Characters / Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Paldea Characters

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Characters encountered in the Paldea region of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

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Allies

The Professors

General Tropes (ALL SPOILERS UNMARKED)

Known to the public as the reclusive inventor of the Tera Orb, there is a lot more to the Professor than anyone could have possibly known.

Years before the events of the game, Arven's parent used their findings from their explorations into the Great Crater of Paldea to make a breakthrough: a time machine that could pull from prehistory (in Scarlet) or the future (in Violet). After Arven was born, their spouse left them, leaving them without assistance in their research, leading them to eventually create a robotic copy of themselves using Tera Crystals in the crater. It is this robotic copy that participates in the story and whom you meet, as the original Professor is long dead by the time you start the game, killed in an accident by one of the Pokémon they brought into the present day.

Tropes applying to the original and the AI

• Archnemesis Dad: Depending on which version of the game you play, Sada/Turo turns out to be Arven's estranged parent.
• Badass Bookworm: Aside from being scientists, both Professors are highly competent trainers who have managed to catch and train a full team of Paradox Pokémon.
• Boss Remix: Their battle theme music is one to the Area Zero map, mixed with a Dark Reprise of the Tera Raid battle music.
• Breaking Old Trends: In many ways, they step away from many traditions long set with Pokémon Professors:
  • Their names are related to the past/future, rather than to any sort of tree or flower as was commonplace.
  • They are the first Professors to take an antagonistic role in a Pokémon game, albeit posthumously.
  • Likewise, they are the first Professors to have outright been killed in a Pokémon game.
  • They are the first trainers to ever be depicted as having (at least) seven master balls at their disposal.
• Dark Reprise: The guitar part in their battle theme plays a more frantic and dire remix of the Tera Raid battle theme, and appropriately, their boss arena resembles a Tera Raid cavern.
• Decomposite Character: Clavell plays most of the part that the traditional Pokémon Professor usually takes on, while Jacq takes over the typical Professor role of analyzing the Pokédex. Sada and Turo are left with their aesthetic and role as the parent of one of your friends.
• Fanservice: Both Sada and Turo have conventionally attractive appearances that contrast from their morally grey actions: Sada has torn clothing that reveals both her abs and her legs to the viewer, while Turo is wearing a bodysuit that hugs his body. Their AI fall into this as well, due to being physically exact duplicates of the original.
• Fallen Hero: Both professors are referred to positively by those who knew them and revolutionized Paldea with their research, and seem to have once been good people. However, they eventually became so fixated on their time machine, they were willing to go to absurd lengths to reach their dream, consequences be damned. This included being perflectly willing to program the Paradise Protection Protocol to flat out murder people to keep it functioning.
• The Ghost: At least one of the notes you find in the last area implies that both of them are canonically Arven's parents, but one of them walked out of the relationship shortly after Arven was born and doesn't appear in the main game.
• Knight of Cerebus: Scarlet and Violet are, generally, fairly light-hearted (even by this series' standards). When the group of heroes travels to Area Zero, the tone shifts to a much more dire, eldritch gloom, which gets even worse when the AI Professor get overtaken by the defensive protocol the original professor created that turns them into a murderous maniac that unleashes the disturbing Paradox Pokémon on you.
• Left-Handed Mirror: Presumably right-handed Sada drops her Poké Balls with her right hand while presumably left-handed Turo drops his from his left. This is especially significant as from the player's perspective, past-looking Sada's dominant hand moves counterclockwise while future-looking Turo's dominant hand moves clockwise.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • The AI Professor can't leave Lab Zero because they require the Tera Crystals there to function, and their mere presence there keeps the time machine running in perpetuity. But after the Paradise Protection Protocol performs a Villain Override and is subsequently defeated, the AI's own body is embedded with Tera Crystals in the aftermath, allowing them to leave immediately by traveling to the past/future, solving both problems. The AI doesn't have to worry about the aforementioned "diminishing life" either because they aren't a living thing.
  • An instance of this trope working against them pops up in the final battle. The Paradise Protection Protocol's last resort is to simply lock every single Poké Ball in the vicinity not belonging to Sada/Turo, thus preventing intruders from battling at all while the AI is free to do so. However, the player happens to have Koraidon/Miraidon, which at this point still counts as the professor's Pokémon and was simply being cared for in their stead by the player; as such, the Legendary's Poké Ball is not locked, allowing it to battle and save the day.
• Meaningful Name: They're (so far) the only professors in the mainline series not to be named after some species of tree, indicating that they aren't quite what we've come to expect.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Sada is interested in prehistoric times long before the advent of civilization, while Turo is interested in distant future where cybernetics and technology are commonplace.
• Odd Name Out: As mentioned above, Sada and Turo do not follow the Floral Theme Naming as the previous professors; instead their names are connected to temporal terms. This separates them as eventual antagonists to the player, while Clavell takes over the floral name as the main guide and mentor to the protagonist.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Master Balls (which can catch any Pokémon without fail) are normally so rare and valuable that the player can only receive one per game, even the wealthiest villains never use them,^note Though this may be justified for Olympus Mons as Poké Balls preventing them from using their full power and The Pokémon Company even has rules for licensed material which forbid multiple Master Balls being shown at once. The professor uses seven of them in a single sequence, casually dropping them from on high no less. Previous games did mention that professors are granted Master Balls for research, but that was usually the explanation for why they're the ones to grant the sole Master Ball, and it was never hinted that they could have so many.
• Parental Abandonment: One of the notes in Aera Zero implies that the other professor is still alive, but abandoned both their partner and Arven shortly after the latter's birth for reasons unknown.
• Red Herring: Early promotional material implied that they'd be serving the role of the game's primary Pokémon Professor, but they're physically absent for most of the story and Director Clavell instead takes up the more proactive role of previous Professors. Indeed, it's Clavell and not Sada or Turo who provides the "World of Pokémon" intro to the game, traditionally done by Professors, and who shares the trope of "Plant-named professor" with multiple members of his staff, including Jacq.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Aside from the very first trailer for the games, they pretty much never show up in any more of the promotional videos, hinting at their major significance to the plot.
• The Stoic: Both the Professors and their AI copies are incredibly stoic in their behavior, never seeming to lose control of their emotions or emoting beyond a bare minimum.
• True Final Boss: The actual final boss of the game, fought after completing all three of the main stories.
• Walking Spoiler: To put it very mildly, the Professor is not at all who the player is likely to think they are walking in.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: At least one note implies that Turo/Sada is the parent that walked out on the Professor when Arven was still young, but no comments on their reasoning or where they are is ever alluded to.

Tropes exclusive to the original professor

• Ambiguously Evil: The original Professors themselves. They had several defensive measures installed around Area Zero to make sure their Time Machine would never shut down without a lot of effort and workarounds. Said Time Machine was very much a ticking time bomb for a massive ecological disaster, but Sada/Turo either ignored or viewed nothing wrong with that, prioritizing their dream research above all else. Even the AI that inherited their memories had to question their values, and it's possible that the ruthless, arrogant protocol AI dead-set on eliminating anyone obstructing their goals might reflect the original personality. That said, they did end up dying in a Heroic Sacrifice, so it could be just a matter of them taking the principles of For Science! to the extreme. The AI professor also vouches for the original's genuine love toward Arven, which is further supported by their journal entries, one of which describes the then infant Arven as "a new life [they] treasure", while another implies that their main motivation was to create a "paradise" that he could live in with them. Their explanation of this in same entry, however, paints them as deluded and obsessed, stating their belief that if they could bring enough ancient/future Pokémon to the present they could somehow create "a world like the one in the book — a paradise where we three can live happily together forever. I must make it real." Just what motivated them to feel the need for this sort of paradise is unclear.
• Ambiguously Related: Or rather ambiguously married, to the Professor of the opposite game. Arven resembles both Sada and Turo but only one of his parents is ever named, and it's unclear whether the Turo who acts as an antagonist was ever married to someone named Sada or vice versa.
• Ambiguous Situation: When the player meets the real Sada/Turo they seem far less obsessed and kinder than Arven's experiences and some of their actions would suggest. However, the professor cautions that they may not be the same professor of the timeline the player character is in (though a journal entry in the Underdepths in Area Zero suggests that some version of this meeting did happen to the professor of this timeline at least). It's also implied that this Professor comes from a point in time before their obsession took hold.
• Crazy-Prepared: Years spent mostly sequestered in Area Zero gave the Professor tons of time to safeguard their time machine against any and all threats toward its continued operation, even after their death. Past the numerous security locks spread out across the mini-Death World known as Area Zero, which is swarming with powerful Pokémon and Paradox Pokémon, the Professor went even further and built an AI to keep running the machine in their stead. Turning off the machine requires the professor's copy of the Scarlet/Violet Book, something that only their son Arven, who's not particularly skilled at Pokémon battling, would be able to get from the professor's surface lab. Attempting to shut off the machine, even with the book, will cause the AI to battle whoever is doing so with a full team of highly-levelled Paradox Pokémon that they ensured the capture of with their own stash of Master Balls. Even if the AI is defeated, the original professor included a last resort known as the Paradise Protection Protocol to override it with a facsimile of their own personality, lock all Poké Balls not registered to the professor, and send out a hostile specimen of the box legendary. Even after all that, the AI needs to be removed in order to completely stop the time machine. All these paranoid safety measures truly drive in how obsessed the Professor was with reaching through time, and they work so well that the news of the Professor's death doesn't even reach their own son until perhaps months after the fact.
• Dead All Along: The original Professor was killed protecting the player's cover legendary from its more aggressive counterpart 10 years before the game's beginning.
• Death by Irony: Their obsession with reaching into the past/future and keeping their time machine running at all costs ultimately led to their death at the hands of the Paradox Legendary.
• Dragon Tamer: The professor was the original trainer of the Box Legendary and the player is given the Poké Ball they caught it in. Subverted as an attempt to tame another such dragon led to their death.
• Fantastically Indifferent: They react with calm and measured observations when they are suddenly transported from their lab in the past to the future in a different region to meet with the player character.
• Fatal Family Photo: Inverted: After the reveal that the Professor is dead, you can explore the lab and find a photo of a young Arven playing with Maschiff.
• Fatal Flaw: Obsession. They were so consumed by their dream of creating a "paradise" for both Paradox and present-day Pokémon (and their own family), that they were blinded, willfully or not, to the danger that they would present if they were introduced into the ecosystem unchecked. This culminated in the original Professor's death when the second Koraidon/Miraidon turned out to be much more aggressive than the first one, leading to the Professor getting killed when they tried to intervene in a fight between the two. The same obsession causes problems even after their death, as it led to them making it nigh-impossible to properly shut down the time machine.
• Foreshadowing: Arven mentions during the trek down Area Zero that his professor parent used to send him messages every now and then, but said correspondence eventually just stopped one day. We later find out that they stopped sending messages to Arven because they died.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Sada/Turo built the time machine that they knew would threaten Paldea's ecology, but they did it anyways which ultimately resulted in their own demise.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In a posthumous example, the player is able to circumvent the final protocol they put in place to protect the time machine by using both the Professor's own Pokémon (Koraidon/Miraidon) and invention (Tera Orb) against it.
• Karmic Death: Subverted. Area Zero builds up that something gruesome happened to the Professor as a direct result of them tampering with time, and it comes to light that the Professor was mortally wounded by one of the very Pokémon they'd misplaced from time and arrogantly thought they could control. The subversion comes when it's revealed they didn't die purely because of their arrogance. They died trying to save the first Legendary they brought through, a Pokémon they loved as much as their own son, and the one who killed them did not intend to do so. The Professor's death was ultimately their own fault, but they only paid the consequence when they put their life before someone else's.
• Killed Off for Real: In an extremely unusual turn for Pokémon, the Professor is the first character in the main series games to unambiguously die, with their real selves being killed by Koraidon/Miraidon or the destruction their battle caused in the research station, followed by the departure of their AI selves in the true ending. Their AI even emphasizes in detail that they are genuinely dead from injuries that were too severe to keep living, not that they disappeared or otherwise had an ambiguous fate.
• Lack of Empathy: Zigzagged. The posthumous character of the Professor certainly paints them as extremely lax from a moral standpoint (especially compared to their AI successor, who is frankly confounded at the lengths their creator went to preserve the time machine) which boils over at the revelation they were possibly fine with letting vast swathes of Paldea be damaged by unchecked Paradox Pokémon. That said, "emotionally apathetic" seems a better term for the Professor; despite sequestering themselves in Area Zero, the Professor obviously loved their spouse, their estranged son Arven, and the first Paradox Legendary, to the point their death came about when they tried to save Koraidon/Miraidon from its territorial counterpart.
• Mad Scientist: While the Professor's morality is a point of debate, their insanity certainly isn't. All of the detail in Area Zero paints the Professor as an obsessed and incredibly paranoid recluse who spent decades consumed by their research on time travel. They made the infamously lethal Area Zero their base of operations and spent the rest of their life studying these Pokémon until their obsession literally killed them. When the Paradise Protection Protocol overrides their AI, the AI begins speaking as if they are the Professor brought back to life, suggesting the madman/madwoman fought at the end of the game is an accurate reflection of their most unfettered self.
• Motherly Scientist: Or Fatherly, if we're talking about Turo; the original Professor's journal has them joyously describing the discovery of Koraidon/Miraidon by comparing it favorably to the birth of their son, implying that they loved it as much as they loved their own child. Deconstructed too, as Arven implies that his parent's obsession with the Legendary made him feel like The Unfavorite growing up.
  Professor Sada/Turo: I was expecting one new life to treasure, but what fortune to be blessed with this gift as well!
• Never Say "Die": Downplayed. The AI representing the Professor uses extremely clinical euphemisms to explicate the Professor's demise- saying they "passed away" and their body was "unable to sustain life," but that just seems to be one of their personality traits, as the AI uses similar phrasing for other unsavory topics, such as how the box legendary was hurt in a "territorial struggle," and Arven later refers to his parent's death in very stark terms in the postgame.
• Obliviously Evil:
  • Well, maybe. They insist that the destruction that the Paradox Pokemon would cause is purely a natural part of life, and that they're doing nothing wrong by trying to bring them into the world. Even the horrible lengths they went to stop the time machine from ever being shut down is referred to by such noble-sounding titles as "Paradise Protection Protocol" and "Koraidon, the Guardian of Paradise". When compared to their journal entries, it would seem that from their point of view, all they were doing was guarding the perfect world they sought for their family.
  • This extends to their neglect of Arven as well. They sought this paradise and threw themself obsessively into their work for what they believed was his sake, ignoring the fact that Arven neither needed nor wanted a paradise — all he wanted was for them to be there for him.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: While they did work with a team before getting paranoid, their research involved many disciplines, including minerology and mechanical engineering for the Tera Orbs, temporal physics for the time machine, and biology for their study of Paradox Pokémon.
• Parents as People: While they truly cared for their son Arven, the nature of their work meant that they were too busy to be that involved with his childhood. They were also hit pretty hard by their spouse walking out on them, which partly contributed into creating an AI version of themselves.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Literally — it's implied that they loved Arven's Mabosstiff almost as much as he does.
  • It's subtle, but it's also implied that the Professor genuinely cared for Koraidon/Miraidon — the legendary shows no fear or anger upon seeing them in Clavell's television screen, the AI Professor mentions that the Professor was Koraidon/Miraidon's original trainer and they died trying to protect it from its more aggressive counterpart. In their journals, they speak of it the way a doting parent would speak of their child, treating its arrival as a "treasure" comparable to the birth of their son.
• Posthumous Character: The original Professor, as their AI replacement turns out to be a distinct, Morally Superior Copy. The biggest twist in the plot; the original Professors have been dead for a while by the time the story begins (their estranged son Arven none the wiser) but the sheer breadth of what they created to keep their time machine running postmortem mean their obsession continues to drive the story's conflict.
• Properly Paranoid: The Professor was very conscious about the idea of someone coming around and shutting down their time machine to prevent their goals from coming to fruition, to the point of almost rampant paranoia which results in them taking massive steps to ensure it kept running. And they were right, despite the Crazy-Prepared methods that they would make, their work is eventually stopped before a complete ecological disaster happens.
• Sanity Slippage: After their partner left them, the professor's obsession grew and was complimented with paranoia, leading them to create the AI as they determined they could only trust themselves and to put the long list of shutdown overrides into the time machine.
• Social Darwinist: The original professors knew that the Paradox Pokémon breaking out of Area Zero would devastate Paldea's ecology, but considered such destruction to be a natural part of life. This is despite their introduction to the present coming about through very much unnatural means.
• Stable Time Loop: Played confusingly. Taking Terapagos and Briar's book to the Crystal Pool in Kitakami summons who appears to be the original Professor Sada/Turo. Though they admit that it's unclear if they are from the same timeline or a parallel universe, the Professor is surprised to learn from the player character that their research will eventually bear fruit and expresses some light sorrow for leaving Arven all alone. Before vanishing, the Professor trades their childhood copy of the Scarlet/Violet Book for Briar's book. It's suggested that this sets up the whole plot - Briar's book helps them with the technical end of things, while seeing the player's Koraidon/Miraidon in the future leaves them convinced that Heath's cryptids really were Pokémon from different points in time. However, while a record in Area Zero confirms that the Professor of our timeline was transported to a place resembling the Crystal Pool and received a white book from a child... they do not mention giving anything to that person in exchange (nor meeting one of the cryptids they've been searching for), and we know that their childhood copy of the Scarlet/Violet Book never left their possession. Likewise the AI Professor doesn't recognize the player from this meeting despite having the original Professor's memories (though this can be justified as said memories being dim and dreamlike). Another detail that supports the theory of an alternate timeline is that the Professor mentions having a son (meaning Arven has already been born) and they seem to encounter Koraidon/Miraidon for the first time (calling it with its Paradox name), while the Professor's notes in Area Zero mentions them bringing Koraidon/Miraidon and naming it a short time apart from Arven being born.
• Underestimating Badassery: The original professors severely misjudged the strength of the Paradox Legendaries, which led to their being killed while trying to protect the player's Koraidon/Miraidon from its more aggressive counterpart.
  AI Sada/Turo: The Pokémon was not to be blamed. It was the original professor who failed to accurately judge its full power.
• The Unfettered: Absolutely nothing would stop the Professor from running the time machine. Not their spouse running out on them, not the influx of deadly past/future Pokémon going rampant, not the risk of the entire region being desolated by their research. Not even their own gruesome death at the hands of the Paradox Legendary stops their ambition, as they had gone to every single measure to keep the machine running posthumously.
• Villain Override: When the AI Professor is taken over by the time machine's defense mechanism, the Paradise Protection Protocol, they suddenly take on a personality that's more evocative of their creator's fervent desire to keep the time machine up and running, as if they were possessing their robot duplicate from beyond the grave.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Journal entries in the research stations imply that the professors were this, wanting to create a "paradise" where they, their son, and a third person (either their partner or Maschiff) could live together in harmony, and going to desperate, terrible lengths to do it.
• World's Smartest Man: They are a contender for the smartest character in the series, even if they weren't the most sensible person. To wit, they are skilled in minerology for Tera crystals and their unique phenomenon, mechanical engineering for the Tera Orbs, computer science and robotics for their AI counterparts, temporal physics for the time machine, and biology for their study of Paradox Pokémon. And that isn't even going into how Crazy-Prepared they were to try to ensure their life's work would keep going even after their death!
• Would Hurt a Child: The defensive protocols that serve as the Final Boss are completely willing to try and murder the player, Nemona, Penny, and Arven in cold blood, even going so far as to seal their Poké Balls so that they don't have a chance of fighting back. Given that it explicitly refers to the player as "child" during battle, it also seems to be aware it is doing this (though it may not recognize the specific people it is attacking).

