Unpopular opinions

Assumingly, the reason for them not being classified as legendaries is the fact that they are meant to be "regular pokemon, but just from other dimensions". But by that point, Deoxys, Lunala and Solgaleo should also be regular pokemon...
In the case of Deoxys, I thought most sources tend to share the origin that it's a mutation of a virus or some micro-organism of extra-terrestrial origin. If that remains the case then Deoxys would still match the "Unique in Gameplay, Extremely Rare if not-Unique in story" since there isn't necessarily a planet of Deoxys; rather there could be a planet full of the original Microbe that if exposed to similar radiation/energy would also turn into a Pokemon more-or-less identical to Deoxys, but will otherwise simply exist as it is. Compared to this the UB's seem to give off the sense that in their worlds a Pokemon can simply be born as a Nihilego, Buzzwole, etc. as soon as it hatches from an egg (or however they reproduce given their alien depiction).

Maybe this is just me but I've always felt like there's been a sort of hierarchy to Legendaries in depiction and weight of capturing one, akin to how in something like the Greek Pantheon you have larger and smaller scale gods among their number (this more about structure than literal deifying since that was a topic of discussion for a bit). A sort of common factor I felt among them is how much they feel "tied" to an idea vs having a level of control or governance over it. For one example, Heatran is usually described as causing volcanic eruptions if it rampages, but it feels more that it picks a Volcano to inhabit and then could agitate it, rather than a Volcano simply emerging wherever a Heatran chooses to reside. Similarly, the Bird Trio in Gen 1 (less sure about their Galarian Counterparts) are Titans in terms of their strength with their element, but they still feel more like they are drawn to and direct it than being major causes or sources. By comparison, something like Groudon/Kyogre warps the entire climate simply by being out and about unchecked, Dialga governs the actual flow of time (vs other Time Travel subjects like Celebi which move through it but can't stop or influence the flow of time directly on the world around them outside a butterfly effect).

The main thing I'm getting into with this is that I feel it's a bit too limiting to apply the "can or cannot catch and use Legendary Pokemon as a trainer without prophecy shenanigans or such" simply to Legendaries as a broad stroke, rather than it depending very much on the Legendary Pokemon in question regardless of who the trainer is. Part of this especially in the anime's case is that there have been times where "normal" Pokemon seem to be regarded in a similar manner to how we'd think of Legendary Pokemon (my immediate example being Lucario in Movie 8, in contrast to how other Gen 4 preview mons were fairly mundane like Mime Jr. or Bonsly). The Legendary label is getting looser and a bit more iffy in some in-game cases, while in the anime several Pokemon like Heatran or Darkrai simply seem to be regarded as "extremely rare" rather than having myths and legends written about them. It's not impossible or unfathomable to brefriend or capture them, but it's still something that stands out enough to garner significant attention and expectation out of a character who has one. BG Heatran dude is a joke specifically because he's so mundane as to not even be a presence, but he is still a BG character that doesn't impact the story so it's not putting much emphasis on that detail either.

To bring this back to the Tobias thing, I think I should clarify that my issue isn't strictly him having Legendary Pokemon given the above reasons (Latios and Darkrai as portrayed in the anime fit within reason to capture/train by that standard there). The issue is that, knowing the audience is inclined to recognize Legendary Pokemon as extremely powerful compared to your average trainer's roster, it feels like a shortcut to just say "this new guy's strong enough to curbstomp Ash" to the viewer rather than have him contrast Ash's training style like his rivals tend to, or at least display inventive battling techniques like Conway. Not to say you can't do this with Legendaries either, but Tobias feels a far cry from how Legendary Pokemon being owned by main characters is USUALLY something used to delve a bit more into the history or character development of the subject mon, whereas in his case there's not a whole lot we'd lose besides (failed) fan-service if he had rolled over Ash's team with a Flygon or a Gallade or another "regular" Pokemon ace. It's just another to add to the poorly-thought-out ideas behind the character concept in Sinnoh in general.
 
This topic of Legendaries happens to coincide perfectly with my unpopular opinion - I really dislike the depiction of Legendaries as godly, one-of-a-kind beings. While I think Gen 4 is when this idea became solidified with the gods of time, space, and uh... actual capital-G God in the form of Arceus, it largely has its origins in Gen 3 with Groudon and Kyogre.

