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Characters / Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
aka: Pokemon Villain Team Galactic

Go To

Main Character Index > Diamond and Pearl> Gym Leaders and Elite Four

The characters of Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum and their remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

For a list of Pokémon that debuted in the fourth generation, see Pokémon: Generation IV Families.

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Player Characters, Professor Rowan's Assistant, and The Rival

    The Player Character 
The Player Character of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is a child from Twinleaf Town who is just old enough to start their Pokémon journey. After viewing a documentary on a red Gyarados, they and their rather impatient friend Barry decide to explore the nearby Lake Verity to see if any special Pokémon can be found there. Along the way, they encounter Professor Rowan and his assistant (the player-character you didn't choose).

Once at the lake, all they can find there is a lone briefcase, opening the briefcase reveals three Pokéballs, each with starter Pokémon. Suddenly, Pokémon start to attack the pair of friends! You'll need to choose carefully which Pokémon you decide to use....
  • Badass Adorable: Most Player Characters in Pokémon are cute little butt-kickers, but special note goes to this generation, where the catchable Olympus Mons du jour are nearly all Cosmic Entities of some kind or another.
  • Bash Brothers: While team-ups have been around since Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl make it their bread and butter, giving the Player Character no less than seven potential partners. In addition to team-ups with Rowan's assistant and Barry, Guest Star Party Members Cheryl, Mira, Riley, Marley, and Buck will join the Player Character to fight your way through various dungeons together.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The Player Character arrives at Lake Verity just in time to rescue the assistant from whatever fate Galactic Commander Mars has in store for them. Mars gets annoyed and demands to know if the two of you are Sickeningly Sweethearts.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
    • In the first three generations, one of the three Starter Pokémon of a set would be unassigned for the whole game. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl implement Lucas, Dawn, and Barry such that the whole set of Starters is represented.
    • The Player Character's mom becomes an Ascended Extra; Johanna was the first mom in the core series with a name and a backstory.
  • Character Customization: While the Player Character options come from a generation before this became the norm, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl allows them to be given custom eye and hair color and to obtain alternate outfits.
  • Childhood Friends: While they're not quite next-door neighbors like in Pokémon Red and Blue or Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the Player Character and Barry both grew up together in Twinleaf Town.
  • The Chosen One: It's heavily implied Arceus gave the player the Azure Flute because they bore resemblance to the previous trainer it sent from their present to Hisui, Sinnoh's past name. Considering you can travel to Spear Pillar to play the flute to summon Arceus indicates it decides to part a piece of itself to them as it did for the protagonist of Legends Arceus.
  • Chromatic Arrangement: Unusually for the franchise, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl goes with the primary subtractive colors cyan, magenta, and yellow—Player Characters Lucas and Dawn cover cyan and magenta with their Pink Girl, Blue Boy dynamic, while both Barry and Cynthia provide yellow thanks to their blonde hair.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
    • The player-character of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire originated from Johto and moved with their parents to Hoenn at the start of their journey. The player-character of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is a Sinnoh native.
    • In Diamond and Pearl the player character is taught by the assistant how to catch Pokémon. In Ruby and Sapphire, the player character implicitly teaches The Rival Wally how to catch Pokémon.
  • Decomposite Character: In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the role of the unchosen Player Character was to be both The Rival and the professor's assistant. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the unchosen player character is the assistant while The Rival is a different character entirely.
  • Disappeared Dad: It's not uncommon for the player character to be without a father in the house for some reason, but this game gives the absent dad some Character Focus by indicating he used to be a powerful trainer in his own right who was childhood friends with Palmer.
  • Dream Team: Both Cheryl and Rowan's assistant consider themselves to be part of one with the Player Character during their Bash Brothers segments.
  • Easter Egg: In addition to the list of optional names the game offers you when naming your player character and rival, there are secret names that the game will suggest to the player if they choose to name them but submit blanks. In the Diamond Version, Dia(mond) and Pearl are the first suggested names for the hero and rival, respectively (which is how Barry's Alternate Self from Pokémon Adventures got his name).
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
    • As per usual, the Rival will obtain the starter with a superior type to the Player Character's choice. The assistant will already have one, but it will always be with the starter that the player character's has an advantage against.
    • In BDSP, both the rival and the assistant will have a Fire-type, Water-type, and Grass-type on their final team, but the Pokémon with these types vary depending on the starter they have at the start.
  • Escort Mission: The player character will escort Cheryl, Mira, and Marley either to safety or their destination.
  • Pals with Jesus: Many of the legendary and secret Pokémon in this game are associated with Sinnoh's creation myths, and Mesprit in particular treats the player character as a chosen one. What makes the heroes impressive is that they have potential to meet Arceus, the literal god of the entire universe, just like the Faller whom fell into Hisui centuries before.
  • Power Trio:
    • The Player Character forms one with Barry and Rowan's assistant. All three of them get starters at the outset and are explicitly assembled by Professor Rowan to help defeat Team Galactic around the midpoint of the game.
    • This persists in Masters, where all three are once again paired with starters, albeit not as a playable Sync Pair in Lucas' case, and they team up with each other for the raid on Team Galactic's hideout.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Both Player Character options wear one—Candice really likes it. In Pokémon Masters, they both have the Scarf Tech attribute, which gives them a Power-Up if they're on a team with other scarf-wearers, like each other or Barry.
  • Ship Tease: The Player Character has some with tons of characters, including Barry, Cynthia, Riley, Cheryl, and the assistant.

    Professor Rowan's Assistant 
Whichever Player Character goes unchosen will appear in the story not as The Rival, like Brendan or May from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, but as the personal aide of Professor Rowan. The assistant lives in the nearby Sandgem Town, demonstrates how to catch pokémon to the Player Character, and helps out when Team Galactic makes their move.

The following are tropes applicable to the assistant in general, while tropes specific to Lucas and Dawn are separated into dedicated folders.

  • Adaptational Badass: The professor's assistant takes a colossal step up in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl with their new, well-trained post-game teams.
  • Bash Brothers:
    • Once the Coal Badge is won, the Player Character teams up with the assistant at the northern exit of Jubilife City to bust some Team Galactic heads after they try to harass the professor for his papers.
    • After the Player Character obtains the Cobble Badge from the Veilstone Gym, Professor Rowan's assistant will beg for help reclaiming their stolen pokédex from another set of Galactic grunts. In their enthusiasm they'll describe the team-up as a Dream Team.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Professor Rowan is an Absent-Minded Professor who will occasionally make decisions without explaining his thoughts, leaving the assistant scrambling to catch up. Emphasized in the Platinum Rewrite of the Starter Pokémon scenario, where the assistant informs the Professor he has forgotten his briefcase and is beyond startled to learn he's decided to give crucial Pokémon away.
  • Brutal Honesty: The assistant, either Lucas or Dawn, will be so frustrated by the stolen Pokédex incident that they let themselves call Looker weird behind his back to the player character before catching themselves.
  • Bumbling Sidekick: Downplayed. The assistant is competent enough and even briefly your mentor, but they have a few goofs in the early game—once Team Galactic's plot is in full swing, however, the game never hints at further foibles.
    • The assistant's dialog on Route 207 suggests they're not quite as successful on their mission to fill out the Pokédex as they would like to be.
    • In Veilstone City they reveal In-Universe that they got Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer—either via the distractions of the Game Corner or the Department Store, and then of course they drop their pokédex long enough for Team Galactic to steal it.
    • In Diamond and Pearl, the assistant comes hurtling in after your first battle to recover the briefcase they forgot, only to discover you've used the professor's Pokémon, but Platinum Rewrites the Starter Pokémon scenario to remove this example and highlight what a Beleaguered Assistant they are instead.
  • Can't Catch Up: Rowan's assistant is not a rival like Barry, but isn't on the player character's level, either.
    • The type of starter used by Rowan's assistant is weak against the Player Character's.
    • Both Bash Brothers battles featuring the assistant show that they have pokémon weaker than the Player Character's. In Veilstone City, the assistant comes begging the player character for assistance to defeat members of Team Galactic that the assistant couldn't beat on their own.
    • The assistant's dad will lament his child's lack of accomplishment compared to the player character during the post-game.
    • Not so in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, where the assistant is an Adaptational Badass with a whole team of powerful pokémon at their disposal during the post-game.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
    • The unchosen player characters of both the Hoenn games and the Sinnoh games are both Kid Sidekicks to the regional professor, but in Ruby and Sapphire, the assistant is the professor's child. Not so in Diamond and Pearl.
    • In Diamond and Pearl, the professor's assistant is friendly and occasionally serves as Bash Brothers with the chosen player-character. In Ruby and Sapphire, the professor's assistant was the player character's increasingly frustrated rival.
  • Demoted to Extra: Downplayed. While still a step up from the Schrödinger's Player Character of Crystal, Fire Red, and Leaf Green, the unchosen protagonist's role as the Professor's Kid Sidekick is a step down from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, where the unchosen protagonist became The Rival; unlike all rivals up to this point, the unchosen protagonist has no character arc.
  • Dowsing Device: Rowan's assistant gives you the pokéch app for the Dowsing Machine (which in previous games was called the itemfinder).
  • Incoming Ham: In Diamond and Pearl, the player character's first direct encounter with the assistant happens when the latter comes rushing back for the briefcase they forgot, Leitmotif in full swing.
  • Irony: Whenever involved in a confrontation with Team Galactic in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the assistant winds up needing assistance.
  • Mentor Archetype: For the early game. As the assistant, Lucas or Dawn will take it on themselves to walk you through several new mechanics as you make headway on your journey. In one of their few divergences, Dawn will make a point of officially mentoring you, while Lucas just naturally starts to show you the ropes.
  • Missing Mom: The professor's assistant will belong to a Sandgem family with a father, a grandfather, and a kid sister, but no mom.
  • Ship Tease:

Tropes specific to the Assistant's Pokémon or strategy are listed here.

