Characters / Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Main Character Index > Ruby and Sapphire > Team Aqua and Team Magma

Characters from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Emerald, and their remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

For a list of Pokémon that debuted in the third generation, see Pokémon: Generation III Families.

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Protagonists and Rivals

General Tropes

• Adaptational Badass: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Birch's child gets one more battle after the credits, where they get to show off a Pokémon League-quality team and their new, Mega Evolved starter, a nice improvement from the originals, where they gave up the rivalry after their loss in Lilycove City.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, Birch's child was driven by their rivalry with Norman's, but in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, neither of them gets bit by the competitive bug, and the matches are pretty much just for fun. Indeed, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire revamps their entire relationship, changing it from a doomed rivalry to a growing friendship.
• Affectionate Nickname: As the player character, Archie will call them "little scamp" or just "scamp".
• The Artifact: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Birch's child never gets jealous over Norman's child beating them, so they never really become The Rival, but Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire still keeps bits of leftover dialog from the rivalry in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald:
  • Take Birch's child going to Petalburg right after the encounter in Lavaridge Town; in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald they were announcing their own quest for badges and subtly implying it to be another part of the competition, but Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has no rivalry and reframes it as Birch's child coming up with an excuse to keep Norman's child's company.
  • Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire keeps the Break the Haughty moment following the Lilycove rematch, but the rivalry itself has vanished, which makes the disappointment Birch's child feels less appropriate.
• Ascended Extra: Birch's child, whether Brendan or May, has loads more to do in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire than in the original games, co-starring in the first segment of the demo, appearing on more routes in the main game, and joining the player to confront the team at Meteor Falls.
• Badass Adorable: In the main games, Norman's child canonically confronts at least one Olympus Mon of outright apocalyptic power and wins.
• Bash Brothers: Brendan ("Orlando") and May take on a small army of Magma and Aqua thugs together in the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo and in the real game Birch's child confronts the villainous team together with Norman's.
• Battle in the Rain: The penultimate (in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald) rematch between Birch's and Norman's children happens on Route 119 when Birch's child finally discovers Norman's child and confronts the latter. Route 119, however, is drenched in rain for three days out of every four, which on most days means that the battle occurs in the pouring wet—bonus points if it happens on the one day in the four day cycle where the rain comes with lightning and thunder.
• Big Brother Mentor: Or Cool Big Sis depending on who you're playing as. Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald inverts the pokémon-capturing Video Game Tutorial by reframing it as Norman's child watching over Wally as he learns to capture a pokémon, instead. Norman's child later gives Wally his first taste of serious battle in Mauville City. Taken further in Emerald, where the player character can actually give advice to a variety of apprentice NPCs in the Battle Frontier.
• Book Ends: Invoked by Birch's child in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire when they offer to accompany Norman's child home after the latter defeats the Champion, desiring to finish their journey together since they started it together. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire even goes so far as to include an extra battle to reflect the original battle they had at the start.
• Break the Haughty: Downplayed; Birch's child is startled when Norman's child gets the better of them not only in their first match and but also their rematch. Ultimately, losing the Lilycove rematch convinces Birch's child they Can't Catch Up with Norman's, and they resignedly go home to return to working on the Pokédex.
• Broad Strokes: The Pokémon Masters versions of Brendan and May don't commit specifically to either the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald or Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire versions. In Masters they're confirmed rivals unlike in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but by the same token May (here Birch's daughter) never gave up the rivalry, like Birch's child does in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald after the fight in Lilycove.
• Can't Catch Up:
  • Invoked in the early-middle of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald; after the rematch on Route 110, Birch's child makes a point of announcing they will challenge Norman before the other does, but not long before Fortree City, they have to catch up to you from behind.
  • The loss in Lilycove is what finally convinces Birch's child to give up and go home.
  • In Emerald, if the player fills the Hoenn Pokédex, Birch's child subtly gives up on the whole notion of catching Pokémon, too. May resolves to continue helping Professor Birch, while Brendan focuses on raising his team.
  • In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Birch's child reveals they consider Norman's child their Best Friend during the lead up to the confrontation with Groudon or Kyogre, but afterwards, the other's success prompts them to admit to a fear of being left behind (which they immediately take back).
• Climax Boss:
  • Subverted in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. Birch's child, the main rival for most of the game, straight up quits after losing to you in Lilycove—their starter never even reaches its final stage. The last Rival battle instead goes to Wally, the sickly little kid you helped mentor in a couple of places but was otherwise ignored for most of the game.
  • Inverted in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire—Birch's child doesn't get a battle during the climax, but does feature in a brand-new Post-Final Boss battle during the epilogue, after the credits have rolled, to wrap the main story in proper Book Ends.
• Composite Character: Pokémon Masters takes bits and pieces from both the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire version of Brendan and May, in particular reestablishing their rivalry from Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald while also keeping their Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire designs and alluding to events from the latter like stargazing. Instead of being rivals or Best Friends, they're now each other's "best rival".
• Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: In the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Birch's kid attempts to get a rise out of the Player Character after you beat Flannery by declaring they intend to challenge Norman. You never see them do it, but it's a reminder to face Norman now that you have four badges.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: From the third generation on, Jerkass rivals have been the exception, not the rule.
  • Birch's child is strikingly different from previous Jerkass rivals like Blue and Silver, being not merely a friendly rival but an Implied Love Interest.
  • Wally's sickly nature and pure-hearted determination may be the farthest possible cry from Blue's haughty egomania and Silver's ruthless obsession with power. He's also unlike the two rivals, being that he doesn't use a starter Pokémon as his main^note If not even taking account Blue in the Updated Re Release Yellow whose starter is an Eevee. but the Ralts that he captures in Route 104 as his mainstay Signature Mon.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Red and Blue's player character is from Pallet Town in Kanto and Gold and Silver's player character is from New Bark Town in Johto, but both of them are natives to their respective region. The playable characters in Ruby and Sapphire, if one of them is chosen by the player, on the other hand, are foreigners from Olivine City in Johto who moved in to Littleroot Town in Hoenn. This makes them the first playable characters in the series who does not start off as a resident in the native region the game takes place in.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Both player characters have been portrayed as the protagonist, albeit in different continuities.
  • Brendan is Norman's son in Pokémon Masters and cameos as the protagonist in Pokémon Generations.
  • May, meanwhile, is Norman's daughter in Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire and the protagonist in Pokémon Evolutions.
• The Determinator: The Route 119 battle in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald happens once Birch's child confronts Norman's after finally tracking the latter down, which on a sunny day would be largely innocuous. Route 119, however, only has sun one day out of every four, so in most cases Birch's kid is out there hunting you down in the pouring rain. Emerald (accidentally?) makes it worse—once you get the Balance Badge, new Match Call dialog puts them on Route 119, so if they intended to confront you from the start, they'd have to suffer the weather for however long until you got there. The game gives you Surf at the same time, and with it new optional areas and a Bonus Dungeon to explore, so Birch's kid may be waiting extra long.
• Disappeared Dad: The third generation was definitely Breaking Old Trends when it averted this trope; both Brendan and May, regardless of who's being played, have a father both present and active in the game—the player character's father is Norman, the Petalburg Gym Leader, while the other is the child of Professor Birch.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Downplayed in Emerald. In Gens I-III, the protagonist palette boasts the red and white of the Poké Ball. Ethan took Red's Poké Ball colors and added some Ultra Ball black and yellow. Brendan and May both took on the red, yellow, black, and white, but in new combinations to downplay the inspiration—and in Emerald their designs threw out the red and yellow entirely in favor of green and orange. (Generation IV was where the Ultra Ball color scheme died, with Lucas' Platinum design inaugurating the Primary-Color Champion motif informing all the boys down at least through Gen VII).
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the Spring 2021 event of Pokémon Masters, Brendan wants to challenge May to a battle, but can't seem to find the right opportunity and has to be egged on by Barry; the scenario is framed exactly as if Brendan were trying to work up the nerve to ask her out.
• Dragon Rider: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire:
  • They can ride the legendary dragon Pokémon Latios or Latias depending on the game version after obtaining the Eon Flute.
  • During the Delta Episode they ride Rayquaza as they fly into space in order to stop the meteor falling towards Hoenn.
• Dragon Tamer:
  • Wally obtains the Flying/Dragon Altaria for use in his second battle, which, in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he ends up replacing with the Dragon/Ground Garchomp for his third battle onward. In Sun and Moon and their Ultra versions he can switch between the two depending on what team he's using.
  • While the generation three games introduce the first real Dragon-type legendaries, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire go out of their way connect them to the protagonist:
    • Norman's child can summon Latios or Latias and use them for travel by playing the Eon Flute, which according to Steven signifies their bond.
    • Norman's child canonically catches Rayquaza and commands it in the final battle against Deoxys.
  • Also in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, if the player picks Mudkip, Birch's child will use the Grass/Dragon-type Mega Sceptile as their ace.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?:
  • Actually averted, though not to the degree of X and Y, in the remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Your accomplishments in this game, from stopping Groudon/Kyogre to becoming Champion, are all acknowledged in game. Your claim to fame as Champion is even mentioned on the BuzzNav postgame, and everyone refers to you as the new Champion, while calling Steven the former Champion; it's a point of contention, in fact, for Zinnia, who sees you, and not Steven, as worthy of being her ally, due to your status.
  • Additionally, in a similar vein to the Johto games, you are named the Successor to the will of the Draconids; essentially taking over Zinnia's role as Lorekeeper, and the protector of the entire Hoenn region.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Birch's kid either plays this straight or inverts it in the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
  • Brendan is quick to downplay his disappointment at losing and his interest in further battles, only letting his real intentions slip in later encounters. After his loss in Lilycove he finally lets himself be frank about his feelings and admits his intentions to give up and go home, even if he has to stutter around the words a bit.
  • Inverted with May, who blurts out her life's dream within seconds of meeting you and freely admits her plans for further rematches. By Lilycove, however, she needs an excuse to challenge Norman's child one last time—such as her desire to check whether his Pokémon are being raised enough^note Brendan also brings up the subject of raising Pokémon, but he mentions battle first and only mentions raising pokémon as something else to compete over.—and when she loses (at least in the original Ruby and Sapphire) she plainly struggles with herself before dodging the subject by reminiscing about the first battle.
• Free-Range Children: As with all of the games, no one seems to care that they're traveling around the island and fighting villains even though they're only 12.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire:
  • In the demo, May teams up with the player to battle against Team Magma or Team Aqua in a Mirage Cave.
  • Brendan or May as a rival teams up with the player character to battle against Team Magma (Omega Ruby) or Team Aqua (Alpha Sapphire) in Meteor Falls.
  • Brendan or May as a rival along with Wally are among the NPC trainers you can partner with during the Multi Battle mode in the Battle Maison.
• Hero of Another Story: Birch's kid is running around having a small Pokémon hunt of their own while the Player Character is having the main journey. While hints of what they get up to are few and far between, they at the very least have challenged enough Gyms to use HMs like Fly and Surf. In Emerald, they call you to share a sighting of Rayquaza, and if you call them they'll give you hints about areas you should visit that they've already been to.
• Implied Love Interest:
  • In Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, Birch's kid is ever more eager to confront and re-confront Norman's, but even after giving up the rivalry the latter is still clearly on their mind—during the game's denouement they bust into the champion's room trying to help Norman's kid (apparently quite worried, to hear Professor Birch) and are dismayed they can't accompany them further. (There's also something undeniably flirty about the way Birch's child surprises Norman's with a sudden bike race home during the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald staff roll—a challenge Norman's child accepts).
  • Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's revamp of the relationship from rivals to best friends does away with the hints of Rivalry as Courtship, but Birch's kid starts developing feeling for Norman's by the Lavaridge town encounter (more obviously in Brendan's case).
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: Wally's androgynous redesign in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire makes him the androgyne to Brendan's masculine and May's feminine.
• Naïve Newcomer: As with any Pokémon game, the player character is entirely new to Pokémon training, despite being a natural at it. However, a first for the series, the player character is confirmed to not be native to the region the games take place in; they hail from Johto, specifically Olivine City.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?: In Emerald you can call Birch's child and their dialog will nearly always have a hint about the next place you should explore or where the next story event will trigger.
• Only One Name: Birch's child is one of the few aversions in the entire franchise, having the surname "Birch", which the one you play as and Wally play it straight.
• Post-Final Boss: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, after you beat Steven and the credits roll, you and the rival return to Route 103 where they take one last swing at you. Compared to the Champion, they're a walkover.
• Privileged Rival:
  • Downplayed to an Ambiguous Situation between Brendan and May. The rival may be the child of the regional Professor Birch, but the player character is the child of Norman, a famous Gym Leader in the league. However, Pokémon Professors are often implied to be highly respected within the League and Professor Birch can apparently walk right into the Champion's room without restriction, so the professor may have a higher practical status than Norman, if he doesn't officially outrank him.
  • Inverted between Norman's kid and Wally, as Wally and his parents are all relatively anonymous civilians who live next door to the Petalburg Gym, so close they might as well be living in its literal shadow.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Downplayed. In Emerald (and only in Emerald), the Birch household contains a new resident, a young boy and apparently a younger brother—a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Max from the Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire—which means Birch's child is no longer just Professor Birch's only child but his oldest.
• The Rival:
  • Unusually, the "rival" role is split between the player character you didn't choose and Wally, who comes from behind in the original Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald to be your ultimate rival after Birch's kid gives up after their loss in Lilycove City. While Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire adds one last battle between the player characters at the end of the game following the credits, the outcome of the battle doesn't matter and Wally ends up having the highest leveled team in the postgame (surpassing even Steven's levels).
  • Between May and Brendan, the rivalry really starts when Birch's child loses the first rematch. May is open about it, warning you to train a lot harder for next time before departing, while Brendan appears to shrug it off—but during the next encounter, Brendan gives the game away by taunting Norman's child about how she doesn't look tough like her father.
• Ship Tease:
  • In the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Birch's child develops a growing interest in Norman's child, adding a layer of Rivalry as Courtship to the relationship that made The Rival an Implied Love Interest.
    • While the first few battles with The Rival follow chance encounters, the battle on Route 119 happens because The Rival seeks the Player Character out—so eager is Birch's child for a rematch that they will likely catch the Player Character just in time for a Battle in the Rain.
    • During the denouement, Birch's child busts into the Champion's room to give the Player Character advice on how to beat him, only to find it's already done; the former is also blatantly disappointed that they can't follow the latter into the Hall of Fame.
    • The end credits feature the Player Character biking home only for The Rival to sneak up and overtake them, resulting in a small race to keep up and eventually for them to ride the rest of the way home together.
    • In Emerald, Birch's child shares his information with Norman's so they can connect over Match Call. The player character gives Birch's child the unique designation of "Rad Neighbor".
    • Speaking of Match Call, late in Emerald, Birch's child chances upon the legendary Rayquaza and their first instinct is to call Norman's to share the experience. Bonus points for Brendan, who adds that he wishes Norman's child had been there to see it.
  • Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire does away with the Rivalry as Courtship undertones and instead Retools Brendan and May into becoming Best Friends.
    • Downplayed with a dialog changes in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. In Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, May Birch blurts out her dream to be friends with all Pokémon everywhere. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, May Birch admits she was hoping she and Norman's child could be friends. Brendan's dialog also gets a change—after the first match, regardless of version, Birch's child will be in Oldale Town to tell you to return to Littleroot, but in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald May would invite you to join her while Brendan was less companionable; not so in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, where his new dialog is more inviting and he essentially challenges Norman's child to a race.
    • The Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire version of the Lavaridge Town encounter has Birch's child start to outright develop interest in Norman's. Brendan obviously fumbles his way through his feelings while inviting Norman's child to accompany him to Petalburg (and his dismay should you turn him down), but May is more subtle about it—she claims she was already going to Petalburg Gym, but once you actually get there she leaves for elsewhere, having no actual business at her supposed destination.
    • In the Delta Episode, Norman has to cancel a date with his wife, and ends up giving the tickets to a special viewing of a meteor shower to his child, who ultimately attends with Birch's child.
    • When Birch's child and the Player Character return home to Littleroot at the end of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the stars above them form the rough outline of a heart.
• Signature Headgear: As per tradition. Brendan wears a floppy white cap, while May wears a bandana on her head. In the remakes, May exchanges her bandana for a bow on her head.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Steven Stone is the playable character's mentor, but Brendan or May ends up saving the world and beating him as the Pokémon League Champion. Wally also wants to surpass the player, whom he has been looking up to since he becomes a trainer.
• Super Mode: In the remakes all three of them gain the ability to use Mega Evolution.
• Theme Naming: Their official names evoke the Spring season. Some other defaults name in-game evoke land and sea, referring to the game's theme.
• Totally Radical: In Emerald, their PokéNav nickname is "Rad Neighbor" if they're the Rival.
• Uncatty Resemblance: In the remakes, their Contest outfits match costumes that Cosplay Pikachu can wear — Rock Star for Brendan and Pop Star for May.
• Vague Age: Averted in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, as the BuzzNav states the rival character to be 12. Presumably, the player character is the same age or around it. However, a Grunt in the Delta Episode will call the player a teenager when spoken to.
• The Worf Effect: The rival loses to Zinnia at the beginning of the Delta Episode and gets their Key Stone stolen by her, establishing Zinnia as a powerful threat.
• Younger Than They Look: May and Brendan are drawn looking similar to teenagers for their designs in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, despite being only 12. A Grunt even refers to them as teenagers on one occasion.

Brendan (Yūki)

Brendan / Yūki (ユウキ yuuki)

Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Promo - JP); Aleks Le (Pokémon Masters - EN), Yuko Sanpei (Pokémon Masters - JP)

Like Pokémon Crystal, For Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, you can choose between a male or female protagonist. Whichever one you chose; they follow the same story:

As the protagonist, you've recently moved to Littleroot Town in the Hoenn region from somewhere else (In Ruby and Sapphire, it was Johto, while in Emerald it was "somewhere far away"). Your father has become the Gym Leader of Petalburg City, and you're just the right age to start your Pokémon journey. Your town has a Pokémon Professor who will gladly give you a starter, but he's more into fieldwork than sitting around in a lab so he isn't there. Turns out that he's got himself into trouble with a wild Pokémon and you must help him by getting one of the starters from his bag. The rest of the story is up to you.

He made a few cameos in Pokémon movies where he's an accomplished trainer competing in tournaments. He also is in Pokémon Adventures (as Ruby), and in Pocket Monsters, and Pokémon Battle Frontier.

