Champions!

[Dragon]

Ah yes, at the end of the main pokemon game walkthroughs, after you get all 8 badges, go through victory road, and defeat the Elite Four, you'll eventually face the region's Pokemon Champion, where basically all your skills and everything you've learned will be put to the test.



Lets take a look at each of them, first of all:



Gen I: Blue

Blue (or whoever you named him) is the champion of pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow, as well as leafgreen & FireRed. Basically ever since you two were babies, you guys were rivals. (but really.. babies? Like what did we do - compete to who can use our soothers better?)

Anyways, he's arrogant, a general jerk, and basically we battle him throughout the region, always ending off with his cocky laugh and his catch phrase, "smell ya later!". When he becomes the champion, before he begins the battle, he even declares that he was the most powerful trainer in the world. That is, until we beat him for the last time. His team is pretty diverse, but at this point, you've probably know what his weaknesses are since you've faced him many times, so he won't be too tough (at least in my opinion) if you know what you're doing.

After he loses, he began to question why he lost the battle, and in so, Professor Oak when he comes in, said that he forgot to treat his pokemon with trust and love. Without it, he'll never become champ again.


Gen II: Lance

You might remember Lance, the Dragon Master as he was the last Elite Four member in the Gen I pokemon games, in which... he was surprisingly a bit arrogant (at least at first) as he basically claims "hahahah! your league challenge ends with me!"

In Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal as well as Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver however, Lance becomes the champion, Who uses his trademark Dragonites. Three of them. Which yeah, arguably he's more of a 'flying-type champion' than a dragon champion, but, bare in mind there wasn't much Dragons back then, and even on his rematch, he did use more dragons like Altaria and Garchomp.

Anyways, throughout the game, he helped you out, chasing away Team Rocket in Mahogany town, and at one time, questions you if even though the road on becoming champion is long.. will you still power through?

In his champion battle, Rock, Ice and Electric attacks do help out in advance, in which his team has a weakness that can be exploited pretty easily! After you beat him, he explains that he wasn't angry that he lost. In fact he was happy. Happy to see a new champion!


Gen III: Steven & Wallace

Okay whoa, two champions? Yeah, in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, the Pokemon Champion is Steven, who uses fossil & steel pokemon, and on Pokemon Emerald, the pokemon Champion is Wallace, how gave his former position as the 8th gym leader to Juan.

If you've faced these two guys, you'll probably have your own experience with them: Steven can be taken down with fire moves, but he's also pretty tricky; his Claydol can set up screens to keep his other pokemon safe, while his Cradily is really bulky to take down in a clean hit. OR/AS, his Metagross can Mega-evolve, which makes it faster & stronger, so you'll have to be on your toes for that!

Wallace, well, you'll know that he changed his team a bit prior of him being a Champion from a Gym Leader, so while your tactics might of changed, you can still exploit his weakness pretty easily with electric and grass moves. His Milotic is tough on the bulky side, but can be taken down.


Gen IV: Cynthia

Ah, Cynthia! Cynthia is actually the first female champion you see in the pokemon games, and she's the champion in the Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum games. She is pretty interested in mythology, specifically the legendary pokemon of Sinnoh. She can be pretty silly sometimes, but when it comes to battling, she really knows how to bring it! She gives you some advice here and there and she even helps you out by giving you a HM, a Togepi egg, and even medicine to help the Psyducks with headaches, she also comes to the distortion world with you.

Battling her? Well, I'd say she ranges from easy, to hard. Because her pokemon are pretty strong and well diverse, you HAVE to know what you're doing, and your pokemon has to be reasonably well trained, in my opinion. Because one mistep, and you'll be eaten alive by her Garchomp, haha. Fortunately you can try, say, setting something up when you go against her Spiritomb, but, it also has a nasty habit on using Double Team, so, that could be also your downfall if you're not careful.





Gen V: Alder & Iris

Gen 5 provides us with another series of games that have two champions! On the first games of the Fifth Gen, Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, the champion is Alder, and on Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, the Champion is Iris, who waaas a dragon-type gym leader. Kinda wonders the question though: were all the champions (aside from Blue and Lance maybe) all gym leaders at one point? Hm.

