Legendary Pokémon

[PhalanxSigil]

Legendary Pokémon

So as I was writing my story, I've actually come up with a rather interesting question for you all: how do you write legendary pokémon? Now, I'm asking this as a rhetorical question, as I've got my own system in my head, but I'm kind of curious as to how other writers do it themselves. How do you describe them, what sort of pronouns do you use, etc?

As for me, it kind of depends on the caliber of the pokémon. I've divided legendaries into two pseudo-categories that help me figure out what kind of description that I need to deal with. The first category consists of the more powerful, usually mascot legendaries. You know, the ones that have 680 BST, have crazy powerful moves, etc. For these types of pokémon, I try to depict them as forces of nature, almost as an embodiment of whatever they represent, like Groudon being the manifestation of a continent, or Giratina acting as a representation of death and rot (to quote Jax in her review of Convergence Chapter 1). Generally speaking, I use the "it" pronouns with those types of pokémon, as I feel they go past the corporeal in some fashion.

The other category, mainly consisting of lesser legendaries such as the legendary birds, the Mythical sprites (Mew, Celebi, Jirachi), and others of the sort, I feel need to be a little more grounded, even though they are still legendary in status. Since a few of these pokémon have assigned genders, I can go along with those, but since most are genderless, I really like American Pi's idea of using the "xe" pronouns when describing them, as it helps them stay above most other pokémon, while still keeping them more in line with their less-powerful brethren, unlike the first category.

 

[Chibi Pika]

*cracks knuckles* Legendary Pokemon.

The system you described is actually my favorite system, despite not being the one I use in my own fic. I think it's fairly common to depict the ubers as timeless forces of nature and smaller legends as more like guardian spirits. I have them all as unique in my fic, but that's mainly out of the necessity to remain consistent with its earlier versions. If I were starting a fic from scratch today, I would definitely be more nuanced in the system I came up with. As it stands right now, I write all of them as the single member of a phoenix-like species that are reborn when their bodies die. The energy used to perpetuate this process comes from whatever thing the Legendary is tied to. This technically applies to the spacetime trio as well, although they're kind of an unusual case because their physical bodies as we know them are just a three-dimensional projection of their true selves (because interacting with other beings in any comprehensible way would be impossible otherwise.)

I recently did finally start writing all the Legendaries as genderless. At first it seemed weird having the humans refer to these legends they know really well as "it" because it made them all feel like strangers, but that thankfully wore off pretty quickly. I knew I didn't want the Legendaries calling each other "it" though, as that made multi-legend conversations a nightmare. It's something I'm still playing with to find the best option.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[Umbramatic]

*cracks knuckles* Legendary Pokemon.

WELL GUESS WHO HAD THE EXACT SAME REACTION TO THIS THREAD? :B

Anyway, you folks are definitely not alone in a metaphysical tiering system, yeah. For the Yangverse I go with the common interpretation of the box legends minus Suicune and plus Uxie/Mesprit/Azelf, Arceus, and Zygarde as outright deities with most below that being powerful and still metaphysically important spirits of some sort; I also have a third category for "cryptid" Legendaries hat have no metaphysical importance and are just really rare (or outright unique), powerful, and long-lived. The godlike ones are almost always unique; those below that trend unique but have multiple notable exceptions.

As for handling their characters, I write them just like any other, except taking into account how much their nature as gods or guardian spirits or what have you impact their personalities. But I enjoy writing them all as people with vices, virtues, hopes, dreams, not too far removed from those of humans or more mundane Pokemon. I've gotten some crap before for depicting certain more primordial Legendaries that, way, but hey, I want them to be characters, so I'd much rather they be people with personalities.

On that note, Yangverse Legendary gender identity is complicated, as in "I haven't even fully parsed how it works in-universe yet." But aside from canonically gendered ones, I take the same person-y approach - some identify male, some female, some both, some genuinely neither, just whatever fits their role in the universe and the story best, their personality, or in some cases messing with expectations.

I recently did finally start writing all the Legendaries as genderless. At first it seemed weird having the humans refer to these legends they know really well as "it" because it made them all feel like strangers, but that thankfully wore off pretty quickly. I knew I didn't want the Legendaries calling each other "it" though, as that made multi-legend conversations a nightmare. It's something I'm still playing with to find the best option.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

I personally prefer singular they/their/them for my truly agender Legendaries, since it's the most person-like to me and again I like writing them as people; that wouldn't solve you problem on their conversations though. Maybe try individualized variations of the "xe" and such pronouns if you want to depict them as more distinct from "mundane" entities?