In Pokémon Masters, Brendan is presented as the main playable character of his home region. As such, most of the tropes below may pertain to his depiction there.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the Generation III games, his hair was black. Come Generation VI, it's brown.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, Brendan is self-collected and reticent to express himself. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Brendan is Endearingly Dorky and doesn't know how to express himself.
• Alliterative Name: If he's an NPC, his name is Brendan Birch.
• Ambiguously Brown: His Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire artwork has him with noticeably darker skin than his Ruby/Sapphire or Emerald art; the Hoenn sun might be giving him a tan.
• Badass Bookworm: Brendan's PokéNav description claims that he battles "with knowledge".
• Break the Haughty: In the originals, this happens to him as your rival if you're May.
• The Cameo: Brendan never made an appearance in the main anime, and didn't even get a dedicated side-story like Ethan and Kris; he does, however, make a few special appearances battling other trainers in the introductory segments of Pokemon Jirachi Wish Maker, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, and Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior.
• Character Catchphrase: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, whenever Brendan tries to describe his emotions, he nearly always starts with "It's, like, I don't know...".
• Chick Magnet: As the player character in Omega Ruby; Despite being a mere twelve years of age, he has Ship Tease with May, Lisia, Zinnia, Courtney, and Shelly to name some.
• Composite Character:
  • One of Brendan's figures ("Sean") from the Pokémon Trading Figure Game was to have Brendan wearing his Ruby and Sapphire outfit with a Palette Swap from his Emerald design.
  • Brendan's Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire outfit finds a middle ground between his original and Emerald outfits, returning to his predominantly red and black color scheme from the original outfit while keeping the sleeves and legs short and giving him his green bag and new green shoes to highlight the heritage from Emerald. (No more Ultra Ball yellow, though).
  • Brendan's personality in Masters is a compromise between his Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald self and his Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire self—he's open like he was in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire but not nearly as Endearingly Dorky, while he's also got the ambition of his Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald original without the reticence.
• Defrosting Ice Queen:
  • Gender-Inverted in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, where Brendan keeps his negative emotions and opinions mostly to himself, betraying his intentions only despite himself until he finally brings himself to be more open after losing in Lilycove.
  • Averted completely in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, where Brendan is openly friendly.
• Exposed to the Elements: Inverted, especially in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. Brendan, despite adventuring around the subtropical Hoenn region, was content to wear long-sleeved clothes that covered almost his whole body. His Emerald outfit gives him short sleeves... and makes up for it with an extra pair of shorts over his pants. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire finally let him wear just shorts along with his short-sleeved shirt, but in all three versions, he's still wearing his ubiquitous knit cap.
• Head Pet: Brendan has some NPC chatter in Pokémon Masters indicating that not only does his Tailow roost on his head, it occasionally leaves the odd captured Wurmple there, too, and belatedly realizes perhaps it's too late to prevent his head from becoming a nest.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: When Brendan meets the female Player Character, he'll comment that he thought she would be a boy no matter how feminine her name^note Which is the one detail he already knows—apparently Professor Birch only described her as Norman's child, not even his daughter. is. The script seems to assume the player-character has a unisex name (like her Japanese Canon Name Haruka) and not a gendered one (like her English name May).
• Like Father, Like Son: As an NPC, it's mentioned he wants to be a better researcher than his dad. The Composite Character version of Brendan from Pokemon Masters wants to likewise outdo his father Norman.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His Canon Name Yuuki is a homophone^note His official name is in katakana and doesn't commit to any kanji for the Japanese word meaning "bravery, valor, boldness". His English name Brendan alliterates with the English word brave.
  • The first of his optional names in the original games is an environmentally Punny Name. In Ruby, it's Rikuya or Landon, from the word for "land", and in Sapphire, it's Kaito or Sean, from the word for "sea". His name from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire pre-release material and the demo, Orlando, takes the land pun and adds an extra O-R in front for Omega Ruby.
  • His Official French name is Brice, which sounds like "brise" meaning "breeze", a figure of speech commonly associated with Spring.
• Naughty Is Good: A know-it-all and a little smug but a serious battler.
• Nice Guy: And an Adaptational Nice Guy at that. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Brendan is much friendlier and more supportive than the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald original.
• Olympus Mons: In Pokémon Masters, he forms a sync pair with Latios that can Mega Evolve when in his Sygna Suit.
• One-Steve Limit: Downplayed in Emerald—Brendan's name is a couple of vowels away from Pyramid King Brandon's; in fact, both names are cousins derived from the same root and are a Punny Name meant to alliterate with bravery.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the original Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, Brendan handled his early losses as the rival by appearing to shrug them off, which makes the Lavaridge encounter, where he reveals his intention to challenge Norman and taunts you about how tough you aren't, a brief Wham Episode.
• Pets as a Present: NPC Brendan, after meeting May, notices she has no pokémon and immediately offers to catch her one before remembering he has to go help his dad and promises to do it another time. The next time they meet, though, she's got a brand-new starter of her own.
• Punny Name: Brendan (and all his western names, like Brice and Bruno) have Added Alliterative Appeal with "bravery" (勇気 in Japanese, which "yuuki" is a reading for).
• The Rival: Beyond his appearances in the main games, Brendan also got to co-star opposite Red in the obscure Pokémon Trading Figure Game, where they were both rivals.
• Ship Tease:
  • In Emerald, Birch's child calls Norman's child to claim they saw a big green Pokémon (to foreshadow Rayquaza, really), but Brendan adds that he wished May had been there to see it.
  • In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Brendan starts showing obvious feelings for May during the Lavaridge encounter, showing unusual shyness, fumbling his way through an attempt to accompany her back to Petalburg, and being terribly dismayed if she turns him down.
  • In Pokémon Masters, Brendan's and May's NPC dialog contains numerous references to the other and multiple implications to how important they each consider the other.
    • Some of May's dialog reveals she and Brendan go stargazing together, and she mentions a star she found particularly pretty. Brendan has dialog about the same event, and lets slip that May's eyes are really pretty when they light up when stargazing.
    • In one storyline, Brendan mentions that he likes May a lot, but then he catches himself and insists that he definitely isn't attracted to her.
    • The Easter 2021 event of Pokémon Masters has a subplot about Brendan mistakenly being convinced May is no longer interested in Pokémon battles and growing sad over it.
• Signature Mon: Averted. Like Red, Brendan's Signature Mon changes depending on the adaptation or official source he's seen in.
  • Official art for the original games shows him with a Torchic and Combusken (referencing Ruby version).
  • The anime and manga give him the Mudkip line.
  • The animated trailer for the remakes associates him directly with the Treecko line, which carries into both Pokémon Generations and Masters.
  • Pokémon Emerald's introductory cutscene shows a Torchic running alongside Brendan/May.
• Skewed Priorities: In Masters, during the Pasio Eggsplorers Story Event, Brendan is led to believe by a wrong assumption from Barry that May is apparently considering quitting battling altogether to become a full-time field researcher. The whole time, Brendan is thoroughly depressed about May not battling and hopes that it isn't true (despite the fact Birch's child doesn't fight as much and is trying to become like him anyway), instead of being worried about anything else.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • As your rival, Brendan in Lilycove City claims he's definitely not there to buy dolls. Afterward, a Swablu Plushie can be seen in his bedroom.
  • At the end of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Brendan insists that his offer to bike home together with Norman's child shouldn't be read into besides an attempt to invoke Book Ends.
  • In Masters, some of Brendan's NPC chatter has him claim outright that he likes May a lot, only for him to insist that he doesn't mean he's attracted to her or anything.
• To Be a Master: Brendan is this both as player and rival. As the player character he aims to be the strongest trainer of the region, while as an NPC he states that he wants to be a professor.
• Tsundere: Brendan plays a Type B version of this as an NPC; normally a Nice Guy but often kind of a jerk toward you. This is absent in the remakes, however; beyond one potentially demeaning comment the first time you meet (he was hoping you'd be a boy) he's nothing but kind and encouraging thereafter, outright declaring you friends.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Unlike in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, in which Brendan was reluctant to express his emotions, the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire version of Brendan doesn't really even know what his own emotions are; he vaguely grasps at them by describing a comparable experience, such as getting pumped or feeling warm.
  Brendan: It's like, I don't know....

May (Haruka)

May / Haruka (ハルカ haruka)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Promo - JP); Deneen Melody (Pokémon Masters - EN), Ai Nonaka (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The other protagonist of the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire games, she is the option if you want to play as a girl.

If you don't choose her as the protagonist, she'll be a rival who is the child of Professor Birch, the Pokémon Professor of the Hoenn region. Unlike previous rivals, this one is more friendly. The same role applies to Brendan if you choose her as the protagonist.

In Pokémon Masters, May is depicted as Professor Birch's daughter over Brendan's main playable character status. As such, most of the tropes below may pertain to her depiction there.

For her anime counterpart, see here.

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• Adaptational Personality Change: Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald May was prone to spontaneously revealing too much of herself, but Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire May's character is focused on her anxieties about being friends with Norman's child.
• Composite Character: In Masters, May has the design from her Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire self, participates in contests like her anime self, and at the EX stage she takes on the Palette Swap from her Pokémon Adventures manga self.
• Dragon Tamer: In Masters, for the game's 2.5 Year Anniversary in 2022, she forms a sync pair with the Dragon/Psychic-type Latias that can Mega Evolve.
• Even the Girls Want Her: As the player character, she pretty much gets into some questionable interactions with important female NPCs, such as Lisia, Courtney, and Zinnia.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Downplayed example, but in Pokémon Masters, whenever she gets thankful, the design of her eyes notably changes with her pupils enlarging, being the only trainer whose eyes change in such way.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire Contest clothes with a bow and ribbons on the right side of her head and a scrunchy(?) bracelet on her left wrist.
• Friendless Background: May's nervous behaviors and her focus on her friendship with Brendan imply she has one in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Almost immediately after May confesses her dream to be friends with Brendan, she gets nervous and awkward a couple of times about calling Brendan her friend, gets anxious Brendan may have a low opinion of her when she catches herself going on about a shopping spree and insists she's been training responsibly, and in Sootopolis she has to bring herself to confess that Brendan is the best friend she has.
• Genki Girl: NPC-May is quite energetic, more so than NPC-Brendan anyway. She really shows off this attitude in OR/AS, with her adorable fist-pumping action.
• Girliness Upgrade: In Ruby and Sapphire, she wore a red and navy blue collared shirt with a white skirt over her navy blue bicycle shorts, navy blue and white gloves, shoes with black socks, and a bandanna. Her hair tips were quite angular as well to complete her tomboyish look. Her Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire redesign gives her a red and black tank top, white shorts over black bicycle shorts, ditches the gloves, and replaces the full head bandanna for something more akin to a bow with her hair tips becoming more curved. The remakes also give her a new Contest outfit styled like a short-skirted dress and paired with slight heels.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: NPC-May, somewhat; after you fight her in Lilycove City, she seems to be more interested in filling her Pokédex than continuing training.
• Hot Springs Episode: When encountered in Lavaridge Town in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, May reveals she was at the hot springs while the player was earning the Volcano Badge.
• Idol Singer: Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Animated Trailer shows her para para dancing alongside a Mega Altaria and a Mega Audino at a Pokémon Contest.
• Improbable Hairstyle: How do her thick sidetails stay afloat?
• Meaningful Name:
  • Haruka means "Spring flower" but also means "far away", which goes with Norman's name Senri which can also refer to "1000 li" (2440 miles, but also an idiomatic way to say far away).
  • English names:
    • Two of May's default names are Terra and Marina; also referring to Groudon and Kyogre who represent land and sea respectively. Other languages also have a name that evokes Land/heat and sea.
    • May is also the most well-known month of spring in the northern hemisphere, which matches her Japanese name. It could also refer to the Mayflower, which blooms in spring.
    • In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire pre-release media, her name is Anna.
  • Her German name is Maike, from "Mai" (May).
  • Her Spanish name is Aura, meaning gentle breeze, a figure of speech commonly associated with spring.
  • Her French name is Flora, referring to the flora and sounding like "fleur" (flower).
  • Her Italian name is Vera, from primavera (spring).
  • Her Korean name is Bom'i, from "bom" (spring).
• Mythology Gag:
  • In Masters, Brendan says that May tends to focus on Contests. May's counterpart in the anime focused on Contests too.
  • Also in Masters, May's EX outfit is blue with her having a pair of fangs, which harkens to her Pokémon Adventures counterpart, Sapphire.
• Olympus Mons: In Masters, she partners with a Latias that can Mega Evolve for the game's 2.5 Year Anniversary in 2022.
• Plucky Girl: NPC-May is clumsy and shy but never lets any losses get her down.
• Sailor's Ponytail: Has one in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, making her hair a little longer than in previous appearances. She still has her signature long bangs on the sides.
• Ship Tease:
  • In the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, May is impressed when she realizes the player is challenging gyms and teasingly suggests that the player is doing it because of her.
  • In Pokémon Masters, May has optional character dialog confiding that Brendan's focus on his own dreams makes her question her own dreams and if they're sufficient. At the conclusion of the Pasio Eggsplorers event, May promises that Brendan will be the first person she talks to if she should make a big decision about her future.
  • Also, some of May's dialog in her Anniversary 2022 alternate features her listing important meetings that she commemorates as anniversaries—one of them is the day she met Brendan.
  • If May is wearing her Anniversary 2022 dress in the lobby in Pokémon Masters, she may mention that her pokémon fidget when she wears it; talking to her again will prompt her to lament that Brendan also acts like a stranger when he sees her in it and insist that she's still herself.
• Signature Mon: Inverted. May's used both Torchic and Mudkip in different appearances, but seldom Treecko, if ever.
  • May went with the Torchic line in both the anime and manga, and Pokémon Emerald's introductory cutscene shows a Torchic running alongside both May and Brendan. Fittingly, she forms a sync pair with Blaziken for her Sygna Suit variant in "Pokémon Masters''.
  • Official art for the third generation has also shown her with a Mudkip (as a reference to Sapphire Version). Her Kotobukiya ArtFx J figure also shows her with Mudkip, and she uses it in Masters.
  • In the official trailer for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire she has both (as the third Hoenn trainer Wally doesn't get a traditional starter).
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: In Emerald and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, May's top lacks sleeves. In the remakes, she's brave enough to battle Magma or Aqua with the player.
• Trying Not to Cry: As Birch's child, when she loses the Lilycove rematch, there is a very long pause before she begins to speak again in the original Ruby and Sapphire.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Not as prominent as Blue's Raticate, but if you picked Torchic while playing as Brendan in Emerald, she will sport a Torkoal in her second (optional) battle in Rustboro City. Afterwards, the turtle is never seen again and a Slugma will be in its place. The only assumption as to what happened is that she likely placed it in the PC.

Wally (Mitsuru)

Wally / Mitsuru (ミツル mitsuru)

Voiced by: Ayumu Murase (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The other rival in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, as well as Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Wally is a sickly boy who starts his journey when you help him catch his first Pokémon. Drawing strength from the growing bond between himself and his Pokémon, Wally slowly manages to overcome his frailties and discover his resolve to become the Pokémon League Champion, becoming one of the strongest trainers in the series in the process.

While he doesn't have a Version name, his overall green motif can sometimes symbolize Emerald.

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• Adaptational Curves: Inverted in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, where Wally's slender but clearly male design was replaced with one that made him more androgynous—Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Wally's design goes out of its way to give him feminine cuteness, with bigger eyes, fluffier hair, rounding the collar of his dress shirt, an oversized sweater with big puffy buttons that covers half of his hands and flares out at the bottom like a skirt, and a travel bag that he wears like a woman's purse.
• Always Someone Better: In the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, after your first fight with him, he will always be a step ahead of you challenging Gyms. However, he comes at a stop right before facing the League.
• Ambiguously Related: Wallace and Wally, who are both green-haired dudes dressed in white introduced in Gen III; even their Japanese names Mikuri and Mitsuru are similar. Despite their similarities, no games have yet deigned to notice.
• Artistic Age: Aside from having a more confident expression and more realistic proportions, his Sun and Moon / Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon appearance is identical how he looks in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, despite an unknown amount of time having passed between the Hoenn games and the Alola games.
• Ascended Extra: Originally an unexpected rival, in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Wally became one of the strongest trainers in the series, and returns in Sun and Moon, making him the first rival since Blue to make a reappearance outside their source game.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, during his final battle with you in the main story at the end of Victory Road, his light, bouncy theme becomes full-on electric rock.
• Badass Adorable: Don't let his looks fool you, in the post game he is one of the toughest trainers in the series, with a team decked out with items, abilities, and movesets that wouldn't be out of place in a real life tournament.
• Beginner's Luck: Wally encounters and catches a Ralts—the rarest pokémon on Route 102 that isn't Version-Specific—on the first try. (This also notifies players that Ralts is on that route).
• Bling of War: His Mega Amulet is a flashy piece of jewelry compared to his simple clothing, and the Key Stone lets him Mega Evolve his Gallade.
• Boss Remix: In the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he gets a rock remix of his leitmotif as his Battle Theme Music.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • The first of the main Pokémon trainers to neither have a traditional starter nor a name that is based on a game version (admittedly the strong green motif in his original design invoke the Updated Re Release Emerald).
  • He's also the first rival to not have a superiority complex, to the point that he's not always ready as a rival because of how timid he is initially.
  • In the first two generations, the player was taught to catch pokémon by a more experienced mentor, be it Old Man Weedle or the Dude. In Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, the Justified Tutorial is framed in precisely the opposite way, with the more experienced player watching over Wally while he learns how to catch pokémon.
• The Bus Came Back: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his Altaria disappears from his party. However, in Sun and Moon, it's back.
• Character Development: When you first meet him, he's a shy and sickly boy that needs help to catch his first Pokémon. On your second meeting, he knows how to battle and is confident enough to challenge the local Gym Leader (but still isn't that good). On your third meeting, he has an entire team of Pokémon that's just below the Elite Four in level and is much more confident in himself — his final rematch has his Pokémon only just below the Pokémon Champion himself in terms of level. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire take this further by having a fourth fight that shows how much knowledge he's gained, being one of the few NPCs to utilize held items on all of his Mons and having his post-battle dialogue show he's constantly thinking about how to improve his strategy.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Wally greatly contrasts both to the Jerkass rivals Blue and Silver for a number of reasons:
  • Whereas Blue and Silver are haughty, confident Jerkasses towards the player character who have superiority complex and are obsessed over winning (before their Character Development kicks in), Wally is timid and suffers from inferiority complex (as shown in the first battle that he loses to the player during their match in Mauville City), where he is more of a Friendly Rival towards the player character.
  • Wally is also Delicate and Sickly (before recovering from his illness), unlike Blue and Silver who are in perfect condition.
  • Unlike the previous two rivals who have a starter that is always advantageous against the player's starter, Wally's starter is a Ralts and is neutrally advantageous towards the player's starter.
  • When it comes to their relationship towards their relatives, Wally is contrasted greatly to Silver. Silver has a great hatred towards his father Giovanni for being weak after Team Rocket's defeat, before vowing himself to get stronger by committing petty acts. Wally is more well-loved by his cousin Wanda and his entire family.
  • Despite all the wildly differing characterisations between the three rivals, they all achieve positive Character Development, with Blue being less haughtier in GSC, Silver being a wholly reformed trainer (as evidenced with his Golbat evolving into Crobat) and Wally himself becoming more confident in his third and final rematch with the player, a stark contrast to the shy boy he once was.
• Delicate and Sickly: While his condition isn't ever named, the fact that it's alleviated by clean air would suggest asthma. He seems to have mostly recovered by the end of the story. If Wally's condition is asthma, his recovery has some actual basis in fact. The best treatment for asthma actually is physical activity (with an inhaler in case of attacks). In fact, many athletes actually suffer from asthma, but regular physical activity actually reduces the chance of an attack. So Wally's improving has science behind it.
• Family Theme Naming: Wally (Mitsuru) and his cousin Wanda (Michiru) have very similar names. There's also a certain Gym Leader named Wallace (Mikuri), but he's only Ambiguously Related to Wally if at all.
• Graceful Loser: Zig-Zagged. When he loses in the pre-Elite Four battle in the remakes he falls silent and screams in frustration but quickly pulls himself together and thanks you for not holding back.
• Guest-Star Party Member: You can battle with him as your partner at the Battle Maison in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as well as Battle Tree in Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Handicapped Badass: Zig-Zagged. Wally starts out suffering from a breathing condition, but by the end of main storyline he appears to be no longer suffering the symptoms of this and has become a lot stronger. Post-game there is no evidence of Wally suffering from any conditions and is now one of the most powerful trainers in the entire series.
• Leitmotif: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his appearances are accompanied by a bouncy, light remix of Verdanturf Town's theme. When you battle him at the end of Victory Road, it turns into electric rock.
• Luminescent Blush: About half the time in the remakes, due to his shyness.
• Mythology Gag: In Pokémon Masters, his Sygna Suit Pokémon is a Shiny male Gardevoir, alluding to the very improbable but still possible outcome of his Ralts being Shiny when he first finds one.
• Older Than They Look: When he returns in Sun and Moon as an opponent in the Battle Tree, he doesn't look like he has aged a day and if you were to compare his two battle models, his Sun and Moon one will be the smaller and younger looking of the two. Though it could be chalked up to his growth being stunted as a result of a sickly childhood.
• The Rival: He tries to be this to you, and since May or Brendan stops their journey in the original games, becomes it by the time you get to Victory Road.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Definitely the Sensitive Guy to Brendan's Manly Man if you play as May, even though they don't interact.
• Shrinking Violet: He is a shy boy, at least initially.
• Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Essentially his character arc in the game. He starts off as a sickly boy with breathing issues who is moving to his uncle and aunt's place in Verdanturf Town. However, after he gains a Pokémon, he starts to get stronger to the point where he replaces Brendan/May as your main rival.
• Signature Mon: Ralts line, ending with Gardevoir. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire replaces Gardevoir with Gallade, Mega Gallade to be exact. In Pokémon Masters, however, he possesses a Shiny Gardevoir as his Sygna Suit Pokémon.
• Sore Loser: The Melancholy Wally Story Event in Pokémon Masters has him obsessed with the idea of getting stronger to win that he utterly forgets to take into account his Gardevoir's feelings that it leaves his side, until he realizes through Noland teaching new trainers about battles that, even though a trainer may lose, there is still fun to be had even after losing, which makes Wally realize that he used to have fun while losing when he first started out as a trainer. The story event ultimately ends with Wally apologizing to the Gardevoir and earning its forgiveness.
• Superboss: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he can be fought again (with a new team) after completing one of the Super Rounds in the Battle Maison. With his team at level 79 and his Gallade at 81, he's one of the highest leveled boss fights in the series.
• Super Mode: He has a Key Stone in the remakes, and uses Mega Gallade. In Sun and Moon, he may also have Mega Garchomp or Mega Altaria.
• Tareme Eyes: He sports a pair of round and downward-slanting eyes, signifying his youthfulness and shyness.
• Theme Music Power-Up: In the remakes, when he challenges you to a battle at the end of Victory Road, the music (before and during the battle) becomes this.
• Uncatty Resemblance:
  • His green and white color scheme matches up perfectly with the Ralts line (his starter Pokémon).
  • Zigzagged in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which covers up most of his white shirt with a pastel blue sweater, which severely diminishes the white-and-green color scheme he shares with the Ralts line, but which is a close shade to the blue of Mega Gallade's cape.

Allies

Professor Birch (Dr. Odamaki)

Professor Birch / Dr. Odamaki (オダマキ博士 odamaki hakase)

The Pokémon Professor native to the Hoenn region who specializes in the study of Pokémon habitats and distributions. He is the father of the player character's rival in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and their remakes.

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• Adaptational Curves: The professor's Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire redesign is more clearly rotund than his Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald design.
• Adaptational Wimp: In Ruby and Sapphire, the professor is fleeing for his life from a baby Poochyena, a species that at least has the excuse of being cowards that pretend to be fearsome. In Emerald, he instead flees a Zigzagoon, which doesn't even share the Poochyena's pretense at being fearsome. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the Running Gag takes this to ever sillier levels, ultimately having him be chased by his own wife.
• Ditzy Genius: The third and fourth times he is chased and calls for the player's help, he's mistaken the moving company Machoke and his wife for wild Pokémon.
• Establishing Character Moment: The player character meets the professor running for his life from a nearly harmless wild pokémon at the most basic level—even the pokémon in his bag outclass it easily. So iconic to his character is the scene that Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has him do it no less than four times total, and his sixth gen official art depicts him running.
• Geek Physiques: The rotund/chubby type in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Happily Married: And has a kid (two in Pokémon Emerald).
• Idiot Ball: When running from danger, Professor Birch tends to run in precise circles, either ignoring or forgetting useful resources in close vicinity, like his own bag full of pokémon.
• Nature Lover: In comparison with the other professors. He studies Pokémon behavior in the wild, so his research often takes him outside, where he stays for long periods.
• Nice Guy: One of the nicest of the professors. That said, he is the only Professor to get snarky with the player if they decide not to give the starter a nickname (in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire).
  "Oh, so that's how you like to do things? Not even going to give it a nickname, are you?"
• Only One Name: We don't get his first name.
• Renaissance Man: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire show that he's written books on Hoenn's history in general as well as on its Pokémon.
• Running Gag: In a bit of a literal sense, getting chased by something north of Littleroot Town and yelling for the player's help in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, each situation more ridiculous (and non-threatening) than the last. His artwork even shows him running.
  • The first time it was a wild Poochyena, which is a fairly vicious dark-type dog Pokémon.
  • Then it was a stirred-up wild Shroomish, an easier to handle grass-type.
  • Then it is a Machoke from Pokémon Postal Service, a captured Pokémon.
  • Then it is his wife.

Lanette (Mayumi)

Lanette / Mayumi (マユミ mayumi)

The Pokémon Storage System Developer who operates in the Hoenn region. She updates Bill's storage system by giving it a user friendly graphical interface and the ability to store more Pokémon and change the wallpaper of the boxes Pokémon are stored in. She is Brigette's younger sister.

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• Anime Hair: She has a pair of massive pigtails that go past her back.
• Bespectacled Cutie: She wears a pair of glasses and looks quite adorable.
• Genius Slob: Her house gets very cluttered while she researches, which she apologizes to the player for when they visit her.
• Punny Name: Her name is based off the small self-contained computer network known as a LAN. She also has the word "net" in her name.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: She's a storage developer and wears glasses.

