Male
Seen September 23rd, 2015
Posted September 23rd, 2015
18 posts
7.9 Years
So, I had Pokémon White Version, and was the only one who did. My friends and I were talking about gym leaders, and they were talking about Drayden. Since I had only played White, I was like, "who's that?" And they all said he was the Leader in Opelucid City. So I told them Iris was the Opelucid Gym leader, and we got in to a heated debate that day. Who really is the eighth gym leader?

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
Well, the one thing to know about Black & White is that the games have some huge differences between each other, and it's more than just the version exclusive Pokemon. Some areas look different between the two games and one of those happens to be the Opelucid Gym, with Drayden being the Gym Leader in Black and Iris in White.
Gone forever for personal reasons.
Visit my Tumblr page if you wish to contact me.

http://daikenkki.tumblr.com/

SaniOKh

Too old for this stuff

Age 35
Male
Ukraine
Seen 3 Weeks Ago
Posted October 22nd, 2021
591 posts
16.9 Years
I'd say Drayden has a better chance of being "official", because in the sequels, he is the Opelucid Gym leader in both versions.

Friend codes:
Pokémon GO: 2092-0866-5439 | Electric-type Safari: 4468-2370-5617 (Electrode - Pikachu - Galvantula) | Dark-type Safari: 1134-8222-3179 (Nuzleaf - Cacturne - Liepard)
PM before adding. If you don't mention which code you added, I will NOT add you back.

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
I'm with what a certain mod said earlier, Black 2/White 2's time skip is now the canon as far as this generation is concerned so you now call Marlon the official 8th Gym.
Gone forever for personal reasons.
Visit my Tumblr page if you wish to contact me.

http://daikenkki.tumblr.com/

Winter

KAMISATO ART: SOUMETSU

Age 26
they/them/she/her
Kamisato Estate
Seen December 2nd, 2022
Posted September 29th, 2022
8,320 posts
8.2 Years
Currently, Marlon is the established final leader. Though if we were to go into BW's timeline, I would say Drayden was the official leader of Opelucid. Iris' eventual championing kinda meant that she moved on, and I guess Drayden took up her spot (as evident in B2W2).

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
If you take the original B/W into account, I feel like Drayden was more like the real Opelucid Gym Leader than Iris. Especially with the latter eventually becoming Unova Champion.
Gone forever for personal reasons.
Visit my Tumblr page if you wish to contact me.

http://daikenkki.tumblr.com/

Sopheria

響け〜 響け!

深き海の彼方
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted December 17th, 2017
4,904 posts
9.5 Years
I'd say, like most everyone else said in this thread, the "official" Opelucid gym leader is Drayden, due to him being the leader in BW2. Whether Iris or Drayden starts out as the leader, in either case, Drayden ends up as the leader.
Paired with Dragon and Koakuma

Pendraflare

Age 32
Male
Pennsylvania
Seen July 30th, 2021
Posted March 29th, 2021
6,263 posts
9.8 Years
Me too, if we're going by B2W2 canon then I would consider Drayden the official eighth Gym Leader, before Marlon come the sequels. Although it was somewhat relatable that Iris became Champion after what they did with Wallace in Emerald.
Azurilland | Twitter | Nuzlocke Forums
May someday resurface in full. We'll see what happens down the road!

Sun

When the sun goes down...

Male
Seen January 20th, 2017
Posted January 2nd, 2017
4,705 posts
9.7 Years
I love how Marlon's appearance ended the Iris VS Drayden as the official 8th Gym Leader thing. xD

Actually they are both canon, various NPCs from Black and White confirmed the existence of each games as parallel universe. In other words, they are both officially the final Gym Leaders of their respective games. :)
Leaving PC completely

For trade requests and contact, please send me a message on
https://www.facebook.com/tachibanaadmin/