How do gym leaders have any healthy pokemon (or respect) if they're CONSTANTLY having their shit pushed in by randos who walk in from out of town.
I could understand if they Pokemon championships only had 16 or so guys (those 16 or so being the only one's in the entire region able to beat all 8), but these things are always shown to be huge affairs with gigantic rankings. If all of those guys have beaten every gym leader in the region at least once, how do gym leaders stay in business?
Well most gym leaders are beaten by only 2 people at the most. I mean go to a gym in Kanto and look at how many trainers beat them.
>>25658001
Am I misremembering that you need all the gym badges in a region to go to that region's finals?
How they explain it in the anime is if they get beat too often they lose gym certification as well as there being more than just eight gyms.
The games don't have that many people.
>>25658007
In the anime there are more than 8 gyms per region
>>25658022
There would have to be considering sometimes the leaders just plain aren't around.
>>25657989
Probably an in-gym pokemon center.
Also it's a videogame, stop thinking so hard.
It's not like they're paid to not get beaten, it's a sport and they likely beat more people than those who win against them.
They're literally only challenged by one kid and his rival in their whole careers.
>>25657989
They actually have different teams to correspond to the no. Of badges a trainer has. Brock has a Golem and Tyranitar if you have 8 badges.
>>25657989
The point of Gym Leaders is to weed out shit trainers. If a trainer is competent, they're supposed to be able to beat the Gym Leaders.
They're not supposed to be competitors striving to be the champion themselves, they're more like entrance exams for would-be League competitors
>>25658074
I like this. In practice it could be pretty cool. In case pokemon decides to link between worlds a new gen
Pretty sure in game, they use teams in accordance with your level of skill (or what it's intended to be at that time). That's why in gen 2 all the Kanto gyms use stronger pokemon (because by the time you get to them, you're a champ), and in platinum all the gym leader rematches have stronger teams, and in BW2 with the PWT and Cheren straight up saying at the start that he isn't using his regular team.
They're supposed to be benchmarks for aspiring trainers to hit. So I bet if you started your journey in Celadon, Erika would have a team with just a Bellsprout and Oddish, and if Brock was the last gym you tried, you'd fight his GSC team.
I also think it's partially up to the gym leaders. I can't imagine Giovanni or Claire putting on the kid gloves for newbs. Like how Norman won't fight you until you have 5 badges.
>>25660685
>somewhere, in another universe, Giovanni is forced to use a Diglett and a Rhyhorn against a kid's Bulbasaur.
>>25657989
For every child prodigy protagonist, there are many trainers that had to try multiple times to beat a gym, and many others that never did.
they should make a game were you fight the gym leaders in the order you want and their teams change accordingly
>>25660708
>Rhyhorn
>80/85/95/30/30/25
That might be a bit much for a beginner who just got their first pokémon
>>25657989
Just because you continue to pound Misty's ass doesn't mean everyone in the games' world do.
>>25658244
That's exactly what they are.
>>25657989
GSC Misty is criminally underrated.
>>25663206
Tail > No Tail
>>25657989
>implying they ever use their real teams
Every team they use is selected based on a level cutoff or the amount of badges a trainer has and doesnt has. Gym leaders are supposed to test new trainers, if they used their real teams no trainer could make it past them at all.
Misty 2 Badges-Staryu/Starmie
Misty 4 Badges- Starmie/Gyarados/Golduck/Dewgon/Tentacruel
>>25664685
I wish that was true. Then the games could be a lot less linear.
The purpose of a gym leader isn't to wreck noobs, it's to test competency to see if you're good enough for the league and the tests get harder with each badge a trainer gains.
Yes, this does mean that gym leaders are effectively holding back and gimping themselves in order to give trainers a chance as we discovered with Cheren in Black 2, but you can't have Cheren using his PWT team against some kid with a Tepig he just got from Professor Juniper, it would be a stomping beyond all stompings.
>>25661026
This, Blue is even bored about beating shitty trainers so he keeps traveling around. Literally only you and Red (you!) have defeated him.
>>25664630
It's more than hair, anon. HGSS Misty has childbearing hips.
>>25664734
I like to think that their Pokemom themselves is holding back too, which would explain why some gym leaders have Pokemon way below when they would evolve.
>>25666327
(you)
>>25658022
>>25660685
It's a combination of these. If you have zero badges, Giovani won't even let you challenge him; he has armed guards outside his gym. If you're a novice, you'd go to Pewter first. Maybe there's a random Kanto town that has a low level bug gym we never saw.
How do gym leaders have any healthy Pokemon to use? Simple, they go heal them. /facepalm
Remember in Pokemon Origins that Brock chose specific Pokemon when facing Red. The gym leaders are there to test your strength. Not necessarily the strongest
>>25663206
>>25664630
>>25666370
Both are good in my opinion.
>>25660789
This would be fun, since they are implied to be holding back depending on the trainer's experience (badges etc), it could work.
>>25660798
>>25660708
Not for a bulbasaur, it would still wreck Rhydon with vinewhip, but like the other guy said some Gym leaders are assholes I don't think they would fight a trainer until they got some badges, I will also include Blue in that group unless he feels like using a Eevee or something.
>>25660708
Nah, just a diglett and a sandshrew.
>>25657989
I never considered the anime anywhere near canon status.
As for the games, I thought it was very much implied that very few people even get to battle the gym leader, let alone beat them.
95% of contestants are beaten by the other trainers at the gym, 4.9% are personally beaten by the Gym Leader, and then 0.1% actually beat the Gym Leader.
It's something noteworthy that would make an adult reporter follow around a 10 year old kid like it was the hottest news story on the planet, even for just beating one.
It's pretty much head canon depending on how much you want to write off as game mechanics.
I figure that they select their teams based on how many badges the challenger has. That way the lower level gyms don't get flooded with weak ass plebs and trainers can choose which types they want to tackle first.
It also holds all the gym leaders to a standard quality rather than looking for some shitter who can't raise pokemon past level 20 to lead a gym.
>>25668579
You know that guy isn't actually a reporter, right?
>>25660789
>they should make a game were you fight the gym leaders in the order you want and their teams change accordingly
cool in theory, but this would probably just create a new metagame on which gym leaders to take in which order to breeze through.
>>25668780
>that guy
I thought he was talking about that duo from Hoenn that follows you around.
What other reporter (or not I guess) is it there?
>>25657989
Just take Brock as an exemple, except you and your rival the only trainers in the area are Bug Catcher with some caterpie and weedle and Youngster with rattata, most of them couldn't pass the trainer in his gym.
>>25668799
Viola's sister, Alexa.
>>25668957
He said guy though.
>>25668965
Yeah, but he mentioned other reporters.
Alexa takes an interest in you, despite GF never expanding upon it.
Can anyone say wasted potential?
>>25668799
>>25668957
>>25668965
>>25668980
I thought he was talking about the guy you met in front of every Gym, as he's really the only one interested in your quest to earn badges.
Y'know, the guy who tells you what type to take.
>>25669008
I always thought he was some worker for the Pokèmon League or something.
>>25669008
Yeah, but I was adding to the discussion.
What's the issue?
>>25668682
That's exactly how it works. Origins also said they choose teams based on the amount of badges, and it makes sense within the games too considering their teams for rematches and the fact that Cheren's team is completely different than what he had before and very low leveled.
Blue seems to be the only exception to how the rules work, probably because he's a former Champ.
>>25669045
More because he was fighting a champ that already had 15 badges so he had no reason to hold back.
>>25658048
The presence of trainers in Victory Road says otherwise.
