Reserve Fairy Gym Leader *Spoiler*

[ty_taurus]

So Adrienn was missing for about ten years before we find them under the gate in Reborn City, so there must've been a reserve gym leader for the fairy type that we just haven't met, right? Where was their gym supposed to be?

I get that this might not have been thought of because Adrienn was created when Pokemon X and Y was released and revealed the fairy type for the first time. It's been a while since then, and I'm curious if that has been thought of since Ame has gone through the trouble of creating more solid reasons for why certain gym leaders are unchallengeable at times, like Noel and Charlotte while they are in the doctor's "care."

On that note, Shelly and Noel have been away from their gyms for a long period of time, so would the reserve leaders for Bug and Normal be operating in their absence? Professor Ame knows about Noel and Charlotte not being permitted to battle since the break in at the orphanage, so besides the fight that the player has with Noel, he doesn't have a Gym and isn't able to take challenges. Charlotte was out of her gym for a while, but is back now. It's possible the reserve fire leader was taking some challenges in between the escape from the orphanage and Charlotte returning to her Gym.

[Xiri]

Doesn't the 'reserve leader' thing only work when the original leader is deceased? I guess Ame can just say that the Leaders have personal reasons to vacate their gyms for a time-being, and hence challenges cannot be commenced.

I mean, Shelly and Noel have been away from their gyms for a long time, but what about Shade? We wouldn't have been able to face him if we hadn't met Anna ourselves O_O

[Commander]

You might not have known this but Reborn's plot was actually originally based on the league during Gen V. It was around episodes 8-10 when Gen VI became a thing...which became a problem so the league needed a new leader...hence Adrienn. The story needed to be revised a little bit to include the new leader into the plot which kind of led into this little plothole. There really isn't a way to explain it without going into a crazy theory but Adrienn was able to retake Xer spot back due to never resigning and probably the hellhole that was league issues along with Reborn in general. My guess is that it was something that got overlooked by Pre-Ame and Ame "forgot" to find a new fairy leader.

[ty_taurus]

Well Adrienn's been gone for ten years, I doubt professor Ame thought they were just vacationing in Hoenn or something. I'd imagine they were presumed dead.

Even then, I don't recall if it was ONLY when a leader is proclaimed deceased. I imagined the reserve leader would kick in whenever a gym leader is unable to take challenged for a prolonged period of time. Florinia even mentions that she can't stray too far away from her gym for too long because of her responsibilities. Even when she shows up to fight against Team Meteor, her stay is only brief. In that, I'd assume Julia's not taking battles while she looks after Amaria (who's also not really taking battles) so the electric type reserve might need to take battles in her stead (as well as water I'd assume).

As for Shade... I dunno? Do we know that he doesn't take battles from other trainers? I mean the power plant is locked before Anna tells us to go see him, but that doesn't mean he didn't hand out badges to anyone else (I mean we can assume that Fern and Cain beat him.) Also he seems to have some supernatural teleportation and levitation powers a la Sabrina and her wacky Alice in Wonderland psychic shrinking powers that turned Ash, Misty, and Brock into dolls.

If the reserve leader is only allowed to take challenges and hand out badges if the primary leader is deceased, that would mean a massive amount of badges are unobtainable for large periods of time. Normal and Fire are understandable to a degree because Professor Ame was unaware of the doctor preventing them from challenges, but Normal still can't be obtained until Noel finds a gym. Beyond that, trainers can't receive badges for Bug, Water, Fairy, Poison (again), Ground, Rock, Electric (now), and even Steel (Since Titania seems to have no care for the responsibility of being anywhere near her Gym off in the desert.)

Dark was out of operation for a long period of time also since Luna was running away from El for the longest time, and even now her "Gym" is so cryptic and hidden that it puts Koga's Gym from the anime to shame. Seriously, it makes his hidden ninja dojo look like a tourist attraction. People are expected to climb down a tree and through a crystal cavern to find her with no clues of her whereabouts.

Thats a total of 9 badges that are currently unobtainable by any other trainers (And one insanely hidden Luna) which is half of the reborn league. Let's not even get into the fact that Trainers wouldn't actually be able to even leave Reborn City before the main gate was fixed (which its now locked again anyway).

Edited November 28, 2015 by ty_taurus

[GenOneRaisedGenY]

Well Adrienn's been gone for ten years, I doubt professor Ame thought they were just vacationing in Hoenn or something. I'd imagine they were presumed dead.

Even then, I don't recall if it was ONLY when a leader is proclaimed deceased. I imagined the reserve leader would kick in whenever a gym leader is unable to take challenged for a prolonged period of time. Florinia even mentions that she can't stray too far away from her gym for too long because of her responsibilities. Even when she shows up to fight against Team Meteor, her stay is only brief. In that, I'd assume Julia's not taking battles while she looks after Amaria (who's also not really taking battles) so the electric type reserve might need to take battles in her stead (as well as water I'd assume).

