Elio and Selene are absolutely at the top. They're actual immigrants taking a challenge at a region they know almost nothing about, they take on every villainous team that ever existed up to that point, they contain by themselves an interdimensional invasion, they they themselves do interdimensional travelling to beat the embodiment of a Black Hole. Yeah, dodging god's attacks is intense and all, but moving to another dimension to beat something that eats light is kinda heavy metal.
I personally would've put the Sinnoh and Hisui protagonists at the top, as they both saved the entire universe, essentially. Also, it's made clear in Scarlet and Violet that the influx of Paradox Pokémon would've threatened the entire Paldea if it wasn't stopped, so that earns them a few more points in my book.
Paldea says a lot of things, but it still likely would've taken a long while to be a problem... But more than one region needs you to save the universe!
According to ALL the people that live in this world, they seem to think being super good at Pokemon battles makes you like a great person. But the gyms are mostly a wash anyway because it's basically tied across the board...
I'm surprised that the Sinnoh Protagonists aren't on top, despite literally saving the universe. I'm also surprised that the Johto Protagonists are above the Kanto ones for once, as usually that doesn't happen.
Well the Johto ones literally beat the Kanto ones, so I can't see how they're worse! But there are more than one set of kids that can save the universe...
@@emperorcubone I never said the Johto protagonists were worse or didn't deserve to be higher, beating Red in itself is quite the feat and I respect all that they've done. It's just that I saw a different list (by someone else, I may add) that was based on the different protagonists and that had them below their Kanto counterparts. As for the Sinnoh protagonists not being the only ones to save the universe, while that may be the case, they had to face Cyrus, who literally wanted to wipe out the universe and create a new one. Still, the fact they got as high as they did is respectable.
........i do not understand the Johto placing at all. How is winning gyms in two regions more heroic than literally stopping a WMD Highkey the Kalos ones should just be at the top of the list
Well don't forget that they ALSO stopped criminals, who may not be as dangerous, but were definitely more openly villainous than the Rocket from Gen 1, so that counts for something.
@@lee210294 I wouldn't say they were a joke, as they did have some nasty plans such as at the Lake of Rage, but I do agree that Team Rocket was more threatening and an overall stronger organization in Gen 1.
Surprised Red of all people beat Gloria/Victor and Florian/Juliana. Like yeah they had just regional threats but Red didn't even have that, The Darkest Day and Paradox Takeover seem way more destructive than a mafia who steals and failed to contain a clone
When you think about it,most Pokemon protagonists are just stopping the evil teams because they're in the way. Tgat aside,to me,Helio and Brendan are the most heroic, because Helio risked hus safety to protect Nebby, and Brendan saved a little girl from a Salamence, and got maimed for it. He actually has a scar under his hat from it.
Is that story about Brendan from the manga or something? I don't know if I've ever heard that; I wonder if EVERY protagonist has a scar and that's why they all where hats...
@emperorcubone no but Red has arthritis from literally becoming a popsicle in the Manga. Edit: The Brendon/Ruby does have a Scar from a Salamence in the Manga though incase you think I said no in general. I just meant they don't all have scars under their hats.
I agree with the Alola protagonists, but some of that logic should apply to the Legends Arceus protag as well: We have a player character who has been zapped through time and space by god to teach this older society the fundamentals of pokemon battling while being attacked by wild pokemon, something they should not have known was possible, meanwhile the gods of time and space wreak havok, some guy summons Satan, and the player character shrugs it all off with the gall to fight them all and look god in the eyes, battle them, and win. And they did all that with apparently no memory of who they are. Most heroic? Idk. Definitely the bravest.
Now you should do it for the Spin off titles. It would be very interesting to see this for games like Mystery Dungeon, XD and Colosseum, Conquest, and the Ranger games
I'm surprised by how few people actually know the canon names for the Protagonists. For those that need a reminder we have: Red and Green as well as Chase and Elaine from Kanto. Ethan and Lyra from Johto. May and Brendan from Hoenn. Dawn and Lucas from Sinnoh, as well as Akari and Rei from Hisui. Then we have Hilda and Hilbert as well as Rosa and Nate from Unova. Calem and Serena are from Kalos. Elio and Selene makes up the Alola MCs. Victor and Gloria from Galar. And Finally, we have Florian and Juliana from Paldea.
Technically speaking for the Scarlet and Violet protagonist the simple fact that the quaking earth titan is a paradox Pokemon means that if the player character didn't step in and stop everything then the entire region would've been trampled over by the paradox Pokemon
On a long enough timeline, yes. However that was the only Paradox Pokemon loose for, how long has this been going on? It seems like it would take years for anyone to even notice the issue.
