The characters of Pokémon X and Y.
For a list of Pokémon that debuted in the sixth generation, see Pokémon: Generation VI Families.
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Protagonists and Rivals
General Tropes
- Action Fashionista: The player can customize both characters in a variety of clothing from casual, to extremely professional, and in some cases elegant. And, of course, you can kick plenty of ass while dressed as such.
- Always Someone Better: The player will be superior to their rival counterpart when it comes to battling, and will most likely have a more completed Pokédex than Trevor.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: The player will just as frequently team up with their rival as they will battle against them.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: All three of the secondary rivals. Tierno is the Big, Shauna is the Thin and Trevor is the Short.
- Break the Haughty: Despite being straightforward with training and actively getting stronger while doing everything right, your rival can never beat you and they'll always question why.
- Can't Catch Up: Your rival will go through a good deal of existential angst over losing to you when you beat him/her in a battle for the Mega Ring.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Unlike Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna, who have their own priorities, the rival will actively try to foil Team Flare's schemes, not unlike the player themselves.
- Color Motif: Calem's default outfit has colors resembling Xerneas while Serena's default outfit has colors resembling Yveltal, their outfits can also be customized to suit the player's own personal personality or elemental preferences, with this game being the first one in the entire series (including the core series and the spinoffs) to allow this.
- Cool Shades: Both Calem and Serena wear elegant pairs of sunglasses over their hats.
- Cutting Off the Branches:
- Masters establishes Calem as the rival by making him Kalos' representative in the "Rival Challenge" event, consequently establishing Serena as the protagonist.
- Pokémon Evolutions presents Calem as the protagonist of Pokémon X.
- Declaration of Protection: The rival will feel it is their duty to look after and protect their friends from people like Team Flare.
- Dragon Tamer: From their fifth battle onwards the rival will have the Flying/Dragon Altaria on their team.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Zig-Zagged. At the end, after defeating Diantha, the Player Character, The Rival, and the other three are treated to a parade and are personally given the "Honor of Kalos" as thanks for taking down Team Flare. In the Battle Chateau, however, an Alpha Bitch trainer will talk trash about your clothes saying "Did you dress yourself in the dark or dig them out of the garbage" regardless whether or not if you're the most stylish trainer in all of Kalos with the most expensive chic clothing.
- A Father to His Men: The player's ability to utilize the Mega Ring implies that they share a special bond of trust and friendship with their Pokémon.
- Featureless Protagonist: Much more so than the others listed here. Even their skin color is mutable at character creation, and virtually everything else about their appearance can be changed at will at any point during the game. It's very unlikely that any two given Gen VI protags will look exactly alike, especially when comparing players who have unlocked everything.
- Five-Man Band: With a 2:3 female to male ratio with the opposite gendered player characters and the 3 friendly rivals as a departure from the usual trio of the only having one rival. The Player and the opposite gendered Rival trade off on The Leader and The Lancer roles. Shauna is The Heart as the most supportive, and girly member. Tierno is The Big Guy for both his large size, and his focus on dancing moves that all either boost offensive ability (such as Swords Dance), or are strong attacking moves (such as Petal Dance). Trevor is The Smart Guy who is more focused on finishing the Pokédex and learning about new types of Pokémon. They even fit the stereotypes color-wise with the leader and lancer as red and blue, big as yellow, smart as green, and chick as pink.
- Freudian Trio: The Player is Ego, The Rival is Super Ego and Shauna is Id.
- Goggles Do Nothing: As the player, they have sunglasses on their hat as part of the default outfit, but they're never actually used for anything.
- Good Counterpart: To Lysandre, the Team Flare Boss. Both of them start out as Sycamore's disciples, run errands for the man, and at some point become able to use Mega Evolution. The difference in how they acquire Mega Evolution exemplify this best; while Lysandre uses a contraption to force his Pokémon to Mega Evolve, the protagonist is able to use it through the Mega Ring, and their bond with their Pokémon to bring out true strength.
- The Hero: As the player character.
- Humble Hero: Though it doesn't have an effect on the story, there are a few dialogue options at certain points that are more modest than others.
- Iconic Item: The player eventually assumes possession of the Mega Ring. The rival later gains possession of one post-game.
- I Just Want to Be Special: The rival will become slightly envious of the player, realizing that the player was simply meant for greater things than they are.
- Informed Attractiveness: Eventually, after performing enough stylish actions, many establishments around Lumiose City will comment in awe of how stylish the player is, even if you've never changed your hair or clothes since rolling out of bed.
- In-Series Nickname: Near the beginning of the game, the player can create a nickname for the rest of the group to refer to them by.
- The Leader:
- Whoever the rival is will initially serve this role; Levelheaded type, while the player starts off as their Lancer.
- The Player Character turns into a Charismatic type over the course of the game, with everyone, even the rival who has now been demoted to The Lancer, looking up to them.
- Legacy Character: Looker presents the player with the codename "Looker" after he leaves Kalos.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: As a rival, they act rather aloof from the beginning, mainly focusing on training rather than hanging around. By the time you take down Team Flare, however, they have a change in attitude and become more personable with the rest of the gang.
- Magical Accessory: Their bracelets are Mega Rings, used to activate Mega Evolution.
- Meaningful Name:
- Calem and Serena's names (both in English and Japanese) come from the words "calm" and "serene," respectively.
- Their promotional names Xavier and Yvonne are fairly common French names that start with X and Y. Their respective meanings have no other correlation.
- Naïve Newcomer: As usual, the player character starts off completely new to Pokémon training, but they are also implied to be new to much of the Kalos Region as well. Luckily their rival will show them the ropes.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: The rival starts to feel this way during the fight with Team Flare at the Poké Ball Factory.Calem/Serena: But if I keep relying on you like this, going on this journey will lose its meaning...
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: At the beginning of the game, Serena wears pink pajamas, but Calem wears light blue pajamas.
- Protagonist Powerup Privileges: As the Player Character, they are the only one of the five who gets to use the Mega Evolution mechanic. Justified given that they defeated the other candidate and there was only one ring available at the time. As a rival, they get access to Mega Evolution post-game.
- Quickly-Demoted Leader: The Rival starts off as the member with the most experience, but after you finally battle, it becomes clear that the player has overtaken them.
- The Rival: Like in the Hoenn games, the character you don't choose is your rival (although unlike the aforementioned Hoenn games, they maintain this position for the entire game) and they mainly focus on getting stronger than you. The other three are secondary rivals, but they never come even remotely close to the main rival's level, and they only battle the player twice (although Tierno is battled three times).
- Roller Blade Good: The player gets a pair early on, and can learn an assortment of awesome tricks like backflips and swirls.
- Rookie Red Ranger: Despite being the group's newest member, the player character quickly becomes its most capable battler.
- Ship Tease: With each other, and the player character with Shauna.
- Signature Mon: The protagonist actually gets three: the Kalos Starter, a Kanto Starter, and Mega Lucario. The rival has the Kalos starter and Mega Absol.
- Silent Protagonist: Played with. You don't have explicit pre-created dialogue like the NPCs do but the options this generation are far more specific than in previous gens.
- Super Mode: The first protagonists to be able to use Mega Evolution.note The rival character gets a Mega Evolution in form of Mega Absol in the post-game.
- Team Dad: The rival, who leads by example, and likes to protect rather than support.
- Team Mom: The player. The few dialogue options available to the player will always have one gentle, supportive option.
- Two Girls and a Guy: Calem, Serena and Shauna. Each of them receives one of the three starter Pokémon.
- The Unchosen One: The rival really wants to be The Chosen One, but unfortunately for them, it would seem the player already holds the position.
- Vague Age: Some outfit-and-hair combinations can make Serena look like a certain other 10-year-old tomboy in the franchise or make her and Calem look younger than even Red (Serena's "cute" clothes + pigtails are good at this), while others, particularly ones from Lumiose and Snowbelle, can make them look practically like a college student. By default, they have the air of a teenager, however.
- Virtual Paper Doll: In addition to choosing their skin color, the player can dress their selected character in a variety of different outfits.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Your rival receives one of the Kanto starters from Sycamore (possibly the one with the type disadvantage to the one you picked) and the fossil you didn't pick in Glittering Cave, but they never use them.
- They also have a Fletchling and catch a Bunnelby during the tutorial, and never use them again.
Calem (Calme)
Calem / Calme (カルム karumu)
The male main character (and rival if you choose Serena) of Pokémon X and Y. This young man has just recently moved to Vaniville Town in Kalos, along with his mother, Grace. Given his mother's previous occupation as a Rhyhorn racer, and his close bond with the family Rhyhorn, Professor Sycamore decides he's the perfect candidate to help with Sycamore's research into "Mega Evolution," and has Calem summoned to his laboratory in Lumiose City.
Calem hasn't appeared in anime adaptations, but his clothes served as one of the inspirations for Ash's new outfit in the Pokémon X and Y anime (the other inspiration is Red's FireRed & LeafGreen costume). His Pokémon Adventures counterpart is simply called "X".
In Pokémon Masters, Calem is shown as his role as Serena's rival. As such, most of the tropes below may pertain to his depiction there.
- Always Second Best: Masters chooses Serena to be the main protagonist, making Calem take The Rival role from the games. According to his dialogue, he mentions that he has never won a battle against Serena, but he has a strong desire to beat her. He gets his wish in the Leaders of a New Era Neo Champion event.
- Anime Hair: Averted. He's one of the few male protagonists to have a normal hairstyle. Even his alternate hairstyles don't really get all that crazy (certainly nothing approaching Nate).
- Blue Is Heroic: His default outfit heavily features blue, and he's the main protagonist of X and Y when playable.
- Character Development: In his Trainer Lodge episodes in Masters, he comments that seeing the player character make so many new friends has prompted him to be more outgoing and attempt to make more friends than Shauna herself.
- Color-Coded Characters: His primary color and speech balloon (when he's the rival) are blue.
- Color Motif: He wears blue, white and red, the same colors as the French flag.
- The Dandy: Can be played this way with the Trainer customization feature.
- Ineffectual Loner: Pokémon Masters makes him one, showing a tendency to go off on his own. In keeping with the series' idealism, he's less cynical about friendship than most examples; he's just not used to working in a team, and he wants to handle things himself so others aren't burdened by them. Nonetheless, he still gets in over his head without the rest of the team backing him up. Ironically, he finds the idea of giving gifts to others while alone embarrassing.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: In Pokémon Masters, his Trainer Lodge episodes reveal that he enjoys styling his Furfrou's fur styles.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Not overly long, but still there.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He is not as tall as some NPCs, but he is tallest of the main group, appearing taller than Tierno.
- Primary-Color Champion: Calem's default outfit is predominantly blue and red.
- Signature Mon:
- Art from the games shows him with the Froakie line and Charmander line, and his clothes are thematically similar to Xerneas. Ash wearing his clothes in the anime also had Froakie.
- In both Generations and Adventures his equivalent keeps Charmander, but has Chespin instead of Froakie.
- Pokémon Masters goes with a dark-horse pick and gives him an Espurr, which Calem does use as a rival, being his lead Pokémon from Glittering Cave onward. Later, his Master Sync Pair Neo Champion Pokémon becomes Shiny Greninja, mirroring Serena's Greninja for her Master Sync Pair Neo Champion alt.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: By default, Calem looks and dresses similarly to Hilbert. At least he can be customized for those who wanted more variety. As the rival he acts more like Cheren instead.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the Leaders of a New Era Neo Champion event, he finally manages to defeat Serena in battle, though he admits that she was such a great source of inspiration for his growth that he agrees with Diantha in making her a Neo Champion.
Serena
Serena (セレナ serena)
The female main character (and rival if you choose Calem) of Pokémon X and Y. This young lady has just recently moved to Vaniville Town in Kalos, along with her mother, Grace. Given her mother's previous occupation as a Rhyhorn racer, and her close bond with the family Rhyhorn, Professor Sycamore decides she's the perfect candidate to help with Sycamore's research into "Mega Evolution," and has Serena summoned to his laboratory in Lumiose City.
In Pokémon Masters, Serena is depicted with the role of the main playable character over Calem's rival status. As such, most of the tropes below may pertain to her depiction there.
A younger version of Serena served as one of the protagonists in the Pokémon the Series: XY animenote . In Pokémon Adventures her full name is Yvonne Gabena, and is simply nicknamed as "Y".
- Action Girl: Discussed in Pokémon Masters. In her Champion Sync Pair Story, after rescuing a trainer's Pokémon from Team Break, she says that she not only wants to be the princess to Greninja's knight, but to be the knight herself. Given that she's the designated player character for Kalos, she's already one.
- Always Someone Better: In Masters, the game makes her the protagonist ahead of Calem, giving her all the perks that come from being the playable character's choice.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Some of her clothing options are crop tops, something the male character has no access too.
- Bifauxnen: A few of her clothing options can give her this look, such as the shirt-and-tie combos at the Lumiose boutique.
- Call-Back: Her Sync Pair variants in Masters feature her with different hairstyles on top of her outfits unlike the rest of the Sync Pairs that only get new outfits, likely as a reference to her home game being the introduction to trainer customization.
- Censor Shadow: Allows Serena to effectively combine short skirts and roller-blading without any threat of exposure.
- Color-Coded Characters: Her primary color and speech balloons (when she's the rival) are red.
- Even the Girls Want Her: It's implied that Shauna has a crush on the main character,
even when it's Serena. - Family Theme Naming: In the English versions, combining her name and her mother's will result in two words one letter away from an existing Pokémon Ability-Serene Grace.
- Fangirl: She states in Masters that she has been a longtime fan of Elesa, both as a model and a Trainer.
- The Fashionista: She's the poster child
of the Trainer customization feature, and there are far more clothing and hair styles available if you're playing as her rather than Calem. Masters expands on this by giving her, as a character, a love of fashion and shopping. - Girlish Pigtails: Becomes an option at the barbershop after the player becomes sufficiently stylish.
- Girly Bruiser: You can dress her in highly feminine clothes (including pink skirts and dresses) while having her defeat Team Flare and become the Kalos Champion.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: As a Rival with Shauna.
- Little Black Dress: One of her outfits you can get when she's the protagonist. It's even called the Little Black Dress.
- Minidress of Power: Her default outfit is a very short skirt as well all other skirt and dress outfits, and she can be the most powerful trainer in the region.
- Ms. Fanservice: Some of her clothing options are Stripperiffic, the other characters in the game wear more clothing than her including Malva.
- Nice Girl: Becomes a point of focus in Masters's Verdant Guardian Story Event. Zygarde comes to learn from Serena's willingness to help it find its cells and uses that compassion to scatter its cells all over again in order to help an injured Hiker recover his stolen Sandshrew from Team Break. Sycamore theorizes that Zygarde learned from Serena's compassion.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Appears to do one in Masters, specifically as part of her unique interaction with her Delphox.
- Olympus Mons: Masters gives her Zygarde for her Sygna Suit variant.
- Signature Mon:
- The Fennekin line in most artwork and adaptations, including the anime and Pokémon Masters, with the exception of Adventures and her appearance in the "Gotcha!" music video where she's shown with the Froakie line. She is also paired with Squirtle as her Kanto starter of choice, and her clothes are thematically similar to Yveltal.
- Masters gives her Zygarde for her Sygna Suit variant and later Greninja for her Master Sync Pair Neo Champion variant.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Her Champion variant features her dressing in such a way that she is explicitly compared to a princess.
- Stocking Filler: Her default thigh-high stockings or as they're labeled in game, "OTK (Over The Knee) Socks," and about a third of all the sock options.
- Stripperiffic: Considered this with the more revealing outfits and short skirt.
- Sweet Baker: She is portrayed in Masters as an altruistic, levelheaded young woman who has made desserts as a hobby.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: As the rival. As the player character, you can also style her hair as such at the barbershop if the player is sufficiently stylish.
- True Blue Femininity: Her Neo Champion variant in Masters gives her a regal blue dress to match her ties with her own Greninja.
Tierno
Tierno (ティエルノ tieruno)
- Acrofatic: Despite his size, he is very light on his feet and a good dancer. He aims to create a dance team with his Pokémon.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The description of him provided states he tends to get distracted by their opponents moves during battle because he is trying to incorporate them into his choreography.
- Big Fun: He has a plump body and a huge heart.
- The Big Guy: The largest of the friends and his signature Pokémon is the offense-oriented Corphish. Though battling isn't Tierno's main priority, dancing is a very physical activity. Also most dancing moves deal with boosting offense (Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Rain Dance) or dealing heavy damage (Petal Dance).
- But Thou Must!: Give yourself a nickname. Of course, you could just make your nickname the same as your in-game name.
- Color-Coded Characters: Yellow.
- Coordinated Clothes: If the player character is a boy, it is possible to purchase the same shirt Tierno wears, which is appropriately titled "Twin T-Shirt."note
- Dance Battler: He aims to create a team of Pokémon dancers. Case in point, the first time you battle him, his "starter" is a Corphish and it knows Swords Dance. In his third battle, all three of his Pokémon know at least one move that involves the word "Dance".
- Dark Is Not Evil: The first Pokémon he gets is a Corphish that becomes the Water/Dark Crawdaunt, but he is a pretty affable guy.
- Flat Character: He never gets a chance to share a character-building moment with the player unlike the other three rivals, nor can his house be visited for any possible backstory a la Trevor.
- Gentle Giant: Rather big, but friendly.
- Meaningful Name: His name is Spanish for soft or tender (as in food), but when used to refer to a person it means inexperienced.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Helping Dexio and Sina rescue the Pokémon on Route 10.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He is The Big Guy of the group, but his greatest passion is dancing and his goal is to make a team of Dance Battlers.
- Recurring Boss: Faced a couple times during the game, the last time as part of a Boss Rush involving all the rivals except Calem/Serena.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Trevor's Blue Oni.