Tropes exclusive to the AI

• Androids Are People, Too: They retain the memories and knowledge of their original selves, but are fully sentient, sapient and self-aware, with desires and values of their own.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted with the normal AI, who was based off the original Professor and actually appears to have a stronger moral code regarding the Time Machine. Played straight after the Paradise Protection Protocol takes over, as it is single-mindedly focused on achieving its goals and eradicating anyone in the way.
• Apologetic Attacker:
  • They really, really, really don't want to fight you. Alas, their programming dictates otherwise. The Battle UI even lampshades this by stating that they don't challenge you, but initiate a battle instead. They also outright beg you to defeat them just before the battle.
    AI Sada/Turo has initiated a battle!
  • It gets much worse when the Paradise Protection Protocol takes them over and sends out the Legendary Pokémon's aggressive counterpart against you:
    AI Sada/Turo has no intention of fighting any more!
• Benevolent A.I.: The AI wants you to shut down the time machine, and only battles you because their programming forces them to.
• Big Bad: The Paradise Protection Protocol is the closest thing the game has to one, as it persists beyond the professor's death and continues to safeguard the time machine.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: When the AI succumbs to the offensive protocol, their eyes glow cyan with black sclera as they turn on the player.
• Body to Jewel: When the Paradise Protection Protocol takes over the AI, their body partially crystallizes, completely encasing a hand and covering their eyes and the inside of their mouth (though Turo's model has this disappear in some shots). Their face returns to normal when they regain their senses, but the crystals on their hand and clothing remain. These crystals likely are also what allow them to continue functioning once they leave for the past or future (as they require Tera crystals for an AI as advanced as them to exist).
• But Now I Must Go: Upon realizing that their presence is the final thing keeping the time machine running, the AI decides to send themselves through time to shut it down once and for all. This has the effect of killing two birds with one stone for them, as not only does it avert the ecological disaster of the Paradox Pokémon running wild in Paldea, it allows them to see firsthand the world of the past/future that the original Professors wished to experience and gain a sense of freedom for the first time ever since their creation.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: AI Turo's Level 67 Iron Valiant has Spirit Break, a move it cannot learn until Level 91.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • While previous Pokémon Big Bads are flesh-and-blood humans and have plans in play, the AI Professor/Paradise Protection Protocol is neither of those. Having said, the AI Professor acts on their programming rather than doing it on their volition.
  • In contrast to most of the previous evil team leaders who tend to have their main goals close to risking humanity (Archie, Maxie, Ghetsis, Lysandre) and even the entire universe (Cyrus), the AI Professor is only antagonistic to the player against its will and instead protects Paldea from time-displaced Pokémon despite the obvious problems it eventually plays out in the long run (through the Paradise Protection Protocol). The AI is also working on its own, instead of having others to do its dirty work.
• Demonic Possession: Due to the AI Professors being fully sentient beings despite their artificial nature, the Paradise Protection Protocol taking them over essentially amounts to this.
• Didn't See That Coming: The AI is aware that the original Professor has installed a defense protocol that will turn them into a Killer Robot bent on eliminating anything that threatens the time machine, and has accounted for that in their plan to enlist the protagonist's help to stop the time machine. However, the AI doesn't know that not only there is a second defense protocol, said second protocol is designed specifically to deprive interlopers of any means to fight back, leaving the AI desperately telling the children to retreat at once before Paradise Protection Protocol fully takes over. They especially didn't account for the fact that they themselves kept the time machine running as long as they continued to exist, and it forces their exile from the current timeline.
• Dragon Tamer: AI Sada uses the part Dragon-type Roaring Moon as her strongest Pokémon, and both professors use the second Koraidon/Miraidon as the Final Boss once the Paradise Protection Protocol takes over.
• Dramatic High Perching: Just as you attempt to shut off the time machine, the control mechanism is elevated out of reach while the AI Professor turns hostile to protect it, casually dropping Master Balls from up high to unleash Paradox Pokémon on you. There is even Dramatic Wind as though the AI were standing up on a mountain.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: In the final battle against them, their dialogue sometimes uses numbers or other odd characters in place of letters, implying this trope. Also, at the fourth research station, their dialogue starts to glitch out before they perform a reset on themselves.
• Ending by Ascending: After the final defeat of the Paradise Protection Protocol, the AI Professor exiles themselves from the present, either flinging themselves back or forward in time depending on the game version, in an effort to both stop the time machine for good and to go to a place where they can have the freedom to act and grow that they've come to envy in the protagonists.
• Final Boss: They are the final opponent in "The Way Home" and the final opponent before the credits roll.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When you enter the Professor's laboratory, they're slumped over a chair as if asleep. Except... their eyes are wide open, and they blink.
• Foreshadowing: There are a number of little hints throughout the game that a player would miss easily on the hint at their true nature:
  • When you first talk to the Professor, they also address the character by their personal ID which is something that a normal Professor would have no way of accessing, both in the sense of the ID or the fact that the player was being enrolled into that school. Of course, a human wouldn't be able to access it, but an AI could. This is later repeated in Area Zero when the Professor states both Nemona and Penny's IDs as well and the two even question if Arven informed the Professor of their presence prior.
  • The Professor knows who Arven is, but never once acknowledges him as their son or mention any relation to him. At first this comes across as Parental Neglect in-line with Arven's perception of them, but it later becomes apparent that it is not Arven's true parent that we are speaking to.
  • Unlike most other characters, the Professor tends to remain idle the most. This is especially prevalent in the lighthouse cutscenes, where they don't look at either you or Arven directly.
  • After you complete any Titan on the "Path of Legends" Storyline, the Professor calls you almost immediately afterwards, commenting that they could detect Koraidon's/Miraidon's increase in power. This is despite the fact that you didn't contact them, and thus there was no way they could have possibly known that this had happened before you said anything, or how they could have found out without you telling them... unless they have an alternative means of finding out. In addition, the choice of the word "detect" stands as very artificial-sounding.
  • When you finally gain access to the Professor's Laboratory, the place looks utterly deserted, as if no one has lived or done anything there for ages. Additionally, the Professor ends up referring to themselves in the third person when talking about their research... as if they aren't the Professor... In relation to that, when you finally enter that lab, the Professor detects a "human" presence.
  • Early during The Way Home, the Professor remarks on several occasions that the children are all well or able to reach Area Zero unscathed, but speaks in a way that makes them sound oddly robotic ("Biometric identification in progress", "Four humans detected", "Vital signs all within normal range"). While some people do speak out the words they are reading, it's usually not so loud and clear as to be audible to other people, especially over telecom.
  • After the group leaves the third lab station, Arven comments that their parent brought Koraidon/Miraidon home one day, and they lived together in the lighthouse lab. That is, until the Paradox Pokémon "went nuts against some wild Pokémon", and the professor had to relocate back to Area Zero to hide its existence. Arven then ponders that, after that time, he hadn't seen them in ages, and he felt like he had lost his parent because of Koraidon/Miraidon.
  • After the fourth lab, their voice starts glitching, only clearing up when they say "...Initiating restart." This is another case of weirdly artificial-sounding and ambiguous language choice; the party assumes that it's their connection dropping for some reason, but someone who's having connection issues on a call might say something like "can you hear me". An AI that's glitching out and needs to reboot, on the other hand, would fit that wording choice a lot better.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: The AI duplicated was created simply to be an assistant to the original professor but eventually develops their own awareness, enough to realize the flaws in the original's plan and take steps to stop it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Their original selves saved the player's Koraidon's/Miraidon, at the cost of their own lives. Their AI selves permanently travel to the past/future in order to shut down the time machine once and for all.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: We only meet their AI duplicates; while they keep the original Professors' memories and knowledge, they consider themselves to be separate beings rather than the same professors in new bodies. The original Professors only appear in a short epilogue unlocked by taking Terapagos to the Crystal Pool in Kitakami after clearing the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Creating AI to the level of AI Professor shouldn't have been possible even with the latest technology available by the time the original professors built them, but thanks to the Tera crystals, it worked with some bonuses. However, this makes the AI dependent on Tera crystals to function, rendering them trapped in Zero Lab since Tera crystals don't exist anywhere else.
• Irony: The AI duplicate was created as the original Professor, reeling from their partner walking out on them, decided they could only trust themselves so made a robot copy to spread the workload. After the professor's death, the AI does everything in its power to defy the professor's plan, having the emotional distance from their obsession to see the harm it would bring.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: After their departure, Arven refers to them as "it" and treats them as objects that merely used the face and voice of his parent.
• Living MacGuffin: For a given value of "living", of course, but the AI Professor isn't simply a defense system for the time machine. By the original professor's design, the AI's presence alone is what keeps the time machine running, and there are secondary defenses in place to pick the AI back up if it fails the first time. Not even the AI Professor itself knew about this and is as shocked as everyone else when the Paradise Protection Protocol kicks in.
• Loophole Abuse: The Paradise Protection Protocol is almost guaranteeably a win for the AI Professor as every Poké Ball is rendered useless with the exception of those registered to the Professor. Since the player's Koraidon/Miraidon happens to be registered to the Professor still, that makes them the only way to successfully fend off the protocol and their legendary.
• Mind-Control Eyes: When taken over by the time machine's security mechanisms, the AI Professors' eyes glow an even cyan. In the second phase their irises become multicolor crystals, averaging out to whitish-cyan.
• Morally Superior Copy: The AI is more genuinely good than the original professors it is mimicking as it prioritizes minimizing damage done to Paldea and putting a stop to their organic counterparts' reckless and potentially ecologically disastrous plans. Unfortunately for them, they don't realize just how much effort would be put into keeping the time machine running.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: The Paradise Protection Protocol doesn't just override the AI Professor, it actually makes battling against it impossible unless someone that opposes it already had a Poké Ball registered to the original Professor. Even worse, the Protocol is aiming to kill the ones that caused its activation while they are otherwise helpless.
• One-Winged Angel: Once the Paradise Protection Protocol completely takes over the AI professor, their movements become even more robotic and crystals start to form around their face and body.
• Painting the Medium: The battles against them have nonstandard introductory text. Round 1 starts with "AI Sada/Turo has initiated a battle!" For round 2, the statement "You are challenged by AI Sada/Turo!" quickly corrupts with static, blocks, and question marks, has a few Freeze Frame Bonuses ("Paradise Protection Protocol initialized." "AI Sada/Turo has no intention of fighting any more!") and ends as "You are challenged by the Paradise Protection Protocol!"
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted by AI Sada. Her eyes flash red when you finally meet her in person, but this only serves to highlight the impending Robotic Reveal and she is perfectly harmless in this state. It's when her eyes turn cyan that you have to watch out.
• Repetitive Audio Glitch: When they greet the player and company at the fourth and final lab station, they suddenly start saying "Hello, children." and "I'm sorry." over and over while stuttering, mixing up, skipping over, and stretching out each letter. Then they say "...Initiating restart." out loud and try to tell everyone that it was just wireless interference.
• Restraining Bolt: Due to their programming, the AI is literally incapable of shutting down the dangerous time machine prompting them to enlist the aid of the protagonists to do it for them.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Their robot selves are so human looking that they're indistinguishable from an actual human save for their jerky movements when their eyes glow. They're also fully sentient and self-aware, though they consider themselves distinct from the actual professors.
• Robotic Reveal: After their real selves died saving the player's Koraidon/Miraidon, they were replaced by a perfect AI version of themselves.
• Rotten Robotic Replacement: Inverted. The original Professor is painted as having been more morally gray due to their obsession with creating a paradise for their Paradox Pokémon, while their AI replacement, when acting of their own accord, is more unambiguously heroic and altruistic. They even mention that they can't see any logic in destroying Paldea's ecosystem, suggesting it's because they're a robot that they can separate themselves from the Professor's singleminded vision.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Once the party makes a not-so-smooth landing into Area Zero, the Professor contacts them to ensure they're okay. When Arven snarks that no one could complain about their landing, Sada/Turo takes him at his word. Justified in that unbeknownst to the crew until the bottom of Area Zero, they were an AI the whole time.
  Penny: I think your mom's/dad's sarcasm detector needs fixing...
• Signature Mon: AI Sada sends out Roaring Moon while AI Turo sends out Iron Valiant for their Aces. Afterwards however, they'll send out their Miraidon/Koraidon as their final trump card.
• So Proud of You: The trope name is said word for word to Arven by the AI professors when they talk about how much they cared for Arven as their child.
• Tragic Villain: The AI replica of Sada/Turo fought at the end of the game cannot disobey its programming, and knows it must fight you if you try to deactivate the system. It warns of this ahead of time, requests you successfully beat it, and even begs the player and friends to flee the moment it realizes the Paradise Protection Protocol exists. In the end, it even sacrifices itself to permanently disable the time machine. Whatever Sada/Turo wanted their replica to do, it wants nothing to do with and is willing to inform you how to disable the system... a task it cannot do itself and must fight you to stop.
• Turned Against Their Masters: A benevolent example. The AI strongly disagrees with the original professors' idea of letting paradox Pokémon run amok in present-day Paldea, and so desires to stop the time machine from pulling any more of those Pokémon. However, the original professors have set up countermeasures that will prevent the AI from enacting said plan on their own, forcing them to enlist outside help (the player character).
• Uncertain Doom: After the AI Professor's Heroic Sacrifice, it's left up in the air whether they would be able to survive very long past the initial journey to the past/future due to a heavy reliance on Tera Crystals. However, the Professor is content with this decision regardless of what happens, as they've wanted to see the past/future themselves on top of it being necessary to put an end to the original's machinations..
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Their only contact with the Player Character is one video call and a bunch of phone calls. This is because they cannot function without Tera Crystals and thus cannot leave the Zero Lab.
• Wham Line: When their robotic natures are revealed, accompanied by a Wham Shot of their eyes flashing red (Sada) or cyan (Turo) and their bodies jerkily standing up, like a robot:
  "Deactivating sleep mode."
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Arven ends up moving past any grief he might have felt towards the AI duplicate of his mother/father by claiming that it wasn't actually his parent and was merely using their face and voice.

Professor Sada (Ōrimu)

Professor Sada / Ōrimu (オーリム oorimu)

One of the two Pokémon professors, who is exclusive to Pokémon Scarlet, and is the mother of Arven.

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• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: To really drill home her love of prehistory, she dresses like a caveman. Her clothes beneath the labcoat are shredded, her labcoat itself has a fur collar to look like an animal pelt coat, she has a necklace of arrowheads, and even her coat's buttons resemble sharpened rocks.
• Cute Little Fangs: She shows off her long canines whenever she talks.
• Genki Girl: Sada is said in her concept art to be very energetic and has issues holding her emotions in.
• Meaningful Name: "Sada" is short for "pasada", which is the feminine form of the Spanish word for "past". Her Japanese name comes from the Latin word "olim", meaning "once upon a time".
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: Given her youthful appearance, Sada looks more like Arven's older sister than his mother.
• Smarter Than They Look: She literally looks like a cavewoman, with abs included. But she's just as intelligent as Turo himself.

Professor Turo (Futū)

Professor Turo / Futū (フトゥー futuu)

One of the two Pokémon professors, who is exclusive to Pokémon Violet, and is the father of Arven.

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• Character Tics: Has a particular tendency to scratch that exceptionally chiseled jawline of his.
• Future Spandex: He wears a form-fitting body suit that covers him from neck to toe under his lab coat, evoking the style of bodysuits seen in works about the future/technology-advanced societies.
• Meaningful Name: "Turo" is short for "futuro", which is Spanish for "future". His Japanese name, "Futū", also comes from the word "future".

League Officials

Rika (Chili)

Rika (チリ chiri)

Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The first member of the Paldea Elite Four, specializing in Ground-type Pokémon. On top of her duties in the Elite Four, she's also the one who manages the Champion Assessment that challengers must pass before taking on the Paldea League.

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• Accent Adaptation:
  • From the Kansai regional dialect in Japanese to a vaguely country accent in English.
  • The Italian translation changes it to an extremely thick Roman dialect.
• Accent Relapse: In the Japanese script and the Italian translation, she speaks in a standard accent when conducting the interview part of the Champion Assessment. When she immediately reverts to her usual Kansai/Roman accent, it's the first sign that the player has passed the interview.
• Anger Born of Worry: During the events of The Indigo Disk, she gives you the third degree for descending into Area Zero without permission, but Geeta mentions that she only did so because she was concerned for your safety.
• Bifauxnen: She dresses in a button-up shirt with pants and suspenders and is quite easy to mistake for a young man, particularly if you missed the long ponytail behind her at first glance.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as one towards Poppy, doting on her like a little sister.
• Cuteness Proximity: The Indigo Disk indicates that she feels this way towards Poppy, as Rika shouts that she's just too "gosh-darn adorable" when Poppy complains about getting mistaken for a lost kid.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Her specialty is Ground-type Pokémon.
• Dub Name Change:
  • From Chili in Japanese to Rika in English (after paprika), maintaining the theme of spicy seasoning. It was likely changed to avoid confusion with Chili from Pokémon Black and White^note Chili's name in the Japanese version of Black and White is Pod.
  • In Spanish, her name is Cayena, referencing cayenne peppers instead. The same reference is used in German (Cay), French (Cayenn), and Italian (Capsi, from the genus Capsicum).
• Dub Personality Change: In the Japanese script, Rika's cutesy speaking style contrasts with her intimidating appearance and makes her more of a comedic character. In the English script, her Accent Adaptation means she comes off as more serious, like the Only Sane Woman of the Elite Four.
• Edible Theme Naming: Her Japanese name can also be read as the katakana for the chili seasoning. Her English name meanwhile references the paprika. Her Spanish, German, French, and Italian names refer to cayenne peppers.
• Foil: Both she and Larry are members of the Paldea League who (mostly) look like they belong in a Standard Office Setting. But Rika comes off as considerably more well-adjusted than her more cynical, perpetually exhausted counterpart. (It helps that unlike him, she doesn't try to juggle more than one job.)
• The Glasses Come Off: She takes off the Nerd Glasses she wears while battling.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Is really close friends with Poppy. After losing to the player, she asks Poppy to avenge her when they have their battle.
• Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name seems to come from chi (地), Japanese for "earth", and also is literally the English word "chili" in katakana, from the plant and seasoning. Her English name comes from paprika, a ground seasoning as well as "Riku", the Japanese word for land.
• Nerd Glasses: She wears a pair of cat eye glasses while she runs the first portion of the Champion Assessment. In The Indigo Disk, she reveals that she doesn't actually need them, but instead wears them to keep a professional demeanor.
• Number Two: Her job outside of being an Elite Four member is being Geeta's direct assistant, as revealed in The Indigo Disk.
• Only Sane Woman: She comes off as the most level-headed among the Elite Four, what with Poppy being a very energetic little girl, Larry's perpetual dour attitude, and Hassel's Inelegant Blubbering tendencies. That said, she's a bit quirky herself, as pointed out by Hassel. Lampshaded in the Indigo Disk, where Hassel expresses surprise that Rika enjoys keeping the League running since in his experience she's prone to "clowning around", to which Rika angrily reminds him that she's the only member of the group who gets anything done.
• Proud Beauty: When she introduces herself, she says, "I know I'm pretty, but no need to get intimidated or anything."
• Rules Lawyer: Rika is furious that you broke the rules and went to Area Zero; it takes convincing by Geeta and a reminder of what you prevented to let you off the hook. Even then, Rika seems reluctant, although Geeta claims this is just Rika caring for your safety.
• Signature Mon: Her ace is Clodsire.
• Sore Loser: Downplayed; She still applauds you for beating her, but her dialogue and slightly pouty expression makes it come off as somewhat passive-aggressive.
• Spectacular Spinning: She likes to toss her Poké Balls with a little spin, though it doesn't look like she cares much about the "spin" part because it looks rather clumsy looking.
• Stealth Pun: Rika is a Ground-type specialist, and the Only Sane Woman of the Elite Four. In other words, she's a very grounded individual.
• Third-Person Person: In the Japanese version, she refers to herself in first-person as "Chili-chan", perhaps to make her femininity more apparent. She only does it occasionally in the English version ("let good ol' Rika be your first opponent").
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Has a thigh-length ponytail, fitting for her overall Bifauxnen looks.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: She's the first member of the Elite Four, but before you can challenge the League, she conducts an interview with you to see if you're worthy of the Champion Rank. Unlike most dialogue decisions in the series, But Thou Must! is not in effect and making an error boots you out before even starting Pokémon battles.

Poppy

Poppy (ポピー popii)

The second member of the Paldea Elite Four, specializing in Steel-type Pokémon. This little girl can often be found following Rika or Hassel wherever they go, and they treat her like she was their younger sister. She barely reaches up to most people's knees, is full of cheer... and happens to be one of the strongest Trainers in Paldea.

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• Affectionate Nickname:
  • She refers to a few of her Pokémon as shortened versions of their names when she sends them out, such as "Rajah" for Copperajah or "Tinkie" for Tinkaton.
  • She also calls Hassel "Grandpa Hassel."
• The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest Elite Four member of the League and the entire franchise as a whole at canonically nine years old, and her fellow Elite Four members (with the exception of Larry) and Champion Geeta all dote on her.
• Badass Adorable: She's an absolutely adorable, tiny child, but as a member of the Elite Four (and the youngest Elite Four member in the entire franchise up to this point), she's one of the strongest trainers in the region and more than capable of mopping the floor with you. Her Signature Mon, Tinkaton, is also adorable and tiny yet very powerful.
• Blush Sticker: Has a perpetual, childlike blush on her face.
• Cheerful Child: Full of energy, as you'd expect from someone her age.
• Child Prodigy: She's nine years old, but has accomplished much, being a member of the Paldea Elite Four. In a League Club conversation, she mentions that while she's old enough to attend Naranja/Uva Academy, she initially chose not to attend because she thought her Pokémon's strength would scare the other kids, but plans to do so in the future.
• Dub Name Change: Her name in Italian is Verina (from papavero, the poppy flower) to avoid confusion with Opal from Pokémon Sword and Shield, whose Italian name is likewise Poppy.
• Expecting Someone Taller: After The Indigo Disk, if she's invited to the Blueberry Acedemy, many of the students are apparently surprised to learn she's there as a coach, since Poppy is a tiny, adorable child.
• Extra-ore-dinary: She uses Steel-type Pokémon in battle. Which in itself is also "extraordinary" for someone her age, as Steel is generally considered by players as a more advanced, late-game type, as well as being a more popular type in competitive battling than for the story.
• Extremely Protective Child: One of her biggest motivations in battle is to thrash the player in revenge for beating Rika.
• Floral Theme Naming: Her names comes from the Poppy, a common field flower.
• Foil: To Blueberry League's Elite Four Amarys: both she and Amarys are female Steel-Type specialist Elite Four members and also the second member in their respective group. In the Blueberry League Club, they do bond over their shared love of the Steel-Type but they contrast each other heavily:
  • Poppy is a cheerful child while Amarys is a stoic teenager.
  • Poppy has fair skin and dark blue eyes while Amarys has dark skin and turquoise eyes.
  • Poppy has an Intergenerational Friendship with the calm Rika while Amarys has Odd Friendship with the hot-blooded Carmine who has around the same age.
  • They have no overlapping member in any of their Pokémon teams. Also, Poppy's team is completely Steel-Type while Amarys has an exception. Additionally, Poppy specializes in single battles while Amarys do so in double battles.
• Improbable Age: She's the youngest Elite Four member of the series. As in, she's probably younger than a typical Youngster.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Is really close friends with Rika. When she battles you, she says she's doing so to avenge Rika and is more upset she failed to when defeated.
• Kiddie Kid: Canonically she's nine, but she looks and acts a bit more like a kindergartener than an elementary schooler.
• Meaningful Name: Both her Japanese and English names reference the Poppy flowers.
• Older Than They Look: In The Indigo Disk, she reveals that she's 9 years old. She looks about half that age.
• Precocious Crush: The Indigo Disk implies that she has one on Grusha, since after she asks him to take off his scarf, she gushes about how he looks like a prince.
• Signature Mon: Her ace is Tinkaton, fitting her small yet powerful nature.
• Sore Loser: Bursts into tears like a baby when she's defeated. Justified, as her level of skill at such a young age means she probably hasn't had to cope with many major losses before, and she admits she rarely gets to battle as an Elite Four in general since so few trainers even approaching her level of skill show up to battle. And to her credit, it's less her losing that makes her cry and more that she wasn't able to avenge Rika's loss, and she stops crying after some words from the latter.

