Characters / Pokémon the Series: Black & White

aka: Pokemon The Series Black And White Cast

Pokémon anime characters index
Series-wide: Ash Ketchum | Pikachu | Team Rocket Trio | Team Rocket Organization
The Original Series (Misty and Brock, Main Cast) | Ruby and Sapphire (Main Cast) | Diamond and Pearl (Main Cast, Paul) | Black & White (Main Cast) | XY (Main Cast) | Sun & Moon (Main Cast) | Journeys (Main Cast)
Others: Movie characters

Characters and their Pokémon that debuted during Pokémon the Series: Black & White, also titled Pokémon: Best Wishes! in Japan.

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Main Cast

See here for more information.

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Supporting Cast

Professor Aurea Juniper (Dr. Araragi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Naomi Shindo

Voiced in English by: Khristine Hvam

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Dulce Guerrero

Voiced in Dutch by: Jannemien Cnossen

The researcher and professor of the Unova region. She hands out Starter Pokémon to new trainers and studies the origins of Pokémon. Professor Juniper's lab serves as a residence for Ash's unused Unova Pokémon which often rotate with each other during his journey. Later on, all of Ash's Unova Pokémon are transferred to Professor Oak's lab.
Ash's Oshawott, Trip's Serperior and Bianca's Emboar all used to be Starter Pokémon from her laboratory, and all of them would later make it to the Vertress Conference of the Unova League. Speaking of Bianca, she and Professor Juniper trade their Shelmet and Karrablast to each other to make them evolve into Escavalier and Accelgor, respectively.

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• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Karrablast. It is then traded for Bianca's Shelmet, who then evolves into Accelgor.
• Brainy Brunette: She has brown hair and is an intelligent professor.
• Character Tics: Seems to be fond of that weird salute that her game counterpart is also prone to doing.
• Energy Weapon: Accelgor's Hyper Beam.
• Green Thumb: Accelgor's Energy Ball.
• Healing Factor: Accelgor's Recover.
• Straight Man: To Fennel.
• Verbal Tic: In the Japanese version, she often says "Arara" and "Ararara", which can be translated as "My, my, my". It's a pun to her name Araragi.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Not to an extreme, but she's definitely a lot less odd than her father, and seems exasperated by some of his behavior.

Don George

Voiced in Japanese by: Hisao Egawa

Voiced in English by: Marc Thompson

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Leonardo García

The owner(s) of the Pokémon Battle Clubs located around the Unova region.

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• Distaff Counterpart: To Jenny and Joy. To the degree that he has dozens of identical brothers.
• Manly Tears: Makes you wonder if he's a Gentle Giant if pressed enough...
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the dub, he sounds like Randy Savage!
• Small Name, Big Ego: Each one is certainly a nice guy, but they're also often egotistical - entire tournaments with "Don" in the name and giant statues of Don George at the stadium(s), anyone? Downplayed in the dub with the "Club" tournaments.

Luke

Voiced in Japanese by: Minami Takayama

Voiced in English by: Billy Bob Thompson

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: René Pinochet (season 14), Fernando Calderón (season 15)

A trainer that is aiming to be a film director. Joins Ash and the group during the the Nimbasa tournament arc to learn about filming battles better.

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• All Webbed Up: Larvesta's String Shot.
• Berserk Button: Not really "berserk" for say but he gets irritated when a good battle isn't filmed or when he's told that he can't be a good film director. Bianca pushes both of these buttons.
  • In the dub however, it's more of a berserk button due to his tone of voice and how he calls her out on the first one.
  • Interestingly, for the latter Bianca deliberately pushed it, and for the purpose of helping him (essentially, convincing him to come closer so he can get a clearer shot of the battle taking place). It works...surprisingly well, despite the inherent risk from being inside the battle zone.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He doesn't look it, but he is actually very effective in battle.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Leavanny and Larvesta.
• The Bus Came Back: In the later PokéStar Studios episode, Luke returns to shoot another movie with the gang as a nod to the PokéStar Studios in Black 2 and White 2.
• Camera Fiend: He is obsessed with filming battles and it gets to the point that he gets mad at Bianca who filmed his Zorua instead of his battle with Iris.
• Casting a Shadow: Zorua.
• Combat Pragmatist: His Zorua.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Golett's Double Team.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Golett.
• Elemental Punch: Golett's Shadow Punch.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Golett's Gyro Ball.
• Green Thumb: Leavanny.
• Guest-Star Party Member: During the Club Battle Tournament arc.
• Master of Disguise: Zorua, but since it's a girl, it prefers doing female roles.
• Meaningful Name: See Shout-Out below.
• Playing with Fire: Larvesta.
• The Prankster: Zorua really has no motive for her tricks other than to have fun at anyone's expense (sometimes even Luke's!).
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Savvy Guy to Bianca's Energetic Girl.
• Shapeshifting Trickster: His Zorua, who often turns into Georgia or someone else altogether to have Bianca continue to search for her tirelessly.
• Shout-Out: To George Lucas — he's a bespectacled, brown-haired film director with a fondness for the Cliché Storm elements of classic storytelling, and manages to make them work in a way which appeals to filmgoers and critics. invoked
• Soul Power: Golett, Zorua's Shadow Ball.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: In the dub, Luke almost says this word per word to Bianca when she says that he only told him to film but not who to film.

Freddy O'Martian a.k.a. "The Scoop" (Takemitsu)

Voiced in Japanese by: Mitsuaki Madono

Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Roberto Mendiola

An announcer from Unova who features as a major host for various tournaments from Unova. He has been, so far: the co-announcer for the Club Battle and Clubsplosion Tournaments with each local Don George; the co-host of the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup alongside Alder; and the host of the Unova League itself. At the Decolore Archipelago, he hosted the Scalchop King Playoffs at Scalchop Island, in BW126.

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• Dynamic Entry: In the Unova League opening ceremony, where he made his appearance by parachuting from a helicopter into the stadium.
• Large Ham: At times, such as his exclamation of shock when it was discovered Cameron had unwittingly handicapped himself. It kind of comes with the job, mind you.
• Recurring Character: He always shows up to be the announcer during tournaments.
• Satellite Character: Not much to him in terms of personality, or outside tourneys for that matter.

Cedric Juniper (Dr. Araragi)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kenyū Horiuchi

Voiced in English by: Stuart Zagnit

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Ernesto Lezama

Professor Aurea Juniper's father, whose footsteps she followed in becoming a researcher. In his case, he studies the origins of legendary Pokémon. When Ash, his friends and his daughter first ran into him, he'd collapsed from exhaustion in Chargestone Cave. After recovering, he agreed to lead the youngsters on a trip through the Black Hero's Ruins, after which they parted ways.

At the start of the Episode N arc in BW109, he reappeared - calling his daughter, Cedric revealed that he'd made interesting discoveries about the White Ruins, located not far from Icirrus City. Ash and friends decide to travel there and visit him.

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• Anime Hair: Has what looks like a massive cowlick just above his forehead.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Just watch some of his bizarre antics in BW064. The man's a borderline Troll with how much he screws with the party on purpose. It's worse for his co-workers since he does it every second he gets.
• Cue Card Pause: He has a habit of leaving his sentences hanging midway, which leads to mis-communication whenever someone thinks he's done speaking. Even if the subject in question is about trying to convince N not to steal the Light Stone.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Not to an extreme, but he's considerably odder than his daughter, who seems exasperated by some of his behavior.

Meloetta

Voiced in Japanese by: Megumi Nakajima

Voiced in English by: Megumi Nakajima (speaking voice), Erica Schroeder (singing voice)

A legendary Pokémon whose singing voice is said to have a mysterious power, making its debut in the Rival Destinies season. It is currently being chased and tracked by Team Rocket, who plan to use the power of its voice for some nefarious purpose. It joined Ash's group temporarily as a traveling companion.

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• Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time Megumi Nakajima has lent her voice to a a green-haired singer.
• Ambiguous Gender: Although it's meant to be genderless in the games, it has always had a very feminine appearance; plus it appears to have a crush on Ash, and the very male Oshawott and Piplup have both developed crushes on it, so it's likely meant to be female in the anime.
• Badass in Distress: As powerful as it is, it winds up getting captured as part of Team Rocket's plan to capture the true forms of the Kami Trio.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Knows Close Combat, which it uses in Pirouette Forme.
• Curtains Match the Window: In Pirouette Forme, its hair and eyes are both red.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Inverted variant of it — Ash was the one who took care of Meloetta, and as a result it appears to have developed a crush on him, though in the end it's implied this is also because he reminded it of Ridley.
• Freudian Excuse: According to Meloetta and the Undersea Temple, Team Rocket's attempts at kidnapping Meloetta was the reason for its Shrinking Violet behaviour.
• Genki Girl: After opening up more.
• Guest-Star Party Member: After its first episode, it follows Ash and friends around until someone from its village comes by to guide it home again.
• Nice Girl: Despite being a Gender unknown species, Meloetta does have a feminine appearance. Regardless, it is shown to be a consistently friendly Pokemon to Ash and the others, especially Dawn.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: In Aria Forme.
• Invisibility: It possesses this unique superpower to hide itself from anybody it doesn't trust. It's handy around Ash and co., but Team Rocket specifically has a device to let them find it.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Usually shy and meek, it becomes an effective battler when it takes on its Pirouette Forme.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Its song is required by Team Rocket to fulfill their latest scheme — "Operation Tempest".
• Magic Music: Its song and voice has the power to soothe the souls and minds of Pokémon listening in. It is also the key to unlocking the Abyssal Ruins and the Reveal Glass, which can be used to control the Kami Trio.
• Make Some Noise: Knows Hyper Voice.
• Shrinking Violet: Starts off this way before opening up.
• Transformation Sequence: From its Aria Forme into Pirouette Forme, whenever it uses Relic Song.
• Villainous Crush: Even Meowth swoons over Meloetta in the Pikachu shorts (though this is not referenced at all in the main anime, where he considers it just another Pokémon to steal).

N

Voiced in Japanese by: Yūichi Nakamura

Voiced in English by: Nicholas DiMichele

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Carlos Hernández

The Leader of Team Plasma in the Pokémon Black and White games. He debuts in the first episode of the Episode N arc, featured as a major character. First meeting Ash and his friends in BW110, N joins them on their journey later on. In BW118, he reveals to his new friends his past as a former Team Plasma member, including his encounter with Reshiram.

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• Adaptational Heroism: He's never completely evil (no, not even in Pokémon Adventures), but the anime's version of N is nonetheless the nicest and most moral version of the character seen in any canonical media.
• Adaptational Wimp: Because he never gets crowned King of Team Plasma, he never becomes a trainer and never claims a Legendary Pokémon for himself. As a result, the poor guy gets beat up pretty often.
• Age Lift: To a degree—in the games, N was somewhere in his late teens to early twenties, but in this version, his proportions are closer to a teenager, implying that he's younger here.
• Anti-Hero: This version of N is, when we first meet him, a former Team Plasma member and disillusioned by their actions. However, at this time he's still strongly-spoken about his opposition to Pokémon trainers and battles. He also opted to snatch the Light Stone from Cedric Juniper in order to try and keep it out of Team Plasma's hands.
• Badass Pacifist: He never enters battle, yet proves his Badass credentials early on.
• Defector from Decadence: Left Team Plasma two years prior after Reshiram flipped out and destroyed the castle from where it was first summoned.
• Foil: To Ash, by all indicators. He's even hinted, in their first appearance, to be the Hero of Truth in parallel to Ash being the Hero of Ideals.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Twice, involving the same friend (Ash) and the same idol (the Light Stone). In BW120, when the floor of the White Ruins has collapsed below them, N has a grip on the ledge with his right hand but the Light Stone in the other, while Ash and Pikachu are about to fall; he only hesitates a moment before dropping the container to grab Ash's hand (they both fall afterwards though, and the Light Stone is nearby when they come to). Then in BW121, Pikachu falls under the control of Colress' controlling-machine again and this time Ash's attempt to get through to him fails, the machine being too powerful now for willpower alone; N surrenders the Light Stone to Team Plasma in exchange for Colress freeing Pikachu from the machine.
• Guest-Star Party Member: He travels with the group from BW114-BW118.
• Made of Iron:
  • Not so much anymore as of BW114, where he recieves several injuries over the course of the episode while trying to rescue a Pokémon from Team Plasma. However, he never seems to notice them until somebody points it out.
  • Completely subverted when he's hit by Dragonite's Flamethrower and Haxorus' Hyper Beam in BW117, while trying to talk them both down from their Brainwashed and Crazy states. This would've gotten him killed had Anthea and Concordia not appeared and taken him to get healed.
• Motor Mouth: When N gets worked up about something important to him, he starts to monologue at a breathless pace. Still, it's not as frequent (or his voice as incomprehensibly fast-paced) as in the games.
• Nice Guy: While he obviously likes Pokémon best, this incarnation of N is reasonably good with people and remains polite and friendly towards Ash and co. at all times. Even in spite of his discomfort at learning Ash's dream to be a Pokémon Master, he states he doesn't hate Ash for the worlds they seek being different.
• Pals with Jesus: By the end of the Plasma arc.
• Sixth Ranger: Literally for Episode N, if you count Pikachu and Axew as well as the human protagonists.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: He communicates with them in their unique language, and even considers it superior to the human language. He's actually baffled by Team Rocket's Meowth for this very reason.
• Taking the Bullet: In BW110, he takes a Shadow Ball meant for Axew and Snivy directly In the Back. It doesn't seem to do much damage, but it's the thought that counts.
• The Unreveal: We are never told of what was Reshiram's response to N's words at the end of the Team Plasma arc, mainly because Ash would rather learn from Reshiram the next time they meet.

Anthea (Verbena) and Concordia (Helena)

Concordia (left) and Anthea (right)

Voiced in Japanese by: Saki Fujita (Anthea) & Miho Arakawa (Concordia)

Voiced in English by: Lianne Marie Dobbs (Anthea) & Haven Paschall (Concordia)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Andrea Orozco (Anthea) & Christine Byrd (Concordia)

N's foster sisters, these young women are also his closest human companions and were similarly associated with Team Plasma, having been taken it by Ghetsis as children. They first appeared in the Episode N opening and ending animations, debuting proper in BW117.

