Will Goh capture Legendary Pokemon?

[EternalPokéFanGirl]

I really hope not, I had enough goosebumps with him almost catching Zapdos . Goh is a good boy but I think he has no merits to deserve such honor, him catching a legendary would be a punch in the face to trainers with years of experience and for the anime audience. And I definitely don't think he'll catch Mew, at least not in this series, he obviously has a long way to go if he really wants to catch a legendary. And even if he does (Which would be terrible) I REALLY doubt he can control it, Mew is like a hyperactive kid that always needs entertainment, like when it fought againts Nidoking, and I don't think someone like Goh, who doesn't like battles that much, can keep up with that energy.

 

[Venomaid]

I really hope not, I had enough goosebumps with him almost catching Zapdos . Goh is a good boy but I think he has no merits to deserve such honor, him catching a legendary would be a punch in the face to trainers with years of experience and for the anime audience. And I definitely don't think he'll catch Mew, at least not in this series, he obviously has a long way to go if he really wants to catch a legendary. And even if he does (Which would be terrible) I REALLY doubt he can control it, Mew is like a hyperactive kid that always needs entertainment, like when it fought againts Nidoking, and I don't think someone like Goh, who doesn't like battles that much, can keep up with that energy.

"Honor"? Are you kidding? A freaking background character with no name or backstory had a legendary at the Sinnoh league so how does an actual established character like Goh not qualify for one?

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Well.... This Thread Certainly Aged Well didn't it?

So who's next on the chopping block for Gou?

My Money's on Arceus

 

[EternalPokéFanGirl]

"Honor"? Are you kidding? A freaking background character with no name or backstory had a legendary at the Sinnoh league so how does an actual established character like Goh not qualify for one?

"Honor" was just a way to describe it, but yes catching a legendary can be called an honor. It's true, there was a background character with a Heatran, maybe it's was a background joke or they wanted to give Heatran a little appearance, I don't know; there's also Tobias, a character with an unknown past that has a Darkrai, he was a plot device to make Ash lose but that's not the point. They have something in common, you said so yourself, we DON'T KNOW their past or what they are really capable of, that person with Heatran could be an extraordinary trainer; and Tobias, plot device or not, was shown as an incredible trainer.

If that Heatran guy or Tobias were recurring characters then it would be a problem, in that case we would need answers, but if it's not the case then it's not really necessary. In Goh's case, he's a main character and we know him really well, we know his story and what he's capable of, we know that him is a rookie, who started his journey a few months ago and is not exactly the strongest trainer.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

"Honor" was just a way to describe it, but yes catching a legendary can be called an honor. It's true, there was a background character with a Heatran, maybe it's was a background joke or they wanted to give Heatran a little appearance, I don't know; there's also Tobias, a character with an unknown past that has a Darkrai, he was a plot device to make Ash lose but that's not the point. They have something in common, you said so yourself, we DON'T KNOW their past or what they are really capable of, that person with Heatran could be an extraordinary trainer; and Tobias, plot device or not, was shown as an incredible trainer.

If that Heatran guy or Tobias were recurring characters then it would be a problem, in that case we would need answers, but if it's not the case then it's not really necessary. In Goh's case, he's a main character and we know him really well, we know his story and what he's capable of, we know that him is a rookie, who started his journey a few months ago and is not exactly the strongest trainer.

You say that the Heatran guy could've been an extraordinary trainer even when we can pretty much tell that the dude wasn't because he didn't make it farther than Ash or Paul or Tobias or even Barry in the tournament.

And sorry but the whole argument that Goh's journey just started being the reasoning for him not to have a legendary Pokemon is so rickety because when Ash got a mythical (which are basically rarer than legendaries and almost like a subdivision of them) it took literally no work on his part other than a casual Pokeball toss. His experience as a trainer didn't matter in that instance whatsoever so why should Goh's experience or lack thereof matter when it comes to his legendary or mythical captures?

 

[swiftgallade46]

The only legendary I would be cool with Goh getting at this point is Kubfu. If Ash and Gladion hadn’t already got them, I’d be ok with Meltan or Type: Null too. Other than that, I’m not really into the idea of any member of the main cast catching a legendary permanently. Not even Ash.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The only legendary I would be cool with Goh getting at this point is Kubfu. If Ash and Gladion hadn’t already got them, I’d be ok with Meltan or Type: Null too. Other than that, I’m not really into the idea of any member of the main cast catching a legendary permanently. Not even Ash.

Ash has Melmetal, which is a Mythical, so pretty close to a Legendary.

 

[Sobble Bubble-O-Seven]

Well.... This Thread Certainly Aged Well didn't it?