  • Achilles' Heel: Defied. Several Pokémon used by the assistant have items or techniques selected specifically to cover obvious weaknesses. However, many of their Pokémon have a glaring weakness that can be easily exploited. For instance, Lucas's Flareon can be blown away via Water or Ground-type moves and his Cradily doesn't know anything for Ice-types. Likewise, Dawn has a Wormdam Grass and Wormadam Steel both of which can be roasted by a Fire-type and her Typhlosion can be shut down by sending out a Pokémon with Flash Fire and given he only knows Eruption (to take advantage of Choice Scarf), he can't do anything but sit helplessly as you wail on him.
    • A few of the flimsier monsters (Dawn's Frosslass, Lucas's Mothim and Kabutops) have a Focus Sash to ensure they can get some necessary setup in. Dawn's Torterra is holding a Yache berry to help it stave off Ice attacks.
    • Many of the Pokémon used on one of the assistant's teams have moves that specifically counter at least one superior type, such as Lucas's Glaceon, which has Water Pulse to counter the advantage Fire and Rock-types have against it. Every water-type on Dawn's first and second teams can use Ice Beam to handle Grass-types.
  • Artificial Brilliance:
    • As with many of the opponents in Gen VIII, the professor's assistant benefits from the creator's attention to detail regarding their new post-game teams, and many monsters have carefully selected movesets lifted right from the metagame.
    • At the same time, somebody failed to realize what a bad idea it was to give Lucas's Tauros the moveset of a special sweeper(with three of its moves being horrible inaccurate at that!)—Dawn's Lickilicky is in a similar situation, but has the excuse of being part of a team with a Support Party Member who can give it Super-Speed.
  • Beast and Beauty: Downplayed in Gen VIII. On the assistant's second Empoleon team, there are multiple optional members that fill the two roles without actually interacting.
    • The point man on the assistant's second Empoleon team is either Dawn's Togekiss or Lucas's Gliscor.
    • The grass-type options are the fearsome Prehistoric Monster Cradily for Lucas and the cute little hula girl Bellossom for Dawn.
    • The normal-type options are Dawn's literal bunny girl Lopunny and Lucas's brutal, bullish Tauros.
    • Gender-Inverted with the ice-type options on the team, where Dawn uses the big and bulky Mamoswine while Lucas uses the small and sleek Glaceon.
  • Critical Hit Class: The assistant's second Infernape team leads with a Dark-type Pokémon that uses Night Slash, a move with a high critical hit ratio boosted even further with the Super Luck ability and a held item. Dawn's Honchkrow uses a Scope Lens, while Lucas's Absol carries a Razor Claw.
  • Divergent Character Evolution:
    • In the original games, the assistant had the same team regardless of who was in the role. In the remakes, however, Lucas's and Dawn's teams both pull from different pools and follow different rules.
      • Lucas's final team will have always have one starter, one fossil, one Eeveelution, one Rotom variant, an evolution that premiered in the fourth gen, and a single-stage Pokémon. He will always have a menacing looking Pokémon—Gliscor, Dusknoir, or Absol—in front.
      • Dawn's final team is all evolved Pokémon; she has two starters, which will be the only regular level-up evos on her team—everything else evolves with a stone, friendship, a move, and even a held item trade. At least half of each team will be of Pokémon whose evolution lines premiered during the same generation as the second starter. She will start with a Flying-type—Togekiss, Crobat, or Honchkrow.
    • Inverted with the assistant's Infernape, which had two unique moves depending on which team it was on, but in the 1.1.0 update only has one unique move for each team.
  • Explosive Overclocking:
    • Dawn's Wormadam Grass has Leaf Storm, a Grass-type move so powerful it will exhaust the user and deplete their Special Attack. Wisely, Dawn has her equipped with a White Herb, which negates stat loss and thereby affords Wormadam the chance of using the move a second time, provided she hasn't been cooked alive via 4x Fire attack.
    • Dawn's Sceptile has the exact same strategy with the added benefit of Sceptile's hidden ability Unburden, which gives Sceptile Super-Speed once it uses or loses its held item. Even better, the rest of Sceptile's moves are physical, so it remains effective even with depleted special attack.
    • Lucas's Heat Rotom and Mow Rotom use Overheat and Leaf Storm respectively, but rather than using a White Herb to negate the inevitable loss of stats for a second blast, Lucas has his Rotom carrying Choice Specs to give the initial blast a preemptive boost.
  • Female Angel, Male Demon: On the assistant's second Empoleon team, Dawn leads with the angelic Togekiss while Lucas leads with the spooky scorpion-bat Gliscor.
  • Foil: Dawn's Milotic on her first team is a Spirited Competitor; its Competitive ability boosts its special attack when someone tries to lower its stats. Lucas's Empoleon, on the other hand, is Defiant to the End (at least, it was in version 1.0.0)—its Defiant ability boosts its physical attack in response to lowered stats.
  • Knockback: Both the Dunsparce on Lucas's second Torterra team and the Togekiss on Dawn's second Empoleon team use powerful attacks that have a chance of causing the foe to flinch, boosted with the Serene Grace and supported with a paralysis-inducing move to rob the foe of speed and give the assistant's monster the priority it needs for the chance of flinching.
  • Last Chance Hit Point: Several of the assistant's Pokémon use Focus Sash, usually so the flimsier monsters have a guaranteed turn to set up their strategies.
    • Dawn's Froslass has one, which usually means she gets at least one shot with Will-o-Wisp to burn the foe, which feeds her Hex's power in turn.
    • Dawn's substantially heftier Blastoise has one in case its Shell Smash technique opens it up to what might have been a one-hit knockout.
    • Lucas's Rampardos is a Glass Cannon and carries Focus Sash to ensure that it can try and get at least one Head Smash in lest any enemies with a superior type try to take it out early.
    • Lucas's Mothim and Kabutops use Focus Sash to guarantee at least one turn to give themselves a Status Buff, and if Kabutops is hit with a physical move it will Shed Armor, Gain Speed on top of that.
  • Mythology Gag: In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the pool of Pokémon the assistant draws their team from includes direct references to Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl.
    • If the assistant doesn't have Infernape, then the first team of theirs you battle will have Magmortar, the Pokémon Lucas had when he got The Cameo in Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior.
    • If Dawn is the assistant and she's training Empoleon, then her second team will have Togekiss, Lopunny, Typhlosion, and Mamoswine—all of which she trained (either in this or pre-evolved form) in the anime. If she has an Infernape (one of the most important Pokémon in the show during Dawn's tenure), her second team will have an Ambipom, another Pokémon she trained.
  • Opposing Combat Philosophies: Dawn's and Lucas's new teams in BDSP have a lot of zigzag between them:
    • For the assistant's first postgame battle, Lucas prefers physical attacks to Dawn's special, so much so that Lucas uses Gallade where Dawn uses Froslass.
    • In the second battle, there are two tactics used by the assistants that one assistant will implement for versatility and the other for power—Dawn and Lucas zigzag on who is the more versatile and who is the stronger, however.
      • For the Critical Hit Class Dark-type lead on the second Infernape team, Lucas's Absol has more versatility in its moveset while Dawn's Honchkrow only knows Dark-type moves—Honchkrow instead taunts foes into attacking and sucker punches them for it.
      • For the Switch-Out Move, Dawn uses U-turn, which can be used at any time, while Lucas gives Volt Switch to his Rotom, whose Choice Specs may make Volt Switch more powerful or may prevent it from using Volt Switch at all (Volt Switch is also useless against Ground-types).
    • Dawn and Lucas are both willing to use Explosive Overclocking moves, but Dawn tends to use White Herbs to negate the cost and try again if it doesn't work, while Lucas use a Choice item, banking on the heightened stats to wipe the enemy out in a single blow.
    • The assistant's first Torterra team has Lucas tending to a slow-and-steady defensive game while Dawn dives into Attack! Attack! Attack!, which shows in their different movesets for Milotic and Torterra.
      • On Lucas's team Milotic uses Calm Mind and Substitute alongside Torterra's Synthesis and Leech Seed—even their items are geared for defense, with Milotic using a Flame Orb to stimulate its Marvel Scale and Torterra munching on Leftovers.
      • Dawn's Milotic wields a Life Orb to boost its Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, and Hyper Beam, and her Torterra is prepared to whale away at anything in front of it with Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Wood Hammer. Her Milotic has the Competitive ability, which will boost its special attack even further if you try to lower any of its stats.
    • The assistant's second Torterra team has the same general strategy of using a Support Party Member to boost the team's speed, but the implementation differs.
      • Lucas's team features a collection of Mighty Glaciers and sluggish Glass Cannons, and the lead uses Trick Room to guarantee most of the team priority.
      • Dawn uses Tailwind instead, which doesn't give quite as much security to her Mighty Glaciers but provides them and the Lightning Bruisers intermixed into the team with double their speed.
      • Dawn's Crobat also has U-turn, improving its ability to flee a disadvantage; Lucas's Dusknoir can't maneuver likewise, but instead protects itself by crippling the opponent with Will-O-Wisp.
    • The assistant's second Infernape team both feature a Normal-type, but while Lucas uses a Porygon-Z with Adaptability and a Silk Scarf to boost its already overwhelming special attack, Dawn uses an Ambipom that boosts multi-hit moves with Technician and Life Orb. Like the Dusknoir and Crobat contrast above, Porygon-Z supports its main strategy by crippling the foe with Status Effects, while Dawn's Ambipom uses a Switch-Out Move to flee a bad match.
  • Power at a Price:
    • Any of the assistant's Pokémon holding a Life Orb gets a boost in power at the cost of damage to the user—Dawn's Milotic, Mamoswine, Arcanine, or Ambipom use one, as do Lucas's Tauros, Espeon, and Gallade.
    • Many of the assistant's Pokémon use Powerful, but Inaccurate moves—Fire Blast, Blizzard, Thunder, Hydro Pump, Focus Blast, and Power Whip are all known by different Pokémon in the pool the assistants draw from. (Because most of these are special moves, there are more examples among Dawn's Pokémon than Lucas's).
    • Some Pokémon used by the assistant use powerful moves that lower the user's own stats, but these Pokémon carry a white herb to negate the stat loss for a free extra hit at full power. A couple, specifically Dawn's Sceptile and Lucas's Infernape, are able to take double advantage of the white herb—using a held item activate's Sceptile's hidden ability Unburden and doubles the power of Infernape's move Acrobatics. In the original version, the Infernape on the second team for both assistants notably used Overheat without a white herb.
    • A few Pokémon available to the assistant use Choice items that provide a major stat boost (in Attack, Special Attack, or Speed) but lock the user to one move out of their selection. Dawn gets around this limitation in one case by giving her Typhlosion only one move at all—Eruption which means a Pokémon with Flash Fire will shut him down. Lucas's Rotom variant will always have Choice Specs.
  • Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Both Lucas and Dawn can implement this strategy, but in Lucas's case it works passively, while Dawn uses it more aggressively.
    • Lucas's Kabutops has Weak Armor for its ability—every time Kabutops gets hit with a physical move, it loses defense and gains speed.
    • Dawn's Blastoise and Gorebyss both use Shell Smash, which sacrifices the user's defenses in exchange for a boost in their speed and offenses, and Gorebyss can even use Baton Pass to give the Status Buff to another teammate.
  • Static Role, Exchangeable Character: Whichever playable character you don't choose will become Professor Rowan's assistant. The assistant performs all the same actions regardless of who's doing the job, but there are subtle differences in how Lucas and Dawn react to the events of the game.
  • Status Effects: Many Pokémon used by the assistant have a move that may cause an incidental status effect, but there are several that make status part of their strategy outright:
    • Dawn's Froslass knows Hex to take advantage of any status effect the foe is suffering and has Thunderbolt and Will-O-Wisp to inflict them herself.
    • The Lopunny on Dawn's second Empoleon team knows both Thunder Wave and Sweet Kiss to frustrate the enemy's attempt to use movesnote .
    • Several Pokémon on both teams use paralysis to give necessary priority to moves that cause flinching, including Lucas's Dunsparce and Porygon-Z on the one hand and Dawn's Togekiss on the other. Dunsparce and Togekiss both have Serene Grace to boost their chances of making the target flinch, and Dunsparce carries a King's Rock to take them even further.
    • Lucas's Milotic is automatically burned by its Flame Orb to activate its Marvel Scale ability, and its Scald attack may burn the opponent, in both ways forcing a physically-oriented enemy to deal Scratch Damage.
    • Lucas's Flareon knows Will o' Wisp, which can mitigate its frail physical defense by burning the opponent and crippling their attack, if the move hits.
  • Strong Girl, Smart Guy: In Gen VIII. Dawn's post-game teams are more offensively oriented, with most if not all of her support moves and items geared towards boosting the attack and speed of her Pokémon; Lucas, on the other hand, has more tactical variety (and is the only one either to use a Deliberate Injury Gambit by wearing Status Effect items or to use Weather of War).
  • Support Party Member: The assistant's second Torterra team leads with a pokémon with a move meant to make the Mighty Glaciers into Lightning Bruisers.
    • The Dusknoir leading Lucas's team knows Trick Room, which reverses priority so the slowest goes first, which is not only useful for its own low speed but almost everyone else on the team as well.
    • The Crobat leading Dawn's team supports it with Tailwind, which doubles the speed of the user and its allies, which supports the others in much the same way but also reinforces the advantages of the already quick Arcanine and Mr. Mime.
  • Switch-Out Move:
    • Dawn's Infernape, Ambipom, and Crobat all know U-Turn, which hits hard and switches the user out, which can bail the user out of an unfavorable matchup.
    • Lucas's Rotom will know Volt Switch in case it needs to do the same thing, but his version of the tactic is more of a gamble than Dawn's. While Rotom's Choice Specs will buff Volt Switch's damage, the item may already have locked Rotom out of using the move; worse, the move will fail outright against Ground types and leave Rotom on the field in danger.
  • Sword and Sorcerer:
    • The assistant's first post-game team in BDSP will have a Pokémon that evolves from the Dawn Stone. Lucas uses the hard-hitting Mage Killer Gallade while Dawn fields her Fragile Speedster Froslass to play with Status Infliction Attacks.
    • Lucas gives Tangrowth and Empoleon physical moves, while Dawn gives them special moves; Empoleon will keep these different movesets even on the second team.
    • In version 1.0.0, the Infernape on Lucas's team knew Close Combat, while on Dawn's team it knew Focus Blast (this example is lost in version 1.1.0, where both assistants teach Infernape all physical moves).
  • Tiny Girl, Huge Guy: The grass-type options on the assistant's second Empoleon team are the diminutive Bellossom for Dawn and the large Cradily for Lucas.
  • Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The Fire-type pokémon on the assistant's second Torterra team are a male Flareon for Lucas and a female Arcanine for Dawn.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: While Rowan's assistant uses a Kadabra during the main game, in BDSP it vanishes from their team by the post-game.

    Lucas (Kouki) 

Lucas / Kouki (コウキ kouki)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/258px_diamond_pearl_lucas_7.png
Platinum
Voiced by: Griffin Puatu (Pokémon Masters - EN), Shun Horie (Pokémon Masters - JP)
The male Player Character option for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. If not chosen at the start of the game, he will appear as Professor Rowan's assistant instead.

In Pokémon Masters, Lucas takes the assistant role, arriving belatedly during the Sinnoh chapter of the Main Story's villain arc. When confronting Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic, Lucas goes out of his way to prevent the villain from slaying Dialga, which inspires the Olympus Mon to form a sync-pair with the young boy; this sync-pair was first released in January 2022. A second sync-pair featuring Lucas and Flareon was released in November 2022.

His Alternate Selves include the fun-loving Diamond in Pokémon Adventures and the Wild Child Hareta in Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! He also has a small cameo in the opening sequence of Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior.

Tropes specific to Lucas's Pokémon or strategy are listed here.

  • Big Entrance: In Pokémon Masters, Lucas's sync partner Dialga has Grand Entry for its first ability, which gives it a massive special attack boost when it first enters battle.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Lucas's Infernape knows Close Combat, which hits tremendously hard but causes the user to drop their defenses. This Infernape is given a white herb to negate that drop in defenses (and the use of Infernape's held item doubles the power of Acrobatics, another of Infernape's moves).
  • Defiant to the End: Lucas's Empoleon had its hidden ability Defiant in version 1.0.0, which caused its attack to rise when any of its stats were lowered.
  • Fantastic Foxes:
    • In BDSP, each of Lucas's second post-game teams has an Eeveelution—Glaceon on his Empoleon team, Flareon on his Torterra team, or Espeon on his Infernape team.
    • In Pokémon Masters, Lucas received a second sync-pair featuring Flareon for the Three Eevee Tales event, co-starring with both Kris and Jolteon and Lyra and Vaporeon.
  • Fossil Revival: In BDSP, each of Lucas's second post-game teams has a Prehistoric Monster—Cradily, Rampardos, or Kabutops.
  • Haunted Technology: In BDSP, each of Lucas's second post-game teams has a Rotom in one of its machine forms.
  • Hour of Power: Some of Lucas's possible Pokémon employ a Deliberate Injury Gambit, inflicting themselves with Status Effects for power, but the Damage Over Time gives them a countdown.
    • Flareon in general are natural Glass Cannons, but Lucas's has the hidden ability Guts to take its phenomenal physical offense even further and gives it a Toxic Orb to do it immediately. Unfortunately, this gives Flareon a small window of activity before it collapses from poison. Flareon's moveset is geared to take as much advantage of its ability as it can, with Facade (which does triple damage due to the status effect and Guts in tandem), a ferocious same-type Flare Blitz, and Iron Tail for enemy rock-types. It can still be blown away via Water and Ground-type moves though.
    • Downplayed with Lucas's Milotic, which holds a Flame Orb to burn itself automatically (which will activate Milotic's Marvel Scale ability), but Milotic can hold the Damage Over Time at bay with its Recovery.
  • Olympus Mons:
    • He (or his equivalent character) has captured Regigigas in no less than three different manga adaptations.
    • In Masters, while all three Sinnoh starters are featured in sync-pairs with Dawn, Barry, and Flint, Lucas was paired up with Dialga.
  • Regenerating Health: Lucas loves using healing mechanisms in his strategies. In addition to the Moonlight-wielding Clefable and Recovery-capable Milotic shared by both assistants, Lucas's Torterra, Gliscor, Cradily, Glaceon, Dunsparce, and Kabutops all having healing tactics of one kind or another.
  • Revive Kills Zombie: Inverted. Lucas can use Pokémon whose abilities turn normally damaging effects into healing ones.
    • Lucas' second Empoleon team in BDSP has a Gliscor carrying a Toxic Orb, which would normally doom it to being badly poisoned, but his Gliscor also has its hidden ability Poison Heal, which means it heals damage instead.
    • The same team also has a Glaceon with its hidden ability Ice Body, which heals Damage Over Time while Hail is in effect.
  • Scratch Damage: The Milotic that may be on Lucas's first team is geared to force its enemies into this position. It carries a Flame Orb to automatically burn itself and thereby activate its Marvel Scale to boost its physical defenses, and it carries Calm Mind to boost its special attack and defense. Further, its one offensive move is Scald, which may burn the foe and thereby cripple its attack. Milotic can then hide behind a Substitute and heal damage with Recovery.
  • Signature Mon:
    • Contemporary with Gen IV, three of his manga counterparts have been featured with the Turtwig line.
    • A piece of Platinum official art gave Infernape to Dawn and Torterra to Barry, associating Lucas with Empoleon by comparison.
    • Circa the era of the Nintendo Switch, Lucas has been associated with the Chimchar line (following Dawn's association with Piplup in merchandise). Kotobukiya merch, Pokémon Evolutions, the concept art for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and Pokémon Mastersnote  all associate him with the Fire starter.
    • Pokémon Masters has given him two sync-pairs, the first with Dialga and the second with Flareon. Cutscenes indicate his starter was an Infernape, however.
  • Weather of War:
    • The Glaceon on Lucas's second Empoleon team knows Hail and is doubly-blessed by it; not only does Hail make Glaceon's Blizzard an Always Accurate Attack, Glaceon has its hidden ability Ice Body, which lets Glaceon heal Damage Over Time.
    • One of Dialga's sync-grid abilities in Pokémon Masters is Sand Shelter, which protects it from sandstorm damage.
    • In Pokémon Masters, Lucas's second sync-pair features Flareon, whose Solarize ability makes the weather sunny after using their sync move and whose Team Solar Immunity ability protects their allies from Status Effects during sunny weather.

    Dawn (Hikari) 

Dawn / Hikari (ヒカリ hikari)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/335px_diamond_pearl_dawn.png
Platinum
Voiced by: Kimberley Anne Campbell (Pokémon Masters - EN), Rie Takahashi (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The female Player Character option for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. If not chosen at the start of the game, she will appear as Professor Rowan's assistant instead.

In Pokémon Masters, Dawn appears as the protagonist of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, hailing from Twinleaf Town in Sinnoh and being Childhood Friends with Barry. While her original Turtwig sync-pair was initially released in May 2020, she got a new Alcremie sync-pair when she co-starred with Serena during the "Palentines" event of February 2021 and a sygna-suit sync-pair with Olympus Mon Cresselia in February 2022.

Dawn co-starred in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, where she aspired to be a top coordinator like her mother Johanna, but experienced a few bumps in the road. Her catchphrase may be "No need to worry", but that's probably when you should worry the most. She also corresponds to the wealthy Ice Queen Platinum in Pokémon Adventures and Mitsumi in Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure!.

Despite having the Version name Platinum in the manga, her pink motif in contrast to Lucas (or Ash's) blue, often associates her with Pearl Version.