- Signature Mon: Corphish, which is the only one he uses in his first two battles with the player (out of three, though in the second he teams Corphish with two of Trevor's), and his only Pokémon in Adventures. Pokémon Masters gives him its evolved form Crawdaunt.
- Sphere Eyes: Noticeably, making his character design a little nonstandard.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: He's Wise Guy with Trevor's Straight Man.
Trevor (Trova)
Trevor / Trova (トロバ toroba)
Voiced by: Ayaka Mori (Pokémon Masters - JP)
A curious boy from Lumiose City whom you befriend at the beginning of Pokémon X and Y. He doesn't much care for battling, and prefers to challenge the player on who has more entries in their Pokédex.- Character Catchphrase: "To put another way..."
- Character Development: Shauna describes him at the beginning as very shy, and towards the end of the game she now remarks that he seems bolder, evidenced by his sudden challenging the player to a battle.
- Color-Coded Characters: He's The Smart Guy, and has a green color scheme.
- Deadpan Snarker: Much of his dialogue towards Tierno comes off as sarcasm.
- Dragon Tamer: At the Battle Maison, he can have the Rock/Dragon Tyrantrum as his partner.
- Fossil Revival: Seems to be his thing, as he has Aerodactyl in his fight on Route 19, and both Kalos fossil Mons in the Battle Maison, namely Tyrantrum and Aurorus.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: His goal is to be the first out of his friends to complete the Pokédex. In fact, he "battles" the player to see how much of each of Kalos' location-based Pokédexes are filled throughout the game.
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum: If you talk to him post-game, he will mention a random Pokémon capable of Mega Evolving and react with joy if you have it recorded in your Pokédex with a remark that "it's nice having the same Pokémon as them". Considering this is his reaction to any mon owned, he may have Pokémon like Garchomp and others stored up but never uses them. And that includes Mewtwo, of all mons!
- Meaningful Name: More of a Punny Name than a name meaning compared to the others, but Trevor is similar to trouver which is French for "to find." It's also Irish for industrious or prudent.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Helping Dexio and Sina rescue the Pokémon on Route 10.
- Parental Abandonment: You can find his house near Jaune Plaza in Lumiose, where his sister reveals that their parents left both of them to go on a journey.
- Recurring Boss: Faced a couple times during the game, the last time as part of a Boss Rush involving all the rivals except Calem/Serena.
- Redhead In Green: He is redheaded and wears mostly green clothing.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Tierno's Red Oni.
- Refusal of the Call: While he's fine with filling the Pokédex, his knee-jerk reaction to having Team Flare's activities explained to him is to decide that it's best to stay away from them. It doesn't stick.
- Signature Mon: The Flabébé line, which is the only one he owns across all continuities.
- Shorter Means Smarter: A full head shorter than any of his friends (and that's including his hair).
- The Smart Guy: Seemingly fills this role as your friend.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: He's the Straight Man with Tierno's Wise Guy.
Shauna (Sana)
Shauna / Sana (サナ sana)
- Ambiguously Brown: Seems to be a shade or two darker than her friends, with an Arabic name in the Japanese version. France does have a sizable Middle Eastern population.
- Babies Ever After: Not Shauna herself, but her starter. She'll trade you the offspring for any Pokémon in the post game, and it has a nature that amplifies its greatest stat, along with 31 IVs in that particular stat.
- Batman Gambit: During the final confrontation with Team Flare's Admins, she cowardly runs away screaming how she "hates being chased." A Team Flare Admin then suspects Shauna intentionally fled in order to split up the admins, who were outnumbering the protagonists six to three. Nonetheless, while Shauna does succeed in luring away two Admins, Serena or Calem also follows after Shauna, leaving the main character all alone to defeat the remaining four admins.
- Chekhov's Skill: Her love for solving puzzles and close friendship with Clemont and Bonnie comes in handy later down the story when you deal with Team Flare the final time, in which her skills help open the final locked door to the machine.
- Color-Coded Characters: Pink.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: When battled on Route 19 before Couriway Town, she has a Goodra at Level 49 when it can only evolve from Sliggoo at level 50.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: One could easily mistake Shauna as someone similar to Bianca given she is less interested in Pokémon battling than the main rival, but she tags along on the final quest to take down Team Flare. In your second battle with her on Route 19, she just happens to own a Goodra.
- The Ditz: She's genuinely surprised about how Poké Balls worked during the Rival's catching tutorial, despite seeing them in action not 5 minutes before, and living in a universe where this should be common knowledge.Shauna: The Pokémon went INSIDE the Poké Ball?Rival Character: Shauna... What do you think your Chespin/Fennekin/Froakie is inside of right now?
- Dragon Tamer: From her second battle onwards, she uses the pure Dragon-type Goodra.
- For Happiness: Shauna's reason for journeying is simply to have fun and make some memories with her friends and Pokémon.
- Genki Girl: Her Omura art has her with an enormous grin and
Word of God describes her "an incredibly energetic girl" who's "friendly and outgoing." - Girlish Pigtails: She has four of them.
- The Heart: Values friendship and teamwork. She's also one of the driving forces for pushing the rival towards enjoying things aside from just getting stronger. Her starter Pokémon will also always be female. This is a first compared to the rivals having male ones.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Serena if they are the player's rival.
- Hidden Depths:
- She is much more insightful than her bubbly exterior would suggest. It also seems that she is the only one of the gang who really savors the memories they're creating on their journey. There is also the fact she is a fan of puzzles.
- As the above Batman Gambit indicates, she's also good at understanding people, and can be unexpectedly cunning in a crisis.
- Ignored Epiphany: In the "With Beauty and Grace" solo event with Flannery, the two of them try to learn how to become grown-up women, but they're unable to become like that. Young Hapu then wisely tells them that they're both too young to be worried about becoming grown-up women so soon and that they need to cherish their young age as they will slowly mature into mature women... Except they instead are so impressed by Hapu's manner of speech that they beg her to become their Master on becoming grown-up women, much to her disappointment.
- The Load: Played with. Shauna thinks that she has become this for Calem and Serena by the time you infiltrate Team Flare's base, even though the game never makes her come off as annoying, useless, or holding anyone back at any point in the story. You reassure her that she isn't and never was.
- Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name is Arabic for "sunshine" or "brilliance."
- Pink Means Feminine: Her top, bag and sandals are pink, and she's a rather feminine girl as well as The Heart.
- Recurring Boss: The first trainer you battle in the beginning of the game, using the starter weak to yours. Then she battles you much later in the game as the first of a Boss Rush involving all the rivals except Calem/Serena.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to the rival's Blue Oni, who is more reserved and mature.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Calem, she is the more irresponsible one. Even more so if Calem is the rival.
- Say It with Hearts: She says things with a musical note at the end often.
- Shipper on Deck: Hinted as one for Calem and Serena (regardless of which one you're playing as). She'll say they're the strongest and make a good combination.
- Ship Tease: With the protagonist, regardless of gender, at Parfum Palace. The game is less subtle about it with Calem, though.Shauna: Um... I've never watched fireworks alone with a boy, before. I'll remember this forever.
- Signature Mon: Unlike her friends, she doesn't really have one. The only one to appear in multiple continuities is the Skitty line (game and Adventures), though Adventures also heavily associates her with Furfrou since that version of her wants to be a groomer. In the games themselves, she gets the Kalos starter not chosen by Calem or Serena, making her the true "friendly rival" and third member of the main trio. Her Masters version has a Chesnaught.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Shauna's design seems to be inspired by Minccino and Pachirisu, though she doesn't necessarily own either one.
- Verbal Tic: Accentuates her lines with musical notes, like so ♪.
- We Need a Distraction: Both at the Poké Ball Factory and Flare's Geosenge Headquarters, she uses herself to distract members of Team Flare to run after her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She's implied to have received one of the Kanto starters you didn't choose, but just like the primary rival she's never seen using it.
Allies
Grace (Saki)
Grace / Saki (サキ saki)
- Action Mom: Was a former Rhyhorn racer, who was very popular back in her day.
- Famed In-Story: She has a large amount of fans in the Kalos region due to being a professional Rhyhorn racer even to this day.
- No Name Given: She never actually mentions her name, but other NPCs will allude her.
- Tomboy: Implied with her former profession.
Dexio and Sina
Dexio (デクシオ dekushio) and Sina (ジーナ jiina)
In Sun and Moon
Assistants to Professor Sycamore. They appear repeatedly through the game to power up the player's Pokédex.
They reappear in Sun and Moon, asking the player for help in tracking down Zygarde.
- Ambiguously Brown: Sina is noticeably darker in skintone than Dexio is.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: In X and Y, they are very well-dressed and are implied to be competent trainers. The badass part is confirmed in Sun and Moon, where you actually get to fight them (although they ditch the suits for more casual vacation attire).
- Dragon Tamer: In Sun Dexio uses the Fire/Dragon Turtonator while Sina uses the Normal/Dragon Drampa while in the Battle Tree.
- An Ice Person: As revealed in Sun and Moon, Sina specializes in Ice-type Pokémon. In the Battle Tree she mixes things up with Moon's version exclusives.
- Informed Attribute: Apparently they help defend the Kalos region from threats disguised as superheroes, but given that we only ever see them appearing after you've already dealt with each in-game crisis, it throws their credibility into doubt. The one in-game moment where they actually do some heroing (saving the Pokémon on Menhir Trail from Team Flare's ultimate plan) is an Offscreen Moment of Awesome done with Tierno and Trevor's help.
- Leitmotif: Have a very friendly-sounding one and a more energetic version as the "Defenders of Kalos".
- Meaningful Name: Dexio and Sina have names derived from words meaning "right" and "left" respectively. They're Sycamore's assistants (his left and right hands).
- McNinja: Their "Defenders of Kalos" costumes have this kind of motif.
- Palette Swap: They wear the Kalos Ace Trainer outfits in X and Y, though white instead of black and purple.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The "Defenders of Kalos" aren't fooling anyone.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In Sun and Moon Sina wears pink shades and sandals while Dexio wears blue shades.
- Proud Beauty: Sina. She introduces herself by saying that Sina is a "beautiful name for a beautiful lady."
- Psychic Powers: Sun and Moon reveals that Dexio specializes in Psychic-types, and even has a Mega Alakazam when you fight him in the postgame in Sun. In the Battle Tree, he mixes things up with Sun's version exclusives.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sina is brash, impulsive and loud while Dexio is collected and more patient. This is represented in their masks and scarfs — Sina wears red ones, Dexio blue ones.
- Scarf of Asskicking: While they are the "Defenders of Kalos."
- Sentai: Their "Defenders of Kalos" disguises are made to evoke sentai.
- Signature Mon: They gain these in Sun and Moon, as this is the first time they're seen battling.
- Dexio uses Espeon in all battles you can have with him. He also has an Alakazam that he uses as his ace in his postgame battle to demonstrate Mega Evolution.
- Sina only battles once each in Moon and Ultra Moon, but Glaceon is on her team in both versions.
- Super Mode: They reappear in Sun and Moon carrying Mega Rings. Dexio uses Mega Alakazam against you in the postgame both before giving you a Key Stone. In the Battle Tree, Dexio uses Mega Slowbro in Moon, while Sina uses Mega Abomasnow in Sun.
- Theme Naming: Their names are derived from the Latin words for left (Sina) and right (Dexio).
- Those Two Guys: Are almost never seen apart from one another.
- The Unfought:
- Despite being implied to be powerful trainers, you never fight them in X and Y.
- You only fight Dexio in Sun, once in Heahea City and once post-game on the Ancient Poni Path. In Moon however, you fight Sina instead in Heahea City but still fight Dexio on the Ancient Poni Path. In the Battle Tree, Sina can only be fought and scouted in Sun while Dexio can only be fought and scouted in Moon.
Professor Sycamore (Dr. Platane)
Professor Augustine Sycamore / Dr. Platane (プラターヌ博士 purataanu hakase)
Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Pokémon Masters - JP), Ben Lepley (Pokémon Masters - EN)
The Pokémon Professor who resides in the Kalos Region who specializes in the research of Mega Evolution. He was once studying under Prof. Rowan, who also shares a similar research approach.
In Pokémon Sun and Moon, it's revealed that he discovered the Zygarde Cube that Dexio and Sina give to the player.
- Ascended Meme: A running joke amongst the fanbase is that Professor Oak sent the player on his or her journey, just to give him romantic alone time with their mother. In X and Y Professor Sycamore sends a letter to the player character's mother informing her that he is sending her child on a Pokémon journey, which she thinks is a love letter. He's also one to the rumor that you could battle Professor Oak as a secret, being the first Professor that you actually battle against.
- Badass Bookworm: He battles the player during the game, a first for Professors. The first time you battle him he admits he's not very good at it, but he challenges you again much later, where he is pretty tough.
- Badass Labcoat: Like the other Professors, he wears a labcoat. Unlike the other professors, he battles the player in friendly matches and has fairly strong Pokémon.
- Gender-Blender Name: Anyone who knows French may be somewhat amused to see his first name, since "Augustine" is actually a feminine name. It even has Spear Counterpart in "Augustin", with the "e" at the end having a similar effect to an "a" at the end of an English name.
- Gratuitous French: More than any other character in X and Y.
- Horrible Judge of Character: He reacts to Lysandre making a speech about "cleansing the world of filth" by praising the man's passion. Thankfully gets to have a chance to correct this in Masters.
- It May Help You on Your Quest: He gives you a Gen I starter holding a Mega Stone in addition to the normal one fairly early into the game.
- It Was a Gift: He gives you one of the three Kanto starters early on in the game.
- My Greatest Failure: He feels that he could have prevented his former pupil Lysandre's descent into villainy himself years ago.
- Nice Guy: This guy is probably the most pleasant person to be around in the Pokémon world.
- Olympus Mons: In Masters, he forms a sync pair with Xerneas.
- Perma-Stubble: Easy to miss, but the opening sequence shows a bit of it.
- Recurring Boss: Faced once early in his lab packing all three Kanto starters, and once much later in the game, where he has the Kanto starters' fully evolved versions.
- Screw Destiny: Non-violent example. He does believe in Lysandre's disgust in people wasting away resources and stealing from others that at times it feels futile to rectify without actually killing them all, but Sycamore has a better non-lethal way to go about it and believes it can be solved peacefully.
- Ship Tease: The professor's letter, a note Sycamore gives the Player Character for their mother, is perfumed — perfumed letters are typically used as an extra-romantic flourish for love letters, so the natural implication is that Professor Sycamore is putting the moves on your mom.
- Signature Mon: In Masters, he pairs up with Xerneas. Before forming a sync pair in the game's "Give and Take" Legendary story event, his sync partner is Bulbasaur.
- Trademark Favorite Food: In Pokemon Masters, he isn't hesitant to express his love for Coffee. However once he brings it up, he can tend to ramble on about it.
Cassius (Crocea)
Cassius / Crocea (クロケア kurokea)
The Pokémon Storage System developer who operates in the Kalos region.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Implied. He doesn't look like a professional computer expert at first glance aside from the odd supercomputer in the back of the building.
- Face of a Thug: When you enter his house in Camphrier Town, it's mainly him, a supercomputer, and two Punk Girls. You wouldn't think for a moment that was the living quarters of the Storage System Developer.
- Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: He has the same model as the Punk Guy trainer class but his manner of speaking is borderline pleasant.
- Genius Slob: As seen in his TCG artwork, Cassius has plenty of snacks scattered around his workspace.
- Hidden Depths: Considering how he talks, and the fact that his model matches that of the Punk Guy trainer class, yet he runs the system in Kalos.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: The Trading Card Game and Pokémon Adventures give him a pair of glasses to differentiate him from the Punk Guy trainer class. May overlap with Purely Aesthetic Glasses.
- Verbal Tic: He tends to say "for real" or "no, seriously" after each sentence.
Gym Leaders
Viola
Viola (ビオラ biora)
Santalune City Gym Leader — The Camerawoman Who Never Lets a Single Smile Escape Her Focus
"Whether it's the tears of frustration that follow a loss or the blossoming of joy that comes with victory... They're both great subjects for my camera! Fantastic! This'll be just fantastic! Now come at me! My lens is always focused on victory — I won't let anything ruin this shot!"
A photographer specializing in Bug-type Pokémon.
- Achilles' Heel: In her first battle, she's only prepared for two Pokémon which are Fennekin and Litleo. Otherwise, there's multiple Pokémon that can take down both Surskit and Vivillon such as Pikachu and Farfetch'd.
- Adaptational Curves: Her official art shows that while she's pretty slender, she has a pretty big chest. Her debut with a full 3D model in Pokémon Masters emphasizes her chest so much she ends up having by far the biggest boobs of any Gym Leader (and almost any other character) featured in the game. This including Skyla (who is also in the game), who was the bustiest Gym Leader in the main series until Melony in Sword and Shield.
- Adaptational Nationality: Kalos is based on France, so many characters there invoke some France tropes. But Pokémon Masters gives Viola a pronounced French accent even though none of the other characters have one, with her using the catchphrase "Fantastique!" similar to Fantina.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name:
- Her Spanish name is Violeta.
- Her Italian name is Violetta.
- Her French name is Violette.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Notable for being both the first female Bug-type Gym Leader and first female Bug-type specialist overall.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: A rare female example; she has very thick eyebrows.
- Birds of a Feather: She has a very tight friendship with fellow Bug-type Gym Leader Bugsy, whose method to use a bug-catching net mirrors her camera shots.
- Camera Fiend: She's a nature photographer, so of course she brings her camera everywhere with her.
- Character Catchphrase: "Fantastic! Just fantastic!" (Or "fantastique!", given her accent in Masters.)
- Meaningful Name: "Viola" is the name of a genera of flowers and a butterfly.
