Bill you were talking about people using legendaries in league battles…A while back there was a guy in the Sinnoh league who used TWO of them! Everyone was talking about him! But there was someone else with a Heatran competing too and nobody gave him any press. Does Sinnoh not consider Heatran to be legendary?

They consider it a minor legendary, much in the same way Hoennians see the titans (or golems) or Johtonians see the legendary birds.

Of course, either way, it’s somewhat less impressive than having two legendaries, one of whom is considered to be the god of nightmares…

What’s your favorite legendary Pokemon of Sinnoh Bill?

I quite like all of them on one level or another; they’re all greatly fascinating to me. However, if I had to choose, I might pick Shaymin. Who can argue with its story? It speaks so eloquently about the power of pokémon and how important it is for us humans to respect them as well as the natural world itself. We may be a clever species, but Shaymin’s story reminds us that we aren’t much without nature and that we should always give thanks to nature because of it.

That and, well, it’s cute.

Zeraora

Zeraora
The Thunderclap Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 807
Entry: Although it isn’t actually the god or guardian of anything, unlike many other legendary beings, it is still renowned for both its power and viciousness. It is known for lunging at opponents from seemingly nowhere at blinding speeds, wreathed in lightning, to utterly eviscerate its targets with a combination of lightning-fast hand-to-hand combat techniques, mystical powers, and sheer brute force. Yet despite the amount of violence it displays, it still has gained a mass of devoted fans throughout the world, seemingly overnight.

Now that the author has gotten that lengthy and unsolicited tangent about half the cast of Rayquazaball Z off his chest, Zeraora is an aggressive, cat-like mythical pokémon supposedly native to the region of Alola.

So I just found what I believe is an ultra beast. It’s small and purple and not like any Pokémon i know. It’s hurt but I’m afraid to take it to a Pokémon centre in case someone sees me with it. I know we know little about UBs, but do you have any basic Pokémon care tips? The injuries are minor cuts and bruises but I’m worried they’d get infected. Also,do you know ANYBODY trustworthy enough I can hand it to who would know how to look after it, or better, Send it back to its home?

Not to be curt, but if it’s injured, take it to a pokémon center. 

First and foremost, a pokémon nurse’s priority is on healing an injured pokémon. They won’t judge you or report you to any sort of government body or what-have-you for owning a pokémon they don’t recognize. If anything, their inability to recognize such a pokémon may present a bit of a challenge for them, but ultimately, if they don’t know what your pokémon is, they’ll treat it as best as they can anyway, based on their knowledge of your pokémon’s injury, type, and general physiological profile (i.e., mammalian, avian, or so forth). Furthermore, pokémon centers are hospitals. It’s highly unethical for anyone from any sort of authority to break in and take your pokémon away for this reason, and you’re generally protected by poachers by virtue of the fact that you’re in a highly public area with highly trained and extremely powerful nurse pokémon (as well as teams of trainers who use pokémon centers as meeting places and who don’t take well to thieves).

Second, I can’t offer care tips for legendary or mythical pokémon or the Ultra Beasts. It’s not that I don’t want to (although I’ve been very open about the fact that my policy concerning owning legendaries is “put that back where you found it or so help us all”); it’s more because these pokémon aren’t that well understood. In the cases of legendaries and mythicals, they’re so rare that there simply aren’t enough cases of human interaction with such pokémon in recorded history to know what their needs are. In other words, very, very few people have interacted with these pokémon, much less caught them, and those that caught them are generally extremely competent trainers (not that those who ask for pokémon care tips on this blog aren’t competent, of course). 

As for the Ultra Beasts, we also don’t know enough about them to understand what their specific needs are, but in their case, they’re simply too new and destructive to our world. Thus, all instances of Ultra Beasts have already been secured by the work of the International Police and the Aether Foundation, the latter of whom has only just started releasing their research on actual, captive specimens (as opposed to theoretical research based on brief sightings).

