Let's Rank the Champions!

[Filthy Casual]

A simple question for all of you: how do you rank each of the series champions, and why? Here is my list:

Spoiler

1) Blue/Gary/Asshat

 

What can I say? His buildup was amazing. He spends the whole game one step ahead of you, and while you consistently defeat him, he never acknowledges you. It all culminates in one amazing final battle where you're finally able to prove your worth as a trainer.

 

2) Cynthia

 

Truth be told, one and two are tied. I just put Cynthia as number 2 because I felt like her buildup wasn't as good. Part of a champion battle involves fighting through a tough and memorable Elite Four, proving your worthiness as a challenger. I feel like the Elite Four in Sinnoh is one of the weakest, especially if you come from Diamond/Pearl (looking at you Flint). Despite this, Cynthia is hands down the toughest champion, as her team is the most balanced. Her Garchomp is also the thing of nightmares in LPs.

 

3) Steven

 

I love his setup! He's there throughout the whole game helping you whenever necessary. He proves to be an effective mentor to the player, whether it be giving advice (however meaningless) or providing the Devon Scope, he comes across as someone quite knowledgeable in the ways of Pokemon. In Ruby/Sapphire, as well as the remakes, his fight is extremely enjoyable, all capped off with an intense fight with his Metagross.

 

4) Iris

 

I didn't think I'd enjoy Ira's fight that much, but honestly, it was enjoyable! She has a much better team than Alder's, and that Haxorus will keep you on your toes.

 

5) Lance

 

Lance follows the same formula as Steven. It also helps that he was in the last game. However, I decided to put him behind Steven because Lance doesn't actually help you that much. He blasts away a guy with Hyper Beam, and that's honestly it. Yes, Steven also doesn't help much with Team Aqua/Magma (except in Emerald, where he's not champion), but he at least gives you the Devon Scope. After the situation at the Lake of Rage, Lance doesn't even try to stop the Rockets from taking over the Radio Tower. Sure, his role increases slightly when he teams up with you in a Double Battle...

 

...with a Dragonite which only knows Fly...

 

...speaking of which, let's call Lance what he really is: the Flying type master. After all, his team all shares the flying type!

 

6) Kukui

 

Yes, I know he's not the champion, and technically the MC is. However, he's the last battle in the main story, so I'm putting him here. The problem I have with Kukui is that his team isn't that compelling when it's trying to show off the best of Alola. His team consists of a Midday Lycanroc (which is pretty cool admittedly), a Snorlax, an Alolan Ninetales which usually gets blown away, a Magnezone, a Braviary, and the starter which wasn't chosen.

 

If you haven't noticed, half of his team isn't from Alola! That would be fine, except his Alolan Pokemon are admittedly at bit weak. Lycanroc goes down easily, and Alolan Ninetales doesn't have the best SpAttack (not to mention that quadruple weakness to Steel). The starter is fine, but that's only one out of three! No, not all have to be from a region, but it helps! Look at Cynthia's and Steven's teams, for example. They stick to one region, and are still incredibly fun.

 

7) Alder

 

Alder has two problems: he is postgame, and his team kind of sucks. All you need is a good Fire type, and you win.

 

8) Diantha

 

She's so easy! Diantha shows up twice in the main game, does nothing about Team Flare, and we're supposed to accept her as the champion? Her team's not Alder tier, but with the EXP Share, the fight is a joke. What makes it worse is that the Kalos Elite Four is the worst one!

 

9) Wallace

 

Yeah, this guy didn't deserve the champion spot. Wallace's biggest problem is that he's another water type boss in a region filled with water, after the last gym leader you faced was a water type gym leader! It also doesn't help that he took Steven's spot, which makes little to no sense!

 

Edited September 22, 2017 by Filthy Casual

[Alistair]

I'm going to rank only the Champs I'm familiar with (since I haven't played all the canon games), from the best to the worst imho.

 

1. Cynthia

Yeah, yeah, everyone saw her coming. But I think she deserves the spot. Good and rather challenging team, great character design, great music... only her build-up throughout the game could have been better, but that's nitpicking. She's still my favorite champ to this day, and I was happy to see Solaris sharing her ace and her theme.

 

2. Blue

Good team, great build-up, and intense satisfaction when you finally beat him for the last time and become the Champion. No to mention he comes back in GSC as the coolest gym leader around. 

 

3. Steven

Judging by gen 3; relatively similar to Cynthia in terms of build-up and character, he has a decent team and his ace Metagross is one of my favorite pseudos along with Hydreigon. His battle theme however is kinda underwhelming, and he lacks that extra charisma to make him compete with the likes of Blue and Cynthia.