At any rate, Alder seems like a friendly man, who is humble in the ways of helping pokemon trainers. First time meeting him, he was helping a couple of pre-schoolers! Interestingly enough, it's been hinted that he lost his former partner pokemon before. Maybe due to illness or other means. Anyways, I think the majority of people think that fighting Alder was pretty easy, which yeah I can agree with, it's just, you'd have to be careful of a couple of pokemon, like his Bouffalant has that nasty Head Charge of his, and his Volcarona can set up Quiver Dances if you're not careful.

Iris, well, she was helping out with defeating Team Plasma. When she becomes champion, not only she has a new outfit, she has new pokemon, but, her best to use is her Haxorus. Kinda ranges from being a Dragon champ to a little bit diversity, which if your pokemon are tough enough, you'll be fine!


Gen VI: Diantha

Gen 6 introduces Diantha as the latest champion, who's also a famous movie star. We actually don't see too much of her in the games, except by chatting with Lysandre one time.

She uses a wide variety of pokemon, incuding the fossil pokemon from the 6th gen, but.. the 6th gen in general as a habit of being pretty generous with EXP, so, I think that because our pokemon are pretty strong at the point where we battle her, she becomes pretty easy. Her best pokemon is her Gardevoir, where she always Mega-Evolves it to MegaGardevoir. Be careful on how you battle it, because Gardevoir becomes a fairy type, and while Fairies are weak against Poison moves, she can pretty much destroy them with her Psychic moves. Steel types can also combat Fairies, but generally they can have low Special Defense. It has a diverse movepool, but again, strong pokemon will do fine against her.


Anyways, this thread is more discussion based, sooo just some questions: Which is your favourite champion to battle against in the games? Which Champion do you find is the hardest? Which one was the easiest to defeat? Any other thoughts? Share em here. :3

 

[Nah]

The Champions are pretty good as a whole (and they all have great battle themes), but my favorites would be Cynthia and Steven. I like how the two of them get involved in the game's stories (they all do really, but those 2 have more, and imo better, involvement than the others). I also like their designs and personalities for the most part too. It's also nice how Cynthia appears in Unova.

The Champion that has been the most consistently difficult for me is Cynthia. She's usually a relatively high level for the point in the game that you battle her in, and her team is packing a number of powerful pokes, most notably that Garchomp. It is nearly impossible to not lose a Pokemon to it in the PWT.

The easiest Champion for me is Diantha. I don't know why exactly, but for whatever reason she's always been easy for me to beat, even though Mega Gardevoir's a good poke.

Also, Game Freak.....please let us battle all the Champions in all future games. You guys come up with BS reasons for everything all the time, you can come up with some excuse for the Champs to be in the future regions, right? Do the PWT yo

 

[Pendraflare]

I think Cynthia is my favorite Champion altogether, and I would find it difficult to argue that she would be the hardest altogether. Nevermind the fact that her team has perfect IVs across the board, Spiritomb has high Defenses (but can usually be taken down in two hits at best by your strongest attackers), and Milotic is just like Wallace's except it packs Mirror Coat, but that's to say nothing of Garchomp, which is very fast and hits super hard. Even though I managed to defeat her without too much trouble the last time I played through Platinum (my Blue Mono-Color back in November), it's really hard to argue that she's anything short of the hardest.

But I think my favorite to battle overall would be Iris on Challenge Mode. While she's not overkill, she comes with a pretty kickass battlefield and battle theme, and with it she uses quite a few of my favorite Pokémon, with Challenge Mode giving them 100-120 and even 150 power STAB attacks. I still remember the very first time I was in the rematch, and that Salamence ripped a good chunk of my team apart, I was like WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!?! While not THE hardest Champion out there, definitely a very fun one for me. Bonus points for Iris' character being pretty unique as a Dragon-type master at a younger age than most of the other Champions.

As for easiest? I think that would go to Diantha, the very first time I took her on only one Pokémon of mine even took any damage. But admittedly in both my Red and Blue Mono-Colors on Y and X respectively, she did bring me down to the wire and I managed to win with only one Pokémon (but those were no items and Set mode). I think second easiest would be Blue in FRLG, I usually don't have much issue against him, partly because by the time I reach him there, i'm pretty used to the Pokémon he has to offer.

 

[Guardian]

Lance is my favorite. I like his Pokemon preferences (obviously), and he was really tough to beat.

Cynthia was by far the hardest trainer I've ever had to beat. I dont think I have to go into details since most of us are familiar with those lol.

Steven and Wallace were easy. As easy as any other NPC. I always had a water Pokemon in my team which dealt with Steven and usually a Manectric or Magneton for Wallace.

