Fourteen legendaries in the fourth generation, and multiple ones with multiple forms. The fourth generation really went to town with legendaries, which wouldn't be so bad if so many of them aren't really underwhelming. I've made my disdain about the fourth generation legendaries clear, although they're not all bad. There are several gems among the pokemon here, but for the most part... yeah, you can probably guess which ones I'm not fond of particularly easily.
I suppose we'll talk about the fourth generation briefly... and honestly, my feeling about the fourth generation's designs tend to be one that's more of an 'underwhelming' feel to it. Nearly one-third of every new pokemon introduced in the fourth generation are just evolutions or pre-evolutions to existing pokemon, leading Sinnoh to have a relatively sparse amount of creatures unique to it. There are some very neat designs that I love, like the starters, Rotom, Croagunk, Garchomp and Vespiquen... but for the most part the fourth generation is remembered for its sheer amount of legendaries and myth-building, which is a neat, valiant effort. Overall, I find it somewhat of a surprise that I actually like the fourth generation on average less than all the other generations -- there are a couple of fun gems here, but overall it's pretty bland and underwhelming. I don't think I outright hate many of these, but if I try to talk about them I'll end up sounding more negative than positive.
Maybe it's why the fifth, sixth and seventh generations tried to be more stand-alone and not include so many extra evolutions and pre-evolutions? Eh. The actual fourth-generation games are really good, though, so they have that to fall back on.
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#480-482: Uxie, Mesprit & Azelf
- Types: Psychic [all three]
- Japanese names: Yukushi, Emuritto, Agunomu
- Category: Knowledge [Uxie], Emotion [Mesprit], Willpower [Azelf]
Hoooo. Okay. The 'trio' for the fourth generation are all the same type, Psychic, instead of being a trio of different types like the Kanto, Johto and Hoenn trios. The three are known as the "Lake Guardians" collectively, and they lay slumbering underneath the three great lakes of Sinnoh -- Lake Acuity houses Uxie, the guardian of Knowledge. Lake Verity houses Mesprit, the guardian of Emotion. Lake Valor houses Azelf, the guardian of Spirit or Willpower. And they're honestly just a bunch of floating plot devices wherever they show up. In the games, you race after Team Galactic as they go and hunt down the legendary trio to use them to summon Dialga and/or Palkia, and in the anime and manga, each of the lake guardian appear before the main character that embodies their 'aspect' the most.
Mesprit is pink and has four weird hair-like horns, and it's apparently the bringer of emotion. I honestly don't have much to talk about Mesprit. It's just there, it's one part of a set, and it's... it's not ugly? I found that its eyes are weirdly fierce for a Lake Guardian, but I suppose that adds to its whole 'creature of emotion' deal? Mesprit is also special in Platinum where it actually runs away from you when you encounter it in its lakebed lair, turning it into a roaming pokemon in the vein of Entei and Raikou.
Azelf has a neater-looking head than Mesprit and Uxie's weird hairdo deals, but it's otherwise the most generic looking, lacking Uxie or Mesprit's personality. It gives humans "willpower", which... eh. The Lake trio just doesn't give me much to talk about. I really wished that they ended up being Psychic/Fairy or Psychic/Water to reflect their role as "Lake Guardians", but they just ended up feeling generic and underwhelming. Easily one of the most underwhelming legendaries ever, and "underwhelming" is like the exact opposite emotion of what you want from a legendary. There are so many ways to make these guys interesting beyond an interesting backstory, and sadly these three ended up being relegated as pretty boring pixies that are more plot devices than actual characters of their own.
1/6.
Dialga, the mascot of Pokemon Diamond, is a Steel/Dragon pokemon that is the god of time. It's not just a time-travelling creature like Celebi, it literally controls time itself, and that before Dialga was born from an egg created by Arceus, time itself did not exist. "Time flows when Dialga's heart beats", and... and it's still bound by the same turn system that every other pokemon is, and, hell, even its signature move, Roar of Time, ends up having a hilarious recharge turn... really, Dialga? Ruler and personification of time, but you can't skip the recharge turn? In the manga, Dialga's roar actually turns back the time or slows the time for the opponent, which is so much cooler.