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• Adaptation Name Change/Named by the Adaptation: It's been revealed that, instead of being called "Goddess of Love" and "Goddess of Peace" (as in the games), the Japanese version of the anime is giving them actual names. Besides avoiding the obvious silliness of addressing them by their long-winded "titles", this was likely done also so that lip-flaps wouldn't cause problems in various dubs.
• A Wizard Did It: Actually subverted by their teleportation ability, but it's All There in the Manual - specifically, the mist is created by Gothitelle's illusory powers, while Gardevoir's ability to warp between space is used to enable them to travel long distances (and into other spatial dimensions, as seen in BW118). In tandem, this enables them a degree of strategy (such as getting Team Rocket lost in the woods when they try to follow), but it doesn't defend the girls' Pokémon from Colress' machine one he's pinpointed them.
• Big Damn Heroes: Show up in time to take the grieviously injured N to safety and heal his injuries.
  • They try to do something similar in BW122 when Reshiram is summoned, but their Pokémon are quickly controlled by Colress' machine.
• Composite Character: They keep their core personality traits from the games (what they have, anyway), but have inherited some of N's inherent distrust of humanity.
• Cool Big Sis: To N, bigtime.
• Curtains Match the Window: Both of them.
• The Empath: Like their foster brother, they have the ability to hear the voices of Pokémon.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Concordia has demonstrated this trait.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Both Gardevoir and Gothitelle know Protect.
• Master of Illusion: Both their Gardevoir and Gothitelle do this to protect themselves and the Pokémon they aid.
• Meaningful Name: Along with their dub names, their new Japanese names are quite apt:
  • Anthea's name in the Japanese version, "Verbena", comes from the flower genus of the same name; in the language of flowers, it symbolizes "tender love". In the games, Anthea's name is "Goddess of Love".
  • Condordia's name in the Japanese version, "Helena", refers to a species of olive; in the language of flowers, it symbolizes "peace and wisdom". In the games, Concordia's name is "Goddess of Peace".
• The Medic: Both are skilled in treating Pokémon, albeit without any powers - they simply tend to them and help their recovery. They even have a secret refuge in the woods where they protect injured Pokémon.
• Psychic Powers: Anthea owns a Gothitelle, and Concordia owns a Gardevoir.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Expressed somewhat in the way they speak. Anthea speaks much more formally and calmly than Concordia, who is much more direct.

Porter (Parker)

Voiced in Japanese by: Masayuki Kato

Voiced in English by: Francis Kelly

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Ricardo Méndez

A group of men who work on the cruise line throughout the Decolore Archipelago.

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• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Like all Jennies, Joys, and Don Georges. The changes are noted on their color of their collars and lining of their shoes.
• Mr. Exposition: They are usually nearby to give information on the island that the gang is visiting that episode. Justified in that it is likely part of their job in the first place.

Rivals

Trip (Shooti)

Voiced in Japanese by: Akeno Watanabe

Voiced in English by: Jamie McGonnigal

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Jaime Alberto Carrillo

Ash's main rival in Unova. He is also a Pokémon photographer.

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• Always Someone Better: Played straight at first, but ever since he tied with Ash during their third battle his strength was considerably downplayed. He retained an undefeated record against Ash until his last appearance, and was often shown to be ahead of him in Gym badges, but had a rather poor track record against everyone else.
• Anti-Climax: Despite being Ash's main Unova rival, who was established in the very first episode, his final battle with Ash is a 1v1 in the preliminary round of the League. Not only that, but his Serperior was taken out in a single hit after all was said and done, with Trip leaving halfway through the episode as the focus quickly shifted back to the other rivals.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: A classic case, what with his obsession with gaining greater strength than other challengers.
• Ascended Fanboy: Wanted to be a trainer after watching the Champion Alder battle. While he promised himself that he would become a trainer so he could face Alder one day, it's to be noted that his overall cheerfulness as a child is gone by the time he starts as a trainer.
• Berserk Button:
  • Trip hates being called a "kid" or getting called out for being childish. Iris doing it gets to him twice.
  • Getting rejected also doesn't seem to faze well with him, especially when it's by his idol.
• Bookends: Trip's first battle with Ash was a one-on-one against Pikachu using his newly obtained Snivy. His last battle with Ash is another one-on-one against Pikachu using the fully evolved Serperior.
• Book Smart: In contrast to Ash's Book Dumb, Trip is relatively smart for a beginner and has standard knowledge on conventional training and battling techniques. This is somewhat deconstructed as he's not used to dealing against opponents who use out-of-the-box tactics.
• Break the Haughty: Trip is sent through a Humiliation Conga midway through the series that culminates in him losing to Bianca in the first round of the Clubsplosion, forcing him to admit he's a long way from defeating Alder. His ego returns during the Junior Cup, especially after he wins, but is broken again after Alder wipes the floor with him. This time, it finally sticks.
• Camera Fiend: A minor example as it's not to the extreme of Luke's obsession with filming. Trip is always seen with his camera though before he puts it away.
• Canon Immigrant: Though he's been given the Ace Trainer's sprite and class, he and his team are available in a download for the World Tournament (along with the other three anime-origin rivals).
• Catchphrase: Trip seems to be really fond of "the basics of Pokémon training".
• Character Development: Trip finally understands that strength isn't everything after his battle with Alder and finally gets it into his head that he should appreciate his Pokémon and his journey more. He even speaks to Ash on even terms (even if it's short) without throwing any insults at him and actually looks forward to battling Ash at the Unova League. He still keeps his distance though and doesn't join up with Ash and his rivals.
• Character Tics: Apparently when he's really happy (which is rare), he holds his arms in front◊ of him when he's talking◊. It's almost similar to a certain spirit channeler◊ from a certain lawyer game.
• Cheerful Child: As a really young boy, though it's gone by his current age.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Most of Trip's battles are these, whether he's on the giving or receiving end of them.
  • He effortlessly defeats Ash in their first battle, though this was only because Ash's Pikachu was temporarily rendered unable to use Electric-type attacks thanks to a lightning strike caused by Zekrom.
  • He wipes the floor with Ash again in their second battle, and this time, there's no easy excuse. It's a 5v5 match where Trip only even needs 3 of his Pokémon to win, and to top it off, 3 of Ash's own Pokémon are taken out in a single hit.
  • Every one of his Junior Cup battles is won with ease, with his Serperior not having taken even a single hit during the entire tournament.
  • Minutes after winning the Junior Cup, however, this streak is brought to a end: Alder's Bouffalant easily eats up Serperior's moves and takes him out with a single Head Charge.
• Death Glare: He weaponized this using his Serperior's Leer. By lowering their opponents defense, he could wipe them out with a single solar beam.
• Eagleland: A native of Unova, which is the Pokemon Fantasy Counterpart Culture to the Big Applesauce, and is an arrogant Jerkass who also looks down on Ash for being from Kanto, which he disparangingly refers to as the "boonies", making him a Type 2.
• Fantastic Racism: For some reason, he doesn't think too fondly of the Kanto region or the people from there, referring to them as the "boonies". It's never explained why he has this attitude.
• Foil: To Ash.
  • Both of them are trainers starting out their journeys in Unova, but Ash is a highly experienced trainer who had been reset to lose most of his skills, while Trip is a new trainer with a firm understanding of the basics.
  • Ash is a Nice Guy with close traveling companions, while Trip is a Jerkass with an elitist view towards Kanto and a loner with no one but his Pokemon to travel with.
  • Both also seek to become the best in their fields, but Ash wants to be a Pokemon Master, while Trip wants to beat Alder and become Unovan Champion. While Ash has only gotten stronger since this series, and is well on his way to facing the most powerful trainers in the world, Trip got knocked out of the preliminary rounds in the Unova League and has yet to return, never accomplishing his dream because Iris became Champion instead of him.
• Glass Cannon: Trip's Serperior seems to be one as it can unleash powerful grass attacks and one-hit KO almost all of its opponents in the Junior Cup, but it goes down in one hit against both Alder's Bouffalant (during their exhibition match) and Ash's Pikachu (during the Vertress Conference).
• Graceful Loser: To Cilan in the Club Battle tournament. He is upset about losing, but claims that he'll use that disappointment to help make him stronger rather than dwell on it.
  • Slightly less so to Alder, at first, but after a talk with his old idol, he takes it alright. And when he loses to Ash, he calmly accepts his defeat and they (kind of) start becoming friends.
• Green and Mean:Has green hair and eyes, his starter is the grass type Serperior, and is an arrogant Jerkass for most of the series.
• Green Thumb: His starter, Serperior.
• Hidden Depths: The Sugar-and-Ice Personality rival was actually a Cheerful Child when he was much younger and an Ascended Fanboy of Alder.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: How Trip ends up losing to Bianca. Not only underestimating her, but his Conkeldurr leaves himself wide open for attacks when Bianca's Emboar gets through his Rock Tomb. Bianca basically orders her Emboar to take those pillars that Conkeldurr uses in battle and throw them back in his face.
• Humiliation Conga: After his first couple of appearances fuel his ego and Jerkass attitude, Trip is sent on a considerable downward spiral for the next several arcs.
  • His third battle with Ash results in a tie rather than the decisive victory that the first two were. What's more, the one loss he suffered during the battle was to Ash's Oshawott, one of his weakest Unova Pokémon, before he had even mastered Aqua Jet. It was even revealed by Trip himself that the reason Oshawott couldn't aim was because he kept closing his eyes, yet he still managed to defeat his Timburr.
  • He's cleanly defeated by Cilan in the first round of the Club Battle, despite his Gurdurr having evolved since its last appearance and having the advantage over Cilan's Dwebble.
  • He finally reunites with his idol Alder after their first meeting years ago. Unfortunately for Trip, Alder appears to have grown near-unrecognizably senile and unserious within that timeframe: he spends his time getting distracted by women, shows that he barely bothered to remember Trip himself, misnames him constantly even in the present, contradicts the advice he gave when they first met, and rejects his request for a battle after not even bothering to finish his battle with Ash. By the time Trip leaves, he's left pretty sour at the experience.
  • Lastly, he enters the Clubsplosion tournament, only to lose in the first round again. Only this time, it's to Bianca — while she had taken a level in badass for this arc, she remains one of the least serious rivals in the series. It's even more humiliating given that Trip had openly dismissed her prior to the match.
• Hypocritical Humor: He calls Ash immature, but is shown to be much more immature when it comes to certain subjects like getting Alder's attention.
• An Ice Person: His Vanillite
• Irony: He initially looks down on Ash for being a "backwater hillbilly" from Kanto, to which he refers to the region as "the boonies". Yet, the Kanto region was inspired by the real-life region in Japan and is one of the most highly developed, urbanized, and industrialized parts of it. The Unova region, on the other hand, was explicitly based on the United States of America, specifically, the Big Applesauce.
• It Only Works Once: He was taken aback when his Servine lost to Ash's Snivy, thanks to the grass starter using Attract. He teaches Servine to counter it to avoid getting beaten like that again.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • For what it's worth, he isn't wrong about Ash faltering as a trainer throughout Unova. Several of their battles demonstrate how poorly Ash's Pokemon were trained in this saga.
  • He mocks Iris for her fear of Ice-types just because she wants to be a Dragon-type master. While Misty's fear of Bug-types is taken from real life fear of bugs, Iris is scared of Ice-types just because they're super-effective against her favorite type.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. Much like Gary and Paul before him, he acts smug and condescending to most of the cast for the majority of his appearances. Ash gets it the worst, being the brunt of many rude stereotypes about his home region. He also actually helped Ash realize why his Oshawott couldn't aim its Aqua Jet properly, but not without mocking him for the embarrassing detail that he's afraid to open his eyes underwater. He also took an interest in Iris in the same episode for being from the Village of Dragons, but just as quickly wrote her off for her strange Ice-type phobia and poorly trained team. His attitude does not change until much later when Alder defeats him in the Junior Cup in which he starts to treat others with respect.
• Loners Are Freaks: He's well-noted for his anti-social behavior, as he apparently thinks interaction with others interferes with one's own personal growth.
• Made of Iron: His Vanillite took two direct Flame Charges and an Ember from Ash's Tepig and still managed to get a tie with him.
• Making a Splash: Frillish
• Mood-Swinger: According to Alder and from what the audience sees, there are some hints that his personality does go 180 as shown in BW052 when he's quiet one moment and then rather hyperactive the next only to swing right back to his serious self near the end, only this time with actual anger rather than sulleness.
  • In later episodes he does smirk when he beats Burgundy and actually makes it past the first round but then at the end of the episode, he's glaring daggers.
• Non-Elemental: Tranquill
• Out of Focus:
  • Most of his team barely received any screentime or characterization despite his semi-frequent appearances. In fact, to date only Serperior, Tranquill, and Conkeldurr have appeared in more than one episode.
  • Oddly enough, Trip himself gets the least amount of focus out of all the rivals introduced despite being Ash's main rival. This is usually contributed by him leaving a tournament whenever he loses and thus feeling more like a background character.
• Playing with Fire: Lampent
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Trip often insulted Ash for being from Kanto, which he refers to as "the boonies" and would occasionally suggest that Ash should return home. Apparently, the reason for this is that the stereotypes people from Kanto as hillbillies from a hick town, with Ash's spastic, reckless nature not helping to dispel these notions. Especially notable for being one of the very few examples of human-on-human racism in Pokémon.
• The Power of the Sun: Serperior's Solarbeam.
• Punny Name: Shooti coming from "photo shoot", and Trip possibly coming from "tripod".
• The Quiet One: Even when sitting with everyone else in the Club Battle, he prefers talking to himself than with others.
  • In the Clubsplosion (the Club Battle's sequel), he doesn't even sit with the others, he just stands in a shady corner and comments on Ash's battle.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Lost respect for Alder after seeing him act lazy and foolish. Once the two battle and Alder wins, rather easily, Trip regains respect for him. Even after Alder loses to Iris and is dethroned as the Unova champion, he still deeply respects him, and is shown watching Iris's Masters Tournament match alongside him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Ash's red of the "Black and White" series.
• Reused Character Design: He looks a lot like Paul, just with slightly altered facial features and differently-colored hair.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: His Vanillite. Ironically, Iris, who is scared of Ice Pokémon, thinks the exact opposite, which seems to disappoint it.
• Shoo Out the New Guy: Most likely due to his unpopularity with fans, Trip is written off in a noticeably less climactic way than any of Ash's other main rivals. Rather than in a full 6-on-6 battle during a later round of the league, Trip is defeated in a 1v1 during the very first round, with Pikachu managing to defeat him with just a single hit (though Pikachu has to work a lot to get that one hit in). To top it off, he isn't really the focus of even his very last episode, as he leaves about halfway through with little fanfare and is never mentioned again. Additionally, Iris becoming Unova Champion in Journeys prevents him from making a proper return, as most of his Character Development was explicitly tied to the previous Champion, Alder. Compared to all of Ash's other main rivals (who all receive significant focus in at least one episode), his only appearance in Journeys involves a cameo of him watching the Masters Tournament along with Bianca, Stephan, Georgia, and Alder.
• Signature Mon: Serperior is his go-to Pokémon for battle. It's especially glaring in the later half of the series — after the Clubsplosion, he becomes the only Pokemon he uses at all, the rest of his team vanishing without a trace.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Incredibly full of himself for a rookie trainer. He considers himself far above the rest of the cast despite his mediocre battle record, dismissing many opponents as a waste of his talents only to lose rather easily. It hits its peak during the Junior Cup, the one tournament he actually won; he fully believed he could defeat Alder, then take down Cynthia for afters.
• Smug Snake: His Serperior is a literal example, with Trip himself following suit. His extreme arrogance serves as his downfall every time he enters a tournament; in all but one of them, he assumes his opponents will be easy pickings, only to be easily caught off guard and eliminated in the first round.
• Soul Power: His Frillish, Lampent, which are both part Ghost-type.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: It only takes mentioning Alder or for Alder to be in the area for him to start talking a lot with a high pitch voice. (In the English version, his voice while not as high started to sound like Barry given that they share the same voice actor). Conversely, his cynicism is taken to its max when directed toward Ash; following the incident in BW052, he appears to have become more withdrawn than before.
  • Taken up a notch (from its usual display) in BW039, where Ash is trying to get his attention. Trip obviously sees Ash but decides to turn the other way, much to Ash's annoyance.
• The Strategist: Trip makes good use of basic techniques and common sense, devising a One-Hit Kill strategy with his Serperior that lets him sweep through the Junior Cup. However, this is also his Achilles' Heel — he thinks things through so logically and by-the-book that unexpected results and outside-the-box strategies catch him by surprise, which tends to lead to his defeat. This is how Ash and Pikachu defeat him — by powering up Pikachu's Iron Tail with Electro Ball, they not only match but surpass Serperior's Dragon Tail and defeat it.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Of Cheren, being an aloof rival that aims to dethrone Alder and become the strongest Trainer, but is questioned by the latter on the true meaning of strength and what to do after achieving it. Trip is much more egotistical and haughty than Cheren, however. Later on, the character makes his own debut in the anime, albeit based on his Black 2 and White 2 appearance.
  • His early appearances also made him appear to be one of Paul, being a stoic, arrogant Jerkass who criticizes Ash's skills and even has a very similar appearances and original Japanese names. However, their Hidden Depths and backstories are quite a bit different, as well as having very different reasons to dislike Ash (Trip's relationship with Ash is less tense and pettier, making it somewhat closer to Gary in that regard). Not to mention he has about a fraction of Paul's skills.
• Took a Level in Badass: Played straight and subverted. After losing both the Club Battle and Clubsplosion in the very first round, Trip absolutely steamrolls through the Junior Cup, his Serperior dodging every single attack while one-shotting all of its opponents in return. His next battle with Alder quickly flattens his record, though it's partially justified given that Alder is the Champion of the region. By the Unova League, however, he's brought right back to square one, knocked out by Ash in one shot during the first round once again.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: What happened to the happy little boy in the flashback that made him the aloof rival now?
• The Worf Effect:
  • He subjects Ash, a far more experienced and powerful trainer, to this every time they fought, from their first meeting onward. Until the preliminary round of the Unova League, Ash could never beat him (though this could be chalked up to him forgetting much of the skills he had in the previous seasons this time around). Best exemplified in their first meeting, where his freshly-obtained Snivy managed to get the upper hand on Pikachu with a Tackle, due to the fact that an unexpected meeting with Zekrom left the poor electric mouse unable to use Thunderbolt or Volt Tackle.
  • On the flipside, poor Conkeldurr — every time it appears, in each stage of its evolutionary line, its purpose is to look tough and imposing so that its opponents come off impressive for defeating it. Not only did it lose to Ash's Oshawott in their third battle, but was responsible for him losing both the Club Battle and Clubsplosion in the first round.
  • Another example occurs after Trip wins the Junior Cup. In spite of him winning the tournament without having been touched even once, Alder effortlessly defeats him to prove he has indeed earned the title of Champion.
  • And when Trip finally loses to Ash, it's in the preliminaries of the Unova League. Serperior relentlessly pummels Pikachu for minutes on end, yet gets taken out in one shot just to show off Ash and Pikachu's determination.
  • To sum it up, despite being the main rival of the Black and White series, he loses the first round in three of the four tournaments to Cilan, Bianca (who Took a Level in Badass) and Ash respectively. He only wins in the third one because of his strategy, which largely involves one hit KOing his competition.

