As you know, most major Trainers in the Pokémon games swear by a certain type - Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Trial Captains, Kahunas and the like, to mention a few. On a few occasions, however, the Trainers that we know have changed their type speciality. I can mention at least three examples:
-Jasmine was once a Rock-type Gym Leader, but that changed upon the discovery of the Steel-type and Steelix - an evolution of her own Onix.
-Cheren had no type speciality, but adopted the Normal-type as his when he became the Gym Leader of Aspertia City in B2/W2.
-Bede swore by Psychic-types until Opalabducted him took him under her wing, at which point he began training Fairy-types just like her.
I can also mention an example from a well-known fangame, under the cut for spoilers:
My question is, can you imagine any of the major Trainers, whatever their position, changing their type speciality, adopting one if they didn't have it, or dropping it if they did? This can come from observations on any of their canon appearances, or from fan content that you've seen around and you would like to discuss. Try to at least make it plausible in-canon or at least give some context to your explanation if you go too much into headcanon/fan content territory.
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From a gameplay standpoint, I believe Whitney's type speciality may be changed for a future Johto remake. Sure, she is infamous for Miltank, but her Gym motif is based on Clefairy - the type of which has been changed from pure Normal to pure Fairy. There are several routes Game Freak could take with this; keep her a Normal-type Trainer and change her Gym's motif to something like Jigglypuff or Chansey, change her into a Fairy-type Trainer and give her another ace, or... make her the first dual-typed Gym Leader in the series! I'm excited to see what path they'll take with her.
From a story standpoint, a change in type speciality might happen to any of the Trainers we have seen, but these are the ones I personally see as most plausible:
-Koga eventually making it to Champion and dropping his Poison-type speciality in favor of a more varied team that can employ disruption tactics and inflict status effects. He was already on the way to it in the Johto games - using Forretress, a non-Poison-type, to set up Toxic Spikes and use Explosion. I reckon Janine would do the same if she advanced through the ranks like her dad did.
-Misty becoming an Ice-type Trainer in the far future, in the same vein as the spoilery example above. She did admire the Ice-type Elite Four Lorelei a lot, so she'd likely take it up as a tribute to her after the latter's death/disappearance or just grow into it with age or experience.
-Roark and/or Gordie taking up their respective parents' speciality types as they grow up, in an ironic "you're becoming more and more like your father/mother" way.
-Jasmine was once a Rock-type Gym Leader, but that changed upon the discovery of the Steel-type and Steelix - an evolution of her own Onix.
-Cheren had no type speciality, but adopted the Normal-type as his when he became the Gym Leader of Aspertia City in B2/W2.
-Bede swore by Psychic-types until Opal
I can also mention an example from a well-known fangame, under the cut for spoilers:
Spoiler:
My question is, can you imagine any of the major Trainers, whatever their position, changing their type speciality, adopting one if they didn't have it, or dropping it if they did? This can come from observations on any of their canon appearances, or from fan content that you've seen around and you would like to discuss. Try to at least make it plausible in-canon or at least give some context to your explanation if you go too much into headcanon/fan content territory.
----------
From a gameplay standpoint, I believe Whitney's type speciality may be changed for a future Johto remake. Sure, she is infamous for Miltank, but her Gym motif is based on Clefairy - the type of which has been changed from pure Normal to pure Fairy. There are several routes Game Freak could take with this; keep her a Normal-type Trainer and change her Gym's motif to something like Jigglypuff or Chansey, change her into a Fairy-type Trainer and give her another ace, or... make her the first dual-typed Gym Leader in the series! I'm excited to see what path they'll take with her.
From a story standpoint, a change in type speciality might happen to any of the Trainers we have seen, but these are the ones I personally see as most plausible:
-Koga eventually making it to Champion and dropping his Poison-type speciality in favor of a more varied team that can employ disruption tactics and inflict status effects. He was already on the way to it in the Johto games - using Forretress, a non-Poison-type, to set up Toxic Spikes and use Explosion. I reckon Janine would do the same if she advanced through the ranks like her dad did.
-Misty becoming an Ice-type Trainer in the far future, in the same vein as the spoilery example above. She did admire the Ice-type Elite Four Lorelei a lot, so she'd likely take it up as a tribute to her after the latter's death/disappearance or just grow into it with age or experience.
-Roark and/or Gordie taking up their respective parents' speciality types as they grow up, in an ironic "you're becoming more and more like your father/mother" way.
