Kieran (スグリ suguri)
A native of Kitakami who attends Blueberry Academy alongside his older sister. He plays a major role in The Treasure of Area Zero.
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- Accent Adaptation: Kieran speaks with a noticeable Tohoku regional accent in the Japanese version. His catchphrase, "wowzers", is a rough approximation of wayaja, for example.
- Admiring the Abomination: Though everyone in Kitakami fears and shuns Ogerpon, Kieran admires it because it's strong and doesn't depend on anyone, traits that he wishes to relate in full. Then again, the history about Ogerpon is all backwards, so it's not abominable in the least.
- Age-Appropriate Angst: Carmine constantly believes that his lack of self-confidence and desire to outdo others is the result of rampant teenage angst, not realizing that it's really the result of her treating Kieran awfully.
- All of the Other Reindeer: He believes himself to be the reindeer in this case when he finds out that his sister and the player kept him in the dark about their meeting with Ogerpon and trying to fix her mask, because his sister didn't want him to get upset that they met the ogre before he — who adores it a lot — did. He even complains to them that he's being ostracized just like the ogre, though it's all in his head.
- Always Second Best: Near the end of The Indigo Disk, he reveals that he wanted to be just like the player because of their strength and how easy it was for them to become friends with anyone. He even complained to his sister that she went from being rude to very friendly with them.
- Ambiguously Bi: The player character's gender has no apparent bearing on his Ship Tease with them.
- Anti-Villain: Not evil, per se, but definitely selfish and very reckless. He's motivated by a huge superiority complex.
- Arc Villain: For all effective intents and purposes, he's the main antagonist of The Indigo Disk. His grudge against the protagonist drives the entire story and ends up triggering the final conflict when he tries to get his hands on Terapagos to finally one-up you.
- Bad Boss: Upon becoming the BB League Champion, things start to become far more strict due to his overbearing rules as the League Club's president, exemplified when he's first seen berating a fellow club member having family issues unable to set time aside for training, before expelling them from the club entirely. The rest of the Elite Four dislike how rigid things have become since Kieran took over, with some of them wanting to spare the player from being another victim of the drama. Once Kieran is beaten and excuses himself entirely from being a club member, Lacey is happy to say that things have gone back to normal by scrapping all of the strict rules Kieran put in place.
- Berserk Button: In any of his matches against him before the end of Indigo Disk, landing supereffective and critical hits will cause him to lash out at the player. Bringing Ogerpon for his Championship match causes another reaction as well.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Kieran initially comes off as a shy but sweet boy put-upon by his sister, but when he lashes out at Carmine and the player for keeping the truth about Ogerpon's folktale from him, he comes off as distressingly unhinged, and Carmine even notes afterwards that he actually scared her.
- Birds of a Feather: He likes to compare himself to Ogerpon as he thinks they both feel like they're alone in the world, though Kieran admires that Ogerpon has the strength to fend for herself and wishes to fully be as independent as her. However, his belief that she did not care about being shunned turns out to have been misplaced.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His troubled childhood and issues from his sister's bullying and lack of friends has built in him an outwardly shy meek demeanor that conceals a legitimately resentful and selfish streak. He becomes increasingly jealous of the protagonist due to their battle prowess and tries to take Ogerpon for himself despite having done basically nothing to bond with her, treating her as a prize to be won rather than a sentient being with legitimate feelings. When he loses, he becomes dangerously fixated on the protagonist, apparently intending to become stronger than them by the next time they meet.
- Blamed for Being Railroaded: The player isn't ever given the option to tell him the truth about Ogerpon, with the game even forcing you to lie to his face. This ends up being the catalyst for him getting worse as the story goes on and he gets mad at you for lying. Similarly, he gets mad because of you going around with Carmine instead of him, meeting Ogerpon in the process; again, you have to do this to progress — though Poor Communication Kills also plays a role.