So who's next on the chopping block for Gou?

My Money's on Arceus

He's attempted to catch legendary Pokemon from gens 1 and 2. If I were to guess, I think a gen 3 legendary is next. Maybe one of the Regi's? I'm gonna guess Registeel.

 

[EternalPokéFanGirl]

You say that the Heatran guy could've been an extraordinary trainer even when we can pretty much tell that the dude wasn't because he didn't make it farther than Ash or Paul or Tobias or even Barry in the tournament.

And sorry but the whole argument that Goh's journey just started being the reasoning for him not to have a legendary Pokemon is so rickety because when Ash got a mythical (which are basically rarer than legendaries and almost like a subdivision of them) it took literally no work on his part other than a casual Pokeball toss. His experience as a trainer didn't matter in that instance whatsoever so why should Goh's experience or lack thereof matter when it comes to his legendary or mythical captures?

The Heatran guy argument is easy to answer, we DIDN'T SEE his opponents, it could have been Tobias for all we know , remember that although in Pokémon tournaments always "casually" the weak fight the weak first, and the strong fight in the end for the sake of storytelling, it's supposed to be random. Besides, Heatran is possibly the least rare legendary, as he's the only one with a defined gender.

And for my "rickety" argument, let's analyze the characters that have legendaries:

-Yes, Ash catched Meltal, but though we know that it is a mythical, in the series Meltan was never called that way, it was just a newly discovered pokémon (Maybe I'm wrong, I don't remember very well). And besides that, there were plenty of them, so like Heatran, they're rare, but not THAT rare, and I'm very sure that though in-universe Ash's experience didn't matter for this, if this anime was new they wouldn't have given him a mythical.

-Gladion has Silvally, but it was never called that a legendary either (As long as I remember, correct me if I'm wrong). And Gladion stole it from Faba, who was the one who created it.

-One last case, Lillie has a Magearna, her father found it in a store, crazy luck no doubt, but it was technically possible, Magearna was created by an inventor from ancient times, and that kind of relics usually pass from hand to hand. And like the others it was never called a mythical (As long as I remember, as I say correct me if I'm wrong), and while it probably was very strong, it wasn't exactly made for battles.

But if you really want Goh to have a legendary, as other users have said Kubfu could work, or even Meltan or Type: Null. The fact that the writers CAN go crazy and give him an Arceus doesn't mean they SHOULD, I know that this series can sometimes be very idealistic but we don't have to exaggerate . Besides, I don't think capturing a legendary is a good thing for Goh's character, just here in this forums there's a thread where people are upset because Goh catched a lot of common pokémon in a short time, and surely out of here a lot of people were bothered too, if he catches something too big he could start to be hated by the audience.

 

[swiftgallade46]

Ash has Melmetal, which is a Mythical, so pretty close to a Legendary.

I wish you would stop quoting people with this...it’s becoming pedantic and it’s not an officially-defined term. I consider Mythicals as a subset of Legendary Pokémon. Even Sonia refers to Keldeo as Legendary in the Crown Tundra. So not all Legendaries are Mythical but I consider all Mythicals to be Legendary.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I wish you would stop quoting people with this...it’s becoming pedantic and it’s not an officially-defined term. I consider Mythicals as a subset of Legendary Pokémon. Even Sonia refers to Keldeo as Legendary in the Crown Tundra. So not all Legendaries are Mythical but I consider all Mythicals to be Legendary.

Who knows? Maybe Keldeo is considered a Legendary now that it's no longer event exclusive?

 

[swiftgallade46]

Who knows?

Exactly. No one knows. So people are free to have their own headcanons until explicitly stated otherwise without being corrected as if there were an official definition.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

No.

 

[El Squibbonator]

I wish you would stop quoting people with this...it’s becoming pedantic and it’s not an officially-defined term. I consider Mythicals as a subset of Legendary Pokémon. Even Sonia refers to Keldeo as Legendary in the Crown Tundra. So not all Legendaries are Mythical but I consider all Mythicals to be Legendary.

