Besides the starters, Pokemon's biggest and best-known creatures are easily its Legionaries. They're the box stars, the movie headliners, the things you use your precious, single master ball on.

RELATED: Pokemon: Every Rival, Ranked

They've also been a mixed bag with over 60 introduced across the series' eight generations. Some are incredible, while others are just… they're just Heatran. What is Heatran? Here is the objectively correct, scientifically proven ranking of every Legendary Pokemon released, up to and including Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Updated March 14, 2023 by Joe Parlock: The ninth generation has given us a whole host of new legendary Pokemon, some of which have immediately become some of the best-designed in the series' history. From Moraidon and Koraidon to the Treasures of Ruin, Paldea had a lot to offer with its legendary Pokemon.

This doesn't include the Mythical Pokemon like Mew, Celebi, or Jirachi, the Ultra Beasts like Pheromosa and Guzzlord, or Paradox Pokemon like Walking Wake and Iron Leaves. Even though they're legends in the games, they're not Legendary. There's a difference, apparently.

68 Enamorus

Enamorus in Pokemon Legends Arceus

Enamorus was introduced in Pokemon Legends: Arceus as the fourth member of the Forces of Nature. Despite being introduced three generations after its companions, it somehow manages to immediately become the worst member of the lot.

Fairy-types usually have such strong designs, but Enamorus just looks overly busy. Enamorus is clearly meant to be a succubus-type thing complete with biblical references like the snake instead of a tail, but it just comes off as a lot to take in all at once. Especially when compared to the cleaner (if mostly identical) designs of its siblings.

67 Cosmoem

cosmoem anime pokemon

Cosmoem is such a boring Pokemon that the Pokedex literally describes it as "motionless as if dead". It's the middle evolution of the Cosmog family, serving as the chrysalis stage between Cosmog and Lunala and Solgaleo, but it lacks any of the character of similar Pokemon like Metapod, Kakuna, Silcoon, or Cascoon.

There really isn't anything to talk about here. It's Cosmog if you strip it of any of its endearing qualities and turn it into a piece of jewellery.

66 Tornadus

Unova's Forces of Nature are easily the worst group in any generation. Their designs are dreadful, and they have very little backstory to them other than they once used their "incredible" powers to wreak havoc to the environment of the Unova region. So they're like Hoenn's Groudon and Kyogre, but gross-looking genie things.

Tornadus is the only mono-type Pokemon of the four and one of only four pure flying types in the entire series. It has the same, offputting face as the other two, but with a really awful green and purple colour scheme and a barbed-looking purple and yellow tail it's the least visually 'pleasing' of an already terribly bunch.

All four can turn into animals too, thanks to their 'Therian Formes'. Again, Tornadus gets the worst of the four, turning into a large bird. It might have worked had it not been for adding red, another colour that clashes with the aesthetic nightmare going on. Even worse, it keeps the human form's face, turning it into a profoundly upsetting chimaera thing nobody needed to see.

65 Thundurus

Pokemon Forces Of Nature Anime

While all four of the Forces of Nature are terrible, at least Thundurus has a decent colour pallet going for it. The blues and purples go well with the black spikey balls that make up its tail. On any other body these would have looked fine.

The Therian Forme is a little better, turning into a dragon. It isn't brilliant, but it's close enough to its humanoid form where it's manly face doesn't stick out as sharply as Tornadus'.

64 Necrozma

Necrozma slicing its arms down with vengeance

Necrozma feels like the lowest of low points for Pokemon's creativity. It was just a rehash of Kyurem from two generations prior.

Like Kyurem, Necrozma is:

  • The black final member of the game's main legendary trio, with Necrozma joining Solgaleo and Lunala in the Light trio and Kyurem joining Reshiram and Zekrom in the Tao trio.
  • The cover mascot of its generation's, sequel games (Kyurem for Black 2 and White 2, Necrozma for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon).
  • Combines with the other two members of its trio to make new, hybrid forms (Black Kyurem and White Kyurem, and Dawn Wings Necrozma and Dusk Mane Necrozma).

Unoriginality aside, Necrozma's design is one of the biggest offenders of just being a random series of shapes and angles rammed together. It's meant to be a crystalline monster from the same dimension as the Ultra Beasts, but it looks like a origami. Is it a bug or a crustacean or something? Nobody knows, because there doesn't seem to be any underpinning theme or point of Necrozma.