 

[Kutie Pie]

*cracks knuckles* Legendary Pokemon.

WELL GUESS WHO HAD THE EXACT SAME REACTION TO THIS THREAD? :B

SPEAKING OF SIMILAR REACTIONS.

…actually my reaction's pretty tame in comparison… Oh, but first off:

As for handling their characters, I write them just like any other, except taking into account how much their nature as gods or guardian spirits or what have you impact their personalities. But I enjoy writing them all as people with vices, virtues, hopes, dreams, not too far removed from those of humans or more mundane Pokemon. I've gotten some crap before for depicting certain more primordial Legendaries that, way, but hey, I want them to be characters, so I'd much rather they be people with personalities.

You get a brofist from me, strange minds think alike. *bump*

I used to think many of the legendaries are just one-of-a-kind Pokémon, and they're long-lived or immortal in order to shoulder their tasks of keeping the world balanced. I'm sure that's true for some of them for sure, but I've been coming to conclusions a breeding population does exist for most of them anyway, but if they're still legendaries who are basically guardians of the Pokémon world, I think a few of them are granted that kind of immortality, or at least greater power and longer lifespan to do so. I dunno, if Arceus is the creator of the Pokémon world and its guardians, I think he (because I give the Legendaries pronouns whether they canonically have them or not) grants immortality to those whose powers/abilities would take a great number of strength and stamina, and it's simply too much for a normal, mortal body to handle—Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, for example, I believe are immortals. I used to believe Mew could be immortal too, but I also thought Mew was one-of-a-kind, or at least the last of her kind. But I think the Mew who lives in the Tree of Beginning may have immortality given the task of keeping it neutral takes a lot of aura/lifeblood, so being immortal would keep the body from breaking down. That's only if Mew don't have long lifespans, but the Birth of Mewtwo CD drama has Dr. Fuji mention the legend of the phantom Pokémon having a life-force (something all Pokémon have more of than humans, apparently—this was never brought up in the anime far as I know) that allows it to live forever. So it's kind of hard to say at this point especially if the Mew in the first movie is definitely not the same one as in the eighth movie.

The one thing I've done with the Legendaries, though, is I humanize them, for some odd reason. It's a long belief I've had (at least since I knew about fanfiction, but I apparently did this long before I knew about it) for a great number of years at this point, and old habits die hard. Although I think that came to be when thinking about their ages and the kind of tasks they're basically created/preordained/whatever to do in the world as powerful Pokémon that people have worshiped as deities, and the fact they had to learn to deal with humans. Whether they become partners with them or not, they had to have understood humans have just as big a part in the circle of life as every other Pokémon, so they adapted more readily or more advanced than the other non-legendary/mythical Pokémon—especially since they have to put up with human's bullshit more than any other Pokémon. I even imagine some of them adopting similar behaviors if they're around them long enough. Darkrai, at least the one in the tenth movie, appears to do just that. Even in the games, Darkrai seems to have some kind of human behavior, or at least more-so than other Pokémon; it sounds pretty human to purposefully isolate yourself so other Pokémon and living beings don't fall victim to endless nightmares you can't help but inflict.

And of course, being a shipper, I like to believe they can get romantic ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Stems back to the human behavior, but the idea of romance appears to be a human concept anyway, so that kind of is a given with this sort of thing. I actually like playing around with this because of it, even though yes, Mewtwo and Mew are the ones I use the most for this sort of thing, but I like it with Mewtwo because he's the more human of all Legendary Pokémon, if you ask me, and I can see him studying or exploring it the longer he witnesses it among the humans. But I've since then tried to branch out to the other Legendary Pokémon, just thus far, I've found more success with Darkrai and Cresselia than the others at this point. (If I had pushed myself to have participated in that Hoenn challenge a couple of years ago, I could've gotten a Latios/Latias one down, but oh well. Maybe I'll get back to that eventually if I can recall the details.)

