Aye! Gym Leaders!

[Carmen Lopez]

Have you ever come across a gym leader you absolutely adored? Or found one you just hated? Alternately did you battle a gym leader and it was HARD? Your reply can come from either the anime or game standpoint.

One of the toughest battles I fought were against Whitney. Of course I didn't have a Fighting type so battling her Miltank was MISERABLE. Attract, Roll Out, and Milk Drink is an evil combination. I still like her though. The next toughest gym battle I fought was against Candice, but only because she hax'd me. She got Snow Warning going and then she brought out Froslass. I missed with my first attack, and after she Double Team'd it was over for me XD. This coupled with her anime appearance made Candice my least favorite gym leader so far. (She's annoying D

Volkner is the closest person I have to a favorite gym leader in game, but I have a few favorites as far as the anime goes. Sabrina and Fantina are two absolute favorites while I have a place in my heart for all the Johto gym leaders XD

 

[KoL]

I don't think it comes as a surprise to many that the Kanto Gym Leader that stands out to me is Misty. Hell, it doesn't matter if you love her or hate her, she stands out either way thanks to her anime role. That said, if you started off with Charmander and weren't carrying a good Grass-type Pokemon with you in Kanto, Misty would be sure to make your life absolutely miserable unless you out-levelled her Starmie by a wide margin. I generally found all the Kanto leaders easy, except for Misty when you had Charmander as the starter. She forced me to improvise a bit, and I did so by sicking a Gyarados on her - that certainly made things much easier.

Gen II's infamous Gym Leader has to be Whitney. She gave me a lot of hassle before I nailed the perfect strategy for dealing with her Miltank. Lets just say it involves very heavy overuse of Flash. Clair stood out to me as well for using Dragon-type Pokemon, and for being a bit of an ass when beaten - least she didn't go emo and cry for about 5 minutes unlike some other aforementioned Gym Leader.

Gen III...none of them really stood out much at all. Tate and Liza were definitely unique, and Winona was pretty cool, but other than that they weren't really anything special...and I squashed them all with ease too.

Sinnoh, well...definitely some interesting characters there. Gardenia bucked the "girly" trend that plagued Grass-type Pokemon despite the fact that she was a girl herself, Maylene I've stated on multiple occasions to be either extremely stupid or just straight-up mad for walking to Snowpoint wearing hardly anything (I guess that makes her sort-of unique...in an odd way...) Fantina creeps me out, Byron and Roark's somewhat awkward father/son relationship is unique also, since I think that's the first time one Gym Leader has ever been the relative of another (Tate and Liza don't count since they're battled together,) and Volkner leaves me quite surprised that Game Freak haven't been sued for blatantly ripping off the Fourth Hokage.

 

[SineCosineTangent]

Hmm... Thinking back to RBY, I had the most trouble with Misty, since I was a Charmander girl all the way. I never really had any favorites at that point.

Carmen's post about Whitney brought back some relatively painful memories of my Silver and Crystal battles with her. That Miltank's rollout.... Agh. SO. MANY. KO's. I basically had to level-trump that gym. I digress.

In Sapphire, I remember having particular trouble with Tate and Liza- fighting fire chicken is no match against psychic rocks. It's one of the few gyms I've ever needed more than one shot to beat.

Sinnoh, Sinnoh, Sinnoh. As a set, possibly my favorite, although the set itself contains some of my most despised characters ever created in the Pokeverse. If it's not made obvious by my general existence, I absolutely adore Roark. On the other side of the spectrum, I absolutely hate Candice (in the anime, she's honestly one of the few people more annoying than Dawn >>; ), and Crasher Wake can give me nightmares. Fantina's (probably) a man in a dress with a fancy accent. I have nothing against Maylene. Volkner's the emo kid of the group, and I have this great memory of the back of my DP guide in which he's sitting on a random platform, staring into space, almost as if he's pondering why he's alive. That being said, he is not one of the ones on SCT's List of Hate (and Science). Gardeina is my favorite female of the region, but I guess that's not saying a lot when one's annoying, another's secretly a man, and the other is a tiny fighting freak. And Byron? He's a terrible father. Pisses me off on so many damn levels. Many a night I have pondered exactly how that ...thing... is Roark's father.