- Break the Cutie: Kieran seriously can't catch a break in this story. He's often harassed by his sister, has his desire to become stronger constantly put out by you beating him left and right, and just when something finally goes his way when he proves once and for all that Ogerpon was the good guy of the legends all along, his dreams of having Ogerpon for a partner Pokémon get crushed when she picks you instead. This last hit against him sends him over the edge and he drags you into a battle against him with Ogerpon as the prize, and when that ends in his failure, he can only run off in tears and lock himself in his room afterwards. It's frankly no wonder that his last showing in the DLC has him going completely nuts as he keeps muttering about getting stronger and flashing a dark smile that implies that their next meeting with him won't be so friendly...
- Broken Pedestal: He starts off being wowed with the player's skill in battle and is quick to latch onto them as a friend, but being beaten by them so consistently, in addition to them lying to him about how Ogerpon is actually the victim of the folktale causes him to lash out at them in anger. The final straw comes when Ogerpon chooses the player as her trainer instead of him, which causes him to break down in tears, lock himself in his room, and not come out to say goodbye to the player when they leave. Interestingly enough, it's inverted in the sense that Kieran was the one who broke the pedestal due to his fragile psyche and misunderstanding rather than any intentionally malicious actions performed by the player. This is later subverted at the end of the Indigo Disk DLC, where Kieran acknowledges his mistakes, apologizes for his actions, and asks the player if they can start over.
- Character Catchphrase: "Wowzers!"
- Character Development: His Shrinking Violet traits become less of a problem to him as his story progresses, leading to him convincing all the villagers that Ogerpon is not dangerous as the wrong histories said. His rather small team becomes a fully evolved team of 6 when he challenges the player to claim Ogerpon. On the other hand, he takes a turn for the worse when he falls into his Sore Loser attitude and becomes obsessed with trying to beat the player the next time they meet. However, Kieran's character development eventually loops back around to positive, after he's able to put his obsession behind him and apologize to the player for all he put them through.
- Crazy-Prepared: During Briar's expedition to the depths of Area Zero, when Terapagos appears, he notices that it is approaching the player, and reveals that he had brought a Master Ball (presumably the one given to him when he became the BB league Champion) to decisively capture it for himself, before any attempt is made for Terapagos to bond with the player. Unfortunately for him, charging up Terapagos through Terastallizing it causes it to go on a rampage and shatters the Master Ball, indirectly setting itself free.
- Didn't Think This Through: While staying behind in Mossui Town to educate the townsfolk about the truth regarding Ogerpon to clear her name is a noble goal, Kieran apparently didn't consider that leaving Ogerpon to mingle with the player character out of his sight may cause her to instead bond with and trust the player character more than him. Ogerpon's choice to join you thus is partially his own fault.
- Discard and Draw: He benches his Furret in exchange for a Gligar and a Cramorant in his fourth battle, and then benches his Cramorant for a Shiftry and a Probopass in his fifth. When the player battles him at Blueberry Academy, his original team is gone, except for his Dipplin, which he evolved into Hydrapple. This constant changing of his team demonstrates his fixation on becoming stronger, at the cost of pushing away his connections to those around him.
- Dramatically Missing the Point:
- Kieran idolizes the ogre for being independent, and is both awed by and jealous of the player character's battling skills. Therefore, once Ogerpon chooses the player over him and he loses one last battle with them, Kieran concludes that he just wasn't strong enough to be Ogerpon's trainer. In reality, Ogerpon chose the player because they spent more time with her than he did.
- When he catches Terapagos and uses it to battle the player, he’s confused as to why this Pokémon isn’t as strong as he initially believed. He's also still so hung up on beating the player character that he assumes catching a Legendary Pokémon will solve his problems. Thus, he still hasn't learned his lesson from Ogerpon, and goes a step further by outright capturing Terapagos instead of considering its feelings.