 

[Hiatus]

My personal favorite of all champions would likely have to be Cynthia.

All champions seem to play a good role in the game they're featured, but Cynthia, in particular, seemed to have been more involved in the story, appearing here and there helping the player out whenever she's able. In terms of design, I feel she looks rather stunning; although she is indeed dressed mostly in black, I feel this definitely goes along well with her hair, which is blonde.

As far as battling goes, I found her to be rather tough. All her team members were sort of a pain to go up against, especially Garchomp. When I'd first went up against her in Diamond version, if I remember correctly, Garchomp alone was able to go through most of my Pokémon single-handedly, without much hassle at all. Aside from that, Spiritomb was pretty challenging also, as its defenses were big.

 

[Pave Low]

Cynthia is my favourite. This is probably because you get to meet her during your playthrough and she helps you out, which meant that she already started growing on me as character. Plus, she looks really nice, her hair makes her design wonderful because of the way it is made to stand out. Furthermore, she's probably one of the trickiest Champions I have faced, and her Garchomp wasn't easy to take down. I've probably needed to be more strategic with beating her than any other Champion.

 

[Hiatus]

Alongside Cynthia, I'd say Lance was rather difficult to get by, too. Although his team does consist of dragon-types, for most part, all of them are still unique in their own way. Meaning, if we figure out a way to take down one of his members, same strategy likely won't work for others. This, I believe, is what helped this guy into seeming as this challenging. If it weren't for that, I'm sure he wouldn't have been much of an issue, to be honest. As far as his design goes, I really do like it! Though, I'm not sure if I'm too fond of his cape, however, personally, but since almost all dragon tamers seem to wear them in Pokémon world, I suppose it's fitting.

 

[Bellsprout]

I think the Champions have been done well by the most part. My only negative points would be that Wallace was laughably easy and that was disappointing since I found Steven to be a challenge. As a character though I enjoy Wallace. Alder and Iris never felt like champion material to me. I guess for Alder it's made apparent in the game by himself that he really didn't want to be champion and Iris just seemed too childish. Her design was really over the top for me too along with her theme.

I think Lance, Steven, and Cynthia posed the biggest challenges. I found Steven and Cynthia to be not only powerful, but they also had the best character development imo.

I think Diantha looks the champion part, but she was given such little development and her team is easy to overcome by the end of the game. If they make a third game I'd like to see her more developed and not only her, but the entire e4 of that region revamped.

 

[mikey]

My favorite Champion is Steven by far. I love how diverse his team is, and how helpful he is to you in the Hoenn region. Plus, his design is really cool. My favorite to go up against.

A close second is Cynthia. She's tough and also has a great and diverse team. She's also designed very nicely. I think she would be the hardest to actually beat for me.

Easiest to beat? Wallace. Water type champion isn't the best idea tbh.

 

[Spherical Ice]

In terms of design, Alder is my favourite, but in basically every other aspect Cynthia is the best.

Actually no, Steven and Blue both have better music. Speaking of which, I'm really not liking the trend of the newer regions' Champion themes sounding more like Rainbow Road. It was okay for Iris I guess but Diantha's was a little silly imo

 

[Dragon]

Yeah, so, personally my favourite Champion to battle against is Cynthia, because for one thing, I do love her appearance from both D/P and from B2W2, whoo. Also, she tends to use a lot of really nice pokemon like well, other than Garchomp: Lucario, Milotic, Togekiss, Roserade, Glaceon, Gastrodon, etc. She has quite the diverse team that changes here and there, only adding to the challenge! I think she was the hardest too, well, not by a lot since a lot of the other champions held their weight too, like Iris and Lance.

Well, this might sound weird, but I do like Diantha as well. And yeaaah, she can get her butt kicked rather easily, but, I do like how she's portrayed, as a movie star! I think thats the little things from Champions that I really appreciate knowing about, and makes her unique from the others; like Steven hunts for stones, Cynthia likes mythology, etc. Of course, it's a shame that she wasn't really shown much in X&Y, but yeah, I hope that they'll change that too.

Iris and Lance again, are really good mentions because I just totally think that Dragons are really cool to battle against, especially when against Champions because they're really diverse in strengths and can cover their weakness rather well which adds to the challenge~!

 

[blue]

Cynthia is definitely my favourite Champion.

Not only does she have a diverse team, she also poses a challenge which is exactly what a champion should have.