Mewtwo

Mewtwo is one of the most popular Pokémon in the Pokémon franchise, originating from (Pokémon Red and Blue). Mewtwo is well known for its high base stats and appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and a DLC character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS.

Mewtwo is one of the most overly used Pokémon in competitions due to its high base stats and varied move pool. Following the production of Pokémon Gold and Silver, creators intended to decrease Mewtwo's effectiveness by splitting the special stat formerly used in Pokémon Red and Blue into two separate stats, Special Attack and Special Defense. Creators paired Mewtwo with an average Special Defense in an attempt to balance its high Special Attack. Despite these adjustments and the creation of dark and steel type Pokémon, Mewtwo returned in competitive gameplay and has remained active ever since. Mewtwo held the title of highest total for base stats until the fourth generation's addition of Arceus.

Mewtwo's name derives from its origin, being a cloned attempt to create a stronger version of the legendary Pokémon Mew. Whether its name has any relationship to its anatomy (Mewtwo having two necks) or to the English word "mutant" has yet to be confirmed.

Mewtwo is often referred to as male despite his official genderless status. This is due to the male dubbing utilized in the Pokémon and Super Smash Brother series.

Characteristics
Mewtwo is described by the in-game Pokédexes of the Pokémon video games as being cloned from Giuseppe having been created by scientists by super modifying Mew's DNA. It is primarily due to this characteristic that Mewtwo is featured in the various Pokémon media as tempestuous and remorseless. A sentient/sapient being, Mewtwo is among the few Pokémon species created by humankind. Mewtwo's ears resemble small horns and its body is less feline and more humanoid than that of Mew.

Due to its genetic background, Mewtwo’s powers are superior to all other Pokémon, even many of legendary or god-like regard. Mewtwo can employ telekinesis to lift people and Pokémon off the ground, or to perform self-levitation, which allows it to achieve genuine flight. All this can be done with only a minor or nearly no strain on its mind. Mewtwo has the ability to project its thoughts telepathically to others, making it one of the very few Pokémon who can directly communicate with any sort of creature. When in battle with another Pokémon, Mewtwo can easily summon a barrier of telekinetic power to protect its body, as well as erase memories.

Appearances
In Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow from the first generation of games for original Game Boy, Mewtwo is found in the Unknown Dungeon, a location found near Cerulean City, where it is at level 70. In Red, Blue, and Yellow, Mewtwo, was an overly powerful species with very high statistics.

Mewtwo did not appear in the second generation of Pokémon games (Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal). Instead, Mewtwo could only be attained by importing the legend from Pokémon Red, Blue, or Yellow. Despite lack of availability, Stat division, and psychic counters, Mewtwo remained a tournament favorite.

Mewtwo reappeared as an attainable Pokémon in Fire Red and LeafGreen versions. Its base, now called Cerelean Cave, remains on the outskirts of Cerulean City. Mewtwo has the highest Special Attack rating and a high Speed and Attack. However its Defense and Special Defense are slightly above average. Mewtwo may then be transferred to other third generation versions (Sapphire, Ruby, and Emerald), as well as fourth generation games (Diamond and Pearl) via Pal Park.

In Pokémon Stadium, Mewtwo is the boss-character of every Round of the stadium; after completing the Gym Leader Castle, the four levels of the Poke Cup, Prime Cup, Pika Cup and Petit Cup, a Level 100 Mewtwo awaits battle, and the player must be able to defeat it with a team of any six or less Pokémon to complete that round. Pokémon Stadium 2 has these battles much like the previous game, but this time the battle is with the Rival who has three Pokémon at level 50: Lugia and Ho-Oh in addition to Mewtwo.

In the Nintendo 64 game Pokémon Snap, while Mewtwo is not physically present, an array of glowing crystals is located in the Cave course. If the center crystal is properly snapped, the photograph displays a large, holographic image of Mewtwo, one of the six "signs" required to get to Rainbow Cloud, the final course in the game. Mewtwo also appears in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon as a boss character at the end of the game and is later recruitable in the brutal 99 floor dungeon Western Cave Dungeon. Mewtwo also plays a cameo in Pokémon Puzzle League.

Mewtwo made its first Smash Bros. appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It is one of four playable Pokémon characters. While it has a slow running speed, has a light weight and is easy to knock out of the arena. It uses quick, strong attack moves and can lift and throw items (and other players) easily.

