After mistakenly mismatching fossils to form pokemon chimeras, the galarian scientist proceed to fail to categorize pokemon with similar traits to legendaries of a different region as their own species. I have a feeling the Galar region scientists aren't that... good at their jobs.

Honestly, I think it's more likely they share a common ancestor, with genetic disposition towards fire, ice, and lightning, respectively, but due to the drastic difference between most habitats and Galar's Dynamax-soaked tundra, they ended up evolving very differently, maintaining some semblance of that genetic disposition their ancestors had.

Personally, i just think it's like us with dragons. Every culture has a dragon, but they're not all the same creature. So I think that the Galarian people and the Kantonian people named these three birds with the same names despite not actually being the same birds.

This is probably a stretch, but I wonder if they're related at all to the instincts of "flight, fight, or freeze". Zapdos is flight (or, as is literally the case with many flightless species, running away). Moltres is fight, as it is aggressive and fiery, and actively attacks in a violent way. Obviously Articuno is freeze, which instinctually is not actual freezing, but staying still, observing your prey or predator to figure out your next move. This is probably just one of those observations that works to a degree but is ultimately meaningless and unintended, but I still think it's fun :)

From a lore perspective, while I think they do come from a common ancestor and are definitely related, the Galarian birds could warrant their own species. However, because legendary Pokémon are so rare and elusive, not enough research has been able to be done on these Pokémon to determine wether or not they are forms or their own thing. So for now they are named based on similarities and to make note of possible relations until more conclusive evidence is found.

8:16 Lockstin: “Thunderbolts and lightning-“ Me: “Very, very frightening”

My proposed alternate names of the birds if considered different species: "Articuno" - Psyquatro (Psycho- + Quatro) "Zapdos" - Bruicinco (Bruise + Cinco) "Moltres" - Maliseis (Malice + Seis) Also, there's definitely multiples of the legendary birds. In Let's Go, the birds have a chance of spawning in the wild in almost any route after becoming Champion if you're flying in the air (as well as Charizard and Dragonite).

I've always been under the impression that Zapdos wasn't the friendliest member of the trio, hence why its Galarian form isn't contrary to its Kanto form.

10:00 I'd argue that Galarian Zapdos also draws heavy inspiration from the greater roadrunner of the American Southwest, between it being relatively poor at but still capable of flight, running with its neck (and thus its head too) and tail parallel to the ground (ratites run with their necks closer to vertical), and even having a patch of bare skin behind its eye.

I think saying that Galarian Moltres and Articuno being too different to be mistaken for the originals is a mistaken idea. Most people in the Kanto region likely have never seen a legendary Pokémon and only heard vague, partially incorrect stories about them.

I love the fact that the galarian trio plays with the idea that human nomenclature and taxonomy are inherently flawed and rather subjective. We don't KNOW everything and thats ok, it just leaves room for our knowledge to grow. I would love if a future pokemon game would help us discover the origin of these pokemon and designate more appropriate names to them. ♡

They're definitely related but they seem to have more of a yin and yang relationship with their Kanto counterparts. Articuno being cruel, Zapdos being flightless and Moltres being straight up evil makes a good counterbalance to the helpful, flying and benevolent natures of their Kanto counterparts.

Them being referred to as the names of the Kantonian forms could be like, early settlers saw them and assumed they were different forms of the other birds, but modern technology has revealed they are different. Sorta like how some animals are named simillarly because they look closely related but we now know they aren't

I think generally speaking, there's more than one of each Legendary Bird, at least in my opinion, if only because we've seen them show up in other regions like Sinnoh and Kalos without some mystical handwaving like Mirage Spots or Ultra Space. It could be the same ones migrating to different regions, but it makes more sense to me that there are just multiple around the world. In terms of whether the Kantonian and Galarian forms are variants of the same species though, I kinda feel like the way the dex entries are written kind of implies more that the Galarian "forms" share a resemblance to the originals, which led explorers and such to believe they were the same birds, and the naming scheme just stuck, since the dex feels like it's going out of its way to justify why they have the same names as their counterparts. They could very well be a different species that just looks similar.

