History Characters / PokemonTheSeriesXYMegaEvolutionSpecials

* BreakTheHaughty: He almost suffers it when he sees Ash-Greninja's Giant Shuriken about to be launched during the League finals [[SubvertedTrope but is spared defeat]] when he manages to knock Ash-Greninja out first. But then it is DoubleSubverted when Team Flare attacks just as Alain is awarded the trophy of being the League victor, and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he gets to see]] what his ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero real reward]]'' is for becoming the strongest and helping Team Flare's goals all along.

* CastingAShadow: Half of Alain's team are part Dark-Type: Tyranitar, Weavile and Bisharp. Coincidently, they all have a secondary type that also makes them double weak to Fighting-Type moves, but that issue only comes to Weavile. He gets a new addition to his lineup of Dark-Types in ''Journeys'' where he's revealed to have caught a Malamar offscreen.
* CharacterDevelopment: Alain was cold to anyone around him, minus Sycamore, and would distance himself from making friends as he believed they hold him him back from becoming stronger. However, after meeting and befriending Mairin, Alain began to question his beliefs as his friendship with her got to see a different perspective and mellowed his cold attitude a little. Once he meets Ash as both a friend and rival, Alain realized that being with Mairin did change him for the better as he made more friends that isn't her or Sycamore.

%%*DefeatMeansFriendship:

* {{Flanderization}}: Alain's brooding, {{angst}}y attitude is amplified [[spoiler:in ''Journeys'' despite his CharacterDevelopment from ''XY'', not even acknowledging [[TheRedeemer Ash]] with much more than a cold stare]]. [[spoiler: Averted with the "After the Story" artwork with them fistbumping and having a conversation]].

* MrFanservice: A generally good-looking lad and is ''really'' popular among the female viewership.

** In ''Pokémon: Mega Evolution Special IV'': Alain became gilt-ridden when he discovered Mairin's Chespin fell into a coma as he kicked himself for pushing his best friend away.

'''Major Characters:''' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesMisty Misty]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesBrock Brock]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesMay May]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesDawn Dawn]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesPaul Paul]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesIris Iris]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesSerena Serena]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesGoh Goh]] \\

** PlayedWith and ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]. Alain has never lost a battle against Ash despite battling him multiple times. However, he is easily driven by guilt and his attempts to remedy the situation only make things worse thanks to [[EvilMentor Lysandre's teachings and orders]]. Alain doesn't find happiness until he meets Ash, whose battle prowess not only gives him a WorthyOpponent that Alain hasn't faced for a long time, but snaps Alain out of his HeroicBSOD during the Team Flare climax. By the aftermath of Flare crisis, Alain begins to take notes from Ash's method of starting over again and privately sees him as the one trainer that he could not best.

* {{Flanderization}}: Alain's brooding, {{angst}}y attitude is amplified [[spoiler:in ''Journeys'' despite his CharacterDevelopment from ''XY'', not even acknowledging [[TheRedeemer Ash]] with much more than a cold stare]]. [[spoiler:https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:JN115_AS.png Averted with this "After the Story" artwork with them fistbumping and having a conversation]].

* {{Flanderization}}: Alain's brooding, {{angst}}y attitude is amplified [[spoiler:in ''Journeys'' despite his CharacterDevelopment from ''XY'', not even acknowledging [[TheRedeemer Ash]] with much more than a cold stare]].

* BreakingOldTrends:
** He is the first and only major rival that Ash is unable to defeat, even in their final battle during the Lumiose Conference. [[spoiler:When he returns in ''Journeys'' there's no rematch either, he comes back solely to be beaten by Leon in a crushing defeat.]]
** Of the trainers who wound up eliminating Ash from a League, he stands out as the only one who was introduced well before the League began.

