"Maybe-unpopular opinion: I don’t like how Mythicals have been handled in recent generations [spoiler]"

All of the mythical Pokémon after around Gen 5 feel really forgettable to me. I didn’t even realize this until I was replying to someone’s comment about mythicals and barely remembered that Magearna is a thing.In gens 1-4, Mythicals were hinted at throughout various points in the games. Most of them didn’t directly appear in the games without events/glitches, but because their existence was alluded to and hinted at, getting lucky enough to obtain them felt really special, especially with all the allusions to Mew on Cinnabar Island and things like the Gen 3 event where you could go battle Deoxys. It’s a shame that the Gen 4 in-game events were scrapped and the mythicals were just handed to you, but it’s almost forgivable because Darkrai, Arceus, and even Shaymin to an extent have a clear place within the lore and feel so much more believable than later Gen mythicals. Arceus is clearly defined as the Pokémon god and can be considered as the counterpart to Giratina, Darkrai is the counterpart to Cresselia and is the “mysterious force” behind people having nightmares, and Shaymin and its relationship with the Gracedia flowers fits in perfectly with Sinnoh’s atmosphere and mythology-driven lore. The same could be said for Celebi’s relationship to the spirituality-driven Jotho region or Deoxys’ relationship to Hoenn’s focus on science and technology/being a rival to Rayquaza.Gen 5 is where things start to fall off a bit. Victini’s original event was handled perfectly. It had its own niche game location, could be battled instead of just being handed to you, and was obtained at a low enough level that you could incorporate it into your team instead of just having it as a trophy. While Victini’s lore is kind of on the vague side, it’s association with victory and the parallels of Liberty Garden to the real-life Liberty Island make Victini work in the context of Unova being based on the United States. It’s too bad that this couldn’t be done for the other mythicals because this is the point to me where mythicals started feeling like trophies, but at least Keldeo fits in with the legendary fighting trio and Genesect is fun to make theories about/fits in with what we know about Team Plasma. Meloetta is not a personal favorite of mine because it is the least memorable of the group, is only mentioned in one obscure location in the game and isn’t really reflected in anything else about Unova, has a less appealing design than the other three (this is of course completely subjective though), it’s only memorable at all due to the form changing gimmick (something already seen twice before and done much better with Deoxys and Shaymin), and I think its existence is the point where mythicals started going downhill.Gen 6 is the point where I start struggling to remember the names of the Mythicals because two of them left so little impact on anything else besides selling merch and “go to GameStop and get this code.” Hoopa has an impact in the story because of its ability to manipulate dimensions and even summon Legendary Pokémon (as seen in ORAS postgame), its alternate form has a defined purpose, and it’s honestly pretty neat to have a djinn-based Pokémon. The other two leave a lot to be desired. Volcanion just feels like a bunch of wasted potential. It should have been related better to that random barely-used steam plant route in Kalos and it just...wasn’t. Volcanion has zero visible or spoken impact on anything in Kalos. For all we know from the information given in-game, the steam power could just be functioning naturally without the help of a powerful Pokémon. Volcanion’s design is okay, but feels confusing and underwhelming for such a distinctive type combination and the concept it is actually meant to be based on. If I had no prior knowledge of the thing and was asked to guess its type, I would go with Steel type. Volcanion’s whole concept of turning water vapor into high-pressure steam should be neat, but that just isn’t translated terribly well in its design unless you see it with its “arms” open. While Darkrai is clearly nightmarish, Jirachi’s design references wishing on a star etc, who knew that dinosaur + bobcat + donut = fire/water type steam blasting monster? Diance’s lore at least corresponds to Carbink, an otherwise semi-forgettable Kalos Pokémon, but it is so self-contained that where Volcanion may or may not have an impact that isn’t spoken of with the Steam Plant (again, based on information we are given in-game), Diance has zero influence over Kalos whatsoever. It doesn’t help/protect or threaten the region, it doesn’t have a prominent role in regional mythology, and it’s far from the most mysterious thing out there since researchers have found out exactly why it exists. The only things Diance really has going for it are that its aesthetic fits in with the Kalos region and it is the only mythical to have a Mega instead of just another form change, but that’s about it. All of these mythicals fall heavily into the “trophy” category and imo, have less value than a legitimately caught rare shiny Pokémon. They all really start to feel like they were created just to sell merch/movies, even Hoopa.Gen 7 gives us Magearna, which is quite possibly the worst offender because it’s so damn forgettable. Its design and lore are much, much more suited to Kalos than to Alola, making it feel like a scrapped/postponed Gen 6 Pokémon, especially if you count its relationship to Volcanion as canon. Its design does not appeal to me at all personally, and while its typing makes sense with the design, it’s hard to tell what its purpose/abilities are by just looking at it. I feel that I can’t really comment on Marshadow very much at this point. I want to like it because it’s cute, mysterious, and has a unique typing, but what does it even do? I know it has an important role in the new movie (which I have not seen but plan to since I’ve heard some good things about it), but why should everything about this Pokémon be contained within a movie, in a region outside of the one it’s even obtainable in?USUM spoilers ahead, proceed at your own risk....I want better for Zeraora. I know its design is controversial, but I personally like it a lot. Give me a clearly defined reason for Zeraora to exist in Alola. If it has multiple forms, give me an interesting reason for those forms to exist. Let us catch it in its own special location so we can work for it and be able to give it a nickname, and make early enough in the game so we can have it on our teams and become attached to it and it won’t just sit in a PC box gathering dust. Give it unique lore and a reason to be special besides just being a merch mascot....End of spoilersI say all of this as someone who has played every game gens 3-7 and has done at least one playthrough of every region except Alola (have not fully completed Moon yet). I haven’t skipped around or taken any extended breaks from the series, and I love many of the not-as-special Pokémon in recent gens that some people write off as “forgettable.” (Maractus is freakin’ adorable) That being said, I haven’t seen most of the Pokémon movies released in nearly the past decade or so and don’t consider even the ones I have seen to be canon aside from establishing Legendaries’/Mythicals’ abilities. I also think my opinions might be tainted by nostalgia for Gens 3-4 (and even 5, to an extent). This is especially because Gen 4 was the point where Mythical Pokémon still felt mysterious to me, when there was a time that Arceus was just as believable as “Mewthree” to my young self because videos of both existed in the early days of YouTube, my friends spread rumors around, and I didn’t yet know how to tell which were real or fake. I also do tend to have more meaningful memories with the older mythicals than the newer ones.What do other people think about this topic? via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2yJfGlB