Interchangeable gym leader orders

[Macromind101]

Since I haven't really seen this topic brought up very often, I wanted to bring to attention certain gym leaders that can be considered interchangeable in terms of what order they can be battled in. I'm not talking about how you can skip certain gym leaders; rather, I'm referring to groups of certain gym leaders that were actually meant to be battle-able in a different order from the norm without any factors discouraging said action (like being underleveled when attempting to do so). In other words, say a mass of players played the games without any walkthroughs or a list of the game's gym leaders (the latter of which is already included in all games, so this is just a fictional scenario). In the end, it is possible that we may be seeing even splits of players that completed the gyms in certain orders, and still had relatively the same experience (i.e. how difficult they thought the game was).

Here are the list of applicable regions and the gym leaders I'm referring to:

1. Kanto: Koga and Sabrina. In my experience, Koga preceding Sabrina in the gym leader order seemed a little off to me, since while Fuchsia Gym is directly above the sea routes that lead to Cinnabar Island (as well as the Soul Badge enabling the ability to explore said sea routes), the Saffron Gym is in-between Lavender Town and Celadon City. It just seemed like to complete the gyms in the "intended" order, you would be going out of your way to backtrack to Saffron after defeating Koga, then going back to Fuchsia to continue towards Cinnabar. But that aside, while I think this is one of the most well-known example of interchangeable Gym Leader order, I'll explain it like any other. The areas that lead up to each gym (which are Routes 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 for Fuchsia Gym, and Silph Co. for Saffron Gym) have NPC's with similar levels (ranging from mid-high 20's to low 30's). In fact, I noticed a common misconception among the community (an example being Marriland's RBY walkthrough) that the Silph Co. NPC's have levels higher than those of Cycling Road/Silence Bridge; if you scroll through the NPC list on Bulbapedia, you'll see that all the areas have NPC's with Pokemon ranging from lv. 25-30, and a few with a little higher in the low 30's; exceptions being the rival and Giovanni (but major/boss NPC battles having levels higher than their surrounding areas isn't anything unusual). I don't think the Fighting Dojo should be considered, since it is an optional area that may be intended for after the Silph Co. plot. And then the gyms themselves. The two gyms have practically identical difficulty levels. Both of the gym trainers have Pokemon ranging from lv. 31-38. The leaders' teams, in RBG and FRLG, have roughly the same levels, both of each having an average of 39. In Yellow, while Koga only has one lv. 50, he has more Pokemon on his team, all of which are battle-capable. Sabrina's team, while all of which are level 50, is smaller than Koga's team. Furthermore, one of her Pokemon is an Abra that cannot inflict actual damage (and the effects of Flash can be easily countered by simply switching out).
2. Johto: Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce. So after you defeat Morty, you'll find that there are two different ways to continue. While the "correct" path seemed to be going left to Route 38, there isn't really anything stopping you from going right to Route 42. Once again, the two paths have NPC's with similar, if not identical, level ranges at mid-to-high 10's and low 20's. Meaning, the path to Pryce isn't any more difficult than the path to Chuck/Jasmine, as some people may be inclined to think (and I have personally done this on one of my playthroughs). Now, the order between Chuck and Jasmine (with Pryce being battle-able before, after or in-between). Per the standard path, you would go to Cianwood City to pick up the SecretPotion, and battle Chuck on the way. Thing is, it is very possible to just pick up the SecretPotion, deliver it to Jasmine, and battle Chuck later (and yes I know that this makes the travel inconvenient due to Fly being available after defeating Chuck, but the possibility still stands). Now, looking at the gym leaders themselves. While their team levels aren't as similar as Koga/Sabrina, the differences are still marginal enough for their ordering permutation to be flexible. When comparing Chuck and Pryce, while Pryce's overall team level is slightly higher than Chuck's, I would say that Chuck's team is more well-rounded, since both of his Pokemon can pose as a challenge while Pryce's Seel isn't really anything to bat an eye over. As for Jasmine, her signature Pokemon, Steelix, is level 35, which is higher than both Chuck's Poliwrath and Pryce's Piloswine (the latter case being interesting in that it is the only instance in the franchise where a Gym Leader's highest-level Pokemon is higher than the succeeding Gym Leader's). But her other two Pokemon are two Magnemite's, which, for most people (to my knowledge), are not difficult whatsoever. Meaning, Jasmine has only one Pokemon that serves as an actual threat, which could make an argument that her team balances to the point where it can be considered somewhat equal to both Chuck's and Pryce's (the latter of which should be the case anyhow, since Jasmine precedes Pryce in the official order). Now, looking at the gym trainers. The Cianwood Gym and the Mahogany Gym trainers have Pokemon with very similar levels, both being in the mid-20's. While Jasmine's gym doesn't have any trainers, the Glitter Lighthouse trainers serve that purpose (with HGSS revealing that two of the trainers are the actual gym trainers, whom you don't battle in the gym due to the special circumstances surrounding the sick Ampharos). Their levels are much lower, but that is because regardless of which order you battle the Gym Leaders in, you would be doing the Glitter Lighthouse at around the same time anyway (since doing so is required to retrieve the SecretPotion). As for how it compares to Pryce's path, since the Glitter Lighthouse is placed at approximately halfway within the entire Chuck/Jasmine path, within the Pryce path, that would be equal to maybe Route 43 (the Lake of Rage doesn't have any NPC's until the Rocket Hideout is completed). Comparing the two, the levels of the NPC's are similar (barring the outlier trainer, which is the Fisherman with lv. 10 Magikarp and Gyarados). And to clear up common misconceptions, the Red Gyarados is present as soon as you access Lake of Rage, regardless of whether you battled Chuck/Jasmine or not. And Elm's phone call about the Team Rocket takeover occurs after obtaining your seventh Gym Badge. If you defeated Pryce before Chuck and/or Jasmine, you do not get the call.
3. Sinnoh: Maylene and Crasher Wake (Diamond and Pearl only). This one hardly requires extensive explanation. The two leaders have identical team levels because their respective cities can be accessed in either order (like in the cases of Koga/Sabrina and Chuck/Jasmine/Pryce). And as before, their surrounding areas have similar difficulty levels.

Unless I missed anything in later games (pretty sure the intended orders started being set in stone starting with Generation V), these cases are the ones where I'm pretty sure (if not 100% certain, in Maylene/Wake's case) that the designers intended for players to feel free to tackle in differing orders.