Bianca (Bel)

Voiced in Japanese by: Shizuka Itō

Voiced in English by: Bella Hudson

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Lupita Leal

Voiced in Italian by: Benedetta Ponticelli

One of Ash's rivals in Unova.

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• Aside Glance: She waves to the audience upon introducing herself.
• Berserk Button: As shown in her battle against Stefan, she does not like her opponents dodging because she says it's cowardly.
• Break the Cutie:
  • A minor example in BW049. She looks ready to cry when it seems like she'll have to stop her journey, but she gets better by the end of the episode.
  • Her loss in the Unova League does cause her to cry, but she gets over it — to the point of buying Cameron, the very same trainer who defeated her, an ice cream cone.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Bianca is a Genki Girl and a Motor Mouth, but she is a well skilled trainer.
• Calling Your Attacks: Regardless of whether the Pokémon belongs to her, or even knows the attack!
• Catchphrase: "Outta the way, outta the way, OUTTA THE WAY!"
• Character Development: Starting with BW049, she's becoming a much more likeable character (her personality hasn't changed that much, but her attitude about things such as her journey and her Pokémon sure have). She also improves as a Pokémon trainer.
• Color Failure: Minccino in BW025 after his Attract failed to hit Emolga.
• Crash-Into Hello: A running gag with her, with Ash being knocked into water every time.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She might not look like it and she may have lost a lot of her matches on-screen, but she has had a lot of success off-screen multiple times.
  • Also worth noting is that she won her first two badges using only her starter Pokémon, since she only had Pignite prior to BW013. To add, she only spammed Flame Charge the entire time.
  • Finally, her breakthrough comes in the form of the Clubsplosion, where she defeats both Trip and Georgia with her newly-evolved Emboar. Both opponents were fully evolved, especially the Conkeldurr.
  • And by the time BW103 rolled around, she had enough badges to participate in the Unova League (at least eight).
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Enough to end up crashing into Ash everytime she shows up and have a Catchphrase centered around it ("Out of the way!")
• David Versus Goliath: Her Emboar vs. Cameron's Riolu. Riolu turned out to be too fast for Emboar to keep up.
• Demoted to Extra: Her role was already reduced from the games, but things got even worse during Season 2. See Out of Focus below.
• Dumb Blonde: In BW013, she orders Ash's Pikachu to use Zap Cannon on Minccino. Ash informs her with an annoyed face that Pikachu cannot use that move, much to her dismay and she STILL informs Pikachu to give it a shot. Pikachu then gets an annoyed facial reaction. This would have been averted if this was Generation II (Johto) only, since Pikachu could learn the move. This is no longer the case Generations after.
• Energy Weapon: Her Escavalier can use Hyper Beam, which manifests as a powerful beam of normal-type energy.
• Expy: Of Barry, even moreso than she was in the games.
• Flanderization: Her hyperactivity and ditziness are much more extreme than they were in the original video game.
• Guest-Star Party Member: She's travelled with Ash and Co. a couple of times (BW024-BW025, and BW062-BW063).^note An important note on the above, for casual viewers. "A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition!" was originally meant to air as BW026, before the 2011 disasters led to it airing - officially - as BW037. Ostensibly a Filler episode, it was meant to end with Bianca temporarily joining the group for a couple more episodes - specifically, the official BW023 and BW024 (she officially joined off-screen). But if one discounts the edits made to the episode, then it: a) is technically BW023, not BW037; b) features Castelia City rather than a random town; and c) pushes up the official numbering by one numeral for every episode, until Luke's introduction (it finally aired directly before BW038). It's not a necessity to consider things this deeply, but adds a nice extra dimension of depth to what appears to be merely a fun Filler episode to most who watch it
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Coupled with the innocence, naivity and immaturity that this trope entails, and she's definitely pretty as well.
• Hartman Hips: A rare anime and non-mature example, but Bianca◊ does have it going on, although her in pajamas may suggest that her skirt may just be very thick.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: How Minccino was caught. When Bianca pulled out a dirty Poké Ball, Minccino (still wild at the time) was so desperate to clean it that he scuttled right up onto her shoulder and started dusting it with his tail...which caused the ball to open and suck him in!
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Especially in her earlier episodes, especially especially in the Club Battle arc. She dials it back in her later appearances after her character development, though.
• Innocently Insensitive: Bianca can be unknowingly inconsiderate.
• Jerkass Ball: During the Club Battle arc, she was asked by Luke to film his battle, but instead focused entirely on his Zorua (who wasn't even in the battle). When Luke called her out on it, she haughtily acted like she hadn't done anything wrong.
• Jobber: The primary reason for poor Bianca's inclusion in the Unova League appears to be to show off how talented Cameron is, in spite of Cameron's... lack of smarts.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Downplayed: in the Japanese ending theme Let's Join Hands, she becomes rather upset when Professor Juniper gives her the news that Ash has left Unova and that he didn't tell her beforehand.
• Nice Girl: She is a upbeat and kind girl in general, in spite of her clumsiness.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She can't stop touching the other female competitors, but this is due to her thinking that they're all Zorua.
  • And then in the Clubsplosion arc, she can't stop obsessing over (and touching) the various Fighting Pokémon's muscles.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the dub. Bianca from Pokémon Heroes has the same name as her.
• Out of Focus: She appeared fairly prominently in Season 14, but after the midway point of Season 15 (the Clubsplosion), she didn't reappear until 30 episodes later in BW103, in early Season 16. Then she disappeared again. Then she reappeared in one of the ending themes...then got cut out of most of it in favor of live-action footage of the singers. Her fans were not pleased.
• Overly Long Gag: Searching for things (Ash's badge case, a Pokéball) in her bag. It took so long that Ash and Cilan's clothes have already dried up and they were changing into them by the time she found what she's looking for. Even in a meta sense, it lasted 22 seconds.
• Plucky Girl: In her own words when pursuing Emolga, "I'll NEVER give up!"
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Minccino and Shelmet. She doesn't seem to have any others though (much to her dismay).
• Running Gag: Is usually a part of or facilitator of a different one per arc of appearances, but the one constant recurring gag is knocking Ash into a body of water (plus Cilan the first time it happened). Perhaps you could call it a gag about running?
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Energetic Girl to Luke's Savvy Guy.
• The Smurfette Principle: Ash's very first female rival (sort of...she's more frequently a companion than a rival.)
• Ship Tease: The Clubsplosion tournament features her fangirling over Sawk and clinging to Stephan.
  • The Unova League has her giving ice cream to Virgil and his Eevee, watching fireworks with him, cheering him on during his part of the finals and after he wins, tries to give him a "special present" to him and his team for winning the tournament.
• Stocking Filler: She wears orange tights under her dress.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: When she's present, she's the Girly Girl to Iris' Tomboy.
• Took a Level in Badass: Her Pignite has evolved into Emboar by the time of the Clubsplosion, and they defeat Trip and Georgia in the respective first and second rounds.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After Ash risked his journey in a battle with her father in BW049, she's become less clingy and selfish in all subsequent appearances - notably, she's taken to apologizing profusely whenever she knocks him into a body of water these days, and is less obsessive over obtaining "cute" Pokémon than she used to be.
• Volumetric Mouth: She often gets one when she's excited.
• The Worf Effect: For a while, she had never won a battle on-screen, even though both her Pignite and Minccino have either been shown or implied to be decent battlers.
  • Though not quite victory, in BW063 she and Professor Juniper face Ash and Cilan in a tag battle — using their newly traded and evolved Escavalier and Accelgor - and manage to co-ordinate well enough to defeat Boldore before Crustle seals a victory with Rock Wrecker.
  • She finally breaks through in BW072 where she beats Trip and Georgia with her Emboar.
  • Played straight as an arrow when she faces Cameron in the Unova League, especially considering her improvement and the circumstances that lead to her ultimate defeat (Emboar can't hit Riolu because he's too small and fast.).
• Yank the Dog's Chain: She shows major signs of improvement during the Clubsplosion, and even makes it into the Vertress Conference. Right as it looks like she's going to give a repeat performance...she loses (barely) to new rival Cameron in round 2. In the Top 64. The saddest thing is that the writers didn't at least let her get further before pulling the rug out from under her feet.

Burgundy (Cabernet)

Voiced in Japanese by: Ikumi Hayama

Voiced in English by: Suzy Myers

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Alondra Hidalgo

A Pokémon connoisseuse and self-proclaimed rival to Cilan.