That said, though, I do enjoy giving the Legendary Pokémon personalities—sarcasm seems to be the common trait among them, or at least the more gruffer ones. I haven't really gone out of my way to go more for the game like I do with the anime, so I typically try to use the foundations given in the films to build their character around. Typically. Back when I first started writing “Forsaken”, I actually had not watched any of the movies past the eighth movie, and I also didn't have any of the Gen IV games, so the Sinnoh Legendaries were the ones I “felt” I had more “freedom” with in terms of coming up with their personalities. I still used Bulbapedia and Serebii to read up on them, but I mostly did my own thing. Not that I hadn't with the others as well (Deoxys and Entei being the more obvious ones that come to mind), but I was at least familiar with them and could see them better in my mind before I decided, “Hurr hurr, wouldn't it be hilarious if Deoxys was a jerkass who thought he was good with the ladies but never could get along with them? And ooh, what if Lugia was like buds with him or something, so his personality kind of rubbed off on him?” (I was 17-going-on-18...)

So uh... yeah. That's pretty much my thought process when it comes to writing them in fics ^_^;. I'm not one for huge adventure and action, so I never really did much in showing off their awesome power. I'd like to and I'm trying as we speak, I just haven't been able to flex those kinds of muscles yet due to not having any other epic idea in mind. I also fear I'd blow it out of proportion than what would be “acceptable” in Pokémon canon, but for all I know, my imagination goes beyond what I can put into words or (hopefully not?) vice-versa.

 

[Chibi Pika]

I personally prefer plural they/their/them for my truly agender Legendaries, since it's the most person-like to me and again I like writing them as people; that wouldn't solve you problem on their conversations though. Maybe try individualized variations of the "xe" and such pronouns if you want to depict them as more distinct from "mundane" entities?

That's a fair point, and I can definitely see why that works better for your stories. I think the main reason I settled on "it" was because of the human narrator, and since humans typically refer to genderless nonhuman creatures as "it." Also the realization that the anime uses it all the time and I never even noticed because it was actually more natural than I expected. But I think further making them feel inhuman works better for the plot of my fic anyway. I certainly have room to be creative with how they refer to each other though.


Since a couple people have shared how they write the legends as characters, I might as well share mine.

I really, really love putting them into situations where they're vulnerable and need help from humans, because it just results in all sorts of hilarious flips on the usual power dynamics of the relationship. I like making them get into stupid arguments with humans over meaningless things. And it's fun to watch them still try to act dignified after all that they're put through together.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

 

[Umbramatic]

I really, really love putting them into situations where they're vulnerable and need help from humans, because it just results in all sorts of hilarious flips on the usual power dynamics of the relationship. I like making them get into stupid arguments with humans over meaningless things. And it's fun to watch them still try to act dignified after all that they're put through together.

~Chibi~;249;;448;

Can confirm this kind of thing is oodles of fun.

 

[Samayouru]

*cracks knuckles* Legendary Pokemon.

Can confirm this to be my reaction too. Just hearing the word "legendary" in Pokemon fanfics generally gets me ready to say something about.

My view on legendary Pokemon varies from story to story. It really depends on the setting, characters, themes and plot I'm going for, and usually I pick legendaries according to those factors. As it's been said by others in this topic - making them more like people with individual characteristics and flaws makes them more believable as well as relatable.

Concerning gender, Umbramatic said it best: some legendaries I associate with a gender, some not, depending on the story or canon I'm working with. Heck, I'll even give some legendaries backstories that shows how they became legendary Pokemon (aside from Zekrom and Reshiram) in order to give them more character beyond personalities and motives.

 

[Crystal]

I shall also contribute my two cents in this topic, because it sounds interesting. I will have million words to say, but I'll try to keep it as compacted as possible.

Regarding on Legendary Pokemon, firstly I need to clarify, I basically separate the mystical ones (event legendaries, and IMO including the in-game gendered ones) from the legendaries, as they are not really the same kind, I treat them differently.

My approach is almost equivalent to many people above me had already discussed, the deities that represents the natural forces, with some hierarchy according to their tiers and degree of immortality according to their background, especial those primordial legendaries. As being a kind of special existence within the universe of my stories, I always portray them to be some aloof celestial existences where they understand very much the powerfulness of their own power, hence they keep themselves away from human beings and also from the ordinary mortal pokemons. They don't approach human nor ordinary pokemons by their own, they try to avoid any earthly vulgar business of the mortals. The only time they reveal themselves to the public is when there is major serious catastrophe happening, where absolutely none of the ordinary mortals can resolve the problem. Generally speaking humans revere and respect these deities religiously, and will hesitate to battle them because of the concern of not wanting to hurting them. Not everyone knew about their existences, and also not everyone knew about their physical appearance, as many were merely told only by the name through past written records and passed down ancient legends.

