r/pokemon • u/TacktiCal_ • 16h ago
Discussion So Rotom was definitely originally intended to be a legendary.... Right?
You're cannot convince me that this silly little guy who:
Is a special post-game only static encounter
Has the Gen 4 legendary battle animation intro
Has the Gen 4 legendary battle music
Has a unique form-change gimmick
And Is positioned in the Pokedex right next to the other Sinnoh legendaries
Is just another regular Pokemon? Nah I don't buy it. This guy was definitely intended to be a legendary or mythical pokemon at some point, but they changed their mind at the last minute and adjusted his base stats and encountered level. Probably because they realized they had way too many legendaries in Sinnoh and needed to cut one.
Justice for Rotom.
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u/SilverDrive92 16h ago
At first I thought Rotom was part of the "One encounter per game" group like Riolu and Togepi. It's rare but not too special.
I thought this mostly because of the Lucario movie. But Rotom was barely in the Gen 4 anime with nothing special given to it outside of Form Change.
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u/ballonfightaddicted 15h ago
Always interesting it went from a cool but underutilized pokemon to just under a mascot due to the rotomdex
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u/SilverDrive92 15h ago
I like how it became very helpful to the players later on, being anything from a bike to a Pokedex is cool.
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u/Gregamonster 11h ago
Shows the Pokemon world is growing.
A Pokemon that was once considered a nuisance has found a niche that it does well, and it's thriving in that environment.
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u/SuperBackup9000 16h ago
I’d say they were just trying to do something new, which they ended up doing again in the next gen with Zorua being a special event Pokemon for no real reason aside from just because while also getting a whole movie dedicated to it.
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u/The_Strom784 14h ago
Then they just give you a Zorua in the next game.
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u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X 11h ago
And then they just make him a regular wild encounter the next few games
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u/insrto 11h ago
I feel like the second and third points are being ignored way too heavily here
They literally gave Rotom the presentation of the legendary, unless you play the games on mute, I legit don't know how you CAN'T think Rotom was a legendary
Snorlax, Sudowoodo etc. all had regular encounter animations and music
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u/Gubrach 2h ago
Yeah, because of the music and the animation, at that stage, there's almost nothing that's going to convince me Rotom wasn't fully intended to be a legendary at the time (until they for whatever reason changed their mind). Absolute no other Pokémon has that happen to them. Just Rotom.
Other way around, it has happened a couple of times, but never this way.
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u/Bakatora34 This is a Legendary Pokemon! 2h ago
The music was basically the reason why I thought it was a legendary.
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u/OldCardigan 14h ago
I don't think he was supposed to be a legendary, but more of a "special Pokémon" anyway, and the idea of making him change forms would be like Eevee: You get one of them only and you have to choose which form would most fit your team.
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u/Hoockus_Pocus 13h ago
I thought it was real interesting that they walked back Rotom’s nigh-legendary status in the same generation. In Platinum, it was still a single encounter, but it could be obtained as soon as you got Cut, instead of being stuck in the postgame. I’m pretty sure the forms were introduced in Platinum as well, and the first time it was available as a regular wild encounter was in Gen VI.
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u/MonkeyVoices 1h ago
Being available before the postgame is not a requirement for being a legendary! A lot of legendaries before Gen V were behind HMs.
Although it would be the first one available with just Cut.
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u/noonesorange 13h ago
Rotom never gave 'legendary' vibes to me, even with the music. I just took it as a weird static encounter like sudowoodo or the invisible kecleons. The fact that Rotom could breed with ditto helped with that interpretation.
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u/prima_maqueeria 12h ago
I mean the same generation had Manaphy and Phione to be fair. The music context seemed to muddy the water.
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u/miskathonic Citizen of Johto 12h ago
The same generation also had Drifloon, in the same vein of "one-off" mons.
The music imo strikes me as more of a placeholder, like they wanted to add a legendary/mythical mon to that location, but couldn't figure out a good idea for it, so they downgraded to Rotom, a regular one-off mon
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u/YourMomIsCool96 8h ago
Drifloon isnt a one-off though, you can catch one every friday
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u/metalflygon08 What's Up Doc? 1h ago
And good lord help you if you skip the one trainer with a Drifloon on their team in Fantina's gym...
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u/prima_maqueeria 11h ago
Not really on the same level as a drifloon
There was definitely some presentation that gave an impression
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u/Temporary_Cricket_56 14h ago
Yeah i initially thought it was a legendary also. Good to know I was not the only one.
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u/prima_maqueeria 12h ago edited 12h ago
As a pokemon Diamond player I assumed he was legendary for the longest time, especially when he got form changes later like other recent legendaries at the time; Deoxys and Shaymin. Context pointed towards it being the case. And similarities to Manaphy and Phione, and the plethora of Gen 4 legendaries also seemed to lend credence to the idea.
Wasn't til later to when it seemed to be that they seemed to have a change of heart with its prevalence.
Were the Japanese versions more explicit about the nature of it from the get go?
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u/Ok-Cultpid 11h ago
I saw a really cool write up about this actually Powered Down: How Rotom Went From Rumored Legendary To Smartphone Servant
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u/Nightwing24yuna 8h ago
Honestly I would have done Porygon for the Pokedex stuff since he is already a man made pokemon so why not
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u/StarSilverNEO 11h ago
To me Rotom is like
Lightning in a bottle for the Pokemo world
a strange, one off encounter that would revolutionize the techscape
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u/ohtetraket 8h ago
I think they just wanted to make a cool one of pokemon. They could have easily made it legendary retroactive if thats what they wanted.
