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Is being a Pokemon Coordinator (or Performer) more stressful than a Pokemon Trainer on a badge quest?

KrspaceT

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Courtesty of a Spacebattles user named KMT4-ever

Observation: being a competitive Pokemon Coordinator kind of sucks.

While watching Advanced Generations I've noticed a few things about the w
way the Contest circuit is set up compared to the Gym challenge that to me seem like they would create a really high-stress environment. I am assuming that you try to qualify completely within one year like most of the protagonists and their rivals, but even then there are some noteworthy factors about the nature of contests themselves.
  1. There are only a fixed number of Contests every year and only one person can win a ribbon at each of them. Meanwhile there's no meaningful limit to the number of badges that one Gym can award every year. Challengers can also come back for as many rematches as they want. That means coordinators really can't afford to lose compared to Gym challengers.
  2. Because only one person can win any given Contest, coordinators are actually disincentivized from traveling with their peers because they would simply end up getting in each other's way. Someone like Harley might enjoy that, but most people aren't Harley.
  3. Ribbons are awarded by defeating peers who use any variety of Pokemon, which both forces coordinators to be more flexible with their team and potentially screws them over if they end up facing vastly more experienced competition every time. I'd hate to be the rookie who has to face May or Drew in Johto without having even seen a Blaziken or Roserade before.
  4. Contests take place in front of a large audience, meaning that there's a lot of psychological pressure that isn't necessarily present in the usually private gym battles. You lose a Contest, you just lost (possibly badly) in front of thousands of people.
  5. On a related note, successful coordinators appear to attract quite a bit of attention. Both May (even though she just started competing) and Drew are recognized multiple times throughout AG by people who saw them on TV. Meanwhile IIRC the only person who recognizes Ash from the Silver Conference is Max. Ash could lose a dozen Gym battles in a row and nobody would know aside from the Leaders themselves. Meanwhile a coordinator on a losing streak is liable to have that brought up whenever they compete.
I mean I do remember that last contest May had with all of the coordinators glaring at her at the 'last Kanto contest of the season', and it's a more interesting angle for contrasting the two's treatment by those around them for their achievements than 'ha ha who cares about Ash'.

...Gives me a tad more respect for May and Dawn's (and possibly Serena's if, like me, you think Performers also count) ability to not break down constantly from stress.
 
Wow... really good points.
I also think that, adding onto the part about performing to a large audience, there's more pressure for you and your Pokémon to look good. With Gym Battles, the focus is on being strong, not pretty, and there isn't as big of an audience watching you (aside from places like Galar). I imagine it's similar to the way beauty pageant contestants are pressured into looking beautiful and flawless.
 
Wow... really good points.
I also think that, adding onto the part about performing to a large audience, there's more pressure for you and your Pokémon to look good. With Gym Battles, the focus is on being strong, not pretty, and there isn't as big of an audience watching you (aside from places like Galar). I imagine it's similar to the way beauty pageant contestants are pressured into looking beautiful and flawless.
Maybe not beauty pageants strictly, since some degree of strength is certainly required. I'd say they're more akin to ballet performances, and wouldn't you know it, ballet just happens to be one of the most difficult and physically demanding sports precisely because the strength and muscle control required to pull off those elegant and graceful stunts is astronomical. Pokemon Contests work much the same way: your Pokemon have to be both strong AND pretty in order to excel at contests.
 
Maybe not beauty pageants strictly, since some degree of strength is certainly required. I'd say they're more akin to ballet performances, and wouldn't you know it, ballet just happens to be one of the most difficult and physically demanding sports precisely because the strength and muscle control required to pull off those elegant and graceful stunts is astronomical. Pokemon Contests work much the same way: your Pokemon have to be both strong AND pretty in order to excel at contests.

So double the expectations of battles or Performances, the former relies on just strength, the latter relies on just looks (I think Performances are just Contests but without the battles, but I could be wrong).

Being a trainer must also be stressful, but to be a Coordinator with even more expectations placed upon you? I also hear that being a ballet dancer is physically and mentally taxing, and I can only assume it's a similar thing with Coordinators.
 
Now that I think about it, the Gyms in the anime definitely reek of being holdovers from a video game moreso than anything else and one could certainly make the argument that they should have been tweaked now that you're not bound by mere pixels, into something not unlike the Galar Gyms (minus Dynamax obviously).

Anyways, on the subject of stress - it would have certainly made an interesting plotline if Ash and [Insert Name Of PokéGirl] got into conflict because of their different goals. As the pressure and lack of time starts to mount, Ash's more relaxed travel pace frustrates her and then Ash makes an innocently insensitive comment about how she needs to relax and great friction occurs between them. Or something like that anyways - anything to shake up the dynamic partway through the typical journey.
 
