In the mainlinePokemongames not all Gym Leaders are created equal. Some, like Flannery of the Hoenn region’s Lavaridge Town Gym in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, are given a clear arc. She has only recently become a Gym Leader when you encounter her and is trying too hard to be someone she isn’t. Her loss to you teaches her that she should be herself and relax in her new role. It’s a short, simple and enjoyable story.
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Other Gym Leaders exist exclusively as obstacles in your path. Some have a backstory on display, but it just isn’t enough to paint a full picture and leaves you wanting more. Read below to find enough Gym Leaders to form their own Pokemon League, all of whom need more backstory.
8Allister
Compared to some Gym Leaders, Allister actually does have some interesting elements to him. Leader of the Stow-on-Side Gym inPokemon Shield, replaced by Bea if you opt for Pokemon Sword, Allister is a Ghost-type specialist. He became Gym Leader at a young age, is so painfully shy that he always wears a mask, and claims to be able to see deceased Pokemon after he was in an accident when he was four.
All of this is fascinating, but it simply isn’t enough. What was this mysterious accident? If he is so uncomfortable around strangers that he opts to wear a mask, what drove him to take a public position like Gym Leader? Especially in the Galar region where Gym battles take place in stadiums packed with fans. Allister is a fascinating character who deserves more story not because he doesn’t have any, but because what he has is so intriguing.
7Marlon
Leader of Humilau City’s Gym Marlon is a prime example of a Gym Leader severely lacking backstory. Appearing in Black & White 2, Marlon is the final Gym Leader you’ll face who is notable for being so carefree that he doesn’t even know who Team Plasma are — which seems a little unbelievable after their antics inPokemon Black & White.
Aside from that there is so little to his character that it’s easy to forget he existed at all. He does technically assist you against Team Plasma by lowering a gangplank so you may reach them, but he doesn’t even stick around to help battle the known criminals. It isn’t unreasonable to expect the final Gym Leader in a region to be memorable given Giovanni set the standard in the original games, and Marlon just doesn’t live up.
6Erika
Erika may be one of the most underrated Gym Leadersin all of Pokemon and part of the reason why is that the writers of Pokemon Red & Blue never gave her the attention they should have. In future games, the series would give us more outwardly feminine Gym Leaders, but Erika was the original.
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Sadly, we know next to nothing about her. She dozes off frequently, only likes Pokemon she considers visually appealing and… that’s it, really. Of all the Kanto Gym Leaders, she’s shown the least narrative care and she absolutely deserved better.
5Olympia
Olympia, undeniably, has an incredible design. A woman who exudes power even without using her psychic abilities she has the appearance of an Elite 4 member, or even a Champion. She shares the trait of many Psychic-type Gym Leaders ofbeing an actual, or at least supposed psychic, herself and beyond that there is sadly very little to talk about.
The only thing that stands out about her is that her cloak apparently has an antigravity field that enhances her psychic powers. Ignoring the questionable science behind this, if we accept that it actually is true somehow, it only raises more questions. Where did she get this technological marvel, and is the antigravity field what helps keep her hair in place like that?
4Katy
Katy is likely to be the first Gym Leader you encounter inPokemon Scarlet & Violet, although the open format of the game also means you might encounter her much later and be vastly overpowered for the battle against her. Either way plays into the story the game provides for her — she knows she’s most Trainers first Gym battle and deliberately keeps her battles easy because of it. After her rematch, she resolves to stop doing this.
This is an interesting point about how Gym Leaders have to operate, but it isn’t anything to do with Katy as an individual. It’s an institutional story rather than a personal one. Once we take this away, Katy is left as a baker with almost no other ingredients to her character.
3Tulip
Tulip, “The Bewitching Beautician,” has plenty of links to other characters in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. Childhood friends with Dendra, the Battle Studies teacher, and someone with strong opinions about her boss Geeta. She’s also collaborated with Iono, another Gym Leader, in the past.
Her connections to others aside, we know very little about Tulip herself. She’s a makeup artist, fashionista, an overachiever, and that’s it. It’s possible that this was deliberate given her incredible design and her career as a beautician, that she was intended to be read as someone who relies on her looks and doesn’t have a lot of character behind them. This seems like a generous interpretation though, and the truth is that she just needed more story.
2Candice
Candice is a particularly interesting Gym Leader for playing against tropes, and being aware of it too. As an Ice-type specialist, she comments that she sometimes acts the opposite of how people would expect an Ice trainer to behave. She isn’t cold and distant, but is instead warm and energetic.
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This is such an interesting topic for the games to explore, the idea that it is expected certain types of people are attracted to Types of Pokemon. Unfortunately, outside of this comment, Candice doesn’t do much more to explore the idea, leaving it out in the cold.
1Lt. Surge
Lt. Surge was apparently anAmerican lieutenant in the army who fought in an undisclosed war. If that doesn’t seem like a sentence that should apply to a character from Pokemon then you’re right to feel confused. It’s a holdover from the earliest days of Pokemon when the franchise was set at least partially in the real world.
It raises so many questions that there are just no answers to, and that’s a shame. The notion of Pokemon being used in conflict has been explored in games like Pokemon Conquest, but it’s so tonally different from the approach of the mainline games that it begs further exploration.
