Characters / Citadel Of The Heart Kanto

Return to the main Pokémon characters of Citadel of the Heart here.

Starlight Ablaze Protagonists

General

• Age Lift: They're 15-16 years old in this, whereas the original implied they were 11 each.
• Adapted Out: Inverted; Green, the scrapped female player character from Red and Blue, is part of the main cast.
• Art Evolution: Compare the cover artwork featuring Truth and Ideals' protagonists here drawn in 2015, and then look at how Red, Blue, and Green look in the cover for Starlight Ablaze here drawn in 2018.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red (Charmander), Blue (Squirtle), and Green (Bulbasaur).
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • There's naturally going to be more vitriol between these three compared to the True Companions that Ash, Cheren, and Bianca were.
  • Their starters are this for Adventures because here they start off with different starters than their Adventures counterparts, but still are from the Kanto Starters.
  • Red is in possession of the Fire Starter rather than the Water Starter like with Ash in Truth and Ideals.
  • The team of three is based off of two player characters and the rival, whereas in Truth and Ideals it was Ash from the anime and Cheren and Bianca; two rivals.
  • Red's Charmander showcases many of the planned surprises in an early bit of Foreshadowing, which in Truth and Ideals didn't happen in a similar effect until Regulus was introduced in Chapter 12. In regards to Charmander's special abilities later on, Ash's Oshawott wasn't foreshadowed with anything out of the ordinary until just before evolving into Samurott.

Red

Debut: Truth and Ideals^note Anachronistic Debut

Voice Actor: TBA

• Aloof Ally: His No Social Skills nature is evident with how deadpan he can be in terms of overall emotion for anything, no matter the seriousness.
• Establishing Character Moment: His overall lack of concern for what is considered the general norm shows off his Aloof Ally tendencies big time.
• No Social Skills: Apparently, if the line stated by Green in that he's apparently only really been indoors playing a Nintendo Switch constantly is to be considered true...
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He's more emotional and talkative when Blue was attacked by something while he was missing during Chapter 5 of Starlight Ablaze, indicating that something is not normal with whatever it was that attacked Blue.
• The Quiet One: Had he been given the choice to do so rather than a necessity to speak, he would not have any dialogue at all.
• Silent Protagonist: Zig-Zagged; Red's minimalist dialogue is meant to give the impression, but he also has enough lines to qualify as Suddenly Voiced.
• Suddenly Voiced: While technically he does have some small amounts of actual dialogue in the games, and in Orgins he has full dialogue, here in Starlight Ablaze he has a mixture of having regular dialogue but in a sense of otherwise being The Quiet One whenever he doesn't have an inherent need to speak.

Blue Oak

Debut: Truth and Ideals^note Anachronistic Debut

• A Day in the Limelight: Oddly gets a focus chapter in Chapter 4, in which he encounters Sina, and then has to deal with a suddenly deserted Oak's laboratory in Palette Town with Zapdos causing a literal storm of a rage in the Kanto Bay.
• Adaptational Jerkass: His rudeness is all the more prevalent here than in the canon.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: ... At the same time he doesn't even show any actual antagonism like he does in the canon normally.
• Canon Welding: Has some aspects of himself from both his anime incarnation Gary but mostly from his game incarnation as Blue. Especially also the reason why Blue is called such; since Ash is completely elsewhere in the continuity and Red is who his Palette Town rival is, he's not referred to as Gary like in the anime because he's got no connection to Ash in this continuity. Perhaps his biggest comparison to the anime is his choice of Starter, that being Squirtle.
• Casanova Wannabe: Tries to flirt with Sina in Chapter 4, but his rudeness gets in the way of their talk at first, but despite that, Sina dares him to a Pokémon Battle within a week's time at Celadon City. Regardless of who wins, they'll both be going on a date; the loser is simply the one who pays for dinner.
• Four Is Death: He doesn't die in Chapter 4 of Starlight Ablaze, but his grandfather is attending a funeral on short notice in Fuchsia City, leaving his laboratory completely deserted much to Blue's paranoia.
• Hot-Blooded: Has next to no patience to say the least.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: His real reason for developing a Small Name, Big Ego attitude that he keeps secret from everyone else, constantly changing the answer to everyone except being completely honest to Oak about it, is that he's tired of living in his grandfather's shadow for all of his life.
• Odd Name Out: He has a known surname, which is something neither Red nor Green have.
• Ship Tease: With Sina.
• Super Mode: Sina gives him a Key Stone and Blastoisite on their first meeting, as Sina's doing so because she expects Blue to utilize Mega Evolution against her in their battle within a week at Celadon City.
• Vague Age: The narration (and by extension Grandis) seems confused at times as to whether Blue is meant to be 15 or 16, and even some characters get this mixed up at times.

