Windchasers (Professor Sycamore) | Infinity Train (Denizens, Red Lotus Uprising [Chloe Cerise], White Gestalt (Specter), Elipzo) | Pokémon World (Goh Fujihachi, Professor Cerise, Sara Diktaylis) | Den City | The Multiverse
Professor Cerise
Appears in: Seeker of Crocus (Debut) | The Firefly Funhouse Car (Flashback)
A Pokémon Professor and father of Chloe and Parker Cerise. He works at the Cerise Institute where he studies the bonds with humans and Pokémon.
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- 0% Approval Rating: Outside of the Cerise Institute and associates, nobody seems to actually like Professor Cerise. He's, at best, seen as a Meal Ticket to allow people to start their journeys by giving them Pokemon, and at worst is seen as a pariah because his daughter says he neglects her needs to instead focus on Pokemon. This only ends up further supporting his decision to willingly enter the train, since while there's a chance he might not be liked there either, what with his daughter being seen as a god and all, at least it's better than staying in a place he knows despises him just for being there.
- Abuse Mistake: His keeping Chloe at the Cerise Institute is constantly misconstructed as not a misguided but well-intentioned attempt at keeping her away from bullies at school, but a blatant example of child abuse that made it clear he didn't care about her, given that she's never allowed to go out to do anything, he barely turned around to talk to her, he never gave her counseling of any sorts, and he's always focused on Ash and Goh's expeditions for his research. This is bad enough, but when Gloria decides to use this as an example to make all of the Cerise Institute look like an abusive institution, the professor snaps.
- Abusive Parents: NO. Despite what Chloe might lead you to believe, the professor was only Innocently Insensitive towards her at his very worst, and all the stuff about him caging her is just Chloe's perception twisting the truth in order to make herself seem like the victim. He is absolutely horrified at the mere suggestion that he'd hit his own son if Parker ever decided to talk about Chloe's hobbies.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The original Professor Cerise had a rough time in the original trilogy, but the Crocusverse seems to have a sadistic enjoyment of putting this version of him through the wringer; case in point, he gets taken by the Infinity Train in this version.
- Adaptational Badass: He not only stands his ground more often, but he takes Chloe's softball bat with him when he goes to the Infinity Train.
- Adaptational Context Change: The reason why Chloe has such a distant relationship with him was never explained outside being "caged". In this story, it's explained that Chloe wanted to go to a softball camp, which he promised to let her go if she behaved for a week, but had to cancel it when a last-minute conference came up. Despite Chloe bringing up solutions and begging to go, he told her that she could go next time and that it was not important now. In her upset state, Chloe saw it as "Your needs are never important to me; my work and Pokémon are the number one things in my world" and thus shut herself away from him, believing that he never cared for her in the slightest.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The anime never explains why Chloe isn't an assistant to her father (despite promo material saying that and she wouldn't be his research fellow until the very end of the series itself). Cerise said that if he did give her a research fellow role, it'd be seen as nepotism.
- "Firefly Funhouse Car" has a flashback where he actually shows concern that something is deeply upsetting his daughter and he asked Ash and Goh to try to find a way to open up that didn't involve their usual "Join us on a Pokemon expedition".
- Adaptational Explanation: There was no reason why Cerise told his daughter to "remember" about Tackle not good at Ghosts in Blossoming Trail, only that him saying it was to make him oblivious to the fact that his daughter has no knowledge of battling. In here, we get a flashback of a camping trip where a younger Chloe asked why Yamper couldn't Tackle a Gourgeist and he explains it to her. In other words, he was trying to jog his daughter's memory of the last time she did something like this.
- Adaptational Intelligence: "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that Cerise was aware that something was bugging Chloe and that Ash and Goh's attempts of "Join us on a Pokemon expedition" weren't helping him get to the bottom of it.
- Adaptational Sympathy: Downplayed... sort of. Most people failed to see Professor Cerise as anything but the perpetrator in his and Chloe's strained relationship in Blossoming Trail, taking until Parker went on a rampage with the Unown for people to start re-evaluating everything and seeing him in a sympathetic light. In here, while he's still seen as a Meal Ticket at best and a punching bag at worst, the number of people who feel sympathetic towards him are slightly bigger, and his forced fusion with his Unown copy is treated as the horrific event that it is.
- Adults Are Useless: Played With. On the one hand, he was Oblivious to Hints regarding his daughter's situation, and his attempts to try and make the situation better only make things worse, and he refused to give counseling to her when one of her teachers insisted on it. On the other hand, though, most of his obliviousness comes from him legitimately not knowing the full length of the issues Chloe had, in no small part because Chloe herself decided to keep quiet about it, and him keeping her away from the school by having her stay over at the Cerise Institute means he did more to help her than basically every other adult.
- Age-Appropriate Angst: Most of his angst comes from the fact he didn't quite know how to help Chloe the way he wanted to, and being forced to realize he simply can't help her.
- All Abusers Are Male: Subverted. Gloria's scathing analogy paints Professor Cerise himself as the main abuser of Chloe over at the Cerise Institute, with later comments making it clear people believe he was neglectfully abusive as well. In reality, Professor Cerise didn't know any better about what his daughter was going through because she never talked about it, the fact that he refused to give Chloe therapy even though it was painfully obvious she needed help, and in fact did more to help her by having her stay at the institute after school, letting her get away from her bullies in some way.
- All for Nothing: Cerise's attempts to put Chloe in the Institute was to give her breathing room from her bullies, even refusing to give her therapy when advised. It only results in Chloe feeling more and more isolated because she's never given anything to do or feels like she can trust anyone to listen to her before she ultimately runs away from home.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Subverted. He retains all his memories of his time as a fusion with UnCerise because he was conscious during the entirety of it, but unable to do anything about it.
