Characters / Pokemon: Shadow of Time

Characters from Pokemon: Shadow of Time.

Ash Ketchum’s Harem

Ash Ketchum

• Batman Grabs a Gun: Ash goes against his usual distaste for guns when faced with Sabrina trying to abduct Anabel.
• Big Damn Heroes: During a raid on Pokémon Tech, Ash, Misty and the students get vital aid from the returning Squirtle.
• The Bus Came Back: All of Ash’s past Pokemon seek to return to him once they ‘wake up’ in the new reality, even ones he hasn’t seen for years such as Primeape/Mankey and Pidgeot/Pidgeotto; his entire Johto and Unova teams join him again just after his gym battle in Vermillion City, his Hoenn and Sinnoh teams reunite with him after Saffron City, and Lycanroc and Fletchling are sent to him after Serena catches them on his behalf because there isn't space for them in the cabin she's using (although she kept the rest of his Alola and Kalos Pokemon with her until Ash can catch them himself).
• Catchphrase: Ash muses that "I hate this timeline" has basically become his since reality was reset.
• The Chosen One: Ash is specifically referred to as the Chosen of Arceus.
• Commitment Issues: Ash rejects the idea of romantic relationships to avoid turning out like his father, who (as far as he recalls at the time) abandoned him and his mother when Ash was young.
• Composite Character: Word of God states that Ash should be considered a composite of himself and Sergeant Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in US military history who is most famous for not just his medals, but the great efforts he endured to restore his sanity after the horrors he witnessed in war.
• Dark and Troubled Past: On top of Ash witnessing the complete destruction of his original reality, in this new timeline it is revealed that his father died saving Ash from a Shadow Ho-oh.
• Diplomatic Immunity: Ash considers using his status as the Crown Prince of Rota to protect him if he feels the 'need' to burn down the Celadon Gym if Erika refuses his challenge.
• Driven to Suicide: It is noted that everything Ash experienced before the reality reset would have made lesser men kill themselves from the horror of it; he’s only hanging on at the moment because he needs to save reality from Cyrus. While trapped in Hisui and informed that Arceus is too busy to do anything about the rift that sent him into the past, Ash genuinely tries to kill himself from frustration, actually pulling out a knife before he's stopped by Pikachu.
• Exotic Extended Marriage: Due to his status as the Crown Prince of Rota, after an incident where the royal family were nearly decimated by a plague, Ash is actually legally obliged to practice polygamy.
• Foregone Conclusion: Ash is frustrated at how Pikachu and his other Pokemon basically take it for granted that he’ll be romantically involved with all of his female travelling companions.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Ash tries to avoid romantic relationships because he doesn’t want to become like his father, who abandoned Ash and Delia when Ash was still young in the original timeline.
  • Ash never trained with his Aura because he felt as though he failed Lucario in the original timeline.
• Glass Cannon: Most of Ash’s Pokemon are basically this, relying on raw power and speed to avoid taking hits that they wouldn’t be able to cope with.
• Has a Type: Ash reflects that his experience with Giselle in particular taught him that he has a thing for girls with long hair; Jessie is ruled out because she's older and with James, but Misty, May, Dawn, Iris and Serena all apply, even if Misty and May wear their hair tied back and Serena's haircut helped him put her out of his mind until she kissed him.
• I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: During a fight with Team Rocket, Ash accidentally kills a grunt during a fight when his opponent's gun goes off while it's pointing at the man's head.
• I Hate Past Me: Looking back on his past journeys, Ash is particularly embarrassed at his performance in Unova (although others speculate that Cyrus had something to do with Ash's poor performance in later Leagues).
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ash wants to ensure that all of his female companions have happy lives, but is incapable of comprehending or accepting that they would genuinely be happy with him.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Due to Snorlax spending so much time asleep, it apparently didn't realise what had happened until over three weeks after the reality reset, initially assuming it had just been moved to another ranch.