As for Shade... I dunno? Do we know that he doesn't take battles from other trainers? I mean the power plant is locked before Anna tells us to go see him, but that doesn't mean he didn't hand out badges to anyone else (I mean we can assume that Fern and Cain beat him.) Also he seems to have some supernatural teleportation and levitation powers a la Sabrina and her wacky Alice in Wonderland psychic shrinking powers that turned Ash, Misty, and Brock into dolls.

If the reserve leader is only allowed to take challenges and hand out badges if the primary leader is deceased, that would mean a massive amount of badges are unobtainable for large periods of time. Normal and Fire are understandable to a degree because Professor Ame was unaware of the doctor preventing them from challenges, but Normal still can't be obtained until Noel finds a gym. Beyond that, trainers can't receive badges for Bug, Water, Fairy, Poison (again), Ground, Rock, Electric (now), and even Steel (Since Titania seems to have no care for the responsibility of being anywhere near her Gym off in the desert.)

Dark was out of operation for a long period of time also since Luna was running away from El for the longest time, and even now her "Gym" is so cryptic and hidden that it puts Koga's Gym from the anime to shame. Seriously, it makes his hidden ninja dojo look like a tourist attraction. People are expected to climb down a tree and through a crystal cavern to find her with no clues of her whereabouts.

Thats a total of 9 badges that are currently unobtainable by any other trainers (And one insanely hidden Luna) which is half of the reborn league. Let's not even get into the fact that Trainers wouldn't actually be able to even leave Reborn City before the main gate was fixed (which its now locked again anyway).

This is Reborn, not Kanto. The region probably has more urgent issues at hand, like finding clean drinking water, coping with rampant crime, and dealing with the fact that the city is half destroyed. "Oh, the gym leader isn't around right now and you'd like to fight a backup leader? That's nice, but our water treatment centre's been halted by a giant mutated poison pokemon."

[ty_taurus]

If there are no planned appearances of these reserve Gym leaders, then I might just create my own

[Schiffy]

Death isn't the only way a reserve leader takes over. Cal retired (I'm guessing he was the Fire leader after Charlotte's mother, and Charlotte after him). As far as leaders "currently not taking battles", well you first have to remember that Noel and Charlotte are somewhat of an exception. In the new phone like things that replaced Jim Guy (or whatever you want to call him), game!Ame said she wasn't aware that Dr. Connal wasn't allowing battles, and that it "wasn't part of the deal".

As far as the rest goes, I'm gonna have to agree with GenOneRaisedGenY, game!Ame has alot more on her plate than making sure all the leaders are available for battles at any given time. However, I believe in Episode 15, Florinia said that the system is being revised (in-universe, of course).

[Gaunt]

Hmm i totally forgot that the Fairy Gym Leader should have a substitute...well there wasn't one in the online league so there probably isn't one in-game either but that breaks the "rules" of the in-game League...i really would lie to hear from Ame on this.

[DerogatoryTrainer]

Maybe the leaders are so hard to get to because Ame had to hide the fact that there hasn't been a fairy type leader for ten years?

[Vinny]

If we're talking about Adrienn, we could consider the fact that Adrienn was lost since the Reborn region was destroyed once. And afair, Ame(IG) isn't supposed to be the old manager of Reborn, right? I'm pretty sure Reborn is supposed to have been lead by someone else entirely before the destruction of the region. And then lead by Ame.

So it's possible that the details about old leaders were completely missing and stuff. Nobody was aware of Adrienn's position as a leader because the gym was completely destroyed. And maybe whoever was supposed to be the reserve leader died when Reborn was destroyed the first time. Or maybe Ame is the one that installed the "reserve-leader" policy, so perhaps Adrienn was the sole leader long ago.

The plot hole of the people questioning fairy-pokémons and why there was no leader is ignored because Gen V.

Of course, none of that is valid if Ame was the one leading the Reborn region before it's destruction (IG).

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Maybe Ame was the reserve Fairy leader?

[ty_taurus]

Maybe Ame was the reserve Fairy leader?

That would be interesting.

I think what would help me for writing would be to know who the reserve leaders are if there are any that are supposed to be in game. I imagine DJ Arclight is the reserve electric leader, so in Julia's case, he's now taking challenges at the nightclub.

Bennett might have been the bug reserve and Anna might have been the psychic reserve, but those are theories at best because they were in the online reborn league before the game.

I think what I'll most likely do is mention these reserve leaders and possibly create some where there is no evidence. For Adrienn, I'd imagine the current fairy leader is willing to step down upon Adrienn's return, or maybe Ame being the fairy leader would fit really well. Perhaps she keeps it a secret and only accepts challenges to those that figure out her identity with vague clues or something overly theatrical.