- Ms. Fanservice: Wears a crop top and is shown in Pokémon Masters to have the biggest bust out of any Gym Leader, even bigger then Skyla's.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Makes an effort to defy it; her Surskit is part Water-type and knows both Bubble and Water Sport, so your Fennekin will not have as easy a time as you might hope. Played straight in that her other Pokémon, Vivillon, is a Flying-type, making them both fodder for Pikachu. And Water does not help to stop Flying-types either.
- Even worse is that her ace, Vivillon, is doubly-weak to Rock-type moves, like, for example, Rollout (which Chespin and Dunsparce, two Pokémon either received or caught very early, learn), allowing you to literally roll over her two Pokémon.
- Recurring Element: Despite her type specialty, she manages to invoke the "Fire-type starters are disadvantaged against the first gym" trend of most previous games by using Surskit (who is part Water) and Vivillon (who knows a move that counters Fire-type moves). Despite this, she can still be taken down by other Pokémon such as Fletchling.
- Scunthorpe Problem: Due to the name censoring system in X and Y, it's impossible to name yourself or a Pokémon after her.note
- Signature Mon:
- Vivillon. The earliest third-form Pokémon used by any Gym Leader, in fact.
- Surskit serves this role instead in Pokémon Masters, in which it can evolve into Masquerain.
- Signature Move: Infestation, a move used by her Vivillon.
- The Smurfette Principle: As mentioned above, she was the first female Bug-type Gym Leader and female Bug-type specialist in general, and the only one until Katy in Scarlet and Violet.
- Stealth Pun: She's a photographer, aka a "shutterbug".
- She's a Bug-type trainer with caterpillar eyebrows.
- Unexplained Accent: In Pokémon Masters, Viola is given a French accent, which makes sense given that Kalos is the Pokémon world's French equivalent. However, none of the other Kalos Gym Leaders or Elite Four members have a French accent.
- Unfortunate Name: While "Viola" is the name of a genera of flowers and at least one butterfly, other languages have it hold a... decidedly less wholesome meaning.note
- Warm-Up Boss: She's the first gym leader in Pokémon X and Y. There's also a whole ton of Pokémon that can easily beat both of hers such as Fletchling and Pikachu and it doesn't help that 1. Both her Pokémon Surskit and Vivillon have low stats and 2. She's only prepared for two specific Pokémon: Fennekin and Litleo.
- Youngest Child Wins: The younger of two sisters, but she is a Gym Leader while Alexa works as a journalist. Though granted, it could simply be a different career choice.
Grant (Zakuro)
Grant / Zakuro (ザクロ zakuro)
Cyllage City Gym Leader —The Wild Yet Cool and Collected Rock Climber
"I've been waiting in eager anticipation! What have I been waiting for? For a worthy challenger to appear! It's quite an achievement to have climbed all the way up here. Very impressive, actually! I have a feeling that our battle will turn out to be worth the wait! I hope you'll show me that your skill as a Trainer surpasses even mine."
A rock climber who also specializes in other sports, specializing in Rock-types.
- Anime Hair: Shaped like a rock-climbing wall.
- Breaking Old Trends: Grant is the first Rock-type Gym Leader in the games to not be the first Gym Leader the player faces, instead being the second. This also means that the player can more easily get a Pokémon to counter his team, especially if they started with Fennekin.
- Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity: His Gym, not level exaggerated of course.
- Dishing Out Dirt: The pose, the brown Anime Hair with jewels, the badge, and the fact he's a rock climber makes it obvious he's a Rock-type Gym Leader.
- Dragon Tamer: Uses the Rock/Dragon Tyrunt in his Gym battle, which evolves to Tyrantrum for rematches at the Battle Chateau.
- Elemental Hair Colors: His brown Anime Hair seems to have stones embedded into it. He's a Rock-type user.
- Informed Ability: The only hints we know of his preference for sports are the Gym and his gear. He is apparently an ace cyclist, given he finishes a race in first just before you arrived.
- Jack of All Trades: As mentioned in his above description, he specializes in other sports.
- Knuckle Cracking: He cracks his neck just before your battle with him starts. Though in this case, it seems more like a way to loosen his muscles than to intimidate you.
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Zig-zagged this time. Sure, Rock-types have got a lot of weaknesses, and there are a lot more Pokémon that you could catch, including those that have a type advantage. However, not all of the aforementioned Pokémon are necessarily effective against Grant.
- Meaningful Name:
- Grant is short for "Granite" as well as "Pomegranate", keeping the meaning his Japanese name had.
- Also looks like a Shout-Out to another man named Grant who's dealt with dinosaurs.
- Perpetual Frowner: In the artwork and game.
- Signature Mon: Averted. He uses both fossil lines from Kalos, but they're the exact same Level, so neither can count as an "ace". However, in the Battle Chateau, he slightly leans to Tyrantrum, with Aurorus using more support moves while Tyrantrum is an all-out attacker. Also, in the anime, his Amaura is replaced with an Onix, but Tyrunt remains. To obfuscate the issue further, he gets Amaura in Pokémon Masters, tipping the scales back toward the center.
- Signature Move: Rock Tomb.
- Sweet Tooth: In Pokémon Masters he admits he secretly has this. He has to discipline himself hard to help keep his weight in check.
- The Stoic: Unlike other leaders, again.
Korrina (Corni)
Korrina / Corni (コルニ koruni)
Shalour City Gym Leader — The Evolution Fighter!
"Time for Lady Korrina's big appearance!"
A roller-skater girl, specializing in Fighting-types. She's also the Mega Evolution successor, and the one who gives you the Mega Ring.
- Adapted Out: Not her, but in all adaptations, Korrina only has one Lucario as opposed to the game’s initial two.
- Anti-Climax: Either her Mega Lucario gets a lucky Critical Hit on yours, thus decimating your first ever Mega Evolution battle, or you get the Critical Hit or spam the hell out of Power-Up Punch twice.
- Badass Adorable: She's adorable, alright, but she's a master Fighting-type trainer and commands Lucario.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Fighting-type specialist.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: Barely changed from her Japanese name, Corni, her German name is Connie.
- Boisterous Bruiser: She is very chatty and energetic and will kick your ass while doing it.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She is the third gym leader, but appears a few towns before you meet Grant, the second Gym Leader.
- Climax Boss: Defeating her for the last time wraps up many of the plot threads in the early game.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Fighting-type Pokémon are almost always at a disadvantage against Ghost-types, but Korrina's have almost no defense against them (almost all of her Pokémon's moves are Fighting or Normal, with the exception being Machoke's Rock Tomb), which can lead to situations like these.
- Cute Little Fangs: She has two each in her upper◊ and lower◊ jaws.
- Demoted to Extra: She has quite the presence in the story... Until after your gym battle with her, after which she's content to just stay in her town the rest of the game, bar Battle Chateau rematches.
- Duel Boss: Atop the Tower of Mastery, she battles you in a one-on-one battle, your new Lucario versus hers.
- Edible Theme Naming: Her Japanese name comes from "cornichon", the French word for "gherkin". This goes in hand with her grandfather's name: in English, it's Gurkinn, but in Japanese, it's Concombre, French for "cucumber".
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: She invokes this description of Power-Up Punch when she gives the TM to you.
- Friendly Rival: A first amongst Gym Leaders, she encounters you a few times during the beginning of your journey and you two have a series of battles up until you finally get access to Mega Evolution.
- The Gadfly: Downplayed. She indulges in screwing with the Player Character here and there, such as jokingly overreacting about losing and saying she will resign as Gym Leader. This trait carries over to Masters, where she often messes with the player about inflicting a rolling axe-kick on them.
- Genki Girl: She's rarely seen without a cheery smile, even if she holds two jobs as both a Gym Leader and the Mega Evolution Successor.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted. She is shown wearing the safety headgear that is necessary for rollerblading.
- Hidden Depths:
- One wouldn't expect an energetic and feisty young girl to be an authority on the concept of Mega Evolutions.
- When giving you your first Mega Evolution battle, her character artwork has her standing firm with a stern face, showing a much more serious side than she does in her Gym battle.
- Hot-Blooded: One of her Lucario, the one that takes a liking to you, appears to be this towards the other one she has. She herself also fits this trope.
- Informed Attribute: In Masters, it's said that getting training from her helps Sync Pairs get exponentially stronger. At no point during her chapter does the player's team get any different (besides the obligatory fact she will join the team, perhaps as the first Sync Pair that can Mega Evolve).
- It Was a Gift: Hands you one of her Lucario after beating her (or getting beaten) at the Tower of Mastery.
- Meaningful Name: Her name sounds like a combination of K.O.,combat and arena". It also sounds very much like "careen", something which is very easy to do on a pair of rollerskates.
- Large Ham: How does she make an entrance? She enters from above and shouts "Lady Korrina makes her big debut!" with the dialogue box indicating it was a large shout.
- Legacy Character: She is the descendant of the first trainer who performed the first ever Mega Evolution, with a Lucario no less. Unless ORAS is not to be believed, however, her ancestors may have been late at it.
- Little Miss Badass: She looks fairly young, but she is a Fighting-type Gym Leader and knows the Mega Evolution process.
- Modesty Shorts: Wears black biker shorts under her skirt.
- The One Who Wears Shoes: The only Fighting-type Gym Leader who wears shoes, aside from Brawly.
- Olympus Mons: Gets Marshadow in Masters for her Sygna Suit.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Is really into rollerskating, which is why her gym is designed like an obstacle course for someone who does it.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Her Gym team cannot deal with Ghost-types, barring Rock Tomb on her Machoke. A Honedge can easily wall the whole team.
- Pungeon Master: She can't speak a sentence without making a roller-skating related pun. Especially how she can roll with the punches.
- Recurring Boss: She first fights you in a friendly spar a few towns before you reach her Gym, then you have the actual Gym battle, and then you fight her in a sort of Mega-Evolution tutorial battle in the Tower of Mastery. Not counting formal rematches or Cheren's Call-Back team in Black 2/White 2, this marks the first time since Giovanni that a Gym Leader is fought more than once and outside their own gym.
- Rollerblade Good: Definitely qualifies for the "badass" part of the trope.
- Signature Mon: While Hawlucha is the Pokémon she uses in her Gym Battle, she's far more associated with Lucario — specifically Mega Lucario, as she's the one who introduces Mega Evolution to the player for the first time. Appropriately, she uses both in her Battle Chateau rematches.
- Masters gives her Marshadow for her Sygna Suit variant.
- Signature Move: Power-Up Punch.
- Sucks at Dancing: In Masters, she tells the player that, back when she first got Lucario as a Riolu, her father instructed them both to dance to be able to sync together during battles. While Riolu was apparently very good, Korrina was a mess. She did eventually get better after her Riolu prevented her from falling flat on her face. Flashforward to the present day, and it seems that she's gotten better at dancing (on rollerblades) herself.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Wears one sticking out from her helmet.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: After you beat her in the Gym battle, she mentions that you have to go to the Tower of Mastery to get the ring from her.
Ramos (Fukuji)
Ramos / Fukuji (フクジ fukuji)
"So what'd yeh think, whippersnapper? Did yeh enjoy the garden playground I made with all these sturdy plants o' mine? Their strength is a sign o' my strength as a gardener and a Gym Leader! Yeh sure yer up to facing all that?"
An old gardener who specializes in Grass-types.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: His beard looks like plant leaves.
- Badass Bookworm: The room you battle him in within the gym appears to be his study.
- Blush Sticker: Has them in his art.
- Cool Old Guy: One of the oldest Gym Leaders seen, but it doesn't slow him down much. It's mentioned that he climbs up to his spot in the gym every day.
- Green Thumb: Specializes in Grass-type Pokémon.
- Last-Name Basis: Ramos is a common surname in Portuguese and Spanish, but never a given name.
- Meaningful Name: "Ramos" means "(plant) branches" in Portuguese and Spanish.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: He's comparatively small compared to the younger Gym Leaders.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: His gym is a breeze if you happened to choose Fennekin or Charmander, as none of his Pokémon really have any way to combat Fire-types (other than Bulldoze on his Gogoat). Goes double for Charmander, as it'll likely be evolved all the way into a Charizard (making it completely immune to Bulldoze) and both Mega Charizards are fully capable of sweeping his entire team with little effort (though Mega Charizard X loses the aforementioned Bulldoze immunity).
- Signature Mon: Gogoat. Oddly enough, he uses a Weepinbell in Masters.
- Signature Move: Grass Knot.
- Stealth Pun: His gym is a Grass-type gym that has ropes, climbing poles, and a slide; it is literally a jungle gym.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Meet him again at the top of his gym post-game, and he'll discuss AZ's fate. He thinks that he couldn't have lived with the guilt and punishment of being without his friend for over 3,000 years, like AZ has.
Clemont (Citron)
Clemont / Citron (シトロン shitoron)
Lumiose City Gym Leader — The Inventor Lighting Up the World
"The future is now, thanks to science!"
A Gadgeteer Genius young boy who specializes in Electric-types.
For the anime version of Clemont, see Pokémon the Series: XY — Cast.
- And This Is for...: In Masters, he, Volkner, Sophocles, and Molayne prevent Lysandre from blowing up Pasio, though Clemont declares this is payback for causing the blackout in Lumiose City.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: His sister Bonnie, who keeps stealing his speeches during his Gym Battle.
- Awesome Backpack: It has two robot arms extending from it.
- The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest Gym Leader of the Kalos lineup.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name:
- His Brazilian Portuguese name is Clement.
- His German name is Citro, which is barely changed from his Japanese name, Citron.
- Birds of a Feather: In Masters, he quickly develops a friendship with Sophocles; another young inventor into Electric-types.
- Bungling Inventor: Heavily implied. One person from the central Pokémon Center mentions that while Clemont is an inspiration for inventors, most of his inventions don't work. After Shauna uses Clemont's puzzle invention to unlock Team Flare's door, the device breaks down.
- Cerebro Electro: Clemont is an inventor who is always tinkering with new creations, an Electric-type Gym Leader, and his design involves two mechanical arms strapped to his back.
- Character Catchphrase: "The future is now!"
- Chaste Hero: In Masters, it utterly goes over his head that a female show announcer told him straight that his glasses made her heart twitch, but he is happy that sounded like a compliment.
- Chekhov's Gift: Shauna mentions early on that Clemont made her a device that could solve any puzzle for her if frustrated when you reach Centrico Plaza the first time in X & Y. The device ends up being really important near the end of Team Flare's plot when a door needs to be hacked open.
- Elemental Hair Colors: Befitting his Electric-type specialty, his hair is spiky and blond.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: The two arms coming out of his backpack seems designed for different purposes.
- For Science!: His motivation... SCIENCE!
- Gadgeteer Genius: He designed the entire Prism Tower from top to bottom, the PSS and Super Training system, and also enjoys inventing gizmos in his spare time. Samson Oak also implies that he was the one who invented the Rotom Dex.
- In Masters, he, Sophocles, and Molayne design the Sync Pair Pinger to lure strong Sync Pairs' Pokémon for the player's team to fight in order to train for the tournament. However, the device ends up not working as well as they hoped. But when they successfully lure Blue's Pidgeot, Clemont is a bit disturbed the device worked when they thought it didn't, and didn't work when they thought it did.
- Idiot Hair: Loosely shaped like a lightning bolt.
- Improbable Age: He seems to be younger than Serena and Calem, and yet he's already into advanced cybernetics and designing enormous towers.
- Large Ham: Not quite to the same extent as his anime counterpart, who has a tendency to get way more excited than he probably should regarding his inventions, but his shouting about science and his inventions portray him as such
- Legacy Character: He keeps the obligatory Electric-type Gym Leader trend for each region. (Johto lacks one, as they have their Kanto neighbors with Lt. Surge.)
- Meaningful Name: His Japanese name is Citron and his English name is Clemont. Lemons and Citrus fruits can produce an electrical current. His English name also seems to come from inclement, which means stormy weather.
- Mundane Utility: If he decides to give you a Pearl String in the Battle Chateau, he mentions activating his gift-giving machine to do it.
- Odd Friendship: Not exactly odd, but he and Bonnie are apparently really good friends with Shauna.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: Fitting with his love of science.
- Recurring Element: A Gadgeteer Genius Electric-type leader, one of the many returns to this generation.
- Signature Mon: Heliolisk is his strongest Pokémon.
- Shrinking Violet: In Masters, he mentions he isn't good with social interactions. One time, when he was interviewed and asked what he planned for the future, he could only manage to answer he wanted to go to the Nimbasa City amusement park in Unova.
- Shock and Awe: His mechanical backpack, the inventor archetype, his lightning bolt-shaped Idiot Hair, and the design of the badge he gives clearly point to his specialty of Electric-types.
- Shorter Means Smarter: Not as short as Trevor, but still shorter than Calem/Serena.
- The Short Guy with Glasses: Wears glasses for this trope too.
- Signature Move: Thunderbolt. His Emolga gets Volt Switch instead.
Valerie (Mache)
Valerie / Mache (マーシュ maashu)
"Oh, if it isn't a young Trainer... So you've flown all the way through my Gym, fluttering down to me on a fortunate wind. ...I hope your visit will prove entertaining to you. The elusive Fairy types may appear frail as a breeze and delicate as a bloom, but they are strong."
A fashion designer originally hailing from Johto who specializes in Fairy-types.
- Animal Motifs: Her outfit has a clear butterfly motif.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: She can get easily distracted by stuff that glimmers, her badge being one.
- Badass Adorable: She's a beautiful and adorable young lady, as well as a Gym Leader who specializes in Fairy-type Pokémon.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: Her Spanish name is Valeria.
- But Not Too Foreign: She is a fashion designer from the Johto region. Fitting, as the trainers in her gym are Furisode Girls, who are a Mythology Gag in regards to the Kimono Girls from Johto.