- Ambiguous Situation: While him ending up in an operating table upon arriving at the Train is a bad dream, is this just a nightmare brought forth by his experiences in the Cyan Desert Car arc, or is the professor somehow Dreaming of Things to Come should his trip go awry?
- Anger Born of Worry: His outburst towards Gloria is positively seething with rage, but he's acting like this due to being mourning over the fact he wasn't helping Chloe like he thought he was and everybody just automatically painting him as the bad guy without hearing his side of the story.
- And I Must Scream: He's perfectly aware of everything while fused with his Unown self, allowing him to suffer everyone's wrath and call outs, and attempting to murder his family without being able to do anything about it.
- Anti-Nepotism: This is one of the reasons why he never made Chloe a research assistant, or even tried to give her much work to do in the Cerise Institute. Since she's his daughter, it would've been very easy for her classmates and other people to see Professor Cerise giving her work to do as a case of nepotism which, given the situation back at school, would've only made things worse for Chloe in the long run.
- Anguished Outburst: Suffers one of these once Gloria decides to paint him and the Cerise Institute as an abusive household and the Galarian gamer fails to read the room.
- Ancestral Weapon: Not so much a weapon as it is an item, but he takes Chloe's softball bat with him before willingly entering the Infinity Train.
- Archnemesis Dad: Downplayed, as Chloe only heavily dislikes him rather than outright hate him, but it doesn't change the fact she dislikes him enough to essentially slander him while on the Infinity Train, with everybody on the Pokemon World also taking her side and painting him as an abusive father who gave no heck about her.
- Ascended Extra: He's a supporting character in the original Blossomverse trilogy, but his only real purpose is to be the straw that broken Chloe's Camerupt's back and be a general punching bag for it. In here, not only is his relationship with Chloe given more focus, replacing Chloe and Goh's relationship, but he begins having a character arc and even gets taken to the Infinity Train.
- Asshole Victim: Subverted. By the end of Act 1, he's been verbally trashed by just about anybody who hears about his treatment of Chloe, is shown No Sympathy by anybody whenever he tries to explain himself, gets brutally mind raped by his unown self and Sara's doing, and is finally taken by the Infinity Train as a last ditch effort to get away from all the pain and agony. However, by no means was he ever a jerk, just a father who made tough decisions to protect his daughter.
- Authority in Name Only: He's the Pokémon Professor of Vermillion City, and the one who gets to choose who gets to go on a Pokémon Journey, but people treat him as an oblivious fool at best and an outright tool at worst, with nary anybody showing him any ounce of respect.
- Batter Up!: He takes Chloe's softball bat, per Parker's request, with him before entering the Infinity Train.
- Beleaguered Boss: Benevolent as he is, there's only so much that Professor Cerise can take about the fact that his subordinates not only did little to help ease Chloe's issues before she got Trainnapped, but then do little to help him avoid become as hated and publicly maligned as he is. It's rather telling that despite Chryssa and Renji doing their best to convince him not to go to the Train, the professor blatantly turns them down.
- Benevolent Boss: As much as people like to slander and demonize him, he's at least a decent boss with Renji and Chryssa and with his research fellows Ash and Goh.
- Berserk Button: Gloria being blunt on how Chloe's being thrust into "abusive households" at school, the Cerise Institute, and at her own home pisses him off and prompts him to shut her up with a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Beyond Redemption: Not really, but the people are so quick to blame him for everything and paint him as the bad guy of the situation it's clear that while the professor doesn't think so, the others do. This only gets worse after his Mind Rape from his fusion with UnCerise, as he's left so utterly broken that he believes that he doesn't deserve a chance to redeem himself, with his only real option being to get on the Train to try and heal from this escapade. He even bluntly tells Chryssa and Renji that it really doesn't matter what he does, the public just wants a scapegoat to point fingers at.
- Bumbling Dad: Deconstructed. The story paints Professor Cerise as an incompetent father to Chloe, not only barely noticing the pain she's obviously going through, but all of his attempts only making things worse. However, this is only the case because the professor legitimately has no idea how bad things actually are, nor how to properly deal with them; he does everything he can with what little information he has, and it just so happens to be done in a way that Chloe takes the worst interpretation of.
- Bullied into Depression: It's pretty safe to say that, by the time Act 1 reaches its end, he now knows how his daughter felt at school, as he's so thoroughly broken from everybody treating him like garbage that he willingly enters the Infinity Train.
- Break the Cutie: Along with learning the sheer scope of Chloe's problems at school, being told bluntly that Chloe's the equivalent of an abuse victim because no one keeps promises with her (from a Galarian girl who has no right to say such things after looking at only one side of the story, by the way), the Cyan Desert Car arc pushes even more when Sara gets the Unown, crushes his son's leg with a giant paint can and forcefully fuses him with a construct of himself to create her "perfect" father. By the time UnCerise is gone, he's been put into a Mind Rape from the former's Accentuate the Negative that he's just a few days away from an inevitable Train Trip which ultimately happens at the end of Act 1.
- But Now I Must Go: Since this is a Blossomverse story, where any version of him is a punching bag no matter what, he doesn't even try to stall for time when the Infinity Train eventually comes to pick him up.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Sara could easily kill him once she gets her hands of the Unown, but she decides to use him as a base instead to fuse with her copy of him in order to try and recreate her father from scratch.
- The Chooser of the One: As the Pokemon Professor of Vermillion City, it's up to him to decide who gets a Pokemon to being their journey. So when Sara pops up trying to get hers, he gets the final word and blatantly rejects her because she refuses to admit that she messed up and doesn't show any signs of realizing that she's destroyed her chances for a long time.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Suffered this at the hands of Sara and UnCerise, being forcibly fused with the latter while the former wroke havoc in Vermillion City and nearly killed his wife and daughter. He's left so broken by the end of it he doesn't even try to stall for time when the Train comes to pick him up.
