Gym Leader

A Gym Leader (Japanese: ジムリーダー Gym Leader) is the highest-ranking member of a Pokémon Gym. The main job of a Gym Leader is to test s and their Pokémon so that they are strong and resourceful enough to compete against the Elite Four in the games or the Pokémon League in the anime. If a Trainer defeats a Gym Leader in battle, then the Trainer earns that Gym's Badge.

A Gym Leader's job is not just to test upcoming Trainers. They must oversee how their respective Gym is run and to maintain it. Great care must be taken to make sure that their Gym reflects the best environment for the Pokémon type and playing style of choice, usually an environment that suits that type of Pokémon used there (like pools in a Gym or flowers and plants in a  Gym). According to Morty, teaching young people how to battle with Pokémon can also be the job of a Gym Leader.

It has not exactly been made clear how Gym Leaders attain their position, but it appears that it varies for each Gym. Some of them founded their Gym and are self-appointed; others, such as Whitney, are chosen by the other members of the region's Pokémon League. A few appear to be passed on through families: Janine, Falkner, and Flannery all take over their respective Gyms from a close family member. However, Gyms do not necessarily belong to a particular family; Roark and his father Byron are both Gym Leaders at the same time, in different Gyms. Leaders can also choose to vacate their position; examples include Koga, Giovanni, and Wallace.

Although similar in nature, Frontier Brains, Colosseum Leaders and Club Masters are not considered Gym Leaders.

Pokémon used
Almost all Leaders rely on a single type of Pokémon. For example, Erika uses only Pokémon in official Gym s. Some Leaders, however, stray from this mold, albeit rarely. This is evidenced by the different types used by during his reign as the Gym Leader of the Viridian Gym in Generation II and IV, although he is the only Gym Leader to do so. However, many Gym Leaders have one or two Pokémon that stray from their type theme.

Geography and climate can often be connected to the type of Pokémon the Gym Leader of that area uses. Pastoria Gym Leader, Crasher Wake, uses Pokémon, a direct allusion to the flooded marsh that surrounds the area and the constant downpour that plagues Pastoria City. Another example of this is the Cinnabar Gym Leader, Blaine, who uses Pokémon and lives in a volcanic area.

The character archetype can also reflect the type of Pokémon a Leader uses. For example, Roark and Byron are both miners, who use the related Rock- and Pokémon. Tate and Liza could be based on the archetype of twins who can communicate telepathically, and thus train Pokémon and being twins, they also battle opposing Trainers in Double Battles, being the only Leaders to do so.

In the games
A Leader (Japanese: ジムリーダー Gym Leader) is the Trainer class name given to the Gym Leaders when they are battled in the Pokémon games. Despite Gym Leaders themselves being introduced in Generation I, the name did not appear onscreen until Generation II, and has been incorporated into every game since. Gym Leaders are integral within the Pokémon universe. In order for one to advance in the game, the player must occasionally challenge and defeat the leader of a Gym. Each game is designed in such a way that the player will not be able to move forward until they receive a Gym Badge which will, in turn, either allow them to use a HM to overcome natural obstacles, or trigger a necessary event to continue with the game. It is one of the player's main objectives to collect eight Gym Badges, allowing him or her to challenge the Elite Four.

Leaders do not seem to be required to be in their Gyms at all times. Giovanni, for example, could keep his title as a Gym Leader despite not being at the Viridian Gym during the majority of the events of Generation I, and his successor,, was also absent from the Gym several times. Beginning in Generation IV, Leaders are increasingly encountered outside of their Gyms, evident in the remakes, where the Leaders have to be found in different locations at specific times before they can exchange phone numbers with the player for a rematch at the Fighting Dojo. Some Leaders even appear across regions, such as Jasmine appearing in Sunyshore City, Crasher Wake on, and Maylene in Celadon City. Leaders can even challenge other Gyms and the Elite Four (like Volkner wanted to do). In later games, it is made apparent that Gym Leaders know each other and are acquainted with Gym Leaders from other regions, as well as with members of the Elite Four and s. Examples of this are Jasmine being friends with Erika, Volkner being friends with, Brawly training with Bruno, and most Unova Gym Leaders coming together to fight Team Plasma's Seven Sages.

In addition, some Gym Leaders may be required to use Pokemon different then their usual team, such as Cheren in.

Gym Trainers
In addition to Gym Leaders, there are also Gym Trainers. While not an official Trainer class, they are Trainers that are either a devotee or apprentice to the Gym Leader, who follow the same type theme as the Leader does. It is usually necessary to defeat multiple Gym Trainers before challenging the Gym Leader. Some Gyms in the game require the player to solve a puzzle, and one must often use Gym Trainers as obstacles to reach the solution. They have no direct impact on the overall plot, other than rarely offering the player helpful advice. It is also worth noting that the type of appearing in a Gym will depend on the Gym itself. For instance, Gardenia employs and, exclusively, while Misty recruits s and s; these Gym Leaders represent the types Grass and Water, respectively.

In the anime
Since there seem to be many more Gyms in the anime than in other media, as evidenced by many Badges that do not belong to Gyms shown in other media, it follows that there would be many more Gym Leaders.

In the anime, Gym Leaders seem to be forbidden from switching their Pokémon. Those that Ash encountered before Blaine did switch; however, since 's match against Blaine in Riddle Me This, only Lenora has switched out a Pokémon. In the games, they may switch their Pokémon as often as any other Trainer, itself a considerably rare event.

