Which legendaries bolster the message of their games the most? It seems like some were made with care as to what they represent in the plot wheras others were just thrown in to a story about something unrelated.
>>58556662none do
>>58556662I feel like gen 1 and 2 legendaries are just that, but beginning with 3 and onward the legendaries influence the themes and plot much more. I'd say those of gen 3, 5, 9 did it best
>>58556662Kind of hard to quantify because most legendaries don't have any characterization relevant to their theming. Groudon and Kyogre are pretty much just obstacles instead of characters. Lugia and Ho-Oh in their games are pretty much out of touch with the world, even in HGSS they're just brough about because... you were special, or something? Dialga and Palkia are just mcguffins. Zekrom and Reshiram technically have some characterization but not truly tied into their theming; they, in my opinion, act like children that are getting swept up in the passions of the people around them just as much as the population is. Well, I guess that does tie into the story of believing in ideals or truths, but I don't know. X and Y basically just has Xerneas and Yveltal say "I don't wanna stay here, you seem like a good way out" and that's about it. Nebby has much more character but that character doesn't really tie into the themes of the games that much, sure there's some self-discovery and independence elements but they really felt shoe-horned in and frankly out of character. I honestly was annoyed you couldn't just reject nebby. Never played gen 8 or 9, considering the legendaries in those games are more directly tied to the stories I suspect one of those probably is the solution, but I can't say.I guess I'd vote Zekrom and Reshiram, at least I had to think about it a bit.
Not counting the Tajiri era because legendaries being the focus of the plot is hit or miss and here the appeal is general Pokemon and not muh story>Gen IIILand vs. Sea dynamic is fleshed out, but poorly handled because it really just ended up being Water Types and Everything Else. Bad theming to focus on Masuda's favorite type>Gen IVTime/Space are arbitrary concepts that have nothing to do with Sinnoh's actual lore, they're just representations of reality itself as a way to be an extension of Arceus' influence. They don't actually matter, that's why they didn't put much detail into the differences of the versions compared to Gen III. Giratina was an afterthought but ends up being the most influential of the boxart legendaries due to it being intentionally "out of place">Gen VReally good theming with the Truth/Ideals concept since both can apply to N's perspective. The concept of Yin and Yang is more accurately represented being grey morality more than black-and-white, but I think it mostly falters at the idea of truly achieving that balanced tone. Pokemon is too much of a baby series to achieve a neutral standpoint and wants you to be in the right, so while N became a sympathetic character whose beliefs aren't evil, they're inherently wrong because he's the antagonist and all good theming with Reshiram/Zekrom goes out the window. But Kyurem being the original Dragon is a great twist(Cont.)
>>58557005>Gen VILife/Death theme is only to make the legendaries "relevant" to AZ's weapon which grants eternal life to the dead and kills the living. It's obvious they were designed thematically to represent the XYZ axis because they're the first 3D games. That's very cute and I like that, but making it about life/death itself is completely arbitrary and hurts the value of the theming more than if they were just legendaries you encountered like Ho-Oh and Lugia (the former already covering eternal life due to being a phoenix). Zygarde also needed to wait 12 years to get a fuckin answer to its relationship with these two and in the end it's STILL irrelevant to their story since all we got was "he met Necrozma when fucking around in Hawaii" when these regions have NO relation to each other>Gen VIIVery arbitrary theming, has nothing to do with the story. Maybe you can argue since Ultra Beasts come from Space that means that it makes sense the heavenly bodies are represented as Pokemon but I think that's working backwards from 'we wanted a Sun/Moon Pokemon". Necrozma also was obviously working backwards as a prism that bends light itself which is how we get Duskmane/Dawnwings Necrozma leeching off of these prior legends which thematically I guess is interesting. Like how USUM leech off of SM to make a better game with worse themes>Gen VIIIBoring sword and board dogs. No effort put into them, they're just big stupid medieval British weapon animals. It doesn't really feel like a throwback to older gens having more modest legendaries since it reeks of desperately trying to come up with ANY Legendary for Galar, especially since the region only had 3 legendaries until DLC. Since they're interchangeable outside of meta BS, they don't really add much being dual legends. Could've just had one legendary Sword Dog. All you really needed. Eternatus is a great design but because it's the origin of Dynamax energy it sucks on principle(Cont.)
>>58557006>Gen IXPast/Future dragons. Sick of dragons. Being your bike is cool, it represents the game's themes well. I didn't really play these games since they looked ugly and bad but story-wise I hear good things so whatever. I do at least know thematically they were gunning for the idea of conceptual Past/Future within rumors and dreams rather than literal, which is infinitely more interesting than just "super ancient Pokemon" and "super futuristic Pokemon"Honestly I think despite XY fumbling the Life/Death theme significantly, thematically they might be my favorite legendary trio on a surface level. I wished they looked better, they're kind of eyesores. Visually my favorite boxart legends are Ho-Oh, Groudon, Dialga and Giratina. I really don't like how legendaries have looked after Gen IV, but I think V, VI and IX are probably the best in terms of representing their games. I'd give points to III and IV for setting the standard, but I hate III on principle and IV's real Boxart Legendary is Arceus
>>58557005>GORDON
>>58557005> Pokémon is too much of a baby series to achieve a neutral standpoint and wants you to be in the right.I don't think the main character being good and Team Plasma being bad really hurts black and white's story. The point of black and white is that dialectical thinking causes division. Team plasma doesn't represent a particular viewpoint but instead sanctimoniousness (they are based on the Templars) and ideological division. The main character, as a Pokémon trainer, represents unity between opposites and has every reason to be portrayed as morally good.
hard mode: describe in any fuckin way how giratina remotely represents platinum as a game, or its story/atmosphere
>>58557006Solgaleo and Lunala are not limited to the Sun and the Moon; they also encompass the light emanating from their celestial bodies, as well as day and night. As for Necrozma, it embodies the photon in its Ultra form; it represents light in its broadest sense.
>>58557005>Pokemon is too much of a baby series to achieve a neutral standpoint and wants you to be in the rightIt's also kind of impossible for N to be right given how the series works mechanically. I don't give Gen 5's story much credit because it presents the player with a question that the game itself isn't prepared to answer properly. Why bring up the ethics of Pokemon ownership and battling when the player has to engage with both of those things in order to play the game? It's not like there's an alternative. What if the player agrees with N, are they supposed to just stop playing the game? Why is this question even being raised now, when the player has been doing this for a decade and in-universe the practice is centuries old? The amount of narrative and mechanical complexity necessary to truly answer this is only just now within GF's reach. People praise this story for its maturity and complexity but for me it always seemed amateurish how it bites off so much more than it can chew.
>>58557006>>58557929They also represent the three ways light is emitted.>Solgaleo = radiation>Lunala = reflection>Necrozma = refraction
>>58557954The story isn't trying to ask the player whether they think it's ethical to use pokemon. Thoughout the story, it's determined that it's good for the pokemon to be united with people. I feel like gen5's biggest fault is that it didn't explain itself well enough, leading to misunderstandings like this.
