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Strongest Gym leader in the anime so far

AJ97

Well-Known Member
Who do you guys think are the strongest gym Leaders from the anime so far?
Please Note that I am not considering the Frontier Brains and Island Kahunas as they aren't technically gym leader.

This is my Top 5 list.

  1. Giovanni(With Mewtwo): I am aware that Mewtwo escaped but he did have it in his possession for some time. Mewtwo in my opinion, is one of the Main Legendary Pokemon like(Rayquaza, Zygarde), etc which are very overpowered and cannot be beaten even by champion tier trainers in the anime.
  2. Raihan: He's a gym leader who is among the top 8 trainers in the world. No gym leader in the anime so far has been shown to be even remotely close to elite four tier or Champion tier with the exception of Raihan. Granted, there is one exception to this who interestingly takes up the next spot on my list.
  3. Agatha: Yes! We all know she's technically an elite four member. But she did act as a temporary gym leader of the Viridian City gym and battled Ash as a temporary Viridian City gym leader right before he took on the battle frontier. So I decided to include her in my list.
  4. Volkner: Yes we know the battle with Ash wasn't all that impressive and Ash did manage to beat Volkner on his first try. That said, the plot did try very hard to make Volkner seem much stronger than the average gym leader. His old training buddy/best friend was an elite four member. He has beaten Flint in the past (Granted, this was much before Flint got into the elite four). He doesn't technically use his ace against Ash (i.e Raichu which was indicated to be his first pokemon/strongest pokemon). The plot also made it seem that he was just simply too strong and lost his interest to battle. Based on all this, I decided to put him 4th on my list.
  5. Drayden: Honestly, the last choice on my list simply came down to either Claire or Drayden. I felt the latter was simply more experienced and written in such a way to be superior to Claire based off his age/experience.

What do you guys think? Let me know if you agree or disagree
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Raihan is the rival of the strongest trainer in the world and is in the rank with other Champion tier Trainers like Lance. I think he’s the strongest easily.
 

Mr. Reloaded

Cause a pirate is free
It's tough to say because all gym leaders have to hold back during gym battles unless requested otherwise.

That being said, logically Raihan would probably be the strongest regardless.
 

PsychoLogical

Black and White, Yin and Yang, Light and Dark.
Likely Raihan.
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Raihan and its not even close, imagine thinking of someone else when one of the gym leader is basically in top 8 rankings. After that it is probably wulfric, drayden and volkner, though by the end of the series i think top 4 or 5 will all be galar gym leaders since it is pretty confirmed that galar trainers are the best in all the regions.
 

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
Raihan duh.
Second would probably be a tie between Volkner and Giovanni, Giovanni owns a lot of powerful Pokemon(who only jobbed because TRio used them, let's be honest. They suck at being bad guys but are good at everything else) and Persian was strong enough to take out Pikachu. 'Owning' Mewtwo is hardly credible for his status given he practically lost it right away.
I'd like to list Drayden higher but unfortunately we didn't get to see much of him :/
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Can't wait to see this PWC format dropped out and we're back to sticking to one region whose format can't be used to judge who's the strongest gym leader.

*cue the next generation pointing out the 8th gym leader is the strongest gym leader in the world anyway*
 

dman_dustin

Well-Known Member
Its obviously Raihan but I think he should be excluded because gym leader is his highest possible rank for him, he definitely is more if an elite four member (under Leon)

For that same reason I disqualify Agatha, I think the question should be reasonable/equal. Agatha/Raihan are definitely unfair. As well as Wallace.

Its hard to know where Giovanni stands without Mewtwo but he could be average his tussle with Ash in Unova using Persian didn't really help since they were going with a cat vs mouse theme. And of course for plot purposes he had ro win. I do expect him or Silver to be in hyper class though, and I might have to disqualify him for not being a gym leader but he could be a contender.

So of the final gym leaders that exist, realistically would be Clair as the strongest but with honorable mention has to go to Wulfric. Clair is Lance's cousin has access to Dragonite and I think would go far in the PWCs especially since Clair defeated Iris's Dragonite with a Druddigon, and Iris had Dragonite longer. Unless Iris activates her champion skills, it means Clair is just that good of a trainer. Not Lance/Raihan good but easily close to potential e4 material. At the very least she should realistically be the strongest gym leader on the equal scale.

Wulfric gets an honorable mention because he has a mega Abomasnow and only us it against Ash which means Wulfric lost because he didn't use it, which makes sense considering Hawlucha defeated its base form in the first match but since it lost to Ash-Greninja even though it activated that to combat Ash-Greninja is why I doubt Wulfric coukd defeat Clair at her full power. Because the argument that Ash didn't battle Clair at her full power but he battled Wulfric at his. I suppose I'm under rating Ash-Greninja's power.
 

Red and Blue

Well-Known Member
Definitely Raihan. Which makes me wonder how any trainer competing in a standard Galar League would be able to get a badge from hin
 

PsychoLogical

Black and White, Yin and Yang, Light and Dark.
Definitely Raihan. Which makes me wonder how any trainer competing in a standard Galar League would be able to get a badge from hin
Most would likely avoid him.
 

Pkjoan

Pokemon Master
Raihan is the rival of the strongest trainer in the world and is in the rank with other Champion tier Trainers like Lance. I think he’s the strongest easily.
Too bad the games hyped it up to be on that level and his gym was one of the most anti-climatic and easiest battle.

OT: what about Wulfric? That guy is one of the toughest Ice Gym Leaders I've seen.
 

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
Definitely Raihan, though Bea currently seems like a close second. After that it would probably be Volkner & Drayden with Wallace as an honorable mention since he was a gym leader before becoming a contest master
 

LucasMV

Well-Known Member
Definitely Raihan, though Bea currently seems like a close second. After that it would probably be Volkner & Drayden with Wallace as an honorable mention since he was a gym leader before becoming a contest master

I don't think Bea is that strong tbh. If she defeated Ash's Pikachu the way he did Riolu/Farfetch'd, then yeah, totally. But the way it is, I just can't see her as all that great when the only thing she did was the same thing 2 random Cotds did last episode, defeat Ash's recently hatched Riolu. Not that much of a feat.

Maybe if on the rematch Ash uses Pikachu (or one of the Alola mons if the battle happens there) and Bea still wins/almost wins but loses, then I'd put her as one of the strongest gym leaders.

Edit: I forgot Bea defeated Mega Lucario, so there's that. But still, I don't know if that makes her top 2 and close to Raihan all of a sudden. Volkner and Claire, maybe Drayden (we didn't see much of him) are probably still stronger.
 
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