Is Volo Relatively the Strongest Trainer We've Ever Seen?

[Blast]

Let me elaborate on the question. We've seen many strong Trainers in the main series Pokémon games. However, could Volo lorewise be considered the strongest Trainer relative to his time period and peers? Unlike any other Trainer we've seen previously, Volo has trained his Pokémon in a time when Poké Balls aren't yet widely used, let alone Pokémon battling or even the concept of Trainers exists yet where he lives. Nonetheless he boasts a full team of extraordinarily powerful Pokémon and even takes command of a Legendary Pokémon. Obviously, he's easily the most powerful Trainer in PLA and there's no one who can even attempt to compete. He's like Gen 1 Mewtwo in this regard.

What's even crazier is that while usually the respective player characters are canonically considered the most powerful Trainers in the Pokémon Universe, in Volo's case this doesn't apply because he and the player character for PLA don't originally share the same time period. Think about it. Akari and Rei are heavily implied to have been outstanding Pokémon Trainers in the current age and have the advantage of coming from a society accustomed to living, training and battling with Pokémon. They literally have the advantage of some 200 years of development in strategy, technique, technology, Pokémon domestication and societal progess this field compared to Volo, plus their own implied personal experience as a Trainer in this enviroment. And even then Volo can go toe to toe with them and kick their ass over and over.

One of the reasons Arceus sends the player character back in time is to deal with Volo specifically and I think this is because at the time there was no one else in the Pokémon Universe who could get close to stopping him. Yes, the player characters in their respective time periods may be the most powerful, but are they relatively speaking more powerful compared to their contemporaries than Volo was in his time? Looking at it from this perspective I think there's an argument in favour of Volo in his time period being the single strongest Trainer we've seen so far, including player characters. What do you think?

Spoiler: Bonus Volo

ウォロさん

ウォロさんの指をぶおんぶおん振るポーズが好き

www.pixiv.net

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

that seems accurate to me

 

[Gengarzilla]

Hmm... Well, we do have to bear in mind that a battle facility head has also been pulled to this time period and they're always tough customers just in their own eras. A match between Volo and Ingo could well end up being a close thing.

Setting aside any time displaced fellows however, Volo probably is the best of this time.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

"For his time" is too broad a spectrum to judge as right now we have no information as to where the other regions were at in their progression.

Time travelers (Player and Ingo) notwithstanding, Volo is for sure the first recognized trainer in Hisui (notice he is the first and sole character in the game classed as a "Pokemon Wielder" in the post-game gauntlet battle which is presumably the primitive term for a trainer) considering partnering with Pokemon let alone battling was a new concept that no one understood.

It is accurate to call him the strongest trainer in Hisui but just in the sense that no comparison exists.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

I disagree.

1) I think "takes command" is too strong of a term by far. I don't consider the Giratina fight to be part of his team, which leaves him with a 68 Spiritomb, Roserade, Togekiss, Arcanine, Lucario, and Garchomp. Compare this to Red, with an 80-88 Pikachu, Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Lapras, and Snorlax. Not only is Red's team higher level, but it's a better composition relative to what you can bring. I basically swept Volo with a Gliscor with Swords Dance and Ice Fang; he had nothing with super effective damage against me at all and I had Super Effective damage against everything of his except Spiritomb, who is both somewhat frail and very slow.

2) Even if you consider Giratina part of the fight, it shares the same weaknesses (Ice, Ghost, Dark) as the team before it, and it's still only level 70. From a team composition standpoint, that means you just need more of the same. You could never get away with that vs Red.

3) Red is undisputably the most powerful trainer of the area and time, significantly more powerful (and with a better team composition) than Lance, the Champion. Volo has some powerful Pokemon, but his team is weaker than that of the "Ingo - but tougher" fight, to say nothing of the "Ingo - but using Alphas" fight. It's not at all clear that he's the toughest trainer around.

4) The above are debatable, If you consider Giratina part of the fight, as we've never previously fought against a Pokemon Trainer Using a Legendary. However, the biggest part where you're in error in my opinion is when you had the line "including player characters". You were sent back in time, so you're his peer, and canonically you were brought back Because you're stronger than him, and you beat him. He's got A legendary under his belt, at most, while the Player character collects like a dozen. The same is true of any other game - while you can argue Ingo isn't his peer, and Kamado is significantly behind his power level, and so forth, it doesn't change that at most he's got a few levels and one legendary over whomever you place at #2. The player character in any game has the opportunity to catch enough legendaries to basically field a whole team of them, all at level 90+, while their peers have nothing like that. The gap between the player character and their team and potential and the NPCs is Always Much greater than the gap between Volo and the other NPCs, by a significant margin.