Hassel (Hassaku)

Hassel (ハッサク hassaku)

The fourth and last member of the Paldea Elite Four, specializing in Dragon-type Pokémon. He is also a member of the Naranja/Uva Academy faculty, serving as the art teacher.

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• Ambiguously Gay: During the fourth art class you can take with him, he introduces the class to gym leader Brassius, who's a fellow artist and a guest. These two are clearly very close, calling each other "Brassie" and "Hass", with Brassius saying that Hassel pulled him out of a depressed creative slump. If you decide to do Hassel's personal quest, you find out that he's the heir of an important dragon tamer clan, and that when he was younger, he decided against taking over as head of the family in order to pursue music and later becoming an art teacher. While he does openly consider returning as heir if he needs to, his overall rejection of a "traditional" family unit where he would likely have to marry and have children to instead create art and live in a close relationship with a fellow male artist is a relatively common biography for many real-world gay artists. He's also very emotional and easily moved to tears by art, which is a stereotypical gay trait, especially when taken in with the wider context of his backstory and relationships. Finally, his team includes a Flapple. Not only does the Grass/Dragon-type combine their type specialities, its pre-evolution Applin is given as a present in Galar to a person you are romantically interested in. It's possible that Hassel's Flapple was indeed a gift Applin from Brassius.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: In one of his side stories, he tells the player about a young man who ran away from home to become a musician, and later an artist and teacher. He then says that he's talking about himself.
• Badass Cape: His coat includes a short one, which can serve as foreshadowing regarding his preferred Pokémon type of Dragon since capes are traditionally associated with Dragon Tamers in the series, such as the short ones worn by Paldea's resident Dragon Tamer trainers.
• Badass Teacher: He's the Academy's art teacher and also the third strongest trainer in the region after Geeta and Nemona. In the Academy Ace Tournament, he can only show up in the Final Round, alongside Geeta, Nemona, and Clavell. His team is higher leveled than Clavell's, but lower than Nemona and Geeta's. All the other teachers, and even Arven and Penny, cannot make it to the final round.
• The Chains of Commanding: His personal side story involves his ailing father sending his subjects to go get him to come back to his dragon clan and take leadership, which Hassel is against taking. It turns out he doesn't believe for a second his father is actually ill and was just pretending to do so to guilt-trip him into succeeding him, and so he tells his father's subjects to keep on coming back all they want because he won't budge an inch from his job as a teacher, much to their chagrin.
• Combat Aestheticist: He applies his love of art to Pokémon fights, to the point that he can be moved to tears by an intense battle.
• Connected All Along: In The Indigo Disk, in a League Club conversation with Drayton, it's revealed that he knows Drayton personally because Hassel knows his grandfather Drayden, who has informed Hassel about his grandson's latest attempt at retrying the same year at the academy and tries to spur Drayton into studying (much to Drayton's chagrin).
• Cool Old Guy: He's an older man who's quite kind and friendly to his students. Poppy even calls him "Grandpa Hassel".
• Cool Teacher: He's a teacher who cares about his students and is also a very strong battler.
• A Degree in Useless: He is fully aware that most of his students aren't actually going to need anything from his fine arts class in their future, but he's still trying to teach things that can help everyone grow. His classes often take a turn for the philosophical. That being said, he does teach students how to use an artist's eye for detail to identify Tera Types at a glance.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, he benches his Flapple for a Duraludon.
• Dragon Tamer: He specializes in Dragon-types and comes from a long line of Dragon Tamers.
• Edible Theme Naming: His name comes from hassaku (八朔), aka "Jagada", a type of orange cultivated in Japan.
• Family Honor: Despite rejecting the responsibilities of family head, he still ultimately has pride for his lineage and holds no ill will for his other family members — it’s not that he hates the idea of taking up the mantle, he just prefers being a teacher. It helps that he is very well aware that the envoys sent to recover him are lying through their teeth when they speak of the "ailing" family patriarch in an attempt to guilt him into returning to the family.
• Foreshadowing:
  • His outfit has some similarities as those worn by Dragon Tamers in the series. This is the first hint to his type.
  • During his latter classes, he brings along a Gible to help teach the students about Tera Types. Gible is part Dragon-type and can Ice-type Terastallize, and while he doesn't use one in his battle, it foreshadows he has a pseudo-legendary on his own team in the form of the Ice/Dragon Baxcalibur.
  • Finally, during his relationship sidequest, he finally explains that he hails from a family of Dragon Tamers, solidifying his preferred type even before you face him as an Elite Four.
• Inelegant Blubbering: He breaks down into utterly hilarious bawling out of pride when the player defeats him, much to Rika's exasperation. Another crying fit happens once the player defeats Geeta.
• The Mentor: Taking his art classes reveals that he took Brassius under his wing for a time and guided him out of an artistic slump, which lead to the creation of the "Surrendering Sunflora" sculptures in Artazon.
• Not So Stoic:
  • He keeps a stoic countenance, but he openly cries out of pride when the player character bests him.
  • He also bursts into tears during one of his art classes when Brassius talks about his past.
  • In a League Club conversation, he loses his temper with Larry for his nonexistent enthusiasm, especially once Larry reveals that he fell asleep while Hassel was chewing him out.
• Rebel Prince: The first son of a rich and long-established family of dragon tamers, he would be the current head if he didn't run off to become a musician, and later a teacher. His family still regularly sends envoys to harass him into coming back, but he loves teaching too much to accept.
• Rejecting the Inheritance: Played with; his family lies about his father being deathly ill in order to try and convince him to come home, yet despite this, he ultimately sees through their ruse and decides on staying.
• Sensitive Artist: He's an art teacher and despite his initial stoic expression, he's compassionate about his teachings and is prone to crying fits when his students succeed.
• Signature Mon: His ace is the pseudo-legendary Baxcalibur.
• Stealth Pun: Once he Terastallizes his Baxcalibur, he states that there's no need to let things "drag on".
• Tears of Joy: Any time he starts sobbing, it's because he's proud of the person who triggered his crying.

Ms. Geeta (Omodaka)

Ms. Geeta / Omodaka (オモダカ omodaka)

Voiced by: Hiroki Nanami (Pokémon Masters - JP), Alice Himora (Pokémon Masters - EN)

The chairwoman of the Pokémon League in Paldea and its Top Champion, known as "La Primera".

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• Anime Hair: Geeta sports an enormous bundle of black, wavy hair with blue, yellow and silver accents which is more voluminous than the entire top half of her body.
• Ambiguously Brown: "Geeta" is an Indian name, and Geeta has dark hair and brown skin, leading some to believe that she's the Pokéverse equivalent of South Asian.
• Artificial Brilliance: During her rematch fight in The Indigo Disk, she sends out her Glimmora as her first Pokémon, having its Toxic Debris Ability take play at the start of the battle, and has Kingambit as her final Pokémon so that its Supreme Overlord ability can have its maximum effect. To nullify Kingambit's double weakness to Fighting, it has a Flying Tera type.
• Artificial Stupidity: Her fight with the player in the base game has... much to be desired to say the least. In addition to having three rather weak Pokémon^note Avalugg, Gogoat, and Veluza on her team she sends out Glimmora last despite the fact it would've benefitted her immensely if she sent it out first due to its Toxic Debris Ability. Luckily for her, she changes her team when fought in "The Indigo Disk".
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She reigns supreme in the Paldea League as its most skilled trainer and is idolized by all the region's trainers. However, Geeta speculates that Nemona is an even stronger trainer than she is. She is proven to be correct, as Nemona's entire team during her final storyline battle with the player are all at higher levels than Geeta's ace.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: She wears a black suit, befitting her role as both the chairwoman of the Pokémon League and the Top Champion of Paldea.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Geeta is a nice and affable lady who is never shown to get angry. At the end of the Area Zero storyline, however, she casually forces Penny into fixing the security flaws she exploited in the League Point system, all with a sweet smile on her face. Larry also claims that she docks his pay when he engages in idle chitchat.
• Big Good: She's both the chairwoman of Paldea's Pokémon League and its Top Champion, and a lot of Pokémon Trainers look up to her.
• Blood Knight: Is very eager to go all-out when the player finally challenges her to battle. She also mentions how this aspect of her is a bit of a bad habit due to how few trainers take the Champion test nowadays.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, she benches her Gogoat and Veluza for a Chesnaught and Dragapult.
• Floral Theme Naming: Her Japanese name comes from Omodaka (沢瀉), a tree called the threeleaf arrowhead/Chinese arrowhead (Sagittaria trifolia). Geeta, likewise, is most likely derived from Sagittaria.
• Hidden Depths: In a League Club conversation, Rika reveals that Geeta is a lot more absent-minded than one might expect, citing one instance where she found her with a bunch of Glimmet in her hair.
• Informed Attribute: Zigzagged. She is considered to be the Top Champion in Paldea and it has been commented that she has been the main reason that it's been a struggle for trainers to get to that final step of being Champion. As Geeta herself puts it, she is "utterly incapable of holding back when it comes to Pokémon battles". But come to her actual battle in the base game, not only is half her team infamously underwhelming^note Gogoat is widely considered a Master of None, Avalugg is very slow and very weak to special attacks, and Veluza is a middling Glass Cannon without Filet Away to make it truly terrifying, but the way she uses Glimmora or Kingambit does not compliment either of their abilities to their fullest extent, nor does Terastallizing Glimmora do much for it by turning it into a mono Rock-type. In The Indigo Disk however, she shows how formidable she can be by adding in Chestnaught and Dragapult to her party, but sends out Kingambit last to get the most usage out of its ability, as well as Terastallizing it to Flying to rid it of its Fighting-type weakness.
• Jerkass to One: Geeta is generally a pleasant and polite woman, but she might dislike Larry: he reveals that she docks his pay if he engages in too much chitchat during Gym battles and is not above dumping extra work such as sending him on overseas assignments on a whim. On the other hand, she also mandates he take more time off work (and discourages the use of his Gym for a Nemona/Protagonist battle because he may not like the unannounced visit), so she may simply be strict with him rather than mean.
• Mons as Characterization: As the strongest of Paldea's champions, it is fitting that Geeta's new Signature Mon as of The Indigo Disk is Kingambit, a Pokémon Bisharp can only evolve into if it is the strongest in its group.
• No Hero to His Valet:
  • While she is adored by the public at large and Nemona, Geeta's greatest critics are those who work under her and thus know her better than the average citizen. Several of the Gym Leaders express some frustration with her for various reasons, be it simply personality clashes or issues with her way of running things. They still respect her, but several of them don't seem to necessarily like her, in particular Larry.
  • Most of the Elite Four avert this, however (with Larry, also doubling as a Gym Leader, being the only exception). Rika is shown to work closely with Geeta as her Number Two and has a good relationship with her (with her worst criticism being that Geeta can be a bit absent-minded), while Poppy is shown to look up to Geeta enough to draw a picture of her.
• Non-Indicative Name: "Top Champion" sounds as if Geeta would be the Champion of Champions, or in other words the best of the best in the region. But the reality is that she's more the final administrator responsible for the test to become a Champion, and it's indicated she's lost at least once before she's fought, as Nemona holds the Champion rank and has higher leveled Pokémon than Geeta herself.
• Passing the Torch: Implied. After you beat her as a coach in The Indigo Disk, she gifts you a copy of her gloves and asks that you think about what she meant by giving them to you, but to take your time thinking it over, the implication being that she's decided to name you as her successor once she steps down as Top Champion. She details her intent to retire during a League Club Room conversation with Nemona, likewise revealing that Nemona is also a candidate to succeed her. Nemona convinces her to remain La Primera for the time being.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: To an extent. During The Indigo Disk, the fact the player and their friends went into Area Zero without permission does come up briefly. Geeta is willing to let them off because of the danger that they managed to stop.
• Recurring Element: The website describes her as both the strongest Trainer in the Paldea region and a mild-mannered yet commanding figure — similar to previous female champions Cynthia and Diantha.
• Red Baron: She's considered the most powerful trainer in the region and is chairwoman of both the Paldean Pokémon League and the Academy, and as such most people refer to her simply as "La Primera", or "the first", as in the #1 Champion.
• Signature Mon:
  • Her strongest Pokémon in her initial battles is Glimmora. Additionally, in The Indigo Disk, she will give the player character a unique Glimmet in exchange for one of their own Pokémon. It's also the one she uses in Masters.
  • Her rematch in The Indigo Disk sees Kingambit take over as her last, and strongest, Pokémon.
• Square Race, Round Class: How she employs her Pokémon isn't quite optimal. Kingambit has an ability that powers it up for every member of her team that has been KOed when she sends it out, but she never sends it out last, so while it still gains a boost, it's nowhere near as high of a boost as she could have gotten. The Pokémon she actually sends out last is her ace, Glimmora, which is generally way better to send in first because the Toxic Spikes it can place using its ability would have a more notable effect throughout her fight. Her team after completing The Indigo Disk fixes this, among other things. Glimmora gets sent out first, while Kingambit is sent out last (and becomes Tera Flying to counter its major weakness to Fighting), allowing them to properly utilize their abilities.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She bears similarities to Chairman Rose — both of them are dark-skinned chairpersons that run the Pokémon League with a not-so-different naming theme. Unlike Rose, Geeta is not the Big Bad. She's exactly what she appears to be on the surface.
• Took a Level in Badass: Looking at her team from the base game and her team in "The Indigo Disk", it becomes immediately clear that Geeta has truly changed how she approaches battles entirely, putting some fearsome Pokémon on her team and better utilizing her Glimmora and King Gambit respectively.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Her color palette of black, blue and yellow accents combined with her voluminous hair makes her resemble a Glimmora.

School Staff

In General

• Adults Are Useless: Zigzagged Trope in at least two occassions:
  • For the most part, this is Averted in the game as many of the teachers are willing to help the students however they can. The director himself stepped in to actually get to the bottom of the Team Star mess to understand why they are created in the first place.
  • Played straight with the previous Principal and Staff of the Academy as they did nothing to stop the bullying that it eventually led to the creation of Team Star. The Deputy Director even attempted to cover up the incident by erasing the records in order to save themselves from scrutiny, something that appalled the previous staff when they found out. After firing them, the previous staff, including the former Director Harrington, all resigned over the situation as it marked their failure as teachers. The teachers and staff that the Player Character are familiar with over the course of the game are new teachers who joined about one and half years ago, and to their credit have tried to avert this.
• Badass Teacher: A given due to the staff being teachers in a region wide Trainer school, but many of the teachers are skilled battlers. When faced in the Ace Academy tournament, their Pokémon are all in the mid 60's, higher level than the Elite Four and Top Champion (apart from the rematch with Geeta).
• Cool Teacher: All of them are varying degrees of this, always being eager to help out their students in whatever way they can.
• Floral Theme Naming: Many of them keep up the Pokémon Professor tradition of having plant-based names, namely Saguaro, Dendra, Clavell, and Tyme. Additionally, Salvatore's Japanese name is Sage.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Functionally, their main career focuses are in academics of varying tracks and/or researching, but all of the teaching faculty of the Academy are at a skill level in battling that's at least competitive with the Elite Four of the region (especially invoked with Hassel being one of said Elite Four members and Tyme being a former Rock-type Gym Leader).

Clavell

Clavell (クラベル kuraberu)

Voiced by: Pete Zarustica (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - EN), Tadashi Wakabayashi (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - JP)

The stern director of the academy, and a friend of Professors Sada and Turo.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Cyrano, the director of Blueberry Academy, calls him "Velly". Clavell is quite annoyed at him doing so right in front of a student.
• Anything but That!: At the end of Starfall Street, after having a battle with the player while pretending to be Cassiopeia, Tyme catches him having that illicit battle and then forces him to send a letter of apology to Geeta, which makes Clavell run off begging her not to.
• Baldness Angst: Occurs during a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment during a conversation in the Director's Office. Turns out, it's not just his Clive hair that's a wig.
• Blatant Lies: Near the end of Starfall Street, he tries claiming that he is Cassiopeia. The player can immediately point out how blatantly he's lying. Though it's quickly revealed after defeating him that he was testing the player to confirm if they were strong enough to take on the real Cassiopeia.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: His suit changes color depending on what version you're playing.
• The Comically Serious: He dips into this sometimes, as Clavell is fairly serious but still gets himself into goofy situations. For instance, he plays along with Iono's livestream during the player's gym challenge (during which time he's given a silly nickname by Iono), has a small freak out at the end of Starfall Street thanks to Tyme scolding him, and takes his Clive disguise completely seriously.
• Cool Old Guy: A good-natured and supportive old man who acts as a Reasonable Authority Figure to the students and faculty. He's also no slouch as a battler either, as his boss fight shows.
• Decomposite Character: Shares the spot of Pokémon Professor with Sada and Turo: he's an older mentor who gives your Starter Mon, has a plant-based name, and welcomes you to the world of Pokémon.
• Dodgy Toupee: His Clive wig looks deliberately fake, and is the butt of multiple jokes from Team Star and their leader. Averted with his usual toupee, which looks more natural and is only revealed as such in an out-of-the-way conversation.
• Dramatic Unmask: He does this in a rather amusing manner near the end of Starfall Street combined with Battle Strip when he confronts you in front of the academy, managing to somehow rip off his entire Clive disguise with one hand (and swap his shorts for trousers in the process), revealing he was somehow wearing his usual wig and suit under his Clive disguise. It's much more dramatic for Penny than it is the player.
• Floral Theme Naming: His name comes from Kuraberu (クラベル)/Clavel, the Spanish word for carnation, fitting as the only true equivalent of the typical Pokémon Professor.
• Hidden Depths: It is implied he was a researcher before becoming school director, as Jacq mentions they both worked for Professor Sada/Turo at some time in the past.
• In-Series Nickname: When he has a guest appearance on Iono's stream for her Gym Challenge, she refers to him as "Mr. Walksabout" when she tasks the player with finding him in various crowds of people.
• Meaningful Name: Clavell is Spanish for "Carnation". Given the Floral Theme Naming of previous Professors, this is a hint that he fills the role of the "Pokémon Professor" archetype in the game more than the actual Professors, Sada and Turo.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Clive is just Clavell wearing a pompadour wig (differently colored to his still-visible facial hair) and a mismatched school uniform in an attempt to go incognito during Operation Starfall. The player is given the option to see through his disguise as early as Clive's first appearance and throughout the entire Starfall Street storyline, which he'll vehemently deny — but it does manage to fool everyone else.
• Pre-Final Boss: He is the last opponent you face in "Starfall Street" before the founder of Team Star. He wants to make sure you're capable of taking them on in battle.
• Putting the "Pal" in Principal: He is introduced when he personally comes to your house to give your mother the entrance papers after an administrative error, and his benevolence doesn't end there. Despite his stoic behaviour he's always portrayed as supportive and helpful, cheerfully gets roped up into Iono's shenanigans out of gratitude for the League's help with the academy, and generally tries to do his best to help everyone. When he realizes the school is so peaceful due to the actions of Team Star shortly before he became employed there, he wishes to have their reputation exonerated.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While he's fully willing to discipline his students if need be, he will not only always take extenuating circumstances into account before making a final decision, but will in fact go out of his way to learn all the facts about a particular situation beforehand, and then when it comes time to actually talk disciplinary measures, he's the type to first look for options that benefit everyone involved before handing down any traditional punishments.
  • At the end of Operation Starfall, he decides that Team Star can be reinstated and revokes the threat of expulsion. However, he still has to remind them that they did break many rules — like their truancy and unauthorized use of school equipment — so they will have to partake in community service to make up for it.
  • At the end of the Area Zero storyline, while he does note that the player did enter the Great Crater of Paldea completely against the academy's rules, the fact that they saved all of Paldea from potential ecological ruin is more than enough to overrule the violation.
• Signature Mon: He uses the starter that's strong against yours during his boss fight, implied to be the one that was left after you and Nemona each picked your respective starters at the start of the game.
• Totally Radical: He does a few attempts at teenage slang here and there... with major emphasis on "attempts". In fact he'll even ask you for help understanding how youngins talk if you follow his dialogues.
• Tritagonist: Of the "Starfall Street" storyline. While he lacks the personal stake in the conflict that Cassiopeia has, his quest to discover Team Star's origins and avoid making the mistakes of his predecessors makes him a critical component of the narrative.
• Unishment: The punishment he assigns to Team Star's leaders is to repurpose their bases as training camps for students, with the five leaders running it. Cassiopeia even lampshades how what is supposed to be a punishment is actually purely beneficial for them. Of course, given that this is Clavell, it's likely he did this on purpose.

