Lillie, Arven and N could be called the ‘Tragic Childhood’ Trio

13:40-14:31 I just have to mention a little detail for my friend, Gladion. All of his pokémon evolve through friendship. He really, REALLY cares about those who are close to him.

One of my favorite details about N is that every single time you battle him, he has a different team of Pokemon, all of which can be found in the surrounding routes. This is such a great way of showing how he treats Pokemon as friends not tools, as he seemingly releases his Pokemon as he leaves their natural habitats

I have always thought Hop had such a good character arc that everyone just overlooked! Glad you agree!

i would have to say arven is probably the best written character in the series, not just because of his compelling story arc, but the writers/localization team for scvi actually managed to write natural sounding english dialogue for once.

Arven, Lillie and N, a perfect top 3. I especially appreciate how alot of these characters are from the later half of the franchise, gen-wise

Here’s a great detail about Ghetsis In BW2, his Hydreigon knows the move Frustration at full power. He is so evil that his most powerful Pokémon hates his guts (which is also hard to do since you can make your Pokémon happier just by walking around) He went from using the guise of Team Plasma and their goal of freeing Pokémon for his own benefit to straight up becoming so maniacal from his original plan going awry that he becomes the most evil character in the series. And when you beat him again, he straight up becomes delirious. All he knows is to be evil. It’s great.

While she wasn't in this Top 20, I feel like a good honorable mention can go to Nemona. She doesn't have too tragic of a backstory like many others but her subtle arc is pretty heartbreaking when you think about it. It's a shame they don't talk about it at all in the story proper. Her parents are basically too busy for her and she's the strongest trainer in the region, meaning literally everyone is too scared to battle her. Literally all she longs for is someone who can measure up to her full potential, which is why she cheers you on so hard throughout the story. She wants you to succeed so she can finally have a true rival and challenge. I think it's sweet. I love Nemona as a character and I hope maybe DLC will flesh out a backstory for her a little bit more.

I find it noteworthy how all of these characters (except Wally) debut in Generation 5 and above. And even with Wally, he made the list because of his ORAS counterpart. Starting in Gen 5, they got a lot more ambitious with storytelling. Which games did or didn't live up to that ambition is a subject of debate, but I don't think you can deny that they'll putting in the effort.

I don't know much about characters in the game, but Guzma in the anime is definitely the best written character

I'm so glad to see Hugh get some love! He is easily my favourite rival. I honestly think it's the only time Pokemon made a Friendly Rival correctly. In that, you and Hugh are friends. And he treats you like a friend. Like someone he actually knows and gets along with. And since his goal is different from yours (wih you getting the badges and him chasing Team Plasma), your rivalry feels, well, friendly. Also, I love Lillie and her story absolutely made me cry when I first played SM. So did Arvens story in SV.

Arven is such a well written character, he deserves to be a protagonist for a Pokemon anime.

I've got to say, Scarlet and Violet have introduced me to my favourite characters, which is all of them! The gym leaders, Team Star, the teachers, Director Clavell, Clive, Arven, Nemona, and Penny are so memorable! I even felt my heart string being tugged when I finished the main story and the end credits rolling with Celestial playing in the background and the photograph of us and Arven, Nemona, Penny, the ai Professors and the box art legendary really drove an ominous stake into my heart...

gen 7 has to be one of my favorite gens because i remember the plot and characters to actually be enjoyable, which also kinda makes me hesitant to ever replay them just because i dont want to taint my positive memories of the games when i get bombarded with cutscenes.

