Characters / Pokémon the Series: Black & White — Main Cast

aka: Pokemon The Series Black And White Ashs Pokemon

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

Ash's Companions

Iris

^{Click here to see Iris in Journeys}

"You're such a kid."

—Iris, to Ash. Frequently.

Voiced in Japanese by: Aoi Yūki

Voiced in English by: Eileen Stevens (BW Episode 1 - JN Episode 65), Anairis Quiñones (JN Episode 115 onwards)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Susana Moreno

Voiced in European Spanish by: Belén Rodríguez

Voiced in Polish by: Justyna Bojczuk

New girl for Black and White. She is basically described as an outgoing Jungle Girl. She has a Dragon-Type Pokémon with her named Axew, which tends to camp in her hair. She is apparently skilled at being in the outdoors. Her ultimate desire is to become a "Dragon Master", an expert in Dragon-Type Pokémon.

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• The Ace: By Journeys, Iris would dethrone Alder, become the reigning Champion of Unova and join the Masters Eight, which consists of the best trainers in the world.
• Action Girl: Iris is the most active female main character, being more acrobatic and athletic than the entire main cast and she is the most competitive battler among the main girls in terms of actual Pokémon battles. She's also by far the strongest trainer that Ash has traveled with long-term at one point, becoming the Champion of Unova and joining the Masters Eight, which consists of the best trainers in the world.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Iris in the games is very peppy and nice; here however, while she's still heroic, her Catchphrase is telling Ash that he is "such a kid" due to his immaturity (despite being the same age as him) and she's brattier and more condescending than in the games, although by the end of her Character Development, she's grown to become more like her game counterpart.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the games, Iris is one of the greatest trainers in Unova. Here, she's much less formidable. Justified, because this version of her is still a rookie. By the time of Journeys, however, she's already become Unova's Champion and greatest trainer. JN109 takes it further by showing that she's now part of the Masters Eight, the best trainers in the world overall.
• Agent Mulder: She believes in the supernatural aspect of mysterious cases, contrasting Cilan's Agent Scully.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Due to her wild, eccentric behavior, she couldn't bond with her classmates and was isolated by them.
• A Girl and Her X: Iris has this relationship with her Axew.
• Always Someone Better: Cynthia serves as this to her. Iris idolizes her in Best Wishes due to her ace being a famously powerful Dragon-type, and although Cynthia doesn't necessarily specialize in Dragons, she proves to be a vastly superior trainer regardless, mentoring her in calming her Dragonite and effortlessly toying with Axew in a practice battle. The two have a rematch in Journeys after Iris becomes Unova Champion, but for all her efforts Cynthia still outclasses her in skill and ability.
• Ambiguously Brown: She is notably darker skinned than the rest of the cast. Interestingly, her official artwork from the games gives her a darker skintone than shown in the games and anime. But see Noble Savage below.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Her return in Journeys features a brief flashback shot with a Goodra alongside her Gible and Clair, but it’s never made clear if she caught at some point on her journey after catching Gible. She’s implied to own at least one more Pokémon by Journeys, as she's a regional Champion and competed in the Masters Tournament, both of which require full teams of six, but whether or not that Goodra is her sixth Pokémon is never addressed.
• Art Evolution: In Journeys, she has slightly wider eyebrows than before and only one visible eyelash instead of two previously.
• Aura Vision: Iris seems to read the Aura's of Dragon-type Pokémon.
• Badass Adorable: By her appearance, she looks to be the youngest of all the female travel companions and can back things up being an Action Girl and all.
• Badass Normal: Aside from her vine swinging and tree climbing, we get to see that before she had any Pokémon, she caught Drilbur by physically fighting him herself.
• Berserk Button: Teasing Axew about it not mastering Dragon Rage by calling any failed attempts a "Dragon Sneeze" is the best way to piss off Iris.
• Bifauxnen: One piece of magazine art◊ shows her wearing a vest, bow tie and mini top hat while dancing with Cilan.
• Book Dumb: She's shown to not do well academically at school, but that doesn't change the fact that she is a competent trainer.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Having developed an ego after winning 99 consecutive battles, challenging Drayden knocked Iris down a peg or two.
  • Her humiliating loss to Georgia in the latter's debut forced Iris to reflect on herself. She ends up apologizing and making amends with her Excadrill before helping it train for a rematch.
  • Also implied with her match with Ash at the Cup. After suffering a humiliating defeat with her Dragonite disobeying her and throwing a massive tantrum, Cynthia tells her that she needs to get Dragonite to have faith in her as a trainer. This gets Iris to realize that she has a lot more learning to do and it also motivates her to become a much better dragon trainer.
• Breaking Old Trends: She was the first female companion of Ash's team to not appear in the next series as a Guest-Star Party Member (though she does return in Journeys). She was also the first of Ash’s female companions to not have a bike for Pikachu to roast electrically, instead Iris plays the bike's gag as Pikachu zaps her silly.
• The Bus Came Back: She returns in episode 65 of Journeys, having become Unova's Champion offscreen. Following that, she's became one of the Masters Eight and is a participant in the Masters Tournament fifty episodes later.
• Character Catchphrase: "You're such a kid", which she primarily uses to mock Ash and Georgia. To Ash, it's like a sister teasing a brother. To Georgia, it's part of their rivalry, though it doesn't really phase Georgia, and she's one of the few who actually can throw it back at Iris. Iris also calls Trip a kid on a few occasions.
• Character Development:
  • When we first see her she acts like she's some hotshot trainer who could beat Ash handily, but she's really a coward who refuses to actually battle him, and she doesn't open up to anyone. Then we steadily learn more about her past, including that one of her Pokémon refuses to obey her and the other can hardly battle (one ineffectual attack and another unperfected). As she travels with Ash and Cilan she steadily grows out of her insecurities, rebuilds her bond with Excadrill, bonds with the unruly Dragonite and Emolga, helps Axew begin to grow up, and overall develops into a talented and stronger trainer as well as a confident young woman.
  • She later returns in Journeys, having become Unova's reigning Champion. However, she still doesn't consider herself a Dragon Master yet, and seeks to grow even stronger.
• Child Prodigy: She didn't have anyone teach her how to battle. As a result, she learned with her Drilbur on how to fight on her own as well as learn enough battle skills to defeat 99 trainers before losing to Drayden and causing her Excadrill to ignore her shortly afterward. This might be the reason for her Small Name, Big Ego at the start of the series.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: While she serves as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Misty, Iris is very different from her immediate predecessor, Dawn. Dawn is a sociable, fashionable Nice Girl who had a mutually supportive relationship with Ash, while Iris is a Wild Child Tsundere who regularly bickered with Ash and had No Social Skills.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Double Subverted! She seems at first to be a poor battler, but that's only because at the point her Pokémon were either too weak, too lazy, or (apparently) disobedient. It turns out that she once got 99 wins in a row using only Drilbur. Now that Axew has become stronger and she has made up with Excadrill, she's showing signs of her former competency.
  • Taken up a notch as of Journeys - she still retains her athleticism (see: napping in a tree) and many of her quirks, but she's also the friggin' Champion of Unova!
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • From her first meeting with Ash: *sees Pikachu* "Oh, Pikachu? *glomps* AAAHH!! KAWAIIIIIII!!!" *hugs Pikachu half to death*
  • She does the same when she first sees Oshawott, Tepig, Darumaka and Lillipup. Then, however, she stops altogether and this trait is transferred to Bianca.
  • It pops up again when she meets Dawn's Piplup though, and when she meets Ash's Dracovish and Hop's Wooloo in Journeys.
  • Ironically, she's terrified of Trip's Vanillite who in itself is the type of Pokémon you would expect Iris to cuddle with...but it IS an Ice-Type...
• Deadpan Snarker: Very snarky towards Ash.
• Dragon Tamer: Iris strives to become a master Dragon-type trainer. Her Signature Mon is the child-like Axew, and most of her troubles with her Pokémon stems from trying to train the rebellious Excadrill, who isn't even a Dragon-type. She later catches a Dragonite, who proves to be her strongest Pokémon and the hardest test of her resolve.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the original Japanese version of Journeys, while she is the champion of Unova, it is stated numerous times she is still not a Dragon Master and that she sees doing the World Championship Series as something on the path to being one. While the dub of her first appearance in the series keeps her line to Ash clarifying that, in the opening of the Masters' Tournament, the announcer calls her a Dragon Master, seemingly doing a 180 and going for an interpretation that becoming Unova Champion made her that, despite the original version's insistance that it didn't, making her reason for joining the World Championship series more murky in the dub (as well as it being a Retcon due to the earlier episode still saying she wasn't one yet).
• The Empath: Although its similar to Ash and Dawn's ability, Iris' ability is different as she mostly understands the feelings of Dragon-type Pokémon as she can see through their thoughts and memories. In her return episode, Iris' ability increased as she can now communicate with Dragon-type Pokémon much better than she did before.
• Fanservice: Averted for the most part, unlike Dawn and May she actually looks like she is around 10. Her outfit is less revealing of all the previous female companions. However, her bathing suit debuted in episode 3, earlier than any of the other three girls'.
• Fatal Flaw: Iris' immaturity hinders her dream of becoming a Dragon Master. Despite frequently criticizing Ash for being a kid, she herself lacks the knowledge and experience required for the title. She struggles to control her Pokémon due to a lack of understanding. For example, her Axew is still young, her Excadrill loses respect for her after she pushes it too hard in a battle without considering its feelings, Emolga is too spoiled to obey her, and her Dragonite is a Blood Knight who won't listen to her commands. However, over time, Iris takes the initiative to understand her Pokémon better, and they begin to obey her. This character development leads to her becoming the Champion of Unova by the time of the 'Journeys' series.
• Friendless Background: She didn't adapt well to a school-based environment, and her uncivilized but good-natured attempts at befriending the other students scared other kids away. Thus, she spent a lot of her time in Opelucid City alone and depressed. Her present-day attempts to seem more mature and not be "such a kid" directly result from this bad experience. However, Iris does realize that she should be herself as Ash and Cilan accept her for who she is not for who she was trying to be.
• Genki Girl: Very, very hyperactive. Almost always talking and on the move. This is to be expected with her being a Wild Child. Even after becoming Champion, her love for Dragon types still remains.
• Graceful Loser: Iris actually accepted her loss to Ash in the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup and asked Cynthia why Dragonite always disobeyed her. That was the first step Iris took to improve her training skills.
• Granola Girl: Vegetarian who only ate raw fruits and vegetables prior to meeting Cilan.
• Hairy Hammerspace: How Axew camps in her hair is a mystery.
• Hidden Depths: In "Capacia Island UFO!", a group of Beheeyem brainwash an entire city to help fix their ship. They note Ash and Team Rocket's immunity was because "idiots are harder to hypnotise". Note that Iris and Axew did get brainwashed.
• Hypocrisy Nod:
  • Implied. When Ash responds to Iris' catchphrase by mentioning that Iris is a kid too, Iris never argues back. Even Cilan mentions in one scene that Iris is just as childish as Ash is.
  • In one scene when Georgia calls Iris a kid, Iris responds "at least this little kid has impressive hair!"
  • Cilan even calls Iris out on her hypocrisy, albeit rarely.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: As infuriating as she can be with her catchphrase, and even though she engages in many of these acts herself, Iris is correct that Ash can engage in rather childish and idiotic antics (like only relying on one Pokémon against Elesa).
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Despite her teasing Ash for being a kid, Iris isn’t okay with others being a complete jerk to Ash.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Gets on Ash for acting inexperienced at battling, but it's later revealed she's not so hot herself. Ash even lampshades this occasionally.
  • A later example is when they were trying out very spicy foods made by Cilan. Iris calls Ash out on his complaining about the food, when she herself was having much more trouble eating it (evidenced by Ocular Gushers and sweating).
  • An episode has Iris scoffing at Ash for getting too eager to practice battle. But Cilan calls her bluff, saying that she thought of the same thing too.
  • She mocks Ash for his supposed lack of knowledge, yet she thought his Charizard was a Dragon-type (which, to be fair, is an understandable mistake to make). And technically speaking, Charizard can become Dragon-typed.
• Immune to Slapstick: Zigzagged for Running Gag purposes. Her athleticism sometimes allows her to evade comical pain that befalls the others. She even dodges Bianca on many occasions when she hears Bianca shout "outta my way!". She still suffers slapstick humiliation in many other episodes, however.
• Inelegant Blubbering: After she lost to Cynthia in the Masters Eight tournament, she began loudly bawling her eyes out. She eventually cheers up after this.
• Improbable Hairstyle: How she gets her hair like that is a mystery.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Almost towards any Pokémon of the week originally before this role was given to Bianca.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Despite her hubris, she is often made to face her dysfunctions as a trainer, with nearly all of her Pokémon having issues obeying her. At the same time, it may also explain her usual Just a Kid comments towards Ash in a different light.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In the episode "Evolution by Fire", she criticizes Ash's Tepig for being too nice regarding its former jerkass of a trainer. Iris is proven right when Snivy tries to verbally talk some sense into Tepig and also by using Vine Whip on it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be condescending, hypocritical, and inconsiderate (especially with Cuteness Proximity in play), not to mention her snarkiness. She's also sweet-natured (sometimes), compassionate, and caring to her friends (whether she admits it or not), and has a strong sense of fair play and justice (even as a child, her meeting with Drilbur was due to her wanting to punish him for stealing another Pokémon's food, yet she ended up saving his life and bonding with him very firmly).
• Little Miss Badass: She leaps up trees like she's been training in Konoha, and has no problems jumping down a long-distance and swinging on vines. There's also a running joke that when something bad is coming at the group, it'll happen to Ash and Cilan, but Iris will jump or move out of the way with agility, such as when children were throwing mud balls at them or when Bianca tripped and ran over the group.
  • And, of course, she trains Dragon-types.
  • As a child, she won 99 battles in a row with just a Drilbur.
  • And as of Journeys, she's dethroned Alder, become Champion of Unova, and eventually managed to reach the Masters Eight of the World Coronation Series.
• Long Bus Trip: It took Iris eight years and over 300 episodes to return after leaving the show.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Masculine Girl (outgoing, abrasive to Ash, and outdoorsy) to Cilan's Feminine Boy (reserved and polite).
• The Medic: Not like Nurse Joy is, but Iris does have some knowledge of herbal remedies.
• The Mentor: Parodied when she plays the 'Legendary Dragon Master' in Luke's film, in BW038.
• Mirror Character:
  • To her rival Georgia, both being rather hypocritical and immature despite constantly asserting otherwise. They come to respect each other more and more as time goes on.
  • Ash sympathizes with Iris' cocky attitude and lack of openness, having been like her when starting his journey. However, he sometimes argues with her when she calls him out on his immaturity. They both aspire beyond their Champion titles, with Ash wanting to be a Pokémon Master and Iris aspiring to be a Dragon Master.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Iris is the Mean to Ash's In-Between and Cilan's Nice. Though she's good at heart, she's also a hypocritical Tsundere who often starts arguments with her friends over small things. Ash, though Hot-Blooded and stubborn, mostly just argues with Iris in response to her prodding, while Cilan acts as the mediator between the two.
• Noble Savage: Between her aforementioned Granola Girl tendencies, her preference towards swinging from vines, her childhood, and her using drums and face paint in Ash's battle against Roxie to counter the latter's (punk) band, it seems like the anime favors the "Native American" interpretation of "brown". Especially when we finally see the Village of Dragons.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: In the first episode of season 16, she laughs a lot like this when disguised as a Proper Lady, mocking the actual Proper Ladies.
• No Social Skills: Due to being Raised by Wolves, it's shown that she wasn't always good at socializing with her peers.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: After leaving Ash's group, she ended up eventually becoming the Champion of Unova.
  • In JN109, she's revealed to have risen to The Master's Eight before Ash did, even after her earlier loss to him.
• Parental Abandonment: She never mentions anything about her parents and is obviously an orphan. Martha is probably enough as a parent.
• Parental Substitute: She's essentially Axew's mother in every way that counts.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Wears one in Journeys for her battle against Ash. Specifically, her Champion dress.
• Plucky Girl: As a child, she never gave up on her goal especially when it came to defeating and later befriending Drilbur. However, she loses it almost instantly when she loses to Drayden and her Excadrill no longer listened to her. This clearly shows in her first appearance in the series.
• Raisedby Wolves: In the flashback, she is shown to be playing with Pokémon and doesn't seem to have a family as she sees the Pokémon as family, friends, and teachers for how to battle.
• Small Name, Big Ego: She knows what she's doing, don't question her! While she's later revealed to be a lot more experienced than she initially seemed, she's still a young trainer with much to learn, and despite her claims is no less prone to humiliating mistakes than Ash. This fact turns up a lot in her arguments against Georgia, further solidifying that they are Mirror Characters.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: As she aspires to become a Dragon Pokémon Master, she learns to develop her skills in reading the hearts and minds of Dragon Pokémon to understand them better. She later puts this to good use to help Ash's Dragonite love battling, as it didn't want to lose for its trainer's sake, and was taking the stakes far too seriously. This cost her the World Championships battle, but brought her closer to her dream.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Though their personalities are distinct, her role is quite similar to Misty's - even moreso than the comparison between Cilan and Brock. To wit: both are - or otherwise connected to, a Gym Leader; both want to master a specific Pokémon type; both often function as the Only Sane Woman of their group, claiming to be more mature than Ash (though she clearly isn't at times); and finally, both have a crippling fear of an entire Pokémon 'Type'.
• Taught by Experience: Iris clearly states to Drayden that her training experience comes from training in the forests all of her life. As a result, she has been able to win 99 battles in a row.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Best Wishes, Iris was an above average trainer, but was decisively weaker than Gym Leaders such as Drayden and Clair. By Journeys, she's become the Unova League Champion. In JN109, it's revealed that she's climbed up to the Masters Eight, managing to reach it before Ash in spite of her earlier loss to him, and in JN117, she managed to knock down 2 of Cynthia's Pokemon before losing to Garchomp. This is in stark contrast to her first battle with Cynthia in Best Wishes, where Garchomp was plainly toying with Axew even in a practice match.
• Tragic Dropout: Subverted. In the past, she originally attended Opelucid Academy in order to learn more to become a Dragon Master. But the school's environment clashing with her usual free-spiritedness, and the fact that she was Raised by Wolves, left her with an inability to transition to urban city life. After failing to make friends with the other students, struggling academically, and losing many Pokémon battles, she decided to drop out entirely and went back to the Dragon Village.
• Tsundere: She genuinely does care for her friends, but her insecurities lead her to hide it through insults and hypocrisy. She softens up as the series on, though she's not immune from falling back into old habits.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Her main dynamic with Ash and Cilan. While it's clear they're all friends, she often berates them for their Idiot Hero/Large Ham tendencies. Ash will usually argue back, while Cilan will try to calm things down.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Is absolutely terrified of Ice types. This first showed up with one of the sweetest and least threatening of them all, proving what a little wimp she can really be at times. She seems to have gotten over her fear by Journeys judging from her amazed reaction to Diantha's Aurorus, though this isn't commented on.
• Wild Hair: That hair is VERY long, don't you think? Also, take a look literally◊.
• The Worf Effect: Despite becoming a Champion, Iris's status in Journeys is mainly used to show off how powerful her opponents are, losing to Ash in the Great Class and then Cynthia in the first round of the Masters Tournament.