- Driven by Envy: Him becoming the BB League Champion and wanting to one-up the protagonist is the result of him having lost to the protagonist over and over again in The Teal Mask, with Ogerpon choosing the protagonist being the straw that broke the camel's back.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Most of his actions in The Teal Mask are the result of the protagonist and Carmine constantly going behind his back and lying to him, with him feeling as though he deserves to know everything that they know about Ogerpon that they've deliberately been avoiding telling him.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: His eyes reflect his mental state, losing their shine should he deteriorate into bitterness and rage. This is especially evident during his final battle to determine who gets to be Ogerpon's trainer. Even the final scene with him shows his eyes are vacant, indicating that he's becoming obsessed with beating the player. At the end of "The Indigo Disk", his Heel–Face Turn is displayed by the lights returning to his eyes.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite how Kieran acted to everyone, including the player, in The Indigo Disk, he's still forgiven by the player and Carmine. When he asks if he and the player can be friends again, the player gives him a smile and the post-credit photo shows them and Carmine together. Justified through dialogue with Drayton and other members of the Elite Four, who were aware of Keiran's change in character since returning from Kitakami and were more worried than angry, figuring that something terrible had happened to bring about the change.
- Entitled to Have You:
- A non-romantic example. He challenges the player for the right to catch Ogerpon after she expressed her desire to have them to be her trainer. Carmine even pleads for him to consider Ogerpon's feelings, but he dismisses her in favor of winning Ogerpon like a prize. Kieran acknowledges that he's being selfish and that he's in the wrong but he simply can't bring himself to give up on his dream without a fight. By the end of the DLC, his focus seems to have slipped from winning Ogerpon to the player character themselves, in a bit of a twisted parallel to Carmine's and Nemona's obsession with having the player as a rival to beat.
- He also ends up doing this to Terapagos as well, as when Terapagos notices the player and tries to approach them, Kieran flips out and catches it in a Master Ball to keep it away from the player, angrily yelling that Terapagos is his.
- Evil Counterpart:
- Kieran is this for Penny. Both are introverted and suffer bullying, resulting in them making mistakes and causing more harm than good in response. The difference is that Penny ultimately accepts her defeat and becomes better for it, while Kieran gets more and more frustrated over his losses and ultimately comes to resent the player.
- He's one for the opposite gender rival in Pokemon X & Y. Both get genuinely disheartened by how, no matter how hard they try, the protagonist is just better than them and gets the privilege of something they've been seeking. But while Calem or Serena learns to cope with the power gulf, Kieran sinks deeper and deeper into despair as he keeps losing and when he loses out on what he sees as his prize, Ogerpon's friendship, he snaps.
- He shares more of a resemblance to Paulo from Pokémon Masters. Both of them feel rather hopeless to beat the player and keep going at it despite the odds. Though Paulo keeps a sense of sanity about it for the most part and stays afloat (rockily) because of other people trying look after him, Kieran doesn't get as much help from his status as a loner (not helped by his Big Sister Bully issues) and ends up being far more fixated on trouncing the player, and he falls into Sanity Slippage for it.
- He also has a fair amount in common with Hop. Both are rivals who have a crisis from constantly being beaten and eventually shelve their Com Mon after said crisis, with both of their character arcs essentially boiling down to them realizing that they aren't the main character of the game. While Hop eventually accepts he isn't going to beat the player and is still friends with them, Kieran keeps doubting his strength and eventually goes crazy, only wisening up after things go horribly wrong and he has to help make them right.
- He shares a few quirks with Nemona but also contrasts with her. Both are the younger sibling in the family, lacking friends growing up, highly-skilled in battle and easily fixated on someone they fancy. However, Nemona grew up under hand-off parents and becomes a cheerful but socially-tone-deaf girl, and she's fixated on a rival to match her prowess to the point of being utterly ecstatic when said rival finally bests her at the top of her game. Meanwhile, Kieran grew up with an oppressive sister and becomes a shy, sensitive and judgmental young boy who can't handle losses well and eventually snaps after losing for the umpteenth time.