• Immune to Mind Control: As the Chosen of Arceus, Ash is basically immune to mind control apart from exceptional circumstances.
• Insecure Love Interest: The main reason Ash avoids possible romance with his travelling companions is that he worries about being like his abandoning father and is convinced the girls deserve better, even though he privately confirms that he had feelings for Misty, May, Dawn, Iris and Serena.
• King Incognito: Ash basically wants to be one after becoming Rota’s crown prince, but his ‘new’ identity quickly goes public.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Ash is willing to save the world, but complains about it if he’s frustrated by other factors.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Although Ash's visit to the Saffron Gym resulted in the apparent 'death' of the entity possessing Sabrina, considering that the entity was trying to mind-wipe him and others the League are willing to just consider this an unconventional Soul Badge win.
  • Later, Ash is excused from any legal consequences when his Pokémon kill most of the Team Rocket members involved in the Silph Co. attack as they were acting in his defence after he was nearly killed.
• My Greatest Failure: Ash is still troubled by memories of his 'failures' in Altomere and at the Tree of Beginning, both of which resulted in the death of an ally; it's explicitly stated that Latios's death in Altomere stopped him confessing his feelings for Misty as he felt unworthy after such a failure. Misty herself speculates that this is because Altomere was the first death Ash experienced that truly mattered, as Celebi was swiftly brought back to life and Entei technically didn't exist.
• Properly Paranoid: Remembering the trouble he had in the original timeline, Ash made it a point to bring his strongest team for the second day of the Indigo Conference. This proved to be the right decision when Cipher attacked.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: All of Ash’s Pokemon retain their memories of the original timeline the moment they ‘wake up’ in the new reality, along with most of their moves.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After the Indigo Conference ended with Misty, Anabel, Iris, and Serena all in comas from their injuries in the battle against Cipher, Ash decided that instead of allowing that to be a regular thing, he was going to put an end to the team that had made Shadow Pokemon such a plague on the world.
• Saying Too Much: Most of the people who learn the truth about Ash’s history learn the truth because he made too many subtle mistakes, such as recognising Iris before anyone could have told him her name.
• Shipper on Deck: Ash’s Pokemon for particular regions always seem to favour him getting involved with his current female travelling companion, such as Noctowl supporting a relationship with Misty or his Kalos team acting like the very idea of Ash and Serena not knowing each other violates some law of the universe; Pikachu and Charizard have met enough of the girls that they don’t have a particular ‘preference’.
• Strong and Skilled: Ash's Charizard, in a sharp contrast to its canonical Unskilled, but Strong status, has been described by Professor Oak as as fierce as a female Salamence, and as skilled as an Alakazam.
  • Best demonstrated in the fight against Mewtwo's cloned Starter Pokemon, where Charizard proceeded to solo not just its own counterpart, but also the clones of Venusaur and Blastoise.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Ash explicitly speculates that the reason he took a step backwards in Unova in terms of his tactical ability was minor brain damage inflicted on him during the confrontation with Zekrom.
• Undying Loyalty: Ash and his Pokemon have this for each other and everyone they’re close to.
• Weak, but Skilled: As the fic starts, Ash and his Pokemon have all their experience from the original timeline but have regressed back to physically weaker bodies that can’t take much punishment, requiring them to train extensively to get back to a point where their physical ability matches their mental level.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kyoji assures Ash at one point that, despite Ash’s concerns about turning out like his father and the dangers he's encountered during his travels, Ash isn't the 'damaged goods' he believes he is as he genuinely cares about the girls and his Pokemon despite everything he's been through, where anyone else would have just become a bitter old man who's willing to let the world burn.