Generation 1's legendaries were simple, yet effective. The legendary birds were simply very rare beings, associated strongly with their respective elements, but not necessarily being deities of those elements. They were elusive creatures that you'd be lucky to find once in a lifetime - and it so happens that the player character does. Mewtwo, on the other hand, is closer to a god than any other Pokemon at this point - but this is deliberate, as it is a man-made mistake that has its power by accident. Mewtwo is a testament to what happens when man tries to play God, and that's what makes it such an iconic Pokemon. The imagery of Mewtwo standing in the lab it destroyed in the first movie, or tracking it down to Cerulean Cave in the games, made it seem larger than life in a way that no other Pokemon could attest to. Similarly, Mew, as the very first mythical Pokemon, was so rare that you simply could not encounter it in-game by any means other than an event.

We can see that Gen 1 introduced the 3 types of legendaries, which the series very rarely strays from. You have lesser Legendaries, represented by the birds, greater Legendaries, of which Mewtwo was the only one, and Mythicals, which was Mew. This in itself is a good balance; not all Legendaries will ascribe to the same level of power, so it serves to distinguish them from each other. Gold and Silver continued this balance, though notably, it was the first pair of games to use Legendaries for promotion's sake. Otherwise, they were largely similar to Gen 1 in how it treated legendaries, though notably, Ho-Oh and Lugia were natural beings. Ho-Oh in particular is woven into Johto's lore very well, and truly lives up to the name legendary - it created three new legendary Pokemon from nothing, and can only be found when you come to possess one of its wings. If you ask me, Ho-Oh and Lugia are the best portrayal of greater Legendaries we've seen in the series; they are Pokemon of great power and mystery in equal measure. The anime even depicts a baby Lugia, showing that while Lugia is a rare creature, it is not a wholly unique one.

From Generation 3 onwards, legendary design quickly escalated in terms of scope; perhaps out of a perceived sense of needing to make the next generation bigger and better than before, or maybe just because cool Pokemon do a better job of selling merchandise to 12-year-old boys who've outgrown the cutesy Pikachu. Groudon and Kyogre make the land and sea their domain, Dialga and Palkia control the fabric of reality, Reshiram and Zekrom are the embodiment of truth and ideals, Xerneas and Yveltal govern life and death, so on and so forth. I don't believe these concepts are bad in-and-of themselves, but being unique deities that lord over these powers is. It's been a running joke for years now that a ten year old can put God in a tiny ball, but let's just take a moment to think about how absurd that really is. The relative simplicity of Legendary Pokemon that existed before is now quite gone; no longer are they simply rare creatures, the logical extension of a game where the focus is on capturing and training these rare creatures, but actual deities that lord over all other Pokemon. It also presents some very odd lore implications; having legendaries recur in so many games (understandable, for the sake of Pokedex completion) means that these one-of-a-kind creatures are appearing in many different places at once. ORAS and USUM get around this by having these Pokemon come from other worlds entirely, but the Crown Tundra brings these issues right back by simply having them live in the Great Basement of Galar. These inconsistencies disappear if they are simply very rare Pokemon that only the most dedicated, talented, and perhaps lucky trainers will ever find.

I can't believe I'm quoting Ghetsis with sincerity here, but I think he says it best: "A Pokémon, even if it's revered as a deity, is still just a Pokémon." In my opinion, having legendaries exceed the capacity of a 'normal' creature so much does a huge disservice to how Pokemon should be designed. Ironically, expanding on lore using godly Pokemon makes the world feel smaller, rather than bigger. If they are truly gods, how are they defeated with (relative) ease in a battle? You can always say that they're holding back for the sake of competition, or they're restrained by their Poke Balls, but at this point we're using headcanons to write around inconsistencies. I see nothing wrong with legendaries being closely associated with certain attributes, nor being beings of great power, but having so many legendaries and having them be so great in scale makes the Legendary roster feel bloated. Indeed, this is a problem that game designers now have to deal with; how can you have every legendary be catchable in every generation without it becoming boring? The mystique of Legendaries is gone in favor of making cool Pokemon without substance.

tl;dr, since I wrote way too many words on this: Legendaries being gods rather than 'merely' strong and rare Pokemon undermines both lore surrounding Legendaries and game design.
 
