The Best and Worst Pokemon Champions

From Cynthia to Geeta...they all fall somewhere in between.

(0:00): What Makes a Good Champion?
(1:07): Blue
(2:00): Trace
(2:51): Lance
(4:15): Steven
(5:07): Wallace
(6:23): Cynthia
(7:43): Alder
(8:49): Iris
(9:43): Diantha
(10:41): Kukui & Hau
(11:35): Leon
(13:09): Geeta
(15:11): if you see this you have to subscribe

[JPRPokeTrainer]

Who do you think the best and worst Champions are?

[fireboltpt]

One actually interesting thing about Geeta is how in the post game, the other Paldean Gym Leaders are shown to not really like her or her policies. Grusha, Katy, and Tulip especially.

[anothergamer]

As if things couldn't get worse for Geeta, not even half the people who work for her like her, citing her as a strict boss who holds back the potential of the gym leaders.

The lack of level scaling is canonically her fault.

[randomone]

I love how the first female champion was Cynthia, she made quite a memorable impression on so many kids by beating their ass lol

[Mugiwarak]

That's the infuriating thing about Geeta; Her team itself isn't the worst, it's the order and move pool that causes it to be a fail. Just a few changes to order and moves would bring it up leagues.

[TheOverdriveGamer]

I don't know how you can create so many fun and interesting characters like Nemora, Larry, Rika etc only to lay the biggest brick in Geeta in both pokemon team & personality.

[exeledusprince]

Nemona DID dethrone Geeta before you got there. Geeta mentions her battle with Nemona and how she was utterly thrashed by her, and that she doesnt actually believe Nemona tried all that hard during their battle.

[samuelault]

I always found Alder interesting as a champion because you have to go out of your way to battle him. You can watch the credits roll for the first time and not even fight him once. Definitely a unique approach to a champion

[LucOfLegends]

Here's the thing about Leon: he's not *just* strong, he's strong to the point where he effects the entirety of Galar and is its center. Kabu literally got his mojo back thanks to Leon. Raihan prides himself on being a rival to one of the strongest champions in the series. And most of all, he is constantly pushing throughout the entire game to push everyone to be better, actively challenging the region as a whole to get strong and face him so everyone can have a champion time. Sure Leon's main trait is that he's strong, but that strength actually means something for the region as a whole.

What does Geeta do? Occasionally pop in on the Gym Challenge to remind players she exists? Get Gym Leaders pissed at her? I would argue that the majority of the Elite Four (Poppy excluded but her team is kinda fire) has more presence and personality that the champion they are building up to. Hell, even NEMONA is a better champion theorectically.

[KremBotop]

"Perhaps I treated you too harshly"
- Some people who were very critical towards Diantha before now easing up to her after looking at Geeta (?)

[Nadine_]

Since Galar is based on the UK and the gym challenge was portrayed as a hugely popular sport event, I started to feel that Leon was like Lewis Hamilton : a seemingly Unbeatable Champion. That made him a good Champion character for me.

[TheSgtslow]

I actually really like Alder I know he isn't the Strongest Champion, but I always thought that he's really underrated, and people seem to overlook him. And honestly it makes me want to see what type of Champion he was back in his prime.

[venator-yvgw]

That bit with Alder and his bugs makes a lot of sense. Alder wood tends to be relatively soft and easy for insects to burrow into for the winter

[jefaarrogers]

It’s shown in Pokémon Generations that for Kanto there was no champion at the time before Blue because no Kanto trainers were strong enough to beat all of the Elite 4

[CoreIdeas]

I literally just beat Kukui last night and, I have to say, it was one of the best fights I ever had because I specifically turned off EXP Share and went in a good 5-10 levels lower and completely forgot he had Incineroar. I didn't have anything to counter it properly, one revive and a few potions. So I basically had to get REALLY crafty about which Pokemon I sent in, what moves to use, etc. Easily one of the hardest fights I ever had and it was just a lot of fun.

[KatarHero]

I feel like Geeta DEFINITELY needed something more to represent those biomes. You could use Toedscruel to rep the tall grass/lake, Palafin for the coast, and something other than Avalugg like Weavile or Frostlass.
Plus moving Glimmora to lead and Supreme Overlord Kingambit to ace would have been much more challenging.

[TaleOfTheToaster]

I'm not gonna call Geeta a good champion or even a good character necessarily, but I do think there's more to her than just "I am strong" - namely, she's pretty much the first trainer as part of the gyms/league in my memory that other characters in the canon actually don't like, with several of the gym leaders actively showing disdain towards her. Her complete focus on the League as her job, from getting you to run her rematch errands, to incorporating her role within the academy, to likely being responsible for the Paldean league's probably intentionally boring building, it's all still part of her character even if it's not one that you have to like.

[socaltrojan]

I liked Steven a lot as he tends to have more cameos in the other games and is still mentioned having vacation homes for his rock collection. Which we can would expect to run into him at any point in future games if they decided to bring him back. Also, once Mega Evolutions were introduced, just made him all that more relevant being the current champion as he would adapt to the Giganta Max and Terastalllize battles.

[NinjaPickle]

Leon's "Unbeatable Champion" title and "Champion time" catchphrase are key to his character and to what he represents to Galar. Leon is a symbol of hope and aspirations. He encourages all of Galar to achieve their dreams. He pushes all of them to be strong and have a champion time. While he may not truly be the strongest, he wants to convince all of Galar to push THEMSELVES to be the strongest and wants to be a role model for everyone in the region to work towards so they can achieve their dreams. I think that's what makes him my favorite champion. He may be Hop's older brother, but when it comes to who he is as a person, he wants to be the older brother to the people of Galar, someone there to encourage and push them to be the best they can possibly.

[kandyeggs]

I think Geeta would have been a lot more interesting if (obviously) she sent out Glimmora and Kingambit in a logical order, but also if her Gogoat was shiny. That way her using such a poor competitive Pokémon is because she found a shiny, like many people did during their play through a because of the open world aspect of the game making them much easier to find.

Maybe if she talked about how she met all of her Pokémon when they’re defeated, that would give a lot more emphasis on her actually caring about her Pokémon, and calling back to her adventure when she actually felt defeat-able. As is, she’s just kind of extremely mediocre if you know how type effectiveness and stats work, and she feels like a husk that uses paper cards to build a wall.