Their version are better than mine for sure.

"Cynthia's Garchomp toughed it out so she wouldn't feel sad"

Cynthia: Who are you? Pokemon player: You ended my Nuzlocke. Cynthia: Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

I'm glad they got rid of the low health bar theme because now I at least get to listen to her theme while getting destroyed

Most of the game: 😀 The Elite 4: 😐 Most of Cynthia's team: 😧 Cynthia's Garchomp: 💀

This hits different after knowing what her great grandfather had done

Was so confident my Gardevoir could take down her Garchomp with Dazzling Gleam until I found out it has Poison Jab....😱

Fun fact: Cynthia’s team has perfect IVs, all EVs In stats that competitive players use in sets, and competitive movesets. Either have max affection on all your team or make peace with your goat god. Edit: alright I get it, you people worked around it with other stuff. Throw me under the bus why don’t you :(

Fairy type: *appears* Cynthia's garchomp: call an ambulance ! *Garchomp uses poison jab* But not for me!

All of the Sinnoh dragon types are creators Dialga = creator of time Palkia = creator of space Giratina = creator of distortion Garchomp = creator of HELL

"The trainer who has been known to crush dreams in a single battle, and many still fear to this day... you take a step forward, and there she is. You now have only one final objective... defeat Cynthia."

Remembering how the remake announcement made me afraid that they'd nerf her Learning that she's just as, if not more, capable makes me smile. Here's to a whole new generation of kids who get to learn the true meaning of fear

That smile before she sent out her spiritomb was not a smile for an entertaining battle...... That's the smile of someone who is adding someone to her body count

The fact that Cynthia is now the strongest trainer and ties with Red for highest level trainer pokemon.. Yes just yes.

I will never forget Batbird the Crobat. He tanked 3 Garchomp hits, giving me time to revive most of my party, allowing us the win on our first try Your sacrifice was not in vain soldier.

I've always been a fan of Wormadam. So in this game, I've had one on my team ever since I had access to the honey trees and got a Burmy. It was my main mon, being able to destroy anything if it set up Quiver Dance, but oft being destroyed just as quickly itself. Nonetheless I raised it as my own. But when the Cynthia battle finally came up, I knew it was a bit unrealistic to bring her into a battle that brutal. So I went in with my other mons, and got beat in a close match. At this point, I thought I had nothing to lose. I might as well just try something fun and drastic. Hey, what if I could win with just my darling Wormadam? That'd be funny. And it was. I sent out Wormadam first on my second attempt. Luckily, Spiritomb couldn't do literally anything against a Bug/Steel type with Sucker Punch and Shadow Ball. This left my Wormadam safe to set up Quiver Dance... six times. She now had enough strength and speed to outspeed and one-shot all of Cynthia's team. And she did. Six turns, four Bug Buzzes, Two Psychics, and it was done. Wormadam alone had beaten Cynthia. Moral of the story: Fight with the Pokemon you love. Love will find its way to victory.

"It's not the strongest that survive, nor the smartest, but the one that best adapts to change" ~Cynthia's Garchomp after learning Poison Jab

Y’all talking about her Garchomp being hard while that damn Milotic of hers can withstand a supernova….🥴

Cynthia's Garchomp: *Has Sword Dance, Yache Berry, perfect IV, and Hidden ability* Player: "Why are we still here? Just to suffer?"

In the weeks leading up to this game, everyone kept making a fuss about how Cynthia would probably be easier. Today's kids are gonna have it a helluva lot harder than we ever did, that's for certain.

November: God... Cynthia was so hard. January: Volo: Allow me, to introduce myself!

The cinematic climax my battle with her this time around had... It was down to her Garchomp, and she'd KO'd half my party already. A dragon claw scraped away most of my Torterra's hp, but he held strong. Didn't even get him down to one hp. But it was plenty for Overgrow to activate, and even if Wood Hammer's recoil didn't exist, Garchomp's rough skin was enough to scrape away the last of Bogard's hp. Such a cool moment, seeing both of our aces go down simultaneously.