- By The Indigo Disk, he becomes this to Wally from Ruby and Sapphire, but specifically his incarnation from the remakes. Both of them are introverts who become deeply affected and inspired by the protagonist to become stronger in their own ways, and both of them have signature Pokemon that represent their character growth. However, while Wally is physically frail but has a keen aptitude and focused mindset for strategy, Kieran is the opposite. He's perfectly healthy physically, but not mentally due to his severe insecurities over being bullied and teased by his older sister. This is especially reflected in their choice of Pokemon, and how they handle their teams from a competitive standpoint. Wally stays loyal to his team and his ace is Ralts, a Pokemon that senses the emotions of others and actively seeks out those who express positive emotions and eventually evolves into either Gardevoir or Gallade depending on the version, both of which will do whatever it takes to defend their beloved trainer. Kieran constantly swaps his team around in his obsession to beat the protagonist and his ace is Applin, a Pokémon that hides within the shell of an apple to protect itself from those it sees as threats and can take many different forms depending on the type of apple it eats, representing Kieran's lack of stability. Instead of evolving into its more sapient draconic forms, however, it eventually becomes a Hydrapple, which takes on the appearance of an apple with several worm-like serpents residing inside of it, giving it an almost rotten appearance and representing Kieran's inability to grow past his insecurities, which ends up rotting away his sanity from the inside out as he simply can't understand why the things happening around him are happening.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Unlike the other villagers, he thinks Ogerpon is Not Evil, Just Misunderstood. He's right on the money, though mistaken in some of his other beliefs about Ogerpon's character.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: At the end of The Teal Mask, he's shown pulling back his bangs as he fully falls into his obsession with beating the player. The final trailer for The Indigo Disk shows that he ended up pulling back all of his hair save for a single strand, resulting in his purple highlights now becoming the primary color of his hair. This is lampshaded by Drayton in The Indigo Disk, who literally states he preferred Kieran when his hair was down, as while he was timid and hid behind Carmine, he at least enjoyed being a Pokémon trainer.
- Face–Heel Turn: He's one of the protagonists of The Teal Mask alongside the protagonist and Carmine, but after being routinely ostracized by the two, he loses his sense of goodwill and becomes the Arc Villain of The Indigo Disk, at least until he's asked by the protagonist to take down Terapagos.
- Fanboy: Kieran is absolutely obsessed with the story of Ogerpon and the Loyal Three, to the point that he's the only one who realizes that Ogerpon is really The Hero of the story, while the Loyal Three were really Evil All Along.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Similar to Carmine, his casual outfit has a white stripe on the left leg and a blue stripe on the right leg, and he wears a red glove on only his right hand.
- Floral Theme Naming: He's named after the blackcurrant plant, connecting him thematically both to his sister Carmine (named after the redcurrant) and his school, Blueberry Academy (named after a similar berry fruit).
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He starts out as the Responsible sibling to Carmine's Foolish, being shyer but friendlier and more respectful towards others. But as the story progresses, the player keeping secrets from him and constantly beating him in battles takes its toll on his sanity, to the point that by the end, he's purely acting on his own selfish whims; this, combined with Carmine's own Character Development, effectively reverses their roles by the end, making him the Foolish one and her the Responsible one.
- Foreshadowing: In the Blueberry Academy promotional image for Indigo Disk, Kieran's face is hidden from view. At the end of Teal Mask, he opts for an Expository Hairstyle Change which we don't see from behind.
- Freudian Excuse: It's all but outright stated that Carmine being a Big Sister Bully to him contributed to a lot of his issues, with the two of you keeping the truth about Ogerpon from him being the straw that broke the camel's back.
