Characters / Citadel Of The Heart Unova

Return to the main Pokémon characters of Citadel of the Heart here.

Truth and Ideals Protagonists

General

• Age Lift: Ash, Cheren, and Bianca are depicted as 16 years old in their debut. With Ash this is Played Straight, but due to Cheren and Bianca's ages being a constant Flip-Flop of God, this trope ends up taking a third option in regards to just making the duo the same age as Ash, who would've been 16 in this story regardless.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Perhaps the most drastic of which are found in Truth and Ideals, in contrast to the remainder of the Series Fic as a whole. Keep in mind, long before Citadel of the Heart as a concept was a thing, Truth and Ideals was a standalone Pokémon fic taking cues from both the anime and the games simultaneously. Oh, and most importantly? Truth and Ideals didn't deal with the heavy exaggerated Power Creep that other Pokémon entries in the Series Fic are known for, at least not until towards the very end.
• True Companions: Ash, Cheren, and Bianca's shared Establishing Character Moment show them as a trio of this.

Ash S. Ketchum

Debut: Truth and Ideals

Voice Actor: Steven Yuen

A 16 year old boy who was sheltered most of his life by his mother, Delia Ketchum. On his 16th Birthday, he decides to finally do something to convince his mom to let him go on a Pokémon journey with his childhood friends, Cheren and Bianca. As Ash succeeds in convincing his mother to finally allow him to go on this journey. Things go off rather well for Ash at the beginning, considering everything seems normal for him at first; that all changes, however, upon his introduction to his secret lineage regarding his missing father, and how he has the ability to manipulate aura just like the Pokémon known as Lucario, whom a specific individual had been observing Ash for quite some time before finally confronting him. However, his old man seemingly left a heavy burden for Ash to carry, considering all of the mayhem that he has to endure from Team Plasma, the manipulative Ghetsis, the mysterious N, and even some more absurd threats from the norm.

• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • He takes the place of Hilbert/Hilda in the story of Pokémon Black and White. As a result, he was born in Unova instead of Kanto, and is childhood friends with Cheren and Bianca. Doesn't stop Hilbert and Hilda from appearing later though, just as separate characters in their own right.
  • Marshadow, despite not having existed when the story was originally made, is revealed to have had something to do with Ash beginning his journey.
• Adaptational Badass: Par for the course with Ash in this fic.
• Always Someone Better: He's the better someone to Ghetsis; in fact, the way he defeats Ghetsis is by fooling him into thinking that despite all of Ghetsis' new powers, that Ash is still stronger than him by a long shot.
• Aura Vision
• Badass Adorable: Maintains the Keet look he has in the canon despite his wardrobe change later in the story.
• Bait-and-Switch: Because of the Adaptation Personality Change applying to N, neither he nor N have the climactic fight from the games in N's Castle. Instead it skips right to Ghetsis the moment both of them separate Vah irom willingly back into Zekrom and Reshiram. This was done mostly to avoid an Adaptation Induced Plothole regarding the two characters; Ash, while initially going in ready to fight N if needed, was later shown N's true backstory and was very reluctant to want to fight N; N himself didn't even want to fight Ash at all, just merely try and prove a point.
• Character Shilling: Both Enforced and Defied. Enforced in that Ash is the son of the late Sirius Ketchum, and naturally has a lot of pre-established reputation that Ash himself was never informed about beforehand in his life. Defied later down the road in that Ash eventually lets his aspiration to become what he's referred as "Ketchum's Son" get to him, and to truly set out prove to everyone that he isn't exactly the Dumbass Teenage Son everyone otherwise would think he is in his early parts of his adventure.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Often takes the job of an Aura Guardian far too seriously, much like his father did.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not to the extreme as Cheren, but he does have his moments, sometimes overlapping with Cheren's own remarks at the same time.
• The Determinator:
  • Often fights at difficult odds, especially considering how unusual his win/lose curve tends to get. He loses to a trainer with Popplio with just Samurott because while he was already holding back as it was, Popplio's much more energetic nature and having a Z-Move overwhelmed and surprised Samurott. When the same trainer tells him to not hold back anymore with Popplio now fully evolved into Primarina, Warlord-Samurott still ends up losing, though not without a Taking You with Me move by dragging Primarina into its own Hydro Vortex with him, meaning Ash clearly learned to be prepared for this move this time around.
  • Another noteworthy lose was the first time he fought Zygarde Complete Forme as used by Clay. By the time he faces it again, it turns out to be a victory because Ash uses Whimsicott's Fairy Type to No-Sell Core Enforcer and then KO with Dazzling Gleam.
  • His desire to get N to see the error of his ways, ESPECIALLY after N betrayed him at Dragonspiral Tower. He ultimately succeeds, but anyone who has played the games already knows this would happen.
  • A "loss" occurred with the Pokémon League... by virtue of not getting a chance to even start his fight with Alder yet. Normally Ash would've faced N and then one of the two would've won and faced Alder next; N gives a plea to Alder to listen to his way of Pokémon Liberation and persuades the Champion into facing N first, which ultimately sets up for the much more climatic fight with N at N's Castle with Vahirom separating into Reshiram and Zekrom and taking N and Ash's sides as before.
• Dirty Mind-Reading: In the sequel he's more or less figured out that Cheren and Bianca are very sexually active through this.
• Dumbass Teenage Son: What most of the more Jerkass adult characters think of Ash, especially Regulus. Initially, anyways.
• Fearless Fool: While he does have his moments of facing genuine terror, he's prone to being incredibly reckless about confronting these situations.
• Foreshadowing: Considering there's a lot of Gameplay and Story Integration with the various Pokémon, the fact Zygarde goes into Complete Forme in its first encounter with Ash Ketchum is a huge dose of Foreshadowing in that Zygarde views Ash's growing strength as a trainer to actually be a major red flag for the future.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: While he does have incredibly rare moments of averting this, he's notably one of the few main cast members who never swears. O.O.C. Is Serious Business generally is when he will, though.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Warms up to N too easily in the second half of the story. Which leads to him having his guard down and getting betrayed by N very easily. Even after having witnessed Ghetsis beat down upon N, and even after defeating Ghetsis as Ghetsis on the losing end of the fight now that Ash robbed Ghetsis of his powers stolen and returned them to their rightful owners, Ghetsis still intends to kill Ash even when Ash is giving him mercy in all of it. Even when N's Castle beginning to fall apart, Ghetsis deliberately lets himself lose his footing as Ash is just about to save Ghetsis before Altair forcefully drags Ash away from making the attempt. Even during their encounter at Giant Chasm, he still doesn't want to go through with killing Ghetsis after he had been reduced to an insane wreck that chases a lone Ash out into a blizzard only for Ghetsis to vanish once Kyurem appears before him.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Simisear's death by Geneshine clearly has him shaken about it every time he's reminded of it.
• Ideal Hero: Why Zekrom chooses him, and how he behaves in general when compared to the other protagonists. This ultimately causes Vahirom to separate and become Reshiram and Zekrom once more, because of how Ash opposing N allows for Ash to once again have Zekrom separately from Vahirom.
• Invincible Hero:
  • Invoked; he's meant to resemble the player characters from the games in this very fashion. The player characters have a massive tendency to play this trope completely straight even if the narrative were to try and suggest otherwise. Ash, while having his loses here and there, are a reference to how some players had troubles with Black and White because of the game's regional dex which forced you to use only the newer mons, and thus some gyms and Pokémon were uncharted territory for players just beginning the game without any spoilers or guides to assist them.
  • Much of the time, though, one could consider this trope Averted for Ash; while Ash is indeed strong, he averts Hard Work Hardly Works, and he often times has to deal with his emotional state whenever faced with a fight that injures him physically or emotionally. However, his sheer determination to come out on top is what ultimately causes him to increasingly become stronger against whatever odds are against him initially or otherwise.
• Legendary in the Sequel: Humilau City has a statue of Ash and his Samurott due to Ash's triumph over a tough Gym Battle in Nimbasa City with only a Water Type and a powerful first outing with Bond Phenomenon.
• Make It Look Like an Accident:
  • After Geneshine's defeat and power down, he allows Geneshine to be buried underneath the collapsing Relic Castle because A: Genesect is completely robotic in this fic, B: Genesect is part Steel Type and will No-Sell the collapse regardless, and C: Ash has no idea what else he could even do to Geneshine to seal him away anyways, considering it's too sociopathic to be caught as a normal Pokémon.
  • How he disposes of Ghetsis; he leaves him to die at the wrath of an enraged Necrozma he's detecting in the area, and simply abandons him in the castle while leaving with N and both of their Pokémon.
• Near-Death Experience: Just barely avoids a Disney Death by the fact N's Dusknoir he has with him at the time saves his soul from being dragged to the dead in the aftermath of the MissingNo. fight.
• Nice Guy: Very selfless and often takes good care of his Pokémon, especially his Raichu considering his gluttonous nature. Also always tends to serve everyone else first when cooking meals for people before even remotely serving himself.
• Official Couple/Polyamory:
  • In a three way relationship with Misty and Iris. Initially it's just Misty who he's in love with, but he extends it to Iris once it's clear she's badly in love with him as well, and doesn't want to break her heart or Misty's so ends up as a couple with both of them at once.
  • He's legit with the latter bit after his 8th Gym Battle against Iris, as the 8th Gym Battle revolves around him confirming his feelings for Iris by saving her life from herself and Drayden's plan to get him to forfeit.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Any time Ash averts Gosh Darn It to Heck!.
• Sleep Cute: Sleeps in close proximity to Misty and Iris most of the time, but is always fully clothed and the three never actively try anything sexual at the same time. Simply sleeping by each other with the other's presence is comfortable for them as it is.
• Stupid Good: His Fatal Flaw. An Ideal Hero at best, his genuine Nice Guy attitude makes it difficult for him to properly respond to characters who are legitimately evil in nature. With Geneshine, he does not realize initially that Geneshine will flat out kill anybody who stands in its way, which leads to Simisear's death. Likewise, with N, he warms up to his alleged Heel–Face Turn too easily and quickly for his own good, because he ends up having his guard down when he has Zekrom fuse with N's Reshiram into Vahirom, which leads to N knocking Ash out and flying off with Vahirom in his sole control. Likewise, with Ghetsis, while he is at least able to tell that Ghetsis is a horrible person, he goes too far out of his way to Save the Villain considering Ghetsis tries to flat out kill both him and N during their final encounter and even by Ash himself is deemed irredeemable as a villain, but Ash still refuses to actually kill Ghetsis. This leads to Ash trying to manipulate Ghetsis into feeling insecure about his power compared to Ash's own, which leads Ghetsis into a nervous wreck which has the conveniently nearby Necrozma allegedly kill him off in response.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pancakes. When the group ends up in a diner in the Pokémon League, he even orders some despite it being in the afternoon where breakfast items on the menu are normally not served by default.
• True Companions: With Cheren and Bianca. When Ash asks if Cheren and Bianca would prefer to travel through Victory Road with him even though he's the only one taking part in the League, the two gladly agree just like they've always done with Ash before, as they take their first steps into Victory Road at the same time.
• World's Strongest Man: Subverted; he's the strongest trainer in Unova, but compared to elsewhere he's got a lot of competition as seen here.
• You Don't Look Like You: More like sound; he's definitely more man in vocals because of a Voice Actor meme casting Steven Yuen in the role for Ash.

Ash's Pokémon

Oshawott/Dewott/Samurott/Warlord-Samurott

• Character Development: Shows a lot more aggressive behavior in his fighting patterns as he evolves, but becomes calmer once after having spent enough time fully evolved, but the fighting behavior is adjusted to where he's still aggressive but calm enough to pull off some clever tricks.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Due to the fact Bond Phenomenon wasn't explained just yet, Warlord-Samurott has a different ability not shared with its base form.
• Expy: Of Ash's Greninja from the anime.
• Foil:
  • To his anime counterpart Oshawott. Oshawott is very loud, borderline obnoxious, but very emotive and cheerful though never evolves. Samurott, back when he was Oshawott, starts off very, very stoic, near emotionless at times, and generally very calm and relaxed, which only really changed when he became more of a Boisterous Bruiser upon evolving to final form.
  • Also Warlord-Samurott to Ash-Greninja; Ash-Greninja lost every fight against Alain's Mega Charizard X, and Warlord-Samurott won every fight against Mega Charizard X. However, a similarity in this is noted with another Pokémon; Popplio's line. Thus far, Samurott in either forme has lost every fight it ever got involved with regarding Popplio the first time, or Primarina the second time.

