Thread: Favorite and Least Favorite Gym Leaders?

I'll do mine by region rather than generation. Orange Islands included.

Favorites
Kanto: Sabrina
Orange Islands: Luana
Johto: Morty
Hoenn: Wattson
Sinnoh: Roark
Unova: the Striaton Trio

Least favorites
Kanto: Blue
Orange Islands: Rudy
Johto: Whitney
Hoenn: Norman
Sinnoh: Volkner
Unova: Skyla

I think everyone has their pros and cons.
This is my opinion.
But specifically singled Flannery, Sabrina, Candice.

Whitney - MILTANK! Not to mention she's a sore loser. Honestly, she breaks down crying when she loses? Damn it, show some class!

Claire - I beat you fair and square and now you stiff me by making me do some inane fetch quest for you!?

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Favorite:

Byron - Explosions ahoy! He's hilariously hammy.

I've never liked the Striation Leaders, but I couldn't say why.

I do, though, know that Morty, Brawly and Volkner are my three favourites without a doubt.

I've never been good at picking just one favorite/least favorite of anything. So have a list instead!

Favorite:
Kanto: Brock
Johto: Morty
Hoenn: Flannery/Winona
Sinnoh: Roark
Unova: Cilan, Chili, and Cress

Least Favorite:
Kanto: Janine
Johto: Whitney
Hoenn: Norman
Sinnoh: Crasher Wake/Fantina
Unova: Roxie/Elesa

Favourites: Sabrina, Koga, Falkner, Roxie. Spenser, if we're counting Frontier Brains.
Least favourites: Whitney, Candice. I actually found all Sinnoh gym leaders to be...underwhelming.

My favourites are between Roxie, Blaine, Drayden, Candice and Jasmine. I honestly believe they have amazing designs and cool personalities. I'd gladly be bros with them. That, and uh...they use some of my favourite types. I love that.

Is it odd that I didn't name a Hoenn Gym Leader among my favourites? Maybe it is. I like Wattson and Winona, though. Especially for their kickass names.

As for least favourite? I have to go with Chuck. He's just...there. He's so bland and forgettable. I don't really dislike any Gym Leader's personality. I only dislike the lack of personality that some Gym Leaders have.

I like:

- Drayden: BADASS. The guy wrestles with DRAGONS. Also, he is the hottest guy in the franchise.
- Lenora: Hard to beat, nice design and she makes the Watchog haters cry tears of blood with Retaliate.
- Maylene: The sole female specialist on Fighting-types. I love how she apparently doesn't give a damn about fashion and stuff, but still look cute.
- Fantina: I always liked eccentric characters and persons.
- Blaine: I love his clothes and hat and everything else about him.
- Morty: He looks cool! There isn't a single Ghost-type specialist that I don't like, to be honest
- Falkner: The guy has style and trains Flying Pokémon. What is not to like?

I dislike:

- Crasher Wake: He is boring ._. and weird.
- Blue: He is a douche.
- Volkner: He is a douche.
- Cress: He is a douche.
- Clair: She is a bitch and I don't like her ridiculous outfit.

Favorites:

Kanto: Lt. Surge
Johto: Jasmine
Hoenn: Tate and Liza
Sinnoh: Byron
Unova: Cheren

Least Favorites:

Kanto: Janine
Johto: WHITNEY
Hoenn: Roxanne
Sinnoh: Fantina
Unova: Skyla

Most of my least favorites are just "meh" to me, especially in the case of Janine. Skyla is way too fanservice-y for my tastes, though....and Whitney. Whitney is the only one I truly dislike.

My by faaaar favourite gym leader is Winona <3 She´s lovely, cool and stunning. I´ve always enjoyed her in fan fictions
My least favourite would probably be Crasher Wake, because he´s such a weirdo (what´s that hair?)

Favourites
Kanto: Brock
Johto: Chuck
Hoenn: Norman
Sinnoh: Byron
Unova: Lenora

Least Favourite
Kanto: Erika
Johto: Clair
Hoenn: Winona
Sinnoh: Candice
Unova: Cheren

Favourites:
Kanto: Misty
Johto: Clair
Hoenn: Flannery
Sinnoh: Volkner
Unova: Skyla

Least Favourites:
Kanto: Sabrina
Johto: Whitney
Hoenn: Roxanne
Sinnoh: Byron
Unova: Cheren

Favorites~!

