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Normal-type Reviews: Specialists 2 (Lenora & Cheren)

We continue on with the Normal-type specialists, and both of them happen to be introduced in Generation 5, although they are featured in different games. Essentially, the first Black and White features Lenora while the second Black and White features Cheren as the Gym Leader, though both characters are found in both pairs of games.

If you are interested to find out more about the current Normal-type specialists, feel free to proceed.

Lenora

The basis for Unova is the United States of America, particularly New York. As such, the culture of Unova is based around the US too. This could be seen as such with Lenora, who greatly resembles an African-American. Since Pokémon had never have a person like this before, it is understandably surprising, but not everyone reacted positively.

One peeve that got into certain people’s nerves is how Lenora resembles a Mammy archetype quite strongly, which is regarded as offensive because of the negative stereotypes associated with it. It should be noted that only Lenora’s design appears that way, but not in background and character. Of course, since design is the first thing observed on a character, it is assumed as such, which causes certain people to be offended by it. The scale in offensiveness is not as severe as Jynx’s original incarnation, but the concern in her design caused her to have her apron removed from (or hung behind her) any preceding artwork featuring her (including the anime and manga) in order to make this association less obvious. To elaborate on the part about the anime and manga, she originally wore an apron, but was edited out for international audiences. The one place that retains the apron is in the games, for Black and White and their sequels. While the apron inspires some unfortunate implications, it’s not as if it’s there for show. As an archaeologist, it would be ideal to have a shield in front of your clothes when cleaning fossils that are excavated.

Let’s move on to the profession of the archaeologist. In the Nacrene Museum, there are plenty of artefacts, mainly fossils. In fact, fossils can actually be revived there, so I guess that’s one way for them to deal with people giving them many fossils they might not even need. Since the museum is also a Gym, not only does she work there, she also battles there too! This is one of the special things about Unova: every Gym Leader has a Gym that also functions as their working place, instead of either just functioning solely as a Gym or where the Gym Leader and the place they are in charge of are quite different.

On personality, Lenora appears to be strong as much as she is gentle. She also seems to be tactical, given that she is an archaeologist, who does a lot of analytical work. Come to think of it, it does make sense for her main Pokémon to be Watchog, due to its Hidden Ability Analytic. Lenora seems like an independent person, but she also has a husband called Hawes, who has paler skin, meaning that the marriage is mixed. When you compare both of them, you might have the impression that Hawes is less dominant because he looks smaller and more ordinary, and also does less significant work, but it appears that they still love each other.

In the sequels, Lenora isn’t part of the Gym Leader octet. The explanation given is that she wanted to make her work as an archaeologist her focus, which is why Nacrene Museum is not a Gym anymore. It’s certainly possible that holding a Gym might be too much work even for her. Instead of letting the Basic Badge become absent, another Gym Leader stepped up the plate and take over duties as a Normal-type Gym Leader: Cheren, the player character’s friend in Black and White.

In the anime, Lenora made her first appearance in “A Night in the Nacrene City Museum” where Ash and friends dealt with strange happenings in the titular museum, which is caused by a Yamask. The culprit was discovered when Lenora’s Watchog shined on it. In the following episodes, Ash competed with Lenora for the possession of the Basic Badge, where he lost the battle in the first one, and won the second one after some training from Don George’s gym. I am not so sure about the Japanese voice acting, but I think Lenora sounded appropriately African-American in the dub.

Lenora’s Pokémon consisted of a Herdier and Watchog. Both Pokémon are reasonably powerful as a second Gym, especially if one or the other is fainted, since they will be able to use Retaliate at full power. This powerful move is provided to the player if they defeated her, in the form of a TM. It does sound like a useful attack, but its PP is low, so its application in-game is rather limited.

In the manga, she used a Stoutland and a Patrat instead, and the power level of the battle is higher overall, with Black using Braviary as one of his Pokémon. For the Pokémon World Tournament, Lenora used various Normal-types with no clear theme, much like how the various Normal-types don’t exactly have a common theme beyond their type.

Overall, Lenora is unique among Gym Leaders and is also a positive representation to women and African-Americans, making her a wonderful addition. The only downside would be the design, which garnered negative attention.

Cheren

When Cheren started out in Black and White, he was the player character’s friend. In the sequel series, he became a Gym Leader, and is the first of the eight Gym Leaders. Since this is about Cheren as a Gym Leader, mentions of his role in the original Black and White are kept to a minimal.