Leon is easily the most fleshed out champion of any pokemon game. A champion that keeps wondering if there were new highs for him to reach after becoming the strongest and with a great sense of responsibility with the trainers of Galar.We know literally everything about him. Where he lives (even including how his room looks), how he started his gym challenge, which trainers where his friends and rivals during that time (Sonia and Raihan) and how he relates to them in current times, who trained him, how he got his signature pokemon, how much time he has been the champion, how he influenced the gym leaders and trainers (like Kabu, Raihan and Hop), how they think of him and its pretty fleshed out how much Leon has inspired the competitive side of the other gym leaders of his region and how much they aim to beat him (even in twilight wings when we can see the opinion of each of them about him) and we also know which ones are considered in the region to be the closest candidates to the champion title after him (something rarely seen about gym leaders from other regions), his connection with Rose and Professor Magnolia (who raised Sonia), who is part of his family and how he relates to them, how the people in the region think of him, the kind of aspects that he considers his responsability as a champion, his influence over Hop as his older brother, how much he likes the pokemon battles, he has a key role in the story not only as the final boss and we also know his entire personality overall (including aspects of him like catchphrases, the fact that he tends to get lost easily, etc) and even what happened to him after he lost his title and which is his new dream and how he even started Galar's battle tower and founded the Galarian star tournament for such goal as well. By the way, Sonia's arc is also interesting because her story was that she was the only one of her social group (Leon, Nessa, Raihan, Hop, etc) that wasn't aiming for any goal (that's why the only thing that Leon could say about her when he introduced her to the player is that she cooks well). Something that got her mad (even if she herself could only say that she used to be Leon's rival in the past but nothing about her present). And we also learned that she gave up on the gym challenge in Opal's gym thanks to Opal's notes about her. She pretty much was using "being her grandma's assistant" to excuse the fact that she wasn't really doing anything with her life and she got scolded by her grandma by it and tasked with researching the mysteries of legend of Galar on her own. She then actually got committed with researching for such goal and eventually became a pokemon professor that uncovered the truth of the legend of Galar, that also discovered the existence of two legendary pokemon, an ancient tapestry with a hidden part of the legend and that even ended up writing and publishing a book with her findings (a book that you can actually see in the Paldea region now). And she also had to learn how to be a pokemon professor. Being betrayed by her own assistant and eventually taking Hop as her new apprentice and she didn't stop moving forward after her research of the legend of Galar ended since she also kept pursuing new goals by starting a new research in the isle of armor and crown tundra. Hop's arc is awesome as well and we actually see him progressing towards his new goal thanks to Sonia as well. And Nessa, Klara/Avery and the rest of the Galar gym leaders and notable trainers/rivals are also pretty fleshed out in the game and Twilight wings as well.

I love how almost all of these are from gen 5+ 😂 (Even Wally is mostly helped by his ORAS version). They really stepped it up with their characters in more recent generations. Great video as always, and I’m happy to see so many of my favorites on here. Lillie, Guzma, Hop and Arven have my whole heart.

The same Sada/Turo who loved Scarlet/Violet's book since childhood, became deeply desperate with their own treasure hunt: A "paradise" from the past/future, this while they forgot about their present treasure: Arven, who was left without a proper childhood, since the professors gave priority to their own. But at the end... Sada/Turo's obsession became self-destructing for them. In contrast, we had Arven who wasn't even attentive to his treasure hunt, because of Mabosstiff's situation, an indirect result of the negligence of his parents. It is interesting how the situation leads to Arven investigating, similarly to the professors, while finding an answer at his parents favorite book. Also cooking involves some science chemistry knowledge (but maybe I'm just overthinking). The difference is that Arven is doing it for the one who was truly there for him. It is little by little that thanks to himself and all those around him that he ends up creating his own treasure: A family. I love how the titan path involves the bond between people and pokemon in a more personal and familiar way. How through the relationship that Arven has with Mabosstiff and Koraidon/Miraidon we slowly understand him better, and develop a precious friendship. To me the titan path it is the start of a healing process for the professor's family, the most direct victims of them. Arven has such a fight against loss and grief. One can see and understand how the lack of love has shaped him into the person he is, in his vision and at first resentment of many things: Parents, Koraidon/Miraidon, himself... and from that same pain the deep need to care and love is born, that is why at the end of the day, he goes after the search for a closure and understanding, thus growing as a person and becoming stonger in diferent ways, all while still trying to find himself.

While some can be changed around depending who you ask, I could agree on the 20 spots here are definitely the most deserving, and the top five specifically I'd agree would be set in stone. Though Pokémon has a lot of loveable characters, the ones that are written interestingly is surprisingly low. It's understandable how a good lot of the ones here, such as N or Guzma, would be fan favourites.

I'm so glad you see how well written Hop is I get so annoyed seeing people ignore the little things they did with him. Even how he throws his PokeBall and changes his team

Emma from the looker stories in xy is easily one of the best written characters in the series, it's so sad that she is so overlooked :(

I'd have put Alder in there somewhere. The guy spent his entire life trying to be the Champion and eventually reached that goal, but then had his starter Pokemon die shortly afterwards. He was so focused on his ultimate goal that he neglected to enjoy the journey as well and came to regret it. That's why he retired in BW2, he wanted to help the next generation of trainers realize that you have to find a deeper meaning in your life besides pursuing a goal for its own sake. Hell, it even got me to think about some of what I want to accomplish in real life and why I want to do them.