Dialga's design is perhaps one of my least favourite of the legendaries here, looking jumbled and cluttered. It could've been worse, yes, because Dialga at least has the central sauropod body with all the neon-light-blue and metal Zoids accessories stapled on, so you get what they're going for, but Dialga really ends up feeling underwhelming for me. I do like the weird xenomorph-esque long head, but there are so much details going on with Dialga from the gigantic chest-piece to the long head to the neon lines to the weird peacock tail that I honestly never quite got behind Dialga's design. It doesn't look eldritch enough to look like some sort of god or personification of a time, and just doesn't feel tied at all thematically to the whole 'time' deal, unlike the legendaries of the second and third generation. It's not the ugliest thing out there, but as something hyped up as the God of Time, I expected something more. I dunno. Dialga's just kind of cluttered.
And the two cover legendaries of the fourth generation just kind of have types arbitrarily slapped onto them, right? Steel/Dragon? I've seen so many justifications for Dialga's Steel typing, like likening it to a clock or to how steel is "hard like diamond" or whatever, but none of these explanations really feel like they make sense. Oh, and they're Dragons just because dragons are cool, I guess.
Do I sound extra-harsh? Do I even sound hypocritical because I gave Kyogre and Groudon, what, 4-star or 5-star ratings? But honestly, Groudon and Kyogre feel really tied into the mythos and themes of the Hoenn games. Sure, there's a lot of backstory to be found about Dialga, Palkia, the lake guardians and Arceus, but they are mostly just the same ambiguous "look at these literal gods" abstract mumbo-jumbo that honestly makes Dialga and Palkia feel like literal walking plot devices, especially compared to Giratina -- who was actually given a motivation and whose backstory actually is worked into the Platinum game as opposed to Dialga and Palkia's ambiguous "they can make a new world!" powers. Even in their fictional appearances in the movies and manga they feel underwhelmingly formulaic, like walking plot devices, and add that to the fact that I've never been enamoured by their "extra-complex" aesthetic... yeah. Neither Dialga nor Palkia ever managed to give me any emotion beyond "eh, they're there, and kiiiiiinda cool maybe." I don't actively hate them, but honestly I can't really think of any real positive things to talk about them. This is a very much opiniated list, and this is my opinion. More power to you if Dialga is your favourite pokemon. It's not mine. Far from being mine.
2/6.
Do I sound extra-harsh? Do I even sound hypocritical because I gave Kyogre and Groudon, what, 4-star or 5-star ratings? But honestly, Groudon and Kyogre feel really tied into the mythos and themes of the Hoenn games. Sure, there's a lot of backstory to be found about Dialga, Palkia, the lake guardians and Arceus, but they are mostly just the same ambiguous "look at these literal gods" abstract mumbo-jumbo that honestly makes Dialga and Palkia feel like literal walking plot devices, especially compared to Giratina -- who was actually given a motivation and whose backstory actually is worked into the Platinum game as opposed to Dialga and Palkia's ambiguous "they can make a new world!" powers. Even in their fictional appearances in the movies and manga they feel underwhelmingly formulaic, like walking plot devices, and add that to the fact that I've never been enamoured by their "extra-complex" aesthetic... yeah. Neither Dialga nor Palkia ever managed to give me any emotion beyond "eh, they're there, and kiiiiiinda cool maybe." I don't actively hate them, but honestly I can't really think of any real positive things to talk about them. This is a very much opiniated list, and this is my opinion. More power to you if Dialga is your favourite pokemon. It's not mine. Far from being mine.
2/6.#484: Palkia
- Types: Water/Dragon
- Japanese names: Parukia
- Category: Spatial
Dialga's opposite number, Pearl's mascot, is the "God of Space" Palkia. Palkia is based on a kaiju, and jeez, it's also a cluttered design, isn't it? I really want to sing praises about Palkia because I like it a fair bit more than Dialga, having actually used one in a randomized Nuzlocke playthrough of Black 2, but Palkia's design is just hideously messy, isn't it? Those arms look like pieces of a toy, and don't look like they can even bend. Neither do Palkia's legs, or its weird rigid head. Palkia's also a Water/Dragon for some goddamn weird reason that people tell me are because "the sea occupies a lot of space", "space changes like water" or "pearls are found in water". I dunno. It's weird. Palkia's design is just pretty messy, from its weird-looking wings, to its very rigid arms and legs.