 

[KerfishSea]

Arceus literally sent our asses back in time to stop a hot blonde psychopath from murdering everyone. If Arceus is making some 15 year old from the future do his work then Volos gotta be a threat.

 

[Totem_Rowlet]

That makes sense i guess

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Given I was able to kick his teeth in with pokemon 18 levels lower than his, I'm gonna go with no

 

[UxieLover1994]

Arceus literally sent our asses back in time to stop a hot blonde psychopath from murdering everyone. If Arceus is making some 15 year old from the future do his work then Volos gotta be a threat.

Yep. Volo is the Pokémon equitant of Seymour Guado from Final Fantasy X. Both are nihilist psychopaths bent on using a powerful creature to destroy all life, and trick the main character(s) into helping with his goal. Not to mention that both use a monster against you (Giratina and Anima), and you can obtain them later on. If we ever get an update where Volo returns in another attempt to capture Arceus and you battle him, I'd definitely use Giratina against him.

Given I was able to kick his teeth in with pokemon 18 levels lower than his, I'm gonna go with no

My team never had a single KO with Volo when I battled him, and my Garchomp took Giratina on by himself. Contrast when I battled Cynthia in BD, where her Garchomp took out my entire team asides my Bronzong, with my victory only because of a Future Sight.

In my opinion, Cynthia is far stronger than her apparent ancestor.

 

[ABCD1234]

Strongly agree

 

[KerfishSea]

well hello new person.

 

[R1ke]

I’d say so, the gap between him and the rest of the trainers is crazy. Excluding the player and ingo (who aren’t from the same time period either) nobody can really come close to him. Most ppl don’t even have a full team, let alone a legendary at their side

 

[FelipePR]

One of the reasons Arceus sends the player character back in time is to deal with Volo specifically and I think this is because at the time there was no one else in the Pokémon Universe who could get close to stopping him. Yes, the player characters in their respective time periods may be the most powerful, but are they relatively speaking more powerful compared to their contemporaries than Volo was in his time? Looking at it from this perspective I think there's an argument in favour of Volo in his time period being the single strongest Trainer we've seen so far, including player characters. What do you think?

- He is certainly a strong trainer. Battlewise, he is probably the most powerful villain, but I don't believe he is the strongest trainer of all time and there is not enough information to say that he is the strongest trainer of that period, just the strongest trainer in the Hisui region.

- Volo, I imagine, was not a threat in his own right. He was a threat only because he had Giratina's support. Note that once he loses the support of the Legendary Pokémon he ceases to be a concern for Arceus and Hisui region, which is why he is free to go and do whatever he wants.

- The Hero/Heroine of Sinnoh is sent by Arceus to fight Giratina and Volo because they are, lore-wise, the people that Arceus trusts the most, who have shown him their purity of intentions and their valor in battle, without necessarily be the most powerful trainers in the multiverse or even in their respective timeline.

 

[KerfishSea]

Some of his Pokemon only had three moves as well. Not sure if that matters but he couldn't even get his Pokemon to learn 4 of them.

 

[Blast]

- He is certainly a strong trainer. Battlewise he is probably the most powerful villain, but I don't believe he is the strongest trainer of all time and there is not enough information to say that he is the strongest trainer of that period, just the strongest trainer in the Hisui region.

- Volo, I imagine, was not a threat in his own right. He was a threat only because he had Giratina's support. Note that once he loses the support of the Legendary Pokémon he ceases to be a concern for Arceus and Hisui region, which is why he is free to go and do whatever he wants.

- The Hero/Heroine of Sinnoh is sent by Arceus to fight Giratina and Volo because they are, lore-wise, the people that Arceus trusts the most, who have shown him their purity of intentions and their valor in battle, without necessarily be the most powerful trainers in the multiverse or even in their respective timeline.

• The fact that he's much stronger than any other "Trainers" settling from different region like Hoenn, Johto, Kanto or Galar strongly suggest to me he is the most powerful. Professor Laventon is a literal scholar and even he has never seen someone be able to catch and command Pokémon with such ease as the player character. If catching and using Pokémon was coming anywhere else in the Pokémon World at that time, I'm pretty sure Laventon would've been aware of that.

• Arceus literally sent our asses back in time to stop a hot blonde psychopath from murdering everyone. If Arceus is making some 15 year old from the future do his work then Volos gotta be a threat.

