This thread could've really benefited from a poll... :<
Without a doubt,
Passion Burn (
that is such a strange PokeNav nickname/designation... )
Flannery is my favorite Hoenn Gym Leader of all time. <3 She has/is:
-a
great design (which manages to utilize the terrific color of
red)
-an utterly
awesome type specialty (Fire FTW!)
-a beautiful and unique name (you hardly encounter
anyone with this name in real life!)
-a good Gym puzzle (and actually bothers to redesign it for
Emerald!)
-cool Pokemon (although I kind of wish her signature Pokemon was slightly more cooler than Torkoal, but I'm not complaining too much, because at least it's not Magcargo.. Torkoal and Slugma/Magcargo aren't that bad, though, and at least she has caught an Arcanine, Rapidash, and Houndoom)
-an absolutely
lovely midriff
-
is close friends with another hot/cool Gym Leader (Winona, in
Pokemon Special, at least)
-
rematch quotes that can
"kind of" be interpreted differently...
-a reference to
"Disco Inferno"/'burn, baby, burn!' in one of her Pokemon World Tournament quotes
-delightfully decked out in denim, and
-all-around
hot (in
many more ways than one!). ;)
And also, DAT SMILE. 10/10; would be ecstatic if I got to visit the Lavaridge hot springs with her.
Also, I love how a large number of the members posting here seem to favor Flannery. :3
Flannery! She's so firey and exciting, I love her personality and her team is very cool indeed. I would have preferred for her to be a bit stronger and to make more of an appearance both in the games and the franchise in general but I loved the small amounts she was there for and she had the most notable personality by far out of the Hoenn leaders for me. I also liked Wattson's cheerful attitude and Wallace was rather fancy, but Flannery is top for me.
This. Flannery's personality was just adorable, especially when she attempted to emulate an "elite, tough, and gruff" Gym Leader and later was essentially like "Ah, screw it. Lemme just be myself." I would just love it if she made more appearances in
Pokemon media.
I like Wiona, merely because her outfit is somewhat different to everyone elses, It's a cool outfit.
Pluse she's ver cute <3
Agreed; she's cool too. I love her outfit design, although, for
years, her sprite made me think she was sporting the
Zettai Ryouiki trope (as in, showing some
minor leg/skin with some boots/shoes/stockings/whatever the white things on her legs are <3)... Only did her official Ken Sugimori artwork help to clarify that her outfit has some..
interesting yellow rings/cinctures that encircle the upper part of her thigh.
Flannery. Her gym probably had one of the most mysterious mazes
I agree; I actually bothered to memorize the
Ruby/Sapphire Lavaridge Gym layout because Flannery enthralled me so much! As for
Emerald, I keep getting confused each time I go in; I still haven't memorized the new layout to my liking... XD Ironically, it's more advantageous for me to memorize the
Emerald layout, as
Emerald introduced Gym Leader rematches and you have to navigate Flannery's Gym each time you want to rebattle her.
Really, all of the Hoenn Gym Leaders are top-tier in my book. Other than the extravagant Flannery, you have:
Roxanne, who IMO gives off a
Cute Bookworm/
Hot Librarian vibe, being a Pokemon Trainer's School honors student and is studious enough to handily kick your butt with Rock-types (in rematches and PWT at least; she kind of has to hold back in your initial match with her). :P
Brawly, who sports an awesome spiky/blue-colored hairstyle and general design overall, trains with freaking
Bruno, employs powerful Fighting-type Pokemon, has the gall to teach a Meditite the utterly terrifying
Focus Punch in your
second Gym Leader match of the game (in
Emerald)
, and even surfs on the side!
Wattson, a determined, cheerful old guy who packs an electrical punch and never throws a match, even at his age (just try going up against him with a Rock-Smashless Grovyle...*shudders*)! I don't know why this guy had to wait until
Emerald to use the Hoenn-native Manectric as his signature Pokemon; there are Electrike south
and east of Mauville City - they're like right
there, dude! Right next to Mauville!
Norman, who's
the player's May's dad and all, all-around cool guy, is a literal
BA Normal, and wreaks havoc with not one, but
two Slaking (and a Blissey as a nefariously annoying bonus). Seeing that Pokemon's name alone is enough to give me flashbacks to battles with this guy. Taking him on without Combusken/Blaziken just seems nightmarish.
Winona, who moves gracefully with the wind, uses a shiny Pokemon (Swellow in the anime at least; I really wish her
Emerald team had featured a shiny Swellow as a reference), and utilizes expert tactics to shut down Trainers who think they can just go in Thunderbolting her Pokemon like there's no tomorrow. Oh, and she eventually gets a
Dragonite.
Liza & Tate, a tag-team that has a strengthened mental bond and will drain you mentally with their annoying Solrock/Lunatone combo. And double-battle Gym battle FTW!
Wallace, who inundates you with a plethora of Water moves (and still was pretty cool while serving in his Gym Leader capacity), and
leveled up rather nicely to the point where he bequeaths his former Gym Leader status to his mentor and eventually assumes the mantle of Champion status (
although Steven Stone is forever the true Hoenn Champion to me)!
Juan... Although I prefer the RS order where Steven is Champion, I actually prefer
Juan as Sootopolis Gym Leader as opposed to Wallace... His design just seems to "gel" better with the other Hoenn Gym Leaders, what with that sharp outfit and that ravishing blue coat and nice sprite color palette and all. For some reason, his mustache, his French speech in
Pokemon Special, and that white thing in his hair makes me think that he's French, but his name and one of the Latin American
Pokemon anime narrator's comments suggests that he's Hispanic/Latino...
So confusing. @_@
But yeah, Hoenn Gym Leaders reek of awesomeness, have great personalities, designs, and type specialties to boot, and are all-around great, elite, caring people who you would
not want to aggravate in an alley or something.
Brendan is quite the opportuned guy; one of his best friend's (canon-meshing due to anime, but although I play(-ed) the games as Brendan, I consider Norman to be May's dad...so yeah) dad is a Gym Leader, resides in Hoenn with no less than 3 gorgeous girls who are also Gym Leaders (Flannery, Roxanne, Winona), and wants to be Slateport City's Gym Leader himself! (at least NPC!Brendan does, after commenting about the oddity that a place as big as Slateport lacks a proper Gym)