I exclusively build Ice type teams when I play these games. It makes some of the earlier gyms a bit tougher, but the dragon gyms are all late game and I breeze past them. I thought Cynthia wouldn't be too tough since her biggest threat can be taken out with any decent Ice attack. Big fucking mistake. I started with Weaville who was able to freely get 3 Swords Dance's off against Spiritomb then proceeded to sweep Cynthia's entire team. I got up to Garchomp and was confident my Jolly Weaville would just outspeed it despite the level disadvantage. So it turns out Cynthia has a Jolly, max IV and EV Garchomp. He proceeds to sweep half my team including my Weaville. No biggie, I send out Mamoswine and use Ice Shard for priority. Of fucking course Garchomp is holding a Yache Berry. Ending up having to blow multiple max revives to finally bring it down with my final pokemon (an Abomasnow also with a priority Ice Shard). This max speed Garchomp was ridiculous and almost wiped me, and this is after I cheesed through the other 5 Pokemon on her team. It legitimately OHKOed on every single attack against my Pokemon. Thank god for priority moves

I never hated Full restore as much as in this fight

So happy some of you newer players are experiencing the beat down that taught us vets to fully understand competitive play

The fact she not only dethroned Red as the strongest trainer, but also switches to her platinum team in rematches is top tier. The queen is back.

I was heading into this battle prepared to take her down. Remembering the trauma she gave me as a child back in 2007. Now 14 years later, I was much more experienced in battling. Knew all the typing advantages. All was going well until her garchomp came out. I thought I was prepared for it. Boy was I wrong. As soon as that garchomp came out, it swept through my whole team. It out sped everything I had. I almost had it beat when I attempted to use ice fang on it with my floatzel. Of course, it has to miss and garchomp got off a swords dance. From there it was over. I used everything I can to try and beat it. Revives, max revives, full restores, max potions, no matter what combination of healing I did to try and counter her garchomp, none of it worked. And just like when I was a child, I lost to Cynthia once more. I beat her on my 2nd attempt, but just barely. All of my team members were down except for my Torterra who was at full health. Garchomp got 2 swords dance off prior to me getting him in though, so I had little to no hope of him surviving anything. Luckily, prior to switching in Torterra, my floatzel got off a crunch, which luckily lowered its defense. Floatzel went down, but his work would not be forgotten as my Torterra lived an earthquake by 1 HP thanks to affection. My Torterra landed it’s own earthquake on it, KO’ing garchomp from a little less than half health. If floatzel never got that defense drop from crunch, I definitely would’ve lost again. I can honestly say I have never had this much trouble with any champion since I was a kid. Coincidentally, it was against the same champion who gave me troubles as a child and still did at 23 years old. I haven’t rematched her yet in these games, but when I do, I know the even bigger threat that I’m up against this time. I will update this comment once I battle her for the 2nd time. Until then, I’ll be preparing for her

I barely survived because she chose to Swords Dance. That was not a victory. That was bare survival

She dethroned red to become the strongest trainer ever. Some Queen activity

People thought it would be easy because of fairy types, but i always knew it wouldn't. Garchomp can learn poison jab and iron head, there was no way it would be that easy. Most of fairy types are slow

Fanbase: THE NEW GAMES ARE TOO EASY! WE WANT CHALLENGE! Game Freak and ILCA: *gives the League trainers competitive teams* There’s your damn challenge! Fanbase: *Are saying the League is too hard*