Misty

• Broken Bird: Misty latches on to Ash after he was the first person to show true concern for her after a traumatic experience with two Shadow Pokémon.
• Logical Weakness: Misty muses that she would have a chance against even Elite-level fire-types with her own Pokémon.
• Marshmallow Hell: Unwittingly does this to Ash after they're abruptly teleported away by Anabel's Natus.
• Mind Rape: At some point prior to her meeting with Ash, Misty was psychically attacked by a Shadow Slowbro and Venomoth, with Brock noting that she got off lucky compared to similar cases he's seen.
• Modesty Bedsheet: At one point Misty only isn’t flashing Ash because she’s wearing a bikini.
• Morality Pet: Misty ends up essentially getting her own prior-timeline-self as one, as a 'psychic imprint' of the original Misty advises her not to kill the grunts attacking the ship she's currently on.

Anabel

• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Anabel is stunned to learn that her counterpart was a Frontier Brain- in other words, a trainer just below the Elite Four in terms of skill- while younger than Anabel is at present.
• Broken Bird: Anabel initially chooses to travel with Ash for purely pragmatic reasons so that he can protect her from other psychics.

Iris

• Bring My Brown Pants: Axew is noted to have been basically peeing himself in Iris's hair because he's afraid of drowning while travelling to Orre by boat.
• Broken Bird: Iris is shown to be broken down and weary of her treatment back in Unova, where she is regarded as a second-class citizen just because of her skin colour.
• Token Minority: Iris was only invited on the trip to Rota as one of these.
• Wild Child: Basically applies as she’s lived in social isolation for most of her life.

Serena

• Ambiguously Bi: At least some of Serena’s personalities are willing to experiment.
• Berserk Button: Serena shifts into a blind rage when Bonnie suggests she marry Clemont on their first meeting in this new timeline, and later goes on a rant when she learns that the Olympic was attacked while Ash was on it.
• Broken Bird: Serena suffers from some form of Split Personality that she can only 'control' because all of her identities share an attraction for Ash.
• Ethical Slut: Serena's more sexually-inclined personality makes it clear to Misty that she would never do anything to anyone against their will (although she concedes that she wouldn't be against drugging a partner as part of a potential fantasy), and explicitly informs Ash that she would only do anything to him if he was "awake, consenting, and eager [..] and older".
• Language Barrier: The other girls have trouble understanding Serena's Kalosian when she joins them, although she and Ash taught each other Kantoian and Kalosian when they met as children.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: When the girls are talking on a mental plane, Serena's astral self is distinguished from her split personalities as she just looks like herself with a different haircut where the other Serenas all have their own distinct looks.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Astral Serena is particularly disturbed when she finds herself in her other self's mind along with other-Serena's multiple personalities, although she perks up when she learns that she's engaged to Ash in the new reality.
• Psychic Link: Serena has formed one with Fenniken, with the result that Fenniken lashes out in a rage just like Serena upon learning that Ash is in hospital.
• Split Personality: Serena has at least five different personalities in her mind after a psychic tried to brainwash her to make her fall for him, and the only reason she’s so relatively stable is that all of her personalities are attracted to Ash.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: At least one of Serena's personalities tries too hard to deny that she's attracted to Ash while listing all the reasons the other personas like him.
• Uptown Girl: Serena in this new timeline is essentially part of a noble family, but she is still attracted to Ash despite her mother advising Serena to find someone of her own social status, before Ash is revealed to be the Crown Prince of Rota.
• Yandere: Serena is explicitly described as such due to her warped mental state, with some of her personalities being overly expressive about her attraction to Ash.

Robin

• Broken Bird: Robin is a child soldier who's spent so long focused on the war with Team Cipher that she doesn't even fully understand how she feels about Ash.
• Child Soldiers: Has spent her entire childhood at war with Team Cipher, and is basically lost in anything but a military situation.
• Famous Ancestor: The descendant of Michael Ryuto and Wes; it's observed that Michael caused serious damage to Team Cipher's operations before they finally managed to kill him and his wife, although his child escaped.
• Fish out of Water: Has very little idea how to do anything outside of being a soldier in the war against Team Cipher.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: During the campaign against Team Cipher, Robin makes things worse when she unleashes Yveltal.
• No Nudity Taboo: Robin sees nothing wrong with staying in the room while Ash is changing.
• Pragmatic Hero: Robin observes that the best way to deal with a Team Cipher base in the city of Pyrite is just to blow it up, as Pyrite is the source of one of Team Cipher's mind-control broadcasting systems so everyone there is basically a slave already.
• Super Drowning Skills: Having been raised in a desert, Robin has literally no idea how to swim, and is very uncomfortable during her first time on a boat; Misty makes a note that she will have to train Robin to swim later.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Robin is so emotionally compromised by her life as a child soldier that she has to ask Kyoji and Sabrina to explain ‘love’ to her so that she can understand how she feels about Ash.