* BroughtDownToNormal: After the Team Flare climax, Alain is no longer wearing the Mega Ring and Charizard no longer has the Charizardite X. In the last episode of XYZ, Alain reveals that he had turned them in to the police as they were properties of Team Flare and he wishes to no longer be associated with them. He plans to start from scratch and find his own Keystone and Mega Stone. ''Journeys'' later shows [[spoiler:he managed to find his own Charizardite X and used it to climb all the way to Rank 6 in the Pokemon World Championships.]]

->'''Voiced in English by:''' Kate Bistrol

-->'''Voiced in English by:''' Marc Thompson

He originally used to be a OneShotCharacter in ''Advanced Generation'', but we got to see more of his character in ''XY''.

* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll:
** Despite Alain having become all but invincible by the Kalos League, Lysandre's Gyarados proves itself to somehow be even ''stronger'', with his Charizard requiring the assistance of Ash's ''entire team at once'' to hold its ground.
** [[spoiler:He definitively loses his status as TheJuggernaut in ''Journeys'' courtesy of World Monarch Leon, who sweeps his 2/3rds of Alain's team with his base Charizard once Alain takes down Rillaboom. Even Alain's own Mega Charizard X isn't much of a challenge for the Monarch and is beaten with one Dragon Pulse while not dealing any significant damage in turn.]]

* AlmightyJanitor: By the beginning of the Masters Eight Tournament, he's considered the sixth-strongest trainer ([[spoiler:seventh after Ash takes the whole tournament]]) in the world despite being the only member of the top eight not to be a sitting Champion or have any official title.

* InvincibleHero: Alain's appearances progressively make him more and more overpowered until he becomes practically unbeatable. He is currently the only major rival whom Ash faced multiple times and never defeated. [[spoiler:He loses this status come ''Journeys'' courtesy of none other than World Monarch Leon, who sweeps his 2/3rds of Alain's team with his base Charizard once Alain takes down Rillaboom. Even Alain's own Mega Charizard X isn't much of a challenge for the Monarch and is beaten with one Dragon Pulse while not dealing any significant damage in turn.]]

* TheJuggernaut:
** He's hands down one of the strongest trainers in the series, Champion or otherwise. And it shows in many regards. First off, he's the first non-titled trainer to ever defeat one of the Elite Four (and just prior to that, he had to defeat 9 other Mega Evolution trainers to even reach said Elite Four member). His victory over the Kalos League basically amounted to him just effortlessly steamrolling every single one of his opponents with relative ease, using only two Pokemon until his final match with Ash. Even Ash's other rivals don't measure up to this guy. While Ash himself eventually defeated every last one of them, he's never once beaten Alain in any of their matches (though he came close in the finals).
** [[spoiler:He loses the status come ''Journeys'' where even his mighty Charizard is beaten with ease by Leon's own Charizard, who doesn't even needs to Mega Evolve, Gigantamax or use a Z-Move to overpower his opponent and defeat him in one Dragon Pulse.]]

* MadeOfIron: Charizard has become extremely tough, to the point that taking Pikachu's and Greninja's super effective moves ''and'' Ash-Greninja's giant, orange Water Shuriken are not enough to take it down. [[spoiler:However, Leon's Charizard does take it down with laughable ease by simply using Ancient Power and Dragon Pulse, even after it Mega Evolves.]]

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: He was notable for being the first special-focused character since [[Anime/TheLegendOfThunder Jimmy]] ([[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Ethan's]] counterpart) who didn't have anything to do with Ash. However, unlike Jimmy, he later became a recurring character in the main series, ultimately becoming one of Ash's major rivals.

** [[spoiler:The trope is applied to him in ''Journeys'' when he confronts Leon and finds himself in a crushing loss against the World Coronation Monarch's Charizard, only getting to defeat Leon's Rilaboom and not taking down any other member of Leon's team. To make matters worse for him, he winds up being the ''first'' member of the Eight to be defeated.]]

* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Tells Mairin to leave him be and travel on her own, in rather harsh words, because he fears that she will get hurt travelling with him. [[DeconstructedTrope This bites him in the ass]] as it sends [[TagalongKid Mairin]] in a depression, which gets worse when Chespie falls into a coma. Alain ends up promising himself to do anything to get Mairin to smile again.

