6th Gen Diantha

[Nah]

In every main series Pokemon game so far, there's been a Champion who meets the player sometime during their journey, and you eventually square off against them at the Pokemon League. In X and Y, the Champion is Diantha, who is both a world famous actress and a Champion. What did you all think of Pokemon's most recent Champion? How does she compare to past Champions, like Steven or Cynthia?

And how old is that woman? I've heard a bunch if different ages for her and I'm confused

 

[Pepperton]

Not sure what age she is, but I liked Diantha. Wasn't as amazing as Steven and Cynthia, but wasn't as much of a let down as Iris and Lance, in my opinion. For some reason, it was a lot more difficult for me to defeat her than other champions, probably due to that Hawlucha and my team's inability to counter them. D: Her interactions with the player were interesting, and she certainly acted like the champion of Kalos, haha.

 

[LavenderTownGhost]

I actually like Diantha, too. At first I wasn't too fond of her because of her sprite's appearance, but when I saw her artwork during the champion battle, I thought she looked stunning. I think she's a cool champion. Doesn't necessarily compare to Steven, Cynthia, or Lance in my book, but she's still neat. I go to that cafe in Lumiose that she hangs out at just to see her. Didn't realize she was going to trade me a Ralts.

 

[Dr. Silver]

I for one never really enjoyed her. As soon as I saw her, the immediate response was "Oh look, the clearly obvious champion of Kalos" before even speaking to her. Her team is nice and varied, but she was a pretty weak boss even with Mega Evolution on her side.

I think she lacked indepth characterization. Unlike the other champions, I generally didn't care about her as much.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

Like LavenderTownGhost, I liked her a lot more when I saw her artwork. I think in general I felt like she was a welcome addition, I thought her team suited her very well especially Aurorus and Gardevoir which always pleases me and the fact that she made use of a Mega as well felt special. I also enjoyed that her Pokémon were so high-levelled, but I suppose it was necessary with the Exp. Share in-game :)


My favourite Champion will always be Lance but I think in terms of Diantha and Champions I'd put her somewhere in the middle, ahead of the likes of Wallace and Alder but I didn't like her as much as say Lance and Blue :)

 

[Hiatus]

She wasn't that bad at all; Diantha was pretty tough. When I had faced-off against her for my first time, I was swept by couple of her Pokémon pretty easily. One of them was Gardevoir; with Moonblast, Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Thunderbolt, it was able to take down more than three of my team members. Goodra was tough, too; its Dragon Pulse attack was nearly impossible to block.

 

[Yato]

I liked Diantha's design and Champion music, but other than that, nothing about her stuck out in particular. Compared to past Champions, she barely got involved in the plot or met with the player at all. I suppose some people like it this way, but I like when the notable figures--Gym Leaders and Champion in particular--do something in the plot or meet with the player numerous times. It can expand their character or provide backstory (albeit NPCs can give this information as well) so they aren't two-dimensional. As for her team, though I like her choices, I never had trouble defeating her, even when my Pokemon were underleveled.

 

[Hikamaru]

I liked Diantha, she was a pretty beautiful character and her Champion music theme really matches that. While she never appeared much before the Champion battle, she does make up for that by having some incredibly powerful Pokemon, such as her Mega Gardevoir who has some pretty good type coverage from its moveset alone, as Endless mentioned. I know many claimed her to be the "weakest" Champion but that can usually be blamed on the EXP Share. She's probably one of my fave Champions design-wise, and hey it's another female Champion which I feel is nice that they're increasing the profile of female Champions, after the badasses that were Cynthia and Iris.

 

[MichaelSK16]

Mehh, she seems sort of forgettable to me. Part is what people have already mentioned in her being pretty easy to be. She wasn't going to be a tough trainer to beat from the start because X and Y was so easy on training. That being said, I think another part of it was a gaping hole where her character development should have been. She appeared, what, one time in the story prior to the battle? and even that was just a brief conversation. I like champions like Steven and Cynthia because you have an idea of who they are and they're also tough to beat.

Lastly, the other thing I didn't like about Diantha was her style. The whole dressing like a fairy thing seemed very odd for a champion. I like the very formal and professional looks that Steven and Cynthia (or even Blue and Lance) had. They just seemed like they meant business.

So, yeah. Not terrible, like Wallace, but more along the "meh" lines of Alder.

 

[St.Silver]

In all honesty i'm in limbo about her. She was a good character (Didnt have many main appearances that could have been improved.) But as previously stated the only reason she is viewed as the weakest champion is the fact that there are so many different methods of raising your pokemon. And they're all really easy. Honestly.
EXP.SHARE's change ruined it really. and the battle chateau. Even before post-game this was and is the fastest way to level up your pokemon.
And did i mention that if you wonder trade and GTS trade a handful of times you can just reap Rare Candies from Pokemon GL?
Nay this game was spoon fed to us and all the legendaries were just waiting to jump in the pokeballs.
So it's no wonder Diantha didnt really stand a chance.