My own personal guess is that the galarian birds were a specific group of the kanto birds that migrated to galar somehow and evolved, in a sense, very quickly thanks to the dynamax tree. Specifically, I think they evolved so that their life cycle could revolve around the tree and around avoiding each other. My biggest reason for believing this is Galarian Moltres, whose coloration, beak shape and dark type make me think of frigate birds, the birds with red throat patches that tend to steal food from other birds. Since they live out on the ocean, they need to have large wingspans in order to make it across the water. Similarly, both Moltres and Galarian Moltres have the largest wingspan of the birds, and since Moltres is weak to water, I bet what happened is that as it learned to aggressively steal food from other pokemon, its fire slowly stopped becoming real fire and became a manifestation of its temper and malevolence so it could travel better over stormy seas. This is also why it flies over the isle of armor and why it flies in from the sea in its cutscene.

Certain legendaries I think can be a whole species. The legendary birds, while powerful pokemon and super important, are not spesifically unique in their roles in the pokemon world. So if there was more than one, it wouldn't be too crazy to imagine.

I remember when people were expecting the Galarian Birds to be Electric/Fighting, Dark/Fire, and Ice/Psychic rather than keeping the Flying type.

I can't be the only one that wanted them to abandon the flying type and become Ice/Psychic, Fire/Dark, and Electric/Fighting

Some legendaries i think certainly are unique, lore wise. To me, it makes little sense to have multiple Dialgas and Palkias, for example. However, I could see it being the case that the legendary birds are merely an extraordinarily rare and long lived species of pokemon, that has a lot of variation in each ones specific traits. This could be described as being teir 2 legendaries, with pokemon like Dialga and Arceus being teir 1.

You know, actually, this thought came to my mind, but what if the Galarian Birds came before the Regular Legendary Birds? When thinking about it, it could be that the birds we see are just genetic changes from the Dynamax Fruit. But, the more I thought about it, if the birds we know could be the Regional Forms that became the norm because Dynamax Fruit is only in Galar, that would explain their personality shifts from Bad to Good. The Fruit clouding their judgment about humans and Pokemon, and a lack of that fruit made them look at their environment differently. Though that theory is a little out there, but I wanted to share it with you guys.

An interesting fact is that NONE of the Galarian forms can learn any of the signature element moves of their original Kantonian variants. Found that out the hard way.

“And how is that one flying?” *ZAPDOS LEARNED SELF DESTRUCT*

I know a lot of people count Moltres as a Phoenix, but yeah the slavic firebird in my opinion is the inspiration, whereas Ho-Oh is a Phoenix, predominantly Fenhuang. Phoenix and the fire bird are like squares and rectangles if anyone remembers that from geometry. A square can be a rectangle, however a rectangle cannot be a square, similarly the Phoenix of any variation is a type of firebird, but there is an actual firebird. Also generally the Phoenix there is only 1 of, which is why I say Moltres isn't a Phoenix, Ho-Oh is the only Phoenix in the Pokemon universe... unless gamefreak changes their mind.

My theory: The galarian birds were flying type pokemon that got mutated/turned into legendary pokemon by Eterrnatus powers during the first darkest day when it first appeared in galar in a similar way to how the Ho-oh turned three pokemon into Entei, Raikou and Suicune. The dynamax tree was also a normal tree that got affected and became their only source for food since it got permanently imbued with dynamax energy and that´s why they fight each other over it. And I think that Calyrex dynamax aura and urshifu´s being the only legendaries able to gigantamax were also mutations that they suffered as a result to their exposure to Eternatus energy when they defended the crown tundra and the isle of armor respectively during the darkest day.

That would be interesting if the Legendary Beasts could have regional forms in other generations.

For Galarian Zapdos, I was waiting for Maxill to say "But Lockstin, Galarian Zapdos is clearly based off a Roadrunner, and not a lame Ostrich" or something along those lines.