- Composite Character:
- By the end of Act 1, he gains traits of Blossomverse-Goh by being broken after the actions of someone using the Unown to create a construct that repeatedly demeans him for his mistakes before he becomes a broken shell that gets drawn onto the Infinity Train with a number that's around 800. Only difference is that Parker was trying to make Goh learn his lessons to be a better friend-until it was made clear he was saying that to avoid admitting he wanted him to suffer-whereas Sara just wanted her own father back and decided to hurt Chloe while she was at it.
- The fact that Chloe has traits of Tulip Olsen would mean he has traits of her father, Andy Olsen. Just like Tulip got on the Train because of a scheduling error from his side that prevented her from going to coding camp, an unexpected last-minute conference meant Professor Cerise couldn't allow Chloe to go to a softball camp she wanted, making Chloe distance herself from him after his bungled excuse of not going now was misinterpreted as "My work as Pokémon, and those who love them as much as I do, will always be more important than your needs".
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Even as the story goes on to show how the situation between Professor Cerise and Chloe isn't as black and white as most people think it is, and how Chloe is just as much to blame for things falling apart as her father is, the general opinion still remains that the professor was an useless parent who should've done more for Chloe even as she proved herself uncooperative. In fact, by the time the professor gets willingly Trainnapped, the only reason anybody outside of the Cerise Institute still believes him to be an abusive excuse for a parent is because the majority of Vermillion City says he is, so it has to be true.
- Cruel Mercy: After all the pain and suffering he goes through in Act 1, especially the Cyan Desert Car arc, he's left alive a broken mess from it all, left to continue suffering in the same city that treated him like a punching bag, and which he has no reason to believe will change anytime soon. At least the Infinity Train shows up to show him proper mercy.
- Cynicism Catalyst: He's on both ends of this trope as the story goes on.
- As the catalyst, his misguided attempts at keeping Chloe away from the bullies at school caused Chloe to lose faith in him, and eventually come to see him as a jerk who only cares about Pokémon, and those who love them more than life itself, and not her.
- As the one with the catalyst, he actually has two; there's Sara, who fuses him with an Unown replica of himself to force him to be Sara's father, and his wife, who begins his Humilliation Conga by giving him such a breaking speech that the rest of the conga seems small in comparison, ending with him being sent to the train.
- Decomposite Character: Augustine and Amelia have the protectiveness of Douglas Cartland to Chloe's Heather Mason, but he has the estranged relationship Douglas had to his dead son, reflecting how the communication problems and Cerise's attention to his work caused his and Chloe's relationship to fall apart.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype:
- A Professor is usually the first person an up and coming Trainer will interact with in order to get a Pokémon in the games and anime. But to Class 5-E, they don't care about his work or his family; they just want a Pokémon from him and see him as a meal ticket to their dreams. Sara uses the fact that he's the father of Chloe Cerise as justification as to why they should bully her to death; because she can get them access to Pokémon much easier than they ever would.
- He also deconstructs the Bumbling Dad trope. Normally, the trope would be used to show a parent who's incompetent in a comical way. However, the story goes out of its way to show his incompetence as anything but; his children either dislike him or fear him, his peers don't really respect him, and he's so out of the loop in regards as to what to do to help his children that all his attempts only end up making things worse.
- A Degree in Useless: His main field of study is the bond between Pokémon and their trainers. However, this doesn't prove useful to him through Act 1, especially when confronted by children who either hate them with a passion (Chloe) or sees them as tools to leave Vermillion City (Sara).
- Demoted to Extra: He was a supporting character in Act 1 of the story, and even got to do something of importance compared to his original trilogy self. By the time of Act 2 and his willing entrance to the Infinity Train, he's reduced to a macguffin for Chloe to find in order to try and make amends with him, with the man not being willing to do that just yet.
- Despair Event Horizon: Crosses this and then some during the Cyan Desert Car arc, as he's forced to fuse with his Unown self to recreate Sara's father, be forced to watch as said fusion does horrible things to everyone he cares about — biggest ones being forced to strangle his wife and daughter and trying to literally wipe the floor with Chloe's face — said people he cares about lambasting him in his face, and finally ending with UnCerise giving him a Mind Rape so brutal he has very little will to live afterwards. Is it any wonder he willingly enters the Train?
- Did Not Think This Through: Professor Cerise's plan to keep Chloe at the Institute was good on paper. But in practice, without a counselor to help her work through her issues — and he openly stated he purposefully wasn't giving Chloe therapy — without a chance to do things that she loved (even when Chloe promised to be on her best behavior and begged him to let her go to softball camp), and without someone to talk to about her problems or about things she liked, it only made it harder for Chloe to talk about what she wanted and ultimately made her realize no one cared, especially not the father who is so busy with his work to notice that she's one day away from jumping off the school rooftop.
- Of course, this is ignoring the fact that Chloe kept quiet about her problems until things blew up; the whole feeling caged thing? Brought by her own inaction. Not having anybody to talk to? She didn't even try to find someone she could vent to. Even the professor not listening to her was because she didn't tell him anything, as she completely gave up on him after an incident that happened years ago. So while the professor's plan was still poorly thought out, it only got as bad because of factors beyond his control.
- Didn't See That Coming: Being forcibly fused with his Unown counterpart caught him and everyone around him completely off-guard.
- Disproportionate Retribution: A victim of this. He once promised to take Chloe to a softball camp if she behaved for a week, only for a last minute conference to force him to cancel those plans. Chloe responded by not only giving up on him, but essentially made him out to be a neglectful abuser who cares more about Pokémon than he does her. And then there's what happens once Sara gets the Unown...
- Doesn't Know Their Own Child:
- His Fatal Flaw... allegedly; if only he paid more attention to Chloe than his work, she'd be much more stable and adjusted. Of course, just like all Blossomverse stories, he's only as bad knowing his children because they refuse to even open up to him.
