History Characters / PokemonTheSeriesPaul

* BigCreepyCrawlies: Drapion is not a Bug-type Pokémon, but it looks like a giant, purple poisonous scorpion and it appropriately knows the Bug-type move Pin Missile.

[[center:[[WMG:''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Pokémon anime]]'' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeries characters index]]\\
[-'''Series-wide:''' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesAshKetchum Ash Ketchum]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesPikachu Pikachu]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesSupportingCast Supporting Cast]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesTeamRocketTrio Team Rocket Trio]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesTeamRocketOrganization Team Rocket Organization]]\\
[[Characters/PokemonTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]] ([[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesMistyAndBrock Misty and Brock]], [[Characters/PokemonTheOriginalSeriesMainCast Main Cast]]) | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire Ruby and Sapphire]] ([[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphireMainCast Main Cast]]) | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]] ([[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearlMainCast Main Cast]], '''Paul''') | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite Black & White]] ([[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhiteMainCast Main Cast]]) | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXY XY]] ([[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXYMainCast Main Cast]]) | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon Sun & Moon]] ([[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoonMainCast Main Cast]]) | [[Characters/PokemonJourneysTheSeries Journeys]] ([[Characters/PokemonJourneysTheSeriesMainCast Main Cast]]) \\

!!!''Diamond & Pearl''

[[folder:Turtwig-Grotle-Torterra (Naetle-Hayashigame-Dodaitoise)]]

* BreakoutCharacter: Paul's popularity was enough that he was brought back for an appearence in ''Journeys'', one of the very few anime-original characters to do so.

* BringIt: In the battle between Ash and Paul in the Sinnoh League Tournament. Electivire uses this to get Infernape to stand up, and Paul even calls Infernape pathetic. In the Japanese version, he just tells Infernape to stop disappointing him again and again.

* DisapointedInYou: In the Sinnoh League, when Infernape is seemingly defeated his Electivire, he is more disappointed over the fact that even under Ash's training, it still wasn't able to reach its full potential and just disappoints him again. This then causes Infernape's to gain its HeroicSecondWind and activate its Blaze ability.

* BoringButPractical: What makes him so effective, really. He doesn't get caught up in fighting in a suboptimal way to prove something like other characters often do, he just uses generic utility, screens, and prediction to overwhelm his opponents as efficiently as possible. During his battle against Ash by Lake Acuity, Ash's Counter Shield doesn't do much compared to his use of Bulk Up and Light Screen. Similarly, his strategy against Ash in their Conference battle was to use Toxic Spikes to poison Ash's entire team and have an insanely durable Drapion ensure the Toxic has plenty of time to do its work, albeit Ash was able to remove it before his team was too worn down. [[spoiler:Even when he finally faces Ash again in ''Journeys'' after a long absence, his strategies boil down to Coil, Keep Away, and Speed Boosting.]] And while Ash will often use a Pokemon with a bad type matchup and try to win on sheer willpower, if Paul does that, you can bet he has something up his sleeve that absolutely turns the matchup on its head and he switches it out if it doesn't work quickly.

** On the flipside, he also serves as a deconstruction toward Ash's reliance on ThePowerOfFriendship and the IndyPloy. Almost every time Ash tries to prove to Paul that a strong bond can overcome any matchup, he gets shown up ''hard''. Ash has to significantly up his game and battle far more strategically to finally defeat him. Similarly, Ash's tendency to try and have thematic matches was often something Paul exploited to predict his team and use one of his own that countered it.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Paul did not expect the sheer strength of Infernape's Blaze.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In the Lake Acuity battle against Ash, he completely foregoes his usual taunts and mockery and instead is completely deadset on ''destroying'' Ash in their full battle. This is lampshaded by Brock who notes that, unlike other fights that Paul essentially treats as training sessions for his Pokémon, he is completely serious in this one.

* TheRival: Ash's primary rival in Sinnoh and whom Ash held the most bitter rivalry with in the entire series by far. Their differing ideologies on raising Pokémon was the source of most of their antagonistic relationship, which escalated further after Paul released his Chimchar.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Paul and Reggie have hair in two different shades of purple, similar messy hair styles, and the same strong eyebrows.

