5 most interesting Gym Leader origin stories

Modified Dec 04, 2024 11:09 GMT

Best origin stories of five Pokemon Gym Leader — Pokemon Gym Leader (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon Gym Leaders are the characters who have control over the activities of Gyms. Trainers visit these gyms to battle and get badges to become eligible to enter the League Conference of a particular region. They need to earn eight badges by defeating eight Leaders who specialize in using different types of pocket monsters. For example, Sabrina from Kanto looks after the Saffron City Gym using Psychic-type critters.

While some Gyms are established by the heads themselves, others are appointed by the members of the Pokemon League. That said, here is the list of the five Gym Leaders with unique backstories.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's point of view.

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Five Pokemon Gym Leaders with the best origin stories

1) Sabrina

Gym Leader Sabrina is known as the Master of Psychic Pokemon and is in charge of the Saffron City Gym in the Kanto region. She found out that she possessed terrifying psychic power during her early childhood when she accidentally twisted a spoon with it.

Not only did she have this unique ability, but she could also communicate with her Pocket Monsters telepathically. This made Sabrina a fearsome Gym Leader in the Pokemon world.

Around the time when Sabrina discovered her prowess, there were two Gyms in Kanto: Fighting and Psychic. She used the Pokemon type to her advantage and defeated the rival Gym brutally, stripping them of their position. All of these events occurred despite Sabrina not even liking to engage in combat.

2) Giovanni

Giovanni (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Giovanni, the leader of the criminal group Team Rocket, was a Gym Leader of Kanto. In the Gen 1 games, he had two different identities; he was a citizen, and the other a secret one. It was later revealed to the players that he was the Leader of the Viridian City's Gym.

Giovanni and his team of Grunts first showed up at Silph Company. Players had to defeat them to see what their next moves would be, and as soon as they were taken down, the Team Rocket boss vanished to his secret hideout.

This sudden disappearance created confusion in the beginning, but when players returned to Viridian City, they saw Giovanni as the final Gym Leader, whom they must beat if they wanted to earn the Earth Badge and fight the Elite Four.

3) Norman

Interestingly, Norman was the father of the player characters in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, as well as Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This Gym Leader headed the Petalburg Gym, located in the Hoenn region. However, he and his family once lived in Olivine City in the Johto region. They moved to Petalburg City so that Norman could become a Pokemon Leader.

Norman's lore unfolded in detail in Pokemon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire anime. Ash and May arrived at the Petalburg Gym to battle the Leader for a Badge, but they were confronted by Max, who claimed that he was the Leader they must battle with.

Ash, who was irritated by Max, decided to meet his parents and found out that Normal was the real Gym Leader, and Max was his son.

4) Raihan

Raihan, a tactician who used weather to his advantage in battles, was popular in the Galar region as the strongest Dragon-type Trainer. He was the Gym Leader of the Hammerlocke Gym, also known as Hammerlocke Stadium. He could only be encountered in Pokemon Sword and Shield, however, one had to earn Badges to challenge him in his Gym.

Raihan was on a mission to defeat his rival, Champion Leon, in the anime. Raihan attempted to defeat Leon multiple times but failed miserably with him on a losing streak of 0-10.

Nevertheless, Raihan was the only character who knocked out many of Leon’s Pocket Monsters. He even had a habit of taking selfies of the battles he lost with his Rotom Phone so that he could post them on his social handles.

5) Tate & Liza

Tate and Liza (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Trainers who defeated Tate and Liza’s Psychic-type Pokemon at the Mossdeep Gym were rewarded with the Mind Badge item. They were the first Gym Leaders who presented the double battle system, also known as two-on-two battle, in the third-generation Pokemon games. These twin characters could also be seen in Black 2 and White 2, where they participated as individuals in the Pokemon World Tournament.

One of the funniest self-introduction players can find in Pokemon is Tate and Liza’s “Papa has trouble telling the two of us apart!”. That said, their strategy is that they always battle in tandem.

Also Check: 5 most interesting Mythical Pokemon origin stories

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