Gamefreak's been trying to explain gyms more in the most recent gens. It's a sports league in Galar and a government organization that also tests trainer aptitude in Paldea.
How does it work in the other regions though? Being a gym leader is probably a hired position right?
In the RBY chapter of the manga the badges all have special powers and the gym leaders are protectors of the badges, and seemingly there's only one of each badge? It's never quite clear.
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The test idea was always here but starting gen 5 all gym leaders/Trial Captain and Ryuki (fake gym leader) got a side activity. Also since we know that Blue,Norman, Flannery and Cheren are "new" gym leaders it's probably just a normal job or a statut that help you if you transfer to another region. So probably a mix of hired position and direct successor candidates like Janine and Flannery.
It's vague on purpose, but I always thought that they were like Martial arts dojos in Kung-fu movies, where types specializations replace fighting styles, and Gym Leaders replace the Masters of the Dojo who all the gym trainers train under.
Not sure how historically accurate this is, but apparently people used to "challenge" Dojos to test their fighting style against another, and this would often have you fight the weaker students to prove your worth before you could take on the master, and if you beat him then you pretty much conquered that Dojo and they'd all have to acknowledge your superiority. Which is basically exactly what Gyms are, no?
>I always thought that they were like Martial arts dojos
They have a literal Fighting Dojo that competed and lost to Sabrina. The thing about dojos is that not only do they compete against randos they compete against each other. The gyms that are part of the league are the best ones in town.
That means Lavender Town has a gym somewhere?
Yes, before Agatha got promoted.
Probably?
The thing is that especially in early gens abstraction was big element of how games works. The few building you can interact with are not literally whole town, just the most important elements that exist to give you the idea that you're in particular location. Also in anime we see that to become an official part of league, gym must be accepted by committee. There was quite a few unofficial gyms showed in anime.
That version of Brock looks like a salaryman seconds away from killing himself.
Accurate to asian countries
theyre testing centers for the pokemon league.
brock explains it pretty simply in origins, his pokemon are scaled to the badges his opponent has.
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It seems more like it's just the amount of pokemon.
i mean brock had multiple geodudes in the manga, it makes sense that some are better trained than others. he might used a less experienced pokemon vs a newer trainer. idk whats so hard to understand about this.
Korrina is a good example of this. She has 3+ Lucario but uses different weaker Pokémon in her Gym Battle.
They are warlords.
The winning trainers thing on gym statues actually implies the rival and you are the only two people who got these badges which is super weird
It's just abstraction
It's like saying Palet town implies the only people with houses are you and the rival
It's a symbolic representation of a village, they don't need to put useless houses
Likewise, they don't need to put names of people you're never gonna meet in the game
And the technology is amazing guy is homeless.
Even before Origins I always said the gyms scale, and that the games are and abstraction as says. It seemed like few people gave thought to how the Pokemon world would actually be in real life. Though I do remember people talking about the role of gyms and how they might be government-run, and of course everybody wants to make the fiction cooler be inserting wars and stuff.
Cool thread.
Gym's scaling was canon before Origins. If you play B2W2 with your BW save data carried over, Cheren mentions that as a gym leader he's not allowed to stomp you with his endgame team and is required to use shitters to give you a fair chance since you have no badges. And you get to rematch him with his actual team in the Postgame.
The idea that gyms are testing centers never sat right with me. New games treat the Pokemon League like a high school exit exam, but once upon a time it was about being the very best (in the region at least). Gym leaders intentionally holding back seems to go against this.
Now that I think about it, the whole organization doesn't make much sense. What does the Pokemon League do exactly? Are they a government? Why are the E4 waiting around for challengers all the time? Why do they bother with the badge system? Is the Pokemon world some weird meritocracy and this is how they select rulers?
>Gym leaders intentionally holding back seems to go against this.
moron, how exactly is anyone supposed to get in the league if all gym leaders are gunning at them with their full teams of 6? the only time the league actively gatekeeps is when they hit the e4.
the idea that gym leaders have a weaker team they bring out based on the number of badges the challenger has makes the most sense in universe, is supported by origins, and also every single game where you can rematch a gym leader, unless you really think everyone in kanto was throwing out their full power teams after 2 years because thats how you fight them in HGSS.
>how exactly is anyone supposed to get in the league if all gym leaders are gunning at them with their full teams of 6?
What makes you think they have full teams of 6? Not every trainer does. GSC implies that you're fighting their complete teams, since the levels aren't tied to your team and instead rank the gym leaders against each other.
gyms in gen 1 gave me the impression of some unofficial thing, a space reserved for battling enthusiasts alone. like going to a comic shop to play dnd or shit like that.
gen 1 in general gave me the impression of pokemon as a hobby you'd dedicate yourself to instead of an ever-present part of the world.
Yeah because Gen 1 took place in the "real world", the Pokemon League was a new thing. Pokemon co-existed with real animals, etc.
All of that stuff has since been retconned though
Like qualification tests for a fifht against the champion
I feel like it's definitely some sort of Government sanctioned thing, but for the life of me I can't really think of what purpose they would serve beyond being a gate to the Pokemon League.
Perhaps being Champion affords one special privleges which is why people like Steven and Cynthia can freely pursue their interests or they become some sort of law enforcer or something of a mercenary for when shit gets out of hand like Lance seeking out Team Rocket.
Perhaps the Leaders themselves are type specialists who have to take some sort of exam where they use their best possible team against an E4 member (as in high levels, final forms, etc) and based on their performance they get the job and scout trainer(s) to join their gym.
Given how Kukui likens the Island Challenge to the Gym Challenge maybe it's also a rite of passage of sorts, like, regardless of how far you get everyone attempts it when they're young as a means of finding out what they're good at and want to do in life.
Either way, it's a fun idea to think about.
In Kanto, only the Champion is allowed in Cerulean Cave. My headcanon is that it was considered too dangerous for anyone else and the responsibility of the Champion would be to enter for research purposes to record data for the Pokedex. From the beginning of the games, the player is tasked with completing the Pokedex, but most players see becoming Champion as the goal of the game over what the "true" goal of the game is.
>legal-age Misty/Kasumi
Uoohhh, adult erotic?!?