- Call-Back: Her gym has the same kind of teleporting puzzle as Sabrina's gym from Pokémon Red and Blue, and like the anime's version of Sabrina, she's got a bit of a doll motif.
- Cloudcuckoolander:
- Gives off a rather strong vibe of being this. It also is even more so given she is from Johto, which is based off of Kansai.
- In Masters, she is very passionate about her dream to literally become a Pokémon. Everyone who learns about this can only react in confusion.
- Combat Stilettos: Her black-and-pink pumps are one of the highest-heeled shoes in the franchise. Gym Freaks states she used to be a model, enabling her to walk in them without any difficulty (especially after adding in that her outfit is stated as weighing 33 pounds, most likely from the wing-like sleeves in particular).
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: Mentions that she's always wanted to be a Pokémon. Given the sewing machine found in her gym, her followers' obsession with fashion, and the fact that she kinda looks like a Fairy-type Pokémon, it is reasonable to assume that she's into Moe Anthropomorphism.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Valerie is an adherent of Wa Lolita fashion, an offshoot of Lolita subculture that combines dark Victorian aesthetics with traditional Japanese kimonos. Given she's from Japan-based Johto, she has the knowledge for the kimono side of the combination.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Her eyes have an other worldly appearance compared to the other gym leaders.
- The Fashionista: She is a fashion designer from Johto. Given all of the trainers have unique outfits, the dollhouse shows some sewing equipment, and that Laverre City houses a Boutique, it's far from an Informed Ability.
- Hidden Depths: Masters reveals that she is well-versed in Ho-oh's tale, mostly because she is enchanted by its design. Being from Johto originally might help a bit, as Johto is Ho-oh's main region of legend status.
- Manchild: Gender Flipped; Her Gym is literally a dollhouse and she tells you she wants to be a Pokémon. Add that to the seeming lack of maturity, and she's this.
- Meaningful Name: Rhymes with fairy and possibly derives from "valor". It ties into her Japanese name, which is the French term for Valerianella locusta, the corn salad or rapunzel plant.
- Mistaken Identity: In Masters, Ethan mistakes her for one of the Kimono Girls he bumped into in Johto, as he wanted to get info about Ho-oh's arrival in Pasio. Despite failing to get one of the girls, he was lucky Valerie knows enough about Ho-oh herself to give him pointers as to where to find it.
- Monochromatic Eyes: Her eyes show no pupil and almost no sclera, playing with this trope in order to invoke the butterfly motif.
- Mythology Gag:
- As the sixth gym leader specializing in a new type introduced during that generation, players might get reminded of Jasmine. Coincidentally, both of their aces are new evolutions of a Generation I Pokémon.
- All Trainers in her Gym are Furisode Girls — a throwback to the Kimono Girls, the iconic Trainer class that's exclusive to Valerie's home region, Johto. Fittingly, her Signature Mon is even Sylveon - she could help complete the set the Kimono Girls of the Johto games did, each being paired with one of the then-introduced Eeveelution.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Those aforementioned eyes are unique to her and the Fairy Tale Girls.
- Of Corsets Sexy: She wears it on top of her dress though.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Specializes in Fairy-types.
- The Fair Folk: She's a Fairy-type trainer, and one of the hallmarks of The Fair Folk was their impossible beauty, which often distracted people from their more "off" characteristics — in this case, her rather unnerving eyes.
- Pink Means Feminine: Gives off this vibe. Strongly.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Though for some reason, she's also wearing thigh-high stockings.
- Signature Mon: Sylveon. Not only is it a colorful Fairy-type with ribbons in its design and large insect-like eyes to match her style, but it's also a newly introduced evolution of Eevee in her game, fitting for a fashion designer with a connection and home shared with the Kimono Girls.
- Signature Move: Dazzling Gleam, though only her Mr. Mime and Sylveon know it, leaving Mawile with Play Rough.
- Silk Hiding Steel:
- She describes Fairy-type Pokémon to be this. Considering their type advantages, she is right.Valerie: The elusive Fairy types may appear frail as a breeze and delicate as a bloom, but they are strong.
- She may qualify as well. It's stated in-game that that Pimped-Out Dress of hers weighs thirty pounds.
- She describes Fairy-type Pokémon to be this. Considering their type advantages, she is right.
- Toy Time: Her Gym invokes this with its dollhouse-like design.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Her sleeves and eyes bring Audino to mind, though it doesn't gain the Fairy-type until Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire through Mega Evolution.
- Vague Age: While she is obviously young, it is pretty hard to tell whether she's a teenager or a young woman.
Olympia (Gojika)
Olympia / Gojika (ゴジカ gojika)
Voiced by: Naomi Shindo (Pokémon Masters - JP)
Anistar City Gym Leader —The Person Who Makes Paths with Starlight"A ritual to decide your fate and future. The battle begins!"
A mysterious woman who specializes in Psychic-types.
- Ambiguously Brown: Dark-skinned but no clear nationality, putting aside Pokémon's geography.
- Anime Hair: The most glaring example out of the Kalos Gym Leaders, having four massive curls.
- Badass Bookworm: In Pokémon Masters, it's revealed that she's such a globally accomplished writer that Lucian of Sinnoh's Elite Four, a fellow Psychic-type specialist and bookworm, is an avid reader of her works. She's also the second most powerful Gym Leader in the region and a powerful psychic.
- Badass Cape: A long and flowing cape whose interior side looks like a galaxy.
- Crystal Ball: The shape of her Badge invokes this trope.
- Door to Before: After you defeat her, she offers to teleport you to the entrance of the Gym as a short-cut.
- Foreshadowing: She warns the player about a power that awakens and voices of woe in the near future. Not long after the player has left the Gym, the Big Bad appears on everyone's Holo Caster announcing his plan to awaken the version's legendary and activate the ultimate weapon that will kill everyone who's not part of Team Flare.
- Gravity Master: She's managed to make the platforms of her gym follow a metaphysical small, spherical structure through cosmic manipulation, not all that different from the localized points of gravity in the Distortion World. This is implied to have a couple more purposes in relation to her psychic powers — according to Gym Freaks, a low-gravity environment stimulates psionics.
- Haiku: She all but speaks in haiku the whole time. Especially notable in the Japanese version.
- Meaningful Name: It comes from Olympus, the home of the gods in Classical Mythology, relating to the Psychic-type's mystical and mysterious nature.
- Power Floats: She's able to use her Psychic Powers to levitate.
- Perpetual Smiler: The only expression she seems to have is a serene smile.
- Psychic Powers: Both in type preference and being a really strong one to boot.
- Reality Warper: Heavily implied. The entire plane of her Gym gets warped the moment you enter and is held there by absorbing the cosmos, implying it is Olympia's doing. If that's the case, she could give Sabrina a real run for her money.
- Screw Destiny: Although she does have the power to see into the future, this is the advice she gives to the player. "Create your own path. Let nothing get in your way. Your fate, your future."
- Seers: She's demonstrated a level of clairvoyance, predicting Lysandre's speech about cleansing the Kalos region with the Ultimate Weapon, and Gym Freaks mentions that she can see the future of anyone who puts their hand through the bracelets on her wrists.
- Serial Escalation: She's the seventh Leader, but her team's levels are higher than those of the eighth and final Leader in Johto, Hoenn, and Unovanote and almost on par with the eighth and final of Kanto and Sinnoh. From a non-battle standpoint, Sabrina's psychic abilities pale in comparison to the things she has displayed.
- Signature Mon: Female Meowstic. In Masters however, she pairs with Sigilyph for some reason.
- Signature Move: Calm Mind, which, in her Gym Battle, is known by two of her three Pokémon.
- Star-Spangled Spandex: Not the spandex, but the inside of her cape, which looks like the night sky or the universe. According to Gym Freaks the cape's galaxy pattern serves to increase her psychic powers.
- Terse Talker: She speaks in as few words as possible, mostly because her dialogue is almost entirely in Haiku.
Wulfric (Urup)
Wulfric / Urup (ウルップ uruppu)
Snowbelle City Gym Leader — Tough as an Iceberg, Hot as a Furnace
"Y'know what? Ice is both extremely hard and terribly fragile at the same time. You know what that means? Depending on which Pokémon you choose and what moves they use, I could be your most challenging opponent yet or I could be a total pushover. But that's all right. That's how it should be! Anyway, enough of my rambling! Let's get this show on the road!"
An old man who specializes in Ice-type Pokémon.
- Big Fun: The guy has a big gut, but an even bigger heart. He even smacks his belly before fighting you.
- Breaking Old Trends: He's the first Ice-type Gym Leader in the series to not be the seventh one you face.
- Cavalier Competitor: When you talk to him in the Battle Chateau, he basically tells you the reason he does Pokémon Battles is simply because he enjoys it.
- Character Catchphrase: "You know what?"
- Coat Cape: A heavy blue coat tied around his neck.
- Cool Old Guy: When you first meet him, he is visiting some Pokémon that were supposedly mistreated in the past and recognizes the player's bond with their mons. He acts as a kindly uncle of sorts, bidding the player a formal good luck as they head off for the Pokémon League. He also casually comments that the battle will be easy or hard depending on what Pokémon you brought, lampshading how some players tailor their teams to beat specific leaders, as well as the Ice-type's offensive and defensive matchups.
- Fat and Proud: He doesn't mention it in any dialogue, but he does give his gut a good hearty smack before battling you.
- Forgetful Jones: In Pokémon Masters he mentions that he tends to forget events like his wedding anniversary or his kid's birthdays.
- Friend to All Living Things: He is one of the curators of the Pokémon Village, a village filled with Pokémon who were abandoned or mistreated.
- Gentle Giant: He takes care of mistreated Pokémon. Coupled with his size, he's a giant teddy bear. He takes up three horizontal/vertical tiles in his overworld model, just like Valerie. You can speak to him standing in front of any of those tiles.
- Happily Married: X and Ys concept art reveals he has a wife and two children, and in Masters, he often talks about how happy his wife makes him.
- Hereditary Hairstyle: His ancestor Gaeric had the same hairstyle as him.
- Hot-Blooded: He is far more emotional than Brycen is, but isn't quite on Candice's level.
- Hidden Depths: He apparently is a fan of the Brycen-man movies, according to the In-universe TV show about Gym Leaders.
- An Ice Person: An Ice-type specialist. He even points out that the type can go from Mighty Glacier to Glass Cannon depending on their opponents, as well as their good offensive abilities and multiple defensive weaknesses!
- Jiggle Physics: His belly in Pokémon Masters visibly wobbles during certain animations.
- Lampshade Hanging: His comment that he will either be one of the hardest opponents you will face or a complete pushover. Not only does this refer to players who bring types strong against Ice, but also the fact that Ice is a great attacking type but has several defensive weaknesses, and also to the fact that his strongest Pokémon, Avalugg, has extremely high defense but virtually no special defense, while his Cryogonal's stats are the reverse.
- Meaningful Name: Wulfric = frigid.
- Papa Wolf: He cares for the abused and abandoned Pokémon at the Pokémon Village.
- Serial Escalation: His team is in the mid-high 50's, making him the highest-level Gym Leader you can battle pre-Champion. In particular, his Avalugg is level 59, making it the highest-level Pokémon used by any Gym Leader. To put that in perspective, that level is higher than Steven Stone, Wallace, and Iris' highest-leveled Pokémon, and is on par with the lowest-leveled Pokémon of Blue and Cynthia!
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Especially remarkable considering his type of choice.
- Signature Mon: Avalugg, appropriately enough for a man built like an iceberg. The anime depicts his Abomasnow as his signature Pokémon instead, with the addition of it being capable of Mega Evolution.
- Signature Move: Ice Beam, known by his Abomasnow and Cryogonal.
- Stone Wall: His strategy is to pair up the physical wall Avalugg with the special wall Cyrogonal.
- Stout Strength: The anime shows him as being able to lift Bergmite, which weigh 219.4 lbs (99.5 kg), with one hand. As well as able to partially lift an Avalugg, which weighs 1113.3 lbs (505.0 kg)!
Elite Four and Champion
Wikstrom (Gampi)
Wikstrom / Gampi (ガンピ ganpi)
"Well met, young challenger! Verily am I the Elite Four's famed blade of hardened Steel, Wikstrom!"
- Antiquated Linguistics: He speaks in a very flowery, old-fashioned manner.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may come across as very hammy, but he's a member of the Elite Four for a reason.
- Extra-ore-dinary: The first Steel-type Elite Four member.
- Knight in Shining Armor: His dress style invokes the trope.
- Knightly Sword and Shield: It shouldn't be surprising that a knight-themed Elite Four member uses Aegislash as his ace.
- Large Ham: He doesn't just look like a medieval knight, he talks and acts like one.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: He mentions to the Player Character that the two should battle with honor.
- Meaningful Name:
- Wikstrom almost sounds like strong as in strong metal.
- "Ganpi" contains the first two morae of "Ganjou", meaning solid or sturdy.
- Mighty Glacier: With the exception of Klefki, all of his Pokémon are of the strong-but-slow archetype.
- The Prankster: In Masters, he mentions that his Klefki has a habit of stealing the keys to his home and won't relent until Wikstrom has to fight it.
- Real Men Wear Pink: His first mon sent out is a Klefki.
- Shout-Out: He speaks in Antiquated Linguistics and claims that his will shakes spears.
- Signature Mon: Aegislash — very fitting for a knight.
- 24-Hour Armor: It's uncertain if he is known to take it off, though.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: To go along with his knight motif.
Malva (Pachira)
Malva / Pachira (パキラ pakira)
Voiced by: Marina Inoue (JP, Pokémon Generations), Kira Buckland (EN, Pokémon Generations), Morgan Berry (Pokémon Masters - EN), Kotono Mitsuishi (JP, Pokémon Masters)
"I feel like my heart might just burst into flames. I'm burning up with my hatred for you, runt!"
Malva is one of the members of Kalos Elite Four, news reporter of the Holo Caster, and a member of Team Flare.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the anime she turns against Lysandre after losing faith in him and his plans and openly assists the heroes, though she is implied to be Reformed, but Not Tamed.
- Almighty Janitor: Malva was a member of Team Flare, yet the Scientists and Admins were very likely her superiors in spite of having the combat potential and skills to be in the Elite Four. It is then subverted in Looker's sidequest when it was implied she was at least admin-ranked, since she had knowledge of a hidden floor only admins knew about.
- Amazon Brigade: All four of her main Pokémon are female.
- Berserk Button: You seem to be one for her, as she frequently comments on how she'd like nothing better than to burn you up on the spot.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Though she seems pleasant enough when she does her news broadcasts, her dialogue when you encounter her at the Pokémon League shows she's anything but pleasant. Her appearance in the Kalos Villain Arc from Pokémon Masters has her expressing worry for Team Flare causing chaos, but her sighing noise sounds very much fake in front of the main characters.
- Cool Shades: Her shades have a deep red tint to them.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She appears in a Holo Caster transmission as a news lady, long before you fight the Elite Four. This doubles as a Foreshadowing that she was involved with Team Flare, since they secretly run the company that produces the Holo Caster.
- Convection, Schmonvection: In her chamber, two huge pillars of fire explode right near where she's sitting. She's completely unaffected, as is the player.
- Dark Action Girl: While she is a former member of Team Flare, her violent tendencies place her as this.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The (then) unnamed Holo Caster girl is a member of the Elite Four?! And Team Flare?!
- Dragon Their Feet: Despite the fact that she's likely high in the ranks of Team Flare, you don't encounter her until long after you've already defeated them.
- Enemy Mine: With you and Looker in the postgame to stop Xerosic.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She draws the line at conducting experiments on children, which is why she asks you to take down Xerosic to "prevent him from sullying Flare's honor". It still doesn't stop her from threatening the player with death by fire.
- Evil Redhead: Downplayed. She's a member of Team Flare and has pink hair, but she's not actively antagonizing the player character outside of the occasional threat.
- Foreshadowing: A number of her traits hint at her being part of Team Flare before she reveals it outright: her orange sunglasses, her use of the Fire-type (including Pyroar, which Lysandre also uses), and appearing as the announcer of the Holo Caster, which was produced by Team Flare.
- From Beyond the Fourth Wall: A player can download special Holo Caster messages in which she appears on her news program to announce and remind players of special downloadable content and events regarding the game, like the Mystery Gift Torchic and Global Battle Tournaments. (Far more of these appeared in the Japanese version than the two that appeared in the American one.)
- Honor Among Thieves: The reason she claims she's helping you during the Looker quest, but she doesn't elaborate. This comes into play again in Pokémon Masters, where she wants to put a stop to the rogue Team Flare members, while at the same time threatening Looker by warning him that she's got many of her lackeys disguised as citizens and will retaliate the moment he steps out of line.
- Jerkass: She is a pyromaniac who casually mentions to a child that she was thinking of killing them in hellfire right on the spot (though it's unclear how much of her threats are just standard Fire-user posturing). At least she is a sport when losing.
- Karma Houdini: Despite being known as a high-ranking member of Team Flare, she is never arrested, maintains her prestigous spot as a member of the Elite Four and a Holo Caster reporter, and gets away clean with no consequences. The closest thing you get to punishing her is to defeat her in battle... in a completely sanctioned Pokémon League match along with the good members of the Elite Four and the Champion.
- Kill It with Fire: She remarks after defeat that she just wants to burn you up on the spot.
- Meaningful Name:
- It comes from lava and Malva is also a type a flower, as are a few other names in the region. Also, Mal means evil in Latin, which fits her personality and background well.
- Pachira is another type of flower. In addition, if the first five letters are pronounced phonetically and then doubled up, it makes "Pachipachi", an onomatopoeia for the sound of something popping, usually due to heat.
- It comes from lava and Malva
- Might Makes Right: Is a believer in this, and thus begrudgingly accepts that the player character defeating Lysandre is proof that Team Flare deserved to fail.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's got a decently exposed midriff, her shirt and pants are quite form-fitting, and she moves in a haughtily sexy way. Altogether, she's a very hot woman.
