Pokémon Scarlet and Violet pit you against several great characters. From trainers on routes to Team Star members, and even your rival, the champion Nemona, there’s no shortage of people to duel in pitched Pokémon battles. Among this vast cast you’ll meet on your Treasure Hunt is a mysterious character known as Geeta.
RELATED:Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Is A Great Celebration Of Spanish CultureGeeta is the Top Champion, or as others call her, La Primera of Paldea. This means that among the multiple Champions that can reside in Paldea, she’s the best around, and she’s the chairwoman of the academy that the player attends. You interact with her, as well as other various Elite Four members, during your Victory Road route on your way to becoming the Champion, and eventually face each of them. Yet as players reached the end of Victory Road, they were left disappointed by Geeta.
Despite being regarded as the Top Champion, many fans felt like Geeta’s character was a let-down and the battle didn’t live up to their expectations. It’s gotten so bad that people have called her the worst Champion of them all. However, this is a simple misunderstanding of her role, as well as how she ultimately got snubbed.
It’s undeniable that her team isn’t great. Stat-wise, she has questionable Pokémon like Gogoat and Avalugg on her team, both of which aren’t going to take a single hit very well. While her other Pokémon are either fine, a few even great choices, their moveset and placement in her team hinders their potential greatly. Simply switching the placement of her ace Pokémon, Glimmora, to the front of the team would’ve made a huge difference in the difficulty of her battle.
That said, it’s not fair to compare her to past Champions, given her placement and role in this game. For starters, consider the position at which you challenge her in the Victory Road route leads this into question. Sure, you’re officially a Champion once you manage to defeat her, but your Victory Road route doesn’t end with her - it ends with you challengingNemona. She’s even introduced as a Champion for the first time in your battle as equals.
It’s clear that Nemona is your true final battle in order to become a Champion. This also unfortunately means Geeta can’t be much of a challenge, by comparison. She has the potential to be a difficult fight, especially if your own team is of a lower level, but the challenge is adjusted for the sake of the story. This is just one of the ways the game does this.
In previous mainline titles, defeating the Champion and overtaking the title was the final stop in your Pokémon journey. Because of this, the occasion was more ceremonious, as it would be the last thing you would do before seeing the end credits of the game. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, however, used Mold Breaker on this formula in two ways, the first being allowing the Champion fight to occur at varying moments in the game.
This time, the story of the legendary Pokémon took the spotlight at the end, instead of in the middle of the games. This was great for a variety of reasons. It made for a more fleshed out and enjoyable story, and it meant that you didn’t have a legendary Pokémon that could blow through the second half of the games. However, it also meant the true final battle, the professors, would take priority when it came to difficulty and spectacle. This means the other important battles would be weaker to compensate, including Nemona and, to a greater extent, Geeta.
The other way the Champion battle differs is that you don’t take the title from anyone. In the region of Paldea, the title of Champion functions more as a rank that can apply to many trainers at one time. This was a great change for the Pokémon games as it provided a way for multiple players to be Champions and have it make sense in-universe. However, this also has the side effect of making the battle against her lack any stakes, which contributes to the underwhelming air of victory after dueling her.
RELATED:Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Is Not An Easy Game, And That’s GreatGeeta’s Top Champion status is less like a title that’s earned and more like one that’s given to her as a job. It’s more than a coincidence that the Top Champion just so happens to be the Chairwoman of both the academy and the Pokémon League, after all. However, all of this doesn’t exactly defend her quality as a Champion - it’s reasonable to look at all of this and say “OK, but she’s still the worst.”
To that I say - a Champion is more than their Pokémon, and Geeta, while not a difficult fight, is a good character. She takes on the role of a mentor scouting great talent across Paldea to take on the Pokémon League. She also has this sense of mystery that compliments her stoicism. This all fits in line with her position as the academy and Pokémon League Chairwoman, she grants her a unique role in a game full of vibrant characters.
She also has her flaws. In order to give growing talents across Paldea an opportunity to grow, she enforces strict rules and procedures among the Gym Leaders and Elite Four. This leads to quite a few characters disliking her and the way she does things, the most notable examples being Larry and Katy. This conflict not only makes her character more interesting on its own, but it also shakes up how she’s perceived by the rest of the trainers, which isn’t something the series has really had to this degree when regarding past Champions.
Even her team, as bad as it is, is far from the worst across the series. Diantha was notoriously regarded as the worst Champion due to how easily she’s defeated. On top of that, Pokémon X/Y were easy enough due to how easy it was to farm experience. Leon, outside of the Pokémon Journeys anime, only has two characteristics: being an undefeated Champion and terrible with directions - and he’s ironically easily defeated as well. Of course, the Champion that uses three of the same Pokémon doesn’t need mentioning.
Is Geeta’s team and structure the most difficult to face? No. Is she the best Champion in the series? Definitely not. Cynthia’s Champion battle, as well as her presence in the franchise, is unmatched by any other Champion and probably won’t be topped for a while. However, Geeta offers enough in personality and presence that it’s not fair to call her the worst; especially considering how distinctly she functions as a Champion compared to those of the past. Let’s give Geeta a chance here.
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