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crystalelemental · 2 months ago

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Full tierlist is here, breakdown of the S-tier. As the youth say, these are my blorbos. The kids still say blorbo, right?

In all seriousness, this is going to be the longest part by far. The major difference between A-tiers, who are largely some of my favorites you may have seen me talk about a lot, and the S-tiers here, is that S-tiers are so personally compelling they define my attachment to the series. I am going to talk A Lot. So, reverse order, let's talk about S-tier.

Clair Crystal Lore: I am a younger cousin of a particularly talented older cousin. I'm sure this immediately sets the stage for why I like Clair so much. Having her try so hard to be stronger than the talented older cousin, and being Very Angry that she can't seem to be no matter what she does, resonated with me profoundly. The very first fanfiction I wrote was as a roughly ten year old child, giving her the victory over Lance I felt she deserved, and nearly two decades later I recreated it in one of my personal favorite fics. Clair just got me.

In terms of what she is within the series, Clair, like Whitney, exudes personality in a short window of time. Uniquely, Clair refuses to give you a badge after you beat her, demanding you go through an additional trial. Notably, this mimics modern games giving their pre-match trials that feel completely pointless, but instead of a time waster, Clair's actions define who she is. She's a sore loser who cannot stand when others are recognized as being more capable than her. She hates that Lance seems to be the favorite, she hates that the Elder doesn't recognize her, she hates that this random challenger can waltz in and beat her. She's set to refuse accepting you passed the trial, until threatened with consequences of...telling Lance. Which she considers a big enough deal to relent. She hates that he's the favorite...but she does respect him. It's an absolutely divine presentation of this kind of dynamic, for a hot-headed character seeking recognition, feeling like they're overshadowed.

The fun is that Clair, at least visually and in team composition, is highly distinct from Lance despite both being dragon tamers. This is something HGSS loses a bit given evolutions and team expansions, but Clair is defined as someone aligned to the sea, while Lance is defined as someone aligned to the skies. It's a common joke that Lance is secretly a Flying trainer, but that's by design. He is master of the skies, high above the rest of the world. And in contrast, Clair belongs to the seas, with an ace defined by its presence deep below the waves, and a typing that leaves its sole vulnerability as other Dragons. Symbolically, this is an excellent presentation of how she perceives her relationship to Lance. That sense of inferiority in comparison to him is, quite literally, her core weakness.

When I write Clair, I like to think a lot about what she'd be with age. As the cools off, I imagine her to be more introspective and reflective, moving from the external comparison to the people she respects but feels she cannot measure up to, to comparison to her past self and where she's going in her own life. This is undoubtedly projection, but Clair has always been a profoundly important character to me because of that personal connection.

Cynthia Perhaps my most normie opinion of the entire tier list: Cynthia is really cool actually. I feel like there are not many people willing to argue this, save to be contrarian. Which, mood, I'll get to that, but call it what it is. Cynthia's an excellent design, and a notoriously difficult challenge that keeps her ranked as a favorite for most. Yet at the same time, I am also part of the group that gets really frustrated with the general fan perception of Cynthia. Part of that is...too much waifu-ing of a character who Does Not Look LIke That, but in equal measure, people tend to over-emphasize the coolness of Cynthia and ignore that she's kind of a massive dork.

What's presented in-game is honestly fascinating in comparison to her predecessors. Consider previous champions. Blue is the son of Professor Oak, the most esteemed researcher in the series. Lance is the prodigy son of a prestigious line of dragon tamers. Steven is the son of a powerful CEO of the foremost company in Hoenn. By comparison, Cynthia is the granddaughter of the chief of a podunk village in the middle of bumfuck nowhere mountain. Cynthia's rise is from relative obscurity, and what she does with this fame is...kinda wander around pursuing her personal interests. She takes after Steven in this way, being a recurring presence in the player's adventure, but never really taking over the spotlight.

Much like Dawn, her personality is solidified by her contrast to Cyrus, who exists in opposition to human spirit, and more thematically, to emotion. Like Volo and Cogita, her namesake can align to the "I think/wish/feel, therefore I am," with Cynthia being the "feel." She is wholly emotional, driven by her internal whims and what captures her interest. She's open and earnest, almost to a fault, being willing to address Cyrus' philosophical inquiries with "If you hate people so much, just go live by yourself, I don't care about your tantrum."