In terms of first Gyms, Normal is the most neutral of them all because it means that every starter Pokémon doesn’t have any advantages or disadvantages. In certain games, Rock was the first Gym, giving Fire a disadvantage, while Kalos and Johto’s first Gyms gave players with Grass-types a disadvantage. In fact, it is ideal for first Gyms to have neutral interaction with the three starter types because it doesn’t provide any bias for any choice, and Normal is one of the few types that allow this. I am not saying that every other Gym needs to be like this, but just that the first one should be neutral.

Much like in Red and Blue, where Blue/Green is the player’s rival who takes up the position of Gym Leader in the sequel series (Gold and Silver, in this case), Cheren started out as the player’s rival (more so than the other “rival”, Bianca) before taking up the position of Gym Leader. Unlike Blue/Green, who replaced the final Gym Leader in Kanto, Cheren is the first Gym Leader you encounter. This is different from before where Lenora was the second in line (Roxie took the position as second), due to Cheren replacing her as the Normal-type Gym Leader.

Not only does Cheren take up the position of the Gym Leader, he is also a teacher. In fact, the Gym is located at the backyard of the Aspertia Trainer’s School (located in the player’s starting town), which contains two battlefields and a podium. This is simplified in the anime where there appears that only one battlefield exists. In the Trainer’s VS portrait, Cheren is portrayed as sweating (I didn’t notice that until it gets mentioned), which is understandable as this is the first Gym challenge he did (or he’s overheated under that suit).

In the original Black and White, Cheren is one to pursue ideals, specifically becoming stronger (picking the starter with the type advantage from the player, for one). He desires to become the Champion of Unova, which is why he’s striving to be stronger. However, he was unsure of the reason in pursuing such a lofty goal when asked, causing him to ponder on it. It is possible that becoming a teacher is one way he pursues strength, since teaching others to be empowered is a type of strength itself. Cheren also mentions his temptation to use his old team in his battles, but because of his position as a Gym Leader (the first), he has to hold back on using Pokémon with a huge difference in power level to give others a chance. To be able to develop others by challenging them on a manageable level is a type of strength itself.

If the player has both the original Black and White and the sequels, they could use the Memory Link to make them have their old teams, but the player has to beat the original game for this to be possible. Since the player character in the sequels can choose a different starter in the originals, it is possible to have a type advantage against Cheren’s starter, and the level of his Pokémon is high, all with items. This special battle can only be done once, however.

Cheren’s choice of Pokémon appropriately consists of basic staged Pokémon, namely Patrat and Lillipup. However, in Challenge mode, he uses a Pidove too, though it doesn’t have Flying moves, meaning your Grass starter isn’t at too much of a disadvantage. In the Pokémon World Tournament and as a Tag Partner later on, his selection of Normal-types is found in New Unova, including those that are not found in the Unova Dex, with a couple of exceptions (Lickilicky and Porygon-Z in the Type Expert/World Leaders Tournament).

If you beat Cheren in a Gym Battle, you will be awarded the TM83, which is Work Up in Unova. It is also a TM that the Striaton trio gave in the original instead of a TM based on their type, so it’s no different from the prequel. This nifty move allows the user to boost both Attack and Special Attack, which is particularly useful early-game if you want to facilitate a sweep. Since this move is available to a reasonably large amount of Pokémon, it’s a good move to teach.

Cheren isn’t just important as a Gym Leader. Since he was one of the major characters in the previous version, it would have been unceremonious if he was just a Gym Leader (in fact, he is one of the few characters to have an animated trainer sprite in the previous version). In Black 2 and White 2, Cheren helps out the player and Hugh some advice and guidance based on the current situation, as well as helping the player in one of Team Plasma’s activities.

The anime has a very different continuity from the games, mainly because to accommodate both the originals and sequels of Black and White, elements from both are taken. In the anime, Cheren is based on the Black 2 and White 2, which is different from Bianca, who is still at this point based on the Black and White version. Therefore, they might not know each other since it’s not mentioned that they did. Anyway, Cheren is a fresh Gym Leader, so he isn’t confident at that time. After some mishaps in the Aspertia Training School, an exhibition match is held between Ash and Cheren, in which the latter won, and it does have a positive effect on the students in the Training School, so that’s good.

Overall, Cheren is a Normal-type Gym Leader whose character development is concrete, coming from being one of the major characters in a previous version of Pokémon. This makes him more interesting as a Gym Leader compared to being a Normal-type specialist.

That’s all for this batch of Normal-type specialists. We’re almost done with the Normal-type Review series, so please hold on for a little longer! I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have writing it.