Groudon and Kyogre make the land and sea their domain, Dialga and Palkia control the fabric of reality, Reshiram and Zekrom are the embodiment of truth and ideals, Xerneas and Yveltal govern life and death, so on and so forth. I don't believe these concepts are bad in-and-of themselves, but being unique deities that lord over these powers is.
Reshiram and Zekrom honestly don't seem all that different from Zacian and Zamazenta, with the only major difference being that Zacian and Zamazenta get along. Actually, they're arguably lesser than Zacian and Zamazenta. Zacian and Zamazenta may or may not have fought Eternatus on their own during the first Darkest Day, while Reshiram and Zekrom explicitly served two heroes back in the day and put themselves in a dormant state so they could once again serve heroes in the future.

They're not the embodiments of anything. They're just politically aligned.
 
but the Crown Tundra brings these issues right back by simply having them live in the Great Basement of Galar.

A small niptick on this, my understanding is that there are basically ultrarifts in the caverns and are causing these legendaries to pop out.
Some guy in the village says that "the weird phenomena started with this little guy appeared" and point at the gift Cosmog, implying that they are indeed Ultra Wormholes.

So basically gen 8 did exactly same as 7 and 6 as justifying their presence by being from other dimensions. Which at this point is really the only real justification that doesn't break the lore, and works okay since ORAS and USUM pretty much canonized the multiverse (and in USUM specifically you are for example shown that there are multiple Lunala / Solgaleo as the Ultra Patrol has one of each of their own unrelated to yours).
 
A small niptick on this, my understanding is that there are basically ultrarifts in the caverns and are causing these legendaries to pop out.
Some guy in the village says that "the weird phenomena started with this little guy appeared" and point at the gift Cosmog, implying that they are indeed Ultra Wormholes.

So basically gen 8 did exactly same as 7 and 6 as justifying their presence by being from other dimensions. Which at this point is really the only real justification that doesn't break the lore, and works okay since ORAS and USUM pretty much canonized the multiverse (and in USUM specifically you are for example shown that there are multiple Lunala / Solgaleo as the Ultra Patrol has one of each of their own unrelated to yours).

Thanks for clarifying on this, my memory on Dynamax Adventures was admittedly hazy since I didn't enjoy Crown Tundra that much. Utilizing the multiverse is an acceptable justification to bring back legendaries multiple times, but to me it just raises the question of why bother with having to write around such a thing at all?

Also I appreciate you bringing Solgaleo and Lunala up, since those are the few cover legendaries I actually really like! Not only does our Nebby have a story arc of their own, but Lunala and Solgaleo are legendary in the best sense. They're rare because of their origins from other universes, same as the other Ultra Beasts, but ancient people thought of them as deities of the sun and moon to try to justify their rarity, appearance and power. They are not the patron deities of any element; they are simply Legendary, in the most fundamental sense of the word. They're much like Ho-Oh and Lugia in that sense.
 
I can't believe I'm quoting Ghetsis with sincerity here, but I think he says it best: "A Pokémon, even if it's revered as a deity, is still just a Pokémon." In my opinion, having legendaries exceed the capacity of a 'normal' creature so much does a huge disservice to how Pokemon should be designed. Ironically, expanding on lore using godly Pokemon makes the world feel smaller, rather than bigger. If they are truly gods, how are they defeated with (relative) ease in a battle? You can always say that they're holding back for the sake of competition, or they're restrained by their Poke Balls, but at this point we're using headcanons to write around inconsistencies. I see nothing wrong with legendaries being closely associated with certain attributes, nor being beings of great power, but having so many legendaries and having them be so great in scale makes the Legendary roster feel bloated. Indeed, this is a problem that game designers now have to deal with; how can you have every legendary be catchable in every generation without it becoming boring? The mystique of Legendaries is gone in favor of making cool Pokemon without substance.

tl;dr, since I wrote way too many words on this: Legendaries being gods rather than 'merely' strong and rare Pokemon undermines both lore surrounding Legendaries and game design.
It's probably headcanoning for the moment in any other case, but I think people mentioned that PLA soft-confirms that the Arceus we capture in gameplay is one part/avatar of the creator the myths allude to, like one of its (proverbial) 1000 Arms that it deigns to lend to you. This kind of approach would work a lot better in explaining the existence of multiple "Big" legendaries and their ability to be captured, with them being extensions of a higher power or personifications of the concepts they seem to govern.

