Pokemon of the Week #18: Regirock

#377 Regirock, the Rock Peak Pokemon

So this week's entry isn't completely randomized. I knew I wanted to do a feature on the Regis at one point, and I kinda wanted to do it this week. So the randomization is merely between the four Regis, meaning I cheated a little. In any case, though, today we'll be talking about Regirock.

The third generation is when the games started to include more than a handful of legendaries. While Hoenn didn't have as many legendaries as the ridiculous amount in Sinnoh and Unova, it did have a fair amount -- it had the titanic weather gods, Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, who were the focus of the main storyline. It had Latios and Latias, a duo that copied the roaming mechanic of the Johto legendary beasts. It had Jirachi, the little 'pixie' equivalent to Mew and Celebi. It had the alien-like Deoxys, the strange sci-fi psychic monster with insane stats similar to Mewtwo. And then we had the Regi trio (or the golem trio, or the titan trio), a trio of weaker legendaries with different elements, similar to the legendary birds and beasts of the first two generations.

Regirock, Registeel and Regice were a huge pain in the ass to get to, though. Getting to them involved an insanely convoluted way, easily one of the most complicated way to get to any legendary in any game. I remembered that it was the first time I had to look up a game guide onto the internet, and thankfully Serebii.net was already founded by then. To make a long story short, basically you have to go through the insane current maze in Route 134 of Hoenn, enter the right diving path, navigate a cave and read the Braille language there -- Braille! -- and you must have a Pokemon with Dig, and then a Wailord and Relicanth (respectively a Pokemon that evolved at a reasonably high level and a rare junk) on specific positions in your party, to trigger the earthquakes to activate the golem encounters. Thankfully, the location of the tombs of the three Regis are relatively easier to find, with three spots having a characteristic "larger rock surrounded by six smaller rocks" shape -- Regice is buried in a random island between Petalburg and Dewford, Registeel's tomb is very obviously in your path in that long rainy route before Fortree, and Regirock is at the southern end of the desert. And when you enter the burial chambers you have to do another Braille puzzle -- in Regirock's case, you have to go right twice, down twice, and use Strength at thin air.

It's both amazingly complex, which fits the whole "mythical titans sealed by ancient humans" thing, but at the same time also painstakingly difficult. Sure, a Braille guide is included with the instruction manual, but god damn if the thing isn't insanely convoluted.

Now it would be awesome if the three golems were insane titans of unsurmountable power -- as the manga in particular implies them to be -- but they are actually kinda shit. Regirock has a respectable stat total of 580, but 200 of it is in pure physical defense, and 100 is in special defense. Regirock is tanky, but doesn't quite have the type or HP to back it up. The fact that Regirock is pure Rock -- one of  the least defensive types -- doesn't help it either, but his moveset isn't very conducive either. Sure, Regirock has access to a fair amount of Rock moves (Stone Edge, Ancient Power), can unleash weird Electric and Fighting attacks (though the Electric moves are useless since Regirock's a physical attacker) and can learn the all-important Earthquake via TM. Also, the Frontier Brain of Pokemon Emerald's Battle Pyramid, Brandon, had all three Regis as his team. Despite that, though, I had more trouble fighting Lucy's Shuckle, which should really tell you what you need to know about their fighting capabilities. 

So we've established that Regirock is hard to obtain, and slightly shitty to boot. But it's a cool design, isn't it? For a being of rock, anyway. It's just so geometrical and alien, with gigantic spikes on its back and two club-like arms, with some parts of his body looking mismatched because it's made of different types or rock or something. He has a H-shaped pattern on his face to referrence the Braille puzzle that's needed to unlock him, too. I think stumpy legs aside, Regirock easily looks the most imposing compared to Registeel and Regice.

So what's the deal with them? Well, the three Regis are based on the mythical golem. No, not Golem the Pokemon, but actual golems from legend. See, despite modern fantasy games just reducing golems into any kind of creature made of stone or steel animated by a magician, in Hebrew legend the golem refers to a specific creature, an anthropomorphic being created wholly from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. Golems are mindless and have a holy word or a name inscribed onto its head and awakened with a ritual, allowing it to do its master's bidding, although some stories have golems that attacked their masters, too, either falling in love with humans. You can see the similarities with the Regis pretty clearly. Beings made out of a non-living material (rock, ice, steel), with carvings on their head, and a ritual is needed to bring them to life (or awaken them). 

And from a story-telling standpoint, the Regis' story is one of my favourite. The words in the Sealed Chamber that isn't blatant hints tell a strange story: "In this cave, we have lived. We owe all to the Pokemon. But we sealed the Pokemon away. We feared it. Those with courage, those with hope, open a door. An eternal Pokemon awaits." The Pokedex entries collaborate with this, noting how Regirock, Regice and Registeel were sealed away by the ancient people. Regirock, in particular, is stated to have no brain or heart, and is able to reconstruct itself with any other rocks around it if damaged.

The stories aren't conclusive, but what they're trying to tell is clear -- the power of the three golems caused people to fear them so much that they somehow sealed them away until our protagonist awakened them and captured them (and deposited them into a box). However, the story of the Regis do not end there. Four years after Ruby and Sapphire, the fourth generation, Diamond and Pearl, was released, and with it a fourth member of the Regi trio -- their master, Regigigas. And suddenly the words of the Sealed Chamber, the specific "an eternal Pokemon", seemed to not be a typo or a reference to the fact that each tomb had a single Regi, but talking about Regigigas himself. 

See, to awaken Regigigas in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, you needed to import Regice, Regirock and Registeel and bring them to the slumbering, inactive titan in Snowpoint Temple. Regigigas is credited as the master and creator of the Regis, a titan that pulled the continents into place and apparently was the one that created Regirock, Regice and Registeel -- and Regigigas clearly doesn't look as inanimate as his three thralls. So some speculation arose, and it's the best kind of speculation. Is Regigigas the one they feared, and were Regirock, Regice and Registeel used in the ritual to cause Regigias to slumber? Did Regirock, Regice and Registeel "pieces" of Regigigas that the greater titan was unable to function without? So much mystery surrounding these creatures, and the Legendary Golems have a special place in my heart for telling one of the weirder and more intricate stories in Pokemon lore, and I think other than the Regis, only Zygarde's story was told in the generation after it. (Though, of course, Zygarde's story is kind of convoluted if you don't watch the anime).