Part 40: Omni's Asides - The Elite Four

Okay then so it's time for another round of Pokemon Special differences this time covering the Elite 4 or 4 Heavenly Kings (This by the way is a fucking amazing name)

Pokemon Special Differences: The Elite 4

So we covered in the Pokemon League post that the league itself didn't actually feature the Elite 4. Red defeats Green and becomes the Champion at age 10-11, the youngest champion in the Pokemon Worlds history and an event that would actually shape the motivations and the system of the world to come. That's not because the Elite 4 don't feature in the RGB series, they do, for exactly one page.



They just wouldn't play a role until the arc following the RGB arc, the Yellow arc. The arc begins with Red having continued his training to fulfill his promise to the Viridian girl from the Giovanni battle, that he would become the Gym Leader of Viridian City. During his training however he receives an invitation from a man named Bruno for a pokemon battle, he figures that he might as well, and departs to face him. Then days later, Pika returns to Oak labs injured and carrying Red's Pokedex.

See the Elite 4, this variation anyway, are Eco Terrorists, Lance strongly believes that humans are fucking evil and need to be wiped out and leave the world to the pokemon. So they're a lot like Team Plasma, except truly believing the hype and really fucking hating humans. Well... mostly. Lance was a resident of Viridian City, which made him a child of the Viridian Forest, and giving him a close connection to Pokemon and the ability to read their thoughts and heal them with a touch (No seriously) Other Viridian trainers with this ability are the protagonist Yellow (Who also, when she's furious, has the ability to adjust her pokemons' levels into the high 80's from their usual low 40's) and potentially Giovanni of all people. While he never displays the powers, Lance and Yellow do refer to Giovanni as being "Like them" so it's a possibility.

Lorelei was a resident of the Sevii Isles (Unspecified location until that reveal) who dealt with the pollution of a nearby factory almost killing her Seel and was mainly being strung along by Agatha, but still believes that humans have to pay and... well... Bruno and Agatha are different. Bruno has been mind controlled into the joining the group, being strung along by Agatha and denied his own will, essentially being used as a weapon. The moments he is in control his focus is not on eliminating society or revenge or any other petty emotion. Bruno is here to fight, to face the strongest trainers, to take himself to the absolute pinnacle of what he can be. He is focused purely on becoming the best.

Agatha is just a fucking piece of work. That's the politest way to put it. So after being completely trashed by Oak in the Pokemon League and him leaving her research group after being disgusted by her theory of "Pokemon and Humans will never, ever fucking get along." She dragged Lorelei into her revenge scheme and mind controlled Bruno. Why? To fuck with Oak of course! She extends her hatred to Green as well, just flat out despising the family and being willing to end society for the sake of her grudge.

As mentioned previously, the Pokedex Holders and Yellow (Red arriving fashionably late) travel to the Elite 4's volcano lair (seriously) and team up with the former Rocket Executives (Red-Surge, Green-Koga, Blue-Sabrina, Yellow-Blaine) to face off against one of the elites. They win, not before Lance almost summons Lugia however. Bruno is thought dead, Agatha escapes cackling and we don't know what happens to Lorelei until FRLG.

On the other hand, Lance starts repenting for his actions, beginning with training Silver and directing him towards stopping Mask of Ice and the Neo Team Rocket. Bruno however, re-emerges after having been saved by Koga during the end of the Yellow Arc. Both of them realize they are really only in this to be strong, and thus devote themselves to training once more. After the defeat of Mask of Ice's underlings, Karen and Will. The former two invite the latter to join them as a new Elite 4. Not one focused on anything beyond the improvement of themselves as trainers.



Lorelei would appear during FRLG to work along side the Pokedex holders in fighting off Deoxys and helping them train in the way of the elemental Hyper Beams, having repented for her actions and most importantly apologizing for freezing Red and leaving him a cripple until GSC. Agatha has yet to reappear, mostly because she's been in no extra content in the remakes and she's kind of an absolute fucking asshole.

Overall, the Elite 4 were a brutal upgrade to Team Rocket. Taking out Red at the very beginning and controlling literal armies of Pokemon in a coordinated attack across Kanto.



It features a genuinely likable protagonist, very different from Red before her, who reminds me a lot of Gohan except she actually gets to do crap, always holding back because she has a gentle soul and genuinely doesn't want to hurt anyone. She even gets trained by the protagonists rival due to the protagonist being out of commission!



It showcased a lot of new pokemon abilities and variations, from Hitmonlee's stretchy limbs to the different variations on Kobra.



and the elite 4 show what truly elite villains can do, using their pokemon types and battles to push our protagonists to the limit even in 2 on 1 situations, from battling across two Onix's serving as shifting bridges to shadowplay to whatever the fuck it is Lance's doing with his death ball here.