What If Pikachu Was A Legendary Or Mythical Pokémon In Pokémon Anime Series

[Bartmanhomer]

Ok I thought of a another Pokémon What If scenario in the Pokémon Anime series. What if the Pikachu was a legendary or mythical Pokémon. It could change the whole Pokémon Anime series. Pikachu is very Powerful in the anime series. So I just thought that Pikachu might fit in the legendary or mythical status. So what do you think if Pikachu was legendary or mythical Pokémon? What's your thoughts on this topic?

[Silverraptor]

Ok I thought of a another Pokémon What If scenario in the Pokémon Anime series. What if the Pikachu was a legendary or mythical Pokémon. It could change the whole Pokémon Anime series. Pikachu is very Powerful in the anime series. So I just thought that Pikachu might fit in the legendary or mythical status. So what do you think if Pikachu was legendary or mythical Pokémon? What's your thoughts on this topic?

If pikachu was legendary, then there is no way professor Oak would have given a legendary pokemon to a pokemon trainer-to-be who was late and missed out on grabbing a Bulbasaur, charmander, or squirtle. Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, while rare, are not legendary status. Pikachu is rare, similar to the starter 3, so it seemed like a fair compromise to hand over to Ash, a leftover "Problem" pokemon that didn't like being captive to be handed over to the 4th trainer of the day who was beyond late compared to the other 3 trainers who had already been there.

Legendary status is such an elite status that pokemon professors would definitely hold onto and study them.

[Anymage]

Remember that the games came out before the anime. And that one of the reasons for pikachu's popularity was that it was a minorly rare creature, which made it just popular enough that many players liked it. (Since most "mythically rare" things in video games are actually things you're sure to come across at some point or another.)

Are you asking about what would happen if Pikachu was a singularly rare creature while still having the same look (again, contradicted by the game), or what would happen if Ash started out with something big like a Zapdos from the outset? The latter would be different just because a big thunderbird would elicit different reactions than a cute little shockrat.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

It's possible that there is something more than usual about Ash's Pikachu specifically (but at this point they'll probably never go into detail on what it could be), but plenty of other Pikachu have appeared throughout the series, and not ones has anyone reacted in awe from seeing one. So the question is basically "what if the Pokémon anime was a completely different Pokémon anime?"

[Traab]

There would have to be some form of alteration to the start of the series. Like for example, pikachu is clearly smart enough to communicate what he does and does not want, so maybe things could be altered so he made a deal with oak. "You can study me till I find someone to go off with" That sort of thing. But that would itself cause even more changes in the series where pikachu chose ash from the start, and that he isnt some newbie pokemon with no idea what he is doing. A better option might be, that every pokemon has the chance to have legendary stats. Basically, they are a super version of whatever pokemon they are. A super pikachu would explain its ability to reduce enemy resistance to electric attacks. Its possible oak wouldnt even know because it looks just like a pikachu and is such a surly jerk that he never got the chance to see him fight in a way that gives away his boosted stats and abilities.

[Kitten Champion]

Either Ash can't control the Legendary Pokemon - because he's a complete novice and Oak is seriously irresponsible giving it to him - in which case the series just becomes a long chain of Ash begging the Pokemon to do something while it ignores him like with Charizard, or Ash can control it and the series becomes a tedious one-sided affair where Ash doesn't have to make any progress as a trainer or develop any cunning strategies because he's so overpowered relative to his setting.

Either case, boring.

[137beth]

or Ash can control it and the series becomes a tedious one-sided affair where Ash doesn't have to make any progress as a trainer or develop any cunning strategies because he's so overpowered relative to his setting.

Wouldn't that just be the same as the series is now?:smalltongue:

[Lord Raziere]

Wouldn't that just be the same as the series is now?:smalltongue:

Not really, Ash never becomes some One-Punch Trainer or anything. every time he meets an Elite four, or a tournament, he loses, all his victories in the movies is through accomplishing an objective that ISN'T punching someone out, the people he does one-punch are Team Rocket, and they never really train or progress to be better, and every Gym trainer he does find takes effort for him to beat with some in fact beating him and forcing him to beat them on the second time around to get his badge.

