6th Gen "ZOMG SYCAMORE SHOULD'VE BEEN THE CHAMPION!!!!!1111"

That was the cry of a many fans who were horribly dismayed by the Champion of this game, Diantha. Several of those disappointed fans said that Sycamore, the professor of the game who introduces you to it, gives you a Kanto starter and sees you many times throughout the game, and battles you twice in it, should have been the Champion instead. I find this claim rather exaggerated, not that I enjoy Diantha much myself, but I think it's a bit crazy that people wanted the professor of the game to be your final hurdle to becoming the region's best.

How about you? Do you think Sycamore should've been the Champion and not Diantha? Why? Discuss.

Sycamore is a cool guy and all, especially because he actually involved himself more in the plot than being like "hey kid I don't know, here's a Pokedex, complete it for me though you'll never see me again until you become champ" like most of the Professors do (ok, Juniper did appear sometimes through the story in Gen 5, but she really lacked the personality that Sycamore has)......but I think it'd be better to keep him as just a Professor. I wasn't thrilled with Diantha either, but that's not really a reason to have the Professor be the champ; they're researchers, not battlers. Yes, yes, Oak used to be quite the battler back in the day, but still.

And speaking of Oak, apparently he was meant to be one of the final challenges in the old Red and Green, but the idea was scrapped before release day.

Diantha as your rival was alright kinda figured she would be since you hear about her being a star yet she visits with pokemon professors and trainers

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Sycamore's too sexy. He can't confine himself up in the Kalos League building all day. They don't even have proper shampooing and conditioning stations up there. All they have is windows; with lots and lots of light.

Hah jokes aside though - if I had to pick someone besides Diantha to be the champ, I would've liked to have a throwback of your serious rival beating you there. Serena / Xavier comes from a lineage of powerful trainers - and they keep up with you (sorta) throughout the whole story. It would've been cool to see them come down with that awesome 3D model cutscene all badass and ready to battle you a final time. Maybe cut the Victory Road battle, or push it a bit earlier to space them out more; and give them a slightly higher leveled team or something.

Sycamore couldn't even figure out that Lysandre was the villain when it was so obvious.

Diantha >>>

I honestly think the days of your rival being the champion have passed, it's a shame because in my opinion rivals like Gary were the best! It gave me a reason to beat my rival other than the obligatory battle as the rival was mean and annoying.

Ok i'm going off on a tangent.

But having Sycamore as the champion would have been a change but I don't feel it would have happened seeing as he had no battling expertise. Although in his younger days Oak was the champion of Kanto (in the manga, im not sure about the anime/games) so really Sycamore COULD have been the champion but he is not much of a pro fighter.

I guess the champion was always going to be Diantha because realistically there are no other characters that would make sense as the champion.

Professors study Pokémon life, and as stated above, don't specialize in battling. Although they still do it, in most cases, they're still not an expert. Though, if they did wish to make Sycamore champion, they could've created some back-story for him, telling us how he managed to reach such status. If it were all explained, I believe things would be much more acceptable.

Would I have liked to see him as champion? Sure, why not? These kind of stuff don't happen to often, or if at all, so it would definitely be a nice change of pace. We've never seen any professor battle you as champion, have we?

You know, I heard in the Sinnoh games that Rowan was the Champion of Sinnoh before Cynthia defeated him. She says that his last time entering that room was "when she became Champion". That does leave me wondering what Rowan had before he was defeated, so if he did battle you that would've been kinda cool.

Stargazer said:

You know, I heard in the Sinnoh games that Rowan was the Champion of Sinnoh before Cynthia defeated him. She says that his last time entering that room was "when she became Champion". That does leave me wondering what Rowan had before he was defeated, so if he did battle you that would've been kinda cool.

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I'm not sure if Rowan was a serious battler at some point in his life. IIRC, Cynthia says something about how she went on a journey similar to the player's when she was younger, so it could be that Rowan just likes to come to the Hall of Fame whenever one of his Pokedex kids makes it that far. *shrugs*

I have to say though, I think it would be cool if one day they make the Professor the Champion as well....though that may be unlikely.

While having Sycamore as the champion would be an interesting twist, as others have said it wouldn't really make a lot of sense. He's a researcher, not a battler.

I also dislike the idea of Sycamore as the Champ because he outright tells you he isn't very good when you first battle him.

captainfez3 said:

I also dislike the idea of Sycamore as the Champ because he outright tells you he isn't very good when you first battle him.

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Ah yeah, I remember that. He says "I'm not that tough" right before he challenges you, which doesn't sound like something a Champion would probably say. As a lot of people have said, I just feel that if he was Champion it wouldn't make all that much sense.

Diantha was by no means an exemplary Champion, but like others have said I don't think that means they should've made Sycamore the champion. We get to fight him, which is something that not too many of the games have allowed for, so there's that. I don't know, I just think as much as I liked Sycamore, he's better as a professor.

Sverige said:

Sycamore couldn't even figure out that Lysandre was the villain when it was so obvious.

Diantha >>>

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Yeah, at least she seemed suspicious of Lysandre unlike Sycamore (at least I felt that way when I saw the two of them together).

Though I had actually thought that perhaps they were going to make Sycamore the champion on the days leading up to the release of the games (before the leaks), as a homage to how Oak was meant to be the final challenge of Red and Green.

Well I didn't remember that from a while ago, but it was brought up.

Anyway, I made this thread because I know that in particular, Marriland has said several times that he felt Sycamore should've been the Champion, and some of the followers/viewers of his series/tweets have felt the same.

For all the difference the champion actually made in this game, they might as well have made Tierno the champion. I think that would have been a much bigger surprise, Diantha just screamed champion on her first appearance, but did naff all compared to other champions.