The multiple encounters across generations has the Multiverse/Ultra Wormholes to justify the appearances, under the assumption that the Legendary captures are canon and must be accounted for, which isn't strictly the case bar a few cases such as Gen 5 mascots, ORAS Rayquaza, and Eternatus. A lot of depictions do present the concept of capturing a Legendary Pokemon, even if you can challenge it, to be a massive-if-not-absurd undertaking for one reason or another.

I don't know if this opinion will be more or less popular, but I DO actually like the idea of having "Olympus" level legendary Pokemon if they are handled as described for Arceus, where the power you capture or can harness in game does not actually encompass the extent of what the Pokemon can truly do. It reminds me of a more benevolent/kid-friendly version of what HP Lovecraft works thrived on, intrigue/horror/awe at the prospect of higher powers that humanity could witness or interact with in some degree, but was far beyond their ability to truly grasp or comprehend, much less register to as significant (which in some ways, concepts like the vastness of space-time or the existential quandaries of Life and Death do embody to people before any kind of Avatar or Personification). Maybe they don't ALL need to be like this (Regis or Birds have their place as local myths or such too), but I think there's a place for the often maligned idea of God-Mons
 
This kind of approach would work a lot better in explaining the existence of multiple "Big" legendaries and their ability to be captured, with them being extensions of a higher power or personifications of the concepts they seem to govern.
Eh, it works for Arceus and its trios (Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf) and other more spiritual legendaries like the genies and tapus, but I don't think it works for most legendaries. As apocalyptic as Groudon and Kyogre's powers are, at the end of the day they're just a dinosaur and a whale that happen to be really strong.
 
Eh, it works for Arceus and its trios (Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf) and other more spiritual legendaries like the genies and tapus, but I don't think it works for most legendaries. As apocalyptic as Groudon and Kyogre's powers are, at the end of the day they're just a dinosaur and a whale that happen to be really strong.
I can't think of Kyogre without thinking of this goofy comic by Smogon member Bummer

EE6ex66_d.webp


From a design standpoint it's fun to make creatures/beings that have absurd powers, but it's also a lot more limiting in the long run.
 
why bother with having to write around such a thing at all?
Unfortunately the short answer is "cause VGC".
As of now, they intend to keep allowing to have all Pokemon (at least, the ones present in a generation) catchable or breedable within that generation in some way, in order to never require someone to own previous games to obtain them.
Which basically means that all legendaries available in a given game need to be also catchable in that game.

And at this point "cause ultrarifts" is a pretty easy to recycle and execute reasoning.
 
Unfortunately the short answer is "cause VGC".
As of now, they intend to keep allowing to have all Pokemon (at least, the ones present in a generation) catchable or breedable within that generation in some way, in order to never require someone to own previous games to obtain them.
Which basically means that all legendaries available in a given game need to be also catchable in that game.

And at this point "cause ultrarifts" is a pretty easy to recycle and execute reasoning.
They could just... uh... not include all the legendaries in every single game anymore? It would be nice if we could go back to each game just having a handful of past legendaries in thematically relevant locations (e.g. if PokeSpain has a Gibraltar equivalent they could chuck some Galar legends in there)
 
They could just... uh... not include all the legendaries in every single game anymore? It would be nice if we could go back to each game just having a handful of past legendaries in thematically relevant locations (e.g. if PokeSpain has a Gibraltar equivalent they could chuck some Galar legends in there)
We have PokeBritain, PokeFrance, and PokeEnglish Channel, but Galar has the Kalos Legendaries in the raid den. I honestly prefer having other region's legendaries (sans the Regis in Sinnoh) as an afterthought since it lets the main region's legendaries get more focus. RIP to any potential Yggdrasil themed minor legendaries in Kalos, we just had to have the Kanto birds.
 
