I love how she says "I am utterly incapable of holding back in pokemon battles" and then I proceeded to one-shot 4 of her 6 pokemon.
aliciaheintzelman
Another thing that makes cynthias spiritomb so memorable is the most kids going “what the hell is *that?”*
morganpriest
I think the idea behind her team was one pokemon for each area.
Espartha- The desert
Gogoat- Plains
Veluza- Ocean
Avalug- Snow
Kingambit- Bamboo Forest
Glimmora- Cave
As a champion, representing each area of the region is a cool concept, but the execution is terrible
Terrivian_Vess
It's funny how Arven, the gyy that used "the friends we made along the way" as his team was somehow stronger than Geeta
SillyEveryDay
Another gripe is that generally champions show off by having not only powerful but really difficult to acquire and master, either in-game (Metagross, Spiritomb) or lore-wise (dragons and dark-types are incredibly dangerous) and we see Cynthia sweet talking a very hostile dragonite, and I feel that Lance's entire schtick is his clan knows the secrets of dragon taming.
Geeta by comparison seems like she did a Nuzlocke and has first encounter tier material.
Mordecrox
Imagine if SHINY Kingambit was her ace…. PERFECTION. It totally matches her whole color scheme and it would’ve been super cool for gamefreak to make her the first champion to OWN a shiny mon. Side note, it also would’ve been cool if she had a Armarouge for the Violet players and Ceruledge for the Scarlet players to REALLY switch it up
JayceeLabrador
I dont think anyone is willing to argue Cynthias team, especially pre-fairy, was terrifying. but for me it was Cynthias atmosphere, theme, design, and even the little bit of exposition throughout DPP all came together to make her intimidating before the battle even started. Blue, Lance, Steven, and Wallace, were champions. Cynthia was a fucking force of nature.
Andrew..J
Cynthia's team wasn't just strong, her pokémon weren't just iconic, they fit her character.
Spiritomb required you to find a weird rock, to place it in a tower to fix a ruin, then speak to a bunch of people, which being the mythology and history buff, as well as personable character she is, we know Cynthia might well have done.
Togetic is a pokemon that requires raising with love and care, and a rare stone on top of that, making it a mark of status to acquire for most trainers.
Garchomp is a pokemon she raised from an egg, it's her most powerful, most trusted partner, and one of the strongest pokemon in that region.
Milotic is a pokemon that evolves from the ridiculously rare Feebas, and evolves through maxing it's beauty, symbolising the care she took to raise it.
Roserade again requires a rare stone to evolve, like Togetic, and is another rare pokemon, but it's a repeat from Gardenia that symbolises the gap between a gym leader and the Champion.
Lucario, we only see Riley use aside from Cynthia, and that's the only way we can get a Riolu egg, so again, we understand what she went through to get her Lucario.
We can relate to Cynthia and the difficulty she had cultivating this team, and it's a team that we could raise ourselves in game (which is a fun challenge I recommend).
Geeta doesn't do anything like that for me. We see Geeta a few times in the main game, and I never got anything close to what I felt from Cynthia from Geeta. I struggled through the Paldean E4 on my first playthrough, and absolutely washed Geeta like she was nothing.
GDnly
And if Geeta put Kingambit last, Kimgambit would get a 50% power increase due to its ability. And, her ace is one of the best SET UP mons, but its her LAST. GAMEFREAK. WHY.
ariaiden
Spiritomb was especially unique due to the fact that the likelihood of you having seen Spiritomb before the fight with Cynthia is as good as 0.
The feeling of something unknown and not being sure what to do is great to start the fight with.
eal
I think that final battle with Arven before entering Area Zero was harder than the damn champion of the region and that’s kinda sad tbh
saltysquidfromhyrule
Base game: "I am incapable of holding back."
DLC: "I was lying."
shinigamimiroku
You know it's bad when you remember that Nemona held back against her. Almost made me think that Nemona became the best trainer in Paldea, not because of Geeta, but because of fricking wild pokemon.
enigmatic
Something that helped Cynthia be as memorable as she was, not just for her difficulty but as a character, is that she made herself present several times before you even challenge her. She aids you, she's tough and she's upstanding: we get to experience her before we experience her. Geeta? She doesn't even contribute to the story. And even if she was a lead into Nemona, it's still shameful that they did her so dirty.
GNOMEMLF
When I finished her fight, my immediate first thought was "Ok, someone at Game Freak REALLY screwed up the order of her pokemon". Like, seriously, it's as if they accidently pushed every pokemon up one slot causing Glimmora to go last and Kingambit second to last. I know this game is broken but this champion was actually inexcusable.
NinDaniel
I’ll never forget defeating her Kingambit as her first Pokémon, and her *last* Pokémon, Glimmora, as it scatters spikes all over the battlefield. What complete buffoonery 🤦🏼♂️
Punkledunk
Glimmora as her ace was also watered down by the fact that there was a billion of them in the Great Crater. I mean sure it's rare outside the crater but after defeating Cynthia you didn't find Stark Mountain full of Garchomps. Sort of takes away from the impact it has as a CHAMPION'S ACE!
robertpowell
I've been thinking a lot about how terrible Geeta's team and literally just moving her Glimmora to the beginning and her Kingambit to the end would make her so much better. Glimmora having access to Stealth Rock, Toxic Spikes, its Toxic Debris ability, etc make it a phenomenal setup mon and it baffles me that it's her ace. It makes absolutely no sense
jonathanmozingo
Battling her was SO disappointing because I really liked her character design when she was first introduced. I legit thought to myself, "Damn, her team's probably gonna be insane when I fight her."
And her team is literally just pokemon you can find anywhere (aside from Kingambit) 😭
lazerNeo
Geeta is painfully easy for a “Top-Champion” but I always thought the reason why they made her easier is because the real challenge was supposed to be the final fight with Nemona. Geeta herself said something along the lines of “I could tell that she (Nemona) was holding back even while fighting me, so seeing you get to have real battle of equals with her almost makes me jealous.”