Other things I've been thinking about:

I did some research and found a 2013 study that found that ballet dancers are three times more likely to have eating disorders, especially anorexia and EDNOS (Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified, aka anything that doesn't fall under anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating).
From Healthline's "Eating Disorders: Causes and Risk Factors":
If you’re part of sports teams or artistic groups, you’re at an increased risk. The same is true for members of any community that’s driven by appearance as a symbol of social status, including athletes, actors, dancers, models, and television personalities. Coaches, parents, and professionals in these areas may inadvertently contribute to eating disorders by encouraging weight loss.
With Contests being a appearance and skill driven activity—coupled with the need for Pokémon to eat things like Pokéblocks and Poffins, coupled with the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of eyes are seeing you, coupled with the fact that many Coordinators are young and impressionable, coupled with the fact that Coordinators are more likely to be celebrities than random Gym Challengers—I can only assume that eating disorders are a problem with Coordinators as well.
I'm not saying that it would be impossible for Gym Challengers to suffer from eating disorders. Mental illness can affect anyone, and eating disorders are more complicated than just having negative body image (you can have an eating disorder without a negative body image, and vice versa), and they're caused by a complex array of biological, genetic, psychological, and environmental factors. I just think it's possible that Coordinators (and maybe their Pokémon, as well) are at an increased risk.
The study: Prevalence of eating disorders amongst dancers: a systemic review and meta-analysis - PubMed
The article: Causes and Risk Factors for Eating Disorders

A lot of Coordinators are young. Yes, so are a lot of trainers, but with the double pressure of battle abilities and visual appeal, I can only imagine the effects it can have on a 10-12 year old. And a lot of these kids could become celebrities overnight, only to be disgraced when they fail. Some trainers, especially Galarian trainers, have a fan following, but it's much more common for the paparazzi (and fans) to be attracted to Coordinators. We have Coordinators like Wallace, who the paparazzi stalks on his day off and whose fans wait for him outside of his hotel. Now, you can argue the ethics of that, but if it's children that are being stalked?

I don't know if anything I'm saying makes sense, just some things I've been thinking about. A lot of my favorite Pokémon characters are Coordinators, so this stuff really interests me.

All of this is making me wonder if crisis hotlines exist in the Pokémon world.

Anyways, on the subject of stress - it would have certainly made an interesting plotline if Ash and [Insert Name Of PokéGirl] got into conflict because of their different goals. As the pressure and lack of time starts to mount, Ash's more relaxed travel pace frustrates her and then Ash makes an innocently insensitive comment about how she needs to relax and great friction occurs between them. Or something like that anyways - anything to shake up the dynamic partway through the typical journey.

That's such a good idea! I want to think it could happen if Ash reunited with May/Dawn/Serena and saw they were professional Coordinators/Performers, but the pressure has made them more stressed/on edge than the last time we saw them.
 
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Courtesty of a Spacebattles user named KMT4-ever

I mean I do remember that last contest May had with all of the coordinators glaring at her at the 'last Kanto contest of the season', and it's a more interesting angle for contrasting the two's treatment by those around them for their achievements than 'ha ha who cares about Ash'.

...Gives me a tad more respect for May and Dawn's (and possibly Serena's if, like me, you think Performers also count) ability to not break down constantly from stress.
I remember Dawn and Serena could take losses pretty hard at times, so that’s something to remember. How many contests do you think there are per year anyway? Like you need four ribbons to pass, if I recall correctly.

Something I want to point out is that some of the skills needed for Pokémon performances can be a little random. I think one had rhyhorn herding and one had trivia....
 
In some ways, being a Pokemon Coordinator is definitely more stressful than being a trainer who challenges gyms. However, I feel that the first point is worth addressing further in the OP.

While there is probably no hard limit on the number of badges a gym can give out in a year, there probably still is a standard to which gyms have to meet. Given that the Pokémon Inspection Agency has the authority to shut down gyms which are not up to standard, an official gym which gives out too many badges would probably be deemed not adequate to challenge trainers.

In addition, while gym challengers may afford to challenge a gym multiple times, it is also worth remembering that gym badges in the anime can only be used for one year: as strongly implied in XY125, even if you have accumulated 7 gym badges, once the annual league conference has been held, those gym badges which you have accumulated automatically become worthless and you have to start over. On the other hand, DP095 has shown that there is no expiry date for ribbons: a ribbon earned over 20 years ago is still eligible to be used to enter the current year's Grand Festival.