Pichu/Pikachu/Alolan Raichu

• Achievements in Ignorance:
  • Considering it's later revealed that MissingNo. and Eidolon are one in the same, Raichu essentially punched out an Ultimorian Deity without even realizing it.
  • Learns how to use Aura Sphere simply by overexposure to aura energy over the course of his entire life come the end of Truth and Ideals.
• Adaptational Badass: Definitely so once you realize MissingNo. and Eidolon are one in the same.
• Aura Vision: Gains this ability by overexposure to aura energy ever since it had first hatched up to the end of Truth and Ideals proper, complete with Aura Sphere being learned as well.
• Canon Welding: When Ash's Pikachu learned Volt Tackle in the anime, it was already a Pikachu; something that would've been impossible until Sun and Moon. Considering those games weren't out yet, however, Raichu's origins here were modified so that it would start as an egg with the parents meeting the requirements necessary to hatch a Pichu with Volt Tackle on its moveset.
• Character Development: Starts off cowardly but ends up becoming a lot more courageous as he ages and evolves.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: : Ash's Pikachu in the anime disliked the idea of evolving due to his rivalry with Raichu. Ash's Pikachu in Truth and Ideals never developed such a rivalry and thus never had an issue with willingly choosing to evolve into Raichu.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Of Alolan Raichu; Sun and Moon weren't released yet at the time, but Tropes Are Not Bad since every normal move used by him proved to be a case of accidentally accurate writing because Alolan Raichu can indeed learn the moves in question that were used, specifically Psyshock being one of them. In terms of evolution method, considering regular Pikachu evolves into Alolan Richu through a normal Thunder Stone with the only deciding factor being a change in diet, primarily pancakes, Chapter 1 proved to be an even weirder case of this by accidentally predicting the method of Alolan Raichu's existence.
• Loophole Abuse: Ash's Aura Mode can allow it to access a Z-Move without the Z-Crystal or Z-Ring being needed; Ash's Aura Mode in general allows him to bypass the Mega Stones and Z-Crystals altogether anyways by this point in the narrative; the moment he used Aura Blitz was the moment he didn't need to use any of these items.
• Shown Their Work: Every example of Alolan Raichu's appearance in the story has been proven true by the time Sun and Moon were released, in an unusual case of guessing and prediction completely correct with the result.
• Signature Move: Stoked Sparksurfer.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pancakes.
• Wham Shot: During the league, Raichu seems to have learned Aura Sphere, a move it cannot legitimately learn as of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, by virtue of overexposure to Ash's own aura causing Raichu to artificially begin to generate a more natural aura ability over time.

Pidove/Tranquill/Unfezant

• Action Girl: DEFINITELY does wonders with Sky Attack and Aura Mode.
• Death by Adaptation: Defied; she was originally intended to die in the Chargestone Cave arc, but she ended up being sparred in exchange for Krokorok's fight with Geneshine to happen and evolve him into Krookodile.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Knocks out Rayquaza in the 8th Gym Battle with a overcharged, well placed Sky Attack.
• Junk Rare: Shiny.
• Signature Move: Sky Attack.

Pansear/Simisear

• Character Tics: Always a thumbs up whenever he was in a good mood.
• Sacrificial Lion: His death does quite a number to Ash's mental stability.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He originally heralded from another timeline in which Ghetsis had won, but had grown bored and crossed over into this world. Ash witnessing Simisear's death at the hands of Geneshine, whom was the creation of the alternate world's Ghetsis, demonstrates to Ash exactly why this alternate Ghetsis is somebody to not be worth redeeming.

Sandile/Krokorok/Krookodile

• Big Damn Heroes: Fights off Geneshine in Chargestone Cave when it was about to try and kill Unfezant.
• Expy: Of Android 16.
• Foreshadowing: He's the only one of N's Pokémon to speak with actual dialogue at first. Also the whirring sound when he turns to face him kind of gives it away as early as that.
• Heel–Face Turn: Implying he was ever evil to begin with, he defects from N's side once N learns of his robotic nature and quickly becomes one of Ash's Pokémon as a direct result.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: His synthetic skin can regenerate when needed.
• Robotic Reveal: Catches N completely by surprise.

Altair (Riolu/Lucario/Mega Lucario)

• Aura Vision
• Berserk Button: While it gets varied results, he's noted to speak up more when an Ultra Beast appears.
• Cursed with Awesome: The Ultrarus virus, similar to the Pokérus virus, causes him to remain permanently Mega Evolved once it takes full effect.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He is the only Pokémon confirmed to have a 100% win streak against a Digimon. The others don't have confirmation due to either vague information or the Pokémon in question being too difficult to track down, such as Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. UB Assembly does, however, survive a Digitalize Of Soul point blank and not even flinch.
• Expy:
  • Of Gohan.
  • Both Altair and his father Regulus are based off of the Aura Sphere Riolu, which is a Riolu that knows Aura Sphere despite the fact it can't learn it until evolving into Lucario. With Altair in particular, he also knows Extreme Speed, despite the fact that, again, it isn't until Lucario he can learn the move.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: As Mega Lucario.
• Retcon: When a sequel is made, he will know Meteor Mash; a move which his line could learn beginning with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon via Egg Move.
• Stellar Name: Named after the star Altair.
• Super-Speed: Knows Extreme Speed. Oddly enough even demonstrates this as a Riolu, despite Riolu being unable to learn Extreme Speed.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As Mega Lucario during the two year timeskip after Truth and Ideals originally comes to an end. Justified in that not only is Altair permanently locked into the form still, but also because Mega Lucario's entire personality is this trope in general.

Cottonee/Whimsicott

• Action Girl: Definitely solidifies her status as this during the 8th Gym Battle much like Unfezant.
• Ascended Extra: Originally meant to be a one-shot cast member turned into a regular as the plot demanded her presence more.
• No-Sell: Tanks a Core Enforcer from Zygarde Complete Forme without effort.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: She is noticeably not used for Zygarde Complete Forme in the gym battle against Clay, considering that her Fairy Type would've allowed her to No-Sell Core Enforcer. The reason for this was because of the fact, at the time the chapter in question was posted, the type of Core Enforcer was not known, so it would've been wild guessing as to whether or not Whimsicott would've done anything against it. The confusion didn't help matters even when it was kind of clear what type Core Enforcer was, considering Zygarde's Thousand Arrows had a special effect which bypassed normal Type Immunities. When it comes to a rematch, Whimsicott successfully No Sells a Core Enforcer because by then it's known that Core Enforcer is Dragon Type with no special effect of bypassing Fairy's immunity to Dragon Type moves.