Brigette (Azusa)

Brigette / Azusa (アズサ azusa)

The host of Pokémon Box Ruby and Sapphire, Pokémon Bank, and Poké Transporter. She is also Lanette's older sister.

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• The Bus Came Back: Returns to operate Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter in Generation VI.
• Coat Cape: She has one in her Pokémon Bank art.
• Curtains Match the Windows: She's exactly like her sister from Gen III.
• Fiery Redhead: Similar to Flannery, she has red-hair and is a go-getter.
• Girliness Upgrade: A slight one: In Gen III, she had short hair, a skirt, brown sandals, and looked overall like a tomboy. In Gen VI, she wears a short dress, has different, green sandals, and her hair is longer, making her look a bit more feminine (though she does still look a bit like a tomboy).
• It Was a Gift: She gives the player special Pokémon depending on how many Pokémon the player has stored in their Pokémon Box game. She gives out a Swablu with False Swipe, a Zigzagoon with Extremespeed, a Skitty with Pay Day, and a Pichu with Surf. For first-time users of Pokémon Bank, she'll give out a Celebi.
• Long Bus Trip: It took ten years (in Japan) for her to return after her first appearance.
• Punny Name: Her name comes from bridge, a piece of equipment that connects two separate networks. It also contains the word rig, a slang name for a computer. It also doubles as a Meaningful Name, as said puns heavily relate to the fact Pokémon Bank serves as a bridge of rigs between generations (namely Gen I, Gen II, Gen V, Gen VI, and Gen VII).

Professor Takao Cozmo (Dr. Takao Soraishi)

Professor Takao Cozmo / Dr. Takao Soraishi (ソライシ・タカオ博士 soraishi takao hakase)

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Pokémon Generations - JP)

An astronomer from Fallarbor Town who gets embroiled in Team Aqua/Magma's plan for Mt. Chimney, wanting a special meteorite in his possession. While fairly minor in the original Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, the remakes expand his role and backstory significantly.

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• Absent-Minded Professor: Crosses with Horrible Judge of Character. He initially goes along with Team Aqua/Magma thinking they would help him excavate meteorites, only to steal it from him. He gets better later on.
• Ascended Extra: Went from a minor Victim of the Week type of NPC to a major player in the Delta Episode and a bit of a tragic past.
• Foil: Is this to you as the player character in the remakes. Looking at the letters in Sea Mauville reveal that his father Raizo was an absolute workaholic to the point he was barely home anymore, his marriage crumbled, and Takao noticing his mother spending more time with "her friend" (obviously meaning she was having an affair). It got so bad that eventually both father and son grew old, and Raizo eventually began to associate a doll from his son AS his son. Compare Norman, who, while still being a workaholic, still could balance between being Gym Leader and husband and father.
• Gullible Lemmings: It is revealed that the reason Team Magma/Aqua was able to trick him into giving them the meteorite is because Professor Cozmo is easily fooled whenever someone speaks about science-related topics.
• Meaningful Name: Cozmo being obvious, being an astronomer. Soraishi can be rendered as "sky-rock", referring to the Meteorite connected to him, and Takao is derived from "takai", meaning high.
• Mineral MacGuffin: Originally, his only claim to fame was his connection to the Meteorite, itself having no purpose. Come the remakes, said Meteorite turns out to be the pseudo-Mega Stone for Rayquaza.
• Number Two: To Steven in the Delta Episode, serving as head of Mossdeep's mission control.
• Smooch of Victory: The "I'm so happy I could kiss you" kind, to the operator who had been bugging him for the entirety of the crisis, once it boiles over.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Ultimately, he never did. Worse, Raizo grew so senile that he came to think of the doll his son gave to him to help him think of him as his son.

Aarune (Gilly)

Aarune / Gilly (ギリー girii)

A world-wandering man from Unova, and expert on Hoenn's secret bases. He serves as a guide to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's new and improved secret base system, filling Brendan and May in on them as they travel the region, and even battling them at one point.

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• Americans Are Cowboys: Despite being from Unova, a region based on the New York/New Jersey area, he speaks and dresses like a cowboy from the American southwest.
• Coat Over the Shoulder: He's always seen carrying his coat over his shoulder. Understandable, considering how warm Hoenn is, he doesn't have reason to wear it.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Pre-Hall of Fame, Aarune's Flygon is Level 23. Trapinch doesn't evolve into Vibrava until Level 35, and Vibrava doesn't evolve into Flygon until Level 45.
• Dragon Tamer: Aarune has as his one and only Pokémon the Ground/Dragon-type Flygon.
• Eagleland: He's from Unova and trends on the nicer side of this trope.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: His concept art depicts him pointing excitedly and yelling.
• Keet: Almost always speaks excitedly and seems to act this way, judging from his artwork.
• Mythology Gag: His hat, jacket, shorts, and hairstyle are a reference to the male Pokémon Ranger class as they appear in Black and White and their sequels.
• Phenotype Stereotype: He's blond-haired with blue-grey eyes and happens to be from Unova, a region based on part of the United States.
• Signature Mon: Flygon. His move of choice is Secret Power, which is what's used to create a Super-Secret Base and the TM he hands out to people when introducing the concept. Flygon even has a Normal Gem to boost the move's power. Oddly, once you've obtained a thousand secret base flags, he gives you a Garchompite (mostly due to Flygon not having a Mega Evolution).
• Theme Naming: Whatever the language, his name is a reference to the Hypericum flower genus.
• Walking the Earth: He has spent about eleven years wandering the world, looking for a Secret Base for himself. After meeting with the player, he seems to have settled in the Secret Base Guild in Fortree City.

Lisia (Lucia)

Lisia / Lucia (ルチア ruchia)

Voiced by: Brittany Cox (Pokémon Masters - EN), Shiina Natsukawa (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The niece of Wallace, Lisia is a young Pokémon Coordinator introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and the most famous and popular in the Hoenn region. She helps Brendan/May get a start in Pokémon Contest Spectaculars, and provides them with clothes to wear during those Contests.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Her fans call her "Lissi".
• Attention Whore: In Masters, while her contest skill is second to none, her battling skill leaves something to be desired. Hilda and Wallace can both tell right away that Lisia keeps having a contest mentality during battle, making sure to give her adoring fans a show rather than focusing on fighting at all. Thankfully, she gets better at it.
  • Exploited in gameplay form as her "Spotlight, Please!" trainer move, which causes foes to focus on her for a short time while dramatically boosting Altaria's Defense and raising her Sp. Atk.
• Cool Big Sis: She gets you started on the Contest path, and congratulates you every time you win.
• Curtains Match the Window: Her hair matches her light green eyes.
• Dragon Tamer: Her only known Pokémon is Ali, her Altaria, which is part Dragon-type.
• Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: Has a habit of spouting stuff like this, especially notable when she first recruits the player into contests.
• Famed In-Story: Noted to be one of the most famous and popular coordinators in Hoenn.
• Fangirl: Of Elesa, whom she considers to be so cool and wishes to be like her one day, not knowing that Elesa wishes to have her social skills to improve her own.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Wears only one stocking on her left leg, as well as having a longer strip of hair on the right side of her face.
• Gender-Blender Name: Her Altaria is male, but she notes that many people mistake "Ali" for a feminine name.
• Genki Girl: She is very upbeat and energetic about Contests.
• Idol Singer: Modeled after one, and has the in-game popularity to match.
• Locked Out of the Loop: When you talk to Wallace after defeating the both of them in a contest, he'll mention she is oblivious to your involvement in stopping the version Primal legendary.
• Luminescent Blush: Very, very, very often in-game.
• Magical Girl: Her costume is quite similar looking to one from the typical Magical Girl genre series.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her outfit shows off a decent amount of flesh, she has teases of being into the player with a bit of flirting, and she's an idol star that constantly does poses to emphazise her looks.
• Nephewism: She is Wallace's niece.
• Nice Girl: She picks you to be the next Contest Star, and gives you a snazzy costume, a Contest Pass, and a Pokéblock Kit, all for free. She's also very supportive and encouraging to you, congratulating you whenever you hit a new milestone. Most telling is the fact that she doesn't get jealous and overly-competitive, even stating that all she wants is for people and Pokémon to have a blast participating in Contests.
• Ship Tease: Lisia gets quite a bit of it with the main character no matter what gender the player chooses, leading to a minor case of Ambiguously Bi.
• Showgirl Skirt: A short, flared-out tutu.
• Signature Mon: She only has one Pokémon: an Altaria nicknamed Ali. She can Mega Evolve him, and the player can get an Altarianite if they show an Altaria to a member of Lisia's fan club.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like a female Wallace. Turns out that she's his niece. There's also a magazine in the Sea Mauville with a woman on the cover that looks a lot like her, possibly her mother or grandmother.
• Superboss: For Contests. After you've won all the Master Ranks once, she'll compete in the next one you enter with her Altaria, Ali. It has a moveset optimized for the contest's category and insanely high condition.
• Surpassed the Teacher:
  • Wallace states Lisia has surpassed him in terms of Contest talent; this much shows during Contests where they appear together. Lisia's Ali will always have the higher condition.
  • If you manage to beat her in all Contest categories, you can put her on the receiving end of this trope.
• Transformation Trinket: She can Mega Evolve her Altaria, Ali, using the Key Stone in her hairpin.
• True Blue Femininity: Wears a lot of blue that shows off her feminine charm.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Her outfit is stylized like her Altaria with fluffy detached sleeves, bright blue and white color scheme, and her hair antennae resembling an Altaria's plumage.
• Vague Age: Her form in the overworld is quite small and cutesy looking compared to the other adult characters and she looks about 12 which is the same age of the player but in the official art she looks about 16. It doesn't help that she's got a bit of sexual elements around her. Indeed, her voice in Masters sounds like she's in her teens.

Chaz (Kazura)

Chaz / Kazura (カズラ kazura)

A Rich Boy, Pokémon Coordinator and the self proclaimed rival of Lisia introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. He owns a female Machoke named Macherie that he adopted.

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• Can't Catch Up: Despite being Lisia's "rival," she far succeeds him in terms of fame and success. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that Chaz refused to train Macherie in anything other than Cuteness while Lisia has Ali specialized for all the Contests.
• Graceful Loser: Subverted. He never really lose his proud attitude but he's a good enough sport to give the player gifts to celebrate their successes.
• Interspecies Romance: Macherie has a crush on Lisia's Ali.
• Pet Baby Wild Animal: Chaz adopted Macherie when she was a Machop who was living in a cardboard box after her original trainer abandoned her.
• The Rival: Considers himself this to Lisia, who disinterested in having rivals and believes people should enter Contests for fun.
  • He also considers the player character to be this, especially for Lisia's attention.
• Security Blanket: Macherie takes the box that Chaz found her in everywhere she goes.
• Ship Tease: The way Chaz talks about being Lisia’s rival makes it sound more like he wants to date her. He even goes into Crazy Jealous Guy mode when he realizes that the player has grabbed her attention and Lisia’s own response comes off like she’s trying to deny that there’s anything going on between her and Chaz.
• Signature Mon: Macherie the female Machoke, who he tries to make cute and effeminate despite the species being macho and muscular.
• To Be a Master: After the player beats Lisia he is inspired to start training Macherie to win all the Master Rank contests, including the Toughness category. He even starts training under Brawly and prepares to challenge Gyms to try and enhance Macherie's strength.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Chaz attempts to avert this trope. He believed Macherie is too cute for Toughness contests and refused to raise her Toughness. The problem with this is that Macherie only knows two Cute moves, neither of which are very impressive. Eventually, Chaz decides to start training her for Toughness Contests but states that no matter how tough she gets, Macherie will always be cute and adorable.

Zinnia (Higana)

Zinnia / Higana (ヒガナ higana)

Voiced by: Vivian Lu (Pokémon Masters - EN), Aimi Terakawa (Pokémon Masters - JP)

A mysterious young lady introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as a major character in the Delta Episode. A Whismur named Aster is her traveling partner. She's a powerful Dragon-type trainer who travels across Hoenn by herself, and is capable of taking on Team Magma/Aqua.

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• Adaptational Curves: Is the subject of this depending on the medium. Her official art, TCG cards and appearance in Pokémon Evolutions show her to be much bustier than all of the series' female protagonists as she is probably a good bit older than them but in Masters her chest size is noticeably reduced.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming:
  • The names Aster and Zinnia start with the first and last letters of the English alphabet, which may be an attempt to preserve, at least in a small way, the life and death theme of their original names Shigana and Higana.
  • In the English translation, the first letters of Archie's, Maxie's, and Zinnia's names are the first, middle, and last letters of the English alphabet.
• All for Nothing: Somewhat. The Key Stones she had burglarized and mugged from various trainers fail to repower Rayquaza, meaning all of her needless antagonism towards everyone but you ended up being pointless. It's only through the fortune of you still having the Meteorite that Rayquaza is repowered.
• Ambiguously Brown: Has slightly suntanned skin to go with her outdoorsy look.
• Ambiguously Bi: Based on what the player learns about Aster (not the Whismur, but rather the person it was named after) and her relationship with Zinnia, it's entirely possible that she was Zinnia's girlfriend, though Pokémon Evolutions defies this and indicates it was her mother. She also has Ship Tease with the player character regardless of gender.
• Ambiguous Situation: She apparently lost someone close to her named Aster, but we are never actually told what kind of relation she had to Zinnia. She could have been Zinnia's sister, friend, girlfriend or something else. Pokémon Evolutions seems to imply she was Zinnia's mother.
• And Then What?: Because her entire life led up to the summoning of Mega Rayquaza, Zinnia didn't have much of a plan for what to do afterwards. She takes to Walking the Earth at her grandmother's suggestion. Pokémon Masters picks up after this and has her meet another Rayquaza on Pasio that she ends up teaming up with herself.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Her actions in the Delta Episode are questionable, such as stealing other Trainers' Key Stones, and more so when you learn she assisted Team Aqua/Magma in their hopes to awaken Kyogre/Groudon, and she is a massive holier-than-thou hypocrite, but she only wanted to summon Rayquaza.
  • In Pokémon Masters, she mentions that she doesn't want to be called a hero but would rather do thievery (in the name of good) from the shadows without getting recognition face-to-face.
• Badass Bookworm: As a Lorekeeper, she's very knowledgeable about the history of Hoenn, particularly Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and their ancient battles.
• Badass Cape: She wears a white, tattered cape around her shoulders.
• The Battle Didn't Count: A variation. You can lose to her after you get Rayquaza, but the game still treats it as though you won and you proceed to stop the meteor and fight Deoxys anyway.
• Blood Knight: Her Limp and Livid stance and Slasher Smile when battling, as well as her eagerness to battle you a final time, show she's not merely a sweet Genki Girl. She defeats Maxie (in Omega Ruby) or Archie (in Alpha Sapphire) and steals his Key Stone. The defeated team leader even remarks on her mastery over Dragon-type Pokémon.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her forelocks are grown out quite a bit, emphasizing her tomboyish personality without diminishing her femininity.
• Break the Haughty: Falls into a slump of despair when her attempt to Mega Evolve Rayquaza fails. She doesn't truly recover her arrogance when you yourself manage to using the Meteorite either.
• Call-Forward: One line she says references Reshiram and Zekrom.
  "Are they based on the ideals you cling to? Or are they based on actual truths?"
• Chekhov's Gunman: First appears in Petalburg Woods, before the player even gets their first badge, then not again until the postgame. She's dressed as a member of the villainous team of your game at the time, though, and since you don't actually run into any female grunts until at least Slateport, you could be forgiven for not noticing that the one in the cutscene as you leave Petalburg has a unique model.
• The Chooser of the One: Zinnia teaches you about the lore of the Hoenn region during their way up the Sky Pillar, and after the player tames Rayquaza and defeats her, she passes on the title of Lorekeeper to them.
• Color Motif: Wears primarily black, gray, and tan giving off an adventurer vibe.
• Curbstomp Battle:
  • With her on the receiving end. She battles you after you capture Rayquaza, which along with being able to Mega Evolve, has a type advantage over all of her Pokémon and stands at Level 70, 8 levels higher than her highest leveled Pokémon, Salamence. Rayquaza alone is thus more than capable of knocking out her entire team without breaking a sweat.
  • As for everyone else she battles on the other hand, she's the one doling them out.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In her Special Costume event in Masters, she's partnered with a Thievul but is not a bad person. In fact despite being dressed as a Gentleman Thief, she's taking stolen Pokémon to give back to their owners.
• Dead Guy Junior: Aster the Whismur is heavily implied to be named after someone Zinnia loved very much and lost.
• Didn't See That Coming: Zinnia's entire plan revolved around bringing Rayquaza back, using her own "fervent wish" to get it to Mega Evolve and destroy the meteoroid. She never expected Rayquaza itself to not be able to Mega Evolve simply because it's been so long and it weakened with age.
• Dragon Tamer: Zinnia specializes in Dragon-types and has Mega Salamence as her ace.
• Easily Forgiven: The framing of the epilogue gives off this impression as despite having enough remorse to return all the Key Stones she'd stolen, certain actions such as attacking children, destroying the Link Cable (right as she may be about that), joining Team Aqua/Magma, and helping them wake Kyogre/Groudon despite being fully aware of the catastrophic events it would have caused, are seemingly swept under the rug.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Has a Mega Anklet that wraps around her right leg, which is designed after Rayquaza.
• Floral Theme Naming: Her name comes directly from the zinnia genus of flowers. Furthermore, her Whismur is nicknamed Aster, which is another genus of flowers.
• Friendly Enemy: She and the player are using different methods, interfere with each other's plans, and have reason to question the morality of each other's actions. Yet every time they meet, she's respectful to the point of fangirling over everything the protagonist has accomplished. This is in contrast to how she never misses an opportunity to rub in Steven being a former Champion to his face.
• Genki Girl: Zinnia is very cheerful when the player first meets her.
• Gentleman Thief: She dresses as a Gender-Inverted version of one as her special outfit in Masters and even plays the role of a phantom thief during the second part of the "Solve the Case!" story.
• Heroic BSoD: Has a brief one when she realizes that Rayquaza doesn't have enough energy to Mega Evolve, nearly making all her work during the game and her whole life as the Lorekeeper for naught. She snaps out of it when the player fixes the issue.
• Holier Than Thou: All throughout, she behaves as if her goals are morally superior than everyone else's, without a shred of remorse for all her burglary, assault, and engineering an apocalypse, nor an awareness that the people she belittles as ignorant would not have ever gotten the knowledge she has without her telling them beforehand.
• Hypocrite: She may be right in calling out Steven and Prof. Cozmo for their plan to use Infinity Energy to warp the meteor, as she believes it would make them no different than AZ using his lifeforce-powered weapon three millennia ago, and that they may inadvertently doom the people of another timeline that diverged from the Kalos war. However, when you consider the fact that she joined Team Aqua/Magma hoping to awaken Kyogre/Groudon, in the hope Rayquaza would notice and awaken, as well as seeing the failure merely as a setback, she doesn't necessarily have the moral high ground to call anyone out. Furthermore, right as she may be, she never even approached Mossdeep with the knowledge of the consequences of their actions, thus withheld said information until it was time to get in their way, and yet she belittles them for being ignorant of something they could never have known without her in the first place. All in all, her moral high ground is practically non-existent.]]
• Hypocrite Has a Point: As hypocritical as she is, Zinnia did have some point in that the Space Center's methods were unknowingly going to have massive consequences, and she expresses it through mockery and Sarcastic Clapping.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She tends to mock several people throughout the Delta Episode, but has a soft spot for both the player and Aster.
• Jiggle Physics: Is one of the few characters to have this in Pokémon Masters due to her very large chest, despite the fact that its size is actually reduced in the game.
• Kubrick Stare: At times, the pupils in her eyes turn an almost complete shade of red, signifying she is deathly serious when she talks.
• Limp and Livid: When entering battle, she hunches over and sways her arms while having a crazed look on her face. There's no real reason why, and she's calm and upright the moment the battle is over.
• Meaningful Appearance:
  • Zinnia's Mega Anklet is serpentine in shape, just like Rayquaza.
  • Wears cute open-toed sandals. The sandals, along with her ninja-like garbs, seem to be a walking homage to another sort of ninjas who wear these kinds of shoes.
• Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name refers to Red-Spider lilies, which are strongly tied to death and mortality. Similarly Zinnia's means (among other possible meanings) remembrance of those who have gone. Both names refer to the fact that she has likely lost someone close to her.
• Ms. Exposition: She tells you the legend of Rayquaza on the way up the Sky Pillar.
• My Greatest Second Chance: In Masters, Zinnia tries to partner up with Rayquaza and sees its appearance on Pasio as a chance for her to work together with it and protect the world. She finally manages to get through it and becomes a sync pair who joins the player's team.
• Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer: For most of the Delta episode she refuses to explain her plan, forcing the player to simply chase her across Hoenn.
• Nice Mean And In Between: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, she tends to serve as the in-between to Archie's 'nice and Maxie's mean She's spends her part of the story being aloof to you as she steals people's Mega Stones and leading you up Sky Pillar. However, she also tends to tease you in a friendly manner as the story progresses.
• Non-Action Guy: Her Whismur, Aster, who isn't used in battle.
• Olympus Mons: In Masters, she forms a sync pair with Rayquaza in the Legendary Adventure story, "The Dragon That Rules the Sky".
• Our Dragons Are Different: Only her Salamence looks like a typical dragon. Her Tyrantrum looks like a dinosaur, her Altaria looks like a bird, her Goodra looks like a bipedal slug, and her Noivern looks like a bat.
• Passing the Torch: After you tame Rayquaza and destroy the meteor, she "retires", and entrusts you with her duties, before leaving to go somewhere; she isn't seen again. At least, until Masters.
• Phantom Thief: In the "Solve the Case!" story event from Pokémon Masters, she dons an outfit for it and plays the part very well with her Thievul.
• Pre-Final Boss: She's the penultimate boss of the Delta Episode.
• Recurring Boss: You fight her about twice over the course of the Delta Episode.
• Red Herring Shirt: She has cameo appearances before the post-game Delta Episode as a Team Magma/Aqua grunt depending on your game.
• Refused by the Call: She summons Rayquaza and tries to get it to Mega Evolve, but fails due to the 1000 years having drained Rayquaza of power. After the player character's meteorite restores Rayquaza's power, Zinnia decides to let them proceed in her stead.
• The Rival: By Pokémon Masters, she and Steven are more or less rivals. Though Steven is cordial, Zinnia enjoys teasing the hell out of him. In the "Hearts United" story during the game's second anniversary, she challenged Steven to a competition between their Rayquaza. In the "Solve the Case!" story, she disguised herself as a Phantom Thief even though Steven was just pretending to play a detective because she wanted to see how well he'd do in a real theft and finding her involvement in the story.
• Sarcastic Clapping: Likes to clap whenever she praises the player or mocks someone.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Her top is actually backless, the telltale string along her back being the first hint.
• Ship Tease: With the player regardless of gender.
• Signature Mon: Her Salamence is her strongest Pokémon. During the final battle against her, she uses its Mega Evolution. In Masters, she initially uses Salamence before forming a sync pair with Rayquaza, though she and Salamence can still be obtained by exchanging Battle Point Sync Pair Vouchers.
• Slasher Smile: The look on her face during battles is unsettling.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: An In-Universe example. In Pokémon Masters, she takes over Steven's role to destroy the meteor heading for Pasio when she finds out that her Rayquaza can in fact Mega Evolve like his Shiny Rayquaza, though this was done out of necessity, as Steven was being held back by Deoxys and only caught it after Zinnia had already traveled to space to destroy the meteor with Mega Rayquaza. Steven is even aware that Zinnia had to take the spotlight.
• Stepford Smiler: Her speech atop the Sky Pillar reveals that her cheerful exuberance and enthusiasm masks a deep melancholy.
• Theme Naming:
  • Zinnia's and Aster's respective Japanese names Higana and Shigana share a Motif of life and death. Shigana invokes 此岸 (which is pronounced shigan), which in the literal sense means "this shore" but is used to refer to the world of the living. Higana invokes 彼岸花 (which is pronounced higanbana), which is the red spider lily flower—the characters of its name literally mean "flower on the other shore"; the red spider lily is associated with death and the afterlife. This naturally makes them Ironic Names, since Zinnia (Higana) is alive and the original Aster (Shigana) is dead.
  • If you squint, Zinnia's name in the English localization of the remakes is similar to "zenith", which is literally the point of the heavens above an observer but is often used in metaphor to describe anything that has reached its greatest or highest point. This complements Archie's and Maxie's names, which are based on the Greek arkh (meaning "chief, principal, foremost") and Latin maximus (meaning "to the greatest degree").
  • Aster comes from an identical Greek root word that means "star", which complements Zinnia's rough approximation to "zenith". Both their names complement the Motif of space and stars that forms the backdrop of the Delta Episode.
• Transformation Trinket: She carries her Key Stone on the Mega Anklet wrapped around her right leg.
• The Un-Reveal: It's never revealed in-game who Aster (the Whismur's namesake, not Whismur herself) really was, and the most Zinnia says of her is vague reminiscing. An interview with game director Shigeru Ohmori states that Aster was Zinnia's predecessor as Lorekeeper.
• Useless Useful Spell: Like Drake's Mega Salamence, Zinnia's Mega Salamence lacks Normal-type moves to take advantage of Aerilate.
• Vague Age: Could be anything from late teens to late 20s. The model and art makes it difficult to tell. The fact that Steven refers to her as a woman and not a girl (while the player character is explicitly referred to as a child, and as a "boy" or "girl" by even Zinnia herself) indicates that she's probably an adult.
• Walking the Earth: After the events of the Delta Episode, Zinnia speaks with her grandmother and leaves. If spoken to, her grandmother tells you that she went on a journey to "find herself".
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Joined Team Magma (in Omega Ruby) or Aqua (in Alpha Sapphire) during the main storyline and assisted them in awakening Groudon/Kyogre in hopes that Rayquaza will respond to the weather crisis caused. The fact that this doesn't happen leads to her actions in the Delta Episode.
  • She also steals many of the character's Key Stones, including Brendan/May's, Wally's, Courtney (in Omega Ruby) or Matt's (in Alpha Sapphire), and Maxie (in Omega Ruby) or Archie's (in Alpha Sapphire), hoping that a large number of them will enforce Rayquaza's Mega Evolution. Once again, she's wrong. She returns them all once the crisis is over though.

