What is your head canon why the gym leaders team levels are tailored

>>27817682
Evil team's is unknown, but the gym leaders are because they are there to test you and so choose pokemon in your tier. There was an OVA where brock picked onix and geodude from a whole bunch of pokeballs and some games have them with completely different pokemon if they fight outside the gym.

Well to start. I treat it like a game. Because thats what it is... a game.

'levels' as such don't exist in the actual world of pokemon, and only exist in the game to make the game work. each leader purposefully uses pokemon corresponding to varying degrees of difficulty assigned by, I don't know, the champion of the region? hard to say.

Cheren flat out tells you in BW2 that he's not used to fighting with those Pokemon and wishes he could use his "usual partners".

I've always had the headcanon that gym leaders have a wide variety of Pokémon and select a team based on how many badges the challenger currently has. I think Origins actually showed this to an extent.

>>27817721 is probably right about gym leaders.
For the evil team it's probably because the first couple times you encounter them it's a relatively minor job so their best and their brightest are probably better off somewhere else doing something more important.

>>27817792
Yeah they showed it with Brock, because he knew Red was a new trainer he stated he'd use weaker Pokemon. I like to think that this is why gym leaders have similar Pokemon to you because if the gym leaders on the beginning only had their shitmon then what's stopping some trainer from Victory Road showing up and taking his spot as Gym Leader.

I like to think the Gym Leaders are way stronger than the game lets you on to think.

>>27817721
>>27817777
These.

Evil Team leader could be explained as them just using their shitty Pokemon since you're just a teen/kid. Even though they wanna take over the world they probably don't wanna beat up kids.
Then when they really you're strong they use good Pokemon.

>>27817736
yeah, but that's not what this thread is talking about you autist

>>27817753
Maybe it's based on how many badges the challenger has?

I think the first leader is the one every trainer must challenge first since they're just starting their journey.

After that, the 2nd to 5th (or 6th maybe) have teams of varying levels depending on where that trainer has reached at the point of battling their gym.

The 7th and 8th then have to be challenged in that order, because they only specialize in teams for advanced trainers.

And then maybe for the evil team, they send out grunts who have Pokemon just strong enough to challenge the average trainer in that area? That's my thought.

>>27817777
This. They use regulated pokemon by the league. I also headcanon that they use the appropiate levels to your number of badges.

>>27817792
>>27817859
You can challenge Koga before Sabrina and vice-versa though, can't you? Their teams don't change so that kind of throws a wrench into that explanation.
Although the rematches pretty much confirm that the teams they use in the gym battle aren't their main teams.

>>27818043
It's just an oversight in the first games, honestly. One outlier doesn't define the canon that has been setup in the anime / actual game dialogue (B2W2 being the strongest example i.e. Cheren)

>>27817682
I figured for the evil teams, with the bosses at least, they don't take you seriously because your earlier actions aren't a serious detriment to their plans, and outright killing a kid would force law enforcement to really get on their ass (or they just don't want to outright kill you), which Maxie and Archie imply in their first fight on Mt. Chimney. As for the grunts, it's not like you're infiltrating the main base early on, they probably just post weaker ones in the places you happen to go first.

>>27817682
My headcanon is that they look at how many badges they have and adjust accordingly, explaining why all the HGSS gym leaders use similarly leveled teams.

OP here:

The Gym leader checking badges makes a lot of sense to me. Though it'd be weird to think that they rank in certain orders. Like, can Roxanne for example not beat Brawly with her best? Or can she not beat Flannery with her best as a better example?

For the evil team though, in ORAS you fight at Mt. Chimney slightly early, and they are using a level 24(?) Mightyena. I feel like the grunts having lower levels makes sense, but if the leaders are so set on changing the world, I doubt they'd care about shitting on a random kid. Especially if they are even slightly ruining their plans.

>>27819257
The badges aren't ranked. As long as it is a certified gym their "worth" is equal. The leader scales the challenge based off how many of these badges you have. Once a trainer reaches 8 badges a gym leader will go all out like in general 2 when you fight brock he uses lv40s.

>>27819257
in the anime, Clemont had his gym turn away trainers who haven't gotten at least 4 gym badges for his, effectively ejecting people who tried to bypass this. so, i dont know if that says anything

>>27819257
Some gym leaders are obviously canonically stronger than the others, like Blue and Clair, but for the most part, they seem to be on the same general level when serious. HGSS, Platinum, and Emerald rematch final teams are all approximately within the same level range in those games, and the PWT is mostly a toss up too, though how canon that is is debatable.

>>27819257
The team leader in that encounter outright says they weren't serious either though, they were ready to sweep your ass with their Mega before they were interrupted. Ingame levels probably represent to an extent how hard the opponent is trying as well, their Mightyena might be a higher level in actuality but they simply underestimated you.