Rant coming guys: The poll asks us how we feel about Diantha, and im incapable of doing it w/o comparing her to the other champions we have gotten across 5 prior generations, so imma use my personal rank for them to make a description, note that, while this are just my opinions, i took into account character portrait, plot involvement and team design and overall difficulty, i wouldve also taken into account theme but thats much more subjective
Cynthia
Green/Lance
Steven
Alder
Iris
Diantha
Wallace
Pretty similar to most people; its said on and on, but Cynthia is what most of the fanbase looked for in a Champion, she is portraited as a calm and caring wandering trainer, which i could relate to since that is exactly what i always imagine the protagonists like. Her team is nothing to scoff at, i myself a serious problem with her as a newbie, and, in all objectivity, she had the best all around diversity and cool as well as rare pokemon in Sinnoh (Garchomp, Lucario, Togekiss, Milotic). I definetely wish she wouldve had more involvement in the Galactic attack on Mt coronet, but she does help a lot when it comes to myths, and she gave me a Togepi and i love her for that.
Green has the factor going for him in that hes your rival, you may have already beaten him a lot, but he still got to your goal faster, he was the original user of diverse types, and if we take into account HG SS, he has a freaking tyranitar. As for his character, i love the way gamefreak actually him a rival, hes an asshole that gives 0 flying ducks if you get beat up by team rocket as long as he gets to the goal first. Involvement in the story is poor because of that, and thats why hes is tied with Lance, who doesnt have the rival thing going for him. He is a badass, intimidating guy that must have killed a rocket grunt with a hyper beam with a dnite. I have alreayd said this, but he is still the only champion to force me into using a legend, and in general 3 dragonites is overwhelming when you shouldnt have ice beam at this point.
Steven is pretty close, specially because of that last battle in Emerald, similarly to Cynthia hes calm and a wandering trainer, but i just think he didnt give off that intimidating aura, like Lance, or the great character portrait and ending for Green, let alone Cynthia, who had both of them. His team is really cool to me, bulky, but the everlasting problem of a concentration of one type was just a killer, still an awesome champion, and he had a lot of involvement in fighting off Team Aqua and Magma, as well as presenting you the worst champion to date imo.
The Unova champions are pretty much polar opposites, on one hand, Alder gets a great character portrait, just like almost every important one in 5th gen, as a caring champion that seeks to counter Team Plasma's effect on the trainers, and one that can actually talk about how he feels sorry about loosing his partner, i found it, not original, but very fitting to the Champion, who did just what he was supposed to do: inspire other trainers. However, there are 2 facts keeping him from going higher, the loss to N being one, just gives him a weak look, not changed by the second fact, in the rematch against the E4, his team is so damn underwhelming, not even from the really varied and cool choices he had in Unova. Mainly it gives you the feeling hes more of a talker than a doer.
Iris, on the other hand, has a horrible portrait for a champion, im sorry but the childish demeanor didnt give me the thought she was a powerful happy go lucky trainer, more she annoyed me, her involvement in the plot is almost null, with the only scene where she shows up she jsut stays w/o doing shit about team neo plasma taking castelia sewers. But, she isnt just worse than the last 2 due to ther team: while she pales in comparison to the shit of a time Lance still gives me, her entire team is quite powerful or bulky in the case of Lapras, not like what Lance had, wich fitted his character completely, more like Iris had those dragons as plush toys that gave an actual challenge in game, (im overrating sorta).
Before goign to Diantha, i must explain properly why Wallace is imo the last champion in my ranking. His character protrait is absolutely null, he literally has 2 scenes b4 the League, neither of which give you a grasp of his personality more than an extremely superficial calm look, did i mention they were 2 scenes? that just tells you he almost plays no role in the plot. Also, others may already mentoned this, but ill stress it: the 8th gym was Water (which also happened in Johto, but Dragonite > Dragonair), 1/3rd of the storyline is surfing, there is no wayyou arent prepared for Wallace, plus, you need an electric type move to sweep his entire team bar Whishcash, and youre given Thunderbolt fairly early.
Now, w/o further rant, ill just go into another rant, why does Diantha suck so much as a champion? Welp, her character is similar if not worse than Wallace, but at least she is given sort of a purpose aside from forcing you into using a repel in a cave with 2 rooms, and she can be judged not so superficially. However, being objective, shes dull, even cocky acting, which doesnt fit her at all, and plot involvement is even LESS than wallace. Her team gives her points (over Wallace) because she actually only used Kalos pokes, and while very limited and half didnt fit her character, still had a pseudo legend and a Mega which reperesent legitimate threats.
Eh, as for the E4, i wasnt really overleveled since i went into it with a medium of Lvl 64, Malva and Siebold were trashed by simply pressing Hydro Pump with my greninja and Thunderbolt with Heliolisk respectively, but Drasna actually managed to damage my team in a sort of way, and i literally lost 5 pokes against Wilkstrom, i got predicted like a scrub :[
Also, i think most people judge the game as easy because of the stupidly overpowered grinding and battle mechanics and pokes in the game. W/o Exp share on, super training and Mega evo, the game is an actual challenge.