Iris' Pokémon

In General

• Four-Temperament Ensemble: In Black and White:
  • Axew is Sanguine.
  • Excadrill is Phlegmatic.
  • Emolga is Choleric.
  • Dragonite is Melancholic.
• Freudian Trio: In the first season of Black and White.
  • The Kirk: Axew.
  • The McCoy: Emolga.
  • The Spock: Excadrill.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Averted, most likely because Dragon-types are one of the rarest (second only to Ghost and that's only when counting Legendary Pokémon). Excadrill was also her first Pokémon, though Axew really kind of qualifies as her 'Starter'. With Dragonite's capture, she finally has a second Dragon-type on her team.
  • In her Side Story episode, where she travels to Johto to have a battle with Clair, she captures a Gible - now 60% of her Mons are Dragon-types.

Axew-Fraxure-Haxorus (Kibago-Onondo-Ononokus)

Voiced in Japanese by: Minami Tsuda (Kibago), Tatsuki Kobe (Ononokus)

Voiced in English by: Kayzie Rodgers (Axew), Marc Thompson (Haxorus)

Axew is Iris' first Dragon, and was given to Iris a few days after hatching so she could quest with him, ultimately to evolve him into a Haxorus. He's very friendly and caring, though a little childish at times. While starting off as a weak Pokémon, Axew shows promise of great potential as it learns several powerful attacks during the Best Wishes series.

In Journeys, Axew has been revealed to have fulfilled his dream of becoming a Haxorus. Since then he has become Iris's Ace Pokémon.

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• 11th-Hour Superpower: Axew learns a new, powerful move once per every major battle, first learning Outrage when facing Luke's Golett, and later Giga Impact when facing Cynthia's Garchomp. Played very straight with Outrage, an attack he has never uses again for the rest of Best Wishes. But in Journeys, Outrage has become Haxorus's Signature Move.
• The Ace: By the time of Journeys he has become this to Iris now that he evolved into a Haxorus.
• Attack Backfire: Before it was mastered, his Dragon Rage often recoiled and caused huge craters where he was.
• The Baby of the Bunch: His position in The Team — he was a day old when Iris first obtained him. He slowly grows a lot stronger though, and by Journeys is out of this role completely.
• Big Brother Instinct: Towards Ash's Scraggy, which evolved later into Heterosexual Life-Partners; he was certainly very happy to have someone younger to look after.
• Breath Weapon: Unsurprisingly, Axew's Dragon Rage is fired from his mouth. As a Haxorus, he has gained a new one; Dragon Pulse.
• Butt-Monkey: Rarely. Axew can be a victim of some slapstick.
• Cheerful Child: Axew is quite young and he is a very cheerful and playful Pokémon.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: He gets one against Cynthia's Garchomp in Journeys. While Haxorus puts up a good fight and gets in a few attacks, Garchomp ultimately proves to be superior after Mega Evolving, with no visible damage by the end in contrast to the badly bruised and exhausted Haxorus.
• Demoted to Extra: Played with. While he remains Iris's Signature Mon in Journeys and is now her strongest Pokémon as well, due to his much larger size as a Haxorus, he now stays in his Poké Ball outside of battle and is no longer treated as a major cast member such as Pikachu or Piplup. Not much is known about his new personality after evolving.
• Distressed Dude: He gets kidnapped a lot. And unlike Togepi, he's aware of the distress when he isn't sleeping.
• Forgot About His Powers: Despite learning Outrage in his battle against Luke, Axew never uses it again for the remainder of Best Wishes. At one point, Cilan even indicated that Axew's only two moves were Scratch and Dragon Rage, suggesting that everyone really had forgotten he could use the move. He finally uses the move again as a Haxorus in Journeys, averting this.
• Gender Flip: Kinda. In the games, Iris had only a female Fraxure and a female Haxorus, but this Axew is a male. After Axew's final evolution into Haxorus and having taken the role of Iris's Ace Pokémon, this Haxorus is effectively a male version of his game counterpart.
• Head Pet: Axew likes to hide in Iris's ginormous hair. Now as an Haxorus, he is too big to fulfill this role and resides in a Poké Ball now.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Increasingly so with Ash's Scraggy. The two are friendly enough and equal enough that they clearly have a very close relationship, to the extent that Axew has nightmares about Scraggy leaving the group. During Scraggy's Clubsplosion battle in BW070, he watches Scraggy use Focus Blast with glistening eyes.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: His dream was revealed to be to evolve to its final stage, Haxorus. However, considering he couldn't even defeat a newborn Pokémon, he evidently has a-ways to go. Subverted as of BW029 where Axew is able to dodge Scraggy's attack and defeat it with Dragon Rage. Strangely enough, Axew never showed signs of evolving even once during the entirety of Best Wishes. He achieves his goal off-screen between Iris's appearance in the second Best Wishes special and her return to the series in Journeys.
• Irony: He only uses Outrage once in the entirety of Best Wishes. In Journeys, it's the only one of his original moveset that has stuck around.
• Mythology Gag: Axew's dream of evolving is a nod to Iris's team in the games, who owns both of Axew's evolved forms as a Gym Leader in Pokémon White. In Journeys, he has finally accomplished this dream, matching the ace Haxorus she uses in Black 2 and White 2.
• Nice Guy: Very mellow compared to Iris' other Pokémon. Of course, there was that one time he fought with Pikachu because a Darumaka had stolen his food; and that other time where he accidentally beans both Oshawott and Pansage in the head with maracas, causing a fight between them and Pikachu. In fairness, he was still just a kid.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up:
  • Like Piplup before him, though it defeats the premise of Iris' reason for training him, especially considering it was established early on that Axew wanted to become a Haxorus one day. Also, like Pikachu, he never goes inside a Poké Ball and always rests inside Iris's hair, to the point where his scene where he's given to Iris shows him hatching out of his egg.
  • Defied Trope in Pokémon Journeys which shows that Iris's Axew was revealed to have fully evolved into Haxorus in JN065.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Axew is a pure Dragon-Type. He keeps his typing after evolving all the way to Haxorus.
  • Axew's Dragon-type moves were Dragon Rage and Outrage. He has forgotten Dragon Rage and Haxorus has learned Dragon Pulse and Breaking Swipe.
• Manchild: Subtly implied; after Haxorus's lost to Ash's Dragonite, Haxorus is sitting in an oddly childish manner, suggesting that a little bit of his Axew personality is still in him.
• Nasal Weapon: Before he could master Dragon Rage, his attempts came off as sneezes. Cilan (and Ash) even playfully calls it a "dragon sneeze", much to Iris' chagrin.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Even before mastering Dragon Rage; as a matter of fact, he can cause a lot of damage because he couldn't use it properly (this prompting Cilan to call it a "Dragon Sneeze", much to Iris' chagrin). He does learn Outrage and Giga Impact.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he uses Outrage, his eyes glow red as he beats the opponent up.
• Signature Mon: Iris's overall Signature Mon throughout the entire series. Even when he served mainly as Iris's little mascot while Excadrill and later Dragonite served as her aces, Axew's position as the Signature Mon was unchallenged. His evolution to Haxorus cemented him as Iris's new ace, completely overshadowing the other two in the process.
• Signature Move: Initially, Axew's Signature Move was Dragon Rage, but later it became Giga Impact, signifying that it went from a weak little dragon to much more potent Pokémon. As Haxorus, Outrage has become his Signature Move which he has completely mastered unlike his younger self.
• Sword Beam: Axe beam, actually, which is how Haxorus uses Psycho Cut. He fires that move from his axe-shaped tusks.
• Tail Slap: Knows Breaking Swipe in Journeys.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • It first took one once it had finally mastered Dragon Rage, allowing it to become a better battler.
  • Later on in BW042, Axew learns Outrage and beats the crap out of Luke's Golett.
  • And again when he learns Giga Impact during his fight against Cynthia's Garchomp.
  • Strangely enough, during the entirety of Best Wishes, Axew never showed signs of evolution in spite of all the levels he took. Journeys changes that, where he's evolved all the way into a Haxorus. And Iris helped him developed a tactic to get rid of the confusion status from Outrage by bashing his head on the ground immediately after suffering the effect.
• Unstoppable Rage: Axew learns Outrage during his battle with Luke's Golett and demolishes it while using that move. He doesn't stop even after the battle is already over for a minute.
• Wimp Fight: The sparring matches between Axew and Ash's Scraggy. Subverted later on as Axew starts holding his own in battle.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Though he initially puts up a fight and takes down Ash's Dracovish with one attack, he ultimately loses his first onscreen battle as Haxorus to Ash's Dragonite in order to establish the power of Ash's Dragon-type. Downplayed in that Iris pausing the battle to calm down Dragonite may have contributed to his loss.
  • He loses again against Cynthia's Mega Garchomp as another reminder of how immensely powerful she is. While he puts up a much, much better fight than he did in Best Wishes, he's ultimately outmatched and overpowered after going all out.