  • Adaptation Dye-Job: In the transition to the anime, Dawn got blue hair out of the deal and a shorter, pinker scarf.
  • Adaptational Modesty:
    • In Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, Dawn's scarf is shorter (and thus less attention-grabbing) than it is in the game.
    • Dawn's skirt is about the same length as Leaf's, but because Dawn has greater presence in the franchise (she co-starred in the anime for years), more people have noticed and decided to do something about it.
      • The Learning League site lengthens her socks into full leggings.
      • In Masters, her skirt is significantly lengthened such that it covers more of her thighs.
  • Because Destiny Says So: In Pokémon Masters, Dawn may declare in random dialog that pokémon and people are bound by invisible threads of destiny.
  • Breakout Character: Dawn is one of the most iconic trainers in the Pokémon franchise, in no small part thanks to being the first female co-star in the anime (she got equal billing with Ash in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl and the first episode of the season is dedicated exclusively to her). As of the second complete year of Masters, she is the only Sinnoh player character to be recruitable and the Palentine's 2021 even gave her an alternate costume. The Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl trailer opens with Dawn starting off on her journey and many news articles give her top billing.
  • Cheated Angle: Like Lucas, the full silhouette of Dawn's hat is properly only seen from a side angle, but in her running animation in the intro for Pokémon Platinum and in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, she's depicted with the tail-end of her beanie sticking out to the side even from a full frontal view.
  • Composite Character:
    • In Masters, Dawn is in the role of the The Protagonist from Diamond & Pearl, having friends and family in Twinleaf Town and being Childhood Friends with Barry; at the same time she borrows characterization from the assistant version of herself—she appoints herself the Player Character's mentor and gripes about losing briefcases and pokédexesnote  in random dialog.
  • Cool Big Sis: As the assistant, Dawn will take it on herself to walk you through several new mechanics as you make headway on your journey.
  • Coordinated Clothes:
  • Curtains Match the Window: Dawn has dark hair and dark grey eyes.
  • Cutting Off the Branches: In Pokémon Masters, Dawn is the protagonist of the Sinnoh games, being Johanna's daughter and Childhood Friends with Barry, while Lucas is Professor Rowan's assistant.
    • At the same time, however, Dawn, Lucas, and Barry have an arrangement of Starters that would only be possible in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl if Lucas were the protagonist—Dawn has Turtwig, Lucas has Chimchar, and Barry has Piplup.
  • Ditzy Genius: In Masters, Dawn is a competent battler and coordinator... who also tends to be scatter-brained.
    • In "A Day with Dawn" she gives the last of her canteen to a lost Lotad, and when her own Turtwig needs water, she offers it a drink from the canteen, too, only to remember she's already given all her water away.
    • In a bit of random conversation dialog, Dawn will gripe about mornings, in which stuff always goes missing, like briefcases and pokédexes, and that one always ends up half past late before they know it.
    • In another bit of random conversation dialog in her Palentines 2021 alt outfit, Dawn will admit that she sometimes forgets the oven when she's baking and will burn her work to a crisp.
  • Exposed to the Elements: Dawn's tank top and microskirt suit her just fine despite the wintry Sinnoh weather—she'll even go trudging through waist-high snow. It's less blatant in Platinum, where Dawn has a new coat, but keeps exposed legs.
  • Foil: Lucas and Dawn play the assistant differently in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Dawn speaks with a more professional tone but has a stronger independent streak—in Pokémon Platinum, she thinks having one's own villa is much nicer than having to share a room with her sister and would be nice for romantic getaways.
  • Hair Color Dissonance: There's confusion about Dawn's hair color between the games and adaptations. Sugimori drew it a navy blue (or black with blue hints) type color in her main artwork, but everything else has her with a lighter hue.
  • Hero-Worshipper: In Masters, she is very giddy about looking like a hero in her Sygna Suit with Cresselia. In her "A Day With..." Story, it is mentioned how she liked looking up to heroes when she was younger, though she's embarrassed about it.
  • Idol Singer: In Pokémon Masters, Dawn has the Contest Lover Tech attribute, which gives her team a Power-Up if she's teamed up with other coordinators like May, Lisia, or Wallace. (This is of course Ret-Canon taken from Dawn's appearance in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, where she was a pokémon coordinator).
  • Implied Death Threat: When the Player Character receives the Pokédex from the professor, the assistant expresses relief that the P.C. is kind to pokémon. While Lucas stops himself before contemplating a scenario where the P.C. wasn't, Dawn goes so far as to imply she'd take drastic action against you.
  • Lethal Chef: Downplayed. In Masters, she admits that she will forget about the oven while baking, thus completely burning the finished product, but this only happens on an occasional basis and the Poké Puff she gives to the player looks just as good as Serena's in spite her belief that she burnt it.
  • The Mentor: As Professor Rowan's assistant in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Dawn appoints herself mentor to the Player Character after he receives a pokédex. She does it again in Pokémon Masters, despite having been appointed to the protagonist role.
  • Mini Dress Of Power: Dawn's top and skirt ensemble, when she's the player character.
  • Mistaken Identity: In Pokémon Masters, Irida mistakes her for Akari, her Hisuian counterpart.
  • Palette Swap: In Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Dawn has a selection of outfits that the player can give her if she's the Player Character.
  • Pals with Jesus: In Pokémon Masters, Dawn's sygna-suit sync-pair includes Cresselia.
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Dawn is the pink girl to Lucas's blue boy.
    • The Poké ball logo on her hat and her Pokétch have the same color as her pearl-pink miniskirt and boots.
    • In Platinum, her new jacket is red, but it its big pink buttons and her new pink hairclips match her boots.
    • Dawn's dress for super-contests is pink with white trim and comes with a pink ribbon for the back of Dawn's head.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Her default outfits have copious amounts of pink, and she wears a pink dress for Pokémon Contests.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: If Dawn is the player character, she's this with Barry, having grown up as childhood friends.
  • The Pollyanna: Has very upbeat dialogue as an NPC despite having to combat Team Galactic on several occasions.
  • Rookie Male, Experienced Female: Dawn appoints herself The Mentor to the Player Character in both Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, where the P.C. is always male, and in Pokémon Masters, where a male P.C. is optional.
  • Red/Green Contrast: Dawn's two-tailed Scarf of Asskicking is red in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl while Barry's is green.
  • Sailor Senshi Sendup: Pokémon Masters made a big Shout-Out to Sailor Moon with Dawn's Sygna Suit—"A Day with Sygna Suit Dawn" even features Dawn making a speech In the Name of the Moon.
    The protector of dreams and the guardian of children's smiles! The shining moonlight led me to you! I'm Sygna Suit Dawn, the Knight of the Crescent Moon!
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Certain pieces of character art make Dawn the energetic girl to Lucas's savvy guy. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl's player selection screen shows Dawn smiling and Lucas not—in her character art for Pokémon Platinum, Dawn's pose is more upbeat and energetic than Lucas's.
  • Ship Tease:
    • In Pokémon Platinum, if Dawn is the assistant, she'll compliment the player character on their taste in villa furniture and may even relate romantic fantasies about spending time at the villa with a "special someone".
    • In Masters, if Dawn is on a team with Lucas, she'll call it a Dream Team.
    • In optional dialog for "A Special Day with Dawn" from the same game, she'll use Lucas as her example of people who shine when their energy is focused.
  • Sibling Rivalry: In Platinum as an NPC, if she visits your villa, she'll tell you she's jealous — she has to share her room with her kid sister.
  • Signature Headgear: As per usual for Pokémon protagonists. Dawn has a white beanie with a pink Poké Ball stenciled on the front.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Dawn is basically Johanna ten or twenty years younger, with long hair.
  • Sweet Tooth: In Dawn's Palentines 2021 sync-pair with Alcremie, she has the Sweet Tooth Tech attribute, which gives her a Power-Up when on a team with others who like sweets, like Bruno, Grant, or Bea.
  • Team Chef: Dawn's Palentines 2021 sync-pair also gives her the Cook Tech attribute, which gives her a Power-Up when on the team with other cooks like Siebold or Mallow.
  • Teens Love Shopping: During an encounter with the Player Character in Veilstone City, Rowan's assistant will admit In-Universe to getting Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer—if Dawn is the assistant, she will admit to shopping at the Veilstone Department Store and immediately change the subject.
  • Theme Naming: Both Player Character options have names themed around light. "Hikari" is the standard reading of 光, the Japanese kanji for "light", and while Dawn isn't directly named for light, she is named for the sunrise. The theme is even stronger in the remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
  • Thinks Like a Romance Novel: In Platinum, some of Dawn's NPC chatter in the villa includes the fantasy of spending time in the villa with "that special someone".
  • Tsundere: As an NPC. Type B: often sweet, but very mad when she gets angry.
  • Tutu Fancy: Downplayed. Her red and white tutu, which she wears for Contest Spectaculars in the remakes, has a trailing ribbon on the sash, but it's otherwise fairly practical.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Dawn's standard outfit in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl hits the borderline between B- and C-grade, but her longer socks in Pokémon Platinum are definite B-grade.

Tropes specific to Dawn's Pokémon or strategy are listed here.

  • Amazon Brigade: In the remakes Dawn's post-game teams are predominantly female when she's the assistant. The only Pokémon on her teams that aren't female are the starters and, unusually, Magmortar (presumably a subtle Mythology Gag to one being used by Lucas in the anime).
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: In BDSP, Dawn's final teams, regardless of starter, are geared almost entirely for offense.
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: The Lopunny on Dawn's second Empoleon team invokes this trope as part of its strategy—it carries a Lagging Tail, which would normally doom it to lagging behind the opponent, but it also has the ability Klutz, which means it can't use or receive the effects of any items it carries. She also knows Switcheroo, allowing her to give the Lagging Tail to an enemy and rob them of their intended item.
  • Dance Battler: Dawn's Bellossom knows both the hard-hitting Petal Dance and the stat-boosting Quiver Dance.
  • Full Health Bonus: Dawn's Typholosion knows exactly one move, Eruption, which is at its most powerful when the user is at full health. In order to preempt a faster opponent from damaging Typhlosion in advance, Dawn has it wearing a Choice Scarf to give it Super-Speed. Sticking a Pokémon with Flash Fire in front of Typholosion renders it helpless as you pummel it.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Dawn's Critical Hit Class Honchkrow uses Taunt to provoke a foe into attacking it and then uses Sucker Punch to punish them for attacking.
  • Mighty Glacier: Dawn's Trash Cloak Wormadam has a moveset that presumes it will naturally be going after the foe. Gyro Ball does more damage depending on how much slower it is than the foe and Metal Burst returns the damage of any attack it takes by half again as much but needs the foe to go first. This still doesn't do much against Fire-types, but points for trying.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl if the player chose Turtwig, her post-League team will be strikingly similar to her anime one, having Mamoswine, Togekiss, Typhlosion (evolved form of her anime counterpart's Quilava), Lopunny (her anime's Buneary evolved form) and Empoleon (her anime's Piplup final evolution stage); the only difference is that Pachirisu is swapped out for a Bellossom.
    • Her team before that gives her Froslass, a Pokémon owned by her Pokémon Adventures counterpart, Platinum. Sadly, Rapidash couldn't join her since it's already associated with Barry.
  • Olympus Mons: In Masters she partners up with Cresselia when wearing a Sygna Suit for the second half of the Team Galactic Arc.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: In Masters she's paired with Alcremie for Palentine's 2021, making her the first player character Trainer to be paired with a Pokémon created after their debut generation.note 
  • Signature Mon:
    • Artwork pertaining to the games gives her either the Turtwig or Chimchar lines, including being paired with Turtwig in Masters.
    • In more prominent adaptations (such as the anime, the Kotobukiya figures, and Adventures) she's had the Piplup line, though on one occasion had the Chimchar line.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Dawn's Dance Battler Bellossom uses Petal Dance, which causes the user to spin so much that it inevitably gets dizzy and becomes confused after two or three turns. Bellossom also has a Persim Berry to undo its confusion and let it jump back into the action with another Petal Dance.

    Barry (Jun) 

Barry / Jun (ジュン jun)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/235px_diamond_pearl_barry.png
Platinum
Voiced by: Erik Kimerer (Pokémon Masters - EN), Tsubasa Yonaga (Pokémon Masters - JP)
The Rival of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Barry is an impatient and hyperactive young man who always seems to be in a rush. His dream is to become the Pokémon League Champion, and especially wants to achieve it as fast as possible. However, his genuine talent at raising Pokémon is offset by his haste and lack of patience, and his preference for brute force over strategy.

Outside of the Adventures manga where he's named Pearl, he's generally not associated with a particular Version.
  • Adaptational Modesty: In Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, Barry's scarf is shorter (and thus less attention-grabbing) than it is in the game.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: After barging into your room in Platinum he stops himself in the middle of a sentence to comment on your new laptop. In a later scene, he gets distracted again by one of those cut-outs in which tourists take pictures in.
  • Bash Brothers: Barry joins the Player Character at the Mt. Coronet peak during the final confrontation with Team Galactic, which is also an opportunity for him to settle the score with Galactic Commander Jupiter, who crushed him at Lake Acuity.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Just when it looks like you'll have to face Jupiter and Mars alone atop of Mt. Coronet, guess who shows up and heals you afterwards?
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "What was that about?"
    • And briefly, "I'm fining you [large amount of money] if you're late!" This is by far his most iconic line, however, to the point where it carries on to all the adaptations.
  • Character Development: As the story goes on, he becomes more patient and less hasty. He also becomes better at creating strategies and learning from his losses. This ends up getting reflected in his team of Pokémon. For instance, he ends up catching a Munchlax, the single rarest Honey Tree Pokémon. Anyone who's tried the same can tell you how significant that is.
  • Childhood Friends: While they're not quite next-door neighbors like in Pokémon Red and Blue or Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the Player Character and Barry both grew up together in Twinleaf Town. Barry's so comfortable with the player character that he comes barging into your room to drag you out into the adventure.
  • Color Contrast: Barry's design goes out of its way to zig where the player character designs zag.
    • Dawn and Lucas have very dark if not simply black hair—Barry is blonde.
    • Dawn and Lucas both wear red scarves—Barry's scarf is green.
    • Dawn and Lucas inherit the Poké Ball-Ultra Ball color scheme from previous generations—Barry inherits the orange and green from Pokémon Emerald.
    • Dawn and Lucas wear predominantly primary colors and have notable splashes of black for contrast—Barry wears predominantly secondary colors and his gray pants provide less contrast.
    • Dawn and Lucas get brand new outfits in Platinum—Barry gets his original clothes with longer sleeves.
  • Crash-Into Hello: Your rival's normal way of greeting you, accompanied by some enlarged text in the dialogue box. At one point, Palmer demonstrates that such clumsiness is a family trait. Lampshaded during one of your mid-game encounters with him, where he doesn't crash into you and gleefully points this out, asking if you were surprised.
    "Thud!!"
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He is so dorky and impatient that it's easy to forget that his Platinum iteration is the third strongest trainer to have appeared in the series, right after Red (HeartGold and SoulSilver) and Cynthia (Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl). In fact, before Heart Gold and Soul Silver gave Red a boost, Barry's Platinum team was the strongest.
  • Dumb Blond: Downplayed, as he is not that dumb, but he is quite impulsive.
  • Family Business: In Masters it's revealed that the reason he's always charging fines is because he wants to build his own battle facility and be a Frontier Brain like his dad.
  • Fanboy: In Platinum, he holds great respect for Crasher Wake and calls him his master, much to Wake's chagrin.
  • Fighting Your Friend: Basically, what you do with him. It defines your relationship.
  • Friendly Rivalry: With the player character.
  • Generation Xerox: He looks and acts like his father, right down to the Crash-Into Hello.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He's one of the main heroes and is blond.
  • Heroic BSoD: The events at Lake Acuity send him into one due to failing to stop Team Galactic, and it takes the poor kid a while to snap out of it.
  • Hot-Blooded:
    • He's always eager to fight, as his Platinum animation shows.
    • In Pokémon Masters, his sync-pair with Piplup gives him the Passionate Spirit Tech attribute, which gives him a Power-Up when he's teamed up with other hot-blooded characters like Flannery or Flint.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    Barry: If you're not a Pokémon, and you run like that, you're a bad guy.
  • Irony:
    • For such an impatient boy, he also acquires a Heracross and a Munchlax, both of which require waiting for hours after slathering honey on the honey trees.
    • In Diamond & Pearl, he didn't think too much of Crasher Wake. In Platinum, Barry holds great admiration for him and likes to proclaim him as his master, despite Wake never agreeing to it.
  • Keet: Especially at the very beginning. He learns to tone down his hyperactivity slightly by the end, though he's still extremely energetic.
  • Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Barry has a hyperactive personality and forcibly drags Dawn or Lucas into starting the journey.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • "Jun" is the standard reading of 純, a kanji that means "purity" or "innocence"—a suitable name for a character with such naive expectations about becoming a master immediately.
    • One of the etymological origins of Barry is that it's a shortened form of the Gaelic name Fionnbharr, or "fair-hair", a natural fit for the blonde rival.
  • My Greatest Failure: His devastating defeat at Lake Acuity prompts him to expand his worldview beyond winning and losing.
  • Privileged Rival: While he first appears to be a normal kid from around town like the player character, the post-game reveals that he's in reality the son of Palmer, the Battle Tower's Tower Tycoon and, in Pokémon Platinum and Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver, likely the most well-known of the Frontier Brains.
  • The Rival: He's this of the Gen IV Trainers.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: He wears a scarf and you will battle him a few times.
  • Schedule Fanatic: Among Barry's main Character Tics are not only that he times everything you do, but he threatens to fine you obscene amounts of money if you're late.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Downplayed. While not evil, he's the rival, and his orange and green color scheme clashes with Dawn and Lucas's, who are both Primary Color Champions.
  • Shared Family Quirks: It turns out his father, Palmer, is just as hasty and has a tendency to be late just like him.
  • Signature Mon: Artwork and merchandise pertaining to the games, as well as one manga, give him the Turtwig line, and two of his other manga counterparts are given the Chimchar line. His appearances in the anime, Pokémon Evolutions, and in Masters see him use the Piplup line.
  • Speed Demon: Barry has a hasty and impatient personality. He's always in a hurry, never walking but running to anywhere he needs to go. Everything has to be done fast or he'll threaten to give a fine for being late. He dreams of becoming a Pokémon League Champion, especially if it can be done in the shortest time possible.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Barry has his father's blonde Anime Hair, albeit curlier. They also have the Shared Family Quirk of running into people.
  • Technicolor Eyes: They're orange, which is, incidentally, his signature color.
  • Theme Naming: Barry gets in on it with Lucas and Dawn in the English localization in a small way, since his name derives from the Gaelic name Fionbharr, which means "fair-hair".
  • This Loser Is You: Though not portrayed negatively. His way of banging into everything and everyone is a pretty obvious reference to how player characters tend to run or bike absolutely everywhere to speed things along, often running into things as a result. All those NPCs who mention how impatient he is? They might just say the same thing about you, except they're too polite to say it to your face.
  • Took a Level in Badass: When Platinum was first released, the levels of Barry's team actually exceeded Red's. Although Red regained his title again in the Gold and Silver remakes and Cynthia barely edged him in turn in the Diamond and Pearl remakes, that still makes Platinum Barry the third toughest opponent in the series, with a mere couple of levels difference between their teams once you've beaten the Elite Four at least twenty times.