- He had no idea that his own son was afraid of speaking up, having been taught that standing up for Chloe is the equivalent of being slapped across the face and his father would hurt him for trying to protect someone as weird as his sister.
- The situation with the softball camp made him unable to understand just why Chloe is upset with why she can't go even though she did everything she asked of him and brought up some alternatives so that it was fair. He learns much later the reason: she was trying to use it to escape and get some breathing room from her bullies, but her inability to spell it out to him while he said that she can just go later, made her give up because she assumed that he'd never get it.
- Dumbass Has a Point: While him allegedly refusing to give Chloe therapy was undoubtedly a really dumb move, Chloe's behavior through Act 1 and 2 show a good reason why he did this: even before her Train-supported power trip, Chloe stubbornly believed herself to be a victim of her father's neglect and wanted nothing to do with him, alongside having a general trouble telling what other people felt, and generally recontextualizing things to make them seem worse than they actually were. And while one could point to Tres as a counterargument to show he should've done it, the only reason that therapy worked was because Chloe had been so thoroughly humbled by that point that she didn't resort to either deflecting blame, placing layers upon layers of defensive mechanisms, or any of the other habits she showed through the acts. Trying to put her through therapy back when she was in her wrathful self would've, at best, failed to get the lesson through, or at worst, give Chloe another situation to unconsciously twist into a negative to further send her spiraling down.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being the Pokémon Professor of Vermillion City, nobody treats him with the respect other professors seem to get; the adults are quick to call him out over allegedly not doing more for his daughter, the children don't see him as anything but their "ticket" to a Pokémon Journey, and his family are a mixed bag; his wife likes him fine, but his children either dislike or fear him due to how he never tries to actively interact with them.
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- Easily Condemned: It's honestly shocking how a few words from a very biased 10 year old girl is enough for most people to condemn the good old professor and see him as nothing more than an useless idiot who can't even comfort his daughter in her time of need. It gets so bad he willing enters the Train in order to get away from everybody.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Professor Cerise" is pretty much the only way most people refer to him whenever he's talked about.
- Expy: Just like his daughter is based off of Robin Goodfellowe, the professor is based off of Robin's father, Bill. Both are concerned fathers who want to keep their rather free-spirited daughters who wear braids safe out of concern for their safety, only to learn that they're really caging their daughters (Bill didn't want his daughter caged by society's pressures while the Professor was willing to give his daughter freedom if she wanted). Whereas Bill is trying to prevent Robin from following in his foosteps of being a hunter, Cerise went under the suspicion that Chloe was going to be a professor/Pokemon fanatic like him.
- Failed a Spot Check: In hindsight, leaving Chloe in the Institute by her lonesome meant he was missing out on many hints that Chloe was depressed and needed someone to talk to, or give her some creative outlet to vent out her stress. He also wasn't aware that Chloe was about to explode when he gives his ill-timed "Remember you're not supposed to tackle a Ghost".
- Failure Is the Only Option: Professor Cerise can't seem to do anything without it blowing up in his face. Try to help Chloe with her issues at school? She takes it the wrong way and grows to heavily dislike him. Try to explain himself and what he was trying to do? Has his opinion invalidated repeatedly and given No Sympathy by anybody. Tries to do one last good thing by refusing to give his daughter's bully a Pokemon and letting her know her actions have doomed her goal? Be brutally mind raped by being forced to fuse with his Unown self to the point he loses all semblence of joy and is taken by the Infinity Train as a last resort not to kill himself.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Aside from being oblivious to Chloe's suffering, self-reliance seems to be one for him. He admits to Talia that he's always been this type of person, doing things on his own without his parents' help. Unfortunately, this means that he doesn't get help from others or accept that he needs help to do something when it comes to things that are out of his control, particularly with his daughter's trauma.
- Short-sightedness; while having Chloe stay in the Cerise Institute was good to protect her from the bullies, he never thought beyond keeping her inside and just let her wallow in her loathing and hurt rather than let her engage in a school club or let her do something even if it wasn't related to Pokémon. And even after that incident with her fighting Gengar with Yamper, Cerise never seemed to capitalize on trying to get to know his daughter more. When Gloria asks if Cerise did anything after the Gengar fight, he can't say anything.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Subverted. With the way Chloe talks about him and how everyone in Vermillion City sees him, you'd be forgiven for thinking the professor was someone who refused to give Chloe the escape she needed with something that she actually likes. In reality, the professor simply did all he could with what little information he had, which wasn't helped by Chloe not speaking up about her problems, and the incident that led to her giving up on him was something beyond his control.
- Fate Worse than Death: Not only is he forced to fuse with his Unown counterpart to try to recreate Sara's father, he's kept conscious through it all, feeling his body be moved like a puppet with the good old professor unable to do a single thing about it. This means that he's unable to do anything when that Unown counterpart willingly strangles his wife and daughter.
- Faux Horrific: Him keeping Chloe in the Institute after school is extreme, but the narrative and characters tend to paint it as the professor deliberately keeping Chloe "caged" like a bird and being an absolute proof that he ultimately didn't care about her.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Once upon a time, the professor made Chloe a promise to take her to softball camp, only for a sudden conference to pop up and for the professor to have to cancel the appointment, even when Chloe gave alternatives. This was somehow enough to convince Chloe to outright give up on her father, shut herself off from everybody, and strain their relationship to the point she slanders said professor by constantly painting her home life situation as far worse than it actually is.
- Follow in My Footsteps: He was hoping that Chloe would eventually follow in his footsteps and become Vermillion City's Pokemon Professor, with him seeing Chloe's fight against Gengar being the first step to do so. Unfortunately, Chloe was nowhere near as interested in the position, and it was a reminder of everything her classmates force her into, but she never even vocalized these thoughts before the Train, meaning that by the time the professor realizes this she's already trainbound.
- Forced to Watch: As he's aware of everything while fused with his Unown self, the professor can do nothing but watch as he's not only forced to do horrible things — like forced to strangle his wife and daughter — but is on the receiving end of brutal call out after call out from everybody.
