Legendary Pokemon Pattern

[Klaatu]

Since new legendary Pokemon were created in Generation II, I was always curious what new legendaries* will come and where their palce will be in the whole picture.

So as the generations went on, I slowly realised there is some kind of structure or pattern behind it.

But first I have to make clear that this is based on the games and has as least as possible to do with what the Anime says as it treats them regarding it's own logic and stories (Thou shall not catch legendaries etc xD)

I also posted such a thread on another forum some time ago so some things will be copied from there.

So, there are obvious "relations" and hidden ones.
An obvious relation between legendaries would be:
-Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres are a trio.

The proof that one can really distinguish those kind of relations, before anything has been said about them officially, OR find ones that are held as secret by the game makers, is the reaction people had after checking Giratina at the time Dialga and Palkia were obvious counterparts, while there wasn't anything told about Giratina:
There were 2 kinds of opinions on forums.
The few people that checked Giratina's ingame features (base statuses, attacks, levels the attacks are learned, types....) and looked at it's design closely, said:
-Giratina is with no doubt the third counterpart to Palkia and Dialga
-Dialga, Palkia and Giratina are obviously a TRIO
-Giratina will be on the box of the 3rd installment etc....

Everyone else/the majority, answered:
-They're not related!

With Platinum announced it became clear that the former group was right about this.



*Now I have to determine what I mean with legendaries:
Every Pokemon normally known as legendary besides the 600TBS (total base stats) events, duos and just very special Pokemon:
-MEW*
It contains DNA of every other Pokemon
-MEWTWO
Manmade clone of Mew
-CELEBI, JIRACHI, SHAYMIN, MANAPHY
Event pokemon ("unobtainable") with special abilities, the regular MEW like Pokemon of it's generation
-LATIOS & LATIAS
The very rare eon duo
-DEOXYS
A mutated virus from space
-CRESSELIA & DARKRAI
Moon phase duo (like the Lati@s)
-HEATRAN
Piece of molten crap that eats crap (sounds like a potential Deoxys counterpart xD)
-PHIONE
At first it seems like theres no point in it. But with some thinking(DX) I figured that out:
Mewtwo is a stronger unnatural version of Mew
If they wanted to make the opposite with Manaphy, what would it be?
A weaker natural version.
Now what's the only natural thing legendaries are missing? Right, reproduction.


Mew vs. Arceus
You have probably all seen a thread like "Which ones the god?"
IMO, they tried to create 2 Pokemon that would represent the real-world's debate about the origin of life.
-Scientists belive Mew to be the ancestor of Pokemon
-Myths talk about Arceus creating the Universe
Theory of Evolution vs Religious creationism
=)
(The right answer is the third option: They were all created by humans from the real world.)



I'm going to list some interesting things about legendaries from each generation, but not the features, that mebmers of a trio have in common which prove the fact of them being a trio (just check their pokedex to see those (similar moveset/levels, base stats, abilities etc)).

Generation I
+Articuno
+Zapdos
+Moltres
-The Ice, Electric and Fire birds.
-They're found at places fitting their abilities and where they have probably chosen themselves to reside at.
-It's worth mentioning that Moltres was stronger in RBY when there was only 1 special stat.

Generation II
+Raikou
+Entei
+Suicune
Addition of another trio, the cats (lion, tiger and cheetah ARE NOT DOGS -.-).
-Electric, Fire sound familiar, but there is no Ice cat before them, but a Water one after them. This is what started my curiosity. Is there a reason why they did this with Suicune?
Yes. I think they realised, it would get too repetitive and boring if every generation had the same 3 types used for a legendary trio. Choosing 3 different types would get them like 3 good combinations (especially when ecluding possible secondary types like flying, bug or dragon).
So a complex and interesting solution is keeping some and changing some every generation! We will see.
-They are a perfectly balanced trio stat-wise, with Raikou having best S.Atk and Speed, Entei HP and Atk, and Suicune S.Def and Def
-Found in "hybernation mode"/asleep in a cave under a destroyed building
-After awaking them, they roam through the grasses of Johto
-Suicune plays a special role in Crystal

+Lugia
+Ho-oh
-The 2 new "Mewtwos", as those 3 were the only one with 680TBS (which is 100 more than legendary trios)
-2 towers were constructed by humans to show their gratitude, the Brass and Tin tower. They came resting on the tops. Ho-oh's tower was destroyed by a storm. Under it is the mentioned cave where the 3 Cat Pokemon, said to be resurrected by Ho-oh after dying, are found. Lugia flew away into the ocean, while Ho-oh sometime returns to the left standing tower.

So at the 2nd Generation, we have 2 huge flying monsters which seem to have some kind of guardian role to the 2 trios.