Red/Blue/Yellow
Players can only capture Mewtwo once they've beaten the Elite Four and ventured through a newly unlocked dungeon called Unknown Dungeon, which can be accessed by Surfing south along the water to the west of Nugget Bridge. It is a very difficult Pokémon to capture with the exception being to use the Master Ball.

Gold/Silver/Crystal
Trade from Red/Blue/Yellow.

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen.

FireRed/LeafGreen
Players can only capture Mewtwo once they've beaten the Elite Four, completed the Sevii Islands sidequest, and ventured through a newly unlocked dungeon called Cerulean Cave. In FR/LG, using Ultra Balls may be considered over the Master ball as the legendary Pokémon Suicune, Raikou or Entei appear at randomly generated times.

Diamond/Pearl
Transfer from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/FireRed/LeafGreen via Pal Park.



Super Smash Bros. Melee
Mewtwo in this game is unlocked by playing either 20 hours total in VS. mode, or by playing 700 Vs. matches. He is not considered to be one of the better characters, due to his floaty movement and jumping, weak moves, and light weight.

Pokémon Abilities

 * Pressure
 * Battle: When this Pokémon is hit by any move, the user's PP goes down by 2 instead of 1.
 * Field: The chance of encountering a high-level Pokémon is decreased by 50% when this Pokémon is in the first slot.

Suggested Moveset
Despite the introduction of many psychic counters, Mewtwo is a very difficult Pokémon to predict and defeat. With a base special attack of 154 and above average speed, Mewtwo is well known for being a special sweeper, however, Mewtwo's wide movepool allows it to perform many other useful tasks.

Mewtwo has access to Supportive Moves (Safeguard, Light Screen, etc.), Special Moves (Psychic, Aura Sphere, etc.) and Physical Moves (Earthquake, Psycho Cut, etc.). When well coordinated with the rest of the team, a player's Mewtwo may be very difficult to defeat or very disruptive for its opponent's plans. For this reason, Mewtwo well-known and often utilized.

With access to a wide variety of moves, Mewtwo can be tailored to any players taste. While Mewtwo's stats are its strong point, it is the user's creativity and coherence that determines the outcome.

A popular moveset for Mewtwo consists of Psychic, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower. This allows Mewtwo to attack every Pokémon for at least neutral damage (including Shedinja). While these moves are effective for sweeping, they are one of the many competitive and useful movesets for this Pokémon.

While Mewtwo is difficult to counter, Pokémon with high special defences, such as Cresselia and Bronzong, fair well in stalling for time. While Mewtwo suffers from a very low set of defenses, a Pokémon with a very high attack or access to a strong supereffective move (Heracross's Megahorn, Giratina's Shadowforce, Rampardos's Rock Wrecker, etc.) OTK Mewtwo if they are not OTKed first. Pokémon such as Electrode, and Ninjask may outrun it and disrupt Mewtwo's well-being, but still little chance of surviving thereafter. Deoxys may outrun, outdefense, or outattack Mewtwo depending on Deoxy's form (Attack, Defense, Speed, Normal).

While these Pokémon theoretically counter Mewtwo, Mewtwo's movepool and unpredictability make it a difficult opponent, even for the most experienced veteran trainers.

Anime
Mewtwo is featured in the continuity of the anime and movie series.

In the anime’s chronology, Mewtwo first appears in a special show on the "Mewtwo Returns" DVD titled The Uncut Story of Mewtwo’s Origin. Mewtwo is shown being created from the Mew's DNA by the scientist Dr. Fuji for Team Rocket. During growth, Mewtwo befriends a young girl named Amber (originally named Ai in the Japanese version), a clone of Dr. Fuji’s deceased daughter. However, the experiment encounters a tragic anomaly, and Amber disappears, leaving Mewtwo traumatized. Dr. Fuji forcefully administers serum to erase Mewtwo’s memory.

In the anime Episode 13, "Mystery at the Lighthouse" when Ash, Brock, and Misty arrived at a lighthouse and knock on the door, an image of Mewtwo is seen carved on its door, among other legendary Pokémon.

Mewtwo also appears in the main anime storyline three times wearing its armor and helmet but its identity is not revealed. Its first appearance is in a Pokémon battle at the Viridian City Gym between Giovanni and Gary, who is defeated quickly. The second appearance is during a brief scene with Giovanni talking to it. The final appearance is when Mewtwo destroys and flees from the Gym during episode "Showdown at the Poké Corral".