They could just... uh... not include all the legendaries in every single game anymore? It would be nice if we could go back to each game just having a handful of past legendaries in thematically relevant locations (e.g. if PokeSpain has a Gibraltar equivalent they could chuck some Galar legends in there)
Even if they do not include all of them, it's pretty likely they will still include a sizeable chunk of it.

Even just as far as Galar goes, there is 664 pokemon available out of the total of 905, so somewhere around 65% of the entire dex, meaning that even if they were not to include "all" of them, they would still likely include at least 2/3rd of the legendaries available.
Still far too many to come up with a mini ingame story or location for ALL of them.
 
We have PokeBritain, PokeFrance, and PokeEnglish Channel, but Galar has the Kalos Legendaries in the raid den.
Maybe they could've gotten a more substantial quest in either base game or DLC if they didn't feel the need to cram every legendary ever made in one thing!

Even just as far as Galar goes, there is 664 pokemon available out of the total of 905, so somewhere around 65% of the entire dex, meaning that even if they were not to include "all" of them, they would still likely include at least 2/3rd of the legendaries available.
Just don't include so many legendaries lol easy
 
The Ultra Beasts are one of my personal favorite sets of legendaries in Pokemon. A lot people critique the UB’s design wise because their ”weird and non pokemon like” I feel like people who make this criticism misses the entire point of the UB’s. Their supposed to look weird and non-pokemon like because their creature’s from parallel universes vastly different from the main Pokeverse and their supposed be foreign and alien like. Cricitizing the UB’s for being weird is like critizing Pikachu for being yellow it’s just an inherit part of their design. Now weirdness is never an excuse for bad designs weird designs if done badly can be extremely off putting. Fortunately for the UB’s most of their designs are really good. Their fierce, intimidating and look like something foreign and out of this world. To end this off I’m going to give my opinion on every UB and I feel like doing this can help people see the positive aspects of each UB.
Kartana- Fucking awesome, origami is a staple in Japanese culture and I’m very surprised we didn’t get a pokemon based on it sooner however Kartana was more than worth the wait. It’s very sleek and intimidating and every attack it does feels graceful and powerful.
Naganadel- I feel like this is the only Ultra Beast with mostly positive reception from the fandom and it’s for good reason, It’s design looks really cool I loves its purple color scheme and its syringe like stinger is a stroke of design genius.
Poipole- It’s very cute.
Buzzwole- One of the most expressive UB’s despite it not really having a face it’s flexing really show of this mon’s personality. I personally feel like it strikes a good balance of being humanoid and animal a feat with which many pokemon struggle with.
Pheramosa- Combines the feeling of grace and power of Kart and the balance between human and animal of Buzzwole.
Guzzlord- Very solid design but what really elevates this pokemon is it’s Lovecraftian lore. This Pokémon will never stop eating and can destroy entire worlds by eating all of its resources. To add on to this mon’s creep factor the theme for the wormhole you find it in USUM is the Welcome to Alola theme played in reverse.
Blacephalon- Now on to 4 UB’s I have mixed feelings on Blacephalon has a cool concept being a creepy clown but it not having a face severely hinders any potential scare factor this mon may have had. I still don’t mind its design overall the highlight being the detachable head but I feel like it has serious missed potential,
Xurkitree- Being a pokemon based on Christmas tree lights is pretty rad however I feel like this design should have had multicolored lights on it’s wire to more clearly express it’s concept.
Celesteela- Cool design really no complaints here, nothing absolutely mind blowing here but its a solid and well rounded design
Stakataka- I feel like this design has some serious flaws One of which being it’s legs. For some reason I just don’t like Stakatakas legs their very much. Their small and curly and they look there barely holding poor Stakataka up. It’s eyes are also not very appealing. Overall this is probably the only UB I have a negative opinion on.
Overall I feel like the UB‘s get a lot of undeserved hate for being weird when that weirdness is the very reason for producing some of the most creative and out there Pokémon in the entire franchise.
 
