2nd Gen Kris and Lyra

Kris made her debut in the main series games with Pokemon Crystal as a female counterpart to the playable character Ethan from Gold, Silver and Crystal. Her introduction marks the first time players had the option to choose their gender in the core series.

Kris is I think a very-well designed protagonist, her look is distinctive with the beautiful blue grey hair. She looks animated and capable, fit to navigate her way through the illex forest or hike down the ice path. I find her design really charming.

I had already played Pokemon Gold/Silver and I remember when Pokemon Crystal came out being really excited to know that I could roam through Johto as someone who looked like me for the first time. I appreciated Pokemon recognizing their girl players, and definitely liked having the option of Kris there to represent us.

When the gen 2 games were remade one of several notable changes was that Kris was no longer playable. Whereas her alternate Ethan returns to Johto largely unaltered, Kris was replaced with a new female character named Lyra, a pretty, doe-eyed brunette with upturned pigtails, a floppy hat trimmed in pink bows, white knee-highs and mini overalls.



This was one of the more marked stylistic changes between the two Johtos. In the previous and subsequent remakes frlg and oras protagonists May, Brendan and Red were not replaced, though they may have updated their designs, they were ultimately the same characters. Some fans liked Lyra's design better, while many missed Kris and didn't like Lyra.

Why do you think Game Freak made the decision to swap Kris for Lyra? Which of these two girls do you prefer as your protagonist in your Johto Journeys, Kris or Lyra? Why?

When I see Lyra I get the sense that the designers wanted to make a more hyper-feminized heroine with the ribbons and bobby socks. They even swapped Kris' backpack out to give Lyra a purse instead. To be honest it's harder for me to take Lyra seriously, though I tried to welcome and like her initially as a fresh, new face, she lacks her predecessor's maturity. Since replaying Crystal with Kris I really think removing Kris and making Lyra was a mistake. You're not only losing an iconic character that broke ground in the Pokemon series and has a lot of nostalgic value to players who remember her, but Lyra herself is just a little too cute for me, and while I didn't notice at first I can't unsee some of the Mario Bros memes. That's just me though.

Your thoughts?

You hit the nail on the head Sam. Kris is so much better than Lyra. I love playing Crystal as Kris.

Kris has terrible bangs but otherwise I enjoy her design. I never played Gold, Silver, or Crystal - I don't even know if I was alive when they were released, and thus, I have no attachment to Kris. HGSS was my introduction to the Johto region and are some of my all-time favourite games. I really enjoy Lyra's design, she's cute and has a much softer aura to her compared to Kris.

I personally prefer Kris as well, as Crystal was my first introduction to the Johto region and although I never played as her, I remember her charatcer distinctively throughout my time there. She was a natural part of my connection to Johto growing up and I think she has a pretty 'adventerous' design to her, as opposed to Lyra.

To be honest, I'm not sure why they replaced her, that's never really happened before in a Pokemon game and she was a (kinda) iconic character of the series. I don't dislike Lyra by any means though as I've played HGSS loads of times and enjoy her presence in it, but think that Kris is more fitting to the series overall!

To be honest, I never really cared about them. Ethan is the protagonist of Johto games in my head cannon. But I enjoy Lyra's design more. Kris has just like... been there as an option that I just skipped. I agree that she was groundbreaking feature in Crystal and I love that they give Lyra bigger role in remakes, but they were both pretty wasted otherwise.

I have no idea why they decided to replace Kris, but it doesn't surprise me. GF makes a lot of weird choices.

I love Lyra's cute hat but actually feel bad saying I don't care for any of them much? D: Lyra a bit more, maybe, but that's because she had a super cool anime episode. Either way neither stuck out much to me.

I see how the similarities in appearance such as hairstyle and basic body structure do suggest that Lyra is a deliberate feminizing of Kris which if this is indeed the case is quite sexist.
This is the main reason I never got real into the female PCs despite being a woman. I'm not feminine so don't like to represent myself with any aspects of what is stereotypically considered feminity (i.e dresses, skirts, and makeup).

