Common Misconceptions About Lugia

As the title suggests, there are quite a few misconceptions about Lugia as a species. I've written as many as I can think of here and given the facts beneath them to help people learn more about this wonderful creature!

1. Lugia is the "Beast of the Sea".

You may be looking at this and wondering how on Earth the Beast of the Sea title is a misconception. I'll explain. Firstly, Lugia is not named that in the original Japanese version. As for the English dub, it is Lawrence III that assigns the words "Beast of the Sea" to Lugia's name. He does so incorrectly and that is why his plan went so horribly wrong, he misunderstood the legend entirely. Bringing together "all three" actually speaks of the treasures which have the power to tame "The Beast of the Sea" which is the huge, underwater current that almost floods the entire planet according to Professor Oak.
So where did Lawrence III go wrong? Well he thought that bringing together all three birds would mean Lugia arises. This was partly true but only due to another part of the legend where "The Water's Great Guardian" is said to rise to quell the fighting between the three titans. THIS is who Lugia really is (at least, in the English dub) while in the Japanese version, Lugia is the God of the Ocean.
So there you have it! Lawrence III caused the underwater current to flood due to the inbalance of power between the titans of fire, ice and lightning. Luckily for him the treasures were combined and the Beast of the Sea was tamed.

2. Lugia is white and blue.

This is false but a very common mistake and it's not very surprising either, Lugia's Pokédex colour is "White", but the reason for this is because there are only a few base colours for it, such as blue, green, red, yellow etc. Never "magenta" or "lime" and so on. Take Smeargle for example, clearly not white but still placed into that colour category. Same goes for Lugia here, even though it's always officially refered to as "silver".
Looking at Lugia you would immediately think he's white because unless you look closely and think hard, you won't really notice the silvery touch (which isn't that easy to show in cartoons either.) As a full blown Lugia artist, I know that the best way to show the silver colour is to use a pale blue-grey highlighted with white. If you have any Lugia and Articuno merchandise I suggest placing them side by side so you can see the difference in colour between Articuno's white chest and Lugia's silver body. This goes for ALL official Lugia and Articuno merchandise. Make sure they're all clean first!

3. Lugia is scaled/smooth skinned.

Thankfully not seen as often as the Silver/White argument, I seriously recommend watching all four Lugia episodes (particularly "The Legend of the Silver Feather"), most hardcore Lugia fans will know that Lugia is feathered. A single feather from a Lugia is called a Silverwing. In the whirl islands, Silver Rock Isle is dedicated to the Silverwing after a "mysterious Pokémon" rescued people from a storm and left a feather behind. A lot of the area is shaped after the feather and made of pure silver.
In Pokémon Gold and Silver, you must obtain Lugia's feather before you can see it. In the newer games, Lugia uses feather dance as an attack.

4. Lugia is a Dragon/Whale/Bird/Dinosaur.

Actually, Lugia may be any one of these or not, the thing is we've never been given an answer to what Lugia is (please correct me if I'm wrong) so we don't know, and therefore we cannot say it to anyone for sure.

5. Lugia isn't a legendary.

Yep, I've heard this one before, I even read a whole debate about it! Some people actually believe Lugia isn't a legendary just because of the baby Lugia in the episodes. But have we ever heard anyone ever say that legendaries can't breed? Nope, not in any game, not anywhere. Of course a legendary's gender is "unknown" (not genderless, quite a difference) in the games, this prevents cheating and breeding tonnes of legends. But no one has ever said that they can't breed, people only assume this because of the games. The episodes show us that they can and but we have no idea about the gender of each Lugia (however in some languages, the Lugia in the episodes was referred to as the mother). So yes, Lugia is legendary and falls under the "uber" group because of the stats which no regular Pokémon would have.

6. Lugia is genderless.

As above, Pokémon with no gender are not refered to as genderless, it is actually "gender unknown". In the newer games, some legendaries do have genders, this is a new idea and although some still cannot breed, we have exceptions such as Manaphy.

7. There's only one Lugia.

Again, this has never been said before, not that I know of at least. Most certainly not in any games so it appears that people assume this because you can only get one. However you can also only get one Lucario, Sudowoodo, Lapras etc. So why is it always assumed that there is just one legendary of each?..
In the Articuno episode Freeze Frame, it is stated that the Articuno gather and build nests in mountains. In the first Pokémon movie, a Mew fossil was used to create Mewtwo while another was still alive, they believed the species to be extinct. Definatly can't be just one in my opinion, sure the legendaries are rare but I believe there are still more than one.

8. Lugia has spikes on it's back.

They're NOT spikes, they are officially referred to as "fins". This goes for the eyes and tail too. You can see exactly what I mean from this official Pokémon 2000 book.