Gym Leaders

Roxanne (Tsutsuji)

Roxanne / Tsutsuji (ツツジ tsutsuji)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Promo - JP), Mai Goto (Pokémon Masters - JP), Sarah Miller-Crews (Pokémon Masters - EN)

Rustboro City Gym Leader—The Rock-Loving Honor Student!

"I became a Gym Leader so that I may apply what I learned at the Pokémon Trainer's School in battle. Would you kindly demonstrate how you battle, and with which Pokémon?"

A straight-laced graduate of the Trainer's School and a Rock-type specialist.

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• Adaptational Curves: Inverted. In the original games, she was given the same basic figure as the other female Gym Leaders, while the remakes went for a shorter, more youthful appearance to better sell her image as a recent graduate.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Downplayed. In the originals, she plays it prim and respectable; the remakes gave her a Spoiled Brat moment with the Fossil Maniac, though she eventually catches and recuses herself.
• Admiring the Abomination: In Masters, she's smitten by her Nosepass's rugged looks.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In Masters, she and Steven get completely sidetracked trying to find Easter eggs because of a rare stone they happened to find that they don't know what to do with.
• Badass Bookworm: She's a student of the Trainer's School and became a Gym Leader because she was just that good as a result of her studies.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The brains to Winona's beauty and Flannery's brawn. Her Gym Leader title says it all, and even her in-game dialogue mentions learning things a fair bit.
• Birds of a Feather: Has the same fascination with rare stones as Steven has.
• Can't Catch Up: In Emerald, she begins expanding her team and evolving them, putting together a pretty potent force of Rock-types including Golem, Steelix, and Aerodactyl... then poor little Nosepass is sent in looking helpless and pitiful by comparison. Gen V thankfully lets her upgrade to Probopass.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Of the Rock variety.
• Foil:
  • To Brawly, as the feminine intellectual to his masculine Dumb Muscle.
  • To Brock, her fellow Rock-type Gym Leader and Early-Bird Boss. Brock's earliest shirtless design has some of the same masculine physicality that Brawly does.
  • In Masters, her critical thinking before acting contrasts Hilda's "reckless" idea to act and think later. Both of them do not argue but do respect each other's approach, however.
• Fossil Revival: Similar to fellow Rock-type specialist Brock, she uses a lot of fossil Pokémon in her rematches. The World Tournaments in Gen V give her Hoenn's fossils in Armaldo and Cradily, along with Carracosta, and in Emerald, she has Aerodactyl, Omastar, and Kabutops.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Roxanne = Rocks.
  • Tsutsuji = Tsuchi^note (earth/soil)
  • Her German name is Felizia, from "felsen" (stone).
  • Her Spanish and Italian Name is Petra, from "piedra" (stone).
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: She's a studious Gym Leader who wears opaque tights with her dress, fitting her straightforward personality.
• Sailor Fuku: In the remakes, her outfit is re-designed to resemble a school uniform.
• Selective Magnetism: Her Nosepass's magnetism traps Steel-types in battle with the ability Magnet Pull in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Not that you'd have Steel types by that point, but this can apply with the event-exclusive Beldum that was released alongside the games (and of course, trading).
• Serious Business: Apparently, fossils. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire she actually starts throwing a tantrum upon being denied any fossils from the Fossil Maniac, which is a far departure from how she normally acts. Fortunately, she collects herself soon enough.
• Shrinking Violet: In Masters, during the Team Hoenn event, she is easily flustered and embarrassed about joining in with Brawly and Flannery's battle calls that Brawly suggested they do to channel their collective energy.
• Ship Tease: In Emerald, she gets the player's Match Call number from Brawly, which is one of the few indications she has a personal relationship with any of the other Leaders. In the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo, she compliments him on how rock-solid he is.
• Signature Mon: Nosepass. In Black 2 and White 2, it's evolved into Probopass.
• Signature Move: Rock Tomb, her TM move.
• The Smurfette Principle: Only female Rock-type gym leader.
• Spoiled Brat: In the remakes' post-game, you find her talking to the Fossil Maniac near Fallarbor Town, where she starts tossing a tantrum and crying crocodile tears, demanding him to give her some fossils. She does come around at the end, though.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A Rock-type Gym Leader in charge of the first gym players encounter, which is situated between a forest and a mountain path, whose Signature Mon is a single-stage Stone Wall? Are we describing Roxanne of Hoenn or Brock of Kanto?
• Vague Age: Even noted in-universe by the man in the Pokémon World Tournament lobby. She's portrayed as a graduate of Trainer's school in the games, putting her somewhere in her late teens, but it's doubtful she's in her 20's. The anime gives her a role as a teacher, but shouldn't be considered an indicator as to her age in the games.
• Warm-Up Boss: Unlike other Rock-type leaders (save Roark), all of your starters will eventually know super-effective moves against Roxanne's Pokémon. If you take the time to grind until Torchic evolves into Combusken, it will have a much easier time with this leader than Charmander did for Brock.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: If you chose Torchic — prepare to grind to either evolve the chicken or until you have a decent Water or Grass-type. If you can trade a Slakoth you caught in Petalburg Woods for a Makuhita, that would also put you at an advantage.

Brawly (Touki)

Brawly / Touki (トウキ touki)

Voiced by: Jon Allen (Pokémon Masters - EN), KENN (Pokémon Masters - JP)

Dewford Town Gym Leader—A Big Wave in Fighting!

"I've been churned in the rough waves of these parts, and I've grown tough in the pitch-black cave! So you wanted to challenge me? Let me see what you're made of!"

An energetic surfer who trains Fighting-types.

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• Bare-Fisted Monk: Fighting-type specialist, and his Signature Mon Makuhita fights with its fists.
• Blackout Basement: His gym does this; to no small amount of surprise, it's the one that unlocks Flash. He also boasts of training in these conditions.
• Cool Shades: In the remakes, he gains a pair of orange sunglasses which fits his beach motif.
• Crippling Overspecialization: All damaging moves his team uses in battle in Emerald are Fighting-type, which means that anything that resists said type has a very easy time against him. It's possible to get a Sableye in Granite Cave by then, which turns him and his team into a Zero-Effort Boss.
• Dumb Muscle: Downplayed; in the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo, he laments his inability to get his body-fat percentage any lower, which, given his physique, would be decidedly unhealthy.
• Foil:
  • To Roxanne, the feminine and proper intellectual to his masculine and casual martial arts.
  • To Misty of Kanto, with whom he shares a water sports motif and the status of the second Gym Leader encountered by the player (they even both have caves near their gyms). While Misty emphasizes the water of water sports, Brawly emphasizes the athleticism and physical fitness.
• Light-Haired Swimmer: In the remakes, his blue hair is lighter than his tanned skin and he's a surfer outside of his profession as a Gym Leader.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Brawly in English.
  • His German name is Kamillo, from "kampf" (fight).
  • His Spanish name is Marcial, which means "martial".
  • His French name is Bastien, from "baston", a French word for "fight".
  • His Italian name is Rudi, from "rude" (rough/hard).
• Orange/Blue Contrast: Prominent in his design and the badge he gives out.
• Punny Name: His Japanese name refers to a type of herb. It's also a homonym for "fighting spirit".
• Recurring Element: Like Chuck in Johto, he is a Fighting-type Gym Leader whose gym is located on an island in the southwest corner of his respective region.
• Ship Tease: With Roxanne in the demo. In Emerald, he's the one who gives Roxanne the player's Match Call number.
• Signature Mon: The Makuhita line, with it becoming Hariyama in Emerald rematches and the Pokémon World Tournament.
• Signature Move: His TM move is Bulk Up. It's a great boosting move, so he keeps it around in rematches and his Gen V teams.
• Skippable Boss: It's possible to skip his gym entirely, as you can just deliver Steven's letter and head straight to Slateport and proceed. You do, however, need his badge to fight Norman. This is averted in the remakes, however, where there's a NPC Roadblock preventing you from getting to Steven until you've defeated him.
• Surfer Dude: Only minus the Totally Radical (except in the dub of the anime). He surfs to train himself and his Pokémon.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Brawly will pound you flat if you go in unprepared due to Bulk Up increasing the already high Attack stat of his Fighting-types.

Wattson (Tessen)

Wattson / Tessen (テッセン tessen)

Mauville City Gym Leader—The Cheerfully Electrifying Man!

"Wahahahah! Now, that is amusing! Then, I, Wattson, the Leader of Mauville Gym, shall electrify you!"

A jovial and eccentric but tough old man who specializes in Electric-types.

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• Artificial Brilliance: Though Gym Leaders universally demonstrate smarter team planning after their initial battles, Wattson notably abuses the Rain Dance-Thunder combo in his Emerald rematches; half his team is packing it. Ground-types still point at him and laugh.
• Badass Armfold: His Gen V sprites in the World Tournament have him striking this pose.
• Big Fun: He's the most pudgy of the Hoenn leaders and has a jovial eccentric attitude to match.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Thought you saw the last of him after beating him? Nope, he returns in a subquest after you get your fifth badge (post-Cave of Origin in the remakes).
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: His Manectric in Emerald is Level 24. Electrike doesn't evolve into Manectric until Level 26.
• Cool Old Guy: He's old, but he's still fun and badass.
• Didn't Think This Through: His Mareep line and Electabuzz in Emerald and Electrode in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 know Light Screen...in generations where most Ground-type moves are physical.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He's not only set up trap doors in his Gym, but New Mauville was his attempt to kickstart a city expansion project. In Gen V's World Tournament, he expresses interest in teaming up with Volkner to renovate more Gyms. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his plan to revamp Mauville City was a success, as it's barely recognizable from the Mauville City of Ruby and Sapphire.
• Happily Married: He has a wife in the remakes, who the player can talk to when they visit his apartment.
• The Hyena: Just look at him! That's pretty much his default pose.
• Keet: He's very excitable for someone who appears to be at least in his 50's.
• May–December Romance: He is clearly an older man, pudgy and white-haired. His wife is an Ace Trainer, who's visibly just an older teen.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Wattson.
  • His Japanese name is a homonym for steel wiring. This is the exact same pun used for Lt. Surge's Japanese name (see his entry for details).
  • His French name is Voltere, from "volt" and "ampère" (ampere).
  • His German and Italian name is Walter, from "watt", "volt" and "ampere".
  • His Spanish name is Erico, from "eléctrico" (electric).
  • His Korean is Ampeeo, meaning "ampere".
• My Greatest Failure: Under his cheerful laugh, he seems to have a lot of regret over the whole New Mauville construction. Especially seeing how its energy source came from Pokémon's life-energy, just like AZ's Ultimate Weapon, and he was willing to tank the entire project to stop this...
• Shock and Awe: He's an Electric-type specialist.
• Signature Mon: In Ruby and Sapphire and the remakes, it's Magneton. Emerald retcons it to Manectric, which he seems to keep for Pokémon Black 2 and White 2.
• Signature Move: Shock Wave in the original games, Volt Switch in the remakes.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A Gadgeteer Genius Shock and Awe Gym Leader who runs the third gym, where The Gimmick involves tripping switches to get around barriers? Wattson clearly took a few pages out of Lt. Surge's book, even if he's more The Engineer than an army man. In fact, he's even named after the same flower—Tessen is the Japanese name for the Clematis flower, which is where Lt. Surge got his original name Matis.
• V-Sign: His official art for the remakes shows him doing this pose, which fits his jovial personality.

Flannery (Asuna)

Flannery / Asuna (アスナ asuna)

Voiced by: Laura Post (Pokémon Masters - EN), Haruka Shamoto (Pokémon Masters - JP)

Lavaridge Town Gym Leader—One With a Fiery Passion that Burns!

"Welcome... No, wait. Puny Trainer, how good to see you've made it here! I have been entrusted with the... No, wait. I am Flannery, and I'm the Gym Leader here! Uh... Dare not underestimate me, though I have been Leader only a short time! With skills inherited from my grandfather, I shall, uh...demonstrate the hot moves we have honed on this land!"

The relatively new Lavaridge Town Gym Leader. Like other Fire-type specialists, Flannery has an energetic personality.

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• Amazon Brigade:
  • Every Pokémon on her gym team in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire is female.
  • In her Emerald rematches she subverts this by using an all-boy team.
• Artificial Brilliance: Flannery has quite a number of tricks to get around her team's shortcomings.
  • Most of Flannery's gym Pokémon have mediocre offenses, but she uses Sunny Day to multiply the damage of their Fire-type attacks.
  • Sunny Day already cuts the power of any Water-type attacks that threaten her team, but her Slugma all know Light Screen to cut the power of all special attacks by half again. If you're really unlucky, both of these effects will be in play when her Torkoal comes out.
  • Her Torkoal knows Body Slam and Attract, which can induce Status Effects that cripple the target's speed and ability to react, which negates the Torkoal's disadvantage in Speed. Ponyta employs a similar strategy with Bounce instead of Body Slam.
  • Expecting her Torkoal to have a Sitrus Berry, like most Gym Leader Pokémon in the game do? Nope.... It has a White Herb to undo Overheat's sharp Special Attack drop so it can fire again!
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Flannery's exaggerated Tomboyish Ponytail and its Fiery Redhead Elemental Hair Colors look like an erupting volcano.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: Flannery's Signature Move is Overheat, an immense burst of heat that almost halves the user's special attack after use. As the nature of the move suggests, it's best used as a Finishing Move, which limits its utility. Worse, Flannery's Signature Mon is Torkoal, an Armored But Frail Stone Wall with only mediocre offenses and abysmal speed, who cant take full advantage of the move—to her credit, however, Flannery has a few tricks to get around this weakness; she uses Weather of War to increase its damage output and has Torkoal holding a White Herb to negate the initial drop in its stats.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The brawn to Winona's beauty and Roxanne's brains. She's a Hot-Blooded Fiery Redhead who can rain hell on unprepared trainers with hellishly powerful "hot moves".
• Be Yourself:
  • In Ruby and Sapphire, you help her learn this lesson. When you challenge her, she forces herself to display a hostile attitude and boast about how she will crush you, but after being defeated, she tells you she's new to being a Gym Leader and tried too hard to act how she thought she should, but ended up confusing herself and her Pokémon. She decides to simply be true to herself and thanks you for pushing her in the right direction.
  • In Masters, she tells the player she felt a lot of pressure trying to live up to her grandfather's legacy as he was an Elite Four member, though the problem was that she was "running in circles." When she noticed her Torkoal's slow careful approach in collecting coal to turn into energy, she realized she had to be herself instead of trying too hard.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: In her Emerald rematches, her Torkoal knows Explosion, which will deal a hefty blow to everything around it at the cost of the last of Torkoal's hit points.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Averted. In Masters, she is rather distraught of the fact she can't really pet certain Fire-types because their bodies are naturally extremely hot to the touch.
• Curtains Match the Window: Red hair and red eyes.
• Depending on the Artist: Flannery is depicted with a different temperament in almost every one of her sprites or character art pieces.
  • Ken Sugimori's character artwork for the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire depicts her as laid-back and pleasant, but her in-game sprite depicted her as hostile and aggressive (even during her rematches in Emerald, after she gets over her need to live up to her grandfather).
  • Her battle sprite from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 and her character art from the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire remakes depict her as being upbeat and Hot-Blooded, but when you battle with her in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, her model animation depicts her as a Nervous Wreck.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Flannery is a big user of the move Attract—her Torkoal knows it during her gym battle (as does her Camerupt in Emerald); in rematches, up to four of her pokémon will use Attract. She goes out of her way to teach it to the less attractive members of her team, however, like Torkoal, Camerupt, and Magcargo.
• Elemental Hair Colors: Her red ponytail is shaped like a burst of flame, fittingly for a Fire-type specialist.
• Elemental Personalities: Flannery, Hoenn's Fire-type gym leader, is known for her brash and energetic nature.
• Fiery Redhead: She's easily excitable and very enthusiastic about being a gym leader. Plus she's a Fire-type trainer.
• Genki Girl: Flannery is very energetic in her Gen V sprite, which shows her jumping up and down, and her Gen VI art.
• Headbutting Heroes: In Masters, she constantly gets into petty arguments with Barry, exasperating Pryce, who feels that they aren't worthy of fighting him until they've settled their differences.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: In the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Flannery plays a haughty jerk and has a hostile expression in her Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald◊ sprite◊, but defeating her lets her stop putting on an act. This trope doesn't hold for the Updated Re Release, where Flannery's act has made her a Nervous Wreck.
• Hot-Blooded: In keeping with being a Genki Girl and a Fire-type leader.
• Ignored Epiphany: In the "With Beauty and Grace" solo event in Masters with Shauna, the two of them try to learn how to become grown-up women, but they're unable to become like that. Young Hapu then wisely tells them that they're both too young to be worried about becoming grown-up women so soon and that they need to cherish their young age as they will slowly mature into mature women... Except they instead are so impressed by Hapu's manner of speech that they beg her to become their Master on becoming grown-up women, much to her disappointment.
• Large Ham: Invoked at first, but subverted when it turns out she's just putting on an act of how she thinks of a Gym Leader ought to act. In the remakes, Flannery's flustered behavior is more obvious.
  "Welcome... No, wait. Puny Trainer, how good to see you've made it here!"
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her Japanese name is an anagram for "sauna", since her Gym is in a town famous for its hot springs.
  • Flannery comes from "flame".
  • Her German name is Flavia, from "flamme" (flame) and "lava".
  • Her Spanish name is Candela which means "candle" which have a flame.
  • Her French name is Adrianne, from ardente (fiery).
  • Her Italian name is Fiammetta, which means "little flame".
• Ms. Fanservice: A busty redhead in a midriff-baring top (a tied-off shirt in the remakes) who hangs out in a town famous for its hot springs. Yeah, she's pretty hot.
• Naïve Newcomer:
  • She had just became a gym leader when you met her, as she didn't know how to act until the player character defeated her.
  • In Masters, because of Pasio battles relying on teamwork, Blaine asks the player's team to please convince her to see the worth in working together by defeating her in battle.
• Playing with Fire: Fire-type specialist.
• Power of the Sun: Everyone on her team knows Sunny Day, which makes Overheat hurt all the more.
• Power Stereotype Flip:
  • In her character art for Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Flannery is depicted as laid-back and casual, a far cry from the Hot-Blooded demeanor one might expect of a Fire-type specialist.
  • Her energetic depictions in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are more conventional with her type.
• Rookie Red Ranger:
  • She doesn't know many aspects of being a Gym Leader, since she only had been one for a short time when you meet her.
  • The same thing happens to her at Pasio, where Blaine can tell she's not as good in Pasio's battles as she thinks she is.
• Signature Mon: Her Torkoal, reflecting Lavaridge Town's proximity to the volcanic Mt. Chimney.
• Signature Move: Overheat, her TM move. Her Numel in the remakes is the only one not to know it. In the original Ruby and Sapphire, her second Slugma doesn't know it either.
• Spam Attack:
  • Every Pokémon on her gym team knows some combination of Overheat and Sunny Day.
  • In her Emerald rematches, most of her pokémon know Attract.
• Weather of War: Flannery is a devoted user of Sunny Day, which multiplies the power of Fire-type moves by half again and cuts the damage of Water-type attacks; in Emerald, the Houndoom and Rapidash she uses in rematches have Solar Beam, a Charged Attack that doesn't need to charge if the weather is sunny.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Shades of this — much like Falkner back in Generation II, she's big on living up to the family legacy. When you beat her, she decides that attempting to emulate her grandfather just hampers her and resolves to be herself.
• Younger than She Looks: The "With Beauty and Grace" event in Masters suggests through her wish to become an independent woman and Hapu's comment that she needs to embrace her young age before becoming a grown-up woman that she's at least a tall teenager.