Drilbur-Excadrill (Mogurew-Doryuzu)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kiyotaka Furushima

Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland, Billy Bob Thompson (Journeys)

As a Drilbur, he was Iris' Ace, racking up an enormous winning streak. On introduction as an Excadrill, however, he had lost his edge, and refused to obey Iris. This turned out to be because he felt the end of his winning streak was a failure to Iris. Once he opens back up, his determination, very similar to Ash's Snivy, returns.

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• The Ace: 99 victories in a row alongside Iris, and consistently shown to be powerful afterward. His position has been taken by Dragonite, though.
• Apathetic Pet: He usually ignores Iris and spends most of his time curled up in "drilling" pose. This is later subverted when it's revealed that he only ignores Iris because he's afraid of disappointing her, and he becomes obedient to her again after they make amends with each other.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Knows Focus Blast.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Worse than Emolga at this; he wouldn't take any of Iris' attitude and outright refused to fight at first. That said, when Scolipede knocked it aside, he wrecked that shit and went right back to sleep afterwards. Now if Iris can actually command that.
  • Averted as of "Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster!". Excadrill's reasons for not listening to Iris were due to his thoughts of being a failure to her.
• Close-Range Combatant: Initially, Excadrill knew four direct contact moves: Dig, Drill Run, Metal Claw, and Fury Swipes. This plays a role in Excadrill's disobedience arc, as Iris learns that he would have benefited from learning a long-range attack against Drayden. As a result, they train to teach Excadrill Focus Blast, averting this.
• David Versus Goliath: In the Club Battle tournament, Excadrill fights Pikachu in the finals. Being bigger and having a huge type advantage, Excadrill is the Goliath. And despite Pikachu's high amount of skills, Excadrill wins.
• Demoted to Extra: He suffered from this after Iris caught Dragonite, rarely being used from that point onward.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Primary type (Ground), knowing Dig, Mud Slap, and Drill Run.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Secondary type is Steel and he knows Metal Claw.
• Fast Tunnelling: Knows Dig.
• Forgiveness: Excadrill distrusted Iris after an incident involving Drayden's Haxorus as he feared of letting her down again and didn't listen to her guidances. Also, during the battle, Excadrill realized that Haxorus was too strong and would lose but Iris kept pressuring him to fight. However, in Iris Against the Dragon Buster, Iris realized why Excadrill lost faith in her and apologized to him for her hasty actions. Touched by her apology and realizing that learning a long range move would help in battle, Excadrill left to train in order to learn Focus Blast but was joined by Iris as they spent the whole night perfecting the move. After fully mastering Focus Blast, Excadrill fully forgives Iris and regains his loyalty to her.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Excadrill is a huge softie and actually disobeyed Iris because he didn't want to let her down.
• I Owe You My Life: Why he bonded with Iris initially because she saved him when he fell down from a cliff.
• Keet: Formerly as Drilbur.
• Lost in Translation: Excadrill is based on a mole, which translates to "earth dragon" in Japanese as a Stealth Pun reference to her goal.
• My Greatest Failure: In a flashback during "Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster!", it's revealed that after losing a battle against Drayden, Excadrill feels that he has failed Iris as a Pokémon. This is also the reason he refused to listen to her in fear that he'll fail her again.
• One-Hit Kill: In Journeys, he defeats Cynthia's Gastrodon with the Death or Glory Attack Horn Drill.
• No-Sell: As a Steel-Type, his Poison-Type immunity was brought up during his introduction. As a Ground-Type, his Electric-Type immunity has been brought up at least twice.
• Signature Move: Drill Run and Focus Blast.
• Sore Loser: This is the main reason he started disobeying Iris. He felt that since he lost, he let Iris down and disobeyed her as a coping mechanism.
• Spam Attack: Formerly knew Fury Swipes.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: As Excadrill - before evolving, he was more openly emotional.
• Third-Option Adaptation: Was Iris' starter as a Drilbur, or at least the first Pokémon that she considered hers.
• This Is a Drill: Has claws that are like drills.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Had this relationship with Iris. When he failed to defeat Drayden's Haxorus, he was disappointed and it closed himself off from Iris until the latter apologized for her inconsideration. The poor thing was also sad after he lost to Throh.
• When He Smiles: After spending many episodes hiding his face from Iris and her friends, he finally cracks a smile after he finally starts obeying her again.
• Wolverine Claws: Knows Metal Claw.
• The Worf Effect: He was utterly demolished in the Donamite in order to reinforce what a beast Montgomery's Throh is.

Emolga (Emonga)

Voiced by: Mika Kanai

Emolga is a cute Electric-Type with some rather nasty habits, a taste for apples, and a distaste for hard work and responsibility.

---

• Alpha Bitch: Ultimately leaning towards Lovable Alpha Bitch, as she's quite the snob at times.
• Badass Adorable: A Ridiculously Cute Critter who also happens to be a fierce battler.
• Big Eater: And often manipulates others into getting food for her.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts all kind and innocent but underneath her cute side, she's kind of a bitch. She uses Attract to steal food from others, spontaneously uses Volt Switch to get out of fights, and tries to use her cuteness to get out of trouble or get others to do things for her. Snivy won't fall for it though.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Emolga acts like a spoiled brat sometimes.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Just like Ash’s Charizard, she’s a competent enough battler. It’s just that she doesn't like to take orders for long.
• Bullying the Dragon: Once pretended to defect to Team Rocket just to annoy Iris. Despite their return to bumbling villains, the trio's retaliation once they found out made quite clear that using them for a prank was a very, very bad idea.
• Combat Pragmatist: Uses Attract to incapacitate male Pokémon.
• Designated Girl Fight: With Ash's Snivy when they both appear on screen.
• Emotion Bomb: Knows Attract.
• Flight: Her secondary typing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In later episodes, she has a hidden nice side, if still having an occasionally nasty sense of humour.
• Lazy Bum: Began as this, as she would use Volt Switch send out others to battle for her.
• Little Miss Badass: Emolga is pint-sized and a fierce battler.
• Lovable Coward: Will instantly bail when faced with something dangerous.
• Out of Focus: Next to Axew being a mascot and Excadrill and Dragonite having roles as Charizard analogues, Emolga's been getting next to no screentime to compensate. Even her stated rivalry with Ash's Snivy ends up as little more than a cliffnote due to how few times they interact. It's especially strange when you remember that Emolga is supposed to be another Pikaclone. She did get A Day in the Limelight during one of the very last episodes of the region however.
• The Rival: To Ash's Snivy.
• Shock and Awe: She's an electric flying squirrel.
• Signature Move: Volt Switch, which allows her to switch out with a teammate if she isn't bothered to fight.
• The Smurfette Principle: Iris' only female team member.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Has become kinder and less selfish over the course of the show, though she still retains some of her more snobbish tendencies and her enmity with Snivy.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She loves apples.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Emolga uses this on everyone if she's accused of anything. Naturally, it works half the time but does not work on Ash's Snivy due to also being a female.

Dragonite (Kairyu)

Voiced by: Kensuke Sato

Dragonite was caught at Undella Town after the twerps helped him when he was raging after an injury. He is like no other Dragonite, as he has a salty attitude, a very short temper, and a distaste for losing. It took a while for him to trust Iris, and even once he became obedient, his rebel streak remained.

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• The Ace: He has become Iris' ace Pokémon after his capture, taking Excadrill's position. Later on it drops out of this trope following a rather embarrassing losing record and having this position firmly taken by Axew when he evolves into Haxorus.
• Always Someone Better: Ash's Charizard serves as this to him in their short-lived rivalry, as Charizard completely dominates their first battle and No-Sells every single one of Dragonite's attacks. Had N not called it off, it's safe to assume he would have easily won.
• Badass Armfold: Gives us one of this after OHKOing Dawn's Mamoswine with Dragon Rush, just to emphasize to the audience "I AM THE BOSS!"
• Bash Brothers: On occasion with Ash's Charizard.
• The Berserker: Fights like this when he loses his temper: throwing his full weight at the offending party with reckless abandon and sometimes taking his fury out on the environment, heedless of any of Iris' commands. This actually works to his detriment: without Iris' guidance or any semblance of self-control, Dragonite's raging comes off as an aimless, frantic tantrum rather than Shonen-style Unstoppable Rage. Krookodile attacks him while he's having one of his fits and not paying attention, and then easily counters a sloppily-executed Dragon Rush for the finishing blow.
• Blood Knight: Dragonite is obsessed with fighting strong opponents and tends to lend them some hits on him.
• Broken Bird: Despite his tough demeanor, Dragonite is still hurting from his horrible experience with humans. Even Cynthia comments that he can be this.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Ash's Dragonite. While Ash's is a loving and affectionate Gentle Giant who was obedient from the get-go, and had no problem accepting help from humans; Iris' is an uncooperative Blood Knight who was distrustful of humans and had a horrible temper.
• Didn't See That Coming: He had prepared himself to intimidate and take down Ash's Dragonite, but was unnerved when they were swapped out for Ash's Dracovish, a genderless hybrid fossil resurrection. It's bizarre appearance disturbed him, allowing Dracovish to gain the upper hand quickly. It grabbed ahold of Dragonite's head with its jaws. Unable to wriggle free or hear commands from Iris, Dracovish takes him down with Ice Fang very quickly.
• Expy:
  • Of Ash's Charizard, as the extremely powerful but disobedient hothead of the group. Dawn likens his attitude to her Mamoswine as well, surprising Iris.
  • His debut episode and backstory makes it an expy of an earlier, equally vicious Dragonite that went on a rampage after injuries from a fierce battle.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: Doesn't get intimidated by Ice-type attacks and powers through them in his bouts with Mamoswine and Beartic. Oddly doesn't take his other weaknesses, Rock and Dragon, anywhere near as well, though. He's knocked out by Ash's Dracovish's Ice Fang in Journeys.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Knows Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunder Punch all in one package.
• Flight: Secondary type.
• Flying Firepower: Able to breathe fire and fly.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Which is very different from others of his kind. This is shown perfectly against his battle with Ash's Krookodile.
• Honor Before Reason: During his battle with Drayden's Druddigon, he initially chose not to fly so it would be a fair fight (despite having wings itself, Druddigon can't fly).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Very subtly implied in his introduction episode, where he shields a flock of Pidove from an attack by a Hydreigon he was battling at the time. Over time, he shows a bit more kindness in spite of himself.
• The Juggernaut: He bats aside Hidden Power spheres like they're nothing, breaks out of an ice coffin made from two Ice Beams in a second, a direct Blizzard attack barely slows him down, and even takes a close-range Ice Shard with minimal damage. This is heavily downplayed after he loses to Ash's Krookodile; when he battles Ash's Charizard, even Dragon Rush doesn't leave a scratch on him, and his battles against other Pokémon treat him as far less overpowered than he was initially built up to be.
• Luminescent Blush: Has a small one after Iris praises him when she returns to her home village sometime before the Unova League.
• Non-Standard Character Design: His eyes are distinctly sharp and aggressive-looking when compared to other Dragonite, which is the first hint toward his personality.
• Perpetual Frowner: As a sharp contrast to most of his species, which embody the Gentle Giant archetype. Dragonite is always frowning and is grumpy and angry 99% of the time and is highly aggressive.
• Redemption Demotion: Sort of. While Dragonite wasn't a villain, he initially had a nasty temper and was highly disobedient, yet was so powerful he could shrug off Ice-type moves with ease and one-shot powerhouses such as Dawn's Mamoswine. Ironically, after he started obeying Iris, he completely lost his status as The Juggernaut, becoming significantly less tanky and failing to get any official wins in battle.
• Replacement Flat Character: Somewhat akin to Ash's Charizard, starting off a very unruly and disobedient powerhouse. Making it even more poetic when he made a rival out of the latter, who by that point had Undying Loyalty to Ash.
• The Rival: Becomes this with Ash's Charizard immediately upon meeting him.
• Signature Move: Dragon Rush, which is his strongest move and only Dragon-type move.
• Sore Loser: Oh boy, is he ever! One attack from Krookodile's newly learned Dragon Claw, and he realizes that he's outmatched. He starts getting angry and using three of his four attacks all over the place.
• Strong as They Need to Be: In his early appearances in Black/White, he was able to shrug off Ice-type attacks with minimal damage despite having a double weakness. Yet in Journeys, he gets taken out by an Ice Fang from Ash’s Dracovish.
• Too Awesome to Use: Even though he allowed himelf to be caught by Iris, he initially refused to obey her. Considering he fought off two Ice Beams and a Blizzard from Georgia's Beartic and multiple Ice Shards and an Ice Fang from Dawn's Mamoswine — moves that all of which Dragonite specifically is profoundly weak to — he was likely too high a level to take her seriously. She eventually did earn his trust, though ironically, he never won any battles after becoming obedient.
• Underestimating Badassery: Implied to be the reason why he initially obeyed Iris while battling Krokorok. This comes back to bite him when Krokorok evolves into Krookodile and attacks him with Dragon Claw.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Especially when he first appeared, Dragonite refused to do anything other than just overpower whoever he fought. Learned some humility when he lost to Krookodile and when Iris defended him in the fight with the Kami Trio.
• Unstoppable Rage: Takes defeats very, very poorly. The kind of 'poorly' that screams like a bloody psychopath, blasts craters in the ground with Thunder Punch, freezes the walls with Ice Beams and tries to roast everything around him with Flamethrower.
• The Worf Barrage: Dragon Rush, his most powerful attack, has failed to defeat anyone after Mamoswine.
• The Worf Effect: Any defeats seem to enforce how badass his opponent is, such as Ash's Krookodile, Charizard and Dracovish; Drayden's and Clair's Druddigon; Cynthia's Milotic. Any of the battles he's actually won were when he wasn't obeying Iris.