Following her feelings is what leads to her arrival in Unova. She literally spends half a year, every year given she's in both games, just hanging out at the beach with her girlfriend/wife Caitlin, and exploring ruins. At no point is the question of whether whether she should spend so long away from her job important to her. Cynthia travels when and where she wants, and more importantly, crashes at a "friend's" place while doing it. Masters expands on this a bit, confirming that part of her reason is that Darach tidies up for her. She's bad at housekeeping, tends to make a mess of everything, and she likes having someone help take care of it for her. The illustrious Champion of Sinnoh cannot clean her room. That's endearing to me.

Cynthia, for all her perceived polish, is a massive nerd and a domestic disaster, and that's fantastic. I love a character that can present as effortlessly cool and a complete dweeb depending on circumstance. The level of excitement and whimsy she expresses about legends and myths and her research, before she goes into Serious Battle Mode and stomps your shit in, is the sauce that makes her so appealing. I don't think you can have a truly engaging Cynthia without both sides in play.

Geeta In very provable terms, Geeta is the least popular champion in the series. People, broadly, Do Not Like Her. Part of this is comparative. In a game that introduced a ton of strong and present personalities, Geeta does fail to stand out, being more downplayed and seemingly all business polish. When you're surrounded by lunatics, being the "normal" one is less appealing (see my stance on Larry). Part of this is fan response to the concept of having a boss, actively vilifying her for incredibly benign actions, and making absolutely wild assumptions about her leadership style and capabilities based on incomplete information. I'm not beating around the bush on this one, I think people are overtly hostile to Geeta for no reason, and it's become a self-reinforcing stance in fandom as people flock to the general consensus. And me? I am many things. A massive hater, deeply biased by aesthetics, possibly too old to write this many words about a children's series for children. But the very core of my being, is being contrarian. And damn if her spot here isn't everyone else's fault.

Let's address the former issue. Geeta, in presentation, comes off very down-played, being the polished and calm business woman who, by appearance, exudes too little to stand out. This is facade. Just like Larry, Geeta self-identifies as fairly normal, but is possibly the least hinged of any particular group. When Penny hacks into the League system and embezzles tens of thousands of dollars in funds, her response is "That's awesome. Buff up our security system and we won't tell the feds." I have seen people spin this to "Geeta is blackmailing Penny," in case we want to keep counting of meaningless vilification attempts. Geeta is lackadaisical about rules and, apparently, legality. When you go into Area Zero without permission, it's Rika that snaps at you about breaking rules. Geeta thinks it's fine, and is giving special permission to people outside her institution to explore.

Her battle also highlights a lot of how she is as a person. Like okay, I'm assuming everyone landed critical hits, or had her get a lucky shot in, right? If you didn't, the short is that Geeta comments on everything, but it comes across as wildly condescending. "Surely this isn't enough to deter you," "Yes, that's the correct move in this situation." She seems really smug, but the thing is...she's being genuine. She's clapping for you, smiling the same way she always does. She does think you're doing a good job and is trying to be encouraging, and is so so bad at it. I think there's a reason she considers Nemona her sort of successor; she likely sees a lot of herself in Nemona's complete lack of social grace. She is singularly driven to make Paldea's league exceptional, and despite her efforts to be encouraging and enthusiastic, comes across as condescending or insincere, and I don't read that as intentional from her at all. Despite claims that they were obviously setting up Villain Geeta, she's been on the level the whole time. She's just awkward, guys.

When I write her, this is what I like to lean into. She is deeply awkward, and has no idea what she's supposed to be doing outside of her job. She runs two organizations, and has zero known personal hobbies. In many ways, she's a foil to Larry. Larry doesn't like his position, but as a means to an end, has thrown his entire life into work in hopes of an early escape, with nothing to fall back on. Geeta knows nothing but her work, and is likely to die at her desk. She knows what she likes, but doesn't know how to act outside of that, and it rubs people wildly the wrong way.

