Ah nuts, it's only a handful of days until Pokemon Sword and Shield drops it's first big expansion and I've yet to compile my exhaustive list of whom I believe the best Gym leader to be. (Refer to the pictured Jojo "Oh noe!") That gives me just a smattering of days! (Quick, scramble formation!) Now I know this is an incredibly stupid and irrelevant topic of quite literally no feasible consequence to the world, but I penned it down on my 'blogs to write' list so it's getting done, damn it! Besides I think it might be fun to go over those characters who bring their flavour to the Pokemon Sword and Shield World and rank them from worst to best. (Yeah, maybe I'm the only one in the world that this will be fun for but I'm also the only one who reads these so bite me.) So rules are basically no rules, it all comes down to personal preference and- yeah, that's pretty much all there is to it, let's get started. (And thanks to Bulbapedia for all the lovely reference images that I assume are open source. Let's find out!)
Milo is the first Pokemon Gym leader that you happen across in your adventures, hailing from the very English town of Turffield, Milo, according to his official lore, started out life as a farmer. (Which apparently means you'll grow into a seven-foot giant who looks like he's unable of comfortably functioning in society. If you say so, Gamefreak.) As such, a lot of who this character is as a person can be summed as, 'He's a country kid'. Grass type trainer? He's a country kid. Literally has challengers herd sheep for their 'Gym Challenge'? He's a country kid. Big buff fella, large hat, looks like he wouldn't be out of place with a straw of wheat between his teeth? (Hmm, I'm starting to suspect that Gamefreak are mixing their American farmer stereotypes with the English ones...) Milo's key defining characteristic is his obsessive niceness which might also be somewhat to blame for the fact that he's the lowest ranked trainer in the region. (He just doesn't have the heart to work those Pokemon right) Even his own official fact sheet spends more time talking about how much he can bench rather then how decent his team is. Yet even with that flaw he is still a fan favourite amidst the Pokemon community due to his amiable person, but not with me. I don't know what it is, I just feel affronted by excessively nice people. It's like "You can't be that positive about literally everything, you must be hiding so deep dark secret!" So yeah, might be because I'm a dick but I rank Milo low. (Although you can't argue that he isn't a bad trainer. Even for a grass trainer, his team is a bad joke.)
Nessa is probably one of the most well known trainers from the Galar region, and to be fair it is her job to stand out. Based in the sea-side town of Hulbury, Nessa is one of the few trainers in any game to actually have a real paying job besides battling small furry creatures to death; she's also a model of some renown. Because everyone has to have backgrounds that thematically match their adulthood (That's how all lives turn out in the realworld, right?) Nessa is the daughter of fishermen and thus boasts her very own Water-type gym. Of course this means that, as I am a fire-starter-for-life scrub, she was always destined to be the first trainer to really give me the works, and that's exactly what she did. (I mean, I still won. But it was close.) Nessa is actually one of the few characters who actually has a tie to the main cast, being Sonia's buddy during her gym challenge, and so that little personal-able fact alone gives her points in my book. However, as she we placed so early in the competition her fight wasn't much of an 'opponent for the ages' like some other gyms. Maybe of she were given the chance she'd have more legs. Nessa goes on the maybe pile.
As part of the second ring of the competition you have Bea, the fighter-type, who lives in the Galar town with the single most English sounding name yet not English looking location: Stow-on-Side. She's the no-nonsense hard-as-stone trainer who seems to be like a female version of Johnathon Joestar in her convictions. (With the whole "Go into a fight even if you know you're going to lose" mentality) She's another fan favourite and given her great design I can understand why, alongside Nessa she has perhaps one of the most iconic silhouettes in Pokemon, and given the number of characters that this series has, that's saying something! Unfortunately, for all her talk of strength I find it hard to make a bout against her last for any substantial amount of time at all. Fighting type Pokemon are only really powerful when min-maxed, and the lack of resistances means that her team can go down fairly quickly in practically any match-up. Big points for the character, little loss for the actual fights.
In an alternate version of reality, wherein we have Shields instead of Swords, the Stow-on-Side trainer is really the mysterious Allister, and he fills the role of 'creepy ghost trainer' in this generation. He's a little kid with a mask over his face and a stable of decent ghost-type Pokemon to pick through. Generally, Ghost types are more deadly than the physical table of Pokemon so that alone makes his team more opposing than Bea's, but he also boasts his partner Pokemon as one of my favourite Ghost types of all time, one of the first two Pokemon ever shown; Gengar. (Big points in my book.) Allister doesn't quite hit the iconic 'creepy' heights as some others from the series, however, like Hex Maniac and Sabrina, and his Sword counterpart is more recognisable at a glance. Additionally, Gamefreak broke the cardinal rule of mysterious characters and showed the face under the mask! (Boo. Party foul!)
Honestly, the fairy-type gym leader Opal is unironically one of my favourite trainers just for the uniqueness of her predicament. As a particularly old individual (I believe her age is mentioned to be over 100) she's actually looking to get out of the Gym-game when you meet her and is using the gym challenge as an interview opportunity to scout her replacement. This leads to situations wherein you're battling her staff whilst answering questions, careful to be right were necessary and tactful where appropriate. I honestly can't think of any other game that has devised a concept quite like a job-interview-turned-duel. Outside of her Gym, Opal wins points with me yet again for taking the incredibly annoying Bede out of the story and tourturi- I mean 'training' him for the second half of the campaign. (If only someone did that to Gary back in the day, I may suffer less headaches whenever I hear that stupid name. No offence to any Garys out there.)
