Rank the Champions
I don't include protagonists but I do Red
I feel like he's his own character
From both anime and video games as well as ex-champions
I'll supply a list
Red (if you include him), Blue, Lance, Steven Stone, Wallace, Cynthia, Alder, Iris, Diantha, Alain, Ash, Leon, Peony, Mustard, Geeta, Nemona, Kierran
Sorry if I'm missing anyone
You can put them in ascending or descending order
I'll do descending
17: Geeta
16: Lance
15: Alder
14: Diantha
13: Wallace
12: Steven Stone
11: Alain
10: Blue
9: Mustard
8: Iris
7: Ash
6: Kierran
5: Nemona
4: Peony
3: Red
2: Leon
1: Cynthia
I'm not going to put much commentary
Just that Cynthia is stronger than Leon and Ash could not have beaten Leon without three gimmicks against Leon's one
Can't wait to see y'all's rankings!
Comments
-
16 Cynthia
15 Geeta
14 Steven stone
13 wallace(I forgot he existed)
12 Diatha
11 mustard
10 peony
9 Alain
8 blue
7 alder
6 keirran
5 Nemona
4 iris
3 ash
2 Leon
1 Red
I didn’t put much thought into this, so this isn’t really my true opinions
1 -
Yeh, Cynthia is a 15
1 -
Here’s mine..
- Cynthia. She was a Champion among Champions. Undisputed Queen of Pokémon who gave people PTSD during D/P/Pt era and despite all the warts of BDSP, they at least made her a pivotal obstacle and one who arguably has the strongest team of any Champion once you rematch her a 2nd time(first rematch is her Pt team). Level 88 Garchomp beats Red’s level 88 Pikachu.
- Red. Just the fact he’s a hermit on Mount Silver says a lot about a character you played as the Generation prior and although his team isn’t the strongest, the fact you play a former protagonist is why he’s so high on my list.
- Blue. He deserves recognition for having a team that at the time was pretty good. Psychic was dominant and he had arguably the best Psychic type outside of Legendaries in Alakazam. Rhydon was the best Rock/Ground type at the time and he used Arcanine before it became a Competitive staple.
- Iris. Just something about her that draws me to her. I like her Dragon-centric team more than Lance and her anti-Ice(and now Fairy) coverage in Aggron could really give you trouble. Ditto the bulky Lapras and high risk/high reward Archeops.
- Alder. Not a fan of the guy but anyone who uses Volcarona is ok in my book.
- Steven Stone. His team is solid but I find his team got weaker when Steel lost it’s Dark + Ghost resistance in Gen 6.
- Lance. His Gen 1 team isn’t all that hard and his Gen 2 team is illegal, hence why I can’t put him higher than this.
- Leon. I never played Gen 8 but I find that the Kanto starters get way too much love and all you need is a Rock type to KO his ace(or set up a Stealth Rock to suck 50% of its HP before the battle starts).
- Wallace. Electric type go brrr.
- Diantha. Exp. Share and an overall easy region leads to her being way too easy and if you got a Steel type, half her team falls to it.
- Hau. Didn’t play Gen 7 but he’s just forgettable for me.
- Geeta. If there is one fault for Gen 9 is that they royally screwed up her team. Glimmora is a lead due to its ability, not an ace and Kingambit wasn’t utilized to the fullest. Furthermore, just like with Diantha, a Fighting type crushes half her team.
- Kakui. He’s a regional Professor, not a Champion. His team isn’t bad but I can’t place him higher than last due to that “technicality”.
2 -
These rankings aren't entirely based on strength, difficulty, or likability, but a random mix of the three. They also don't feature anime only characters and are based on just the games.
1- Cynthia. She's earnt her reputation of strength, her battle and encounter theme are amazing, she's always cool, she makes you use up over a hundred revives or lose if you dare smash A too fast after entering a random house in Undella. And no one else is this iconic and cool.
2- Iris. I like her character a lot and her battle theme is amazing. I think she was difficult to beat, but I can't remember for sure. I'll discover on my own soon.
3- Kieran. It's rare for a character to get a whole fleshed out personality and story and be this strong in Pokémon. I feel bad for him, and I can relate to how mad he was that sometimes there are people who will always be better than you at what you like, no matter how hard you try or how much you improve. It's nice that he realised that the intensity of his obsession with getting better at battling hurt himself and those around him and calmed down.
4- Blue. Him getting that much ahead of you despite you both starting at the same time was impressive and a feat no one else has replicated for not-being-copies reasons (Hau got very close, being minutes away from doing the same, but he's a challenger. If he counted, I'd probably put him in second or third for technically-first-region bias and having a whole personality and story+backstory and one of the best battle themes in Pokémon), and he was a fun character. His encounter theme is awesome and he's extremely iconic.
5- Red. It took me so many revives and potions to beat him. Him being a previous main character was cool and is actually one of the coolest things in Pokémon, but he himself isn't.
6- Nemona. She's an interesting character and she has an OK battle. It was cool that she was already a champion, though it made the "rivalry," which already felt a little weak thanks to Pokémon writing most rivalries as friendships, feel more like her waiting for you to catch up. She's a little low here because she doesn't really show how interesting she is most of the time, instead just being hyperactive and cheerful and battle obsessed. Her battle does not help, she's a pushover. Her character itself is holding her up here alone.
7- Alder. I fought him one time a couple years ago and I don't remember a thing. He's only here by process of elimination, since his backstory and its effects on him and his role in the story were cool. It's unfortunate that you only fight him in the post-game, which makes him very forgettable.
8- Diantha may have been stupid and she may have hired a Team Flare admin for the league and she may have done literally nothing as the earth was threatened with destruction while a bunch of teenagers saved it, one of them almost singlehandedly beating an entire hideout while she, the champion continued being nonexistent after unknowingly having coffee with the evil guy a few days ago where he said the most suspicious things ever, but she had some cool things like being an actor and champion at once and her team having a different stat and colour for every one. She also has one of the coolest battle themes in all of Pokémon.
9- Geeta, by process of elimination. Poppy's situation is suspicious and Geeta's team is comically weak, but she's not as boring or forgettable as some others.
10- Mustard. He's like Alder, but without a real backstory affecting his actions but being fightable in a main story in a battle remembered only for the outfit change or not letting you use more than one Pokémon the story picked for you. He's also more boring and forgettable.
11- Peony. He doesn't deserve being this low at all, but he's too forgettable and weak and Mustard is cooler.
12- Wallace. A gym leader being champion in the third version was extremely cool. He has nothing else.
13- Leon. He would be higher if the first thing I thought of when I remembered him wasn't the game mentioning him being unbeatable in almost literally every sentence, including random NPC's dialogue.
14- Steven. Apart from being one of the few characters to have a last name, he's boring to extreme degrees. Even his battle theme sounds like a random Pokémon or trainer encounter. There isn't much else to say about him.
15- Lance. He's so boring he has to use Red's battle theme as his own. His whole design could be a random trainer class and SwSh's Dragon type uniform confirms it. The only notable thing he's done in the almost 30 years he's been in the franchise is Hyper Beam a Rocket Grunt who we don't even know was one for sure and using three illegal Dragonite and being a Birdkeeper calling himself a Dragon Tamer. I've never read the Pokémon Yellow manga, but I've heard he's better there, which doesn't matter because I'm only talking about the games.
1