- Playing with Fire: She specializes in Fire-types, and is ironically the only Team Flare member who does.
- Pyromaniac: "I feel like my heart might just burst into flames. I'm burning up with my hatred for you, runt!"
- Rich Bitch: Her Team Flare membership implies that she must be very wealthy. The bitch part is self-explanatory by this point.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Her orange shades have a prominent opaque shininess to them, hinting at how there's something sinister about her.
- Signature Mon: Talonflame when you challenge her at the Kalos League during the initial game and rematches, although she does use Pyroar by its lonesome in a post-game event. In the anime, she uses a Houndoom that can Mega Evolve.
- Slouch of Villainy: Well, technically her villainous plans have gone up into smoke by the time you run into her, but she is the only Elite Four member who sits on her throne to battle you instead of getting up. Ironically, she's also the one who meets you in the foyer and explains how the Elite Four challenge works.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Speaks to the Player Character in one of their matches how she would like to burn them where they stand as revenge without even raising her voice.
- Token Evil Teammate: She was a member of Team Flare, and is definitely hostile towards the player. The way she mentions how she wants to kill the player with fire could give Koga a run for his money. (She becomes far more threatening the second and all subsequent times you challenge the Elite Four.)
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Will do this if she actually manages to defeat the player at the Battle Chateau."I am delighted! Yes, delighted that I could squash you beneath my heel."
- Villain with Good Publicity: She's a well-respected media figure before Team Flare's Evil Plan is foiled, and continues that role afterwards.
- Walking Spoiler: There's clearly more to her than you might think at first, for both the main game and postgame.
- Worthy Opponent: In spite of her jerkass behavior and desire to essentially kill the player character, Malva acknowledges their skills and accepts why they were able to take down Team Flare.
Drasna (Dracaena)
Drasna / Dracaena (ドラセナ dorasena)
Voiced by: Nodoka Hasegawa (Pokémon Masters - JP)
"Welcome, welcome, come in. You must be a strong Trainer. Yes, quite strong indeed..."
- Amazon Brigade: Just like fellow Elite Four member Malva's, Drasna's team is female-only.
- Call-Back: Drasna makes several references to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Her dialog for Elite Four rematches reveals that her grandparents emigrated to Kalos from a town where "the past lives on", which is the motto of Celestic Town; she says she was raised on legends of time and space, time and space being the purview of Dialga and Palkia, the signature legendaries of those games (which are, incidentally, also dragons).
- Cool Old Lady: She looks like she is in her forties or fifties, but she trains Dragons, is always cheerful, and sports an amazing hairstyle.
- Dragon Tamer: Specializes in Dragon-types.
- Eyes Always Shut: Her character model.
- Meaningful Name: It comes from dragon, rather obviously. Her Japanese namesake is also known as the dragon tree.
- Never Mess with Granny: Her character model and dialogue both indicate she's on the older side, especially compared to her compatriots. That being said, she's still an Elite Four member who specializes in Dragon-types and dislikes being referred to as nothing short of the best Dragon-type user, so underestimate her at your own risk.
- Nice Girl: She is ridiculously polite to the Player Character.
- Perpetual Smiler: She is always happy, even when it comes to battling. Her Sync Move in Pokémon Masters is even called "Infinite Smile Dragon Pulse."
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: She wears plenty of dragon tusks on her outfit.
- Signature Mon:
- Her strongest Pokémon in X and Y is her Noivern.
- In Masters she pairs with Dragalge.
- Team Mom: As her character episode in Pokémon Masters shows, she likes to dote on her Dragalge by allowing it to play at the beach. Even when she requests a battle to the player character, she'd rather first invite them to play with Dragalge at the beach before battling.
Siebold (Zumi)
Siebold / Zumi (ズミ zumi)
"Cooking is the type of art that disappears as soon as it is completed. Pokémon battles are the same. Even memories of sweet victory soon fade after the battle ends."
- Agent Peacock: Dresses similarly to Wallace, but he is an Elite Four member for a reason.
- Berserk Button: Claiming that Pokémon battles cannot be artistic. The same goes for food, as he's a chef.
- Call-Back: Defeat him first in the Elite Four, and he'll give a speech similar to Karen regarding strong Pokémon and weak Pokémon, although in the air of a Deadpan Snarker:Siebold: There are no weak Pokémon in a Pokémon battle. There are only weak Trainers.
- Chef of Iron: A world-class chef and an Elite Four member.
- Foreshadowing: A chef after battle will mention him as part of the Elite Four in Restaurant Le Nah, which you can enter as soon as you reach Lumiose, by comparing you vaguely to him.
- Large Ham: Press his Berserk Button and he'll start shouting. Go on, we dare you.
- Making a Splash: Water-type specialist of the region, and the first Elite Four member to specialize in the type.
- Meaningful Name:
- It sounds like Seabold. It also comes from Siebold's crabapple.
- Zumi likely comes from Izumi, meaning a spring or fountain. It's also みず mizu (water) backwards.
- It sounds like Seabold. It also comes from Siebold's crabapple
- Not So Stoic: He keeps a calm demeanor (unlike Malva), but if you say "No" to the question he asks you (whether or not Pokémon battling can be considered art), Siebold pretty much gets pissed off at you and rants before engaging battle. Amusingly, in Masters, agreeing to his views makes him happy for a bit. Disagreeing ends up pissing him off so much he goes on a long argument on the player until he calms down and apologizes.
- Perpetual Frowner: His character model is this way.
- The Philosopher: Siebold briefly discusses the concept of art with the player before battling, seeing many things, like cooking and victory, as fleeting forms of art that should be cherished because of how short-lived they can be.
- The Worm That Walks: Barbaracle, a humanoid mass of rocks and barnacles.
- Signature Mon: Barbaracle is his highest-leveled Pokémon in the league. Pokémon Masters has him use Clawitzer, another member of his team, and his holiday variant has him use Octillery.
- Supreme Chef: Fitting for a Water-type Elite Four as his team mostly consists of edible aquatic life, including the starfish and gooseneck barnacle.
Diantha (Carnet)
Diantha / Carnet (カルネ karune)
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (JP, Pokémon Generations), Laura Post (EN, Pokémon Generations), Antonia Flynn (EN, Pokémon Masters), Aya Hisakawa (JP, Pokémon Masters)
"...Battling against you and your Pokémon, all of you brimming with hope for the future... Honestly, it just fills me up with energy I need to keep facing each new day! It does!"
The Champion of the Kalos League, Diantha is more famous and loved for her acting as a movie star. However, her true passion is Pokémon battling, though she doesn't often meet truly interesting and powerful trainers.
- The Ace: She's very famous in-universe, being a movie star and the Champion of the Kalos League.
- Achilles' Heel: While the typing is varied, half of her team has a weakness to Steel (one having it at quadruple damage) and the other half has a weakness to Ice. In the Battle Chateau, her Gardevoir will be unable to do anything to hurt a Dark-type Pokémon other than use Struggle while any Writ of Challenge is active.
- All Your Powers Combined: Doesn't have any type theme, like Blue, Cynthia and Alder.
- Artificial Stupidity: The Battle Chateau decides a Pokémon's movesets based on what they learn by leveling up, rather than forming movesets based on strategy. This hits Diantha really hard, giving Gardevoir useless movesnote , moves that help younote , or an entirely awful moveset.note
- Badass Longcoat: She is the Champion of Kalos and wears a white one.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: She sports these.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Like many of the other Champions, she appears throughout the story pretending to be just a random Trainer with no relevance whatsoever to the Pokémon League. But of course...
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: She looks a lot like Audrey Hepburn. They're even both actresses.
- Cultured Badass: Given that she's able to debate philosophy with Lysandre and is a very powerful trainer, she definitely qualifies.
- Dragon Tamer: Her team includes the Rock/Dragon Tyrantrum and pure Dragon Goodra.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: When battling Diantha as Champion, her pre-battle portrait has falling sparkles and rays of light.
- Face Death with Dignity: A downplayed example, usually actresses DREAD the idea of aging (even considering it a fate worse than death) as it limits their potential starring roles in cinema. Diantha on the other hand actually looks forward to it, seeing aging as a chance to play roles she could never play at her current age.
- Famed In-Story: Famous as both Champion and actress.
- Final Boss: She's the last proper boss of X and Y's main story.
- Fossil Revival: Has both Aurorus and Tyrantrum, the evolved Kalos fossils.
- Former Child Star: Lysandre mentions that she had played a young girl in her debut. Depending on how young she was, she could be an aversion of this trope, becoming successful into adulthood.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her Sygna Suit variant gives her an elegant black dress she wears for a play on the Kalos war. Even when rogue Team Flare grunts crash the play, she incorporates them into it to avoid making chaos for the public while she dishes out Mega Diancie on them.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Her Poké War Games costume in Masters has her in a full suit of armor, making her look similar to Wikstrom.
- Lady of War: Very elegant, her signature Pokémon is a Mega Gardevoir, and radiates this while in battle.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Greatly resembles Audrey Hepburn.
- Olympus Mons: She uses Keldeo during the Poké War Games event and a Shiny Diancie for her Sygna Suit variant in Masters.
- Prim and Proper Bun: Wears her hair tied up in a spiky bun.
- Psychic Powers: Has a Gardevoir (which can Mega Evolve) as her team ace.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Diantha gets an extra mention because not only is she a world-renowned actress and the Kalos Champion, she also has the title of "Grand Duchess" in the Battle Chateau, the highest rank there is and one that is only shared by the player character (who has to actually reach it before being able to battle Diantha at the Chateau).
- Signature Mon:
- Gardevoir — to be more specific, Mega Gardevoir, which has been her last pokémon on all of her teams and the only one to be featured in both the anime and manga.
- In terms of Pokémon originating from Kalos, she has been mainly associated with Aurorus and Diancie. Aurorus is her most recurring Pokémon in Masters besides Gardevoir and her second to appear in the anime while her Sygna Suit variant is paired with Diancie.
- Super Mode: Her Gardevoir can Mega Evolve.
- Useless Useful Spell: Pixilate is a devastating ability when used in conjunction with Mega Gardevoir's immense Special Attack - but none of its movepools have any Normal-type moves for it to run off. Similarly, Diantha's Aurorus also cannot make use of Refrigerate.
- We Can Rule Together: She is given this offer by Lysandre in her first appearance, and quickly shoots down his argument.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Averted. Despite Lysandre's assumptions that she would be afraid of becoming this, Diantha is actually excited to grow older and take new roles with it.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Looks forward to aging and being able to play new types of roles, causing her to refuse Lysandre's offer of eternal youth and bewildering him in the process.
Team Flare
General
"Pokémon Trainers. I come to you by the Holo Caster to make an important announcement. Listen well. Team Flare will revive the ultimate weapon, eliminate everyone who isn't in our group, and return the world to a beautiful, natural state. Unproductive fools are consuming our future... If nothing changes, the world will become ugly and conflicts will raze the land from end to end. I repeat. We will use the ultimate weapon and wipe the slate clean. I'm sorry, those of you who are not members of Team Flare, but this is adieu to you all."
— Lysandre
The villainous team of Pokémon X and Y. Dressed in fashionably-questionable red suits, Team Flare is a crime syndicate that, in the vein of Team Rocket, exploits Pokémon to create money. However, they're also obsessed with beauty and being above others; a trait that becomes startling considering the true ambitions of the team's leader, Lysandre. Though publicly a beloved figure across Kalos for his inventions and philanthropy, he seeks to combat the strain humans and Pokémon put on the world's natural resources and beauty — by any means necessary.
Tropes that apply to the organization as a whole:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: In-universe example. A lot of comments imply the cost to join Team Flare is estimated around 5,000,000 Pokédollars or something ridiculously high.
- Ambition Is Evil: They desire money and power and will go to any length for it. As for their overall goal, they are willing to take the life energy of Pokémon and everyone in the world except them to achieve it.
- Bad Guy Bar: The Lysandre Cafe.
- Bald of Evil: Their male Admins have this running for them.
- Beard of Evil: A very pointy red goatee.
- The Beautiful Elite: They certainly THINK they're this, giving them carte blanche in their eyes to kill others just because they're filthy, low-minded, incompetent, ugly, inherently greedy and short-sighted commoners, never mind that most of them couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. A good chunk of the Kalosian populace thinks "The Tacky Pseudo-Elite" would fit them better.
- Beware the Silly Ones: They may be obsessed with garish fashion and money, but that doesn't change the fact that they aim for mass genocide.
- Bodyguard Babes: The four main scientists that do the fighting and lead missions are all attractive women in short skirts and/or tights.
- Bright Is Not Good: They wear bright red outfits that make them look pretty silly, but they are anything but good.
- Cats Are Mean: Several grunts use Liepard, a cat Pokémon that are known as the Cruel Pokémon.
- Color-Coded Characters: The Scientists, by their hair. Xerosic is red (being the only male Scientist also helps), Aliana is orange (albeit a more brownish shade than the Grunts), Bryony is green, Celosia is purple, and Mable is blue.
- Another way to look at this is to see Xerosic as signifying white (he really doesn't have that much hair), and Lysandre signifying black through his suit. White, black, and the women's four hair colors were the extent of most mid-1980s computer monitors' color range, at least where hi-res was concerned.
- Cool Shades: Bright orange shades, to be exact. The scientists have their own custom eyewear as well: Celosia has a purple visor, Mable has a blue dual-visor, Bryony has green techno shades, Aliana has an orange split-visor, and Xerosic has cool red goggles. Lysandre also dons an orange visor (among other accoutrements) for his final battle.
- Elemental Hair Colors: Red flares.
- Elite Mooks: Team Flare Admins are this rather than distinct individuals.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: Their fire motif as the Kalos region villainous organization.
- Evil Redhead: The grunts, Aliana, Xerosic, and Lysandre.
- Fashion-Victim Villain: In-universe, a lot of characters note their outfits as being horrible even though Flare thinks they're trendy.
- For Science!: The main motivation for the scientists, especially Xerosic.
- Girlish Pigtails: The flames on the female grunts' hairstyles resemble tiny versions of these. Mable seems to have them too, but hers look like rings.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: It's difficult to tell because the grunts remain nameless, but later in the game, many of them state to remember previously battling you — and losing.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Their lair's entrance is a public area.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Bright orange!
- It's All About Me: Particularly when you're under Geosenge, some of the grunts and admins will condemn you for trying to interdict their happiness, while in the same breath stating that only Team Flare's happiness should count for anything.
- Knight Templar: Lysandre basically wants to bring the world back to its former "natural state" by destroying everything not part of Team Flare.
- Laughably Evil: The grunts. Between their vain fixation with fashion and ridiculous poses, it's hard to take them seriously sometimes.
- Meaningful Name: It was initially ambiguous whether their name was translated as Flare or Flair but, judging by the grunt uniforms, both are apt appellations. The backdrop for the final battle with Lysandre looks like the surface of the sun, complete with prominences — a.k.a. solar flares. Combined with the Beautiful Elite conceit, Team Flare's name may thus signify that they are the foremost (the surging flares) of the most glorious (the sun).
- Xerosic's name might be a reference to xerosis cutis, a skin condition where the skin dries out. The man has some incredibly pale skin...
- The scientists' initials of A, B, C, M and X all are classifications of solar flares.
- Modesty Shorts: If the female admin is wearing a dress or a skirt, you may see this in her Poké Ball throwing animation.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Want to wipe out an undesirable group via genocide and believe themselves to be The Chosen Ones. Surprisingly, they are a rather accurate portrayal of the Nazis. Lysandre, their leader, even made a device called the Holo Caster for crying out loud!
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: At first, they're built up to be a rather silly fashion-obsessed villainous gang reminiscent of Team Rocket. After about the seventh gym, you learn that their real goal is to wipe out the world's population with a magical nuke as an utterly insane means to secure limited resources for all ("all" meaning Team Flare). They come within a hair's breadth of succeeding, too.Team Flare Grunt: Only Team Flare is stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite their fiery theme and name, they don't specialize in Fire-type Pokémon beyond Houndoom, leaning more towards the usual mix of Dark, Poison, and Normal used by villain teams. Their boss's Signature Mon is even a Water-type. They do, however, have a lot of flair.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Mable tries to invoke this in your first encounter with her, noting the similarities she and the player character have.
- Only in It for the Money: One of their main goals is to make money, with most of its members joining solely for this cause rather than for the vision the higher-ups share.
- Playing with Fire: The Fire-type Houndour and Houndoom are frequently used by Team Flare Grunts.
- Poisonous Person: A lot of them use the Poison-types Zubat, Golbat, Gulpin, Swalot, Croagunk, and Toxicroak.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Double Subverted. With their name, one would expect the group to mostly use fire-types. Turns out they use not only Houndoom, but Manetric, Swalot, Scrafty, Golbat, and a few other oddities... and nothing else. A team with Fairy, Ground, and Psychic attacks is their utter bane.
- Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The scientists and even the grunts tend to fall into this. The later events in the game show a lot of this to be a facade.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Well, orange rather than red in some cases, but they still qualify.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: They often use Houndoom, Manectric, and Mightyena. For non-dog examples, there's also Golbat, Toxicroak, and Liepard.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: The grunts dress like this. In fact, they're the first villainous team to have ties in their dress code. Fitting, since Gen VI is based on Gay Paree, which is very much associated with high fashion. Many characters note that Team Flare's uniform are rather tacky and excessive, noting that they turned down offers to join simply because of it.
- Shout-Out:
- Their design, particularly of the male grunt, is rather similar to the protagonists of another Nintendo game.
- Also, one of their quotes written above is part of a song from the The Bee Gees.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Their grunts fit this, considerng themselves above anyone not part of Team Flare.