@@emperorcuboneit doesn't really matter how long it takes, does it? if they hadn't stepped in, the entire paldean ecosystem would've been irreparably damaged by the paradoxes getting out. that's definitely larger scale than whatever team rocket neo was trying to do in johto
@@PeDIRLtime does matter, for them to destroy the ecosystem you would need enough of them over a long enough time to do so, it's basically meant to be like an invasive species in the real world one Burmese python in the Everglades not a big issue but release enough to become a breeding population and it's like the end times have come for that little part of the world, so in short titan or not that one iron treads/ great tusks being there really doesn't matter and given as no others are ever shown escaping not really a threat unfortunately
When I first played the Rainbow Rocket arc, I had no idea who Ghetsis and Lysandre were. I had yet to play those games, since I’ve played each generation out of order. It was a lot more impactful my second time around. Also a lot harder, oddly enough. I’m still trying to remember how I one shot Ultra Necrozma my first time around. So I never understood how hard it was until recently. Maybe my Primarina was unusually busted? She certainly carried both my original Alola adventures.
I believe the AI professors explain that, if the time machine is left on, the paradox pokemon coming through would eventually be able to leave Area 0 and overwhelm the wider Paldea region. They're much stronger than the majority of the pokemon living there in current day, and nobody would know how to counter them. So, like real-world invasive species, they'd decimate the environment. Or irreversibly change it. So I wouldn't say that would be contained to Area 0. I'd rank the Paldea protagonists above the Galar ones for that (and, as someone else said, for saving Arven's mabosstiff lol)
in florians and julianna case we seen the paradox cyclizar and a titan escape eventually the paradox pokemon could have escaped and possibly do major damage to the region
3:00 If you were paying attention the ai said that if it continued the whole region would've been in peril since the force field keeping the paradox pokemon down in area zero was weakening, since The Ground titan is a paradox pokemon. The whole region would've been destroyed by paradox if we didn't stop the time machine. 3:23 I don't think you realize how kaijus of pokemon could wreck the region if the Darkest Day wasn't stopped, feels like you're underselling it. 4:50 Hilbert and Hilda named children, "We take that personally".
I was under the impression that the out of control Dynamaxing was more of a problem AFTER you already caught Eternatus, going to all those gyms in the leadup to catching Zacian and Zamazenta, but you may be right...
@@emperorcubone Considering the idea from the animations the game gives us, terrible sandstorms, high flooded from the dynamax water move alone. The steel dynamax would mess up buildings, any of them would really.
Great video idea as always. Prewatch guess is any of the four Gen 5 protagonists and/or Elio/Selene. Post-watch: Yeah called it. Great list and I guess the Gen 5 stuff was pretty localized.
@@emperorcuboneI suppose Rose, Volo, and the S/V professors might fit in that group dispute not being Team leaders per se, but Piers and Penny sure wouldn’t. And yeah, I said the real professors, not the AI cause the AI itself didn’t want to do any of that.
If you had included outside media, Red would probably be placed higher because of Smash Bros Brawl and Ultimate, and Ash would have won because he fought all those evil teams, died a few times when protecting others(For the most part), travelled to every region, helped lots of legendary pokemon and non-legendary pokemon. Won the alola league, the orange islands, and was the world champion, and unique bonds with his pokemon that sometimes gives them unique powers or looks
I'm fairly certain Smash wouldn't count for anybody; like I wouldn't include Mario's performance in the Subspace Emissary towards his canon adventures, but Red does have plenty of other outside materials to improve his standing. I just had to pick one continuity and stick with it.
Actually, Florian and Juliana (/huliana/) would get *negative* points, if they go and release the only actually evil pokemon ever, with power to destroy an entire region, just cause they feel like it, and which the only option left was to to seal them away
I was honestly a teeny bit disappointed when you said mainline games only, since in my opinion the most heroic Pokemon protagonist of all time, counting spinoffs, is the Mystery Dungeon protagonist, specifically from Explorers. Name one other character who willingly gave up their own EXISTENCE to save the flow of time itself
Well it's kind of hard to go with Mystery Dungeon specifically because we don't actually know WHO they were before they became a Pokemon. Could've been a Rocket Grunt for all we know? Then their heroics would only be at a neutral...
At the same time though, the fact that the Grovyle who was your beloved partner pre-memory wipe was fighting to save the world and, as shown in Special Episode 5, had a good heart and solid morals implies that the player was also a good person before they lost their memory
I think S/V's protaganists should've been a little higher than second to last, had Turo/Sada's "time machine" been allowed to continue operation, it could've very easily resulted in environmental catastrophe, which would've been extremely problematic for the rest of the world. The paradoxes would've eventually escaped, there was no one stopping them
Scarlet & Violet needed to keep the Paradox Pokemon inside cause they were trying to escape Area Zero & break into the main areas of Paldea, so uh Paldea would be overun if the Heroes failed to win...
Without finishing the video, I assume its Brendan/May. They saved the entire world from the rampage of Groudon/Kyogre which might as well put the entire planet at risk. Imagine the death toll and the ruined weather that couldve dried/drowned the world. (Especially in their primal forms) Edit: Ok, I forgot Elio/Selene saved the multiverse.
I do feel like Scarlet and Violet should have been A LITTLE higher considering the fact that if the time machine stayed open, the crater wouldn't have been able to hold the Paradox Pokémon in (which is stated in the main story). And that could have destroyed Paldea, and maybe even more regions... Also, even if saving Ogerpon and Kitakami is relatively small in comparison to saving the world... I still would rank it higher than Red and Blue... And I feel like a lot of them should have been higher than Gold and Silver... Cause that is just defeating the remnants of Team Rocket left over after Giovanni... And also... Pecharunt... Mind control mochi... That could have easily spread out from Kitakami...
