#rival trace

[jadeazora]

Champion's tierlist. Mostly ranking on initial battle, memorability, and personality. Lance and Geeta have better rematch teams, but you have to pay $30 for Geeta's (I personally enjoyed SV, but the games do have a mixed reputation since they were fairly glitchy, so not everyone was willing to do that), and grinding in HGSS was still kinda a pain, so I only ever bothered doing Lance's rematch once.

Trace, honestly, is memorable only for the Cubone, but has a rather lackluster team that doesn't even have full movesets and is just another friendly rival. He's very bland, especially considering that he's replacing the iconic OG final rival battle for that game.

Geeta's team is AWFUL. Using a trapper last? Using a Kingambit not last? Veluza, Gogoat, and Avalugg? Girl, why do I have to pay THIRTY DOLLARS for you to use your Pokemon correctly? What are you doing?

Diantha has zero story presence, but her team is pretty cool. Tyrantrum, Goodra, and Mega Gardevoir are all pretty solid Pokemon. She's not a hard battle, but in Gen6 they hadn't balanced the EXP Share yet, so it's easy to be overleveled if you use it.

Wallace, Steven (particularly in ORAS), and Iris are all better type specialists than Lance. Steven has two Sturdy Pokemon including one with Toxic, Wallace has Milotic (a Specially bulky Pokemon in a Gen where the moves strong against it are special) and Ludicolo (it probably won't kill you, but Double Team is annoying, and Flying and Poison weren't common attacking types back then. Fly is also inaccurate, and it's pretty much the best move you likely had access to. Unless you went for Dodrio as your Flying type and had Drill Peck, but it's a very late option when your team was probably set), and Iris at least demands a Fighting type in addition to the Ice/Dragon coverage. All Lance needs is Feraligatr with Ice Punch/Ice Fang, and Ampharos with any Electric moves for Gyarados.

Leon is a better battle than Alder, but how the game handles him just ticked me off. Like, it's good having a proactive Champ, that's why I like Alder, but I hate how the game uses him to sideline you until it literally can't anymore. SwSh was a boring game for me, and when anything interesting would happen, he was literally there to just shoo me off into doing my Gym Challenge. It feels like it goes against the "it doesn't matter if you're a kid or adult, anyone can be good at battling!" mantra of Pokemon, and having him be the face of that just made me kinda resent him. The player still feels relevant with Alder.

N, Kieran, and Nemona are some of the best rivals/Champs in the series. I like the story aspects to N and Nemona's fights more than finding them tough, but N had such a cool role in the story, and Nemona's love of battle and enthusiasm makes her a really fun character. Kieran basically has the best of both worlds in a tough battle since they use actual strategies in the DLC, and he's one of the most interesting rivals we've had for a story perspective.

Cynthia has the most aura of the Champions, and, especially with BDSP, has the toughest non-DLC added battle of them. Her roster also has very hard to get Pokemon like Milotic and Spiritomb. The physical/special split made Milotic easier to deal with, but back in Gen4, Spiritomb had no weaknesses and could usually live at least one hit. Garchomp is always strong, but in BDSP, has a Yache Berry and hits like a truck due to being properly EV'd. In Platinum, she's also pretty proactive, going thru the Distortion World with the player.

[incorrectpokechampionquotes]

Can they cook? Can cook anything, chef supreme: Alder, Diantha Surprisingly good at cooking: Lance, Kukui Can cook basic recipes: Geeta, Cynthia, N, Leon Pasta only: Iris, Red, Trace Cooking? No. Baking? Yes.: Wallace, Hau Banned from the kitchen: Steven, Blue

[inbarfink]

[dabeywabeys]

blue and trace com for my bud. father and son :]

[epicspheal]

Given you just answered an ask about Blue's Pidgeot, how do you rationalize him not using it in the PWT or when battling Elio/Selene the first time? Let's Go I'm willing to forgive, since they gave Trace Pidgeot instead, but I'm not so thrilled about the former two.

