#2: Lugia

And the second-to-last Pokémon in this series is Lugia. I have always liked this Pokémon for some reason, ever since the second feature film. It was just so amazing in it, being the mysterious 'guardian of the seas' and helping the main protagonists to calm down the legendary bird trio of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. I can even recall having seen a baby Lugia in three regular Johto-era episodes of the Pokémon anime. I absolutely loved those few episodes, because Lugia was my very favorite Pokémon at that time. I mean, a baby Lugia??? That was just adorable beyond belief! Its design is basic and simple, but also fierce, dangerous and (but that's just my opinion) also beautiful. Yeah, I definitely think it's a beautiful Pokémon, and somehow I also believe it's more beautiful and elegant than its counterpart Ho-oh, the 'guardian of the skies', even though the latter is quite colorful. Have you seen fan art of Lugia on Google? There are quite some pretty pictures involved, definitely check it out if you have the time! What's more, Lugia is the record holder of most number of times used as a game mascot. It has appeared on the box art of Pokémon Silver (GameBoy Color), Pokémon SoulSilver (Nintendo DS) and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (GameCube), being all of those versions' mascot. In fact, the Lugia on the cover of Pokémon XD was actually a Shadow Lugia. It was the protagonist's task to free all Shadow Pokémon, of which Lugia was the main antagonist Cipher's ultimate one. I've never had a GameCube, though, so unfortunately I have never been able to play it.

That's OK, though. I always have Silver and SoulSilver to fall back on if I want to! When playing all over again, I always decide to add Lugia to my team, even though I barely use legendary Pokémon. I'll definitely make an exception for Lugia! It's not too strong, its attacking stat are actually no more than decent. However, its defenses go through the roof! It has a base special defense stat of 154 and a base defense stat of 130. Not too shabby! Lugia is quite capable of taking quite some hits before it faints; it's even capable of hitting first very often, as its speed stat is quite good, too. So Lugia is a defensive Pokémon, while it can even do some moderate damage to your opponents with quite a diverse movepool. Seriously, you can't go wrong with this Pokémon. And even if you don't want to use it, definitely catch it in order to add it to your collection. It's just a cool Pokémon to have! I mean, take a look at Lugia's characteristics: it has the ability to calm and give rise to storms with such a light flutter of its wing and hides deep in the seas because its powers are too strong. Definitely not a Pokémon to mess with!