A notable occurrence in the anime is that one does not necessarily have to defeat the Gym Leader to obtain a Badge. Badges are given out on a case by case basis based on whether the Gym Leader feels that the Trainer has earned it. Examples include Ash winning his early Gym Badges, not by defeating the Gym Leader, but with other selfless acts such as rescuing Erika's Pokémon from a burning Gym.

There is also an entire league exclusive to the anime where the Gym Leaders all have special requirements in order to gain their Gym Badges, the Orange League, located on the Orange Islands.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Gym Leaders have the same jobs as in the games and anime, but are also shown to throw away their role as Leader and pursue other goals. Some Gym Leaders even become evil, such as Koga, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, and Pryce. In order to become a Gym Leader in Adventures, one needs to fight a Trainer chosen by the Pokémon Association and win in front of them without letting one of their own Pokémon faint. The one exception to this rule seen so far has been by when he defended the building where  took his exam, since Red had to decline becoming a Gym Leader due to an injury, despite having passed the exam. Some Gym Leaders have jobs outside of their Gyms, but some of them focus solely on training their skills.

Gym Leaders are highly respected in their respective home regions and usually in other regions as well. When crises emerge, it is highly probable for Gym Leaders to gather to discuss about the situation that has befallen the region and what to do with it, with the most well-known example being the Hoenn Gym Leaders gathering at Fortree City during the to decide which team—Team Magma or Team Aqua—they should support. They also tend to help Pokédex holders to fight the villains who are usually behind different crises, a great example being the Sinnoh Gym Leaders fighting Team Galactic at Spear Pillar near the end of the. All of the Kanto and Johto Gym Leaders were called up for a tournament held at Indigo Plateau (which was interrupted by the Masked Man) to fight as teams to see which region had stronger Gym Leaders. The Kanto team won with four wins, three losses and one draw.

In the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga
In Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys, 🇬🇼 meets many Gym Leaders in his travels, as it is his goal to collect all eight Gym Badges. The first Gym Leader challenged by Gold was Falkner, who he defeated in Falkner The Bird Keeper's Challenge!!. He defeats Bugsy in Get up Again, Bayleef. He meets Whitney in For Pikachu's Sake!! The Search For The Missing Farfetch'd and loses to her in battle, so she takes away his temporarily. Whitney travels with Gold for a while, arriving at the Pokémon Summit, a conference for Gym Leaders and Pokémon researchers, in Gold and Black VS Team Rocket. Gold finally defeats Whitney in A Promise Given to Miltank, earning his Pikachu back as well as the.

In Let's Fight! The Mini Pokémon Tournament, Morty offers Gold the for free, as he is unable to battle him at the time due to other commitments and he believes that Gold has already demonstrated his fighting skills by defending the Pokémon Summit against Team Rocket. However, Gold refuses, insisting that he must battle Morty another time and earn the Badge properly. He meets Jasmine in A Spectacular Battle To Save Ampharos and Chuck in The Secret Of The Fighting Type Pokémon. As the manga ended abruptly, Pryce and Clair never appeared, nor did the Pokémon League.

Trivia

 * Every Gym Leader that specializes in Ghost- and  Pokémon uses  and  respectively in battle.
 * Even though there are 51 known Gyms in the games, with 58 Gym Leaders among them, there has not yet been a Gym specializing in Pokémon, although there have been three Elite Four members; Karen, Sidney, and Grimsley. All the other seventeen types have at least one Gym associated with them.  specialist Gyms appear in five of the six regions.
 * The only Gym Leaders so far whose parents have been seen in the anime are Brock, Sabrina, Tate and Liza, Roark and Clemont.
 * Among those, Roark is the only one whose mother has not been seen in the anime.
 * Janine, Roark, Maylene, Cheren and Roxie are the only ones who have a parent the undefined can encounter in the games. Koga, Giovanni, Norman, and Byron are the only Gym Leaders whose children can be encountered, or in Norman's case, played as, in the games.
 * Other in-game relatives of Gym Leaders include Clair's cousin, Blue's grandfather and sister, Viola's sister, Korrina's grandfather and Clemont's sister. Additionally, Tate and Liza are brother and sister, while Cilan, Chili, and Cress are brothers.
 * For Setting the World on Its Buneary, Professor Oak's lecture is about Gym Leaders. He writes this Pokémon senryū about them: ジムリーダー　いのちをかけて　かかってこい Jimu Rīdā / Inochi o kakete / Kakatte koi "Gym Leader, put your life on the line and challenge me".
 * In the Johto saga of the anime, none of the Gym Leaders had exactly the same lineups as they do in the games.
 * In the games, every Gym Leader has at least one Pokémon in his or her party that knows the TM move he or she gives out upon defeat. Former Gym Leaders do not count in this, as Wallace when he is faced as Champion and Giovanni when he is faced in Generation IV do not have Pokémon that know the move they gave out as TMs when they were faced as Gym Leaders in previous games. Koga, despite not being a Gym Leader in Generation IV, has several Pokémon that know Toxic, the move he last gave out as a TM.
 * From Generations I-V (not counting remakes), every move that was in a TM given out by a Gym Leader was a new move for that generation, and many of them were rarely (if ever) seen on any other Pokemon in the generation they were introduced. This trend has been broken in Generation VI, where only three Gym Leaders—Viola, Korrina, and Valerie—hand out TMs with moves new to the generation.
 * In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, the player can continue the game without defeating Winona of Fortree City until attempting to battle the Elite Four.
 * The Hoenn Gym Leaders are the only Gym Leaders not to have VS sprites, since these sprites were not introduced until Generation IV and the Pokémon World Tournament does not use VS sprites.
 * The Orange League is the only one so far in which Ash has successfully defeated all the Gym Leaders without a rematch.

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