Hubert and Hilda are too low. Team plasma is a greater threat than you think. They planned on separating people from Pokemon (not including themselves which makes them more of a threat imo) ghetsis literally wanted to rule the world with an iron fist where he had power over everyone else because they wouldn't have Pokemon to fight back with. He manipulated N into being "king" when in reality, he would be the one in control. Think, evil dictator
For me, raw strength doesn’t mean heroic. Heroism is going out of your way to save someone else, and the more people you save and more dangerous people you stop, the more heroic you are. So, because of that, I wouldn’t count beating more gyms as increasing heroism. My list would be: 12)Ethan/Lyra: The worst Team Rocket did in Johto was take control of a radio tower to ASK Giovanni to come back. (and chop of Slowpoke tails…?) Chase/Elaine: Same reasons as Emperor. 11)Red/Green: Their versions of Team Rocket was more competent than the others’, but they weren’t all that dangerous. 10)Hilbert/Hilda: These two have a massive jump from TR, but still, Team Plasma was limited to one region. To me, it’s incredibly close between these and the next two pairs. These two could be higher than the next on the basis of being able to see through the dogma of TP. 9)Nate/Rosa: I’d say these two are slightly higher than the last because Team Plasma’s goal was to freeze the entire region, creating more destruction and death. 8)Victor/Gloria: While defeating Team Yell and saving Freezington are rather small achievements, saving all of Galar from rampaging Kaiju pokémon is pretty heroic. They stopped a lot of damage and death, however, it was also limited to one region. 7)Florian/Juliana: Their rescues of Mabostiff and Kitakami are rather small, but they saved all of Paldea from the paradox pokémon and I’m sure that if they didn’t stop Terapagos, it could’ve created some damage all the way to the surface. 6)Elio/Selene (SM): Specifically in Sun and Moon, they stopped petty crime by Team Skull and saved the region/world from UB invaders. 5)Calem/Serena: They saved the whole world from being destroyed by the Ultimate Weapon. Need I say more? 4)Brendan/May: They saved the whole world from a climate catastrophe by stopping Kyogre and Groudon, plus two evil teams at once, no matter how dumb they were. In another universe, they even stopped a meteor and Deoxys. They were really heroic. 3)Dawn/Lukas: They saved the entire UNIVERSE from Team Galactic! And they stopped a universe full of suffering because life without emotions isn’t really living. 2)Legends Arceus: Technically, the protagonists of PLA aren’t Rei or Akari because the player character is isikai’d from the future. Anyway, they were more heroic than their Gen 4 counterparts because they were ripped into a brutal time and had to fight for survival. In addition, they fostered a bond between opposing clans and between people and pokémon. PLUS, they saved the universe from Volo and Giratina in that competitive 6v8 battle. THAT was heroic. 1)Elio/Selene (USUM): Finally, the Ultra variants of Alola were the most heroic in my book because they had to travel to another dimension and defeat a light-eating dragon to save the MULTIVERSE. Afterwards, they defeated the victorious variants of every team leader in the series up until then. By far, hands down, the MOST heroic pokémon protagonists yet. Edit: I forgot that Florian/Juliana released the Ruin Legendaries. That might knock them down a peg or two. 😅
I feel the most heroic protagonist is deff Rei/Hakari. They legit stopped Volo from erasing everything. Might be recency biased since i love PLA but i also agree with your placement of Florian And Juliana.
You left out some important information on Hisui Volo was going to destroy the Universe with the power of Arceus & then recreate it in his image, so uh, stopping him is very heroic
I think this video would’ve gone over better if it was called “Which player characters are the most accomplished” rather than the most heroic. I know you said “the games treat becoming Champion as heroic” but I don’t know if that’s strictly true. I think they treat it as aspirational in the same way that we do for professional athletes. Lebron James is a lot of people’s personal hero but I don’t think anyone would argue his basketball skills have saved the world or anything
Hold on, so Brendan FROM GEN 3.. who jumped on Groudon’s back or Kyorge’s back at extreme depth levels in the ocean with untested technology..IN ORDER TO SAVE THE PLANET and ALSO VOLUNTARILY JUMPED ON RAYQUAZA TO STOP A METEOR FROM DESTROYING THE PLANET WHILE SUBSEQUENTLY DEFEATING A SPACE VIRUS NAMED DEOXYS, How tf is he not the epitome of a protagonist? Brendan endangered himself way more than any other character, and his goal was always to save the day. In the other games the characters just act by proxy
If beating gyms counts as heroic then contests and the pokeathalon should count too imo. Not that it would change the rankings just to be more detailed.
OBJECTION! The protagonist from Alola is a blank slate type, and are thus disqualified from any ranking as established in the beginning of the video. Evidence: look at their face during any cutscene 😐
Uh, they have expression in that ONE cutscene where Tapu Koko saves them at the beginning! No, but seriously that's only because we SAW them during cutscenes; I'm sure if Emerald cut to Brendan and May's face during the big fight at the end they'd have a blank stare too...
