Thread: How do/would you handle legendary Pokémon?

To me it depends on the legendary. If it's a legendary like the legendary birds, then people owning one is fine since in my stories there's multiple of them, but something like Mewtwo or Arceus don't belong to anyone since there is only one.

Legendaries have always bugged me both in the games and in the show. Why is some kid, or in the case of writing, some average bloke running into every single one on a near regular basis? Like, Rayquaza appearing so casually in that one episode of DP with the evil Togepi felt so wrong to me.

I prefer to keep things simple. If they show up, there had better be a damn good reason for it. And if they show up, they should be powerful enough to resist being captured by a bunch of chumps in black uniforms. The main character might see one or two through his/her travels, but it'd feel weird for that character to capture and command one.

In my stories, I treat the legendaries as Gods. They aren't captured - in my stories they can't be - and they're given respect, but they also hate people and tend to avoid them, to the point many people don't believe in their power or existence. When they do appear, it's a huge event because a god making an appearance means something is going down.

Originally Posted by Llama_Guy

Mewtwo however, has decent power at least surpassing the legendary birds; maybe even close to the sacred bird duo.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the games, but Mewtwo is in essence as powerful as the sacred birds, and in competitive play is regarded as one of the most powerful in Uber environment.

Side note: Arceus is stronger than the Tao Trio as long as it's not all of them at the same time.

Originally Posted by Llama_Guy

- Tao Trio
- Arceus
- Creation Trio
- Weather Trio
- Kami Trio/Sacred bird duo/Regigigas
- Mewtwo/Genesect/Volcarona
- Stronger, semi-legendary dragons/Legendary bird trio
- Mew
- Strongest trainers/Beast trio/Musketeer trio/Regi trio/Lake trio
- Strong trainers/Deoxys/Heatran/Darkrai/Cresselia/Celebi/Jirachi/Victini/
- Fairly strong trainers/Meloetta/Shaymin/Manaphy/Phione

Additionally, the correct order for this -in my experience- in competitive play and anime would be:

- Arceus
- Creation Trio/Weather Trio/Sacred bird duo/Tao duo/Mewtwo
- pseudo-legends (Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Garchomp, Hydreigon)
- Mew/Celebi/Jirachi/Victini/Meloetta/Shaymin/Manaphy/Deoxys/Darkrai/Cresselia/Genesect/Kyurem/Kami Trio
- Beast trio/Musketeer trio/Regi trio/Lake trio/Legendary bird trio/Heatran

But this is only in the sense of sheer potency, otherwise plot-wise it's up to you.

@Sai; Pretty much none of these are placed there for plot-wise reasons and all for the sheer potency they have within my headcanon ;)

See, I don't give a squat about the games. Base stats are silly game mechanics and does not represent anything grounded in actual reality. Thus I look at their roles only. Granted, in-game they don't have roles that imply their being more powerful than Arceus, but I find that they very well represent the concept of yinyang/wuji, and I think this is implied in the game. In that case, they are more powerful than Arceus, as fundamental forces of the universe, of creation and everything, precede and thus trumps a creator.

Mewtwo I regard as a much more powerful version of mew, which itself isn't all that strong. So while it is stronger than such pokemon as the strongest and eldest of dragons, and zapdos/moltres/articuno, Ho-oh and Lugia are both out of its league.

Most of the lesser legendaries are, to me, not really comparable to the rest. They are rare, and more powerful than most pokes, but not really all that special. Thus the exponential power increase. The difference is insane. Mewtwo can't compare to a god. Groudon can't compare to a god. Lesser gods can't compare to the creator. Creator can't compare to fundamental forces of existence. You get my drift :P

@Llama_Guy;
Man! I came up with an awesome comeback then accidentally pressed "Reply" and it all disappeared.

Don't worry though, I'll rewrite it after I blow off some steam... *goes to study*

I'll just straight out say that I've had characters turn into legendary Pokémon.

May not be the best course of action for everybody or anybody, but it was important to the plot.