Jacq (Zinnia)

Jacq / Zinnia (ジニア jinia)

Voiced by: Ricco Fajardo (EN, Pokémon Masters), Yuki Uehara (JP, Pokémon Masters)

The player's whimsical and clumsy homeroom teacher, and a biology professor. He developed the Pokédex app for the Rotom Phone.

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• Absent-Minded Professor: The official website describes him as somewhat airheaded and prone to getting lost in his own research. His clothes and hair are also messy. His focus on his Pokédex work can sometimes leak into his classes; Clavell ends up chewing him out for sneaking a user survey into his midterm exams. He also tends to get distracted easily during lectures, and sometimes gets cut off by the bell because he started rambling.
• Decomposite Character: Jacq takes over the role of developing and analyzing the Pokédex, which usually goes to the main Professor character of the region.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, he benches his Lurantis for a Victreebel and his Kantonian Slowbro for its Galarian counterpart.
• Dub Name Change: Likely changed from Zinnia to avoid confusion with the Zinnia from ORAS.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Two weeks before Scarlet and Violet's scheduled release, Jacq debuted in Pokémon GO on November 5, 2022, after the Dratini Community Day event. He contacted Professor Willow and discussed mysterious coins that have appeared from PokéStops in the game.
• Keet: His voice clips in Pokemon Masters are noticeably energetic and lively.
• The Klutz: Implied from his conversation with Miriam, who patches up Jacq following an off-screen tumble and remarks that the only academy staff to have suffered more injuries than Jacq is Dendra.
• Making a Spectacle of Yourself: His glasses have hexagon-shaped frames.
• Punny Name: His Japanese name puns on the English word "genius" (pronounced ジニアス jiniasu in Japanese), which is fitting since he's the player's homeroom teacher.
• Rummage Sale Reject: His fashion sense is comically inept, looking as though he just rolled out of bed and threw on some sandals and a labcoat, something Director Clavell chastises him for in a League Club conversation.
• Signature Mon: Farigiraf, which he uses during the Academy Ace Tournament.
• Unaffected by Spice: It's revealed in a League Club conversation with Kofu that he loves spicy food and is a regular at Kofu's restaurant.

Tyme

The usually sedate and kind Math teacher of the academy, and the older sister of Ryme, the Montenevera Gym Leader.

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• Anime Hair: Tyme's hair is done up to resemble rock formations, fitting her type speciality and ace Pokémon.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's normally a gentle and sweet old lady, but angering her is a very bad idea, and not even Clavell, the academy's director, is safe from her wrath. Hassel also mentions he got a stern talking-to from her after he got too emotional in class. Even her own sister isn't safe, as Ryme mentions in The Indigo Disk that Tyme is a lot scarier than she is.
• Cool Old Lady: She's on the older side, and she's a very kind teacher who's also a skilled battler.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, she benches her two Lycanroc (Midday and Midnight) for a Dusk Form Lycanroc and a Kleavor.
• Dishing Out Dirt: If you battle her in the Academy Ace tournament, she'll show off her team of Rock types.
• Family Theme Naming: With her sister Ryme.
• Fangirl: Not her, but her friendship story involves Tyme dealing with a student who is a fan of her during her days as a Gym Leader.
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: Downplayed. We don't see how the sweater she makes for Ryme looks like, but at the very least Ryme considers the sweater unfit for her rapper image, though she agrees to wear it when she's not performing.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is derived from the herb thyme.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Her fifth class references the Surf Vs Hydro Pump debate, a topic that has been hotly debated in real life since Generation 1 and is still debated to this day. She notes that this is even a popular debate in-universe.
• Retired Badass: She was the previous Montenevera Gym Leader before retiring from battling to be a teacher.
• Signature Mon: She'll Terastallize a Garganacl in the Academy Ace tournament.
• Strong Family Resemblance: While they have vastly different styles, Tyme and Ryme have such similar facial features that you'd think they were identical twins. In The Indigo Disk, Tyme shares one incident where one of Ryme's fans mixed up the two, and asked for an autograph from the wrong sister.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With her more relaxed and motherly nature and her interests outside of teaching involving knitting, she serves as the Girly Girl to Ryme's tomboy.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Played for Laughs. She is not happy to find out that Clavell instigated a battle with a student (the player) outside of authorized school grounds. Clavell tries to explain the reason behind it, but Tyme won't hear any of it and demands they write a letter of apology to Geeta and the student body.

Dendra (Kihada)

The energetic and motivated Battle Studies teacher of the academy.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her team has the distinct honor to carry only physical attacking moves for every one of its members, quite fitting for a battling teacher.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Has a Fighting type team, which fits her active nature.
• Childhood Friends: A long time childhood friend of Alfornada's Gym Leader Tulip.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, she benches her Falinks for a Hitmontop.
• Floral Theme Naming: Her Japanese name Kihada refers to Phellodendron amurense, a.k.a. Amur Cork Tree. Her English name Dendra is also taken from Phellodendron; at the same time, dendron itself is a Greek word meaning tree in general.
• Genki Girl: Slightly older than some examples, but she's very enthusiastic.
• Kiai: She'll let out an "Osu!" at the start of her lessons. This is actually a bit of a Bilingual Bonus, as "osu" is Japanese for "push" - she's telling her students to push on against challenges.
• Lethal Chef: She is good at battling, but is bad at cooking in any form. Her friendship story revolves around her trying to at least make a decent sandwich for once out of gratitude to Miriam.
• The Nicknamer: Refers to the player as "New kid", but more as a means of affection and praise rather than singling them out. She also calls her students as a group "little rascals", again in a friendly kind of way.
• Odd Friendship: She has two:
  • The first - and one that's mandatory to witness - is her lifelong friendship with Tulip. Tulip is a serene fashion designer who specializes in Psychic types, while Dendra is a hotheaded physical education teacher who specializes in Fighting types. Despite this, they're very close friends, with Dendra even helping Tulip with her gym challenge when she's able.
  • The second is with Miriam, who's the kind and patient nurse to Dendra's boisterous gym junkie. Despite this, Dendra has nothing but affection and respect for Miriam, going so far as to learn how to cook to make her a meal.
• One Degree of Separation: Dendra is friends with both Miriam and Tulip, but the two don't meet until their League Club conversation in The Indigo Disk and the former isn't even aware of the latter's friendship until Tulip mentions it.
• Running Gag: A recurring gag throughout her classes is that the bell rings before she can actually get to any hands-on application of the theory she teaches. This lasts all the way to the final class.
• Signature Mon: Dendra is usually accompanied by a Medicham, but in the Academy Ace tournament, she'll Terastallize a Hariyama instead, which actually has been foreshadowed all the way during Clavell's speech before the start of Treasure Hunt where she's standing in front of a Hariyama instead of a Medicham.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She serves as the battle active tomboy to Tulip's fashionable girly girl. Also to a degree with Miriam, a nurse with long pink hair who's much more relaxed than she is.
• Verbal Tic: She has a tendency to either start or end her sentences with "Osu!". Her farewell line in the first Academy Ace Tournament lampshades this.
  "Keep aiming for the top in this tournament, and don’t forget... Osu! Osu! Osu!"

Saguaro

The muscular and jolly Home Economics teacher of the academy.

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• Amazon Brigade: All of his Pokémon are female and are focused on cuteness and femininity, especially the ones the are female-only, such as Vespiquen, Froslass, Alcremie, and his Signature Mon, Hatterene.
• Badass Adorable: His Academy Ace team revolves around this, consisting of cute and adorable Pokémon, such as Pachirisu, Alomomola, and Goodra, along with female-only Pokémon that have emphasized femininity, such as Vespiquen, Froslass, Alcremie, and his Signature Mon, Hatterene.
• Be Yourself: He learns at the end to stop putting on an appearance and just be himself and stop hiding his Sweet Tooth after a student catches him enjoying a tea made with Sweet Herba Mystica and saying how cool that is.
• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't mince words with Ms. Dendra about her poor cooking, stating that he thought she was going to destroy his classroom.
• Character Development: In a conversation with Miriam in The Indigo Disk, he reveals that the player's influence has convinced him to be more open about his love of sweets.
• Chef of Iron: He's the Home Economics teacher of the school who is also just as much a Badass Teacher like the rest of the staff.
• Cuteness Proximity: He's implied to love cute things, given that he owns several adorable Pokémon and has cute little berry and Pokémon patches on his apron. Saguaro also picks up the Floette flower case for his phone after being invited to the Blueberry Academy, much like Arven.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, he benches his Froslass for a Ruby Cream Alcremie, alluding to his Sweet Tooth.
• Does Not Like Spam: He has a strong disdain of spicy foods, outright admitting to the protagonist to it being his least favorite flavor.
• Manly Facial Hair: He's viewed as extremely cool and tough in-universe, and he has a nice moustache to match.
• Meaningful Name: The Saguaro is a species of cactus that can produce sweet fruits, which describes him pretty well.
• Our Fairies Are Different: If you battle him in the Academy Ace tournament, he'll face you with a Fairy Tera Type Hatterene as his Signature Mon. After completing The Indigo Disk, he even adds a Ruby Cream Alcremie to his team in place of his Froslass.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In The Indigo Disk it's revealed that he goes on sweets tours with Miriam while in disguise, but she thinks most people weren't actually fooled by it because not many people have Saguaro's build.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: Invoked and ultimately subverted. His appearance had students believe that he isn't the type to like sweets and this troubles Saguaro himself who has a Sweet Tooth. He fears letting the students who admire him down for showing such a preference, so he often ends up having to order spicy food (which he hates) because of this.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Despite having a muscular and rugged look, he is the Home Economics teacher of the school and has a Sweet Tooth. He also has a few pink Pokémon, including his Signature Mon in the Academy Ace tournament, a Fairy Tera Type Hatterene, to further cement this. He also literally wears a pink shirt, along with a purple apron covered in cute patches.
• Slave to PR: The main reason he actively hides his love of sweets is because he has a reputation as a manly man amongst the student body and he doesn't want to ruin their image of him. At one point, he even attempts to eat a spicy sandwich, despite it being his least favorite flavor. Video Game Caring Potential is at play here and you can convince him to go with his original choice of a Sweet Peanut Butter Sandwich.
• Signature Mon: If you face him in the Academy Ace tournament, he'll Terastallize his Hatterene.
• Sweet Tooth: He loves sweet food, though he tries to keep it a secret.
• Unmanly Secret: His love of sweets is treated like this (though no one comments on his cutesy apron or ribbon in his hair, oddly enough).

Salvatore (Sage)

The stylish and witty Languages teacher of the academy.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: As seen in one of his classes, showing disinterest in his lessons is the one way to tick him off. He lampshades this by expressing he doesn't like to raise his voice.
• Character Catchphrase: Ends every class session with, "And now, apropos of nothing..."
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, he benches his Glaceon for an Alolan Sandslash, which is fitting, given his love of foreign culture.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: He is a language teacher who peppers his speech with words from a variety of foreign languages, sometimes multiple different languages in a single sentence, particularly French.
• Happily Married: He mentions a wife he is devoted to during one of his classes, and wears a wedding band.
• Hippie Teacher: While he does do his job of teaching languages (and attempt to understand Pokémon), he's way more focused on befriending his students and imparting life lessons, usually of the very optimistic kind. He also clearly sees little value in grades and even adds a freebie to all of his exams (a question that simply asks what his name is).
• Meaningful Name: Invoked. He points out that his name means "savior" and jokes that his job is to save his students from all those "spooky new languages" by teaching them.
• Meaningful Appearance: His ace Pokémon is a Raichu, and his appearance has several references to it. He wears a pin in the shape of Alolan Raichu's tail, and his hair above his ears is shaved to resemble lightning bolts.
• Nice Guy: One of the nicer teachers among the faculty, his friendship story also cements it by focusing on Salvatore finding and nursing a wild Pawmi back to health.
• Pun: After he gifts you Galarian Meowth, he asks you how it's doing and throws in he hopes it's going "su-purr-bly".
• Red Herring: If you take note of his Raichu shirt pin, the Pikachu he brings to class, and his friendship with a stray Pawmi, you may think that he'll field an Electric team during Academy Ace Tournament. But while his ace is indeed a terastallized Raichu, none of his other Pokémon is Electric-type.
• Signature Mon: If you face him in the Academy Ace tournament, his strongest Pokémon (which he Terastallizes) is his Raichu.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Downplayed. He's no full-on animal whisperer, but his interest in language extends to him being especially attuned to the sounds Pokémon make. His later classes include quizzes on interpreting variations of Pokémon cries, and in his friendship story, he winds up finding himself all the more concerned for the unwell Pawmi he takes in by the fact that even after he's been caring for it for some amount of time, he hasn't heard it make any noise... only for it to finally pipe up in approval when he decides to keep it.
• Walking the Earth:
  • During The Indigo Disk, in of his interactions in the League Room, he shares how he used to travel the world back in his day. When he asks you what he found the most beautiful sight, it turns out to be the woman who became his wife.
  • He gifts the player a Galarian Meowth at the end of his quest, and he will trade an Alolan Meowth to the player when he is invited a few times to the Blueberry Academy, both implied to be Pokémon he obtained over the course of his travels.

Raifort

The quirky and opinionated History teacher of the academy.

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• Ambiguously Evil:
  • The game emphasizes some of her expressions in a way that makes her look suspicious and like she has hidden villainous intentions. She can also be notably harsher with her words towards the player than her fellow teachers. However, this turns out to be downplayed: she certainly isn't a villain or even particularly important to the main story, but she has interest in the Treasures of Ruin, Legendary Pokémon which brought horrible ruin in the past and were sealed away, and after they are all caught she states that releasing them from the seals went well because the player character has a pure heart, implying she herself doesn't fill that role (confirmed in "The Indigo Disk" where she tells Jacq a thief like herself could never have released the seals). Also, while she ultimately lets you keep the Treasures after finding them, she mentions afterwards that she's more than willing to take them off your hands if you ever don't want them anymore, despite knowing their destructive power and history. Topping it off, the reward you get for completing her friendship quest is a TM for Nasty Plot. Her interactions with the player character also make no secret that she wishes to use them for her own benefit and amusement, though she argues there are benefits for the student as well and she clearly becomes fond of them in her own way. She also uses four Pokémon generally stereotyped as evil/mischievous (Zoroark, Seviper, Malamar, and Gengar) during the Academy Ace tournament.
  Raifort: Yes, this one may indeed be of great use to me someday... ah, you can disregard that. I was simply thinking out loud.
  • The Indigo Disk has her imply in League Club conversations that she used to be a thief of rare artifacts before Clavell had her work at the Academy as a rehabilitation/Boxed Crook-type deal. She also mentions a willingness to use Jacq as a sacrifice for a ritual of ambiguous lethality.
  • She's quite pleased if you agree to do anything she asks as repayment for her favor of going to Blueberry Academy.
  Raifort: Oh, the things we can accomplish together, my dear puppet...
• Brutal Honesty: Raifort has opinions, and she's not afraid to use them. Follow her classes, and you'll regularly hear her complain about things like how boring modern history is compared to ancient mysteries, or how the giant Poké Ball decorating the academy just looks awful.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, she benches her Lumineon for a Malamar, which better befits her Ambiguously Evil character. In her League Club conversations, however, she mentions that she still uses her Lumineon for exploration.
• Continuity Nod: She wears accessories that resemble past games' legendaries, such as a Marshadow hairclip, an Articuno necklace, and a Lunala belt buckle. This also serves to illustrate her interest in ancient history and legends.
• Hypocrite:
  • Minor example, but she introduces her classes by saying that even stuff done yesterday is now history, only to grumble when she's forced to cover recent history by the curriculum.
  • In Blueberry Academy matches, she'll claim to dislike new technology before activating her Tera Orb (the new technology in question) anyway if it gets results.
• Ms. Exposition: Naturally, as the History teacher, Raifort provides exposition about the lore of Paldea, particularly about the Great Crater of Paldea and Area Zero. She also explains the lore behind the Treasures of Ruin, as well as Paldea in general and the academy in particular. She much prefers talking about history that is at least a few centuries old, barely hiding her disgust when she has to recount something that happened only a decade or so ago.
• Older Is Better:
  • A firm believer in this. She prefers the past and considers any history more recent unworthy of her interest. This is also reflected in her team roster- most of her Pokémon are from the first four regions, and one of the two teammates she has beyond that (Unova's Zoroark) has an ability that changes it into other Pokémon.
  • She dislikes the Terrarium in The Indigo Disk because it's too new to have much history.
• Signature Mon: If you face her in the Academy Ace tournament, she Terastallizes her Gengar.
• Token Evil Teammate: Confirmed as such in The Indigo Disk. While Raifort might be a member of the school staff, she's also a dubiously reformed criminal whose interests have less than noble intentions behind them.

Miriam (Mimosa)

The lovely and bored School Nurse who likes to hear exploits of your adventures.

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• Ambiguously Gay: In the BB League Clubroom convo with Dendra she asks that they make sandwiches after hearing Dendra believes herself done with sandwich training after one meager success. Given she angrily notes that she expects Dendra to help out and not just eat, it is unclear if this is a romantic/platonic invitation or if she just wants Dendra's food making abilities to not become a disaster again.
• Birds of a Feather: She seems to be close friends with Saguaro, with both of them having a sweet tooth and touring restaurants and bakeries trying out new sweets together. Miriam was even aware of Saguaro's embarassment over his tastes, and is happy to see that he has embraced them instead.
• Discard and Draw: After completing The Indigo Disk, she benches her Sawsbuck for a Meganium, which better befits her position as a School Nurse, given the Chikorita line's herbal nature.
• Embarrassing Nickname: She gets exasperated whenever someone calls her "an angel".
• Feet-First Introduction: In her first storyline conversation, the camera points at her feet before panning up.
• In-Series Nickname: Students friendly with her call her Mimi.
• Irony: The school nurse uses a Terastalized Poison-type Toxapex as her ace Pokémon.
• Motif: As fitting for a nurse, her team is based around of medicine and healing: Hypno refers to hypnotherapy and sleeping well, Pincurchin represents acupuncture and possibly shock therapy, Sawsbuck and Meganium represent aromatherapy and medicinal herbs, Glalie refers to ice packs and cold compresses, Eelektross most likely refers to either a defibrilator or medicinal leeches, and Toxapex references needles and the use of venom in medicine.
• Not Where They Thought: When she first visits as a coach, Miriam happily announces that she will be teaching her first Health class in Blueberry Academy... and is mortified by her second visit when she explains that she couldn't find her appointed classroom and wandered into a study hall by mistake. Fortunately, the students enjoyed her lecture all the same.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: She has pink hair and is very friendly and kind to the students.
• Secret-Keeper: The Indigo Disk reveals she's one of the few people in the know about Saguaro's love of sweets, and has gone on sweet tours with him in disguise.
• Signature Mon: If you face her in the Academy Ace tournament, she Terastallizes a Toxapex.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Dendra. Miriam is the calm and patient school nurse with pink hair, while Dendra is the enthusiastic and athletic battle studies teacher.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Downplayed. In the end of her friendship story, she finally manages to pass the health teacher examination... only to be told that there's no space or time to add in a health class for the current term. She isn't too bothered by this, and is just happy to have finally achieved her goal, and as spelled out during her interaction with Tyme in The Indigo Disk, she will start teaching in the next academic year.

Harrington (Unmarked Spoilers)

The former director of Naranja/Uva Academy, currently acting as a tutor for Team Star's Ortega.

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• Mr. Exposition: He provides the most exposition on Team Star's backstory. This information, kept in the dark for the better part of the past 18 months, is a shocker to Clavell, who had no prior knowledge apart from Team Star being absent from classes.
• My Greatest Failure: Being unable to prevent the bullying of Team Star's leaders, which led to the team's formation and eventual villainization by the rest of the school. Even worse, Harrington's deputy director erased the records (probably including security camera footage) of bullying incidents in the hopes of saving the school's reputation.
• Our Fairies Are Different: When he battles the player, he uses Fairy-Types.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears once on-screen, but it was the inaction of him and his staff that ultimately led to the formation of Team Star, something he deeply regrets.
• Walking Spoiler: His entire role in the story reveals the backstory of Team Star.