May

Dawn

Allies & Families

Professor Oak

• The Dreaded: Professor Oak apparently has such a significant reputation that it is considered suicide for any of the villain teams to try attacking him directly despite his age.

Delia Ketchum

• The Dreaded: Delia Ketchum was apparently such a skilled Pokémon trainer in the past that Giovanni refuses to allow any of Team Rocket's forces to engage Ash in battle lest they incur her wrath. Just the news that her son is on the ship they're attacking is enough to prompt a Team Aqua grunt to try and get off the ship as quickly as possible, and the Orreian resistance against Team Cipher all know of her defeat of a Shadow Ho-Oh after it killed her husband and just need to be told that Ash is her son.
• Mama Bear: Goes on the warpath against Team Rocket after Ash gets shot in Saffron.
• Retired Badass: Delia Ketchum is retired from her old role in the Elite Four, and her former colleagues all make it clear they'd prefer it if she stayed retired because she's scary when angry.

Belladonna:

• I Need a Freaking Drink: After learning that Ash has faced the Shadow Lugia that caused such terror, Belladonna, despite being legally too young to drink, starts downing some of the cheap beer in Oak's fridge, with Oak assuring her that he understands so long as she doesn't touch the good wine.

Lance

Brock

• Demoted to Extra: With Brock engaged to Professor Ivy before Ash even arrives in Pewter, he never joins Ash’s travels.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: From Ash and Pikachu's perspective, Brock not flirting with a Nurse Joy is weird enough for them to both wonder about it (explained later as Brock is engaged in this timeline and has worked to limit his old reaction to pretty girls).

Kyoji

• Foil: Intended to serve as one for Ash, as he is more open to potential relationships but just worries about how others will see him.
• Has a Type: Kyoji has an interest in girls with particularly unique hairstyles, such as the Joys and Jennys (although he's not as expressive about his interest in them as Brock was).
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Kyoji was unaware of the existence of Shiny Pokemon until Chapter 32.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Kyoji learns that Ash has a herd of Tauros, he asks why they haven't been using those Tauros and some carriages to get around rather than walking everywhere.

Sabrina

• Broken Bird: Sabrina spent over a decade possessed by a psychic parasite, to the extent that she regressed to a twelve-year-old girl when Ash banishes that persona from her.
• Grand Theft Me: Sabrina has been possessed by a mind parasite since she was twelve, with the parasite attempting to take over Anabel before Anabel's Pokémon summon Ash for help, after which the parasite tries and fails to take control of Ash.
• Oblivious Adoption: After Sabrina’s purged of the mind parasite, she regresses to a child mind that regards Ash in particular as her father, and continues to refer to him as ‘Dad’ (while considering his various female partners as her ‘mothers’) even after she’s returned to a more adult mental state.
• Tempting Fate: While still possessed, Sabrina proclaims "Arceus will have to end me!", and the next day Ash shows up, unwittingly acting in his role as the Chosen One of Arceus.
• Weak, but Skilled: Lacks the raw power that Mewtwo has as a psychic, but forced him to acknowledge that a psychic battle between them would only end in Mutually Assured Destruction when they clashed.

Janine

The daughter of Koga, and new leader of the Fuschia City Gym.

• Ambiguous Situation: While Janine swore what was essentially a one-sided marriage oath to Ash, it still hasn't been made clear whether she'll actually join his harem.
• Heir to the Dojo: Inherited leadership of the Fuschia City Gym from Koga following the latter's death.
• Ninja
• Put on a Bus: Had to leave at the end of the Orre Arc, due to a new League Season requiring her to attend the gym.
• Undying Loyalty: Swore an oath to follow Ash and do whatever what was necessary to assist him. The author described it as a one-sided marriage oath.

Clemont

• Gadgeteer Genius: Clemont demonstrates this habit, as always.