Its head is pretty cool looking in that complex mass-of-spikes deal, and Palkia's signature move, Spacial Rend, always has awesome animation in the games and anime. In the manga, Palkia straight-up rips portals through space any time it slashes with its claws, which is unbelievably cool. But ultimately, the likes of Dialga and Palkia are just too cluttered for my liking, and doesn't work at all with the themes that they're trying to represent. They are somewhat cool, I suppose, and despite my disdain, their status in the lore as the gods of space-time end up making them far neater than just a bunch of ultra-complex dragons, but eh... I've ranted enough about Dialga, and I don't want sound extra-rant-y, so I'll cut this short here. People like version mascots depending on whether they like their game, and I'm sure similar arguments could be made against Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza too. I dunno. I'm just really not feeling these cluttered dragons.
3/6.#485: Heatran
- Types: Fire/Steel
- Japanese names: Hidoran
- Category: Lava Dome
Yeah, I'm not sure why Heatran is a thing. Heatran is a legendary that doesn't really look like one. Heatran is a legendary that could have genders but cannot breed, and you can only still find just one in the game. She's this weird Fire/Steel monster that dwells in the deep heart of a volcano, specifically Stark Mountain in the fourth generation's postgame, but I've always found Heatran's design underwhelming. There's a bit of a gecko theme going on because Heatran is always shown crawling on the ceilings and walls of its habitat, and I like the detail of how parts of its steel body is melted by its own heat, but the resulting design ends up looking pretty bad, with its already weird-looking form pockmarked with random gray and orange spots. Its face is also one that looks weirdly mundane, honestly reminding me of Bastiodon more than anything. Heatran's overall design is just weird and honestly looks unfinished, and I'm still not particularly sure why this thing is a legendary. But then this is the one where they just hand out the status wily-nily to anything with a large amount of stats. Heatran's always one that never appealed to me, with its rather unpleasant-looking design.
Honestly, the idea of a legendary pokemon that dwells in the core of volcanoes is neat enough, and the concept of a metal lava gecko should be neat, but Heatran's design really hurt it. Probably my least favourite legendary pokemon in terms of concept, design and execution. I'm not sure what bothers me that much about Heatran... his entire design just doesn't gel well with me at all.
1/6.#486: Regigigas
- Types: Normal
- Japanese names: Rejigigasu
- Category: Colossal
So I love the Regis from the third generation, and you'd think I would really love Regigigas, right? The fourth generation unexpectedly gave us the answer to the enigmatic "him" that was sealed by the ancient people of Hoenn, and apparently that is the master of the three Regis, the massive Normal-type Regigigas. Dwelling deep within Snowpeak Temple, Regigigas can only be awakened if someone brings along the three Regi golems from Hoenn. The thing about Regigigas, though, is that it's honestly a bit of a letdown. It's just an organic version of Registeel, it's Normal-type, and its design just looks super-cluttered. I'm a big fan of the grass growing on its legs and head, but a combination of multicoloured eyes, extra Braille eyes, yellow braces and black things zigzagging aroudn its arms and legs end up just looking like one detail too many without any specific unifying theme beyond "ancient golem". Design-wise, Regigigas is actually pretty underwhelming, and he's equally crap in battle, too, with its ability, "Slow Start", essentially cutting Regigigas's stats in half for the first four turns or whatever, ostensibly showing Regigigas slowly awakening from his slumber, but in practice it just makes Regigigas a liability.
Its lore is pretty interesting, apparently being the one responsible to use ropes to tow continents into place, and then creating Regice, Registeel and Regirock from clay, ice and magma, before, as told in the Hoenn games, its power scared the ancient people so much that they sealed Regigigas and his children away. I've always found it strange that the Regigigas you meet in Platinum is actually met at level 1. But ultimately, the final Regi ends up filling that void in the story of the Regis, but isn't that much of an answer. I don't hate him, I'm just kind of disappointed that there's nothing particularly super-interesting about him, causing him to end up being a fair bit of a disappointment.