 

[Pendraflare]

Admittedly she is lovely, and has a neat battle theme to go alongside her, but she is very flawed. Aside from the fact that you don't see her much in-game, it's easy to counter the Pokémon she uses, even without the Exp. Share. It doesn't exactly help that her ace not only always comes out last, but is very prone to physical attacks. The first time I beat her (in my main play on X), I won in six turns, only taking damage from Hawlucha. But admittedly in some of the challenges i've done recently she was more entertaining to fight. Although I don't think she's completely lame, if only for the fact that the Ralts she traded me in my main game had 31 Sp Atk and Speed IVs. :P

But what's more, in the previous game we had a movie studio, which would've been a great opportunity to introduce her there if you ask me. Although if BW2 and XY take place around the same time (from what I heard, they do), that wouldn't be easily possible. There should have been something like Pokéstar Studios where you could work alongside her.

 

[Misaka]

I honestly am not a big fan of her. I feel like she doesn't really have a striking personality. To me, she is just... kind of there. I mean, I don't hate her or anything but I am not wowed by her either

 

[Altairis]

She was really just.. there. I don't really have much to complain about, though. Her team wasn't dreadful and it's nice to have another lady Champion. But she really just appeared out of nowhere and I dunno if we were supposed to be surprised she was Champion when we got to her? Whatever.

I did manage to sweep her with just my Sylveon which was a couple levels above her, which surprised me, but oh well. She wasn't AWFUL.

 

[Cypher DS]

I think we can all agree that when "Pokemon Z" is released the storyline would be greatly improved by expanding Diantha's appearances and contribution to the plot.

I like the idea behind Diantha - a middle-aged actress who finds herself "too old" for star roles and is adjusting to age expectations - but compared to previous champions there's no relationship or connection with the player to bring any tension or excitement to the final showdown.

 

[Dragon]

To be honest, she 'lacked' a few things here and there, like I didn't really feel a sense of 'depth' to her other than, she's a champion that is also a big star so, she treats it as such. But still, that doesn't mean that she's a bad character, I think the people who have played this game have more of a success beating her only because they had pokemon that are levels above her own, otherwise, I think she had pretty good power behind her pokemon, like her Tyranturum could of been a problem! I think what she needed was more of s chance to get involved with the plot, so that we don't really 'suspect' her on being a champion, but more of a 'rival', per se, which could be a good reference to the original pokemon games!

 

[ooDevolo]

I agree with the general consensus that Diantha was lacking in many "champion" qualities. In my honest opinion my favourite trainer in game I ever battled was not actually the champion, but Lance, especially his role in Heart Gold and Soul Silver. This is partially because I am a huge dragon type fan, but also because he used all Gen 1 pokemon in your first battle with him and then modified his team to include three new pokemon he had previously not used in games for the rematch. He truly is the dragon master and definitely my favourite trainer in game (not to mention I remember when I was about 9 years old playing the original pokemon blue, he was the only trainer I lost to and as a result had to re-battle the Elite 4).

 

[Fairy]

I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities to make Diantha a really interesting, deep character. That's not to say she wasn't neat on her own accord, but the developers just really missed the mark when it came to offering her more chances to be involved in the story line. A lot of wasted potential, in my opinion.

 

[Sheep]

I thought she had a gorgeous design but.. her hair. She'd have been perfect if they didn't make her hair stick up like that in a star-shape or whatever it was. :( I suppose it's more creative than just dropping the hair down like most female characters but appearance-wise it looks odd and always will to me.

She also didn't really catch my interest in the game as far as personality went. She just kind of showed up and hardly did much nor got involved in the story. Would've hoped to see more from her rather than her showing up out of the blue and then never being seen again until you're at the Elite Four.

 

[Khoshi]

I didn't really like her. Sure, she looked pretty fabulous, but she was just...a character thrown in for plot purposes to me. I didn't really like her, considering I 1. never got well acquainted with her, and 2. didn't like how she randomly popped up during the story. When I first saw her, I thought she'd be like Cynthia - showing up to aid you during the story, but I guess not. Doesn't help that her Champion battle's pitifully easy, too, though I'll give her credit for that amazing theme of hers.

 

[For_Whom_The_Bronzong_Tolls]

I am of the opinion that she was a good champion, not a great champion, but a good one.

On a side note... How much of a surprise would it be if you never met the champion until that last main story battle? I want a region where the champion is a relcuse, who does more in the post game.