Allies

    Professor Rowan (Dr. Nanakamado) 

Professor Rowan / Dr. Nanakamado (ナナカマド博士 nanakamado hakase)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prof_rowan.png
The Pokémon Professor native to the Sinnoh region who specializes in the study of Pokémon evolution.
  • Badass Bookworm: Takes on a load of Galactic Grunts in order to stop them from overpowering Dawn/Lucas, much to their fury. With his bare hands!
  • Badass Longcoat: To contrast with the previous professors, who all had labcoats, Rowan wears a longcoat and is willing to take on Galactic Grunts with his bare hands.
  • Badass Normal: When he fights a load of Galactic Grunts, he does it with his bare hands.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
    • Unlike Professor Oak, Professor Elm and Professor Birch who are absent-minded Pokémon Professors preferring to stay out of conflict, Professor Rowan, while still sharing the same Absent-Minded Professor trait the other three hasnote , is more inquisitive and won't hesitate to take literal punches, as shown when he's able to take on Galactic Grunts in Jubilife City to protect both the player and his assistant.
    • Also, unlike the previous three professors before him who wear white labcoats, Rowan wears a brown longcoat around his clothing. Rowan also dresses more formally, in contrast to the previous three who dress casually.
    • As shown in the future game X and Y, he's the very first Professor to have explicitly mentored another Pokémon Professor in the past, that being Professor Sycamore.
  • Cool Old Guy: He's an old guy, but won't hesitate to go out in the field and help you.
  • Death Glare: Presumably what the menacing ellipses are meant to represent.
  • Face of a Thug: In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, when Johanna first mentions Professor Rowan after the incident at the lake, she mentions that she's heard he's quite intimidating.
  • Genius Sweet Tooth: The fridge in his lab is filled with nothing but sweets. In the post-game, you can also meet him in Veilstone Department Store, where he complains about how they're sold out of RageCandyBars.
  • Identical Grandson: Pokémon Legends: Arceus reveals that he has an ancestor named Kamado who looks very similar to him.
  • The Mentor: X and Y reveals that he was one to Professor Sycamore.
  • Only One Name: We don't get his first name.
  • Retired Badass: Stated in the English localization to be sixty at the very least, yet can put up a good fight. It's also implied he was the Champion at one point since he can enter the Hall of Fame.

    Johanna/Ayako (アヤコ ayako) 
The Player Character's mother. While she spends time at home like other poké-moms before her, there's more to her than meets the eye.

    Bebe/Mizuki (ミズキ mizuki) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BebeTCG_333.png
The Pokémon Storage System Developer who operates in the Sinnoh region.

    Looker/Handsome (ハンサム hansamu) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/looker_pt.png
Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Pokémon Generations - JP note ), Kenyū Horiuchi (Pokémon Generations - JP note ) Kaiji Tang (Pokémon Generations - EN), Mick Lauer (Pokémon Masters - EN), Zenki Kitajima (Pokémon Masters - JP)
A police agent who shows up in Sinnoh to try and arrest Team Galactic. He later shows up in Unova, requesting the player's help in finding and arresting the rogue Seven Sages of Team Plasma. He shows up again in Kalos in a sidequest where the player character becomes his partner in a private detective agency in Lumiose City. He shows up once again in Alola where he is working with former Frontier Tycoon Anabel to put a stop to the Ultra Beasts invading the region.
  • Ascended Extra: He's appeared at least once per generation since his first appearance all the way back in Platinum all the way through Ultra Sun and Moon. That's even more than Cynthia.
  • Badass Longcoat: Always shows up in a snazzy brown coat.
  • But Now I Must Go: At the end of his sidequest in X and Y.
  • The Cameo: Shows up in the post-game of Black and White, again in the post-game of X and Y, once more in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and once more in the post-game of Sun and Moon.
  • Character Catchphrase: "I need three minutes," and he likes to describe things as "hard-boiled."
  • Character Development: In Pokémon X and Y. He's one of the focal characters of a rather large post-game sidequest, during which he gets more characterization and backstory.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Even in his native language, he still comes off as more than a bit odd.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Gets his own major quest chain in the Pokémon X and Y and Pokémon Sun and Moon post-games.
  • Dead Sidekick: His backstory establishes that a Pokémon partner of his (implied to be his Croagunk from Platinum) was killed prior to the events of X and Y, making him decide to work alone.
  • Expy: Quite an obvious one of Inspector Zenigata - Looker's costume is very similar to the former's, and they're both occasionally goofy yet largely competent Interpol Special Agents. His Leitmotif even sounds similar to Zenigata's.
  • Funny Foreigner: His manner of speech suggests he is not a native speaker of the language, and he's certainly an unusual fellow.
    • X & Y go out of their way to explain this. He speaks fluent French (the language the games are technically in) but when a Kantonian woman walks in screaming in fright in Japanese, Looker mistranslates what she said as something about being dishonored about bad tea. She was robbed and her Pokémon were kidnapped.
    • X & Y also seems to suggest that his native tongue is some sort of Germanic-sounding language (possibly Danish).
      Ein, tvo, tri, fjore... fif! Five Looker Tickets!
    • He has a tendency to resort to speaking in his native tongue when panicked during his quest in Alola. Anabel has to continually ask him to speak in English (or whichever the game's language is in) when he does this.
  • The Gambling Addict: After the main scenario in the Sinnoh games, he can be found at the Game Corner playing slots. You can also see him there before you fight Maylene, though he claims it's because he's looking for Team Galactic.
  • Goroawase Number: His old codename in the Japanese version, "No. 836" - which becomes "handsome" when read aloud.
  • Hidden Depths: In X and Y, it's mentioned by Emma that he used to have a Pokémon as his partner, but it didn't make it during a case a long time ago. Come to think of it, he did have a Croagunk in Platinum that hasn't shown up since...
  • Interpol Special Agent: He's a member of the International Police.
  • Ironic Name: With his long face and plain appearance (which is even plainer next to the rainbow of character designs typical of Pokémon), his code-name seems to be something of an empty boast.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he's found on the beach in the Battle Resort, having washed up there with no memory of who or where he is.
  • Leet Speak: As revealed in Sun and Moon, he used to go by the codename "100kr".
  • Leitmotif: Has his own disproportionately epic theme music kick in whenever he rushes onscreen.
  • Master of Disguise: He disguises himself as a rock in Platinum, as the player character's mom in Black and White and as a random old man in Sun and Moon. Best exemplified when you first see him in Masters, where he switches between an Ace Trainer and a Team Galactic Grunt.
  • Mission Control: Serves as this in the Ultra Beast missions of Sun and Moon, giving you information on what the Beasts can do and serving as your main contact as Anabel is out running damage control.
  • My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: He is not a master of languages. He speaks good French, but poor English and Japanese.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Looker, Nanu, and an unnamed Faller were on a mission to destroy a Guzzlord in the past, Looker couldn't bring himself to kill it. This resulted in the Faller getting killed by Guzzlord.
  • Non Sequitur: At the beginning of the post-game in Black and White, your mother asks Looker what him giving you the Super Rod has to do with catching Team Plasma's agents. His response? "Absolutely nothing!"
  • Only Known By His Nickname: His real name has yet to be revealed.
  • Parental Substitute: To Emma in X and Y, but only temporarily, as once his work in Kalos is done he has to leave the region. On the other hand, once he does depart, he arranges for Emma to keep using the agency building so that she no longer has to live out in the streets.
  • Private Detective: He uses this as a cover for his Interpol work in X and Y.
  • Private Eye Monologue: Indulges in this after each of his missions in X and Y.
  • Punny Name: His Japanese name is Handsome, which was changed to Looker in the English version to reference both his Japanese name and his job as an investigator.
  • Recurring Character: He is one of the most recurrent NPCs in the franchise, having shown up at least once per generation since Platinum up to his final appearance to date in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
  • Signature Mon: Croagunk. It's only seen in Platinum, and X and Y suggests it might have died since then, but it's his only known Pokémon in the game continuity and consistently seen with him in adaptations.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: You'd think he'd show up again in Black 2 and White 2 to pursue the rest of Team Plasma, but he's oddly absent. Due to the timeline showing that X and Y take place at the same time as Black 2 and White 2, it's most likely the case that he was busy in Kalos during the events of the game.
  • What the Hell, Player?: You can lie to him about the Ultra Beast mission's outcome in Sun and Moon, but he'll see right through you and warn you to never lie to an International Police agent again.

    Hayley/Yukari (ユカリ yukari) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hayleyart_1725.png

The host of My Pokémon Ranch and a friend of Bebe.

  • Achilles' Heel: Hayley has several pokémon with moves that counter specific weaknesses of theirs.
    • Hayley's traded Pikachu and Pachirisu both know Grass Knot, which gives them a tactic to use against Ground-types.
    • Hayley's traded Vulpix knows Energy Ball, a Grass-type attack that will handle threatening Water-, Rock-, and Ground-types.
    • Hayley's traded Miltank knows Hammer Arm and her Buneary knows Drain Punch, Fighting-type moves that will help them crush resistant Rock-types.
    • Hayley's traded Croagunk knows the Ghost-type Astonish and the Dark-type Sucker Punch, which will counter Psychic-type enemies.
  • The City vs. the Country: Unlike her predecessor Brigette, who was a chic high-tech genius, Hayley is a country girl who runs a ranch.
  • Combos: Several of the pokémon Hayley trades with the player have multiple moves that work well or at least complement each other.
    • Her traded Pikachu knows both Flash (which lowers enemy accuracy) and Double Team (which raises its own evasion).
    • Her traded Lickitung knows Defense Curl, which doubles the power of its Rollout.
    • Her traded Yanma knows Hypnosis to put the enemy to sleep and Dream Eater to syphon the health from sleeping foes. It also knows Ancient Power and Silver Wind, which both have a chance of giving it a Status Buff in each stat.
    • Her traded Miltank knows Hammer Arm, which hits hard but slows the user down, an effect that is normally crippling but here fuels Miltank's Gyro Ball, which does more damage depending on how much slower the user is than the opponent. It also knows Milk Drink and Heal Bell, which heal damage and remove Status Effects, respectively.
    • Her traded Shroomish knows Spore and Stun Spore to produce Status Effects and False Swipe to lower an enemy's HP to a Last Chance Hit Point, making it well-suited for catching pokémon.
    • Her traded Wailmer knows Water Spout, which does more damage depending on how much stamina it has, and Rest, which restores it to full stamina.
    • Her traded Finneon knows Water Pulse, which can cause confusion, and Attract. Attraction and confusion are Status Effects that will cripple enemies' attempts to act.
    • Her traded Snover knows Wood Hammer, which does recoil damage to itself, and Ingrain, which heals damage that Snover has sustained.
  • Cowgirl: The working type, since she's the owner of a ranch and has to take care of her own Pokémon and the ones the player acquires.
  • Curtains Match the Windows: Brown hair and eyes.
  • Cool Shades: Red to match her scarf, with black frames.
  • Daydream Surprise: Hayley is in the habit of daydreaming, and the introductory sequence of the My Pokémon Ranch app consists of one of her daydreams.
  • Evolutionary Levels: Several of Hayley's trades are pokémon that already know the moves they need to evolve.
    • Her traded Lickitung knows Rollout, the move it needs to know to evolve into Lickilicky.
    • Her traded Yanma knows Ancient Power, which it needs to evolve into Yanmega.
    • Her traded Tangela also knows Ancient Power, which it needs to evolve into Tangrowth.
  • Fetch Quest: Hayley will commission the player to hunt for specific "Wanted" pokémon based on their pokédex date from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. She'll trade pokémon of her own for them.
  • Olympus Mons: She offers the player a Phione and later a Mew when the ranch reaches level 15 and 25, respectively. It's not explained how she acquired them.
  • Super-Deformed: While her character art renders her with the typical proportions of a Pokémon character, within My Pokémon Ranch she appears as a custom Mii.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Hayley is the human face for a pokémon storage service with a connection to the regional P.C. developer of the main fourth generation games, putting her in the same niche as Brigette from the third generation.

    Underground Man (地下おじさん chika-ojisan) 

An old man who lives in Eterna City. He gives the player the Explorer Kit and rewards them for completing various tasks in the Underground.

  • Ambiguously Related: A woman in Sunyshore City mentions that he is related to Roark and Byron, but doesn't clarify what their exact relation is. Given their respective ages, it seems likely that the Underground Man is Byron's father or uncle and Roark's grandfather or great-uncle.
  • The Friends Who Never Hang: Despite being related to Roark and Byron, he never interacts with either of them in the game.
  • In the Blood: He is a digger and explorer of the Underground like his relatives.
  • It Was a Gift: When the player first meets him, he gives them the Explorer Kit.
  • No Name Given: He is known only as the Underground Man.

Gym Leaders, Elite Four and Champion

Information on these characters can be found here.

Team Galactic

The villainous team of Diamond and Pearl, and the fourth one in the series. A strange group of criminals, Team Galactic is focused on harvesting energy, but aren't above stealing Pokémon and planting bombs. Why exactly they do this is something even the grunts don't fully understand, but the admins know the true scope of the organization's goals, as outlined by their emotionless leader, Cyrus: with the power of Dialga and Palkia, erase the entire world and create a brand new one, devoid of spirit.

