Kanto Legendaries, Part I

Articuno
The Freeze Pokémon
Type: Ice/Flying
Official Registration #: 144
Entry: The Kantonian spirit of ice and winter winds. According to legend, Articuno appears before lost travelers on snowy mountains to guide them to safety. Other legends refer to its ability to conjure strong blizzards and freeze entire bodies of water with each flap of its translucent wings. And still others have put two and two together and come up with the fact that it’s rather suspicious that you have a bird who can conjure blizzards by flapping its wings appearing before travelers who are lost on icy mountains thanks to blizzards. But that is, as the saying goes, none of this writer’s business.

Zapdos
The Electric Pokémon
Type: Electric/Flying
Official Registration #: 145
Entry: The Kantonian spirit of lightning and thunderstorms. According to legend, Zapdos once lived in the mountains of eastern Kanto, where it called down the thunder to spark forest fires and bring about the spark of rebirth. Nowadays, it lives in the Cerulean Power Plant, and workers there are perfectly fine with this because who wants to be the one to tell the ornery embodiment of thunderstorms that it can’t roost wherever it merry well pleases?

Moltres
The Flame Pokémon
Type: Fire/Flying
Official Registration #: 146
Entry: The Kantonian spirit of fire and spring zephyrs. According to Kantonian legend, Moltres flew on a pair of dazzling wings that conjured incredible bursts of flames with every flap. These same legends state that Moltres would dive into volcanoes and use lava to repair its injuries, that it could control blazing infernos, and that its mere presence can quell a raging blizzard. And meanwhile, in Kanto’s neighbor to the west, Johtonian legend states it flies south for the winter like a common swellow and comes back to make our crops grow. This may or may not be one of the many reasons why Kantonians are a little judgmental towards their western neighbors.

The Dratini Line

Dratini
The Dragon Pokémon
Type: Dragon
Official Registration #: 147
Entry: A mythical pokémon found only in the most remote lakes of temperate regions. Although the most commonly sighted dratini are only up to three feet in length, the pokédex correctly states that the average height of this pokémon is roughly five feet and that it continuously gets bigger as it ages. The discrepancy has a lot to do with this pokémon’s behavior in relation to its size. Calmer, larger dratini tend to sink to the bottom of their lake homes because they spend most of their energy on shedding, rather than forcing their bulk to rise to the surface. Meanwhile, smaller, more curious dratini spend less energy swimming to shore and have more of an inclination to do so due to their interest in the number of oddly-shaped, multicolored creatures that seem very intent on catching them, and long story short, the average height of the species is maintained by the sheer power of natural selection.

Dragonair
The Dragon Pokémon
Type: Dragon
Official Registration #: 148
Entry: The evolved form of dratini, by battle experience. All of the shedding and growth dratini does is for a reason: to generate the magical energy needed to form dragonair’s signature orbs. Each of these orbs carry enough mystical power that even a gentle pulse of magic from one of them can grant dragonair complete control over the weather at any given moment. This may seem like a rather liberal use of the word “magic” on a scientific blog, but to be fair, we live in a world where a three-foot-tall mouse can electrocute an elephant into submission.

Dragonite
The Dragon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Flying
Official Registration #: 149
Entry: The evolved form of dragonair, by battle experience. As dragonair grows, it continues to develop both its magical abilities and its stores of mystical energy so that when it finally evolves into dragonite after years of training, it takes on an incredibly powerful form equipped with both potent physical and magical strength as well as the ability to fly at supersonic speeds. Likewise, dragonite have the ability to understand human speech, and it frequently displays a kindhearted nature, particularly towards individuals who are pure in heart. Legend also claims that it occasionally takes children to a faraway island inhabited almost exclusively by dragonite, where magic truly exists and an evil witch seeks to disrupt the peace of the happy dragonite kingdom.

…The writer apologizes, as he seems to have been reading the plot to a children’s film. Let me try this again.

Entry: The evolved form of dragonair, by battle experience. As dragonair grows, it continues to develop both its magical abilities and its stores of mystical energy so that when it finally evolves into dragonite after years of training, it takes on an incredibly powerful form equipped with both potent physical and magical strength as well as the ability to fly at supersonic speeds. Likewise, dragonite have the ability to understand human speech, and it frequently displays a kindhearted nature, particularly towards individuals who are pure in heart. Legend also claims that it occasionally takes children to a faraway island inhabited almost exclusively by dragonite, where magic truly exists and wealthy tourists seek to disrupt the peace of the happy dragonite kingdom.