For the category of legendaries called Mystical Pokemons, I took a different approach, because I don't think they are any "deities" at all. They were simply the rarest of the rarest species, only a limited amount can be spotted by the luckiest ones on the special occasions. Yet, they were a bit different from the nearly-extinct ordinary pokemons, as they generally consist of special powers not found in ordinary pokemons.

Also one specific thing about Mewtwo, Deoxys, and Genesect. These three pokemons I specifically categorized in a unique legendary category which I personally called “Urban Legendaries”, because of their backgrounds involves the modern manmade technologies, they were all not born in a natural manner but rather specifically created from the result of human activities. They are unique and as powerful as the primordial legendaries, but they are mortal, and also not avoiding human as much as most of the legendaries.

Yeah, the legendaries in my fic were mostly like that. However, although their existences felt so religiously remote, that has nothing to do with their characteristics and personalities. As being a character within a story, I will characterize them according to their background and the role of my story. But of course, subjected to the limitation that they have the characteristics of reserve themselves from the public. Also, all the legendaries bar the in-my-own-category mystical ones were all biologically genderless, their in-story “gender” were more based on their mental thinking patterns.

 

[U.N. Owen]

I go for the animal abomination route. The form you see is just a form they take in order to not drive humans and lesser pokemon utterly insane.

 

[Omegagoldfish]

I honestly don't use them, having them be worshiped, but never actually appearing. This keeps them vague enough, so I can get away with not having to describe them.

However, I do make sure to give the organizations that do worship them themes or personalities, generally based off of the legendary itself.

 

[The Teller]

When I was planning all of my plotpoints in Happenings Between Goals, I went under the assumption that legendaries weren't real in that world. I mean, a Pokemon that MADE time and another MADE space AND they're still out there, alive? Three pixies the size of beach balls that created human emotion, will, and knowledge? Yeah, right. All the stuff we learn about legendaries paints them to be deities of some level. And I figured that if possibly HUNDREDS of deities were roaming the earth, humans would not be the dominant race, much less sending their children off into the wild to become Pokemon Masters, so the story wouldn't happen in the first place. So no, legendaries don't exist; just their fairy tales that are told to each new generation.

Of course, towards the end of the story, the question of whether legendaries exist at all would've been put under scrutiny, and it would've been up to the reader to determine whether there was a divine intervention or not. But like I said, it's just for my one story.

 

[Venia Silente]

*cracks pinkie toes*

*yes that's how much I crack for things*

Legendary Pokémon, eh?

Yeah, everyone has their own take on this subject, so sure why not.

It is a good thing, in a certain sense, that the canons of Pokémon are pretty iffy on what defines a "Legendary". I mean, Arcanine is called a Legendary Pokémon. And then we have cases like Mewtwo, literally just created by about the same time as Gen1 events... and it's Legendary... yet Castform, created at about the same time, via similar avenues (SCIENCE!) is not.

For the Suocéverse, my particular interpretation of the Pokémon universe, I treat "Legendary" as an umbrella term, basically the class of Pokémon who go "outside the norm of marvelous things Pokémon can do". If you have creatures that are capable of things such as elemental manipulation, then that defines a level of "normality" for your world, and from there comes the mystical, the supernatural, or the right out godly. Creatures with in general unique powers or an unique existence, whatever the reason.

As such, Legendaries are grouped by two key factors: their "domain" category, and their relative worship.

I'll address the concept of domain first and foremost, indicating it as where do these creatures fall in the line that goes from the worldly to the godly. In hat sense, I can see it is not too different than what people are doing here already (*nods to Crystal and Umbramatic in particular*).

There would be three domain tiers:

* "Actual divine creatures", whose physical existence could be treated as the realization of an intrinsic property of the universe. Here mostly fall Arceus and then the Sextet - the Creation and Lake Trios, who are stated in canon to have been created by the Original One. Awesome, isn't? If there is such things as "gods", however one would have to interpret the concept in a Pokéworld, then these are the Pokémon closer to it.