I wonder if the "That's why it's called" descriptions hint at them being discovered before the Kantonian versions. Perhaps, the Kantonian forms were named after the Galarian forms. So maybe they were given the specific names of the three because they were found first.

Another little fun fact that’s not based off lure at all, articuno starts with a-the first letter of the alphabet, moltres starts with m-the 13th letter of the alphabet or the middle, and Zapdos starts with z-the last letter of the alphabet. Idk just thought it was cool.

Speaking of the four directions beast, I just recently learn that the Forces of Nature therian forms are based off of them. We might get a fourth one to complete the cycle

Honestly, the kanto legendary birds were saved by the galarian forms

I think the galarian legendary birds are just that, a trio of legendary birds that happen to share characteristics with the kantonian trio. We know that galarian "sience" an "research" is kinda terrible when it comes to rare Pokémon (remeber how they treat their fossils?). So it's safe to assume somebody with knowledge of the kantonian birds stumbled across that trio one day, thought "ah... Close enough" and named them accordingly.

I like how the Galarian birds have abilities other than "Pressure".

Ok but how can you NOT mention a roadrunner as one of Galarian Zapdos’s inspirations?

I think the best way to explain region forms as a whole goes as follows, what we think of as a species of Pokemon ( Charizard, Sandslash ECT) are actually more akin to a genus, so the Kantian and Galatian legendary bird trio are closely related species that are in the same genus akin to both lions and tigers being in the genus pantra.

I actually have an interesting theory regarding Galarian Articuno specifically: I think that it's at least partly inspired by Will of the Johto Elite Four. Sound weird? Well, sure, but the shape of it's eyes is very reminiscent of the mask Will wears; also consider that even though it's likely false, there does exist a fan theory that Will is actually Lorelei in disguise, this to me explains why they would choose to have an ice types regional form become a psychic type, random as it might seem. This of course also hints at the possibility that maybe Lorelei and Will are connected in some other way, although I will admit it does seem to be quite a stretch. Come to think of it, the types that the Galarian forms of Zapdos and Moltres become are also types used by members of the Johto Elite Four as well, with Zapdos's fighting type representing Bruno, while Moltres's dark type is used by Karen

I like to believe the legendary birds are just similar to the galarian fossils. Unlike the bonewars where several specimens of the same species where named as seperate. More recently they are finding some specimens labeled as a known species are actualy a diffrent/new ones.

I was waiting for you to mention the typing, as none of the regional variants retained their original signature lightning, ice and fire typing. At least in my eyes, this further speaks for them being different altogether.

Zapdos was always my fav, and I’m glad each form could probably become a friend if you were good to it. The other two got some ESP issues now.

I will always love Zapdos, and I fully enjoy the Galarian form of it. I am also convinced it's partially inspired by terror birds like Gastornis- they're mostly found in Europe, while most modern equivalents aren't. I feel like that's the darker side of it's existence.

And this is why I gave my Galarian birds more suiting names, Personal favorite being Zapdos to Kwondos with the other ones with similar themed names.

You actually made me gain new appreciation for articuno, with how much inspiration it draws from Persian myths. Thanks!

My theory is they were once the same bird a LOOONG time ago but generations of eating the dynamax fruit caused them to naturally evolve into a new species of Pokémon.

I always assumed that there was going to be a galarian Lugia which would have created these galarian legendaries, it was a shame that there wasn't as that would be really cool and kind of explain things, or at least narrow down the issue to one Pokémon's relatives rather than 3

I can't help but feel like those dex entries would be less thought provoking in Japanese. "We call it Freezer because it freeze other creatures like they were frozen!" "We call it Thunder because it sounds zappy!" "We call it Fire because it looks like it's on fire!" There's something charming about the simplicity of those names.

