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How should Legendaries be handled in the main series anime?

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
As of the last ~30 episodes, we’ve had quite a number of Legendary Pokèmon appearing ranging from POTDs like Kyogre to Pokèmon outright joining the cast like Shaymin and Meltan (and soon to be Magearna). It’s been received with mixed feelings as some feel it’s a bit much while others think it’s a better alternative than stuffing them into a yearly mediocre movie.

Do you think they should go a bit easy on the use of Legendary Pokèmon? Or is it fine/couldn’t care less? How would you handle it?

Personally, I think anything past the regional Legendary Pokèmon (Nebby/Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Tapus, UBs, and the 5 Mythicals) and a few past generation Legends are all they need. Kyogre was fine as it gave Lana’s comedic and goal oriented sides a crossroad.

Also I know I called Mythicals and UBs Legendaries. That’s what they treated as in the game’s code and besides the label, there’s barely any difference. Try to worry about the actual topic and just agree to disagree with me.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I think that Legendaries and Mythicals should be handled gracefully, by which I mean that they should be shown sparsely. I also don't think that they should be shown hanging out with the cast for long periods of time the way that Meloetta was back in Isshu, or that they should be captured by cast members either.
 

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
I don't mind if Ash and others catch them, beats a legendary tagging along just cause....

But legendaries should appear sparingly like once every 20 episodes, apart from the regional legendaries of course. They're an exception to the rule as they're usually saved for the last half of the series and actually need the coverage. Kyogre didn't.... we literally just saw it last saga!
Regional legendaries like Marshadow deserve screentime over Pokemon like Kyogre and Celebi who've had more than their fair share compared to Pokemon like Raikou and Manaphy
 

OniCornwalis

Active Member
All of the regional mythicals/legendaries should appear in the show, as I think it’s really cool that all of them are making appearances instead of some of them being pushed aside and only appearing in movies (I’m looking at you, Manaphy, Kyurem, and Yveltal) As for legendaries from other gens, I honestly don’t mind as long as they serve a purpose in the episodes and aren’t shoehorned in. Kyogre’s appearance was great, for example, as it resolved a joke Lana had about catching Kyogre, and he was just generally a badass when he was cured of poison.

Also, the dub title for this season is called Ultra Legends, which I originally thought would mean that Ash and his friends would be regarded as legends or something like that. However, I now realize that it means that Ash and co are encountering loads of legendaries, which I’m personally fine with.
 

pokedigijedi

Saiyan Jedi
They should be seen as rare, powerful Pokemon and not as an unstoppable, plot armoured conservation project.
I agree, especially since there are so many of them at this point, its getting kind of annoying at this point, they should be seen much like in the games strong-not-invincible/near-invincible.
 

BTS_fan

Immortal Queen
I miss the days when legendaries actually lived up to their hype, not like now where even something like Talonflame can make a Moltres look like a chump. At least the movies still portray legendaries and mythicals as awesome creatures worthy of worship (except Arceus who almost died because of some silver water lol).
 

Kintaro

Banned
I miss the days when legendaries actually lived up to their hype, not like now where even something like Talonflame can make a Moltres look like a chump. At least the movies still portray legendaries and mythicals as awesome creatures worthy of worship (except Arceus who almost died because of some silver water lol).

The movie legendaries are always portrayed as more powerful in the series. Like the Regi's in Movie 8 seemed really powerful, Brandon's Regi's in AG weren't as strong. Or the legendary birds in Movie 2 compared to the ones in the main series.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Keep them generally exclusive to the movies with a few appearances in the anime if they don’t pop up so often and it actually makes sense as to why they are in the episode. Don’t have Manaphy suddenly appear just because it saw Ash eating chocolate cake and it thought the cake looked good and wanted some. Zygarde in XY I can understand being in the anime because the writers were leading up to a huge story arc that revolves around it and Squishy being a Core didn’t look like its other forms and so it seemed like it was an unidentifiable Pokémon for a bit. The mother and baby Lugia made sense as it proved that even though most Legendaries are genderless in the games, it isn’t true in the anime.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I do wonder if Mythicals being nerfed in the anime has something to do with how easy they are to attain in the games these days, what with the frequent event distributions and online trading, which makes them far less rare in general than they were in the earlier generations. Maybe that's why the writers don't consider Mythicals to be worth showcasing as that special these days.
 

Kintaro

Banned
I'm just glad Mew has rarely shown up in the anime. To this day we've never had a filler for Mew in the series, which is kinda surprising after 22+ years. Just brief cameos.
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
I'm just glad Mew has rarely shown up in the anime. To this day we've never had a filler for Mew in the series, which is kinda surprising after 22+ years. Just brief cameos.
Or mewtwo for that matter
 

AznKei

Dawn & Chloe by ddangbi
It depends. For high tiered legendaries like Kyogre, Solgaleo and Mewtwo we should have the heroes helping them, not to have them appearing outside of their own arcs/episodes, not to ruin their lores, especially that they are less common than low tiered legendaries like Meltan, Genesect in which I don't see much of an issue of them joining their cast.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
It depends. For high tiered legendaries like Kyogre, Solgaleo and Mewtwo we should have the heroes helping them, not to have them appearing outside of their own arcs/episodes, not to ruin their lores, especially that they are less common than low tiered legendaries like Meltan, Genesect in which I don't see much of an issue of them joining their cast.

Pretty much. SM's variety in depiction is fine for me, just they're using them in such rapid dosage. Breaking the formula and letting a protagonist capture one was done well and didn't break the story, just we actually got several of them at once (and the minimalist teams mean some trainers have more 'special' Pokemon than 'normal' ones). Having some that become 'one of the kids' and end up under the care of the protagonists is a compelling dynamic however and gives a variety in how they are depicted.

Having mysterious 'greater scope' legendaries works with the show's lore and implies a greater universe that doesn't revolve around the protagonists, though as mentioned, there's a LOT of legendaries now, it works to humanise SOME of them and expand the world building at least a little, be it as quirky but alien antagonists like the Ultra Beasts, humane but still higher agenda 'guest' members like Meloetta and Squishy, or rare but otherwise fallible and obtainable mythicals like Meltan and Shaymin.
 
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