Gible (Fukamaru)

Voiced by: Kiyotaka Furushima

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• Character Tics: Like Ash's Gible before him, he seems to like biting people on the head - mostly Axew, in this case.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: He seems very much unaware of his surrounding and all around him, simply doing his own thing and not always aware of the trouble he might be causing.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Knows Dig, which is also his only confirmed move as of yet.
• Fast Tunnelling: Knows Dig.
• Hero of Another Story: Both he and his new trainer, when they first met. As Iris finds out, Gible had just been sleeping in a tree and minding his own business, when he accidentally fell out and landed on a Skarmory. Startled, the Steel/Flying Mon flew away with him stuck on its back, until he was dropped into Blackthorn City; the unfamiliar surroundings confused him for being so different from his peacful forest home. He causes damage to the city and is nearly run out of town when Iris helps him out, and she takes him to see Clair. He is then given the chance to live in peace at the Dragon's Den, but decides that he wants to accompany Iris on her personal journey.
• I Owe You My Life: He falls off a clock tower in Blackthorn while trying to use the height to get a good look at the city; thankfully, he manages to catch one of the clock's arms, and upon spotting him Iris climbs the tower to save his life. This makes him fond of her, and he ultimately decides to join her before she leaves.
• Last Episode, New Character: Iris meets him in a post-series special while she's on business in Blackthorn City and after she's parted company with Ash.
• One-Shot Character: He only appears in a brief Flashback in Journeys, so his only proper appearance is in the undubbed post-Unova Iris special.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The notch in the fin indicates this is a male Gible.
• Tunnel King: Typical of his species.

Cilan (Dent)

Voiced in Japanese by: Mamoru Miyano

Voiced in English by: Jason Griffith

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Bruno Coronel

First appeared next to Iris as a silhouette. He is a Pokémon Connoisseur. He's also one-third of the first Gym Leader trio in Unova, focusing on the Grass-Type.

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• The Ace: He's really good at many things from battling, evaluating, cooking, fishing, detective work and acting.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Inverted — the anime simplified his design and made him look a little childish and/or like Brock for the same of being easier to adjust to. Most fans think he still looks pretty good though.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the games, Cilan is polite to the point of meekness, often stammering. Cilan in the anime, on the other hand, is MUCH less shy.
• Agent Peacock: More fabulous than feminine, but very, very fabulous.
• Agent Scully: In the museum episode.
• Always Camp: Bi, straight, gay, asexual...whatever the case may be, Cilan will always be fabulous.
• Always Someone Better: His one-sided rivalry with Burgundy. No matter how hard she tries to upstage him, she never managed to "exact revenge" on him for crushing her in a gym battle. This is best demonstrated by the fact he's an A-Class Connoisseur who's still a well-regarded gym leader that managed to place higher than her in every competition they participated in, while she was stuck as a C-Class Connoisseur that didn't get very far, and is usually considered a minor annoyance by most of the Unovan rivals.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Keeps coming up with "scientific" explanations for the occurrences at the Nacrene Museum, without considering the possibility of a Ghost Pokémon.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: His job is to evaluate the relationship between trainers and their Pokémon. He is also an excellent strategist in battle.
• Ax-Crazy: Whenever he starts hamming it up. Which is often.
• Badass Normal: At least when it comes to fishing. He caught Stunfisk without using any Pokémon!
• Badass in a Nice Suit: With a matching green bowtie and Waistcoat of Style.
• Berserk Button: Despite being the eldest (and most logical) of the trio in Black and White, he's also the one most easily set off, to the point of completely losing emotional control - particularly in battle or when his cooking is ruined.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He has shown shades of a darker personality in a few episodes. Just ask Burgundy, who suffered a Humble Pie from him. Most of the time, it's played for laughs.
• Bishie Sparkle: Constantly seems to happen around him, especially during his "tasting time" sequences.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns for the second Post-XY special, and runs into Clemont and Bonnie in the process. He returns in JN132 and Aim To Be A Pokémon Master's third episode.
• The Cameo: in JN106, Team Rocket's radio show gets a message from someone calling themselves "Radio Connoisseur" (heavily implied to be Cilan).
• Cassandra Truth: Regarding the Purrloin in "Purrloin: Sweet or Sneaky?".
• Catchphrase: "It's ______ time!"
• Chick Magnet: The Striaton Gym's customers are mostly female, and each and every one of them are huge fans of the triplets in general.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • It's hidden beneath the layers of campiness and Bishōnen, but this guy is a very competent battler indeed; ask Burgundy, who got destroyed by Dwebble and Pansage, with no meaningful damage done to either of them. He was downright toying with her Sawsbuck before the finishing blow. He's not a Gym Leader for nothing.
  • And to add to that, he caught Stunfisk using only his fishing rod. He's just that Badass.
  • It just keeps piling up, what with Dwebble demolishing Trip's Gurdurr.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: After he loses to Ash, almost all of Cilan's battle after that are one sided in his favor. He easily destroyed Burgundy and her team without taking any damage and demolished Trip's Gurdurr during the Don Battle tournament. He then had his record broken by Luke, due to his own fault of giving the up-and-comer too much advice and trying to troll him with a Stunfisk in a one vs. one Pokémon match instead of using his other more experienced Pokémon. He and Ash were later victims of one at the hands of the Subway Masters. It got worse when he went up against Skyla.
• Curtains Match the Window: Green hair and eyes.
• Disproportionate Retribution: On the receiving end by Burgundy, who's made it her life's mission to destroy him when he handily beat her in her first gym battle. Of course, she claims he mocked her defeat, when Cilan is only known to offer constructive criticism.
• Drama Queen: Sometimes Cilan makes the biggest ordeals out of meanial things, like his cutlery getting dirty.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: With his fishing rod.
• Elemental Hair Colors: He has green hair to go with his signature Pokémon, Pansage, who is a Grass type.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Cilan seems to get the attention of men as well.
• Evil Is Hammy: He expresses this philosophy when playing the villain in Luke's movie.
• Evil Laugh: In Burgundy's Imagine Spot in Episode 19.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: He spends a lot of time during battles flamboyantly explaining his strategies (as well as simply talking about how good his Pokémon are). Sometimes this backfires on him, as quite a few of the individual battles he has lost he could have potentially won had he not spent so much time talking and allowed his opponent to come up with a counterattack. Though it's somewhat justified since this is part of a gym leader's job and consequently it's a force of habit.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: When a Yamask was haunting the Nacrene Museum, Cilan refused to believe so, coming up with scientific explanations for metal to be floating through glass. Considering his partner is a monkey that can use the power of the sun, it makes little sense he wouldn't be more open-minded.
  • He's very dismissive about N being able to talk to Pokémon, despite Meowth being a Pokémon that can talk to humans, though to be fair, Meowth actually knows human language.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic.
• Freudian Trio:
  • The Kirk: To his brothers.
  • The Spock: To Ash and Iris.
• Gratuitous English: "IT'S TASTING TIME!"
  • He'll say "good taste" when catching a Pokémon.
• Hidden Depths: Who would have thought that the camp Team Chef would be a science geek who's a big fan of UFOs trains, and fishing to boot?
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His overconfidence and hamminess contributed to all of his onscreen losses so far.
• Large Ham: Occasionally becomes this when he gets to showcase his skills. Can be extreme even for this series.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Any time he and Burgundy compare evaluations.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: "It's tasting time!" This actually backfires on him in the Donamite battle though, where he gets a non-literal Talk to the Fist while setting up his evaluation.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Feminine Boy to Iris' Masculine Girl.
• Mr. Fanservice: Extremely handsome and fabulous.
• Nice Guy: Most of the time. When you piss him off, he becomes dangerous.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Cilan is the Nice to Iris's Mean and Ash's In-Between, acting as the Cool Big Bro who tries to calm the arguments between the bratty Jerk with a Heart of Gold Iris and the reckless Idiot Hero Ash.
• Noodle Incident: He seems to have had a bad experience with a Purrloin in the past, but refuses to go into detail.
  • You Do Not Want To Know: His reaction when Ash and Iris (on separate occasions) asked him about it.
  • The Unreveal: Ash and Iris eventually learn of why Cilan fears Purrloin early on in the Decolore Island saga. Unfortunately, the audience doesn't.
• One Degree of Separation: After leaving the main group, he runs into Brock, another fellow Gym Leader and former traveling companion of Ash, but they don't learn about their connection to him until some point before JN132, where they and Alexis watch Ash's final match against Leon. Aim To Be A Pokémon Master features both of them as having visited Galar when Ash and Misty arrive there, but while Brock rejoins his old friends, Cilan returns to Unova so he can attend the debut of a new rail coach Ingo and Emmett are debuting.
• Only Sane Man: Out of the three, Cilan is the most level headed and mature.
• Out of Focus: He didn't start out too badly, but eventually the number of his focus episodes became extremely sparse.
• Parental Abandonment: His past was barely revealed. Even in BW140, a flashback was shown of Cilan and his brothers as children, still there are no parents present, just them playing with their Pokémon alone in a meadow.
• Rail Enthusiast: Trains are one of the many big things he's enthusiastic about. Specifically, he's a fan of the Unovan Subway system and its caretakers, Ingo and Emmett, though he does mention there's a lot of different subsections of rail fans.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: One of each to his brothers:
  • Red: To Cress' blue.
  • Blue: To Chili's red.
• Renaissance Man: He's a Pokémon connoisseur, a Supreme Chef, a Rail Enthusiast, an amateur detective, a movie buff, and has knowledge in quite a few other fields, too.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Cilan in one episode was right that a boys Cubchoo ran away from home for a reason but had the facts wrong.
• Running Gag: Whether it's Brock in Johto or with Clemont and Bonnie in Kalos, Cilan never caught on that they all share a mutual friend in Ash.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: In "Scare at the Litwick Mansion". And again multiple times in an episode involving a Purrloin.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Ash, and Stephan if the latter is present.
• Serious Business: He can get a little passionate about anything he's a Connoisseur of.
• Shirtless Scene: Already in "Minccino — Neat and Tidy!"
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Early on in the season's American advertising, no advertisements made any indication that he would be joining the group.
• Skintone Sclerae: One of only four important characters in the franchise to have this (the other two are Lenora's husband Hawes, Stephan and Lana).
• The Smart Guy: Cilan is shown to be very intelligent at times.
• Stealth Mentor: Toward Burgundy; he seems keen on actually helping her grow stronger, though she doesn't realize this.
• Supreme Chef: Much like Brock, Cilan is extremely skilled at cooking and is frequently praised for it. This isn't too surprising given that he ran a restaurant with his brothers before joining Ash.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Although having a different personality, he fills the same role as Brock. They both are former gym leaders (and family owning a gym), debut in the 5th episode of their introductory series, cook for their friends and Pokémon with high praise on the cooking, act as the mature elderly male in their teens, and eccentric at times (although for different reasons). Surprisingly, Cilan's Pokémon types are almost equal that of Brock's Pokémon during his time at Hoenn: Grass (Ludicolo + Pansage), Rock (Sudowoodo + Crustle), Bug (Forretress + Crustle), Ground (Marshtomp + Stunfisk), and Water (Ludicolo/Marshtomp + the former Basculin); the only exception type is Electric (Stunfisk), which Brock never owned.
• Team Chef: And ends up being a Supreme Chef.
• Uncatty Resemblance: To Pansage◊. They even have similar personalities.
• Unstoppable Rage: If Cilan doesn't agree with your methods as a Gym Leader, he is damn well going to let you know about it. When he finds out Skyla gives out badges without battling, he gets very angry indeed; getting right up in her face, challenging her to a full gym battle and nearly crushing one of his Poké Balls in rage. Unfortunately, this rage means he doesn't use his head like he usually does, and he ends up losing pretty badly.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Ash is horrified when he actually agrees to Burgundy's bet that if he loses against her, all of Ash's Pokémon will be replaced.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He has to cosplay as Elesa in an episode (though it was incredibly creepy how over-the-top his acting was) and dress as a pretty girl in another. Also interesting to note that he is so far the only one of Ash's male companions to crossdress other than Ash himself.
• Worthy Opponent: One of few "twerp" companions to believe in Team Rocket's worthiness to them (though in fairness he faced them at their best). While everyone is outraged by Meowth's Fake Defector scam, Cilan admits it was genuinely clever nevertheless.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Zigzagged. He'll try to explain supernatural activities with logic, but once this fails he's usually the first to freak out. However, he only seems to be afraid of poltergeists, and will calm down if he realises that the happenings are caused by Ghost Pokémon.
  • Played straight though with Purrloin. Even meeting the one on the cruise ship didn't cure him.
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Cilan claims to be a connoisseur at almost everything.