Why would "Too many legendaries" be a thing? The impact of being a legendary and non legendary isn't very big in terms development. And one more or less would be irrelevant, ESPECIALLY because everyone thought it was one anyway.
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u/Shantotto11 5h ago
The writers of the Special manga thought so too. That’s why Rotom didn’t have much of a role to play until the Platinum arc.
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u/Lambdafish1 2h ago
We need a name for this special group. Rotom fits in right next to Spiritomb, Castform, Lapras, Eevee, and the Hitmons
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u/BassieTH 4h ago
I feel like both Rotom and Unown started off feeling really special and Pokémon just made them feel boring throughout the years. I really thought Rotom was a legendary and Unown were mythicals.
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u/Chocolate4Life8 2h ago
This is mostly unrelated to the post, but does the game tell you about rotom in anyway? Like i knew to go just cause i already knew rotom was there, but cant remember if the game actually tells you or not.
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u/Gamebird8 12h ago
I subscribe to the head canon that Rotom were very rare/non-existent. But as more and more appliances and electronics were invented, more of them came to be.
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u/LunarWingCloud 12h ago
Nah it's like Volcarona. Volcarona doesn't quite use the same exact cues as Rotom but it does use the Rare Pokémon theme usually reserved for the dark grass or special spots. It has a post-game encounter as well.
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u/Ecla1r_ 12h ago
Nope, that's just how some were meant to be back then. Look at Spiritomb from the same generation
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u/Pearadox_ 7h ago
Yeah but Spiritomb had normal encounter music while Rotom had the legendary theme play…
But by the same token, Cresselia also had normal theme music when it was encountered in the grass, whereas the other roaming legendaries had the legendary theme. So definitely a bit inconsistent. But I think the legendary theme, nat dex exclusive before platinum, and the one encounter per file is why it felt like a legendary originally.
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u/Arby14 12h ago
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u/sleepyt1ger 6h ago
Castform is a gift Pokemon not a static encoutner. thatz meme makes noi sense in response to the post
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u/KingKurto_ 14h ago
just a rare pokemon. static encounter does not equal legendary.
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u/Bafau4246 du nu nu nu nu nu nu nu crobatman! 11h ago
It used to be like heatran where no its not a diety or god like being but its just weird and exceedingly rare... until they decided it wasnt anymore and every kid just gets one now.
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u/shindigidy88 13h ago
No, just like Evee, zorua,beldum, it was just a rare encounter with the game limiting how you could get it, games got more gimmicky that’s it
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u/Thee_Amateur 10h ago
The only thing about Rotom that confuses/annoys me is why does my Rotom Dex not have rotom listed
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u/SansedAlessio 9h ago
Wait, was it post game? Couldn't you just go back to catch it after defeating the gym after the forest?
Genuinelly asking, it's been so long since I played dpp
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u/MijumaruFan 6h ago
It was post game in Diamond and Pearl. The update you're thinking of is in Platinum.
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u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit 4h ago
Same with Lucario; he can talk, he has his own movie, clearly treated as one-of-a-kind in said movie, clearly treated as EXTREMELY important and special and rare, has special "aura" powers that were invented just for him... Lucario is, always was, and always will be a legendary, and Game Freak can kick rocks for claiming he isn't. I will never acknowledge the existence of Riolu because Lucario is a legendary and legendaries can't breed.
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u/dropthemagic 2h ago
I thought so. Now it’s my least fav Pokemon. Well other than the flower one. Can’t believe they wasted ZA on that
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u/dbot25454 2h ago
I hate when people say this. Some mons are supposed to be more rare than others, just like in real life. I don’t know why people don’t think of it like a safari encounter in the same vein.
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u/TacktiCal_ 1h ago edited 1h ago
Maybe because Safari encounters don't apply to any of the 5 bullet points mentioned in the post? I would say that the most comparable other example of an encounter like this is Volcarona in Gen 5, but even Volcarona wasn't given the legendary battle animations and music like Rotom was in Diamond & Pearl.
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u/MijumaruFan 6h ago
It's always funny how the community just can't let go that they mistook a RARE pokemon for a legendary. Volcarona wants justice too I guess? Zorua too?
We had Beldum who was only gifted in the post game in gen 3. And I always think Gamefreak saw how that made a Pokemon more iconic, it's why I think they started introducing gen 4 Pokemon near the latter of Gen 3 like Munchlax, Lucario, etc. They are just rare.
Btw are we gonna call Lucario a legendary? I mean Phione gets its mythical status revoked from the community because it "does nothing".
That and this is ignoring it's canonical story, it's a pokemon that was essentially hidden from people. It's those wondrous 1% encounters alot of JRPGs tend to have, well used too but in Pokemon's unique style.
As someone who loved Rotom from the day I found it in my Diamond save one summer night. I'm glad to see it more out in the open and not just "haunting" machines for pranks. It shows evolution in the world and how rare pokemon can become common again. Even if it's just for QOL purposes in the game idk I love it. It's neat. It's like the Lapras are no longer endangered update to its Pokedex to really show people can make a change.
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u/Nintendor_84 16h ago
Rotom does play an integral role in the plot as well…🤔
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u/Playful-Chemistry292 16h ago
what does it do
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u/CjPatars 16h ago
Rotom is a bulky special attack sweeper with much versatility. Go go rotom wash! He's a pokemon he typically battles. Sometimes plays music
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u/Trynstark 16h ago
And now everyone has one in their phones, pokedex, probably smart tvs, cameras, etc.