Maybe they could've gotten a more substantial quest in either base game or DLC if they didn't feel the need to cram every legendary ever made in one thing!
I don't get this logic. The dump of legendaries is clearly intended to copy-paste as much work as possible between each of them, so all of the legendaries isn't much more work than just one legendary. Imagine if the Max Lair was home to only a single legendary. A whole separate quest would be substantially more work than that.
 
Just don't include so many legendaries lol easy
Not happening, even without considering VGC, the "legendary catching antics" are one of the key postgame elements that keep people playing the game after it's over, and the game already had to remove postgame activities (cough cough facilities) cause people just weren't engaging in them.

In fact, SwSh's legendary catching antics were possibly the best so far since (while imperfect and unfortunately rng based, hopefully they don't repeat that), they were relatively fun, actually offered a new type of postgame facility that resembled a lot the old rental facilities of the past, and even allowed you to do it with friends if you wanted but without forcing you to.

I know we all wish that the answer is "Just Make Better Content 4Head", but I'm quite sure by now we know that gaming industry doesn't work like that, and if you have to dedicate development time to postgame activities and you're already short on time (and GF always is due to the massively strict release schedule), opting for very easy to replicate ones like the legendary catching thing is great.
 
They could just... uh... not include all the legendaries in every single game anymore? It would be nice if we could go back to each game just having a handful of past legendaries in thematically relevant locations (e.g. if PokeSpain has a Gibraltar equivalent they could chuck some Galar legends in there)
Funny thing, not much after you wrote this, Wolfey published a video with a similar proposal (for different reasons)

To be fair, I didn't tecnically think of it, and I also have no expectation or hope whatsoever that GF would do it either, but it would honestly be actually cool is now that "permanent Dexit" was confirmed, GameFreaks would actually make their very first statement about it not a lie, and actually purposely leave out the most centralizing Pokemon from the next games.

It's not that it would really "change" much, different pokes would just take their place, but it would at least be interesting to see how a generation without, say, Lando-T and Incineroar would look like.
 
I would like to second this so strongly
People act like Bug needs to be buffed offensively, but that implies Pokémon don't use Bug moves by choice all the time

The best example is the case of U-turn vs Volt Switch - even though Electric is superficially a better attacking type and Volt Switch comes pretty close to being available to every single Electric-type (it's not fully universal, but there were very few exceptions before the last two Generations), U-turn is such a vastly superior move that it's even preferred by many of the Electric-types that have both, even though Bug ought to be a "bad" type and Electric is what they have STAB on
In a particularly extreme example, Tapu Koko's sample set in current-Gen OU recommends U-turn over Volt Switch despite having Electric STAB, the boost from Electric Surge, maximum Special Attack EVs and a Timid nature, factors that mean that exact set using Volt Switch instead would do just over 2.35 times as much raw damage on a neutral target
This is not an accident - U-turn is still a better move than Volt Switch
When a Pokémon uses Volt Switch, it commits to doing damage and switching out if the opponent doesn't send in a Ground-type but staying in and doing nothing if the opponent sends in a Ground-type (one of the type's expected losing matchups), which is the exact opposite of what most Pokémon want out of a pivoting move
Conversely, U-turn can't be blocked by anything, and it takes a lot for a Pokémon to give that up if it has the option at all

That's the thing: U-turn isn't used primarily for damage or good matchups - it borders on being one of the "safest" moves in the entire game, and it's appreciated and readily utilized by nearly everything that has it, Bug-type or not (and physically offensive or not!)
This matters so much more than people seem to realize - being weak to U-turn is rare, but it also borders on crippling, because Pokémon are afraid to invite U-turn or to be threatened and forced out by the possibility of U-turn
Conversely, being resistant to U-turn may be common, but it is also coveted
People often complain in particular about Fairy being given a resistance to Bug (even in this same thread, people have suggested it was some kind of stock resistance to "pad out" its defensive profile without hurting a more popular type or one that was meant to have minimal implication), but that's another thing that needs to be looked at more closely: Fairy's resistances were openly designed from the ground up to make it "the anti-meta type," with particular focus on the types that were most prominent in Gen V VGC and probably with Gen VI's Dark buff in mind as well
It resists Bug because Bug-type moves are meta, and it's actually considered one of the most relevant and useful resistances Fairy has to offer: it means they don't take excessive damage from it every time something they intend to counter tries to pivot out of them, and they can also switch in safely to resist stray U-turns aimed at other Pokémon