A summary of my fight with Cynthia: Spiritomb: Took a few Dazzling Gleams from Togekiss but it went down: Roserade: OHKOed by Glaceon. Tension is still high because I feel as though I'm being lured into a false sense of security. Lucario: Now this guy have me war flashbacks to Maylene. She was the hardest Gym Leader I ever faced in Sinnoh and her Lucario was MONSTROUS. I wanted vengeance against the Lucario kind for my poor Vulpix getting constantly murdered by Maylene's Lucario, so I sent out Ninetales. I get Lucario down to red health, but Cynthia then switches to... Gastrodon: I've been dreading this thing for my whole playthrough. Perhaps even more than Garchomp. Why? Well, it was my main grinding Pokémon in the Grand Underground for a long while and it would always destroy my team. And it's a vulky Water/Ground Type, presumably with Earthquake and my only Grass Type attacks are Grass Knot and Ninetales' Energy Ball. I even gave Ninetales a Rose Incense just to boost The Flamethrower that I meant to hit Lucario with did nothing and then I found out it had Leftovers? Oh. This is going to suck. I selected Energy Ball, preparing for the worst, AAAAAAAND- it was a OHKO. Biggest anticlimax of my playthrough. Milotic: Pachirisu was my main 'mon to deal with her and we pretty much reached a stalemate. Scald wasn't doing anything to Pachirisu, Thunderbolt wasn't doing anything to Milotic. So I thought "This is going to take a while." I thought I could perhaps get Cynthia to waste all her Full Restores on Milotic, but then she started using Recover, so I switched to using Super Fang. Super Fang, Recover, Super Fang, Recover. Rinse repeat. Then I stopped using Super Fang when it was in yellow health and risked using a Thunderbolt. If I didn't hit, then Milotic might have used Scald this time and knock Pachirisu out. But Thunderbolt was enough and Milotic went down. Lucario: it was still red health so I thought I'd shake things up and use Lopunny. Cynthia uses a Full Restore. Lopunny uses Drain Punch and gets it down to yellow health. Then weirdly it uses a stat buffing move instead of actually attacking and I finish it off. Which is exactly how won against Maylene. Garchomp. I made my mind up. I wanted to beat Garchomp with my Starter. So I used the rest of my team to whittle him down. Glaceon fainted to use up its Yache. I tried to Ice Beam it with Empoleon, but Garchomp outsped and Earthquaked it to death. Cue montage of Garchomp slaughtering Empoleon, Pachirisu, Togekiss and Lopunny. Lopunny survived getting OHKOed twice with one HP, but then when I used Strength, Garchomp had Rough Skin???? Bye, Lopunny! During this massacre Garchomp used Swords Dance and it gave me Maylene flashbacks (again) of getting swept faster than I could revive my team. And just when all hope seemed lost: "Peppy avoided the attack with your shout!" Ice Beam AAAAND it's over! PEPPY, SWEETHEART, MY BELOVED STARTER!!!!!! YOU DID IT! AAAAAAAH!!!!

BDSP may not have been the remake I wanted but it certainly gave me closure. I never beat the original Pearl legitimately I had to cheat to beat her and by the time Platinum came I never bothered with the originals. Now almost 15+ years later I face her again as a proper and better Trainer and finally come out on top legitimately. Thank you BDSP for giving me the second chance.

Players: "Her Garchomp isn't very dangerous now since we have the fairy type" *Garchomp use Poison Jab* Players: " Oh, fuck..."

I must say... I've got overconfident in this battle, and of course, Cynthia whiped out my whole team lmao. The game was so easy until the league, that I thought "meh, I won't gonna farm for lvl (my team was lv 56~58)" but when I saw that every pokemon had an item, I ended up like "WHAT???". Was a very fun battle tho

Pokeli popping all these OST's all at once. I appreciate it.

I am actually genuinely impressed by this theme, it may even top the original.

now we know that kicking ass runs in the family

Fun fact: Avalanche has a NEGATIVE priority. And I was confused how her garchomp was faster than my weavile.

The fact that Cynthia and E4 have actual competitive teams make them more difficult than in the original-. It’s actually nuts. I’m planning on doing a nuzlocke of this game after my first playthrough, and good lord I’m going to be overleveling for this fight. No questions asked. x’D

I went into this with zero level grinding, and a plan to set up and sweep with Togekiss. Lead with Luxray, set up light screen, then take out Spiritomb with physical moves. Togekiss lives a sludge bomb and froze Roserade with tri attack, then maxed out my special attack with nasty plot. Togekiss takes out everyone until I get hit by Garchomp's crit poison jab. Then my team gets swept. But my last Pokemon Honchkrow stole the show at the last second, because she used swords dance the same turn I used foul play. Foul play does more damage the higher the opponent's attack stat is. So she made my foul play powerful enough to one shot her Garchomp. Crazy fun battle!

You don't beat Cynthia. You survive her.

