#trainer x

Personally, it used to be Yellow chapter, I liked that it always felt like the protagonists were always under attack and seeing them manage to escape danger, plus that battle with Lance and Yellow on top of Cerise Island's volcano was iconic.

But I feel things felt even tougher for the protagonists in XY. While the Kanto E4 had their henchmen, Flare literally owns Kalos and has so many people in their pocket the protags just never feel safe, and like they can only trust each other, and even that gets tested a bit with the Essentia Suit. (It's also the biggest contributor to why Flare is my favorite villain team now. They really built on how much power they had as an organization and a lot of their attacks on the kids had a brutal or psychological edge that made them scary, and seeing them getting their asses collectively whooped in the finale was super satisfying.)

Star art drawn 12/20/25 :)

(Image description in ALT text, original image and alt version below the cut!)