Norman (Senri)

Norman / Senri (センリ senri)

Voiced by: Keith Silverstein (Pokémon Masters - EN), Tomokazu Sugita (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"I'm so happy that I can have a real battle with my own child. But, a battle is a battle! I will do everything in my power as a Gym Leader to win... you'd better give it your best shot, too!"

Petalburg City Gym Leader—A Man in Pursuit of Power!

The player character's father and an old friend of Professor Birch. He is a serious-minded Normal-type specialist.

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• Artificial Brilliance:
  • It was Norman who introduced the metagame to the idea of using Skill Swap to get rid of Slaking's crippling "Truant" ability in Double Battles, because in Emerald, that's precisely what he does.
  • Norman's first Slaking likes to use Yawn to force a switch... and the turn to switch is the turn Slaking's Ability takes effect.
• Badass Armfold: His artwork in the remakes strikes this pose.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: His Slakings in the Gym Battle are under Level 36, the minimum level to evolve Vigoroth.
• Climax Boss: For the first part of the game. You run across his Gym early on, when he takes part in a short subquest with Wally, but doesn't let you challenge him since you need more experience. This sets him up story-wise long before the battle, compared to most other Gym Leaders (with the exception of Giovanni) who don't appear until you arrive at their city, and being your father, he's also a personal foe to overcome. Defeating him gives you access to Surf, opening the wider areas of Hoenn to you, and being the fifth Gym Leader you fight him roughly halfway through the game.
• Disappeared Dad: A notable aversion in the Pokémon games, as he's more involved in the Player Character's life.
• Disc-One Final Boss: See "Climax Boss" above. By the time you beat him, you've run across Team Aqua/Team Magma shortly before and know there's a bigger crisis out there than just beating your old man in a Gym battle.
• The Dreaded: In Masters, Brendan mentions that he feared battling his father for the Gym Badge. Even after beating him, Brendan still can't shake off the feeling.
• Foil: Unlike the eighth gym leader of Kanto, defeating Norman does not precipitate the end of the game, but instead the whole second half, vastly expanding the explorable world to the player.
• Good Parent: He clearly loves you and wants you to have a grand adventure with your Pokémon.
• Handicapped Badass: His Slakings can only attack every other turn thanks to their Truant ability. You'll be thankful for it, because they're still going to kick your ass up and down the Gym walls in spite of it.
• Happily Married: Downplayed. He and the player's mom love each other, but Norman suffers a case of being Married to the Job that makes his family wonder When You Coming Home, Dad?. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, where the pitfalls of being Married to the Job are a recurring theme of the game, Norman is such a workaholic that he blows off a long planned date with the player's mom. He's home during the Delta Episode, so his marriage isn't quite on the rocks just yet.
• In the Blood: Birch says that you have "your father's blood in your veins after all."
• Like Father, Like Son: Or daughter.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Norman = Normal.
  • His Japanese name refers to a saying often translated as "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"^note (sen no ri no michi wa ippo kara), in reference to his wanting his child to get out and explore the world around him/her.
• Mirror Character: He is this to Professor Cozmo's father, Raizou, as revealed in the letters hidden in Sea Mauville. Though Norman is a massive workaholic, blowing off his intended date with your mother, ultimately, he still makes personal time to oversee his child's development, and also stays home to help welcome you at the end of the Delta Episode. In contrast, Raizo Cozmo was an even worse workaholic who was barely even home, effectively unraveling his marriage — Prof. Cozmo's mother even having an affair, and ultimately grew old and delusional to the point of thinking that his son's Hi Skitty Doll was his actual son.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: He looked old enough in his original artwork. In the remakes, he looks more like your older brother than your dad.
• Nerf: His gym's signature move in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald was Facade, a move with 70 base power that doubled if the user had a status affliction, which was later even improved to negate the attack lowering properties of burn. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire the move was switched to Retaliate, a move that's about as strong but instead grew stronger the turn after one of his pokemon faints. This makes it much easier to cripple his team with paralysis or grind him down with poison, though burns are a little too unreliable at this point in the game since fire types are rare, mostly weak this early and you won't have Will O Wisp yet.
• Non-Elemental: Normal-type specialist.
• Parents as People: He seems to be a Gym Leader first, a parent second, and a husband a VERY distant third.
• Signature Mon: Slaking.
• Signature Move:
  • In the originals, Facade. Very painful to be on the receiving end of if you try using the usual status tricks to incapacitate his team.
  • In the remake, Retaliate. Thought it hurt coming from Lenora's Watchog? Now try to imagine that attack coming from a Pokémon whose Attack stat is nearly twice as high as Watchog's.
• So Proud of You: When you beat him, he is more proud of you than upset at losing.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: As the Gym Leader of the first major city near the hero's home who cannot be fought at first because he is a Climax Boss and a Threshold Guardian, he fills a similar role to the eighth gym leader of Kanto.
• Threshold Guardians: Obtaining the Balance Badge from Norman enables the Player Character to use Surf, which opens huge swathes of the Hoenn map and allows access to the eastern half of the Hoenn region.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: His work as a Gym Leader keeps him pretty busy, so he doesn't have much time to spend with his family. Neither his wife or child (the player) seem to hold it against him, however.

Winona (Nagi)

Winona / Nagi (ナギ nagi)

Voiced by: Jeannie Tirado (Pokémon Masters - EN), Tae Okajima (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"I have become one with bird Pokémon and have soared the skies... However grueling the battle, we have triumphed with grace... Witness the elegant choreography of bird Pokémon and I!"

Fortree City Gym Leader—The Bird User Taking Flight into the World!

The graceful and passionate but eccentric Flying-type trainer who leads the Fortree gym.

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• Ace Pilot: She wears a pilot suit, at least.
• Achilles' Heel: Winona's Signature Mon Altaria knows Earthquake to counter Electric-types, which threaten Flying-types.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Winona is elegant but straightforward in the original Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, but the sixth gen Updated Re-release start positioning her as a Cloud Cuckoolander.
• Airplane Arms: Standing with her arms outstretched seems to be her default pose in the remakes.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Birds—every pokémon on her gym team (barring Tropius in Emerald) is a bird of some kind.
  • Emerald highlights an association with dragons by swapping out her Swellow for a brachiosaurian Tropius and giving her a Dragonair and Dragonite in rematches. In Black 2 and White 2 tournmanents, she'll also use a Gyarados and even a Rayquaza.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Winona wears a pilot suit and her bangs resemble wings, both suiting her Flying-type Elemental Motif. In the sixth gen Updated Re-release, her pilot suit has wing decorations on her legs, wrists, and back.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The beauty to Roxanne's brains and Flannery's brawn. She's a Lady of War who uses some rather beautiful Flying-type Pokémon, which she admits to commanding with grace, in combat.
• Blow You Away: Flying-type specialist. Unlike Falkner, though, she doesn't confine herself to bird-themed Pokémon. See Confusion Fu for why this may be a problem.
• Cloudcuckoolander: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
  • She finds it very blissful to feel the breeze while standing on top of one of Mauville's communication towers, much to the confusion of a woman down below who points her out to the player.
  • According to Pokémon Masters, she once apparently tried imitating a bird Pokémon in order to better understand her Pelipper, and was genuinely confused as to why people were giving her funny looks.
  • The people who live in Fortree City are used to living up in the air that being grounded to the ground below is so unfamiliar. To Winona, being down there meant she always had to stand on her toes just so she could still feel the air, leading to a lot of leg cramping.
• Confusion Fu: Considering that Flying is a very widespread type for dual-typed Pokémon, she has a wide variety of Pokémon to draw on to form a full team of six. Across her Emerald rematches and her appearance in the World Tournament, her line-up includes Altaria, Dragonite, Gyarados, Skarmory, Honchkrow, Tropius, and Sigilyph. All of them have radically different movesets and very different playstyles despite technically sharing the same type. Indeed, you can't expect to steamroll her entire team with just one attacking type, as some of the aforementioned Pokémon mitigate one or more of the Flying-type's weaknesses with their secondary type^note Altaria, Dragonite, and Tropius are not weak to Electric; Gyarados and Skarmory are not weak to Ice; Skarmory is not weak to Rock.
• Dance Battler: Winona refers to her combat style as "elegant choreography"; her Signature Mon Altaria, for what it's worth, knows Dragon Dance much earlier than it should.
• Dragon Tamer: Apart from her ace, the Flying/Dragon Altaria, in Emerald she has Dragonite in her postgame matches, and in Black and White 2 her legendary for "The Battle Between Legendary Pokémon" event in Black and White 2 is the Flying/Dragon Rayquaza.
• Dramatic High Perching: You can find her on top of one of the towers at the top level in Mauville City in the post-game in the remakes, catching wind in her Airplane Arms pose, for the hell of it, apparently. The NPC you talk to in order to see this comments on the oddity of such an act.
• Dramatic Wind: Winona's battle sprites often depict her in the middle of a breeze, with her eyes closed and her ponytail flowing behind her.
• Flight: Her main appeal.
• Lady of War: She refers to the Pokémon she uses as graceful sky dancers, and herself states that she commands them with grace. It helps that her signature Pokémon is the feminine Altaria.
• Lightning Bruiser: Her Altaria; if you allow it to set up on you with a couple of Dragon Dances, you will be swept into the ground.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her Japanese name refers to a type of tree as per the usual Theme Naming, but is also a homonym for a "lull" in a storm.
  • In English, Winona comes from winnow, wing, or wind.
  • Her German name is Wibke, from "wind", "wirbel" (vortex), or "schwinge" (wing). Possibly a reference to the 1990 European windstorm Wiebke.
  • Her Spanish name is Alana, from ala (wing).
  • Her French name is Alizée, from alizé (trade wind).
  • Her Italian name is Alice, from aliseo (trade wind) or ali (wings).
• Mercury's Wings: For ornamental purposes only, though. Interestingly enough, it's her hair.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules:
  • Most infamously, her Altaria in the Gym battle knows Dragon Dance despite being seven levels too low to learn it. In addition, her Altaria is level 33. Swablu doesn't evolve into Altaria until level 35. Neither of these apply in the remakes, where Altaria is at the legal Level 35 and no longer knows Dragon Dance, instead knowing Cotton Guard (changed from Lv. 42 in X/Y to Lv. 34 here) and Roost.
  • In the second and third rematches in Emerald, she has a Dragonair that knows Earthquake. Only Dragonite can learn Earthquake in that line.
• Oblivious to Love: In Masters, an Ace Trainer watches her from a distance, all she could surmise was he totally wanted to challenge her, though some of the player's dialogue choices are romantic in nature, but she only is confused. Inverted in the end; it turns out he really was just observing her for her skills.
• Olympus Mons: In one Japan-only downloadable World Tournament, she uses Rayquaza.
• Signature Mon:
  • In the original games, Altaria.
  • In Masters, she has Pelipper as her signature ace. In one of Lisia's sub-events, the reason why Winona is using Pelipper instead of her own Altaria is because Pelipper is "always the only one attempting to fly higher" than the rest of her team, which convinced her to take it to Pasio.
• Signature Move: Aerial Ace, which is known by every pokémon on her team. In the remakes, her Altaria instead has Roost, which is the TM she hands out once beaten.
• Skippable Boss: It's possible to successfully navigate Hoenn without having to fight her. However, you'll still need her Gym Badge to gain access to the Elite Four. Averted in the remakes, where an NPC will prevent you from proceeding until you've got her badge despite having no good reason to think you're not ready to go through that area.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Downplayed, but as an unusual Lady of War whose gym is blocked when you first enter its city, she's reminiscent of Kanto's Sabrina.

Tate and Liza (Fuu and Lan)

Tate and Liza / Fuu (フウ fuu) and Lan (ラン ran)

Tate voiced by: Cassandra Lee Morris (Pokémon Masters - EN), Ami Naga (Pokémon Masters - JP, until 2.23), Yuna Ogata (Pokémon Masters - JP, since 2.24)

Liza voiced by: Kira Buckland (Pokémon Masters - EN), Kyouko Kametani (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"I can make myself one with Pokémon! Can you beat this combination?"

Mossdeep City Gym Leaders—The Mystic Combination!

Twin martial artists who specialize in Psychic-types. They fight the player in a double battle.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: They have very strong psychic powers, able to read each other's mind without a problem, easily levitating. They are also young kids and easily excited by the promise of buying new toys.
• All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Downplayed. Their artwork pose suggests they know martial arts, but considering their type specialty, they likely don't. It's just part of the further enforcement of their Chinese imagery, complete with typical Chinese mountain scenery for their Gym in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Anime Chinese Girl: Both of the twins have stock Chinese names in the Japanese version, wear standard Chinese kung fu uniforms in all Hoenn games, and have a Chinese mountain scenery aesthetic in their gym. Liza is portrayed as an adorable young girl whose still a strong gym leader when fighting with her twin brother.
• Artificial Brilliance: Most notable in Emerald, where they are much more difficult. They add Claydol and Xatu to their lineup and Tate and Liza know how to make all of them work well together. Claydol will use Earthquake, which hits everything on the field, but all of their Pokémon are immune to it. All of them know a move to nerf Water-type moves, which are normally super-effective against most of their team (Light Screen for Claydol and Lunatone, Sunny Day for Xatu and Solrock). Xatu and Lunatone's Calm Mind helps too, as well as powering up their move Psychic. And Sunny Day allows Solrock's Solar Beam to work instantly while also powering up its Flamethrower, which hits Grass-types hard.
• Artificial Stupidity: In Black 2 & White 2, almost all of their Pokémon know Trick Room; in Double Battles where these two mons are out, they will both try to use it... only to nullify the first Trick Room set up (though this is provided both are still on the field and haven't been interrupted by a flinching move or paralysis).
• Badass Adorable: Both twins are this. They're young children with powerful psychic powers and strong Pokémon, and get excited over cute stuffed animals.
• Child Prodigy: Because they're psychic twins who do have psychic powers. A lab agent notes they can help the space center with their research on space travel. However, they're still younger than you, as evidenced when you spot them getting excited buying toys at Lilycove Department Store during the remakes' post-game.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Solrock and Lunatone are part Rock. Emerald adds the Ground-type Claydol into their team.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Zigzagged. The World Tournament in Gen V features them separately and gives them different teams and battle styles. However, their actual dialogue is very similar to each other, so aside from their teams, they're still interchangeable. Pokémon Masters plays it straight, making them separate characters and giving them their own dialogue. They even say that the reason they entered the tournament is so they learn to become stronger individualy.
• The Dividual: Defied in Pokémon Masters. They're separate characters there, and Tate explains to the player that he and Liza chose to split up in Pasio after realizing that they're never apart normally. A further reason comes in a conversation between them and Winona during the "Team Hoenn Unite!" event; the twins wanted to see each other become stronger.
• Dual Boss: The first Gym Leaders in the series to engage you in a double battle for their respective Badge. Outside of Emerald, they only use two Pokémon in their tag team, in one of the few cases of Gym Leaders having less Pokémon than the one fought before them. Averted in Black 2 and White 2's World Tournament, in which they've entered the tournament separately. Notably, their teams play off of one another (Some Pokémon are shared, and those that aren't shared are often counterparts like Gallade and Gardevoir, Gothitelle and Reuniclus, etc.).
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: They do this when you meet them as a demonstration of their powers.
• Fish out of Water: In Masters, Liza is unable to work alone as well as she does with Tate. She receives mentoring from a reluctant Guzma during his and Plumeria's story event, who points out that she's too desperate to improve and ironically can't seem to get the hang of triple battles despite the fact she should due to her double battle format. It goes as far as not accounting for Lunatone being there.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: And boys too, in this case. In an attempt to bribe them into helping out with research involving the correlation between spatial transportation and psychokinesis, an employee of the Mossdeep Space Center takes them to Lilycove Department Store to buy the twins a lot of dolls. Predictably, Liza and Tate are both way too distracted by their new toys to even think about the project.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Downplayed but present, in the World Tournament in Gen V, Tate's team focuses on physical attacks while Liza's focuses on special attacks. Tate also uses the always-male Gallade while Liza uses the feminine-looking Gardevoir.
• Half-Identical Twins: Tate is a boy, Liza is a girl.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Liza has two long pieces of hair around her face, while Tate doesn't. Liza also usually is the smiling one, while Tate always sports a serious face. The remakes give them an extra difference: Tate has green stars on his clothes, Liza has red stars.
• Improbable Age: They are likely the youngest Gym Leaders in the series, aside from possibly Allister and Bugsy.
• Kiddie Kid: It's best seen in the post-game of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire when a Mossdeep Space Center employee takes them shopping for dolls in exchange for helping out with some research at the center. They're both absolutely enthralled with the amount of new toys they're getting and are completely oblivious to what they were trying to be recruited for, even the usually stoic-looking Tate.
• Male Sun, Female Moon: Tate uses Solrock, while his sister Liza uses Lunatone.
• Olympus Mons: In Pokémon Masters, Tate gets Jirachi as his summer variant Sync Pair Pokémon.
• Psychic Powers: Psychic-type specialists.
• Punny Name:
  • Reverse the order of their names, and you get Liza and Tate. Liza-Tate really fast sounds like "Levitate".
  • Fuu can be written with the kanji for "float". The second syllable, combined with Ran, makes up uranai^note prediction/divination.
  • Their French names, "Lévi" and "Tatia" are another pun on "levitation".
  • Their German names, Ben and Svenja, when reversed, are a play on the word schweben, which refers to floating or levitating.
  • Their Italian names are Tell and Pat, from telepatia (telepathy).
  • Their German names are Ben and Svenja, from "schweben" (levitation).
  • Their Spanish names are Vito and Leti, from levitación (levitation).
• Rule of Symbolism: The twins both get Celesteela for Liza and Jirachi for Tate as their summer Sync Pair Pokémon in Pokémon Masters, which relate to the fact that the twins live in Mossdeep City and help the Space Center. Thematically, Celesteela is a rocket, and Jirachi represents the stars.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: They're themed after it, with complementary sun and moon Pokémon. In Pokémon Masters, they're also given different skillsets; with Tate focusing on damage and Liza featuring support buffs.
• Signature Mon: Solrock for Tate, and Lunatone for Liza. Fittingly, in Yin and Yang, the sun is considered masculine and the moon considered feminine.
• Signature Move: Calm Mind. Only Liza's Lunatone uses it in the initial battle (remakes included), but in rematches, they teach it to more of their team.
• Single-Minded Twins: Possibly, as being twins seems to be their main shtick.
  • Hilariously spoofed in Masters's Ditto event where Liza gets a Ditto impersonator that perfectly mimics her acrobatic moves, except she just can't enjoy it because it isn't Tate.
• Stock Foreign Name: In the Japanese versions, Liza's name is Ran while Tate's is Fuu.
• Stone Wall: Their team of Psychic Pokémon. Even super-effective attacks have trouble breaking through them, especially Claydol, who they start the battle with.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In Masters, Liza assures the player she and Tate aren't definitely helping the Mossdeep Space Center workers because that means getting toys from them.
• That Came Out Wrong: This line in Masters:

  Liza: Yes! I'm ready to get destroyed, full blast!

  Plumeria: Uh, that doesn't sound like quite the right attitude.

• Twin Telepathy: They can read the other's thoughts.
• Younger and Hipper: Starting from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, both of them are younger children (and more energetic) than their original pre-teen appearances in Ruby and Sapphire.

Wallace (Mikuri)

Wallace / Mikuri (ミクリ mikuri)

Voiced by: Kōsuke Kuwano (JP, Pokémon Masters), Michael Christopher (EN, Pokémon Masters)

"Show me the power you wield with your Pokémon. And I, in turn, shall present you with a performance of illusions in water by me and my Pokémon!"

Wallace is the Hoenn region's eighth Gym Leader at Sootopolis City, training Water-types. Or rather, he is in Ruby and Sapphire. In Emerald, Steven has stepped down from his position, and Wallace has stepped up to take his place as Hoenn Champion. The Ruby and Sapphire remakes have him back as a Gym Leader, but there are implications that, as in Emerald, Steven is going to vacate the Champion position and leave it to Wallace sometime in the future.