    General 
Tropes that apply to the organization as a whole:
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/team_galactic_grunts_dp.png
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: They use the Wurmple line in Diamond and Pearl, but not in Platinum.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Some of the grunts fit this trope. Their spacesuit outfits and their bowl-cut hair would consider them as off-putting eccentrics and weirdos from other trainers including Cynthia. Until they start bombing Lake Valor and targetting the rest of the lakes for the Lake Spirits that they are taken a little more seriously.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
    • They contrast to Team Aqua and Magma from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Team Galactic are a space-themed evil team with Cosmic Motifs, as opposed to the Earth-centric evil team Team Aqua and Magma with Elemental Motifs, namely water and fire. Team Aqua and Magma wanted to reshape the Earth by respectively expanding the oceans or the landmass using Kyogre and Groudon suited to Maxie and Archie's goal of a world for Pokémon and humanity, respectively. Meanwhile, Team Galactic's goals revolve around creating a new world In Their Own Image through erasing humans, Pokémon and reality altogether by using Dialga (Diamond) and Palkia (Pearl), in line with Cyrus' goals of wanting a utopia where emotions and human sentimentality don't exist.
    • Whereas previous evil teams are treated as a serious threat right from the moment they are firstly introduced, Team Galactic in their first appearance exist in the open and are (at first) not taken seriously, being treated as complete weirdos as such thanks to their outfits and their petty crimes that are considered below average for an evil team Grunt. That is until they pull off their plan of kidnapping Uzie, Mespirit and Azelf that they become a serious threat to the players and Cynthia, but that only happens in the middle of the main story.
  • Cosmic Motifs: Team Galactic, who are messing around with the Legendary Pokémon of spacetime and want to restart the world, have a space theme. Their grunts are dressed in Latex Space Suits, their boss Cyrus is named for the sunnote , and their lieutenants also have Stellar Names.
  • Curtains Match the Window: All Galactic members have matching hair and eye colors.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: The grunts tend to speak this way.
    Grunt: "We are speaking to you on business. Because this is work for us. What we're saying is — we demand you comply with our demands."
  • The Ditz: The grunts aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and none of them really even know what Cyrus's plans are.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: Among all the villain teams, they have the greatest gender equality among employees.
  • Evil Counterpart: As of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Team Galactic is this to the Galaxy Team.
    • Both are organizations who bear the same name and the team's logo (albeit in Galaxy Team's case it is a fusion of Team Galactic's logo and the kanji 銀), but unlike Galaxy Team who are a force of good in Hisui who actively help anyone in need including the player, Team Galactic are a force of evil in Sinnoh who want to cause harm and destruction by fulfilling Cyrus' goal of remaking the entire universe to his own image.
    • They also contrast to the Galaxy Team in terms of the player encountering the mascot legendary. The Galaxy Team send the player on a mission to not only pursue Kamado in Mount Coronet, but also encountering Dialga/Palkia in Mission 17 and Palkia/Dialga in Mission 18 in order to stop the space-time dimension anomalies. On the other hand, Team Galactic does it in the opposite way, where Cyrus uses a Red Chain to restrain the mascot legendary by capturing the Lake Guardians and forcibly summoning it it to use its powers to destroy the entire universe and make it anew with Cyrus as its God.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Both Mars and Jupiter are named after male gods, but are themselves female. The Spanish localization renames them to Venus and Ceres respectively in attempt to remedy this.
  • Hell Hound: In Platinum, the Houndoom line is added to their ranks.
  • Insane Troll Logic: The grunts occasionally display this, with an occasional lampshade.
  • Jerkass:
    • A few grunts justify stealing Pokémon by saying that they can be caught anywhere and that their victims should stop whining and catch some more.
    • After using the Galactic Bomb to clear Lake Valor of water, a few grunts stand around sneering at the schools of poor Magikarp left flopping in mud puddles.
  • Latex Space Suit: All Team Galactic members wear outfits similar to spacesuits. Due to this, characters who do not know who they are refer to them as spacemen.
  • Locked Out of the Loop:
    • None of the grunts have any idea about what the Admins and Cyrus's plans could be. They seem to not care too much about finding out as long as the team succeeds and they get what was promised to them.
    • The Admins are kept in the dark about various aspects of Cyrus's master plan and only know a few details each: Jupiter seems to know that Cyrus will become a god, Mars seems to know that he'll create a world without spirit, and Saturn seems to know that he'll wipe out the world entirely to do this. They only learn the whole truth when Cyrus comes out and says it at the Spear Pillar.
  • Mini Dress Of Power: The female Grunts wear these.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: In-universe example. A large number of Sinnoh's residents, including Cynthia, never really took Team Galactic seriously due to their silly uniforms, petty criminal behavior, and their general lack of brilliance before the group assaulted the three lakes and snatched up Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf.
  • Obviously Evil: The only explanation why their HQ has Spikes of Villainy protruding from its sides.
    NPC: Are those spikes fashionable?
  • Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: Even the male grunts have bob cuts!
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A few of their members are stated to have fled to Unova and worked for Team Plasma in Black 2 and White 2. A lot of them left even earlier than that after Cyrus goes to the Distortion World in Platinum, where a few grunts realize that Charon isn't exactly as charismatic as their previous leader and doesn't share the team's stated goal.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Galactic Grunt battle music has a funk and jazz element in it, while there is a funk and jazz group called the Galactic.
    • In Japan, Team Galactic is called "Ginga-dan" or "Galaxy Gang". The Galaxy Gang were the villains from Pulseman (and Rotom is based on Pulseman himself), making this a reference that didn't quite translate.
  • Signature Mon: The Glameow and Stunky lines are a common sight in their ranks, with two of their commanders even having their evolved forms as their team aces. The way they are uncatchable in Platinum is similar to what happened in Yellow, where Ekans and Koffing (two Pokémon commonly associated with Team Rocket) are uncatchable.
  • Stellar Name:
    • Team Galactic's admins are named after planets, their leader's name means "sun," and Platinum's newly added member is named from one of Pluto's moons (or just named from Pluto in Japanese).
    • Their Japanese name, Ginga-dan (literally, Galaxy Gang) is used as the word for cluster, the collection of galaxies.
  • Visual Pun: They're literal space cadets.

    Cyrus (Akagi) 

Cyrus / Akagi (アカギ akagi)

"One day, you will awaken to a world of my creation. A world without spirit."
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_cyrus.png
Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Pokémon Generations - JP), Michael Sorich (Pokémon Generations - EN), Armen Taylor (Pokémon Masters - EN), Shunsuke Takeuchi (Pokémon Masters - JP)
The leader of Team Galactic, and the Big Bad of the Sinnoh games. He vows to create a world without spirit, in his own words, believing that emotions and sentimentality are useless. For this goal, he rallies Team Galactic to harvest energy, steal Pokémon, and generally cause mayhem throughout Sinnoh.
  • Abusive Parents: It's implied that his parents were at the very least severely emotionally neglectful, and the situation was so bad that his grandfather considered taking him away from them. He didn't go through with it though, and he's regretted that decision ever since.
  • Adaptational Intelligence: His plan in Platinum is significantly more well thought out. Instead of capturing Dialga or Palkia, he creates two Red Chains so he can control them both, having done enough research to know that the Lake Trio aren't powerful enough to negate the two at once. He probably would've won if Giratina hadn't intervened. His plan was one of the most frighteningly successful of any antagonist in the series, and you can see his workings on the computer in his chamber at the Veilstone HQ.
  • Affably Evil: In a strange way, while he's a creepy, emotionally-impaired Straw Nihilist who wants to destroy the universe, he's remarkably sincere and honest toward the player character, frequently compliments them (though he considers "compassionate" a backhanded compliment), and outright gives them the Master Ball just because he's not going to use it. And in the first few times you encounter him, he is very polite in asking you and your friend to let him pass through.
  • Badass Bookworm: Just listen to him lecture you about genes. He's studied a lot.
  • Bad Boss: Made explicitly clear in Platinum, as he is lying to Team Galactic about sharing power in the new world and having their considerations taken into account.
    • Masters makes him even worse. He explicitly used Darkrai's power on his own members as test subjects to analyze its power better. They're found still afflicted with nightmares, meaning they've been like that for even longer than the victims in Pasio.
  • Big Bad: He's the main villain of the Sinnoh games and the leader of Team Galactic, who go around terrorizing everyone and bombing places to achieve their goals.
  • Big Eyes, Little Eyes: He has some of the biggest eyes of any of the main villain bosses.
  • Birds of a Feather: In Masters, he finds a subtle connection with Sophocles, who is more or less what Cyrus used to be when he was young, minus the emotional issues and Abusive Parents.
  • Blow You Away: In Diamond and Pearl, three of his four Pokémon are Flying-types.
  • Broken Ace: He's amazingly gifted, that's for sure, being able to create a business in energy and build and fund massive working machines all before he turned 27. All that potential he had went towards the wrong ideal...
  • Casting a Shadow: In Platinum he gains a Houndoom in his team along with Honchkrow and Weavile, making Dark his most numerous Pokémon type. Subsequent depictions of him usually follow with this, making him a Dark-type specialist.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In Diamond and Pearl, he is first seen when you first visit Mt. Coronet, but you don't find out who he actually is until the end of Team Galactic's Hideout. In Platinum, he's introduced even earlier (in the first twenty minutes of the game, no less), but you also find out who he is earlier.
  • The Chessmaster: His entire shtick depends on keeping you one step behind.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
    • Cyrus is the first evil team leader in the series to explicitly have a hometown, namely Sunyshore City, which is a contrast to other leaders from previous games who come from seemingly nowhere.
    • He's the first leader whose motivations are heavily tied to his Freudian Excuse, likely because he has a backstory regarding his miserable childhood when you talk to NPCs about his past in Sunyshore, as opposed to previous Team leaders who aren't given a motivation for their actions.
    • Cyrus heavily contrasts both Archie and Maxie, Team Aqua and Team Magma's leaders, in Ruby and Sapphire. Archie and Maxie are both middle-aged men, with their character models putting them in their 40s, while Cyrus is a much younger man at 27. Both Archie and Maxie believed that they want to build a world respectively for Pokémon and humanity by expanding the oceans and landmass, even using a legendary Pokémon, Kyogre and Groudon, for their selfish yet Well-Intentioned Extremist ends without regard (at first) for the chaos they can cause for awakening the respective legendary. Cyrus, on the other hand, is neither of those things, being a Straw Nihilist bent on destroying all existence, including humans and reality alike, seeing them as pointless, and resorts to drastic measures by using Dialga and Palkia to achieve his ideal utopia. Whereas Archie and Maxie's goals almost endangered the entire planet, Cyrus' goals almost endanger the entire universe.
  • Creepy Child: In Sunyshore City, you can talk to people who knew him as a child, and they indicate that he was a weird loner then, too.
  • Dark Messiah: Seems to see himself this way, at least in Platinum.
  • Death Glare: Possibly, his default expression — certainly his most famous.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Him battling the player and Cheryl in Masters. He stuck around long enough for Cynthia to show up to confirm he was there and allowed word to spread he was in Pasio. He even laments that mistake a bit later on.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He has the balls to do this to Giratina in Platinum, with an express ticket to the Distortion World.
  • The Dreaded: When he shows up on Pasio during a Masters story event, Cynthia and Cheryl are horrified and persuade Lear to put out an island-wide alert. Not even Giovanni got that honor. That's how big of a deal Cyrus is.
  • Dual Boss: In the remakes, Cyrus and Mars can be fought together in the Battle Tower.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: In Platinum, his very first appearance is when you and your rival first come to Lake Verity soon after obtaining your starters - he monologues (though somewhat intended for Mesprit to hear) about how he'll capture the Lake Trio as part of his plans.
  • Foil:
    • Set up as one to Cynthia. While she cherishes all life and encourages the player to build strong bonds with their Pokémon, Cyrus desires to wipe away the ability the emotions that would make those bonds possible. To drive the point in further, his name means "sun", while her name comes from Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon.
    • Masters sets him up as one to Sophocles from Sun and Moon. Sophocles is a shy boy who prefers tinkering with machines to being with others and is friends with a Rotom, much like Cyrus once was. Unlike Cyrus, however, he still believes in human spirit and has come to appreciate emotions both bad and good. Cyrus even notes that Sophocles reminds him of a boy he once knew.
  • Freudian Excuse: His backstory involves him failing to live up to his parents' expectations no matter how hard he tried, and feeling neglected and rejected as a result. It's especially sad since you hear it from someone who had a chance to help him when he needed it, but... didn't, and now it's too late.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: A quiet little boy from Sunyshore who shied away from people and tinkered with machines grew up be one of the scariest humans the Pokémon universe has ever seen, nearly destroying all of reality with seemingly little effort.
  • A God Am I: More pronounced in Diamond and Pearl than in Platinum (in the latter game, he fixates more on the new universe itself rather than the fact that he'll be a god ruling over it).
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: He's got pretty sharp, cold looking eyes, befitting his cold, ruthless nature.
  • Hypocrisy Nod: He believes that emotions are the source of all conflict and suffering in the world, but in Platinum he suffers a Villainous Breakdown when Giratina is captured/defeated by the player. However, he admits that he is no less guilty of emotions as anyone else.
    Cyrus: The emotions roiling inside me... Rage, hatred, frustration... These ugly emotions arise because of my own incomplete spirit!
  • Improbable Age: He had built a criminal organization/cult and a business empire with hundreds of minions at his disposal while coming close to ending reality before his 28th birthday.
  • In Spite of a Nail:
    • The alternate Cyrus that appears in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon implies that, despite having succeeded in taking control of Dialga/Palkia and erasing his world, he still got dragged away by Giratina, though he wound up in Alola rather than in the Distortion World.
    • A similar story can be said for the version in Masters. He was just about to begin his plans to rewrite the world, but he and Palkia ended up falling into a golden ring opened by Hoopa.
  • In Their Own Image: Using the powers of Palkia and Dialga, he planned to invoke this trope on a universal scale to "free" it from The Evils of Free Will.
  • It's All About Me: And NOT in the standard way like Charon. He genuinely sees himself as altruistic, but in Platinum he reveals that he sees Team Galactic as tools for achieving his ends, that only he will claim power as a god, and "making the world a better place" will depend only on what he views as being better for everyone, which turns out to be a world devoid of spirit.
  • Karma Houdini: Cyrus is the only Big Bad in the main series who doesn't reform or otherwise get punished for his actions. At least in Platinum, he suffers a brief raging breakdown due to his plan being foiled in such a way that he can't repeat it the same way again; in Diamond and Pearl, he just shrugs his defeat off and vows to start anew. And even in Platinum, while he is last left in the Distortion World, it's not like he's trapped there: he's clearly staying there by choice in order to unlock more of its secrets (plus having had a Villainous Breakdown right before you leave). Ironically, it's the world in which his plans went unopposed by the player where he got any sort of comeuppance, having been swallowed whole by what was implied to be Giratina. The crowning example, however, has to be in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, where not only can you battle him in the Battle Tower, but he has an Entei.
  • Knight of Cerebus:
    • Everything that happens with Team Galactic after you battle him the first time in Platinumnote  becomes a lot more serious compared to before that.
    • In a meta sense, he's sort of this for the series as a whole. Cyrus is the first Pokémon villain that is both a direct threat to the world's existence and totally aware of the fact. Masters reinforces this: compare Brock and Misty's reactions to finding Giovanni on Pasio (they take him on immediately) to Cynthia's reaction to finding Cyrus on Pasio (she retreats, issues an island-wide alert, then obtains a Sygna Suit for the sole purpose of stopping him).
    • His team is also a cut above what you've faced before. Giovanni, Maxie, and Archie can all be swept easily with one or two mons at most. Cyrus has not only a diverse team; but diverse movepools as well to cover that mon's weaknesses.
  • Knight Templar: He believes his terrible, destructive plan to be in the entire world's best interest.
  • Kubrick Stare: He gives you a pretty good one in the intro of Platinum. Heck, it's more or less his default expression.
  • Lack of Empathy: He claims that traits such as kindness and empathy are for the weak the moment that you meet him. That’s how you realize that he’s lacking in basic compassion.
  • Light Is Not Good: If you consider that he's named after the sun...
  • Manipulative Bastard: For someone who calls emotions useless, he is very skilled at reading the general mood of his members and can use them to his gain.
  • Meaningful Name: His Japanese name, Akagi, can be read as "red future". His English name, Cyrus, comes from the Persian "Kuros", meaning "sun". This ties into Galactic's Stellar Name pattern as well as the fact that the Commanders "revolve" around him. Another translation of Kuros is "Koresh", a name that just keeps popping up in various Real Life cult leaders... Of course, this and the "sun" meaning both go back to Cyrus the Great of Persia, whom God speaks to directly in The Bible.
  • Misanthrope Supreme: Favors the company of machines to humans or even Pokémon. However, he does love the potential of humans and Pokémon enough to attempt his plan to remake the universe so that they can become more machine-like, and thus more "efficient" (almost wanting them to function like obedient, slave-like robots).
  • Mistaken Identity: Subverted. Though the Hisuian travelers had mistaken two of his three commanders with their Hisuian counterparts, his stoic, cold-faced demeanor makes them recall Cyrus's Hisuian counterpart Cyllene.
  • Mood-Swinger: On one occasion, he utterly flips out and explodes at the player and Cynthia before going back to his stoic self a mere second later.
  • Morality Pet:
    • One of his Pokémon is a Crobat, which only evolves if it really, really loves its owner. Since in the first battle with him he has a Golbat, it's unlikely that he stole it. Unlike with Maxie and Archie, Cyrus is known for his charisma and skill at manipulating emotions, so it's possible it's for similar reasons to why the rest of Team Galactic follow him, and you could explain it in game mechanics - walking slowly builds friendship with Pokémon, and he does seem to walk all around Sinnoh note . However, given a large aspect of Cyrus's characterization is how his own emotions still persist despite his desire to snuff them out, it's likely that even subconsciously, Cyrus is still doing enough by habit to earn his Pokémon's trust and affection, likely to his own frustration.
    • He is also implied to have been friends with Rotom in the past. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon heavily implies it was Cyrus who wrote the Old Notebook in Rotom's Room all the way back in Platinum. Upon defeating him, he also specifically ensures the Rotom-Dex that he will not harm the world. But alas, this friendship wasn't enough to change him for the better, and he appears to have given it away to Charon for research in order to sever ties to his own emotions.
  • Not So Stoic: Very much so in Platinum, once you get him inside the Distortion World. Just before battling Giratina, you battle him, and here is what he says:
    Cyrus: "Why should I run and hide from the world and have to wait quietly? My aim is to rid our world of the vague and incomplete thing we call spirit. By freeing ourselves of that, our world can be made complete. That is my justice! No one can interfere! I won't lose! Not to that shadowy Pokémon! Not in any worthless world!"
    • And then after you defeat him and capture/defeat Giratina:
      Cyrus: "That Pokémon... That shadowy Pokémon was captured/defeated?! Your doing so means that this irrational world will remain in existence! Does that make it impossible for me to create a new world? Even if I made new Red Chains, the new world can't be made! Why?! What compels you to protect the two worlds? Is spirit, a vague and incomplete thing, so important to you?! Silence! Enough of your blathering! That's how you justify spirit as something worthwhile?! That is merely humans hoping, deluding themselves that they are happy and safe! The emotions broiling inside me... Rage, hatred, frustration... These ugly emotions arise because of my own incomplete spirit!"
    • And then immediately after that, there's his abrupt return to his stoic self. Very abrupt return.
      Cyrus: "...Enough. We will never see eye to eye. This, I promise you. I will break the secrets of the world. With that knowledge, I will create my own complete and perfect world. One day, you will awaken to a world of my creation. A world without spirit."
  • Olympus Mons: An alternate version of Cyrus succeeds in controlling Dialga (Ultra Sun) or Palkia (Ultra Moon) in Generation VII. He sticks with Palkia when he appears in Masters. In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, he has an Entei, of all Pokémon, when you battle him in the Battle Tower.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: He regards the world as incomplete, so he plans to destroy it? Destroy it to build it again, and it was just in the way.
  • Only Sane Man: When compared to his grunts and Charon at first, though admittedly the ending the world thing sort of causes him to lose this status by the end.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, he willingly chooses to leave the world he's in now and not attempt to remove it of spirit, even reassuring Rotom-Dex about this, and he also wonders if the path he's on could possibly be wrong.
      Cyrus: "..I see. ...You need not worry, Rotom. I will not do anything to this world. I believe I shall return to the world I created."
    • Heck, the fact he even still has a Pokémon Team qualifies. Bear in mind this Cyrus has actually succeeded in replacing the world with one without spirit, yet apparently this destruction did not extend to his own Pokémon. While his ownership of Dialga/Palkia is understandable seeing how he used it to achieve his goals, there is no reason his other Pokémon should be around other than affection, which also carries an implication that he himself isn't as emotionless as he thinks he is.
  • Poor, Predictable Rock: An unusual example. All of his Pokémon are either Dark or Flying Types, but their Types are also all arranged so that they're all weak to Rock moves.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: Cyrus is the leader of team Galactic, and is the toughest member to face, with many powerful Pokémon under his command like Houndoom, Weavile, and Honchkrow.
  • Recurring Boss: Only two battles in Diamond and Pearl are upgraded to three in Platinum. His team also Took a Level in Badass.
  • Redemption Rejection: In Platinum, Cynthia tries to get him to see reason, but he refuses. He seems to be giving it more thought after you defeat him in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, though.
  • Reverse Arm-Fold: It is his most prevalent stance.
  • Serious Business: He fights the player the first time in Diamond & Pearl because they were trying to rescue the Lake Trio at all despite pointing out prior that they were useless to him. Cyrus finds the act of caring for them so irritating.
  • Signature Mon: Primarily the Sneasel line. His first two battles in Platinum had Murkrow/Honchkrow as his strongest Mon, but Weavile retook the spot during the battle in the Distortion World. Dialga (Ultra Sun) or Palkia (Ultra Moon) takes this spot in Generation VII and the latter does so again in Pokémon Masters. In the latter, perhaps due to Cynthia claiming Giratina, he is paired up with Darkrai.
  • Solar and Lunar: In every language, he has a sun-and-moon Theme Naming dynamic with Cynthia.
  • Straw Nihilist: To him, "useless emotions and sentimentality are products of the weak and incomplete human heart."
  • The Stoic: Everything about him is calm and collected... until he's defeated for the last time.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Intentional. If his grunts were any smarter, they would start asking questions about his grand plan and likely leave Team Galactic or even outright oppose him because of what his grand plan entails, and indeed when they do start finding out, they flee more or less in droves.
  • Token Good Teammate: In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, he is the only Team Leader in Team Rainbow Rocket who didn't want to extend his vision (aka the removal of spirit) on the world he was dragged into. Downplayed because: first, he has already done the deed in his world and secondly, he only relents after being defeated by the player. Also, this contrasts with all the other leaders who don't give up their plans even after being defeated by the player. He also begins to question if his goal is actually wrong, without dismissing the thought like Lysandre.
    Cyrus: "Had I met you sooner...would things have been different for me...?"
  • Took a Level in Kindness: By the end of the Sinnoh chapter in Masters, Cyrus has come to understand the value of people by allowing Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter to be by his side as his "pawns," which is a way to recognize that, despite all his views that everyone but him was incomplete, he still had some sort of attachment to the people he used. He even tells Lucas to take care of Dialga.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: His journal entry about Rotom and his toy indicate this, assuming that he was the one who wrote it.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Pokémon is a light-hearted series, but Cyrus is a cold sociopath who plans to destroy the universe and make himself a god.
  • Villain Ball: In Diamond and Pearl, he allows you to free the Lake Trio after he creates the Red Chain, thinking he has no further use for them. At Mt. Coronet, the Lake Trio thus appear and destroy his Red Chain, ruining his plan. Averted in Platinum, where he uses two Red Chains on both Dialga and Palkia, and points out that as a result, the Lake Trio are powerless to do anything to stop him.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • He suffers a rather impressive one after being defeated in the Distortion World, but he does manage to regain his composure in short order.
    • In Masters, he suffers a similarly impressive one, but this time after Cynthia’s Kommo-o defeats his Palkia. Some of his dialogue during this breakdown is taken straight from Platinum.
  • Visionary Villain: The world is incomplete from his point of view, so he plans to destroy it and replace it with a world that he honestly believes would be better for humanity.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: His entire team shares a unanimous weakness to Rock-type attacks. And with the majority of Flying-types on his team, Electric-type moves will slam a nice chunk of them, also, most notably his Gyarados, who comes with a 4x weakness to them.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Such an extremist that he falls into Omnicidal Maniac territory, but his intentions were always well-meaning in a (very) twisted way. What pushes him over to true evil is the horrific actions he's willing to take and the self-centered views he has on how a "pure" universe should be.
  • World of Silence: His goal, where the new world would have all humans act like anti-social, emotionless machines who only exist to serve a specific function.
  • You Are What You Hate: His hatred towards human emotion stems from his own repressed rage and hatred, which comes out during his breakdown.
  • Younger Than He Looks: He's 27 but looks much older. Possibly justified by the extreme degree of overwork and stress he's put himself through since he was a child, as his grandfather explains.