Finally, while there is only a set number of contests each year, there's probably still enough to go around for aspiring Pokemon Coordinators. We have seen in the anime that the number of participants in a Grand Festival range anywhere from 108 to 270. Given that each participant must have 5 ribbons, that means there is probably at least more than 500 contests (if we're using 100 as the base number) or more than 1000 contests (if we're using 270 as the base number) in a region each year at minimum. While some could definitely not be from the current year as mentioned in the previous paragraph, we also have to account for the fact that some coordinators might not accumulate enough ribbons to participate in that year's Grand Festival.
 
And there is another fact a lot of people often forget. Somebody also tapped in this aspect but I will expand a bit:

Let's say I win 8 badges in Sinnoh. Even if I enter the Sinnoh League and lose, I can still enter it again the next year by using the same badges. There's no ''expire date'' on them. I only need to have 8 of them, and I can enter as much as I want. Of course if I lose I don't get to have another go in less than a year, but I can try it again.

But in Contests, I need 5 ribbons. You may think that's actually a bit better since I only need to win 5 Contests instead of 8 Gym Battles. But if I enter in a Grand Festival, they expire. I cannot use those same ribbons again for another try. I'm obligated to perfom and battle 5 times minimun again if I lose. Imagine working you butt off to enter the Grand Festival and you don't even make it past the Appeal Round. It's pretty tough if you ask me.
 
In some ways, being a Pokemon Coordinator is definitely more stressful than being a trainer who challenges gyms. However, I feel that the first point is worth addressing further in the OP.

While there is probably no hard limit on the number of badges a gym can give out in a year, there probably still is a standard to which gyms have to meet. Given that the Pokémon Inspection Agency has the authority to shut down gyms which are not up to standard, an official gym which gives out too many badges would probably be deemed not adequate to challenge trainers.

In addition, while gym challengers may afford to challenge a gym multiple times, it is also worth remembering that gym badges in the anime can only be used for one year: as strongly implied in XY125, even if you have accumulated 7 gym badges, once the annual league conference has been held, those gym badges which you have accumulated automatically become worthless and you have to start over. On the other hand, DP095 has shown that there is no expiry date for ribbons: a ribbon earned over 20 years ago is still eligible to be used to enter the current year's Grand Festival.

Finally, while there is only a set number of contests each year, there's probably still enough to go around for aspiring Pokemon Coordinators. We have seen in the anime that the number of participants in a Grand Festival range anywhere from 108 to 270. Given that each participant must have 5 ribbons, that means there is probably at least more than 500 contests (if we're using 100 as the base number) or more than 1000 contests (if we're using 270 as the base number) in a region each year at minimum. While some could definitely not be from the current year as mentioned in the previous paragraph, we also have to account for the fact that some coordinators might not accumulate enough ribbons to participate in that year's Grand Festival.

Back in Indigo the way things were implied with leagues felt more or less like 'you can do it again'. Stuff like 'league favorites' and 'first time here'. Outside of the idea of multiple badge quests....also there are canon inspections for Gym quality.

(First time I heard the 'badges only good for a year' from XY125, and given how talked about that league was and how often badge league discussions come up it's odd to not have heard it elsewhere. The trainer was upset he didn't have the badges to enter the league, but the idea he was upset he'd have to go all out again later....and heck I remember that Jackson/Vincent [Meganium Guy from Silver/Thunder] said he took an extra year to make it and was thus a year after Marina/Jimmy slash Dani/Yoshi....



(Heck on the eating disorder I'm suddenly not sure if May's big eater status suddenly becomes a blessing....)

Now that I think about it, the Gyms in the anime definitely reek of being holdovers from a video game moreso than anything else and one could certainly make the argument that they should have been tweaked now that you're not bound by mere pixels, into something not unlike the Galar Gyms (minus Dynamax obviously).

Anyways, on the subject of stress - it would have certainly made an interesting plotline if Ash and [Insert Name Of PokéGirl] got into conflict because of their different goals. As the pressure and lack of time starts to mount, Ash's more relaxed travel pace frustrates her and then Ash makes an innocently insensitive comment about how she needs to relax and great friction occurs between them. Or something like that anyways - anything to shake up the dynamic partway through the typical journey.

Fortunately Ash has generally shown to be flexible in his goal path enough I am not sure that will ever become a problem unless they get Johto-levels of lost frequently.
 