* "Supernatural creatures", with unique wonderful powers but otherwise still under the rules and design of the living. Here we find Pokémon such as Xerneas or Lugia, who have intrinsic supernatural abilities. Due to a very particular and spoilery facet of my setting, Latii would also fall in here.

* "Mundane 'SuperPokémon'", who are have earned its place into the class mostly by virtue of their longevity, power or participation in the setting's myth, but are otherwise as pretty cut and dry as your common Rattata from a biological or physiological perspective. Here we'd find for example the Regis, the Weather Trio who are very very powerful but still mundane, or the Muskedeers who are just a notch above "Sawsbuck but better" plus the HP / Stamina bonus. Mewtwo and Genesect would be found here, if only because of a technicality.

Regarding level of worship, there's the ones perceived as benevolent, such as Ho-Oh and Lugia, the ones perceived as malevolent, such as the Weather Trio, the ones perceived as iffy or uncaring, such as the Tao Duo, and the ones perceived (or known to be) as simply forces of nature, beyond moral judgment: Arceus, the Regis (which are in this setting biological automatons) and probably Jirachi. Of course, these perceptions change across cultures, but that's something for Worldbuilding June.

As for how to write about them being things and how to refer to them in-universe, it really depends on what do people (and Pokémon) think of their nature. One thing I do care about is that, since Pokémon are already nonhuman creatures and should be treated and written about as such, it should be even clearer for Legendaries that they are nonhuman. So I give those creatures morals, likings and dislikings, fears and hopes, but when I do they certainly do not follow a humanlike compass. The most obvious respect where this would be visible would be how lifespan changes one's perspective about things: a creature that will live what amounts to forever likely has a very high threshold for the betrayal by a lesser, more mundane being that will luckily live a couple of seasons, but on the other hand will have a harsher take on betrayal by his own kin, since they'd be capable of a kind of harm that, by their very nature, would be tremendously lasting.

The more mundane Legendaries who are biologically creatures like any other, would certainly have a perception of gender (and or sex) as well as their number (if they are unique, or a collective). They just don't delve much into such distinctions, nor they like the people who come poking their noses asking about such subjects. In the land where Eltenios and Inka come from, calling one of the Muskedeer Trio, the rulers of the land, an "it" in their presence is pretty much grounds for being "courteously led outside" from some preserves. As for the more supernatural ones, it is likely that concepts such as gender and number are not something they care about, and the closer ones to high-concepts or even godhood would likely and openly laugh at humans who attempt to classify and name them under "such primitive schemata", to then stop and ponder how we are so limited that we can not even look "into the eleventh dimension" - yet that fact is what perhaps what makes us comical or endearing to them. In fact I could see a conversation between a human and Celebi or a member of the Lake Trio going on pretty much exactly like that.


All in all, as one can see from this thread alone, there's a wide offer of approaches on Legendaries for everyone.

 

[Firebrand]

Way back five years ago when I was writing Hero's Path, I pretty much divided legends up into two groups: sentient and reasonably intelligent beings that wielded immense power and generally tried to stay above mortal affairs for fear of that power being abused, or savage and primal forces of nature. Which legendaries fell into which category mostly depended on the sake of the narrative. The weather trio, the regis, the Kanto birds, and the kamis were in the savage camp, Victini, Darkrai, Mewtwo, Reshiram and Zekrom, the emotion trio, and Arceus in the sentient category. Latios and Latias kind of straddled the line, except that they weren't exactly Latios and Latias, but the anthropomorphic physical representations of the north and south wind. Yeah, in hindsight Hero's Path was kind of a trip, and I may have taken the whole creative sandbox thing a little too far sometimes.

But as for how I'm dealing with legendaries now... *gestures at chapter 2 of the Halvarsaga*

But seriously, how people conceive of legendary pokemon is a huge plot point of the Halvarsaga, mostly because it's Vikings and Christian monks dressed up with pokemon. The main character is a Kalosian monk of the Arcean faith , meaning he sees Arceus is the single monotheistic god, and He is held up to be omnipotent in the setting, although he never actually appears. Think the Medieval Christian conception of god, but instead of cross iconography people use four-pronged rings. Wulfric, the monk, winds up discoursing about how Arceans see other legendary pokemon with the nephew of the northman who captured him. The Johto birds and the Weather trio are seen as folk gods, still revered as powerful protectors, but most people in those regions are Arceans, so it's kind of a moot point.