Emma? From XY? I think she deserves an honorable mention because it is true that she had few moments, but her story is really good

in my opinion, Colress deserved a spot on this list. My favorite Pokemon character next to Maxie, his motives aren't that grey- he's evil all around, but damn he has this sly witty feeling to him that makes you truly understand why team plasma is as powerful as they are. I ALWAYS gravitate toward villian teams and not rivals, so I might be biased. I could say soooo much about Colress but I kept it short :')

While I understand why she's not on this list, I still wanna mention Nemona. She doesn't have an arc as much as revealing her true self (the theme of SV). She is the protagonist before the protagonist, a talented trainer who put in the same work you did to make it to the very top, becoming far too powerful for anyone else to handle. She started to hold herself back just so others would actually battle her but she never found the same fun in those battles like she had back then. So when she meets you she honours you by helping you grow, as well as training a whole new squad of pokemon, before finally using her new pokemon and her full battle prowes to take you on. She might not be using her strongest pokemon, but to her it's not about how much physical power she can output, it's about her own strategies, which is something I think a lot of people don't understand about Nemona. She's a wonderful character who might not have an in-game arc but is still written quite well. My main complaint is that it is quite easy to misunderstand her motivations and desires, there's barely any dialogue devoted to this side of her, and the fact that she waits for you to arrive to battle her puts some people off, being an exaggerated part of that characterization.

Really appreciate the write-up about some of SV's characters here, as I think it has far and away the best writing in the franchise! I do feel like a character from it was sorely missed here, maybe for the sake of wanting variety from different games - but I think Director Clavell deserves a spot. The idea of an authority figure who initially acts rashly in threatening to expel Team Star but actually works to slowly gain an understanding of them and recognize how both he and the system have failed these students is such a powerful example of a character, and such a down-to-earth concept for such a goofy, silly old guy who managed to beat ALL of the twist villain allegations. I could write a lot more about him, but I just think it's a shame he didn't make it on here.

Hau in USUM (not SM) is an extremely underrated character. He always looked up to his grandfather Kahuna Hala and wants to be like him, but his laid-back attitude prevents him from growing stronger alongside the protagonist. Eventually he realizes this through interactions with Gladion and Guzma and decides to become stronger than even his grandfather, proceeding with much more motivation. This results in him ultimately challenging the protagonist, who he had mainly just played around with in low-stakes matches before, for the title of champion. There's a lot more I could say for USUM Hau, but overall he would be in the top 10 or even top 5 best-written characters for me. He's just overlooked because of SM Hau, who was indeed very bland.

PENNY!!!! (this was such a good video, well done ron)

You just know GameFreak wanted SOME characters to be the actual main characters, but didn't do it because the formula didn't allow it. N, Lillie, Arwen, and maybe even Hugh

I've come to appreciate Hugh more recently because his rival fights are to make sure you're as strong as he expects you to be instead of just mere competition. His aggressiveness makes sense because he's waited too long just to be old enough to travel and finally bring back his sister's Purrloin. Despite his looks, the fact that Gladion uses 4 pokemon that evolve by max friendship shows an endearing side to him, and his battle theme is really good in my opinion.

I'd rank Irida above Adaman personally. The writing shows us how she goes from a nervous/inexperienced leader who is wary of you at first and also struggles with being the leader that can make the right decisions for her clan to a respectable one by the end. Adaman already had all that and didn't undergo much change throughout PLA, which made him less well-written in my eyes (but still a fantastic character tho).

Hop is definitely an underrated character with one of the best arcs in Pokémon. Good to see he made it really far into the list.

I think Blue's growth between RBY and GSC and even cameo in SM/USUM is also quite nice

I think Nemona could have a place on this list. She loves battling, but not even the self-appointed Top Champion had been able to give her a challenge, so when she sees potential in the protagonist, she becomes excited and encourages them to become strong. When the protagonist becomes a champion themselves and defeats her, she is happy because there is finally someone she can go all-out against. While there's less to her arc than Arven's and her story isn't as connected with the world as Penny's, she is still a very well-written character.

This is exactly why Gens 7, 9, and 5 are my favorites. Amazing character work on top of fun gameplay

Can't believe you left out the part when N saved Nate/Rosa from certain doom by Kyurem's signature move Glaciate.

This video is amazing and changed my mind about one character: Hugh. I love BW and B2W2, but Hugh did seem one note for me, but I now see how wrong I was. A caring older brother who learns really aren’t as black and white as they might seem, who’s a pretty damn good fighter as well. Now definitely one of my top rivals

I'm happy to see gen 7 getting some love. To me it always was a great generation that people dislike for some reason.