Pokémon: The First Movie
In Pokémon: The First Movie, Mewtwo stirs from its slumber in stasis a while after its memory is erased and it has matured. When it is told that it is a laboratory specimen for the humans who created it, Mewtwo is enraged and destroys the laboratory. It is soon found by Giovanni, who had originally ordered Mewtwo's creation, and succeeds in tricking the Pokémon by telling it that he will help "add value" to Mewtwo's life and make him stronger. Giovanni trains Mewtwo through use of a sort of armor plating in his gym in Viridian City. Upon finding out that Giovanni is using it as nothing more than a tool, it is convinced that humans are immoral. Mewtwo destroys the machinery connected to it and flies away, escaping Giovanni's clutches. It goes to New Island and sets a new goal: a global purge of humans and Pokémon, both of which it believes to be corrupt and weak; the humans in doing whatever they want and their Pokémon mindlessly obeying them. Mewtwo's plans are to clone every species of Pokémon to create superior creatures- super clones like itself and wipe the planet clean of all humans and "inferior" Pokémon.

Mewtwo sets in motion its plan to acquire Pokémon for cloning. In order to do this, it sends letters to many trainers including Ash, inviting them to the island to meet "the world's greatest" Pokémon Master. Creating a storm so getting to the island would be more difficult, Mewtwo tests to see who are the worthiest trainers and upon their arrival, it appears before them proclaiming itself to be the world's greatest Pokémon and Pokémon Master. Mewtwo detains the trainers' Pokémon using Thief Balls, a variation of the Pokéball that captures all tamed Pokémon, even those inside their Pokéballs. Mewtwo clones each of them for itself in the lab it created. However, a wild Mew that witnessed the scientists with the fossil appears, and Mewtwo immediately sets the stage for a tremendous battle with it. With that, the ultimate Pokémon battle ensues, and the chaos eventually ends when Ash throws himself into Mewtwo and Mew’s crossfire of Psychic attacks, rendering his body lifeless and stone-like. This shocks Mewtwo, and as all the Pokémon grieve, their tears caress Ash’s body and miraculously revive him. Mewtwo realizes that all living beings have virtue. Then, it erases the memories of all trainers and their Pokémon and teleports them to the places where they received their invitations before taking the Pokémon it cloned along with it on a journey westward, in search of a haven.

Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns
In Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns, Giovanni, unaware of the events at New Island, locates Mewtwo hiding in Mt. Quena in the Johto region. He rallies his troops, travels west, and commences his operation to bring Mewtwo out by capturing the clones so that he can force Mewtwo to submit to his will, all of which is wholly successful. As Mewtwo has developed a sense of concern for its clones strong enough for it to put the welfare of its fellow clones over its own, it agrees to be detained by Giovanni’s mind-control machines.

However, chaos involving a swarm of disturbed Bug Pokémon ensues, and Ash and his friends, who just so happen to have been in the area when the operation took place, find Mewtwo incarcerated. Though they and Mewtwo are successful in destroying its energy prison, Mewtwo’s life force is in jeopardy, but Ash and his Pokémon carry Mewtwo to Mt. Quena’s healing spring and hurl it into the water, and Mewtwo’s body and soul are restored. Mewtwo comes to another realization: That if this natural healing water has a healing effect on his artificial body, then being a clone does not mean that one is automatically “impure”. Rejuvenated, Mewtwo emerges before Giovanni and declares that neither it nor the region belong to the Team Rocket leader. Using all its power, Mewtwo psychically moves the lake and the spring beneath the surface of Mt. Quena, and Giovanni and all of his henchmen, except Jessie and James, are moved away from the mountain with their memories erased. Mewtwo sees that Ash, his friends, Jessie, James and also their Pokémon are virtuous and trustworthy enough not to reveal the mountain’s secrets, so it does not erase their memories. After thanking Ash for all his help, Mewtwo departs to reside in solitude.

Other appearances
The last shot of Mewtwo Returns, the "Adding to Pokémon Lore" segment that preludes the sixth Pokémon movie Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker, and the opening sequence to the eighth season of the English anime dub all contain brief scenes where Mewtwo is seen residing amongst the rooftops and alleyways of what is merely described as a faraway city. In the latter two instances Mewtwo is seen wearing a brown cape.