I believe I said this in the other legendary video, but my belief is that some legendary Pokémon are single individuals, but others are whole species, just extremely rare. If the legendary birds are a species, then a population of them in a new region and evolving to adapt makes more sense, I think

galarian zapdos is definitely my favorite of the bunch, I feel like it's the biggest leap in quality of the three when compared to their original forms. zapdos just looks so much more awkward when compared to the ostrich that will kick your face off

I feel like it's similar to how we have sea-dwelling mammals that look like fish, or have some species that look very similar, and may even fall under the same name, but when you look at their ancestry they're not even closely related. They just happen to have evolved traits that line up with other species.

I think there could be another reason why the Galar Legendary Birds could have the “called, inspired, etc.” things with their names; Like Galarian Zigzagoon, they were the originals. Then, when the other legendary birds were discovered, it was seen how similar they were to the Galarian ones, or even developed their elemental abilities through regional adaptation, and their temperament changed along with their more frequent interactions with humans.

Personally I think that these may be based on convergent evolution or two seperate distantly related species evolving to look similar to another due to a myriad of factors (such as environments). If so that would be pretty cool.

I mostly accept legendaries having shiny in the first place is just an addition to the gameplay mechanic, embraced by the anime, using them in the series and movies. So the shiny Galar birds in particular are just easter eggs, referring to the originals from Kanto. Also, the discussion initially seemed like it's focused on making sure the Galar and original birds are different individuals, making the Galar birds the "regional variants" instead of "alternate forms", which is obvious. However as the discussion goes on, the focus is changed to question that are the Galar birds EVEN a regional variant (from the game design concept perspective, definitely yes), given the descriptions are so obscure and remotely related to the original birds. Just like how "dragons" are differently depicted across the globe despite sharing the same name.

I think we've been thinking about it backwards. The Galarian bird trio didn't change from the Normal Form bird trio- the Galarian Forms came first! This wouldn't even be the first such instance, as it's stated that canonically Galarian Zigzagoon came before Normal Form Zigzagoon. I think the Galarian forms of the bird trio were the first ones to exist, and in times long past, people could only go by what little they saw or heard, with sightings and reports being far too few and far between to really get an accurate picture of what they were dealing with. A beautiful bird with a cold, cruel demeanor who shoots beams that can immobilize enemies as if frozen solid? A lightning-quick bird whose feathers make crackling, almost electric sounds? A bird with a blazing aura that burns away your spirit? It's not hard to imagine interpreting them as actual beings of ice, lightning, and fire. So, people who would seek out these birds of legend might leave food as offerings to them, try and gain the favor of these legendary creatures, not realizing they're not dealing with what they think they are. Let's take Articuno for example- a Galarian Articuno, in its flight, comes across an offering made to it, on an icy mountain, consisting of berries and stuff, and maybe even Iceroot Carrots or something else that'd appeal to Ice-types specifically. It doesn't really get why the humans think it'd prefer this stuff specifically, but hey, free food! And over time it comes to realize, if it keeps coming back to this mountain, it keeps getting this free food, that it's getting more and more accustomed to, starting to like more and more, keeping it coming back again and again. Its body changes gradually as a result of this environment and diet, and maybe due to the kindness of the humans providing all this food for it, that could even help to lessen the cruelty inherent in its personality, and eventually it becomes more like what the mistaken legends painted it as.

Coming from Gen 9, we can theorize these bird trio was an example of convergent evolution like Wugtrio and wigglet

From my point of view, It's similar to the Galapagos finches compared to those of the mainland. Perhaps each Legendary bird had a common ancestor with traits of both, but as the two populations became Isolated from each other, they specialized on one trait over another, leading them to become different species, but still within the same family.

I really buy more into the theory that some legendaries are being just a super rare species, that would explain why galarian forms look different, they aren't the same mons as kantionan birds, but they are the same specie sorta? idk

Articuno and Moltres: I am become death, destroyer of worlds. Zapdos: boy I was runnin’

I say they’re a subspecies of the legendary birds who changed drastically to survive in the harsh climate of the crown tundra. I mean in nature many animals charge like that when forced to live in a arctic climate; example the Muskox who is actually very closely related to goats.

