5th Gen Alder

In Black and White, the Champion of the Unova region was Alder. He makes many appearances throughout the main storyline, talks about how important spending time with your Pokémon is, and is highly opposed to Team Plasma's wanting to liberate Pokémon from trainers. You don't battle him in the main story though, because N's legendary defeats him and you have to beat N and Ghetsis! Then you fight him in the post-game after rematching the Elite Four. His appearance in the sequels isn't as big, only appearing at the beginning of the game and then being able to be rematched after you've defeated the Elite Four and Iris.

What did you think of Alder as Champion? Did you like his character and/or role in the story? What would you have improved or changed about him? Did you enjoy battling him? Why or why not? Discuss.

I really hated him for some reason and I don't really know why. This was especially present in BW2 when he would show up and sprout a lot of fancy words and move on. I dunno. I just thought that there wasn't a whole lot to him and I would have liked to see him do something other than talk and battle me once, since I don't think he did anything else. He wasn't one of the strongest Champions either, but he wasn't that bad or anything.

This guy was surely... different. Usually, champions tend to be young and energetic, but Alder was quite the contrary. It's not a bad thing, though; even though he's laid-back, he's still got a ton of experience in him, and he uses that showcase his character, which, I believe, he's done quite a good job at. Only thing I actually disliked is his involvement into the games. Although he did make appearances here and there, he wasn't much into the plot itself. If he were, like Steven, Wallace, Cynthia, Blue, and other champions of previous games, then it would have been a lot better, I believe.

To be quite honest, I never...actually battled Alder. I wasn't aware he was the champion when I got to the battle with Ghetsis. I was like "so i have to go through the E4 again just to battle Alder? I should re-do my team again just so I can battle him. lol.

He was a good asset in the game. A well made character, and I was also glad he was also in the sequels.

Only thing I actually disliked is his involvement into the games. Although he did make appearances here and there, he wasn't much into the plot itself. If he were, like Steven, Wallace, Cynthia, Blue, and other champions of previous games, then it would have been a lot better, I believe.

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Really? I'm gonna be honest, I actually thought he was THE most involved Champion in any of the plots to date, even moreso than Cynthia or Steven (and WAY more than Blue or Wallace, that's for sure). He does attempt to insight you on the bonds between humans and Pokémon despite what Team Plasma says, is strongly against their Pokémon liberation, and he follows you around a lot throughout while N is awakening his legendary, when you go through Dragonspiral Tower and the Relic Castle. Unlike those two, he even goes so far as to take on the main villain, N, even though he does end up wiping hard. For that matter, during the story he also gives you HM03 for Surf, like Cynthia does in DPPt, after you beat Cheren at Twist Mountain.

Not only do you not end up battling him until the post-game, but he also has a story to him in the sense that his Pokémon, Volcarona, died. That leaves him out of practice for a while and is what leads him to be defeated by N, but he also commends Cheren for his strength. And after you beat Ghetsis, he commends N saying that he felt inspired to get the legendary Pokémon because he wanted to, and not for Ghetsis. After that's over, you can find Alder in the Celestial Tower, where he talks a bit about his late Pokémon and how the player has got him to see more to what trainers have to offer before he returns to the Pokémon League.

As for battling him as the Champion, I don't know how easy or hard I can call him (not gonna discuss the whole "any Champion can be that" debate right now like I did with Iris), because it's been a long time - I think it was before BW2 even released in English, but that one time I had two Pokémon left, both of which were almost dead (I know one of them was a Honchkrow, I don't remember the other). Maybe I should take him on in my Red Mono-Color (without items and on Set mode) and see how hard he ends up being.

I'm gonna be honest, his character and story involvement alone makes him one of my favorite Champions. Would've loved to see more of him in the sequels (certainly helps that his grandson runs the Black Tower/White Treehollow in the post-game), and I do like Iris more, but I surely think Alder is a very memorable character.

I really didn't like Alder as Champion and I can't really put my finger on why... I think the main thing for me was the first impression that I got from him, which was that he kept chastising Cheren at various intervals in the game (I get that he was saying it to make him think a bit more about what was important but accusing him of being a "judgmental person" the first time he met him just seemed... I dunno kinda judgmental in itself to me lol) :)


I also didn't like that he lost to N before engaging in a Champion battle with the player. On N's part I think it was majorly cool and that it helped strengthen him as a legitimate threat but at the same time, when you face the Champion of the region the whole thrill of it for me is that you're about to be the first person to overthrow their status; if it's already been done prior then it kind of takes away the magic a little and makes the Champion seem weaker than they probably are.


In terms of actually battling him I don't remember feeling particularly challenged, although I did like a couple of the members of his team like Accelgor and especially Druddigon, who I feared might get overshadowed a little by the other Dragons introduced in Gen 5 so for the Champion to utilise him was a nice touch :)