- Friendless Background: Due to his loner status, he doesn't have a single friend in the village. When the player is called a friend of his, he feels giddy inside for having a friend. Unfortunately for him, his desperation to become stronger than the player and them getting Ogerpon's adoration makes him undergo Sanity Slippage, implying that he has discarded his friendship with them and has gone back to being all alone again.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: By the end of the Teal Mask, he has underwent Sanity Slippage and developed an obsession with beating the player. When he returns to Blueberry Academy, he proceeds to beat the BB League and become the League Club's president and Champion. Still not sane, he starts to make sweeping changes by introducing strict rules to the club, causing unnecessary drama that can't be corrected because he's the boss of the joint.
- The Gift: It takes him only three days of meeting the player to fully raise his meager low-level team of average mons into powerhouses. That is the fastest anyone in the series has ever canonically raised their team that strong.
- Heel–Face Turn: He slowly recovers his kind personality while traveling through Area Zero. Fully played straight at the end of The Indigo Disk story, apologizing to the Player and asking if they can be friends again. Said ending also has him acknowledging his faults during his reign as Blueberry Academy's Champion and head of their League Club, vowing to make things right.
- He's Back!: When you convince him to help you fight Terapagos at the climax of The Indigo Disk, the shiny highlights finally return to his eyes, showing that he's at last pulled himself out of his funk.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Like Carmine, his default hairstyle involves his bangs being braided in a manner that partially "masks" the upper half of his face while still leaving slots for his eyes so his vision isn't obscured. However, by the end of the Teal Mask DLC, he's discarded the hairstyle as a sign of his Start of Darkness and obsession with getting stronger than the player character. By the time Indigo Disk rolls around, he has a stronger team with Hidden Abilities and good competitive items, but he's gone from shy and withdrawn to a strict, overbearing bully with almost no sign of the kindness he once had.
- Hidden Depths: Like his sister, there's more to Kieran than meets the eye. Despite his shy, meek demeanor, he has quite an ego, evidenced by how poorly he takes his losses. He also has a bit of an obsession with power, evidenced by how he is willing to do anything to become more powerful than the player.
- Hope Spot:
- After a falling out, Kieran and the protagonist apologize to each other and make up over stealing the mask and keeping him out of the loop respectively, but things deteriorate again when Ogerpon doesn't instantly warm up to him.
- In the Indigo Disk, the trip to Area Zero shows several moments when his meek personality comes up to the surface before quickly trying to cover them up when the others notice it. At first, it seems like it doesn't stick by the time the group finds Terapagos when his emotions get the better of him once more, but ultimately the trope is Subverted when Carmine's and the Player's encouragements manage to bring back his old self for good.
- Hourglass Plot: Unlike Carmine, he's shown to be very friendly and welcoming to the player, while she is ruder and acts like a bully towards them. However, as the story continues, he becomes colder and more distant from the player while Carmine warms up to them and becomes much nicer. This is continued into the Indigo Disk, when Keiran's obsession with becoming the strongest has made him rude and overbearing towards others, and Carmine has become the quiet and withdrawn one, due to her worrying about Keiran's change of personality.
- Hypocrite: He idolizes the ogre, and after discovering that Ogerpon was actually a victim and the "Loyal" Three were actually mask thieves, he proceeds to steal a mask — Ogerpon's only remaining one, which Carmine and the player were planning to repair and give back to Ogerpon after she dropped it.
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- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Surprisingly inverted: despite his timid personality, Carmine reveals that Kieran is actually somewhat egotistical, as proven by his Sore Loser reactions to being beaten by the player. In the Indigo Disk, he admits that he's jealous of the player for being able to make friends so easily and for having strong Pokémon and that he's still upset about Ogerpon choosing the player over him. It plays a major role in him catching Terapagos with a Master Ball during the Indigo Disk climax when it looked like it had taken a liking to the player.
- Loners Are Freaks: Due to his shyness and lack of confidence he is seen as difficult to deal with by some in the village. In the end, though, he musters up the courage to make the villagers realize the truth about Ogerpon; unfortunately, the boost in confidence isn't enough to avert his Sanity Slippage.