Pikachu is in fact worfed at the beginning of every season by a bird or a snivy, Ash acquires pokemon he has to train all over again rather than using his charizard, Sceptile and other pokemon that are already strong.

and even when beating team rocket, there are multiple episodes where they tend to come up with immunity preparations that make sure Pikachu can't destroy it, thus making it necessary for some OTHER pokemon to blast them off instead, or to come up with some other plan.

his reputation in the pokemon community is that he is a loser that can't win a tournament for beans and that there a lot of trainers who are better than him in his own anime series. your thinking of Red, HE is One-Punch Trainer.

[Traab]

Not really, Ash never becomes some One-Punch Trainer or anything. every time he meets an Elite four, or a tournament, he loses, all his victories in the movies is through accomplishing an objective that ISN'T punching someone out, the people he does one-punch are Team Rocket, and they never really train or progress to be better, and every Gym trainer he does find takes effort for him to beat with some in fact beating him and forcing him to beat them on the second time around to get his badge.

Pikachu is in fact worfed at the beginning of every season by a bird or a snivy, Ash acquires pokemon he has to train all over again rather than using his charizard, Sceptile and other pokemon that are already strong.

and even when beating team rocket, there are multiple episodes where they tend to come up with immunity preparations that make sure Pikachu can't destroy it, thus making it necessary for some OTHER pokemon to blast them off instead, or to come up with some other plan.

his reputation in the pokemon community is that he is a loser that can't win a tournament for beans and that there a lot of trainers who are better than him in his own anime series. your thinking of Red, HE is One-Punch Trainer.

He won the orange league, though too be fair that wasnt a tournament as such, just grab the badges then fight the champ. Im not sure why he would have a rep as a loser, while he may not be the pokemon master he wants to be, he tends to do reasonably well. Making it up a few tiers in each tournament. Plus he likely has a good rep with the locals as he tends to solve all sorts of random problems on his journeys. Dude could bedazzle his jacket with all the badges he has won. The fact that he intentionally resets everything but pikachu every time he goes to a new area alone should earn him some style points. He basically starts from scratch every time and works his way back up to competition level by the time the next tournament rolls around. Thats actually pretty badass.

[Lord Raziere]

He won the orange league, though too be fair that wasnt a tournament as such, just grab the badges then fight the champ. Im not sure why he would have a rep as a loser, while he may not be the pokemon master he wants to be, he tends to do reasonably well. Making it up a few tiers in each tournament. Plus he likely has a good rep with the locals as he tends to solve all sorts of random problems on his journeys. Dude could bedazzle his jacket with all the badges he has won. The fact that he intentionally resets everything but pikachu every time he goes to a new area alone should earn him some style points. He basically starts from scratch every time and works his way back up to competition level by the time the next tournament rolls around. Thats actually pretty badass.

Well his rep with the fans of Pokemon the franchise is that he is a loser, that is what I meant, out of universe rep.

his rep with the actual pokemon UNIVERSE? Nonexistent. no one ever remembers him, or comments on him doing any of this. the closest he ever got to fame is the Pokemon 2000 movie, where there was prophecy about him, but of course no one ever brings it up again, and all the pokemon movies after that are more local.

[Traab]

Well his rep with the fans of Pokemon the franchise is that he is a loser, that is what I meant, out of universe rep.

his rep with the actual pokemon UNIVERSE? Nonexistent. no one ever remembers him, or comments on him doing any of this. the closest he ever got to fame is the Pokemon 2000 movie, where there was prophecy about him, but of course no one ever brings it up again, and all the pokemon movies after that are more local.

Well in universe he rarely ever goes back to any of the locations he has saved or helped in some fashion so it makes sense it rarely comes up. Think Luffy in One Piece, yeah there are a few who we sometimes will see reacting, but thats mostly home town stuff. But despite the lack of coverage, we all know that he is leaving a rather large swath of people behind him who think of him as their hero. Its similar for Ash in that he tends to solve pokemon related issues wherever he goes, and while its rarely on par with island destroying threats its still enough that you could have a solid montage of people watching the tournament on tv going, "Hey thats ash! Way to go ash!" or whatever if they so chose. Movies I tend to treat as noncanon as they tend to be massive jumps up the ladder in power, threat, and as you said, are never brought up again afterwards. "Oh, I guess I need to defeat the god of pokemon and save the world... AGAIN!!!"