Bonnie

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Clemont has to explicitly tell Bonnie that some of the girls she's 'proposed' to on his behalf were almost willing to press criminal charges before their father talked them down.

Max

May's brother.

• In Spite of a Nail: With the prompting of his original timeline self, Max ends up finding versions of the Shroomish and Poochyena he befriended in the original timeline.

Gaffrey:

• Expy: Envisioned as being portrayed by Edward James Olmos, with his name and character intended to be a mix of Olmos's most famous roles in Blade Runner (Gaff) and Battlestar Galactica (2003) (William Adama).
• Retired Badass: Gaffrey was a member of the Elite Four before he retired to focus on psychiatry.

Kyril Pernon

Head of the Pernon Group, a company that handles all non-Pokémon related technology. Secretly the vigilante Marauder.

• Expy: Being a suave rich man who is the head of a technological company and secretly fights crime in Powered Armor, Kyril is basically Tony Stark.
• Fiction 500: The Pernon Group controls all technology that is not related to Pokémon. This is just as lucrative as you might expect.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Marauder's battles against Team Flare are rather destructive and he does not hesitate to kill his enemies. This has led to Princess Diantha declaring the Marauder to be just as much of a menace to Kalos as Team Flare themselves.
  • Kyril himself is not very popular in the Orre Region, due to Cipher having obtained technology made by the Pernon Group.

Rin Uzumaki

Kyril's secretary and Love Interest. Also sometimes helps him in battle as Defender.

• Expy: As Kyril's secretary, Love Interest, and ally who uses a similar suit of armor, she is basically one to Pepper Potts.
• Fiery Redhead: Rin has quite the temper.
• Shout-Out: First name and temperament make her one to Rin Tohsaka, last name and hair color make her one to Kushina Uzumaki.
• Tsundere: Rin is quite Tsun towards her boss.

Villains

Team Rocket

• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Team Rocket Trio (TRio) at one point freely talk about how they're only as important as the author wants them to be and clarify that they're from this timeline rather than the original one, before they're attacked by a Jynx (which they all acknowledge is because the author doesn't like them). This is taken even further after Butch and Cassidy join the TRio in Orre.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • At one point Giovanni asks the Team Rocket Trio to order an operation in Mount Moon to be aborted; the Rocket Admins in charge of the operation don't believe that the Trio would ever be Giovanni's messengers, and as a result the operation suffers serious losses when Ash and Misty find them.
  • When Giovanni reveals his status as Ash's uncle, Ash nevertheless takes some time to dismiss the idea that Giovanni is his father because it reinforces the perceived necessity of his vow not to have a relationship, although Kyoji encourages him to get a second opinion anyway.
• Closest Thing We Got: Invoked by Giovanni when he notes that, after some of his Admins nearly killed Ash despite his explicit orders, Jessie, James and Meowth are actually the closest thing he has to competent followers left as they actually obeyed his orders without him being constantly present.
• Friendly Enemy: The Team Rocket Trio's status as this is affirmed when Ash runs into them in Orre, as he appreciates familiarity and they are actually willing to help him at this point.
• Mole in Charge: Giovanni appears to have manoeuvred himself into a position where not only does nobody in even the Elite Four know about his role as the boss of Team Rocket, but he is also officially in charge of the hunt for Team Rocket, using this as the excuse for him being absent from his gym 70% of the time.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Ash reflects at one point that he has been able to see through Team Rocket's disguises for years, and he just 'pretends' not to recognise them in the hope that they'll use this moment to give up their plans, and also muses that he could see through Kukui's disguise as the Masked Royal as well.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: After one of his grunts shoots Ash in a manner that could have killed him, Giovanni is ordered to leave Team Rocket in two weeks or Delia will report his role in the organisation to the Elite Four and set out to take it apart herself; he finally decides to leave for good after Ash defeats him in his final gym battle.
• Too Dumb to Live: A group of Rocket Grunts just watch as a rocket goes up and then comes back down to hit them after they fired it.