Durant (Totem Durant)

• Adaptational Badass
• Animal Jingoism: Her colony buries a Heatmor alive and presumably kill it.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Summons a Haxorus, seemingly out of nowhere, to deal with N's Zoroark while she focuses on Ash's Raichu.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Her colony and herself all know the move Dig as to go all Zerg Rush on the nearest Heatmor, the natural predator of Durant under normal conditions, and proceed to bury it alive and devour it.
• Junk Rare: The Queen is a Shiny and also a Totem Pokémon.
• Last Episode, New Character: Doesn't appear until the Pokémon League arc is just about to begin, and doesn't even have much importance aside from being a powerful roadblocking Pokémon.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The first 36 Durant are a homage to Ash's 30 Tauros from the anime, with the justification for this Mythology Gag being a Totem Durant female which is controlling the prior 36.
  • Also one towards Totem Kommo-o due to the fact she summons a Pokémon that isn't related to her typing and seems only to be there to cover a weakness, primarily summoning Haxorus to deal with anything that Bug/Steel can't cover.
• Unwanted Harem: Based off of her interactions with the other 36 Durant in Ash's VR Ranch, she apparently dislikes all of them because they're all just Canon Fodder males to her that don't mean a whole lot.
• Walking Spoiler: Since Ash wasn't expected to catch a new Pokémon to his team so late into the story.
• Your Size May Vary: The Queen is a Totem variation of the normal in addition to being Shiny.
• Zerg Rush: Durant's swarm kills a Heatmor by burying it alive in this fashion.

Cheren

• Clingy Jealous Guy: Towards Bianca; it dies down as time progresses once the two become an Official Couple.
• The Cynic: He's generally a lot more of a Deadpan Snarker and a Sir Swears-a-Lot than the other characters.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Cheren ultimately feels this way towards himself in regards to why he wanted to become the Champion at all; he never had an actual motive to begin with.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Implied; Bianca is admittedly more perverted, considering she's the one who initiates the two's first time, but Cheren isn't exactly any less perverted either.
• Official Couple: With Bianca just before the 2nd Gym, and continues to be that way from that point on.
• Promoted to Love Interest: For Bianca.

Bianca

• Character Development: She decides that her desire to compete in the Pokémon League would've only interfered with Ash and Cheren's own dreams, so she calls it quits on the challenge and ends up not obtaining her 6th, 7th, or 8th badges.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Cheren.
• Covert Pervert: Considering she has had dreams of having sex with Cheren long before they got together...
• Hidden Depths: Bianca seems to imply that she may have had some kind of past attraction to Ash, but it didn't ultimately work out for the two, and Ash ultimately feels in the end that Cheren deserves her more than he does.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Definitely more blatant than Cheren, considering the implications she's the one who enticed him to have sex with her when they arrived back home after Ash secured his 3rd badge for a break.
• Promoted to Love Interest: For Cheren.

Giselle

Billie Kidd

• Adaptational Badass: Her Arbok is Totem Sized, and not only that, but it also stops Alain's Charizard from successfully Mega Evolving during the match between the two at the league. The kicker? It's implied this Arbok used to be a regular Arbok that formerly belonged to her mother Jessie.
• Foreshadowing: Her name makes it rather blatantly obvious who her parents are when her name is finally revealed.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Her parents (Jessie and James) are very flamboyant and effeminate when compared to Billie being more serious and masculine by comparison.
• Poisonous Person: Poison Type Specialist.
• Samus Is a Girl: One of the things she did in-order to avoid exposing her parents for who they formerly were... but also to hide her lesbian nature from her peers at the same time.
• Theme Naming: She shares her parent's naming convention of being named after a Western outlaw, with Jessie and James being both named after Jesse James, and Billie the Kidd being a feminine spelling of Billy the Kid.

Misty

• Mysterious Waif: Her first appearances towards Ash seem to live and breathe this trope, considering she was constantly implied to be a mysterious individual regarding Ash's role in things.
• The Quiet One: Has been without much of an actual speaking role for much of the fic, but averts this through texting much of the time. Then when she gets her voice back she averts it for real.
• The Unreveal: Her mysterious importance is never truly elaborated on when she finally appears in-person, which showcases her to be much more mundane, but otherwise a very strong trainer nevertheless.
• Wrong Context Magic: Her Heart Soul Amplification boost works entirely different from Aura, in that it actually is capable of being used as a separate energy source altogether that, while capable of recreating the effects of Aura, can also be combined with Aura itself.

Iris

Hilda

Hilbert

• Superdickery: His introduction in a nutshell, though Justified because the role otherwise was going to be a One-Shot Character instead and Hilbert was the only primary protagonist that wasn't introduced yet who had a good window for introduction at that point.

Alain

• Adaptational Dumbass: He's younger than Ash this time around, and his intelligence matches Ash's general IQ from the anime. Regardless, however, one could possibly argue that Alain is actually smarter in this version, because he's not constantly blinded by anger in his motivations like he was in his canon characterization.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He's not the anger prone individual he was in the original by any means, and his younger than Ash status here leads to him behaving more like a kid than Ash himself does.
• Canon Welding: Turns out Alain's family hails from Driftveil City, and is the entire reason why the Charizard Bridge gets it's name. A lot of Alain's family are builders who happen to breed and raise Charizard's line a lot as a side hobby. In fact, in Shadow Heat, Rui is shown in one chapter to use a blowtorch which is modeled after Charizard to the point it even has the same degree of burning ability; this particular blowtorch was invented by one set of Alain's great grandparents, which subsequently gives Alain relatives in Orre.
• Foreshadowing: He is Ash's cousin, despite Ash apparently not having realized before he even had any relatives aside from his mother growing up. Delia kept a lot of Ash's relatives secret from him proper while raising him in isolation from the world.
• Ripped from the Headlines: He was originally going to be an OC character altogether; Ash's lose in the Kalos League to Alain in the anime is what directly inspired an otherwise last second change.
• Take That!: Heavily downplayed considering Alain is otherwise his own character shown here, but a lot of the reason for the Adaptational Dumbass and Adaptational Wimp status he has here is in direct response to his invincibility and snubbing Ash of a league victory in the anime during the Kalos arcs.
• This Loser Is You: He represents just about every young kid on the playground who obsessed over Charizard back in the Generation I days and any such fan who reappeared in the years gone by within the same younger demographic overall.