Which leads to the second issue. Fan perception of her is starkly negative, and this personal friction leads to assessments of her abilities that are wildly critical given that we don't know what she stepped into. Consider Paldea as a whole. This is the only region where we have a legitimate, fully funded Academy for research. Trainer Schools in other regions are exclusively for battling, but Paldea, uniquely, has Pokemon Biology, Home Ec, Mathematics, as if any ten year old needs to know that shit when you have dinosaurs that are your friend. No other region provides such a robust set of studies for future career paths. Paldea's League, then, is in direct competition with all of these other fields of study, in a way other regions are not. Of course there's not as much money behind it, it has significant competition.

Despite this, people will assert that it is Geeta's poor management that results in Gym Leaders taking a second job, when...Unova. Unova also has Gym Leaders take on secondary, more lucrative positions, and no one criticizes Alder's management skills. If anything, Geeta is keenly aware of the fact the League doesn't pay well, but still expects her Leaders to at least care about their job. Notably, no one gets fired. The Leaders remain despite the performance review, and despite many showing outright apathy about the position. Moreover, while it's not necessarily her doing (though I assume it is), the LP system subsidizes pay. This one gets her a lot of flak too, calling LP a form of company scrip (Vilification Count: 2), but last I checked, company scrip cannot be used at your local independent hot dog stand, with a 1:1 ratio for actual cash. If anything it's the polar opposite; lacking in direct funding to pay better, a system was implemented in which League members, in addition to their actual wages, receive LP that operates, somehow, at a 1:1 value with proper currency. This is both a brilliant move to incentivize people to take the positions, and an outright miracle of bureaucracy that she got nearly every organization in the country to agree to it.

I can go on about her battle being badmouthed as poor design, and how that's really just game design failing an otherwise competent team, but I've done that before and I don't want to spend forever one one character. My point is, Geeta is the closest I come to "Everyone else is interpreting this character wrong." Geeta is absolutely fascinating to me. She wants so badly to make the League as grand as any other, and in the face of massive competition that puts them in a less favorable position, has largely risen to the occasion. She's not perfect. She makes Katy hold back so challengers experience early success, which is behaviorally sound for competitors, but unsatisfying to her employee. She's not infallible.

But she cares deeply for her people, and wants the best for them. That's why she doesn't just ignore Penny's actions, she offers her a job putting her known skills to positive use and guiding a career. That's why she "forces" Larry to use Flying types; she's aware he's in a rut and doesn't love what he does, and is nudging him to expand his interests and horizons. That's why she has Nemona sit out of the Academy Ace Tournament; difficult as it is for her, Nemona is gearing up to take her place as Top Champion, and needs practice organizing the event rather than being its top competitor. People don't really like her for it. Again, social graces are nonexistent, and her sense of what's right to do isn't always what people want. But there's a reason those performance reviews end with everyone showing renewed interest and investment in their positions. Contrary to popular belief, Geeta knows what she's doing, and is damned good at it.

Valerie Aesthetically perfect, I adore Valerie's design. What pushed her over the edge is a particular bit of dialogue from someone in the hotels who talks about various characters. He tells you that "Miss Valerie" is actually from Johto. Her fashion is largely centered on Johto fashion, but she came to Kalos for reasons we don't really know. Which should get the brain juices flowing. For me, the connection was obvious: from Johto, kimono-based attire, mains an Eeveelution. That is a Kimono Girl. Formerly, at least, but that is a Kimono Girl, you cannot convince me otherwise.

So then Masters jumps in, produces the Silver and Ho-oh event where she knows all about Ho-oh...only for them to have her say "Sorry, I'm not, I just know a lot about it." Which...okay. I'm choosing to interpret that as strictly literal. She is not, in this iteration, a Kimono Girl. But either she was and is no longer, or wanted to be. This is fan speculation in spades at this point, but that's half the fun, right?

In the former case, it's...kind of whatever. It implies that she got bored or something, but the conclusion is she left of her own accord. Perhaps to pursue fashion, who knows. But I find these conclusions relatively boring. They don't really lead you anywhere. The latter case, however, has implications. Did she want to become one but couldn't? Why couldn't she? Did she fail out? That seems unlikely, given her knowledge of relevant Johto mythology and working understanding of Johto fashion. Was she not allowed to become one? Why not? Is the position something you're born into, and despite how much she admired them, she just couldn't follow those footsteps? Or was something else in play? I have an answer, but I'm literally in process writing a fic with my answer and don't want to spoil that, so look forward to it, shameless plug.