The northerners, on the other hand, hold legendary pokemon in general up as gods, so their pantheon is a bit more diverse. They really only have the legendaries native to Kalos and the surrounding locales, meaning Xerneas, Yvetal, Zygarde and the Kanto birds. Xerneas and Zygarde don't really show up in the story (and most people are pretty sure that Zygarde doesn't actually even exist) but the birds are all pretty involved in the plot. Moltres is seen by the northmen as a benevolent god, because it's coming and going from the northlands heralds the change of seasons, marking the start of the planting and harvest periods. Articuno is revered, respected and a little bit feared for its power over ice and frost, and it coming down from the mountains marks the beginning of winter. Zapdos passes through and generally wrecks sh*t with the thunderstorms that just happen to follow it everywhere, and it's currently preventing Moltres and Articuno from flying by while destroying harvests because its a Big Jerk.

Yvetal is really feared and seen as the chief deity, because wherever it goes, death follows, and the northmen see that as the ultimate form of power, and so sacrifice and pay homage to it, in the hope that maybe it will pass them by for now, or at least give them a chance at a glorious death. A lot of the story hinges on Wulfric having a crisis of faith because Arceus is a distant god that hasn't interacted with the mortal realm in centuries, and yet here he's seeing amazingly powerful pokemon up close, and seeing the power they command, and understanding why the northmen regard them with such respect and reverence.

But the reality of the situation is that the birds are all just apex predators who happen to be imbued with tremendous power. They aren't gods, they're just creatures that are so strong that no other pokemon or weaponry that any culture has access to can really do much against them. They're just powerful animals that happen to be able to destroy villages and towns without much effort. Arceus may or may not also just be a very powerful and (now?) unique animal that just happens to wield phenomenal psychic powers. This... probably won't be addressed in the story.

 

[Dragonfree]

I've actually never done the different types of legendaries thing. It makes sense, and is even kind of canon with the divide between what Pokémon are called "legendary" or "mythical" or whatever, but it just hasn't really spoken to me.

In the Quest for the Legends universe, legendaries have varying amounts of raw power, but they're all the same fundamental kind of creature (sapient, flawed individual Pokémon with great power who are broadly meant to watch over the world and keep it harmonious and in balance, but have their own biases, beliefs and conflicting agendas). There's a complicated cycle of total destruction going on, where in each cycle there is a Creator and a Preserver legendary who are "true immortals" (can't die at all, compared to other legendaries who don't age or get sick but can be killed), but that's baaasically a coincidence, and the species of the Creator and Preserver changes in each cycle, so there's no intrinsic connection between those particular legendaries and being the Creator or Preserver.

All genderless legendaries are simply sexless beings and don't have a gender as we'd understand it, but some generally go by particular pronouns, while others don't care; for the latter, different characters will use different pronouns depending on how they see that legendary. Thus, TQftL features a number of conversations discussing Mew, say, where some call it "him" and others "her", and some even go with "it". (Again, they don't actually have a gender, unless they have a gender in the games; generally, if they go by a particular pronoun, it's an arbitrary choice for consistency, though they'd usually choose it to align with how gendered creatures tend to perceive them, to make things easier. Legendaries' own pronoun use for each other is not about perceptions of gender, but rather about "same as me" vs. "other than me": Mewtwo calls Mew 'her' to differentiate her from himself as part of learning to see himself as his own individual rather than just her clone, for instance, while Entei has managed to reinvent sexism and calls smaller, less imposing legendaries 'her' to put them in a separate class from himself, while those he regards more as his equals are 'him'. Jerk.)

All QftL legendaries are also one-of-a-kind, which causes some problems because the QftL-verse is meant to be an interpretation of the anime-verse, but of course since I started it the anime has cheerfully featured multiples of several legendaries, so I'm forced to reject some parts of the anime canon to keep to the established rules of the ficverse.

Meanwhile, in the Morphicverse, legendaries are myths/cryptids and probably don't exist (except for that April Fools' sequel where there was randomly a Mew). Mewtwo, in particular, is the star of a conspiracy theory about the government secretly engineering superweapons, which few people take seriously.

 

[SparklingMistral]

I don't really use legendaries in my stories, but how I use them would depend on the legend itself.