Generation III
+Regirock
+Regice
+Registeel
-A Rock, ICE and Steel Golem trio. Ice wasn't yet used twice in trios, so they repeat it and add 2 totally new types (probably because Ice and water in the same trio would be odd) which also fit the golem concept. Good job IMO.
-Very defensive oriented
-Regirock is the physical, Regice the special golem and Registeel is the balanced version of the other two.
-They're sealed into hidden caves, which for access require intelligence for reading braille instructions on solving puzzles.
-They don't have any real eyes (you'll see later why I mention this)

+Groudon
+Kyogre
+Rayquaza
-The ancient climate influencing 3.
-Well they actually are not a trio, because Rayquaza is superior to Groudon and Kyogre:
It has 680 TBS instead of 670
It has 2 types instead of 1
It has multi colored patterns on it's body instead of 1 colour
It's abilities disables the other 2's abilities effects.
-Rayquaza plays a guardian-like role in that it acts intelligent (Emerald event) instead of just going out on rampage after waking like Groudon and Kyogre

So we got another trio (without a fitting guardian) another big flying intelligent monster and 2 troublemaking monsters.



Generation IV
+Uxie
+Mesprit
+Azelf
-a whole psychic trio representing Knowledge, Emotion and Will.
I was a bit shocked about this as it made no sense what was going on here, as they seemed to have the regular trio 580 TBS, but at the same time looked extremely similar.
My prediction which I was 100% sure of happening was:
1 member being water type
1 either rock or steel
1 with an yet unused type for trio legendaries
q_Q?
After taking a deeper look at them I realised something interesting:
-Azelf represents Will, reminding me of how the birds are the only trio not to be sealed up somewhere
-Uxie represents Knowledge ---> Regi chambers (closed eyes)
-Mesprit:
Emotion
Balanced stats
Runs away and roams the region
->They are the past 3 trios in 3 Pokemon

+Regigigas
-4th bigger stronger golem (the birds got their guardian a generation later in Lugia)
-Surprisingly it has 670 stats, is asleep sealed in a temple (Kyogre, Groudon?).

+Dialga
+Palkia
+Giratina
-The dimension trio 680TBS.
-They live in different dimensions and are capable of altering those.
-They're part dragon... wait a second. Take a look at their primary types:
Steel
Water
Ghost
My explanation for why the missing type pattern was put on 680 monsters:
Gamefreak realised they got into a habbit of releasing THREE main games every generation, and adding a TRIO every generation. So they combined them.
We will see if the fifth generation will continue the type pattern on main legendaries or if they'll go back to 580.
But we can logicaly assume their primary types:
One will be surely rock, ghost will be saved for the 6th generation trio, so the other two will have yet unused types/one of the following:
Grass, Fight, Poison, Ground or Dark
Yay.

The legendary pattern as of Gen IV:


And the non-legendary legendaries:



Thanks for reading.

1.Do you find this as interesting as I do?
2.Does this make any logic to anyone else than me?
3.Anyone else can't wait to see what legendaries are coming next?

[wraith89]

Very interesting. I thought about this for the most part. Suicune was mostly likely made water because a defensive Ice type would NOT work. 4 weaknesses and 1 resistance hardly makes a tank. Water is the superior choice in tanking... and it took those monkeys at Gamefreak 3 years to figure that one out :-/

[Klaatu]

Regice is a defensive Ice legendary =P
Suicune could easily be Ice, just make it a bit brighter blue.
Also in pokedex order,
birds: Ice - Electric - Fire - _____
cats: ___ - Electric - Fire - Water

And since when are there monkeys at Gamefreak? o_o

[wraith89]

Regice is a terrible wall now. He was great in R/S/E where Special defense actually mattered. Now with Stealth Rocks all around and with Choice Banders, he stands no chance in the standard metagame as he used to. That's why defensive Ice types won't work. Ice is one of the best offensive types in the metagame though... it strikes SO MANY things for Super Effective damage.

Monkeys in Gamefreak is just my way of saying how much I appreciate Gamefreak for screwing over Flareon and Articuno and how they gave Rhyhorn Tail Whip and Leer and how they refuse to evolve Farfetch'd and how they gave Sudowoodo a baby form without giving it actual new moves among many things.

[pokemonfan]

This was very interesting. I can totally see your logic. However, didn't Uxie, mesprit, and azelf appear at mt. coronet when it was only one legendary appearing like dialga or palkia to keep their power in check? Also I think you should make up a new one as well, guardians.

Like celebi is the guardian of the forest right?

Cresselia is the guardian of canalave against darkrai. Dont forget jirachi absorbs energy from that one comet to keep a place in one of the regions alive and thriving.

[HottSushiz]

Wow that was very interesting, and i can understand the logic your getting at, and it makes perfect sense, but i have never thought of the legendaries like that, i was just happy that here was those uber powerful Pokemon that could solo the Elite 4, while your pitiful Pokemon couldn't.