    Saturn 

Saturn (サターン sataan)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_saturn_dp.png
Voiced by: Daiki Yamashita (Japanese) (in Pokémon Generations), (in Pokémon Masters): Mike Haimoto (English), Taiki Matsuno (Japanese)
Cyrus's second in command, Saturn carries out Cyrus's plans for the sake of Team Galactic.
  • Affably Evil: While he's a villain, he's the most respectful to the player after his defeats, and takes over Team Galactic and reforms it for good in the post-game.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Has blue hair and blue eyes.
  • Devilish Hair Horns: His hair has two points resembling horns and he happens to be a villain.
  • The Dragon: The second-in-command to Cyrus.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Presumably takes on this role whenever Cyrus is unavailable and eventually takes charge of Team Galactic.
  • Dual Boss: Only in the remakes, Saturn teams up with Jupiter and can be fought together in the Battle Tower.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After Cyrus's defeat, he takes over Team Galactic and turns it into a legitimate organization dedicated to finding new energy sources for the planet's well-being. His atoner aspect is much more visible in Platinum, whereas in Diamond/Pearl he seems much more depressed about what he did.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Invoked in Masters. He suddenly calls out Toxicroak against Dawn while they're off searching for Cyrus, but Dawn doesn't even attempt to bring out her Cresselia, even when Saturn tells her he's betraying her. It turns out Dawn knows that's not what he's actually doing. Saturn concedes the truth of this, saying that he was actually trying to make her fight him to learn how she was able to beat him before.
  • Mistaken Identity: Adaman confuses him with his Hisuian counterpart Coin, which pisses Saturn off for being compared with anyone else.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Following his Heel–Face Turn, he admits he was wrong and shows some remorse when the player talks to him at the HQ.
    Saturn: "But I've learned that extremism is never the solution..."
  • Only Sane Man: To an extent, as far as Team Galactic goes. He's the most level-headed and, well, normal of the admins — he's the most aware of Cyrus' motives, but genuinely seems to believe that what he's doing is for the greater goodnote . Additionally, he's the one who attempts to turn Team Galactic into a legal and worthwhile group after Cyrus abandons them, striving toward making a better world through far less lunatic means. The other admins are either Only in It for the Money, only in it For the Evulz, or are well-intentioned but blinded by emotion (including for their leader.)
  • Signature Mon: His is Toxicroak.
  • Snap Back: In Masters, he is seen again serving Cyrus even though he did a full-on Heel–Face Turn following Cyrus' defeat. While he does learn about what Cyrus' plan would entail, he is also too loyal to abandon him and as such would rather be on his side than against him.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Though he's the only major Galactic member not to gain an extra battle with the player in Platinum (barring Charon), his team is still a little stronger than before.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: His hairstyle matches Mars' Purugly's ears.
  • Villain Takes an Interest: Masters reveals that he has been harboring one in Dawn, both because he was never able to defeat her and considers her a potential equal to Cyrus in terms of battle prowess. To his surprise, Dawn responds to this with the offer to help him get stronger, which he accepts.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Not quite as extreme as Cyrus, but he does still initially want to improve the world by destroying and recreating it. The difference comes when he discovers Cyrus wants all emotion and spirit gone, something Saturn doesn't want for the world.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Implied to have occurred, since Charon blames him for rejecting his proposal to join him at Stark Mountain during the post-game.

    Jupiter 

Jupiter (ジュピター jupitaa)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_jupiter_dp.png
Voiced by: (in Pokémon Generations): Michiko Kaiden (Japanese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English), (in Pokémon Masters): Brittany Cox (English), Ayumi Kinoshita (Japanese)
One of Team Galactic's commanders, Jupiter is a cruel enforcer who's really just in it to bully and tear down anyone who gets in her way.
  • The Brute: She's arguably the cruelest of the three Team Galactic Commanders, specializing in crushing opponents rather than scheming.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: When you first battle her, her Skuntank is Level 20, when Stunky doesn't evolve until Level 34.
  • Curtains Match the Window Purple eyes and hair.
  • Dual Boss:
    • In all three games, for her 2nd battle with you she teams up with Mars. Your rival joins up with you, which evens out the odds.
    • In the remakes, Jupiter and Saturn can be fought together in the Battle Tower.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: For some reason, one of Jupiter's legs is a bit more exposed than the other.
  • For the Evulz: She doesn't seem to have the genuine desire to make the world better like Saturn or Mars, nor does she seem concerned with wealth and selfish well-being like Charon. She ultimately leaves the team after Cyrus went because without him, "it's no fun anymore."
  • Hate Sink: Along with Charon, Jupiter is the only member of Team Galactic with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, being just an unrepentant bully who joined Team Galactic as an excuse to hurt people. Despite having to team up with Mars at least a few times, she's apparently not too fond of her either.
  • Kick the Dog: How she treats your rival after defeating him. Then he and you team up against her and Mars, defeating them quite handily.
  • Recurring Boss: Though not as much as Mars, she does get quite a few battles out of you (two in Diamond and Pearl, three in Platinum). In all games, the 2nd battle is a Dual Boss situation.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She quits Team Galactic during Platinum's post game.
  • Signature Mon: Hers is Skuntank.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Her Skuntank's single Ground weakness is hard to exploit early in the game (only exploitable with Shellos' Mud Bomb or Geodude's Magnitude) and is bulky enough to survive and do some damage with Night Slash.
  • Worthy Opponent: By her return in Masters, she concedes that Barry has become stronger and she stands less of a chance of beating him. He, in turn, points out that his previous defeat against her was what made him realize the importance of being strong for the sake of others.

    Mars 

Mars (マーズ maazu)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_mars_dp.png
Voiced by: Sayaka Kitahara (Japanese) (in Pokémon Generations), (in Pokémon Masters): Christie Cate (English), Satsuki Yukino (Japanese)
Another of Team Galactic's commanders, Mars is particularly fond of Cyrus, and carries out Team Galactic's plans for his sake.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: She's the first Galactic Commander you battle and her Main Pokémon is a Purugly at Level 16 (in Diamond and Pearl) or Level 17 (in Platinum) and Glameow doesn't evolve into Purugly until Level 38. So pack a lot of potions and revives for a Pokémon with insanely high speed for a Pokémon that early in the game who boast above average ATK.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Red eyes, red hair.
  • Dual Boss:
    • In all three games, for her third battle with you she teams up with Jupiter. Your rival joins up with you, evening out the odds.
    • In the remakes, Mars and Cyrus can be fought together in the Battle Tower.
  • Evil Redhead: Though probably the least evil of the Galactic commanders (compared to the coldly pragmatic Saturn and the just plain malicious Jupiter), as she's always the most reasonable with you whenever you meet, even though a little temperamental.
  • Fiery Redhead: The most temperamental of the Team Galactic bosses.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: She's easily prone to anger, particularly when she loses in battle, and even has to talk to herself in order to calm herself down.
  • Mad Love: Implied to have a crush on Cyrus, and honestly thinks he's doing good.
  • Meaningful Name: Red hair, a temper to match, and you battle her the most. Mars was the name of the Roman God associated with red, anger, and battle.
  • Mini Dress Of Power: The only member of the team who has a mini-dress, and she's a powerful battler.
  • Mistaken Identity: Adaman mistakes her for her Hisuian counterpart Arezu.
  • Recurring Boss: Mars gets the most mileage out of battling you of all the Galactic Commanders (three times in Diamond and Pearl, four in Platinum). In all games, the 3rd battle is a Dual Boss situation.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: She has red eyes and has got a fierce temper.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She leaves Team Galactic during Platinum's Extended Gameplay.
  • Shipper on Deck: She refers to Lucas and Dawn as a lovey-dovey couple. She continues to tease Lucas about it in Masters, much to his embarrassment.
  • Signature Mon: Hers is Purugly.
  • Undying Loyalty: Even after quitting Team Galactic, she said she'll try to find Cyrus in the Distortion World.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: The counterpart to Saturn's example above. Her hairstyle resembles Saturn's Toxicroak's head spike thing.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Like Jupiter, Mars also has a fully evolved Mon at a very early point in the game (which is also underleveled), right after the first Gym Leader. Purugly is incredibly fast, and at that point in the game, is likely stronger and bulkier than anything you've faced up to that point.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Says in her debut that she really wants to improve the world and is saddened that other people don't seem to understand Team Galactic's cause.

