You know how in almost every Pokemon game there exists this one Pokemon that gains a ludicrous amount of popularity among the casual fanbase? They continuously get voted as the highest ranked Pokemon in popularity contests, fan polls, they receive more merchandise, play a big role in the anime, even getting their own movie! One of the earlier examples of this comes from the Sinnoh region. There we see this Egyptian themed fox looking Pokemon that you would almost mistake as someone's Furry costume. It's name? Lucario. Let me tell you, this Pokemon was everywhere. It was in spin-off games like Mystery Dungeon before it even got revealed, it was given a whole movie focused just on it and its Aura gimmick, and ever since then Lucario has only gotten more and more. Mega evolution? Lucario got one. Another mega evolution? Coming right up. I'm shocked there isn't a regional form for it yet, I'm sure that will come.

Well looking back, there's a time and place for a player to first get introduced to the basic and unoriginal option for their favorite Sinnoh Pokemon. You can't even obtain one in the wild in that region! Thankfully, the developers knew what they were doing and decided to make Lucario the signature Pokemon of one of Sinnoh's gym leaders: Maylene. That way everyone HAD to marvel at their newest money maker Lucario.

Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl

Maylene is either the third or the fourth gym leader you encounter on your journey, depending on the game. She governs the Veilstone City Gym. Veilstone is a very urban and modern city, and hidden somewhere in its walls is the gym. When you first check it out, a weird singing man walks out the door to serenade his greatness to you and the Professor's assistant. Don't worry, he's coming up soon.

Maylene is a Fighting type expert and is one tough cookie according to the weird shirtless man. I'd trust that man's words with my life, so I'd be careful heading in.

Maylene is another Sinnoh Gym Leader whose gym got an overhaul in the switch from Diamond and Pearl to Platinum. In the originals, you have to push some walls around to clear paths through a little maze area. In Platinum, you need to push punching bags across wires so they destroy bundles of tires that are blocking the way. I really like the Platinum version of this a lot, very thematic for a Fighting gym.

In battle Maylene uses three Pokemon. The first two are Fighting type classics by this point in the game. Meditite can deal a surprising amount of damage due to its ability doubling its attack power, but it is very fragile. Machoke is a bit tougher but still isn’t too big of an issue. Maylene’s signature pokemon Lucario can be decently strong, and it has some solid coverage moves. Shouldn’t be too bad though. In the remakes it can set up with Bulk Up, which pairs nicely with Drain Punch to recover some HP, so be careful if you are playing those titles.

You receive the Cobble Badge for defeating Maylene. In Diamond and Pearl, that’s the extent of her appearances in the story. In Platinum, you’ll see Maylene a second time when you’re heading up to your seventh badge in the snowy Northern part of Sinnoh. She will walk by you barefoot through the snow, a feat most notable, and tell you that she’s heading up to train with her friend Candice, the seventh gym leader. She refuses to use the Fly HM so she can stay in shape, very admirable but a bit over the top in my opinion.

In Platinum, Maylene can also be rematched in the Battle Zone, a post-game island away from the mainland of Sinnoh. She will use her fully evolved gym team, alongside a Breloom and a Hitmontop. Strangely Lucario is the only Sinnoh representative she seems to own, even in the rematch.

In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the rematch takes place in her gym instead. She does finally use a Sinnoh original here, in fact she uses the starter Pokemon Infernape! She can additionally be fought as an opponent in the Battle Tower, showing up alongside her friend and fellow gym leader Candice in the Double Battle challenge.

Pokemon Heart Gold, Soul Silver

Maylene makes a small cameo appearance in the post-game of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Once you make your way to Kanto, she can be found in a restaurant in Celadon City. There is an eating contest going on, and Maylene is dead set on winning it. Due to her hard training, she has developed a very large appetite. I wonder if she’s one of those professional eaters that can eat like 10 whole pizzas in an hour. I’d respect that. She also shows up in some of the expert difficulties of the Pokéathlon.

Pokemon Black 2, White 2

Maylene returns alongside her fellow Sinnoh Gym Leaders for the Pokemon World Tournament. She can be fought in the Sinnoh Leaders and Type Experts challenges. She uses mostly the same Pokemon on her teams in Sinnoh, but now finally adds new Sinnoh fighting types Toxicroak and Gallade to her team! Both of them had some representation elsewhere, but it’s still nice to see them on Maylene’s team.

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Maylene is honestly a refreshing Fighting gym leader. A lot of them are just purely focused on strength and training, and while Maylene certainly excels and talks about those topics a lot, she still has other sides to her. To start, she’s still relatively young and behaves appropriately for her age. She goes to see her friends, and seems to have a functioning social life outside of her gym duties and training. On top of that there’s the side of her that loves eating so much to the point that she literally joins eating competitions.

I’m glad she got a few little cameos to show off more of her personality. What a breath of fresh air compared to Brawly from Hoenn.

I do wish Maylene was a bit more involved with Team Galactic, who have literally put their Headquarters in her city, but to be fair they tried to make it seem like they were playing by the books to authorities.

I also like that she can use a Lucario and not have it be related to half her character or dialogue. That’s how it should be when characters use popular Pokemon. Looking at you Korinna.