Trainer Red vs Gold who wins and why?

[lebleu]

If you had to bet your entire collection on a winner, who’s your pick? Why?

[papafrankgod]

Red cos he’s been training longer

[lebleu]

@papafrankgod

Red cos he’s been training longer

But Gold completed both kanto and johto’s region! And battled Blue after blue became stronger/gym leader.

And gold has a suicune in his lineup althoug Red should have legendarys (Not sure why in every game he has the starters, pikachu, espeon and something else)

[farawayisland]

Red (R/B/Y) > Red (FRLG) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Gold (G/S/C) > Gold (HGSS)

Reasoning: Red has more swag

Also, Gold’s real name is Ethan and Red as a name is much cooler than Ethan (no offense to any Ethans out there)

[smpikachuuu]

Definitely Red! He actually has badges lol

[cullers]

Magna, anime, game?

Magna red is the strongest trainer.

In the anime I don’t recall any adventure with gold, but red has all 151 original Pokémon and is Kanto leader, also has a Mega Charizard, I can’t imagine that’s easy to beat. Especially since Mewtwo is still the ‘strongest Pokémon’ and there’s only one of him. (Although the mewtwo lore might have two backstories that don’t necessarily merge)

In the game it’s optional to beat red as gold.

[ripguyfawkes]

This is super hard to answer because we don’t have a canon team(s) for Gold like we do have for Red, as Gold was never battled in the games. We can try to predict his team though, based on the games we played as him (also I won’t consider Gold’s parallel universe counterparts like Jimmy from the anime or Ethan from HGSS when he’s not the main character but your neighbor with the Marill).

We know that Gold has a Johto starter. In the Adventures manga he chose Typhlosion, and while I try not to go by alternative media that is not the games, I will take Typhlosion as the canon choice for now (coincidentally Jimmy also has Typhlosion). I don’t give Gold all 3 Johto starters though, because Red from GSC/HGSS only has all 3 Kanto starters because he legitimately received them all in Pokemon Yellow, while Gold never got all 3 Johto starters in any game.

We also know from the GSC/HGSS playthroughs that Gold received some guaranteed gift Pokemon. Togepi from Mr. Pokemon (fun fact, Gold from the manga also has a Togekiss) and Dratini from the elders at the Dragon’s Den. We also know that Gold met Bill in Ecruteak City, so it is very likely that he later received the gift Eevee from Bill. So the next team members would be Togekiss, Dragonite and an Eeveelution (one could go with Umbreon to create a nice contrast to Red’s Espeon, and it would be fitting for the Gen 2 protagonist to have a Gen 2 Eeveelution).

The last 2 team members are a bit harder to predict because any other gift or in-game trade Pokemon in the games are not mandatory to be picked up. But we do know that Gold must have battled the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage as part of the story, and I fully expect him to be capable of catching it. So member 5 is Gyarados.

The last forced encounter is the Sudowoodo which the player has to capture or defeat to progress to Ecruteak City. Maybe a lackluster choice in the eyes of some, but Gold from the Manga also owns Sudowoodo, so this one can be considered canon.

So we end up with the following team: Typhlosion, Togekiss, Sudowoodo, Umbreon, Gyarados, DragoniteAs for Red’s team, the most common team would at least include Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur and Pikachu. He also uses Snorlax in every main game he appears in, making it team member 5. The last team member is probably a tie between Lapras and Espeon. I’d go with Espeon to create the contrast to Gold and to keep type weaknesses to a minimum.
So, which team would outclass the other? Gold’s team has a huge Rock weakness, but fortunately for him Red has no Pokemon to make much use of it. Red’s team on the other hand is really balanced. Gold has the advantage of owning a pseudo legendary though. In the end I could see the battle go either way.

[miguelito]

@ripguyfawkes

This is super hard to answer because we don’t have a canon team(s) for Gold like we do have for Red, as Gold was never battled in the games. We can try to predict his team though, based on the games we played as him (also I won’t consider Gold’s parallel universe counterparts like Jimmy from the anime or Ethan from HGSS when he’s not the main character but your neighbor with the Marill).

We know that Gold has a Johto starter. In the Adventures manga he chose Typhlosion, and while I try not to go by alternative media that is not the games, I will take Typhlosion as the canon choice for now (coincidentally Jimmy also has Typhlosion). I don’t give Gold all 3 Johto starters though, because Red from GSC/HGSS only has all 3 Kanto starters because he legitimately received them all in Pokemon Yellow, while Gold never got all 3 Johto starters in any game.

We also know from the GSC/HGSS playthroughs that Gold received some guaranteed gift Pokemon. Togepi from Mr. Pokemon (fun fact, Gold from the manga also has a Togekiss) and Dratini from the elders at the Dragon’s Den. We also know that Gold met Bill in Ecruteak City, so it is very likely that he later received the gift Eevee from Bill. So the next team members would be Togekiss, Dragonite and an Eeveelution (one could go with Umbreon to create a nice contrast to Red’s Espeon, and it would be fitting for the Gen 2 protagonist to have a Gen 2 Eeveelution).

The last 2 team members are a bit harder to predict because any other gift or in-game trade Pokemon in the games are not mandatory to be picked up. But we do know that Gold must have battled the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage as part of the story, and I fully expect him to be capable of catching it. So member 5 is Gyarados.

The last forced encounter is the Sudowoodo which the player has to capture or defeat to progress to Ecruteak City. Maybe a lackluster choice in the eyes of some, but Gold from the Manga also owns Sudowoodo, so this one can be considered canon.

So we end up with the following team: Typhlosion, Togekiss, Sudowoodo, Umbreon, Gyarados, DragoniteAs for Red’s team, the most common team would at least include Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur and Pikachu. He also uses Snorlax in every main game he appears in, making it team member 5. The last team member is probably a tie between Lapras and Espeon. I’d go with Espeon to create the contrast to Gold and to keep type weaknesses to a minimum.
So, which team would outclass the other? Gold’s team has a huge Rock weakness, but fortunately for him Red has no Pokemon to make much use of it. Red’s team on the other hand is really balanced. Gold has the advantage of owning a pseudo legendary though. In the end I could see the battle go either way.

Very good analysis of their prospective teams!

Overall, I’d say that Red would win as he is always characterized as the strongest trainer plus he is the OG! I mean some people point out that Gold got 16 badges and all, but if we think back to how we played Pokemon games…Red was essentially power-training/leveling his team at Mt. Silver. Think back to the first time you played through gen 2 games, if you followed the story and efficiently made it to Mt. Silver, your team was under leveled compared to Red’s team…unless you spent time training up your team first! So I’d definitely have to give the edge to Red and his souped up team!