Being a Coordinator is a lot more stressful and difficult than a Gym Badge journey. A trainer can potentially challenge a Gym however many times they need to until they get a badge. If a trainer loses a Contest, they just have to go to another city holding a Contest and they lose the chance to get that specific ribbon. There is more stress involved with performing in front of a large crowd, as well as losing in front of said crowd. Coordinators need to make their Pokemon shine, while also still being strong trainers. Getting through the appeal round doesn't really mean much if they aren't good battlers. Contest battles don't necessarily come down to who is the stronger trainer. There is still an emphasis on making their Pokemon look good and impress the judges with their combinations, but Contest battles are still battles. Gym battles aren't a walk in the park either, but Contests involve different skills and a bit more stress involved compared to Gym battles.

I don't think that being a Pokemon Performer is quite as stressful though. There are some similarities between Contests and Showcases. Performers still have to put on their act in front of a large crowd of people and losing in front of those people can still be stressful in itself. However, there are some key differences between the two. The winner of a Showcase being determined from audience votes is much different than a group of judges making the call. While Coordinators ideally need to wow the audience with their appeals, what the judges think ultimately matters more and they are more aware of good appeals and combinations than the typical audience member would be. If a Coordinator impresses the audience but not the judges or the judges find other that Coordinators did a better job, then that's it. Showcases are less about skills and more so about just impressing the crowd. Contests, especially in DP, emphasized the need to find different combinations with different Pokemon to make them really shine in the appeal round. With Showcases, Performers could basically do the same performance with little to no variation involved and still advance. I'd say that this does appeal to Serena's performances based on what I remember, but I think it was more obvious with Shauna.

They tried to say that getting to the Final Performance was a huge deal in XY, but I never bought into it. Not only because Showcases were a poor man's Contest, but getting three Princess Keys always seemed pretty easy to do. Even though it was done most likely because Serena didn't start her goal until XY's second year, winning three Showcases is still a pretty small amount. Winning five Contests is a lot more difficult when it does involve multiple skills and rounds to go through in order to get that ribbon.
 
Back in Indigo the way things were implied with leagues felt more or less like 'you can do it again'. Stuff like 'league favorites' and 'first time here'. Outside of the idea of multiple badge quests....also there are canon inspections for Gym quality.

(First time I heard the 'badges only good for a year' from XY125, and given how talked about that league was and how often badge league discussions come up it's odd to not have heard it elsewhere. The trainer was upset he didn't have the badges to enter the league, but the idea he was upset he'd have to go all out again later....and heck I remember that Jackson/Vincent [Meganium Guy from Silver/Thunder] said he took an extra year to make it and was thus a year after Marina/Jimmy slash Dani/Yoshi....



(Heck on the eating disorder I'm suddenly not sure if May's big eater status suddenly becomes a blessing....)



Fortunately Ash has generally shown to be flexible in his goal path enough I am not sure that will ever become a problem unless they get Johto-levels of lost frequently.
Maybe the one set of badges is a recent amendment or even a personal goal? Probably could be overturned or ignored if need be.

I do think performances shouldn’t just be chalked up as the poor man’s version of contests, if only becauseI like the idea of having multiple options in careers/fun things to do with Pokémon, though I can see them being comparably easier. Still, I kinda wishwe could see more performances, if only because I want to see a version of Pokémon knife throwing.

Per eating disorders, it is probable in a darker world. I can even see it being a thing some performers and coordinators might have dealt with off screen, but I feel like since it seems to be dominated by younger kids there would be plenty of people to talk to if they felt they were pressured. Might be being a little too optimisticthough.
 
I do think performances shouldn’t just be chalked up as the poor man’s version of contests, if only becauseI like the idea of having multiple options in careers/fun things to do with Pokémon, though I can see them being comparably easier. Still, I kinda wishwe could see more performances, if only because I want to see a version of Pokémon knife throwing.

Having different options in careers/fun things to do with Pokemon is all well and good, but I don't think that gives Showcases a free pass in terms of being a good goal. I refer to Showcases as the poor man's Contest because that's exactly how they came off as. They just took the appeal round of Contests, took out pretty much everything that made even that part of Contests challenging and turned it into the main aspects of Showcases. The first round would sometimes change into cooking and quizzes, but those often felt more random rather than something consistent. Showcases were just not compelling to me. They're probably still the weakest goal introduced in the anime thus far, although I think the PWC gives Showcase a good run for their money in that regard due to how incredibly boring it is when it really shouldn't be.
 
