Legendaries: Characters or plot device of doom?

[Charaxes]

kohei brought this up in my Unown thread, so I thought I'd bring this up. In the various Legendaries that have debuted in the anime, some come up as actual characters (Celebi, Mew, Jirachi) whereas some come off as just plot devices (Mewtwo, Lugia, Unown, Deoxys, Rayquaza), it's particularly amusing to see this here as the game comes off all plot device, with some more than others (Mewtwo, Groudon/Kyorge).

Do you believe they are actual living, breathing characters or just a plot device and which trait is more prominent in the anime? Given the track record, it's mostly plot device made with the ratio.

What say you?

 

[Dragonite Tamer]

To me they are plot devices. Kyogre and Groudon were definitely very much the main plot of R/S/E and Rayquaza as well in Emerald. Suicine was a main part of Crystal and Mewtwo in Lg/Fr and the colour generation. So, to me they are plot devices.

 

[Crosman]

The have the potential of being great characters but they were used as plot devices. I would say that they are living breathing characters that Pokemon Corp. has yet to let the world know much about them.

Example: Lugia had a baby in the anime, what did lugia mate with? this means their are more then one.

Mewtwo on the other hand was created.

I think their are also more then one Kyorge and Groudon.

 

[phunboy]

There both characters and plot devices, in the games they act as something else to capture and sometimes add to what little story there is in the games as seen in R/S/E.

It be nice to see more on them, the only real instant we see of this is in the movies and in some of the Anime shows like in the one where Lugia's baby was taken to draw her out. But beyond that not much is used with the legendaries which is a shame as there some of the more interesting Pok?mon and deserve more development.

Of course in there defense some Pok?mon can't be developed to much like Mewtwo as all there is to him is he was created using Mew's dna and Giovanni lost control of him making him go psycho as seen in the movie. And that's about all I could ever see them doing on Mewtwo but as for other's they could do much more.

I mean I don't even consider Unown to be legendaries and they could do way more development on them then even on some of the legendaries.

 

[Drummershuff]

I always think of them as characters as they useally play a really important part of in the story but they are also devices as they are needed.

 

[Micans]

The have the potential of being great characters but they were used as plot devices. I would say that they are living breathing characters that Pokemon Corp. has yet to let the world know much about them.

Example: Lugia had a baby in the anime, what did lugia mate with? this means their are more then one.

Mewtwo on the other hand was created.

I think their are also more then one Kyorge and Groudon.

Maybe Lugia's asexual? And remember, what happens in the anime defies what can happen in the games.

And I see them as plot devices.