...Looks like I went on quite a spree there with Sinnoh XD;
[Edit: My >>; face became a winky smiley D:]

 

[Cody]

Aye.
First Gen, was Misty. She was always a bit of a pain, the level of her Starmie and the speed and blablalblalblal, I always have trouble with her.

Second gen is no doubt Whitney. Gah, I hated her, but at the same time, she really sticks out. All of the Gen: II leaders have a place in my sentiment.

Gen three is no doubt Tate and Liza. The double battle in itself made it cool, but it was always a bit of a challenge for me.

And, fourth gen, there's really nobody that stands out. Fantina always gave me the hardest time, though...

 

[Linkachu]

Mmm... I'm gonna step away from the Misty talk and mention the other memorable Gym Leader from Kanto... No, not you, Brock. Giovanni! While the guy is actually fairly easy to beat by the time you reach him, isn't it pretty awesome that the leader of the 'evil' organization for Kanto is actually your final Gym Leader challenge? Classic stuff.

Johto Leaders... Y'know, not too many of them stand out to me - not within the games at least. Whitney was difficult to beat, but I found her more of a nuisance than someone worth remembering. I'd say most of my fond memories of that set come from Anime and RP influence. Pryce in the Anime was a pretty interesting character, and Clair means a lot to me due to a certain RP plotline.

Hoenn... Unless you had a specific counter set-up before battling Norman (and were leveled high enough), the guy could be pretty tough to take down. Same went for Flannery, because that Over Heat could be devastating at times. From an Anime standpoint, tho, gotta give it up to Brawly. He had not one, but two of the best Gym Battles that season, and I loved how they portrayed him in the series (and the dynamics between him and Ash).

Now, Sinnoh... Maylene's Lucario can be a bitch to beat if you don't come at it with the right types/moves, and I've heard that from enough people to know it's pretty unanimous. I guess Gardenia's Roserade can come as a tough challenge for some, too, although it was a pretty big pushover for my latest team... The rest of the Gym Leaders are pretty easy to get through, but I do enjoy their gym puzzles. Some of the revamps in Platinum were really nice - especially Fantina's.

Overall, I'd say the most memorable collection of Gym Leaders for me are Kanto's and Sinnoh's, but Sinnoh might simply be due to bias of it being our latest generation.

 

[KoL]

Giovanni definitely does get props purely for being the only final Gym Leader whose identity is initially unknown until you actually arrive at the Viridian Gym, plus you see the Gym very early on in the game even though it is locked, which for me created some element of suspense as to when I would le able to enter.

A double blow of irony regarding Maylene's Lucario, the double blow being that this is coming from me of all people, was that I actually found her Lucario to be ridiculously easy both times I faced it due to how severely the scales were tipped in my favour both times. The first time I battled Lucario was on Pearl. I was utilizing Machamp, at this point unaware that her Lucario was in fact part-Steel, which meant my STAB attacks would be super-effective. Indeed, one strike from Machamp and Lucario crumbled instantly, which surprised me quite a bit until I found out what Lucario's typing actually was. The second time I was obviously forewarned not only of Lucario, but also of its moves and its typing, which meant that in Platinum I had the perfect Pokemon to wipe it out: Rotom. With only a miserable Metal Claw to harm me since I was immune to her three other attacks, Rotom smacked Lucario down with ease whilst barely suffering any damage itself.

That said, Platinum Fantina was notably more difficult than any of the other Sinnoh leaders thanks to her Mismagius appearing so early on in the game, similar to Misty's Starmie making a very early appearance as well. Mismagius did cause me a bit of a bother until I sent out another Gyarados on it - a few Bite attacks later and victory was mine.

I learned an important lesson from all of this: If a Gym Leader is giving you trouble, send Gyarados to eat them.