    Charon (Pluto) 

Charon / Pluto (プルート puruuto)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_charon_plt.png
Voiced by:' (in Pokémon Generations): Kousei Tomita (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)
Introduced in Platinum, Charon is a low ranking commander of Team Galactic who'd rather sit back and scheme than get in on the action.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Unlike Cyrus, his ambition is just cruel with no good intention.
  • Bald of Evil: Well, balding, but he is pretty evil.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: While he takes over Team Galactic after Cyrus goes missing, it's quite obvious he doesn't have the charisma to keep the rest of the higher-ups behind him, and the same goes for his grunts, who promptly ditch him in order to evade the law.
  • Dirty Coward: He's very cruel until it turns out he can't back up his malice with actual muscle.
  • Dragon Ascendant: Played With. He's the Evil Genius throughout the game, but then he takes over Team Galactic as its new leader in the post-game... for all of twenty minutes before he gets arrested and almost everybody else runs away.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is furious when Saturn turns down his proposal to take over Sinnoh after the Mount Coronet event.
  • Evil Genius: To Team Galactic, although Cyrus is pretty learned.
  • Evil Old Folks: Seemingly the oldest in Team Galactic and incredibly wicked. He even tries to play the senile old man card as he gets arrested, although nobody buys it.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses, and he's pretty despicable.
  • Hate Sink: His apparent backstory with Rotom found in the Galactic Eterna Building is later implied to have actually been Cyrus' backstory, which robs Charon of the one redeeming quality he did have. He and Jupiter thus stand out as the only members of Team Galactic with no sympathetic or redeeming traits at all.
  • It's All About Me: His mentality is pretty much "Screw everyone over so that I can have wealth and glory."
  • Jerkass: This guy makes no attempt to hide how self-centered and egotistical he is. Not surprisingly, a lot of Team Galactic's members leave after he takes over due to his lack of a charismatic personality. Even the other commanders find the guy rather obnoxious.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: When he's outnumbered three to one in Stark Mountain, he knows that he'll lose if he fights and therefore surrenders to the player, Buck, and Looker.
  • Mad Scientist: He works out how to trap the Lake Trio and enjoys it.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • His American name is from Pluto's moon, notably the only heavenly body used for a Commander's name that doesn't directly revolve around the sun. Charon doesn't "revolve" around Cyrus like Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
    • He's shown to be the most heartless member of the team (his goals and plans are less dangerous than Cyrus's, but with no delusions of altruism to his goal, it's far less of a "meaningful" reason), consider that he's named after either a death god or the ferryman of the underworld... and how many would have died if he'd been able to control Heatran in his quest for money and self-aggrandizement.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: He never gets in a Pokémon battle.
  • Only in It for the Money: A case of this in which it makes him worse than the others, who were more or less all Omnicidal Maniacs to a T. Unlike everyone else in Team Galactic, he's not looking to create a new world which would theoretically benefit humankind. It's all about money, power, and glory for him. There are even hints that he used to be with Team Rocket, where that mindset is the norm. He'll even go as far as to try and unleash a legendary to profit from a volcanic eruption which would kill hundreds of people.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: Pluto getting a Dub Name Change to Charon reflects the then-recent 2006 decision by the International Astronomical Union to no longer recognize the Real Life Pluto as a planet. Depending on how Science Marches On, the Real Life astronomical body may again be given planet status.
  • Shorter Means Smarter: Everybody else, with the possible exception of Cyrus, is taller than him and lacks the brains to get the scientific stuff done.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Has Charon told you lately what an unparalleled genius he is? It gets to the point that even the other higher ups tell him to shut up a few times.
  • The Starscream: Seems to support Cyrus at first, though it's only so that his own genius could be acknowledged. Once Cyrus takes to Mt. Coronet, he starts having his doubts, and after Cyrus is stranded in the Distortion World, he expresses his disdain towards him and believes that he should be the rightful leader of Team Galactic.
  • The Unfought: It looks like you're about to confront him in Stark Mountain... and then Looker sweeps the stone from under his nose, and his grunts decide to run away and leave him to his fate, at which point he surrenders without a fight.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Several times:
    • He does not appear in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl due to being remakes of the original versions, but not Platinum.
    • Despite Looker appearing in Masters since it's borrowing elements from Platinum, Charon does not. Justified, since he was taken in by Looker by the end of Platinum.

Sinnoh & Johto Battle Frontiers

    Tower Tycoon Palmer (Tower Tycoon Kurotsugu) 

Tower Tycoon Palmer / Kurotsugu (タワータイクーン クロツグ tawātaikūn kurotsugu)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PalmerDPP_2377.png
Voiced by: Takanori Hoshino (Pokémon Masters - JP)
Barry's father, who is just as energetic as his son and has the skill to back up him his position as the Battle Tower tycoon. He will award you with the Tower Print upon defeat.
  • The Ace: In Pokémon Masters, he's noted to be one of the strongest Frontier Brains by Argenta. Though she tells Barry that, despite him being very strong, he doesn't mind much how the rest of the Frontier Brains may not come up to his level because they all especialize in their own ways they like.
  • Adapted Out: Due to the obvious change of relation to the player character as the result of being father of the Sinnoh games' rival and his dialogue heavily involving this and reflecting on how the protagonist has grown from how he remembers them, Palmer's dialogue changes quite a bit in HeartGold and SoulSilver, and all mentions of his home region and son are cut out.
  • Artificial Stupidity: In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the developers toss the players a softball by giving Palmer's Magically Inept Fighter Rhyperior mostly special moves. Platinum fixes this with an Obvious Rule Patch to give Rhyperior physical moves it can properly use, but the Gen VIII remakes return to the original design. (The Master Class battles in the remakes resolve this by giving him elemental punches instead of beams.)
  • Badass Armfold: Is striking an awesome one during his sprite animation, complete with Dramatic Wind.
  • Badass Family: In the Gen VIII remakes, he and his son get to be Bash Brothers and face the player on the same team in a double battle.
  • Badass Longcoat: He wears a coat that reaches his knees, and it flows behind him imposingly in his animation.
  • Crash-Into Hello: Like Barry, he also crashes into people a lot.
  • Dragon Tamer: Uses the Dragon/Flying-type Dragonite in the Silver Print match.
  • Dramatic Wind: The first trainer to sport this in his battle animation, making him look even cooler.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and the Gen VIII remakes his Rhyperior knows Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam. In the Master Class for Single Battles exclusive to Gen VIII, there will always be one Fire-type, Ice-type, and Lightning-type attack on his team.
  • Generation Xerox: His son takes a lot after him, and there's the fact that he and the player's father became trainers the exact same way the player and Barry did.
  • History Repeats:
    • When defeated in the rematch, he reminisces about an experience he shared with the player character's dad, in which they visited a certain lake and were attacked by wild Pokémon that they had to fend off—exactly like the starter pokémon scenario of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
    • Pokémon Adventures expands on this by indicating Palmer also trained with Crasher Wake, as Barry does.
  • Hot-Blooded: Like his son he's always eager for a battle.
  • Olympus Mons: Uses a full team of legendaries the second time around. Heatran, Cresselia, and Regigigas.
  • Shared Family Quirks: Is always in a hurry and runs headfirst into other people, just like his son Barry, and they have a similar pose in their battle sprite.
  • Spiky Hair: In contrast to the wavy hair of his son, Barry, Palmer's hair is spiky.
  • Spirited Competitor: Win or lose, Palmer is delighted just by fighting with you, and even if he wins praises the quality of the battle and cordially begs you to return.
  • Standard Power Up Pose: He strikes this pose in his sprite just as Barry does, though he does so with more of a dramatic flair that's in-line with other examples.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: He looks like an older version of his son Barry.

    Castle Valet Darach (Castle Butler Kokuran) 

Castle Valet Darach / Castle Butler Kokuran (キャッスルバトラー コクラン kyassurubatorā kokuran)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DarachDPP_5396.png
Voiced by: Brian Timothy Anderson (Pokémon Masters), Yuichiro Umehara (Pokémon Masters - JP)
Caitlin's loyal butler, who guides trainers through the Battle Castle. He will award you with the Castle Print upon defeat.
  • Battle Butler: Tends to the challenger while Caitlin is at her seat. He is also the milestone to be battled for the Castle Print.
  • Birds of a Feather: In Pokémon Masters, Cynthia compares him to his Staraptor, pointing out that Staraptor leave the nest to become independent, just as how Darach has to learn to leave Caitlin alone so she can do her own work.
  • Bodyguard Crush: A minor character in the Battle Castle mentions that Darach has feelings for Caitlin, but doesn't show it. That said, his Sync Pair Story in Masters compares him more to an empty-nesting parent, so this may be either projection on the part of the original NPC (who has a crush on him) or Characterization Marches On.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
    • In Pokémon Black and White, Darach's employer Caitlin has become a fully-fledged member of the Unova Elite Four and Darach himself gets hardly a mention. He may, however, have encountered the biker gang that stalks Tubeline Bridge Friday nights—the leader is in the habit of naming the gang after a Pokémon that impresses him, and when the player meets them they go by the name of Black Empoleon (Empoleon isn't available the region, and no other trainer uses one in-game).
    • He does get mentioned in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, however; when talking to Caitlin at Cynthia's villa, she'll mention that Darach came all the way out to Unova just to clean and then went home.
    • Darach is also featured in Pokémon Masters.
  • Global Currency Exception: Castle Points instead of the usual Pokémon Dollars or even Battle Points.
  • Fighting Your Friend: Fighting against Darach - he aids you in the Castle immensely until you reach the end of the third consecutive set of battles, in which you must fight him.
  • Nice Guy: He is friendly and cordial to a fault, even when battling the player. His dialogue in Masters mentions that he finds serving other people genuinely fulfilling, and is quick to show concern for the wellbeing of other characters.
  • Olympus Mons: Brings an Entei to his gold print team.
  • Playing with Fire: Uses a Houndoom in his your first bout with him, and swaps it out for an Entei in the rematch.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: As expected from a valet, he always wears his suit.
  • Signature Mon: His Empoleon, which appears on both his silver and gold print teams.
    • In Masters, he uses Houndoom for Battle Villa battles and Gallade in the main story. Strangely enough, he's the only trainer in the whole game whose Pokémon ace is already being used by other trainers (in his case, Barry uses the Piplup line and thus bars Darach from using Empoleon, though him using Houndoom or Gallade doesn't stop Karen and Wally from using them themselves). His playable status gives him Staraptor.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: His dapper appearance and black/blue/white/gold color scheme reflect his Empoleon, with the composition (blue trims around the mostly black outfit, the gold skunk stripe/crown on top in the middle) being comparable as well.
  • Undying Loyalty: To his lady Caitlin, whom he utterly adores. He outright states that he has sworn to serve her for the rest of his life.
  • Unwanted Assistance: By the time Caitlin became independent of Darach, he is allowing her to do things by herself. However, he finds even putting back a brand of tea she likes back to its store shelf extremely taxing, because doing otherwise would surely stress Caitlin for having him do stuff for her but it would make him feel better just to serve her again. And despite Cynthia convincing him to let Caitlin spread out her wings and not feel bad about not getting her favorite tea, Darach rather quickly goes back to finding some excuse to get the tea for her anyway, amusing Cynthia.
  • Workaholic: In Masters, Caitlin laments in optional character dialog that her devoted butler Darach doesn't take any time for himself; she even jokingly suggests making the Player Character her second butler to make Darach more comfortable with the idea of taking some time off.

    Hall Matron Argenta (Stage Madonna Kate) 

Hall Matron Argenta / Stage Madonna Kate (ステージマドンナ ケイト sutējimadonna keito)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ArgentaDPP_1241.png
Voiced by: Rachel Robinson (Pokémon Masters - EN), Megumi Okada (Pokémon Masters - JP)
The veteran woman who runs the Battle Hall. She will award you with the Hall Print upon defeat.
  • Cool Old Lady: One of the few notable female characters who is likely over 50, but she's a good sport and gives the player some inspiring words after her gold print defeat.
  • Cool Shades: She has a pair of sunglasses that she rests on her head.
  • Confusion Fu: Will use any Pokémon, provided it's on the same level as your own.
  • Floral Theme Naming: She is named after the scientific Latin name of the Celosia Argenta flower, which is a kind of flower that is colored pink of which most of Argenta's clothing is colored from.
  • Jack of All Trades: As the Battle Hall employs a wide variety of Pokémon choices, she can use about anything to battle, which may overlap to Master of All.
  • Meaningful Name: In Pokémon Masters, she has Skarmory as her Sync Pair choice, which relates to her name as the Celosia Argenta translates to the pale "Silver Cockscomb" due to resembling the silver crest of a rooster.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Averted; she has red eyes and is a very strong Trainer, but she's not evil.
  • Signature Mon: In her battle format, she has no preference whatsoever due to the mechanics she uses. In Pokémon Masters, she's paired with Skarmory.

    Factory Head Thorton (Factory Head Neziki) 

Factory Head Thorton / Neziki (ファクトリーヘッド ネジキ fakutorīheddo nejiki)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ThortonDPP_8137.png
Voiced by: Jon Allen (Pokémon Masters - EN), Shōhei Komatsu (Pokémon Masters - JP)
The eccentric geek in charge of the Battle Factory. He will award you with the Factory Print upon defeat.
  • According to My Calculations: In Masters, he loves to speak obnoxiously in this kind of manner.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Claims to have a device that calculates one's whole strategy.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Green.
  • Confusion Fu: Like Argenta, he will use any three Pokémon that can be used in his facility. At least you'll get some hints beforehand, though.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: He invented his data-analyzing machine. In Pokémon Masters, he mentions a few other inventions of his as well.
  • Just as Planned: He says it word for word if he defeats you. It comes back for when he levels up in Pokémon Masters, where he mentions that everything went exactly as he planned.
  • Signature Mon: Lacks one in the main games, but Pokémon Masters makes Bronzong his partner.
  • Teen Genius: He says he is a teenager in Pokémon Masters and is an inventor and the Factory Head of the Battle Factory, which is more dedicated to research compared to the other Battle Frontier facilities.

    Arcade Star Dahlia (Roulette Goddess Dahlia) 

Arcade Star Dahlia / Roulette Goddess Dahlia (ルーレットゴーデス ダリア rūrettogōdesu daria)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DahliaDPP_8120.png
Voiced by: Ayaka Fukuhara (Pokémon Masters - JP)

The passionate dancer of the Battle Arcade. She will award you with the Arcade Print upon defeat.

  • Ambiguously Brown: Implied to be Latina as her name comes from a flower native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. Pokémon Adventures ups this up by having her speak Gratuitous Spanish.
  • Animal Motif: All Pokémon from the Gold Print challenge on her team are related to birds.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Has a Fighting-type on both of her rosters, with Medicham in her first and a Blaziken in her second.
  • Blow You Away: Uses two Flying-types in her second fight with Zapdos and Togekiss.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Meta example. She uses Dawn's catchphrase from the Pokémon anime, "No need to worry".
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Yellow.
  • Dance Battler: She dances onto the arena and in her animation, and she also uses a Ludicolo. Though oddly, while she clearly loves to dance, the only one of her Pokémon that knows any dance moves is the aforementioned Ludicolo, which knows Swords Dance.
  • The Gambler: Has the theming down, but she's a downplayed example. Dahlia fittingly talks quite a lot about luck as the master of the Battle Arcade and has a relaxed and positive attitude regarding the nature of chance, but she praises the protagonist for their skill and notes that luck isn't what brought them to her. This actually somewhat ties in to the Battle Arcade's roulette mechanic, which sounds luck-based at first but is ultimately very much possible to weigh to your favor with sufficient skill.
    • It's rather fitting with this theme that she uses a Togekiss, a Pokémon heavily tied to good fortune with abilities that are all about luck (Hustle decreases accuracy for higher attack, while Serene Grace massively buffs the odds of additional effects from moves).
  • Genki Girl: As a star she's always excited and cheerful.
  • Luck-Based Mission: The arcade boards are a mild version of this, especially if you have bad timing, as in the very least you can't control what will show up on it.
  • Ms. Fanservice: A beautiful dancer wearing a midriff-bearing top and high heels who likes to shake her body quite a lot, and her animation puts a lot of emphasis on her swaying hips.
  • Olympus Mons: Uses a Zapdos during her second battle.
  • Spicy Latina: Certainly has many key characteristics going so far as her own name.

Guest Star Party Members

Over the course of the games, the Player Character can encounter a total of five special trainers who will accompany them in their Dungeon Crawling, joining them in Multi Battles against both wild Pokémon and trainers alike. Each of them will appear only for one dungeon before departing.

They return when the player gets access to the Battle Tower (the Battle Frontier in Pokémon Platinum and even in Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver), where the player can team up with them once again. Because each of the five trains Pokémon that specialize in a certain stat, the fanbase calls them the "Stat Trainers".