3/6.#487: Giratina
- Types: Ghost/Dragon
- Japanese names: Giratina
- Category: Renegade
So after dissing and being dismissive of so many legendaries, we get into one of my favourites ever -- Giratina! Giratina debuted in Diamond and Pearl as the Rayquaza of the group. A powerful pokemon with as much stats as Dialga and Palkia, located in an out-of-the-way dungeon called Turnback Cave, but initially not connected to them... only to be the third part of the trio as seen in Platinum. See, in Platinum, instead of just capturing either Dialga or Palkia, the bad guy Cyrus decides to capture both of them, and this distortion in space-time causes the "God of Antimatter", Giratina, to descend upon the world and capture Cyrus. Giratina's an awesome Ghost/Dragon, and its earliest dex entries give it a Lucifer vibe (as much as you can get away with it on a PG-13 game), noting that it was "banished for its violence", lurking in the Distortion World, a twisted world that lives on the 'reverse side' of the real world and later established to be an anti-matter world. It's the sort of neat bit of strange eldritch abominations and demons distilled into a quasi-sci-fi package.
Giratina's original design, its "Altered Forme", is actually the form that Giratina adapts when it arrives on our world, and the change in gravity apparently causes it to transform into this multi-legged form. It kinda looks like a Pit Lord from Warcraft, and I've always liked it because of it. From its multiple large elephantine legs, to its large bat wings made out of shadow, and the ribs, plus the gray/black/red/gold paint scheme actually making it look neatly cohesive and complimentary especially compared to its space-time brethren, Giratina ends up being super-popular for a reason. It's a ghost-dragon that comes from another world, and its mere presence twists space-time, as anyone who transverses Turnback Cave can say. Hell, its ability, "Shadow Force", even works with its whole deal of being an otherworldly being, where Giratina disappears for a turn as it moves through its own dimension, before appearing and striking out with ghostly force.
But Altered Forme Giratina would probably be relegated to a simple 3/5 deal because it's ultimately an 'eh' design that looks pretty static, but in Platinum Giratina receives another form, and this form is a writhing serpent with spikes, an awesome golden-armoured mouth that splits to the side, and its wings have transformed into shadowy tendrils resembling spider arms, and the visuals of Giratina flying around in its Origin Forme through the Distortion World is just so hauntingly amazing. Be it in the movie, OVAs or the Platinum game, Giratina's design ends up looking so much more fluid and awesome in the way that many other legendaries fail to do. Giratina is just pretty damn awesome in this form, a great variation of the "wyrm" style of serpentine dragon, but looking otherworldly and strange. Oh, what else is awesome about Giratina? Its badass theme music when you meet it in-game. That's pretty dope too.
I'm curious if Giratina ends up being retconned into an Ultra Beast (I doubt it) eventually, but Giratina's entire backstory ends up feeling so much more impactful and unique than Dialga and Palkia's, and its status as more of an otherworldly lurker that just stays and tries to keep the balance (or is just pissed that its home gets fucked up) is so much more fitting than the rather overblown "god" deal that its siblings have. I've personally liked Giratina a lot more as some sort of counterpart to the lake guardians, too, considering the entrance to his dimension is found in a hidden, fourth lake where the laws of physics are broken. It's connected to the other legendaries but detached enough to be its own thing. Giratina's just cool, and thanks to hearing its cry in the opening screen of Platinum so many times, I've really grown attached to this crazy bugger.
6/6.#488: Cresselia
- Types: Psychic
- Japanese names: Kureseria
- Category: Lunar [Crescent Moon in Japanese]
Oh yeah, Cresselia! Cresselia's got one of those designs that is simultaneously ridiculously overdesigned, but at the same time somewhat pleasant to look at. On one hand, that mixture of blue, purple, pink and yellow make such a pleasant combination of colours. And the head's cool! On the other hand... the weird swirly aura-things, the hands that are apparently glued to Cresselia's body and the general weird angles that the tail juts out of the body all end up causing Cresselia to look incomplete. She's a Psychic-type, and in the fourth-generation games, you have to travel to its resting place in Full-Moon Island to get the Lunar Wing, one of its feathers, to heal a nightmare-afflicted boy. After doing so, Cresselia will roam Sinnoh as a roaming pokemon. It's... it's okay? It certainly feels a lot more graceful than the likes of Heatran, but at the same time there's just something relatively awkward about Cresselia. She's supposed to represent auroras and the crescent moon, and forms some sort of an awkward duo with Darkrai below, and some sort of angelic swan-thing. I don't dislike Cresselia, actually, and she actually feels graceful in spite of its weird body shape. She's okay. I don't like her, but she's pretty and pleasant looking enough. I just don't have much to talk about her.