63 Landorus

Landorus being slammed into a wall from the Pokemon anime

Landorus is the leader of the Forces of Nature, with its own move set that lets it learn attacks the others can't, like Stone Edge, Rock Tomb, Bulldoze, Earthquake, Outrage, and Fissure. Its design is a smidge better than the others as well, thanks to a unifying colour scheme and a Therian Forme that doesn't look like something ripped out of the Island of Doctor Moreau.

Still, being the best of the worst is pretty bad, and the Forces of Nature quartet bombs hard. They don't really serve any purpose in the Unova story and don't even fit into the American theme of the region.

62 Tapu Koko

Tapu Koko In Sky, Pokemon Sun And Moon Anime

Each of the four Guardian Deities protects one of the Alola region's different islands, with Tapu Koko looking out for the starter island, Melemele.

They certainly fit Alola's Hawaiian theme, but the Tapus are probably some of the least interesting Legendary Pokemon ever made. While all of their visual designs feel confusing and difficult to parse, Tapu Koko is probably the worst offender of it. Did you know it's meant to look like a cockerel? No? Because it is. Not a sword or a knife or an egg or whatever. This floating, spiky thing is meant to be a cockerel. It's just not on.

61 Cresselia

pokemon_brilliant_diamond_shining_pearl_cresselia_encounter_on_an_island

A psychic-type Pokemon said to banish nightmares and bring good dreams to those who are suffering, Cresselia is the Legendary counterpart to the Mythical nightmare Pokemon Darkrai.

Other than that, there is literally nothing interesting about Cresselia. It played minor roles and cameo appearances in the anime until 2022, when it finally had a brief recurring appearance in Pokemon Journeys. Compared to Darkrai, which had an entire movie all about it, that's a bit rubbish.

Its design is too on the nose. It's called Cresselia, it's part of the Lunar Duo… did it really need to have five different crescents on its body? The ones on her head just look like bananas.

60 Regieleki

Pokemon Sword Shield Speed Ratings regieleki

One of many new Legendary Pokemon introduced in Sword & Shield's Crown Tundra DLC, Regieleki and Regidrago became the fourth and fifth Legendary Golems alongside Regice, Regirock, and Registeel.

Regieleki is the electric-type golem of the group, but it just looks like Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory. It doesn't look like a big ball of lightning, it looks like cartoon pigtails turned into a Pokemon. Being the fastest Pokemon ever gives it a few extra cool points, but only a few.

59 Regidrago

Crown Tundra Regidrago Cover

Regidrago is one of the new Regis introduced in Sword & Shield's Crown Tundra DLC, alongside Regieleki. Of all the types to get a Regi, Dragon probably wasn't the one most people expected, but it… kind of works? The design is cool, with its arms looking like a dragon's maw closing in one an orb. The actual body of Regidrago looks a bit silly, though – it's so round.

58 Kubfu

Kubfu punching

Kubfu was introduced in Sword & Shield's first DLC, The Isle of Armor, and it feels entirely pointless. Its evolution, Urshifu, is fantastic, but Kubfu feels like a formality for the game's sake.

Training it up, deciding which of Urshifu's two forms to evolve it into, it all feels so unnecessary. The design looks like a mashup of Teddiursa and Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter, though, which is pretty cool.

57 Tapu Bulu

Tapu Bulu, one of the four Legendary Guardians of the Alola Region.

The second of the Guardian Deities of Alola is Tapu Bulu, the grass/fairy type that protects Ula'ula Island. Despite being the bulkiest of the four, Tapu Bulu is also the most peace-loving, often resting on the island and trying not to intervene if it can help it.

Its design is a little better, but the shell on its head really lets it down. This is supposed to be a strong powerhouse based on a bull, but the large shell on its head downplays the width and heft of the Pokemon itself. Tapu Bulu doesn't look strong, it looks like a poser.

56 Registeel

registeel pokemon movie 8
registeel pokemon movie 8

Registeel is an incredibly middle-of-the-road Pokemon, even in its original Titan trio. It's… satisfyingly round? It's hollow and full of a non-metal, incredibly hard substance nobody can identify, which is disturbing but kind of neat. It also appeared in Lucario & The Mystery of Mew alongside Regice and Regirock, which made it a lot more threatening than it had any right to be.

One thing you can give to Registeel is that it was a few big firsts. It was the first pure Steel-type, and the only one until Klink, Klang, and Kilnklang were introduced two generations later. It was also the first Pokemon to unambiguously be inspired by robots, which is weird considering we'd already had artificial and Steel-type Pokemon before it.

