>>43861160For the record, I think it would be super cool if we had an open world or at least more open game where the gym leaders visibly swap their team out, and I think it'd be superior to just level scaling. I just don't think it's canon.
>>43861146>There is no "original intent" that we can derive just from thatAnon, if it happens for four gens in a row, the establishing games of the series, the intent is fairly clear. This series has the subtlety of a five ton stack of bricks, if something doesn't happen on-screen or via dialogue, it's very fair to assume it doesn't happen at all.
>using it as retroactive example for the rest of the series doesn't make senseSure, but it's another example that helps my point, and something that, again, points to the intent gyms are the way I say they are. Even then, the exclusion of the E4 doesn't really crystallize to an actual rebuttal here, nor does the fact the gym battles themselves are significantly hyped up.
>you happening to fight them last isn't supportive or discouraging of this theory either way.It's obviously not concrete either way, but the implication of 'Volkner/Clair is the strongest, you fight Volkner/Clair last because they're the strongest and they don't have a weaker team to swap in for weaker challengers' again, makes sense with how I see things.
>Cheren also uses a completely different team from when he fights you in an official gym match and when he appears in the story segment of the PWTI'll admit gym leader rematches are probably the biggest counter against my view of things, but, like, there's nothing that says they don't just train or get stronger. Again, I'm pretty sure things like stats and levels are game abstractions.