[zimmerwald1915]

He won the orange league, though too be fair that wasnt a tournament as such, just grab the badges then fight the champ. Im not sure why he would have a rep as a loser, while he may not be the pokemon master he wants to be, he tends to do reasonably well. Making it up a few tiers in each tournament. Plus he likely has a good rep with the locals as he tends to solve all sorts of random problems on his journeys. Dude could bedazzle his jacket with all the badges he has won. The fact that he intentionally resets everything but pikachu every time he goes to a new area alone should earn him some style points. He basically starts from scratch every time and works his way back up to competition level by the time the next tournament rolls around. Thats actually pretty badass.
As usual, Best Wishes ruined everything. That was the series that explicitly retconned Ash's age; it was the series that dialed back his maturity and characterization to match; it was the series that abandoned the mentoring-the-Pokegirl leitmotif that had been employed in Advanced and DP, which for all its problems at least showed that Ash had gained some wisdom over his journey; it was, I believe, the first series that had Ash finish a league tournament with a lower standing than the previous and to add insult to injury had him lose to an opponent who was purposely handicapping himself; it was the series that most obnoxiously Worfed Pikachu at the beginning. It's from this series that much of the modern fan interpretation of Ash's character springs. X & Y tried to fix it by returning to more or less the Advanced/DP status quo, but it was too little too late.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Well his rep with the fans of Pokemon the franchise is that he is a loser, that is what I meant, out of universe rep.

his rep with the actual pokemon UNIVERSE? Nonexistent. no one ever remembers him, or comments on him doing any of this. the closest he ever got to fame is the Pokemon 2000 movie, where there was prophecy about him, but of course no one ever brings it up again, and all the pokemon movies after that are more local.

I don't know, he does save the creator god and such in those movies. But the movies are all sort of half-canon. In the movie continuity all the other movies and the series happened, but in the series continuity it's unclear if the movies ever took place. So Ash may or may not be the multiple time savior of the world. Another thing left purposefully unclear is what a Pokémon master is or how much there is to Pokémon battling beyond what we see. For all we know Ash's journeys are the equivalent of high school, and ones you're good enough you can start on your Pokémon bachelor's and then master's degree. (Okay, that one seems pretty unlikely, but it's definitely not fully explored how much of a gap there is between these conferences a first year trainer can participate in and the elite four and champions who seem to have a pretty big role in stopping disasters and such.) And of course there is the fact that the games portray the journey of an unimaginably talented supertrainer who wins everything ever within the span of seemingly weeks at most. Yeah, sure, anyone is a loser by those standards. How many years did it take Bill Gates to become the biggest name in software? Slacker...

[Traab]

I don't know, he does save the creator god and such in those movies. But the movies are all sort of half-canon. In the movie continuity all the other movies and the series happened, but in the series continuity it's unclear if the movies ever took place. So Ash may or may not be the multiple time savior of the world. Another thing left purposefully unclear is what a Pokémon master is or how much there is to Pokémon battling beyond what we see. For all we know Ash's journeys are the equivalent of high school, and ones you're good enough you can start on your Pokémon bachelor's and then master's degree. (Okay, that one seems pretty unlikely, but it's definitely not fully explored how much of a gap there is between these conferences a first year trainer can participate in and the elite four and champions who seem to have a pretty big role in stopping disasters and such.) And of course there is the fact that the games portray the journey of an unimaginably talented supertrainer who wins everything ever within the span of seemingly weeks at most. Yeah, sure, anyone is a loser by those standards. How many years did it take Bill Gates to become the biggest name in software? Slacker...

