"Wait, they have THAT?" Unexpected Pokémon used by major Trainers

RichestAirPirate

RichestAirPirate

Experimental Writer and Advantageshipping CEO
Heartmelting Contestant 2025 Scorbunny Fan Quaxly Fan
Joined
Feb 18, 2025
Messages
2,332
Reaction score
1,703
Pronouns
  1. He/Him
  2. They/Them
There's been many trainers across the history of Pokémon games, anime, and manga. From rivals, to gym leaders, to evil team leaders, to champions, you get the picture. Most of the time, the Pokémon they use make sense considering their type specialty or character. You might even associate a Pokémon to a character based on how often they're seen using that Pokémon. For example, you could heavily associate the Torchic family to May because of the anime and manga.

And then there are some Pokémon owned by trainers that make you go "Wait, they have that?!" This thread is about those Pokémon. Pokémon that you didn't know or expect a certain trainer to use at all.
 
Ransei said:
Candice having a Heatran in the BDSP Battle Tower is the embodiment of an example. It's not just an example. It is THE example.
Click to expand...
That's not the only odd Pokémon she uses in the BDSP Battle Tower either! She also has Venusaur, Regice, and Articuno! While Regice and Articuno are ice types, they're not easily found in Sinnoh at all. Also, Venusaur isn't an ice type at all! It's also just flat out weak to ice!
 
In the Let's Go games, when you rematch the Elite Four, Lance uses an Alolan Exeggutor. Logically, this makes sense, it's a regional variant of a Kanto Pokémon that matches his type specialty. But Lance is rather infamous for using dragons that aren't Dragon-type, so it feels super out of place to me to see him using a Dragon-type that's definitely not a dragon.
 
Cheryl being too scared to walk through the forest alone because of a couple low level team plasma grunts when she has six different legendary pokemon at her disposal according to her different battle tower rosters? i'm kinda obsessed with her for that.
 
Storm Aurora said:
In the Let's Go games, when you rematch the Elite Four, Lance uses an Alolan Exeggutor. Logically, this makes sense, it's a regional variant of a Kanto Pokémon that matches his type specialty. But Lance is rather infamous for using dragons that aren't Dragon-type, so it feels super out of place to me to see him using a Dragon-type that's definitely not a dragon.
Click to expand...
Well, palm trees have more ties to dragons than you think. In fact, there's a Hawaiian legend about dragons disguising themselves as palm trees.

So that explains it.
 
Oleana and her Garbodor for sure. When I played SWSH I was just like "Why is Garbodor your Ace?" I had no idea it could Gigantamax until then XD
 
da man/man said:
Oleana and her Garbodor for sure. When I played SWSH I was just like "Why is Garbodor your Ace?" I had no idea it could Gigantamax until then XD
Click to expand...
Apparently, she's always had one. When she uses G-Max Malodor, she says that it's a move she was good with before she changed her image. Considering that all her other Pokémon are pretty and beautiful females, I think it's a really neat that her ace Pokémon is something that's ugly and disgusting. She must've been real toxic in her past.
 
In Round 2 of the Kanto Gym Leader Castle in Pokémon Stadium 2, Brock uses a Steelix instead of Onix. Now, I get it. It makes sense. They gave him Steelix instead of Onix to give the player a better challenge. That's kinda the point of Round 2. Plus, it lets Brock show off that Onix can evolve. What makes this peculiar is that this is the ONLY time Brock has ever used a Steelix at all outside of the anime. Heck, in the anime, Brock wasn't even the one who evolved his Onix! That was his sibling Forrest's doing!

In every other appearance Brock's made, he uses an Onix, including any post game battles or rematches the player can have with him in HGSS and B2W2. While I get the idea of him showing off that Onix can evolve, that's kinda Jasmine's whole thing with her Steelix. it's even canon that she used to be a Rock Gym Leader before her Onix evolved, making her change her specialty to Steel. And considering that Onix and Steelix have different typings and stats, I really liked that the two gym leaders showed off the differences between the two mineral serpents.
 
Oh, you mentioning Stadium 2 reminds me of something that I found out somewhat recently that kinda blew my mind... In Pokémon Stadium 2, Silver casually rolls up with a team of...Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Mewtwo?! Bro never even got near a Legendary Pokémon in GSC. So that surprised me for sure, but it also made DeNA's decision to give him Ho-Oh in Masters make a little more sense. Especially given that in the credits sequence, he's shown battling Kris with Ho-Oh specifically.
 