* TechnicianVersusPerformer: The Technician to Ash's Performer with him making teams with strategies in mind, while Ash relies on {{indy ploy}}s and the PowerOfFriendship with his Pokémon. However, this is downplayed since he is far from inflexible in a fight and is able to anticipate and adapt to Ash's unpredictable tactics that would have stupified other opponents. This along with being humbled by his devastating loss to Brandon allowed Paul to crush Ash in their first full battle. In return, Ash had to strategize himself to defeat Paul in the Sinnoh League.

* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:In ''Diamond and Pearl'', Paul was a very powerful trainer by normal standards, but was shown to be completely outmatched by top-level trainers such as Cynthia and Brandon. By ''Journeys'', Paul has not only received an offer to become a Gym Leader, but has grown powerful enough that he can still go toe-to-toe with Ash, who himself is now a Champion and a member of the Masters Eight.]]

* BringIt: Electivire taunts its rival, Infernape, to get back up when the latter is down and about to be declared as knocked out.

* ElementalPunch: It knows Thunder Punch since its debut, a move that covers its fist in electricity. It's Fighting-type move Brick Break is portayed in a similar manner, as its arm gets covered in electric sparks, making it some kind of a sparking chop.

* JackOfAllTrades: It is living proof that Paul is a competent trainer. Elekid/Electabuzz/Electivire can be used as a straight up battler with defensive moves or as a supporting member with offensive capabilities.

* PrehensileTail: Electivire can capture its opponent with its tails, which allows it to perform a point blank Thunder. [[spoiler:In ''Journeys'', it is shown that it likes to play with its tails, and Pikachu and Goh's Grookey have great fun with them.]]

** To Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape. They are introduced in the same episode and Elekid was already a jerk to Chimchar when he was still with Paul. They have become rivals once Chimchar was released and joined Ash's team. Chimchar witnesses Elekid's evolution, while Electabuzz witnesses Monferno's evolution. During the Lake Acuity battle, Electabuzz briefly fights Chimchar and is later switched back on the field to see that he has suddenly evolved into Monferno, which fires Electabuzz up. The climax of their rivalry is during the Lily of the Valley Conference where both of them are the final Pokémon of their respective sides.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Elekid evolves the very next episode after Paul released Chimchar, right in front of both Chimchar and Ash. This symbolizes that it's a far better fit for Paul's style, as well as symbolizing its transition into TheAce of his team.

* ShockAndAwe: It is Paul's only known Electric-type Pokémon, and since its debut it knows Thunder and Thunder Punch.

* StatusEffects: Elekid's ability is Static, which can paralyze the opponent when it makes contact with Elekid. The ability has been changed to Motor Drive once it became Electivire.
* SupportPartyMember: During the Lake Acuity battle, Electabuzz's main role is activating Light Screen to half the damage inflicted on Paul's team. It still is capable of battling the opponent by its own, though, but it doesn't get to fight for long until its fight with its rival, Monferno.

* TookALevelInKindness: In ''Diamond & Pearl'', Electivire has become less nasty towards Pikachu and Chimchar after spending sometime with Ash's group at Reggie's caretake. [[spoiler:In ''Journeys'', it and Paul have softened up so much that Paul tells it to go play with Ash's and Goh's Pokémon.]]

* BareFistedMonk: Ursaring knows the Fighting-type moves Hammer Arm, Focus Blast and Bulk Up.
* BearsAreBadNews: Ursaring is a bear and it is always aggressive and angry since its debut.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: When its Guts kicks in, its eyes glow in crimson red to show of how dangerous it is now.
* HotBlooded: Of the angry kind. Ursaring is rarely calm at all and is always angry for no particular reason. It also has the Guts ability to match its personality, which makes it even stronger, angrier and more hot-blooded once it suffers from status changes.