Can I just use this to ask why Fiery Wrath Flinches instead of causing Burn? Not only is it a missed opportunity thematically, but Dark Pulse already beat it to the punch when it comes to Dark-Type Special Moves that Flinch!

Proof that Zapdos is the superior Pokemon of the three birds. Galarian Zapdos (even if it may not be the same animal) is just a chill Chad instead of being a jerk, like the Moltres and Articuno. All hail Zapdos!

8:17 Very, very frightening. The Vermillion Bird is also known as Suzaku.

There's a bird in norse mythology responsible for the cold northern winds. Hraesgvelt? It's a clan in Northgard. Either way, I always figured that was the basis of articuno considering its named after the arctic, hence cold northern wind.

When you brought up multiple legendaries now I'm thinking about like a council of Arceus or something, I mean that would make sense because it lives on what appears as a glass pedestal on top of a sacred mountain.

I love the galarian birds,and I think Zapdos is my favorite,because it basically a giant electric/fighting Kiwi bird.

When the galar dex talks about the name inspirations, I imagine what they’re trying to imply is these galar forms are the original, and the kanto forms are the ones that came through change in the environment or whatever. So their are multiple legendary birds but the ones on galar are the original ones.

With the addition of Convergent Evolution in Scarlet and Violet, I'm beginning to think they're convergent evolutions instead. They grow to have similar shapes and structures. However convergent evolutions mean that a creature becomes similar to something else due to the environment that they live in. So who knows?

Personally after seeing the new hisui region in would say the dex entries for the galarian forms are the timeline original birds which over time became the ones from Kanto. They first got the names here from galar which would make the region much older than the rest of the others perhaps. Much like the galarian zigzagoon is considered the original.

I'm also pretty sure that they did this as a play with the type effectiveness trio. The *Fighting* strong to *Dark* strong to *Psychic* strong to *Fighting* Like with *Fire* strong to *Grass* strong to *Water* strong to *Fire* Except, well Zapdos is Electric not Grass and Articuno is Ice lmao

9:00 let's not forget the clear roadrunner inspirations as well, especially when it comes to that head and beak

Regional Variants of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune have so much potential. Maybe you would have to go on some kind of quest to capture them like you do with the Galarian forms of the legendary birds.

Hopefully the Galarian Birds (Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres) make an appearance in the anime eventually! That would be epic!!!

I wonder if this was an early concept of convergent species like Wiglett which is named similarly to Diglett because of similarities although unrelated. While these 3 were not named different pokemon that are similar but rather just regional forms of the Kanto birds

One interpretation I could see with the galarian birds is that they might be older/original versions of the birds. Its completely possible since we have things like the alolan and kantonian Exeggutor, where the kantonian is technically a regional form and Alolan is the original.

I feel like there's more than one of each bird. The anime and manga often have some of the legendary birds, specifically Articuno comes to mind, being a wild Pokémon captured by one of the characters, then there's the wild one in the 2nd movie that answers to the prophecy of the world coming to an end.

It’s pretty cool that their respective types were changed in response to them only being compared to the attributes of the original versions

love the galarian forms, they iterate om the originals so well. the kanto were so bland and uninteresting, very happy with the regional forms they have been making, they only keep getting better!

I’ve got some new names for them. Mysticuno (Mystic + Uno) Combados (Combat + Dos) And Tenetres (Tenebris + Tres)

Their pages on the official website of Sword and Sheild all have a variation of this statement in each one's description: For a long time, it was thought to be the same Legendary Pokémon as the Articuno/Zapdos/Moltres previously discovered in other regions.

All I know is it took me _far_ too long to catch them when I played Shield. Especially the freaking Moltres. I kept running out of balls and it kept killing itself.

this video looks like it was a lotta fun to put together, such beautiful graphics and transitions ☆

I don't know if this means anything for Articuno and its relationship to the Roc, but back when Pokemon released D&D 3rd edition was still going strong and some monsters got variants, the Roc being one of them with Ice Roc (a Roc that made its home in frigid environments and had some level of ice powers on its own).