'''Advanced Generation:''' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphireAshsPokemon Ash's Pokémon (Hoenn)]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphireCast Supporting Cast]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphireGymLeadersAndFrontierBrains Gym Leaders and Frontier Brains]]\\

'''XY:''' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXYAshsPokemon Ash's Pokémon (Kalos)]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXYCast Supporting Cast]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXYRivals Rivals]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXYGymLeaders Gym Leaders]] | '''''Mega Evolution Special''''' | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesXYVillains Villains]]\\

** [[spoiler:The trope is applied to him in ''Journeys'' when he confronts Leon and finds himself in a crushing loss against the World Coronation Monarch's Charizard only getting to defeat Leon's Rilaboom and not taking down any other member of Leon's team. To make matters worse for him, he winds up being the ''first'' member of the Eight to be defeated.]]

* BadassBaritone: In his original appearance when he was voiced by Rintaro Nishi, he had a very deep voice that underlined his "experienced adventurer" trait. With the change of his seiyuu, this trope is no longer the case and his voice sounds much higher and younger and fits his gentleman and {{Bishonen}} character.

* BroughtDownToNormal: After the Team Flare climax, Alain is no longer wearing the Mega Ring and Charizard no longer has the Charizardite X. In the last episode of XYZ, Alain reveals that he had turned them in to the police as they were properties of Team Flare and he wishes to no longer be associated with them. He plans to start from scratch and find his own Keystone and Mega Stone. [[spoiler:''Journeys'' later shows he managed to find his own Charizardite X and used it to climb all the way to Rank 6 in the Pokemon World Championships.]]

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In the Hoenn-based games, he is the protagonist Brendan/May's mentor. However, such relationship is absent between their anime counterparts, due to Steven [[DemotedToExtra only appearing in one episode]] in the ''Advanced Generation'' series where May is the female lead, thus Steven and May end up barely interact, while Brendan only has small cameos in films and never interacts with Steven or May.

** [[spoiler:''Journeys'' reveals that he is part of the final Masters Eight lineup in the World Coronation Series when Ash finally becomes a member himself, being ranked 3rd overall and only below Leon and Cynthia.]]

'''Horizons:''' [[Characters/PokemonHorizonsTheSeriesLeadCharacters Lead Characters]] | [[Characters/PokemonHorizonsTheSeriesPokemon Pokémon]] | [[Characters/PokemonHorizonsTheSeriesAntagonists Antagonists]]\\

'''Horizons:''' [[Characters/PokemonHorizonsTheSeriesLeadCharacters Lead Characters]] | [[Characters/PokemonHorizonsTheSeriesPokemon Pokemon]]\\

** PlayedWith and ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]. Alain has never lost a battle against Ash despite battling him multiple times. However, he is easily driven by guilt and his attempts to remedy the situation only make things worse thanks to [[EvilMentor Lysandre's teachings and orders]]. Alain doesn't find happiness until he meets Ash, whose battle prowess not only gives him a WorthyOpponent that Alain hasn't faced for a long time, but snaps Alain out of his HeroicBSOD during the Team Flare climax. By the aftermath of Flare crisis, Alain begins to take notes from Ash's method of starting over again and privately sees him as the one trainer that he could not best.[[spoiler: Ash goes on to defeat Leon in the finale of the Masters Tournament whereas Alain was easily thrashed by him, proving that he is indeed the better trainer]]

* AlmightyJanitor: [[spoiler:He is the only member of the final Masters Eight lineup to not be a Champion in ''Journeys'', and was still able to be ranked over '''two of them''' prior to the Masters Tournament (Iris and Ash), explicitly making him one of the strongest trainers in the world.]]

* BadassCrew: Alain has an impressive line-up of Pokémon, which are [[TheAce Mega Charizard X]], [[InfinityMinusOneSword Metagross]], [[InfinityMinusOneSword Tyranitar]], [[FragileSpeedster Weavile]], [[OneHitKill Bisharp]]... [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Unfezant]].