55 Zekrom

zekrom producing lightning in the sky, pokemon

The black mascot of Pokemon White, Zekrom is a member of the Unova Region's Tao trio. Said to be powerful enough to "scorch the world with lightning", Zekrom flies through the skies of Unova and uses its tail as a gigantic generator. Zekrom is meant to represent ideals, and will use its abilities to help anyone who is datring to dream of a better world.

Zekrom's design is weird, combining planes, dragons, cyborgs, and a bizarre Jester hat on its head. The wings and the tail also don't really make sense; even in a world where monsters can be shrunk down and kept in capsules, there has to be a bit of believability to their designs, and it just doesn't look like Zekrom should be able to fly.

54 Heatran

Heatran in Stark Mountain

Absolutely nothing about Heatran suggests "Legendary". While other Sinnoh legendaries can control time, space, antimatter, dreams, and more, Heatran is just a weird dog thing that crawls around volcanoes.

Stats-wise it has a bit more going with it, as its unique fire/steel typing means it has the most resistances of all Pokemon. Being resistant to ice, bug, fairy, steel, and grass does make it somewhat of an appealing Pokemon competitively, but in everything else? Absolutely not.

53 Eternatus

Pokemon Sword Shield Legendary

An apocalyptic force of the Galar region, Eternatus was the cause of the fabled "Darkest Day" that almost tore apart the region in the past.

Eternatus is noteworthy for a few reasons. It's the overall biggest Pokemon, completely eclipsing the previous holder of the record Wailord. It can then grow even bigger by Eternamaxing, becoming a whopping 100 metres of alien dragon terror.

It's an imposing Pokemon and one of the most memorable aspects of Sword & Shield, but its design seems to focus more on its size than anything else. It joined the likes of Necrozma and Zygarde of being just a group of shapes mashed together.

52 Lunala

As one of Alola's Light trio, Lunala represents the moon and the night sky, and is the cover mascot of Pokemon Moon.

Because Lunala is a psychic/ghost type, it's only resistant to two types (poison and psychic) and immune to two others (normal and fighting). It's also doubly weak to both ghost and dark, giving it a lot more weaknesses than its partner, Solgaleo.

Sun and Moon were the peak of Pokemon's trend of having Pokemon just be random shapes smushed together, and Lunala is a key example of that. It's meant to be a bat, but the designers saw it was measnt to be moon-themed and ran way too far with it. The crescent-shaped head, tale, and wings feel like a second attempt at Cresselia, with some star-shaped wing tips added for good measure. Its only saving grace, and the reason why it's higher on this list than Cresselia, is its amazing colour scheme.

51 Cosmog

Other than the seventh generation's "get in the bag, Nebby" memes, Cosmog is an utterly forgettable inclusion to the Alolan pantheon of legendaries.

That being said, it's meant to be. It's intended to be a small, unassuming cloud of gas that eventually evolves into one on of Alola's two powerful legendary Pokemon, Solgaleo or Lunala. The design itself isn't terrible either – the colours are nice, and it's really cute. It's just… not a whole lot.

50 Kyurem

Kyurem, Pokemon Movie Anime

Kyruem is the mascot of both Black 2 and White 2, and is one of the oddest Legendary Pokemon in the series so far. Unlike the other members of the Tao trio, Reshiram and Zekrom, Kyurem is said to be incredibly cold to keep the immense power inside it at bay.

It's also a really, really sad Pokemon. It found itself frozen after the cold inside of it leaked out, and other Pokedex entries describe it as waiting for a "hero to fill in the missing parts of its body". Lacking the truth or ideal of its trio mates, Kyurem can literally absorb and merge with either Reshiram or Zekrom to become a whole being again.

These forms are White Kyruem (when it merges with Reshiram) and Black Kyurem (when it merges with Zekrom). When combined, Kyurem takes on physical aspects, like their colour, tails, and parts of their faces. It's a fascinating idea let down by the underwhelming designs of its constituent parts.

49 Reshiram

The white mascot of Pokemon Black, Reshiram is said to be able to set fire to the skies with its furnace-like tail. It's the counterpart of Zekrom, and alongside it and Kyurem it forms the Unova region's Tao trio. In contrast o Zekrom, Reshiram cares about realism. Anyone who refuses to accept the truth may find themselves punished with its fire.

Though neither of them are particularly stand-out Legendaries, Reshiram's design feels more cohesive than Zekrom's. The tail is an actual tail, not just a turbine rammed on. It also breaks out of the trend of having Legendary Pokemon just be hard-to-read shapes stuck together, by giving it a more mammalian appearance.