Storm Aurora said:
Oh, you mentioning Stadium 2 reminds me of something that I found out somewhat recently that kinda blew my mind... In Pokémon Stadium 2, Silver casually rolls up with a team of...Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Mewtwo?! Bro never even got near a Legendary Pokémon in GSC. So that surprised me for sure, but it also made DeNA's decision to give him Ho-Oh in Masters make a little more sense. Especially given that in the credits sequence, he's shown battling Kris with Ho-Oh specifically.
Click to expand...
The Stadium games are full of odd team members but his one probably takes the cake.
Must be one hell of a flex on his old man though. Silver gets not one, not two, but three legendary Pokémon!
 
theres a few times weve had elite 4 members who have pokemon who are weak to their type specialty. probably my earliest pokemon memory is being walled by bruno in pokemon yellow because i exclusively used a pidgeot and his two onix would destroy them

diamond and pearl having a fire-type elite 4 member when there were so few fire-types available in those games was definitely a funny choice too! him having a drifblim kind of makes sense in my head since it's a hot air balloon. but a steelix? not so sure about that one! that said when looking at the pokemon available in dp im not sure there are any options which are significantly better? at least in yellow they couldve given bruno a poliwrath or a primeape instead.
 
Silvally said:
theres a few times weve had elite 4 members who have pokemon who are weak to their type specialty. probably my earliest pokemon memory is being walled by bruno in pokemon yellow because i exclusively used a pidgeot and his two onix would destroy them

diamond and pearl having a fire-type elite 4 member when there were so few fire-types available in those games was definitely a funny choice too! him having a drifblim kind of makes sense in my head since it's a hot air balloon. but a steelix? not so sure about that one! that said when looking at the pokemon available in dp im not sure there are any options which are significantly better? at least in yellow they couldve given bruno a poliwrath or a primeape instead.
Click to expand...
Bruno having an Onix/Steelix is odd but it kinda makes sense considering he's a martial artist, so naturally, a sturdy rock/steel type would be good to take hits.

DP Flint is infamously bad for his team, but tbh it's more of the fault of the game rather than himself. I do like the Drifblim though. That's clever and cute.
 
As you know, in B2W2, you can battle gym leaders from all the regions in the PWT in single, double, triple, or rotation battles. That's a little common knowledge. However, what's interesting about this is that this is the only time Tate and Liza can be fought individually and not as a team. To account for this, the two of them get their own selection of 6 Pokémon, although there are some Pokémon they mutually use. While the Pokémon they were given make sense, they're all psychic types, but I think it's worth pointing 'em out because again, this is the only time in the main series that the twins don't fight together. You probably didn't expect them to have full teams of 6, huh?

Also, in Masters, Liza gets a Celesteela and I know there's a story event that explains it, I still find it funny and jarring that this tiny girl has a dangerous bamboo rocket ship alien creature. It's not even a psychic type lol
 
Cynthia's team is pretty iconic/infamous. With a lot of reoccurring Pokémon in her repertoire, Spiritomb, Lucario, Milotic, Gastrodon, Roserade, and her signature demon Garchomp. She has changed some of these Pokémon around though. Always has been since Platinum, where she dropped Gastrodon for Togekiss (I always thought Togekiss fit her better anyway).

In Black and White, she drops Roserade and Togekiss for Eelektross and Braviary. They're also some pretty strong Unovan Pokémon that not a lot of major trainers in the game use. BW2 brings back Togekiss and replaces Eelektross with Glaceon. A Sinnoh Pokémon. A strong special attacker like Roserade. Fair enough I suppose, and she brings back Roserade in the PWT in exchange for Milotic.

However, BDSP gets a little quirky. The initial champion fight keeps her team the same as the DP one. The Pre-Stark Mountain rematch team uses her Platinum team, replacing Gastrodon with Togekiss. But the Post-Stark Mountain rematch team replaces Roserade with Porygon-Z of all things.

This is the only time Cynthia uses a Porygon-Z and it is locked behind a story condition. That's odd. Also, and this is my opinion, it doesn't... fit Cynthia.
 
In Round 2 of the Kanto Gym Leader Castle in Pokémon Stadium 2, Sabrina uses a Sandslash, Typhlosion, Hitmonlee, and Scizor. These guys know fighting type moves to counter Dark types. Although, only 2 of these Pokémon actually resist Dark. Also, Hitmonlee has Dynamic Punch and not High Jump Kick and that's also really really weird.

Also, I find it ironic that Sabrina is the one that uses Scizor, and not a certain someone else... I'll get to that guy later.
 
I think this one takes the cake: In the Battle Tower in BDSP, you can battle Cyrus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (despite, you know, them being the villains of the game). And Cyrus has A FREAKING ENTEI.
 
El Squibbonator said:
I think this one takes the cake: In the Battle Tower in BDSP, you can battle Cyrus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (despite, you know, them being the villains of the game). And Cyrus has A FREAKING ENTEI.
Click to expand...
Where on earth did he even get that-
 
Back
Top Bottom