Cynthia is in a group I refer to as "High tier champions" along with Lance and Blue and other protagonists. It's a fairly nebulous tier where everyone floats around the same general powerlevel. Trainer's in this tier can catch and defeat legendaries, and can win/lose against each other depending on circumstances. Red sits just above this tier.
Among these, Blue can't beat Red, and since he definitively lost to Blue, Lance definatly can't beat him. Cynthia's power is locked at or just above Lance since he has Kanto plot armor and must remain in the highest echelon of champions. Meaning her maximum possible power will be the equivlant of Blue's. This leaves the highest chance of beating Red to Gold/Kris/Lyra. They're the only protagonists to canonically reach and challenge him in mainline games, and credits roll upon defeating him. While officially the winner is never stated, this battle happening at all heavily implies at least a relatively even playing field.
Red's team and masters implies that protagonist Trainers have obtained/caught every gift pokemon and forced ingame encounter. This would mean Kris has Suicune, which does give her a slight edge over Ethan/Lyra of coming back with the W.
>Muh Cynthia beat PalkiaSo did Dawn. Red fought mewtwo with a snorlax. Brendan caught mega Rayquaza and flew him into space to kill an alien virus. Sun/Moon protag can cross through multiverses. Upper tier trainers do crazy shit all the time. It's like a tuesday for them.
>>54735980You'd think they'd give him the birds over the beasts. Stadium teams are always so strange. In the first one I think Lance has a snorlax instead of a dragonite.