 

4. Iris

She was actually a breath of fresh air among the other champs. A bit challenging without being that difficult to beat, nice and original music, I was surprised in a positive way when I faced her. 

 

5. Lance

Judging by gen 2; another guy with a relatively standard background. His battle music is wicked cool (was delighted to hear the remix as the leader theme in Reborn up until e15), but other than that, he's a pretty unremarkable champ. 

 

6. Wallace

Err... why is that guy the Champion again? I mean, was he really the most legitimate to get Steven's position? What about Drake? The other E4 members? Or even Juan? 

And yet, if he were a great champ with an awesome team and all, it wouldn't be a big problem, but... that's just not really the case. Sorry Wallace, but you're the one who least belongs here imo.

 

The first 3 happen to have diversified teams, whereas the other 3 specialize in one type each. Coincidence? 

[Wolfox]

1: Cynthia. Need I even explain why Cynthia? if so play gen 4.

 

2: Alder. Gen 5 was the first Pokemon game I played and Alder was a great champion. While his battle was locked in post game and that made him seem "weak", I struggled with him until I had caught Kyurem. Also, his backstory and character are just amazing

 

3: Diantha. Mega Gardevoir as ace, rarely seen in game and was a nice little twist.

 

4: Wallace. I played Emerald a lot. I like Wallace, he makes a water type trainer look cool (and I hate water types most of the time). also how he went from Gym Leader to Champion is a nice show of how misplaced he could feel (yeah, I'm placing him over steven, fight me over it if you feel like my opinion is wrong)

 

5: Lance.  like dragons, but he's just a FLying type user that dubs most of his pokemon dragons. not very credible.

 

6: Steven. first time I faced steven was Oras, so I have 0 nostalgia for the guy. And his battle was kinda weak if you ask me. Blaziken can literally run through him with only 2 mons being able to stop it.

 

7: Iris. I like Alder better, plain and simple.

 

8: Blue. I never played gen 1, I have 0 nostalgia over it, and thus I have no opinion on him, thus he's last.

 

I'm not adding Kukui since he technically wasn't a champion but more of a First Challenger and the player is the first champion of Alola.

 

if anyone gets mad over my list because blue and steven are really low on it, please get as angry as you want but don't bother me with it, it's my opinion and if you can't handle my opinion, then don't read it

[FairFamily]

1. Cynthia: what a surprise but yeah. Most memorable character of gen 4, great team, yeah she deserves the spot.

 

2. Kukui: Great character, decent team with a balance of new and old which I can apreciate. 

 

3. N : Great character with development, decent team but also the setting of the battle was nice.

 

4. Steven: A bit on the bland side as a character. Good team which with an interesting theme.

 

5. Blue: Great character, good team. Sadly I never experienced it in gen 1 since well missingno item duplication glitch.

 

6. Lance: Doesn't deserve the spot.

 

7. Diantha: Easiest victory ever.

 

 

 

[Monochrome_Complex]

Not counting Alola for obvious reasons. Or N despite technically being one. Those two would be 2 and 3 respectively if they do count.

 

Spoiler

9. Diantha - easily the worst champ. Zero presence, fairly forgettable team outside her ace, easy, and an awful character design.  Yet another reason gen 6 is my least fave.

 

 

8: Wallace - i actually quite like wallace, or LIKED him until ORAS gave him the worst redesign  ughwhatdidtheydotoyouwallace. His promotion to e4 was pretty surprising and yet another way for Emerald to punish people who picked Blaziken. unlike most people I didn't have a problem with this change as thematically it fits the region to have a water champ and I wasn't as attached to steven as most fans are. However steven does have the edge in story importance, and he's quite a bit cooler these days so I'll barely give steve the edge over wallace now in days.

 

7: Steven - vastly overrated this guy is. He looks great and is pretty likable/useful in the story, and has one of the coolest aces. But his team is a bit of a letdown overall and just not all that good, not sure why he has the fossilmons despite being a steel trainer. It does fit with him being a rock nerd I guess? Meh. his postgame team is somehow even worse lol. Carbink? Okay tough guy.

 

 

6. Alder - good design and a very cool ace, played a good part in the story, though his team was a bit easy(still had some interesting pokemon at least). His theme music SUCKED though in a region filled with otherwise excellent music. I used to feel a lot more negatively about him but I've grown to respect alder now these days and I feel the difficulty complaint is slightly disingenuous considering he's the only champ you initially fight postgame where you're likely to be far more powerful.