The Pidgey Line

Pidgey
The Tiny Bird Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 16
Entry: A small, normally docile pokémon that is extremely common to Kanto and Johto. As such, along with rattata, pidgey are typically among the first pokémon a beginning Kantonian trainer captures. This is made all the easier thanks to the fact that pidgey also prefer kicking up sand using low-powered gusts of wind at ground level before fleeing, rather than engaging in a proper battle, but its small wings and the amount of energy it expends in blinding its foe make it difficult to get away quickly. Still, as a pokémon not known for either its battle prowess or its defensive capabilities, it, too, tends to be permanently stored rather quickly, but as of late, it has enjoyed an upsurge in popularity, partly because of pidgeot’s newly discovered mega evolution and partly because, according to the internet, it is “an adorable birb” who “wears leaf for enhance its beauties.”

Pidgeotto
The ~~Birb~~ Bird Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 17
Entry: The evolved form of pidgey, by battle experience. Like many other pokémon, evolution grants pidgeotto more confidence and aggression. It goes from being a docile pokémon to a highly territorial one that tends to claim a large swath of land as its home. Additionally, it possesses keen eyesight and the ability to swoop down onto prey from great heights and snatch its target with deadly claws. However, what it has not outgrown from its days as a pidgey is its love for bread, so travelers hiking through Kanto should beware when carrying sandwiches.

Pidgeot
The Bird Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 18
Entry: The evolved form of pidgeotto, by battle experience. While pidgeotto’s aggression calms a bit upon evolution, its hunting behaviors otherwise remain the same. In fact, pidgeot’s sharpened eyesight, its ability to fly at Mach-2 speeds, and its capacity to generate hurricane-strength winds make pidgeot far more deadly than its much more hostile pre-evolution. Luckily, pidgeot only exist naturally in the mountains around Victory Road, so most trainers needn’t worry about the fate of their sandwiches. Strong trainers thinking of challenging the Elite Four, however, are a different matter, but by then, you might already be aware of the sizable list of pokémon that would also do unspeakable things to you for a sandwich and any fish-like meat inside it. In short, the deadliest object a trainer can carry with them throughout their journey is a tuna fish sandwich.

Kanto Starters II: Charmander

Charmander
The Lizard Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 4
Entry: One of three pokémon traditionally offered to new trainers at the beginning of their journeys in Kanto. Many people believe that out of the three, charmander are the hardest to raise. This is a fairly understandable statement. Charmander are naturally energetic, and their fire element means they don’t do well against Pewter or Cerulean’s gyms. More importantly, however, charmander are considered a challenge to raise because of the flame at the tip of their tails. A physical representation of charmander’s health and emotions, this flame must be meticulously kept, not only because allowing it to become extinguished would kill the host charmander but also because it is an actual flame that will react to Kanto’s abundance of fields full of dry, tall grass just about as well as you think it would.

Charmeleon
The Flame Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 5
Entry: The evolved form of charmander, by battle experience. Charmeleon are thought to be merciless, bloodthirsty pokémon that will attack foes with their sharp claws and intense flames. This is not necessarily true. While some charmeleon are indeed that aggressive, the vast majority of them are actually simply outgoing. It just so happens that the flame on a charmeleon’s tail grows hotter and taller whenever its host is excited, and charmeleon itself is a very excitable pokémon. As for the note concerning its claws, evidently, a charmeleon’s first instinct upon accidentally setting its new friends on fire with its tail is to smack the flames in an attempt to smother them with their hands. It’s just that charmeleon also unfortunately forget that they have claws, so their attempts to help are often not particularly helpful.

Charizard
The Flame Pokémon
Type: Fire/Flying
Official Registration #: 6
Entry: The evolved form of charmeleon, by battle experience. Stories throughout Europe tell of ancient charizard flying on giant wings and using its flame breath to burn the countryside, the peasants, and the people in their thatched-roof cottages. Only heroes brave enough and with water-types strong enough were able to vanquish this threat and bring peace to the land. Of course, the validity of these claims are debatable. While charizard’s preferred fighting style is indeed a combination of flying over its opponents and breathing flames that reach temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees, historical evidence seems to point to the notion that the stories concerning giant charizard terrorizing the countryside were made up by bored young men who would have liked to think they were braver, funnier, and more attractive than they actually were.