  Not to mention Volo is one of the very few humans known to fully command one of the big Legendaries by himself without the use of any tools aside from N and of course the player character. In most other cases Legendary Pokémon are only summoned, their power harvested or getting control by some kind of artifact or device (Red Chain, Red/Blue Orb, etc.) Even Mewtwo turned against its own creators, and only N was able to control a big Legendary over an extended period of time. The fact alone that Volo manages to summon and wield Giratina's power in its two Formes empty handed and all by himself already cements him as one of the most powerful Trainers of all time. Also, the reason Volo ceases to be a threat for the time being is because he loses to the player character. Had he defeated the player and gathered all the Plates he very well could've reached his goal. Whether he's a threat or not is completely dependent on the outcome of the battle. In theory, he could've beaten the player with a Magikarp and he would've been a bigger threat than if he lost with Giratina.
• If the player characters are not canonically the most powerful and neither is Volo, I'd like to hear your thoughts on who is. Remember that the player characters are Champions in every known region and able to defeat every NPC Trainer.

 

[FelipePR]

The fact that he's much stronger than any other "Trainers" settling from different region like Hoenn, Johto, Kanto or Galar strongly suggest to me he is the most powerful. Professor Laventon is a literal scholar and even he has never seen someone be able to catch and command Pokémon with such ease as the player character. If catching and using Pokémon was coming anywhere else in the Pokémon World at that time, I'm pretty sure Laventon would've been aware of that.

- Hisui is apparently a "new region" that is being explored and colonized by citizens, apparently, from more technologically advanced places. It is very difficult to believe, therefore, that in the rest of the world there are no stronger trainers than Kamado, for example, who is already a respected trainer.

- The Protagonist, a child prodigy of the future who is blessed by Arceus itself, is certainly more adept at capturing and Commanding Pokémon (especially newly caught ones) than any other Trainer in that time period, reflecting the evolution of its time and its hero/heroine special status, which doesn't mean that there aren't very capable trainers in the rest of the world.

Not to mention Volo is one of the very few humans known to fully command one of the big Legendaries by himself without the use of any tools aside from N and of course the player character.

-I have doubts about this, note that when Volo commands his Pokémon he makes a contemptuous move with his hands, but when Giratina attacks, he simply puts his hands on his hips. This fact, for that reason alone, shows that his relationship with Giratina is not the same as with his other Pokémon, that is, it is not a trainer relationship, so it is uncertain whether or not he is commanding the legendary. And, lore-wise, you could say that's not the case.

If the player characters are not canonically the most powerful and neither is Volo, I'd like to hear your thoughts on who is. Remember that the player characters are Champions in every known region and able to defeat every NPC Trainer.

- Pokémon games, wisely, do not seek to trace power relationships between different regions. What exists is just a hierarchy within the region, where the Protagonist is potentially the most skilled trainer and the Champion tends to be the second.

 

[WyndonCalling]

As much as I like the framing of the topic, I'm kinda just going to sidestep it - for me, it doesn't particularly matter how Volo matches up against characters from other regions. He's powerful enough within his own time to be a very credible and threatening villain, and thus he performs his role within the story brilliantly (Red did something similar very well in Johto; Leon pretty much whiffed it in Galar despite his hype). His theming - and that absolutely incorporates his power level - is just so acutely on point.

 

[Daren]

Volo does feel like the most drastic boss to boss difficulty hike I can recall in the series, at least.
Honestly I wonder if there's an explanation for how Volo is so much more powerful compared to everyone else in Hisui who isn't from a later time period. The whole period is harder to say; I recall there's an NPC somewhere saying that Kanto already has strong trainers.

Leon pretty much whiffed it in Galar despite his hype

To be fair Leon's team is a drastic step up from everyone else you face in Sw/Sh up to that point; if it used the classic exp. system I think he'd be one of the harder champions.

 

[FelipePR]

Honestly I wonder if there's an explanation for how Volo is so much more powerful compared to everyone else in Hisui who isn't from a later time period. The whole period is harder to say; I recall there's an NPC somewhere saying that Kanto already has strong trainers.

Probably because Hisui is a sparsely populated region, in which most immigrants were not used to wild Pokémon, while the natives were wrong in their worldview regarding the region's history and past, with Volo being one of the few to retain ancestral knowledge/Power.

 

[RexMissingno]

He probably would be if the protagonist didn't have playable character plot armor.

Probably because Hisui is a sparsely populated region, in which most immigrants were not used to wild Pokémon, while the natives were wrong in their worldview regarding the region's history and past, with Volo being one of the few to retain ancestral knowledge/Power.

I was thinking something similar. I think the reason he was so powerful might have had to do with how he has traditional knowledge (given how both the Diamond and Pearl clans both worked with Pokemon) and adapting to the new technology with Pokeballs - along with having a motivation to do so. For the clans I don't think it was because they were wrong, but they were more focused on survival and wouldn't have a reason to use Pokeballs or focus on making their Pokemon stronger in battle.