#and how the battle frontier gets pushed out of johto because i'm still incredibly salty about that. hasn't johto suffered enough getting

[mountmortar]

the OTHER THING about kris running the battle tower is that it could WORK as a little in-universe story even if you factored in hgss. what could be going on in hgss? well the johto battle tower (from crystal) has been all but forgotten because the sinnoh battle frontier decided to set up a little division in johto as well (right beside the battle tower, no less, which just adds insult to injury) and with new things springing up left and right like the pokéathlon and the safari zone it gets even MORE forgotten about. but the main problem, the Big Reason that the johto battle tower is dying, is the sinnoh battle frontier sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and drawing trainers away in favor of their bigger and flashier setup.

so the collective people who run the battle tower are all like okay. what's the problem here. what can we do to fix the fact that everyone thinks we suck major ass compared to the sinnoh battle frontier. and someone pipes up like well maybe it's because we don't have figureheads like the battle frontier do. they have people like the frontier brains and that make it more appealing to trainers who are looking for a Final Epic Battle to aspire to instead of just beating levels of a tower and calling it a day. so yknow they're trying to figure out a solution to this problem and trying to think of WHO would be a good intial figurehead for the johto battle tower. because it would have to be someone that the region KNOWS in order to garner attention. and who better than former champion kris who left the championship title for ethan and lyra to fight over because she didn't feel like dealing with the general indigo league insanity that comes with the title! who is actually in the process of challenging and winning the battle tower itself!

so she battles her way through and once she beats all ten levels she's greeted by what looks like Very Important People and she's like. Uh? until they offer her this proposition of being the main figurehead of the johto battle tower as it goes through some reforms to attract the attention of trainers again. johto pride over sinnoh and whatnot. and kris hears the words "you get to own a battle tower" and is like Hell Yeah, Sign Me Up, This Sounds So Much Better Than Lance's Stupid Old Indigo League. and soon enough with some tweaks here and there to the battle tower system, and with the addition of a figurehead to aspire to beat, the johto battle tower starts drawing in trainers again! and that's how kris comes to run the battle tower.