It's season two now of my journey of covering every Pokemon Gym Leader. Last season I explored the Kanto region and talked about all the 8 gym leaders found there. For this new season I have traveled to the nearby Johto region!

I will go over each Johto Gym Leader, what role they play in the story of the game, what team they use, and what potential roles they play in future games. I will only focus on mainline games, no spin-offs.

With that out the way, we find our first Johto Gym in Violet City, run by the bird loving Falkner! Falkner uses Flying type Bird type Pokemon and will hand trainers the Zephyr Badge upon his defeat.

Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heart Gold, Soul Silver

Falkner might be the most hilarious Gym battle in all of Pokemon in the generation 2 games. He has an illegal Pokemon, and simultaneously the lowest levels of any Gym Leader in the franchise.

Falkner leads the battle with a Level 7 Pidgey. Yes, you read that right. Some of the trainers on the way to Violet City practically have stronger Pidgeys than Falkner. The only noteworthy thing this Pidgey does is lower your accuracy with Sand-Attack or Mud Slap. After defeating this demon, Falkner follows it up with his galactic threat of a Level 9 Pidgeotto. Did he just catch this thing in Viridian Forest? Pidgeotto is obviously stronger than Pidgey, but at level 9 it is so laughably weak still that even a Chikorita can take it on with good odds to win. Easy badge, easy money.

In the remakes he still only has Pidgey and Pidgeotto, but at least their levels were buffed to 9 and 13 respectively. Pidgeotto also has Roost, which makes it hard to take down. Still, it doesn't really hit very hard and it is still an easy battle.

Also in the remakes, he can be rematched in the Post-game by calling him on a specific day of the week. He uses a team of 6 this time, all at a good level! What a character development he has gotten. Staraptor, Noctowl, Swellow, Pelipper and Honchkrow now join his Pidgeot to become the ultimate Bird Pokemon team.

Falkner plays no further role in the Johto games. He is your typical stand in the gym until the trainer comes and goes and then remain there forever gym leader that adds nothing to the plot. I find this a bit sad, as I think Falkner could have been used in Sprout Tower, the Ruins of Alph, or just something more. Heck, even trying to summon the legendary bird Pokemon of your respective game would have been interesting with Falkner helping you.

Pokemon Black 2, White 2

Falkner returns alongside his fellow Johto gym leaders to the Pokemon World Tournament. He can be your opponent in the Johto Leaders and Type Expert challenges. He uses some new Bird Pokemon like Fearow, Xatu, and Aerodactyl. Additionally, he is a possible opponent in the Legendary challenge, using a whole Lugia against you! Talk about a glow-up from his Level 7 Pidgey days.

Falkner does not appear at any other point in the main line games.

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I think Falkner was given almost no love at all by the developers. His gym in Heart Gold and Soul Silver got a nice visual upgrade, but it is still the same simple thing in practice. He has absolutely no unique character traits, other than liking Bird Pokemon. The most noteworthy thing about him is how weak he is, and that terrible Blue hair of his.

Even in games like Pokemon Masters EX, where a lot of other monotone characters got some time to shine, he is a very boring and forgettable character.

I will give a shoutout to Falkner's anime counterpart, who was very strong for a first gym leader, and had Ash having to use his Charizard against him! Great battle, and cool feat for him!

I will never understand why gamefreak never gave falkner two gen 2 flying pokemon or atleast one. They could've just gave him a hoothoot and/or murkrow, even as a ace. While Murkrow's base stat of 405 might seem intimating early game, we literally have to fight a scyther (base 500) in the second gym lol.

I don't get it either. He even has a Hoothoot in the anime, so not like they are afraid of associating him with the Pokemon. Murkrow would have been really cool as an ace. Natu is another one I think would have been fun for him to use.

It's a recurring issue with Johto leaders in general. In fact, only 4 Pokemon owned by gym leaders are from Johto. I read that once and thought it must be a fake statistic, but it's true.

supercool22 :