Now that this thread has me thinking about it, it's bugging me that Kris also got stiffed because unlike in Crystal's successors she doesn't still participate in the plot as an NPC when not chosen as the PC. Whereas Lyra, her replacement gets that perk alongside Gen 3 and 4's May and Dawn.

Speaking of May, one might call her Tom boy-ish but I personally can't stand her hair so still would rather use Brendan even though he's probably my least favorite male PC because of the white cap.

I've never been a big Kris fan or anything like that, but Lyra sucks. Something about her gives me farm town girl loser vibes. Also her hair is obnoxious with the follow me feature. Why the drastic change I will never understand, because Ethan compared to Gold is relatively the same.

Kris looks more low inhib

I really preferred Kris.

Lyra just does not do it for me, and she never will.
I need my Kris~!

Something about Kris' design screams "attitude", maybe it's the hair? Lyra just comes of as a "female Brendan". It's almost as if GF wanted to come up with a female player character but didn't want to deviate too much from the male version.

Usually when GF gives us the option between male and female characters they at least try to distinguish the two. But for some reason Lyra just seems like the exception to that rule. Although you could also make the same case for Leaf...

I actually really like both, although I have to say I slightly perfer Kris over Lyra, although I do like that Lyra was somewhat intergrated into the plot of HGSS, which was neat. I still would always just choose Gold/Ethan anyway so, eh.

i... feel bad saying this but i don't like lyra's design at all. :c it never really vibed with me and i prefer kris' design quite a bit more, even if i don't have many memories of playing crystal to be too attached to her a protagonist.

I don't dislike either. But HG/SS were my first games in Johto and I actually played as the female character in HeartGold (for reasons I no longer remember, I usually pick the male character but sometimes deviate xD). I did play the Crystal VC too, but that was much much later.

Kris was outlined as sort of blue in Crystal and I liked that aesthetics. I also looooved her in the PokéSpe manga; she's my fav char there. Lyra is cute, but not my style at all. Kris has that go-getter vibe and I will always love her. In the manga, she actually just gets Lyra's clothes for the HGSS chapters iirc, but she's still Kris :) I liked that approach, although there was nothing wrong with her old clothes ahah. (in the manga they actually age though lol, I suppose she grew out of them)

Bellsprout said:

I've never been a big Kris fan or anything like that, but Lyra sucks. Something about her gives me farm town girl loser vibes. Also her hair is obnoxious with the follow me feature. Why the drastic change I will never understand, because Ethan compared to Gold is relatively the same.

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Now that you say that her overalls are very farm girl. I personally don't have a problem with that but looking again at her picture in the OP, her pose feels unnatural. Like she's trying for Kris's attitude but it's awkwardly weak and her eyes are very feminine.

I think the Johto female protagonists are good but I'm a true blue Hoenn girl. May is my favorite female protagonist!

As much as I consider the addition of Kris a groundbreaking moment for the franchise, I think I'm gonna go with Lyra here. Her design and color palette feel far more consistent than Kris's, at least in my opinion. I'm a big fan of the three-quarter sweatshirt/overalls/OTK socks combo, and her hairstyle is super cute as well!

It helps that her name also takes inspiration from music, and coincidentally matches that of a constellation - two motifs I often use in my Pokémon stories. (In fact, she's the canon Johto protagonist in them as opposed to Gold/Ethan or Kris.)

Don't get me wrong, I liked playing as Kris because she was the first playable female protagonist and that was awesome for a female player like myself, but at the same time, I have no issues with Lyra. I think they were going for a modern, cute look for the female protagonist.

But let's be honest, they ditched the tomboyish look after ORAS (with the exception of Misty in Let's Go).

I prefer Kris over lyra simply because of nostalgia, being the first female player character, as well as her having (crystal) blue hair. Even to this day she's the only character that comes with an unconventional hair color (ignoring, of course character customization).