Once again, I apologize for not doing one of these posts last week. I wasn’t feeling well that week, but I’m better now and am ready to pick up where I left off. So, for this week’s Legendary Pokemon of the Week post, I’m going to be covering one of my two favorite Legendary Pokemon of all time. Presenting the one hundred and fiftieth Pokemon, Mewtwo.
Mewtwo is probably one of the most iconic Legendary Pokemon of all time, and is certainly one of the most unique as it was created by science. Mewtwo is a clone of another Legendary Pokemon, Mew, that was created by recombining Mew’s DNA. The result was an overwhelmingly powerful and rather aggressive Pokemon. For a time Mewtwo was probably the strongest Legendary Pokemon in terms of stats, but now he’s number two with the introduction of Arceus. The origin of Mewtwo differs between the games and the anime, so I’ll start with the game version first.
In Red, Blue, Yellow, and their third generation remakes, the origin of Mewtwo can be pieced together through the journal entries found in the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar Island in Kanto. It all began when a scientist discovered Mew in the jungles of Guyana, South America (apparently there’s a North and South America in the Pokemon world). Mew was then brought back to the Pokemon mansion for further study. It’s assumed at this point that the scientist and his colleagues took a DNA sample from the Mew that they found, recombined it, and used it to impregnate Mew. The next entry goes on to say that Mew gave birth, and they named the resulting offspring, Mewtwo.
I’d like to pause for a moment and point out that the journal entry said that Mew actually gave birth to Mewtwo rather than just laying an egg. Now it could be that Mew do give live birth rather than lay eggs, I mean they are Legendary. But this could also be that this is an example of the writers not thinking far enough ahead. Keep in mind that this is from a time before it was possible to breed Pokemon in the games. The same could probably be said about Mew being found in South America in the journal. Anyway, the scientists failed to control Mewtwo and in the end it fled, most likely leaving the mansion in ruins before it left (and maybe causing a few deaths). As to just where Mewtwo fled to, I’ll be covering that now.
Hangout: In every mainstream game that Mewtwo has ever appeared in, Mewtwo is always found within Cerulean Cave, or as it was first known by a few old school Pokemon fans like myself, the Unknown Dungeon. In Generation One, Cerulean Cave is only accessible after defeating the Elite Four. In the remakes, a couple more requirements were needed to enter the cave. One I believe was to have unlocked the National Pokedex, and the other was to have fixed the network machine that allowed for trades with Ruby and Sapphire (and I assume Emerald). In HeartGold and SoulSilver I believe all that’s needed to enter the cave is to have all eight Kanto gym badges.
The layout of the cave is a bit different between versions, even among the Generation One games. Red and Blue had a different layout from the original Red and Green versions in Japan, and Yellow had a layout all its own. One I was never really fond of, by the way. FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, and SoulSilver I believe all use the original Japanese layout. Cerulean Cave is home to several high-level Pokemon, which is why it isn’t accessible until after beating the Elite Four.
There was a rather odd assortment of Pokemon in Cerulean Cave in the first generation. You’d find Pokemon like Dodrio and Chansey, and quite a few Pokemon that are normally only available through evolving with Evolution Stone. These were Pokemon that one would expect to find out in fields or in forests and not inside a cave. And I think this was mainly due to the fact that there were only 151 Pokemon back then. Since that time though that little problem has been corrected. You find fewer Pokemon by walking around, but they’re Pokemon that are more likely to be encountered in caves. But most of the wild Pokemon in the cave are found by fishing in the later generations.
Anyway, Mewtwo is found within the lowest level of the cave at level 70. So if you haven’t already used the Master Ball on another Legendary Pokemon, this would probably be the best time to use it. Otherwise you’ll need your highest-level Pokemon and about fifty or more Pokeballs, because you’ll be in for a long and bloody battle. In my experience the cave is still worth going to after Mewtwo has been caught. All the high level Pokemon in the cave make it a good training ground. It’s just the right place to go if you want to evolve your Dragonair into a Dragonite and don’t want to have repeated battles with the Elite Four to do it.
Signature Move: Mewtwo is from a time before the concept of signature moves was introduced. Not that he really needed any of course. But when Generation Five rolled around, Mewtwo was given a signature move all his own in the form of Psystrike. I’ve never seen this move in action myself, but from what I understand Psystrike calculates the damage it inflicts using Mewtwo’s mind-blowing Special Attack and the opponent’s Defense. In other words in converts Mewtwo’s Special Attack into physical damage. Mewtwo, rather fittingly, learns Psystrike at level 100, so intense training is needed to get the move.