3/6.#489-490: Phione & Manaphy
- Types: Water [both]
- Japanese names: Fione, Manafi
- Category: Sea Drifter [Phione], Seafaring [Manaphy]
Let's talk about Manaphy, and his pre-evolution iPhone. Or Phione, rather. It's a bit weird, really. Manaphy is originally only obtainable through an event involving the side-game Pokemon Ranger, as well as the movie that tied in to it, making Manaphy the event-pixie of the Sinnoh region, and the first one to not be Psychic in typing. Both Manaphy and Phione are pure Water, and they are based on Sea Angels, who are sea slugs that resemble angels due to their transparent white bodies, their 'horns' and wing-like fins. They are transformed into fairies as opposed to the carnivorous sea slugs that they're based on, though, and... they're honestly very underwhelming. Maybe it's because Manaphy's movie is actually quite ass, and that its appearance in the Adventures manga is as a mere footnote because the manga's obligated to use most of the legendaries in the region? Manaphy's whole deal is the ability to use "Heart Swap" to switch stat changes with its foe. Or rather, in the movie and anime, to switch the souls of people into different bodies. It is also the ambiguous Prince of the Sea, whatever the fuck that means. Manaphy's design is pretty generic, honestly losing a lot of what makes the real-life sea angel unique, ending up as this weird little teardrop-headed sea fairy with tentacle ponytails, fin-arms and generally just looking pretty generic. It's not an unpleasant design, but it's not interesting either.
Manaphy's only point of interest, really, is its uniqueness among legendaries in that it's able breed with Ditto, forming offspring in eggs called Phione. Phione is essentially a shittier, knockoff version of Manaphy. It's missing Manaphy's yellow markings, it's got only one leg instead of two, and only one tentacle-head instead of two. Phione ends up honestly being underwhelming since after the whole neatness of having Manaphy breed a weaker form of itself, there's really nothing about the two of them that makes any of them interesting. Apparently Phione eggs are produced if Manaphy lays eggs outside of their real habitat? It's interesting, but ultimately neither Manaphy nor Phione ever appealed to me. They're not horrible, but the game ends up doing so little with these other legendaries that it's honestly a bit of a shame. Phione's status as a legendary/mythical pokemon is often times disputed by multiple differing sources, because I guess it's not particularly unique? Eh. I probably would've liked them more if there was literally anything interesting about them, but they're otherwise just a bunch of water slug-fairies.
Manaphy's only point of interest, really, is its uniqueness among legendaries in that it's able breed with Ditto, forming offspring in eggs called Phione. Phione is essentially a shittier, knockoff version of Manaphy. It's missing Manaphy's yellow markings, it's got only one leg instead of two, and only one tentacle-head instead of two. Phione ends up honestly being underwhelming since after the whole neatness of having Manaphy breed a weaker form of itself, there's really nothing about the two of them that makes any of them interesting. Apparently Phione eggs are produced if Manaphy lays eggs outside of their real habitat? It's interesting, but ultimately neither Manaphy nor Phione ever appealed to me. They're not horrible, but the game ends up doing so little with these other legendaries that it's honestly a bit of a shame. Phione's status as a legendary/mythical pokemon is often times disputed by multiple differing sources, because I guess it's not particularly unique? Eh. I probably would've liked them more if there was literally anything interesting about them, but they're otherwise just a bunch of water slug-fairies.
2/6.