Cilan's Pokémon

• Freudian Trio:
  • The Kirk: Pansage
  • The McCoy: Stunfisk
  • The Spock: Dwebble-Crustle
• Out of Focus: All three of Cilan's Pokémon received very little spotlight throughout the series. Also, similar to Brock's original series Pokémon, they didn't really have much characterization either — Pansage gets a slightly better deal on this end, but Crustle and Stunfisk received almost no fleshing out past their capture episodes.

Pansage (Yanappu)

Voiced in Japanese by: Chika Fujimura

Voiced in English by: Eli James

Cilan's initial Pokémon, completing the trio with Cilan's brothers' other elemental monkeys. He's Cilan's signature Pokémon, but doesn't get much development.

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• Always Camp: Every bit as flamboyant as Cilan. Occasionally even mirrors his movements.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Well-mannered and kind most of the time, but when he was sent out in the middle of his nap by Volt Switch during a battle between Iris' Emolga and Bianca's Minccino, he got so pissed off he immediately powered up Solarbeam and destroyed Minccino in one hit.
• Bullet Seed: He literally knows that move and fires it from his mouth.
• Casting a Shadow: Knows Bite.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Knows Dig and Rock Tomb.
• Fast Tunnelling: Knows Dig.
• Green Thumb: Pansage is Grass-Type, being the third member of the Striaton Gym's elemental trio. While the Grass-Type is Cilan's speciality, Pansage is his only Grass-Type Pokémon.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Chili's Pansear. Their relationship is notably compared to the one between their owners, who are brothers and two of a triplet.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Pansage's Solarbeam. Unlike in the games, Pansage seems to shoot one of the most powerful grass-type moves without charging.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Knows Solarbeam.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: Seems to be fond of hitting his opponents in the rear end, first with Ash's Oshawott, and later with Burgundy's Sawsbuck.
• Nice Guy: He has the same personality as his trainer, but you don't want to piss him off.
• Out of Focus: In early promos of Black and White he was shown as a season mascot alongside Pikachu and Axew, but he doesn't get much more (and in some cases less) focus than any of the (supposedly) supporting Pokémon and has yet to show any distinct personality besides being a Pokémon version of his trainer. Despite being Cilan's first known Pokémon, it is almost completely overshadowed by Crustle in battle.
  • He even gets overshadowed by Stunfisk in the first Japanese opening for Best Wishes Season 2.
• The Power of the Sun: Solarbeam, again.
• Signature Mon: Cilan's most recurring Pokémon on hand. Though Cilan's other Pokémon like Crustle and Stunfisk would overshadow Pansage as his primary battler, Pansage remains his consistent companion.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Absolutely destroys Chili’s Pansear in battle despite being a grass type and Pansear’s fire typing gives it the type advantage. This is due to Chili’s focusing too much on offense and not enough on defense

Dwebble-Crustle (Ishizumai-Iwapalace)

Voiced in Japanese by: Shin-ichiro Miki

Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland

He first appeared when his house was taken by a bully. Cilan helped Dwebble to build a better house and to defeat the bully. He joins Cilan's team and would eventually become his ace.

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• The Ace: With no doubt, Crustle is Cilan's strongest Pokémon.
• Apologizes a Lot: Though he does it in Pokémon Speak.
• Badass Adorable: A cute rock crab who can kick ass.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He looks cute, is a Nice Guy, and Apologizes a Lot. But when he uses Shell Smash, you know shit is about to go down. He also knows Rock Wrecker, the strongest rock move in the game.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Primary type is Bug and he knows X-Scissor.
• Chekhov's Gun: The fluid he uses to make his rock home is shown briefly in his debut episode, then is used again in the Battle Subway two-parter to help break down a door and escape from Team Rocket.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Easily destroys his opponent after using Shell Smash. Opponents suffering this include Burgundy's Dewott, Trip's Gurdurr, Bianca and Juniper's Accelgor and Excavalier (after Ash's Boldore was KOed) and 2/3 of Skyla's team before he lost to her Swanna.
• Determinator: When his shell was stolen.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Secondary type (Rock).
• Elemental Baggage: Summons rocks literally out of thin air when using Rock Slide.
• Gentle Giant: As Crustle.
• Giant Enemy Crab: As Crustle.
• Heroic BSoD: While it wasn't anything to be ashamed of, he was still crushed when Skyla gave him his first loss, retreating into his shell with a miserable expression.
• Last Chance Hit Point: His ability is Sturdy.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Whenever he uses Shell Smash.
• Mighty Glacier: Before using Shell Smash, Dwebble can take a lot of attacks and hit back hard while being slow.
• Nice Guy: Friendly, sweet, and apologetic.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: A very little guy that can kick big butt.
• Signature Move: Shell Smash.

Stunfisk (Maggyo)

Voiced in Japanese by: Unshō Ishizuka

Voiced in English by: Bill Rogers

Stunfisk appeared alongside Palpitoad and both of them were captured by Cilan and Ash, respectively, at the same time. Stunfisk likes to electrocute other people and getting electrocuted himself.

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• Ascended Meme: Stunfisk is popular amongst Japanese players trolling their opponent. Cilan's Stunfisk is pretty much doing the same thing.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Primary type (Ground).
• Flying Seafood Special: No, really.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: His debut appearance showed him being an ally to the Palpitoad Ash catches. Despite this, the two are never shown interacting with each other afterwards.
• Gonk: Pretty ironic that a guy as fabulous as Cilan would catch somebody as ugly as him.
• Jerkass: Electrocutes Ash and Oshawott, forcing them to go to the surface. He then appeared above the water, gives Ash and Cilan his troll face and then goes back into the water. Ash is shouting at him shortly afterward.
  • To add to that, when Archen pecked him, Stunfisk's response was to electrocute Archen with a smile on his face.
• Making a Splash: Is an aquatic Pokémon and knows Scald.
• No-Sell: Being part-Ground-Type, it is immune to Electric-Type moves and loves getting shocked.
• Not Quite Flight: It can glide using its fins.
• Poisonous Person: Knows Sludge Bomb.
• Shock and Awe: Secondary type.
• Slasher Smile: Likes to do this to those he trolls.
• Token Evil Teammate: He isn't evil, but compared to Pansage and Dwebble, Stunfisk is pretty nasty.
• Took a Level in Kindness: A brief shot in BW062 shows him smiling as he watches the usual antics of the group, implying he's grown fond of everyone by this point.
• The Worf Effect: While not portrayed as particularly weak, he is constantly shown losing until the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup - where he defeats a second round opponent with his Sludge Bomb.

Ash's Pokémon

As Whole

• Ambiguous Gender: Mostly averted. Except for Boldore, all of Ash's Unova Pokémon have had their genders confirmed at some point.
• Badass Adorable: The majority of his team is small, cute and highly powerful.
• Badass Crew: While they lack the raw power of many of Ash's other teams, they make up for it with increased versatility owing to the team's larger size.
• The Bus Came Back: Ash uses a rotating team again in Aim to be a Pokémon Master, this time with all of his Pokémon. Besides Pikachu, he uses Pokémon of different generations in his current roster.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Due to the fact that Ash has caught more than five Pokémon in that region, not all of them can appear in the Unova movies. The Unova Starters are always present in every movie, even though Snivy was only shown in the credits of the 14th movie along with Swadloon, but Roggenrola was the only member to be absent. Scraggy is present in the 14th and 15th movie, and Tranquill only appears in the 14th movie. Boldore appears in the 15th movie and Leavanny appears in the 16th movie. Only Palpitoad and Krookodile don't appear in any of the three movies.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: This is the first time Ash himself has possessed all three of a region's Starter Pokémon since Johto.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Charizard joins the team for the last third of the Best Wishes series and replaces Unfezant for the remainder of it. Charizard also never gets rotated out, just like Pikachu.
• Jack of All Stats: With the exception of Krookodile, Pignite and maybe Leavanny they are not particularly powerful, but the sheer variety of Ash's Unova team gives him a lot more to work with.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: The only ones that reach their final stages are Unfezant, Leavanny, and Krookodile.
• Put on a Bus: Just like all the other Pokémon Ash catches, they're all left at Professor Oak's by the time XY starts.
• Rule of Three: The nine Unova Pokémon Ash has caught are in three different evolutionary states. Oshawott, Snivy and Scraggy are in their base form, Pignite, Boldore and Palpitoad are in their second stage, and Krookodile, Unfezant and Leavanny are in their final stage.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The Unova Starter trio get the most amount of screentime and are in Ash's party for most of the journey. At least one of them is guaranteed to be in his team, but it is most common that he has all three of them on hand. Scraggy is the non-Starter Pokémon who also gets more screentime than the rest. In the later parts of the series, the lineup is consistently made up of Pikachu, the Starter trio, Scraggy, Charizard and a rotating sixth member which is either Boldore, Leavanny or Krookodile. Unfezant and Palpitoad are out of the picture for the rest of the series until all Unova Pokémon migrate to Prof. Oak's lab.
• True Companions: Ash's Unova team do seem to be pretty close and would go out of their way for each other when they needed it the most, even when they sometimes argue.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Oshawott, Pignite and Snivy. This is the first confirmed case of this trope among Ash's regional starters.

Pidove-Tranquill-Unfezant (Mamepato-Hatoboh-Kenhallow)

Voiced in Japanese by: Chinami Nishimura

Voiced in English by: Erica Schroeder

She is the first Pokémon Ash captures in Unova. After being caught in the wild, she has become Ash's standard regional bird Pokémon, but she doesn't get much attention as Ash's keeps catching more Pokémon.

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• Blow You Away: Knows Gust and Air Cutter.
• Delayed Reaction: For some reason, her meeting with Scraggy. It might be contributed to the latter's strength, but tell that to the others, who reacted to Scraggy instantly...
• Demoted to Extra: The fact that she's been Out of Focus for most of the series and has less screentime than the other regional birds Ash had caught was already tough for Unfezant, but she's then Put on a Bus for the rest of the series in favor of Charizard. It's initially justified by the series to give Ash some extra firepower for the upcoming battle during the Episode of N arc, but Charizard does ultimately very little during the climatic battle and spends the rest of the series playing the role of the flying scout, a role that's played by all of Ash's regional birds. Basically, Charizard returned "to steal" Unfezant's role as a flying scout.
• Designated Girl Fight: Her battle with Snivy; justified because them being the same sex meant Attract didn't work, so she was the only member of Ash's team at the time who could properly face Snivy (as well as her type advantage giving her an edge).
• The Ditz: It's suggested she's a little slow on the draw and a little sensitive. Most obvious when she meets Scraggy for the first time, as she gets a Headbutt to the face and takes a bit to register what happened.
• Flight: Due to being a Flying-type.
• Out of Focus: The main purpose of Ash's bird Pokémon in previous regions was to pop Team Rocket's signature Meowth balloons. With that aspect of the show phased out, she didn't get a whole lot of screen time.
• Razor Wings: Knows Wing Attack.
• The Smurfette Principle: Was the only female on Ash's team in the beginning. This is actually exploited by Ash in the episode where he's trying to catch Snivy, who was abusing the move Attract to prevent his other Pokémon from fighting.
• Taking the Bullet: In BW109 (the first episode of Episode of N), Unfezant blocks the Bubble Beam + Hidden Power Combination Attack from Jessie's Frillish and James's Amoongus with her own body to protect Pikachu. Despite this, she still has enough energy left to defeat the two Pokémon and to keep up with Team Rocket's rocket-powered balloon and then saves Nanette's Tepig from falling.
• Team Mom: Comes off as one as she is shown to be rather caring. She was the only one to not fight back against Scraggy when he was being aggressive, and in BW036 went the extra mile to teach Archen how to fly.