- Sunglasses at Night: When you battle them at nighttime, they still wear the glasses. Gets lampshaded by one grunt.
- "Super Sentai" Stance: The grunts invoke this, trademarking it as their Team Flare Pose.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Team Flare apparently is able to listen in and spy on those with Holo Casters. Justified Trope, as their boss, Lysandre, is its inventor.
- Theme Naming:
- The scientists are named after flowers.
- Overlapping with Scientific and Technological Theme Naming, the initials of the five scientists of Team Flare (Aliana, Byrony, Celosia, Mable and Xerosic) match up with the five classifications of solar flares (A, B, C, M, X).
- Took a Level in Badass: A rather noticeable trait with this team is that nobody leaves their mons stuck in the first stage of their evolution. While Golbat is a staple, any Scraggy and Gulpin met will eventually be Scrafty and Swalot. Of course, this does not help their abysmal type coverage, especially their glaring weaknesses to Fairy, Ground, and Psychic.
- Upper-Class Twit: Implied with the grunts, since the main condition for joining the team seems to be paying an entrance fee of 5 million Pokédollars, or roughly $50,000 USD since the Japanese versions use Yen.
- Visionary Villain: In addition to making money, they are seeking a "beautiful world". The underlings don't really get this, though.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The scientists minus Xerosic disappear without a trace after you defeat them for the last time.
Lysandre (Fleur-de-lis)
Lysandre / Fleur-de-lis (フラダリ furadari)
Voiced by: Hiroki Tochi (JP, Pokémon Generations), D.C. Douglas (EN, Pokémon Masters), Akio Ōtsuka (JP, Pokémon Masters)
"I want to be the kind of person who gives... But in this world, some foolish humans exist who would show their strength by taking what isn't theirs."
"They're filth!"
"They're filth!"
Team Flare's boss and the main antagonist of X and Y. He was a colleague of Professor Sycamore, who went on to found Lysandre Labs and create the Holo-Caster. He seeks to create a beautiful world by destroying every Pokémon and human not part of Team Flare.
- Adaptational Villainy: Not that he wasn't already a villain in X and Y, but Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon makes him provide you with a rigged Sadistic Choice in the same way Xerosic does in X and Y, whereas in X and Y Lysandre will regretfully apologize to you for Xerosic rigging the outcome if you choose the right button.
- Affably Evil: When you encounter him, he is very polite and even calls you over the Holo Caster to congratulate you on mastering Mega Evolution. He once gives you a rambling and somewhat sinister speech about the past and humanity, then thanks the player for listening and gives them a King's Rock. Of course, Lysandre is still Team Flare's boss.
- A God Am I: In Masters EX He plans to use Volcanion's power to pass judgment on humans and rebuild the world in a perfect way
- Alliterative Title: His battle theme is called "Leader Lysandre" in the music selection menu for the Battle Tree in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, in contrast to how other leaders' battle themes (including Giovanni's) only contain their names.
- Ambiguous Situation: The fate of the Rainbow Rocket Lysandre. Maxie fell down a fissure, Archie drowned, Cyrus was still dragged away by Giratina, Ghetsis just plain won. But "engulfed by a bright light" is pretty vague. Furthermore, if he really succeed in activating the weapon, why are all his Pokémon still alive?
- And I Must Scream: What he tries to invoke on the protagonist in X — after being defeated, he fires the ultimate weapon in one last attempt to force immortality on them (and himself) out of spite so they can be trapped in the Crapsack World Lysandre believes is now inevitable for all eternity. However, they manage to escape, after which the weapon explodes and causes the lair to collapse on him. It's unclear whether he gained that immortality in the blast and is now trapped under the rubble forever, or was simply killed in the collapse and explosion.
- Animal Lover: When the rival asks what will become of Pokémon in his new world, he sheds a single tear, remoursefully telling them that Pokémon won't exist, as they'll continue to be used as tools for evil. And during the final battle against him, Lysandre's Gyarados can Mega Evolve, implying that he has a strong bond with his Pokémon.
- Animal Motifs: A male lion. His hair looks like a lion's mane, he leads off with a male Pyroar, and all his other Pokémon are male. The lion fits Lysandre in a number of ways: lions are often associated with heraldry and nobility, and Lysandre is the descendant of an ancient king, and gives the player a king's rock; male lions also lord over their prides of lionesses, which mirrors how he believes only Team Flare deserves to be on top, as well as the fact that most of Team Flare's scientists are female.
- Anime Hair: It's pretty out there, and reminiscent of male Pyroar's mane.
- Ax-Crazy: He may be the first Team Boss who is legitimately insane.note Particularly creepy is the Single Tear scene in Lysandre Labs, where he shows that he sincerely believes that he must kill all Pokémon on the planet to save the world.
- Back from the Dead: Overlaps with Unexplained Recovery. He returned in Masters starting from the initial run of the Give and Take legendary event without any apparent explanation why after being presumed dead for over seven years by that point.
- Badass Bookworm: He was an inventor and Sycamore's colleague.
- Bait-and-Switch: First-time Kalos players wouldn't be blamed for assuming Lysandre's Signature Mon is Pyroar, given Team Flare's fire-like motif and name, as well as Lysandre's hairdo resembling Pyroar's mane. Then comes his Mega Gyarados...
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Instead of the arena resembling the actual place you're in, for your final battle with him, the arena has a backdrop of a burning sun.
- Big Bad: Of the Kalos games.
- Big Bad Friend: Right from when you first meet him, you'll know that he's the leader of Team Flare and the cause of the main problems in the game; but he's the friend and former classmate of Professor Sycamore, inventor of the Holo Caster, well regarded by many people throughout Kalos even after he reveals his true nature, and is generally pretty friendly toward the player.
- The Chosen One: His understanding of Mega Evolution has led him to conclude that there's only a very few people and Pokémon capable of having genuinely beautiful souls. Team Flare is his idea of how to collect as many "chosen" as he possibly can together before erasing every last not-chosen being from the world.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Lysandre is one to Cyrus of Team Galactic. On paper, they both seem similar. They are both misguided but well-intentioned Misanthrope Supremes whose goals involve the destruction of the world by using the power of a legendary Pokémon and create a new one In Their Own Image. They also share two Pokémon between their teams in the form of Murkrow/Honchkrow and Gyarados, with the former serving as Cyrus' ace in his first two battles in Platinum and the latter being Lysandre's in general. However, the similarities end there. Cyrus hates the world for being imperfect and wants to create a new, better world in his image. By contrast, Lysandre loves the beautiful world he lives in, so he seeks to preserve it and save it from humanity's foolishness by wiping out most of the world population. Only the select few that Lysandre deems worthy would be chosen to survive, which is in Lysandre's eyes those who are wealthy enough to be a part of Team Flare. Cyrus' endgame is the simple destruction of everything and everyone, regardless of one's wealth and status, and he openly admits to seeing Team Galactic as disposable tools to bring this to fruition. A sharp contrast to Lysandre's elitist views and attitude towards his team. Cyrus is The Stoic who always remains cold and calculating (most of the time anyway), while Lysandre is hot-blooded and will fly into a burst of rage when his plans are thwarted. The colors of their hair even highlight the contrast in their personalities. Cyrus has hated people since he was very young, while Lysandre is a former philanthropist who tried to help as many people as possible but became a misanthrope when his actions only brought out the worst in people. Cyrus has radical plans for recreating the world in his image while excising things he labels as "flaws", such as emotions. Lysandre fears change and wants to create a static world where nature and beauty can remain untarnished forever.
- He's also a contrast to his immediate predecessor Ghetsis. Ghetsis, the true mastermind of Team Plasma, creates an entire cult (Team Plasma) dedicated to Animal Wrongs Group, manipulates his adopted son into being the evil team's Puppet King, and uses the "Pokémon liberation" guise to hide his sinister intentions before being outed as a Hypocrite at the end of Black and White. On the other hand, Lysandre is Team Flare's leader from the beginning, who was once an actual philanthropist before falling into misanthropy and is obsessed in "preserving" the world by wiping out most of the human population. Lysandre is a Devil in Plain Sight right from the moment he is introduced, unlike Ghetsis whose true colours was revealed after N's final defeat in Black and White.
- Defiant to the End: Even as he stands defeated, his final gambit thwarted, his master plan averted, Lysandre refuses to believe he was wrong and wholeheartedly believes that by stopping him, the player has doomed the world. And then he tries to use the ultimate weapon anyway.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Comes with being the region's villain organization's leader.
- Dark Is Evil: Half his team is Dark-type.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Many players were surprised that Lysandre being the main villain was a spoiler, while the characters tend to wave off his Motive Rants by saying he's simply being passionate.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Transmits a message throughout the Holo Caster at some point in the game to tell everybody to literally kiss their world and everything good-bye if they're not members of Team Flare.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When asked by Calem/Serena what will happen to Pokémon if he succeeds in using the ultimate weapon, he sheds some tears of remorse in return, indicating that he's not happy about there being no other alternative he can see to his committing genocide against the Pokémon themselves.
- Evil All Along: He first presents himself to the player and Sycamore as a nice guy, but it eventually becomes clear that his true plans are far from noble.
- Evil Former Friend: He was Professor Sycamore's college classmate before he went off the deep end.
- Evil Malthusian: He's become a misanthrope convinced that he must wipe out the "unproductive fools" that are "consuming our future" to preserve the world's resources, and so wants to use an ancient superweapon to kill every human and Pokémon not within Team Flare.
- Evil Redhead: Fitting in with the color scheme.
- Face–Heel Turn: Played with. He was technically a heel from before you met him, but the professor didn't know that and you aren't supposed to, either, although Obviously Evil hit many players and gave it away.
- Fallen Hero: He's regarded to this day as one of the finest, most talented people Professor Sycamore ever met, and a great benefactor to people. In truth, he's a Tragic Villain, and he also ended up becoming one of the darkest villains to appear in the series.
- Fiery Red Head: Zigzagged. He mostly has a calm demeanor, but he can get pretty fiery when discussing his motives and during his Villainous Breakdown.
- Foil: With Cyrus during the Rainbow Rocket Episode, as both of them are Misanthrope Supremes and are misguided extremists who want to recreate the world In Their Own Image. However, when defeated, Cyrus actually ponders whether or not his views were wrong before calmly accepting his defeat. Lysandre, on the other hand, outright dismisses any second thoughts and remains Defiant to the End. Lastly, both of them are confronted on the second floor, after the player defeats both Archie and Maxie.
- French Jerk: Averted. While he is the leader of the criminal organization set in Kalos, he's very polite compared to the other villain team leaders.
- Frozen in Time: If you pay close attention to his initial lines, he wants an in-universe version of this to exist. To him, change can only bring ruin, and only a static world can ever hope to be beautiful.
- Glass Cannon: His entire team consists of these, except for Lightning Bruiser, Gyarados.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: In Pokémon Masters, by the second half of the Kalos Villain Arc, he seems to have reformed into not destroying Pasio with Volcanion on his side and does consider the idea of working together with people to make a better world (at the very least, he considers Pasio beautiful), but he does now have a monster capable of leveling mountains, cities, and kill people next to his bird of death if he wants to.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: He's dressed in leather and is a skilled trainer.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Appears like this at first, but is really a Corrupt Corporate Executive by virtue of being Flare's leader.
- Hot-Blooded: It is noted he is a very passionate man.
- Hypocrite: When he meets you and Sycamore in his cafe, he condemns those who take, rather than give. His plans are definitely of the "take" variety. Even if he claims in Geosenge that with so many humans and Pokémon around, taking without giving is inevitable until he makes taking impossible.
- The fact that his plan amounts to killing off everyone who doesn't pay him 5,000,000 Pokédollars to join him on the grounds that they're selfish doesn't help either.
- Better still, his report in Lysandre Labs has him deciding that he needs to find a tool of a "higher power" than humans to enact the saving of the handful he thinks is all that can be saved. Except, he has to shackle Xerneas/Yveltal to do it, thus putting the ultimate responsibility of the culling in his hands. His human hands.
- In X, he tries to make the heroes immortal, claiming they'll go insane from the monotony, but never considers that the same would likely happen to Team Flare had he succeeded in his plan.
- Ignored Epiphany: In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, after being defeated, he briefly considers whether his ideals were wrong all along. Unlike Cyrus, he doubles down on his twisted desires.
- Immortality Immorality: Part of his plan in both versions is to become immortal, but particularly in the X version.
- Irony:
- The signature mon of the leader of a group with a prominent fire motif is a powerful Water-type Pokémon.
- More deeply, the research materials in Lysandre Labs note that AZ's brother implored his children on his deathbed to create a world where the Ultimate Weapon wasn't necessary. Lysandre is descended from that same prince, and deems the Ultimate Weapon to be very necessary for the world...
- Kick the Dog: In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Lysandre makes you choose between the buttons of the Ultimate Weapon like Xerosic did in X and Y... except that the blue button has already been pushed, leaving you with no other choice but to push the red button, activating the weapon. And then he battles you specifically to stop you from shutting the weapon down again.
- Killed Off for Real: Most likely, but it's possible he became immortal from the machine like AZ did (in X, anyway). If not, this makes him the first character in the games to canonically die.
- Knight of Cerebus: Up there with Cyrus and Ghetsis. Being an aspiring mass-murderer will do that.
- Knight Templar: Boy howdy... how does planning to wipe out most of the world sound?
- Large and in Charge: His model is noticeably taller than any other characters save for AZ, who is in a territory all on his own.
- Last-Second Chance: After being defeated for the final time by the player, the rival and Shauna will insist it's not too late for Lysandre to change. He remains remorseless and responds by trying to activate the Ultimate Weapon anyways.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: A former philanthropist, until his efforts failed and he crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: His general bearing, philosophies, and fashion sense suggests a very classy, sophisticated individual.
- Meaningful Name: His Japanese name, "Fleur-de-lis", refers to the symbol of French royalty. He's part of a cadet branch. While his English name really just stems from the "lis" phoneme (it's Greek/French for "freeing a man"), there's an unplanned meaningful name in there. "Andre" signifies "man", while "lys" can look like it comes from "lysis" — Greek for "destroying" — or "lyss" — Greek for "madness", "fury", and "rage". It thus looks sort of like it can mean "destroyer of humans". "Lysander" also means "Liberator".
- Misanthrope Supreme: His earlier attempts to fix the world legitimately, through the inventions and profits of Lysandre Labs, didn't have the effect he was looking for — where he expected the needy to be sated, they instead yearned for still more. His two main conclusions: (1) World aggregate happiness is effectively finite; after a certain amount of beings, happiness and survival can only be attained by taking it from/denying it to another. (2) The vast majority of humans (and maybe even Pokémon, if his musings about Mega Evolution are anything to go by) are irredeemable, incapable of anything beyond the most narrow selfishness. Therefore, the only way the world will ever know beauty and hope everlasting is to expunge all those imperfect creatures who ought never have existed, who can only ever be plagues on existence. As his report in Lysandre Labs puts it, "[e]ither everything is lost, or only a handful are saved".
- Morality Pet: The fact that his Gyarados can Mega Evolve would imply that the two of them must have a strong bond with each other to achieve it. Shauna even says they must work closely together, for Gyarados to share its energy like that.
- Motive Rant: Pretty much any time you meet him, you're in for a speech about his plans for the world.
- Never Found the Body: In both X and Y, it is unclear what truly became of him in the end.
- Noble Demon: When the player reaches the end of Lysandre Labs and defeat Xerosic, they're given a choice of two buttons; one of which would fully activate the Ultimate Weapon with another shutting it down. Even if the player makes the correct choice, Xerosic activates the Ultimate Weapon anyway. Upon meeting Lysandre, he apologizes for Xerosic's actions and admits that if you did press the button to shut the Ultimate Weapon down, he would have stepped down and put a stop to his plans.
- Not Me This Time: In the Kalos Villain Arc, his team is not involved as the main threat, but rather disguised Team Rocket members as Team Flare members trying to lure him out into the open to unleash his secret weapon for them to steal it.
- Obviously Evil: His rather pointy character design, red and black color scheme, ominous leitmotif, and tendency to wax philosophical about beauty, some people being 'filth', and the ultimate fate of the world will more likely than not set off a few flags the first time you meet him. Considering the fact that Team Flare grunts openly congregate at a cafe he's publicly known to own, one wonders how anybody thought he wasn't evil...
- Olympus Mons: An alternate version of Lysandre succeeds in controlling Xernas or Yveltal before being pulled into the world of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and uses either as his ace Pokémon. The main version of Lysandre also invokes this in Masters by way of pairing with Yveltal, and later Volcanion.
- Omnicidal Maniac: He seeks the utter destruction of all humans and Pokémon not loyal to him. At least Cyrus intended to recreate the world and every person/Pokémon in it, albeit in his own image. This man is set on clearing living space for his group via genocide.
- One-Winged Angel: A mundane variant. While his default outfit is already pretty intimidating, for the final battle with him, he's augmented it with a visor, Mega Ring-containing gauntlet, and a backpack with strange robotic tentacles that will let him recapture Xerneas/Yveltal's power.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: There's just no way around it; the man is an incredible elitist. Only beautiful things (beautiful things that will never change, at that) are valuable. He regards most people as selfish filth. Then there's the really (or at least comparatively) subtle bit: You can't join Team Flare, and thus be spared from the cleansing of the world, unless you pay 5 million right up front. Considering the rough equivalence of the game currency to yen, and yen being roughly equivalent to American cents, you have to be willing and able to "donate" about $50,000 to be let in. There is no way anybody born into the lower economic echelons is getting in. Just to punctuate it, being fine with the "wane" part of natural existence is detestable. He's clearly uncomfortable with Diantha's lack of worry over her glamour eventually fading, when it's the duty of the beautiful to stay beautiful for all eternity. Compromise with the not-highest is not acceptable.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Leader of Team Flare and easily the toughest trainer in the group. He's also one of the few trainers that has mastered Mega Evolution.