Darkrai forms kind of a rivalry-style counterpart with Cresselia, but it's honestly a duo that I never quite care about. Darkrai's pretty cool, and is the second out of the four 'event' mythical legendaries in the fourth generation. Five if you count Phione. Darkrai's a Dark-type, but he looks like a traditional humanoid ghost, with glowing, angry blue eyes, a head that's just a trailing mass of white mist, some weird red chunk on its neck, and sharp claws. Oh, and it's got a pair of funny retractable humanoid feet! That's adorable. Darkrai's a pokemon that I actually like a fair bit, surprisingly, despite it being kind of honestly bland compared to Pokemon's other ghosts, being a simple wraith. I do like how his smokey pillar-like hair covers one of his eyes, and that the red parts of his torso resemble some sort of a giant mouth. Darkrai's the Bogeyman, Darkrai's the thing under your bed, and he's all the fears made manifest. I guess it's somewhat poetic that it takes the relatively simple form of a wraith-like humanoid... in the Pokemon world, those horrifying forms being found in humans' nightmares are possibly caused by Darkrai's influence.
Darkrai's whole deal is that it's the ultimate bringer of nightmares, active during the nights of the new moon (the darkest nights, in other words) and causing horrific nightmares wherever it passes. Depending on the dex entry and the specific portrayal, Darkrai's nightmare-causing abilities are either a defense mechanism or malicious. Darkrai's a design I dismissed outright the first time I saw him, but I actually ended up liking him a lot thanks to watching his movie. It's not because Darkrai is characterized as a tragic misunderstood protector, though -- it's because of how stylish he is in weaving in and out of shadows, as well as lobbing around its Dark Void signature move that just causes people and pokemon to sink into dreams. It's just so trope-y, but also pretty damn cool. Its in-game ability, Bad Dreams, actually slices off chunks of Darkrai's enemies if they fall asleep -- something easily accomplished with his Dark Void attack that puts both enemies to sleep.
Darkrai's portrayal in the games tend to be more on the malicious side, with it causing a child to experience nightmares in the fourth generation games, it being the main villain in various Pokemon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon spinoff games, and implied to cause a little girl to be permanently stuck in a nightmare until she dies in Black 2/White 2, where you meet her ghost and have to explore the house she died in, where unlike the fourth generation, no one got Cresselia's Lunar Wing to her in time. In the fourth generation games, if you actually get the in-game event item, you'll be able to enter an otherwise permanently-locked building, go to sleep and meet Darkrai in a dream where you find yourself transported to New Moon Island. Pretty cool. There's definitely some eldritch Lovecraftian deal going on with this all, but it's not as blatant as most examples of this trope. Darkrai's pretty cool. Not my favourite pokemon, but I do like him a fair bit.
5/6.#492: Shaymin
- Types: Grass [normal form]; Grass/Flying [Sky Forme]
- Japanese names: Sheimi
- Category: Gratitude
The third 'mythical' event pokemon is Shaymin, a cute little Grass-type hedgehog whose spikes are actually just a coat of grass, and it's got cute little flowers on its side. It's inoffensive, but forgettable. It's meant to be the Gratitude pokemon, and has the ability to restore entire fields back to life, dissolving toxins in the sky. I don't find it particularly interesting, although the movie that Shaymin stars in characterizes this Gratitude Pokemon as a complete asshole that just demands gratitude, which I do love. When exposed to the Gracidea Flower item, Shaymin will transform into its "Sky Forme", some sort of... baby deer? Shaymin's Sky Forme is a bit weird and I don't really get why it's got like a neck-scarf thing. It apparently flies with its horn-wing things? It's inoffensive, but, like Manaphy, I don't really see many of these designs as deserving the legendary moniker. Still, I like Shaymin a lot more than I do Manaphy, and honestly remember him before Manaphy when people ask me what the "Mew Clone" of the fourth generation is. I sorta kinda get why a 'bouquet' style hedgehog is associated with gratitude, but I'm not sure what transforming into a flying chihuahua-deer has anything to do with gratitude. Honestly, Shaymin itself probably would've been just as memorable as a non-legendary, just this cutie-patootie that's associated with gratitude.
4/6 for hedgehog Shaymin.
4/6 for hedgehog Shaymin. 
I do like the little detail that causes Shaymin to revert back to his hedgehog form in the night or if it's frozen, but it feels rather unnecessary. Sky Form Shaymin isn't even a terrible design -- on paper, a weird baby deer with Dumbo ears that can fly isn't even a bad concept, it's just that it just feels like a completely different creature compared to regular hedgehog Shaymin with the only their colour palettes even really making the two similar to each other. I dunno. Ultimately I just like Shaymin for the hedgehog form. It's pretty cute for what is otherwise a bit of a forgettable legendary, and I don't have the heart to talk shit about it. I guess some of these would be far more likable if they wasn't shoved down our throats as "super-awesome-special-only-one-exists" legendary? Eh.