- Foreshadowing
- When Chloe mutters how she does not want Augustine chasing after her, Lexi tries to joke by stating that at least it's not her father on the Train trying to find her. Come the end of Act 1, Chloe is the one who is determined to find her father when he gets on the train.
- When Parker asks if his own father would hit him for standing up for Chloe, Professor Cerise quickly states that for all the mistakes he made, he is not a monster. Then he gets fused with Sara's version of her "father".
- Freudian Excuse Denial: He states to Talia that everything was fine for him when he was a kid, but this also means that he had trouble understanding Chloe's problems and missed some very noticeable red flags.
- Fusion Dance: He gets forcibly fused with his Unown copy in order to recreate Sara's father.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: While clearly disgusted with Sara's actions in hurting Chloe, he's also honestly stunned at the fact the girl would go so far to try to get him, without actually walking up to him and requesting a Pokémon in person.
- Good Is Dumb: While he's certainly not stupid, and definitely tries moreso than the parents of Chloe's classmates, a lot of his actions come across as rather misguided or outright idiotic in hindsight.
- Good Is Impotent: He probably has it worse than Professor Sycamore; at least that professor has friends who are willing to pick up the slack for him, and reassure him when he's feeling down. Professor Cerise doesn't seem capable of taking a step or speaking without people calling him out for being an allegedly bad father, or the world yanking his chain.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Professor Cerise is a good man, but his reputation leaves a lot to be desired; people see him as a joke at best and a negligent parent at worst, and the children who are old enough to start their journeys only see him as a Meal Ticket to get their journeys started and not as a person with actual feelings.
- Honor Before Reason: Mixed with Revenge Before Reason. He could just give Sara a Pokemon and send her on her Pokemon Journey to get rid of her once and for all, especially considering the fact that he has nothing else to lose. However, he instead stands his ground and rejects her, letting her know that his decision is brought on entirely by her own actions.
- Horrible Judge of Character: He admits that he had an unconscious bias over how his daughter just was not like him and was...different. He assumed that perhaps that thing with Gengar was her actually taking a step forward but realized just after Chloe ran away from home, and Gloria's honest opinions on him, that it wasn't the case. He was also completely caught off-guard by just how blunt and horribly biased Gloria could actually be.
- Hope Spot: He hoped that with him working on himself and Chloe getting her number down things would get better. Then the Unown incident happens.
- Informed Attribute: His field of study is apparently the bonds between humans and Pokemon. Reading the story, you'd be forgiven for thinking his field of study is "how to dig my own grave repeatedly and be used as everyone's scapegoat".
- Innocently Insensitive:
- His reassurance that Chloe not going to softball camp now was to tell her to be patient and that she can try again another time...but this is just when he has to cancel said camp trip for her for a Pokémon conference, after Chloe honored her end of the deal and brought up alternatives and was practically begging him to let her go...and he realizes some time later that the camp wasn't as important as her finally getting a break from the bullies in her life, as it made Chloe, Drama Queen that she is, think that her dad doesn't love her enough to give her something she wants to do, and that Pokémon will always always always come first over family or that in order for her dad to love her, she must become just like him, and she'd rather kill herself before that ever happens. Fortunately, she's eventually forced to confront how ridiculously overdramatic she was being, and at least tries to patch things up with her father afterwards.
- One of the dominoes that led to Chloe snapping on the night things went to Hell is when he saw Goh's video of her defeat to Ash and he told her "Remember that you don't use Tackle on a Ghost". Nice advice and all, except 1) he never told her anything like this prior and 2) it's just exasperating her fears that the bullies in her class will mock her for being so stupid of a Professor's daughter to not know something so simple. This gets even worse when the readers learn why he said this as it is in the Harvest Moon Car — he just wanted to remind Chloe of a time that Yamper tried tackling a Ghost and it failed.
- Irony:
- His plan to protect Chloe from her bullies by placing her in the Institute made it so that the only notable interactions she gets are from the very same bullies who he's trying to protect her from.
- He refused to give his daughter therapy when she needs it, and ultimately it's he who needs it more than her once he gets on the Train. And in more irony, Chloe only starts getting the drive to move forward with her life after meeting with an actual therapist on the Train.
- Chloe essentially cut him off her life and told him to never speak to her again because of his alleged neglect on her. By the time he gets train-napped and Chloe actually wants to try make amends, it's the professor who refuses to speak to her, partially because he has better things to do, partially because he's nowhere near close to speaking terms with Chloe since the last time they talked.
- It's Personal: Has the most beef with Sara out of the Institute, as she's the main reason why Chloe became the way she is.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: Played for Drama. A good deal of the story in Act 1 is spent on making Professor Cerise pay for his neglect on Chloe, and let him know exactly what he did to deserve all of it. Thing is, the same things that are used to justify his horrible treatment are things that were either misinterpreted or grossly blown out of proportion by the people around him, and by the time people realize it, the professor has been so thouroughly tormented and humilliated over nothing that he willingly enters the Infinity Train in order to get away from everyone for a while.
- Leaving You to Find Myself: The end of Act 1 has him leave his loved ones and assistants behind in order to willingly enter the Train, partially to go through his mandatory train-made Mental Health Recovery Arc, partially to catch a break from all the pain and suffering he's been forced to deal with up to this point.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The biggest reason why he was unable to help Chloe as much as he wanted to is simply because he wasn't aware of both the extent of the pain Chloe was going through, nor what he actually needed to do to help her.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: Chloe's words are worded just right to make him seem like the most pathetic, neglectful excuse for a parent that will ever exist. Gloria's blunt, horribly worded assessment that he's an abusive parent doesn't help.