N

• All Love Is Unrequited: Canonically has a crush on Ash, despite Ash never noticing or returning the feelings. His Imagine Spot where he flat out pulls a romantically charged "Shut Up" Kiss to Ash should make this adamantly clear.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He can't bring himself to ultimately fight Ash by the time Ash reaches his throne room, instead having a severe Heroic BSoD when the confrontation happens.
• Black-and-White Insanity: What he comes to eventually realize by the end of Truth and Ideals, after having been influenced by both Ash and Ghetsis to realize that Ash has more shades of gray to his morality due to the fact he's completely idiotic with choosing the right decision compared to his own beliefs, and that Ghetsis isn't being completely blind in Wrath to try and get N to do what he needs him to do, but actually being surprisingly pragmatic at times despite otherwise being pure evil in nature. This eventually leads to N deciding that everything has a Grey-and-Gray Morality to them, even if it's clear one individual is meant to be more white or black otherwise.
• Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul: Why he disallowed the Genesect project, not that it had stopped Ghetsis from forcing its continuation. Also the big factor into his Kick the Dog moment regarding who would soon become Ash's Krokorok.
• Heel–Face Turn: Pulls one off in the middle of the story, only to briefly pull a Face–Heel Turn later down the road in which N's own grasp of sanity very quickly begins to snap because at this point he doesn't have a clue whose side he's on anymore, before realizing that there were no actual sides to begin with.
• Kick the Dog: See O.O.C. Is Serious Business below as to why.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The most blatantly villainous thing he ever does is his reaction to Krokorok's Robotic Reveal, in which he suddenly ditches Krokorok behind under the pretenses that no matter what appearance a robotic or cybernetic individual has, it would never have the true soul of a Pokémon.

Truth and Ideals Antagonists

Ghetsis Harmonia

Ghetsis as he appears in Truth 2 and Ideals 2.

