Oh, forgot about the D&P characters! Adding Platina makes the Water-group only the more epic. Seriously, all my favourite characters are there O_o
Except Green, of course. But he makes the Fire-group epic on its own.
(Gold and Pearl would make a lovely team. I'm sure their travel companions
adore their polite, soft, civilized chatter.)
The Grass-group still remains boring, even with Dia... I'm sorry, all you! Grass Pokémon are in fact my favourite Pokémon (together with fire), but these trainers... well, they won't have that much chemistray together, I think.
Ruby's not a dumb nut. His motives/aspirations are different then what they should be. ;)
This is late, but I have to agree on this. Let no-one speak lowly of Ruby because he's
epic and has more personality than anyone else. And just because he
acts a bit dumb, doesn't mean that he
is dumb. (He's a very smart and able kid, as is later shown.)