>>52580450I actually think the gym leaders this gen are some of the most grounded and fantastic gym leaders since Unova. All of them have some level of 'presence' through their influence and secondary jobs, like seeing Tulip and Brassius' advertisements on the billboards in Levincia, seeing Kofu be greeted and making small talk with the kids and townsfolk of Cascaraffa before starting his battle, and the way people talk about Katy's pastry recipes.
The rematches also does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of letting you learn more about their characters, especially Katy (who mentions Geeta advises her to be purposefully weak for the sake of starting trainers), Grusha (where his bitterness is even more pronounced but ends up finding the spark of his ambition again in battling) and Tulip (who says a lot of cryptic and somewhat unsettling things about talent, the corruption of those with it, and her having to constantly be on top of everything to keep up with the times and never lose her lustre). Brassius gets his story through Hassel's class, also.
It's a shame that a lot of relevant background info is only on their map descriptions though, which go away after you actually challenge them.