Oshawott (Mijumaru)

Voiced in Japanese by: Misato Fukuen

Voiced in English by: Lisa Ortiz

Originally a Starter Pokémon from Professor Juniper's lab, Oshawott got instantly attached to Ash once he complimented him for his cuteness and followed him at the early part of Ash's journey. This Pokémon is an Attention Whore that would show up in battles, but would often hide himself behind another team member when the foes appears too strong to handle. After proper training, Oshawott has become more brave...but unfortunately gets overshadowed by almost everyone on the team.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: When the team is trapped on Team Rocket's boat in "Farewell Unova", he essentially saves the day before even knowing what's going on.
• Acrophobic Bird: He has a fear of keeping his eyes open while underwater, which prevented him from using Aqua Jet properly. He manages to get over this weakness later when fighting Palpitoad.
• Attention Whore: Likes to impose itself into battling for Ash. Before he was even caught, Oshawott actually got up on Ash's shoulder and shoved Pikachu off.
• Badass Adorable: Is the cutest of Ash's unova mons and is one tough cookie.
• Big Eater: Is shown to be gluttonous by stealing food from other Pokémon.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Oshawott when he focuses can be a competent battler, but he's more prone to be goofing off
• Bullying a Dragon: Likes to be a jerk to Pikachu, who is significantly stronger and more experienced than him on top of the type advantage.
• The Bus Came Back: Is part of Ash's rotating roster in JN140, alongside Snorlax, Talonflame and Incineroar.
• Butt-Monkey: Oshawott honestly is worse than Piplup with the amount of punishment he gets, though unlike Piplup, he doesn't always deserve it.
• Casanova Wannabe: Oshawott is a huge flirt to Pokémon and humans of the opposite gender. When he tries to show off though, he always fails.
• The Chew Toy: But he does have his moments where you feel sorry for him, especially moments when he doesn’t deserve the slapstick.
• Color Failure: When Trip chose Snivy over him as his starter, as well as when Ash ignored him in favor of using Pikachu against Burgh. This seems to be his general reaction of disbelief.
• Cute Little Fangs: He has these, being an Oshawott.
• David vs. Goliath: He's the second Pokémon Ash uses against Cameron, going up against the latter's Hydreigon. While he does lose, Oshawott still puts up an incredible fight with even Tackle dealing damage and allowing Pignite to finish off the Brutal Pokémon.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episodes like “Oshawott's Lost Scalchop” and “Crowning the Scalchop King” focus entirely on him.
• Deflector Shields: Oshawott's scalchop can deflect Solar Beam and Thunderbolt.
• Determinator: Hard to put this little guy down when he's hyped for a fight, and he doesn't back down... well, most of the time.
• Drama Queen: Just like Piplup before him, he has a habit of overreacting to the littlest of ordeals.
• Fireball Eyeballs: His reaction to seeing Piplup fall in love with Meloetta.
• Fire-Forged Friends: After spending much of Dawn's stay competing with Piplup for Meloetta's love, they gave each other a hug when it was time to say goodbye.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: He got has a crush on Dawn's Buneary, but she only has eyes for Pikachu.
• Interspecies Romance: He's fallen in love with a Purrloin, Meloetta, Dawn's Buneary, a female Oshawott, and a Cinccino.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Once he Took a Level in Kindness. Oshawott sometimes starts drama with the other Pokémon, but he has moments when it's shown that his heart is in the right place.
• Kabuki Sounds: Makes the don! sound with his scalchop.
• Kamehame Hadoken: His version of Hydro Pump works like one - forms a ball with his hands, and then launches it in a powerful stream of water.
• Keet: Oshawott is very hyperactive and cheerful.
• Leeroy Jenkins: When Ash is about to send out one of his Pokémon for battle, Oshawott often goes out of his Poké Ball and wants Ash to leave it to him. If the foe turns out to be its evolved form, however, he will back down. He later shows he will back down if he does not think he can handle his opponent and will need to be motivated to fight. He only appears to steal fights if it's Pikachu that goes out in order to steal its thunder (not literally) and take that spot on Ash's shoulder.
• Let's You and Him Fight: He did this once in a battle. He tried to do his usual Leeroy Jenkins routine, but when the trainer called a Dewott, he was all too eager to allow Pikachu to take the battle.
• Love Triangle: He's gotten into a few of these. He competed with Meowth for a Purrloin,^spoilerthat turned out to be male with Dawn's Piplup for Meloetta, and with a Dewott for a female Oshawott.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: He occasionally uses his tiny scalchop to block attacks. It even successfully blocked a Solar Beam at one point.
• Making a Splash: He is the Water-type Starter of Unova.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Oshawott suffers from the "Ash's Water-Type syndrome", which no Water-Types since Squirtle would ever evolve. This trend would however be broken in the next series with Froakie.
• Not Quite Flight: The move Aqua Jet lets him travel through the air.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: With new captures and evolutions, Oshawott has become one of Ash's weakest Unova Pokémon. Scraggy seems to be the only one weaker than him. That said however, he did manage to pummel Cameron's Hydreigon who was able to take down Boldore without much of a problem.
• Playful Otter: He is an otter in his base form and is very childlike and playful.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Outgoing and silly, this is basically his main trait.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Invokes these when he needs to be extra adorable. Such as in the very first episode of BW when Juniper releases him from his ball along with the other two starters when Trip is choosing his first Pokémon and when he catches up to ash with the intention to be caught by him.
• Rule of Three: Oshawott is the only Unova Pokémon to be used in exactly three Gyms, being second to Pignite (five).
• Signature Move: Razor Shell, the Signature Move of the Oshawott line during the fifth generation^note Shellder being the only other Pokémon capable of learning Razor Shell during Generation V.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Played straight at first, but subverted later. In the earlier episodes, Oshawott almost completely eclipses most of Ash's Unova Pokémon - it's more intentional than most examples, though, as Oshawott clearly loves being in the spotlight and intentionally steals it, though it often backfires on him. As he matures during the series, less and less episodes are featuring him, though he's still one of the more prominent members Ash's Unova team. However, while early episodes showed him as strong, he's become the "Worf" of Ash's team more and more as the series went on. Since he never Took a Level in Badass since learning Aqua Jet and Hydro Pump, though, nobody's really shocked by this "development". He also gets a lot of attention in the ending themes. He's the only Unova starter to be in the fourth ending.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Dawn's Piplup, a water starter with Attention Whore tendencies that's the Butt-Monkey of the group. He even gets to meet said Piplup later in the show's run.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: The functions of Oshawott's "scalchop": normally the hilt of his Razor Shell attack, it's also a shield, boomerang, and pillow.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Was a bit of a jerk in the beginning, but becomes nicer later.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The Purrloin in BW044 manipulated him and Meowth into helping him by pretending to be female. Purrloin's trainer finally cleared it up, much to both their shock.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Shares this dynamic with Pignite and with Dawn's Piplup. He often argues with them, but they deeply care for each other.

Tepig-Pignite (Pokabu-Chaoboo)

Voiced in Japanese by: Wasabi Mizuta

Voiced in English by: Marc Thompson

Ash found Tepig in a Battle Club where it was abandoned by his former trainer Shamus and almost starved to death when Don George tried to release him from a rope, but he end up his mouth tied with the rope by accident. Rather than letting him captured by Iris, Tepig decided to join Ash instead. In contrast to his fellow Unova Starter companions, Tepig is more gentle and docile. Much later on, Tepig would meet his Shamus again in a Battle Club and fights him in a Double Battle with Snivy. Due to the faith Ash and Snivy put into him, Tepig evolves into Pignite and defeats his former trainer's team and rejects him.

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• 11th-Hour Superpower: Learns Flamethrower in time to use it in the escape from Team Rocket in BW048.
• All Animals Are Dogs: Tepig acts much more like a puppy compared to the piglet that he actually is.
• Badass Adorable: A tough battler, and very cute at that.
• Bash Brothers: Starts becoming this with Ash's Charizard. Even N comments that the two are already becoming good friends. Pignite even imitates Charizard when he comes out of his Poké Ball by shooting out a Flamethrower like him.
• Berserk Button: He gets very angry and is willing to attack if you steal his food, especially if you're Oshawott! Considering he used to starve, that's understandable.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Easily the most mild-mannered of Ash's Unova team, but he'll also get mad and possibly attack if you tease him or try to steal his food, as he has done to Oshawott a few times.
• Big Eater: Surprisingly averted. Despite it used to starve and is based on a pig, Tepig/Pignite never eats more food than the others, and the actual Big Eater is Oshawott. But since Pignite takes his time to finish eating his food, the quick eater Oshawott would often end up stealing his food, which pushes his Berserk Button.
• The Big Guy: After his evolution, Pignite has become one of Ash's most reliable Unova Pokémon, and is arguably only second in power to Krookodile. Like Cyndaquil, he is used in five Gym Matches and earns at least one victory per Gym Match except one, as well as earning Ash's second Badge.
• Call-Back: His former trainer wanted Tepig (now a Pignite) to come back to his team after seeing his strength, only for Pignite to rebuke the proposal with a Flamethrower.
• Character Development: As a Tepig, is was a shy, quiet Pokémon that grew depressed when he lost, and had a fear of abandonment. His time with Ash helped him to become a peppy Pokémon and get over his past issues.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His backstory mirrors those of Charmander and Chimchar. His original trainer abandoned him due to not living up to his standards.
• The Dog Bites Back: After he defeats his former trainer Shamus in a battle, said Jerkass asks him to rejoin his team to become stronger. Pignite looks to be seriously considering it, but having seen what sort of person Shamus really is he responds by scorching his head with Flamethrower before standing proudly by Ash's side.
• Love Martyr: Tepig's past trainer abused and abandoned him, and yet Tepig runs to him like he wasn't tied to a pole and starved because of the Trainer and like Ash is not even there, typical of a girl that sees the abusive ex that she still has feelings for. When Tepig realizes his trainer doesn't want him, he is noticeably depressed to the point where he cannot battle. He gets better.
• Messy Pig: When he's first introduced, but justified as he's really dirty from living on the streets for a time; otherwise he subverts this trope.
• Nice Guy: Pignite is a sweet guy who will go out his way to please Ash.
• Oh, Crap!: Tepig's reaction when Ash caught him trying to eat the Pokémon food with the rope around his snout (he was still a wild Pokémon at the time).
• Playing with Fire: He's the Fire-type Starter of Unova.
• The Reliable One: He is used in five Gyms and wins in four of them at least one battle each. The only other Pokémon who gets that much action as him is Pikachu, while the others are used only once (Scraggy), twice (Unfezant, Snivy, Leavanny, Boldore, Palpitoad and Krokorok) or thrice (Oshawott).
• Shrinking Violet: As a Tepig, he was very timid.
• Signature Move: Like all of Ash's previous Fire-type, it's initially Flamethrower. Upon evolving, Fire Pledge would become Pignite's Signature Move.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Charizard and Infernape in being an abandoned fire starter that Ash took in, having been discarded by their previous Jerkass trainer for being weak in their eyes, only to grow stronger and become a powerhouse on Ash's regional team.
• Took a Level in Badass: As a Tepig, he wasn't very strong and had a losing track record. Then, in Ash's battle with Shamus, he evolves and learns Fire Pledge in the process, giving him the necessary power to defeat both of his old trainer's Pokémon (one of whom was his own future evolutionary stage). He would also become one of Ash's Unova powerhouses.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: At times, with Oshawott whenever the latter starts to push his Berserk Button by eating his food.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Desperately sought the approval of Shamus, even after being abandoned by him. He also used to grow depressed whenever he lost, for fear of disappointing Ash and being abandoned again.
• The Worf Effect: While Pignite is one of Ash's most reliable Unova Pokémon, he loses to Trip's Serperior to give Ash another loss against his rival. This is also the only match since his evolution where he doesn't defeat an opponent's Pokémon.

Snivy (Tsutarja)

Voiced in Japanese by: Megumi Hayashibara

Voiced in English by: Michele Knotz

A female Snivy who has abandoned her previous trainer. She let herself captured by Ash once he proved to be worthy. Snivy appears cold and distant, but takes the role of the Team Mom and is very protect towards her teammates. One of her biggest strengths is that she is Made of Iron.