Third and related to the above, it’d be odd to jump to the conclusion that you’re dealing with an Ultra Beast, just because it’s not an easily recognizable pokémon. It’s possible (and, quite honestly, more likely) that you’re looking at a poison-type pokémon from a different region on Earth, perhaps one that isn’t yet logged in the National Dex program. “Small and purple” describes many poison-types, after all. (This, incidentally, is why I also can’t offer tips for general care. “Small, purple poison-type” covers quite a lot of ground, even if we didn’t consider any known legendaries or UBs, and how one would care for a venonat differs vastly from how one would care for a koffing.)

In short, if you’re worried about this pokémon’s minor injuries and general condition, don’t be afraid to take it to the pokémon center. The nurse there may even be able to help you positively identify what you’re dealing with, which in turn will make figuring out how to take care of it immensely easier.

Best of luck, anonymous!


{Note from the mun: Like the last ask, this one is also among the newer batch. It’s just that Bill’s been getting a lot of questions about how to care for a legendary or Ultra Beast lately, and it might be worth it to note that various asks and entries have already established that both classes of pokémon are so rare that it’s very, very unlikely that an ordinary person would encounter them. Bill likewise only knows about them via second-hand accounts, theories, and folklore for the most part. Just to clarify! Carry on!}

(Sorry if this has been asked before, I forget.) Is there any difference besides a categorical one between legendary and mythical pokemon?

Yes, actually. Legendary pokémon are well documented in a region’s history, and generally speaking, there are more sightings of them than mythicals. Mythical pokémon, meanwhile, are often only vaguely mentioned in a region’s folklore, and sightings of them are so rare there can be debate about their existence. The line between these two categories is fuzzy, though, and many researchers consider the latter to be a subset of the former.

Dear bill, Unovan citizen here. I was out hiking in the Wilderness, when i got myself turned around pretty badly. I then felt this kind of pressure, and on a hunch, i stopped, dropped to a knee, and lowered my head. i did see glimpses of blue, green, and brown out of the corner of my eyes. when the pressure vanished, i looked up, and saw strange markings, which led me back to civilization. Did i do the right thing in the presence of the Swords of Justice? you’re pretty good with Legend info.

Believe me, if that wasn’t the right decision, you would be asking this question from an ICU.

That having been said, it’s fascinating to hear you’ve had such an encounter, anonymous. Normally, the legendary beasts of Unova only appear if they sense danger to the Pokémon that live in their territories, and even then, they typically only appear one at a time. To have all three appear at once must indicate that something strange is happening in Unova. Perhaps I’ll reach out to my Unovan contacts to see if anything big has been going on…

Dearest Bill, I have come into contact with a somewhat injured Pokemon, but I as of right now do not know what this Pokemon is. It was too hurt to move to the pokemon center, but I have managed to bring it to stable levels, and it is resting, as of now. Forgive me for being a little out of the loop, as I moved from Sinnoh, but, pray tell…. Do you know the proper methods for taking care of a pokemon known as “Thundurus?”

As a matter of fact, I do!

The first thing you should do when taking care of Thundurus is nurse him back to peak physical health. I would advise having a Nurse Joy perform a house call in order to get the best advice for this situation.

Then, when Thundurus has recovered enough to fly and hold his own in battle, release him back into the wild—honestly why are so many of you intent on seeing the catastrophic destruction of our world?!

Hoenn Legendaries, Part III

bills-pokedex:

Latias
The Eon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Official Registration #: 380
Entry: One of the legendary dragon guardians of the Soul Dew, an item of mystic power. Unlike most other legendaries, it’s known that latias live in small herds with multiple other latias and latios. Each latias is highly sensitive to human emotions, can understand human speech, communicates telepathically, and possesses coats of reflective down that can alter their appearance or render them invisible. Needless to say, these abilities in combination have caused much romantic confusion in the human race since the latias have first discovered us, and there is, indeed, an internet subculture dedicated to this exact breed of confusion.

Latios
The Eon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Official Registration #: 381
Entry: One of the legendary dragon guardians of the Soul Dew, an item of mystic power. Unlike most other legendaries, it’s known that latios live in small herds with multiple other latias and latios. These highly intelligent pokémon are capable of flying at mach speeds and telepathically coercing subjects into seeing whatever they see in their minds. Often born alongside a sister latias, latios are generally pacifist in nature … except when their twins “interact” with rather seedy-looking humans, at which point, they often use their considerable abilities to eliminate the perceived threat. Which, honestly, makes latios a pokémon the author can sympathize with greatly.

