As you might’ve guessed, it’s that time of the week again. And for this week I’ll be talking about some Legendary Pokemon that are new favorites of mine. This is also the first Legendary Pokemon of the Week Post that covers a whole trio. Presenting now one of the Legendary Pokemon trios of the Unova Region, the Kami Trio, which consists of Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus.
One thing I should note about the members of the Kami Trio is that all three members are male, which is kind of obvious from looking at their Incarnate Forms. Landorus is the leader of the trio and is often considered as a god of the fields and can help crops grow. Tornadus meanwhile, can control wind, while Thudurus can control lightning. The anime has shown that all three can be helpful in growing crops. So if you’re a farmer, these three are Legendary Pokemon you might want to get your hands on.
Anyway, the myth behind this trio goes a little something like this. Long ago, Tornadus and Thundurus were wreaking havoc on the land, most likely because they were fighting each other. Eventually, Landorus put a stop to their fighting and punished them, though I’m not exactly clear on what kind of punishment Landorus gave them. But the people were so grateful to Landorus that they erected a shrine in his honor. I’ll get to the shrine more in a bit.
In Black 2 and White 2, the members of the Kami Trio were revealed to have alternate forms, known as Therian Forms. Those are the forms shown in the image I used for this post. This is just a guess, but based on the name of the trio’s original forms, the Therian Forms seem to be the trio’s “true forms”. This implication is given more weight by the name of the item used to switch the trio between their different forms, a mirror known as the Reveal Glass. The Reveal Glass has been used on the Kami Trio in a recent episode of the anime, and it seems that within the anime using the Reveal Glass might not be such a good idea. But I’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Hangout: Tornadus and Thundurus are both Roaming Pokemon in Black and White. The two are also version exclusives, with Tornadus being only in Black, and Thundurus being only in White. Landorus, meanwhile, can be found at the shrine erected in his honor, the Abundant Shrine. Fortunately, Landorus is a stationary Legendary, but in order to summon him you need both Tornadus and Thundurus in your party. Which means you need to do a little trading.
In Black 2 and White 2, the trio is not found at all. Normally, this would mean you’d have to do some trading to get them in your game, but there is an alternative. When Black 2 and White 2 came out in Japan, there was also another game released called Pokemon Dream Radar. Dream Radar is an augmented reality game that has you shoot at clouds to obtain orbs containing either Pokemon or items. The Pokemon captured in this game are transferable over to Black 2 and White 2, and when you advance far enough in the game you’re able obtain the Kami Trio in their Therian Forms.
Role In the Anime: In the Black and White anime, the Kami Trio have been playing a pretty big role as the latest targets of Team Rocket. This is just my little theory, but I think this plot involving the Kami Trio was whipped up to replace the storyline involving Team Plasma, because Team Plasma hasn’t appeared at all in the anime. They were going to, but then the earthquake and tsunami happened in Japan and the episodes featuring Team Plasma’s debut were cancelled. It’s been said that those episodes are going to be shown at a later date, but at this point I doubt it. I mean look at how much time has past since those episodes were supposed to air, and not once since that time has Team Plasma shown up.
Anyway, the Kami Trio first appeared in a two-part episode of the anime when the all of the sudden competent Jessie, James, and Meowth, vandalized a pair of shrines that resulted in Tornadus and Thundurus being summoned and causing a rampage with their fighting. This of course forces Ash and his companions to summon Landorus, as he is said to be the only Pokemon that can stop the other two members of the trio. For the record, Tornadus and Thundurus could probably also be stopped by Kyurem, Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Mewtwo, Mew, Deoxys, and possibly Darkrai. But it wasn’t like any of those Pokemon were going to show up. Anyway, they summon Landorus, Team Rocket tries to catch them, Ash stops Team Rocket, Landorus stops the fighting, and everything turns out super.
This next part is something of a spoiler for the anime, so a few of you might want to stop reading at this point. In another two-part episode that recently aired in Japan, Team Rocket makes another attempt to control the Kami Trio, with Giovanni taking the lead personally. Using another Legendary Pokemon, Meloetta, Giovanni obtains the Reveal Glass from an underwater temple and uses it to summon the Kami Trio and change them to their Therian Forms. The transformation seems to cause the trio to go berserk and start a rampage. Using the Reveal Glass seemed to have an effect on Giovanni as well, as it caused his eyes to glow red and a weird symbol to appear on his forehead.
But of course in the end, Ash and his friends manage to thwart Giovanni and use the mirror to return the Kami Trio to normal. The trio goes back to wherever they came from. Meanwhile Giovanni, like any good evil mastermind, manages to flee before anyone can call the cops. These episodes mark Giovanni’s biggest appearance in the anime since Mewtwo Returns. And as I said in my Character Salute to Giovanni, it’s a pity they couldn’t have done this when the anime was still good.
That wraps it up for this post. Next time I’ll be talking about another Legendary Pokemon from Generation Five. So until then stay tuned.