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• Always Someone Better: In an interesting role reversal (for this series), she's the one on the receiving end, while the main character she's The Rival to is the "Better" in question.
• Arch-Enemy: Sees Cilan as this after he defeated her in a Gym Battle.
• Biting the Handkerchief: Does this while insulting Cilan's Pokémon food for Snivy in front of him. Needless to say Snivy isn't pleased with her comments (see Butt-Monkey below).
• Butt-Monkey: Every appearance of hers puts her through constant pain and misfortune, though she mostly deserves it on account of her incompetence.
  • Her Establishing Character Moment has Burgundy deliver her trademark Know-Nothing Know-It-All evaluations to Ash's Pokémon, which results in each of them attacking her as her comments devolve into insults. She continues to demean all of Ash's Pokémon even after they attack her.
  • During the Club Battle, Ash's Snivy literally Vine Whips her in the butt for her bratty behavior all throughout the tournament.
  • Furthermore, she fails to make any legitimate progress as a battler or a Connoisseuse for the entire series. She doen't win even a single battle onscreen despite her relatively high number of appearances, and never rose out of the C-class Connoisseur ranking before being written off.
• Can't Take Criticism: Anytime someone questions her evaluation skills or abilities as a Trainer (which they're pretty much always correct in doing), she furiously refuses to listen.
• Catchphrase: "Alors! It is Evaluation Time, s'il vous plaît!"
  • One could also make the notion she has a second catch phrase in "I HOPE YOU ALL LOSE!!!"
• Character Development: Her's is, like her character, all over the place. Throughout the Club Battle, culminating in actually coming to respectful terms with Cilan. When she returns in the Clubsplosion arc, she's shown to still find his attitude annoying — as a bonafide Tsundere, she's quick to return to antagonism when he asks her if she's advanced her Connosseuse ranking (she's still only C-Rank). Listening to her dialogue indicates that the respect has stuck somewhat, but that she: A) still has a ways to go before being fully civil with the guy; and B) seems unwilling to admit yet that she looks up to him. In the Junior Cup, however, she has a moment where she's almost blatantly crushing on him while wishing for him to beat Trip (though she reverts back to her normal behavior when Trip beats him.)
• Chuunibyou: She believes that her evaluation skills are on the level of an A-rank connoisseur. Her C-class rank indicates otherwise.
• Comically Lop Sided Rivalry: Despite her determination and noticeable Character Development over the series, Cilan easily outclasses her.
• Curtains Match the Window: Purple eyes, purple hair.
• Disproportionate Retribution: She wants to humiliate Cilan in battle because she lost her first gym challenge to him.
• Drama Queen: She cranks up the ham — and the volume — at every possible opportunity.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Stoutland's Fire, Ice and Thunder Fang attacks.
• French Jerk: Downplayed since she's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • She's also not really French - in the dub, at least, where she gives the impression of trying to put on a French accent to make herself look more impressive and glamourous (explaining away her atrocious accent).
• Gratuitous French: Has more of this in the English dub (presumably because the Japanese voice actress is less skilled at speaking French).
• Hair-Trigger Temper: The littlest things can set her off... sometimes Cilan's existence to her can set her off.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Quite literally during the last round of the Club Battle.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She tends to evaluate others' Pokémon based solely on first impressions, rather than looking any deeper.
• Humble Pie: Cilan gives her a rather cruel one when he defeats her Pokémon without taking any damage. To add to the insult, he was toying with her Sawsbuck with his Pansage when all he had to do was one-hit KO it with a Solar Beam. Though, in his defense, he really was trying to teach her a meaningful lesson.
• Hypocrite:
  • She calls Cilan "arrogant", despite her own overblown ego.
  • Her vendetta against Cilan is based on Cilan supposedly criticizing her harshly. Yet she often criticizes other trainers and their Pokémon harshly.
  • During the Clubsplosion, she insulted Cilan for losing in the second round, in spite of the fact that she lost in the first round. In fact, Burgundy has not had one single win in the series (except an off-screen win with Chili).
  • During the Junior Cup, she calls Georgia a "pipsqueak", even though Georgia is actually slightly taller than her.
• Imagine Spot: ...Which has Cilan evilly taunting her and her Oshawott, then doing an Evil Laugh while Pansage cackles in the background.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Or more like "sympathetic rival." As infuriating as Burgundy can be, sometimes you feel so bad for her for her constant losing streak. Other than the off-screen battle she won against one of Cilan's brothers, she doesn't even get thrown a single bone.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: It's implied that Burgundy makes critical and harsh assessments of others' battling performances due to her insecurity about her losing streak and her low connoisseur class.
• It's All About Me: When she learned Cilan had left the Striaton Gym, she quickly convinced herself that he knew she was coming for revenge and ran away to avoid it.
• I Warned You: Tells Cilan during the Club Battle that he wouldn't make it past the second round. Needless to say, she's very pleased when this comes true.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She may be crazy, snobby and judgemental, but she really loves her Pokémon, even to the point of a very literal Pet the Dog during the Club Battle tournament.
  • Also, she's getting to be on better terms with Cilan now too, only getting angry at him as a reaction to something he unwittingly says or does, rather than trying to actively antagonize him.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Her "evaluations" aren't particularly well thought out (usually revolving around smell, or even taste), yet she acts like they're always one hundred percent accurate.
• Large Ham: Like Cilan, she has her moments of this.
• No Indoor Voice: True to her Drama Queen nature.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In her battle with Ash, she has Stoutland use Thunder Fang on the ground-type Palpitoad. This turns out to be a ruse to make Ash drop his guard, and she immediately swaps for Ice Fang. She still loses anyway.
• Plucky Girl: Gotta give her one thing; skilled or not, she never gives up.
• Self-Serving Memory: She imagines Cilan cruelly taunting her and saying she would never amount to anything as a Trainer after losing to him in a Gym Battle.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • She believes she's always right when it came to criticizing Ash's Pokémon. Cue them all attacking her and she declaring that they all suck.
  • She also believes herself to be a superior connoisseur to Cilan, in spite of the fact that she is just a C-class (who is only qualified to be an assistant to higher-class connoisseurs), and Cilan is an A-class, which is the second-highest rank behind S-class.
• Straw Loser: While she was made to be a rival to Cilan, she also comes off as very pathetic compared to not only Cilan, but to Georgia and Ash and co.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Georgia (she's the girly-girl, albeit a rather crazy one).
• Tsundere: Type A to a ridiculous extreme at first, but mellows out into a Type B, albeit a fiery Type B (Example: In the Clubsplosion, she yells at Cilan to WIN his match against a one-shot character...but when he does win and celebrates it, she gets annoyed by his attitude and says she was wrong, he should have lost!)
• Unknown Rival: Played with in regards to Cilan. He does remember her and has no ill will toward her, but never pays much mind to her threats or vitriolic attitude toward him. In BW042, however, he accepts her as his rival, which shocks her so much that she begins to actually appreciate him a little more.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to her at least before Cilan defeated her, complete with an innocent white dress in her Imagine Spot.
• Vague Age: Burgundy looks like she could be anywhere in her early teens to early '20s.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Georgia at the Clubsplosion and Junior Cup. The two snipe at each other often, yet are constantly hanging out together regardless.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Burgundy doesn't show up again after the Junior Cup (not counting her appearance in the last Japanese ending), leaving her rivalry with Cilan without any real closure. It's also worth pointing out that she was established in her debut to be on a Gym quest as well, but is inexplicably absent from the Unova League.

Stephan (Kenyan)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tomohiro Waki

Voiced in English by: Darren Dunstan

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Luis Daniel Ramírez

Another one of Ash's rivals in Unova.

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• Accidental Misnaming: In a manner similar to Butch.
  • In Japanese, it's Kenyan, not Keniyan or Kaniyan.
  • In English, it's Stephan, not Stephan or Steven.
  • Finally starts averting it with the beginning of the Unova League, when everybody starts pronouncing his name right.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: One of the openings imply that Stephan is a martial artist. Fitting given that he's always seen with Sawk now. His attire lends credence to this as well.
• Berserk Button: Whenever someone mispronounces his Japanese name as "Keniyan", which is often to his dismay. Semi-subverted in that he's (usually) more exasperated with it than "berserk" about it.
• Big Eater: Rivals Ash in this regard. They even have an eating contest the night before their League match.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: His Sawk. Arguably Stephan himself, as he's a big guy with an eagerness for battle who is nonetheless quite kindhearted.
• Canon Immigrant: Though he's been given the Black Belt's sprite and class, he and his team are available in a download for the World Tournament (along with the other three anime-origin rivals).
• Catchphrase: Some variation of "Why won't anyone get my name right?!"
• Casting a Shadow: In his Unova League with Ash, he uses the Dark-type Pokemon Liepard. Its attacks include the Ghost-type Shadow Ball and Shadow Claw.
• Character Development: Through the Clubsplosion and Unova League (lampshaded by Iris in the latter, who says he's really matured.)
• Charles Atlas Superpower: How does he get around the fact that his Sawk (part of an all-male species) would be targeted by moves like Attract? Train him really hard to develop defensive techniques, of course! There's a Hard-Work Montage/Training Montage superimposed over his explanation, too!
• Cool Horse: His first shown Pokémon was Blitzle that would later evolve into Zebstrika.
• Crazy-Prepared: Stephan predicted that Ash would use Palpitoad against Zebstrika, thus he made sure to teach it some Normal-Type moves, including Facade in the case if it suffers from a status condition.
• Fauxshadowing: His Japanese name (Kenyan) and early use of Blitzle (later Zebstrika) would have you believe it's his main Mon. It later turns out that his key battler and closest partner is really Sawk.
  • With the reveal of his Liepard, his name becomes a Meaningful Name (All of his Pokémon are African themed).
• Fiery Redhead: A redheaded guy with a Hot-Blooded personality.
• Foregone Conclusion. Sort of. Stephan won the Wishing Bell Festival and wishes to win the Clubsplosion tournament. He does win ithe tournament, but not without working really hard to fulfill his wish.
• Gentle Giant: He's a big guy, but outside of battle, he's very laid-back.
• Guest-Star Party Member: From BW069-BW073, travelling with the group just prior to the Clubsplosion.
• Hot-Blooded: He has a fiery, outgoing personality, in keeping with being a Big Eater and implied martial artist. He also gets really worked up in Pokemon matches, often shouting commands to his Pokemon.
• Lightning Bruiser: His Sawk is not only fast and a fierce physical attacker, but it can also take a lot of punishment before it faints.
• Panthera Awesome: When he and Ash face off in the Unova League, his first Pokemon is a Liepard. Ash battles it with Krookodile. Krookodile wins, but Liepard puts up a great fight before going down. When Ash recalls Krookodile for some rest and sends him back out to fight an exhausted Sawk, Krookodile is still visibly battered and nearly loses.
• Playing with Fire: Zebstrika's Flame Charge allows it to tackle its opponent while shrouded in flames.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Stephan predicted that Ash would use Palpitoad against his Zebstrika, who would be immune against Zebstrika's Electric-Type moves and would resist its Flame Charge. Thus, he replaces Zebstrika's entire moveset with Normal-Type attacks.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: A Running Gag is that nobody can pronounce his name right. He has to clarify that it is pronounced "Stef-AHN", in response to people pronouncing it "Steven" or "STEPH-an."
• The Rival: An unusual subversion in that he had a Rival of his own in Montgomery, who entered his Throh in the Clubsplosion Tournament. Stephan and Sawk quickly developed a mutual loathing with them.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: When he's present, he's the Manly Man to Cilan's Sensitive Guy.
• Shock and Awe: His first Pokemon shown onscreen is his Blitzle, an Electric-Type Pokémon that can draw lightning from the sky and use it in Electric attacks like Shock Wave and Thunderbolt. It later evolves into a Zebstrika off-screen.
• Signature Mon: Sawk has been Stephan's main Pokémon ever since his debut in the Club Battle. Notably, he's the only rival Pokémon in BW to get its own individual spotlight arc, where he aimed to defeat Montgomery's Throh during the Clubsplosion.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: His Sawk is this — during the Clubsplosion, after defeating Throh he bows respectfully to his opponent before Throh faints...then he does a one-eighty, and he and his trainer begin hugging the life out of each other in glee.
• Took a Level in Badass: His Sawk. Though it never seemed weak, the only time we saw it in battle before the Clubsplosion was when it lost to Iris' Emolga. Come the Clubsplosion, it takes down a Seismitoad, Cilan's Pansage, Bianca's Emboar and Montgomery's Throh, a Pokémon that was built up throughout the tournament as an enormously powerful opponent. This is lampshaded with a montage showing his and Stephan's intense training regime, as well as regular practice sessions in the Pokémon Center. This is proven even more in the Vertress Conference; despite being immensely weakend by Ash's Leavanny, Sawk still manages to win.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He had to dress up as Nurse Joy in a contest.
• Worthy Opponent: Considered this by Montgomery after Stephan defeated him in the Clubsplosion finals. He and Ash also view each other as this.

Georgia (Langley)

Voiced in Japanese by: Misato Fukuen

Voiced in English by: Brittney Lee Hamilton

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Lourdes Arrouti

Voiced in Italian by: Gea Riva

Self-proclaimed Dragon Buster and Iris' rival.