Legends Arceus protagonists got robbed imo. They came first and without their intervention, the rest of the Pokemon timeline would cease to exist (or at least, not exist in the ideal way it is now)
So you're asserting that it is in fact a closed loop of time travel that has ALWAYS happened, instead of a branching timeline from events changing due to the Protagonists intervention? Hmm... I've still not decided which method of time travel I think they might be using.
Listen, I said I Don't personally get why gyms or championships are considered heroic, but I wasn't going to ignore the things these people seem to value...
Very good video idea but I think the way you define heroic destroys the ranking. Heroic are your actions and not your success. So beating a rival, gym, or even another hero like red doesn't make you a hero. It just shows that you are a good pokemon trainer. I mean, the best example are the evil team leaders: they all are strong. Some of them could also beat gyms or champions. Still, no one is heroic. Even the little rookie trainer can be a big hero if he tries to stop the evil team but fails to do so. He is still Heroic for trying. So therefore the protagonists of scarlet and violet are big heroes for going into a very dangerous and mysterious crater. Fighting never seen battle monsters. Also the gen 1 protagonists are heroes for freeing people and going in alone as a freaking kid against a whole adult team with intentions of hurting you. Gen 2 protagonists are wimps against that cause team rocket is no big operation anymore and therefore no big thread. It's still Heroic going against them, but Silver is not a bigger hero because he fought more gyms and won against red. That's just battling skills.
Because they stopped TWO evil teams that also wanted to destroy the world, as well as a Meteor impact that would have caused an extinction level event. That's saving the world at least three times instead of just one!
@@emperorcubone Don't take it the wrong way, but this is not the truth, this is your opinion. And I still think you could have chosen another trainer to make fun of in the thumbnail.
Sorry, but i dont really get most of your points. How is fighting rivals, gyms, battle frontiers and champions heroic? This should be solely based on the evil teams and perhaps cathing legends if its relevant to a crisis. Love your content man, but this one was a miss
As I explained in the beginning of the video, the people of the Pokemon world place a huge inherent value on the ability to proficiently battle Pokemon, so it would be disingenuous to ignore that when the only reason people look up to the Champions as role models, or yes even HEROES, is their battle prowess. But even then, if you take that out, would the list Really change much? Not at all.
@@emperorcubone Going by that criteria, id argue the Johto protags should fall. They fight a much weaker evil team then any others before Paldea, and them being able to fight 16 gyms doesnt seem like that big a deal, consider that any protag could theoretically do the same if they just traveled to another region. Im not say i completely disagree with your list, but i think certain things were given more weight then they deserved.
Meh this just promoting world ending plot. I prefer the more grounded take of gen 9,8, 2,1 Theyre just kid and world ending plot feel lazy, lame and overdone. Unlikea grounded personal conflict
Elio and Selene are absolutely at the top. They're actual immigrants taking a challenge at a region they know almost nothing about, they take on every villainous team that ever existed up to that point, they contain by themselves an interdimensional invasion, they they themselves do interdimensional travelling to beat the embodiment of a Black Hole.
Yeah, dodging god's attacks is intense and all, but moving to another dimension to beat something that eats light is kinda heavy metal.
Gen 9 protagonists are Number 1 because they save Arven's dog
Yes, and since its mabosstiff they get extra points
I personally would've put the Sinnoh and Hisui protagonists at the top, as they both saved the entire universe, essentially.
Also, it's made clear in Scarlet and Violet that the influx of Paradox Pokémon would've threatened the entire Paldea if it wasn't stopped, so that earns them a few more points in my book.
Paldea says a lot of things, but it still likely would've taken a long while to be a problem... But more than one region needs you to save the universe!
And they did it with no technology, built up an entire city, got attacked by pokemon daily, they had it way worse
Not to mention, Team Flare’s attack on Kalos in the anime was basically implied to have killed potentially hundreds of civilians.
The rules only say the games matter, not the anime
@@macwelch8599 edgy
@@boyboilNEO9055 It did still up ending an entire town in the games.
Makes you wonder why the pokemon world doesn't try and enhance their military.
@@Tyler-q3k or even build a military in the first place
I think the protagonists from Legends Arceus should get more kudos considering they were time displaced to a time of more aggressive pokemon.
I wouldn't mind putting them higher; they should also get points for having the guts to physically dodge Pokemon attacks!
I feel like the term heroic is very loose here. Are beating gyms really heroic? But I do believe alola takes the cake EASY
According to ALL the people that live in this world, they seem to think being super good at Pokemon battles makes you like a great person. But the gyms are mostly a wash anyway because it's basically tied across the board...
@@emperorcubone you know what.. that’s fair
Yeah but the galar games literally have them embody the roles of the hero of legend
10:11 best way to remember them is they’re named after Helios and Selene, Greek Gods of the Sun and Moon.
I'm surprised that the Sinnoh Protagonists aren't on top, despite literally saving the universe. I'm also surprised that the Johto Protagonists are above the Kanto ones for once, as usually that doesn't happen.
Well the Johto ones literally beat the Kanto ones, so I can't see how they're worse! But there are more than one set of kids that can save the universe...