- Loving a Shadow: He feels a connection to Ogerpon, but can't wrap his head around the fact that admiration for a legendary figure for her strength and independence doesn't translate to actually bonding with the real thing. Ultimately, Ogerpon chooses the protagonist, who she spent time bonding with, over him and he doesn't take it well, demanding a battle for the right to be Ogerpon's trainer and running away in tears when he loses. Ogerpon also turns out to have been a caring creature who greatly craved companionship and continued to attend the village's mask festival in secret, rather than the pillar of independence who didn't care about being shunned that he imagined her to be.
- Madness Mantra: At the end of The Teal Mask, an unhinged Kieran mutters that he's going to become "a lot stronger. Stronger. Stronger! Stronger and stronger and stronger!"
- Meaningful Name: Kieran is named for a shade of purple, referencing both the purple highlights in his hair and Pokémon Violet as a whole (although he ironically ends up fielding the two returning Pokémon lines exclusive to Scarlet).
- Might Makes Right: Deconstructed. Kieran has this mindset simmering beneath the surface but breaks it out to desperately try and justify himself when he knows he's morally in the wrong, like when he steals the Teal Mask out of resentment for being left out (after he chose to not participate in Carmine's plan) or when he challenges the player for the right to be Ogerpon's trainer when Ogerpon already chose the player. When he ends up losing anyway, rather than reassess his behaviour, he concludes that the problem was he simply wasn't strong enough to win these matches he forced. In the end, his forceful capture of Terapagos with a Master Ball in response to Terapagos taking a liking to the player just so that he can defeat them blows up in his face when he terastalizes Terapagos, causing it to go berserk and break the Master Ball.
- Mons as Characterization:
- His constantly changing his team members over the course of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero is meant to represent his fixation on becoming stronger at the cost of his connections with others. His final team is a mishmash of Pokémon with a history of real life competitive success (Multiscale Dragonite, screen-setting Prankster Grimmsnarl, Intimidate/Fake Out Incineroar...), suggesting he became so obsessed with strength he discarded bonding altogether and straight-up netdecked his team.
- In The Indigo Disk, he gains a Grimmsnarl on his team, a fearsome ogre-like Pokémon not unlike what Ogerpon was initially believed to be, as well as Incineroar, the Heel Pokémon, representing his Face–Heel Turn.
- His Signature Mon is Dipplin in the Teal Mask, which has evolved into a Hydrapple by the time of the Indigo Disk. The former represents a shy boy in his shell with its more monstrous evolution representing Kieran's own negative change to become stronger. Also while the main syrpent in Hydrapple is its nominal leader, the other four heads only help it sparingly, which shows his damaged relationship with the Elite Four below him despite their care for him.
- Motive Rant: When trying to pull Terapagos out of its crystal in the Indigo Disk, he rants about how the player character gets everything they want, how they have strong Pokemon, won over Ogerpon, makes friends instantly, and how even his own sister warmed up to them in record time, which is why he's so desperate to finally win against them.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Has this at the end of The Indigo Disk when he puts everyone in danger by Terastalizing Terapagos, causing it to go berserk, simply staring in shock as both the player and Carmine battle it. It's only with the player encouraging them that he steps in to help.
- Never My Fault: He gets angry when Ogerpon bonds with the player more than himself. But part of that was self-inflicted; Kieran had previously refused to help with Carmine's plan to take back the masks from the "Loyal" Three, giving the player more time to bond with Ogerpon.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: In The Indigo Disk, when Terapagos first appears, he does not waste any time with preamble. He just comes right out with a Master Ball.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the downtime between The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk, Kieran inexplicably goes from just another trainer to the Champion of Blueberry Academy.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Once you sign up for the BB League, Kieran tells you not to lose to anyone else because he wants to be the one to defeat you.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: After being lied to by his sister and the protagonist, being beaten routinely by the protagonist, and having Ogerpon choose the protagonist over him, Kieran goes from the meek tritagonist of The Teal Mask to the BB League Champion and overall Arc Villain of The Indigo Disk.