As someone who’s a fan of the later generations, it’s great to see that the list is completely made up of gen 5+ characters, and in Wally’s case, a character who’s best iteration comes from a remake made in gen 6. It makes me happy to see Hop and Hugh so high up, since they’re some of my favorite rivals. I’m also glad you made a point to mention the original Sun and Moon when talking about Lusamine and Lillie, since I personally doubt they’d be on the list if we got Ultra as the one and only Alola game. The top 3 being Arven, Lillie, and N is also very fitting.

Hop is so underrated. Glad some people give him the love he deserves.

God, I thoroughly wish I could show Alpharad the segment 6:11 - 7:18. But alas, I still laugh at his quips about SV and the Starfall Street storyline.

Yay so glad Hop got a mention! :D Easily my favourite rival since Silver for me, for completely different reasons of course. I want to support him so much, when you battle him in the league I remember wishing there was a way for the story to let him be the winner! But he will make an amazing professor some day! :D Lillie, Arven and N were fantastic picks for the top three, all brilliant characters! Great list :D

Zinnia has been my favorite character since she was announced. I've always been a Gen 3 fanboy (Sapphire was my first game when it came out), and my favorite Pokemon has always been Salamence. When they revealed this cool-ass girl with a signature Salamence and a BANGER theme, it was over for me That being said, Lillie is my 2nd favorite right behind her

Excellent video! I just want to add, an extra part of what makes the writing for the Sword and Shield characters so good is the incredible use of British colloquialisms and phrases. As a British raised person myself, the dialogue in SwSh made me incredibly happy and the adapters did such a good job of not only writing the English dialogue well but writing it well in *British English*. I know that may not enhance their arcs and stories but it makes their dialogue fun and then more believable as real people 😊

I love how no one cared about ingo until legends arceus and everyone felt sorry for him while playing through the game

This is definitely one of your best videos yet! I'm a gen 5 fan and Alola just has great characters. Your top 5 are amazing and honestly Hugh is SUCH a well-written character for a Pokémon game.

When you get to the crater in SV you really can't help but wish for them to have done voice acting especially the Professors

funny how Ghetsis was at the beginning of the list and N was at the end, starting and ending with Gen 5

I enjoy the majority of this list. Because it shows you really took a look into the characters and how they are written like Hop and Hugh. Lotta people dismiss them for one reason or another, but as characters they are pretty neat!

i love how many Gen 7 characters made this list

It’s gonna be hard to create a more perfect character than N. Incredible story of someone who thinks he’s doing right thanks to Ghetsis’ manipulation, and he is in his mind. Returns 2 years later and gets redemption against his father and saves the player and Kyurem, eventually releasing the final key to the original plan: his dragon fit for a king

This is amazing because I just finished rewatching a ton of your Pokémon tier lists including the character ones 😂

This was a great list with great perspective! When I look at how well a Pokémon character is written, I always find myself reading heavily between the lines, so I always see how much potential they have and fall in love with that aspect. I really appreciate this video for that reason

Refreshing to see a pokemon ranking dominated by the later gens - great video 😊

Arven is an amazing character man.

This is a great list, I agree with most of it. Also N is my favorite Pokémon character so I definitely agree with his placement

That Ghetsis jump scare. Jesus Christ lol

I loved this video ! The music and your commentary really made shine through the beauty of some of this characters, that would otherwise seem to be pretty dull and forgettable. I don't think pokemon characters are badly written in general, you just don't spend enough time with them to realise their potential, and that's why characters like Cynthia, who are more visually appealing, are more popular. The story of pokemon games fells almost secondary sometimes, while it totally has the potential to be something absolutley beautiful, and this video made me realise it. sry for bad english

I’ve been hoping for a video like this for months

this video just reinforced how much i adore gen 7! definitely some of the best characters and story points in the series

Oh thank god. An overwhelmingly positive video. I've drudged through bald faced liew, back handed compliments and Cinemasins level complaints in the last twelve Pokemon vids I watched.

One thing I love about cheren is his pokemon use held items in bw and at the post game battle I lost to him this made me think about what he said before the battle about using held items since then I used held items in main playthrough and no just competitive

The first time I saw Ingo in PLA, I thought “Oh hey subway boss ancestor.” Then Irida explains how he got here I went “Oh snap it is one of them!!!”