@@emperorcubone I never said the Johto protagonists were worse or didn't deserve to be higher, beating Red in itself is quite the feat and I respect all that they've done. It's just that I saw a different list (by someone else, I may add) that was based on the different protagonists and that had them below their Kanto counterparts.
As for the Sinnoh protagonists not being the only ones to save the universe, while that may be the case, they had to face Cyrus, who literally wanted to wipe out the universe and create a new one. Still, the fact they got as high as they did is respectable.
11:45
Canonically these plucky kids move here from Kanto.
........i do not understand the Johto placing at all. How is winning gyms in two regions more heroic than literally stopping a WMD
Highkey the Kalos ones should just be at the top of the list
Well don't forget that they ALSO stopped criminals, who may not be as dangerous, but were definitely more openly villainous than the Rocket from Gen 1, so that counts for something.
@@emperorcuboneBut the team Rocket in the Johto games was a joke, they were at their least threatening.
@@lee210294 I wouldn't say they were a joke, as they did have some nasty plans such as at the Lake of Rage, but I do agree that Team Rocket was more threatening and an overall stronger organization in Gen 1.
Surprised Red of all people beat Gloria/Victor and Florian/Juliana. Like yeah they had just regional threats but Red didn't even have that, The Darkest Day and Paradox Takeover seem way more destructive than a mafia who steals and failed to contain a clone
Agree with number one but would shift a few in the rest of this list. Fun video thanks!
Fair enough; I could see many of them moving around.
When you think about it,most Pokemon protagonists are just stopping the evil teams because they're in the way.
Tgat aside,to me,Helio and Brendan are the most heroic, because Helio risked hus safety to protect Nebby, and Brendan saved a little girl from a Salamence, and got maimed for it. He actually has a scar under his hat from it.
Is that story about Brendan from the manga or something? I don't know if I've ever heard that; I wonder if EVERY protagonist has a scar and that's why they all where hats...
@@emperorcubone I think so.
@emperorcubone no but Red has arthritis from literally becoming a popsicle in the Manga.
Edit: The Brendon/Ruby does have a Scar from a Salamence in the Manga though incase you think I said no in general. I just meant they don't all have scars under their hats.
I agree with the Alola protagonists, but some of that logic should apply to the Legends Arceus protag as well: We have a player character who has been zapped through time and space by god to teach this older society the fundamentals of pokemon battling while being attacked by wild pokemon, something they should not have known was possible, meanwhile the gods of time and space wreak havok, some guy summons Satan, and the player character shrugs it all off with the gall to fight them all and look god in the eyes, battle them, and win. And they did all that with apparently no memory of who they are. Most heroic? Idk. Definitely the bravest.
Now you should do it for the Spin off titles. It would be very interesting to see this for games like Mystery Dungeon, XD and Colosseum, Conquest, and the Ranger games
Those are very different story structures, so that might be a bit hard to compare!
@@emperorcubone then maybe just the Pokémon ranger games?
I'm surprised by how few people actually know the canon names for the Protagonists.
For those that need a reminder we have:
Red and Green as well as Chase and Elaine from Kanto.
Ethan and Lyra from Johto.
May and Brendan from Hoenn.
Dawn and Lucas from Sinnoh, as well as Akari and Rei from Hisui.
Then we have Hilda and Hilbert as well as Rosa and Nate from Unova.
Calem and Serena are from Kalos.
Elio and Selene makes up the Alola MCs.
Victor and Gloria from Galar.
And Finally, we have Florian and Juliana from Paldea.
Most fans say the female protagonist from FR/LG is named Leaf rather than Green.
Technically speaking for the Scarlet and Violet protagonist the simple fact that the quaking earth titan is a paradox Pokemon means that if the player character didn't step in and stop everything then the entire region would've been trampled over by the paradox Pokemon
On a long enough timeline, yes. However that was the only Paradox Pokemon loose for, how long has this been going on? It seems like it would take years for anyone to even notice the issue.
@@emperorcuboneit doesn't really matter how long it takes, does it? if they hadn't stepped in, the entire paldean ecosystem would've been irreparably damaged by the paradoxes getting out. that's definitely larger scale than whatever team rocket neo was trying to do in johto
@@PeDIRLtime does matter, for them to destroy the ecosystem you would need enough of them over a long enough time to do so, it's basically meant to be like an invasive species in the real world one Burmese python in the Everglades not a big issue but release enough to become a breeding population and it's like the end times have come for that little part of the world, so in short titan or not that one iron treads/ great tusks being there really doesn't matter and given as no others are ever shown escaping not really a threat unfortunately
When I first played the Rainbow Rocket arc, I had no idea who Ghetsis and Lysandre were. I had yet to play those games, since I’ve played each generation out of order. It was a lot more impactful my second time around. Also a lot harder, oddly enough. I’m still trying to remember how I one shot Ultra Necrozma my first time around. So I never understood how hard it was until recently. Maybe my Primarina was unusually busted? She certainly carried both my original Alola adventures.