- Meal Ticket: A kid-friendly version of this Played for Drama; a Professor knows so much about Pokémon and they're the ones that give out a Starter mon to an upcoming Trainer. Class 5-E want to become Trainers and he just so happens to have a daughter who they share a class with...and thus they proceed to bully and ruin her life so she can automatically gift them Pokémon in order to make it all stop instead of doing the smart thing and just go to his Institute themselves.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Once the Cyan Desert Car arc begins, he easily gets the worst treatment out of everybody; being helpless to actually put his daughter's bully to justice, forcibly fused with an unown replica of him in order to recreate said bully's father, Forced to Watch as said fusion goes on to do horrible things in her name, has to hear everybody, including his loved ones, constantly belittle and call him out as a monster, and see his daughter risk her life to get the payback on her bully to the point that his Unown self literally wiped the floor with her As if that wasn't enough, his fusion with UnCerise subjects him to such a brutal Mind Rape that he gets picked up by the Train, which he willingly enters in order to get some respite.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: He begins his own once he boards the Infinity Train at the end of Act 1.
- Mind Rape: By the time he's unfused with his Unown self, the professor has been subjected to one so severe that he's effectively trainbound, which happens by the end of Act 1.
- Morton's Fork:
- With regards to Chloe getting therapy; he either could do what he did and not get her any, which would strain their relationship, or he could actually try to get it to her...and risk being scammed like he did sometime ago, which would also put a strain on their relationship. Either way, it would have been a lose-lose situation.
- He could either give Sara that Pokémon she wanted, but it would make him seem soft and only allow Sara to do what she wanted with her never learning her lesson. Or he could refuse it, and see her break down and grow into a nasty little monster that inadvertedly unleashed the Unown.
- More Insulting than Intended:
- Telling Chloe that she couldn't go her promised softball camp under the pretense that it's "not important now" (as in, she could go another time) only served to give Chloe all the reason she needed to denounce him and give up on him as a human being.
- After Gloria hits her Heroic BSoD and is needed to stop Augustine from killing One-One, he decides that, given how Gloria was seeking therapy for her problems and she called him out for not helping Chloe when she needed it, that now's a good time to mention that he had withheld therapy for Chloe. This does 'not help him in the slightest as everyone around him sees him as truly neglectful. Chloe is shocked to learn that her dad knew she had problems but kept her caged in the Institute regardless, Renji was The Scapegoat (as Renji had an inkling of what was going on with Chloe but clammed up) and Goh realizes that he has been getting so many privileges while his friend wasted away. Were it not for Gloria telling everyone to shut up, things would've gone down the toilet very quickly.
- His snapping at Gloria in the Ninjala Car was also just to get the Galarian brat to shut up after condemning him as an abusive parent. However, since the professor can never get a break in these stories, this opens up old wounds within Gloria about how her analogies end up hurting others.
- Him rejecting Sara's request for a Starter Pokémon, due to how Sara has done nothing to prove that she is sorry for everything she's done to his family, drives the girl up a wall, as it was her only chance to escape the incoming heckstorm that was karma.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He gets it hard by this after Gloria's horribly blunt one-sided analogy of Chloe is essentially an abuse victim" because he honestly did try to do better and is reminded of his mistakes over and over again without break. He gets another one when he learns why Chloe wanted that softball camp so badly.
N-W
- Non-Action Guy: According to Dr. Yung, Cerise sucked at battling. Then again, Yung probably was saying this to break Chloe, and as a professor, his main job is to research, not to fight. His stint in the Infinity Train in Act 2 hints that he'll shed this trope.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: A constant problem for him.
- As misguided as it was, him keeping Chloe in the institute was at least an attempt to help her escape from the bullies at school. Chloe simply took it to mean he didn't care about her, and became the most often mentioned reason everybody brings up when questioning if he actually hated her.
- He tried to ease the tension during the talk with Chloe by mentioning how he didn't give her therapy. Nobody even questions if he actually did this, automatically assuming it is true and ripping him a new one with scathing words.
- Knowing how Sara has done a lot to hurt Chloe, he tries to stand his ground against the bully and refuses to give her a Pokémon. Sara responds by fusing him with his Unown copycat to recreate her father, and then he receives the mother of all call outs by everyone, the most scathing words coming from his own family, to the point that by the end of the arc, he's so done he willingly lets himself be trainnapped.
- Noodle Incident: When asked to pick a class in the Midgar Car, he refuses to choose Archer class, bringing up an incident at summer camp when he was a child.
- No-Respect Guy: He's the only one in the Cerise Institute who actually did anything substantial to help Chloe (Chryssa procrastinated, Renji got cold feet — albeit the two later revealed that they wanted to approach Chloe but left her alone — Ash did ask her to join him and Goh on expeditions but wasn't able to connect with her and Goh is always so wrapped up in himself that he barely recognizes Chloe as a friend); that something being rather extreme, granted, but it's still something compared to everyone else's nothing. The professor gets no respect for this; in fact, said event tends to get brought up when it comes to demonizing him as someone who didn't care for his daughter.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: He thinks the best idea to keep his daughter safe is to make her stay in the Institute every day after school, no questions asked. After all, she has access to snacks, she can do her homework, she's not bullied, so it's perfect...except by not letting her go out for fresh air, she gets deeply annoyed when she hears Ash and Goh go and travel, and she isn't given any attention to at all, with the only other interactions she's allowed are the bullies that he's trying to protect her from. Cerise has to realize that he also needed to give Chloe some freedom for her to vent out her frustrations and at the same time, also dig into the deeper reason as to why Chloe was so insistent on this camp more than anything else, while Chloe herself had to be able to trust that her dad did care for her well-being and would've gladly let her do what she wanted if she spoke up.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: His misguided attempts at trying to help Chloe get away from her bad school life. Whenever somebody calls him out over being an allegedly terrible parent, this event is almost always guaranteed to show up, regardless of how much of the context people actually know about it.
- Oblivious to Hints: His decent childhood made him unable to perceive the red flags that Chloe was showing regarding how she felt about her life.