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• The Ace: While he is not the first Pokémon trainer who is shown to have taken on more than one type of role or discipline in the series, Wallace manages to be both Gym Leader and Champion in games taking place in roughly the same time frame (as opposed to Koga, Lance, or your Rival in Red/Blue/Yellow who move on to different positions in the next generation, as well as Iris who becomes a Champion in the sequel that takes place two years after her debut games). And to top it all off, Wallace is also portrayed as skilled in Contest Spectaculars — this man can do it all!
• Adaptational Skimpiness: His redesign in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has him in a much more revealing outfit than in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald.
• Agent Peacock: He's flamboyant and pretty, but a very powerful Trainer, not to mention all of his dialogue in-game is actually very serious and strait-laced. Remains the same for the remakes, though the camp is ramped up.
• Ambiguously Bi: If Masters is anything to go by: there’s a fair amount of subtext between him and Steven, even more so than usual. Not to mention the ever-escalating campiness. However, he does not appear to shun female attention, given that his Gym is full of girls who admire him.
• Ambiguously Related: Wallace and Wally, who are both green-haired dudes dressed in white introduced in Generation III; even their Japanese names — Mikuri and Mitsuru — are similar. Despite their similarities, no games have commented on it.
• Badass Cape: Wears one in Emerald as the Champion, doubling as an All-Encompassing Mantle in artwork.
• Call-Back: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire states that he'll eventually take Steven's position as Champion of Hoenn just like how Emerald shows that being a fact. In Pokémon Masters, he gets to be a different Champion to battle in the Hoenn League round, changing places with Steven now and then. He also gets his own boss theme remix.
• Camp: While he dressed and posed flamboyantly in the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire gave him a Stripperiffic outfit, a uniquely sassy overworld pose, and several sudden photoshoots.
• The Casanova: His gym is full of female trainers who say nothing but adoring things about Wallace.
• Cool Uncle: To his niece Lisia, who he took under his wing as his apprentice since her mother — who is also Wallace's older sister — was very sickly.
• Final Boss: The final boss of Emerald. His team during the Delta Episode of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is based on his Champion team.
• Friendly Rivalry: In Masters, he considers Steven both his friend and rival, stating that Steven drives him to accomplish greater deeds himself.
• Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: He sits on the sidelines as the protagonist goes and fights Groudon/Kyogre/Rayqauaza. Justified to an extent in both games. For Ruby and Sapphire, Sootopolis citizens are forbidden to enter the Cave of Origins. Emerald justifies it by having him go to the Sky Pillar with you, but then starts to become worried about Sootopolis when he notices the storm spreading rapidly and states he has to go back.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Steven. This relationship is explored further in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, with Wallace accepting Steven's offer to take up the Champion position after the latter steps down.
• In-Series Nickname: Lisia refers to him as "Uncle Wall".
• Making a Splash: He mainly uses Water-type Pokémon.
• Meaningful Name: Wallace uses water. In the Japanese version, his name (Mikuri) includes kanji that means sea or water.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's really pretty, his redesign wears an outfit that shows a lot of skin, and said outfit strongly suggests that he has nothing on underneath it. Even in-universe, he seems to be considered this trope, with his gym being full of fangirls.
• Mythology Gag: He goes back to being a Gym Leader in the remakes. However, in the Delta Episode, you get to fight his Champion team from Emerald.
• Opposites Attract: Non-romantic example. In Pokémon Masters, he forms a Sync Pair with a wayward Blacephalon, who happens to drop in while Wallace is training with Milotic. The Blacephalon becomes so enamored with Wallace's water show that its own potential convinces Wallace to take it when its Ultra Wormhole closes, despite the fact it's a Fire-type when Wallace is a Water-type specialist (which is lampshaded).
• Signature Headgear: He wears a distinct floppy white beret, fitting his flamboyant nature. In the anime, several fans wear his hat for the Wallace cup.
• Signature Mon: Water-types, with his most powerful being Milotic-fitting his emphasis on beauty.
• Stripperiffic: His redesign in the remakes shows about as much skin as Elesa's in Black 2 and White 2.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire introduces his niece Lisia, who has a similar hair and costume color scheme.
• Superboss: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he'll sometimes be an opponent during Master Rank Contest Spectaculars after you defeat his niece Lisia.
• Water Is Womanly: Inverted. (Gender Flipped, even!) Wallace is a Water-type trainer but a man. Despite this, he's very campy and flamboyant, uses the elegant Milotic as his Signature Mon, and leads a gym made up entirely of female trainers who all use female Pokémon.
• Vapor Wear: His pants in the remake hang low enough on the hips to imply he's Going Commando.

Juan (Adan)

Juan / Adan (アダン adan)

Sootopolis City Gym Leader (Emerald)—The Gym Leader with the Beauty of Pure Water!

"Please, you shall bear witness to our artistry. A grand illusion of water sculpted by Pokémon and myself!"

Wallace's mentor, who also trains Water-types. He is the Sootopolis Gym Leader in Emerald, where Wallace is Champion.

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• Artificial Brilliance: His Kingdra knows Rest and comes equipped with a Chesto Berry to wake it up immediately after.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a long blue coat and is the last Gym Leader in Emerald.
• The Casanova: Apparently, seeing as his Gym is full of female trainers. One of his lines is "The adulation of beautiful ladies fills me with energy!" Apparently, he taught his skills to his protégé, Wallace.
• Classy Cravat: He wears one around his neck, showing his sophistication.
• Confusion Fu: Luvdisc. Although most of its stats are terrible, it is very fast and will use Sweet Kiss to confuse you, and Attract if your Pokémon is male, so you will be much less likely to land a hit. Also, his Sealeo may use Encore, temporarily forcing you to stick with your last move, so be careful which ones you use.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: After replacing Wallace as Sootopolis' Gym Leader in Emerald, he is this to his former protégé, despite both of them being similar in terms of personality and are both living in Sootopolis City working as its Gym Leaders.
  • Unlike Wallace who is a younger man, Juan is a middle-aged man.
  • Both Juan and Wallace, as Gym Leaders, all have three Pokémon in common including Luvdisc, Whiscash and Sealeo, complete with similar moves, but their other Pokémon and their Signature Mon contrast. Whereas Wallace's two other Pokémon are Seaking and his Signature Mon Milotic, Juan uses a Crawdaunt and his Signature Mon Kingdra to take its place.
  • Whereas Wallace's Milotic has a Dragon-type move Twister, Juan's Kingdra doesn't have a Dragon-type move at all, despite Kingdra being a Water/Dragon Pokémon.
  • In contrast to Wallace having his Pokémon all from the current Generation, Juan has a Kingdra, which is a Pokémon that is from the previous generation.
• Dragon Tamer: His ace is the Water/Dragon-type Kingdra. But unlike most examples, his Kingdra doesn't learn any Dragon-type move.^note Before Black 2 and White 2, where his Kingdra learns Dragon Pulse.
• The Ghost: Starting from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he never appears physically, but he is mentioned several times regardless.
• Gratuitous English: He does this in the Japanese version of the game, using the English "you" instead of a Japanese second-person pronoun, and sprinkling in some other English words here and there.
• Making a Splash: Water-type specialist.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Juan is pronounced similarly to "water". It also ties into his character as The Casanova.
  • Adan can be written with the kanji for "open sea".
  • His Spanish name is Galano, from galán (gallant) and galeón (galleon).
  • His Italian name is Rodolfo, from From Rodolfo Valentino (a famous seducer) and golfo (gulf).
• Retired Badass: Wallace's mentor and the former Sootopolis Gym Leader. He returns to his previous position, taking Wallace's place in Emerald. Steven's dialogue at the end of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's Delta Episode suggests that this will soon occur, as he ponders about the concept of retiring as Hoenn's Champion and possibly getting Wallace to take over.
• Signature Mon: Kingdra. Since Wattson's signature Pokémon was changed to Manectric in Emerald, this makes him the only Hoenn Gym Leader (and in fact, the only non-Johto leader) whose signature Pokémon is not a Pokémon introduced in that generation. It is also the signature Pokémon of Clair, somewhat redundantly. A case could also be made for Crawdaunt as his secondary ace. It’s the only Pokémon Juan doesn’t share with Wallace as a Gym Leader, it’s on both his teams in the Pokémon World Tournament, and most tellingly, it shares Kingdra’s Rest-Chesto Berry strategy in rematches.
• Signature Move: Water Pulse, just like Wallace.
• Water Is Womanly: Discussed. Juan emphasizes the beauty, grace, and artistry of water in his dialogue.

Elite Four and Champion

Sidney (Kagetsu)

Sidney / Kagetsu (カゲツ kagetsu)

Voiced by: SungWon Cho (Pokémon Masters - EN), Shōhei Kajikawa (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"I like that look you're giving me. I guess you'll give me a good match."

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• Action Initiative: Teaches his team Fake Out, Aqua Jet, and Sucker Punch in the remakes.
• Bling of War: Downplayed; wearing a golden watch comes off as this when hardly anyone else in the series wears a watch at all. He also proudly boasts during rematches that Steven gifted the entire Hoenn Elite Four with Mega Stones and Key Stones, so presumably he's quite proud of wearing them as well.
• Blood Knight: In Masters, he is described as a Trainer who loves Pokémon battles and does not really care if he wins or loses.
• Casting a Shadow: He specializes in Dark-types.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: His Shiftry knows Extrasensory at level 48 when Nuzleaf doesn't learn it until 49 and it's impossible for Seedot to learn it. This was fixed in the remakes, as Nuzleaf learns it at 36 this time around.
• Combat Pragmatist: Natural for a Dark-type user.
• Critical Hit Class: In the remakes, his Absol has the ability Super Luck, which increases the probability for critical hits. He's also taught him Night Slash, Psycho Cut, and Slash. Have fun seeing the words "Critical hit!" a lot.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He may use Dark-type mons, but he's a nice person.
• Face of a Thug: His artwork in the remakes gives him a rather nasty-looking facial expression. But he's not a bad guy. This makes him come across as much more edgy and unpredictable than in the original games, where he appeared to just be a well-mannered, nicely dressed guy, dialogue aside.
• Glass Cannon:
  • His strategy says it all: "Offense over Defense". His team consists of several such Pokémon with high offensive stats, but poor defenses and middling to low speed.
  • Though he seems to have re-evaluated his strategy a bit for his rematches in the remakes, as he is now touting a Scrafty and a Mandibuzz.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Sidney can be used to make all sorts of unpleasant words like sinister, insidious, or sin. Not that he's evil, but it fits his theme.
  • Kagetsu contains the word kage (shadow).
  • His French name is Damien, like Satan's son. It also sounds like "demon".
  • His German name is Ulrich, from "Unlicht" (Dark).
  • His Italian name is Fosco, meaning "dark" or "obscure".
  • His Spanish name is Sixto, from "siniestro" (sinister/Dark). It may also be a reference to the Number of the Beast.
• Nice Guy: Despite being a Dark-type user and having the Face of a Thug, he's actually really friendly and easy-going.
• One-Man Army: His Absol, before he caught him. He managed to fight back against all his Pokémon, though Sydney quickly learned that Absol was trying to guide them away from a rockslide in the area.
• Signature Mon: Absol, a Glass Cannon which perfectly represents his preference.
• Slouch of Villainy: He's not a villain, but is still notably the only Elite Four member in the remakes who actually sits on his chair as he waits for challengers.
• Thrill Seeker: In his sync pair story inMasters, he states that he likes being around his Absol because of his ability to predict disasters. Not because he wants to avoid them, but because he finds it exciting to get out of them in the first place. In his own words, it's never a dull moment around his Absol.
• Useless Useful Stealth: Has a Zoroark in rematches, which will always copy his Absol. Any player who knows how NPC trainers handle Mega Evolution will see why Zoroark's cover will immediately be blown. And besides that, Zoroark and Absol are typed the same, so the disguise won't do much to increase Zoroark's longevity.
• Worthy Opponent: His sync pair story in Masters reveals that his Absol, when he was wild, had managed to fend off the rest of his team but was really trying to save him from an impending rockslide. Because of the event, he was convinced that Absol was worth to have around.

Phoebe (Fuyō)

Phoebe / Fuyō (フヨウ fuyou)

Voiced by: Cristina Valenzuela (Pokémon Masters - EN), Mai Fuchigami (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"I did my training on Mt. Pyre. While I trained, I gained the ability to commune with Ghost-type Pokémon."

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• Ambiguously Brown: One of the first in the series; she was a brown-skinned young woman with an island dancer theme in the original games.
• Badass Adorable: It's already apparent in her original artwork, but her redesign in the remakes makes it even more obvious, on top of making her look younger.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: A variant; her connection with nature focuses on the dead more than the living.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Her Dusknoir in the remakes has the Elemental Punches.
• Genki Girl: In the remakes, while her dialog is basically unchanged, her model is much more expressive, indicating her to be very bouncy and hyper.
• I See Dead People:
  • Gained the ability to communicate with ghosts while training on Mt. Pyre. If you visit Mt. Pyre again after beating the Elite Four, you can find her while she's having a conversation with one... who may or may not be her grandmother.
  • A now infamous Easter Egg in the remakes shows a ghost girl sitting in her chair for a split second, and then between Phoebe and the player (the camera angle obscures her) right before you challenge her for the first time, though it's uncertain whether or not Phoebe was aware of her presence.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Phoebe's strategy is to "confuse and confound", and she lives up to it. In Ruby and Sapphire, every one of her Pokémon can induce a status effect or condition, while in Emerald, she mixes up status with evasion and Mana Burn; and most of them know Shadow Ball or Psychic, which can diminish Special Defense. In Generation VI, she upgrades her strategy by having her strongest Pokémon know Hex, which does double damage to a target that has been inflicted with status (and that Pokémon can easily burn, freeze, or paralyze your Pokémon with its Elemental Punches).
• Mana Burn: Her first Pokémon in Emerald, Dusclops, has Protect, which, coupled with its Pressure ability, was specifically designed to wear down the Power Points (PP) of your Pokémon. The second one, Banette, is no slouch either, with Spite in its arsenal (in Emerald, Spite is replaced with Grudge).
• Meaningful Name:
  • Phoebe becomes phobia, and ghosts have a very strong association with fear.
  • Fuyou sounds similar to Fuyuu (to float), which is what many ghosts do.
  • Her German name is Antonia, from "Phantom".
  • Her Spanish name is Fátima, from "fantasma" (phantom).
  • Her French name is Spectra, from "spectre" (ghost).
  • Her Italian name is Ester, from "esoterico" (esoteric), "esper", or "extrasensoriale" (extrasensory).
  • Her Korean name is Hoeyeon, from hwanyeong (phantom).
• Mighty Glacier: Her second Dusclops, while very slow, has incredible defenses and a plethora of powerful moves that cover a wide range of types, making it quite deadly. In the remakes, it is a Dusknoir with even higher defenses, all three of the elemental punches, and actually has the Attack stat to use them.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's shown to be wearing only a bandeau top and a sarong, with anything beneath the sarong left up to the imagination. At least until Masters, where some kind of underwear/shorts can be seen.
• Nice Girl: Despite being a Ghost-type user, she's very friendly and carefree.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Not among the cast, but among trainers. With her bright, happy personality and her equally-bright appearance, Ghost-types are probably the last type one would think she'd use.
• Perpetual Smiler: In the remakes, Phoebe is always laughing and smiling. It's shown in her official artwork, and intro cutscene — even after she loses, her smile never drops.
• The Power of Friendship: Attributes her loss to you having a stronger bond with your Pokémon than she had with hers.
• Recurring Element: The second in a line of female Elite Four members introduced in an odd-numbered generation that specialize in the Ghost type.
• Signature Mon: Downplayed. Phoebe's team is remarkably symmetrical, with two Dusclops, two Banette, and a single Sableye in the center, though she does start and end with her Dusclops. In the remakes, she's evolved her second Dusclops into Dusknoir, but in rematches, her strongest Pokémon is actually Mega Sableye. All of them tie into her links to the Hoenn region's past and ability to commune with Ghost-types. She uses Dusclops/Dusknoir in Masters.
• Soul Power: Ghost-type master.
• Stone Wall: Her Badass Boast before your battle, openly challenges you to try and damage her team.
• Stripperific: She doesn't wear that much, though downplayed obviously, owing to the target audience.
• Useless Useful Spell: In all battles, Phoebe's Sableye lacks status moves to abuse with Prankster.

Glacia (Prim)

Glacia / Prim (プリム purimu)

Voiced by: Katelyn Gault (Pokémon Masters - EN), Sayaka Kinoshita (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"I've traveled from afar to Hoenn so that I may hone my Ice-type moves."

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: The modern art style and its bigger eyes make her look more youthful than her original self, though both versions are still of a Vague Age.
• Adaptational Skimpiness: Downplayed. While she's still mostly covered up, her remake redesign shows some skin around the neck and chest.
• Big Eater: Implied by an NPC in the Mauville Food Court, claiming they saw Glacia slurping down her noodles at such an incredible pace that "she was dripping with sweat".
• Blood Knight: Downplayed. Glacia enjoys battles for the passion of them.
• Combos: Her Glalie use Crunch and Shadow Ball to lower your team's Special Defense and set you up for Sealeo and Walrein to use their same-type boosted Surf, Ice Beam, and Blizzard moves.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Lorelei and Glacia are both powerful Ice-type specialists, but while Lorelei was a haughty Ice Queen who takes offense to being defeated, Glacia delights in the passion of the fight itself and is a Graceful Loser.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: One of the reasons she came to Hoenn was to train her Ice-types to fight under tropical conditions in the belief they could power through it.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Wears a long purple dress.
• Hidden Depths: When you defeat her, Glacia reveals a taste for wordplay and puns in particular.
• Hostile Weather: Glacia's use of Hail will deal Damage Over Time to all non-Ice types on the player's team while it's in effect.
• An Ice Person: Ice-type specialist.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Is given blue eyes in the remakes and happens to be an Ice-type specialist. The Visual Pun is almost certainly intentional.
• Informed Attribute: Her profile indicates her strategy is to use items in battle, but she only uses the bog-standard pair of full-restores and a single sitrus berry as a held item in Gen III—in Gen VI she doesn't even use the berry, only using a single Glalitite in her rematch.
• Irony: She's a cool-tongued Lady of War who appreciates nothing more than fiery passion. This even extends to her favorite dish being spicy curry.
• Lady of Adventure: A Proper Lady who traveled from afar to the Hoenn region so that she could better train her Ice-type Pokémon and climb up the Pokémon League ladder.
• Lady of War: She's a regal and lady-like Ice-type trainer. It helps that she's a member of the Elite Four.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • Her Walrein knows Sheer Cold. Unless you outlevel her (meaning you have effectively already won), or have a Pokémon with Sturdy, you have at least a 30% chance of a KO when she pulls it out.
  • Her Froslass have Snow Cloak, meaning you can miss when the Hail is out.
• Making a Splash: Like Lorelei before her, she has a dual-split focus on Ice and Water due to the dual-typed Walrein and Sealeo. Downplayed in the remakes since she's replaced her two Sealeo with two Froslass, which are Ice and Ghost.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Glacia is very close to glacier. Her name also sounds like the French word for ice "Glace".
  • Her Japanese name, Prim, is much like "prim and proper". Given her appearance, it's quite fitting. It also means primrose, a flower that can adapt to cold weather.
  • Her German name is Frosina, from "frost".
  • Her Spanish name is Nívea, meaning "snowy".
  • Her Italian name is Frida, from freddo (cold).
  • Her Korean name is Mihye, from "mi" (beautiful) and "hyeseong" (comet, which consist mainly of ice).
• One-Steve Limit: Glaceon's Japanese name is also Glacia. The character and the Pokémon never share a name in the same region.
• One-Hit Kill: If her Walrein's Sheer Cold attack lands, it will KO your Pokémon.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Her outfit. Even more so in the remakes, which add ornate snowflakes designs and impressive gloves that cover her forearms.
• Proper Lady: Acts like this when you meet her, and has her Meaningful Name above (in Japanese) to fit.
• Pungeon Master: When you defeat her, she makes puns about you being Hot-Blooded. Pokémon Masters expands her collection of ice-themed puns, as well.
• Ship Tease: After you defeat her post-game in the remakes, Glacia will ask if you intend to "thaw her very heart" before remarking that she wouldn't mind if you did—she's really starting to warm up to you.
• Signature Mon: In the third gen, she favored the Spheal line, with two Sealeo and her finisher Walrein spaced out by a couple of Glaie. In the sixth gen, she favors the Snorunt family instead, having replaced both Sealeo with Frosslass, leading with a Glalie, and in her rematch using Mega Glalie as her finisher over Walrein, which is also what she uses in Masters.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's very regal and formal, but is also the second-strongest of Hoenn's Elite Four.
• Soul Power: In the remakes, she's got a pair of Ghost-type Froslasses.
• Standard RPG Items: She claims her strategy is to use items to win, which may or may not be true. (Ironically, she uses next to no Hold Items, only having a Sitrus Berry for her Walrein in the original games and a Glailite — in the rematch — in the remakes).
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: As a beautiful woman who specializes in the Ice-type, is encountered in a subtropical island region, and whose personality has both hot and cool aspects, Glacia is nearly identical to Lorelei as she appeared in Pokémon: The Original Series. Her Japanese name Prim is a hair's breadth from Prima, the English dub's name for Lorelei.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • In rematches, Glacia's Mega Glalie lacks Normal-type moves to take advantage of Refrigerate.
  • Her Walrein's ability is Thick Fat, which gives it resistance to Fire and Ice attacks. Unfortunately, being a Water and Ice type, Walrein already has a double-resistance to Ice and only takes neutral damage from Fire, so nobody's going to be throwing many of those moves at her.
• Victory Is Boring: Despite the fact that she came to Hoenn specifically to hone her "icy skills", she hasn't managed to have even a single challenging fight since arriving.
• Weather Manipulation:
  • Her team is fond of the moves Hail and Blizzard.
  • In her rematch, she leads with an Abomasnow, whose Snow Warning ability automatically starts Hail as soon as it's sent out. She takes great advantage of this not only by using Blizzard, but also by using Pokémon whose abilities are activated by Hail.
• Weather of War: One of the first trainers to make real use of it; Glacia's Pokémon all know Hail and employ their Ice-type Exploited Immunity to preserve themselves from the Damage Over Time. In the remake, she's even tougher — most of her Pokémon now know Blizzard in order to exploit the new always-accurate effect Hail gives it.

Drake (Genji)

Drake / Genji (ゲンジ genji)

Voiced by: Steve Kramer (Pokémon Masters - EN), Masaharu Sato (Pokémon Masters - JP)

"For us to battle with Pokémon as partners, do you know what it takes? Do you know what is needed? If you don't, then you will never prevail over me!"