Love what you’re doing here. Would you consider doing an entry for Natu and Xatu? They’re one of my favorite underappreciated ‘mons. :D

Thank you! Terribly sorry for the delay. Natu and xatu are indeed fascinating pokémon.

Natu
The Tiny Bird Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Flying
Official Registration #: 177
Entry: As expected, natu is a tiny, bird-like pokémon known for its unblinking stare. It is said that natu are, indeed, constantly staring into the future, so its wide-eyed stare actually comes from the fact that it is not entirely paying attention to you as you stare at it but instead your future. This, combined with its underdeveloped wings, means natu is fairly easy to capture, as it will always be caught off-guard by your attempts to throw poké balls at it, and for it, escaping consists of hopping awkwardly away from you. Why it doesn’t simply notice that you’re about to capture it as it stares into your future (or why it never acts on any indication that you capture it) is still a complete mystery to the topmost scientists in the field of psychic pokémon research.

Xatu
The Mystic Pokémon
Type: Psychic/Flying
Official Registration #: 178
Entry: The evolved from of natu, by battle experience. Xatu is a large, four-foot-tall bird pokémon valued in various native South American cultures for its ability to see both the past and the future simultaneously—which, according to the peoples of that continent, explains why it constantly stares unflinchingly into the sun. While the ability to see both the past and the future simultaneously is indeed a useful ability, it has the nasty side effect of blinding a xatu to the present. Literally. Staring into the sun is generally a bad idea, and this writer would like to emphasize this point to any impressionable youth who may be reading this.

Hawlucha

Hawlucha
The Wrestling Pokémon
Type: Fighting/Flying
Official Registration #: 701
Entry: Despite its small size (of about 2.5 feet), hawlucha is a master of physical combat and can hold its own even against larger, bulkier opponents such as hariyama. However, most of the reason why it can hold its own has nothing to do with brute strength or raw power and everything to do with its tendency to attack from above and behind, which in this writer’s opinion is just as effective and honorable a strategy as any when going up against opponents far stronger and tougher than you. Like the patrons of the Goldenrod City Game Corner … as an off-hand example that the writer has never experienced personally.

The Wurmple Line

Wurmple
The Worm Pokémon
Type: Bug
Official Registration #: 265
Entry: There is an easy way to tell if a wurmple will evolve into either a cascoon or a silcoon. What you’ll need to do is this: upon encountering a wurmple, grab it by the ridges on the back of its neck and [ERROR]

Silcoon
The Cocoon Pokémon
Type: Bug
Official Registration #: 266
Entry: The evolved form of wurmple, by a combination of battle experience and the individual’s personality. As a reflection of the wurmple’s own nature, silcoon are inherently graceful and beautiful and are known for both the softness and pure whiteness of their silk and the fact that they drink the dew off their own threads until evolution. In order to better understand silcoon and its close cousin the cascoon, imagine the most energetic morning person you have ever seen in your life. Have someone give them coffee and tell you that you are not, under any circumstances, permitted to punch them. This is the silcoon according to all cascoon.

Beautifly
The Butterfly Pokémon
Type: Bug/Flying
Official Registration #: 267
Entry: The evolved form of silcoon, by battle experience. True to the rule that the cuter a pokémon looks, the more likely it is that the pokémon in question possesses either a violent temper, the means to disembowel you, or both, beautifly are among the most beautiful and vicious bug-types in the pokémon kingdom. Its mouth is actually a coiled needle that can grow to be at least double its body size in length when straightened, and needless to say, it uses this needle to stab anyone who gets within reach of it as it feeds on flower nectar.

Cascoon
The Cocoon Pokémon
Type: Bug
Official Registration #: 268
Entry: The evolved form of wurmple, by a combination of battle experience and the individual’s personality. As a reflection of the wurmple’s own nature, cascoon are literal balls of hatred and rage, capable of remembering you, your face, and the fact that you hit it, looked at it strangely, or put it within two feet of a silcoon. It is highly advisable to apologize profusely to your cascoon on a constant basis to avoid being Psybeamed in the face immediately upon its evolution into dustox.

Dustox
The Poison Moth Pokémon
Type: Bug/Poison
Official Registration #: 269
Entry: The evolved form of cascoon, by battle experience. Despite its initial burst of rage, dustox settle into a more passive persona as they age. Rather than live solitary lifestyles and engage in aggressive, territorial behavior, dustox are more prone to congregating with their fellow dustox near sources of light, and they typically only attack when directly threatened. However, the main problem with dustox is that their scales are covered with an extremely toxic powder that happens to be released with every flap of their wings, which means they are also far, far more likely to inadvertently poison anyone who happens to be anywhere near them, much to the typical dustox’s dismay.

