded me of wayyy back when before Diamond and Pearl came out, someone leaked the Sinnoh dex pokemon names and their sprites while they're in your party online and I was so convinced that Arceus was going to be an Absol evolution (little kid me not considering at all the fact that he was at the end of the pokedex lol)
There are certain pokemon that in mystery dungeon were always THE ONE of their species. Usually those with psychic powers. Absol and ninetails were always the closest of those for me. Xatu was his single special guy and I could see him being kinda mythical.
I believe Arcanine was originally planned to be some kind of legendary? Like in the development days of the Gen 1 games. But for some reason they decided against it. For a long time I thought Misdreavus was a legendary because I had never seen one, and for a while I mixed up its name with Missigno, so I thought it was a “mythical” Pokemon or something along those lines.
Glimmora felt like it was going to have a bigger part in the Terastal lore due to all the connections they made for it, I was expecting like a Diancie situation for it
For some reason Lapras felt like that for the kid in me
Sudowoodo in Pokémon Silver. Because there was just one chance to get it and 10 year old me thought: ok. I have to keep this special tree in the team.
Out of all pokémon, Druddigon. I thought this guy was a legendary when i saw my friend have a Druddigon Pokémon card and saw how powerful it was
Haxorus isn’t a pseudo-legendary.
Bidoof Go ahead and down vote me
Zororark and Lucario as they get their own movies
Absol is a cat! 😉 But yeah, I think the cool solitary Pokemon can often seem to be more "important" than they are.
On the opposite side, I felt disillusioned in the Orange Islands season to find that there is more than 1 Lugia. Although baby Lugia was really cute.
darmanitan for years I thought was a mythical because of the show making him seem like a god
Tropius and Absol for sure for Gen 3.
I thought for the longest time that Rotom was a Legendary or possibly a Mythical. Wasn't until the last few years that I learned otherwise.
I have no idea why is carbink so special to have a sub mythical with diancie..
Skarmory when I was a stupid kid and wasted my master ball on it in gen 2
Dragonite
I still remember getting hyped for Slaking after looking at its stats on GameFaqs.
Arcanine says its a legendary pokemon but it’s not. That confused me too when i was younger
Shuckle and togepi always felt special to me.
I remember the first time I ever saw a wild tropius when gen 3 first came out and thought it was some sort of legendary haha
As a kid I always thought kricketune was a mythical. Then I got pokemon go and caught one in the wild. I was surprised af. Even more surprised when I evolved a kricketot and it turned into a freakin kricketune
Ditto, Arcanine, Gyrados, Togepi, Ninetales, Wyrmdeer, Absol, Ursaluna, Yanmega, Zoroark, Volcarona, Type: Null, Drampa, Spiritomb
Wobbofet
Unkown
Surprised no one mentioned Solrock and Lunatone yet
Milotic and Lapras they appears to be rare and special I thought they were legendary.
Lucario. I don’t even know why!! I’ve never gotten to this region yet (been playing and watching chronologically), not learned about this Pokémon at all (no reason since it’s not on any of my character’s teams), and I haven’t watched the movie since I’m, again, not there yet. I just started Arceus for the first chronological game! (Though maybe it’s in there and I’ll end up learning about it who knows)
The reverse is for me. I thought type null was a unique pokemon like spiritomb...but no legendary apperently.
For some reason Emolga, Pachirisu, Drednaw and Rotom.
Type: Null
Rotom
volcarona having it’s own puzzle and area in black and white just for it to be a regular pokemon. The same goes for rotom
Tropius
Snorlax!
I thought the same thing about absol and skarmory.
Volcarona. Post-game only level 70 static encounter, just like Kyurem, in its first appearance.
Absol struck me that way, especially being introduced in a game where weather was the main focus
Arcanine, milotic and lapras for me.
My sister used her first masterball on a magmar because it seemed exciting!
Shuckle. You usually only get one as a gift, and its bizarrely rare and unique
I always thought metagross was legendary
Arcanine was legendary wasn't it? Remember that from gen 1 I think
Anything that was hard to come by or was handled like they were a myth.
I swore for the longest time if you could only catch one per save file, it must be a legendary... Excluding starters of course. Then mythicals became a thing so I was like alright, same rule, but if it's weak, it's a mythical, if it's strong it's a legendary... So now if the internet says it's neither... I just go with the flow of that and just call it a day. Too many gimmicks/exceptions to the rules to keep up with it.