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Notably averted. In the Generation 3 remakes, which redesign virtually every single major character to some degree, Drake stands out as one of the very few with no design changes whatsoever - while he receives new artwork, his appearance is identical to his design in the original games. This suggests that, of the designs from those games, the developers felt his was the design that best conveyed their original intentions and thus did not require improvement or modernizing.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears one with no shirt, also qualifying for No Shirt, Long Jacket.
• Confusion Fu: Par for the course with a Dragon master. While the Elite Four always tend to give their teams varied and powerful movesets, it's hard to predict what Drake will throw at you.
• Dragon Tamer: Specializes in Dragon-types.
• Father Neptune: Seems to have the look, being a sea lover. He's not a Water-type specialist, though.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: During the initial Elite Four battle against him in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his male Flygon focuses on physical attacks while his female Flygon focuses on special attacks.
• Meaningful Name:
  • In Japanese, Genji comes from genjū (mythical beast).
  • Drake is another word for a dragon, hence his dragon tamer specialty.
  • His Korean name is Gweonsu, from "gweon" (power) and "su" (beast).
  • His name come from "dragon" in most translations
    • His German name is Dragan.
    • His Spanish name is Dracón.
    • His French name is Aragon.
• Mighty Glacier: His Altaria has high Defense and Special Defense stats, but slow speed.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: He wear a long open jacket with no shirt.
• One-Steve Limit: Shares his name with the Supreme Gym Leader of the Orange Crew from Pokémon: The Original Series—Drake of the Orange Islands notably used a Dragon-type as his Signature Mon.
• Replacement Goldfish: In Masters, he is the one who guides Guzma in trying to train Liza after he had beaten her easily. The trope comes into play because, at the time, Hala himself wasn't in the game yet, but Guzma muses to himself that there's always an old man trying to steer him right.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: Lampshaded in Emerald, where he tells you over the Pokénav that fighting the Elite Four is better than engaging in the Battle Frontier, regardless of fun value.
• Signature Mon: Salamence, perfect given that he champions the Elite Four as the strongest trainers and Dragon-types as the strongest Pokémon. In Gen VI rematches, it Mega Evolves into Mega Salamence.
• Stealth Pun:
  • He's a Dragon type trainer that wears a sea captain hat. Hmm, sound familiar?
  • Alternatively...
• The Unsmile: In Masters, his face frightened a young kid. He then shows his unnerving smile to the player to prove his point that it isn't scary.
• Useless Useful Spell: His Salamence can Mega Evolve in the rematches, but its moveset does not have any Normal-type moves to make use of Aerilate.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Though he has a coat, unlike most examples.

Steven Stone (Daigo Tsuwabuki)

Steven Stone / Daigo Tsuwabuki (ツワブキ・ダイゴ tsuwabuki daigo)

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (JP, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Promo), Xander Mobus (EN, Pokémon Masters), Tomoaki Maeno (JP, Pokémon Masters)

"What did you see on your journey with Pokémon? What did you feel, meeting so many other Trainers like you? What has awoken in you? I want you to hit me with it all! Now, bring it!"

The son of the president of the Devon Corporation, Steven is fascinated by rare stones and frequently goes out to explore old caves and ruins. In Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes, he is the Champion of the Hoenn League, championing Steel-types.

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• Alliterative Name: His full name is Steven Stone.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: In the Delta Episode of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his father jokes about him being impatient, and then takes advantage of that impatience to tease him further by dodging the purpose of their meeting. He also praises Steven ("That's my boy!") by calling him smart after Steven makes an easy guess. Steven is visibly humiliated and frustrated.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: It's rather easy to distract this man with any sort of rare stone.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With the player in Emerald, teaming up against Maxie and Tabitha during the invasion of Mossdeep City's Space Center.
• Badass Bookworm: Hoenn's League Champion is a daring geologist, and perhaps even a paleontologist given his fossil Pokémon. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire also shows that he's one of the few people researching Mega Stones.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As one of the strongest trainers in the series and heir to the resident MegaCorp, Steven certainly looks the part with his suit.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears various ones in Masters as part of his alternate outfits:
  • For his Anniversary 2021 attire, he wears a black tailcoat with golden patterns that are styled after his partner Shiny Mega Rayquaza.
  • He wears a green coat as part of his Sygna Suit while pairing up with Deoxys.
  • For his Special Costume variant, he wears a brown flannel long coat as part of his Sherlock Holmes-inspired design.
• Barrier Warrior: In your fight with him against Maxie and Tabitha in Emerald he's more focused on covering you than attacking, starting with a Metang with Reflect and Light Screen, as well as an Skarmory and Aggron with Protect, although he also packs some powerful attacks, such as Psychic and Dragon Claw.
• Birds of a Feather: His fascination with rare stones is matched up with Roxanne's, which shouldn't come as a surprise.
• Breaking Old Trends: Steven Stone is the first Champion to inhabit the role exclusively. Previous Champions Blue and Lance had their status as Champions diluted by other Pokémon franchise archetypes they also occupied (Rival and Elite Four, respectiely).
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His enthusiasm for rare stones is well-known in-universe, while also being noted as an incredibly powerful Pokémon Trainer. In Masters, he is even described by Wallace as eccentric but the best of the best when it comes to Pokémon battling.
• The Cameo: In HeartGold and SoulSilver. He turns up in Kanto, gives you a Hoenn starter, will trade Beldum for Forretress, and participates in an event involving Latias or Latios (depending on version).
• Chick Magnet: No matter if you're neutral, evil, or super old, the girls (and some guys) keep commenting on his looks. Taken to its logical extreme in Pokémon Masters where, during Champion Iris's story event, he's surrounded by girls unlike the other champions.
• Classy Cravat: Wears a red one, though he defies the stereotype.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He uses Rock- and Ground-types alongside Steel-types.
• Dragon Tamer: In Pokémon Masters, for the game's second anniversary, he forms a sync pair with a Shiny variant of the Dragon/Flying-type Rayquaza that can Mega Evolve.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: His Champion battle intro in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has him surrounded by many sparkles.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Uses Steel-types primarily, though his teams also include some Rock- and Ground-types.
• Fanservice Pack: He is always handsome, though his original appearance from Ruby and Sapphire has him in a modest suit, then his suit in his redesign from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has his jacket unbuttoned, combined with a waistcoat underneath and form-fitting pants that accentuates his slender figure. In Masters, his Summer 2020 attire has him showing more skin by wearing shorts and a short-sleeved jacket with a scoop neck shirt underneath, and his Anniversary 2021 attire has him wearing thigh-high boots and a tailcoat with a shirt underneath that has a low neckline.
• Fiction 500: As the son of Mr. Stone, the CEO of the Devon Corporation, he generally subverts most of the qualities associated with this trope, though he was heavily implied to be the previous owner of the Villa in Platinum.
• Final Boss: The final boss of Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes.
• Fossil Revival: As an avid rock collector, he often finds fossils of extinct Pokémon. His original Champion team has the 2 regional Hoenn fossils (Cradily and Armaldo), while his team in the Pokémon World Tournament in Black 2 and White 2 features an Archeops in addition to the aforementioned two. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he uses an Aerodactyl in the rematch with him.
• Guest-Star Party Member:
  • In Emerald, he becomes the first NPC in any Pokémon game to team up with the player to battle. Here, it is to fight a tag-team of Maxie and Tabitha at the Mossdeep Space Center.
  • In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he also teams up with the player to battle on multiple occasions. In the demo, he aids you against Tabitha and Matt in a Mirage Cave. In the actual game itself, he aids you at the Southern Island side-quest during the main plot and at the Mossdeep Space Center during the Delta Episode, both times against Team Magma (Omega Ruby) or Team Aqua (Alpha Sapphire). He is also one of the NPC trainers you can partner with during the Multi Battle mode in the Battle Maison.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his Hoenn fossil Pokémon from his initial Champion team have this dynamic — his male Armaldo focuses on physical attacks while his female Cradily focuses on special attacks.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Wallace. This relationship is explored further in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, with Steven trusting Wallace enough to make him the new Champion if he (Steven) leaves.
• High-Class Gloves: In Masters, he wears a pair of black gloves to match his black tailcoat as part of his Anniversary 2021 attire.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Post-game, he leaves behind a Beldum in his house as a gift for the player in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. And in HeartGold and SoulSilver, he'll trade you one for a Forretress. He's also the original trainer of the event Shiny Beldum in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• It Was a Gift: He's a lot more generous than most characters. He gives you a Mega Bracelet among many other items (the Steel Wing TM, the Devon Scope, the Eon Flute, etc.) as well as gifting the Elite Four with Key Stones. He also personally breeds you a new Lv.1 Beldum for a gift, and in HeartGold and SoulSilver gives you a Hoenn starter of your choosing.
• Like Father, Like Son: Like his father, he likes to collect rare stones and has a generous personality.
• Loved by All: In-universe, pretty much everyone gets along with him or respects him, which is helped by the fact that he's friendly, generous, proactive, responsible and protective of the region, well-versed with its lore, and even actively helps his Elite Four members get stronger just because he can. His attractive looks also get commented on by multiple NPCs and make him rather popular. This makes it all the more jarring when Zinnia actively antagonizes him, something nobody else has done before.
• MacGuffin Escort Mission: His father asks the player character to deliver a letter to Steven in Dewford Town.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Steven sounds like steel. His surname Stone also indicates his use of Rock types and love of rare stones.
  • His Japanese name refers to the Indian coral tree (deigo). In Okinawan traditions, the blooming of the Indian coral tree is associated with looming typhoons and drought, which is befitting the weather themes of his debut games. The kanji of his surname (Tsuwabuki) also contains the word stone.
• Mentor Archetype: He serves as a mentor figure to the player character in the Hoenn games, giving them advice throughout their journey and assisting them when the region is in crisis.
• Mighty Glacier: Half of his main Pokémon team — Aggron, Armaldo and Metagross — fit this role, being slow but having strong Attack and Defense stats and powerful moves. Though Mega Metagross in the remakes is most definitely a Lightning Bruiser, being much faster than regular Metagross.
• Nice Guy: Steven notably defies the Champions from previous games, Blue and Lance, by being a personable, polite man.
• Non-Idle Rich: Despite being really rich, he's very active in the storyline and helps the player fight against Team Aqua or Magma.
• Not So Stoic: He becomes increasingly frustrated during the events of the Delta Episode in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, thanks to the world being in crisis again, and the fact that he can't do anything and has to rely on you once again, as well as Zinnia actively hindering his own efforts while mocking him for having lost the title of Champion to the player.
• Olympus Mons: In Masters, he partners with a Shiny Rayquaza that is capable of Mega Evolving for the game's second anniversary. In the same game, he also forms a sync pair with Deoxys for his Sygna Suit variant during the Hoenn chapter of the Villain Arc.
• Only Sane Man: During the crisis, he's one of the few trying to do anything about it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During the Delta Episode in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the fact that he acts frustrated and irritable is a clear sign of the dire situation.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Like Flannery, his sprite in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald portrayed him being bitter and angry all the time (not even matching his official art), despite encounters with him in the games usually showing otherwise. This was corrected in the remakes.
• Pretty Boy: He is always good-looking, but it's in the remakes where his looks are acknowledged In-Universe:
  • In the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Special Demo, a Team Magma Grunt calls him "a quite stunning male specimen", and a Team Aqua Grunt says he is "totally my ideal type of guy". Tabitha even calls him a "silver-haired pretty boy"!
  • In the game itself, a Team Aqua Grunt refers to him as an "alluring gentleman".
  • During the Delta Episode, the old Draconid woman calls him a "silver-haired dreamboat".
  • He gets a Bishie Sparkle during his Champion battle intro.
• Purple Is Powerful: He often wears clothing with purple accents, and he exudes coolness by constantly being referred to as a skilled Trainer. Additionally, as the Champion in Ruby and Sapphire, his room is depicted with a light shade of purple, and his battle screen has a purple background.
• The Rival: In Pokémon Masters, he becomes this to Zinnia, who more or less has deemed him as her rival by pestering the hell out of him whenever she can because it's amusing to see him losing his cool.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He has a very nicely tailored suit.
• Sherlock Homage: In Masters, his Special Costume variant is based on Sherlock Holmes, with a deerstalker hat and a long coat. Him forming a sync pair with a (Shiny) Stoutland could be a reference to Sherlock Holmes's dog, Toby, which first appeared in The Sign of the Four.
• Signature Mon: Metagross. So much so that the only way to get one of your own in its debut generation is evolving the Beldum he gives you as a gift for beating him. In the remakes, he can Mega Evolve it.
• The Stoic: He's normally calm and collected, befitting a Steel-type trainer.
• Stone Wall: Other half his main Pokémon team — Skarmory, Claydol and Cradily — don't hit too hard, having (Special) Attack stats that come short of average, but they take hits very well (Skarmory on the physical side mostly).
• Super Mode: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and Masters, his Metagross can Mega Evolve, so can his Shiny Rayquaza in Masters.
• Superboss: In Pokémon Emerald, where he's given up the title of Champion, he can be found in Meteor Falls after the player enters the Hall of Fame, and he's the strongest NPC trainer in the game. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his Champion rematch team's overall level is even higher than his own post-game team in Emerald, and is the second highest-leveled team in the game, only behind Wally's final team.
• Tron Lines: In Masters, his Sygna Suit, which is stated to be made for space exploration, include gloves and boots with cyan glowing lines.
• Waistcoat of Style: Wears a purple one underneath his suit jacket in his redesign from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: He states that doing everything in his power to resolve the crisis caused by the villainous team (and presumably any other) is his duty as the Champion. Understandable, as he's perfectly capable of wiping the floor with practically every wrongdoer coming his way — so much so, that an Eon Dragon recognizes this and seeks his help at one point!

Wallace (Mikuri)

The champion in Emerald, and the Sootopolis City Gym Leader in Ruby, Sapphire and their remakes. For more info on him, see his folder in the Gym Leaders section above.

Team Aqua and Team Magma

Information about Team Aqua and Team Magma can be found here.

Battle Frontier (Emerald only)

Scott (Enishida)

Scott / Enishida (エニシダ enishida)

The owner of the Battle Frontier.

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• The Cameo: Scott doesn't appear in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as the Battle Frontier has not been built yet, but he is mentioned by a suited man in the Battle Maison who is scouting potential Trainers to become the future Frontier Brains.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: How he seems to act most of the time. He wears a teal shirt emblazoned with Battle Frontier emblems.
• Meaningful Name: Scott sounds like "scout", which matches his job of wandering Hoenn and scouting talent to compete in his Battle Frontier.
• Walking the Earth: How he is usually encountered over the course of the main storyline, seemingly for no reason beyond cheering you on in your journey. He later mentions that he's been wandering for a long time to make his Battle Frontier a reality.

Factory Head Noland (Factory Head Datsura)

Factory Head Noland / Factory Head Datsura (ダツラ datsura)

Voiced by: Kaiji Tang (Pokémon Masters - EN), Toshiki Masuda (Pokémon Masters - JP)
He awards the Knowledge Symbol onto the Frontier Pass of Trainers who defeat him.

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• Badass Labcoat: It's even sleeveless to boot.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He speaks with quite a few exclamation points.
• Confusion Fu: Will use any three Pokémon that can be used in his facility. This is just like any other trainers, except you won't get to know which Pokémon he would use beforehand. To wit, that's any three of the Pokémon of the first generation that are not specifically banned, including lower-tier legendaries like Zapdos or Suicune.
• Genius Bruiser: He awards the symbol of knowledge, after all.
  Noland: Knowledge isn't only about reading books or doing desk work!
• Luck-Based Mission: In addition to the randomization of the Battle Tower, the Battle Factory presents the player with a random selection of pokémon at the start and then the option to exchange pokemon with defeated enemies—even when selecting an apparently superior pokemon, the Random Number God can hurl a nasty counter at the player that the lost pokemon might have faced.
• Perma-Stubble: Man looks like he hasn't shaved in a while.
• Red Baron: The Factory Head.
• Punny Name: Noland for Knowledge.
• Signature Mon: He doesn't have one in Emerald thanks to the Confusion Fu, but in Pokémon Adventures he favors Mawile. Pokémon Masters instead assigns him a Pinsir — which can Mega Evolve, which wasn't even possible in Emerald. However, his ace as a Battle Villa boss is Machamp.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Notice how neither his top nor his coat has them.
• Warm-Up Boss: While the Frontier Brains can be challenged in any order, the Battle Factory requires the least amount of effort to challenge (because the factory uses its own pokémon, the player has no need to prepare), and Noland's pokémon are drawn at random from the same pool as everyone else's, so he's no more difficult than most of his warm-up trainers.

Arena Tycoon Greta (Arena Captain Kogomi)

Arena Tycoon Greta / Arena Captain Kogomi (コゴミ kogomi)

She likes tough Trainers, and will gladly hand over the Guts Symbol if defeated.

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• Badass Boast: When she first appears, she gives a subdued version of this, implying she intends to take it easy on you. For her rematch, she's definitely on-board.
  Greta (First Round): We'll take things easy to start with! Okay! Let's see you ignite my passion for battle!
  Greta (Second Round): Be ready for a thrashing!
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Heracross and Shedinja in her first fight.
• Casting a Shadow: She uses an Umbreon in both of her fights as a bit of Stone Wall, and in round two, it's packing Double-Edge, Rest, and a Chesto Berry (remember, you only have three turns to defeat it).
• Brutal Honesty:
  Greta: I don't know how to say it, but... To put it bluntly, you look pretty weak.
• Cute Bruiser: A man hanging around outside the dojo mentions that he heard about this really cute girl hanging around the dojo, but was decidedly nonplussed when he could find nothing but sweaty, stinky martial artists.
• Genki Girl: So Genki that she doesn't mind asking where the real challenger is when she first appears and only sees the player; she even moves around to look past him.
• Green Thumb: She uses a Breloom in her second fight that uses Spore, Giga Drain, and Focus Punch.
• Hot-Blooded: Is an enthusiastic fighter.
• Lightning Bruiser: Heracross uses the Endure - Salac Berry - Reversal combo, so be careful.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • In addition to the randomization of the Battle Tower, the player has to deal with the rubrics of the Battle Arena that judge them on what techniques they use—the Skill category relies on the accuracy of attacks and the Body category relies on which pokémon has more health, so bad luck or bad timing can give the opponent the round or even the whole battle.
  • Greta's Signature Mon Umbreon and her Shedinja both use Confuse Ray, while her Gengar and Breloom have moves that can put the player's team to Sleep.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: If you don't exploit the fact that Kryptonite Is Everywhere, Shedinja is meant to give you a special kind of headache. To add insult to injury, it packs Confuse Ray.
• Painted-On Pants: She wears a skintight blue suit underneath her black karate top.
• Power Stereotype Flip: Greta's a King Mook of the Blackbelt class, but she has almost none of the attributes one might expect—she's a cute little girl, she completely lacks the decorum of the staff, and her Signature Mon is the tricky Dark-type Umbreon.
• Punny Name: Greta's got guts.
• Red Baron: The Arena Tycoon.
• Signature Mon: She uses Umbreon in both matches in the game, and it's noted as her favorite in Pokémon Adventures as well.
• Soul Power: She fields a Gengar in her second fight. It uses Hypnosis, Dream Eater, and Destiny Bond.
• Status Effects: The only Pokémon she fields that can't inflict these is her Heracross. Most of her Pokémon inflict either sleep or confusion, though the Umbreon in her first fight also has Body Slam, for Paralysis.
• Theme Table: Both of Greta's teams have an Umbreon, a Ghost-type, and a mixed Fighting-type.
• Tomboy: She's a boisterous martial artist.

Dome Ace Tucker (Dome Superstar Heath)

Dome Ace Tucker / Dome Superstar Heath (ヒース hiisu)

He prefaces battles with narcissistic comments, and if he loses, turns over the Tactics Symbol to the Trainer's Frontier Pass.

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• Agent Peacock: Don't confuse his campy mannerisms with weakness, he's a pretty strong Trainer.
• Always Camp: His sexuality is never alluded to, but he does fit this trope due to being incredibly flamboyant.
• Curtains Match the Window: Has purple eyes to match his hair and outfit.
• Dragon Tamer: Uses the Flying/Dragon Salamence in his Silver Symbol Challenge, and a Latias for the Gold Symbol Challenge.
• Extra-ore-dinary: He brings a Metagross to the fight for his second appearance.
• Incoming Ham: A lot of the Frontier Brains tend to be hammy, but Tucker spends a few moments prancing around the arena to rouse the crowd before even bothering to talk to you.
• Large Ham: Tucker is a crowd player. Really, among Pokémon characters, we could give him a lifetime-achievement award.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • In addition to the randomization of the Battle Tower, trainers in the Battle Dome can only select two pokémon at once. The player must guess which pokémon the computer opponent will use and hope they've selected the right counters, if they have them on hand.
  • Tucker's Signature Mon Swampert knows Ice Beam, which may freeze the player's team. His Latias also knows Thunderbolt, which may paralyze the player's team instead.
• Punny Name Tucker represents tactics.
• Red Baron: The Dome Ace.
• Signature Mon: In both the Silver Symbol and Gold Symbol challenges, as well as in most adaptations,^note Pokemon Adventures is the only exception he has used Swampert.
• Tournament Arc: His facility is the first time in the main series games where actual tournaments (against NPCs) are depicted.
• Visual Pun: The hair and the wings might bring to mind a 'fairy'.
• Worthy Opponent: He apparently does a near 180 in between his two main fights. His first loss catches him off guard and he mutters about underestimating the player; by his second loss, he lavishes praise on you.

Pike Queen Lucy (Tube Queen Azami)

Pike Queen Lucy / Tube Queen Azami (アザミ azami)

Voiced by: Carrie Keranen (Pokémon Masters - EN), Hitomi Shogawa (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The Luck Symbol is awarded to those able to defeat Lucy's Pokémon.