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• An Ice Person: Beartic and Vanilluxe, ideal for an anti-Dragon specialist.
• Antagonist in Mourning: Not a death example, but in the Japanese Decolore Adventures ending, Georgia is shown looking up a the sky wistfully after learning that Iris has left Unova to visit Kanto. She clearly misses her rival.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Every time she loses. Georgia claims this if she's beaten with a non-Dragon Pokémon or a Dragon Pokémon that refuses to listen to the trainer; even Iris agrees that Georgia is right about the second point.
• Big Eater: She can wolf down a breakfast for three people and still have some appetite left. Pity it happened to be Ash and co's breakfast.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: She uses Iris' catchphrase against her at times.
• Catchphrase: Georgia likes to say "better not lose" to her rival Iris.
• Character Development: She Took a Level in Kindness during the Clubsplosion, and carried it further in the Ferroseed research facility episode.
• Crippling Overspecialization: She devotes her life to to craft a battle style designed specifically to take down Dragon type Pokémon. Unfortunately, she ends up losing quite a fair bit in battles that aren't against Dragon Pokémon or share similar weaknesses to them (the only exception is a Joltik, which she still struggled). Unlike most cases of this trope, she still manages to put up a very good fight.
• Curbstomp Battle: Received one from Iris' new Dragonite, who took everything Beartic hurled at before utterly demolishing the bear. She was more disappointed, however, by the fact that she hadn't lost to Iris since Dragonite was disobeying her at the time.
• David Versus Goliath: Her Beartic versus Sylvester's four inches high Joltik. "Goliath" wins, crushing "David" under his weight when he collapsed from Thunderbolt.
• Disproportionate Retribution: She once lost to a Dragon trainer and has now made it a goal to go around defeating all Dragon trainers she comes across. One would think that this is just an overreaction, but her reaction to watching Axew using Outrage might indicate the loss was more serious than initially thought.
• The Dragonslayer: Non-lethal variant, she specializes in using Pokèmon that either resist or do super-effective damage against Dragon-types, hence her using the part Steel-type Bisharp and Ice-type Vanilluxe and Beartic.
• Establishing Character Moment: When Georgia is introduced, viewers get to know her Freudian Excuse and how much of a jerk she is to Iris.
• Evil Counterpart: Georgia is this to Iris. They are Mirror Characters to each other. While Iris teases Ash by calling him a kid and can be condescending, she still is a decent person who has good intentions and practices good sportsmanship regarding being an aspiring dragon trainer. Georgia, on the other hand, is unnecessarily rude to almost everyone she encounters, gloats when she wins battles, blames others when she loses, and doesn’t have that many good redeeming qualities.
• Fiery Redhead: She's a arrogant hothead with dark pink hair.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Not in the romantic way, obviously. Georgia is one of the shortest trainers, yet her Beartic is an eight feet tall giant.
• Hypocrite: During the Club Tournament, she claims Ash got lucky in defeating her, despite the fact that her first round win was entirely due to luck (as her weakened Beartic accidentally crushed her opponent's Joltik).
• Hypocritical Humor: Her feud with Iris is based around this on both sides. They both think of themselves as far more mature than the other, something they disprove in almost every conversation they have.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When she lost to Iris in the Junior World Cup, she argued that she lost to Dragonite, not Iris. Given that Dragonite was disobeying Iris' orders, she's completely right. Iris acknowledges this at the end of the tournament and promises Georgia that she'll have Dragonite under control by the next time they meet, so that Georgia can have the battle she wants.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Started off as a straight-out Jerkass, but started to get better during the Clubsplosion, and her heart of gold status is solidified in the Ferroseed Research Center episode.
• Kick the Dog: One might be able to let her bitchiness slide, but eating three other peoples' breakfasts? And then proceeding to say to make some more?
  • The insult doubles for Cilan who has technically been running a gym that is a restaurant for most of his life, and is very proud of his skills.
• Large Ham: If someone goes around declaring themselves a "Dragon Buster", they're most likely a Ham.
• Man of Kryptonite: the team she's training is tailored to take down Dragon-types in general, hence christening herself with the "Dragon Buster" monicker. She's usually successful too (though there are exceptions).
• Meaningful Name: Her dub name "Georgia" is derived from St. George and the Dragon, a famous English tale of a crusader who...well, slayed a dragon. Her Japanese name refers to Asuka LANGLEY Soryu, another female red-haired Jerkass who is implied to have deep insecurities and an inferiority complex (along with Hidden Depths).
• Mighty Glacier: Beartic is slower than all his opponents so far, and so relies on big, heavy blows. It caused him some trouble when facing Joltik, the smallest Pokémon there is...and a fast one to boot.
• Miles Gloriosus: Following her accidental victory in the Club Tournament's first round, she gloats excessively about it to Iris, acting like it was some grand example of her skills.
• Mirror Character: From Iris. While Iris is much more of a decent person than Georgia is, they are both immature and resort to petty squabbles, as evidenced by their Club Battle tournament interactions. Georgia even points this out.
• Never My Fault: When Georgia loses, she will do anything to take the blame off of herself.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: When Burgundy vows revenge against Iris for a loss, Georgia tells her to butt out because Iris is her rival.
• Pet the Dog: Shows some actual respect toward Iris after Iris wins the Club Battle tournament, and flat out encourages her to become a Dragon Master. She also shows a notably softer, more reasonable side around Bianca.
  • She actually doesn't get angry when she loses to Bianca in the Clubsplosion, and thanks her Bisharp for its effort when recalling it.
  • And of course, the Ferroseed research episode, where she shows great care for her Vanilluxe, helps rescue Iris and team up with her to solve the current dilemma, and then compliment her for doing well using her Vanilluxe, saying she'd make a good Ice Master.
• Red Baron: Self proclaimed "Dragon Buster," and she backs it up. She defeats most Dragon-type Pokémon she faces with ridiculous ease.
• Shout-Out: In Japanese, her name is derived from Asuka Langley Soryu, who she shares a number of personality traits with.
• Signature Mon: Beartic is the Pokémon she uses in her first appearance and in all of her battles against Iris specifically.
• Sore Loser:
  • Said a tie didn't count since it wasn't a dragon she tied against, and blamed her loss against Ash on the battlefield.
  • Says her loss to Bianca in the Clubsplosion doesn't count either as it wasn't against a dragon, but this time she's saying it directly to her Bisharp as a comfort, so she doesn't come across as badly.
  • Says that her loss to Iris in the Junior Cup wasn't to Iris, but rather Dragonite...and in this case, Iris ended up agreeing with her.
• Tsundere: Like her buddy Burgundy, she started out Type A, but become more of a Type B once she started reserving her tsun side exclusively for her rival (in this case, Iris.)
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Burgundy (she's the tomboy, albeit a rather crazy one.)
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the Clubsplosion tournament. Took it even further in the Ferroseed Research episode.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: She does this towards Iris when she makes it past the first round in the tournament at Nimbasa Town. Iris just says that she believes that Georgia is more of a little kid that she thought.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Burgundy at the Clubsplosion and Junior Cup. The two snipe at each other often, yet are constantly hanging out together regardless.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Like Burgundy, Georgia doesn't appear again after the Junior Cup outside of the Japanese ending song "Let's Join Hands." This leaves her rivalry with Iris without much closure, as they never get to have that battle that Iris promised her.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • In the Club Battle, she says that she's actually pleased that Iris is getting stronger, since as a Dragon Buster, she'd rather defeat strong Pokémon than weak ones.
  • She was also disappointed when Iris used Excadrill in the last stage of the Club Battle, and outright pissed when it continues into the Clubsplosion tournament — since she wants Iris to be a real Dragon Master and a worthy foe for a Dragon Buster such as herself, she expects her to continue strengthening Axew and any other Dragon-types she might obtain.
  • Likewise, she's ecstatic when Iris gets a Dragonite, but only gets upset when Iris can't control it properly. And yet even after losing, she's still happy that Iris continues to use Dragonite in the tournament. The implication is that she would've been fine with losing to Dragonite if it was Iris calling the shots in the battle like a proper Dragon Master rival should do.

Shamus (Suwama)

Voiced in Japanese by: Jun Fukuyama

Voiced in English by: Billy Bob Thompson

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Abraham Vega

One of Ash's one-shot rivals and the antagonist of the day.

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• Combat Pragmatist: Orders his Heatmor to attack his Emboar to break the latter out of Snivy's Attract, showing he has no love for his Pokémon.
• Expy: Much like Tepig was one of Charmander, Shamus is one of Damian. Both are awful, Jerkass Hate Sinks who abandon a Fire-type starter for being too weak, leaving it to almost die in the wild and laughing about it afterward. After witnessing their old Pokémon's increase in strength, they try to manipulate it back onto their team, only to be violently and rightfully rejected.
• Hate Sink: The point of his character is to be despicable, much like Damian and Koji before him. At least when Paul abandoned his Pokémon (as horrible as that was), he never manipulated them into believing he once cared for them.
• Jerkass: He abandons his Pokemon and even brags about it.
• Jerk Justifications: He defends his releasing of Pokemon by claiming that forcing a weak Pokemon to battle is more cruel than just letting it go.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Shamus only wanted Pignite to rejoin him after it was proven to be strong after it evolved, and sarcastically apologized to it. Pignite sees through the bullshit and gives him a well deserved Flamethrower to his face for it.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Abandoned Tepig and openly admitted it during his tag team battle with Ash.
  • After he defeated another Trainer, he tried to force that Trainer to hand over his Pokémon to him. Thankfully, Ash was there to intervene.
• Kids Are Cruel: He appears no older than the main cast and cruel is probably the nicest thing you can call him.
• Lack of Empathy: Shows this by not caring when Tepig begs and pleads for him not to abandon it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He not only loses to Ash, but he gets a Flamethrower to the face by Pignite after pretending to apologize to it and offer it a spot on his team.
• Manipulative Bastard: He bragged about manipulating Tepig (and other Pokémon he released) into believing he once cared for it.
• Meaningful Name: His name brings the word "shame" to mind, and his behavior is indeed nothing but shameful.
• One-Shot Character: He only physically appears in Evolution by Fire!
• Playing with Fire: Shamus has a thing for powerful Fire-type Pokémon, calling himself and his team the "Fire Warriors." Even his clothes have a red and black color scheme.
• The Rival: He's a one-shot, character of the day rival for Ash.
• Sadist: Not only is he incredibly manipulative, but he outright enjoys being so, his tearful face quickly turning into an evil grin as Tepig cried out for him to return. He later laughs to Tepig's face about how easily he was able to manipulate it (and presumably many others) into thinking he cared.
• The Sociopath: He abandons his Tepig by tying it to a post and pretends to be sad to make sure it won't follow him and then rubs it in its face with sadistic glee and even states that he does this whenever he abandons a pokemon.
• Sore Loser: Played with. Shamus didn’t initially seem to have a problem with losing to Ash & just takes his loss as it is, but it's implied he was putting on another facade to get Pignite to leave Ash for him, angrily swearing revenge when Pignite burns his face in response.
• Stupid Evil: Shamus's motivations seem to be driven entirely by what will make him look even more horrible, even when they're completely contradictory or make no sense whatsoever. He claims to only be interested in the most powerful Pokémon, but still attempts to take Pokémon from those that lose to him, even though he shouldn't have any interest by his own logic. He also openly brags about how he only pretends to care about his former Pokémon, but still inexplicably tries to convince Pignite to come back to him afterward.
• Unseen No More: In Tepig's first episode, he was only seen in flashback and his face was not shown. He makes his first and only in-person appearance in Evolution by Fire!
• Viler New Villain: In many respects, he's even worse than Paul.
  • While Paul was also a huge jerk who only cared about his Pokémon's strength and would readily abandon them if they weren't up to his standards, he treated the ones that were up to his standards with respect. Shamus's actions, however, border on criminal, attempting to force Trainers who lose to him to give him their Pokémon.
  • Also, Paul was at least honest about his harsh nature and would be upfront when he released a Pokémon, while Shamus would be emotionally manipulative to his Pokémon and drop the facade once he had no reason to feign caring for them.
  • Furthermore, Paul mostly treated his cruelty with indifference, only acting the way he does out of the desire to become strong. Shamus, on the other hand, is outright sadistic, laughing to Tepig's face about how easily some fake tears can manipulate his Pokemon.
  • On a lesser note, Paul occasionally had comedic moments. Shamus had none of the sort.
  • Finally, Paul went through a great deal of Character Development across his many appearances, and ultimately buried the hatchet with Ash after being defeated. Shamus is far more in line with Damian: a One-Shot Character and Hate Sink who clearly did not learn his lesson, and most likely never will.
• You Have Failed Me: He abandoned Tepig after it lost a match to a Deerling, tying it to a post after it kept trying to follow him.

Cameron (Kotetsu)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kōki Uchiyama

Voiced in English by: Rory Max Kaplan

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: José Antonio Toledano

One of Ash's rivals from Unova, introduced in the Adventures in Unova season.

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• Canon Immigrant: Though he's been given the Youngster's sprite and class, he and his team are available in a download for the World Tournament (along with the other three anime-origin rivals).
• Character Tics: Pulling his headband so it snaps on his forehead seems to give him focus.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his dull-wittedness, he still manages to defeat Marlon without that much difficulty.
  • His team — or what we see of it, anyway — is pretty impressive. He's trained a Lucario, Ferrothorn, Samurott, Hydreigon, and Swanna (plus a Watchog, shown in silhouette on the board during his match with Virgil).
• Curbstomp Battle: Not excessively so, but the battlescreen shows that Virgil still defeated him 6-on-3 - meaning Virgil had half his team still active when he won. Not totally invincible after all.
• David Versus Goliath: His somewhat small Riolu vs. Bianca's bulky Emboar. Riolu wins by using its own speed and size to its advantage.
• The Ditz: Oh boy, is he ever! He didn’t realize that he needed eight badges to enter the Pokémon League when he only had seven, and took out a remote control instead of a Pokedex to scan Pikachu.
  • He also thought the league was going to be in Ecruteak City, which is in an entirely different region. Put bluntly, Ash looks smart when he's placed next to this kid! Even he finds himself frustrated at Cameron's dimness.
  • He also thought that the quarter-final match was 5-on-5 rather than 6-on-6 — Ash had to inform him that he'd accidentally handicapped himself, much to his chagrin.
  • Cameron also seems to struggle with remembering type matchups; he sent out the Grass/Steel-type Ferrothorn against the Fire/Fighting-type Pignite, as well as the Water/Flying-type Swanna against the Electric-type Pikachu, for no apparent reason. Both of them are quickly defeated as a result.
  • It’s telling that his victory over Ash was entirely due to luck- had Lucario not evolved at that moment, he would have undoubtedly lost.
• Foil:
  • He and Ash get along so well because they're so similar. Like Morrison from the Hoenn League, he rather resembles a less experienced and more juvenile Ash, albeit with a more evolved team line-up. On the flipside, he's even more of a ditz than Ash is!
  • If Ritchie represented all of Ash's positive traits if he took training more seriously, Cameron represents Ash's negative traits as a rookie battler: a pure Invincible Incompetent who relies on brute force and random luck rather than skill. The way Cameron bulldozes through the league mirrors the way Ash himself progressed through the Indigo League.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Joins the group briefly for a trip to Humilau City, where he can challenge Marlon. He leaves afterwards.
• Idiot Houdini: Cameron is very lacking for brains. He gets dates, times, and locations of important events wrong, almost tried to enter the Unova League in Johto and with only seven badges instead of eight, forgets to register even when he does get to the right location, and shows up to his six-on-six match with Ash carrying only five Pokemon! Somehow, though, he manages to avoid direct consequences for any of this; he just barely manages to qualify for the league after Ash begs Nurse Joy for it, and still beats Ash in their match because his Riolu evolves into Lucario in the middle of battle. And ironically, when he finally loses to Virgil in the next round, he actually is following the correct rules.
• Invincible Incompetent: Played straight until the end of the Unova League: no matter how many boneheaded mistakes Cameron made, he won every battle he had onscreen. It's finally subverted when Virgil defeats him decisively in the semifinals.
• Irony: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, the scoreboard for Cameron and Virgil's battle shows that the latter won with only five Pokémon as well; unlike with Cameron, however, it's assumed that Virgil actually won through skill.
• Meaningful Name: Shares his Japanese name with Nagasone Kotetsu, who was a swordmaker. It fits in that one of his Pokémon is Samurott, which uses said weapons.
  • Also, "Tetsu" means "iron" in Japanese — another reference to Samurott's swords, but also to Lucario and Ferrothorn's Steel-typing — while "ko" can mean either "small" or "child".
  • This is also referenced in his English name, Cameron.
• Mighty Glacier: Hydreigon's speed (while not pathetic) pales compared to its phenomenal Attack and Defense.
• Noodle Implements: One has to ponder as to why he had a TV Remote in his bag on a Pokémon Journey.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. The Pokémon Ranger games also had a Cameron.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Riolu, until it evolves into Lucario and becomes a full-on Lightning Bruiser.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: After Dawn leaves in his introductory episode (BW093), he and Riolu take her and Piplup's places (respectively) in the Japanese opening credits starting with BW094.
• Samus Is a Girl: His Samurott succumbs to Bianca's Emboar using Attract, and since Emboar is a guy...yeah, with those whiskers and such, it's unlikely anybody saw that coming.
• Signature Mon: Riolu/Lucario is his main Pokémon, who stays out of its Poké Ball and most closely resembles his personality (in contrast to most Lucario, Cameron's is rather silly and fun-loving). It's also the only one of his Pokémon to have evolved onscreen.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: With Riolu, who serves as the Straight Man to Cameron's Wise Guy.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's even dimmer than Indigo League Ash, both in and outside of battle, and regularly handicaps himself through his mistakes. His team, however, is very powerful and well-balanced, which is seemingly what allows him to get away with his incompetence. His Hydreigon took down two of Ash's Pokemon with relative ease, while Lucario took out three.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Sorta. His Riolu is clearly annoyed at his sheer ditziness, but still considers him his best friend. It's made much more apparent given that, like in the games, Riolu evolves into Lucario because of said bond.