I agree with this list 100% Yet again, another excellent list from Truegreen7

Great video. Really pleased to see AI Turo, Guzma and even Hop this high up. Can't agree with Hugh though, he looks like a Silver-type edgelord and instead he comes off as a totally all-for-good guy chasing down a household cat. But I'm glad to know he's got a supporter out there so cheers for putting your points forward. We're especially spoiled that this was a Top 20 when it could've easily been a Top 10! Would love to see more like these

0:57 Yoshi sound

please do more lore videos like these :-)) loving it

Ron obliged me to watch this video after his stream. Don't regret it

The main problem with Arven and Lillie for me is that Pokemon is a game that's main character will always be a silent protagonist. Lillie and Arven feel like they should be main characters because of big events in the story. Sometimes I feel like a background character but now I have to face their problems. The AI Professor and Ultra Beast Lusamine don't feel like my fights to win.

the top 3 are chef kiss, I totally agree with that

hop is a good character and i'm tired of pretending he's not.

i dont care if its too early but i hope gen 10 gives us more well written characters

THANK YOU! Someone else who understand Hop's arc!

Yeah! My favorite character got number 1! loved the video

Even though Anabel only got an offhand mention I am really happy to see her mentioned in any capacity

Wait how did I never realize that Wally’s battle theme in OrAs is just a guitar cover of his over world theme until now

I honestly believe that due to thematic reason pokemon black is the best game to choose since in that game n gets zekrom who represents ideals which n at the time whole heartedly aggrees with the ideals of team plasma. But we come along with reshiram who represents truth so that we can show n the truth about the world.

This is a really cool video idea! Could we perhaps get one about the best written characters in the anime?

All in all, very agreeable list! As someone whose favorite part of any Pokémon experience are its human characters, it always makes me happy seeing their stories, arcs and personalities explained well and shown in a positive light. They're all dear to me in one way or another, thank you so much for hyping them up! EDIT: Watching this video a few times over suddenly made me realize why the newer half of generations tend to appeal to me so much more than the older ones do. Seriously, I feel so ridiculous for not making this connection sooner, this game series has been with me for ages and I only made sense of my preferences when realizing that, when counting Wally as Gen 6, not a single pre-Gen 5 character made this list. So... thank you again, I guess. 😅

Funny coincidence that the top 3 are children of the main antagonists.

Gen 7. Definitely, by far, my favorite video games. Above all others, the storyline was my favorite, the characters, Pokémon, all of it was fantastic. That’s just me though. Also the OST- also my favorite (besides BoTW, of course)

Penny became one of my favourite Pokémon characters when she said she had a lot of anime she wanted to binge.

IM EARLY!! This made my day , thanks Ron!

shoutouts to pokemon sun and moon i feel like those games dont get enough credit

I do not think AZ lives up to his potential enough to be higher than Kukui.

I couldn't even remember who was who between Ingo and Emmet before, but now I really care for Ingo.

Perhaps the effectiveness of the character execution and how well the character develops despite being a flat character are more important factors on this list than the characters' complexity as evidenced by their actions, philosophies, and morals. I agree about N being No. 1 though.

I hated arven at first, he seemed annoying. But now I really love him! His story was just so interesting and heartbreaking. Still, no one will ever beat N, but Arven is now on second place for me!

This was such a good list! So many characters who made an impact on me made it on. Legends Arceus and Scarlet Violet among alot of others have such good writing! Especially Black and White, Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield, all so good..

Every Pokémon character is well written that’s why they are all so beloved They all have their own unique charm

My favorite character arc is Volo's. And his Wielder battle music is the best music ever.

Hey Ron, Nice Video. You definitely should help me with character development on a Pokémon game I’m working on!

It's kind of funny how there are no gym leaders hear despite being the most recognized group of trainers each region. I feel like by design, they kinda can't be fleshed out, you spend max 5 minutes actually with a given leader and you usually don't see them again. Even the more "well written" gym leaders are like a kiddy pool being compared to a puddle. This just really shows off how good Pokemon's character design is, with it doing a lot of heavy lifting in order to give more of a kiddy pool feel to these puddles.

My favorite thing about arven is how in the beginning we see so many things about him like his random anger and especially his search the herbs and we don’t know why. This makes him seem like a badly written character but when we finally find out why he does these things it’s makes for a satisfying and great character

Some people really hate Bianca, so I’m glad you could explain why she’s a great character.

The title for the gen 5 games is very appropriate

5:44 MY BOY!!!!

I'm so proud of myself for not liking Volo from the start. He's overbearing and a little too obsessed and that threw me off. Then finding out he was the bad guy all along? Felt amazing

How have I never noticed Sonia swirling her hair like that untill now LOL

Heck yeah! Gladion’s top 5 let’s go!!!

Just wanna say that 3 of 5 characters in the TOP 5 is from Sun/Moon