- Papa Wolf:
- For all of his mistakes, he truly loves his daughter. As soon as he learned what was going on with her, he and the other Professors banned her classmates from getting a Pokémon until they turn 15.
- He also stands up for Ash and Goh when Sara who has the Unown mocks that the boys are selfish and never satisfied with what they have by stating that it's okay to have different goals and that they are actively working to achieve them.
- Parents Are Wrong: This lesson is constantly told to him, basically saying that he needs to stop thinking Chloe might follow in his footsteps and instead let her do whatever she wants. Notably, he gets this lesson thrown at his face more often than his wife.
- Parents as People: For all of his faults, the professor only wanted what was best for his daughter and to keep her away from harm. Unfortunately, he just couldn't wrap his head around the idea that his daughter just wasn't so enthusiastic about Pokémon like her peers, or even himself for that matter, and he never really went past the surface to see if Chloe really was okay after school, or even get her some therapy to help her come to terms with her problems. He even tells Parker that for all that he's done, he's not a monster and neither Parker nor Chloe should ever have been afraid to talk to him about their problems.
- Parental Favoritism: Subverted. Chloe believed this was the case, as she felt that the whole "stay in the Institute after school" thing was proof that he didn't care about her and was more interested in Ash and Goh, since as his workers they can do whatever and go wherever they want, while her simple request for softball camp had her 1) behave for a week and then 2) lose the chance when he wouldn't accept her alternatives to go there when he had a last-minute conference to attend, and then he mentioned that "you can go next time", cementing it in her head that her needs are never important and he will always put Pokémon-related stuff over her every single time. In reality, though, the professor never treated them or Parker any differently; he simply had so little information about what was actually happening that he came across as someone who could care less about her feelings.
- Parents in Distress: He's trapped in a fusion with his Unown replica for the majority of the Cyan Desert Car arc, being Forced to Watch as it's left up to his daughter to actually deal with the bully he couldn't. And then he ends up on the Train himself, with only Indigo preventing him from dropping onto the wheels
- Parental Neglect: The most common reason cited by anybody over what a bad parent he was to Chloe is the fact that, for all that he allegedly tried to do for her, he wasn't paying attention to her or her problems. Of course, this only happens because he lacks the necessary knowledge of what to do in this situation in order to help his daughter, and everyone's vindictive condemnation of him doesn't help.
- Parental Obliviousness: He doesn't seem to realize how much Chloe feels like she's suffocating in the Institute until she ultimately snaps when he said "Chloe, you don't Tackle a Ghost remember?"note , and she runs off onto the Train. Gloria's bluntness over how isolating her in the Institute is akin to parental neglect makes him snap. Moreover, he also wasn't aware that Parker was terrified of speaking up to him because of how Parker thought him and Talia arguing after the paint can incident was blaming Chloe for her meltdown and how he has been bullied by Chloe's classmates to believe that kids like him will never be paid attention to.
- Poor Communication Kills: The Professor tries, but it's clear that getting his point across is not his forte.
- His response as to why Chloe can't go into a softball camp (which he promised her she could go if she was on her best behavior but had to cancel when a last-minute conference came up) made her believe that her needs are not as important as Pokémon and that her dad never cared about her, thus making her say "No" to whenever Ash and Goh earnestly wanted to take her out and have fun.
- On a smaller note, he never tried texting or calling her while she was on the Train, albeit this was also on Goh never telling him (Goh states he didn't know texts would've made it onto the Train and Chloe was spitefully deleting Goh's texts).
- He tries to help reassure Gloria that her analogy wasn't wrong...but he does so by admitting that he was witholding well needed therapy for his daughter and knew that she was having problems this entire time but said nothing about them. And him digging his own grave by explaining why doesn't help.
- His distancing and focus on his work made it so that both of his children were afraid to talk to him. Parker's words are akin of stating that he'd be attacked if he brought up Chloe's problems and he feared his own father of being abusive and evil like Chloe's classmates as he had already been knocked out with a paint can when he tried to protect her, even asking point blank if his father would hit him just for standing up to his sister.
- Telling Chloe, "Remember don't use Tackle on a Ghost" is shown as him being insensitive. When Chloe recalls a camping trip when Yamper couldn't tackle a Gourgeist in Act 2, it's reworded as him gently trying to make her remember an incident when she was a younger. It's just that he worded as something that made her seem like an idiot for not knowing Pokémon typing due to the fact that she's not a battler or has this knowledge like his research fellows would.
- The Promise: He made one with Chloe that she could go to softball camp, hosted by her favorite softball team, if she behaved for a week. So she did...and then he had to rescind it when a last-minute conference came up and shot down all of Chloe's suggestions and pleading, stating that she doesn't have to go now. Unfortunately, the way he says was done just in the right way to give Chloe all the justification to flip her lid off.
- Rash Promise: He made one to Chloe in the past, promising to take her to softball camp if she behaved for a week. Cue a last minute conference popping up just as the week was over, and the professor had no choice but to cancel even after Chloe begged and came up with solutions to this, leading Chloe to essentially give up on him.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When Sara comes barging in and begging for a Pokémon, he stands his ground and refuses to give it to her because she has not shown any signs of understanding how much damage she did to her classmates and to his daughter. And when she starts stating that Ash and Goh are selfish and never satisfied with what they have, Cerise counters that there's nothing wrong with Trainers finding new goals and that his research fellows worked for them, compared to Sara stealing everything.
- Revenge Before Reason: Mixed with Honor Before Reason. While primarily motivated by not giving his daughter's bully what she wants after everything she did, Professor Cerise also partially rejects Sara as payback for her essentially ruining Chloe's life.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- His train number is 835, which is the National Pokédex number for Yamper, the Pokémon that was gifted to the Cerise family. This also represents how he has a lot of issues to go through and the fact that it's based off of Yamper reflected how Professor Cerise — seemingly — cared more about Pokémon than his own daughter.