I'm surprised that the Cockatrice wasn't mentioned for Articuno. With the eyes that "seem to freeze" people, it seemed like a good inspiration

Pokémon Journeys proves there are multiple Legendaries in it’s first episode with the 5-Star Raid egg that appears.

Yesss, something to watch when I wait for the unexpectables to start.

I was so confused when the galarian birds were introduced I needed this video. Thanks!

Something not many people mention when discussing this topic is the fact that you can literally catch the Kantonian birds in the Crown Tundra, meaning the new ones literally can't be regional forms. Interestingly, when you show Peony the Galarian Birds in the Max Lair he calls them "Imposter Articuno/Zapdos/Moltres", and when showing him the Kantonian ones he still thinks they are the impostors, just with a better disguise. This, combined with the shiny colors, makes me believe that the Galarian Birds were different birds that evolved to look more like the Legendary Birds over time.

I really love the galarian forms, especially moltres. Moltres normally to me looked like quite a boring design, but the galarian form is better altogether. I think that maybe these galarian birds might have used to follow orders from a lugia, until something happened to the lugia that sent the legendary birds down a different path.

Holy does this mean these were the first convergent pokemon?

2:34 i think they keep building towers near volcanos, it erupts, the tower Burns, ho-oh makes an entei.

I really wish that they were classified as separate species, and had cuatro, cinco, and seis in their names

The galatians birds could just be pokemon convergence before it was really a thing

I like the idea they are different creatures entirely they just evolved differently through time because being in a different environment than the Kanto versions, hope we get more regional legendary Pokémon

Zapdos was always my favorite legendary well Regirock and Groudon as well. Those are my favorite legendary trio But Orange is my favorite color so I'm so happy with this new form of Zapdos

I am so glad you made this video. I was so confused during the release of the birds Thank you

I always thought they were separate from each other. When they make regional variants, if it's name has an element they keep the element. These didnt keep the element. I hope they aren't variants and I hope galar gets a legends game. I also hope more DLC for shield is coming

I wish more legendaries had regional forms Also great vid lol

The idea that explores finding them and saying they resemble the Kantonian bird trio is cool, I can see that happen and even have that be explained more in another game (who knows I might try that for my fakemon region)

I'd guess it's a story similar to the legendary dogs - three pokemon ate the fruit from the tree and were drastically altered by it. Hawlucha is the only fighting/flying type available so far, and they can be found in Galar. The other two typings have a few options each, which could relate to why their real world inspirations are more varied. We could even have another instance of "these are the original forms" on our hands, as eating fruit from the wrong tree is a pretty common mythos.

Personally I’m starting too see the Legendary Birds as follows, Kantoian/Galarian Moltres’s, Kantoian/Galarian Zapdos’s & Kantoian/Galarian Articuno’s. In other words a classification of type of bird but a different species of that bird, like how we do with Parrots. If we want too talk about these types of birds in a general term we just call them Parrots, but if we want too talk about a certain one we will call it by its species name like Macaw. So in this case that’s how I’m starting too see the Legendary Birds, they of course share a common ancestry but they can still be their own species of bird. Heck we have gotten a lot of birds out there that go by their generalised name with their geographic location tack on for its species and more than likely just out of laziness without trying too come up with a original name for it mostly because of how strikingly similar they look even though they have some easily noticeable difference.

Awesome Video

Interesting take on Convergent Evolution. Different species evolving similar traits. They may be vastly distant cousins. 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

Going along with Lockstin's theory that Legendaries hint at the next gen, it's plausible to think that Galarian Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres were hinting at Convergent Evolution forms for Scarlet and Violet. So, Galarian Articuno is to Kantonian Articuno what Wiglett is to Diglett. They may look the same, but they're not related whatsoever, as opposed to Regional forms.