Dragonite, a Pokémon.
© The Pokémon Company
Games
The 10 most legendary Pokémon of all time
Never mind the rarest, these are the Pokémon that have humanity’s back as a whole, at least according to their eye-opening Pokedex descriptions.
By Adam Cook
6 min readPublished on
Discovering a strange Pokedex entry is a magical thing. These small sections of flavour text give us backstory to our favourite pocket monsters, but they can also make us laugh, or even scare us.
Although Ash is seen as the hero of the series, he’s obviously nothing without his friends and his Pokémon. But what you may not realise is that, according to the Pokedex, there are some truly legendary Pokémon out there. No, not Articuno and all those snooty elemental birds. We mean heroic, lifesaving Pokémon who don’t just help their trainer out in a bind, but mankind as a whole. These are the 10 that, although they may not affect your game dramatically, are the real heroes of the Pokémon universe, at least according to their backstories.

Dragonite

This is a Pokémon that has been around since the very beginning (Generation 1) of Pokémon, and is one that even Pokémon Go fans love to have in their collection. But did you know that Dragonite is actually the patron saint of sailors?
“Dragonite is capable of circling the globe in just 16 hours”, the Pokedex says, which on its own is rather impressive, but here’s the kicker: “It is a kindhearted Pokémon that leads lost and foundering ships in a storm to the safety of land.”
So this friendly dragon-flying-type saves ships from potential doom and destruction on one of its global jaunts, just to be helpful. Consider that next time you order yours to reign Flamethrower down on an unsuspecting Venusaur just minding its business.

Gardevoir

Gardevoir, a Pyschic Pokémon.
Pyschic powers© The Pokémon Company
Although real life has taught us to shun psychics for fear that they’ll read our minds and find out something they shouldn’t, there’s no need to fear this Fairy-type Pokémon at all: “Gardevoir has the ability to read the future. If it senses impending danger to its Trainer, this Pokémon is said to unleash its psychokinetic energy at full power.”
That’s the Pokedex entry for Gardevoir, and taken literally, this means having this lovely creature in your bag makes you invincible. Imagine carrying around something that would alert you to any potential danger because it can read the future, and when its internal alarms go off, it unleashes its full psychokinetic power (which we can only assume is like a Star Wars force push) on whatever threatens you. What a legend! So long, petty street crime.

Suicune

The Pokémon Suicune.
Purify the water© The Pokémon Company
Ignore for a second that this Pokémon’s name pronounced out loud sounds a bit like “sweetcorn”, and consider that it’s a cute dog-like creature that is at one with the water. This friendly chappy is pretty much wonder personified in a Pokémon and could heal entire nations thanks to its powers.
“Suicune embodies the compassion of a pure spring of water”, and that’d be enough for us, but the Pokedex entry goes on: “It runs across the land with gracefulness. This Pokémon has the power to purify dirty water.”
Read that again: the power to purify dirty water. Think about that. Think about how hard we all campaign to raise funds for countries that desperately need clean drinking water. Suicune is the hero the world needs.

Celebi

The Pokémon Celebi.
Happiness follows wherever Celebi goes© The Pokémon Company
Another Psychic type, Celebi, has some pretty helpful powers in the games. For example, Natural Cure is an ability that heals all status conditions when you switch them out for another Pokémon.
We can’t help but feel though that its power of foresight isn’t being fully exploited. Its Pokedex entry reads: “This Pokémon came from the future by crossing over time. It is thought that so long as Celebi appears, a bright and shining future awaits us.”
So essentially, as long as Celebi comes into our lives, we’ll all be happy and safe. If that’s not a hero, we don’t know what is. We also wonder if Celebi has any stock recommendations.

Espeon

The Pokémon Espeon.
Loyal and can see the future, Espeon is great© The Pokémon Company
You may well start to notice a theme here: protection. When, as 10-year-old Ash, you’re traipsing through dangerous places, putting your health on the line to win gym badges, you need to be safe. Enter Espeon, with its intense loyalty and powers to keep you safe.
“Espeon is extremely loyal to any Trainer it considers to be worthy. It is said that this Pokémon developed its precognitive powers to protect its Trainer from harm.” So Espeon can also protect you from harm by knowing the future, but thanks to Synchronize, it can also turn status effects (poison, paralyze, burn) onto an enemy Pokémon if it attacks it.

Latias

The Pokémon Latias.
Is Latias actually a pacifist?© The Pokémon Company
It may be a bit wishy washy, but Latias is one of our favourite legendary Pokémon. Rather than attacking outright, Latias seems to be more of a pacifist, at least if the Pokedex is to be believed.
“Latias is highly sensitive to the emotions of people. If it senses any hostility, this Pokémon ruffles the feathers all over its body and cries shrilly to intimidate the foe.”
So not only is this Psychic-Dragon in tune with how we’re all feeling, rather than just turn into a killing machine, it just intimidates enemies in order to scare them away. We’re well up for voting Latias in as our leader, right now.

Xerneas

The Pokémon Xerneas.
Easily one of the prettiest Pokémon© The Pokémon Company
One of the newer Pokémon on our list, Xerneas saved the day in the X and Y movie, The Cocoon of Destruction, all thanks to its Pokedex entry. “Legends say it can share eternal life. It slept for a thousand years in the form of a tree before its revival.”
What that means is that it’s in slumber until it is needed, whereby it awakens and shares life itself before, yep, going back into slumber as a tree. As far as heroic deeds go, giving your entire existence over to saving others is pretty high on the list. Xerneas may be weak to Steel and Poison, but it’s strong in our hearts.

Diancie

The Pokémon Dialga.
A massive presence, a massive help: that’s Dialga© The Pokémon Company
We’ve listed some truly legendary Pokémon above, there’s no question, but Dialga is probably the second most impressive specimen on our list, and not just because it’s a huge steel dragon that weighs 683kg and measures up at 5.4 metres tall.
No, this monster is impressive because without it, we’d never have been born: “a Pokémon spoken of in legend. It is said that time began moving when Dialga was born”. In other words, Dialga is the fourth dimension.

Arceus

The Pokémon Arceus.
Is Arceus the reason we all actually exist?© The Pokémon Company
We’ve saved the best for last, though, because without Arceus, none of us would exist, let alone be moving in time. You might want to sit down for this one.
“According to the legends of Sinnoh, this Pokémon emerged from an egg and shaped all there is in this world.” What this means, if you hadn’t already realised it, is that Arceus is the “chicken and egg” situation. It hatched from an egg, then created the world. That makes Arceus basically God, although we still have no idea where the egg came from.
We need to go and sit down for a while, because contemplating the way the universe was shaped by a Pokémon has left us a bit dizzy.
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