I believe the AI professors explain that, if the time machine is left on, the paradox pokemon coming through would eventually be able to leave Area 0 and overwhelm the wider Paldea region. They're much stronger than the majority of the pokemon living there in current day, and nobody would know how to counter them. So, like real-world invasive species, they'd decimate the environment. Or irreversibly change it. So I wouldn't say that would be contained to Area 0. I'd rank the Paldea protagonists above the Galar ones for that (and, as someone else said, for saving Arven's mabosstiff lol)
in florians and julianna case we seen the paradox cyclizar and a titan escape eventually the paradox pokemon could have escaped and possibly do major damage to the region
3:00 If you were paying attention the ai said that if it continued the whole region would've been in peril since the force field keeping the paradox pokemon down in area zero was weakening, since The Ground titan is a paradox pokemon. The whole region would've been destroyed by paradox if we didn't stop the time machine.
3:23 I don't think you realize how kaijus of pokemon could wreck the region if the Darkest Day wasn't stopped, feels like you're underselling it.
4:50 Hilbert and Hilda named children, "We take that personally".
I was under the impression that the out of control Dynamaxing was more of a problem AFTER you already caught Eternatus, going to all those gyms in the leadup to catching Zacian and Zamazenta, but you may be right...
@@emperorcubone Considering the idea from the animations the game gives us, terrible sandstorms, high flooded from the dynamax water move alone.
The steel dynamax would mess up buildings, any of them would really.
As someone who mainly plays the older titles, I was really surprised to see Alola at the top of the list! Maybe I'll have to give them another go
Great video idea as always. Prewatch guess is any of the four Gen 5 protagonists and/or Elio/Selene.
Post-watch: Yeah called it. Great list and I guess the Gen 5 stuff was pretty localized.
Wow I am early, finished the video before commenting. Part of me feels like Rei and Akari should've been on the higher end for challenging God XD
That's good, I was worried people would say they were too high!
How are the Hisui Protags so low?
Low? They're like just outside the top 5.
man I would love to see team rainbowrocket in a movie
I'd love to see it again with the additional teams we've seen since added in!
@@emperorcuboneI suppose Rose, Volo, and the S/V professors might fit in that group dispute not being Team leaders per se, but Piers and Penny sure wouldn’t. And yeah, I said the real professors, not the AI cause the AI itself didn’t want to do any of that.
I don’t the emphasis on the rivals when non of them are evil. Like is fighting some cocky 10 year old boy really that heroic?
Considering the very first one became the Champion of the region, they clearly amount to something more than a petty rivalry!
Highly agree, weird criteria
Yeah Buddy!! Great #1 pick dude!
Red being as high as he is, when the bottom tier is "Did what Red did" is crazy work
If you had included outside media, Red would probably be placed higher because of Smash Bros Brawl and Ultimate, and Ash would have won because he fought all those evil teams, died a few times when protecting others(For the most part), travelled to every region, helped lots of legendary pokemon and non-legendary pokemon. Won the alola league, the orange islands, and was the world champion, and unique bonds with his pokemon that sometimes gives them unique powers or looks
I'm fairly certain Smash wouldn't count for anybody; like I wouldn't include Mario's performance in the Subspace Emissary towards his canon adventures, but Red does have plenty of other outside materials to improve his standing. I just had to pick one continuity and stick with it.
I know colosseum gets overlooked alot but ya number 1 is wes by a mile
Actually, Florian and Juliana (/huliana/) would get *negative* points, if they go and release the only actually evil pokemon ever, with power to destroy an entire region, just cause they feel like it, and which the only option left was to to seal them away
Hah, so they're the first Villains we get to play as?
6:58 its Lyra, not Lila.
Mo Wes & Rui? No Michael? That battele against the leader of Cipher in XD Gale Of Darkness is one of the most brutal fights out there.
I was honestly a teeny bit disappointed when you said mainline games only, since in my opinion the most heroic Pokemon protagonist of all time, counting spinoffs, is the Mystery Dungeon protagonist, specifically from Explorers. Name one other character who willingly gave up their own EXISTENCE to save the flow of time itself
Well it's kind of hard to go with Mystery Dungeon specifically because we don't actually know WHO they were before they became a Pokemon. Could've been a Rocket Grunt for all we know? Then their heroics would only be at a neutral...
At the same time though, the fact that the Grovyle who was your beloved partner pre-memory wipe was fighting to save the world and, as shown in Special Episode 5, had a good heart and solid morals implies that the player was also a good person before they lost their memory
I think S/V's protaganists should've been a little higher than second to last, had Turo/Sada's "time machine" been allowed to continue operation, it could've very easily resulted in environmental catastrophe, which would've been extremely problematic for the rest of the world. The paradoxes would've eventually escaped, there was no one stopping them
Scarlet & Violet needed to keep the Paradox Pokemon inside cause they were trying to escape Area Zero & break into the main areas of Paldea, so uh Paldea would be overun if the Heroes failed to win...
Without finishing the video, I assume its Brendan/May. They saved the entire world from the rampage of Groudon/Kyogre which might as well put the entire planet at risk.
Imagine the death toll and the ruined weather that couldve dried/drowned the world. (Especially in their primal forms)
Edit: Ok, I forgot Elio/Selene saved the multiverse.