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• Affirmative Action Girl: Her capture marks the first time Ash has (a confirmed case of) Two Girls to a Team.
• At Arm's Length: Snivy's first meeting with Scraggy, although she uses Vine Whip to give him less of chance to reach her.
• Badass Adorable: Sure she's mostly a Lady of War, but she's also pretty adorable in her own right.
• The Bus Came Back: Is part of Ash's rotating roster in JN142, but strangely enough, she's the only Pokémon of his other than Pikachu to make a physical appearance this episode.
• Combat Pragmatist: Not afraid to use Attract to disable male pokémon. It's why Ash had such a difficult time catching her.
• Cool Big Sis: Her role in the Unova team, especially when she's saving one of the other Pokémon - from an enemy, or from themselves - that is, when she's not being a Sugar-and-Ice Girl. Her protectiveness of Tepig when he has to deal with his old trainer stands out.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Whenever she uses Attract on a male opponent, the battle typically becomes this in her favor.
• Designated Girl Fight: Has a lot of this with Iris' Emolga.
• Emotion Bomb: Her move Attract allows her to make male Pokémon fall in love with her, which she uses to its full potential.
• Expy: She bears a number of similarities with Boa Hancock, a beautiful woman with a snake theme who attracts men (and women) with her beauty. In Japan, the attack Attract means "Mero Mero", which is also the name of Hancock's Devil Fruit.
• Graceful Loser: When Ash finally beats her, she gives a small smile and accepts being caught.
• Green Thumb: A Grass-type and fills the role of Ash's standard Grass Starter member. However, Snivy isn't Ash's only Grass-Type Pokémon from Unova, though.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In one episode, Ash tried to get Snivy to use Attract on a Minccino, figuring it was a boy. He was right. One problem: she missed, and Minccino ended up using Attract back on her.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: It's implied that Snivy abandoned her trainer because she deemed him/her too weak. In BW129, when a group of abandoned Pokémon are causing mischief as pirates, with Meowth translating, Pignite tries to convince them that they can find happy encounters in new trainers, and then Snivy said that they could always abandon their trainer if they're useless. Iris points out that something did in fact happen in Snivy's past that involves her previous trainer.
• It Only Works Once: In Ash's third battle with Trip, the latter manages to find a way to counter Snivy's Attract that trounced Trip's Servine before.
• Lady of War: A very graceful and dignified female Pokémon, who is one of Ash's best battlers in Unova despite her small stature.
• Little Miss Badass: One of Ash'a tiniest Pokémon, and is very tough.
• Made of Iron: Snivy seems quite capable of taking multiple hits from moves that should, by all rights, be super-effective against her and down her much faster. Best shown with her taking extensive damage from Elesa's Emolga (using Acrobatics and Aerial Ace) before finally being downed; even Elesa complimented her toughness to Ash. And then there's taking hits from both Shamus' Fire-type Pokémon in a double-battle...
• Not Quite Flight: She uses Leaf Storm as a method of flight, to escape her pursuers.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Snivy was one of Ash's better battlers at the start of series, but as the series went on, more Pokémon joined the team and 2/3 of them would eventually evolve and become stronger. The only thing that keeps Snivy from being left behind in dust is her Made of Iron tendencies. Inverted during Ash's battle with Cameron where she only lost because of Riolu abruptly evolving into Lucario and gaining a massive power-up and learning Aura Sphere and again in JN142 where she's the only one of Ash's Pokémon besides Pikachu to make a physical appearance.
• Petal Power: Knows Leaf Storm, a flurry of razor-sharp leaves.
• The Rival: She develops an enmity with Emolga at first, largely because she won't take Emolga crap when it comes to manipulating the males in their group. They settle down later on, but are still liable to glare at, ignore, or fight each other from time to time.
• Signature Move: Attract and Leaf Storm. The former is used to infantuate the opponent, and the latter is her strongest move.
• Silent Snarker: Has a habit of being this, impressively so given the linguistics of Pokémon in general.
• Story-Breaker Power: Attract more or less would completely disable all of Snivy's opponents since they were largely males, though Trip managed to successfully counter it once. In any case, Ash had Snivy use the move less often in the later episodes.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She may seem cold and distant, but she really does care about her trainer and teammates.
• Team Mom: Certainly serves as one of these to the Pokémon on the team. This reaches its apex in BW055, where Snivy spends her time wearily rescuing the baby Pokémon of the group. Crosses over into full on Mama Bear mode when Gothita threatens to put the rest of the Pokémon in danger; a swift sharp Vine Whip to the backside puts Gothita down immediately.
• Vine Tentacles: She knows Vine Whip, which is represented by a pair of whiplike tendrils sprouting from her body to lash her targets before retreating back out of sight.

Scraggy (Zuruggu)

Voiced in Japanese by: Akeno Watanabe

Voiced in English by: Jason Griffith

Received as an egg from a Day Care, Scraggy hatched one day as Ash's fifth Unova Pokémon. Initially extremely aggressive, but also extremely weak, Scraggy rarely got the chance to fight in official battles. After learning Hi Jump Kick from a wild Scrafty, would later get his big moments in the Clubsplosion tournament, where he has learned Focus Blast, but was unable to perfect the move until shortly before the Unova League.

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• Bratty Half-Pint: Initially after his birth, until being saved by the other Pokémon taught him some humility. Still has shades of it time to time though.
• Can't Catch Up: As the youngest member of the team, Scraggy is still Ash's weakest Pokémon even after he Took a Level in Badass. This is especially notable once you compare Scraggy with Donphan and Noivern who both grew up very fast.
• Childhood Friends: Develops with Iris' Axew.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Scraggy has trouble keeping his "pants" up (though it's the case for its species in general).
• Dark Is Not Evil: He is, like most Dark-types, largely rather pleasant-natured.
• Death Glare: Knows Leer and he he uses it quite a lot. He rarely intimidates anyone with it, though.
• Death or Glory Attack: Knows Hi Jump Kick, a powerful kick if it lands but if it doesn't he hurts himself.
• Epic Fail: Focus Blast, full stop. There are very few times where it will hit, but this has been played as a Running Gag of failing to accurately hit the opponent.
  Betty: That’s a focus blast? Wanna tell me where the focus went?
  iris: Does it get more embarrassing than that?
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Focus Blast. Usually, a Pokémon is able to use Focus Blast 5-8 times before recovery. In the anime, Scraggy has relentlessly spammed Focus Blast, albeit missing the target.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: Averted; unlike the other Pokémon Ash hatched from eggs, his strength really is comparable to that of a newborn baby. He gets better, but it's still at a much more moderate pace and gets less battle experience than the rest of Ash's Unova team. Even Palpitoad appeared in more major battles than him!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In spite of his innate aggression, he really does care about his friends, as shown in the episode where he befriends a wild Cottonee.
• Kame Hame Hadoken: His Focus Blast works like one.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His baggy skin has this function which he uses to protect himself from attacks.
• Oblivious to Love: Scraggy has precisely no idea how interested Katharine's Gothita is in him, obliviously eating away while Gothita attempts to manipulate Ash into letting him go. Granted, he's basically a baby, only hatched maybe several months ago.
• Signature Move: Leer (mostly for comedic purposes) and Focus Blast (for battles and comedic purposes).
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Among the non-Starter Pokémon, Scraggy appears the most.
• Too Dumb to Live: In one episode, he Headbuttded a bunch of Pokémon that can poison. This eventually leads to getting everyone else poisoned.
• Tug Lover War: The center of one between a trainer's infatuated Gothita and his best friend Axew.
• Use Your Head: Knows Headbutt; it's how Scraggy says "hi".

Sewaddle-Swadloon-Leavanny (Kurumiru-Kurumayu-Hahakomori)

Voiced in Japanese by: Inuko Inuyama

Voiced in English by: Erica Schroeder

Sewaddle was caught in Pinwheel Forrest, becoming the first Pokémon to hit over the limitation of having six party members. He evolves into Swadloon during the Gym Match against Burgh, but didn't get much focus later on until he evolves a second time. As Leavanny, he has become extremely motherly and feminine, but also fairly competent in battle.

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• Agent Peacock: After evolving into Leavanny, he has become very flamboyant and feminine as if he is female. He is nonetheless one of the more competent Unova Pokémon Ash owns.
• All Webbed Up: Knows String Shot, which can do this to his opponents.
• Bratty Half-Pint: As Sewaddle; a trait he steadily grows out of as he evolves.
• Building Swing: Uses String Shot as his primary method of movement as Sewaddle.
• The Bus Came Back: Is part of Ash's rotating roster in JN138, alongside Totodile, Corphish and Rowlet.
• Camp Straight: Leavanny's personality has become so motherly and feminine that he can easily be mistaken as a female Pokémon. Or the writers forgot how they established him as male when Emolga's Attract affected him.
• Chekhov's Gun: His Swarm ability was first mentioned during Burgundy's debut, but first activated when fighting Stephan's Sawk in the Unova League.
• Critical Status Buff: His ability, Swarm activates when he's taken heavy damage, giving all of his Bug-type moves a huge power boost.
• Cute Little Fangs: Sewaddle has them.
• Energy Ball: Learns the move of the same name after evolving into Swoodloon.
• Fragile Speedster: Fast enough to dodge attacks easily, but doesn't take any hits. Best shown in his fight with Stephan's Sawk - until Sawk weakened his leg with Low Kick, the Fighting-type could not land a single hit on him with Close Combat.
• Girly Run: Leavanny runs like this despite his gender.
• Green Thumb: His secondary type is Grass, marking the first time that Ash has caught a second Grass-Type Pokémon in a region. He is also Ash's only non-Starter Grass-Type Pokémon and Ash wouldn't catch another Grass-Type Pokémon until Sun & Moon.
• Heroic Second Wind: In the Unova League, his Swarm ability kicks in when he's low on health; though it doesn't prevent his defeat, he's able to weaken Stephan's Sawk with his increased power.
• Man Bites Man: Knows Bug Bite.
• Mundane Utility: At one point, he uses the move String Shot to line the inside of a Durant's nest so he wouldn't get lost.
• Nice Guy: When he fully evolved into Leavanny. Cheery, patient, and delighted to help out anyone who needs it.
• Oh, Crap!: The expression on his face right before Burgh's Leavanny strikes him with Hyper Beam.
• Out of Focus: He's most prominent in his early episodes, after his capture and leading up to his evolution during the Burgh battle. He doesn't appear all that much afterwards, although he's given the chance to shine in both, the Roxie battle (where he defeats her Koffing) and the Unova League shows him putting up a good fight against Stephan's Sawk.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Like all other members of his species, he can sew.
• Signature Move: String Shot, which Ash incorporates into most of his strategies when using Leavanny.
• Silk Hiding Steel: A male example in Leavanny - gentle and gracious, but with an iron will underneath and a willingness to fight when needed. Though understated, he's quite powerful despite his appearance. He defeated Burgh's Dwebble (who had taken out Tepig earlier), and pulled off an evolution to take down his Whirlipede. He handily dispatched Roxie's tough Koffing. While he later loses to Stephan's Sawk at the Unova League, he still managed to wear down and weaken him enough so Krookodile could finish the job.
• Status Effects: During the Gym Battle in the eighth Gym, Leavanny's Energy Ball deliberately lowers the Special Defense of Roxie's Koffing, which is one of the rare times where a secondary effect that involves stat decrease is mentioned in the anime. With that decrease in Special Defense, Leavanny is able to take out Koffing with another Energy Ball.
• Team Dad: As Leavanny, he grows into this role after evolving, but due to his Camp Straight personality, he appears more like a Team Mom. This is justified, since Leavanny is the Nurturing Pokémon.
• Tsundere: Sewaddle is one; having an insecure personality and really liking Ash, he shows his affection by being belligerent. As he grows up through time (and evolution), this aspect of his personality fades away.
• The Worf Effect: Despite doing very well against Stephan's Sawk, he loses in the end, so Krookodile can give the finishing blow.

Palpitoad (Gamagaru)

Voiced in Japanese by: Chiaki Takahashi

Voiced in English by: Carter Cathcart

Palpitoad debutes along with Stunfisk when Oshawott's was learning to perfect his Aqua Jet. After being defeated by Oshawott and Cilan, respectively, both Pokémon got captured by Ash and Cilan at the same time. Palpitoad has appeared the least among the Unova members, but all of his matches were important ones.

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: Even Ash's friends were surprised by his appearance in the Don Battle tournament, but he did a fine job.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At first it seems like Palpitoad is having trouble with Burgundy's Stoutland's Electric attacks (which, of course, he was actually immune to), but he was just acting and beat Stoutland.
• Dishing Out Dirt: His secondary type (Ground), and it is most often used for its Ground-typing.
• Flat Character: He has little characterisation and only appeared during several battles.
• The Glomp: In JN114, Palpitoad and Gible immediately take a liking for Goh and Palpitoad keeps cuddling him.
• Heel–Face Turn: Similar to Muk, he was an antagonist in his debut episode, but mellowed out and became loyal to Ash after being captured.
• Making a Splash: His primary type is Water.
• No-Sell: Since Palpitoad is part Ground-Type, he is immune to Electric-Type moves and Ash would always try to use that to his advantage, but that would often end up badly. Against Burguny's Stoutland, Ash lets his guard down when Stoutland attacks Palpitoad with Thunder Fang, which turns out to be a trap when it immediately follows up with Ice Fang. In his Gym Match against Elesa, Ash "strategy" is to win all battles with just Palpitoad, but that backfires when Palpitoad loses to Elesa's second Pokémon (and he was already visibly tired after his first battle). Against Stephan's Zebstrika, Ash doesn't expect his opponent to replace every move with Normal-Type attacks.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Like most of Ash's Water-Types, he doesn't evolve. However, he was captured in his mid-stage.
• Out of Focus: Only appeared in 8 episodes during Best Wishes and had no Character Development. He gets a few more apperances in Journeys.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Not surprising given he's a toad, and it's clearly seen with many of his attacks; it's how he uses them, not having any hands that would otherwise accommodate him.
• Poisonous Person: Knows Sludge Wave, which serves him well (or badly) in the Unova League against Stephan's Zebstrika (which knows Facade).
• Signature Move: The Ground-type move Mud Shot, which it fires with its Overly-Long Tongue.
• Super-Scream: He knows Supersonic, a wave of sound that confuses the target.

Roggenrola-Boldore (Dangoro-Gantle)

Voiced in Japanese by: Inuko Inuyama (Dangoro) and Unshō Ishizuka (Gantle)

Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland

Ash first meets Roggenrola when it was looking for help to save its friends from Team Rocket. After its second battle with Tepig, Roggenrola gets caught by Ash. It would appear here and then, like when it helps to free the Forces of Nature from Team Rocket. Roggenrola eventually evolves into Boldore to win Ash's 5th Badge...but then suffers from the Worf Effect from there on.