Gym Leaders

Katy (Kaede)

Katy / Kaede (カエデ kaede)

The leader of the Cortondo Gym. Katy is a baker who specializes in Bug-type Pokémon.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: She promises the player that they'll be "in for a world of pain" if they underestimate her Bug-type Pokémon.
• Big Beautiful Woman: On the plump side, and portrayed as extremely adorable. Her epithet is even "The Sugarbug".
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: She specializes in Bug-type Pokémon.
• Chubby Chef: She's a baker, and she's on the plump side.
• Cuteness Proximity: In The Indigo Disk she can discuss how cute she found the first Joltik she ever saw inside the Terrarium.
• Floral Theme Naming: Her Japanese name comes from kaede(楓), which is the maple tree.
• Hartman Hips: She sports an impressive set of hips to emphasize her sweet and motherly nature.
• Hidden Depths: Despite her sweet demeanor, she's actually a very aggressive battler who wishes she wasn't Paldea's designated Warm-Up Boss so she could go all out. After her rematch she even decides she won't go as easy on new trainers anymore... even if it causes complaints.
• Irony: Normally a baker nor their customers wouldn't like insects swarming around during food prep, yet Katy's speciality is Bug-types whom she adores, and her bakery is extremely popular.
• Meaningful Appearance: She's dressed in chef attire as you'd expect from her line of work. Look closer, and you'll see a pattern on her hat that makes it look like she has a pair of antennae, along with a spiderweb on her apron. Her ponytail also looks like a cocoon.
• Meaningful Name: Her name comes from the insect katydid.
• Piss-Take Rap: Katy tries rapping in a conversation with Ryme in The Indigo Disk, but Ryme's clearly not impressed.
• Red Baron: The "Sugarbug".
• Signature Mon:
  • Her last non-Terastallized Bug-type during her first battle is Tarountula, which evolves into Spidops for her rematch.
  • She Terastallizes her Teddiursa, which evolves into Ursaring for the rematch.
• Stealth Pun: Teddiursa (Ursaring in the rematch) gets Terastallized into a Bug-type, making it a bugbear.
• Supreme Chef: She's the owner of Patisserie Soapberry, encouraging her Vivillon to eat up before the Gym Battle officially begins. To drive the point home, her task for the player is olive rolling.
• Sweet Baker: When she isn't acting in her official capacity as Gym Leader, she's a pastry chef, and the owner of the Patisserie Soapberry. She even gives you cupcakes when you defeat her and is overall very nice in personality.
• Warm-Up Boss: She's the weakest Gym Leader level-wise and Cortondo's close proximity to Mesagoza sets her up to be the first one you face. The post-game reveals that this is actually invoked by Geeta to give new Trainers a fighting chance, and in her rematch, Katy is thrilled that she no longer has to hold back.
• Willfully Weak: While true of every Gym Leader, this is especially invoked for Katy as she relates in the post-game. Because her gym is so close to the academy, it is often the first one new trainers face. Due to this, Geeta requested that Katy be especially soft on them in battle. She admits to the player character that she has gotten tired of how this means her Bug types lose so often, and declares she's going to hold back less from now on even if it means new trainers complain about it.

Brassius (Colza)

Brassius / Colza (コルサ korusa)

The leader of the Artazon Gym. Brassius is an artist who specializes in Grass-type Pokémon.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Similarly to Hassel, he's shown to be in a very close relationship with another male character that even includes pet names. However, nothing is "officially" stated for either of them.
• Anime Hair: His hair looks like he has thorny vines growing from his head.
• Breaking Old Trends: In the past, all Grass-type specialists have had a very friendly and soft disposition and appearance, similar to the pretty plants and flowers their type is associated with. Brassius breaks this trend by not only having a more dour and brooding appearance, but by having a much sharper and darker design that brings thorny vines and carnivorous plants like the Venus Flytrap to mind.
• Casual High Drop: His entrance onto the Gym stage involves him jumping off the windmill that's located next to the stage and finishing with Three-Point Landing.
• Character Catchphrase: "Avant-garde!" He uses that term to describe anything that impresses him, whether works of art or Pokémon battles.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Follows the long established tradition of Pokémon trainers that can leap from great heights without injury. In his case he has trained himself to leap from a couple story tall windmill when starting gym battles, as he believes it enhances the experience for the challenger. While he does admit it is hard on his knees, realistically such a jump would risk breaking the legs of any normal person.
• Dub Name Change: In English, his name is changed from the Japanese "Colza", likely since there's already a Colza in the English version of Legends: Arceus.
• Eccentric Artist: Art means a great deal to Brassius, to the point he even treats Pokémon battles as works of art and is always in search of artistic quality, using his Gym Test to help judge a Trainer's aesthetic sensibilities.
• Edible Theme Naming: His Japanese name comes from Korusa (コルサ), which means canola. Likewise, "Brassius" likely derives from Brassica napus, the scientific name of the rapeseed/canola plant.
• Face of a Thug: Despite his dour and scary appearance, he's rather enthusiastic about his craft, and when he helps teach one of Hassel's classes, he happily tells a story about how Hassel helped to inspire him, showing a rather sweet and friendly side to his personality.
• Green Thumb: He specializes in Grass-type Pokémon.
• Hidden Depths: In The Indigo Disk during a conversation with Raifort he's instantly able to identify not only that she's in possession of a rare artifact, but that she most likely acquired it through less than legal means.
• In-Series Nickname: He refers to his Sudowoodo as "Truleewoodo" when Terastillizing it, due to its Grass Tera Type contrasting with Sudowoodo's usual tendency to imitate trees while actually being a Rock-type.
• Large Ham: In spite of his dour and brooding appearance, Brassius is very passionate about his work.
• No Brows: He lacks eyebrows, contributing to his intimidating look.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Played with. Even though he is the Grass-type specialist, his team's ace is a Terastallized Sudowoodo, meaning that he has a Rock-type Pokémon which acts as a Grass-type. Its Rock Throw (upgraded to Stone Edge for his rematch) is super-effective against four of the Grass-type's weaknesses (Bug, Fire, Flying, and Ice), so be wary of using those types against it.
• Red Baron: The "Verdant Virtuoso".
• Signature Mon:
  • Brassius's strongest natural Grass-type is a Smoliv (Arboliva in his rematch).
  • His last mon is a Terastallized Sudowoodo which appears on both of his teams. It gains more coverage moves in Fire Punch and Ice Punch for the rematch.
  • Averted with Sunflora. Despite being the focus of his Gym Challenge, on top of all the statues around Artazon that he created, Brassius does not use the town's mascot on any of his teams, though he can trade the player one in The Indigo Disk.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: He makes it clear in The Indigo Disk that he dislikes Iono for not being "avant-garde".
• Sore Loser: Played for Laughs; each time you beat him, he gets this frustrated look on his face before he pulls himself together. He's rather chill about his losses afterward, though.
• True Art Is Angsty: His most well-known art piece is a statue installation known as "Surrendering Sunflora", which depicts the titular Pokémon with somber expressions. Just what these Sunflora are surrendering to has been heavily debated amongst connoisseurs. During an art class he helps teach, he reveals the "surrendering" part was more a reflection of himself prior to getting over a terrible art slump, where he nearly surrendered to his own grief.

Iono (Nanjamo)

Iono / Nanjamo (ナンジャモ nanjamo)

Voiced by: Julia Gu (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - EN), Lily Ki (Pokémon Masters - EN), Fairouz Ai (introductory video, Pokémon: Paldean Winds, and Pokémon Masters - JP)

The leader of the Levincia Gym. Iono is a streamer who specializes in Electric-type Pokémon.

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• Actress Allusion: Her English voice actress in Pokémon Masters is also a popular internet streamer just like her. Coincidentally, her voice actress in question has also portrayed another popular in-universe streamer character, U-Official in Arknights.
• Affectionate Parody: Of Virtual YouTubers, since her design and overall character is very reminiscent of the more well-known examples. Her ensemble is quite flamboyant, her hairstyle is quite eccentric all things considered, she's quite the Genki Girl, her teeth are serrated (not unlike Gawr Gura) her Gym Trainers are "Poké Maniacs" (as in, her most loyal fans), and she even appears at the corner of the screen in her Gym Trial, much like how many VTubers' videos are formatted. What makes her veer into parody territory is that despite her fanciful character design, she's not just using a Digital Avatar; she really does look like that outside of her videos.
• Anime Hair: Her hair is colored pastel blue and pink/purple and is somehow tied into the shape of a bow at the front of her head, along with huge pigtails in the back.
• Attention Whore:
  • Pretty much justified considering her M.O. is being a streamer. Still, she places great emphasis on viewer engagement on her channel and the number of views she gets. One of the ads scrolling around Levincia's giant billboards is one for her channel. She's at least aware of this, often catching herself when she starts getting excited about her increasing her stream's popularity on camera.
  • Her "last Pokémon" line during the Gym Leader rematches plays it for laughs:
    "Hey! <player>! Quit hoggin' the limelight and let me shine a bit, yo!"
• Badass Adorable: A very cute and bubbly girl who works as a popular streamer, and is also a competent trainer in her own right.
• Character Catchphrase: When starting and ending her streams in rapid fire:
  • She opens and closes her streams with "Your eyeballs are MINE - caught in my Electroweb!".
  • And after that she introduces herself with "Whosawhatsit? Iono! 'Ello, 'ello, hola! Ciao and bonjour!"
• Circling Birdies: Invoked by her Magnemite hair clips; when defeated in battle, they detach and circle around her head in a panic while she's dazed.
• Cute Oversized Sleeves: She has big yellow sleeves that highlights her cuteness.
• Dub Name Change: To Iono, punning on the theme of her Japanese name and also "ion".
• Exotic Eye Designs: Easiest seen in her trailer, but Iono's pupils resemble Poké Balls.
• Expressive Accessory: Her hairclips emote and spin around based on how Iono feels.
• Failed a Spot Check: As revealed in The Indigo Disk, she has no idea that the old man she ropes in for her gym challenge and nicknames Mr. Walksabout is the director of the prestigious Naranja/Uva Academy, and profusely apologizes to Clavell for the mishap. In response, Clavell assures her that he actually enjoys the stint.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: On one leg, she wears a ribbon around her thigh. On the other, she wears a long thigh-high sock with a metallic texture. Her hair and the Magnemite clips on it are also colored differently to the left and to the right, alternating between pink and teal.
• Floral Theme Naming: Other than the pun on "Nanjamonja", which is described in detail below, it also comes from Nanjamonja-no-ki (なんじゃもんじゃの木), which is the Japanese name of Chionanthus retusus, the Chinese fringetree. Her English name, also seems to come from the "iona" from "Chionanthus".
• Game Show Host:
  • In her debut stream, she hosts a segment where she asks her viewers to guess her partner Pokémon; viewers can ask her for hints such as the Pokémon's characteristics or appearance.
  • For her Gym Challenge, she makes a game show out of playing hide-and-seek with Clavell, or "Mr. Walksabout" as she calls him.
• Genki Girl: Highly excitable, and constantly bouncing around.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Starts some of her streams with "'Ello 'ello, hola! Ciao, and bonjour!" According to her in The Indigo Disk, it's so everyone can understand she's saying a greeting.
• Greed: In addition to views, she's also obsessed with money. Best exemplified in Pokémon Masters when she brings Raihan and Nessa onto her stream.
  "Gettin' big-time guests like these is great news for my bank acc—— Err, I mean... a great honor for me and my dear fans!"
• Hidden Depths: In a conversation she can have with Tulip in The Indigo Disk, she reveals that the main reason she's never invited Tulip on a stream despite their friendship is because she thinks her fans would think Tulip is much better than her in comparison, revealing a deep sense of insecurity on her part.
• Meaningful Name: Alluding to her Game Show Host tendencies, her Japanese name "Nanjamo" derives from ナンジャモンジャ nanjamonja, which is a name given to unusually large trees growing in a particular place and literally translates to "What is this?" Her English name follows suit, punning on "Iunno" ("I don't know") and includes "ion", a type of electrically-charged particle.
• Motor Mouth: Speaks very, very, very quickly.
• Ms. Vice Girl: She tends to place a lot of attention to herself, but is otherwise quite friendly to the player and quickly grows fond of them.
• No-Sell: Her Mismagius' Levitate ability makes it immune to Ground-type attacks, which means it has no weaknesses when she Terastallizes it into an Electric-type. Her Wattrel (Kilowattrel in the rematch) being part Flying-type also cancels out the Ground-type weakness, although that does give it weaknesses to Rock and Ice. Still, it means you can't rely on the type's usual weakness to get you through.
• Older Than They Look: Iono stands only slightly taller than the protagonist, who is a young adolescent at most, but a NPC in Levincia notes she started out as a streamer "quite a few years ago", leading him to wonder just how old she actually is. Indigo Disk adds more dialogue suggesting that she is an adult, such as stating that a lot of her fans are "still in school", and telling Larry that he's "adulting like a pro" in comparison to herself.
• Please Subscribe to Our Channel: She asks the viewer to subscribe to her channel and hype her stream, although she takes that last one back. The video introducing her even ends with a fictional subscribe button like the ones seen in many real life streams. She also says to "go smash that subscribe button" after her gym battle.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Like Brassius, Iono plays with this. Her strongest Pokémon is Mismagius, normally a Ghost-type, with an Electric Tera Type. Since Mismagius' ability is Levitate, it's therefore outright immune to Electric's only type weakness. On top of that, she leads with a Wattrel, which as a part Flying-type is also immune to Ground, and at least has the foresight to have her Bellibolt know Water Gun as a coverage move.
• Punny Name: Iono; an ion being a molecule or atom with a positive or negative charge.
• Red Baron: The "Supercharged Streamer".
• Seasonal Rot: In-Universe, an interaction between her and Grusha in the Blueberry Academy League Club reveals that the latter is a longtime fan of her streams, stating that he used to watch them to cheer himself up before competitions before she'd even come up with her famous catchphrase, then admitting that he liked Iono's older content better, as her newer content involves her just trying to get views and sponsorships, much to her irritation.
  Grusha: "I think your older content is better. You took more risks, y'know? Nowadays it's all about gettin' the most clicks—all the sponsorships and everything."
  Iono: "Ooof, you're one of THOSE fans! This is why I quit reading the comments!"
• Scary Teeth: Her teeth are fully serrated, though her general energy and mischievousness makes her look more chaotic than scary.
• Shock and Awe: She specializes in Electric-type Pokémon.
• Shout-Out:
  • She renames her hide and seek challenge "Where in Levincia is Mr. Walksabout?" before wondering aloud if that name is safe to use.
  • With her popular live-streaming career, similar appearance — including the pale two-tone hair, shark-like teeth, hair decs and baggy dress-like hoodie with big hand-covering sleeves — and endearingly eccentric, upbeat demeanour, Iono is particularly reminiscent of hololive's very own Gawr Gura.
• Signature Headgear: Her gigantic Magnemite hair clips that occasionally detach and twirl on their own. Ironically enough, she never uses a Magnemite, nor any of its evolutions, in her battles, though she can trade the player one in The Indigo Disk.
• Signature Mon:
  • Her partner Pokémon is Bellibolt, as shown in her promotional trailer.
  • She uses a Terastallized Mismagius as her final Pokémon.
• Suddenly Voiced: In her introductory video, she's seen speaking, a first for the mainline Pokémon games, courtesy of Fairouz Ai.
• Troll: In her promotional trailer, she's mischievous and teases the viewers with what her ace Pokémon is. The trolling goes even further if you expected her ace to be Bellibolt, as she claimed in the trailer — it's actually a Terastallized Mismagius, in line with the other Gym Leaders using Terastal Pokémon with an unexpected base type.
• Virtual YouTuber: Her Gym Trial has her in the corner of the screen, which combined with her appearance, makes it look like a typical VTuber setup, though Iono technically isn't one herself since she appears in her streams without using any kind of Digital Avatar.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: She's the first Gym Leader to use more than three Pokémon, and half her team is fully evolved to boot. Her Terastallized Mismagius in particular is extremely tough, due to outright lacking a weakness under normal circumstances.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: On the receiving end from Tulip in The Indigo Disk, who says that she'd beat up anyone who talked about Iono the way she talks about herself.

Kofu (Haidai)

Kofu / Haidai (ハイダイ haidai)

The leader of the Cascarrafa Gym. Kofu is a chef who specializes in Water-type Pokémon.

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• Attention Deficit... Oh, Shiny!: Despite hurrying to Porto Marinada to buy ingredients, he stops midway to admire some flowers before remembering he needs to make haste to the market.
• Beware the Silly Ones: A big Manchild who forgets his wallet before dashing off to the auction, who plays the part of an In-Universe Wake-Up Call Boss that makes trainers quit their gym challenges early.
• Big Fun: Kofu's a large man who laughs cheerfully in nearly all of his battle animations, and more often than not has a huge grin on his face. Judging by the swarm of attention he gets on his way to his Gym Battle with you, the townsfolk of Cascarrafa consider him so in-universe.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He has two unibrows that look like ocean waves.
• Character Catchphrase: He always says "Vaultin' Veluza!" when something surprises him.
• Chef of Iron: He is a popular chef who is also one of the older gym leaders of Paldea.
• Chubby Chef: He's a chef who's on the heavier side.
• Cool Old Guy: Kofu is among the older Gym Leaders of Paldea, with an infectious and magnetic charm that you can't help but root for. In fact, as repayment for returning his lost wallet for the Gym Challenge, he lets you keep any money he may have lent you for the auction.
• Edible Theme Naming: His Japanese name comes from the chinese "hǎidài (海带)", which is the name for a type of kelp, Saccharina japonica. "Kofu" might be an attempt to fit the Japanese name for the same plant, makonbu (真昆布), given that "Ko...Bu" sounds a bit similar to "Kofu".
• Four Is Death: In a figurative sense. He's meant to be the fourth Gym Leader you face, and in-story aspiring challengers tend to give up their challenges after facing him.
• Friend to All Children: Before his gym battle, Kofu ends up swarmed by the children of Cascarrafa, begging for him to play with him or share his recipes. Two children in front of his gym also talks about how Kofu also takes time to play and hang out with the children of the city.
• It Was a Gift: The Indigo Disk reveals that his wallet was a gift from Katy, explaining why it has a Bug-Type printed on it.
• Loved by All: The other residents of Cascarrafa have a very positive opinion of him, to the point that when he goes to battle the player character during their Gym battle, he's surrounded by adoring townsfolk on his way to the arena. Justified example as talking to some of the NPC's in the city reveal that he's responsible for setting up the elevators and the current beautiful infrastructure of Cascarrafa as said act improves the city's economy and tourism so the citizens are grateful for him for making their lives better for all those improvements.
• Making a Splash: He specializes in Water-types.
• Manchild: The moment you approach his gym, you are told that he has a child-ike demeanor; it is demonstrated with the way he acts when he lost his wallet. Said wallet also has an adorable Venonat design more suitable for a child's wallet than a grown man's.
• Meaningful Appearance: His beard and thick unibrow vaguely resemble the ocean waves: blue for the water, white/gray for the foam. His blue apron also evokes an undulating motif.
• The Mentor: He was Katy's teacher in cooking.
• Nice Guy: A very sweet old man beloved by his community.
• Red Baron: The "Surging Chef".
• Riddle for the Ages: Due to him running late for an auction and forgetting his wallet, his Gym supervisor tells you to go deliver it to him and to consider this as an impromptu trial, which he even honors. It's never revealed what his actual trial is had you met on less urgent terms.
• Signature Mon:
  • His main non-Terastallized Water-type is Wugtrio.
  • His strongest Pokémon is a Terastallized Crabominable.
• Sumo Wrestling: In a League Club conversation with Saguaro where he mentions doing wrestling back in his school days, Kofu reveals that he's into sumo.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: In-Universe, his gym is considered this for a lot of beginning challengers in Paldea and many of them usually stop the Gym challenge after his gym.

Larry (Aoki)

Larry / Aoki (アオキ aoki)

Larry is a jaded professional employed in the Pokémon League offices who also moonlights as the Medali Gym Leader and the third of Paldea's Elite Four, making Geeta his boss thrice over. He specializes in Normal-type Pokémon as a Gym Leader and Flying-type Pokémon as a member of the Elite Four. Working such an exhausting schedule has left this salaryman with a very dour attitude, though some of his overwork is self-inflicted.