Virgil

Voiced in Japanese by: Yūki Kaji

Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Gerardo Velásquez

Yet another Unova rival for Ash. The final one introduced, Virgil debuts shortly before the start of the Vertress Conference. He is a Rescue Worker, along with his older brother Davy. His team consists of a female Eevee and one of each of the "Eeveelutions", whom he regularly rotates similar to Ash and his Unova team. He ultimately ends up the victor of the Vertress Conference.

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• The Ace: By far and large the best non-E4/Champion trainer of Unova in Best Wishes, he defeats Cameron who in turn had defeated Ash previously and ends the series undefeated and winning the Unova League Conference.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns for the special episode before the 16th movie.
• Canon Immigrant: Though he's been given the Pokémon Ranger's sprite and class, he and his team are available in a download for the World Tournament (along with the other three anime-origin rivals).
• Curtains Match the Window: Gold hair and gold eyes.
• Generation Xerox: He and his older brother, Davy, are both involved in the Rescue Team business, just like their father Jeff.
• Living Prop: Leafeon — comparatively, the rest of his team has either participated in said episode's conflict and/or were seen battling in the Vertress Conference. It does, however, appear as a silhouette on the display screen showing the teams he used in the 6-on-6 battles, so at least we know he used it. It also appears by his side in the Mewtwo special, and even then, it only uses one attack.
• Merchandise-Driven: His Eevee team exists to advertise a whole bunch of Eevee merch in Japan.
• Red Herring: Played with in that many expected him to be the one to face Ash and beat him, then go on to win the whole league. He never battled Ash, but he did battle and defeat Cameron (who did beat Ash), and Virgil did go on to win the entire league.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: He and his father share the same name with a famous family of rescue workers.
• Signature Mon: His entire team is made up of Eevee and its evolutions.
• The Smurfette Principle: Eevee's his only female Mon on a team of eight. This is a Justified Trope - only 1/8th of all Eevee are female in the games, so proportionately this is accurate. More importantly, she's the most powerful member of his team to begin with.
• The Unfought: Due to Ash getting knocked out of the tournament by Cameron, Virgil is the only rival Ash never faces, and one of two (the other being Bianca) he doesn't battle in the Unova League.

Gym Leaders

As a Whole

• Elemental Powers: They specialize in a specific Pokémon Type just like most Gym Leaders in the Pokémon World.
• Large Ham: They sure love to emphasize their abilities and strengths.
• Smug Super: They sound and act very show off and arrogant, even when compared to the usual portrait of Gym Leaders, with the exceptions of Marlon and Cheren.

Striaton Gym

Chili

Cress

Voiced in Japanese by: Masakazu Morita (Pod), Makoto Ishii (Corn)

Voiced in English by: Lucien Dodge (Chili), Tom Wayland (Cress)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Carlos Díaz (Chili), Manuel Díaz (Cress)

Voiced in Italian by: Renato Novara (Chili), Federico Viola (Cress)

Cilan, Chili and Cress are a trio of Striaton City Gym Leaders, specializing in Grass, Fire and Water-types respectively. In this gym, the trainer has the freedom to choose one of the trio, and as long as they win, they will earn the Trio Badge.

As Cilan was impressed with Ash's improvisation during their gym battle, he accompanied him and left the gym to his other brother. For tropes specific to Cilan, see the Supporting Cast for Black and White.

General Tropes

• Adapted Out: Neither of them have the Lillipup that they have in the games. The same goes for Cilan.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: Their English names (and Cilan's) all begin with a "C."
• Big Eater: Chili, whose solution for resolving stress is to stuff his face with donuts. His Pansear also has the ability "Gluttony".
• Birds of a Feather: Non-romantic, but Cilan determines that Chili and Pansear are perfect partners due to the many traits they share.
• The Bus Came Back: Chili ends up encountering Ash's group in A Call for Brotherly Love!, after leaving his gym.
• Berserk Button: Chili is really sensitive about people criticizing his battle tactics.
• Can't Catch Up: This is acknowledged in BW058, when Chili is revealed to be suffering an inferiority complex, percieving himself as the weakest of the brothers due to having suffered a losing streak, expecially when Pansage circumvents his type disadvantage against Pansear with more balanced attacks. The gang helps him out by training Pansear to learn Solarbeam.
• Curtains Match the Windows: They have elemental-colored eyes matching their elemental-colored hair.
• A Day in the Limelight: BW058 focuses on Chili, who recently left Striation Gym to embark on his own journey, having lost confidence as a Gym Leader due to a series of losses.
• Dishing Out Dirt:
  • Pansear can maneuver through the ground easily with Dig.
  • Panpour can use Mud Sport to lessen damage from super-effective Electric attacks.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Cress' Panpour's Double Team.
• Elemental Hair Colors: Their hair are not only colored, but also styled according to the type they specialize in.
• Elemental Powers: This Gym is unique in that it is shared with three different Type-specialists.
• Energy Weapon: Pansear's Solarbeam (taught to it by Pansage).
• Eyes Always Shut: Cress' Panpour.
• Fiery Redhead: Chili
• Freudian Trio: With all three brothers.
  • The Kirk: Cilan
  • The McCoy: Chili
  • The Spock: Cress
• Green Thumb: Cilan specializes in Grass-type Pokeémon like Pansage. He's also the one who taught Chili's Pansear Solarbeam to get around Water-types.
• Hot-Blooded: Chili to the extreme. Shared by his Pansear.
• Large Ham: Chili, at times. Ironically, his brother Cilan can sometimes be even hammier.
• Making a Splash: Cress specializes in Water-types like Panpour.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cress' advice to Chili about his battle style, while necessary to help him improve, probably could have been delivered a little more delicately, something Cress guiltily admits to. Thankfully, Cilan manages to deliver the advice better and rectify the situation.
• Playing with Fire: Chili uses Fire-type Pokémon like Pansear.
• Out of Focus: While Chili gets some development and even his own focus episode later on, Cress goes largely underutilized.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chili and Cress respectively. They even have hair colored that way!
  • Meanwhile, Cilan himself is blue to Chili, but red to Cress.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: They dress smartly as they serve customers as well as trainers.
• Sibling Team: Along with Cilan (until he elects to travel awhile), the three of them share their duties at the Gym (which also doubles as a restaurant), allowing the challenger to select his or her opponent in a one-on-one Gym Battle.
• The Stoic: Cress.
• Take a Third Option: Ash requests the opportunity to battle all three Gym Leaders. Cress suggests a series of 3 one-on-one matches to determine whether Ash earns a badge (he beats Chili, loses to Cress, and then beats Cilan).
• Third-Person Person: Cress in the original Japanese version - culturally and grammatically, doing so is regarded as a mannerism of femininity.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Of the triplets, Chili appears to lose the most battles - he was beaten by Trip using a disadvantaged Servine, for goodness sake, not to mention being (incidentally) the only person on record to have been defeated by Burgundy. Deconstructed when he develops an inferiority complex and runs away from the Gym, and it got even worse when Cilan and Pansage defeat his Pansear in BW058. However, it's subverted at the end of the episode when he finally defeats Ash's Oshawott.
  • Usually, Cress isn't shown to have lost a single battle. However, when Chili couldn't beat her, he eventually lost to Morana as well, who beat him using an OHKO attack despite his type advantage.

Lenora (Aloe)

Voiced in Japanese by: Atsuko Tanaka

Voiced in English by: Norma Nongauza

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Laura Torres

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: Implied to be one.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Watchog's Low Kick.
• Barrier Warrior: Herdier's Protect.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shows up just in time to resolve the conflict in BW014
• Confusion Fu: One of the reasons she's so difficult to fight in the anime is because her favorite strategy is to disorient trainers by destroying their strategies with a Roar and Mean Look combo. She is also one of the very few Gym Leaders allowed to substitute Pokémon during battle the same as her challengers are, which, again, allows her to use strategies not seen at other Gyms.
• Meaningful Name: Lenora, as in normal types.
• Non-Elemental: She specializes in Normal types
• Shock and Awe: Watchog's Thunderbolt.
• Soul Power: Watchog's Confuse Ray, and Lillipup and Herdier's Shadow Ball.
• Stealth Mentor: She takes this approach when battling Ash, treating her battle with him like a test he needs to pass.
• Token Minority: The only "black" Gym Leader, and fits the mammy stereotype pretty well - much of her artwork even features a matronly apron.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Just like in the games, Lenora is a very difficult fight for Ash. She curbstomps him without breaking a sweat, it takes an episode-long Training Montage just to get up to her level, and even then she's a tough battle.

Burgh (Arti)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tōru Furuya

Voiced in English by: Billy Bob Thompson

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Daniel Lacy

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• All Webbed Up: Leavanny's String Shot.
• Badass Cape: As part of his Dynamic Entry.
• Barrier Warrior: Leavanny and Dwebble's Protect.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: He specializes in Bug types.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Dwebble's secondary type (Rock).
• Early-Bird Cameo: In BW018, similar to his in-game first appearance.
• Energy Weapon: Leavanny's Hyper Beam.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Whirlipede's Iron Defense.
• Green Thumb: Leavanny's secondary type.
• Meaningful Name: His English name sounds like bug.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His Leavanny is on the recieving end of one, when Pikachu barrages the Nurturing Pokémon with all of his moves and takes down the Bug/Grass-type.
• Poisonous Person: Whirlipede's secondary type.
• Real Men Wear Pink: His signature Pokémon, Leavanny, is from a species reknowned for its sewing ability. Burgh himself is a talented artist.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He does his best to both stop and help the Venipede in BW022, and manages to convince the mayor to give him a chance, while even talking Trip into assisting.

Elesa (Kamitsure)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yumiko Kobayashi

Voiced in English by: Eileen Stevens

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Analiz Sánchez

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• Adaptational Personality Change: In the games, Elesa was The Stoic, bordering on Emotionless Girl. As you can tell just from her picture here, the anime went the complete opposite direction and made her a Genki Girl.
• Adapted Out: One of her Emolga is replaced with a Tynamo in the anime.
• Ascended Meme: In the games, her Emolga tripped up players thinking Ground- and Grass-tTypes could beat her entire team. Ash's Palpitoad went down swiftly, causing Ash to freak out after he thought he'd only need it to sweep her team, and Snivy similarly went down.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Zebtrika's Double Kick.
• Cool Horse: Zebstrika.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Has a gym full of (only) female fans that blush at the sight of her, cosplay as her, and constantly scream her name.
• Genki Girl: Especially during battles. She's also in full Genki mode when she referees the match between Ash and Bianca's Father, shouting every now and then.
• Glass Cannon: Exaggerated with Tynamo. She looks small and harmless, but then not so much once she starts a Tackle at lightning speed. That said, after some careful planning, she goes down after a single Iron Tail.
• Large Ham: Overlaps with Genki Girl; she can be quite dramatic.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Once she sees how powerful Pikachu is (taking out her Emolga with a single Quick Attack), the gloves come off.
• Lightning Bruiser - Zebstrika (a test to see whether her opponent can last in the battle).
• Meaningful Name: Elesa as in electricity.
• Ms. Fanservice: In two occasions — the first is a screenshot that seems like she wasn't wearing stockings underneath, the second is Dawn's description of Elesa wearing very fashionable clothing.
• Nice Girl: Extremely eccentric, but she's all around a sweet and caring young woman who tries to cheer up Bianca after her loss and loves her Pokémon and fans.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Tynamo.
• Playing with Fire: Zebstrika's Flame Charge.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Similar like in the games, Elesa's Emolga is part-Flying-Type and thus is immune to Ground-Type attacks, countering both, Ground-Types and Grass-Types with Emolga's typing.
• Shock and Awe: She specializes in Electric types.
• Statuesque Stunner: For a fashion model, she may be considered the tallest female in the entire anime series. Observe◊. Here is a comparison height between Ash and company versus Elesa.
• True Beauty Is on the Inside: After Ash beats her, Elesa admits that she'd gotten so caught up in showing off and dazzling with her Pokémon that she forgot about the importance of trainer and Pokémon being in sync with each other's feelings.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: Emolga's secondary type.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Her reaction when Ash only brought just one Pokémon in the battle after defeating Palpitoad, but allowed Ash to call an audible to get another Pokémon to continue.

Clay (Yacon)

Voiced in Japanese by: Tsuguo Mogami

Voiced in English by: Sean Schemmel

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Humberto Vélez

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• Bare-Fisted Monk: Palpitoad and Excadrill's Rock Smash.
• Berserk Button: Goes into a rage when Ash has Snivy use Attract, securing an easy win against Palpitoad.
• Casting a Shadow: Krokorok's secondary type.
• Cynical Mentor: Towards Ash — among other things, he didn't take the usual route of criticising Ash's usage of a type-disadvantaged Pokémon, and was ultimately impressed when Boldore defeated his Excadrill.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He specialises in Ground types.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Excadrill's secondary type.
• Horn Attack: Excadrill's Horn Drill.
• Iconic Item: His treasured pickaxe.
• I Gave My Word: He really did need those Revival Herbs, and so when Ash brought them from Milos Island he kept his word that he'd battle him. This is despite seeming grouchy and not believing Ash would be worth battling.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He brushes off Ash's challenge the first time, and the second time he criticizes Ash for not knowing about Revival Herbs. Yet despite his doubts about Ash's worth, he keeps his word to battle him, acts as a Cynical Mentor with good intentions, and encourages him in the end to keep climbing upwards to reach his dream.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: To really test Ash's resolve, he sends out his strongest Pokémon, Excadrill, in the final stage of the match.
• Making a Splash: Palpitoad's primary type.
• Man Bites Man: Krokorok's Bite.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Krokorok.
• Not Now, Kiddo: He appears briefly in BW057 and BW059, twice refusing to battle Ash due to varying circumstances (first time it's work; the second, he doesn't have Revival Herbs, which would guarantee the Pokémon working at his mines stay healthy). He finally accepts Ash's challenge in BW061.
• One-Hit Kill: Excadrill's Horn Drill. Less than useful against Roggenrola's "Sturdy" ability, however.
• Self-Made Man: Clay reflects that when he was a child, he worked really hard to get where he is, but most contemporary youngsters expect to attain everything with shortcuts and cheap tricks. This is precisely why he considers Ash's Snivy using Attract to be unfair rather than strategic.
• This Is a Drill: Excadrill. It even knows Drill Run and Horn Drill!

