Hey, I was introduced to your blog recently, and I just want to say that your posts are fantastic, especially the storyline ones about Kalos. I have a question: do you have any perspective, each generation, on why the Elite Four is so inactive in helping fight against the evil Team?

Thanks. 🙂  Now, the Elite Four… Hmm.  To some extent I think the fact that they just don’t know what’s going on might play into it; Team Rocket, for example, keep their takeover of Silph Company very quiet until the protagonist bursts in and starts making a mess of everything, while Team Galactic, Team Plasma and even Team Flare to an extent do make some effort to appear legitimate.  That can only get us so far, though; at some point in every game from Gold and Silver onward the s#!t hits the fan in a pretty spectacular fashion.  I think the reason has to be something to do with the differences between the roles of the Elite Four and the Champion, because the Champion normally does get involved in some capacity.  The Elite Four, as far as we can discern, are somehow selected or appointed; they are chosen to represent the Pokémon League and they have very clear-cut responsibilities: they’re supposed to spend most of their time at the League headquarters, ready to accept challenges, and training for challenges when they’re not doing that.  Since they’re always there, they may also have other duties related to the day-to-day running of the Pokémon League – appointing referees and adjudicating rules disputes, co-ordinating public works, overseeing Gym Leaders and Professors, just generally getting stuff done (also, some of them may genuinely not give a rat’s @$$ about whatever’s going on – it’s hard to imagine the self-centred, callous Agatha taking the time to sort out Team Rocket on her own initiative, even if she knew what they were up to – although other cases are less easily explained away; it’s strange, for instance, that Phoebe, whose grandparents are the shrine guardians of Mount Pyre, doesn’t take a personal interest in the Hoenn crisis).  The Champion, by contrast, attains his or her position through a sort of direct meritocracy, by defeating the previous Champion.  Changeovers don’t happen often, but they can happen without warning, and you have no idea ahead of time who the next Champion is going to be.  This is probably not the person you want to be in charge of quotidian affairs.  The Champion is a figurehead; he or she describes vague, long-term “visions” or “missions” for where the Pokémon League should be and what it should look like one year or five years from now, and then the underlings run around and make it so.  The position comes with few actual responsibilities other than “maintain the good standing and reputation of the League,” and the Champion probably doesn’t need to stay at the headquarters because there should be plenty of warning if a challenger looks likely to get past the Elite Four.  As a result, the Champion has a lot more freedom to go on adventures at random and indulge personal whims, including being a Big Damn Hero.  Basically: the Elite Four have s#!t to do.  They’re employees of the Pokémon League with clearly defined responsibilities, which generally do not include dealing with crazy apocalypse scenarios.  Crazy is the Champion’s department.