Pokemon's Early Gym Leaders Need A Chance At Redemption
Ever since the very first Pokemon games, early gym leaders have been incredibly disrespected. Sure, the first two are Brock and Misty, who have attained iconic status because of their prominence in the anime. But they’re both pushovers in the game, which makes a mockery of their importance to the series. Sword & Shield shows its leaders more respect, and while that needs to be the norm going forward, I can’t help but think gym leaders gone by still need their moment in the sun.
In Sword & Shield, the Elite Four is replaced by a final tournament wherein you fight against the other gym leaders and some new challengers, which for convenient story purposes are always the friends you met along the way. In this final showdown, the gym leaders show up with much stronger teams. They’re still loyal to their type restrictions, but they’re higher levelled, better balanced, and generally more befitting of a prestige trainer like a gym leader.
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It has long been theorised by players that gym leaders train several teams at once, and put out a team designed to match your current number of badges, allowing you to feel a sense of progression throughout the game, while the world continues to exist as a setting larger than yourself. This is easily disproved by the fact several games let you attempt the middle gyms in varying order, with no changes to the line-up you battle, but it’s still a nice theory to consider.
Despite being disproved by the games, it still makes logical sense. You don’t get to be a gym leader with two Pokemon both below Level 15, you only whip those out so newbies can get a taste of challenge when they’re searching for their first gym badge. The Sword & Shield
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