This is all very true! However they're not the only world savers.
Me I am the hero!
I personally think that protagonist of Magikarp Jump is the most heroic one.
I do feel like Scarlet and Violet should have been A LITTLE higher considering the fact that if the time machine stayed open, the crater wouldn't have been able to hold the Paradox Pokémon in (which is stated in the main story). And that could have destroyed Paldea, and maybe even more regions...
Also, even if saving Ogerpon and Kitakami is relatively small in comparison to saving the world... I still would rank it higher than Red and Blue... And I feel like a lot of them should have been higher than Gold and Silver... Cause that is just defeating the remnants of Team Rocket left over after Giovanni...
And also... Pecharunt... Mind control mochi... That could have easily spread out from Kitakami...
Brih, the Legends:Arceus protags literally square up against God, leaving them out of the Top 5 is dirty work.
😭
Hubert and Hilda are too low. Team plasma is a greater threat than you think. They planned on separating people from Pokemon (not including themselves which makes them more of a threat imo) ghetsis literally wanted to rule the world with an iron fist where he had power over everyone else because they wouldn't have Pokemon to fight back with. He manipulated N into being "king" when in reality, he would be the one in control. Think, evil dictator
For me, raw strength doesn’t mean heroic. Heroism is going out of your way to save someone else, and the more people you save and more dangerous people you stop, the more heroic you are. So, because of that, I wouldn’t count beating more gyms as increasing heroism. My list would be:
12)Ethan/Lyra: The worst Team Rocket did in Johto was take control of a radio tower to ASK Giovanni to come back. (and chop of Slowpoke tails…?)
Chase/Elaine: Same reasons as Emperor.
11)Red/Green: Their versions of Team Rocket was more competent than the others’, but they weren’t all that dangerous.
10)Hilbert/Hilda: These two have a massive jump from TR, but still, Team Plasma was limited to one region. To me, it’s incredibly close between these and the next two pairs. These two could be higher than the next on the basis of being able to see through the dogma of TP.
9)Nate/Rosa: I’d say these two are slightly higher than the last because Team Plasma’s goal was to freeze the entire region, creating more destruction and death.
8)Victor/Gloria: While defeating Team Yell and saving Freezington are rather small achievements, saving all of Galar from rampaging Kaiju pokémon is pretty heroic. They stopped a lot of damage and death, however, it was also limited to one region.
7)Florian/Juliana: Their rescues of Mabostiff and Kitakami are rather small, but they saved all of Paldea from the paradox pokémon and I’m sure that if they didn’t stop Terapagos, it could’ve created some damage all the way to the surface.
6)Elio/Selene (SM): Specifically in Sun and Moon, they stopped petty crime by Team Skull and saved the region/world from UB invaders.
5)Calem/Serena: They saved the whole world from being destroyed by the Ultimate Weapon. Need I say more?
4)Brendan/May: They saved the whole world from a climate catastrophe by stopping Kyogre and Groudon, plus two evil teams at once, no matter how dumb they were. In another universe, they even stopped a meteor and Deoxys. They were really heroic.
3)Dawn/Lukas: They saved the entire UNIVERSE from Team Galactic! And they stopped a universe full of suffering because life without emotions isn’t really living.
2)Legends Arceus: Technically, the protagonists of PLA aren’t Rei or Akari because the player character is isikai’d from the future. Anyway, they were more heroic than their Gen 4 counterparts because they were ripped into a brutal time and had to fight for survival. In addition, they fostered a bond between opposing clans and between people and pokémon. PLUS, they saved the universe from Volo and Giratina in that competitive 6v8 battle. THAT was heroic.
1)Elio/Selene (USUM): Finally, the Ultra variants of Alola were the most heroic in my book because they had to travel to another dimension and defeat a light-eating dragon to save the MULTIVERSE. Afterwards, they defeated the victorious variants of every team leader in the series up until then. By far, hands down, the MOST heroic pokémon protagonists yet.
Edit: I forgot that Florian/Juliana released the Ruin Legendaries. That might knock them down a peg or two. 😅
But Ghetsis would've ruled Unova with an Iron Fist if Team Plasma won in BW & the Unova was prevented from Freezing over fully in B2W2
I feel the most heroic protagonist is deff Rei/Hakari. They legit stopped Volo from erasing everything. Might be recency biased since i love PLA but i also agree with your placement of Florian And Juliana.
calling wally a good rival is craaaazy
You left out some important information on Hisui
Volo was going to destroy the Universe with the power of Arceus & then recreate it in his image, so uh, stopping him is very heroic
I think this video would’ve gone over better if it was called “Which player characters are the most accomplished” rather than the most heroic. I know you said “the games treat becoming Champion as heroic” but I don’t know if that’s strictly true. I think they treat it as aspirational in the same way that we do for professional athletes. Lebron James is a lot of people’s personal hero but I don’t think anyone would argue his basketball skills have saved the world or anything
Hold on, so Brendan FROM GEN 3..
who jumped on Groudon’s back or Kyorge’s back at extreme depth levels in the ocean with untested technology..IN ORDER TO SAVE THE PLANET
and ALSO VOLUNTARILY JUMPED ON RAYQUAZA TO STOP A METEOR FROM DESTROYING THE PLANET WHILE SUBSEQUENTLY DEFEATING A SPACE VIRUS NAMED DEOXYS,
How tf is he not the epitome of a protagonist? Brendan endangered himself way more than any other character, and his goal was always to save the day. In the other games the characters just act by proxy
If beating gyms counts as heroic then contests and the pokeathalon should count too imo. Not that it would change the rankings just to be more detailed.