Green

Debut: Truth and Ideals^note Anachronistic Debut

• Adaptation Name Change: Because Leaf is the name her game incarnation has due to her delayed introduction in the main series, she's named after her Adventures counterpart because her design is based off of said incarnation, as well as the scrapped female player character from Red and Blue.
• Book Dumb: She doesn't seem to realize that just because a Pokémon is a given type, doesn't mean they can learn every possible move of said type. She tries to order her Bulbasaur to use various Grass Type moves it can't naturally learn, such as Leaf Blade, Seed Flare, Solar Blade, and even Absorb, which is unusual even as of writing since Bulbasaur can learn Mega Drain and Giga Drain, both of which are simply stronger variations of Absorb.
• Composite Character: Defied, for two reasons. The most important of which being Green as she appears in Let's Go was not even a concept back when Starlight Ablaze first made it's debut. As a result of this, she is based heavily off of Leaf in terms of general concept... except using her original, albeit scrapped, Gen I design and having her Starter be Bulbasaur as opposed to Squirtle. Even when Let's Go was finally released, and shades of Sword and Shield began to make their way into some of the aesthetics for Starlight Ablaze, Green is still considered an incarnation of Leaf by the end of the day; the only real difference being her name being based on her Manga counterpart and her design being, again, based on her unused Gen I incarnation.
• Fille Fatale: She tries to flirt with Dexio to get into the third floor rooms at Viridian City's Pokémon Center, but it ultimately doesn't work out. It is agreed between the two, however, that they may do something assuming Green's offer remains valid in about 3 years from now.
• Implied Love Interest: Towards either Red or Blue, since not even when they show up older in Truth and Ideals is it stated who she's in a relationship if not both at once.
• Little Black Dress: It's casual attire she's wearing overall, but her design on the cover of Starlight Ablaze is meant to invoke the feel of the dress she had in her unused Gen I design and in Let's Go. Much like the latter, she's given a form of Modesty Shorts, although in this case being pants rather than shorts.
• Modesty Shorts: Modesty pants more like it.
• Not So Above It All: She can be quite unorthodox when it comes to getting what she wants, which ultimately leads to her not coming across as the Only Sane Man she thinks of herself as when compared to Red or Blue.
• Only Sane Man: How her dialogue comes across when compared to Blue or Red.
• Ship Tease: With both Red and Blue.

Red's Pokémon

Red's Charmander

• Birthmark of Destiny: If it even is a birthmark in the first place; he's introduced as having a noticeable marking of sorts on his left arm, but it isn't right away elaborated on as anything important.
• Blood Knight: His Establishing Character Moment has him attack Oak without much provocation.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Knows Metal Claw.
• Foreshadowing:
  • His alleged Birthmark of Destiny is meant to be a hint towards something later down the road, but so far the actual marking itself is treated as just an unusual visual distinction about this specific Charmander and not much else.
  • Charmander's native habitat in this verse is stated to be Mt. Silver, and Palette Town is naturally nowhere near there.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Enforced; in the original games^note (Let's Go was not released at the time this fic was posted, and thus neither Route 3 and 4, nor Rock Tunnel, were previously known to have Charmander native there), none of the starters have a defined native habitat, and thus Charmander's entire line hails from Mt. Silver in this AU's context. However, this particular Charmander is a wild specimen found on Route 1 just outside of Palette Town, meaning it's Misplaced Wildlife in the context of the AU, which even the characters acknowledge this fact.
• Playing with Fire: Fire Type.
• Trademark Favorite Food: "Honey Candy", a treat made by mixing the obvious, honey, with various nuts. Before he was given to Red and before Oak caught him, apparently was stealing from honey trees and other gardens in Palette Town.

Red's Pidgey

• Ascended Meme: Red uses it to fly straight to Pewter City after he's done dealing with the 0Ω for the first time.
  Green: ... How does that even work?
• Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: See Ascended Meme above.

Green's Pokémon

Green's Bulbasaur

• Balloon Belly: Eats so much weeds and infesting plants in Red's garden that he winds up rather plump by the time Green leaves Red's house.
• Big Eater: Tends to eat a lot of vegetation early on, even eating weeds in the garden outside of Red's house in Chapter 1.
• Shown Their Work: All of the attacks mentioned in Chapter 5 that happen to be Grass Type moves, except for the last one (Mega Drain) are all Grass Type moves that Bulbasaur cannot legally learn in any of the games as of the end of Gen VII.