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• Ambiguous Gender: Notably the only member of Ash's Unova team to not have its gender confirmed at some point.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Knows the Fighting-Type Rock Smash upon evolving to give it a super effective move against Clay's Excadrill.
• Damage Over Time: It knows Sandstorm which does this to Roxie's Koffing until she has her Pokémon blow it away with Clear Smog and later cut though the attack with Gyro Ball.
• Dark Horse Victory: In BW035, two kids are competing with their Pokémon on who gets to solve the mystery of the missing Audino. In the end, Officer Jenny points out that all the credit goes to Roggenrola.
• Dishing Out Dirt: It's a Rock-type.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Knows Flash Cannon, a Steel-type move that's a wave of light.
• The Faceless: Roggenrola and Boldore don't actually have one, or at least not one with which it can express anything (Gigalith does, but as of now it has yet to reach that stage of evolution).
• Gentle Giant: Still retains its friendly disposition after evolving into a much larger form.
• The Glomp: After Boldore beats Clay's Excadrill, it pulls this one on Ash.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: To its friends when they are captured by Team Rocket.
• Keet: Noted to be really hyperactive compared to the other Roggernola.
• Last Chance Hit Point: Its Sturdy ability, which prevented Clay's Excadrill from landing a One-Hit KO during their Gym Battle. Also seems to have helped it stay up no matter how much damage it took.
• Nice Guy: Very helpful and caring, and it doesn't extent this to only its friends.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Beats Clay’s Excadrill despite the matters Steel and Ground typing giving it a double advantage. It even uses rock type moves effectively against Excadrill.
• Signature Move: The Steel-type move Flash Cannon for both forms, with the later addition of the Rock-type move Rock Blast upon evolving.
• Spectacular Spinning: It uses the move Sandstorm by spinning around. Averted later on, when it jumps into the air, is surrounded by a rainbow aura and then slams into the ground with enough force to kick up a sandstorm.
• Taking the Bullet: During the Tag Battle between Ash & Cilan vs Prof. Juniper & Bel, Ash commands Boldore to block the opposing Double Hyper Beam for Cilan's Crustle. Without hesistation, Boldore protects its partner, but the power of two Hyper Beams is too much for it and it faints. However, this allows Crustle to counterattack and defeat both, Accelgor and Escavalier, and win the Tag Battle.
• The Worf Effect: Being the first Pokémon to fall in the battles against Roxie and Cameron qualifies it for this.

Krokorok-Krookodile (Waruvile-Waruvial)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kenta Miyake

Voiced in English by: Marc Thompson

First seen as a Sandile in BW003, it followed Ash, Iris, and Cilan for a while as that and a Krokorok. He would frequently assist Ash's group, while also harboring a rivalry with Pikachu. He would finally allow himself to be caught by Ash in BW065, after following the group for 62 episodes.

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• The Ace: Ash's strongest Pokémon native to the Unova Region, being his regional powerhouse and establishing rivalry with Pikachu prior to being captured by Ash. After evolving he manages to beat Iris' Dragonite surprisingly without much trouble.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Despite his pride (and genuine strength), he lost more than he won in his earlier appearances. When he does finally win in BW079, he used wits instead of raw strength to defeat Brycen's Beartic.
• Been There, Shaped History: Followed the group around Unova for most of Black and White prior to being captured; causing the problems with the Klinklang in Chargestone Cave, appearing at the Club Battle tournament, and showing up in the Battle Subway, and being encountered outside the Driftveil Gym. His reason? So he could fight Pikachu.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Very gung-ho, but a Gentle Giant.
• Combat Pragmatist: It comes with being a Dark-type, using sneaky techniques to take the foe by surprise.
• Cool Shades: Has a pair of red-rimmed sunglasses. Unlike Squirtle's — which put more emphasis on him being a total Badass — if Krokorok doesn't have his shades on, he becomes cowardly and scared.
• Cowardly Lion: He can't fight if he's not wearing his the glasses.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his roughish appearance and his Dark-type, he is a Nice Guy at heart who at worst is trying to look tough.
• Defeat Means Friendship: He's obsessed with fighting Pikachu. He loses when he finally gets his chance, but his strength and determination impress Ash enough that he invites him to join the team anyway.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Ground-Type. He knows Dig and the Rock-Type move Stone Edge.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The protagonists repeatedly run into a Sandile early in the series. He evolves into a Krokorok offscreen while pursuing the protagonists for another match with Pikachu.
• Fast Tunnelling: Knows Dig, which he does by rapidly spinning his body to tunnel underground.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: When battling Stephan's Sawk in the Unova League. Both were worn out from previous matches, but Krookodile was also at a type disadvantage. Ash's friends in the audience were getting worried, and all seemed lost for Ash...and then he revealed Krookodile's brand-new Secret Weapon - the super effective Aerial Ace, which finishes off Sawk in a single hit.
• Gentle Giant: Quite sweet at heart.
• Lightning Bruiser: After evolving into Krookodile, he has become a strong, fast and tough Pokémon.
• Magic Pants: As he evolved, his sunglasses inexplicably grew in size.
• Man Bites Man: Knew Bite and Crunch, which are exactly what they sound like - biting attacks.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Subverted, he's passive-aggressive at times and a little brusque, but overall a pretty swell guy to be around.
• No-Sell: Being Ground-Type, he is immune to Electric-type moves.
• Not Quite Flight: When using Aerial Ace, he somehow glides through the air (even twisting and turning), but he can't actually fly.
• Poor Communication Kills: In his first appearance he was and the other Sandile were trying to get everyone away from the sand baths due to the upcoming geysers that would destroy them. Because the humans couldn't understand his warnings he had to resort to force to keep everyone safe.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Subverted. Ash taught Krookodile Aerial Ace, a Flying-Type move to specifically counter Stephan's Sawk, who as a Fighting-Type would normally have the type advantage over the Dark-Type Krookodile. However, Ash uses that move as a final trump card and sends Leavanny first to weaken (or possibly defeat) Sawk, since Krookodile is tired from his battle with Liepard.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Krookodile parries Stephan's Sawk's Close Combat by doing the same with Dragon Claw.
• The Rival: To Pikachu, though it's more self-proclaimed - he follows Ash and his friends around for a while in hopes of battling Pikachu and proving his strength. This finally gets settled when he's beaten - he becomes depressed since he's not sure what to do with himself, until Ash offers him a place on his team - and is never brought up again.
• Sixth Ranger: Follows the group off and on throughout the first Best Wishes season.
• Stalker without a Crush: He's so determined to fight Pikachu that he follows the group for a long time until he gets his chance.
• Security Blanket: His sunglasses. If he's not wearing them, he becomes cowardly and can't fight.
• Signature Move: The Rock-type move Stone Edge, which is his strongest move and earned him his victories many times.
• Tender Tears: Despite seeming aggressive and boastful, Krokorok's a real softie at heart who shamelessly subverts Men Don't Cry.
• To Be a Master: He chases Ash and Pikachu halfway across Unova because he wants to test his skills against them. Even though he loses, his determination to get stronger impresses Ash enough that he offers him a place on the team. Ash later uses Krokorok in his Gym match against Brycen despite the type disadvantage, counting on Krokorok's spirit to even the odds.
• Tunnel King: Knows Dig and many of his victories have hinged on its use.
• The Worf Effect: Suffered from this a bit in his early appearances, but he steadily gets better. After evolving, he handily defeats Iris' Dragonite, a beast who can shrug off Ice attacks like nothing.
• Worthy Opponent: For almost half of the Best Wishes series when he was a wild Sandile/Krookorok, he was following the Best Wishes gang around Unova because he wanted to fight/defeat Pikachu in battle, establishing a rivalry with him that ended after Pikachu defeated him in battle and he was asked by Ash to join his team.

Team Rocket Trio's Pokémon

Jessie

Woobat (Koromori)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kiyotaka Furushima

Voiced in English by: Michele Knotz

Woobat was Jessie's first Unova Pokémon. Even though it fought with a more serious Team Rocket, it still lost plenty of times.

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• Bat Out of Hell: With his goofy design, he may not look the part, but he's still a powerful battler on the side of the antagonists.
• Blow You Away: Knows Air Slash.
• The Bully: Similar to Jessie, he likes to pick on Pokemon weaker than himself, like a Joltik, despite the type disadvantage.
• The Bus Came Back: His rejoins Jessie's party in JN145, alongside Seviper, Yanmega, Frillish and Gourgeist. With Wobbuffet, they form a full party of six Pokémon for the very first time since Jessie's debut.
• Cute Little Fangs: He has adorable little fangs.
• Eyes Out of Sight: His eyes are always hidden beneath his fur.
• Flight: An even more perpetual case than Yanmega due to not having feet to land.
• Psychic Powers: Subverted. He's Psychic-type, but doesn't know any Psychic moves. The closest move he has to Psychic moves is Hidden Power.
• Put on a Bus: Handed to Giovanni at the end of the Unova arc as a hasty proof of any progress capturing Pokémon.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: Part Flying-type and knows Air Slash and Gust.

Frillish (Pururil)

Voiced in Japanese by: Chiaki Takahashi

Voiced in English by: Kayzie Rogers

A female Frillish arrived on the scene when Team Rocket returned to Unova for their own motives. She would go on to fight for Team Rocket through the remaining BW arc.

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• The Bus Came Back: She rejoins Jessie's party in JN145, alongside Seviper, Yanmega, Woobat and Gourgeist. With Wobbuffet, they form a full party of six Pokémon for the very first time since Jessie's debut.
• Denser and Wackier: Its return appearance in Aim to be a Pokemon Master, where Team Rocket are fully reverted back to Goldfish Poop Gang status, consequently has Frillish joining in the usual silly playful antics of the gang's Pokemon from previous eras. It joins Yamask in trolling Misty and her Pokemon for example.
• Flat Character: Introduced simply to give Team Rocket more muscle, lacking any distinguishing traits of its own, aside from being mischievous.
• Flying Seafood Special: A levitating jellyfish.
• Making a Splash: Primary type is Water and she knows Bubble Beam.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Her secondary type is Ghost and she knows the Ghost move Shadow Ball.
• Power Floats: Normally an aquatic species, it can get around outside of the water by floating.
• Psychic Powers: Knows Psychic.
• Put on a Bus: Also handed to Giovanni at the end of the Unova arc.
• Smoke Out: Knows Mist.
• Soul Power: Secondary type is Ghost and she knows Shadow Ball.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Its pink shade indicates it is female.
• The Smurfette Principle: The trio's only female Pokémon in Unova.

James

Yamask (Desumasu)

Voiced in Japanese by: Mika Kanai

Voiced in English by: Tom Wayland

Yamask was caught after being fed by James. He was James' first Pokémon caught in Unova.

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• The Bus Came Back: He rejoins James's party in JN145, alongside Mime Jr., Carnivine, Amoonguss and Inkay. With Morpeko, they form a full party of six Pokémon for the very first time since James's debut.
• Denser and Wackier: His return appearance in Aim to be a Pokemon Master, where Team Rocket are fully reverted back to Goldfish Poop Gang status, consequently has Yamask joining in on the usual silly playful antics of the gang's Pokemon from previous eras. It still shows a bit of its old competence from Best Wishes in this readjustment however, choosing to troll Misty's Psyduck with its mask rather than making the usual mistake of hitting its head.
• Energy Ball: Knows Shadow Ball like all of the TRio's Ghost Pokémon.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Can use his mask as a shield, as demonstrated when he protects Jessie's Woobat from Pansage's Bullet Seed.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: He's a Ghost-type Pokémon, though there's no confirmation if it used to be a human being.
• Playing with Fire: Knows Will-O-Wisp.
• Power Floats: Lacking any means of weight support, he gets around by floating.
• Put on a Bus: Handed to Giovanni at the end of the Unova arc as hasty proof of the trio capturing any Pokémon.
• Smoke Out: Knows Haze, which is often used to cover the team's escapes.
• Soul Power: A Ghost-type Pokémon, he knows Shadow Ball and Night Shade.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Yamask happily joins James after he fed him when he was hungry.

Amoonguss (Morobareru)

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka

After Team Rocket returned to Unova, James used Amoonguss to fight the twerps. It would be James' main battling Pokémon for the remaining BW arc.

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• Belly Flop Crushing: Knows Body Slam^note An Egg Move for Foonguses, which it uses on Pikachu in its debut. The end result is a flattened Pikachu in a small crater.
• The Bus Came Back: It rejoins James's party in JN145, alongside Mime Jr., Carnivine, Yamask and Inkay. With Morpeko, they form a full party of six Pokémon for the very first time since James's debut.
• Denser and Wackier: Its return appearance in Aim to be a Pokemon Master, where Team Rocket are fully reverted back to Goldfish Poop Gang status, consequently has Amoonguss joining in on the usual silly playful antics of the gang's Pokemon from previous eras. It joins Yanmega in dancing with Brock and his Pokemon in their distraction for example.
• Energy Ball: Knows Energy Ball during JN145
• Flat Character: Introduced solely so Team Rocket could have more muscle and unlike James' previous Pokémon, it does not have any distinguishing personality traits.
• Forced Sleep: Knows Spore during JN145
• Green Thumb: Primary type is Grass, continuing James's apparent preference for Grass-types. Although it's the first to break the Running Gag of his Grass-types attacking him with affection.
• The Paralyzer: Knows Stun Spore, which has this effect on opponents.
• Perpetual Frowner: Always has the same melancholy expression.
• Poisonous Person: Secondary type is Poison.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Made its presence known by curb-stomping Pikachu with a single Body Slam.
• Not So Stoic: When it returns in JN145, it happily participates in the group hug with James and his other Pokémon, which is pretty much the only time it shows affection to its trainer.
• The Stoic: It doesn't show a lot of emotion throughout Best Wishes, which is in stark contrast to all of James's other Grass-type Pokémon.
• Put on a Bus: Also handed to Giovanni at the end of the Unova arc.

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