• Abusive Parents: Towards N.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Much of his Offstage Villainy is either promoted to directly in plain sight or otherwise left up to the imagination of just how bad something that isn't shown from him can be. However, he also commits noticeably more heinous deeds on-screen that the canon games wouldn't have touched upon. Such as feeding his minions to his Hydreigon on multiple occasions in an attempt to give it the will to kill. Forcefully resurrecting his own deceased minions from the grave to serve him as a Fate Worse than Death should he have originally killed them for having, seemingly, outlived their usefulness. Then of course most directly, the climax with him against Ash and N, in which Ghetsis flat out attempts to murder both of them once Ghetsis realizes that N didn't just vaporize Ash with Vahirom liked he had intended. Oh, and in the bits where he's trying to murder them? He's not using his Pokémon to do so, since they're holding off Reshiram and Zekrom for him; he's using nothing but his cold, bare hands to attempt to kill Ash and N.
  • The ironic bit about this? Ghetsis being more vile than his canon self actually didn't apply earlier in the fic. His Character Development showcases him starting off as a very sane individual who, while doing very bad things behind everyone's back, is patient enough to hold back on public attacks aside from those his own minions are up to. By the end of it? He's taking action into his own hands as his Sanity Slippage building up throughout the whole fic by this point kicks in and renders him a murderous, insane sociopath who doesn't have any patience or calmness to him anymore.
    • Even more ironic is that we see Ghetsis from an earlier point in time from a PTSD stricken N reliving a lot of memories from the past in the sequel, which is indeed this same Ghetsis here, as shown in the upcoming sequel to Truth and Ideals. Let's just say the author wanted to be absolutely safe he had enough morally heinous crimes on-screen before Ghetsis would eventually meet his ultimate demise proper, and considering Ghetsis' Sanity Slippage in the present, this wouldn't be possible outside of flashbacks which he decided to give to various characters as either flat out PTSD or other type of flashback.
• A God Am I: A side-effect of his attempts to become stronger than Ash.
• Always Someone Better: His biggest driving force against Ash Ketchum is this; this is ultimately how Ash defeats Ghetsis, not through a battle, but rather denying Ghetsis any satisfaction with his insults as well as using his aura to make duplicates of himself appear as to send paranoia into Ghetsis' mind to make him think that, despite everything he had done upon arriving here, he was still weaker than Ash regardless.
• Ambition Is Evil: His primary motivation is to be the strongest individual entity in all of the Unova region, all the while robbing everyone else of their own power in the process.
• Ascended Meme: He does indeed feed his failures of the grunts to his Hydreigon here. In the sequel, when said Hydreigon becomes his right arm, he actually eats human flesh from it as well.
• The Assimilator: He has these powers, though why has not yet been detailed just yet, and probably never will considering some characters apparently do know, they just refuse to tell anyone how because they fear the consequences of doing so.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • Behind his polite exterior he's this. Also the fact murdering his alternate incarnations, as well as attempting or successfully murdering alternate incarnations of Ash Ketchum, does not paint a pretty picture about his own sanity.
  • His dialogue becomes completely deranged by the time of the sequel; he's so borderline obsessed with allegedly finally having the power to kill Ash that he's trembling with his speech and his body is only kept stabilized through various fluids pumped into him by force, which all the while just causes excruciating pain for him...
    • Hell, his introduction in the sequel should be another merit for this. Ghetsis tries to brutally maim 0Ω when the latter finds him in the midst of nowhere in Ultra Space, having spent the entire 2 years using Necrozma's powers to forcefully keep his body intact with random hyperspace junk, and having at one point devoured and skinned his Hydreigon whose head now forms into an arm cannon on Ghetsis' right hand. Ghetsis himself has his entire wardrobe transformed into a giant life support system, and he's yelling in such vitriol Angrish he actually makes 0Ω feel very uneasy about who or what he's confronting.
• Bad Boss: Kills off his incarnation from this world when he fails to meet his expectations, and then immediately kills a few grunts and Zinzolin, only to revive Zinzolin later just to spite his existence.
• Bad People Abuse Animals:
  • How he raises his Hydreigon, how he raises his Type: Full, and how he views himself raising N.
  • To elaborate with the Hydreigon especially, though, since that's the largest chunk of which we see unfold on-screen. Hydreigon's first introduction scene is as a Zweilous, in which Ghetsis has two of his henchmen from earlier in the fic locked in the same room as it as it is basically feeding time for the Zweilous. Ghetsis had desired to turn this Zweilous into a man-eater; a monstrous Pokémon that would heed his every command no matter what he had subjected it to. It ripped off and ate his right arm, and when Ghetsis had enough of dealing with it proper in the time between Truth and Ideals and it's sequel, he forcefully assimilated his Hydreigon into himself and used it's whole body remaining to create a new right arm for itself, to which while not obvious at first, Hydreigon is very much still alive.
• Big Bad
• Body Horror: Just look at him by the time he's nearing his end!
• Developing Doomed Characters: Sequel wise getting any further Character Development out of Ghetsis will be a challenge considering his peak of Sanity Slippage, but nothing is stopping additional flashbacks traumatic or otherwise from being shown which elaborates on him even further, considering once the sequel comes to a close, Ghetsis dies for real. The goal for the sequel isn't just this as an overall highlight; but to ensure that Ghetsis has absolutely no sympathetic traits remaining as to make anyone consider Alas, Poor Villain to him in any method possible, and thus the audience doesn't feel bad for Ghetsis' ultimate fate being spoiled long in advance.
• Dirty Coward: He never does directly try and start a fight with Ash because he's rather intimidated by Ash's power that he has no clue when to try and act until he realizes too late he should've acted as soon as possible while he had he chance. Not to mention he frequently has his men do all of the dirty work instead of him.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Notice how for the most part Ghetsis is the sole major antagonist? As Truth and Ideals long predates much of the Series Fic of Citadel of the Heart proper, Ghetsis remains the only villain to have not been part of a Big Bad Ensemble of sorts, as every major antagonist in Truth and Ideals was always a significant step below Ghetsis, with the sole exceptions being characters who would appear elsewhere in the Series Fic overall.
• Faux Affably Evil: He acts very polite with his speeches in public, but deep down he's anything but. He only ends up returning Bianca's Munna due to the fact if he had killed it in public, it would've damaged his plans for Team Plasma too soon. Over time he loses this aspect to him as his increasing Sanity Slippage causes him to become easily susceptible to blind rage.
• The Hedonist: Not so much for sexual pleasure, but for general entertainment type of excitement; Ghetsis gets bored very easily, and he's very quick to want to stir problems just to keep himself invested in something.
• The Heavy: Among he and his Pokémon he's this.
• Hero Killer:
  • Almost kills Arceus over a decade ago just so he can steal some of its power, and then kills Hoopa in the present with Type: Null.
  • In his original verse, he murdered Ash Ketchum at the height of his own original victory; the boredom of having none of Ash's unique powers is what drove him to proceed to murder and steal the powers of his alternate incarnations, Hoopa, and attempt to but still steal some power from Arceus and Necrozma. He's also killed Ash Ketchum's other incarnations he came across, but this verse's Ash has proven to be a special target due to being the cause of his first actual lose at conquering a given universe.
  • Amusingly enough though? In regards to Ash? Ghetsis, initially, did not want this associated with him. Ghetsis had wanted to remove everyone else except himself from power and rule over nothing but mindless, powerless individuals. Ghetsis flat out couldn't revoke all of Ash's power in a way that didn't involve killing him, and this had been pissing off Ghetsis because he doesn't want to kill Ash but to give him A Fate Worse Than Death by ruling over his powerless self. However, as Ash either died at his hands or by other factors, Ghetsis was trying madly to find a timeline that existed where Ash was the same individual in Truth and Ideals, but wouldn't be killed outright by his attempts to overpower him. By the time Ghetsis realized this idea was long impossible for him to achieve, his Sanity Slippage had hit a massive stride and never stopped, to the point now he just viciously wished to ride Ash from existence altogether if he couldn't have the satisfaction of dominating him.
• He's Just Hiding: In-Universe to be what Ash considers to have happened to Ghetsis two years ago in their alleged final encounter. Turns out his fears prove true as Ghetsis does return in the present, far, far worse than ever before since he's ditched his fear of Ash and his friends and takes action into his own hands.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Why he wants so much power for himself to begin with.
• Kneel Before Zod: The biggest reason why him initially killing several distinct Ash incarnations across parallel worlds didn't satisfy his Pride; because he could not get them to bow before him in a way that robbed them of power and had Ash survive the process overall. Eventually Ghetsis' Sanity Slippage from the realization he would never acquire this made his Raging Breaking Point take over full swing and never stop.
• Motive Decay: Deconstructed: At first he had wanted world domination to make himself feel like the most powerful individual ever, with him removing all sorts of power from his subjects. Then an increasing pattern began to happen in regards to his bane of existence Ash Ketchum; Ash Ketchum had displayed various powers that his assimilation technique could not properly grasp due to a lack of understanding of it, and thus even though in his original universe, he had killed Ash and won, he didn't get the chance to acquire any of Ash's power. This desire for Ash's power lead him to traversing to another, similar timeline, killing this timeline's version of himself and taking his place, to try and gain Ash's powers using the head start he gained for himself by specifically traveling 15 years backwards while traversing dimensions. This desire to become the strongest individual in the world and ruling over the powerless as he deems fit turned into an obsession with wanting to specifically spite Ash Ketchum's existence by taking everything from Ash personally, due to a strong vendetta he has as viewing his own powers as inferior to Ash's own. While trying to murder N for not fully reforming to his plans, Ash tricked Ghetsis into believing that, despite the 15 years ahead of time in training, he was still not powerful enough to conquer Ash. As a result, the Sanity Slippage Ghetsis would endure for the next 2 years has him completely obsessed with flat out wanting to murder Ash regardless of whether or not he can claim his powers, and wanting to make sure that before Ash perishes, everything he loves perishes first by Ghetsis' own hand, and his prior pragmatism he displayed is replaced with sheer unfettered rage to kill Ash.
• Nothing Is Scarier: What little Offstage Villainy he still has is left up to the imagination for this purpose.
• Offing the Offspring: What he attempts to do to N. Twice. First he was going to have a corrupted Type: Null kill him brutally before N escaped, and then Ghetsis himself personally tried to drown N after also rendering him comatose when he tries to surface from the water.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Several examples which don't make him any less evil merely things he did mostly because his pragmatism alone is what called for it, since otherwise the circumstances made it clear had Ghetsis gone fully hostile it would've spelled a premature end to his goals.
    • He returned the kidnapped Munna to Bianca, which the only immediate benefit of was allowing him and Team Plasma to escape with their lives mostly undetected from Castelia City.
    • He flat out killed Zinzolin and only revived him because Zinzolin was the most loyal of the Sages to him personally, and Ghetsis had foreseen a point in time in which Zinzolin would've turned against him so Subverted this by making Zinzolin undead in the process. The other Sages got A Fate Worse Than Death by comparison once their usefulness came to an end, which forever cursed the ones not loyal to him to ultimately perish completely before they could enter the afterlife.
    • Backstory wise, Ghetsis had shown N to various Pokémon who were abused, but only showed him to any of which he had abused personally if they had no means given from which to rat him out, or at the very least endanger N in such a way that it would disrupt his plan like with Deino/Zweilous/Hydreigon. Even then it's implied those few Pokémon who learned of his abuse elsewhere anyways he later found out about and had them fed to his own Hydreigon in the making.
• The Power of Hate: His newfound hatred of Ash Ketchum has driven him to survive in Ultra Space, stranded, for a whole 2 years before eventually being rediscovered by the 0Ω by accident.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The only thing remotely even close to resembling sympathetic traits for him; it doesn't actually make him sympathetic since everyone near him during these moments know that Ghetsis is secretly planning ahead to take advantage of the situation in the future instead of in a situation where it doesn't benefit him right away. With returning Munna to Bianca in Castelia City, he only really does it because he's in a public building where he was surrounded by authority and Ash's group, and he didn't want to risk anything just yet so he gave Munna back and simply opted to escape due to not being able to comprehend Ash's power. He manipulates Hoopa's desire to be unbound to his advantage in their first meeting by living up to his end of the bargain with unleashing Hoopa's Unbound Forme for an extended period than normal. Not only that, but he does so with no strings attached because he knows Hoopa will eventually return when said power runs out practically begging for Ghetsis to allow him to have it again for the same deal between the two as before, which causes Ghetsis to have a Mythical Pokémon to exploit until he decides that Hoopa is no longer needed.
• The Unfettered: 2 years after Truth and Ideals, he's become this, ditching his Pragmatic Villainy in favor of sheer, unbridled hatred towards everything and anything with a personal connection to Ash Ketchum, and due to the sheer Sanity Slippage he's undergone, it's no wonder he's ditching all of his prior code just to outright murder Ash and everything he holds dearest to him.
• Unstoppable Rage: Truth 2 and Ideals 2 seems to showcase him as having a very personal score to settle with Ash and everyone he holds dear; gone is the levelheaded Ghetsis from two years ago, in enters the psycho hidden within Ghetsis due to no longer having a desire to hide behind other beings for his evil.
• Sanity Slippage: Two years have not been kind to Ghetsis by the time of Truth 2 and Ideals 2. While he managed to steal some of Necrozma's power, he's been busting entire planets using it just to relieve himself of boredom as he tries to train his combined abilities to finally begin conquering entire worlds to build up what are effective backup power sources for when he's inevitably going to face off against Ash again in the same verse he only lost at, and he's grown fully mad that he needs an oxygen tank built into his wardrobe to survive.
• Victory Is Boring: He originally conquered all of Unova in his own world, but was so bored with the fact that, despite his victory, Ash Ketchum was stronger than him, so he traveled across space and time to rectify this.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He's essentially the same Ghetsis from the canon whom commits far more heinous crimes on-screen as to make sure it's crystal clear he's morally bankrupt. In the sequel, his vileness is amplified because of his ongoing Sanity Slippage and the fact he's no longer an Orcus on His Throne, and does almost all of own steps to his plans by himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ash's aura causing Ghetsis to see things that may or may not be real just so Ash could convince Ghetsis that this particular Ash is still Always Someone Better ends up causing Ghetsis' sanity to slip further, especially when Ash doesn't even dignify Ghetsis with any kind of usual response as to give Ghetsis the idea that while Ghetsis had grown stronger, he just Can't Catch Up with Ash no matter what.
• Would Hurt a Child: While N was a boy lost in the forest he took with him because he was a witness, his older sisters on the other hand were the result of Ghetsis having made contact with N beforehand so he burned their house down in their sleep. Not only that, but there was another motive he had which wasn't right away obvious; there was a Pokémon Egg Incubator which contained a Deino Egg, which was the initial reason he massacred the family in the first place because he didn't want to go through the trouble of acquiring a Deino for himself further north in Unova.