This is how I see it too. I personally see Mythical Pokémon as a specific tier of Legendary Pokémon-- the Legendary-est of the Legendary, in other words. They aren't a separate thing, and never were. So the fact that main characters can own Legendary Pokémon isn't new to the Journeys series, at least not by this standard. If we define Mythicals as a subset of Legendaries, Ash became the first main character to own a Legendary in the Sun/Moon series by catching Meltan, so even if Goh did catch Suicune (as the summary for the upcoming episode seems to imply) he wouldn't be doing something Ash hasn't already done.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is how easily Goh seems to end up with powerful Pokémon, with no real effort. It was a very special circumstance that led to Ash catching Meltan, and it felt earned in a way that a lot of Goh's captures don't. If Goh captures Suicune, it would basically imply that Goh can do everything Ash can with a lot less effort.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

The Heatran trainer I think isn't worth making a huge fuzz about because there's honestly a pretty good chance that the person who drew them wasn't aware that Heatran is supposed to be a Legendary, which is actually not that hard a mistake to make, since Heatran's status as a Legendary is very underplayed in general: there's literally zero lore or in-universe myths about it, it wasn't created by humans with the express purpose of having godlike power like Mewtwo or Genesect or the Type: Null line... there's basically nothing beyond its stats and rarity to warrant the Legendary classification, which is odd because there's plenty of non-Legendary Pokemon who have both of those attributes, so making Heatran a Legendary on that weak basis alone seems pretty strange. The fact that Heatran's debut showed it being subservient to a human doesn't help matters. So yeah, I think the reason why there was a random background Trainer with a Heatran is simply an error.

Now, onto the actual topic. Goh has technically already caught a legendary in Etarnatus (though he received a lot of help with this one, so it shouldn't be taken as either proof that he's a Gary Stu nor as proof that he's a Writers' Pet nor as proof that he's the OMG Best Character Evar. It's just something that happened because it also happens in the games that the Darkest Day plot was adapted from, so it makes sense that the person to capture Eternatus be the kid who throws Pokeballs at damn near every living creature he sees almost impulsively), but that point is moot since he obviously never intended to keep Eternatus, it's just that the heroes needed something to seal it away and Pokeballs just happened to be the things they had with them at the time to do that.

That said, what is meant by the thread's title is clearly "should Goh capture and keep/command a Legendary Pokemon?" and to that I say... no. At least not right now. I wouldn't want a Legendary Pokemon to become background lab fodder, and Goh making it a permanent team member would effectively render any threat that the heroes come across with moot. Yes, Ash did own two arguable Legendaries last series, but not only were both late captures, but they both started as their much weaker evolved forms and didn't evolve until it was literally time to fight the final bosses, so there was never any "why doesn't Ash just use the two demigods at his disposal to wipe the floor with *insert conflict of the episode here*?" situations.

However, there is one Legendary that I'd be okay with Goh catching early: Kubfu. Much like Poipole and Meltan, Kubfu is of reasonable strength for the place the series is currently at, and could evolve into Urshifu near the end to fight some bigger threat... unfortunately, even Kubfu has its issues. First off is the admittedly completely personal tidbit that I would have preferred Ash to catch Kubfu instead. Except Ash already has two Fighting-types and I feel Kubfu/Urshifu would be way too similar to Riolu/Lucario. Even Goh catching it wouldn't alleviate the repetition problem that much, since we'd still be dealing with a plotline of "small but scrappy anthropomorphic animal Fighting-type that wants to become stronger", just given to a different main character.

So yeah, in short, a Legendary Pokemon joining the main cast this early wouldn't be ideal. So no, Goh shouldn't catch one. Maybe near the end, but definitely not now.

 

[Tuoko]

Who knows? Maybe Keldeo is considered a Legendary now that it's no longer event exclusive?

I don't think this is the case because Deoxys & Celebi are still generally referred to as Mythicals to this day still, and Deoxys was even called one in ORAS after the point you could catch it, so them being normally obtainable doesn't remove their Mythical status.

@swiftgallade46 's idea makes sense with the Mythicals being considered a subset of Legendaries, and the games do back it up coding-wise, since they're all grouped with the box mascots + Mewtwo/Zygarde/Eternatus/Calyrex.

It's just not common for Mythicals to be referred to as Legendaries officially, but that doesn't mean it's impossible

 

[GrookeyFan77]

The reason Eternatus counts as Goh's pokemon is because he threw the ball. Ash helped throw the ball and Zacian and Zamazenta helped the weaken it.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

@swiftgallade46 's idea makes sense with the Mythicals being considered a subset of Legendaries, and the games do back it up coding-wise, since they're all grouped with the box mascots + Mewtwo/Zygarde/Eternatus/Calyrex.

Maybe. I personally will always use the fact that the term "Mythical" has existed in Japan since the franchise began as personal proof they're two different things, just similar.

 

[Johtoo]

Soon Goh will be rolling with a team of Arcues, Darkrai, Giritina, Palkia, Mewtwo and Lugia.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Soon Goh will be rolling with a team of Arcues, Darkrai, Giritina, Palkia, Mewtwo and Lugia.

Goh is not gonna catch the Pokemon God, the Pokemon Devil, The Ruler of Space, The Ruler of Darkness, His Obbession's 2nd form and the first Legendary he met.