In the Anime: So I mentioned at the beginning of this post that Mewtwo’s origins differed a bit between the games and anime, so now I’ll be talking about the anime version. It began with a scientist know as Dr. Fuji, who is widely believed to be the same scientist who created Mewtwo in the games. When Dr. Fuji’s daughter, Amber, died due to illness, Dr. Fuji became obsessed with trying to bring her back, and he decided to do it through cloning. Fuji’s obsession caused his wife to leave him of course, but he pressed on. As his research continued, Dr. Fuji came to the conclusion that in order to clone Amber he would first need a Pokemon powerful enough to survive the cloning process in order to perfect it, and for that he needed Mew.
Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, agreed to fund Dr. Fuji’s project with the condition that he be given an enhanced clone of Mew. Dr. Fuji then went on a jungle expedition where he and his team found part of a Mew fossil, and with the DNA he created the Pokemon that would become Mewtwo. At that time, Dr. Fuji also created clones of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle as test subjects. He even created his clone of Amber, which in my opinion might’ve been jumping the gun a bit. But then this whole thing was pretty messed up from the beginning anyway.
Somehow, the young Mewtwo was able to communicate psychically with his fellow clones as they grew in their tanks and they became friends. But sadly the other clones, including Amber, took a turn for the worse and died before the young Mewtwo’s eyes (well, as he saw it in that little psychic dream world anyway). Mewtwo couldn’t handle the incident, and Dr. Fuji panicked and ordered that a memory suppressing serum be given to him. But needless to say, the whole incident messed up pretty badly. At that point with Amber pretty much lost forever, the only thing Dr. Fuji had left was Mewtwo.
Eventually, Mewtwo fully matured and broke free from his cloning tube. He quickly saw that Dr. Fuji and the other scientists saw him as nothing more than a lab experiment, which enraged him and caused him to completely destroy the lab (presumably killing most, if not all the scientists there in the process). At that time, Giovanni arrived in a helicopter and told Mewtwo that he could help him become more powerful. Mewtwo accepted Giovanni’s offer and for a time he played along. But soon Mewtwo found that Giovanni saw him as nothing more than a weapon.
Mewtwo then fled, destroying Team Rocket HQ in the process. Mewtwo then came to the conclusion that humans needed to be wiped from the face of the planet along with the Pokemon that served him. He then set about on a plan to destroy the human race and replace all the Pokemon on the planet with clones. But as chance would have it, he ran into Ash and his friends. Mewtwo’s actions also attracted a Mew, who came to investigate out of curiosity (because it’s a cat).
But Mewtwo took the arrival of Mew as a challenge, and a brutal battle between natural born and clone Pokemon began. Durning the battle between the two Legendary Pokemon, Ash threw himself into the crossfire and seemingly died. But he was revived by the tears of natural and cloned Pokemon alike. After seeing this, Mewtwo had a change of heart and stopped his plans to destroy the world. He then took his clones and wiped the memories of the whole incident from the minds of Ash and his friends (and the other trainers who were present).
Mewtwo took the clones to an isolated mountain in Johto to live a life completely cut off from the human race. But unfortunately Giovanni had since become obsessed with hunting down Mewtwo. Team Rocket had tracked Mewtwo down in the mountain and another battle began. But of course Ash and his friends happened to be nearby and helped Mewtwo out. It was then that Mewtwo began to realize that not all humans are alike.
In the end Mewtwo wiped all memory of himself from the minds of Giovanni and his army and transported them away. Mewtwo then relocated the cloned Pokemon beneath the mountain and departed elsewhere. After that it became said in a city in Johto that Mewtwo could be seen sometimes roaming around by the light of the moon. That’s been the last time Mewtwo has been seen in the anime, other than a few cameos at the beginning of some of the movies. It’s a shame really, since Mewtwo is probably the deepest character the anime has ever had.
That pretty much wraps it up for this post. I’m actually a little surprised that I haven’t covered Mewtwo before now. But I’ve finally done it, and for next time I’ll be covering Mewtwo’s genetic counterpart. So until then, stay tuned.