My point is that, very succinctly, Valerie is the kind of character who is sprinkled with just enough connected dots that you can really run wild with speculation about what her deal is. And her deal becomes exponentially more fascinating when she talks about wanting to literally become a Pokemon, Mystery Dungeon style. Valerie, what in god's name does that mean? Like you want to look like one? Your clothes do weight thirty-three pounds, apparently, so dedication to the need for fairy wings. Or do you want to physically metamorphose into a fairy? Do you assume that's possible based on the forbidden Sinnoh deeplore we're all now privy to? How do you expect to...actually, talk to Opal, she may know a thing or two.

Valerie just winds up being a favorite off of aesthetic preference, and finding her really interesting to speculate about. I can safely say she's probably the "shallow" favorite of the seven, but there's a reason she's #4. I think there's a lot of enjoyment to be had with speculation about a character, where canon doesn't answer too much for you but gives just enough to really get you thinking about it. Also I think all gym leaders should be completely unhinged, my biggest criticism of Galar is that everyone's kinda downplayed, and Valerie is one of the least hinged characters we get in the series. I love her dearly.

Roxanne I have a strong affinity for the straight-laced, serious, studious types. Needless to say, Roxanne is so in this category that, when I first played Sapphire, Roxanne was my favorite instantly. There is a cute bookworm girl who is really into cool rocks? I like cool rocks! Attachment established.

The core of "cute nerd who is deeply fixated on her interest" is the appeal. Roxanne is an absolute treasure, being deeply invested in rocks because she is a lover of history, and rocks (specifically, fossils and such) tell a story about the ancient past. She'd get along well with Cynthia, is all I'm saying. But within her own region, she has the closest connection to Steven, her Rock Pal, who she talks with endlessly about different rocks and stones. What's fun is the contrast. Steven's appeal to rocks seems to be that he finds them pretty and likes the rare ones. He's the equivalent of a card collector who likes showing off the shiny reverse holo foil he pulled. Roxanne, however, is about story. She actually knows how to play the game and maybe this common isn't flashy and impressive, but she loves the tricks it can pull and thinks the art really captures the story they're telling through the flavor text.

There's also her teacher/tutor angle, depending on perceived age (recently leaked documents state 14, though your stance on unreleased internal documents that have very evidently changed is up to you). Roxanne knows a lot, but is also someone who wants to share that knowledge with others. She seems to like working with kids, doing so voluntarily and, presumably, does a good job. Her younger gym trainers all seem to look up to her, anyway. She is admired for her skills and knowledge, if nothing else.

Fan perception, but it's her social relationships I think bear examination. She has Steven, who...we never see directly interact with her in the series proper. And she allegedly has Brawly, who she interacted with in the demo of ORAS but again, never in series. She just mentions getting your number from him, so we know they're in communication, but nothing else. And the thing is, while she is admired for being the top of the class student, that tends to come with some social distance, as she may seem more unapproachable. Add in a tendency to start monologuing in really technical detail about her specific area of interest that not many others are going to reciprocate, and you have a good recipe for a character who is, at some level, rather isolated. There's a reason that, even within Masters, her only close associations seem to be other Rock-type trainers, who share her fervor for rocks.

Masters added dialogue about how she always wanted to train a Golem specifically. This feels like a minor detail, but (1) Geodude is fairly common, so this isn't particularly unreasonable for most people, except that (2) it's a trade evolution. To make that, specifically, your distant goal that you're hoping to one day achieve implies that...you don't have someone to trade with. You're easily talented enough to train up to a Graveller. But Golem? That requires something that goes a step outside of your knowledge. Which is the premise of another fic I wrote, are you sensing a pattern?

Despite this, Roxanne never really seems lonely or sad, or even all that concerned about it. She's the type to be perfectly fine with a small, close circle of friends she gets along with. And it's not that she can't adapt to other areas of interest, she teaches for god's sake. But she knows what she likes and stays true to that, pulling just enough competence to interface well with anyone she needs to.