My favorite Kanto Gym Leader is Blue. His redesign makes him look pretty hot, and he's such a mysterious jerkass but he mostly comes off like he's trying way too hard. You get the feeling if you came out and said "You suck! Red is better!" he'd just started spluttering and scoffing in a hilarious, over the top freak-out, and then tell you you are dead wrong, before pretending like nothing just happened.

Favorite Johto Leader is Morty, fo' sho'! He's psychic and his redesign is kickass. He's too serious and solemn for his own good, and I can picture him kickin' it at the Bell Tower all the time, just looking up in the sky like Ho-oh might spontaneously manifest there at any moment and say, "Hey Morty! I've been looking for you!" I also think it's cute that he and Eusine are best friends, I can see them having a lot of interesting conversations. Mostly Eusine talking about Suicune and Morty talking about ho-oh, and then each of them tell each other they have problems because they are so obsessed with one pokemon. Both total hypocrites. Or soulmates.

Hoenn is absolutely Flannery. She's got a cute design, a great story and a lot of personality! She's totally the cool big sister type. I would imagine she's a total idol. Pre-teen boys have posters of her in their rooms and declare their love to her all the time, but she just thinks they're making fun of her or something and threatens to beat the shit out of them. Boys come home with bruises and burns acting like they are autographs.

In Sinnoh it's Volkner. He is so, "Awmigawd, there are no strong trainers, Imma go challenge the elite four, mo'fos." Like he's too cool for himself, but in a weirdly adorable way, especially because Flint swoops in and pops his sullen emo-bubble all the time. It's like he claims his life is plagued by Flint's dorkishness but he'd never admit aloud that he likes it that way.

Favorite in Unova is definitely Burgh. I picture him as like a twink Andy Warhol who likes bad boys and has paintings of his Leavany covering his entire Castelia City highrise loft. And then on the weekends he goes down to Nacrene and attends like street art fairs and smokes clove cigarettes in cafes and has lots of one night stands with jazz club musicians. Cuz he's just that fricken' awesome.

Now for least favorites.

In Kanto...there's no one. I like them all. But if I had to pick, I'd say Koga, I guess. He just seems like a jerk but not in an interesting way. Yeah, he's a ninja but...Meh. Janine is way better, though I still don't get why Koga of all the gym leaders got promoted to Elie Four. It makes no sense to me. If it was anyone it should have been Blaine or Sabrina.

In Johto I'm definitely not a fan of Bugsy. He looks like nine or something, what the hell? Can we please not have a gym leader whose age and gender are both indeterminate? That would be nice. I can imagine interesting things about him, but none of it has any basis in anything but my own imagination.

And in Hoenn we have Tate and Lisa. Also Brawly. Actually most of the Hoenn gym leaders are "meh." Not so Great. Tate and lisa, again super young and the twins thing, sort of a gymmic. They also lack personality in my opinion. At least not memorable ones. And then there's Brawly who is some random kid on an island who has fighting pokemon he caught out of the cave there...it's like why is this country bumpkin kid a gym leader in this no-where island? And why exactly is he a fighting-type trainer, aside from maybe coincidence? His design is awful too. I feel like they ought to have made him a surfer or something, even if that makes no sense with fighting type pokemon. It still makes more sense than whatever the hell concept they based him on.

My least favorite in Sinnoh is Byron. I actually kind of like him as a character, but I wish he wasn't a gym leader. he's always dissing on his son, who is also a gym leader. What a dick of a dad. And really, do we need like 25% of the gym leaders in the region to be related? That just seems greedy for one family. Give someone else a shot. Freaking Byron...step down, you're old!

Unova Trainers, I think...Brycen. He's just annoying. I think he is a good character, and the fact that he is such a hammy actor but a serious guy is hilarious. But in terms of likability itself, he's not my favorite. The Striaton Waiter boys are also not my favorite. I think they didn't have much backstory. It's just like, "hey! We are brothers who are waiters!" it's just a gimmick. I think they could/should have done more with them.

My absolute favorite gym (non-battling) would be Roxie's gym in Black 2. I love the music in the gym, her song rocks. I could stand there for hours without getting bored.