->'''Voiced in Japanese by:''' Rintaro Nishi (''Advance Generation''), Creator/KenichiSuzumura (''XY'')

* TheWorfEffect:
** [[spoiler:Alain loses 3-1 to Leon in the first match of the Masters Tournament, only managing to defeat his Rillaboom after it had already beaten his Chesnaught, with his Malamar doing nothing before getting knocked out and his Mega Charizard X being quickly and easily overwhelmed and beaten by Leon's base Charizard.]] Ash never even managed to win against Alain, and this match's result shows how strong Leon really is.
** Retroactively, [[spoiler:Leon versus Diantha makes it clear that his Chesnaught doing well against Rillaboom and his Charizard defeating it in one blow is a sign of ''their'' strength when that very same Rillaboom tears two thirds of Diantha's team apart (granted Rillaboom was also beaten with ease by Diantha's ace not unlike Alain's Charizard beating Rilaboom itself)]].

%%* WindFromBeneathMyWings: His Charizard's normal secondary type until it Mega Evolves, yet has never used any Flying-Type moves.

'''Movies:''' [[Characters/PokemonMovies Movies 1 to 19]] | [[Characters/PokemonIChooseYou I Choose You!]] | [[Characters/PokemonThePowerOfUs The Power of Us]]-]]]]]

'''Pokemon 2023:''' [[Characters/Pokemon2023LeadCharacters Lead Characters]] | [[Characters/Pokemon2023Pokemon Pokemon]]\\

* BreakingOldTrends: He is the first and only major rival that Ash is unable to defeat, even in their final battle during the Lumiose Conference. [[spoiler:When he returns in ''Journeys'' there's no rematch either, he comes back solely to be beaten by Leon in a crushing defeat.]]

* BreakingOldTrends: He is the first major rival that Ash is unable to defeat, even in their final battle during the Lumiose Conference. [[spoiler:When he returns in ''Journeys'' there's no rematch either, he comes back solely to be beaten by Leon in a crushing defeat.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aab8e59d87c6c2cea993cfa9203563ff.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steven_stone_anime_xy.png]]

%%* OurFairiesAreDifferent: Her Flabébé's type.
%% * PluckyGirl

'''Major Characters:''' [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesMisty Misty]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesBrock Brock]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesDawn Dawn]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesPaul Paul]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesIris Iris]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesSerena Serena]] | [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesGoh Goh]] \\

** With his Charizard they defeat a Mega Absol and a Mega Garchomp (despite a type disadvantage) with minimal difficulty, only being defeated by Siebold and his Mega Blastoise and putting up a good fight in the process. They later hold their own against Steven and his Mega Metagross in Act II of the Mega Evolution series.
** This trend continues in the third Mega Evolution Special, where they hold their own against a Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, although Mega Charizard ends up nearly dying trying to prevent Groudon from grabbing the Megalith.
** And now in Mega Evolution Special 4 he is the first trainer in the anime who isn't a champion or another member of the Pokémon League to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeat an Elite 4 member on-screen]] after he fought and defeated 9 other trainers with Mega Evolutions.
** He and his Charizard become the first opponents to defeat Ash-Greninja, which up until then dished out Curb-Stomp Battles like candy. It was a rather handy win, too.
** His Charizard does some serious damage against a 50% Zygarde before Mega Evolving using a well-placed Flamethrower and Dragon Claw. After Mega Evolving, Charizard proves itself to be able to give Zygarde its attention, matching it blow-for-blow without any signs of slowing down until Team Flare interrupts the fight. Granted, Zygarde may have been weakened beforehand a bit, but that's still a feat. And James gave Z2 a chance to recover using sunlight, so Alain may actually have gone toe-to-toe with Zygarde's full power.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Four of his Pokémon (Bisharp, Weavile, Tyranitar and Malamar) are partial-Dark types, but Alain himself ultimately proves to be a good guy.