So this is the “final boss music” that we all hear when she sends out that Garchomp to sweep us

Cynthia: wanna see me traumatize a generation. Wanna see me do it again

Ash Ketchum Get ready for the battle of your life

This theme being remade to include more spacy synths makes me like this because it still has the original grounded instrumentals with the spacy sounds that remind you of the theme of the legendaries

She's the only one who made me genuinely worried about losing in Brilliant diamond and I lost at first, my pokémon were underleveled even though I ended the E4 quite easily 😔😔

POV: You decide to enter that one house in Undella Town

Nobody: Me: Perish Song on Garchomp 😎

The fact Palmer uses this theme instead of the battle frontier theme is like a slap to the wrist. Yet they took the time to add Dawn/Lucus’s battle. Something that was not a thing in Sapphire/Pearl/Platnium. Battle frontiers? More like battle fron-tears 2.0

Fun fact: Her Milotic has a flame orb and the unique ability to to super-buff defense stats when afflicted with a status condition. So if your sweeper Luxrays are getting bullied by it, that's why.

"It's a modern pokemon game, Cynthia wouldn't be as hard!" Me before getting washed and folded by Cynthia 20 times

Cynthia DPPT: Who are you? Cynthia BDSP: I'm you, but stronger.

I have been a Pokemon fan since I was a child, but I did not play the main videogames until two years ago. Since then, I have been playing competitive battles in a weekly basis, reaching master ball rank without any troubles every month, and I have participated in the official online tournaments getting decent results. I am far from being the best but I consider myself experienced in competitive battles and teambuilding. When this game came out, I was so excited to try it. Although I was playing in a casual way, I tried to keep my team as balanced as possible: levels 60-65, my mons will cover each other weaknesses, competitive movesets but without optimal EVs and IVs (they don't really matter unless you are doing a nuzlocke or participating in tournaments). When the time come to face Cynthia, I finally wanted to see if the legends were true. I thought that players were probably over-exaggerating because they were inexperienced in battling when they were child. Oh boy, I was wrong. They were right all along. Cynthia destroyed me in my first battle. I genuinely thought I was facing a real person in masterball: their mons were properly trained with good coverage moves, optimal EVs and IVs and she was doing intelligent switches when she was in disadvantage. She has to be the strongest trainer in the whole franchise. I ended up beating her and her Garchomp in the second battle using a common strategy used in competitive double battles: intimidate spam haha.

Me: "With my full knowledge of competitive Pokemon, I managed to beat Cynthia easily. My long nightmare... is over. Cynthia in the rematches: "Are you sure about that?"

I built my team throughout Brilliant Diamond knowing I had this battle coming. Yet I was still so unprepared and she destroyed me. Grinded until I was "ready". Had a full team with only her Garchomp left. It very quickly wiped out most of them. In steps my Crowbat, the real MVP. Manages to take a few hits and evade enough for me to force her full restore and then lower its HP again. Crowbat feints which leaves my Garchomp that is 1 level lower than hers. Knowing she would out speed me I needed a miracle, quick claw didn't. She hits me with a dragon claw after having sword danced. I almost cried when it popped up "Garchomp held on so you wouldn't feel sad". One dragon claw of my own and she was finally beaten. This battle is the first battle to give me Red vibes from when I was a young kid playing Pokemon Gold.

“HD Garchomp isnt real, he cant hurt you” HD Garchomp:

The war flashbacks are coming back to me

Congratulations Ash Ketchum, on defeating the strongest champion ever!!!

After breezing through this entire game, I was definitely not expecting the elite 4 and Cynthia to be one of the most challenging experiences in my entire time playing Pokémon. They’re so insanely strong, and it makes me wish the rest of the game was like this. Cynthia and her competitive strats make her up there with red and ultra necrozma as one of the toughest fights in the series

