It’s Saturday once again, which means it’s time to talk about one of my favorite Legendary Pokemon. For this week I thought I’d talk about the very first Legendary Pokemon I ever encountered in the games, the legendary bird of lightning, Zapdos.
It happened many years ago when I was playing Pokemon Blue. I was still a little new to the game and was having trouble with the maze of the Sliph Co. building (I could not find the card key). So I decided to take a break from that puzzle and check out something that had me curious. By the Rock Tunnel entrance near Cerulean City there was, for lack of a better term, a stream of water that was not fenced off from the player. Since my Pokemon could Surf, I decided to see if that stream went anywhere.
It went somewhere all right. After a short trip down the stream I found myself in front of a building I had never seen before. The sign in front said it was a power plant, which intrigued me even more. So of course I went inside. The building was obviously abandoned, and very soon I found it was filled with wild Pokemon. One of the first Pokemon I had encountered was a Magneton, which I had been wanting for awhile.
I used the very last Pokeball I had in my bag to catch that Magneton, and after that I should’ve left to go get more Pokeballs. But curiosity got the better of me. I continued exploring the old power plant. I found a few items, some of which turned out to be Voltorb and Electrode. I reach the final room with the exit, and standing in that room was a bird. Like an idiot I interacted with it, immediately finding that it was a bird Pokemon I was unfamiliar with, Zapdos.
I had seen a few pictures of Zapdos before, but didn’t really know anything about it. At the time I had no Pokeballs left, so I ran from the battle thinking it would be there when I returned. Of course when I came back it wasn’t, and I realized I had screwed up royal. So I reset the game for another chance (and I had been thinking of resetting the game anyway). The next time I encountered Zapdos I just ended up using the Master Ball on it, not knowing about Mewtwo at the time. I later learned from my cousin that Zapdos wasn’t just rare it was legendary.
As I know very well now, Zapdos is one of three legendary birds in the Kanto Region. There aren’t any elaborate stories or legends behind Zapdos, other than the Pokedex entries that say it descends from the sky during storms and drops lightning bolts. Zapdos and it two counterparts are ruled by one of Johto’s legendary birds, Lugia, but other than that there isn’t much to tell. Zapdos falls into a category of Legendary Pokemon known as Mirage Pokemon (and I’m not talking about that one movie that came out a few years ago that wasn’t any good). Mirage Pokemon are basically a kind of Legendary Pokemon that are just so rare a lot of people don’t think they actually exist, like Bigfoot of the Loch Ness Monster.
Hangout: So as I mentioned before, in the games Zapdos can be found in an old abandoned power plant in Kanto. The plant is home to a lot of Electric-type Pokemon, not to mention a few Grimer and Muk. So the place is worth visiting again after catching Zapdos. Even if you do capture one of each Pokemon that lives there, it still makes a great place to train your Ground-type Pokemon. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, the old power plant is brought back into operation, but you can still find Zapdos hanging around outside once you have all sixteen of the gym badges.
One of My Favorite Types: When it gets right down to it, the Electric-type is just one of my favorite Pokemon types. Back when I played the games I’d usually have at least one Electric Pokemon on my team. There are some Electric-type Pokemon out there that I’m not a big fan of, but not many. And Zapdos is one of the ultimate Electric Pokemon. When you think of a thunderstorm, you think Zapdos (and Raikou).
So that wraps it up for this week. There are still quite a few of my favorite Legendary Pokemon left to talk about. So until next time.