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• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Her dialogue is rather cold and emotionless.
• Animal Motifs: Serpentine Pokémon. Even her Shuckle could count due to his snake-like neck and head.
• Badass Boast: Lucy claims she's "trampled flowers and braved storms" to achieve her position.
• The Baroness: She's cold and ruthless, and her emphasis on Status Effects can certainly be interpreted as sadistic.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Her Shuckle serves as a Stone Wall during her first fight.
• Break the Haughty: Implied by her losses.
• The Cameo: In the Battle Maison of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, a suited man working for Scott mentions that he's scouted the Pike Queen, foreshadowing Lucy's future role in the under-construction Battle Frontier. A blonde woman in the Maison also mentions that the player's presence is making her Seviper shiver, though it's not quite clear if she's supposed to be Lucy (whose hair is a much darker color).
• The Dreaded: Her arrival comes with a heavy dose of ominous behavior. This bites especially hard if you choose the room with the maid who declines to heal any of your Pokémon before she arrives.
• Drought Level of Doom: In the Battle Pike, the player cannot use any items and thus can't do anything to heal their own pokémon.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Instills this feeling, being the Pike Queen and all.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Her Steelix, which replaces her Shuckle in the second round.
• Foil: To Greta. Greta has a brighter design and personality and is eager and excitable. Lucy... not even close. Compare: Blonde and Black hair colors (the styles even contrast); the Battle Arena is staffed entirely by male martial artists while the Battle Pike is run entirely by maids; Greta looks forward to seeing the player again, while Lucy seems to feel she's been wronged by losing, vowing to never forget the player. Ever.
• The Gloves Come Off: Lucy does not take to losing your first encounter, and goes so far as to abandon the Battle Pike's signature emphasis on debilitating Status Effects in favor of a full-throttle offensive. Her Seviper becoming stronger, keeping an almost identical moveset but exchanging Poison Fang for Sludge Bomb; her Shuckle is replaced with a Steelix that uses Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Explosion (backed up with Screech); and her bulky Milotic is replaced in favor with a Gyarados that primarily uses a Dragon Dance-Return combo.
• Hates Small Talk: She's "not one for idle chatter".
• Ice Queen: Has an icy attitude towards the player, and is one of few Frontier Brains to not take her loss very well.
• Luck-Based Mission: Lucy's bread and butter.
  • In addition to the randomization of the Battle Tower, the Battle Pike requires the player to select one of three paths (a maid will provide the player with a clue about one of them at random)—the path can lead to a single battle, a double battle, an especially hard single battle, a corridor of wild pokémon, or an NPC whose pokémon inflicts Status Effects on the player's team. There are also benevolent options where either nothing happens or an NPC may heal some of the player's team.
  • Lucy's Signature Mon Seviper uses Swagger, which confuses the opponent but raises their attack, which means the monsters on the player's team may do more damage either to Lucy's team or to themselves.
• Maid Corps: The Battle Pike is staffed by one, who all report to Lucy.
• Making a Splash: With her Milotic in the Silver Symbol challenge and a Gyarados in the Gold Symbol challenge.
• Ms. Fanservice: A tall Aloof Dark-Haired Girl with an outfit that bares most of her torso and shoulders, prominent hips, high heels, and a ruthless demeanor.
• Poisonous Person: Using her signature Pokémon, Seviper.
• Punny Name: Lucy tests luck.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Has pale skin to go with her dark hair.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Not evil, but quite narcissistic. The anime shows her as pretty friendly.
• Rule of Three: To get through the Pike, you have to choose one of three doors, with each door having a random challenge.
• Signature Mon: Not only is her Seviper on both her Silver and Gold teams, it's the front-man of both teams and the Battle Pike itself is themed around it and Lucy's clothes give them an Uncatty Resemblance.
• Smug Snake: Snakes being her theme, and she's quite full of herself too:
  Lucy: I am Lucy...I am the law here...For I am the Pike Queen...
• Snakes Are Sexy: Lucy is the team's Ms. Fanservice and has a big serpent motif.
• Statuesque Stunner: She is noticeably taller than most other people in her anime and manga depictions.
• Uncatty Resemblance: To her Seviper.
• Womb Level: The entrance to the Battle Pike facility is a giant seviper whose open maw must be walked through—the player than has to travel deeper through its "bowels", which are simulated with luxurious red carpets and drapes.

Palace Maven Spenser (Palace Guardian Ukon)

Palace Maven Spenser / Palace Guardian Ukon (ウコン ukon)

When defeated, he awards the Spirits Symbol.

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• Bat Out of Hell: His Crobat, in his first fight.
• Critical Hit Class: Slaking are natural Lightning Bruisers, but Spenser's is carrying a scope-lens to give it the chance to hit even harder.
• Eyes Always Shut: Not one to be seen with them open.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His robe and staff direct more attention to his left.
• The Gloves Come Off: Like Lucy, he switches from a Status Effects strategy in his first fight to better emphasize pure offense in the second. He trades his Crobat with Toxic and Confuse Ray for an Arcanine with Extreme Speed and Overheat; his Slaking retains Earthquake and Shadow Ball, but trades Swagger and Brick Break for Yawn and Hyper Beam; and he replaces his Lapras (who only had Ice Beam as a standard attack, with Horn Drill as an alternate offensive) with Suicune (who has Blizzard, Surf, and Bite, backed up with Calm Mind).
• Hidden Depths: When he first appears, he presents himself as a Cold Ham Old Master. After losing, though, he bursts out laughing and apologizes "for trying that stunt." The assistant who attends the player in the palace actually wishes he would maintain his facade of distinguished authority. Spenser doesn't bother with the Old Master bluster in the match for the Gold Emblem, and the assistant starts wishing he would maintain at least "a certain level of decorum".
• Hot-Blooded: Once his initial stoic facade is shed, he shows a hearty side and is enthusiastic to fight the player once more.
• Lord of the Ocean: Spenser seems to like the aesthetic. Each of Spenser's teams uses a Famed In-Story Water-type species for a Finishing Mon, either Lapras on the Silver Symbol team or Suicune on the Gold Symbol team. His shoulder tattooes and the red markings on his blue staff all appear to be simplified copies of Kyogre's markings.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • In addition to the randomization of the Battle Tower, the Battle Palace requires the player to relinquish all control of their Pokémon in combat to run purely according to the game's AI.
  • All three pokémon on Spenser's silver team can cause confusion, and his Finishing Mon Lapras has the One-Hit Kill attack Horn Drill—even better, it carries a Quick Claw, so if the Random Number God is spiteful enough, Lapras could wipe out a whole team before the player's team can even attack.
  • Many of Spenser's other pokémon carry items that could cripple the player at a moment's notice; his Crobat is carrying bright-powder to make the player's team less accurate, Slaking carries a scope-lens for more critical hits, and Suicune carries a king's-rock to make the player's team flinch.
• Making a Splash: Lapras in his first fight and Suicune in his second.
• Meaningful Name: Spenser judges spirit.
• Non-Elemental: Slaking, who appears in both fights.
• Olympus Mons: His Suicune, again.
• One-Hit Kill: Lapras is packing Horn Drill.
• Playing with Fire: Arcanine, his lead for the second fight.
• The Power of Friendship: The primary focus of his facility. The first Pokémon he fields is his Crobat, even.
• Red Baron: The Palace Maven.
• Rule of Symbolism: He's preceded by an Azurill and a Dusclops whenever he appears. Birth and Death.
• Signature Mon: Spenser uses a Slaking with a scope-lens in both matches.
• Tron Lines: The patterns on his cane mimic those of Kyogre's Volcanic Veins.
• True Companions: He refers to his Pokémon as his brethren.

Pyramid King Brandon (Pyramid King Jindai)

Pyramid King Brandon / Pyramid King Jindai (ジンダイ jindai)

When defeated in battle, he'll praise the grandeur of the match and hand over the Brave Symbol.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: Brandon's bread and butter.
  • The entire premise of the Battle Pyramid is meant to turn each challenger into one, forcing them to go on an adventure in an ancient ruin with no resources and only their wits and abilities.
  • Brandon gives a speech about the wonders of adventure before both the Silver and Gold Symbol matches.
  • Brandon's teams consist of whole sets of Olympus Mons, strongly implying just how well-traveled he is.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Brandon's diction is more grandiose than the other Frontier Brains, calling the challenger "young explorer" and describing things as "grand".
• Badass Crew: Two whole sets of Olympus Mons, as a testimony to his Adventure Archaeology.
• Blow You Away: Uses all three legendary birds during his rematch.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Sports an impressive pair that help give him a stern look.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Regirock.
• Drought Level of Doom: The gimmick of the Battle Pyramid, mixed with The Maze and Blackout Basement.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Registeel.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: All three legendary birds of Kanto are here.
• Golem: His first battle uses the Regi-trio.
• Hair Color Dissonance: It's hard to tell whether it's green or brown.
• High-Altitude Battle: It's hard to keep in mind given normal battle staging, but Brandon and the Player Character duel on the peak of a pyramid.
• An Ice Person: Regice and Articuno.
• King Mook: Of the Ruin Maniac trainer class, members of which staff his facility.
• Large Ham: More of the Grand Speech type than the loud and in-your-face type, but he qualifies. The general setting of the Battle Pyramid certainly helps.
• The Leader: In anime canon, he's treated as the foremost Frontier Brain.
• The Little Detecto: Brandon speaks as though he has a device that can detect a person's level of courage.
  • During his preliminary speech for the Gold Symbol rematch, he claims that his own courage's Readings Are Off the Scale.
  • During The Cameo he gets in the Volcanion event for Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, his Signing-Off Catchphrase refers to a "courage sensor".
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • In addition to the randomization of the Battle Tower, the Battle Pyramid is a Drought Level of Doom that requires the player to fumble their way through a sequence of seven Randomly Generated Blackout Basements in a row with only their own team to start. At any given moment, a player can run into the path of another trainer or be beset by wild pokémon to hinder their progress.
  • Speaking of wild pokémon, there are twenty possible selections of random pokémon that can beset the player's team, each specializing in a unique tactic meant to hinder the player.
• Olympus Mons: He always uses a legendary trio: the Regi trio in the first match and the bird trio in the second.
• One-Steve Limit: Almost with Brendan, the male protagonist of the game.
• Perpetual Frowner: Both his official art and battle sprite feature him frowning. He has been known to laugh, however.
• Red Baron: Pyramid King.
• Signature Mon: He is frequently associated with the original Regi Trio in both the anime and Pokémon Adventures.
• Signing-Off Catchphrase: He drops one every time his TV Program ends during the special Volcanion event in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
  Brandon: Stay alert at all times! Don't forget your courage sensor!
• Theme Naming: Brandon is the Brain of bravery.
• Theme Table:
  • Both Brandon's Silver Symbol and Gold Symbol teams consist of entire sets of legendary pokemon.
  • On Brandon's Gold Symbol team, each legendary bird has a Fire, Ice, Lightning type and has the corresponding Powerful, but Inaccurate move Fire Blast, Thunder, or Blizzard. Each also has a unique shielding move and a Flying-type attack.

Salon Maiden Anabel (Tower Tycoon Lila)

Salon Maiden Anabel / Tower Tycoon Lila (リラ rira)

^Sun/Moon

Voiced by: Alexis Tipton (Pokémon Masters - EN), Ayako Kawasumi (Pokémon Masters - JP)

When defeated, she awards the Ability Symbol onto the Frontier Pass. She notably returns in the post-game of Sun and Moon in a story-relevant role.

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• Ascended Extra: Returns in Pokémon Sun and Moon as Looker's boss and head of the Ultra Beast division of the International Police. She's also from a different dimension, and is implied to have fallen into the Sun and Moon dimension from the Emerald one by being caught in an Ultra Wormhole.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Sports a rather nifty fitted suit in Sun and Moon.
• Bifauxnen: In Emerald she could actually pass for a pretty boy due to her androgynous appearance.
• Blood Knight: Anabel's Gold Symbol match is prefaced with her declaring she won't have to hold back against the player character and that it's been too long since she's been able to battle without thinking about anything.
• Boyish Short Hair: In Emerald. Subverted in her Sun and Moon appearance.
• Brutal Honesty: She mentions that she's been hearing rumors about the player when first introducing herself, and then informs them that none of said rumors are attractive.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns after over a decade of absence in Sun and Moon, all the more surprising as the Battle Frontier itself didn't return in the actual remakes of Ruby and Sapphire. Her return is more complicated than it initially appears as well.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Battle Tower itself makes most unprepared trainers unable to defeat her facility. It's probably why she's the leader.
• Creepy Good: Anabel is a very soft-spoken Blood Knight.
• Curtains Match the Window: She has lilac-colored hair and eyes.
• Demoted to Extra: In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, her role is reduced to a single cameo in Poni Plains, as well as a selectable partner in the Battle Tree.
• Dragon Tamer:
  • Uses the Dragon/Psychic Latios in her Gold Symbol match in Emerald and in the Battle Tree in Sun and Moon.
  • In Sun and Moon, she uses the Flying/Dragon-type Salamence in battle outside of the Battle Tree.
• Expy: Her Pokémon Sun and Moon appearance along with her role is very reminiscent of Kyoko Kirigiri.
• Good Is Not Nice: While otherwise a decent person, she apparently tells losing trainers that they have no talent, and when she loses, she's fond of creepy laughter ("Fufufufufufu....")
• Human Aliens: In the extra-dimensional sense, not extraterrestrial, having become a "Faller" into the universe that Sun and Moon takes place in.
• Idiot Hair: Of the mischievous-type, considering that she's a big cheater.
• Large Ham: A prominent aversion, even in comparison to Lucy, who was known to give a cold Badass Boast. Anabel doesn't waste time boasting or making speeches like the others. She just wants to see your talent.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: When Nanu and Looker found her ten years before Sun and Moon, all she could remember was her name, that she was from Hoenn, and that she had a tower she had to protect. Despite this, she was still able to quickly climb the ranks in the International Police until she became Looker's boss.
• The Leader:
  • Implied by virtue of the fact that the Battle Tower is the pre-eminent facility of the Frontier, dedicated to pure combat and not colored by gimmicks like the others.
  • In Sun and Moon she's the head of the International Police's Ultra Beast division.
• Leitmotif: The original version of the Frontier Brain battle theme from Emerald plays in Sun and Moon during battles against her in the Battle Tree, GBA trumpets and all. This was likely intentional instead of using the remastered version from the Hoenn remakes as this Anabel is from the original Emerald timeline as opposed to the current one.
• Little Miss Badass: Young as she is, she's still a powerful Frontier Brain; and is even more powerful in Sun and Moon.
• Luck-Based Mission: As the player progresses through the battle tower (and indeed, all the battle frontier facilities) the pokémon become more and more dangerous. If the Random Number God spites the player, they may be ousted by bad luck before they ever meet Anabel.
  • In Battle Frontier facilities, the player is not allowed to use their own items, so Status Effects are now all but permanent and cannot be removed until the battle is over. (Anabel herself has several pokémon that can inflict status effects, mostly paralysis).
  • The upper echelons of trainers may throw pokémon at you with One-Hit Kill moves like Horn Drill or Sheer Cold. Some may even have Quick Claw, which can let them attack with these dangerous moves before the player's team can do anything.
• The Men in Black: Wears a suit, is part of a secret group in the government, meets with you clandestinely in hotel rooms, deals with aliens, etc.
• Non-Elemental: Her weapon is to field Snorlax, literally her best for last (and this alongside her legendary Pokémon, too). In the first fight it's packing Belly Drum and Body Slam, so try to hold out for it. In the second fight, it's a full on Curselax that brings Return and a Rest-Chesto Berry combo to the party. She still has it on her team in Sun and Moon, both when you fight her as a test during the Ultra Beast plot and in the Battle Tree as an Optional Boss.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Salon in Salon Maiden actually refers to the Battle Salon, the room in the tower where you can meet and choose a partner for Multi Battles. Her title is unique in not referring directly to the facility she heads (this is averted in the original Japanese, where she's the Tower Tycoon).
• Older and Wiser: She's more expressive and less creepy after ten years had passed by in Sun And Moon. Said ten years have also let her grow her hair out, as it's now close to her waist in length.
• Olympus Mons: She uses Entei, Raikou, and Latios! All three return on her Battle Tree team in Sun and Moon; Latios can now use Mega Evolution.
• Playing with Fire: The Entei she fields in her first fight in Emerald.
• Psychic Powers: She leads with an Alakazam in her first fight in Emerald. Beware: it's a Fire, Ice, Lightning punch-sweeper... but it lacks any STAB moves.
• Punny Name:
  • Anabel represents ability. In German, this name is a reference to anlage, "asset" in English.
  • In the original Japanese, Lila is a reference to Lilac, the general color of her design.
• Puppet King: It's implied her role as head of the Ultra Beast division is merely to be used as bait to draw out the Ultra Beasts, who are naturally drawn to Fallers like Anabel.
• The Quiet One: Anabel is actually the most soft-spoken of the Frontier Brains. She grows out of it by Sun and Moon, but she still manages to be rather mellow, especially in comparison to Looker.
• Red Baron: The Salon Maiden.
• Same Character, But Different: Justified. In Emerald, she's a Creepy Good Blood Knight and The Quiet One. In her Gen VII reappearance, she's a well-mannered and polite Beleaguered Assistant for Looker, which makes sense considering her amnesia and the ten years that passed in-universe between games.
• She's All Grown Up: From her reappearance in Sun and Moon she's gone from her being young in her early teens to being a beautiful woman that's done her best to adapt to the hand she's been given.
• Shock and Awe: She leads with a Raikou in her second fight in Emerald; however, it's a bit of a step down from Alakazam, since it only has Thunderbolt in terms of offense.
• Signature Mon:
  • Uses Snorlax in both matches in Emerald. It returns on her team in Sun and Moon, both during the Ultra Beast quest and the Battle Tree. In Masters it gains the ability to Gigantamax.
  • Alakazam plays the point man on her Silver Symbol match, is the only of her original pokémon to accompany her during her appearance in Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and returns to play the point man in her Sun and Moon battle.
• Spirited Competitor: It's implied in the moments before her second fight that she's been very bored without a fight to look forward to.
• Super Mode: She has a Key Stone and is able to use Mega Evolution in the Battle Tree.
• Trapped in Another World: In Sun and Moon, she is revealed to be from an alternate version of Hoenn (heavily implied to be the Emerald version of Hoenn due to her battle theme using the original GBA sound font from that game, even though a remastered version was already made for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire). She stays in the current dimension due to her Laser-Guided Amnesia causing her to forget most of her past life, but she still has a pretty important role to play in this world as the head of the Ultra Beast Taskforce.
• Vague Age: It's never clear how old she is exactly, but it can be assumed she's younger than her fellow Frontier Brain Lucy. The anime implies she's in her younger teens, being a bit older than Ash. In Sun and Moon however, she is very clearly an adult, having spent ten years before the story with Nanu.

Others

Battle Resort Trainers: Carnation, Antoin, Josephine, Kelvin, and Felix (Sakiko, Genya, Minako, Junya, and Koujirou)

Battle Resort Trainers: Carnation, Antoin, Josephine, Kelvin, and Felix / Sakiko (サキコ), Genya (ゲンヤ), Minako (ミナコ), Junya (ジュンヤ), and Koujirou (コウジロウ)

Five trainers who appear in the Battle Resort. They each specialize in one of the five types that is not already used by the Gym Leaders or Elite Four.

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• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Bug Maniac Felix, the Bug-type expert.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: They are all strictly indistinguishable from everyone in their classes, but they are powerful trainers with strong teams and movesets, who could hold their own against the Elite Four. Then again, by the time the player faces them, they have surpassed said Elite Four.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Poké Maniac Kelvin, the Ground-type expert.
• Green Thumb: Aroma Lady Carnation, the Grass-type expert.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Fairy Tale Girl Josephine, the Fairy-type expert.
• Poisonous Person: Rich Boy Antoin, the Poison-type expert.

Trick Master

An eccentric man who lives on Route 110, challenging any trainers to clear the puzzles in his Trick House for rewards.

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• Narcissist: Each of the Trick Master's passwords is a new statement of gushing praise... for the Trick Master.
• Walking the Earth: After you clear his final puzzle, he goes on a journey to find inspiration for new tricks.
• Worthy Opponent: A friendly version. Although he doesn't challenge the player to a Pokémon battle, he progressively comes to see them as this when it comes to puzzles.

The Winstrate family

A family of trainers living on Route 111. They challenge passers-by to a gauntlet of battles against each member. After you defeat them, they reward you with the Macho Brace. The family consists of Victor, the father; Victoria, the mother; Vivi, the daughter; and Vicky, the grandmother. Upon reaching Victory Road you meet the fifth and strongest Winstrate: Cooltrainer Vito, the son.

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• Alliterative Family: All of their given names start with the letter V, as part of their victory Theme Naming.
• Always Someone Better: Losing to you damages Vito's confidence, causing him to consider whether he should return home.
• Artificial Brilliance: Vicky, courtesy of effectively being an Expert (the Hoenn equivalent of a Veteran), as well as Vito, who is a Cooltrainer, or the equivalent class of Ace Trainer in the case of the remakes.
• Badass Creed: "Our family's hearts beat as one!"
• Badass Family: A family of trainers who challenge you to defeat them in successive battles. Vito is even stronger than the rest of his family, having made it all the way to Victory Road.
• Boss Bonanza: Downplayed in that they aren't as much of a challenge as someone like a Gym Leader. You must fight them one after another uninterrupted.
• Broken Win/Loss Streak: After you defeat him, Vito claims he had never lost before.
• Com Mons: Victor, the weakest member, uses a Zigzagoon and a Taillow. The remaining members use more out-of-the-way Mons.
• Elite Mooks:
  • Vicky is essentially an Expert (Hoenn's version of a Veteran), complete with the enhanced AI that entails.
  • Vito is a Cooltrainer, or the equivalent Ace Trainer in the remakes, to virtually the same effect.
• Lost in Translation:
  • Their family name is used as their trainer class, which makes sense in Japanese, as the surname goes first in Japan, but can be the slightest bit awkward in Western localizations. The remakes got around this issue by changing their trainer class from Winstrate to The Winstrates'.
  • Some translations, such as Spanish, German and Italian, failed to catch on that Cooltrainer Vito was the last Winstrate, and thus gave him names that don't match the other members' Theme Naming.
• Mama Bear: After you defeat Vivi, she starts crying. Then her grandmother Vicky appears and swears you will pay for it.
  Vicky: How dare you make my granddaughter cry! For that, I'm going to smack you! Prepare to lose!
• Mythology Gag: An elaborate one to the first generation. The way you fight the Winstrates in quick succession mirrors that of the Elite Four. However, there's a fifth Winstrate, even stronger than the rest: Cooltrainer Vito, found in Victory Road; much like there's a Champion after the Elite Four, who is stronger than them. In Generation I, the existence of the Champion wasn't established until you defeated the Elite Four; similarly, the Winstrates only tell you about a fifth member after you defeat them, and you don't actually meet him until the end of the game.
• Non-Elemental: Victor's team consists entirely of Normal-type Pokémon.
• Punny Name: Winstrate, as in "win straight", in reference to the fact you must defeat them in quick succession. Meanwhile, the Japanese name, カチヌキ (Kachinuki), comes from 勝ち抜く (kachinuku), "to win through", to the same effect.
• Sore Loser:
  • While her parents compliment you for your skills, Vivi cries after being defeated.
  • Vito isn't that much better, getting bummed enough to want to go home after losing to you.
• Theme Naming: All of their names start with the letter V, and are a play on the word "victory". This includes Vito, the fifth member who is met, rather appropriately, in Victory Road.