I kid you not, I went into the fight with a team that i didn't think could do it. Lead off with Roserade to deal with Spiritomb, two shot with Dazzling Gleam, tanked a Psychic. Had my Torterra one shot both her Gastrodon and Milotic. For her Roserade, I used Staraptor and one shot it with Fly. Kept Staraptor in for Lucario, got off a Close Combat which did over half, then got one shot with a crit Flash Cannon. So I just brought in a Luxray and spammed Discharge until it died. *oh boy is time for satan's creation to come out* I started with Roserade to get an Attract so Satan's creation would attack less. It worked, but was immediately one shot by Earthquake. Since half my team was weak to that demon, I brought out the only pokemon that could hopefully tank a few attacks and deal some damage back, Torterra, who I nicknamed Jimmy. I decided to start with an Earthquake, which worked but he also took a lot of damage back with Dragon Claw. I knew I had to heal a bit, so I went for Giga drain. Then what happened? *"Jimmy landed a critical hit, wishing to be praised!"* Jimmy the Torterra KO'D Cynthia's Garchomp. Hence why Torterra is my favourite Pokemon. ur welcome for my traumatic experience :>

Here's everyone talking about her Garchomp tearing up everyone. Bro, my Nuzlocke was swept away in one sentence. "The opposing Lucario used Nasty Plot!"

I cheesed the battle with potions and revives like a filthy casual, no EV training and no real strategy, but the highlight for me was how my shiny Chimeco took her Milotic like a champ 😢. I found the little Chingling the first time I entered Mt. Coronet, it didn't even register in my brain for the first seconds that it was a shiny (Chingling has a very lame shiny, almost identical to the original), and almost hit run... but the delayed reaction in my brain told me I heard the spark. I went to a wiki to confirm it was shiny, and still with doubts and only normal Pokeballs at my disposal, I catched it. I was so happy, so many years of countless random wild Pokémon pestering me in caves finally paid off, I got a full odds post-gen 5 shiny without even hunting... ...and when no one in my team was able to stand against Cynthia's Milotic, this little now Chimeco was there to save the day (with a little cheese, but still). Sorry, this is one of the few times I really got attached to a Pokémon, I get teared up a little bit

Oh, more nightmares. Thanks, Pokeli!

This doesn't hit as hard in the remakes but it still fills you with dread as you know you are facing off against the strongest champion in the entire franchise.

I just come from listening to Volo's theme. I must say, there is indeed a resemblance there. The Pokemon company really pulls off that they are related.

This hits pretty different knowing that *Volo makes Cynthia look easy*

Diamond/Pearl Cynthia: Not very balanced. Platinum Cyinthia: It was nerfed but...STILL HARD Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl Cynthia: HOLD MY PERFECT EVs, IVs, AND MY HELD ITEMS

I just finished Shining Pearl and have come here to pay my tribute to this amazing Game, and this amazing Champion. Cynthia creamed me four times before I managed to 3v1 her Garchomp via intimidate cheese before Napoleon the Empoleon finished that monster of a Garchomp off. Seriously, Cynthia was one my first white-out in... I literally cannot remember when. As someone who hasn't played Gen 4 until now, I thought Cynthia was a bit overrated. *I was wrong.*

For everyone who struggled with her the first time, have fun with the rematches they are brutal

game, set, lipstick, match!

If i had not included Mamoswine in my party nearly at the end of the game, i would still be trying to beat her

0:49 You’ll be hearing this again before you get PTSD in Legends Arceus.

they did a great job with this theme imo. really sells the “cynthia is an adrenaline junkie and wants this battle to go as long as possible” idea

1:20 Ah yes, the part where Reshiram makes a cameo and howls alongside the music. Gotta love it In all seriousness, who would have thought that bringing 2 layers of Spikes would actually put Garchomp in just enough health to get 2HKO by my Gyarados's +1 Waterfall ? To think those Spikes had beaten Spiritomb when it switched back in while it had red health... Glalie, your sacrifice was well worth it !

Cynthia: Ultra Necrozma: BEING DIFFICULT AF AND HAVING A BANGER THEME:

Another great rendition of Cynthia’s theme. It lacks the heavy bass that the original had, but it still hypes you up to battle her just the same.

This champion was the first ever one to ever actually beat me (i usually over-level) and i had to sit there and contemplate my life choices to ignore all the warnings about this particular champion. Well Done Cynthia you terrifying being- well done inducing me with fear for your rematch

Pokemon Diamond was my first ever Pokemon game, i asked for one of the remakes for Christmas and my parents who didn't really know about it bought Brilliant Diamond... These songs bring nostalgy tears from me... When i hear them i wish i could go back to those good old blissful days...