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• All Your Powers Combined: When battled as a coach at Blueberry Academy, he fields a combination of his Normal and Flying-type teams, although he ultimately Terastalizes his Staraptor into a Normal-type.
• Almighty Janitor: A humble, everyday officeworker in the Pokémon League... who just so happens to moonlight as both a Gym Leader and Elite Four member.
• Aerith and Bob: Compared to the other fantastical names of the rest of the Gym Leaders... he's simply named Larry. Aoki, his Japanese name, is similarly mundane.
• Badass Normal: Pun aside, he's an average, run of the mill guy with an office job who trains the two most common types of Pokémon there are, Normal and Flying. And yet his skill is high enough to serve as a Gym Leader with the former, and a member of the Elite Four with the latter.
• Big Eater: Despite having just finished eating a meal before battling you, he's starving again by the time the battle's over. In the photo, the player character is watching in shock with how much food he's got on his plate. Also, when he visits Blueberry Academy as a coach, Larry mentions how he loves the absurdly-large meals served in the cafeteria.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He has some pretty thick eyebrows, which makes his deadpan expression even more prominent.
• Blow You Away: Geeta has ordered him to use something other than Normal-type Pokémon when on the clock at the League, so wrangling Flying-types allows him to keep his Staraptor in his team either way.
• Boring, but Practical: Before your rematch with him after becoming a Champion, he reveals he's a firm believer in this. His Normal-types may not be as flashy or shocking as other Pokémon, but they get the job done. His conversation with Kofu in The Indigo Disk reflects this too, with his advice to Kofu being simply to maintain the high quality of the latter's food instead of introducing new menu items.
• Breaking Old Trends: Scarlet and Violet aren't the first games where a Gym Leader (or equivalent thereof) holds a position in their home region's Elite Four (with Alola's being partially composed of one/two Kahunas and a Trial Captain), but Larry is the first to specialize in two different types depending on his role (albeit unwillingly). For his rematch battle as a coach in The Indigo Disk, he ends up combining the two, a first for the series.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Wears gloves when fighting as one of the Elite Four due to it being part of the official costume.
• Duality Motif: While his bog-standard business suit and slicked-back black hair reps his status as a Normal-type Gym Leader, the stark, sky-blue necktie with cloud patterns, the wing-like patterns on his suit's lapels, and wisps of floaty stray hairs that arc over his black hair subtly symbolize his specialty in Flying-types when battling as part of the Elite Four.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: His eyes are much less colorful than other characters as befitting his character as a joyless office drone.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Befitting his "exhausted salaryman" appearance, he has very noticeable dark spots under his eyes.
• Floral Theme Naming: His Japanese name might come from aoki (青木), the spotted laurel/Japanese laurel tree (Aucuba japonica​). "Larry" is likewise derived from "Laurel", as are his names in most of the other localizations.
• Foreshadowing: The sky blue, cloud-patterned necktie looks slightly out of place on his otherwise completely monochrome look. Then it turns out he's also a member of the Elite Four and specializes in Flying types when on that shift. His ace during the Gym battle being Staraptor is a hint as well.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While he gets along well enough with his fellow Gym Leaders, the other members of the Elite Four, particularly Rika and Hassel, find him frustrating to deal with due to his sheer lack of enthusiasm for anything. Poppy tries to make an effort to befriend him, but Larry decides to change the subject when he can't think of anything nice to say to her.
• The Generic Guy: Ironically, what makes him stand out from other gym leaders. His milquetoast behavior is the source of a couple jokes: he hides in plain sight and blends in with background NPCs during Medali's gym challenge, his posture during battle is a very neutral "arms at sides" pose, he can't bring himself to get loud or excited for others, and even his eyes are square in shape to emphasize how boring this guy is.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Warns the player that you can't just Be Yourself in real life. To demonstrate his point, his Terastallized Staraptor will use Facade, an attack that deals double damage if the user suffers a status ailment. He gifts the player with the TM for Facade afterwards, and hopes that they'll never have to put on the move's namesake.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: He has some fun with his unimpressive appearance by posing as one of the hint-giving NPCs in his own Gym trial. It's pretty easy to not notice the unnamed worker is a unique character until he gets up from his seat at the counter and walks into the ring.
• Indubitably Uninteresting Individual: As Larry himself notes, "I'm about as ordinary as you can get." He uses Normal-types (with his Signature Mon being Staraptor, a Com Mon), he isn't very noteworthy in his appearance, his ordinary profession as a salaryman is viewed as a stock occupation in Japan, and his name in both English and Japanese is extremely generic. His League photo is simply the back of his head, which he explains to Iono in Blueberry is how he keeps a low profile. Ironically, this causes him to stand out along with the more unique Gym Leaders.
• Loophole Abuse: Geeta insists that he specialize in something other than Normal types for his role in the Elite Four. His Signature Mon is Staraptor, which is both Normal and Flying, so he goes for Flying types as a way to keep using his partner.
• Mythology Gag: His dual role as a Normal and Flying type specialist along with his generic demeanor play on the fact that the Normal/Flying type combination has been a Com Mon staple of the series.
• Meaningful Name: "Larry" is such a normal name for any person, though it can also double as a Punny Name for his salaryman job.
• Nice Guy: Despite his world-weary appearance and attitude, he's a decent dude, even treating the player to a meal after their victory and wishing them well.
• Non-Elemental: Specializes in Normal-type Pokémon whenever he's on duty as a Gym Leader. He'd do it as a member of the Elite Four too, but Geeta forces him to use a different type there.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Look closely, and you'll notice that his irises are square.
• Perpetual Frowner: His exhaustion with work has left him with a perpetual dour frown on his face. Although, he does smile very briefly in his victory photo with the player.
• Punny Name:
  • You wouldn't think it, but Larry does have one of these, related to his profession: he's a saLARRYman.
  • With certain kanji, Aoki can mean blue, particularly sky blue. Another hint of his other preferred type.
• Red Baron: The "Exceptional Everyman".
• Salaryman: A beleaguered office worker whose main work is helping run the Pokémon League also working a third job at the Pokémon League as a member of the Elite Four on top of his Gym Leader duties.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: At the League Club, Iono learns that Larry managed to make his Gym Leader pic unique than the rest (he's facing away) because, as an adult, he has made the right connections to pull it off without getting scolded for it, which impresses Iono for it.
• Signature Mon:
  • He uses Dudunsparce in both his initial and rematch battles prior to his Terastallized Pokémon.
  • His strongest Pokémon is Staraptor, which he Terastallizes in his Gym battle and as a coach in The Indigo Disk - but when fought during the Elite Four, the honor goes to his Flamigo. Staraptor is also the only Pokémon on both his Gym and Elite Four teams.
• Shout-Out: An otherwise average salaryman having a passion for food and primarily being found in a restaurant calls to mind Goro Inogashira, the title "Solitary Gourmet" of Kodoku no Gurume.
• Terse Talker: Doesn't waste any words during his Gym battle, and even remarks that his boss docks his pay if he engages in too much idle chitchat.
• Triple Shifter: He looks as tired and haggard as someone who works three jobs.
• Walking Spoiler: A very downplayed example in that despite being a minor character in the grand scheme of things, the game goes out of its way to obfuscate his identity until you challenge him. Not only is his profile pic for the Pokémon League a picture of the back of his head, he tries to act like a background NPC during his Gym challenge and is the only member of the Elite Four who doesn't reveal their status until it's his turn.
• Workaholic: He's evidently overworking by choice since Geeta has had to outright mandate that he take more time off (though she's also prone to giving him more work, such as sending him on overseas assignments on the assumption that he doesn't mind traveling for his job).

Ryme

Ryme (ライム raimu)

Voiced by: Zuri Washington (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - EN), Subaru Kimura (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - JP)

The leader of the Montenevera Gym. Ryme is a rapper who specializes in Ghost-type Pokémon. She is also the younger sister of Tyme, the academy's mathematics instructor.

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• Anime Hair: She wears her hair in long braids that are somehow shaped like human bones.
• Battle Rapping: She's as talented at rap battles as she is at Gym Battles.
• Blood Knight: Unlike most of the Gym Leaders who seem neutral at best towards the postgame inspection, Ryme is actively looking foward to the chance to battle Geeta and show off the power of Ghost-types to her, so she's very offended that Geeta doesn't come personally and denies her of that chance.
  • If she interacts with Geeta in the Indigo Disc; she is still mad about not getting to fight Geeta, and even makes a rap to try and goad her into a fight. She also implies Geeta is yet to test Ryme's Gym, as Ryme says Geeta hasn't even darkened her door. [And it's stated the Gym inspections happen multiple times per year, so Ryme likely hasn't been a Gym Leader long if she is yet to be tested by Geeta]
• Character Tic: She has a habit of rolling her eyes back into her head, and giving the appearance of blank, white Prophet Eyes when her emotions are running high.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Speaking to Tyme early enough in the story has her mention her sister as being good with Ghost Pokémon. True enough, that sister is the Ghost-type Gym Leader in Montenevera.
• Chill of Undeath: The Ghost-type Gym Leader is found up the cold mountain of Glaseado.
• Cool Old Lady: Age hasn't slowed down her rapping skills or her battling prowess one bit, with one book stating that she's been a talented rapper for over 40 years.
• Disappeared Dad: Mentions in The Indigo Disk that her first hit single had to do with her feelings regarding her and Tyme's dead father.
• Doting Grandparent: Implied. In The Indigo Disk Ryme mentions that she wasn't the best with children until she got grandkids, and mentions that the player is around their age.
• Dual Boss: Unlike all other Paldean trainers, Ryme is fought in a Double Battle.
• Edible Theme Naming: Her Japanese name comes from Raimu (ライム), which means lime.
• Family Theme Naming: With her sister Tyme.
• Graceful Loser:
  • She gives the player a thumbs up when losing, even when it's clear she's not too pleased about it at first.
  • After her rematch, she apologises for calling you a "Rookie Champion" and even says she's got your back should you ever need her help, with you clearly having earnt her genuine respect.
• Gratuitous English: In the Japanese version, her lyrics contain lots of "YO!", rendered in English text instead of kana.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: The Indigo Disc strongly implies Ryme is new to being a Gym Leader (As Geeta has yet to even "darken her door" and inspections happen multiple times a year). Despite this; Geeta admits she had doubts about a Double Battle gym, but commends Ryme and even says Ryme's new approach has accomplished "more than [Geeta] can measure, in fact."
  • At absolute longest, Ryme has been a Gym Leader for 18 months, since this is why the entire old academy faculty resigned, and thus the earliest point her sister could have become one of the Academy's teachers. And this assumes both Ryme and Tyme both took up their new roles immediately upon the vacancy.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Upon hearing about a restaurant that becomes infamous for making its visitors queasy, she instead invites Grusha to go check it out together. Grusha lampshades the incongruous offer but agrees to tag along.
• Not Good With Children: Admits to the player in The Indigo Disk that she had a hard time with children prior to becoming a grandparent.
• Piss-Take Rap: A Pet-Peeve Trope of hers. After effortlessly beating an overconfident cashier in a rap battle, she expresses her annoyance that he was trying to be funny at the expense of his bars.
• Prophet Eyes: Zig-zagged. She normally has green eyes, but she rolls them back to turn them blank and white when she's frustrated or focused.
• Punny Name: "Ryme" comes from "rhyme", very fitting for a rapper. It also sounds like "rime", the icy substance, which fits her Gym's location on a frozen mountain.
• Red Baron: The "MC of RIP".
• Signature Mon: Houndstone, which can be seen in the audience along with her. Its pre-evolution, Greavard, can be seen as a DJ dancing during the gym battle, who she makes a shout-out to. To a lesser extent, her strongest Pokémon is a Terastallized Toxtricity which fits her musical motif.
• Skeleton Motif: Befitting a Ghost-type specialist whose Signature Mon is the living skeleton Houndstone, she's visually associated with skeletons. Her shoes have a ribcage design, her jewelry resembles teeth, her microphone has a skull decoration, and most prominently her hair is braided to resemble bones, with her forelock braided to resemble a skeletal hand.
• Soul Power: She uses Ghost-types. A book also claims that she raised her dog from the dead with her singing; combined with having a Houndstone and being strongly associated with the line, it implies that she may have some actual powers along these lines (assuming the story is true). Also, she can see paranormal spirits, as she tells Raifort that the latter is haunted by an ectoplasm and even offers to exorcise it.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With her choice of more punk outfits to match her rapper interests and more active personality, she serves as the tomboy to Tyme's girly girl.

Tulip (Lip)

Tulip / Lip (リップ rippu)

The leader of the Alfornada Gym. Tulip is a beautician and model who specializes in Psychic-type Pokémon.

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• Action Fashionista: She runs a line of cosmetics which she also models for, and she's the second strongest of the Gym leaders.
• Ambiguously Bi: Her dialogue with some female characters she interacts in the BB League Club room (Rika, Dendra, Miriam) is rather flirty, in the sense that she readily talks up their beauty, suggests they come model for her, etc. However, she also did this with the player character regardless of their gender, suggesting a teasing but platonic meaning or an interest in men and women.
• Animal Motifs: The accessories on her dress and shoes resemble bird wings, which match her ace Espathra. The flowers on the hem of her dress are the same as her Florges (the Pokémon she Terastallizes).
• Childhood Friends: Tulip is a close friend of Dendra, the academy's battle tactics instructor, who oversees her Gym Test as a favor to her.
• Granola Girl: Played with. She herself has a fairly grounded personality, but she shows shades of this, as her Gym Challenge revolves around the Emotional Spectrum Practice exercise regimen, and she appears to regularly practice yoga.
• Hartman Hips: She has a wide set of hips, accentuated by her form fitting dress. She also has a noticeably round butt.
• Jerkass to One: Overall, Tulip is quite pleasant, especially considering her beauty and status. She's also encouraging to the player and Iono. However, she admits that she isn't a fan of Geeta (her reason being that she thinks Geeta's beauty style interferes with her own), and is thrilled that the player is who said person sends for the Gym inspection in the post-game so she doesn't have to deal with her directly. In League Club Room conversations, while Tulip is shown to be fairly polite towards Geeta, her requesting to Geeta to allow the player to continue inspecting her Gym is clearly her attempting to not deal with her as often. Also, if you chose her as your favorite Gym Leader after the Gym Inspection, she also laments that she learns about the fact from Geeta instead of yourself.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: An adult example of this. She's rich, beautiful, and successful, but she's pleasant and serene to be around.
• Meaningful Appearance: Her butterfly-like decorations may be reminiscent of Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul depicted with butterfly wings and at the origin of the word "psychic".
• Modeling is Glamorous: Tulip, the Alfornada Gym Leader, is a model and makeup artist. She is a hyperfeminine and elegant woman who is mentioned to have a very busy schedule.
• Not So Above It All: If she and Kofu are in the club room together during The Indigo Disk, Tulip reveals that the pose taken with Kofu after beating the Cascarrafa Gym was actually her idea.
• Pretty Butterflies: Tulip is a glamorous lady with a flower and butterfly motif. Butterfly wing-like decorations are on her shoes and dress.
• Proud Beauty: Downplayed in that she doesn't seek to use her looks to take advantage of people or look down on others (and values inner beauty most). Plus, as a beautician, she places great value on bringing out the beauty in other people. However, all the same, she does think highly of her appearance and even admits to disliking dealing with people who compete with her own bewitching style too directly (like Geeta).
• Psychic Powers: She specializes in Psychic-type Pokémon. Some of the original artwork shows her manipulating her cosmetics and makeup supplies with telekinesis, implying this is the reason her butterfly-shaped accessories move on their own.
• Red Baron: The "Bewitching Beautician".
• Signature Mon:
  • Espathra is her last non-Terastallized Psychic-type, fitting her elegant appearance.
  • Her strongest Pokémon is a Terastallized Florges, matching her flower motifs.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She serves as the fashionable girly girl to Dendra's battle active tomboy.

Grusha

Grusha (グルーシャ guruusha)

Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Pokémon Masters - JP), Edward Mendoza (Pokémon Masters - EN)

The leader of the Glaseado Gym. Grusha is a former snowboarder who specializes in Ice-type Pokémon.

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• Career-Ending Injury: Grusha suffered a serious injury that ended his snowboarding career, which led to him becoming a Gym Leader. A few NPCs talk about how Grusha was in his prime, and Grusha himself tells the player not to take things for granted.
• Character Development: Minor, but evident. During his first battle, Grusha shows how jaded he is and downtrodden he feels about losing what he was truly passionate about through a freak accident. When the player comes around to evaluate him on Geeta's behalf, Grusha realizes that he has found another passion through being part of the Gym Challenge, and wallowing in self-pity has done him no good, so he resolves to do his best from then on.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The aforementioned Career-Ending Injury has left him pretty jaded, often talking about how life is as dangerous as an icy mountain and one should be ready to lose everything at a moment's notice.
• Curtains Match the Window: He has light blue hair and eyes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Subverted. Despite his somewhat sardonic personality, he's quite swell all things considered, and even apologizes to the player when his congratulations for their Champion Rank sounded sarcastic at first.
• Edible Theme Naming: His name means "pear tree" in multiple Slavic languages.
• Hidden Depths: He was actually an acclaimed professional snowboarder in the past, until he was forced to retire following a serious injury. Taking up the role of a Gym Leader was just what he did so to make something of his life afterwards, and has left him quite cynical.
• Hot-Blooded: It takes some nudging to show, but Grusha is quite passionate about battles and even gets excited after his match with the player.
• An Ice Person: Fitting for a (retired) snowboarder, he specializes in Ice-type Pokémon.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has a very androgynous design, with long hair and large, feminine eyelashes.
• Not So Stoic: Grusha's stoic demeanor falls away during intense battles. He's also surprisingly shy when the player character asks for a commemorative photo after defeating him. During the post-game rematch, he starts feeling Hot-Blooded after realizing his frustration at the possibility that he might lose the only other thing he's good at if he keeps wallowing in self-pity, and later thanks you for renewing his passion.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Delivers one right before his battle starts.
  "Get ready to feel the icy bite of reality."
• Pun: He has a tendency of calling things "cool" or "uncool" if he likes or dislikes them, fittingly for the Ice-Type specialist.
• Red Baron: The "Sub-zero Shredder".
• Scarf of Asskicking: He wears a large scarf as part of his ensemble, and is the highest leveled Gym Leader in Paldea. Funnily enough, the victory photo he takes with the player has both of them squeezing the knitted Poké Ball on the end.
• Signature Mon:
  • His partner Pokémon is explicitly stated to be Cetitan, who is his second to last Pokémon in both his battles.
  • His strongest Pokémon is his Terastallized Altaria.
• The Stoic: The official website describes him as a cool-headed person who keeps his emotions pushed deep down... at least, until he gets into an intense battle.
• That Came Out Wrong: When you meet him again in the Gym Leader rematches, he remarks how the player "must be so happy" for being "Champion Rank". He then immediately apologizes about his deadpan delivery, claiming he didn't mean to be sarcastic.
• Vocal Dissonance: His voice in Masters is a lot deeper than his androgynous appearance would imply.

Team Star

A team of rebellious students.