- Recurring Boss: He's fought five times during The Teal Mask and twice during The Indigo Disk.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to his sister's red. He's generally quieter and calmer compared to the more expressive and hot-blooded Carmine.
- The Resenter: While he starts out as a shy yet genuinely good friend, he becomes increasingly frustrated from losing to the player over and over again. When Ogerpon chooses the player as her partner, he refuses to let them have her without a fight. Once they defeat him, he goes off the deep end, muttering himself to be stronger, while sporting a Slasher Smile. The events of the Teal Mask story lead to him becoming the BB League Champion and trains a new team in the Indigo Disk to beat them.
- Riddle for the Ages: Did the punch he threw at the Loyal Three's altar wake them up from their slumber, the energy-charged Pokémon battle, or was it the Teal Mask being in proximity? Or was it a combination of all three? Or something else? The game or Carmine doesn't make it clear how it happened.
- Rule of Symbolism: His hair is partly colored violet, which symbolizes his Shrinking Violet personality and Pokémon Violet as a whole.
- Sanity Slippage: He suffers this the more he loses to the player, culminating in a Slasher Smile and an Expository Hairstyle Change.
- Ship Tease: Like Carmine, he grows quite attached to the player character. Which makes Ogerpon choosing you over him hurt even more.
- Shrinking Violet: He's very shy, so much so that during his introduction in the Teal Mask DLC, he hides behind his sister. Bonus points for the highlights in his hair actually being a shade of violet.
- Signature Mon: While the position of his ace is inconsistent in The Teal Mask (with multiple Pokémon taking the role at different points and Yanma/Yanmega being the only one that's on all his teams), promotional material and The Indigo Disk solidified that his team ace is Dipplin/Hydrapple.
- Slasher Smile: Gives a frightful smile at the end of Teal Mask while musing he'll get stronger than the player. He becomes proner to flashing them in Indigo Disk.
- Sore Loser:
- Something he has in common with his sister, surprisingly: though he takes his first couple of losses to you relatively well, he gradually starts taking them harder and harder as he wonders why he can't beat you. Losing trainership of Ogerpon to you causes him to hit the breaking point, with the DLC ending on him muttering that he'll get stronger than you and sporting a Slasher Smile.
- He reacts this way again after the player beats him in the BB League, dropping to his knees and becoming completely demoralized by the defeat. And when it looks like Terapagos has taken an interest in the player, he angrily yells that it belongs to him and catches it in a Master Ball, promptly using it in a battle against you right after. And when he loses again, he is encouraged by Briar to terastalize it, which he promptly does in order to defeat you, which ends up causing Terapagos to go berserk.
- Start of Darkness: Kieran begins the story as a meek and kind boy who's often belittled by his big sister, but quickly latches onto the player as the first sympathetic ear to his admiration of Ogerpon. When you and Carmine run into Ogerpon at the Festival of Masks without him, she impulsively lies to him about meeting her to spare his feelings, and you are forced to contribute to said lie. When their grandfather unveils the truth about Kitakami's legend to the player and Carmine, Kieran eavesdrops on it and begins to resent the player for betraying his trust. This combined with back-to-back losses in Pokémon battles with you feeds his enmity and growing obsession with becoming stronger, and when Ogerpon ultimately chooses to be partners with you instead of him, it proves to be the final straw.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Upon his defeat in The Indigo Disk, every other student watching doesn't even attempt to comfort him as he drops to the floor. Rather, they all express some disappointment that he went down and leave him to grieve his defeat like it's just another day at the academy. Given that he was a pretty Bad Boss, it's justified how no one in there felt sorry seeing him getting beaten.
