Elite Four

Four masters stand between challengers and the Champion's throne.

The Elite Four is the final challenge of a region's Pokémon League, a gauntlet of four powerful trainers that must be defeated before facing the Champion. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (2006), Pokémon Platinum (2008), and Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (2021), the Champion is Cynthia. Trainers must defeat each member of the Elite Four before they are able to face off against her.

Lore & Background

In the Sinnoh region, the Elite Four serves as the final obstacle before the Champion, Cynthia. She is a Pokémon Archaeologist traveling across the Sinnoh region researching its mythology and interacting with the player-character at various points, helping battle the villainous Team Galactic. She later appears as the game's final opponent, the Champion of the region's Elite Four, featuring multiple Pokémon such as Garchomp, a signature Pokémon of hers. In Pokémon Platinum, she serves a similar role, though she also helps the player battle the Legendary Pokémon Giratina. In the remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, her team for this battle is modified.

Reader's Guide

To face Cynthia, the Champion of the Sinnoh League, trainers must first defeat each member of the Elite Four. Cynthia is regarded particularly due to how challenging an opponent she was. Kotaku writer Kenneth Shepard considered her the best Pokémon Champion in the series, calling hers the 'quintessential Pokémon battle.' He attributed this to how many bases her team covers, feeling that it was the closest one would come to playing against a human player with 'game sense and strategy.' GamingBolt writer Shubhankar Parijat attributed the difficulty of her fight to her varied team. Her surprise appearance in Black and White, as well as Black 2 and White 2, has been compared to that of a jump scare, leading to memes in response.

Did You Know?

Cynthia is voiced by Tomo Sakurai in Japanese and primarily by Emily Bauer in English.
In the video game Pokémon Masters, Cynthia is voiced by Mie Sonozaki in Japanese and Allegra Clark in English.
Cynthia cameos as a minor character in the 2019 film Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, portrayed by Abbie Murphy.
In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, two characters, Volo and Cogita, appear to resemble Cynthia, with Volo having a similar design, music theme, and Pokémon team to Cynthia's.
Cynthia's 2021 appearance in the Pokémon anime was the subject of commentary by multiple critics, with TheGamer writer Stacey Henley praising the battle between Cynthia and Iris, particularly due to her disguising her Key Stone—an item used to Mega Evolve her Garchomp—as lipstick.