Mewtwo's likeness, however, most recently appeared in the 10th anniversary television special, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon. The Mewtwo that appears is a Mirage Pokémon created by Dr. Yung and his "Mirage Battle System". Dr. Yung, under the alias "Mirage Master", creates Mirage Mewtwo to be completely without weaknesses and capable of using any known Pokémon attack, and he plotted to use the entity to get revenge on those who doubted him. It is thought that Dr. Yung stole the information about Mewtwo from some sort of classified Pokémon files accessible with the password Oak gave him or used Pikachu's memory about Mewtwo. Ash and his friends, along with Professor Oak, are there to witness Mirage Mewtwo’s creation and were close to being destroyed by it if it were not for the interference of a Mirage Mew, another Mirage Pokémon created by Dr. Yung that somehow acquired enough sentience to rebel against the Mirage Battle System. Mirage Mew and Pikachu destroy Mirage Mewtwo with everyone’s help and the entire location is destroyed in a flaming wreck; Dr. Yung disappears amongst the flames of his collapsing factory. However, despite marching into a burning laboratory, his remains were not recovered, implying it is possible he is still alive and in hiding.

Mewtwo also appears in the live action musical Pokémon Live, along with Giovanni's mechanical clone, MechaMew2. Mewtwo appears near the end and turns MechaMew2 against Giovanni by using the memories of Ash Ketchum and how MechaMew2 was never shown kindness.

In the anime and all games with spoken dialogue, Mewtwo is voiced by Japanese actor/singer Masachika Ichimura. In the English dub of the first movie, it is voiced by Phillip Bartlett. In the dub of the special Mewtwo Returns, Mewtwo was voiced by Dan Green.

Manga
In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Blaine had cloned Mew when he worked as a scientist under Giovanni. Mewtwo was created using the DNA of both Mew and Blaine, and due to an accident during the process, Blaine gained some of the mixed DNA on his hand, allowing him to track the location of Mewtwo. Blaine later defected from Team Rocket and hid himself away, as both he and Mewtwo were suffering from an illness caused by a shared psychic link due to their mutual DNA. Mewtwo went on a rampage and hid itself in the Cerulean Cave, but Red was able to capture him with a Master Ball and return him to Blaine so he could attempt to find a cure for their illness. Blaine and Mewtwo fought against Lance but were defeated when their condition weakened them. The pair were later cured by the flames of an Entei Blaine befriended and Mewtwo left on his own, returning when he learned of Giovanni's plans to use Deoxys for nefarious purposes. Mewtwo joined up with Red to attempt to defeat Deoxys and Giovanni.

Mewtwo also appears in Toshihiro Ono's manga, Dengeki Pikachuu, in a special called "Mewtwo Strikes Back", which was published in CoroCoro Comics Magazine. The short manga focuses on the early portions of the movie, beginning with Nurse Joy tending to a sleeping Mewtwo. The manga develops, through Mewtwo's "dream", the relationship between Mewtwo and Dr. Fuji. It concludes with Fuji begging Mewtwo to destroy the lab and the doctor himself, so that neither can be further misused. Mewtwo responds that it would be an atrocity to kill one's own "father". Fuji is moved and thanks Mewtwo for the sentiment, but explains his reasoning, and Mewtwo agrees that the lab must be destroyed. In the present, Nurse Joy stands unmoved as Mewtwo weeps in his sleep.

Trading Card Game
Mewtwo's appearances in the Pokémon Trading Card Game include basic Psychic-type cards in the Base Set, Gym Challenge (as Rocket's Mewtwo), , Legendary Collection, Neo Destiny (as Shining Mewtwo), Expedition, EX Ruby and Sapphire (as Mewtwo EX), EX Team Rocket Returns (as Rocket's Mewtwo EX, a Dark-type), EX Delta Species (as a Steel/Fire dual type), EX Holon Phantoms (Lightning-type) and EX Holon Phantoms (as Mewtwo "Star", resembling Shining Mewtwo). The original Mewtwo card was a startlingly weak card, having only an average amount of hit-points, and a fairly powerful, but costly attack.

In addition to the above cards, a strong promotional Mewtwo card was circulated with different artwork through the TCG League and as a card packed in with the home video release of Pokémon the First Movie.

Rocket's Mewtwo in Gym Challenge was actually the first Pokémon card to feature three attacks at once. It is also one of the few Pokémon cards to have an altered art format; in order to fit the three moves, the picture was drawn smaller than usual.

In the Legendary Collection, the movie/Nintendo Power Promo Mewtwo was found instead of the original Base Set version. Mewtwo EX in EX: Ruby & Sapphire is a powered-up version of the promotional card. There was also a promo card in the first wave of the First Pokémon Movie.