I'll almost always treat them as something special and rare, something rarely seen in person. That's what they're meant to be, after all, at least to me. I'd look into the lore of the Pokemon and get an idea of how to incorporate it into the plot rather than try to treat it like something that's just there for the purpose of being there. I'd try to stay true to the legend's lore. If it was a legend that was known for causing destruction, then I'd go with that. If it was a legend that wanted to help people, then I'd go with that.

 

[DANdotW]

For me, as you say, it depends on the individual legendary. When I was planning ahead in my animé rewrite, there were a few times legendaries were involved in the story. Often, I included the idea that they could speak telepathically with humans (for example Mew, although not Mewtwo, Lugia, etc). More times I introduced them as one-off Pokémon that replicate themselves. When writing the Mewtwo saga, a controlled Mewtwo actually "killed" Mew (or rather, depleted all of its energy). My lore was that when a legendary is at the end of their life, they replicate themselves by creating a Pokémon egg with all of their memories and power, which immediately hatches into them (albeit weaker and younger, as in the case of Lugia). Mew even had to send Ash and co. to find the legendary birds to collect their energy to help (this was me trying to write the second movie in a little bit, but still).

Some legendaries were different, though. Deoxys, for example, was caught by Ash, as to me there's no proof he's a legendary. For all we know it's the Zubat of his planet. And so, since Ash caught both Mewtwo and Deoxys, they weren't as powerful, not being "true" legendaries. Mewtwo couldn't control his power without a Twisted Spoon (thanks, manga) and Deoxys was a normal strength Pokémon that couldn't change forms properly for a while.

However, when it comes to other stories I have different thoughts. Most legendaries are "gods" and are usually treated as such. But as you say with splitting them into tiers, it helps to world-build a little first. Why are they considered legendaries? What gives them that title? If, in the case of the Regi's, it's just because they're guardians of something, then are they really legendary, or just ultra rare?

 

[Crystal]

After reading other writer's into and on second thoughts to this topic, I would like to rephrase a little bit about my opinion and my approach.

Well firstly, just one question before I even start. What is Legendary Pokemon?
The answer to this question varies from person to person, and varies from story to story even it is by the same writer, and also varies from looking at different perspectives. Not only looking at them from author's point of view as like a special category of characters, but one also needs to look at them from a worldly wide point of view in terms of the universe of one's fic, or from the symbolic cultural viewpoint, from the side of human viewpoint, from common pokemons' viewpoint, from the Legendary Pokemon's own viewpoint, or even including just recently in the General Pokemon Discussion Forum, looking at Legendary Pokemon from meta gameplay viewpoint.

So, even it is within the universe of one's fic, different characters including different pokemons view them differently, and different part of the world with different cultures within one's fic view them differently, how they look at themselves is also a matter of concern. So despite of what I had discussed previously on how I personally looked at the Legendary Pokemons, at the end of the day the outcome within my fic may be different, because whether my view is transferred into my fic is the problems of application.

Therefore, I will try to re-tackle this issue from different viewpoint, case-by-case and story-by-story.

Currently I'm writing an unconventional journey fic as my second fanfic project. The Legendary Pokemon within the universe of this fic are as follow:

Spoiler: From my POV as the author

Basically same as what I had mentioned in my previous post. I treated the Legendary Pokemons (bar the Mystical ones and "Urban Legend" ones) as deities, the kind of characters that possess exceptional influence towards their surroundings. Their existence is symbolic and influential, in terms of gameplay they are like the "boss characters", in terms of story-writing they are highly potential plot device. Hence do not waste them for mundane earthly gag silly plot.

Mystical Pokemons are not deities, but they are rarest of the rarest that the ones had ever spotted them with their very own eyes are countable with fingers on one's hand, aka equivalent to UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal). Although for this kind, I am personally open to have more mundane plot if it is captured, but still, their rareness is kind of symbolic, hence also do not use it, or even make them don't appear at all if I don't meant to make them anything important.

Mewtwo, Deoxys, Genesect where I categorized them uniquely, is the kind of pokemon stand between Legendary and Mystical. They are highly influential to the plot due to their power and background itself, yet partially open to have a little more mundane plot because they were born from the result of human's earthly affairs. But still, I'm kind of reluctant to see the plot of Mewtwo becomes babysitter exchanging nappies of baby pokemons in a daycare centre (-_-)||| (Do not worry, it will never in any case) Therefore, I'll still say do not waste them for unimportant matters.