Skyla (Fuuro)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kana Ueda

Voiced in English by: Sarah Natochenny

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Karla Falcón

Voiced in Italian by: Deborah Morese

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• Adaptational Badass: Swanna's Aqua Ring functions as a cross between Protect (blocks all damage) and Safeguard (cures status conditions) whereas in the games, it gives Regenerating Health for a few turns.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed. She's not an outright Jerkass, but she's very... arrogant and self-assured about her way of battling. Contrast the games, which present her as an outright Nice Girl.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: She's very confident about the accuracy of her Air Battles, and gets very nasty if someone challenges her convictions. Even when Cilan gives her a hard time in battle, she declares she "was bored" and "predicted everything". Her defeat by the hands of Ash, however, knocks her off her perch.
• Blow You Away: Swoobat's Air Cutter & Gust, Unfezant's Air Slash and Swanna's Hurricane.
• Bubble Gun: Swanna's Bubble Beam.
• Defeat Means Respect: After Ash defeats her, she humbly admits she was wrong and vows to be a proper Gym Leader from then on. Tranquill's evolution in particular helped her realize that her belief in predictable outcomes is skewed.
• Didn't See That Coming: Tranquill's evolution, which turned the tide of the battle (as well as revitalizing her own passion for battle).
• Early-Bird Cameo: A rather unusual one, in that she made her first anime appearance in the English opening of Season 15, the weekend before her first episode even aired in Japan.
• Fiery Redhead: She's more passionate than quick-tempered.
• Gender Flip: Her Unfezant is male in the anime, contrary to the female version in other continuities - noteworthy because of the gender dimorphism that already exists between female and male Unfezant.
  • This may be justified as Ash has a female Unfezant.
• Genki Girl: She's very energetic — just watch her entrance to Ash's battle with her. And the more the battle goes on, the more excited she gets!
• Healing Factor: Swanna's Aqua Ring. It even allows Swanna to take Pikachu's Electric attacks, so it seems to have been upgraded A LOT compared to the games.
• It's All About Me: Gym battles were less important to her than her personal time to fly.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: BW068 shows that she's not really a bad person, but needed to realize that what was best for her wasn't necessarily best for everyone else. Even before then she's consistently polite and expresses delight at getting to battle another Gym Leader.
• Making a Splash: Swanna's primary type.
• Ms. Fanservice: Wears the very same outfit from the games - short shorts that expose her legs and a midriff-exposing pilot gear.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Her Swanna's Aqua Ring is way more powerful than in the games.
• Non-Elemental: Unfezant's primary type.
• Psychic Powers: Swoobat's primary type.
• Smug Super: While not flat-out boastful, she's utterly self-assured.
• Tranquil Fury: Her grandfather, commenting on how she'd stated that she wouldn't allow her Swanna's beautiful wings to be tarnished (when Cilan's Stunfisk was attacking with Mud Shot), informs her that in his view, she's done just that by refusing to do her duty as Gym Leader. A tight frown crosses her face at the words, and it really looks like she's restraining the urge to scream at him (in the Japanese version, in fact, her response truly sounds like she's speaking through gritted teeth).
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: She specializes in Flying types.

Brycen (Hachiku)

Voiced in Japanese by: Nobuo Tobita

Voiced in English by: Benjamin Becker

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Diego Ángeles

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• Action Hero: In his movies, but also in "Real Life".
• An Ice Person: He specializes in Ice-types.
• Badass Normal: Shown by his training regiment with Beartic in BW078.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Not only was he an Action Hero in movies, he's an accomplished martial artist — the man can shatter boulders with his bare fist, for Heaven's sake!
• Bears Are Bad News: Beartic, his strongest Pokémon, though only in the Gym battle.
• Bruce Lee Clone: Aside from being a martial arts film star, his movie titles are parodies of Bruce Lee's movies.
• Didn't See That Coming: His face after his Cryogonal is beaten when Pignite strikes Cryogonal's face with Fire Pledge while it's using Rapid Spin just screams this.
• Dynamic Entry: His Establishing Character Moment.
• Establishing Character Moment: He and Beartic leap down from a higher altitude, destroying a pair of boulders endangering Ash and his friends, and land in perfect martial arts poses. Then he simply expresses relief that nobody is hurt, showing his sense of humility.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Vanillish's Mirror Shot.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Cryogonal's Reflect.
• Making a Splash: Beartic's Brine.
• Noodle Incident: The accident on the set of his fourth movie, which convinced him to quit making movies and go back to training with his Beartic.
• Psychic Powers: Crygonal's Reflect.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: His Beartic knows Brine, a Water-Type move to counter Fire-Type Pokémon, as well as the Flying-Type move Aerial Ace to counter Fighting-Type Pokémon. Ash's Pignite being a Fire/Fighting-Type, he gets defeated by both of Beartic's moves.
• Soul Power: Vanillish's Astonish.
• Spectacular Spinning: Cryogonal's Rapid Spin.
• Warrior Monk: Dresses the part, and he's also a genuinely tough guy.
• Worthy Opponent: For Krokorok, who was psyched to battle his team.

Roxie (Homika)

Voiced in Japanese by: Eri Kitamura

Voiced in English by: Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Mireya Mendoza

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• The Ace: She's renowned both as an expert musician and one of the toughest Gym Leaders in all of Unova. She more than lives up to her billing, letting her opponents use their entire teams while she only uses three Pokemon. Notably, she took out five of Ash's Pokemon, pushed Pikachu right to the brink and may well have won if Garbodor hadn't been paralyzed by Pikachu's Static.
• Adaptational Badass: She's only the second Gym Leader in the games, whereas in the anime Ash earned his final badge from her (though this is mainly because she was introduced after the other Gym Leaders). In addition, she allows Ash to use six Pokémon against three of hers, and she justifies her confidence by defeating five of his team during the battle.
• Adapted Out: Sort of. She has a Grimer in the games, but only in challenge mode. In the anime, it's replaced with Garbodor.
• Badass Adorable: Apparently, she puts herself on a 6-on-3 disadvantage regularly...Yikes! Plus, she's pretty cute.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Scolipede.
• Blow You Away: Ash starts the match by sending out Boldore and having it use Sandstorm against Roxie's Koffing. The Sandstorm does some damage, but then Koffing blasts it away with Clear Smog.
• Call-Back: Before Ash is headed towards the Gym for his match, a lot of Pokémon were being admitted to the Center in Virbank City specifically because she was kicking their asses. Notably, the scene is similar to the first season, before Ash went to face Lt. Surge and his Raichu in the Vermilion City Gym.
• Combat Pragmatist: She utilizes attacks with a good chance of poisoning the opposition, making up for her lesser numbers in the battle. In fact, a lot of the poisoning attacks are aimed at the face to assure poisoning with the added bonus of throwing them off.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Scolipede's Rock Tomb.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She made her anime debut in a two-part special which aired in Japan the week prior to the release of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 (her first game appearance).
• Energy Weapon: Garbodor's Hyper Beam.
• Honor Before Reason: She doesn't take advantage of Pignite's poisoning by Scolipede, giving it a Pecha Berry before sending out her strongest Pokémon, Garbodor. It just shows how she's both a good sport and a tough opponent. It's also justified; while a Gym Leader, she's also an entertainer as well — she wanted to put on a good show for their audience, who were really into the battle.
• Lead Bassist: In addition to being Gym Leader, she's also the bassist/vocalist of Koffing and the Toxics.
• Mascot Mook: Koffing is an In-Universe one for her band.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Koffing's Clear Smog clears away weather conditions, which it can't do in the games.
• Playing with Fire: Koffing's Will-O-Wisp.
• Poisonous Person: She's a Poison-type trainer.
• The Rockstar: She's the singer and lead guitarist for her rock band, Koffing And The Toxics. They rock the house during Roxie's matches, sometimes even cheering for her opponents.
• Spanner in the Works: She very nearly won her battle with Ash, but her Garbodor got paralyzed by Pikachu's Static ability. That slowed Garbodor long enough for Ash and Pikachu to turn the tables.
• Spectacular Spinning: Koffing's Gyro Ball. Backfires when Leavanny grabs it with String Shot.
• Super-Scream: Scolipede's Screech.
• The Worf Effect: When Ash, Iris and Cilan visit the Virbank Pokemon Center to prepare for Ash's challenge, they meet several trainers that already fought Roxie and lost. Ash, Iris and Cilan even arrive at the Virbank Gym in time to see the end of Roxie's latest match, as her Koffing takes down her opponent's Gothitelle, a Psychic Pokemon that has a type advantage against Poison.
  • Her Pokemon have this too, especially her Koffing. It takes down two of Ash's Pokemon before he finally defeats it with Leavanny. Her Scolipede takes out Leavanny, and Pignite takes a beating before he finally defeats it. Garbodor flattens Pignite almost immediately, does the same to Palpitaod and pushes Pikachu right to the edge. It turns out that Roxie letting her opponents use their full teams while using three of her own Pokemon only makes the fight fair instead of a complete Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Worthy Opponent: She does see Ash as this while their battle go on. The fact Ash kept shilling her a lot during the battle not only boosts her already big Large Ham tendencies, but makes her took a shining on him.
• Youthful Freckles: Though they're only visible close-up.

Marlon (Shizui)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yuji Ueda

Voiced in English by: Ed Paul

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Víctor Ugarte

Voiced in Italian by: Renato Novara

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• Adapted Out: He doesn't have a Carracosta like in the games. He does have a Wailord, but he doesn't use it in the battle against Cameron.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His Mantine pummels Cameron's Ferrothorn with all of its moves and wins easily and then is beaten down easily itself by Samurott.
• Curtains Match the Window: Blue eyes and blue hair, natch.
• Making a Splash: He specializes in Water types.
• One-Shot Character: The first Gym Leader to suffer this fate since Chuck (way back in Johto!)
• The Unfought: Well, for Ash who already has 8 badges. He was Cameron's opponent instead.
• The Worf Effect: Cameron defeats him without much difficulty, despite Marlon being a powerful Gym Leader. This is presumably to display just how powerful Cameron's team (especially Samurott) is.

Drayden (Shaga)

Voiced in Japanese by: Masaki Terasoma

Voiced in English by: Mike Pollock

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: José Luis Orozco

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• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Sort of - while nobody was surprised that Iris battled Drayden again, everyone expected Ash to win his 8th Badge at Opelucid Gym rather than at Virbank Gym.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Haxorus' Rock Smash.
• The Bus Came Back: He returns alongside Iris in JN064 where he meets Ash and Goh at the stadium to prepare Ash for his battle against Iris.
• Dragon Tamer: Specializes in training Dragon-type Pokémon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Made his first appearance in Iris' flashback during BW034.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Druddigon's Flash Cannon.
• Fauxshadowing: The final slot in Ash's Badge case is at one point seen to be shaped to hold the Legend Badge, the badge which Drayden gives out. But Opelucid Gym turns out to be closed on short notice, and Ash battles Roxie for his final Unova Badge instead. Then the 2nd Japanese opening featured Drayden, and he made a two-episode appearance.
  • What's amusing about this is how Ash's Badge Cases (both Sinnoh and Unova) have slots shaped specifically for certain badges - despite the fact that in the anime, there are more than 8 Gyms and therefore no specific selection of badges to be earned for League participation.
• Me's a Crowd: Druddigon's Double Team.
• Token Motivational Nemesis: Non-villainous variant — his presence played an important role in defining who Iris and Excadrill became. He and Iris have a rematch at the Opelucid Gym, and he wins a 2nd time (although this time, Excadrill pulls a tie against the Haxorus which originally defeated it).
• The Unfought: Ash has not fought him and has no reason to, because he obtained his 8th Badge from Roxie instead.
  • "Unfought" to Ash; to Iris it's a completely different story.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: He handed Iris and Excadrill their first ever defeat, breaking their 99-battle winning streak. In their 2-on-2 rematch in BW101, he wins again — despite Excadrill tying with Haxorus, Druddigon was still standing despite Dragonite's best efforts.

Cheren

Voiced in Japanese by: Takuya Eguchi

Voiced in English by: Todd Haberkorn

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Arturo Castañeda

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Him and Bianca (along with Hilbert/Hilda) are friends from childhood. Here they don't appear to have met at all.
• Anime Hair: Maintains his ahoge, as in other media.
• Curtains Match the Window: Black hair, black eyes.
• A Day in the Limelight: Which mostly makes up for his lack of a presence beyond the Gym Leader role in the anime.
• Demoted to Extra: Considering his noteworthy role in the games. Also, when Ash meets him, he's already in his Gym Leader position of Black 2/White 2, rather than a friendly rival in the same capacity as Bianca - as such, when Ash and Cheren battle, it's just a friendly battle rather than a full-fledged Gym Badge battle as Ash had already gotten the Basic Badge (along with the other seven needed to enter the Unova League) from Lenora.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Throughout the episode, he's unsure of himself and his worth as a Gym Leader due to being new to the business. Yet his students absolutely adore and look up to him.
• Non-Elemental: Presumed to use Normal-types like Herdier, just like in the games.
• Shock and Awe: Herdier's Thunder Fang.

Unova League

Alder (Adeku)

Voiced in Japanese by: Unshō Ishizuka

Voiced in English by: Scottie Ray

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Andrés García

Alder is the Champion of the Unova League during Best Wishes. As of Journeys, this title is now held by Iris.

