No, Gyarados is Not a Legendary Pokémon

While its imposing appearance and formidable battle strengths may seem fitting of a legendary, Gyarados lacks the lore significance, acquisition difficulty, and meta-game restrictions that define such elite Pokémon. When scrutinized, Gyarados fails to meet enough criteria to qualify for the major arcana cards of Pokémon.

So What Does Make a Pokémon "Legendary"?

Legendary Pokémon are the rarest and most powerful monsters in the Pokémon world. They drive key story elements and remain scarcely obtainable even in-game. Specifically, true legends are:

• Key figures in founding myths & lore – Legendaries have ties to important backstories about the Pokémon universe‘s creation, regions, or events. Cosmog embodiments of the sun/moon, golems formed from volcanic eruptions, genetic masterpieces designed by scientists…their roles in tales of the past distinguish them.

• Purposefully made very hard to find and capture – We‘re talking single digit catch rates here. Odds of running into one roaming about in tall grass? Forget it. Even with access to the correct map or cave to find one, they pose extreme challenges to defeat and catch.

• Restricted from sanctioned competitive play – No bringing your temperature controlling Lugia or wish granting Jirachi to officials tournaments for some easy wins. The power dynamics would be totally thrown off.

Now let‘s see how our serpentine friend Gyarados stacks up to these benchmarks.

Putting Gyarados to the Legend Test

On first glance, Gyarados appears suited for legendary monster status between its ferocious temperament, skyscraping length, and devastating moveset. Maybe it was crafted long ago by an advanced civilization? Or awoke from some underwater abyss during turbulent volcanic activity?Nope – this beast evolves from the weakest fish in the sea after some overeager Magikarp owner turbo trained it to level 20.

Already its legend credit takes a big hit for having not just an identifiable origin form, but one as common as Magikarp. Still, perhaps its battle capabilities demonstrate enough raw power to override that…?

Stat Spread Comparison

Ok, let‘s compare some numbers with Ho-Oh – an actual Generation 2 legendary bird.

Ho-Oh outclasses Gyarados in nearly every category, especially with that massive Special Defense score. And I chose an unoptimized nature for it too. This superior stat total directly translates into better battling.

Sure, Gyarados has that powerful 125 base Attack. But with average defensive bulk, it struggles to tank hits from legendaries packing 130+ power moves AND the durability to weather retaliation.

And we haven‘t even touched on catch rates yet either. Let‘s explore that next.

Catch Rate Data Comparison

The lower the catch rate, the harder the Pokémon is to successfully capture.

• Gyarados Catch Rate – 45
• Ho-Oh Catch Rate – 3 (!)

You‘re over 10x more likely to catch a Gyarados per Poké Ball throw than Ho-Oh. And given Gyarados evolves rather than roams wild, you don‘t even need to waste balls capturing it! This extreme contrast shows Game Freak intended Ho-Oh to be MUCH rarer.

Anime Appearances

The Pokémon anime provides supporting evidence too. Gyarados appears many times throughout the show‘s run, commonly under the ownership of trainers like Misty. Meanwhile Ho-Oh‘s cameo in the very first episode held major significance, kicking off Ash‘s journey. It took until Gen 4‘s release years later before properly introducing this legendary bird.

Tournament Viability

Lastly, let‘s evaluate usage restrictions. As we covered earlier, bringing legendaries goes against standard competitive rulesets. But Gyarados faces no bans for league play, proving it does not disrupt balance integrity. Contrast with Lugia – restricted immediately to Ubers tier for its overwhelming strengths.

So by all measures, Gyarados fails to satisfy enough criteria. With an easily obtained pre-evolution, middling stats, and no lore or meta-relevance, Gyarados cannot be considered a true legendary Pokémon.

I evaluated Gyarados across various attributes like battle performance, catch rates, backstories, and tournament policies against real legendary Pokémon. While Gyarados possesses an intimidating appearance and potent moveset, it ultimately does not meet thresholds qualifying it for the highest echelon of Pokémon. Factors like its Magikarp origins, statistical deficiencies, and recurring anime appearances cement its status as simply a standout fully-evolved species. Gyarados resides firmly as a regular – albeit still awesome – Pokémon.