Special Cases

Delia Ketchum

Debut: Truth and Ideals

• Age Lift: She's no less than 10 years older than her anime incarnation.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She feels as though her cheating behind Sirius' back is ultimately what caused his death, due to her selfish desire for sex when they first married, and then when Ash confronts her about the fact Sirius' final words on a letter told him that he felt as though Delia abandoned him, upon learning how much of a Graceful Loser Sirius was about the ordeal only made Delia feel worse about it.

Sirius Ketchum

Debut: Truth and Ideals

• Action Dad
• Adaptational Badass: It's implied Ash's father was a generic nobody who couldn't even be a proper trainer, if one happens to believe Pocket Monsters: The Animation at least. Many of what traits Sirius actually was like ends up being inherited by his own son to the point his son becomes The Dreaded because of how ungodly powerful Sirius is as a person, let alone his own Pokémon.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is he truly back to life? Or is he a mere phantom who transcended from the afterlife altogether? According to production notes for the sequel, it's the former.
• Aura Vision
• The Bear: Subverted by the fact Sirius is straight, but he otherwise fits the description appearance-wise, as he's a very tall, very muscular, and especially very hairy man.
• Bittersweet Ending: Assuming he's actually a phantom and not truly back to life, this is what results of the Earn Your Happy Ending of the finale of Truth and Ideals. Turns out he's indeed back to life by the time we see him again in the upcoming sequel.
• Captain Oblivious: A huge case of this he was like growing up, being completely innocent as a child in spite of how absurdly powerful his aura and Pokémon. Add onto the fact he's often Obfuscating Stupidity at the exact same time, and he's an unpredictable nightmare that nobody can pin down in terms of how he'll react to something.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: It's a fairly simple one at that. He's dead. Or, at least, during the majority of Truth and Ideals and the past 16-17 years prior he was. He's Back from the Dead by the end of the fic, but nobody is wanting to give him any flak for his absence because everyone's too happy having him back after so long.
• Disappeared Dad: At the beginning of the story he's noted as having disappeared, but nobody is quite aware of what exactly his actual fate was. Even with The Reveal that he's been dead for over 16 years by this point, it's ultimately an Ambiguous Situation since he somehow shows up as a phantom much later in the story, but nobody knows if this is because he's Back from the Dead, or if he's still technically dead just having transcended the afterlife entirely.
• Deus ex Machina: Part of the entire reason he's The Dreaded to begin with; nobody knows where he came from, or how he got his insane degree of powers. Every attempt to explain his powers and or origins always result in more unanswered questions with no answers given in the process. He's just a sort of anomaly of The Ace who just exists simply because he can, for lack of a better way of summing him up.
• The Dreaded: Doesn't give the impression intentionally, but his ancestry is so little known that it outright terrifies the Unova Gym Leaders at first.
• Extreme Doormat: Part of the main reason why Delia kept seeing other men after the two married is because of the fact Sirius often didn't engage in sexual situations with Delia, whereas Delia's remaining teenage hormones were wanting sex from him, so she ended up seeing other men who were younger who would indeed satisfy her. Sirius eventually had enough and finally did sleep with Delia one day, much to the happiness of both of them... at least until Sirius' disappearance exactly a day later.
• Formerly Fit: In the 2 year timeskip after Truth and Ideals, he has gained a fair bit of weight due to his newfound addiction to the taste of food after having spent so long being unable to taste anything. Apparently, the appetite he gained actually rivals Ash's Raichu in terms of how much of Ash's homemade pancakes he'll eat. That being said, Sirius still works out extensively at the gym, so his actual weight gain isn't too noticeable especially considering how much of his newfound weight winds up becoming refined muscle.
• Noodle Incident/Nothing Is Scarier: We never learn precisely what Sirius did to earn his dreaded reputation with the Unova Gym Leaders; we only get hints of it with the actions we see from his son Ash in the present.
• Take a Third Option: The reason he's not meant to be either Riley or Sir Aaron is partially both because of what happens to Sirius in terms of his Disappeared Dad background, and also the fact the author felt it would be easier to make something unique if Ash's father was an O.C. Stand-in instead.
• O.C. Stand-in: Ash's father. According to MF217's reasoning for why this decision was made, while he did find it amusing how much speculation has insisted some canon characters seen in the series proper to be Ash's father, he found that the idea of making any of said potential candidates to be too predictable in hindsight, so MF217 wanted to create an OC to use as Ash's father.
• Walking Spoiler