For battling my most favorite is Lenora and Elesa. They both use Pokemon I also love.

My least favorite is Skyla. I really dislike bird Pokemon that know Roost. The battles drag on for a long annoying time, besides Roost, she also has Potions.

For the rest of the regions:
(parenthesis the game I own from the generation)
quick note: I have GBA games on Emulator, so for Kanto and Hoenn I just listed the game I play with the most

FAVORITES:
• Kanto: Sabrina - easiest gym with Dark attacks (Leaf Green)
• Johto: Haven't battled any gym leaders yet (Soul Silver)
• Hoenn: Flannery - easy gym with water attacks (Sapphire)
• Sinnoh: Can't decide yet, I'm only on 3rd gym (Pearl)
• Unova: Lenora - always love the challenge of Watchog vs Watchog, feel saddened every time I win or loose (White)
(Unova 2) Elesa - I cry and feel devastated every time I have to defeat (the cute) Emolga (Black 2)

LEAST FAVORITES:
• Kanto: Koga - dislike the confusing gym pattern, and poison (Leaf Green)
• Johto: Haven't battled any gym leaders yet (Soul Silver)
• Hoenn: Norman - I struggled a lot with Vigoroth (Sapphire)
• Sinnoh: Can't decide yet, I'm only on 3rd gym (Pearl)
• Unova: Skyla - I really hate when her bird Pokemon use Roost! Drags the battle too long (White and Black 2)

Favorites:
In terms of character:
Brock: In the anime (though I'm glad he was replaced in Best Wishes; he was starting to become grating)
Misty: In the anime and the RBGY arc of Pokemon Adventures, and to a lesser extent in the games (though I didn't like her GSC/HGSS design as much). It also helps that I like her shipped with Red (in any form, including Ash).
Sabrina: I like her in the games, anime and manga (though I didn't like her GSC/HGSS design as much).
Blue: I like him more as a rival than a Gym Leader, though.
Whitney: I like her for a lot of the reasons other people hate her (I hated battling her, though). Also, I love her shipped with Ethan (games) or Gold (manga).
Morty: I've always liked him (I especially like his HGSS redesign) and it helps that he's friends with Eusine (I wish that was explored more).
Clair: I like her for a lot of the reasons that other people hate her. And her outfit is awesome.
Flannery: I've always liked her. Not really sure why.
Norman: It was so cool to not only have a player character with a known dad, but a known dad who is a Gym Leader (his battle was hard, though fun)
Winona: See above (though her gym had such a hard puzzle and I hated her gym battle)
Wallace: I like how he was portrayed in Pokemon Adventures, and I plain like him as a character.
Juan: I don't like him as much as Wallace, but I like him, too.
Fantina: She's so eccentric and flamboyant, and I like her accent as well as her outfit.
The Striaton Trio: All three, though I particularly like Cress (his hairstyle is fabulous) and Cilan in the anime.
Skyla: She just seems so peppy, and I really like her outfit (blue clothes against red hair looks really good).
Marlon: I just plain like this guy (seriously, are there any Water-type specialists I don't like?)

In terms of battle/gym:
Tate and Liza: I really enjoy Double Battles (though their battle was really hard). On a side note, I was really shocked when I found out Tate was supposed to be a boy.
Koga/Janine: The invisible walls were fun to navigate through (though they gave me a heck of a time back in Pokemon Red)
Bugsy: I really liked the design of his gym and his gym's puzzle in HGSS
Lenora: Her gym puzzle was a lot of fun.

Least Favorites
In terms of character:
Lt. Surge: He just never interested me, though I do like him more in Pokemon Adventures.
Koga: See above, though I didn't like him much in Pokemon Adventures either.
Maylene: She got on my nerves for some reason.
Cheren: I really like him as a rival, just not as a Gym Leader (not to mention he looked better with glasses).

In terms of battle/gym:
Sabrina: Her battle was really frustrating, especially since I didn't have a lot of Ghost, Bug or Dark types.
Whitney: That Miltank-did Game Freak really have to give it Scrappy as an ability?
Chuck: Not only are his Pokemon strong, but he also spams Double Team, which is awful unless you have a Pokemon that knows Aerial Ace.
Winona: Her gym puzzle and battle were really frustrating.