In the frozen reaches of Circhester, Gordie rules the roost with his very own brand of Rock-Type domination. Now one might look at the icy surroundings of Circhester, compare them with the rocky crags of Stow-on-Side, and conclude that Gordie must have got off on the wrong bus; and that would totally be the case if it wasn't for one factor; his much more thematically appropriate Mum, Melony, stands to take over this gym in his absence so he's honour bound to sit here. I'll be honest, I don't like this man. Maybe it's his self-absorbed faux-'laid-back' fashion sense, his bleach-blonde f-boy tips or his general demeanour of being an ass; whatever the golden formula; it creates a man that I cringe to look upon. Gordie, In just about every way inferior to his Shield counterpart and the only redeeming factor about him whatsoever is his namesake; that's a funny pun, Gamefreak. Good job.
When the boy is away, Melony will come up to Circhester gym to play, as she is the Ice-Type mum-who-could that has apparently been holding onto her position as head of that stadium since her twenties. (Who says that you have to grow up eventually?) With a Lapras leading her team, Melony is leagues above her son in terms of the actual game; and her elemental choice is actually in harmony with the chilly north. (I find that cohesion soothing to the soul.) In the lore this whole elemental debate was actually the cause of quite some friction within the town, as Melony and her son Gordie fought over who should lead the gym and what element it should hold, leading to rift between the mother and son that has them rarely ever see each other. As for Melony in terms of popularity, she may not be quite as recognisable as some of this generation's mainstays but she's perhaps my favourite to hang around with; at least she's the only trainer who seemed pretty chill about the championship bout. (That's the sort of calm that can be greatly appreciated in those stressful moments. Thus I rate Melony.)
Piers has something of a lamentable situation on his hands when you meet him during the course of his game. Firstly, him home town of Spikemuth is rundown and poor, Secondly, his stadium doesn't even boast a Dynamax site (Literally the biggest appeal of Galar Pokematches), Thirdly, his entire fanbase have formed a harassing gang that worship his kid sister, and finally, Piers just isn't quite feeling the trainer life anymore. As a punk rocker/ Gym leader, he's quite a confused symbol anyway; representing anti-establishment whilst being an integral cog in the single most organised establishment in the region; although even then he still managed to win a place in the hearts of fans. Maybe it's his striking White-black and purple aesthetic that he and his Gym rock, or the Dark type Pokemon that he- Okay, it's not the Pokemon. Whatever the impetus, the Poke-community clamour for this faux-punk/rock hybrid wash-out, and I'll admit I'm quite fond of the man too. (But that's just because he was the only Gym leader in the story who actually helped push the plot forward.)
But the one male trainer who seems to have become the favourite of the community is undoubtedly the Dragon-type Gym leader Raihan, who is based in the misplaced Westminster-allegory; Hammerlocke. I'll be honest with you, I don't like Raihan; there's something about his very being that just repulses me on a base level. (I can't explain it.) I don't like the vague bird theme he has going on, with the flaps coming out of his bandanna or the way he stands on one foot like a Crane every now and then. I don't like that he's an apparent English citizen who walks around exclusively in shorts and a baggy jacket that stops short of his wrists, and I don't like the feral hunch he falls into everytime he battles. Everything about him just screams 'wrongun'. (I'll bet the man keeps half-eaten bodies under his Gym or something, he's got that sort of vibe to him.) All that being said, cards on the table, he was the hardest Gym leader to fight. Was that because he hit the player with weather effects and dual battles at the same time, yes, and was that a bit of a cheapshot, double yes, but it was still effective and I have to rate a tough contender.
Honorary mentions go to the two Gym leaders who take their place after the events of the main game; Bede (Who absolutely had no chance of being my favourite) and Marnie. (Who absolutely would have won my favourite slot for no more reason then her having the single best line in the game: "Oi, Shut it!") What that leaves me with is a smattering of colourful and interesting Gym folk who I have to choose from on grounds of personal preference as well as genuine strength. Of course, that qualifier right there immediately disqualifies Milo, who sucks, but leaves the playing field wide open for the others. Gordie rubs me the wrong way, so he's out; and Opal worships fairy-types, so she's gone. Leon was kind of a push over, so I'm cutting him out the running, and Bea and Piers both didn't prove much of a challenge, so I'm rubbing them out. And as much as it hurts to say, Kabu's history of a decades long contender who never got a break is pretty embarrassing, so I can't in good conscious let him have it either.That just leaves Melony, Allister, Raihan and Nessa; all folk who I rate roughly equally, (even if Raihan makes my skin crawl) making my final choice hard. If I had to place them all against each other in a battle to the death, however, I think our water queen Nessa edges out just barely with her variety of options to choose from (Although a battle against Melony would quite a slog to win. I'd like to see that.) So ultimately that means I'm crowing Nessa as my personal pick for best trainer in Galar, based on entirely subjective qualifiers that I conjured on the spot. All hail our water bender overlords, praise to Korra, Katara and Sok- wait, wrong franchise. But at the end of the day this was all just fun and games and ultimately meaningless, I was just looking for a way to get the base Pokemon Sword game out of my system before the DLC lands in three days. With that admitted, consider my system fully drained and ready; to the Isle of Amore we go!
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