* MadeOfIron: During its battle against Barry's Hitmonlee, it gets hits by many Fighting-type moves and is even burned by Hitmonlee's Blaze Kick. Not only does Ursaring not lose, it completely defeats Hitmonlee thanks to its Guts ability. And during the battle against Pyramid King Brandon, Ursaring took the most hits before being taken down.

* {{Sadist}}: Implied to be this. When we get to Chimchar's harsh training regiment under Paul, his other Pokémon are ordered to attack it while Chimchar has to defend itself. Notably, Ursaring is shown with a sadistic smirk on its face, which is one of the few times when it's not visibly pissed of.

* AnIcePerson: Weavile is primary an Ice-type Pokémon and is shown to use Blizzard, Ice Beam and Ice Shard. Paul uses it against Pokémon who are weak to Ice-type moves, but it never works for him.
* InformedAbility: It's implied to be one of Paul's strongest Pokemon, since he chose it to battle Cynthia. Its onscreen performance suggests otherwise.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Not explicitly confirmed, but logically, it must be the case. Paul is known to release Pokemon he deems weak; on top of that, Weavile has failed Paul in both of its onscreen battles, and in his first Full Battle against Ash, Weavile was one of only two of Paul's Pokemon to be knocked out (note that the other one, Ursaring, knocked out half of Ash's team before falling, whereas Weavile didn't knock out one). It must be the case that Weavile is doing good things for Paul off-screen if he hasn't released it yet.
* SignatureMove: Its most prominent move is Blizzard, which is often the subject to TheWorfBarrage.

* TheWorfBarrage: Its Blizzard never defeats anyone and it doesn't seem to deal that much damage either. Which is rather accurate to the games, since Weavile's Special Attack stat is pretty awful.

** It serves as one to Grotle. Turtwig evolves during his battle against Honchkrow, but he loses because of his unexpected loss in mobility. During the Lake Acuity battle, Paul uses Grotle's resentment over Honchkrow to his advantage, preventing Ash from switching Grotle out to defeat it.

* BreathWeapon: Like most Pokémon, it fires Hyper Beam from its mouth as a long range attack.
* CurbStompBattle: Torterra wins the semi-final match of the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition singlehandedly with no much difficulty while almost taking its tag partner (Ash's Staravia) out as well.

* HiddenHeartOfGold: Torterra is actually one of Paul's kinder Pokémon, despite the grumpy and jerky image they all represent. It helps Ash's Grotle how to change to a new battle style and how to adapt his MightyGlacier situation, all without Paul's permission.

* MightyGlacier: Torterra barely moves in battles since its too heavy, but thanks to his high endurance, it takes hits from its opponent fairly easily until it is the perfect time to smash them with its powerful strength. One of the only times this worked against it was when it fought the LightningBruiser that is Cynthia's Garchomp, who, once she endured Torterra's Frenzy Plant, proceeded to close the distance faster than it could react and unleash a brutal counterattack that one-shotted it.

* WiseOldTurtle: It is Paul's oldest and calmest Pokémon, having complete understanding of how to battle as a MightyGlacier. It teaches Ash's Grotle how to battle defensively, and is highly respected by everyone who's met it -- whether it be Paul, Ash, his friends, his Pokémon, or even Cynthia.

* TheWorfEffect: Despite being Paul's strongest Pokémon, it gets one-shotted by Cynthia's Garchomp just to show off how ridiculously powerful she is. This even applies retroactively, as Torterra never loses afterwards and wins its battles pretty easily, which makes Garchomp look even more impressive.

* ChekhovsGunman: It first appeared in a flashback centered around Chimchar. It finally reappears in a battle against the fully evolved Infernape.

* AmbiguousSituation: Paul has had a few different encounters with Drapion prior to the Sinnoh League: he attempted to catch a wild one in [=DP081=], but it escaped while he was distracted by Ash's Gligar, and Reggie owns a Drapion of his own as shown in a flashback. It's unclear whether this Drapion is one of those two, or a different one altogether.

[-'''Series-wide:''' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesAshKetchum Ash Ketchum]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesPikachu Pikachu]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesTeamRocketTrio Team Rocket Trio]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesTeamRocketOrganization Team Rocket Organization]]\\