Unpopular Character Defense Thread

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Is there an unpopular or obscure Pokémon game character whom you like more than the average Pokémon fan? Share with us who and why that is.

 

[Esserise]

I'm a big fan of Team Flare (excluding the admins; I don't know what was going on there) and Lysandre. I think the juxtaposition of Lysandre's supposed values against the typically haughty and shallow behavior of the team grunts makes for what is easily one of the most thematically articulate villain groups in the core games, alongside Teams Plasma and Skull, and makes Lysandre himself one of the more complex and dimensional villains that the series has offered up.

Lusamine, also, is really misunderstood in my opinion. Sun & Moon, for whatever reason, didn't manage to clearly communicate what was going on with her character, and I think that caused people to go into Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon with the wrong perceptions. When really the two stories are totally complementary - USUM Lusamine is 100% informed by the path we saw her take in SM, and allows her to have a degree of closure that SM wasn't able to provide (which isn't a dig at SM, to be clear - I love that version of the storyline too, but Lusamine needed to be out of commission in order to give Lillie a fitting reason to leave at the end, which kind of leaves Lusamine's own culmination dangling). It's not some hatchet job against SM's story. I think it's totally fair to wish that we had gotten sequels or DLC as opposed to enhanced versions, but with what we have, I think USUM make something decent story-wise out of a less-than-preferable commercial situation.

As far as "obscure" characters go, I was quite delighted to see Professor Burnet turn up in Sun & Moon, as I'd had a lot of fun playing with the Dream Radar app years prior.

 

[Camille]

I quite like Clair's personality, no matter how full of herself and arrogant she is.

 

[Silktree]

Mr. Fuji because he's kind and yet hides a dark past, which is still unexplored in the games. I wrote a blog entry (back in 2011) comparing him to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Nothing much has changed since then...

I think that Kris deserves more love for being the first female protagonist. A lot of people just shrugged off her removal. I guess she doesn't look girly enough, but that's a poor reason.

Bill is a character that gets referenced a lot, but you'd think that he'd be involved in more zany storylines. Both FRLG and LGPE failed to show him as a Pokemon in his own storage system.

I wasn't particularly fond of Eusine (especially the HGSS version), but Generations changed my mind by making him less selfish. He actually cared about Suicune for once.

 

[Venomaid]

I liked Clair despite how rude she was in the games. Also I don't think Iris was that bad in the cartoon although saying that in the anime section is reason enough to be sent to the gallows apparently haha.

 

[Glitchipedia]

Cal, Carrie, and Dude from Gold, Silver, and Crystal (with the former two also appearing in Stadium 2 and Cal alone going on to appear in HeartGold and SoulSilver) get my vote. All are intriguing to me as unique Pokémon trainers we ultimately learn very little about. I'd be over the moon if any or all of them showed up in Masters.

 

[Silktree]

@Glitchipedia Cal was intriguing because he looked exactly like Gold (Stadium 2 made him slightly more distinct). HGSS turned him into a generic Ace Trainer.

Speaking of Stadium 2, I like Earl. He's the only one in the series who teaches the player about competitive strategies (albeit not in the core games themselves).

 

[Phosphene]

As far as "obscure" characters go, I was quite delighted to see Professor Burnet turn up in Sun & Moon, as I'd had a lot of fun playing with the Dream Radar app years prior.

While I never used the Dream Radar, I did like Burnet's appearance as well considering how she is among the lesser-known characters.

A lot of people just shrugged off her removal. I guess she doesn't look girly enough, but that's a poor reason.

Huh. From what I've seen, many people consider Lyra a downgrade from Kris and prefer her over her HGSS counterpart.

 

[Silktree]

Huh. From what I've seen, many eople consider Lyra a downgrade from Kris and prefer her over her HGSS counterpart.

Yes, but I think that Kris should win by a landslide because Lyra merely represents "oh, maybe we need a different look", which is shallow and also weird given Lyra's attire.

 

[prog rocker]

The friendly rivals (except the Kalos ones). People do like to think that the only way to compete with someone is if it is with you someone you hate, which is extremely wrong from my experience, since I had a friendly rivalry with a friend and he actually helped me get better.

Yes, but I think that Kris should win by a landslide because Lyra merely represents "oh, maybe we need a different look", which is shallow and also weird given Lyra's attire.

And the funny thing is... Kris was going to be on HGSS if that PokéGear icon means anything, so I guess they changed their minds kinda late.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The friendly rivals (except the Kalos ones). People do like to think that the only way to compete with someone is if it is with you someone you hate, which is extremely wrong from my experience, since I had a friendly rivalry with a friend and he actually helped me get better.

I was actually going to talk some of them myself too. Specifically, Hau and Hop, whom I feel are extremely underrated.

I especially like Hau in the Ultra games. He starts thinking of Pokémon battles as nothing but fun, but when he starts losing important battles against bad people, he resolves to get stronger so he can better protect those he cares about. This leads to him not becoming strong enough to challenge you for the Champion title, effectively making him the second-strongest Trainer in Alola. And in the post-game Title Defense battles, he becomes the strongest possible challenger, even stronger than Kukui. He was okay in Sun and Moon, but he didn't achieve the same kind of height and/or conclusion in those games.

Hop's post is gonna be a bit longer, so I'm making it separate from this one.

 

[RK9]

Not really unpopular per say but more so obscured I'd say:

Kahili.

SM and USUM did her dirty and I'm not having it.

 

[Silktree]

The friendly rivals (except the Kalos ones). People do like to think that the only way to compete with someone is if it is with you someone you hate, which is extremely wrong from my experience,

I just find them annoying and somewhat fake. I don't buy it when they're being nice about losing, but the main problem is that the "rival who is the same age as you" trope has been done to death and there hasn't been a main female one (May doesn't count).