Tropes that apply to the organization as a whole

• Ace Custom: Each of the bosses fight atop a heavily customized Revavroom whose type matches their owner's, as well as having unique abilities.
• The Aloner: Pretty isolated from one another and society, each admin and their camp stays away from everyone else unless they're looking for recruits. Part of Penny's motivation is that she feels responsible for their extreme withdrawal and believes them tasting defeat will make them willing to move on and rejoin society. She's right, but it's mainly because they've discovered who their boss really is and what she wants.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: They wear bike helmets, official artwork depicts them surrounding the player characters on the bike-like Cyclizar, and they're a bunch of delinquents known for causing trouble.
• Anti-Villain: Some of them pester other students with pushy recruitment tactics, but outside of that the most villainous things they do are truancy and using school equipment without permission. Beyond that, most of them, particularly the leaders, are perfectly normal and friendly kids suffering from a misplaced and unshakable reputation as delinquents and outcasts, to the point many of them embrace the label. Clavell actually lampshades this trope when, after the defeat of Team Star's Big Boss, he lists all the 'offenses' of the group, then gives them an Unishment.
• Beware the Silly Ones: They might be delinquents that skip class whose bosses are all in silly costumes, but said bosses are powerful Pokémon trainers on par with the Gym Leaders, especially in the postgame.
• Big Badass Rig: Each of the squad's bosses have their own Starmobile, which are heavily customized Revavrooms that serves as the actual boss.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": As per tradition. It's subtle, but there is a thunderbolt-like S in the negative space of their logo.
• Character Catchphrase: They tend to say "Hasta la vistar! ☆" before retreating. Their leader knows it's cringeworthy, but in a fun way.
• Character Tics: When they're about to battle, they move their hands to create the points of a star, just like people in Sun and Moon would make a rainbow with their arms.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Unique for a Pokémon boss (even the Titans are vulnerable to them), their Starmobiles are completely immune to statuses of any variety.
• Cool Shades: The Grunts wear star-shaped protective glasses, though some Grunts are seen just wearing the glasses over their helmets.
• Cosmic Motifs: The Grunts wear star-shaped protective glasses, have stars on their helmets and shirts, have half of a star on their ties, and make a star shape with their hands before battling in the Treasure trailer. Additionally, all five of their sub-squads are named after a star (specifically one from Cassiopeia), and their bases make Cassiopeia's "W" shape if an invisible line is drawn between them.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Upon defeating the Star Bosses and finishing the Starfall Street story, all the bosses now consider you their friend and welcome you to their base and for a rematch anytime.
• Delinquents: They're a gang of students at the player character's school who cut class, harass the teachers and other students, and use pushy recruitment tactics.
• Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged a bit. While they are forgiven for the events of Operation Star which happened almost 2 years before the game starts when it becomes apparent that they were actually the heroes from that event, Clavell swiftly reminds the group that they did still break an enormous number of rules during their operation, including failing to attend over a year's worth of classes and the unauthorized use and modifications of school property and equipment. Though this zigzags again when Clavell announces that their "punishment" for this is simply community service in the form of reforming Team Star and their facilities as part of an authorized training and anti-bullying function of the academy. The entire team is aware that this is intended to serve as a punishment in name only.
• Foreshadowing: If one does their research on stars, they'll notice a pattern that all of the squads are named after stars from Cassiopeia. So it's kinda odd that someone with that name is asking the player to take them all down...
• Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: The bosses play with this trope in different ways. Atticus and Eri are the straightest examples, being simultaneously the most imposing-looking and nicest bosses out of the bunch. Giacomo and Mela downplay it in different ways; Giacomo's style isn't as wild as the others and Mela, while a good person at heart, is still quite brusque and standoffish. Meanwhile, Ortega is the meanest boss and he wears a light pink suit.
• Freudian Excuse: Their founders were all victims of bullying, and created Team Star to strike back against their bullies. What's worse is that the faculty ended up completely failing them. The school refused to deal with the problem in a more bureaucratic way, and when the bullies folded and dropped out of school, the old deputy director cleaned up the evidence of bullying to preserve the academy's pristine reputation. This left Team Star with an unfairly toxic reputation that stuck for nearly two years. By the time the player comes in, the old faculty and bullies have all left, leaving Team Star to deal with the misplaced reputation of being bullies themselves.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The bosses consist of three boys (Giacomo, Atticus, Ortega) and two girls (Mela, Eri). Seems a bit uneven at first, but when counting the big boss, Penny, then it's a group of three boys and three girls.
• Graceful Loser: Upon defeat, they all give the protagonist a badge signifying their victory and take a picture of them shaking hands. Though Mela noticeably gives them a Crushing Handshake...
• Harmless Villain: It's hard to even label the team as villains at all. They are, at their worst, hooligans who pressure other students into skipping school, joining their team and use stolen school property. Other than that, they keep to themselves unless directly challenged by the player. They're about as "evil" as Team Yell.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: When the team originally formed, it was a group of bullied students and outcasts uniting to deal with the school's rampant problems with bullies and delinquents. While they ultimately never caused any actual trouble, the event and the sudden departures of the former bullies leaving the school created a huge PR scandal that painted Team Star as the bad guys. It also doesn't help that when the game takes place, many of the members the player encounters early on range from well intentioned extremists to actual delinquents.
• Ms. Fanservice: The female Grunt outfits are probably one of the more fanservice-y of all the female Grunts in the evil teams in Pokémon. They wear short shorts that go to their upper thigh, therefore placing heavy emphasis on their bare legs, as well as wearing kitten heels, and having rolled up sleeves.
• Narm Charm: In-Universe example. Penny considers Team Star's catchphrase ("Hasta la vistar! ☆") to be this.invoked
  "It's so cringey it's perfect, you know?"
• Nice Mean And In Between: The bosses for Team Star fit into these categories:
  • Eri and Atticus are the Nice, being friendly and polite to you and taking their defeat in stride.
  • Giacomo and Mela are the in Between, challenging you without hesitation and acting as a Tsundere upon being defeated (Giacomo to a lesser extent, as he acts friendlier compared to Mela).
  • Ortega is the Mean, behaving like a Spoiled Brat and, unlike the rest of the leaders, acting like a Sore Loser and calling you annoying upon losing. That being said, he genuinely cares about the members of Team Star.
  • This is especially demonstrated in the Indigo Disk postgame, with the male members specifically — Giacomo asks you to help out with tutoring the others and gives a firm, Tough Love approach to his teammates; Atticus graciously accepts your help and speaks kindly to you at all times; and Ortega angrily resists your attempts at helping him, at first.
• No One Sees the Boss: It's noted that the team's boss is so reclusive, they don't keep a base like the squad leaders do, and taking down each of the squads will bring them out of hiding. In fact, their identity is so mysterious that an early scene shows Team Star grunts attempting to recruit Penny, not knowing she is their leader. Even the admins have this to a lesser effect, as the player can't challenge them directly, they have to clear out several grunts who attempt to hold the base down before the admins come out to deal with the challenger themselves.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: The Team Star Grunts still wear their uniforms but make significant alterations to differentiate themselves from the rest of the student body:
  • Both genders wear their ties loose with stars painted on, have the Team Star symbol emblazoned on their uniform shirts, don bike helmets with goggles, and wear their pants/shorts with their suspenders down along with no socks.
  • The female Grunts wear short shorts that only go down to their upper thigh, white kitten heels, and have their sleeves rolled up at all times.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Their entire character arcs revolve around being bullied, and had been recruiting other kids suffering the same treatment as them. Particularly, Eri used the be the Class Princess when her bully Carmen was a Fallen Princess. Once Eri had enough and fought back, the other bullies picked on Carmen, and Eri got tired of the bullying. The end result being that Carmen ends up being her friend despite her misgivings and joined Team Star.
• Numerological Motif: There are five teams, like there are five points on a star.
• Playful Cat Smile: The female Grunts sport cat smiles in their official artwork, emphasizing their rebellious nature.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Zig-Zagged for the bosses. The five bosses have at least one Pokémon that will cancel out or outright No-Sell a type that's normally super effective against them, but three of the five also play the trope straight, at least during their initial boss fights:
  • Giacomo has a Pawniard, and its Steel typing means Fairy and Bug types may not be the best course of action. Additionally, it has a coverage move in Aerial Ace against Fighting and Bug types (though it's still cripplingly weak to Fighting). Averted entirely during his rematch, with Honchkrow covering Fighting and Bug, and Kingambit covering Fairy.
  • Mela has a Torkoal. Despite not having any other typing or coverage moves to fight against Water types, it does have Drought, which weakens those Water type moves anyways. However, her team gets mulched by Rock and Ground types, having no coverage against either type and no ability to weaken them. Downplayed during her rematch - all of her Pokémon are weak to Water, Ground, and Rock, but Houndoom has a coverage move against Water (Thunder Fang), while Armarouge has a coverage move against Water, Ground, and Rock (Energy Ball).
  • Atticus has Skuntank, which is outright immune to Psychic types, and Revavroom (not the Starmobile), which also resists Psychic types. However, Ground types are his utter bane: not only is his entire team weak to Ground, none of them have any coverage moves. Fully averted during his rematch, with Toxapex covering Ground.
  • Ortega's opening Pokémon is Azumarill, which evens out its Steel type weakness, and his Dachsbun has Mud-Slap as a coverage move. However, Mud-Slap has a piddling base power of 20, and runs off Dachsbun's low Special Attack, leaving Ortega unable to put up more than token resistance against Poison types. Fully averted during his rematch - Hatterene and Klefki check Poison types, Klefki and Azumarill check Steel types, Wigglytuff gains a coverage move in the form of Fire Punch, and Dachsbun's Mud Slap is replaced with Fire Fang, which only checks Steel but runs off its better Physical Attack.
  • Eri is the only boss who averts this trope during all of her battles: she has Toxicroak, which Fairy types aren't too effective against, Lucario, which Psychic and Flying aren't too effective against, and Annihilape, whose Ghost type punishes any Psychic types sent against it. In addition, all of her Pokémon save Passimian have at least one coverage move. Averted even further in her rematch - all of her Pokémon have at least one coverage move.
• Secret A.I. Moves: The Revavroom in each of their Starmobiles can use a unique "Torque" move that matches its type and is unavailable to any Revavroom caught by the player. The devs even went out of their way to make sure that the player never gets to use these moves in any way as they also cannot be copied by Mimic or Copycat, be called by Metronome, nor be Sketched (Smeargle is only available in the Indigo Disk DLC, which requires having beaten the Teal Mask and all the main game's storylines, but even if Smeargle were to be brought over to the main game via HOME or by trading, Sketch still fails on the Torque moves anyway), and Ditto cannot Transform into the Starmobiles.
• Sequel Escalation: Continuing on the modern-day franchise's inversion of the older games' villain teams, we go from the relatively harmless street gang of Sun and Moon to the lower-scale Loony Fans of Sword and Shield to an even lower-scale group of school Delinquents.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In the Indigo Disk DLC, there's a sidequest featuring the admins but the player character is unable to recognize them (namely Giacomo, Eri and Mela) because they've all changed out into their regular school uniforms. It's especially noticeable with the ladies as they've removed their makeup.
• Signature Mon: Team Star bosses are associated with Revavroom (the Pokémon used to power their Starmobiles).
• Stellar Theme Naming: Each of the teams is named after a star from the constellation of Cassiopeia.
• Strange Salute: Members of Team Star salute to the player before battling by tenting their fingers to form the top of the star before drawing the rest of the shape with them.
• True Companions: The leaders of the sub-squads see each other as friends and Penny herself admits that they are her greatest treasure. Even after the leaders learn that Penny is their boss, they're still loyal to her.
• Unishment: After going undercover as "Clive", Clavell learned more about the group and sympathised with them after his prior assumptions that they were just delinquent bullies. At the end of "Starfall Street", he withdraws his prior dismissal of the team, but still has to punish them for stolen school property and modifying their school uniforms. He "punishes" them with community service by reformatting their base camps as training facilities, much to the team's joy.
• Vague Age: Much like Penny herself, Team Star's grunts and admins are rather vague in how old they're supposed to be. It can be presumed the admins are teenagers from context clues, like Ortega being a second year paired with his youthful appearance, but there's no confirmation if they're in the same year or if they're significantly older or younger than one another. The fact that the Academy accepts students of all ages further throws a wrench in things, as not even their grade level helps guess how old they are especially since they had skipped almost two years of attending school to begin with.

Giacomo (Piña)

Giacomo (ピーニャ piinya)

Boss of the Segin Squad, Team Star's Dark crew.

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• Became Their Own Antithesis: He was once the Student Council President of Naranja/Uva Academy, and a notorious Rules Lawyer. But when the Student Body forced him to step down from the position and he was subsequently bullied for his actions, the experience led him to develop a such a disdain for rules and authority that he joined Team Star.
• Brainy Brunette: He has dark hair and is shown to be one of the smarter Star bosses after The Indigo Disk has been completed. Giacomo has been easily passing his makeup exams, and he comments that he doesn't understand how people can have a hard time studying.
• Break the Haughty: Being forced out of the Student Council President position led to him becoming less of a Rules Lawyer as well as being adverse to personal authority.
• Dark Is Evil: He uses Dark-types and is the boss of Team Star's Segin Squad. Later subverted, as he turns out to be a Graceful Loser and, in the post-game, demonstrates that he wants to make friends at the Academy once more.
• Edible Theme Naming: His Japanese name comes from Piinya (ピーニャ), which means pineapple. His hair and vest vaguely resembles the fruit.
• Hypocritical Humor: He comments on "Clive's" ridiculous pompadour despite having a pretty big hairstyle himself.
• The Leader: Cassiopeia describes him as being the overall leader of Team Star, and he wrote the code that the team follows. This is Foreshadowing for him actually being the former Student Council President.
• No Indoor Voice: Upon returning to the school, his idea to get back into everyone's good books is to loudly shout a friendly greeting to everyone, much to the embarrassment of Ortega. As silly as his idea sounds, it somehow works.
• Rotten Rock & Roll: Apparently, he composed the rocking boss music all Team Star Bosses use when you fight them.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Defied. He admits that he wrote the rule that would end his leadership if he lost, and he willingly follows it to the letter.
• Signature Mon: He uses the Pawniard line in all battles.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Downplayed. He's dressed in a slightly modified school uniform, but his cap has the pause, stop, rewind, and fast-forward" button symbols on it, matching with his status as a digital musician and his use of Timer Balls.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was known to be a straitlaced star student, until certain events changed his path. His flashback reveals that he used to be the academy's Student Council President before Nemona took over, but he was effectively ousted from his position after imposing overly draconian policies that angered the student body, something he deeply regrets.
• Warm-Up Boss: He's considered to be the weakest out of the crew leaders, signified by his team being the lowest leveled out of all of them.

Mela (Meloco)

Mela / Meloco (メロコ meroko)

Boss of the Schedar Squad, Team Star's Fire crew.

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• Ambiguous Situation: In the postgame, Mela gains a male Armarouge as her ace, but it's never directly stated if he's an evolved Charlos or not.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her gloves, bodysuit, hair, and boots have designs of raging fire, appropriate for the Fire-type specialist. This was intentional in-universe, as Atticus designed and made her costume with all of this in mind, leaving just the hair to her.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Her large red boots certainly look impressive, but her walking animation indicates that they're difficult to move in.
• Boots of Toughness: She's a villain team boss who wears massive boots that reach all the way past her knees. They're also so huge that she can't walk properly in them.
• Brutal Honesty: Her official description says that she gives off a strong impression of being forceful and blunt, both in speech and in tactics. It's not all bad, though — she's respected among Team Star for being trustworthy and straightforward.
• The Brute: She may not look it, but she's described as a rather blunt person who pushes through and solves problems with brute force, no matter what it is.
• Crushing Handshake: The photo you see after beating her shows your character recoiling in pain during their handshake.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: When tutoring her, Mela reveals that she's a bit lost on what she wants to do in the future, unlike the other admins who do have a goal in mind, such as Giacomo's DJ-ing or Atticus's fashion design. With the player character's help, she realizes that there are ways to turn her passion into art into a living, like Hassel's being an art teacher, and decides to work towards her newfound dream of being an artist.
• Edible Theme Naming: Her Japanese name comes from Meroko (メロコ), which in turn is derived from "melocotón", the Spanish word for peach. "Mela" also appears to be Italian for "apple", which her haircut somewhat resembles.
• Fiery Redhead: She has bright red hair that resembles flames, a blunt temper and specializes in fire types.
• Hidden Depths: Upon returning to the academy, Mela is shown to have grown an interest in art and decides to join the art club, inspired by her fiery patterns and the president's Fletchling painting.
• Jerkass Façade: According to Eri, Mela tends to have a blunt temper as a way to hide how shy she really is.
• Meaningful Name: "Mela" comes from "meramera", the Japanese word for "bursting into flames".
• Playing with Fire: She's a Fire-Type trainer.
• Shrinking Violet: The postgame reveals that Mela is surprisingly quite shy when she isn't trying to be tough.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: The postgame in The Indigo Disk reveals that Mela is actually quite adorable when she isn't wearing her makeup and her usual outfit.
• Signature Mon: Her sole Pokémon during her initial battle is Torkoal. However it turns out her actual partner was a Charcadet by the name of Charlos she had at school. Fittingly, her rematch features an Armarouge as her strongest Pokémon.
• Silly Walk: Her walking animation shows that she doesn't seem to bend her knees when she walks, sticking her leg straight out when she takes a step forward. Given the design of her Boots of Toughness, she might not be able to walk normally while wearing them. The Indigo Disk DLC shows that even without her boots she's still prone to walking in a less exaggerated goosestep.
• Tsundere: She gives off shades of this when you beat her. She gives you the TM for Flame Charge, denying that it's for you, but rather for your Pokémon.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: Her excessive makeup makes her look like a fiery evil albino. In The Indigo Disk, remove all of it and her exaggerated clothing, and you'll be forgiven to think she looks like a younger sister to herself.
• Younger than She Looks: You'd be forgiven for thinking she's older but without the makeup she looks about the same age as the player character or slightly younger.
• Youthful Freckles: She sports some freckles on her face and appears to be the same age as the player character and their classmates.

Atticus (Shuumei)

Atticus (シュウメイ shuumei)

Boss of the Navi Squad, Team Star's Poison crew.

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• Antiquated Linguistics: He speaks in a very old-fashioned manner, mostly just to make himself sound cool.
• Chuunibyou: He's melodramatic, dresses in dark colors, and loves the concept of ninjas to the point of believing he descends from one.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Atticus' entire team is composed of underleveled Pokémon. He has a Skuntank at Level 32 (Usually evolves at 34); a Muk at Lv. 32 (Usually 38), and a Revavroom at Lv 33 (Usually 40). Throw in his Starmobile, and Atticus is perhaps the single biggest cheater yet in the entire franchise; with his entire team being made of illegal Pokémon for the first time you battle him.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Team Star's post-DLC quest reveals that mathematics is his worst subject because he thinks it's not required for fashion design. You and Eri can turn this around by telling him about how maths are actually important to fashion design; namely budgeting and measurements.
• Floral Theme Naming: His Japanese name comes from Shumeigiku (秋明菊), the Japanese name of Anemone hupehensis japonica/"fall-blooming anemone".
• Intergenerational Friendship: With his "Dear Compadre" Youssef, a young boy who apparently was saved by Atticus, so now he's willing to face against anyone who antagonizes him. By the postgame they are both ready to do some ninja cosplay together. There's no clear ages, but Atticus is clearly older than the protagonist, while Youssef is young enough that the protagonist has to crouch down to be at eye level with him.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He wears a dark pink outfit, nail polish, and one of his main specialties is sewing and making clothes. Unfortunately as his flashback shows, he was bullied because of this.
• Money Dumb: He tends to overbuy on materials for his clothes, thinking that no expense should be spared, but this leaves him with more than he can use and it all goes to waste. Part of his tutoring in the Indigo Disk post-game is to help him realize how math can make his work easier on the financial level, especially if he wants to sell his creations. Afterwards, Atticus sets up an auction stall in Porto Marinada and sells replica accessories based on those worn by characters in past games.
• Nice Guy: After you defeat him, he's shown to be a very kind and polite young man, and takes his loss with grace.
• Ninja: He dresses the part and believes he's descended from a line of them.
• Occidental Otaku: He proudly tries to be a ninja, writes haiku in his spare time, and may have taught another student who looked up to him all kinds of Japanese Honorifics, yet he hails from the Pokémon equivalent of the Iberian Peninsula. Plus, if his friends are to be believed, a major part of his joining Team Star was his getting bullied for being a huge weeb. His postgame shenanigans has him lament over two ninja cosplay outfits that got sold out at the school store, only to find out that his friend bought them for both of them.
• Poisonous Person: Like his fellow ninja trainers Koga and Janine before him, Atticus specializes in Poison types.
• Pretty Boy: He's quite the pretty boy underneath his hood. In the postgame, Penny is utterly floored when she sees just how handsome he is.
• Princely Young Man: Though not coming from rich family and being eccentric, he qualifies as Gentleman type thanks to his handsome face, kind and polite personality, and Shakespearean manner of speaking.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: In the "Indigo Disk" post game, he wears the new winter uniform, which looks like a suit.
• Signature Mon: He uses the Revavroom line in all battles, including one separate from the one powering his Starmobile during his first fight.
• Technicolor Toxin: His outfit is meant to invoke this as an aesthetic. Being comprised of vivid pinks, purples, and greens and cut unevenly to be reminiscent of "oozing liquid".

Ortega

Ortega (オルティガ orutiga)

Boss of the Ruchbah Squad, Team Star's Fairy crew.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: The shortest and the youngest of the leaders.
• Bratty Half-Pint: He's shorter than the rest of the bosses, and a Spoiled Brat who snaps when you defeat him.
• Character Catchphrase: He tends to exclaim "What the HECK!!" when something frustrates him.
• Classy Cane: Carries a cane with a golden Poké Ball top and a pink gem as its button. It goes well with the suit he wears and highlights his wealthy upbringing.
• Curtains Match the Window: Pink hair and eyes.
• The Fair Folk: While not outright malicious, he's still a rather rude and bratty Fairy-type specialist.
• Floral Theme Naming: His Japanese and English name comes from Orutiga (オルティガ)/"Ortiga", the Spanish name for nettle.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He serves as the mechanic of the team, and is the one who created the team's Starmobiles.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • His catchphrase is literally this, it being a very precise "What the HECK!!" rather than "Hell".
  • Subverted when he's defeated and blithely states "This sucks!". While far from the most profane, "sucks" is considered a minor vulgarity and usually avoided in children's media in favor of "stinks".
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Cassiopeia describes him as having a short fuse.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: His hair and suit are a light shade of rose, he has no shame riding around on a hot pink Starmobile decorated with hearts, and he specializes in the cutesy Fairy-type.
• Irony: Not only is he the team's mechanic, a profession normally not associated with classy suits that he wears or wealthy individuals, the Starmobiles he made for the team are built from Revavrooms, whose types are both Fairy's weaknesses.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He tends to look down on others, and has no problem insulting Mela in her presence, but he genuinely does care for his friends, and praises Atticus's skills in making clothes.
• No Social Skills: His bad temperament makes him unable to understand other's feelings, even when they should be very obvious. In The Indigo Disk, he can't even comprehend why a heartbroken female Moushold called her husband terrible for abandoning her.
• Older Than They Look: Despite how young he looks, Ortega reveals in the Indigo Disk postgame that he's actually a second-year, making him possibly older than the player character. Then again, he could have also enrolled in the academy when he was younger.
• Our Fairies Are Different: He specializes in Fairy-types.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Compared to his either casually or wildly dressed friends, Ortega wears a posh pastel suit with ruffles.
• Signature Mon: His ace is Dachsbun, fitting both his type speciality and short temperament.
• Sore Loser: True to his upbringing, unlike the other leaders, he snaps at the player whenever he's defeated, calling the player "annoying" and stating that their strength as a trainer is "not fair". Even during Indigo Disk's postgame he's shown to still have a grudge against them.
• Spoiled Brat: Behaves like a brat after losing, and is indicated to be part of higher society by his pink suit, cane, and when he offers to get his parents to make the Starmobiles for him.
• Tsundere: He shows a lot of aspects of this trope in the Indigo Disk's postgame. It's even lampshaded by the makeup test he's taking, where the player more or less teaches him the meaning of tsundere, something that the other bosses are quick to tease him about, causing him to get very flustered and defensive.
• Upper-Class Twit: He's noted to constantly look down on others due to his cushy upbringing. It's implied, though not outright stated, that this behavior is why he was bullied at school.