- Recurring Boss: Par for the course as Team Flare's leader. Strangely, you only start battling him after learning the actual goals he has in mind.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Red and black are his main colors. Definitely a good guy.
- Redemption Rejection: Any attempt the characters try to make to get through to him falls on deaf ears. Even in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the moment he starts to second-guess himself, he immediately snaps out of it and doubles down on his view that omnicide is the only solution.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is apparently a descendant of one of Kalos's royalty.
- Sadistic Choice: He's the one who provides you with it, as opposed to Xerosic, in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
- Sanity Slippage: Implied to have gone through this prior to the start of the games. He was troubled by the problem of the world having limited resources; the solution he finally reached was basically to forcefully and excessively reduce the amount of consumers of those resources.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Up there with Giovanni when it comes to well-dressed villains.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Shauna and your rival attempt to get him to see reason after he loses for the last time, Lysandre basically calls them naive fools before activating the Ultimate Weapon anyway.
- Signature Mon:
- Gyarados. Or, rather Mega Gyarados. While Lysandre still uses it in Generation VII, he replaces it with Xerneas (Ultra Sun) or Yveltal (Ultra Moon) as his ace, and uses the latter in Masters. However, neither of these are the Pokémon he's associated the most with in other media. Instead, it is his Pyroar that gets the most attention, which not only shares a physical resemblance with its trainer, but is also the only one to appear in merchandise with him.
- He's given Volcanion as his Sygna Suit Pokémon in Masters.
- The Sociopath: While he does feel empathy for others, mainly Pokémon, in X and Y, in the alternate timeline of Sun and Moon, and in his story in Pokémon Masters EX he is depicted as a bona fide sociopath: he is callous, manipulative, narcissistic and egotistic. He feels like the only life that matters is his own and he is ready to smite those who defy him, going as far as threatening to murder a man right in front of a child, in a similar fashion to Ghetsis.
- Stealth Pun: He's behind the Holo Caster, a name that foreshadows that he's a "Holocauster", out to wipe the world's population out.
- Taking You with Me: Seems to be the intended purpose of him firing what remains of the ultimate weapon's energy onto his own base. You and your friends still escape, of course.
- Tantrum Throwing: He enters his final battle with you wearing a lot of equipment, including a visor that he will throw to the floor in frustration after losing.
- Tragic Villain: He's regarded as one by some people you talk to in Snowbelle City and Professor Sycamore, his former college classmate.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: This man wants to commit genocide against most of humanity, and, most shockingly, ALL POKÉMON. Kalos being the brightest and most beautiful region yet makes this particularly stand out.
- Villainous Breakdown: After defeating/capturing the Legendary and defeating him a third time, he flies into a rage, claiming you've "condemned the world to a future of misery and death".
- Villain with Good Publicity: He and Lysandre Labs, since most people do not know that he's the leader of Team Flare, whose publicity is worse.
- Visionary Villain: Wants to make the world beautiful again... by killing every Pokémon and human who's not part of Team Flare.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- His solution to the Malthusian Dilemma is to simply wipe out most of the population. He's at least well-intentioned to the point where he sheds a Single Tear when the rival points out that his plan will kill all Pokémon on the planet. He simply sees no other option with overpopulation and scarcity as the alternative.
- Interestingly, the report in Lysandre Labs has him effectively deeming the ultimate cause as the world's stability — because of it, nothing is likely to quell the population growth of (selfish, over-needy) humans and Pokémon, short of his planned burst of extremely intense "instability".
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: An extreme inversion; Lysandre considers the planet's landscape to be more worth saving than any sentient creatures upon it.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Threatens the protagonist, Serena/Calem, and Shauna with being stuck as immortals forever in X, so that they will live to see the degradation of the world which his plan was meant to stop. However, they escape before the light of the ultimate weapon can hit them.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: From what can be gathered about him from various NPCs, he went insane because nothing short of "kill a lot of people and Pokémon and use your erstwhile terrorist cell to rebuild the shattered remains of the world" was proving to be viable in solving the matter of limited resources, and he felt responsible for the world's well-being due to being descended from royalty.
Xerosic (Xerosicy)
Xerosic / Xerosicy (クセロシキ kuseroshiki)
"Add it all up, and it equals... a victory for our SCIENCE!"
One of the scientists working for Team Flare. He goes along with their plans because he wants to see what will happen.
- Affably Evil: He continually acts friendly and cheerful, even giving you several compliments when you defeat him. However, he's evil and going along with Team Flare's plan.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Xerosic's skin is porcelain white.
- Arc Villain: In the post-game, he's behind most of the shenanigans that Looker and the Player character are investigating.
- Artificial Brilliance: His Malamar has Superpower + Contrary. Superpower is a move that deals huge damage while lowering the user's Attack and Defense stats, while Contrary is an ability that inverts stat changes on the user, which means they're increased by Superpower in this case.
- But Not Too Evil: He does a lot of harsh things over the course of the game, but they were less for personal gain and more for his own pursuit of science; he even personally pulls the plug on his Mind Control project when he realizes it's no longer working, even informing the protagonists that the test subject was in no real danger. He's at least okay enough to be forgiven by Emma (the test subject in question).
- Character Catchphrase: "When you add it all up".
- The Dragon: He's the most trusted scientist of Team Flare's boss, and is in charge of Team Flare's main operation, the Ultimate Weapon project.
- Easily Forgiven: Looker and Emma quickly forgive him for his mind control plan.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Wears a glove only on his left hand.
- For Science!: He is obsessed with science and goes along with Team Flare's plan to use the Ultimate Weapon because he wants to see what will happen. He's basically a more unhinged version of Colress.
- Heel–Face Turn: Xerosic quits doing evil in the post-game due to his Morality Pet.
- Hidden Depths: He has a Crobat, a Pokémon that only evolves if it likes its trainer. It foreshadows his Heel–Face Turn in the postgame sidequests involving Emma and Looker.
- I Lied: After you beat him, even if you push the button that doesn't activate the Ultimate Weapon, he'll activate it anyway.
- Laughably Evil: He's one of the more... oddball scientists in this franchise.
- Mad Scientist: He's a crazy scientist who wants to build destructive devices just to see what they'll do.
- Morality Pet: He eventually gains one in Emma during the Looker sidequest.
- Morton's Fork: Xerosic invokes a Sadistic Choice on the Player by telling them that there are two buttons behind him and only one activates the device. Press the wrong one and the device is triggered, but Xerosic will activate it either way, even if you don't press the kill switch.
- The One Guy: Out of all five scientists, Xerosic is the only male.
- Sadistic Choice: Xerosic does this to the Player Character when they meet, giving them a choice of a button to press that will either activate or deactivate the Ultimate Weapon. Even if you pick the right button, Xerosic will activate the device anyway.
- Signature Mon: Malamar is his strongest Pokémon.
Aliana (Akebi)
Aliana / Akebi (アケビ akebi)
One of the Team Flare scientists. She has orange hair.
- Color-Coded Characters: Her orange hair, tie, lips and split-visor.
- Combos: She uses a Taunt/Sucker Punch combo on her Mightyena.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: She acknowledges that Team Flare's technology could revolutionize a number of industries with their energy efficiency, but also acknowledges that they don't want to do that.
- Evil Laugh: She lets one out rather regularly.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Her Taunt/Sucker Punch combo can be turned back on her by using an attack with higher priority than Sucker Punch, another equal-priority attack from a Pokémon that's faster than her Mightyena (which isn't too hard given its mediocre base speed of 70), or simply switching your Pokémon out, causing her to effectively waste two turns.
- Insufferable Genius: She acts smugly about how the player wouldn't understand what she's working on. This does not extend to battling, however, as she acknowledges the player's strength when beaten in battle.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Her team gets mulched by Fairy-types, and neither of her Pokémon emon have coverage moves.
- Recurring Boss: Battled twice. First at the Kalos Power Plant, and again at the Lysandre Labs.
- Signature Mon: Druddigon is her strongest Pokémon.
- Troll: She taunts the player over the warp panel puzzles in Lysandre Labs.
Bryony (Bara)
Bryony / Bara (バラ bara)
One of the Team Flare scientists. She has green hair.
- Color-Coded Characters: Bryony has green hair, tie, lips and techno shades.
- Dark Is Evil: Exclusively uses Dark-type Pokémon and is one of Team Flare's scientists.
- Dual Boss: The first time you face her is in a double battle, with Celosia at her side.
- Logic Bomb: She states that absolutes do not exist, oblivious how the statement refutes itself.
- Mad Mathematician: She typically refers to the values of things only in relation to other things, and references probability a lot, not always correctly.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Between only having two Pokémon mon and using Dark-types exclusively, Bryony falls into this. While her Bisharp checks Fairy-types, it doesn't check Fighting-types (which it's quadruply weak to). Liepard is even worse off - it's got no coverage for any of its weaknesses.
- Recurring Boss: You fight her twice. Once at the Poké Ball factory and once at Team Flare's hideout, Lysandre Labs.
- Signature Mon: Bisharp.
Celosia (Correa)
Celosia / Correa (コレア korea)
One of the scientists working for Team Flare. She has purple hair.
- Character Catchphrase: "We are soooo lame." She spouts it both times when defeated.
- Color-Coded Characters: Celosia and her strange violet hair, tie, lips and purple visor.
- Dual Boss: The first time you fight her is in a double battle, where she is teamed up with Bryony.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Her team gets chewed up by Ground-types, and neither of her Pokémon mon have coverage moves against Ground.
- Recurring Boss: You fight her twice. Once at the Poké Ball factory and once at Team Flare's hideout, Lysandre Labs.
- Self-Deprecation: Her defining characteristic is how she laughingly calls herself and her teammates lame after every loss.
- Signature Mon: Drapion.
Mable (Momiji)
Mable / Momiji (モミジ momiji)
One of the scientists working for Team Flare. Her blue ringed hair is her identifying feature.
- Color-Coded Characters: Her blue hair, tie, lips and dual-visor.
- Fire/Ice Duo: She uses a Fire/Dark Houndoom and a Ice/Dark Weavile.
- Graceful Loser: After you defeat her for the second time, she cheerfully congratulates you and hands over the elevator key.
- Modesty Shorts: She wears a pair of red biker shorts underneath her skirt.
- "Not So Different" Remark: She tries to claim this, saying that you are after the same thing as her: maxing out the power of Pokémon (you use the Mega Ring and she wants to use the Ultimate Weapon).
- Not So Similar: It's made clear that while she claims to be the same as you, you want to bond with your Pokémon and bring out their full potential, while she just wants to see the Ultimate Weapon in action.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Both of her Pokémon are weak to Fighting-types, and neither of them have any coverage moves against Fighting.
- Recurring Boss: You battle her twice. The first time is at the Frost Cavern, and the second time is at Team Flare's hideout, Lysandre Labs.
- Signature Mon: She uses Weavile.
- Sore Loser: She dismisses her loss by saying that the player was wasting her time.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When the player meet her for the second time at Team Flare's hideout, she asks you if you're alone this time. If the player says yes, she admonishes you for being "colder than that cavern" (meaning Frost Cavern, where you first meet her) for not counting your Pokémon as companions.
- Worthy Opponent: She comes to see the player character as this by the end of her second battle with them.
Battle Maison
The Battle Chatelaines
Battle Chatelaines (バトルシャトレーヌ batoru shatorēnu)
The leaders of the Battle Maison. They consist of Nita, Evelyn, Dana, and Morgan.
- Badass Family: All four are related and hold top positions in the Battle Maison. When you fight them at the 49th/50th streak, each one sports legendaries.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: No cleavage drawn despite wearing heart-cut dresses.
- Color-Coded Characters: Their dresses, hats, hair and eyes are all the same colors; Nita is Orange and Yellow, Evelyn is Blue, Dana is Pink, and Morgan is a Green-Blue.
- Curtains Match the Windows: Their eye colors all match their hair colors.
- Dragon Tamer: Three of them use Dragon-types:
- Evelyn uses Latios in Super Doubles.
- Morgan uses Latias in Super Rotations.
- Dana uses the Dragon/Poison Dragalge in normal Triples.
- Dual Boss: When you pick Multi Battles, two of the four sisters will eventually battle you at a time.
- Expressive Accessory: Their gloves. Not because they move, but because their lengths correspond with the sisters' ages, starting from youngest sister Nita (whose gloves stop at the wrist) up to oldest sister Morgan (who gloves stop at her shoulders).
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Nita (sanguine), Evelyn (melancholic), Dana (choleric), Morgan (phlegmatic).
- Gratuitous French: In the Japanese version, their names are all in French.
- Hat of Authority: All of them wear top hats, and they're the leaders of the Battle Maison.
- Hollywood Genetics: If you thought the Striaton triplets were bad, wait until you see four sisters all with wildly different hair and eye colors.
- Large Ham: Evelyn aside, let's just say the sisters are very bombastic and dramatic in battle.
- Little Miss Badass: They're all extremely talented trainers.
- Olympus Mons: Battle each of them the second time, and they use a set of legendary trio. For Dana, she uses two sets. For Evelyn and Morgan, they each use Latios and Latias together with their trios respectively.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Brightly colored, striped ones with gigantic hoop skirts.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: All of them sport fancy tights to go with their skirts.
- Showgirl Skirt: Each of them sport puffy showgirl skirts.
- Temporal Theme Naming: Their names in both the Japanese and English versions are based on different parts of the day. In Japanese specifically, their names pull from the French words for "night" (la nuit), "evening" (le soir), "daytime" (la journée), and "morning" (le matin).
Nita (Lanuit)
Nita / Lanuit (ラニュイ ranyui)
- Achievements in Ignorance: Despite owning the three Forces of Nature at her beck and call just because she's nice to them, she really doesn't know their backstories when told so in Pokémon Masters.
- The Baby of the Bunch: She is the youngest of her sisters, and often receives a scolding from Morgan for being too cheeky with guests.
- Birds of a Feather: Her Landorus is compared to her eldest sister Morgan. However, she and Evelyn agree that Morgan's much scarier than Landorus.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Morgan and Dana scold her for it if you face either of them together with her, especially when you win.
- Butt-Monkey: She's the most reckless and fiery of her sisters, and gets told off hard by both Dana and Morgan when they fight together in a multi-battle.
- Cavalier Competitor: She cares more about fun than strategy in a battle. According to her, "All a battle has to be is cracking good fun!"
- Genki Girl: The most upbeat of the siblings.
- Irony: Wears bright colors for someone whose Temporal Theme Naming is based on night.
- Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name literally means night in French.
- Her English name also sounds like night.
- Olympus Mons: Uses Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus when you battle her on the Super Singles. In Pokémon Masters, her Sync Pair Pokémon is Landorus.
- Sore Loser: She gets upset when you beat her in a Super Multi Battle with Morgan.Nita: No, no, no! How could I— This is terrible altogether! How could you do this to me, you wee, rotten Trainers?! Do ye not even know what Morgan'll do to me now?!
Evelyn (Lesoir)
Evelyn / Lesoir (ルスワール rusuwāru)
The Chatelaine of the Double Battle Challenge, and one of the two Chatelaines of the Multi Battle Challenge. The second youngest of Battle Chatelaine sisters.
- Apologetic Attacker: If she beats you in a Double Battle, she not only apologizes, but bursts into tears and practically begs you to return to the Battle Maison sometime.
- Black Sheep: The only one of the sisters who isn't a bombastic ham. Her accent is also much more subdued.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Subverted. Her Entei knows Sacred Fire, Ho-Oh's Secret Art. However, this is, in fact, a hint that you can teach your own Entei such a move starting in Gen VI!note Until Pokémon Bank was released in December 2013 (about 3 months after X and Y's release) and Entei could be transferred for confirmation, not even guides could reveal whether Entei can learn Sacred Fire and how. As the result, Evelyn was thought to have an illegal Pokémon.
- Cowardly Lion: Despite being a Shrinking Violet, she is the head of the Double Battle area of the Maison for a good reason.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: She appears to be stumbling in her artwork, and Morgan actually notes the in-universe appeal of her bumbling.Morgan: I know some of these goofs like it when you waffle about, so that's fine for business, but...
- Dual Boss: In addition to any one of her sisters in the Multi Battle Challenge, she is also this by herself in the Double Battle Challenge, since it's a double battle.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: When paired up with Dana in the Multi Battle Challenge, she remarks she doesn't look highly on her skills at Double Battles, and even begs you not to challenge Double Battles when you win.
- Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name literally means evening in French.
- Her English name also sounds like evening.
- Olympus Mons: Uses Entei, Raikou, Suicune, and Latios on your battle with her on the Super Doubles. She also uses Entei in Masters
- Shrinking Violet: Immensely so. If you beat her in the Multi Battle Challenge, she even encourages you not to take the Double Battle Challenge to make sure it doesn't sound like she's agreeing with Dana's boasting of her (Evelyn's) skill.
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl: The sister with blue hair turns out to be the Shrinking Violet. Go figure.
- Throwing the Fight: Her dialogue if she beats you indicates that she tries to lose on purpose so that you, the guest, will enjoy yourself more. If you beat her, however, she apologizes for making it too easy, hence why she's willing to bust out Legendary Pokémon the next time you battle her.
- Unskilled, but Strong: In Pokémon Masters, she laments that she's not very skilled, but she only wins battles because her Entei is too strong.
Dana (Lajournée)
Dana / Lajournée (ラジュルネ rajurune)
The Chatelaine of the Triple Battle Challenge, and the other Chatelaine of the Multi Battle Challenge. The second eldest of Battle Chatelaine sisters.