Mega Latios
The Eon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Official Registration #: 381+
Entry: The advanced form of latios, via latiosite. Contrary to popular belief, the change in this pokémon’s appearance does not indicate a significant boost in speed, nor does it lend any particular aerodynamic quality to the overall pokémon. Instead, it only boosts certain capabilities inherent in this pokémon’s genetic makeup, meaning it becomes even more capable of working in tandem with its sibling species. In other words, the physiological changes merely indicate the heightened ability to work as one unit with a mega latixs’s respective partner.

Bill… —LH

Hoenn Legendaries, Part III

bills-pokedex:

Latias
The Eon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Official Registration #: 380
Entry: One of the legendary dragon guardians of the Soul Dew, an item of mystic power. Unlike most other legendaries, it’s known that latias live in small herds with multiple other latias and latios. Each latias is highly sensitive to human emotions, can understand human speech, communicates telepathically, and possesses coats of reflective down that can alter their appearance or render them invisible. Needless to say, these abilities in combination have caused much romantic confusion in the human race since the latias have first discovered us, and there is, indeed, an internet subculture dedicated to this exact breed of confusion.

Latios
The Eon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Official Registration #: 381
Entry: One of the legendary dragon guardians of the Soul Dew, an item of mystic power. Unlike most other legendaries, it’s known that latios live in small herds with multiple other latias and latios. These highly intelligent pokémon are capable of flying at mach speeds and telepathically coercing subjects into seeing whatever they see in their minds. Often born alongside a sister latias, latios are generally pacifist in nature … except when their twins “interact” with rather seedy-looking humans, at which point, they often use their considerable abilities to eliminate the perceived threat. Which, honestly, makes latios a pokémon the author can sympathize with greatly.

Mega Latias
The Eon Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Official Registration #: 380+
Entry: The advanced form of latias, via latiasite. Contrary to popular belief, the change in this pokémon’s appearance does not indicate a significant boost in speed, nor does it lend any particular aerodynamic quality to the overall pokémon. Instead, it only boosts certain capabilities inherent in this pokémon’s genetic makeup, meaning it becomes even more capable of working in tandem with its sibling species. In other words, the physiological changes merely indicate the heightened ability to work as one unit with a mega latixs’s respective partner.

Kalos Legendaries, Part I

bills-pokedex:

Carbink
The Jewel Pokémon
Type: Rock/Fairy
Official Registration #: 703
Entry: A small, imp-like pokémon native to the caves of Kalos. Having slept underground for millions of years, the minerals in its body has been tempered by the pressures and temperatures of the earth itself into precious stones, most notably pure diamond. Interestingly enough, despite supposedly being related to a legendary pokémon, carbink are not considered to be legendaries themselves and are in fact fairly common in their native cave systems, which in turn means their diamonds are not particularly rare. In conclusion, for those of you who are interested in female-identifying people, the old saying “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” is terrible advice, but “chocolate is a girl’s best friend” is usually not. Just a friendly tip.

Diancie
The Jewel Pokémon
Type: Rock/Fairy
Official Registration #: 719
Entry: According to Kalosean myth, this small, princess-like pokémon is the legendary of jewels. As such, it has the power to create diamonds by compressing the carbon in the air around it. Additionally, it is not only said to be the sudden transformation of carbink (through a surge of magical fairy energy), but it is also capable of mega evolving into an even more regal and powerful form. And on that note, the author is sorely tempted to make a reference to magical girls here, but unfortunately, the internet has beaten him to literally every possible one conceivable.

Mega Diancie
The Jewel Pokémon
Type: Rock/Fairy
Official Registration #: 719+
Entry: The advanced form of diancie, via diancite. Despite being a mythical pokémon, diancie has gained a considerable amount of popularity among girls, purely for its magical girl-like mega evolution, and consequently, mega diancie is featured in quite a few Japanese animated cartoons, including and most notably the hugely popular franchise Crystal Knight Mega Diancie. Unfortunately, this also means that mega diancie is considerably popular among certain types of older anime fans, and suffice to say, the author strongly urges one to never look into the Crystal Knight Mega Diancie subreddit.