Legendary beasts

Raikou, Entei and Suicune

The legendary beasts is the collective term used to refer to the trio of Entei, Raikou, and Suicune. However, many still refer to them as legendary cats or legendary dogs, depending on if they personally see feline or canine features in the individual Pokémon. Due to this disagreement, some circles have taken to humorously calling them legendary gerbils.

The beasts are available in several of the Pokémon games, as opposed to their other legendary trio counterparts. The three (reduced to just Raikou and Entei in Crystal) are available roaming the wilds of Johto in Generation II, and appear in Generation III in Pokémon Colosseum, where they are transformed into Shadow Pokémon by Cipher and owned by the admins Dakim, Venus, and Ein. They are also found in FireRed and LeafGreen, where one of the trio is roaming the Kanto region. The type of the one that happens to roam Kanto is the one that is super effective against the player's choice of a starter Pokémon. To be specific, Raikou appears to trainers who chose Squirtle, Entei to those who took Bulbasaur, and Suicune to those who chose to go with Charmander.

A direct counterpart to the Generation I trio, the beasts find their master in Ho-Oh, who revived them when Ecruteak City's Brass Tower burned. They are said to embody the three events that happened to the tower: the lightning that struck the tower, the fire that burned in the tower, and the rain that put it out. It is speculated, however, that the three that Ho-Oh created are not the only members of their respective species. In Celebi: Voice of the Forest, Professor Oak speaks about the Suicune in question as if the Pokémon was only part of a species. Pokédex entries also state that an Entei is born every time a volcano erupts. In Pokémon Ranger, an Entei statue was brought to life when the player completes all four challenges of the Jungle Relic. It was later captured by Gordor, along with the other two beasts, showing that Fiore might have its own trio of beasts. Like the Generation I trio, they also all share the ability Pressure.

Of the three beasts, Suicune finds the most independence, appearing as a version mascot on the box art of Crystal, and taking an expanded role in that game. Suicune also appears in Celebi: Voice of the Forest as a protagonist, while Entei was the first of the three to have a movie appearance, in Spell of the Unown. Raikou was delegated to a more minor role, appearing as the central character in The Legend of Thunder!, where Jimmy, not Ash, encountered it. However, Misty's Togepi and a Houndoom did see the silhouette of a Raikou in Houndoom's Special Delivery.

Similar movesets

Lv.	Raikou  Electric	Entei  Fire	Suicune  Water
Start	Bite
	Leer
8	ThunderShock	Ember	BubbleBeam
15	Roar		Rain Dance
22	Quick Attack	Fire Spin	Gust
29	Spark	Stomp	Aurora Beam
36	Reflect	Flamethrower	Mist
43	Crunch	Swagger	Mirror Coat
50	Thunder Fang	Fire Fang	Ice Fang
57	Discharge	Lava Plume	Tailwind
64	Extrasensory
71	ThunderDP	Fire Blast	Hydro Pump
	Rain DancePt
78	Calm Mind
Pt85	Thunder	Eruption	Blizzard
Moves in bold are STAB. Moves in italics do no damage.

Trivia

• The legendary beasts' Gold and Silver sprites are identical.
• The legendary beasts are the first legendary Pokémon to get a special battle theme.
• A representation of the legendary beasts was used as the set symbol for the Neo Revelation card expansion.
• Entei and Raikou are the only pure Template:Type2 and Template:Type2 legendary Pokémon, respectively.
• Given the popularity of the Eeveelutions in Ecruteak City, their type affinity, and their design, it is popularly considered amongst fans that the legendary beasts may have been a Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon prior to dying and being resurrected by Ho-Oh.
• Currently, Suicune is the only one of the three to appear in the Sinnoh region in the anime.
• Interestingly, the initials for the three beasts are the same as the initials for the three Hoenn-based games, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.
• Even though they are often referred to as the legendary dogs, Suicune, Raikou, and Entei are modeled on cats: Entei is based on a lion, Raikou is based on a tiger, and Suicune is based on a cheetah.