- Brutal Honesty: She's incredibly harsh if the player loses to her in her first battle in X and Y, but even when she drops the snobbery in her second match she still jovially comments on how you did, though she's far friendlier about it.Dana: Hehehe! What are you gawking at now? The savage mess you made o' the battle? Ha! I'm not havin' a dig at you—it's just great fun to battle hard after holdin' back!
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She presents herself as an uppity and proper lady with no tolerance for weak trainers at first or when she's working alongside her younger sisters, but after winning against her she completely drops it and is very cordial towards the protagonist. In Pokémon Masters, her Sync Pair Pokémon is hilariously Regice.
- Girlish Pigtails: Sports an impressively swirly pair of these, fitting her standoffish facade.
- High-Class Gloves: They go past her elbows. While her younger sisters wear gloves too, neither of them go past the elbows.
- Hot-Blooded: Is this among the sisters. Add in the hammiest and it gets really noticeable. Which goes with her color, pink.
- Jerkass Façade: Comes off as a snooty and cold trainer upon defeating the player either in her first solo match or alongside Evelyn in X and Y, but drops the act and shows a much heartier side she retains after you defeat her. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire she doesn't even bother much with it in her solitary battles, saying there's no point for the act in Hoenn.
- Meaningful Name: Her Japanese name literally means day in French (as in daytime).
- Her English name also sounds like day.
- Olympus Mons: Like Pyramid King Brandon, she uses the Legendary Birds and Golems on your next battle with her on the Super Triples. In Pokémon Masters, she's paired up with Regice.
- Tsundere: Not necessarily of the romantic type, but she mostly displays a jerkass demeanor to anyone around her until they eventually whittle her down to her soft, caring core. Funnily enough, in Pokémon Masters, her temper literally burns the area around her that her Regice is around to cool her down, which she is thankful for.
- Valley Girl: She's a high class lady who speaks in this dialect.
- When She Smiles: Dana is usually snooty and a bit stern, but in the "GOTCHA!" music video, she can be seen with her sisters on a billboard, and she's smiling and waving joyously. It's adorable.
Morgan (Lematin)
Morgan / Lematin (ルミタン rumitan)
The Chatelaine of the Rotation Battle Challenge. She is the eldest of Battle Chatelaine sisters.
- Anime Hair: All four of them have pretty funky hair, but Morgan's takes the cake.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her spiraling ponytail is pretty appropriate for someone who specializes in rotation battles.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's never anything but polite to the player and is very sweet and motherly towards Evelyn, but from what Dana says, she's apparently terrifying at scolding her sisters when they act improper to guests.Morgan: ...NITA! Oh, I'll do you, you little waster! First, you mouth off to our guests, with your boasting and insulting them so... And then you lose in battle despite it?! Do you even take this work seriously?! Could you ever face our dear ma and da, rest 'em, after such shocking behavior?! My dear guest... I am deeply sorry for this experience. I beg you will somehow overlook it and come visit our Battle Maison again. Now I must have a...discussion with my wee sister. You'll excuse us...
- Cool Big Sis: Gives off this vibe towards her other sisters, and comforts Evelyn when she's nervous before they have their multi-battle with the player. Of course, she doesn't like it when Nita gets a bit verbal when they battle together in the Multi battles, and gives her a scolding.
- The Dreaded: Both Nita and Evelyn fear her, and for good reason.
- High-Class Gloves: Has the longest gloves of the sisters that end just below her shoulders, signifying her as the oldest and most proper lady of the three.
- Meaningful Name:
- Her Japanese name literally means morning in French.
- Her English name also sounds like morning, and is one letter off from the German word for morning.
- Olympus Mons: When you fight her on 50th battle on the Super Rotation lines, she sports Cobalion, Virizion, Terrakion, and Latias.
- Self-Deprecation: Of the friendly kind, as she usually reassures the player that she's no first-class trainer before her fights, and even describes herself and Evelyn as a bit hopeless at multi-battles. Suffice to say it isn't very true.
- The Stoic: Downplayed, but she keeps her composure throughout all of her fights, especially compared to her younger siblings.
- Yandere: When she loses, Morgan contemplates the idea of having you be dressed up in an outfit and living at the Battle Maison for the rest of your life. She says that she's joking, but this clearly isn't the case as this possessive idea has her lost in thought, enamored. Not to mention how harsh she gets when her sisters fail her.
Others
Mr. Bonding
Mr. Bonding (キズナおやじ kizuna oyaji)
A peculiar man who shows up in various towns in X and Y. Talking to him will make him grant you a new O-Power to use.
- Ascended Extra: Sort of. While he and the "Pokémon Center men" (the quintet who joined to create him) remain minor NPCs, their role has been expanded since Generation III, since they actually reward the player with O-Powers for talking to them, rather than each simply commenting on the player's chosen trendy words, how many other players they've traded with, etc. More importantly, it turns out he had a more tragic past than it seemed, and a good reason to feel all but outright said to be suicidal when you meet him in Mauville Hills: he was apparently the one left with the task of laying off many people from the Mauville Corporation once Wattson decided to shut down the project, as evidenced by a letter in Sea Mauville. Sun and Moon later reveals that the O-Powers themselves were brought to Earth by an alien man, who became an amnesiac after giving them all to the 5 men.
- The Atoner: He used to be a man who felt "powerless" after he had to fire a ton of people from their jobs. After becoming Mr. Bonding, he travels the world to give power to everyone.
- Character Catchphrase: "It's bonding time!"
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In X and Y, Mr. Bonding is found in various hotel rooms (if a town has one) and "bonds" with the protagonist. That the O in "O-Power" hasn't been elaborated on also hasn't escaped the players.
- Fusion Dance: Is the result of a six-way fusion between the five strange men in the Mauville Pokémon Center and a powerless man.
- Inexplicably Awesome: While providing you with extremely useful O-Powers is great, there's just something... not right about him. Played with and expanded upon in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which reveals his origins.
- Porn Stache: Considering its association with porn, it makes him even more unsettling.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Is always seen sporting a pink tuxedo.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Wears a flamboyant pink suit.
- Socialization Bonus: The O-Powers he bestows encourages this. The player can level them up faster and receive more significant effects from them by sharing them with other people in the Player Search System.
- Super-Empowering: The ability to give people O-Powers they can use on others.
- Take Up My Sword: The man in Haina Desert gave his O-Powers to the old men, which ended up having some unfortunate side effects on himself. The old men then fused with the powerless man to give him their power. This resulted in the creation of Mr. Bonding, who takes over their role as power givers.
Inver (Sakasa)
Inver / Sakasa (サカサ sakasa)
A Psychic who resides on Kalos Route 18, Inver possesses the unique ability to start an Inverse Battle, where all type matchups are inverted. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Inver runs an Inverse Battle Stop in Mauville City.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: He looks like a regular Psychic, but he's certainly no run-of-the-mill trainer.
- Confusion Fu: Inver does not have a fixed team. Instead, he has a pool of 37 (36 in ORAS) Pokémon of varying types and holding a wide array of items, and he randomly picks 3 of them for each battle. If you're going to challenge him, you'll have to be prepared for anything.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Dealing with the inverted type matchups can be surprisingly difficult since you'll likely have the default matchups ingrained in your memory, meaning that you'll have to resist the urge to, say, drop a Flamethrower on his Abomasnow. Naturally, Inver has no problems at all with them, and will happily hammer you with super effective attacks at every opportunity.
- Depending on the Writer: In XY, his ability to do Inverse Battles is due to a "mysterious power" he has while in ORAS, it's due to a machine called the Invert-o-Matic. As ORAS takes place quite some time before XY, it's possible he hadn't developed the power naturally yet.
- Meaningful Name: Derived from "Inverse." His Japanese name means "reverse".
- Optional Boss: Defeating him doesn't do anything relevant to the plot; even encountering him is optional. However, if you do go out of your way to challenge him, you're in for a tough fight, and not just because of the inverted type matchups.
- Reality Warper: The guy can manipulate one of the fundamental principles of Pokémon battles though downplayed in ORAS where he just uses a special machine instead.
- Secret Art: The only character in the entire series that can be challenged to an Inverse Battle.
AZ (Unmarked Spoilers)
AZ
Do you want to know unending pain... like I have?
A mysterious Trainer from X and Y. The player encounters him several times throughout their journey. He is incredibly scornful and nihilistic in regards to humanity. He is in fact the ancient king of Kalos from thousands of years ago, granted eternal life by the Ultimate Weapon after using it to revive his deceased partner, a Floette.
- Age Without Youth: Played with. According to the creators, he continued to age despite being rendered immortal, but still looks a bit younger than you'd expect a 3,000 year old man to be.
- Anti-Villain: Up there with N in terms of being sympathetic.
- The Atoner: For killing thousands of Pokémon and people to use the Ultimate Weapon and revive his Floette.
- Blow You Away: His Sigilyph, a partial Flying-type.
- Dishing Out Dirt: His Golurk, a partial Ground-type.
- Death Seeker: Heavily implied, which is stunning given it is a Pokémon game.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes 3,000 years of Walking the Earth before he finally redeems himself and reunites with his Floette.
- Emperor Scientist: The former King of Kalos, who also built a doomsday device/immortality machine.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The creators confirm that Floette was a gift from his late mother, which may explain in part why he loves her so dearly.
- Flying Dutchman: Of the "Wandering Jew" sorts. He was cursed with immortality as a side effect of the Ultimate Weapon and has been wandering endlessly for 3,000 years searching for his lost Pokémon.
- Friend to All Living Things: Similar to Bianca in your final battle with her, all three of his Pokémon have the move Return. And yes, the move hits like a truck.
- Gentle Giant: Though it turns out he is rather nice once his nihilism is gone. Good thing too, because he would've been a very imposing villain otherwise. According to the creators, his height is a side effect of the Ultimate Weapon making him immortal.
- The Ghost: In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. He doesn't appear directly, but he plays a notable part in the backstory of some elements in the game.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Sort of - he's not actively malevolent any more. His device is the reason that Lysandre is almost able to wipe out everyone on the planet, but he doesn't have that direct an impact on the plot, at least until towards the end.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Floette.
- Humans Are Bastards: He has something of a nihilistic and negative view on humans, in part due to his own actions.
- Immortality Immorality: On the one hand, becoming immortal himself wasn't his main goal. On the other hand, he was willing to and did sacrifice many others to revive his partner, causing her to abandon him.
- Leitmotif: A very solemn piano theme plays during his scenes.
- Meaningful Name: A to Z, as in, the beginning to the end.
- Mind over Matter: His Sigilyph, a partial Psychic-type.
- Modest Royalty: He is the former king of Kalos and wears rather disheveled clothing. Even in flashbacks when he was still king, he doesn't seem to be wearing any royal regalia or even a crown, just a simple white robe and a brown strip of cloth around his forehead.
- Older Than They Look: He looks very very good for his age and hasn't seemed to have aged past 50-60 physically. Though even then people in reality would shrink as they age, he did the opposite.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: He's described as taller than a stretched-out Seviper is long, which makes him proud of at least 9 ft.. Even with Super-Deformed overworld sprites, the player character barely gets over his knee.
- Pet the Dog: While he was still something of a nihilist, he stopped at Sootopolis City and planted a large tree in front of the Cave of Origin as a gift.
- Perpetual Frowner: Hard to blame him considering his backstory. He does smile after battling the PC at the end though.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: His Floette, according to X & Y's coding, knows Light of Ruin, the most powerful Fairy-type move that even Xerneas can't get as yet.
- Playing with Fire: His Torkoal, a Fire-type.
- Post-Final Boss: You battle him directly after your fight with the Champion to wrap up the last dangling plot thread, meaning you are probably more than capable of defeating his three Pokémon. Not to mention their levels are a lot lower than the Elite Four and Champion's Pokémon. AZ may not be at your level when you fight, but there's no denying that his team is good.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's an immortal, and he's been Walking the Earth for 3000 years. Additionally, all three of the Pokémon he uses in battle are either associated with ancient civilization or longevity. Torkoal is based on a tortoise, which can live for multiple centuries, while Sigilyph and Golurk have been described as being around since ancient times.
- Real Men Wear Pink: His partner Pokémon is a Floette.
- Restored My Faith in Humanity: After battling the PC, he'll come around to this.
- Rummage Sale Reject: Potentially justified, as given how disheveled he looks, he may well have been homeless for a long time, leading to this trope. Not to mention the issues in finding things that would fit, given his size.
- Signature Mon: Is associated with a Floette with the Eternal Flower, which was his partner prior to abandoning him.
- Soul Power: His Golurk.
- Superweapon Surprise: Built a giant superweapon capable of mass destruction.
- Tears of Joy: After reuniting with his Floette after 3,000 years, he is so overcome with emotion that he can't even stand.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It is very heavily implied in the Delta Episode that his use of the ultimate weapon resulted in the birth of Deoxys, who first started antagonizing the Earth around three thousand years ago.
- Walking Spoiler: He had so many spoiler tropes that he got moved to another folder.
- Walking the Earth: Has been doing this for 3,000 years. He's confirmed during the Ruby and Sapphire remakes to have planted the giant tree in Sootopolis City and once saw Mega Rayquaza intervene in a fight between Groudon and Kyogre many years ago.
- Was It Really Worth It?: In regards to ending the war with the machine.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Is never seen after the parade, leading questions to his and Floette's whereabouts.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In the backstory, Floette's reaction to the Ultimate Weapon and the cost of her resurrection was to turn her back on her beloved partner and abandon him for three thousand years. Clearly, she thought he'd crossed the line, even if she couldn't articulate it as such.
- When He Smiles: After your fight with him, he smiles for the first time since you met him and thanks you for freeing him from the torment of his past, which leads into Earn Your Happy Ending above.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: He's been alive for three thousand years. He doesn't enjoy it.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His Floette died in the war and that drove him to make a giant superweapon.
Emma (Matiere) (Unmarked Spoilers)
Emma / Matiere (マチエール machieeru), AKA Essentia / Espirit (エスプリesupuri)
Voiced by: Maaya Uchida (Pokémon Generations, Pokémon Masters - JP), Carrie Keranen (Pokémon Generations - EN)
A parentless 16-year old who lives in the alleys of Lumiose City where she goes to play with her Espurr "Mimi" and school children. She later is recruited into Looker's agency and eventually sees him as a father figure.
- Action Girl: When she uses the Expansion suit to fight crime.
- All-Loving Hero: To the point where Xerosic pulls a Heel–Face Turn, even going out of his way to make sure Emma doesn't get blamed for the crimes she committed while Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She is the boss of the Lumiose Gang. This is actually invoked, as she explains that the gang gave her trouble but she beat them herself in the past, making them think she was their boss.
- Badass Adorable: Also rather adorable and kind.
- Bilingual Bonus: Her conversation with the Kanto woman is not very polite. The Kanto woman (who is frustrated and scared over the theft of her Pokémon) insults Looker's and his partners' intelligence, and Emma does not respond well to this, angrily calling the woman out for her rudeness.
- Bittersweet Ending: Looker leaves Kalos behind, but he purchases the agency's building so that she can live under a roof. Furthermore, she also gets Xerosic's suit so that she can become a crime fighter. They do reunite in Pokémon Masters, though.
- Clothes Make the Superman: The suit she uses is designed so that her human capabilities are increased drastically to allow her to perform Voluntary Shapeshifting matching that of a Ditto and Kecleon. It also grants her the ability to leap tall buildings In a Single Bound.
- Compressed Hair: How Emma manages to fit all that hair into her helmet is the true miracle of science.
- Cunning Linguist: Despite her lack of formal education (she apparently couldn't even read before Looker took her in), she's bilingual, able to speak both Kalosian (French) and Kantonian (Japanese).
- Dark Action Girl: When she was being controlled by Xerosic.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Inherits Xerosic's Crobat and Malamar, two mons she apparently befriended rather quickly.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: She goes through a lot before she gets one with Mimi.
- Happily Adopted: By Looker, sort of.
- Heartwarming Orphan: Rather nice and kind, and also an orphan.
- It Was a Gift: Looker's agency building from Looker and the suit from Xerosic along with his Pokémon.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Whenever she wears the suit, Emma is put to sleep and her body is controlled remotely. In the end, Xerosic turns the sleep mode off to allow her to use the suit's powers as how she sees fit.
- Morality Pet: Mimi whenever Emma is wearing the suit that puts her in a sleeping state. Emma herself becomes this to Xerosic, who ends up pulling a Heel–Face Turn for her sake.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Mimi. Emma does not actually own Mimi, but they are extremely good friends. Understandably, Mimi never actually fights.
- Optional Boss: After clearing Looker's sidequests, she can be fought using the suit on certain days in the agency.
- Orphan's Ordeal: After she is recruited into Looker's agency and learns that they don't have much food to go on, she decides to take a part-time job to help with the expenses. Unaware, she signed with Xerosic to test his suit technology.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Lumiose Gang eventually settle into the Looker Bureau, aiding Emma in her crusade for justice.
- Secret Identity: While using the suit, she uses the codename "Essentia/Espirit".
- Signature Mon: Mimi the Espurr. Subverted in Pokémon Masters, where she explains to Shauna that Mimi is only her "special friend", with her partner Pokémon being Crobat instead.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Why the hell is a 16-year-old orphan wandering the streets of Lumiose City for so long?
- Street Urchin: Cut very clearly from the sort of 19th-century mold embodied in the works of men like Victor Hugo.
- Theme Naming: In Japanese her name is French for "material" or "substance," while her suited codename is "spirit" in the same language.
- Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to the Player Character, Looker, and Xerosic, she is essentially equipped to be able to engage in a detective business by the end of her story with the use of acquired skills, a powered suit, and her own Pokémon.
- Walking Spoiler: Arguably the most mysterious and least anticipated character in the whole X and Y cast. Being a sweet innocent girl who subconsciously commits crimes while wearing a villainous costume is the main reason for why that is.