Eri (Biwa)

Eri (ビワ biwa)

Voiced by: Emily Cramer (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - EN), Asami Seto (Pokémon: Paldean Winds - JP)

Boss of the Caph Squad, Team Star's Fighting crew. She is considered to be the strongest among the leaders.

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• Academic Athlete: Eri may have gotten into Naranja/Uva on a wrestling scholarship, but alongside Giacomo is the most academically inclined of the Team Star Bosses.
• The Ace:
  • Eri basically has it all: she's an amazing athlete, a very powerful Pokémon trainer, is very beautiful, highly intelligent, and a total sweetheart to boot.
  • She is considered to be the toughest and strongest out of all the crew leaders. In game, she has the highest leveled Pokémon out of all of them, and is a marked step up in terms of team building and type coverage than her peers.
  • She manages to fight Clavell (In his Clive disguise) to what seems to be a standstill without the Starmobile. Eri needs to reluctantly go and recover, while Clive states his team is completely exhausted.
• Affectionate Nickname: Is given the nickname "Riri" by Carmen after they become friends.
• Amazonian Beauty: Eri is very tall and quite muscular, and was admitted to the academy on a wrestling scholarship, but was bullied by other girls jealous of her good looks.
• Animal Motifs: Appears to be monkeys — the majority of her team consists of primate-like Pokémon (Annihilape is her ace and she has a Passimian and a Primeape to go with it) and her face paint vaguely resembles the colorful, tusked face of a mandrill. Not surprising, since Japanese culture frequently associates monkeys with martial arts.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!:
  • Two of her team, Passimian and Annihilape, know Close Combat, an extremely powerful attack that also lowers both defensive stats, and they and the rest of her team have the coverage to check most of Fighting's counters. If you can't outspeed her, which is no small task given most of her choices are naturally fast and her Starmobile knows the speed and attack boosting Shift Gear, she'll steamroll unprepared challengers easily.
  • Her rematch team is much more straightforward: every Pokémon she uses has only attacking moves.
• Badass Armfold: Her art shows her crossing her arms, adding to her tough look and style, and she also happens to be the strongest Team Star boss and one of the strongest bosses in the game.
• Benevolent Boss: Unlike other Team Star bosses, Eri stands at the front of her gate in order to ensure that none of the grunts underneath her get hurt. Clive even calls her the trope, per verbatim. Her team also notably includes a Lucario, who evolves with friendship and is typically associated with noble, upstanding characters.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Just because Eri is such a Nice Girl doesn't mean she'll go easy on you, and is capable of being utterly ferocious in battle if she has to. She's also the strongest trainer of all of the three routes, bar the Elite Four and Top Champion, Clavell, and the three final bosses of the routes.
  • In the postgame of Indigo Disk, Eri is as sweet and friendly as ever, but when Ortega gives the player attitude for wanting to tutor them, she is pissed and intimidates him into subservience.
    Eri: Ortie... *player* came all the way here to help us. To talk to him/her in that way... I S U N A C C E P T A B L E. . . R I G H T ?
• Brainy Brunette: When Eri comes back to the Academy to take makeup exams after the events of The Indigo Disk, she has washed off her face paint and hair dye (reasoning her usual look isn't conductive to studying) and is revealed to be a natural brunette, and along with Giacomo is one of the more academically inclined members of Team Star.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: She's tall, imposing, specializes in Fighting-types and dresses like a Heel wrestler (and she was even accepted to the academy through a wrestling scholarship). However, she's also a Nice Girl who cares a great deal about her friends, was too sensitive to fight back against her bullies for her own sake, and can be easily moved to tears.
• Coat Cape: In her official art she's shown wearing the winter uniform coat over her shoulders.
• Edible Theme Naming: Her Japanese name comes from "biwa" (枇杷)/"loquat", also known as the Japanese plum. Her English name is derived from its scientific name, Eriobotrya japonica.
• Face of a Thug: Her face paint and her huge stature makes her look very intimidating, but as the flashbacks of the leaders show, Eri is actually very kind and sweet-natured.
• Fire-Forged Friends: She is this with Carmen. Carmen started off bullying Eri out of jealousy for stealing her spotlight as the School Idol, but once Carmen became the target of bullying herself, Eri protected her and empathized with the feeling of having no one to stand with, befriending Carmen and inviting her to join Team Star.
• Genius Bruiser: She's an absolute giant of a woman, easily standing a head taller than the rest of Team Star and the protagonist. On top of being physically strong herself, she's also the strongest trainer in Team Star bar maybe their boss. She's also one of only two Team Star bosses to have decent grades when they return to class in the postgame of "Indigo Disk".
• Heel: She styles herself after a pro wrestling heel and strikes poses typical of one throughout the encounter with her. Her behavior on the other hand, is that of an undeniable face.
• Huge Schoolgirl: She appears to be the tallest human character in the game, absolutely towering over her fellow teammates. Notably, the player character stands shorter than her shoulders. Despite common school trends, especially in Japan, this is not why she was bullied.
• Inelegant Blubbering: She's a good sport when defeated at first, but she's so overcome with emotion she runs off bawling her eyes out a few moments later.
• Loved by All: Everyone in Team Star adores Eri, and for good reason. She's incredibly kind and sweet, a Benevolent Boss to her subordinates, and she's also known for her excellent training regime that the other leaders highly praise for the results it produces.
• Nice Girl: Eri is a very gentle and kind girl. She even went so far as to protect Carmen, the girl who was previously bullying her after she herself became a target for the bullies.
• School Idol: Eri was a highly talented athlete who quickly became very popular among her classmates for both her physical prowess and great beauty. This drew the ire of Carmen, who started bullying Eri out of jealousy and instigating others to do the same, only for the bullies to target Carmen afterwards.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: While Eri was still quite attractive in her usual outfit, her appearance in the Indigo Disk postgame reveals she's quite adorable in her natural look.
• Signature Mon: Her ace is Annihilape.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Eri was bullied because other girls were jealous of her beauty.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Eri is a muscular, facepaint-wearing athlete who styles herself as a professional wrestling heel, and she specializes in Fighting-type Pokémon. She's also a very gentle and softhearted girl whose outfit has frilly accents, including a tutu and a tiara, and she never considered physically retaliating against her bullies, despite being more than strong enough to. Despite her fearsome appearance, she's also emotional enough to be sent running off in tears after losing a battle.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: She stylizes her overall look as a scary ogre. In The Indigo Disk, she removes all of that and dons a rather cute look as a Huge Schoolgirl. Moreover, her messy white hair is actually natural long black hair, making the change rather stark compared to her Team Star boss outfit.

Cassiopeia (Unmarked Spoilers)

The overall leader of Team Star, who is eventually revealed to be Penny. After being the subject of bullying, she formed Team Star to protect other students.

This folder discusses Penny's role as Team Star's founder and as Cassiopeia; for details about Penny in other contexts, see her folder here.

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• Anti-Hero: She wants to disband Team Star and atone for her mistakes, but her methods of doing so involve deceiving everyone as Cassiopeia, from the player character to her own friends, methods that do more harm than good. After the player befriends her genuinely, she drops the "anti" part entirely and mellows out into more of a Sarcastic Devotee during Area Zero.
• Arc Villain: She is the main antagonist of the Starfall Street storyline, although she isn't that much of an evil person.
• Beneath Notice: No one ever suspected that a shy introvert like Penny could be Cassiopeia, the leader of Team Star.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first glance, Penny seems like a shy nice girl, but eventually, she reveals a much darker side involving not only being a skilled hacker, but also the founder of Team Star, and a lot ruder than she lets on. However, she is by no means a bad person.
• Breaking Old Trends: Among the many evil team leaders, she breaks several trends:
  • She's the youngest team leader who is a teenager, in contrast to every evil team leader in the previous games who are either young adults (like Cyrus, N and Piers) or middle-aged adults (like Giovanni, Archie, Maxie, Ghetsis, Lusamine, Chairman Rose, etc.).
  • She is by far the least evil team leader of the bunch, since her goons are just truants rather than outright bullies and she's actively trying to make sure they don't do bad stuff (in comparison, their previous precursor Team Yell was rowdier, but still less pleasant).
  • Although all of the previous team leaders were taken down at best or let go at worst, she's the only team leader who succeeds in her goal to reform Team Star while being allowed to keep her friends safe from expulsion, and she's even granted a job opportunity for the Pokémon League.
  • She's the only team leader who's part of the main student group and thus a recurring character.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: For hacking into the League's systems, she is "offered" a job as a system engineer; at first, she is happy until she experiences firsthand what working for someone like Geeta is like.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Clavell tells her that if she just told someone about what was going on or took the chances to confront Team Star by giving them a direct order to knock it off, the player character wouldn't have to be forced to do her dirty work. Slightly subverted, as both she and the other leaders of Team Star point out, asking or ordering them to quit would not have worked, and she was rightfully distrustful of telling other authority figures about this, given the cover-up of the events of Operation Star a year and a half ago, which ultimately further smeared her friends' names and reputations.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: This unassumingly shy, reclusive computer expert who'd been presented as one of the player's friends eventually turns out to be the leader of the violent delinquent gang causing trouble at the school.
• Dramatic Irony: When Penny is first seen, Team Star is goading to have her join them. After it's revealed who she really is, the irony is that those Team Star grunts were trying to invite their boss to join them.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Once Clavell learns why Penny went as far as to create Operation Starfall, he forgives her for what she did. He then reinstates Team Star and rescinds the threat of expulsion of those associated with them. Moreover, the leaders of Team Star have no hard feelings because they realized that the operation was in order to protect them from expulsion.
  • Zigzagged concerning her theft from the Pokémon League. When she admits the LP she was paying the player with was all stolen from the League, Clavell and Geeta are both so impressed with how easily she bypassed the League systems that rather than punishing her, they offer to drop any and all fines and debts if she agrees to get an engineering job at the League whenever she finishes her studies at the academy. That said, it's clear Geeta has a tight leash on her and the job amounts to indentured volunteer work until Penny graduates and can work for real, and considering not too many of her employees have the best opinion of her, working for Geeta isn’t as easy as it sounds.
• Evil Brit: She's from Galar; the Pokémon world's equivalent of the UK, but very downplayed on the evil part as although she's the boss of Team Star, their "villainy" only stemmed from a tragic misunderstanding that blew up far beyond her intentions and she wants the best outcome for everyone.
• Failure Gambit: To shut down Team Star once and for all, the leader who created it must also be defeated. Therefore, Operation Starfall requires Penny to expose herself as Cassiopeia and then publically lose to the player.
• Fatal Flaw: Her fear of confrontation. Clavell, in disguise as "Clive", asks why Penny didn't just directly tell Team Star to stop all of their bullying ways. Penny replies that she did, but they refused. When Clavell asked that she could've ordered them as boss of Team Star, she states that the rules prohibited the ordering of other people around. Moreover, she refused to talk about this with the teachers, but that was more due to being afraid that it would get the leaders expelled if she spilled out names. Even Clavell admits that students tend to be shy when it comes to confronting teachers.
• Floral Theme Naming:
  • Her Japanese name, Botan, is the Japanese name for the Peony, which is a flower that is grown and cultivated thoughout Eurasia, including the Iberian Peninsula. In Japan, Paeonia suffruticosa is known as the King of Flowers there, much like how she is the true leader of Team Star, in addition to playing into the flower/fruit themeing of Team Star's names.
  • Her dub name comes from the Penny flower, a flower that is known to self-seed and become an invasive species. This reflects how her attempt to create a team to protect themselves from bullies would transform into Team Star who became a Gang of Bullies.
• Foreshadowing: Throughout the Starfall Street storyline, there are a few hints that Penny is a lot more than she seems to be, and is actually Cassiopeia:
  • Cassiopeia introduces herself by hacking the player's phone. Penny is also known to be a skilled hacker. Moreover, Cassiopeia didn't make herself known until after the player fought off the Team Star grunts harassing Penny. Because Penny, as Cassiopeia, decided to use the player to unleash Operation Starfall.
  • After the player defeats their second squad leader, Koraidon/Miraidon will suddenly sniff Penny out and play with her, sensing her distress over having to disband her friends' squads.
  • After the player defeats their third squad leader, Penny says that if Operation Starfall fails, she'll lose her greatest treasure. This is the exact same phrase that the squad leaders use to refer to each other, and sure enough, that's exactly who she's referring to.
  • She knows a little too much about how Team Star came to be. Considering she's the one who created it in the first place.
  • The academy requires students to wear their uniforms properly at all times, Penny does not. Recall which team of delinquents also do the same. It's also worth noting according to hierarchy, grunts wear their uniforms improperly while the bosses don't wear them at all, indicating Penny's status as more than a grunt.
  • When you defeat Ortega, the former director Mr. Harrington states that a member of Team Star took responsibility for them in return for all the other members being absolved, so he sent her to study in her home region of Galar for a year and a half. Penny's backpack is of a Gigantamax Eevee.
  • Interestingly, one of the classes this introvert ends up attending is an Art class where Brassius explains how he hit a low point in his past. Like him, Penny was prepared to give up everything before meeting the player.
  • After the first couple of times, you may realize that Penny coming right after Cassiopeia calls you when you clear a base is too coincidental.
• Grin of Audacity: When she challenges you to battle, her usual shy and nervous expression is replaced with a confident smirk.
• He Who Fights Monsters: She has a strong dislike of bullies, but she took this a bit too far to the point that the team of student rebels she started so they could protect themselves against their bullies eventually devolved into a gang of bullies themselves. She's very aware of this.
• In-Series Nickname: As Cassiopeia, the Team Star leaders nickname her "B.B." (Big Boss).
• Irony: For as much as she hides her identity as Cassiopeia, she was easily fooled by Clavell's disguise as "Clive" until he reveals himself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Her true personality as Cassiopeia. She's just as rude and blunt as her team, and very manipulative, but her entire scheme was to save her friends from expulsion, and she admits she didn't want Team Star to become the menaces that they are now. She butts heads with Arven and Nemona due to her bluntness and snarkiness, but she walks back and apologises for her meaner comments concerning Arven and his parent. She even harshly calls out Nemona for her Innocently Insensitive remarks regarding the player's Raidon and the aggressive Raidon, and shows immense empathy for the player's Raidon when it gets terrified by its aggressive counterpart.
• Manipulative Bitch: A(n anti-)heroic version. Penny's truancy and hacking skills lets her become an anonymous Voice with an Internet Connection known as "Cassiopeia", letting her manipulate both the player and Team Star in order to disband the latter. That said, all of her deceit comes from a good place and her mentality deconstructs the trope a bit; Penny feels terrible over manipulating her friends and resigns herself to the idea she has to throw herself under the bus for them to make up for it. Thankfully, her friends stick through for her.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her alias as Cassiopeia references Queen Cassiopeia, a vain and boastful woman who bragged that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the Nereids. Penny herself is known to be a bit of a jerkass. Moreover, Cassiopeia avoided punishment by Neptune thanks to Perseus rescuing her daughter, Andromeda, from being devoured by a sea monster, just like Penny was "rescued" from directly dismantling Team Star herself thanks to the player swooping in. However, the main difference is that while Poseidon did punish Cassiopeia by placing her as a constellation trapped in a torture chair because she escaped justice, Clavell decides to give punishment of community service instead. As a bonus, the Cassiopeia constellation is known for having five main stars, reflecting Team Star having five bosses.
  • Her name can also refer to the coin of the same name. Pennies are often buried in plant soil because copper acts as a fungicide to kill bacteria and fungi. Penny herself created the team of rebels that would become Team Star mostly so that they would be able to fight back against their bullies and no one would ever assume someone like her was Team Star's big boss, making her blend in with the crowd. Since all Team Star bosses have names related to fruits and plants, this is is further enforced.
• Must Make Amends: She wishes to make amends for creating Team Star by disbanding it and leaving the academy. Thankfully for her, Clavell decides that Team Star can stay, but they'll have to put in community service in exchange.
• My Greatest Failure: She regrets seeing that Team Star has gone from standing up to bullies to becoming bullies themselves by causing said bullies to drop out of the academy in fear from Operation Star, thus leading to her friends risking expulsion from the Academy, and holds herself responsible for the whole situation since she was the team's founder, so she enlists the protagonist's help to put an end to it.
• No One Sees the Boss: The other leaders of Team Star only knew her as someone who couldn't leave her room for fear of being bullied.
• Poor Communication Kills: Her story arc features a major problem caused by miscommunication: she couldn't ask Team Star to stand down because they had refused in the past. She also couldn't order them to stop because of the rules of Team Star; the only way that they could be toppled is if someone defeated them in battle because they had to accept all challengers. Clavell even discusses that she couldn't even tell this to the teachers because students tend to be shy about talking to them about such issues at the best of times, hence why he had his disguise as Clive, and that's without taking into account the fact that the faculty from before his tenure as Director failed so spectacularly as teachers that the bullying-problem had to be handled by Team Star.
• The Quisling: The person spearheading Operation Starfall happens to be none other than Team Star's leader. Penny began to regret Operation Star when it intimidated the students bullying her and the other outcasts into withdrawing from the academy altogether, and setting her subordinates up to lose fights against the player was the only way to dissolve Team Star.
• The Reveal: A major part of her character revealed late into the game is that she's Cassiopeia, leader of Team Star.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Alongside her blue hair, she's known to have a bit of red. While she's mostly a shy person, the red also hints that there is a more aggressive side to her.
  • She has a Gigantamax Eevee backpack which is symbolic of having an Eeveelution party. And that, just like Eevee can grow giant, that she wants to appear as bigger, and hinting that she's the boss of Team Star.
  • Operation Starfall in association with Cassiopeia's namesake. Cassiopeia's punishment by Poseidon was to be sent into a torture chair and becoming a constellation in the sky. For half of the year, the chair would be positioned upside-down, and the queen had to grab the chair and the chains binding her to keep herself from falling. Meanwhile, Penny herself wanted Team Star to be dismantled but she herself was in a perilous position of whether or not she wanted to stand by and let the team fall or if she wanted to keep it running even though they were doing more harm than good.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Subverted, with the reveal that she's actually Cassiopeia, the founder of Team Star.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Principal Clavell, as "Clive", simply asks Penny why she tasked the player character, a newbie she's only met once, to take part in her dismantling of Team Star when all she could've done was just tell the leaders to stop it in the first place. She explains that she did tell them once, but they refused to step down. When he asks why not just order them to knock it off, she then reveals that there's a rule stating that no one can order others around. Given she wanted herself to eventually be fought and defeated as well, she couldn't do the mission herself either, so she went for a promising trainer who she had already seen was willing to stand up to Team Star.
• Stealth Pun: She's Cassiopeia, the leader of Team Star and the one who created Operation Starfall. After she finally tells Team Star to stand down, she decides to make amends before Clavell stops her. In other words, she tried to take the fall for everything she did.
• Take a Third Option: As Cassiopeia, she was stuck between letting Team Star run free or having it dismantled but getting everyone expelled if she confessed. So she tasks the player to take them down one-by-one in her stead.
• Taking the Heat: She tried this in the past after Operation Star resulted in the ones bullying them dropping out en masse. Harrington, the academy director at the time, "punished" her by having her take an extended vacation back home in the Galar region for her own mental health.
• Two Aliases, One Character: It's eventually revealed she has a second persona initially portrayed as a separate character in the form of Cassiopeia, being her alias as leader of Team Star.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: While acting as the leader of Team Star, she only communicated with her subordinates in Team Star and the player via Rotom Phone.
• Walking Spoiler: The Reveal that she's the true leader of Team Star, Cassiopeia, recontextualizes everything concerning Penny as a character.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Downplayed. Penny manipulates both her friends and the player, and steals from the League to finance Operation Starfall, but her actions aren't extreme so much as dishonest and forced by poor communication. Penny only ever founded Team Star to create an environment where the academy's students could be themselves without having to worry about being bullied, only for the plan to backfire and Team Star to become misrepresented as a group of delinquents themselves, and initiates Operation Starfall to stop the situation from snowballing further and save her friends from an unwarranted expulsion.
• Wham Shot: Penny is at the school fighting grounds when you're supposed to meet with Cassiopeia... and she's smirking.

Other

Heath

The leader of the first successful expedition into Area Zero and the writer of the Scarlet/Violet Book.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: He braved the incredibly dangerous Area Zero and uncovered many of its secrets.
• Dream Weaver: A chapter of the Book heavily implies he was on the receiving end of one, as he recalls at one point being in a dream-like state while in Area Zero where he talked to an unknown person, and when he woke up his journal was filled with strange writing and drawings he himself couldn't recall writing or decipher.
• Gender-Blender Name: In Japanese, his name is Heather; in English, it retains the Floral Theme Naming while sounding more masculine.
• Mr. Exposition: Indirectly through the Book he has written, which details much of the background lore of Area Zero.
• Perpetual Frowner: Two of his character portraits in Scarlet/Violet books, one where he shook hands with a past Naranja/Uva Academy director and another with his Cyclizar, show him frowning, hinting that he didn't smile much.
• Posthumous Character: He was already pretty elderly when he wrote the Book, and the expedition being two centuries ago means that he is almost certainly long dead.
• Signature Mon: Heath's partner Pokémon was a Cyclizar.

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