3/6 for chihuahua-deer Shaymin.#493: Arceus
- Types: Normal; can transform into any type depending on the held item
- Japanese names: Aruseusu
- Category: Alpha [Creation in Japanese]
My god (heh), finally we reach this final legendary in the fourth generation, Arceus. The God of the Pokemon world, the creator of the universe, Arceus. So yeah, I am rather glad that Arceus is actually neatly simple in design as compared to the likes of its children, Dialga and Palkia. Arceus is God itself, and ends up being the end-all-be-all in terms of stats as far as stats are concerned... until Mega Mewtwo surpasses it in the sixth generation. Sorry, god, but apparently a man-made mutant psychic cat is stronger than you. Arceus's design is actually one that I actually like, although I also admit that it took a fair bit of time to be used to.
Arceus is a Normal-type by default, but by switching around the elemental Plates that it holds, Arceus changes its type into pure-whatever-that-type-is, and also changes the colour of its ring and the type of its signature move, "Judgment". They're all neat, and I've always found Arceus's silhouette to be neatly simple. A giant llama-horse creature with a flowing lock of hair and a metal ring on its stomach. It looks a lot organic yet at the same time alien, with the weird knobs and spikes actually working to give sort of a strangely divine deal going on without trying too hard like Dialga or Palkia. There's a serene calmness and grace about Arceus, something that's pretty surprising considering it's essentially a funnily-drawn horse. Or, well, rather, the Qilin, which, in pre-Qin China and in Japanese mythology, is actually the "highest-ranked" animal, even more powerful over the dragon or the phoenix. Personally, after so many dragons run around in the legendary bucket, I'm happy that God-of-creation Arceus is absolutely unique instead of just being "another cool dragon".
I've already talked in-depth about Arceus last year, but to recap it's based on various creation myths, with talks about it shaping the universe with 1000 arms, and born from an egg before space and time existed, similar to Pan Gu, the original giant from Chinese creation myths. Its ring, in addition to looking like a halo, is meant to represent the Dharmachakra, the ring of reincarnation in Hinduism. The fact that in the original fourth-generation events Arceus is encountered atop the Spear Pillar makes it a pokemon counterpart of the Japanese creator deity Kunitokachi and Amenominakanushi... and I don't really intend on talking in-depth about any of these, though -- I've given enough words in the Pokemon-of-the-Week segment, and mostly my feelings about Arceus is "cool". In-game, Arceus's legends involve him creating Dialga, Palkia and the lake guardians (and later Giratina ends up retconned into the legend) to then create the building blocks of life, before proceeding to banish Giratina for being a violent asshole. In-game, Arceus can also create one of these three in an event in the Sinjoh Ruins, in a psychedelic cutscene that seems to imply Arceus created a whole new universe from scratch to make that extra dragon for you.
Overall, my feelings about Arceus himself haven't really changed a lot. I still feel that a 'all powerful deity' Pokemon being captured in a ball to be kinda dumb, but still, if we're going to have a god-like creator pokemon, at least Arceus is a relatively well-designed one. I also like the implication and theory that Arceus is merely a fraction of its power when we encounter it in-game, since the movie and manga show that Arceus is supposed to have all the plates within its body, but in-game we can only ever attach a plate to Arceus. Overall, I still end up liking Arcceus a fair bit over its creations. It could've been better, but it could've been worse.
5/6.
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There are overall a lot of very solid designs in the fourth generation, but it's clear that this is the generation that's trying to be a bit too 'edgy', with so many sharp, spiky designs and an overwhelming amount of legendaries. And while some of them turn out amazingly great, a lot of them end up cluttered. And that leaves a lot of the other "obligatory filler" style Pokemon that I tend to find a lot of charm in to be neglected and just feel like not much effort is put into them, if at all. I've never realized how hit-and-miss the fourth generation ended up being, mostly because there are so many designs that are just kind of attached to their pre-evolutions. Eh. We've slogged through that sordid mass of legendaries. Let's go into something more interesting!
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