Sina

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Appears in Starlight Ablaze first ahead of her appearance in Order and Triumph.
• Age Lift: 16 at the time of Starlight Ablaze, significantly younger than her implied age in Pokémon X and Y.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Kanto does not have any native dark skin tone humans, so not only does the fact she has dark skin, but also her purple hair and crystal blue eyes make her incredibly exotic and out of place in Kanto. Her homeland of Kalos has this combination as being rather mundane by comparison. She's compared to the odds of encountering a Shiny Pokémon because none of Kanto's native population is known for dark skin like her; Brock's skin, for comparison, is actually significantly lighter than her's.
• Ambiguously Brown: Has dark skin, but considering it's vague as to which region dark skin humans are actually native to the most in the world of Pokémon, and the fact she's from Kalos, it becomes further confusing on her heritage. Her father is of lighter skin than her biological mother, though. Her father has rather pale white skin, and her biological mother has incredibly dark skin that makes Brock by comparison look pale.
• An Ice Person: Her Ice Type specialty.
• Child by Rape: Implied. Her older brother Dexio is this already, but it's not been clarified as to whether or not Sina is also one herself.
• Related in the Adaptation: She is Dexio's sister in this continuity, as both of them have different mothers but the same father, thus explaining their difference in skin tone and hair color.
• Ship Tease: With Blue.
• Super Mode: Has a Key Stone which she uses mostly on her Glalie.
• Wham Line: A noteworthy one considering Starlight Ablaze is an adaptation of Red and Blue with this mechanic not expected to appear under normal circumstances.
  Sina: *Towards Blue* "Tell me, are you familiar with Mega Evolution?"

Dexio

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Appears in Starlight Ablaze first ahead of his appearance in Order and Triumph.
• Age Lift: 18 at the time of Starlight Ablaze, and (possibly) significantly younger than his implied age in Pokémon X and Y.
• Call-Forward: He mentions the third floor rooms in the Viridian City Pokémon Center, as well as in other Pokémon Centers, are exclusive to those who have all 8 gym badges of that given reason. In Truth and Ideals, this is a later revealed factoid about how the Pokémon Centers function that isn't even revealed to be an actual thing until Ash had obtained all 8 badges.
• Child by Rape: His own mother was about 12 when she had him, heavily all but stating this to be the case outright.
• Establishing Character Moment: When Green flirts with him without knowing he's 18, he goes on a rather disgusted rant against her which more or less goes off the rails after a few quick moments, and he continues to ramble on even after the narration cuts to Green's own thoughts in which Green deliberately drowns out his ranting, and notes he's very thin skinned as an individual.
• Foreshadowing: He implies in his thoughts and his actions that he was already assigned to seek Green out in the first place, but at first he didn't know if Green is who he was supposed to find and track down as to give a Key Stone and Venusaurite to.
• The Jailbait Wait: When Green tries to flirt with him to gain access to the 3rd Floor of the Pokémon Center, he immediately goes on a tangent on how Green is unknowingly hitting on him without knowing the fact he's 18. Regardless, he half admits that if Green's offer is still valid by the time she turns 18, which in turn is when he returns to Kanto once he's 21, then they'll both exchange numbers ahead of time to Invoke this wait on themselves.
• Ship Tease: With Green, although it's all but stated flat out that the both of them are not very serious about it.
• Single-Issue Wonk: He's very thin skinned assuming you know how to push his buttons.

Starlight Ablaze Antagonists

Jessie and James Kidd

Jessie (right) and James (left)

Tropes applying to both

• Adaptational Badass: They're more of a serious threat even if they do have small comedic moments inherited from their anime incarnations.
• Adaptational Curves: James has more defined muscle to his torso, whereas Jessie is noticeably curvier in both her breasts and her hips.
• Adaptational Villainy: Neither of them are above murder when it comes to how they secured their jobs as Team Rocket Executives...
• Babies Ever After: They end up with Billie as their first child by the time Truth and Ideals comes by.
• Happily Married: By the time of Truth and Ideals.
• Mythology Gag: The Team Rocket Grunt you encounter last in Gen II and HeartGold and SoulSilver that you find in Winter at Unova in Black and White is changed to be so that Jessie and James are the married couple in that same household, and James fills the role of the last Team Rocket Grunt in this scenario.
• Walking Spoiler: Their presence as Billie's parents in Truth and Ideals is considered this.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Giovanni flat out gives Jessie and James the former jobs of the recently murdered Ariana and Archer because Giovanni is too busy being impressed with how Jessie and James had the audacity to murder his two best executives merely to get James out of an abusive relationship alone.