Regulus

Born to the Lucario known as Arcturus, the Aura Partner of Sirius Ketchum, Regulus had been a youngster for a very long time; even after Sirius' untimely death, it wouldn't be for another few years until he evolves to Lucario, and even then, he had to go through multiple foster trainers to accomplish that. Many years later, he matures and discovers that Sirius Ketchum has a son, and eventually returns to Unova from which Sirius' wife had settled, to try and become Ash's Aura Partner. Eventually realizing that as a second born to a veteran Aura Guardian, Regulus' place would never allow him to officially become anyone's Aura Partner, especially not helping with his consistent pattern of ditching his alleged partners. Regulus would later settle down once he had come to terms with this, having an offspring heir to serve as Ash's true Aura Partner, but eventually Regulus would be hired by the Ambassadors to join their ranks, realizing that Regulus has otherwise nowhere else to turn to sate his Blood Knight tendencies.

Tropes relating to Regulus

• Always Accurate Attack: Played With; as a Riolu, he knows Aura Sphere, but Riolu under normal circumstances cannot naturally learn the move until they evolve into Lucario. As a result, Regulus doesn't have the Always Accurate Attack nature of Aura Sphere when he uses it while still a Riolu, because he only knows the move in its basal form, and not the refined form of knowing the move normally.
• Almighty Janitor: He's quite powerful for one who is considered The Runt at the End.
• Anti-Hero: The most prominent thing that differs between him and Ash is the fact whereas Ash is an Ideal Hero, Regulus is an Anti-Hero who is not above using absolutely brutal force in even the most mundane of circumstances.
• Badass Adorable: As a Riolu, sometime after growing out of his Shrinking Violet stage as seen in Starlight Ablaze.
• Blood Knight: One thing has been consistent the moment Regulus began to grow older over the years; he's utterly ruthless.
• Bloodless Carnage: He smashes a Primeape's skull in and the narrative doesn't get into the gory details, only described as a "dent".
• Breakout Character: His popularity in Truth and Ideals has resulted in him earning a major role in Starlight Ablaze.
• Character Development: He starts off as a Shrinking Violet while still under Sirius' care, into a Blood Knight after Sirius' untimely death causes him to begin Walking the Earth.
• Continuity Porn: His appearance in Starlight Ablaze demonstrates almost all of the abilities he has at the start of Truth and Ideals in a less refined form. This includes Aura Mode, Aura Storm, Aura Speak,
• Handicapped Badass: Regulus as both a Riolu and as a Lucario has an oddly misshapen left leg, but this is rarely ever directly brought up as a handicap. Why? Even with whatever injury he has there, it does fuck all to actually hinder his overall movement and fighting abilities.
• Homage: His fight with a Primeape as a Riolu partially gives a Shout-Out to Dragon Ball Super with it's fight with Jiren and Goku in those respective roles, although the outcome of the fight, as well as a few minor details, are handled a bit differently. Especially since Regulus not only wins but is implied to have killed the Primeape in question, especially considering Regulus was also using an unrefined form of Aura Blitz.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: His Aura Speak is rendered with a very distinctive format, so anybody who had read Truth and Ideals prior to reading Starlight Ablaze will be able to recognize it. Subverted, however, in that multiple Pokémon in Truth and Ideals, even humans such as Ash, have used Aura Speak in the exact same formatting. This also includes Mewtwo as having spoken with it. As a result, it's vague as to whether or not it was Mewtwo or Regulus speaking in some chapters of Starlight Ablaze, especially considering Regulus and Mewtwo both have three digit hands. However, once Regulus' fighting instinct shines in all of it's glory, it's adamantly clear when Regulus is speaking.
• Mythology Gag: His bio statistics for Starlight Ablaze imply he's either the Aura Sphere Riolu from Pokémon Ranger and the anime, or at least came to be from similar circumstances by a coincidence. However, it's also worth noting that Regulus' Nature and Ability coincide with it as well (Serious and Steadfast respectively).
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's actually 1'10" as a Riolu; a few inches shorter than a standard Riolu.
• Red Baron: "Shining Star" or "Superstar".
• The Runt at the End: He was born a weakling and deemed inferior to other Riolu of his age, but as time progressed, he outlived most other runts of his kind and actually succeeds in evolving into Lucario as time progresses; something most runts are killed or dead before they can actually accomplish, and Regulus continues to survive into the present and beyond. One could say this is perhaps due to Regulus' sheer brutality in fights, in which he manages to survive by using ludicrously lethal force that most Pokémon won't sink to.
• Shout-Out:
  • He's a living, breathing Homage to Dragon Ball Super.
    • His fight with Primeape is an alternate take on the Jiren VS Autonomous Ultra Instinct Goku fight. It differs mainly due to how Regulus is characterized differently as being perfectly willing to utilize fatal brutality in his attacks to finish the fight.
  • Aura Blitz as he first uses it in Truth and Ideals is a reference to Lucario's Ultra Taunt in Brawl Minus, especially in regards to how it functions.
• Shrinking Violet: When he's shown in a flashback as a Riolu in Truth and Ideals, he's a shy little guy.
• Stellar Name: "Regulus"
• Supernatural Gold Eyes
• Walking the Earth: What he had been doing ever since Sirius' death, prior to learning that Sirius has a son.
• Wham Shot:
  • His introduction in Truth and Ideals has him be the first Pokémon who isn't Raichu's line to not be from Unova.
  • His introduction in Starlight Ablaze, which reveals Sirius and Ash aren't his only trainers.