Roxanne, similar to Clair, hits at a very personal level, even if some of that is due to strictly personal interpretation. While I will often bemoan fandom tendency to big up random characters that are canonically blank slates, I do at least understand the personal connection to a character based on what you've perceptually built of them. Roxanne is, in many ways, that kind of character to me.

Jasmine I am a slut for Johto. By region, it is my favorite, it's a nostalgia thing, it is part of my soul, it will never leave me. In particular, I attached very strongly to Olivine, a city near the sea. While not quite the same thing, I spent a lot of my younger days near the water, and feel a profound connection to it. Olivine felt deeply like home to me because of that. If I were going to have my own Pokesona, which is definitely not a thing I did as a child, they'd live in Olivine. And naturally, this meant there was connection with Jasmine.

Aesthetically, Jasmine is another that just clicks with me. Incredibly cute design, backed by an ace that is a giant metallic snake monster. You have no idea how much I love that Masters kept this going by giving her Celesteela. Jasmine's just a fun and eye-catching look, especially with the HGSS redesign.

Her personality is best encapsulated in her intro. "I use the - Clang! - Steel type! ...do you know about Steel type? They are very cold, sharp, and really strong. Um...I'm not lying." First note: Jasmine describes her type in very tactile terms. She is someone who thrives on the sensory, and appreciates the qualities of cold, sharp, and the noise they make, with her "Clang!" in Masters' sync moves being interpretable as a vocal stim at this point. Second note: she introduces herself and her type, and then the script falls apart, so she just starts talking about her favorite type. There's even a delay before she starts talking again, implying a bit of silence as nothing happens. Third: following that, there's another pause, where she tries to fill the silence and what she comes up with is an incredibly awkward "I'm not lying" before giving up and just starting the fight. Our girl is incredibly awkward, and I adore her. Because despite this, she tries to break out of that mold.

Jasmine is very mild-mannered and soft-spoken, often apologetic and uncertain, but she tries. Jasmine is constantly pushing herself to move out of her comfort zone. She's one of few characters who actively travels to another region. We find her in Sinnoh, where she's taken up Contests as well, which I always interpreted her as being particularly invested in personal experiences. Yet where we find her is Sunyshore. By the sea. It's comforting to her. It reminds her of home. What the game shows us is a young girl who is deeply socially anxious, trying her best to push herself to get out there. She's doing it scared, but by god, she is doing it.

We also get more of her general life, given the little mini events in HGSS. We get to know that Jasmine is a huge eater despite her slender frame (girl, same), and we get to see her talk to Erika, who she cannot socially keep up with. Erika has her flustered in like fifteen seconds flat. And god bless Masters, because when Jasmine talks about Erika, it is in absolutely gushing praise with literal hearts bursting over her, transitioning immediately into blushes and insistence you never tell Erika because that's really embarrassing. Girl is down bad for the girl who...kinda teases her for giggles. That's her best friend/girl crush. I'm not even theorizing, Masters has basically canonized that.

Jasmine is just an entire mood, being socially withdrawn but trying to branch out, awkward but trying so hard to engage with people, pushes herself to do all the things she desperately wants to experience, and finds comfort in the ocean and her preferred sensory input. She feels like one of the most fleshed out characters in very little time on screen, and unlike many who get development, hers is less about grand sweeping character arcs, and more about her day to day. It's about knowing the kind of person she is. I find her deeply relatable, and delightfully charming.

Caitlin Among the many archetypes that capture my interest immediately, there is no more powerful category than "Has very strong emotions, does not understand them at all." When you combine this with a wealthy lady who barks orders, I stand literally no chance. Getting to know about EVs and competitive stuff was the worst thing to ever happen to me, but it did mean I challenged the Platinum Frontier, and I cannot begin to tell you what Caitlin did to me at that age. Seeing her come back in BW1, now a member of the Elite Four using my favorite type in Psychic, was an instant kill. No one did it like Caitlin.