Hi there @ether-gearhead! Good question (linking the original ask for people who want to see)! So with Elio/Selene I'm actually okay with him not using Pidgeot in the first battle since we see that it's in his roster for the battle tree with different sets. We have to remember Blue has a very large chunk of the Kanto Pokedex completed and he has to some extent always been willing to switch up his team a bit (seeing as how the close of FRLG where you snatch the champion title away from him the second time he has a Tyranitar and Heracross replacing Pidgeot and Rhydon). Pidgeot is still on his roster in gen 7 and has the Pidgeotite come the super battles which is a huge sendoff to his arc about learning to bond with his team. As far as the PWT in BW2 we see that his Pidgeot is replaced with his Aerodactyl. We learn from Pokemas that Blue had revived Aerodactyl from Old Amber back during his Kanto journey but couldn't properly train it until much later. It's the symbolism as to why he has the classic outfit with his Aerodactyl sync pair to show how he's grown and now has a better mindset to train certain Pokemon. So we can see here that while he may have benched Pidgeot temporarily he's still showing his growth by using a Pokemon he couldn't train properly before. And this all gets brought to a glorious end in Alola where we see him use both Pidgeot and Aerodactyl, both with their mega stones.

(Note: I do use Pokemas as a reliable source since we know they do talk to Gamefreak to make sure what they're putting in isn't too contradictory from the gameverse) Now Let's Go is where I actually take issue with Trace having it. I think Trace having Pidgeot doesn't actually help his case in standing out on his own. I've talked a bit about the significance of Blue's Pidgeot on a previous post and that significance just doesn't really compare with Trace. Trace has his own battles to face, he's a bit of a coward and according to Oak his love for Pokemon actually gets in the way of using them to the full potential (in like he's a bit of an overprotective parent). And I actually think both of those flaws are interesting in could've been used WAY more effectively than what Let's Go does since they don't do as much as they should've to differentiate Trace from Blue other than being "your Friendly Kanto Rival".

And again with the environmental storytelling he could've used a different mega capable Kanto mon than using Pidgeot. Pidgeot works for Blue as it shows his sentimental side during his otherwise very strategic team building. Trace I would've probably giving Kangaskhan because one it's a busted mega that's also a very friendly Pokemon that fits Trace's motifs. Plus the whole parental bond with the mom being comfortable with the baby fighting by her side would match up with Trace learning to be more comfortable letting his Pokemon take hits (because a key thing with his AI in battle is that he often withdraws if there's a bad type matchup)

[reestallized]

Thought about Let's go last night

[hun-e-bee]

more trace self art rahhhh /silly

[lesbian-octo8]

Old photo since I forgot to tag in my previous post about it

[grey822aaa]

It was a long time

If you're wondering why not everyone is here

I don't consider the other mc to be rivals and on the site I looked at, others were semi-rivals, so I didn't add they

Maybe I'll draw them later Idk

[jadeazora]

I have hardly seen anyone ever talk about this dude. (If anything, posting about him rn to help me remember he exists, because sometimes, I do completely forget about him. Even Trevor and Tierno were more memorable, but that might be because of my general Kalos brainrot and the XY manga/anime giving them more spotlight.)

[incorrectpokechampionquotes]

I save dick by giving it CPR: Wallace, Cynthia, Leon I am in misery: Alder, Diantha, Geeta, Lance, Steven, Geeta, Red, N REESES PUFFS REESES PUFFS: Iris, Hau, Prof. Kukui, Trace, Blue, Nemona

[hijinxx]

I started drawing this in 2022 and was SO pumped about it, and then dropped it and never finished it??

[mothfaults]

Some sketch book scans! I got plenty more on the way! Anyway fun smilk headcanon, before he was really proficient at puppeteering people one of his "actors" got free and tried to fight back. He nearly lost his head but the show must go on!

[blueberrycowmilk]

summer babies !! <3

[hun-e-bee]

Trace from pokemon let's go art!!!

Rooster looking mf :3

[wearyeerie]

doodle of my main from memory 🙏 loved u since 2012 💚