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Anime gym leaders

M

misty'scorsola

Beginning Trainer
The anime gym leaders in the current pokemon series have no character development. In the first season, the leaders were much more developed, Sabrina with her mysterious psychic powers and past, Erika who's gym burned down leading to Ash's gloom rescue Team rocket's Giovanni being the leader of viridian gym with Mewtwo itself in his arsenal, and of course, not forgetting Brock and Misty, who became staple characters of the show for many years.
I feel as though now, the gym leader routine is the same - Ash and the gang meet some random guy in the street - befriends guy - Guy helps Ash beat team rocket - Ash finds out guy is gym leader - battles guy - wins badge.
They should really think of more interesting storylines for the gym leaders like they used to. Does anyone else agree?
 
S

Sato

YEAH. I AM GHOS!!
Hmm? Gym Leaders have no character development, eh?

What about Morty and Clair from Johto? Or Brawly and Flannery from Hoenn? There still are a few interesting Gym Leaders in the anime...

Also, there were undeveloped leaders in the early seasons as well... What about Surge? All he did was speak random English and call Ash a baby...
 
B

BattleFranky~40

Immortal
Sato said:
What about Surge? All he did was speak random English and call Ash a baby...
Click to expand...

Which is what makes him better than any gym leader you listed.

That, and the so-called "devlopment" you listed is pathetic and hardly there in the anime.
 
K

Krys

SPPF's spammer
What about Morty and Clair from Johto?
Click to expand...
Which is why I'm a Hopeshipper.

I think the gym leaders ahve great personalities, but don't appear in enough episodes. Look at Clair, I like her, but she amassed six whole episodes with her in them! Bugsy, Chuck, Falkner, Erika, and a few others only got one. That's why I write them fics and ship them a lot.
 
R

Redeevee

Well-Known Member
other than brock and misty, yeah (that would make the show interesting and waver away from the Team Rocket annoyences, and useless filler episodes, it would also take ash longer to get there because they couldnt take out fillers) though i admit there is a tiny bit depending on the leader
 
J

Jorah

What do I put here?
Meh, all Surge did was give Ash a load of cheesy, childish insults. But the episode itself is good. I don't think they'd do tons of character development on the gym leaders when they hardly have any character development for the main characters!
 
H

Hrist[ALT]

Battlemaiden Hrist
I think Claire and Pryce had some nice storylines, particularly Claire.

I can't really say that Surge or Koga were that interesting, though I personally loved Surge's episode. ;)
 
Z

Zan

Member
Every time I see a gym leader episode, I think the same thing.
(I always enjoyed Koga's episode, though, even with the lack of development)
I also do not enjoy the whole cut-and-paste routine of "Hey, stranger, I'll help you with that problem of yours. Oh, look, we win. Woah, you're the Gym Leader here? I want your badge. I have to battle you? Okay. Oh look. I win."

...

I mean, seriously, the writers can do better than that.
 
Blackjack Gabbiani

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
G

Goldliop

Powerplay Champion
I dunno... it seems as if they're making it more about the battles and winning the badges now...
it is focused on attracting the attention of a generation that was captivated by more action oriented shows with little plot... such as Yu Gi OH
 
B

BattleFranky~40

Immortal
Goldliop said:
I dunno... it seems as if they're making it more about the battles and winning the badges now...
it is focused on attracting the attention of a generation that was captivated by more action oriented shows with little plot... such as Yu Gi OH
Click to expand...

Did you even pay attention during the early years? It has always been like this.
 
K

Korobooshi Kojiro

Funnnngaaaaa
Goldliop said:
I dunno... it seems as if they're making it more about the battles and winning the badges now...
it is focused on attracting the attention of a generation that was captivated by more action oriented shows with little plot... such as Yu Gi OH
Click to expand...

Which has more of a plot then Pokemon ever did............
 
F

Francesc

Natsu no Maboroshi
I don't think they need more development. Once they're defeated, you never see them again...:(
 
Y

Yamato-san

I own the 5th gen
Francesc said:
I don't think they need more development. Once they're defeated, you never see them again...:(
Click to expand...

considering these guys do seem to be directly involved with the Pokemon league, you'd think they'd be important enough to make more appearances, at least a cameo at tournaments or whatever. What's really annoying is that one of the current main characters (along with one of the former main characters) is/was/will be a gym leader (depending on what point in time since joining up with Satoshi you're looking at, but no matter how you slice it, they seem to be an occupant of the gyms at least). You'd expect them to at least be familiar with their badge-dispensing brethren, but apparently, they're not.

On top of that, gym leaders are easily among the most recognizeable human characters from the games (given, it's not really hard to stand out when you're one of the few characters who isn't just some unnamed NPC with a repeating sprite), which makes it more of a shame that they can't seem to do much more with them. Though, if the Kogomi episode is any indication, it's nice to see that these guys can at least be referenced from time to time.
 
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