Team Galactic

Team Plasma

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Ash finds them in Kanto trying to steal the Pokemon from the Hidden Village.
• Adaptational Villainy: Compared to his canon counterpart from the anime, N represents his game counterpart’s warped view of the Pokemon/trainer dynamic.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: N is completely convinced that all trainers are basically forcing their Pokemon to fight for them against their will. As a result, he is genuinely confused when he destroys Charizard's Poke Ball and Charizard starts attacking him for hurting Ash rather than attacking Ash for 'imprisoning' him.

Team Cipher

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Most Team Cipher Peons are brainwashed to just see potential opponents as obstacles to be overcome rather than actual people.
• Brought Down to Badass: Ash's first assault on Team Cipher after he arrives in Orre destroys most of their nuclear stockpile, limiting their opportunity to mount their final assault on the rest of the world.
• Church Militant: Team Cipher see Yveltal as their dark god, and once went to war with the Ranger Union as the Union basically had a similar relationship to Xerneas, Yveltal's opposite.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Team Cipher are destroyed by Yveltal after they unleashed it.
• Irony: As confirmed by Word of God, just as Team Cipher's reign of terror over Orre began with a nuclear bomb, the beginning of the end starts with another nuke going off.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: According to Team Cipher Admin Miror.B, Team Cipher were aware of Cyrus's goal to destroy reality as far back as sixty years ago and attempted their planned conquest to stop it, but only ended up killing several innocent people (unable to kill Cyrus himself as the man wasn't even born yet) and creating Shadow Pokemon on a large scale.
• Slave Mook: Most of Team Cipher are basically brainwashed so that they have no sense of self-preservation and just do whatever their masters order.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Team Cipher have nuked entire villages to keep their secrets.
• Worthy Opponent: Wes and Michael are each acknowledged as these for Team Cipher, to the extent that some members still feel that their deaths (dragged out of bed and killed) was not a suitable final fate for their enemies, and express regret that they couldn't win Robin to their side.

Hunter J

• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Hunter J first meets Ash and the rest of the 'harem', she is initially dismissive of the idea that the girls are anything more to Ash than a source of sex, but soon realises after meeting them that he genuinely cares about them.
• Fatal Flaw: Hunter J's flaw is Greed, which leads to her losing her Salamence and sustaining a range of injuries when she is attacked by Ash's Kalos team while trying to complete her latest contract.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Sabrina shows Hunter J Ash's memories of the original timeline, J is horrified to learn the part she played in the destruction of reality.
• Pragmatic Villainy: When attacking the RMS Germanic, J’s thoughts make it clear that she will be careful about the amount of damage she inflicts, as her Pokémon hunts are relatively low-key crimes while destroying a ship would have her classified as a terrorist.
• Ramming Always Works: Hunter J has her ship ram her brother's ship in an attempt to stop him completing his plan to capture the Birds after witnessing the scope of the situation.
• Redemption Equals Death: To a point; Hunter J decides to sacrifice herself to stop her brother's efforts to capture the Legendary Birds, but acknowledges that this one act won't make up for her past actions.

Paul

• Asshole Victim: Even the Pokemon that have never encountered Paul consider him an asshole, taking great pleasure in beating him in battle.
• Bad Boss: Paul tries to ‘motivate’ his Pokemon by threatening to release them if they don’t improve.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Paul has a version of this, as he considers anyone using a Shadow Pokemon to be just as bad as a Cipher Peon, acting as though Ash is the 'villain' when his only Shadow Pokemon is Pikachu, who has shown no sign of being any more dangerous than a standard Pokemon.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Invoked as the main reason Paul's training strategy doesn't work; he basically relies on only a few key powerhouses and expects the rest of his team to just shield his best Pokemon from serious injury until he's ready to take his opponents down.
• Didn't Think This Through: Paul acknowledges that he made a mistake when he sent Magby out to fight Goodra.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Paul arrogantly challenged Ash for all of his existing badges, only to get his entire team defeated and be thus banned from competing in any other League contests for the next year and a half.
• The Social Darwinist: Paul tries to consider himself this, but ignores the reasons why that approach doesn’t work.

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