The Starly Line

Starly
The Starling Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 396
Entry: Starly, one of the most common pokémon in the Sinnoh region, are known for traveling in giant flocks and generating storm-grade gusts of wind. Thus, despite being less than a foot tall, new trainers should be warned that it is a very wise idea to exercise extreme caution when seeing one starly on its own. That starly is by no means alone, and a trainer that mistakes it for being so stands a very good chance of being enveloped in a hurricane of extremely angry relatives.

Staravia
The Starling Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 397
Entry: The evolved form of starly, by battle experience. Upon evolution, staravia are known to form flocks of their own that are considerably smaller than starly flocks yet also sizable in their own right and consisting of extremely loyal flock members. When separated, staravia are known to cry loudly to gain the attention of its flock mates, so should you spot a staravia on its own and should that staravia spot you and begin crying loudly, it would be best to run very, very quickly in the opposite direction.

Staraptor
The Predator Pokémon
Type: Normal/Flying
Official Registration #: 398
Entry: The evolved form of staravia, by battle experience. Curiously, evolution spurs staraptor to leave their flocks and live completely on their own. Vicious and tenacious hunters, staraptor thrive by picking off and carrying small pokémon to their nests in the craggy Mt. Coronet, where they can consume said pokémon without interference from other staraptor. Also curiously, staraptor are not particularly fastidious when it comes to choosing prey, and this, perhaps, explains why starly and staravia travel in large and extremely loyal flocks.

Scyther and Scizor

Scyther
The Mantis Pokémon
Type: Bug/Flying
Official Registration #: 123
Entry: Contrary to popular belief, scyther are not inherently violent and easily enraged pokémon. They are, in actuality, extremely proud pokémon with a full range of emotions, including compassion. It just so happens that they have scythes for hands and the alien morality of an insectoid species, and these tend to get in the way of what human beings would define as “compassion.”

Scizor
The Pincer Pokémon
Type: Bug/Steel
Official Registration #: 212
Entry: The evolved form of scyther, via trading if the subject has had a metal coat applied to it. Upon evolution, scyther’s signature blades metamorphose into scizor’s pincers. One would think that an absence of a cutting edge along with the maturation induced by evolution would render scizor a safer pokémon to handle than its preevolved counterpart, but in actuality, it uses its pincers—now reinforced with a steel-like exoskeleton—to violently hammer anything into the ground, be it an enemy pokémon, a piece of machinery, or an innocently bystanding researcher who in no way provoked said scizor.

Pikachu?

Plusle
The Cheering Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 311
Entry: Contrary to popular belief, not a long-eared pikachu. Its abilities are best used in tandem with minun; otherwise, you have a very cheerful rabbit with the electrical strength of a battery.

Minun
The Cheering Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 312
Entry: Contrary to popular belief, also not a long-eared pikachu. Its abilities are best used in tandem with plusle; otherwise, you have a very cheerful rabbit with the electrical strength of a battery.

Pachirisu
The EleSquirrel Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 417
Entry: Contrary to popular belief, not a long-tailed pikachu. Not to be underestimated. Although its electrical strength by no means rivals the aforementioned pikachu, its tenacity and energy render it intensely difficult to defeat in the hands of the right trainer. Which has made at least one tournament against a certain dragon trainer hilarious to watch. (On the negative side, this also makes pachirisu infestations difficult to control, which is, to be fair, not entirely an issue except for that one time when one noteworthy specimen was responsible for a major blackout in Castelia City.)

Emolga
The Sky Squirrel Pokémon
Type: Electric/Flying
Official Registration #: 587
Entry: Contrary to popular belief, not a flying pikachu. However, just as potentially destructive as one. Fortunately, as buildings provide inadequate surfaces from which to jump off and land, emolga generally prefer sticking to forested areas, as trees are far easier to glide between. Unfortunately, this is of no comfort to anyone who happens to be traveling through the wooded areas of Unova—which is to say, everyone.

Dedenne
The Antenna Pokémon
Type: Electric/Fairy
Official Registration #: 702
Entry: Actually, this one probably is a close relative to pikachu. We’re still doing research into that.