All in all, Legendary Pokemons to me is super important plot device. Hence USE WITH CARE!!!

Spoiler: From the worldly POV of the entire universe

The Legendary Pokemons within the universe of my fic are deities, meaning they have exceptional power much much MUCH more stronger than ordinary common pokemons, where they can alter or even destroy the world if wanting to do so. They are the nature shapers and overworld observers.

Although they possess extreme powerful strength, nonetheless most of them existed physically within the world. Despite they are technically immortal, many (but not all) of them live a life similar to any other mortal pokemons. I never thought of exactly what will happen to them when them die, in any case it just will not happen, so I rather not think of it for now.

Spoiler: From the cultural POV in terms of their influence of human civilization

The human beings within my fic reveres Legendary Pokemon as religious deities. Hence it is utterly disrespectful and blasphemous for the ones to capture and even disturb them. Such profane human that dare to hurt and utilize them are not just being sinful, but shall be blamed and criticized by everyone.

Not exactly meaning "worship" as in most monotheism treating the single God in capital as the almighty sacred being look up like an absolute emperor, but more like Japanese Shintoism which is a polytheistic religion, the deities are spiritual presences of the nature, where people honours and venerate them, but not worship them.
And with such religious belief, general human beings within the universe of my fic respect the natures inhabited by pokemons. Never harm the nature for the mere sake of one's own desire.

Yeah, so the Legendary Pokemon within my fic were portrayed more like a religious figure than being a relatable earthly character. In any case, actual appearance within my fic story are highly limited. However, in the case they actually appeared, probably reader will be surprised that they are in fact more approachable than expected.

Spoiler: From the common mortal pokemons POV

Every ordinary pokemon acknowledged their "powerfulness" simply by the kind of special aura emitted from them, where pokemons kind of instinctively know that is not the kind of figure to be prey on nor to be mess around even it is just playing. Hence when Legendary Pokemon appeared, normally most pokemons will just emotionally bewildered because of the instinctive awe.

Though, not for the case for trainer's handheld, especially for the well-trained ones with tons of battle experience, as such pokemons already get used to facing powerful pokemons. So don't expect the kind of DEM situation of trainer's pokemon suddenly refuse to battle just because Legendary Pokemon appeared.

Spoiler: From the Legendary Pokemon's own POV (My favourite part!)

This part shall be my own favourite to talk about, because this is looking at them at 1st person rather than 3rd person POV. In another words, how do they look at themselves?

Just because they are being honoured and revered by both the general humans and ordinary pokemons, does that mean they shall then have personalities and characteristics of high-and-mighty to the point of overbearing and arrogant, possess excessive authority including killing whoever others when angered, do whatever they wanted like a spoiled child? Does that mean they are highly dignified to the point of being overly prideful, such that if someone look it down a little bit, they are then immediately feeling disrespected and irritated? Just because they possess excessive power that can even change the world, does that mean they must abuse it, such that causing natural disasters and catastrophe every single day?
^^^ Not to be rude, but I see that is the interpretation of many people, whether one imagined this consciously or unconsciously.

Because within the universe of my fic, despite that Legendary Pokemon possess extreme power which is on a complete different level of ordinary pokemons, nonetheless they still live normally and dwell physically in this world. Hence their thinking pattern is not very much different from ordinary pokemons, but just with a much more intelligent and more reserved mindset, as they acknowledged and clearly understand their extreme power will causes catastrophe hence tragedy to the surrounding if misused. That's why normally they hided themselves away from human beings and ordinary pokemons. They may not even aware that human beings look at them as a religious figure, hence they are under no condition to think of themselves as some VIP emphasizing the importance of their own existence. They may not ever had the thought of human beings are such lowly hazardous creatures that should be annihilated, nor that ever had the desire to conquer the world with their excessive power.

As being a character to be utilized for story-writing, I do give them different personalities and characteristics accordingly in order to make them a lively character. But one quality which is for sure that is common amongst all Legendary Pokemon, is that they all understand deep inside their heart the meaning of "Noblesse Oblige", in a non-ironical sense, and of course in the pokemon standard. So in a sense, one may say the Legendary Pokemon in my fic are all noble-minded. Well positionally speaking, they are surely feels like some kind of pokemon nobleman.