My best guess is most people start off as trainers, then move into other related fields. Like, lets say ash won the indigo plateau. It wouldnt surprise me in the least if the league offered him a chance to become a gym leader if he wanted to settle down. There are of course other fields like brock wanting to be a pokemon breeder. Ash and his goal of pokemon master to me, seemed to be more of a general field than a specific job. He wanted to be the guy who knows pretty much everything about pokemon, and more than mastering the stats and strats, knows all about the pokemon themselves, sort of like having a masters in a dozen fields while someone like brock holds a phd in his one field. Brock would be better than ash when it comes to knowledge of pokemon breeding, but ash could hold his own in any shop talk brock might come up with, while also being far more knowledgeable in every other field than brock would be.

Your high school analogy is probably pretty solid. Gary decided to become a researcher like his grandpa, brock decided to become a breeder, I think misty was working to get good enough to join her sisters gym, or maybe she wanted to be a pokemon beauty contest winner, its been a very long time since I watched. Basically, they all start out as basic trainers, then decide where they want to branch off to from there. Being a trainer exposes them to the dozens of fields available to those who work with pokemon, and its up to you to choose your final goal. Most choose to specialize, while ash wants to be the best at everything.

[The Glyphstone]

So Ash is the guy who spends three years of college with his major as Undeclared. Makes sense.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

So Ash is the guy who spends three years of college with his major as Undeclared. Makes sense.

Now that you put it like that, that does sound like something Ash would do. And after every test he would get into an argument with someone that it's not the height of your test scores that matters, but whether you're friends with them.

[Jayngfet]

So Ash is the guy who spends three years of college with his major as Undeclared. Makes sense.

The thing is that, to me, there are different levels of Pokemon Trainer. Most trainers in the anime and games have one or two vaguely ok Pokemon of a common type. They do this for fun and on weekends and are easily beaten even by Ash very early on in the anime. A bit above them you have specialists like Bug Catchers who aren't really competitive but are better than casual types. Ash beats them pretty easily too.

Past that you have local clubs and organizations that aren't actually gyms with badges so much as training grounds or schools. Ash is again better than most of these guys handily and was even early on into the first episodes even though he does everything "wrong". You can call guys like actually competent Team Rocket members and admins somewhere in this area too.

Beyond that you get into the realm of actual professionals, Gym Leaders, and Professors. Ash is solidly here but he isn't at the top of the top so he loses regional matches. But even those guys are the top guys out of hundreds or thousands.

If Pokemon were a real life sport then Ash is basically the guy who spent 10 years winning local tournaments and placing in regional and national ones. There's no shame in that since even famous real life pros at a lot of sports don't win the absolute top regularly.

If he retired from gym fighting Ash could, even at the end of a given season, probably start his own school or club and get to be a gym leader or equivalent pretty quickly.

[Traab]

The thing is that, to me, there are different levels of Pokemon Trainer. Most trainers in the anime and games have one or two vaguely ok Pokemon of a common type. They do this for fun and on weekends and are easily beaten even by Ash very early on in the anime. A bit above them you have specialists like Bug Catchers who aren't really competitive but are better than casual types. Ash beats them pretty easily too.

Past that you have local clubs and organizations that aren't actually gyms with badges so much as training grounds or schools. Ash is again better than most of these guys handily and was even early on into the first episodes even though he does everything "wrong". You can call guys like actually competent Team Rocket members and admins somewhere in this area too.

Beyond that you get into the realm of actual professionals, Gym Leaders, and Professors. Ash is solidly here but he isn't at the top of the top so he loses regional matches. But even those guys are the top guys out of hundreds or thousands.

If Pokemon were a real life sport then Ash is basically the guy who spent 10 years winning local tournaments and placing in regional and national ones. There's no shame in that since even famous real life pros at a lot of sports don't win the absolute top regularly.

If he retired from gym fighting Ash could, even at the end of a given season, probably start his own school or club and get to be a gym leader or equivalent pretty quickly.

Yeah if pokemon battles were professional sports, Ash would likely be a middle round draft pick for a professional team. He hasnt reached a level of skill where teams are busting down his door to get him, but he is clearly worthy of being in the league. He is certainly past the minors or college teams. And he still has time and ability to grow, so while he wont be breaking records right away, if he keeps at it, its possible he will be among the names that get remembered long term. I like your regional and national example. he may not be winning on the world stage but he isnt embarrassing himself there either. I was watching this guy who does starcraft 2 commentary and he frequently talks about various players who dont win the big world tournaments but are always there and often in the top 10 or whatever in rankings. There is no shame in not being number 1. Being tenth in the world is pretty freaking amazing.