Well I did ask about it, and you made the case!
Gym leaders are not villains.
I would agree with that. With the one exception being Giovanni. Maybe Malva for the Kalos E4
OBJECTION! The protagonist from Alola is a blank slate type, and are thus disqualified from any ranking as established in the beginning of the video. Evidence: look at their face during any cutscene 😐
Uh, they have expression in that ONE cutscene where Tapu Koko saves them at the beginning! No, but seriously that's only because we SAW them during cutscenes; I'm sure if Emerald cut to Brendan and May's face during the big fight at the end they'd have a blank stare too...
awww alola’s terribly long, slow plot is finally gonna count for something…
What about spin off characters?
I watch a video similar to this from JPR.
Legends Arceus protagonists got robbed imo. They came first and without their intervention, the rest of the Pokemon timeline would cease to exist (or at least, not exist in the ideal way it is now)
So you're asserting that it is in fact a closed loop of time travel that has ALWAYS happened, instead of a branching timeline from events changing due to the Protagonists intervention? Hmm... I've still not decided which method of time travel I think they might be using.
Wait. Power and fame make a hero? Somebody should watch way more anime...
Listen, I said I Don't personally get why gyms or championships are considered heroic, but I wasn't going to ignore the things these people seem to value...
Can we talk about Chase and Elaine, please? Bloodhound Gang, Anyone?
I believe that it the X and Y best heroic
I could see the argument for that. And they're even heroic in 3D!
Very good video idea but I think the way you define heroic destroys the ranking.
Heroic are your actions and not your success. So beating a rival, gym, or even another hero like red doesn't make you a hero. It just shows that you are a good pokemon trainer. I mean, the best example are the evil team leaders: they all are strong. Some of them could also beat gyms or champions. Still, no one is heroic.
Even the little rookie trainer can be a big hero if he tries to stop the evil team but fails to do so. He is still Heroic for trying.
So therefore the protagonists of scarlet and violet are big heroes for going into a very dangerous and mysterious crater. Fighting never seen battle monsters.
Also the gen 1 protagonists are heroes for freeing people and going in alone as a freaking kid against a whole adult team with intentions of hurting you.
Gen 2 protagonists are wimps against that cause team rocket is no big operation anymore and therefore no big thread. It's still Heroic going against them, but Silver is not a bigger hero because he fought more gyms and won against red. That's just battling skills.
I’m sorry how is stopping team flare who wanted to either make everything immortal or kill everyone but them less heroic than the gen 3 protags???
Because they stopped TWO evil teams that also wanted to destroy the world, as well as a Meteor impact that would have caused an extinction level event. That's saving the world at least three times instead of just one!
Beating red is more heroic than saving existence from the avatar of the god of all pokemon? Arceus should have been 1, they save a multi-verse.
How did PLA save a multiverse? I never got that impression.
Me! I am most heroic protagonist :D
Oh wow, congrats!
Dang first 25 seconds
Nice video! Also just wanted to come back and prove I actually watched the video
They canonically did NOT defeat Red.
Then how did they get those sweet Kanto starter gifts from Professor Oak, only obtainable after beating Red?
This a weird list and weird criteria. I dont understand how beating rivals and gym leaders makes someone heroic?
That thumbnail is so disrespectful towards Red.
If the truth is disrespectful I suppose...
@@emperorcubone Don't take it the wrong way, but this is not the truth, this is your opinion. And I still think you could have chosen another trainer to make fun of in the thumbnail.
Sorry, but i dont really get most of your points. How is fighting rivals, gyms, battle frontiers and champions heroic? This should be solely based on the evil teams and perhaps cathing legends if its relevant to a crisis. Love your content man, but this one was a miss
As I explained in the beginning of the video, the people of the Pokemon world place a huge inherent value on the ability to proficiently battle Pokemon, so it would be disingenuous to ignore that when the only reason people look up to the Champions as role models, or yes even HEROES, is their battle prowess.
But even then, if you take that out, would the list Really change much? Not at all.
@@emperorcubone Going by that criteria, id argue the Johto protags should fall. They fight a much weaker evil team then any others before Paldea, and them being able to fight 16 gyms doesnt seem like that big a deal, consider that any protag could theoretically do the same if they just traveled to another region. Im not say i completely disagree with your list, but i think certain things were given more weight then they deserved.
Meh this just promoting world ending plot.
I prefer the more grounded take of gen 9,8, 2,1
Theyre just kid and world ending plot feel lazy, lame and overdone.
Unlikea grounded personal conflict
I'm not sure I'd call "The Darkest Day" grounded, but the Johto kids did get fairly high, so I'm not against a calmer journey now and again!