 

[Jeydis]

I have always had a thing for Brawly since the anime. In the game he was pretty one-dimensional but the anime made him a hunky surfer As far as in game hard battles I had trouble with Whitney as well, since I wasnt in the habbit of raising fighting types back then. I took it up since and thats why I took down Candice pretty easily.

 

[jameszone208]

the first gen i remember Giovanni, he's mean and after you beat him you feel like you've just saved the world, very cool feeling when you were 8 years old

second gen. Whitney, that dreadful Miltank with that Rollout...

third Gen. Norman. i think its awesome how he's your dad and you uses my favorite type, normal.

4th gen. Byron, but not actually for an in-game reason, but because of in the anime. he would constantly yell "I love defense!" and it was very annoying but a very amusing inside joke.

 

[Tailon]

YAY more Whitney crap!
Anyway, I restarted crystal not too long ago, and found myself stuck fighting her for about a week before using the ice punch TM on my Totodile and freezing that cow of hers for the win (Totodile proceeded to evolve immediately afterwards by the way).

As for my also recently restarted Leafgreen, I managed to breeze through the majority of the gym leaders from Koga on thanks to the Dratini i caught myself in the Safari zone, but Erika of all people managed to catch my attention by KOing the Vulpix that would later be my Ninetails.

 

[SoIHerdYaLiekAnime]

Whitney. That asshat.

I started with Cyndaquil. I didn't know what egg moves were back then, and I'm fairly sure there was no Double Kick (no type advantages for me :[).

I'd always fire a bunch of embers or tackles, and surely enough, Milk Drink. After Milk Drink, it would Rollout me to oblivion. I'm pretty sure my only other pokemon at a high enough level were pidgeotto and sentret, so yeah... poof.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

How has no one said Blue yet? Even two (or three?) years later, his still an arrogant little shit that just asks to get beaten but I love him for it. In my opinion, he was the best Rival because he was always one step ahead of you, challenged you when you were most vulnerable, and you felt good about beating him because he was such a prick.

As a Gym Leader, Blue only has more to brag about and it feels just as good to remind him of his place in the world as it did in the prior generation.

I also liked Flannery because she was a new Gym Leader and still trying to find her niche. At first Flannery tries to act tough and intimidating like how she thinks a Gym Leader should be, but after her defeat she starts to act more natural. The rematches in Emerald show this as Flannery becomes more playful and energetic.

 

[Blisk]

Whitney was hard with Quilava til I figured out how to beat her. I figured out to get her Miltank almost dead then use Quick Attack so Milk Drink would not be used. I pwned her everytime after that.

 

[Nim]

Not trying to bignote myself but the only gymleader i can remember havin serious trouble with would be whitney.
What made it even more difficult was that miltanks rollout was super effective against my whole party but one which at the time included a
croconaw
noctowl
flaafy
pinsir
and a vulvix( bad choice, never train a vulpix, flareon is much better)
i beat after like 4 tries by hypnosing the miltank with noctowl an then switching to the legendary croconaw and just water gunned it to death!!! ;D

 

[Agent Zero]

It's going to have to be Misty and Giovanni for me.
When I first played Red in Gen I I had Charmander as my starter, and while Brock was difficult to get passed, he was easy compared to Misty. It was torture trying to beat her. When I played FireRed and chose Charmander again she gave me problems, even though I did have a Pikachu on hand this time. She's given me so much grief that when I played through LeafGreen with Bulbasaur (I figured I deserved a break) the prospect of Misty still gave me chills.
With Giovanni it comes down to, as Linkachu pointed out, good story telling. Viridian Gym's the first gym you see, but it's locked, and once you're finally allowed to go in the gym leader's the boss of the villainous group you've been fighting? Brilliant!

Volkner's my least favourite leader though. He blacks out part of the city just so he can renovate his gym, which he's only doing because he's bored? What a jerk! I'm surprised the pitchfork and torch carrying mob of townspeople haven't taken him out by the time you get to him. I will give him this though, he's great as part of the Volkner/Flint comedy duo. That and he gets some credit for being an Electric type gym leader who doesn't use Voltorb or Electrode. I never got the appeal of those things to be perfectly honest.