Essentially, Bug is the type that's "allowed" a crazy-strong tool like this only because it is one of the worst in offensive matchups alone - these are not unrelated!
The thing is that Pokémon care about their defensive Bug matchup because of the universal utility of the most relevant Bug move
and you can't simply give a tool like this to just any attacking type without a harsh drawback (like making Volt Switch fail on the Pokémon its users would most want to escape)
Even the more recent Flip Turn on the more "powerful" Water type had extremely careful distribution compared to past pivoting moves and a power decrease to match + also Water Absorb and Storm Drain may be relevant depending on the format (I think Storm Drain is quite common in the official competitive format, VGC, and it also happens to block Flip Turn from anywhere on the field!); conversely, no Bug immunity exists even with any Ability, because it's a major part of the the identity of the type to be "offensively weak but perfectly reliable"

The type chart is a lot more carefully considered than people give it credit for, and it's incredibly rare that I see someone ask to "fix" it and actually agree with their suggestion
The "problem" is when people look at matchups like they exist in a vacuum and every type needs to be perfectly balanced before any moves or Pokémon are made, when moves and Pokémon belong to specific types because of what those types can do for them and what part of those types they represent
"Weak" types on paper are usually the ones with the strongest assets or the strongest Pokémon - moves and Pokémon that rely on having constraining matchups to be kept in check - and there are Pokémon of every type that see in-game and competitive success when they work with the type correctly instead of trying to shape it into something it's not, so obviously this is working!

If you want to buff Bug-types, you should absolutely not do it offensively, because Bug's most defining move and its entire mechanical identity leans heavily on the offensive matchups that it already has and it would be very easy to bring about some pretty stupid consequences if you make it better
On the other hand, Bug is a pretty fine defensive type anyway - when specific weaknesses are patched up by the right secondary type, held item or partner, it is usually more than workable and you can really see the type's distinctive toolkit shine through
A lot of Bug-types' identities come from their moves most of all, many of the best of which are rarely distributed to other types
None of this is stuff you could get just by looking at their matchups on a chart - you need to look at the Pokémon that have the Bug type and what they do, as well as the Pokémon that run Bug-type moves and the Pokémon that match up well against Bug-type moves and how much that is valued, before you can write off the type as flawed or in need of saving
Basically, I don't think you need to "fix" the type; I think a lot of people just look at the type chart in an incomplete way that doesn't reflect how well it's really designed (my unpopular opinion: the type chart, in its current state, is one of the coolest things about the series and is the underlying factor between almost all of the other mechanics and design choices I like the most; I wouldn't change a thing about it), and I wish more people would focus on understanding it before they try to correct it, because uuusually the latter means making it worse
Pretty much it boils down to weak early routes comprising most bugs, and poor distribution of good bug moves. It's like the inverse of Gen 4/5 dragon, where it was high power mons with a really good distribution of a stab move
This is kinda why I buffed the bug mons themselves in my joke hack and made them have more resistences; flavor wise more offense doesn't make much sense, nor help when bug combos can lead to the most fragile defense anyway (bug flying really sucks long term)

To be fair about Lati@s, the Japanese version of the movie starring them outright shows there are multiples of both, the ending shows 2 Latias and 1 Latios in the sky, but 4kids airbrushed out the 2nd Latias to imply that the Latios that was part of the plot of the movie was still alive and everything is all happy in the end with no deaths whatsoever.
Screenshot_20220512-145637_Brave.jpg

Uh no, they did not, the death for Latios is still noted
4Kids might've been screwed in using the older plot, but the Lati mother and babies wasn't censored
 
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Pretty much it boils down to weak early routes comprising most bugs, and poor distribution of good bug moves. It's like the inverse of Gen 4/5 dragon, where it was high power mons with a really good distribution of a stab move
This is kinda why I buffed the bug mons themselves in my joke hack and made them have more resistences; flavor wise more offense doesn't make much sense, nor help when bug combos can lead to the most fragile defense anyway (bug flying really sucks long term)


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Uh no, they did not, the death for Latios is still noted
4Kids might've been screwed in using the older plot, but the Lati mother and babies wasn't censored
I agree with Hermatite, but one problem; Ice is by far still the most rigid / inflexible type due to GF repeated mistake of a combination of slowness, only one resistance of the type and usually shallow coverage… and too often lategame despite all those “qualities”.