- Sympathy for the Devil: He loves the ogre in the Loyal Three's folktale more than the Loyal Three themselves, believing it to be Not Evil, Just Misunderstood and wanting to be friends with her. He turns out to be closer to the mark than expected.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Starts off as a chump with a couple of low-rent Com Mons, but the final battle with him has him field a full team of six badasses who (if the DLC is done in the postgame) all carry useful items and are some of the highest leveled Pokémon fielded by any human in Scarlet and Violet at time of release. The ending makes it clear it's still not enough for him, and his desire for more power starts to unhinge him...
- By the time of The Indigo Disk, he's dethroned Drayton as Blueberry's Champion and is the second-strongest Trainer at the school, only behind Cyrano. It's implied he did so with relative ease, too.
- Took a Level in Jerkass:
- He starts off as sweet and friendly towards the player, but as the player consistently defeats him in battle, combined with them and his sister lying to him about Ogerpon, he grows increasingly cold and distant, culminating in him snapping and muttering how he'll get much stronger with a dark smile on his face.
- When he's first seen again in the Indigo Disk DLC he's berating a member of his school club for being weak because they've been having troubles at home and haven't had time to train their Pokémon, going so far as to expel them. Near the end of the DLC, he is outraged when he sees Terapagos smiling and trying to walk to the player, provoking him to catch it in a Master Ball while screaming that Terapagos is his.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The excitement of traveling through the beautiful and dangerous terrain of Area Zero starts to bring out his old kind personality, comparing their trek to an action movie and showing consideration for the personal effects found in the Zero Lab, mildly becoming exasperated when Ms. Briar starts snooping through them. Briefly Subverted when he has a breakdown after finally encountering Terapagos and lapses back into his inferiority complex with the prospect of finally beating the player with it, then captures Terapagos without its knowledge or consent simply to have a chance to best the Player in battle, but later played straight again after Terapagos ends up going berserk (destroying the Master Ball he used to catch it) and ends up endangering everyone, leaving him in horrified shock at what he had caused. However, when the player encourages him by telling him they need his help, he finally realizes how low he has fallen and resolves to change for the better.
- Tsundere: Late in "The Indigo Disk", during the trip to Area Zero, he starts to show some of the empathy and wonder he previously buried. When called out on it by Carmine, he gets defensive.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Upon wrestling the position of BB League champion and thus president from Drayton, Kieran turns the League into a battle-centric club where everyone is obligated to push themselves to be as strong as he wants them to, personal issues and preferences be damned.
- The Unchosen One:
- Invoked. He tries so hard to get Ogerpon to like him the most because he absolutely adores her and feels like she shares a similar background like him, but to his chagrin, she ends up liking the player far more. He gets another dosage of this trope when his efforts to have Terapagos fails when one, it already takes a liking to the player character upon awakening and two, him Terastalizing it causes it to go berserk and it destroys the Master Ball he used to catch it.
- In general, the main reason for his jealousy towards the player, Ogerpon aside, is how everything seems to fall into place for them — in short, how they're the main character of the game. His prickly sister instantly befriends them, they overcome every challenge they meet and become a hero almost overnight, end up quickly befriending almost everyone in the BB League, and instantly bond with two Legendary Pokémon to boot. This is lampshaded in some of his dialogues where he becomes enraged when you land a critical hit on him in some of his fights, ranting that even luck has chosen the player, with an especially blatant line for when you land a crit on Terapagos when he uses it against you.Kieran: How can you get critical hits, even at a time like this… What are you, the hero of this story?!
- Walking Spoiler: Needless to say, it is very difficult to discuss Kieran without going into the dramatic shifts he undergoes in his character arc.
- We Will Meet Again: While obsessing over his perceived lack of strength, he dramatically declares "Just you wait, [player's name]..."
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Something he shares with Carmine. It's Averted at first; Kieran's actually the nicer one of the two siblings. Played depressingly straight by the end, when it's implied he's undergone a Face–Heel Turn.