 

 

5. Iris - maybe the most underrated champ? Her music and battle arena were great and she had a neat team which while  at first might seem to suffer from steven syndrome makes sense since she uses dinosaurian pokemon, something I find fitting for a little kid since they tend to like dinosaurs(plus she's kind of a tomboy and drayden making her wear the frilly outfit was acute touch). Her ace is pretty badass too and she's pretty challenging. I always liked Iris and wasn't foolish enough to let the anime sour me on her. Also the complaints that DRAYDEN SHOULD'VE BEEN CHAMP always came across as dumb and completely missing the point of Drayden's character. Drayden has already had his prime time, he's looking for someone who will lead a bright future, a successor of the new generation, and with the bW protag gone AWOL Iris was that choice. To me Iris felt like the wallace dynamic but done better and more sensibly. As far as being an actual dragon user I think she does a better job than Lance lol...but to be fair, Lance had to get creative with his use of "dragon" in a generation with only 2 lines.

4. blue - I kind of reluctantly put him here because I REALLY dislike how overrated Blue is but it's hard to deny him being one of the most iconic champs, having one of the better teams in gen 1(in a game filled with less than stellar ones) and some admittedly awesome music. He is canonically the worst champion only being so for like 5 minutes but despite this storywise he remains one of the most effective champs due to his personal relationship with the player. The only other champs to have such a personal relationship with the player were N(who does it better honestly) and notactuallyachamp you know who, in a totally different way.

3. Red - one of the most epic secret bosses  in videogame history, Red was quite awesome in gen 2 for what he did. Despite having next to zero character, he remains quite iconic  to the franchise. Now in truth Red's lack of character and doing all of nothing in gen 2 makes him kind of a crappy champ in a way but the role he fills in the game he fills excellently.

 

2. Lance - Okay so I like Iris more as a character but Lance is slightly better as a champion since he does more as champ in gen 2 compared to champ Iris in BW2. Comparing these too it's slightly funny in hindsight how Lance the cool guy has a dorky cutsey dragon as a his ace while loli girl Iris has the edgy Haxorus haha. Lance I find surprising in how much people like him as champ since he was already in gen 1 and a bit of a anticlimax role wise comapred to Blue. He did have amazing music and was challenging enough. Storywise he did a solid job too. I like his gen 2 sprite most. 

 

1. Cynthia- DAS QUEEN. You knew it was coming. She is the best. Her team, her look, her music, everything about her screams badass. Red can eat his heart out, Cynthia is the franchise poster champ and that's not changing anytime soon. Hail to the queen.

 

 

[Chase]

Alright. My parameters and then my ranks. Fun thread.

 

• Red doesn't count because Ethan/Kris battling Red isn't actually canon. If it was, Red wouldn't live up to his status as a legendary trainer and we'd have had Brenden battling Ethan in Gen 3 and have a silly protagonist v former protagonist precedent.
• Kukui doesn't count - and he's not even a representation of Alolan power. Kukui's battle with you is explicitly stated as an honor of your journey and celebratory. It also sets you up for title defense. Consider the Prof your first challenger, Champ!
• Lol Oak doesn't count.
• Alder loses his title as Champion to N..if I recall... even if not. He's not on my list. I could be wrong here.

1. IRIS

 

This is the Lance champion echo done right. Credit Gen 5 for using various Dragons. Play the gen 5 sequels again. Haters.

 

2. Cynthia

 

Cynthia has a reasonable shot at number one, and I might have a significant crush on her. But the real reason she's below Iris is because I've never battled Cynthia in Sinnoh. That's how impressive she is. Placing without even a personal experience.

 

3. Steven

 

Great build up. Steel and Rock types are a bit easy to KO if Fighting is your favorite type, but I love Hoenn.

 

4. Diantha

 

I think people really forget how intimidating having someone go mega against you without warning was. Her team wasn't too difficult, but it was arguably more diverse than Steven's.

 

5. Asshat

 

Blue beating me up the league was cool, but I'd seen his team in pieces before.

[Seel The Deal]

I'm going to count Ghetsis here even if he's technically not the champ because let's be honest, it's pretty much a champion battle.

Spoiler

10. Wallace

...What do I even say about Wallace? He does literally jack until 7 badges in and then your next major encounter with him is at the league. His battle isn't hard by any means, nor was it very interesting (a water team that doesn't even utilize rain well? Seriously?). The most disappointing champion there is.

 

9. Blue

Yep. I'm gonna be THAT guy. Gary just... wasn't very enjoyable. The idea of facing Green in the championship was neat (hence why Asshat isn't dead last lol) but the fact that you know EVERYTHING HE'S GOING TO DO just makes the battle fall flat. All the stuff he does as a rival doesn't really contribute to his ranking as a champion for me because... well, he wasn't even champion then.

