>>54855681Leon was built as the best for the anime, using known tropes such as defeating the previous rival or characters previously established as powerful (Alain and Lance).
But for many the true final was against Cynthia, a battle that had been built for years and was presented as teacher vs student due to the history of both, controversial yes, but at least I grant the writers that Cynthia's defeat was due to her own mistake, by wanting to surprise using the Dynamax instead of using Mega-Garchomp in other seasons they would have used the stupid excuse of the rocket team attacking and Garchomp being injured and therefore the dragoness could not fight (See Harrison Blaziken, Ilima Eevee). Also the way to beat Pikachu was excellently written.
But back to your question, who would really matter as the final fight? Gary retired a few seasons ago and although he maintains a decent level the character is no longer interested, Paul is a similar case, from the main games they used all the champions and some were even put aside for not being up to par (Alder, Wallace, Palmer)
From Spinoff games I remember the final villains of Colosseum, Gales, and Poketopia as difficult but more so because of their limited team mechanics or having a seventh pokemon.
Even the original Mewtwo returned to the anime and although powerful, I don't think it would work in a 6 vs 6 fight. So who?