The same music when my palkia died to a spiritomb 💀

People online: Yeah, Cynthia isn't that strong when you consider other Champions. Cynthia during her interview for the upcoming remake: And I took that personally.

They made her harder. Gave all her 'mon held items and she actually Switches out 'mon when at a disadvantage. I played without healing in battle, set mode, no overleveling and the fight took me 4 tries before I barley scraped by.

Fun fact: this is how you scare sinnoh and unova fans

Let’s go!! My boi Ash Ketchum just beat a champion that’s haunted me for many years!

Ash finally defeated her!

Her Spiritomb is no longer a threat thanks to Fairy Type, but her Garchomp will still bring us a lot of pain. I still love her theme.

I’m not ashamed at admitting it took me 6 tries at beating Cynthia. When I was a Kid I had the help of Palkia so it didn’t take as long as it did. Plus a as kids you wanna have the cool Pokémon on my team (don’t try and say Dialga’s better, I don’t care). This time around I went in with the team I felt had the best chance at victory in the first try, plus I’ve had this team since the beginning; Infernape, Luxray, Crobat, Staraptor, Roserade, and Gastrodon. With this team I was able to easily beat the Elite Four with no problems on my first attempt and the attempts after (slight problem with Lucian by my own part). Cynthia’s Spiritomb is the obstacle meant to wear down PP, and if you’ve got a Pokémon that can’t take more than 2 hits from Spiritomb, you’re certain to meet your end. I lost to Garchomp 4 times, and Lucario once. She has perfect counters for each of her Pokémon, if there’s a type disadvantage facing her, she WILL take it down, or bring it close to down forcing you to heal before the next Mon. If Lucario is able to pull off a Nasty Plot, or Garchomp pulls of a Swords Dance and you don’t have a plan… Accept defeat… it’s game over. They’re faster than you, my fastest member is Crobat and it had 200+ speed at the time, and that stat’s not boosted by its nature. At the 6th try, I just wanted to beat Cynthia and play the postgame, so I ended up using Battle Items to beef up my Luxray and single-handedly use him to take down her Pokémon. I used X Sp. Def to withstand Spiritomb’s Sp. Atks while I set up, X Speed to ensure I was the fastest no matter what Pokémon she used, and X Attack to beef up Luxray’s already great Attack and sweep her team.

My first battle with her: *Cynthia sends out Garchomp* "Ok, I'll just- WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS THING HAS SWORDS DANCE?!"

I'm genuinely convinced that TPCi only haven't had red and Cynthia battle anywhere yet because then they'd need to actually decide which of the two is truly stronger. These two characters are in a league of their own at the apex of what a pokemon trainer can be. They're phenomenal characters.

All gen 4 and 5 players: *ptsd intensifies*

Everyone complaining on how her Garchomp is tough, nah bro her Milotic is a piece of shit to get through.

"I hope you're enjoying the Underground kid, cos that's where your team's corpses will be very soon"

She's tough, I'll give her that.

Me: Okay Mamoswine, only Garchomp left! This is i- Garchomp: *Uses sword dance* Me: QUICK KILL IT, KILL IT, *KILL IT-* Garchomp: *Survives avalanche thanks to it's berry and one shots mamoswine* Me: *FUCKFUCKFUCKFU-*

Cynthia: Ready or not, here I come, you can't hide!!!!

Everyone's favorite champion back and her theme is as banger as ever!

Even though it's only the music and not the actual battle itself, I can STILL hear Spiritomb's cry. It's like engraved in my head

Volo: how dare you steal my theme

My main strategy for her rematch garchomp was me just switching registeel and togekiss over and over again until he ran out of pp on poison jab. That and on her first fight I had to stall her milotic with my tentacruel as I had nothing else to kill it with,as I sat there chucking pokeballs at it while it slowly died to burn through 10 recovers. Fun times

Up against Cynthia’s garchomp, the strongest Pokémon in the history of the franchise My roserade be like T O X I C