By Matt
In every region are those hard-to-find, rare, and of course, powerful Pokemon. Those are known as legendaries, or legends for short. All legends have incredible background stories (further explained in the TV episodes and movies) and are rumored to have powers to change a certain element of the world. The first generation features the three legendary birds, Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres, each of a different type. In the movie, Ash learns that they have the power to change the weather where they are, and why they live on three separate mountains.
The other two legends are Mew and Mewtwo, both very unique. The newer games describe Mew as the possible ancestor of Pokemon because of the many kinds of moves that it can use. After looking at the list, I came to the conclusion that Mew can learn just about any TM or HM move. Mewtwo was created by scientists that used some of Mew’s DNA. The first ever Pokemon movie describes in the beginning that Mewtwo became smart enough to realize that it was being used as something to test the measure of other Pokemon’s strength, and made it its goal to get revenge on everyone and everything.
Enough with the examples, another thing that makes legendaries, well, legends, is their extreme power. You can use legends in battles with other Pokemon trainers in-game (they won’t care since they most likely asked for the battle), but most other competitions, like the Battle Tower/Subway ban legends. The World Championships ban all legends and then some others because of their abnormally high base stats. Arceus, currently the most powerful Pokemon in the game, has 120 in each stat, which makes it a force to be reckoned with.
Other legends, like Deoxys, can break this balance by changing its form. Deoxys, as we all know, was a space virus that can change its form. When captured in the game, there were various ways to change its form, but in Pokemon Black and White, all you need to do is to touch the meteorite in the Nacrene City Museum. About it stats, the maximum value is 180, making it officially overpowered. In the Pokemon World, only one legend of each species exists, and since they are believed to be immortal, are bound to be wandering the earth forever until a worthy Trainer decides to catch it. Also, in the game, legendaries were some of the hardest to catch because of their resiliency. Even after they had a status condition, they could still break out of the Poke Ball immediately.
When I compare past to present, I would say that Game Freak is giving us an easier time to catch legends; maybe this is just to satisfy the kids so they will keep playing. Zekrom and Reshiram were part of the storyline; you could add it to your party and face off against its counterpart, which N had, which explains why I only caught it on the second attempt with an Ultra Ball. Regardless, legendary Pokemon are some of the most coveted, and many will do anything to get their hands on more.