 

[prog rocker]

I just find them annoying and somewhat fake. I don't buy it when they're being nice about losing, but the main problem is that the "rival who is the same age as you" trope has been done to death and there hasn't been a main female one (May doesn't count).

As someone that has met people in real life like Blue or Bede, I would rather have a friendly one over an ass that is not even satisfying to beat nor deal with. In fact, my reaction to people like them is let them do whatever they want because that way they'll go away.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

And now I'll talk about Hop. Hop is like Hau, but even better. He starts off as an energetic, positive guy, who's living in the shadow of his big brother, the undefeated Champion. He dreams of defeating him, and enthusiastically sets off to accomplish that. But then he gets badly beaten by Bede, who calls him out on his weakness and says that he's dragging his brother's name through mud with his incompetence. This causes Hop to have serious confidence issues, to the point that he doesn't join your side in a Multi Battle on Route 6, like he previously did in Motostoke and Galar Mine No. 2, and, most notably, radically changes his team around to find the optimal team composition, even temporarily abandoning his first Pokémon Wooloo in order to see if he could get stronger with other Pokémon. He slowly starts regaining his confidence, but you are forced to take him down at the Champion Cup, taking down his dream of surpassing his brother, visibly making him frustrated.

During the post-game, Hop is unsure of what to do, since you beat him to his goal. And as Dynamax Pokémon start rampaging around, he's initially reluctant to join in dealing with them, because he feels he'll just be a burden. But he eventually earns the trust of one of the legendary heroes, to the point that it even joins his team. Despite this, he still loses his final battle against the player. Acknowledging the fact that he'll never be able to defeat you, he decides to pursue a different path, having realized that he could also help people, and decides to become a Pokémon Professor, starting out as Sonia's assistant. And to wrap it all up, Leon shows up and acknowledges Hop not only as a fellow Trainer, but as his rival, basically admitting that they're of equal skill, which is what Hop always dreamed of achieving. He receives a conclusive and satisfying end to his character arc.

Spoiler: Bonus!

View: https://youtube.com/watch?v=To1HzBM5Nho

Spoiler: Did you notice?

Hop is such a dedicated fan of his brother that he even copies all of his moves. Except for one. The losing pose. That's because he's never seen Leon lose before.

 

[Nicolas721]

Kalos Gym Leaders are great and aren't forgetable at all, they have great designs and jobs. We have:

• Viola, a nice girl who just happens to be a Bug-type leader and isn't defined by that trait (looking at you, trial capitains, some of you were just born to represent a type...)
• Grant, who subverts the stereotype that Rock leaders have to be interested in mining.
• Korrina, who subverts the stereotype that Fighting leaders have to be interested in martial arts and body building.
• Clemont, who subverts the stereotype that Electric leaders have to be all about coolness and shows us a more geeky and mechanical side.
• Valerie, who doesn't need an introduction.
• Olympia, a fortune teller with a great design.

I also love the Aether Foundation and all the lore behind them. In one side you have Lusamine and her kids with their very complex relationships that end up affecting the whole region, and on the other side there's the Foundation as a great evil team. Instead of being composed of an angry boss, a quirky miniboss squad and dumb grunts it's composed by a woman who helps Pokemon, her two science colleagues with unique personalities and motivation and grunts who are only doing their job.

 

[prog rocker]

Instead of being composed of an angry boss, a quirky miniboss squad and dumb grunts it's composed by a woman who does a good job, her two best friends with unique personalities and goals and grunts who are only doing their job.

This might be headcanoning, but the way the grunts behave make me think that maybe they are affected by the same thing as Lusamine. Kinda reminds me of what happened to Adel Tulba in Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2.

 

[Emelie]

I really like Munna from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity. It was interesting to see PMD tackle very serious subjects like suicide and depression. Grovyle's willingness to die for (what he considers to be) justice was a little too glorified for my taste so I liked this approach.

I also really liked Virizion in this game because she is a good layered character. The plot with Keldeo was also emotional.

I also like the partner from Gates to Infinity a lot. They are very lonely and doesn't have a family but is still somehow the one with the most respect for the player's life as a human. A real trooper!

I think this game is overhated. Not as dramatic as PMD2 but still has a lot of thought-provoking themes.

 

[hanecco]

I think the juxtaposition of Lysandre's supposed values against the typically haughty and shallow behavior of the team grunts makes for what is easily one of the most thematically articulate villain groups in the core games, alongside Teams Plasma and Skull, and makes Lysandre himself one of the more complex and dimensional villains that the series has offered up.

Interesting. That's actually why I disliked Flare - to me, it didn't make sense that a leader like Lysandre would create a team full of shallow and vain grunts. It came across as disjointed to me.

===

On topic - I think Barry is quite overlooked compared to the other rivals, especially because he's friendly. (Like prog rocker, I find the fandom's obsession with asshole rivals weird). Barry was friendly, but extremely competitive, and tough enough that I lost to him a few times in Platinum. A friendly rival can still be a tough one!

Also, Anthea and Concordia were so underused in BW. They had unique designs, seemed to have close relationships with key characters in the game such as N and Ghetsis, and then got stuck with something like one line each. It would be cool to find out more about them, and they could have provided more information/lore about the inner workings of Team Plasma, too.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

While I agree that the XY rivals are pretty weak and forgettable compared to most (if not all) other rivals, there's one thing I really appreciate about them: each of them represents a certain aspect of a Pokémon journey:

* Calem/Serena represents enjoying the battles you have during your journey and striving to become a stronger Trainer.
* Shauna represents enjoying your journey on an emotional level and taking in the world as you explore it.
* Trevor represents the players who strive to create a complete Pokédex.
* Tierno represents the people just enjoy trying out different kinds of moves, without much caring how useful they are in battles.