Who are your favourite Gym Leaders in Scarlet and Violet?

[Welkamo]

We've gotten a new roster of Gym Leaders in Scarlet and Violet, featuring a wide variety of personalities and designs! Who are your favourites, and why?

I'm having a lot of trouble choosing myself, but I love Ryme, Katy, and Grusha.

 

[skynerel]

1. Tulip
2. Iono
3. Larry
4. Grusha

 

[Juliyet]

Maybe a super oversaturated opinion, but definitely Larry. 9 to 5 office worker was a genius concept for a normal gym leader, and his personality and mannerisms are on point. It even feels Game Freak knew that they had a hit design on their hands given how much of a focus he kinda got.

For being the most basic of types, Normal specialists typically hit it out of the park, and Larry is no different. In fact, he's likely my new favorite Normal specialist and definitely one of my favorite gym leaders in the entire series

Honorable mentions to Ryme and Iono. Just some great fun personalities here.

 

[Okido]

Honestly I think all of the Gym Leaders this generation are super solid. Each and every one is just so full of personality, and their concepts/designs really knock it out of the park for the first time in what feels like a while, imo.

That said, my favorite's definitely Grusha. Kinda gotta love just how unabashedly bitter and pessimistic he is about life, due to bad past experiences and the unfortunate circumstances of his Gym Leader title... but all that doesn't mean he won't still take a selfie with you after you win.

Honorable Larry mention here; as well as Ryme and Kofu since they're just especially fun.

 

[nickdt]

1. Larry
2. Kofu
3. Grusha

 

[Crisbee Donut]

Ryme and Larry.
Ryme uses a Toxtricity which is nice, and I love her rapper aspect.
Larry is a 9-to-5 worker. 'Nuff said.

 

[Sakuraa]

Iono, Larry, and Ryme

 

[Mr. MoonStone]

Larry...sigh...Larry.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Kofu. He channels all the same energy that makes me deeply enjoy Crasher Wake, Alder, and Wulfric as characters. I'd watch this entertaining bloke work his magic in the kitchen anyday.

 

[Sheep]

Larry, Ryme, and Grusha take the cake for me this gen. Love them all a lot. Iono's pretty cute too but ahh these three are just A+. I wish we could rebattle them all more often!

 

[Snowy.ninetales]

I loved all the gym leaders this gen and it’s hard to choose favorites but here what my top 3 is
1. Iono
2. Brassius
3. Grusha

 

[GhostLucario]

Larry is so refreshing as a character because he's just a guy. A normal guy.

 

[Welkamo]

As time goes on, I like Brassius more and more. He's an eccentric artist and I love him, and his relationship with Hassel is really sweet.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Larry. If he grew a goatee and swapped his suit for polo shirts, he'd be identical to my Uncle Larry but less fun and a gym leader doubling as an elite 4 member is dope. I love how that trips you up the first time because it has you lead with a fighting type against flying types.

Ryme is by far the coolest though, I hate rap but a rapping granny is not something you normally hear about and I dig how it contradicts her whole ghost theme because she's this older woman so full of youth and life.
I just wish they had talked more about how she and the math teacher Tyme are identical twins. You have to do all the classes and unlock all the teacher interactions to get just a hint.
(It's when Tyme appears in the entrance hall which I believe is right after the Math midterm. She talks about how she feels she's being followed. She explains that she thought it might be a ghost so she consulted her sister who is good with ghost types.)
I also wish it didn't cut off in the post-midterms scenes with Tyme when she starts telling another student that she used to be a gym leader. Did Ryme take her place or did they maybe used to be gym leaders together like Liza and Tate?

 

[Insanish Danish]

Larry, Iono and Tulip are probably my top three. I think they're all great, though.

 

[R1ke]

Larry as well. I like how his battle gets progressively more hype as he sends out his Staraptor. Everyone telling him to step it up and he delivers

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I just noticed something that made me love Ryme even more. She has white hair and the bottom of the braid that hangs in front of her is in the shape of a hand!
Duuuude! Could this be a reference to the girl in Lavender Town in RBY who claims to see a white hand on your shoulder and perhaps even the Buriedalive creepypasta?

 

[charlycicero]

I think all of them are pretty good and memorable but I would go for...

Larry. Because we all seem to love this dude for some reason. And as with pretty much all Normal-type leaders, he manages to be one of the hardest to beat (remember Whitney and Norman?) . And he also manages to be part of the Elite Four at the same time, some how. He is far from an ordinary guy, despiste his moniker.

Ryme. She has a lot of personality and is very unique. It is very cool to have a Leadwr who is also a rapper. Plus her double battle was not only challenging but unique too. Reminded me of Raihan. AAAND she uses my favorite type, Ghost.

Tulip. Because she is eye candy. And very graceful. The only thing is that her test is pretty dumb and boring.

Maybe I am one of the few but I warmed up to Iono,. She is so ridiculous and out there, she is kind of endearing. And her test is dumb but in a good way.

And last but not the least, Kofu, because... VAULTIN' VELUZA!

 

[c la fet]

Iono.
In the trailer I found her annoying but in the game she was funny and way more likeable.
She's also the only one who uses her terastal correctly
I like Brassius too, he fulfills Sudowoodo's dream of being a tree.

 

[Claire386]

Spoiler

Who is your favorite gym leader? My favorite is Iono... and it's funny how HARD it is to explain why? I mean, she's kind of like a durian fruit if you've ever had one. They're very sweet, soft and mushy, but have an aftertaste reminiscent of ONIONS. They also have a spiky shell and can smell really bad, but anyways.

She's this odd eclectic mix of so many different vibes at once and it might be hard to see the appeal at first. She's quirky, brash, mischievous, playful, energetic and imho very childish. But she's also confident, outgoing, passionate and unapologetically herself, which I think can be very good character traits. I feel like there's plenty of mystery left to be uncovered w/ her tbh.

When I first saw her design I thought she looked like a nightmare straight out of a circus. There's just so much going on with this gal's aesthetic and none of it makes sense!

Like the oversized yellow jacket along with her ridiculously long pastel colored hair, magnemite space buns, halter crop top, asymmetrical legwear and fangs all add contrast and not necessarily in a good way. But I think there's something refreshing about a character who's able to COMPLETELY break social conventions like that. She's also an influencer, which means she could be an inspiration to all of her young fans who are afraid to stand out and be different.

Other than that, I like her team too. Bellibolt is a cute companion for her. I also like that her wildcard is a Mismagius because it reflects her personality. But other than Iono I also like Larry because I feel like he's a very relatable character to most working class adults. He's always working and he's clearly not very happy with his life but uhh I feel like there's hope for him. c:

"They all belong to the Normal type. “Normal” as in plain...average...unremarkable...run-of-the-mill...""I’m pretty fond of them, you know? They suit me perfectly—I’m about as ordinary as you can get."

You can vote for as many gym leaders as you want but please try to keep it to 2 or 3 at most, unless you're really indecisive. It's totally fine either way.