 

[Secad MS]

In Diamond and Platinum, I was never very fond of Gardenia. In both, I had picked Piplup so of course I would be at a disadvantage. In addition, being the silly person I am, I didn't want to switch out, either, so I tried to Peck my way to victory. Before my last soft reset, I had leveled up my Piplup into a Prinplup and won after a long, hard battle.

As for my sister's LeafGreen, which I essentially played through for her, I found Misty the hardest, as she had picked Charmander. She had lost many, many, many times until she evolved it into a Charizard. Then she just spammed Wing Attack and won.

My favorite Gym Leader to go against in Sinnoh, however, was Fantina. I loved her Platinum gym with the Duskull and the flashlight.

 

[Magpie]

You know, I can't say that I particularly like any of the Gym Leaders. I'm not bothered about them as characters, possible because I've never really seen any of them outside the games (except for the Kanto ones). I mainly view them as hurdles that must be vanquished, rather than people with personalities and such. I can think of a couple that have annoyed me, just by being annoying or difficult for me to defeat. I always remember my first play through Red taking on Brock with a Charmander and Pikachu. That was hard XD

Whitney took a few attempts my first time playing Silver as well. Her Miltank was evil. Though I do probably owe her one for making me love Miltanks. I finally won that match and was like "I have to get me one of those!" and Miltank is still on my team to this day (though much better trained!). She also confused me when she didn't give up her badge. I thought I'd done something wrong in the game. Ah, youth...

Fantina bugged me in Diamond, just because she was meh. Stay in your gym! I loved how the gym itself looked in Platinum though, so I kind of remember her for that which gains her some points back.

 

[Luigi777]

For Kanto - Brock and Misty would always make my Charmander's cry, although I have to thank them because they taught me at a very young age I needed WAY more than 1 Pokemon. Blaine's cool because he's fire, and his quizzes always make me laugh. I want to learn TOMBSTONER! Anyway, I digress.

For Johto - They're all awesome 'cause they used the less mainstream types, and most of them were a little eccentric or intriguing. And (he's not a gym leader but...) Lance is pretty awesome as a Champion.

For Hoenn, the gym leaders were cool, and the fire girl (I always forget her name) is pretty awesome, although I never made any real connections with most of them. Tate and Liza were REALLY dissapointing.

For Sinnoh... most of them seem really dull or just straight out weird. Although Volkner is definently the 4th Hokage. No wait, that's Palmer! ...either way, 4th Hokage>Pkmn Ripoff version.
Atleast the Sinnoh gyms were for the most part different.

 

[Blazi]

The most annoying gym leader, Maylene. Gawd, she is so EFF-ing annoying. Sure, my Lv. 25 Staravia took on her Meditite/Machoke like they were nothing, but her Lucario? *shudders*
As for the others I have no problem with any of the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh gym leaders.

 

[ShroudedWolf51]

Honestly, the problem with the gyms and the league is that you can easily use items during them to save yourself, regardless of what you have.
Or in my case, I've never really had much of a problem with those, since my pokemon always have a decent moveset (none of that full STAB moveset crap) and are generally quite a few levels above where they should be, as I always do solo-runs through story mode.

The only place where I've ever had a lot of trouble has been the very first gym in all games (except for my 2nd gen games).
In yellow, that rock gym was hell with Pikachu
In the other games, with the exception of the times when I trained my Torchic to level 16 on level 2 wild pokemon, I also had a hard time with those since fire doesn't do too well early on.

But otherwise... everything's been good =)

 

[ratsmilk]

Gen 2 had the best leaders I think. For a start Falkner is the 'odd one out' because he is the only leader you verse first who isn't rock. Then there is Whitney, she makes you want to cry but she has an awesome milktank. My final notable gym leader in gen 2 is Claire. Her Kingdra totally owned me in crystal but her being the only dragon gym leader in the series.