Of course, this is the initial hook that would eventually drag me directly into gacha hell once again. Seriously, I picked up Masters specifically because I wanted to play as Caitlin. What drew me to her was the background they go in to.

See, Psychic, as a type, is often associated not with thought, but with feeling. With empathy. Sabrina initially asserts that everyone has some Psychic power, they just don't realize it, with the implicit lesson being that your ability to connect with others and to feel things out is a form of psychic power. Tate and Liza show similar given their coordination tactics. Caitlin is the next evolution of that, taking the concept of "Psychic powers as emotional strength" to a different conclusion. Specifically, what happens when you can't control it?

In Platinum, Caitlin is forbidden from battling. They don't really go in depth about why, just that she can't, so Darach does it for her. When we meet in Unova, the answer is explained: "the force of my emotions shook me greatly. When my power awoke, I came close to destroying everything around me." She's even clear about what the emotion was, talking about how she's never beaten Cynthia, and would explode with rage. She doesn't handle losing well, and has eruptive psychic power that make it actively dangerous for her to get mad.

Caitlin is someone with anger issues, whose understanding of elegance and poise is to just not do that at all. Just don't get mad. She even refers to that time as her "weak self," as if trying to distance from that part of her. But while battling, when you get to her last Pokemon, she says she needs to stay cool and collected no matter what, as if talking herself through it. And in her villa, she'll talk about how she thinks it's better to just have no psychic power at all, than power you can't control. Using the "Psychic powers as channeling feeling," she's someone who thinks it's better to feel nothing than to feel out of control. There's a reason I think she and Cyrus would have stuff to talk about.

By BW2, Caitlin has dropped the "weak self" and no longer talks herself through things while on the verge of losing, instead presenting as much calmer and even enjoying the match. But that personal philosophy stays. She pursues this notion of an ideal, elegant self, but that self is one completely divorced from the things she is feeling. And it's only through experience confronting those emotions and working through them that she actually starts to properly adapt.

Specifically, losing to Cynthia got her used to it, and helped her learn to calm down. In her position as Elite Four, losing to the protagonists (and likely Iris) further built familiarity. She keeps it in check now. It's delightfully powerful, and resonates very strongly on a personal level. As someone who has also had difficulty controlling frustration and anger, and also internalized shame over it to the point you think the only thing to expect is Never Get Mad, Caitlin lands extremely hard.

Coincidentally, this is also part of why Caitlin/Cynthia is my big pairing. Cynthia, canonically, is part of what got Caitlin to where she is. Their battles taught Caitlin to accept loss, and Cynthia's continued presence with her through explosive outbursts shows a level of trust and care that is, frankly, rare in the series. Friendship is a huge thematic point of Pokemon, but in many cases it's interest in similar things, or that sort of kid friendship where you both are playing in the same sandbox and therefore are friends right now. Caitlin and Cynthia have this incredibly fascinating backstory of a girl who could not control her power, and a girl who stuck with her until she could. Even if you're weirded out about age gap or just don't like the ship, there's something uniquely powerful to their dynamic I don't think you can get anywhere else in the series.

Caitlin is just the most personal connection I have ever gotten out of a Pokemon character. She is the ideal aesthetic, she mains the best type, she's a powerful temper doing her best to be composed, grappling with internalized shame and a desire to be rid of those feeling entirely, but makes her way through to better control it without suppressing who she is. It's like I said, absolutely no one did it like Caitlin.

Shameless Self-Promotion If you read through all 39 of those paragraphs, maybe you would like to read 39 other paragraphs of fanfiction? If so inclined, here's the link to my AO3 account, where I have written:

Several Caitlin/Cynthia fics, and some Caitlin-specific fics

Geeta-positive propaganda

General-rated Volo fic, which one comment tells me is super rare

WataOshi fic, but not a pairing anyone cares about

That one Little Goody Two Shoes fic

Among others. I also cross-post each fic under this tag on Tumblr, with some commentary if you're into that sort of thing. I've been working on new projects that should hopefully start going live by the end of the week too. I'm hoping to have one or two up tonight, we'll see.

#pokemon tier list #pokemon characters tier list #pokemon replays #pokemon #caitlin #jasmine #roxanne #valerie #geeta #cynthia #clair

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