Having different options in careers/fun things to do with Pokemon is all well and good, but I don't think that gives Showcases a free pass in terms of being a good goal. I refer to Showcases as the poor man's Contest because that's exactly how they came off as. They just took the appeal round of Contests, took out pretty much everything that made even that part of Contests challenging and turned it into the main aspects of Showcases. The first round would sometimes change into cooking and quizzes, but those often felt more random rather than something consistent. Showcases were just not compelling to me. They're probably still the weakest goal introduced in the anime thus far, although I think the PWC gives Showcase a good run for their money in that regard due to how incredibly boring it is when it really shouldn't be.

Showcases are Idol contests which are popular in Japan but not so much here without a certian type of hook, like all of them being zombies or something.

The World Coronation Series is more ore sls a fusion of the Badge quest and League in something that is a problem of execution instead of anything about them itself.
 
Per eating disorders, it is probable in a darker world. I can even see it being a thing some performers and coordinators might have dealt with off screen, but I feel like since it seems to be dominated by younger kids there would be plenty of people to talk to if they felt they were pressured. Might be being a little too optimisticthough.

It would depend on a few factors, like how stigmatized mental illness is in the Pokémon world and when and if kids are taught about them. Mental illness isn't really discussed or seen in the anime, so it's hard to say. I first learned about eating disorders when I was around 12-13 (you can argue whether or not that education was effective. We only learned about anorexia and bulimia, and my knowledge of EDNOS had to come from my own research. That's a topic for another time). That's around the age of a lot of Coordinators*, but even when I knew about ED's, I still struggled (and still struggle) with poor eating habits/negative body image.
In an optimistic world, there would be easily accessible recourses for Coordinators who are struggling with eating disorders, and kids would be taught about them in an effective manner.
On the one hand, you make a good point in saying that, because people would see that most Coordinators are young and impressionable, they would realize that it's better to intervene sooner rather than later.
On the other hand, we can't really say for sure what kind of recourses, if there are any, are available for Coordinators, and if there are few or none, then we have a bunch of insecure, potentially hormonal kids/preteens/teens who only have other kids/preteens/teens for guidance (there are adults, but I feel like, if there is no education on ED's and especially if those adults also started Contests at a young age, they're going to be in the same boat). And kids can be cruel at times, not to mention the prevalence of rivalries. We see characters like May and Dawn get stressed at times, but we always see them turn to their friends for support, not any outside source (then again, that may be a case of convenience, not to mention the theme of friendship in the anime. I could also be wrong about them not turning to any outside source).
I do agree that ED's are probably a thing Coordinators deal with off screen (both off the screen of the Pokémon public eye and off screen of the anime). I mean, in our world we have celebrities who are open with their struggles with ED's and other mental illnesses, but even still, mental health is stigmatized, and some public figures deal with those things privately. We even have the paparazzi speculating on whether or not celebrities have ED's. I think it might be a similar case in the Pokémon world. I also don't know if the anime ever will discuss the subject of eating disorders.
On another note, it's interesting that Nurse Joys seem to be common judges at Contests. It may be because there are Nurse Joys in every town and city and that makes them a convenient source for judges, but it may also be for battle related injuries, or they may be there for counseling support (I don't know if Nurse Joys are also people doctors, but even if they aren't, they can still treat Pokémon), that is, assuming Nurse Joys are trained in therapy.

*I'm only mentioning Coordinators/Contests for the sake of simplicity, but all of this can apply to Performers/Performances. Except for the Nurse Joy point, because Performances rely on the audience and not judges.
 
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Showcases are Idol contests which are popular in Japan but not so much here without a certian type of hook, like all of them being zombies or something.

The World Coronation Series is more ore sls a fusion of the Badge quest and League in something that is a problem of execution instead of anything about them itself.

Showcases being more akin to Idol contests is a fitting comparison. It just lacked anything that really actually felt difficult or challenging compared to Contests, or most any other goal shown in the show at that point.

The execution is definitely a big problem with the PWC, but I think the concept itself still has some problems from the ground up, like how the rank numbers feel more arbitrary rather than a clear indication of a character's strength, most of the battles being one-on-one matches that take two minutes tops and most of said battles not being particularly challenging. I just saw the first match against Bede and all it did was make me wish that we could have Ash take on the Galar Gym Challenge instead. Ash battling against extremely strong Gym Leaders for a series sounds way more interesting than seeing him battle random one shot trainers. A lot of that still comes down to the execution, but the PWC feels really poorly thought out and planned from the start despite being Ash's main goal for the series.
 
I think that Contests are similar to ballet/dancing, while Performances are more akin to beauty pageants. Dancing, like Contests, are more physically demanding, while beauty pageants, like Performances, includes things like trivia.
 
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