[Jayngfet]

In actuality I think Ash is probably a trainer poorly suited to top tier competitor status because he has a tendency to go for underdogs and take sub optimal strategies to focus on personal aspects of what is essentially a sport. He'd never win in a "realistic" scenario but he's the kind of guy who just by placing and being that widespread in the community could easily just write a few books on his methods and train younger kids as he gets older.

That's not to say he can't win or his strategies aren't viable. I have in fact beat the crap out of my more experienced friends perfect IV fully evolved team using wild caught Pikachu and other sub optimal or under evolved pokemon. In fact, ignoring the meta and doing your own thing can be incredibly effective in any sport or game since it's much easier to trip your opponent up and pull out unexpected solutions to problems presented(and in fact is my go to solution in both full contact sports and TCG's, mainly 'cause I'm a jerk and like watching people get mad over it).

I am in this analogy assuming there are things like local clubs and tournaments that we do see, but are scaled up to the level you see in other real life sports.

[Tvtyrant]

If Pikachu was a legendary he would be much better at Zapdos guys down.

[Traab]

In actuality I think Ash is probably a trainer poorly suited to top tier competitor status because he has a tendency to go for underdogs and take sub optimal strategies to focus on personal aspects of what is essentially a sport. He'd never win in a "realistic" scenario but he's the kind of guy who just by placing and being that widespread in the community could easily just write a few books on his methods and train younger kids as he gets older.

That's not to say he can't win or his strategies aren't viable. I have in fact beat the crap out of my more experienced friends perfect IV fully evolved team using wild caught Pikachu and other sub optimal or under evolved pokemon. In fact, ignoring the meta and doing your own thing can be incredibly effective in any sport or game since it's much easier to trip your opponent up and pull out unexpected solutions to problems presented(and in fact is my go to solution in both full contact sports and TCG's, mainly 'cause I'm a jerk and like watching people get mad over it).

I am in this analogy assuming there are things like local clubs and tournaments that we do see, but are scaled up to the level you see in other real life sports.

That may be a solid point, though in general he tends to go sub optimal either because he is an idiot, "Go caterpie! Take on that pidgey!" Or when there is a special point to prove, like beating that raichu with pikachu. Though at least then he was able to figure out a way to make it work by exploiting a weakness the raichu had due to evolving it right away. He does usually try to type match and make appropriate strategies in normal fights, its only when there is something to prove that he does the odd ones. Other times it works because as the protagonist the rules dont apply. "Go electric mouse! Zap that sentient rock with a single attack!" /this move was super effective... somehow.

[Tvtyrant]

He broke the sprinkler system over the Onyx though, it wasn't pure ass pull.

[Traab]

He broke the sprinkler system over the Onyx though, it wasn't pure ass pull.

Yeah but that was only because pikachu burned a lot of its bonus energy obliterating a geodude in one shot. Then in a later season he did it again, another rock/ground type gym leader Though iirc he used iron tail on the nosepass. But he slammed her geodude at point blank range with thunder and took it out. And that was WITHOUT supercharging it like he did against brock. His pikachu does not obey the rules.

[zimmerwald1915]

Yeah but that was only because pikachu burned a lot of its bonus energy obliterating a geodude in one shot. Then in a later season he did it again, another rock/ground type gym leader Though iirc he used iron tail on the nosepass. But he slammed her geodude at point blank range with thunder and took it out. And that was WITHOUT supercharging it like he did against brock. His pikachu does not obey the rules.
That or there's no such thing as true type immunity in the anime. Maybe Ground types just reduce Electric damage by *1/16 or something. Likewise for e.g. Ghost types to Normal attacks, and Dark types to Psychic attacks. It's "close enough," and different enough in magnitude from normal resistances, for characters to talk about immunity, but some damage, and in the case of sufficiently powerful Pokemon, a lot of damage, can get through.