Jessie

• Ax-Crazy: Her first intent to get James away from the abusive Ariana is to flat out murder Ariana in cold blood. Long before this point, she already has a body count to her name as well...
• Hidden Depths: Her favorite Pokémon is Weezing, which is a Pokémon she herself never used in all of her life. The one person on the other hand whom she knows does use it? James.
• Kill and Replace: She did this to Jessebelle as a child, and took her place ever since with nobody questioning it except for James, who is the only one who could tell Jessie and Jessebelle apart worth a damn.
• More Deadly Than the Male: While her short-term sense of cunning lacks, her long-term cunning is amazingly good. Oh, and the fact she's almost completely unhinged with how quickly she resorts to violence and murder, to the point James has to keep her in line to prevent her plans from backfiring due to her incredible anger issues.
• Something Only They Would Say: How James tells her and Jessebelle apart. Jessebelle's favorite Pokémon? Arbok. Jessie's favorite Pokémon? Weezing.
• Yandere: To a degree. James has mutual feelings for Jessie, and doesn't want to be involved in his arranged marriage to Ariana, considering her abusive nature and all. Jessie decides to flat out Murder the Hypotenuse in regards to how she plans on getting rid of Ariana.

James

• Domestic Abuse: Was in an abusive relationship as Ariana's whipping boy, and the fact Ariana doesn't even love him at all and just desires him for his family's fortune. Jessebelle would have been yet another girl that would've been a Gold Digger for James, but fortunately she was murdered by Jessie not long after James had first met Jessebelle and promised to marry her, and at first having no idea Jessie is an unrelated individual.
• Morality Chain: To Jessie. Jessie sees in James an innocent young boy from when they had first met, and she could tell every other woman who tried to approach James was only ever interested in his family's wealth. While it is true that Jessie had outright murdered those other suitors, Jessie will actually back down from violence if James is the one talking her out of it.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He keeps Jessie in line when it comes to her psychotic fits of rage, considering Jessie is easily the most dangerous of the two if merely because of how unhinged she is alone.

Sabrina

• Adaptation Personality Change: Wouldn't be Sabrina if this wasn't in play in some capacity, considering she is already notorious for having drastically different takes on her character in every official depiction of her in the franchise. Here she's effectively a Captain Ersatz of Cinder Fall, and having the motivation that the gym leaders typically had in the original series anime as to why she's so utterly bloodthirsty when it comes to defending her gym.
• Adaptational Villainy: Apparently she's an Captain Ersatz of Cinder Fall. Not even getting into the fact she's cast with the same voice actress in mind, but she's insane even by comparison to all of her other incarnations; Sabrina defending her status as the Gym Leader of Saffron City means so much to her that she'll do anything to keep her gym to herself.
• Ax-Crazy: If murdering her winning opponents doesn't qualify as this, nothing will.
• Bystander Syndrome: She didn't care about Team Rocket taking over Silph Co. because they had no intents of going for her gym, which they knew loud and clear from history as to why to never target Sabrina.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Cinder Fall, down to having the same voice actress via Hypothetical Casting.
• Knight of Cerebus: She's about as terrifying as her anime incarnation at times. Unlike her anime incarnation, Sabrina's already too far gone for any hope of redemption because of just how severe her misdeeds are...
• Knight Templar: She had intentions of fighting against the corrupt means of the gym organizations of Kanto in which gyms would be destroyed if they lost three times, and after peaceful means of restoring gyms to their former, idealistic glory were shot down by the gym organization, Sabrina completely snapped and ascended to a Mass Murderer if it so much as meant protecting her own gym and inflicting karma on the unjust organization.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: She really could've done something else than feel the need to escalate into a Serial Killer shifting into Mass Murderer for her original ideology...
• Mass Murderer: When a squad of Black Ops specialized Jennies try and forcefully destroy her gym without directly facing her, Sabrina decides to inflict fatal, mass scale Mind Rape to the entire population of Saffron just to ensure they would fail, and threatening to wipe out all life in Kanto if she is bothered again.
• Not His Sled: Sabrina replaces Giovanni as the final Gym Leader faced by the protagonists in Starlight Ablaze; they end up completely skipping Sabrina until after they've beaten Blaine and Giovanni next, and when Giovanni learns the only reason the three don't have eight badges yet is because of Sabrina's psychotic behavior, then he details to the three her crucial weakness to finally subdue her wrath for good.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Even after Sabrina in taking over the gym organization - by killing all of the members involved at that - she's still as hellbent as ever with defending her gym, and is only just now enacting another phase of her plan; giving the other gym leaders unhinged mental states so that they too will begin to defend their gyms just as fiercely as she does, as well as swiping the Master Ball from under Giovanni's nose to immediately go after Mewtwo with.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Her actions as a Mass Murderer completely eclipse Giovanni's own actions as a villain, to the point Giovanni pulls an Enemy Mine with the heroes once he realizes they are the first challengers he's ever faced who actually have the willingness and the potential to take Sabrina down for good.