- His weapon when he gets on the Train is Chloe's softball bat, the same bat that represented why Chloe closed herself off from him in the first place and him deciding that it's better that he runs away from her.
- Satellite Family Member: While the professor does have some character to him beyond being Chloe's father and a Pokemon professor, practically nobody in the story sees him as anything but either of those two traits. As a result, he's seen as a Meal Ticket to a Pokemon Journey at best and as a convenient scapegoat when people need someone to point fingers at when it comes to what happened to Chloe. This partially ends up fueling his willing entrance into the Infinity Train, since he at least has the chance to start new there instead of staying in a place that only knows him as the good-for-nothing father of Chloe.
- Screen Name: Aldri_C.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: He does it twice to Sara; first by rejecting her request to get a Pokémon, and then shutting her up when she tries to paint Ash and Goh as no better than her.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Gloria decides to paint him and the Cerise Institute as abusive for their treatment of Chloe, Professor Cerise has an Anguished Outburst that doubles as a call out directed towards her and her absolute lack of a brain-to-mouth filter.
- Spared by the Adaptation: While one could argue the adaptation gave something worse in return, Professor Cerise's lab doesn't go down the legal trouble it did in the original trilogy since Parker isn't the wielder of the Unown here, but Sara, who has no real connection with Cerise and thus no way for him to be labeled a scapegoat. He also doesn't suffer Mr. Bradbury's verbal bullying, since not only is Bradbury reduced in importance to the story, but Professor Cerise willingly entering the Train cuts him off from Vermillion City, meaning that the people who want to point fingers at him and blame him for everything can't do it to his face anymore.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: He was very protective of Chloe, but he did so in a way that she misconstrued as him not caring for her, which lead to Chloe herself growing up vindictive and rebellious, refusing to humor him and shutting herself away. Parker's also this to a lesser extent, as he's not afraid to chide his father when he's not scared of him.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Not only is he around people who did nothing to help his daughter get better from the bullying she suffered, but even the people of Vermillion City would rather point fingers and demonize him in a desperate attempt to find someone to blame than they'd rather than spend some time actually trying to change things for the better. Is it any wonder the Train picks him up after this, and that he goes inside willingly?
- Supernatural-Proof Father: Inverted. During the Cyan Desert Car and the Unown fiasco, he's arguably the most affected by the supernatural happenings, not only being subjected to a fusion with his Unown copycat that leaves him Forced to Watch as he can do nothing to stop himself, but be left so mentally and psychologically damaged that the Train comes pick him up, and the professor doesn't even bother to stall for time.
- Targeted to Hurt the Hero: While primarily done in order to recreate her dead father, Sara essentially targets him because doing so would hurt Chloe the most.
- Take Our Word for It: We never see how UnCerise breaks him, but we see how he reacts when his family and lab assistants try to reassure him things will get better.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: Subverted. He eventually reveals that he didn't give Chloe proper therapy for her problems at school; not because he thought therapy was beneath him, but because the last time he tried to get counseling, he was scammed out of his money, and he simply couldn't take the risk of the same happening to his daughter.
- Took a Level in Cynic: The Cyan Desert Car arc is so brutal to him that by the end of it, he's essentially done with everyone and everything in Vermillion City, with his main reason to willingly enter the Train being to get away from everybody else.
- Tough Love: Him having Chloe go straight to the Institute after school was this; as while it's always brought up as a pretty extreme thing to do, it was only done to provide Chloe some sense of breathing room from all the bullying she was suffering at school. Unfortunately, Chloe only saw the Tough part of the trope and not the love, which caused her relationship with her father to grow strained because neither of them were talking it out.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Zigzagged; while he did help Chloe get away from the bullies by placing her in the Institute after school, he failed to actually take advantage of it to do more with her. When Gloria learns of the time Gengar rampaged across the Institute, she balks at the idea of the Professor letting his daughter (who knows nothing about battling) having to fight them. Cerise said he wanted to, except that Yamper is stubbornly loyal to Chloe and will only take commands from her and no one else was capable of fighting back (Ash and Goh along with Scorbunny and Pikachu were incapacitated by Gengar's Psychic so they couldn't have been of help either and Renji is terrified of ghosts). Gloria then has to ask if he did anything after the Gengar incident in order to get his daughter to improve or at least help her out of her bullying problems. His silence gives her the answer.
- Unlucky Everydude: The professor is just a normal man in a world populated by the creatures known as Pokémon. As the story goes on, every last shade of bad luck befalls this man, to the point his life gets so irrepairably broken he sees willingly entering the Train, with the potential for death that entails, as a better idea than staying in Vermillion City any longer.
- Vengeance Denied: His attempt at getting payback from Sara only leads to him forcibly fused with his Unown self and leaving his daughter to get the payback instead.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His idea to keep Chloe at his institute after school was a legitimate, if misguided, attempt at helping her get away from her bullies, which is more than can be said about every other adult in her life.
- Workaholic: He prioritizes his work over his family at times: he breaks a promise to Chloe that she can go to softball camp and tells her that she doesn't have to go now and he wasn't there during the Talent Show that would lead to the paint can incident. This puts a strain on his daughter's relationship, as Chloe's already cynical attitude makes her take it the worst way possible.
- Would Hurt a Child: Subverted. His fusion with UnCerise has him target a lot of children, the biggest one being his own daughter who he tries to strangle to death, but he's actually being Forced to Watch as the fusion hurts them on his own, with the professor being unable to control his actions.]]
- Would Hit a Girl: Also subverted; he himself has every right to physically kick Sara out for everything she does, but tells her simply that she's not getting a Pokémon. His Unown self, on the other hand, will gladly strangle Talia and Chloe without a second thought... which still isn't this trope because the professor isn't doing it, he's just being forced to witness it.
