3rd Gen Wait... How does this work?

Okay.
So, in FR/LG, Giovanni is the eighth gym leader and the leader of TR, correct?
You battle him first in Celadon City's rocket game corner, and he has only 3 Pokemon, all in the level 29-31 range.
When you encounter him as the Gym leader of Viridian City, he's got six Pokemon, and now they're in the level 42-50 range.

How the heck did he become the eighth gym leader from the start with Pokemon as weak as Erika?

Yes, that is a bit strange, thanks for pointing that out.

Maybe he was raising other pokemon? I forget which pokemon he had in each fight.

Squall Leonhart said:

Maybe he was raising other pokemon? I forget which pokemon he had in each fight.

Click to expand...

Well, that's a little hard to say. He had pre-evolutions in each battle up until you fought him in Viridian City.

This is REALLY confusing me...

What's so weird about it?

Isn't it as natural as your rival getting his pokemon leveled up every time you battle him?

It's just a bigger boost, that's all. You could say that Giovanni has a stock of rare candies...
You can also say that they didn't think about it very much on Blue/Red, and had to do the same on the remakes.

Doesn't that make sense?

NiKaNoRoU said:

What's so weird about it?

Isn't it as natural as your rival getting his pokemon leveled up every time you battle him?

It's just a bigger boost, that's all. You could say that Giovanni has a stock of rare candies...
You can also say that they didn't think about it very much on Blue/Red, and had to do the same on the remakes.

Doesn't that make sense?

Click to expand...

I think the OP is trying to say is that as the Eighth Gym Leader, Giovanni's Pokémon ought to always be more powerful than those of the other Gym Leaders', yet the first time you encounter him his Pokes are stuck at Level 30.

It makes sense in terms of the sequence of gameplay, but not a lot in the game's storyline. Unless when Giovanni closed the gym he got himself some more Pokémon to train afresh.

Moriarty said:

I think the OP is trying to say is that as the Eighth Gym Leader, Giovanni's Pokémon ought to always be more powerful than those of the other Gym Leaders', yet the first time you encounter him his Pokes are stuck at Level 30.

It makes sense in terms of the sequence of gameplay, but not a lot in the game's storyline. Unless when Giovanni closed the gym he got himself some more Pokémon to train afresh.

Click to expand...

Well, it's naturally what you said. But I used those two statements because the author's question doesn't really affect the gameplay aspects, but the natural aspects, such as the fact that the leader of TR would have better pokemon initially. So, I'm just trying to find an explanation that doesn't have to deal with gameplay, but storyline, in the end.

he probably trained em hes a Pokemon trainer,right?

Maybe all of the gym leaders started out with weak Pokemon, right? What if all of the gym leaders had weak pokemon, but by the time you got to them, they trained the weak Pokemon to be strong?

Mostly, I think, Giovanni just used his weak pokemon against you the first time (maybe he didn't suspect such a powerful trainer to arrive at Celadon) because he never used his Kangaskan or Onix in the later Gym battle, just his Ryhorn.

Think about it like this..
When you begin the game, ALL GYMS and TRAINERS have their levels low, let's say level 10. Then as you progress further, they are also training and getting stronger. Just because Gio had level 30 Pokemon doesn't mean they were weak at the time. The other Gym leaders could have still had lower levels.

Try to make sense of that, lol.

I agree with the whole "everybody is raising pokemon" thing. You're also overthinking things =P

I think Giovanni might have two teams. The one he used against you in your first encounter and another he uses as a gym leader.

I would be willing to bet that he just... Feeds them endless amounts of rare candies. That is interesting, I never thought of that.

WELL! i have the answer!

Giovanni is technically the 1st gym leader when your going through the game. (this means he should have low level Pokemon)

BUT

He is away, presumably breaking the law.

He is at the game place roughly halfway through the game, so he has had time to train.

By the time he is finished his pokemon are epic.

So he returns to the gym and battles.

in conclusion, he is the technically the first gym leader therefore having weak pokemon but he trained while he was away.

Hey may have used different pokemon? Got to be leader in some mafia way? The gym leader is unknown for a long time, so maybe it had no gym leader, until Giovanni, who had raised his pokemon to be really strong, came along to take the position.

But this is pokemon, and pokemon doesn't always make sense...

Edit: Didn't read the above post before, now I have and the post sounds about right.

Sometimes that is just the way it is.

Jessie and James were meant to transport his pokemon from the gym to the Rocket HQ, but lost them, so he had to start again :p

I think he bought everything. Team Rocket doesn't really train their pokemon properly..