[pokemonfan]

I still think there should be guardians. Here is what I think are the guardians...

Celebi-guardian of the forest
Cresselia-guardian of dreams
Darkrai-guardian of alamos town
Heatran-guardian of the volcano/stark mountain

These are some pretty cool legendaries that I think in the original post you are degrading. Although, I do have to agree with most of what you said Klaatu

[Shadowlord757]

We need more Ground type legends

[jawsisra]

Mew vs. Arceus being Theory of Evolution vs Religious creationism

But I think its more Like Greek Myth like this

In Greek Myth out of the Void came Chaos Chaos Created the Unviers then he Created Chaos

It says Arceus was made out of the Void Arceus Created the Univerise then Mew

Mew and Arceus had
Lugia
Ho-oh
Rayquaza
Regigigas
2 of every other Pokemon (Non Legendary)

Arceus went off and made the following Pokemon on his own
Cresselia
Darkrai
Heatran
Dialga
Palkia
Giratina
Uxie
Mesprit
Azelf

Mew went off and Made the Following Pokemon on her Own
Latios
Latias
Deoxys
Celebi
Jirachi
Shaymin
Manaphy

Lugia had 3 Children Articuno Zapdos Moltres

Ho-Oh Took 3 Pokemon and made them into The Dogs now I have a Theory on this also Ho-Oh tool the 3 orginal Evolution of Evee and made Raikou Entei Suicune

Manaphy had Phione

Regigigas had 3 Regirock Regice Registeel

Rayquaza had 2 Groudon Kyogre

And Mewtwo was made by Man

[ScientificPikachu]

We will see if the fifth generation will continue the type pattern on main legendaries or if they'll go back to 580.
But we can logicaly assume their primary types:
One will be surely rock, ghost will be saved for the 6th generation trio, so the other two will have yet unused types/one of the following:
Grass, Fight, Poison, Ground or Dark
Yay.

Well about Gen. 5, patterns are still evident
For example:
-Cobalion (Steel/Fighting TBS=580 Ability=Justified)
-Terrakion(Rock/Fighting TBS=580 Ability=Justified)
-Virizion(Grass/Fighting TBS=580 Ability=Justified)
Fighting Type on this trio? TBS=580? Same Ability? They are a trio. According to the BW dex, this trio protected Pokémon in a war against humans. And also they do have a special move --- Secret Sword.
But wait!
Here comes Keldeo.
Water/Fighting TBS=580 Ability=Justified Special move=Secret Sword?
And if you look at these four Pokémon's Base HP stat --> All 91's
So the trio stated above is not just a trio... IT'S A QUARTET!
That's what I all know about them. About the Tao Trio---It's a long story.

[Klaatu]

With the advent of the musketeers the whole thing became even less random and more clear.
Palkia/Dialga/Giratina types turn out to just have fit the pattern coincidentally. Because actually the pattern wasn't continued by them but only now in gen V picked back up.

Since generation 4 approach or theme was "ultimate", the plan was to finish the first 3 generations with a OMFG finish,
which meant:
-lots of evolutions
-lots of big legendaries
-lots of exotic and hax pokes
-rest of new pokemon focused more on rare and specially obtained ones
-biggest region
-regular grass/water pokemon being mostly stuff from I-III instead of
It was essentially what gen II was to gen I (bonus round), but to all gens before it instead and even more focused.

But with all this, seems they also decided it was not a time for making a normal legendary trio, so instead they took the past 3 trios, squeezed them each into one pokemon conceptually, made this new trio of past trios the stereotypical legendary type of Psychic, and viola, Azelf, Mesprit, Uxie.

Which makes me wonder if there will be another Psy (or trio of Ghost etc?) in a hypotethical gen 8 to "spiritually" represent the musketeers and the trios of 6 and 7.

But yes
heres a clearer picture of what pattern they seem to insist to even after 5 generations:



It alternatingly adds 1 or 2 more types, while not using any type more than twice.
This creates 8 unique trios. Which is enough for a thousand pokemon.
And even after the thousand, you can just pick a different combination of starting types and get 8 more.

The transparent types are just examples and not supposed to imply any actual prediction (except for Grass and Water, they are a given)


Oh and regarding Keldeo.
It really is amazingly similar to the other 3, but since IT IS an event pokemon, and even story-wise has a role of more like an apprentice or adoptee, I don't treat it as a proper member of the group, just like how Regigigas is a stronger Normal fourth Regi, yet we all obviously ignore its existence when talking about trios.

BTW, Ive been gone long havent I.. anything new happening here? Any people? xD
I might rewrite the first post sometime soon.

[Klaatu]

Made a fancier version of the "tree of true legends"


reminds me of the tree of life from the kabbalah.