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• The Ace: Given the fact that he was the Champion of Unova, this is a given. Don't let the relaxed and easy-going personality fool you. When he gets serious he will thoroughly kick your ass like it's his day job.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: Alder in the games is relatively serious and has a tragic backstory involving his deceased original partner, while Alder in the anime is much more lighthearted. No hint toward his backstory is ever made in his various appearances, and he's notably absent from the more serious arcs of Best Wishes.
• And Then What?: He tells Ash and his friends that once they fulfill all their dreams, they must then find meaning in life beyond them, too.
• Anime Hair: Spiked upwards with a large wolf's tail.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: In his older age, he's less focused — he falls asleep during his battle with Ash! Then comes the Junior World Cup where he shows why he is still the Champion by curbstomping Trip's Serperior with his Bouffalant.
• Broken Pedestal: In Trip's opinion, but then Trip changes his opinion back to his original one once he battles him.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: This guy was the Unova Champion in spite of his absentmindedness, lechery, and aimless wandering the region.
• The Cameo: He briefly appears in JN118, watching Iris's match against Cynthia.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Stops a rampaging Gigalith with his bare hands.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He's like Brock when it comes to the ladies (or at least with the Jennys, Joys and Cynthia).
• Cool Old Guy: A bit old, yes. But don't underestimate him when he can kick your ass in a battle if he focuses.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Iris is the champion of Unvoa come Journeys, with Alder not even getting so much as a mention.
• Expy: Of Jiraiya from Naruto. He's a wandering sage, and a bit of a lech, but truly fearsome in battle.
• Friend to All Living Things: He has a deep understanding of Pokémon — he helped the aforementioned Gigalith by removing the nail in its foot which had caused it pain, and then fed it minerals. This is also a Call-Back to when Bruno of the Kanto Elite Four calmed a rampaging Onix by pulling out a Sandslash firmly lodged between its joints - Pokémon champions require the in-depth foresight, compassion and understanding of life (and living) that must be largely self-taught only with experience.
• The Hedonist: Alder's philosophy is that a person should enjoy life with their friends rather than focusing so much on accomplishments.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: He seems pretty bumbling and clueless, but he becomes extremely competent in a crisis. He not only restrains a Gigalith (a Pokémon that typically weighs 260 kilograms, or 573 pounds) with his bare hands, he pulls out the nail that was stuck in its foot. In his battle with Trip, he perfectly gauges the power of Trip's Serperior, realizes it can't take down his Bouffalant and ends the fight with one Head Smash.
• The Mentor: Tries with Trip, is more successful with Ash's group. He does manage to talk some sense into Trip the next time he gets to talk to him.
• No-Sell: Bouffalant's Sap Sipper ability, much to Trip's surprise.
• Running Gag: Not remembering either Ash or Trip's names — he calls the former "Ashton" (Santaro) and the latter "Tristan" (Shootaro).
• Signature Mon: In the anime, it's Bouffalant, but only because it's the only Pokémon of his we get to see.
• Vague Age: Even though he's a grandfather in the games, he's shown flirting with young women at many points in the anime, implying he's most likely much younger himself. His official age in the anime is never made clear, though.

Caitlin (Catteleya)

Voiced in Japanese by: Miyu Matsuki

Voiced in English by: Miriam Pultro

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Hiromi Hayakawa

A member of the Unova League's Elite Four. She specializes in Psychic-types.

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• Badass Adorable: Despite being insecure about her skills, she still manages to hold up against Cynthia until the timer runs out. Keep in mind she was fighting Cynthia's Garchomp for ten whole minutes while most other trainers' mons outside of the Elite Four could barely handle the same dragon for more than ten seconds.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Gothitelle's Brick Break.
• Casting a Shadow: Gothitelle's Flatter.
• Flower Motifs: She makes her entrance onto the battlefield by emerging from the inside of a giant frickin' blooming flower.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: In constrast to her counterparts from other media, anime-Caitlin is a gracious, collected individual with a sweetly pleasant demeanour. Complete with Flower Motifs.
• Lady of War: Her battle style is focused on elegance.
• Older and Wiser: According to Cynthia, she's mellowed out and become more mature than when she was younger.
• Proper Lady: She conducts herself with grace and poise and her sportmanship is superb.
• Shock and Awe: Gothitelle's Thunderbolt.
• Took a Level in Badass: If Cynthia's reaction to her fighting ability is any indication, she's gotten stronger with time.
• Worthy Opponent: To Cynthia, despite being only an Elite Four facing a Champion.

Team Plasma

Team Plasma In General

• Adapted Out: The Shadow Triad. The Sages also had their distinct, individualistic appearances and personalities removed. And thanks to their skipped debut, the BW1 team outfits also don't exist in the anime continuity, and along with them any members who sincerely desired to help Pokémon.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the games Team Plasma actually managed to almost take over the Unova region through both subtlety and force (N had even defeated Alder in a fair battle) and even came close to releasing every Pokemon in PC Boxes. Here their plan relies entirely on brainwashing Pokemon to do their bidding, including Reshiram, but go down rather quickly the second Reshiram is freed. To boot, N has left them long before they executed their plans while Ghetsis and Colress have no battle-able Pokemon team to assist their plans.
• Arc Villain: Thanks to the 2011 Japanese disasters causing their planned debut to be skipped, the organization has only been featured as the villains of the Episode N arc in the BW show's final season.
• Casting a Shadow: Multiple members have Liepard, and at least one is shown commanding a Bisharp.
• Cats Are Mean: As indicated above, Liepard seems to be the Mon of choice for most Plasma grunts, with even Aldith having one. At least three or four Zangoose have been separately shown under their command as well, including Weiss'.
• Dark Is Evil: Their uniforms.
• Demoted to Extra: The Seven Sages (sans Ghetsis) were reduced to appearing only in a flashback, and even had their distinctive features from the games completely altered. Most likely done to avoid worrying about their distinct personalities and giving them roles in the story.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Multiple Magnemite (along with Barret's Magnezone), and a Bisharp.
• Poisonous Person: Multiple Golbat and at least one Muk. Not to mention Schwarz's Seviper.
• Shock and Awe: Multiple Magnemite.
• Shout-Out: All the Pokémon they use are from families which Team Plasma uses in the games.

Ghetsis (G-Cis)

Voiced in Japanese by: Masaki Aizawa

Voiced in English by: Bill Rogers

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Diego Armando Nieves

The shadowy leader of Team Plasma, foster father to N, Anthea, and Concordia. In BW112, Ghetsis is initially seen projecting his image in a hologram, through which he communicates with Colress. He subsequently appears in person for the first time in BW117.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: Heavily downplayed, but Ghetsis's more vile crimes, like his verbal abuse of N and freezing Opelucid City are omitted here.
• Adaptational Wimp: Not that he isn't a threat, but his plan rides solely on taming Reshiram through a device. Contrast with game Ghetsis who manipulates N to control the Legendary dragon and is implied fully capable of defeating it. This Ghetsis doesn't seem to have a team of his own, not even his infamous Hydreigon.
• Archnemesis Dad: BW118 reveals that: a) he is N, Anthea and Concordia's stepfather, like in the games; and b) they all oppose his goals and actions.
• Big Bad: Of the Episode N arc.
• Composite Character: The cool, collected personality of his original B&W persona is combined with the clothing and more open goals of his later, B2W2 counterpart.
• Dark Is Evil: He wears his black outfit from B2W2.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Two grunts had to stop him from pissing off Reshiram any further after it was freed from the device. Ghetsis still insisted on informing the dragon he can still order it around.
• Faux Affably Evil: Speaks in honorifics in the Japanese version to put in the appearance of being a gentleman. He isn't one.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Colress. In his first episode, he contacts him briefly through a hologram at Colress' current base of operations. Ash's group initially mistakes Colress for Ghetsis on their first meeting (having briefly heard the latter's name from Aldith) before being corrected.
• Orcus on His Throne: Ghetsis hides away in secret while his agents do his dirty work across Unova. BW117 even shows him literally sitting on a throne-like chair. He finally takes the scene in the three-part finale.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Both his visible left eye and the red visor covering his right eye, or possible lack of one.
• The Unfought: Like Maxie and Cyrus before him, we never see him battle anyone during his entire run on the show.
• Villainous Breakdown: Starts losing it once the control device is destroyed and Reshiram frees itself.

Colress (Achroma)

Voiced in Japanese by: Hiroki Tochi

Voiced in English by: Eli James

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Ricardo Mendoza

Team Plasma's chief scientist, who experiments with technology in order to control Pokémon and strengthen the organization's plans; his own desires and priorities, however, appear to differ somewhat from those of his colleagues.

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• Adaptational Karma: In the games, he got no comeuppance for his role in Team Plasma's destructive plan, mainly due to his disdain for Ghetsis and respect for the protagonist causing a Heel–Face Turn. The anime has him remain unrepentant and arrested along with the rest of the team.
• Adaptational Villainy: While his goals and allegiance are unchanged, anime-Colress is more psychotic and openly antagonistic than his game counterpart (who only revealed his allegiance to Team Plasma at the end, and was technically more neutral towards the player). He also reformed in the game, whereas in the anime he's arrested along with Ghetsis and the on-scene grunts, though he is considering changing his approach towards Pokémon...somewhat.
• Affably Evil: He addresses the heroes with laid-back cordiality, and speaks to them pleasantly (in contrast to Aldith and the other grunts' professionalism).
• Badass Labcoat/Badass in a Nice Suit: Both of these, as in the games.
• Combat Pragmatist: Once his machine is advanced enough, he can simply use it to take control of any opposing Pokémon and turn them against his enemies (with alarming swiftness, too). He doesn't need any Pokémon of his own...until it backfires when Pikachu fights back, again, and together with Reshiram destroys the machine, leaving him powerless.
• Curtains Match the Window: Yellow eyes that match the tone of his bright-yellow hair.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Colress is actually much more active and responsible for the evil done in Episode N than his boss, and is even a more competent schemer than him.
• Evil Genius: To Ghetsis.
• For Science!: His motive for being in Team Plasma at all. His response whenever one of the heroes called out their mons was essentially "Yay! More test subjects!"
• Large Ham: If his hand gestures, smirks, and talking about his experiments with delight are anything to go by...
• Manipulative Bastard: In BW119, he convinces Meowth to let him try out his machine on him to increase his strength, all in the purposes of testing its increasing power. Even though Meowth had trained his mind to resist its mind-controlling powers, he fell under Colress' control and had to be snapped out of it by Jessie and James - leaving them with nothing (they'd hoped to convince him to join them), and him with the satisfaction of knowing that his machine is getting more powerful. (Though Jessie and James do manage to plant a tracking device on Colress' machine which they make use of in the following episode.)
• Psychotic Smirk: Whenever good fortune or results occur during his experiments, such as Iris calling out Dragonite and his response is glee at having a new subject.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Aldith's Blue - while it's not hyperactive, he shows delight at seeing Pikachu's willpower overwhelm his own technology. Aldith needs to remind him that this is a setback to Team Plasma's plans.
• Taught by Experience: After the initial encounter, he tweaked his EM-wave machine so it would not be blocked by the cubes Looker used, strengthened it so Pikachu couldn't will himself out, and generally made sure the device was either attended to by Plasma or kept safely away.
• This Cannot Be!: Starts freaking out once Pikachu repeatedly keeps resisting his device and helps Reshiram do the same. And it just snowballs from there.
• Villainous BSoD: In BW122, when his mind-control machine is destroyed. He gets over it in his last scene, though.
• We Can Rule Together: Team Rocket offers him a chance to quit Team Plasma and join them instead. He declines, since he really wants to meet and control Reshiram.

Aldith (Angie)

Voiced in Japanese by: Akeno Watanabe

Voiced in English by: Lori Gardner

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Irene Jiménez

A female Team Plasma member, first appearing in BW112. Holding rank and file over her fellow grunts, she answers directly to Colress and appears to be his own subordinate specifically - as well as being a leash on his more excitable personality.

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• Ascended Extra: The Episode N opening depicts her, in one shot, as the only colored Team Plasma grunt, making her stand out above the rest. True to that, she so far appears to have a more distinct role than the others.
• Canon Foreigner: Her design already existed in "Black 2 & White 2", but only as that of the generic female grunts. Aldith appears to have her own distinct personality and rank within Team Plasma, similar to the Team Rocket trio.
• Casting a Shadow: Liepard.
• Cats Are Mean: She owns a Liepard.
• The Comically Serious: Frequently, especially when around Colress.
• Mook Lieutenant: Though she wears the same uniform as the rest, she's also the only female Plasma grunt seen and the others seem to defer to her, even Barret.
• Number Two: She's rarely seen away from Colress and seems to be his direct subordinate.
• Only Sane Woman: Whenever she has to remind Colress not to get to into the data of his experiments over the mission and gets annoyed when he is happy about the results in spite of failure.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Colress' Red, being more straight-laced and serious and scolding him when he gets too excited (specifically, when he was pleased at Pikachu's willpower breaking his control over it, as they had no time to study it and needed to focus on perfecting the machine).
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female Team Plasma agent seen in the anime - but as stated, she holds rank over the other Grunts, so it all evens out.

Barret (Brad)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kensuke Sato

Voiced in English by: Darren Dunstan

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Carlo Vásquez

A male Team Plasma member, first appearing in BW118. Like Aldith, he seems higher-ranked than his colleagues (though not on her level), as he is first seen leading a mission to apprehend N for Ghetsis.

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• Ascended Extra: Depicted in the Episode N opening (on the Plasma helicopter with Aldith and her Liepard), he's given a distinct role and persona in the series proper.
• Canon Foreigner: His design already existed in "Black 2 & White 2", but only as that of the generic male grunts. Barret appears to have his own distinct personality and rank within Team Plasma, similar to the Team Rocket trio.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Magnezone's secondary type.
• King Mook: His Magnezone is more powerful than either the Liepard or Muk his underlings in BW118 use - it takes on Pignite and Oshawott, defeats the former (which has a type-advantage), and finally needs to be taken down by Pikachu himself.
• Large Ham: In contrast to Alidth's usual composure.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Magnezone's Supersonic.
• Mook Lieutenant: Of a lesser rank than Aldith.
• Shock and Awe: Magnezone's primary type.
• Spectacular Spinning: Magnezone's Gyro Ball.

Schwarz (Nero) and Weiss (Bianco)

Schwarz (left) and Weiss (right)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yukito Sōma (Schwarz) & Naoki Koshida (Weiss)

Voiced in English by: Ryan Stadler (Schwarz) & Benjamin Becker (Weiss)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Benjamín Rivera (Schwarz) & Javier Olguín (Weiss)

A pair of partnered Team Plasma grunts, appearing in BW114. Having kidnapped a Braviary, they thus attempt to apprehend N when he attempts to rescue it. In battle, Schwarz uses a Seviper and Weiss uses a Zangoose.

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• Casting a Shadow: Seviper's Bite.
• Cats Are Mean: Zangoose, being based off the cat-like mongoose.
• Dual Boss: Ash's Pikachu and Iris' Excadrill faced down Zangoose and Seviper, respectively.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Zangoose's Iron Tail.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Seviper's Screech.
• Man Bites Man: Seviper's Bite.
• Meaningful Name: Schwarz and Weiss mean, respectively, "black" and "white" in German while their Japanese names have the Italian names for the colors. Their Mons also sort of match them based on color (Schwarz has the dark Seviper, Weiss the mostly-white Zangoose).
• Nominal Importance: Having their names revealed gives them a competence level most grunts don't have, making them fairly capable adversaries - additionally, having trained two Pokémon who are normally mortal enemies into being capable battle-partners (Zangoose and Seviper) indicates some level of distinctive personality and skill.
• Odd Friendship: These are the first Seviper and Zangoose seen in the anime to fight together, let alone so well.
• Poisonous Person: Seviper.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Both Zangoose and Seviper.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Seviper.

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