On Mewtwo
While we’re on the subject of Pokemon, I think it’s worth having a quick chat about Mewtwo. Because Mewtwo is by far the best legendary Pokemon. By far. You ask someone to name a rare, legendary Pokemon, chances are, it’s Mewtwo. Heck, Mewtwo’s so badass that he was the first legendary Pokemon to get a Mega Evolution. For someone so old, Mewtwo still has a ton of pulling power.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that pretty much everyone my age watched that first Pokemon movie. Sure, Mewtwo’s the bad guy, but he’s a smart Pokemon bad guy with a lot of power. Enough to wipe the memories from pretty much everyone who happened to be there. But he’s also intelligent enough to create a whole cloning facility and nigh instantly create replicas of other Pokemon, without having to incubate them or anything. Even if the technology already existed, which it must have done in some form for Mewtwo to even exist in the first place, Mewtwo was basically born, was tricked into working for Team Rocket, realised he was being used and then went and built a cloning facility and lured the best Pokemon Trainers across the lands to his magical island, while at the same time creating massive storms that threatened to destroy the planet.
That’s pretty impressive. Especially when most Pokemon are about as smart as toddlers.
But even in comparison with other legendary Pokemon, Mewtwo is something else. I’m not going to say he’s more powerful, because game-wise and lore-wise, he’s not very high up the power tower at all. I would say though that Mewtwo is kinda more intelligent than other legendaries. Not literally smarter, but more thinking like a person does.
Like, for example, the Legendary Trio of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, they’re just a bunch of bickering birds that needed to be split up by Lugia. Entei, Raikou and Suicine are also a bunch of barking legendary dogs. Kyogre and Groudon are two arguing legendaries that needed to be split up by their big brother Rayquaza. Then there’s the legendary trio of Landorus, Thundurus and Tornadus, which no one really cares about because their default forms are pretty damn ugly. But most of them are rather animal-y. They’re just trying to do their jobs or defend their territories. The Alolan guardian legendaries are all rather wise and smart and all that, but they’re kinda pushed aside by Solgaleo and Lunala, the Sun and Moon mascots. A super powerful lion and and a super powerful bat that both evolve from a nebula-like cloud.
I wouldn’t say that these Pokemon are dumb, no, not at all, because they’re insanely powerful, because they are. But I don’t see any of those legendaries going around building cloning facilities. Then again, later on, legendary Pokemon kinda get physically bigger and stronger and more powerful every time. They kinda have to be to sell more games. Generation 7 has an amazing 11 legendary Pokemon, making up 22% of all legendary Pokemon.
Still, people really like Mewtwo.
What really makes Mewtwo stand out though is that he’s somewhat human. He stands upright like a human, he talks like a human, he walks like a human and he’s tormented and confused like a human. He’s also a cartoon villain that humans can recognize. In fact, Mewtwo has more in common with the main antagonist Giovanni than he does with other legendaries. Except Mewtwo is probably more relatable than Giovanni is, and is less likely to be beaten by children.
Where was I going with this? I have no idea. But Mewtwo is a damn cool Pokemon. Even if he is technically really weak in comparison with other legendaries.