I’d just add two resistances for Ice, remove Rock weakness (hey, Stealth Rock’s already a problem for many) to help slower IceMons to get better, other than that focus on the offense by making decently fast Ice mons with decent coverage, and call it a day.
 
I agree with Hermatite, but one problem; Ice is by far still the most rigid / inflexible type due to GF repeated mistake of a combination of slowness, only one resistance of the type and usually shallow coverage… and too often lategame despite all those “qualities”.

I’d just add two resistances for Ice, remove Rock weakness (hey, Stealth Rock’s already a problem for many) to help slower IceMons to get better, other than that focus on the offense by making decently fast Ice mons with decent coverage, and call it a day.
Make it immune to dragon
Won't matter cuz >they can just learn fire moves, but it'd be funny
Also why not resist Grass, Flying, and Ground?
 
Make it immune to dragon
Won't matter cuz >they can just learn fire moves, but it'd be funny
Also why not resist Grass, Flying, and Ground?
Uuh Fairy already is immune to Dragon so Fairy will still do a better job taking care of Dragon-type overall.

I do think of resistance to Ground and Flying (not Grass) alongside removal of Rock weakness, and that’s all I am gonna say without stepping over the line into wishlisting.
 
If Chunsoft really couldn't include every Pokémon in Gates to Infinity, I would've preferred it if they only included Gen 5 Pokémon. At least they're a complete set.

(Also, what's going on with the lore in GTI? Virizion and Keldeo are treated like any other Pokémon, Kyurem can see the future...)
 
If Chunsoft really couldn't include every Pokémon in Gates to Infinity, I would've preferred it if they only included Gen 5 Pokémon. At least they're a complete set.

(Also, what's going on with the lore in GTI? Virizion and Keldeo are treated like any other Pokémon, Kyurem can see the future...)
I don't don't think there was a technical limitation. Wiiware managed all of Gen 4, and had harsher limitations
But nah, sadly they couldn't cuz >Pikachu

As for lore, honestly I think Chun didn't do too much research for Gen 5s mons. Admittedly neither LOOK that legendary (especially Keldeo, I still hate its design), so that may have contributed to treating them more like reg NPCs initially. I do like the subversion of
None dark types being evil
, and am annoyed Super effectively copied some of its plot and managed to get credit for it, but the gameplay changes really were bad, same with roster
 
I kinda like how OP Zacian is. Unlike Pokemon like Xerneas, Mega Rayquaza, etc, there isn't anything fancy about Zacian's OPness: its just a strong and fast nuke. Its got a set-up move, yeah, but it doesn't really need that to be OP since its base damage, speed, and defensive attributes are all still pretty strong. Its so good, it doesn't even need DMax to contend in DMax metagames.

I do see people talking about how Zacian is a clear example of powercreep, which is not exactly incorrect, but part of me still feels that Kyogre is arguably more OP since its also a OHKO machine, but its damage comes from spread moves and special attacks, which makes it more threatening in a vaccum since it can't be slowed down as easily by a well-timed Protect or Intimidate. This is balanced out a bit better by Kyogre being easier to counter, but the point is that I do not see Zacian to be too far removed from the previous standards set by other Pokemon.

Though, because of powercreep, I am a bit bummed out that Pokemon like the gen 4 and 5 cover legendaries feel so weak nowdays. Dragon Dance was a good addition to the gen 5 legendaries to push up their strength a bit, as was Freeze Dry to Kyurem, but the gen 4 legendaries basically got nothing, so they feel really underpowered compared to other legendaries. I think the OP part about these Pokemon was suppose to be their Dragon-typing, but since Fairy got introduced, it isn't anything too special anymore.
 
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