 

8. Alder

I'll admit it: as a character, Alder is one of my favorite champions. He's got some interesting dialogue and his character is surprisingly fleshed out for a champion. But his battle just sucks so bad. Accelgor does jack, the player already has experience fighting Bouffalant, Volcarona is sorta threatening I guess, and honestly I don't even REMEMBER the rest of his team because I just brush past them like nothing. Bring a Rock type and, gratz, you literally just won.

 

7. Diantha

And as a polar opposite to Alder, I enjoy the battle and don't like the character! Woo. She's sorta like Cynthia without the redeeming qualities. Her battle is solid, her character is meh, her design is meh... Honestly I have nothing to say about her besides the fact that she has the """""honour""""" of being the toughest battle in the main story of... the easiest Pokemon games to date.

 

6. Iris

She's a pretty solid character and her battle is fun (especially on Challenge Mode!). Seeing a Hydreigon as a lead was quite a shocker the first time I battled her, and she actually gave me a run for my money. I think she's in a nice, solid middle ground at #6, so I can say for sure that the next half of the champions are actually great, like champions should be.

 

5. Steven

And so his name finally pops up. The guy with the Metagross. The guy with silver hair. Uh, where was I going with this? metagross has a silver shiny Anyway... Steven is probably my 3rd favorite character when it comes to champions, even beating out Alder (omg who could the best character be?!?!?!). And unlike Alder, his battle isn't a complete disappointment! It also actually sticks to a theme (BLUE AND DIANTHA I'M LOOKING AT YOU TWO) of steel and minerals and fossils and stuff. He sets the standard for great battles imo.

 

4. Lance

nostalgia is why I MEAN Lance is an interesting case. He does participate in the story to some extent, but not too much. So why is he even up here? Because the battle is amazing, duh. Now, don't be fooled: he calls himself the Dragon master, but he's actually a Bird Tamer in disguise. Even in the rematch, his team is primarily flying-type. While a strong Ice-type move does wonders to break his team, the 3 Dragonites are absolute behemoths and will probably survive at least one hit - and they will probably OHKO or 2HKO back with their solid coverage and powerful moves (FUCKING OUTRAGE?!). Charizard sorta falls over and dies, but Aerodactyl packs powerful coverage and Gyarados can be tricky to take down with only 2 weaknesses, very solid 95/70ish/100 defenses, Intimidate, and a sky-high 125 attack to back it all up.

 

3. Kukui

Kukui is just the perfect example of how to make a character, and honestly, I don't think I need to explain it plus it would take a while. The battle may not represent Alola too well (lol nice one GF, make most of his threatening 'mons the non-Alolan ones), but it's fun and honestly pretty tough. Lycanroc in particular is very fast and utilizes actual strategy (aka Stealth Rock) that I bet 10000% of players were NOT prepared for, and it really pressures you to pick your matches carefully to minimize switching (and therefore damage).

 

2. Cynthia

OMGCYNTHIAISNTNUMBERONEGRABTHEPITCHFORKSREEEEEEEE okay calm down. By this point we know who number one is through process of elimination and let's be honest, we all like them even if we claim not to. Anyway, Cynthia literally only avoids taking Diantha's spot because of her battle. The character is just... meh. The battle though... jeez. Spiritomb, Lucario, Togekiss, Milotic, Roserade, and Garchomp (in Platinum; I think it's different in D/P? Idk I haven't played them) is BY FAR one of the most diverse teams in main-story Pokemon history. It's a thrill the whole way through and no matter how well you may prepare, she's probably taking something down with her.

 

1. Ghetsis

Now, I wouldn't call Ghetsis the best evil team villain. It's worth noting, at least, that he manages to succeed on two separate occasions across the Gen 5 games - liberation of Pokemon in the first and utilizing Kyurem's power in the second. He just... doesn't succeed very well. He's cunning and always seemingly a step ahead, and dear lord the battle. If Cynthia was diverse and planned for everything, Ghetsis was just plain POWERFUL. Packing a Cofagrigus lead with Toxic and Protect to stall out whatever lead you had, a Bouffalant that puts Alder's to shame with moves like Earthquake, Megahorn and Head Charge, a Bisharp which we all know is a scary sight with its massive attack stat and great typing, a- oh screw it, cut to the chase, HE HAS A HYDREIGON WITH 4 POWERFUL COVERAGE MOVES WTF. Surf, Fire Blast, Dragon Pulse, Focus Blast. I'm sorry, what? I can't think of any other main-story Pokemon in any of the canon games with a more insane moveset than that. Hydreigon has a massive 600 BST with 125 of it in Special Attack, close enough to 100/100/100 defenses (not quite there though), and a solid 98 speed tier. And I guarantee you were lover leveled than it so uh, good luck.