    In General 
  • Color-Coded Characters: Each of them has a unique Color Motif. Cheryl is green, Mira is pink, Riley is blue, Marley is black, and Buck is red.
  • Combat Medic: They will heal your team after every battle while partnered with you, and fight alongside you against Trainers and wild Pokémon.
  • Competitive Balance: They all specialize in certain stats in the Battle Tower. Cheryl is HP, Mira is Special Attack, Riley is Attack, Marley is Speed, and Buck is both Defense and Special Defense.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Though only partially for Buck.
  • Escort Mission: The girls all need protection from the Player Character on the way to their destination.
  • The Gimmick: Five wandering trainers who each specialize in a certain pokémon stat.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Each of them will pair up with you temporarily to go through a certain area.
  • Optional Boss: In Platinum, they can all be fought in the Battleground.
  • Optional Party Member: With the exception of Cheryl, it's entirely possible to skip out on meeting them, especially Buck and Marley, since the areas where you encounter them don't open up until the post-game note .
  • Signature Mon: Each of them are associated with the Pokémon they use as a tag partner in your encounters with them. In order: Chansey's evolutionary line for Cheryl, Kadabra's evolutionary line for Mira, Lucario for Riley, Arcanine for Marley, and Claydol for Buck.
  • Theme Naming: All of them are named after grains, though some are more obvious then others (to wit: Cereal, Millet, Rye, Barley, and Buckwheat).

    Cheryl/Momi (モミ momi) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cheryl_dp.png
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Pokémon Generations - JP), Natsuki Aono (Pokémon Masters - JP) Stephanie Sheh (Pokémon Generations - EN), Laura Post (Pokémon Masters - EN)

A young woman whom the player crosses paths in Eterna Forest.

  • Adaptational Badass:
  • Adaptational Intelligence: In BDSP, Cheryl's Chansey has a more tactically-minded moveset for the Eterna Forest Escort Mission, eschewing the Powerful, but Inaccurate Egg Bomb in favor of Status Effects and an Always Accurate Attack.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: Downplayed with Cheryl and Chansey; the "C" in Cheryl's name is softer than Chansey's.
  • Ascended Extra: A minor character in Generation IV, but she and Chansey appear as the protagonists of Episode 10 of Pokémon Generations and plays a major part in a Pokémon Masters event.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Subverted. Cheryl's green hair, green clothes, leaf-shaped bangs, and even the blades of her skirt all scream forests and greenery, even more than the actual Grass-type Gym Leader Gardenia. Thing is, Cheryl's only connection to forests is that she happens to be passing through one when you find her.
    • Somewhat Double Subverted in Masters; her mindscape is Eterna Forest which implies that she often goes there to relax and/or train. She’s also shown to have some knowledge of medicinal plants, which she tries to teach Shauna how to identify.
  • Braids of Action: Double Subverted in Gen IV, thanks to Cheryl's braided Motherly Side Plait. When you meet her in Eterna Forest, she asks for you to accompany her because she fears the rumors of Team Galactic; her Chansey notably has only one attack (and, as a Stone Wall, isn't much for attacking anyway). By the time you've reached the Battle Tower or Battle Frontier, however, she's collected a variety of powerful pokémon.
  • Combat Medic: In Gen VIII, Cheryl's Chansey is still capable of healing damage, but has a notably more aggressive moveset, with a disrupting Sweet Kiss-Tail Whip combo and the Always Accurate Attack Disarming Voice.
  • Combos: In BDSP, Cheryl's Chansey knows Sweet Kiss to confuse the enemy and can use Tail Whip to lower its defense... so that when the target hits itself, it does even more damage.
  • Cool Big Sis: She's a polite older woman who heals the player's Pokémon when asked to.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Has green hair and eyes.
  • Damage-Sponge Boss: Her team is filled with Pokémon with a high HP stat.
  • Dream Team: In some of her dialogue from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Cheryl thinks that she and the Player Character together make the perfect team.
  • Egg Folk: Cheryl's Signature Mon Chansey, especially in Gen IV where it knows both Softboiled and Egg Bomb.
  • Heal Thyself: Health recovery tactics become the core of her strategy in Platinum; in battle she may lament that she can't keep up with healing.
  • Healer Signs On Early: Cheryl and Chansey provide the first Bash Brothers Escort Mission of the game and specialize in healing powers.
  • Hit Points: Her stat specialty.
  • Luminescent Blush In Generations, her cheeks are constantly blushing. The same applies to her Chansey.
  • The Medic: In the remakes, her Chansey has its Hidden Ability Healer, letting it cure your Pokémon of status conditions, and it knows Life Dew to restore HP in battle.
  • Motherly Side Plait: Exaggerated. Cheryl wears a huge braided plait that hangs past her hips.
  • Nice Girl: She's sweet and soft-spoken, she has a Chansey, which evolves though happiness, and in Platinum, she gives you the Soothe Bell after you help her through Eterna Forest. The Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl trailer describes her as having "a gentle heart."
  • Obvious Rule Patch: Platinum expands her specialty as the HP specialist to include not merely monsters with high stamina but those that heal damage as well. Her pool of Pokémon for the Battle Frontier contains a number of monsters that have only average or even minimal stamina but do have access to a recovery tactic of some kind. BDSP takes this even further by letting her use some of these monsters without using their recovery attacks.
  • Olympus Mons: Latias, Latios, and Cresselia in DP, and Regirock and Regice in Platinum and HGSS.
  • Outdoorsy Gal: Downplayed. Cheryl's appearance is clearly attached to the forest and she wears tall boots to protect her feet and legs from the environment.
  • The Pollyanna: She was already quite genial in Gen IV, but in Masters Cheryl positively exudes delight, doing things like threatening to jump for joy when she levels up. For bonus points, her Signature Mon Blissey is known as the Happiness Pokémon.
  • Signature Mon: Chansey, which evolves into Blissey in Gen IV's Battle Tower and Platinum's Battleground.
  • Throw Down the Bomblet: Cheryl's Chansey in Gen IV relies on the Powerful, but Inaccurate Egg Bomb to balance its poor offenses.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Cheryl's Chansey in Gen IV is not oriented for fighting, but is instead a White Mage with only one attack. That attack is the Powerful, but Inaccurate Egg Bomb, which means that whenever Chansey does fight, its only tactic is to hurl explosives around haphazardly.
  • White Mage: In Gen IV, Cheryl's Chansey knows three moves, and two of them are Softboiled and Refresh, meant to heal damage and remove Status Effects.
    Cheryl: My Pokémon is an excellent healer. But attacking isn't its strong point.

    Mira/Miru (ミル miru) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mira_dp.png
A young girl who's found lost inside a cave and needs to be escorted out.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: She is the youngest of the Stat Trainers.
  • Badass Adorable: You first find her lost in a cave with a powerful Psychic Pokémon as her partner. If you choose to fight things with her, her Kadabra can easily one-shot anything in the cave that's not a Bronzor.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: One pigtail is pulled into a shoulder-length loop while the other hangs down past her hips.
  • Girlish Pigtails: She's a bubbly Genki Girl with two long pink pigtails.
  • Hero-Worshipper: A few lines indicate that she admires the player character and their way of raising Pokémon, wanting to be just like them.
  • Token Mini-Moe: She's the smallest and youngest of the stat trainers.
  • Signature Mon: Kadabra/Alakazam. In the anime, she merely uses Abra likely due to Kadabra being Out of Focus outside of the games as a result of Uri Geller's lawsuit.
  • Squishy Wizard: Her team specializes in the Special Attack stat. (Many of them aren't that fragile, but power is always their first priority.)
  • Third-Person Person: Mira has a tendency to refer to herself in the third person, although she generally lapses back into first person when she's nervous or flustered. It's rare when she's first met in Wayward Cave, but shows up far more when she converses with the player at the Battleground.
  • Useless Useful Spell: In the remakes, her Kadabra knows Ally Switch, which always fails when used in a Multi Battle. Her AI never catches onto this.

    Riley/Gen (ゲン gen) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riley_dp.png

Voiced by: Jun Kasama (Pokémon Masters - JP)

A young man who keeps peace at Iron Island.

  • Adaptational Badass: Riley never indicates he can use aura, but his animated sprite in Platinum indicates he has some use of it. Pokémon Masters shows that he's able to sense auras, though he notes that it's obviously not as good as his Lucario's senses.
  • Always Someone Better: Riley is this to Roark, as he was initially chosen over the latter to become Oreburgh's Gym Leader.
  • Ambiguously Related: To Rye from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, who's a dead ringer to Riley (and Sir Aaron) in appearance.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Does Riley own the Iron Island mine? In Diamond and Pearl he refers to "my" mine, but Platinum Rewrites his dialog to refer to "the" mine.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Admit it, he has an awesome outfit. He also fills the badass trait with being one of the two stat trainers to confront Team Galactic with you in some way.
  • Battle Aura: In Platinum, he gets an animated sprite where he stretches his hand. You can visibly see his own aura engulf it for a moment.
  • Dragon Tamer: At the Battleground, he uses the Dragon/Flying-type Salamence.
  • Eye-Obscuring Hat: Downplayed. His official art has the corner of his hat tilted downwards as so to cover his right eye.
  • Fedora of Asskicking: He wears a fedora as part of his ensemble, and he's a strong Pokémon trainer.
  • Gender-Blender Name: It fits with him being a bishonen.
  • Glass Cannon: His team specializes in the Attack stat. (Many of them aren't that fragile, but power is always their first priority.)
  • Hidden Depths: He's implied to be friends with Byron, as the latter initially chose him over Roark, his son, to take over as the Oreburgh Gym Leader. This is partially confirmed in Pokémon Masters, though he is friends with Byron's son.
  • Infinity -1 Sword: Riley uses Metagross and Salamence in his Battleground team in Platinum, and his pool of Battle Tower and Battle Frontier monsters further includes Dragonite, Tyranitar, and Garchomp.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Apparently with Byron, who's old enough to have a son about Riley's age.
  • Make My Monster Grow: In Pokémon Masters, he's a Sprint type Sync Pair capable of Dynamaxing his Lucario.
  • Non-Idle Rich: He actually owns Iron Island, or at least the mines on it, and helps you to navigate them and drive off some Galactic Grunts.
  • Olympus Mons: Riley can use Regigigas in his DP Battle Tower matches or Entei in his Platinum and HGSS Battle Frontier matches.
  • Refusal of the Call: At some point, he was offered the position of the Oreburgh Gym Leader, but turned it down.
  • Riddle for the Ages: What's his connection to Sir Aaron, if any? Other than looks, neither of them alludes to the other person in their respective universes (which also includes the Riley from the anime universe).
  • Running Gag: Apparently, he himself notes that he's always drawn to mines and can be found at one almost all the time. This is how he's even spotted in Pokémon Masters.
  • Self-Deprecation: Riley preemptively admits it's a bit odd he would be training in the Iron Island mines during his introduction and even laughs about it in optional dialog, saying people who train in the mines have too much time on their hands.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: His outfit consists of a rather formal suit and Fedora of Asskicking.
  • Signature Mon: Lucario. This doesn't reinforce his expiness at all.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Riley is nearly identical to Sit Aaron of Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, but because the movie was developed and released during the development of the fourth generation games, it's hard to tell which one was actually created first.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Dark hair (and clothes to an extent), seems pretty tall, and rather good-looking.
  • There Is Another: The first living, modern-day aura user in the franchise.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: His outfit makes him bear a striking resemblance to his partner Pokémon, Lucario.
  • Vague Age: Looks to be in his late teens at youngest and mid-20s at oldest, but if you talk to Byron, he'll comment that he has no idea how old Riley is. The fact that he's the owner of Iron Island suggests that he's an adult, at least.
  • What Could Have Been: In-Universe, Byron previously asked him to be the Oreburgh Gym Leader, but he turned down the position because he thought Roark should be considered first.
  • What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Riley's optional dialog implies that he's training in the mines because he has too much time on his hands (and thus no day job to occupy his time); given his fancy duds he may be Idle Rich.

    Marley/Mai (マイ mai) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diamond_pearl_marley.png
Voiced by: Sara Matsumoto (Pokémon Masters - JP), Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Pokémon Masters - EN)

A very quiet young girl who wishes to find the Legendary Pokémon Shaymin.

  • Adaptational Dumbass: In the Gen IV games, Marley's Arcanine had a selection of moves that definitely wasn't going to get it through every situation, but was good enough to be getting on with in most cases. In the Gen VIII remakes, her Arcanine's moveset is terrible, including two irrelevant support moves and a Desperation Attack that leaves it utterly helpless after only one use.
  • Amazon Brigade: Subverted by Marley's Battleground team in Platinum. Her Ninjask, Weavile, and Crobat are female, but her Electrode has no sex and her Signature Mon Arcanine is male.
  • Ascended Extra: Takes part in the Shaymin event in Pokémon Platinum.
  • Birds of a Feather: In Masters's Beachside Rivalry Story Event, she can't help noting that she and Marnie share the same issues when it comes to expressing and talking to others. Their names conveniently sound very similar as well.
  • Character Development: By Masters, Marley has improved upon her social skills quite a bit. She even points out that she wishes to become a better people person and gets to explain further during the Beachside Rivalry Story Event.
  • Combos: In DPPt, Marley's Arcanine uses Fire Fang, which can possibly burn the opponent or make them flinch. The opponent can only flinch if they go second during a turn, so Arcanine knows Agility to ensure it has the speed advantage Fire Fang's flinch effect requires.
  • Critical Hit Class: Marley's pool of Battle Tower and Battle Frontier pokémon includes a few that use moves with a high chance of a critical hit and carry held items to raise that chance even higher: a Dugtrio and Weavile that boost Night Slash with a Razor Claw, a Sceptile that boosts Leaf Blade with a Scope Lens, and in Platinum and HGSS a Crobat that boosts Cross Poison with a Razor Fang.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Marley's Arcanine during the BDSP Escort Mission has only one attack, Burn Up, a Desperation Attack that in practice can only be used once per battle, which leaves Marley helpless against anything that survives it or any team of two or more monsters. Worse, Burn Up is a special attack, but Arcanine's support moves are Leer and Howl, which manipulate physical attack and defense.
  • Elegant Gothic Lolita: Marley wears an elaborate and frilly dress in black and white.
  • Explosive Overclocking: During Marley's BDSP Escort Mission, her Arcanine knows Burn Up, a Desperation Attack that hits tremendously hard but exhausts the user of so much flame that the user loses its Fire-type. Because it can only be used by Fire-types, Burn Up can't be used more than once while the user is still out on the field.
  • Foreshadowing: When talked to, she mentions "the Pokémon among flowers." This is referring to Shaymin, a Pokémon that wasn't available in a legitimate event until a while after Diamond and Pearl's release.
  • Fragile Speedster: Her Pokémon specialize in Speed. The vast majority of them are unable to take multiple hits.
  • Irony: While she prefers having Fragile Speedsters, her ancestor Mai preferred Mighty Glaciers like Munchlax.
  • Joke Character: One Electrode in Marley's pool of possible pokémon at the DP Battle Tower knows Gyro Ball, a move that increases in power when the user is slower than their target—Electrode as a species are among the fastest of all pokémon.
  • Obvious Rule Patch: As with Cheryl, Platinum and HGSS stretch the limits of what Marley's speed specialty covers beyond just naturally fast pokémon to include strategies involving speed.
    • Notably, they gave her a Pinsir, which are normally a Mighty Glacier species but also notable users of the Endure-Salac Berry combo, which makes them Lightning Bruisers on their Last Chance Hit Point. (Admittedly, only one of her possible Pinsirs uses this strategy, which leaves the speed specialist with a small selection of slow Pokémon).
    • This also seems to be the basis for including her Signature Mon Arcanine in Platinum, which was skipped over in Diamond and Pearl for reasons unknown. Two of her four available Arcanine use Extreme Speed, and another uses the same Endure-Salac Berry combo as one of her Pinsir.
  • Olympus Mons: Platinum and HGSS give Marley trainership of Raikou, fastest of Johto's legendary beasts. Her Signature Mon Arcanine is also known as the "Legendary" species.
  • The Quiet One: If you talk to her when partnered up, she notes the player character as very chatty.
  • Signature Mon: Besides Arcanine, she is closely associated with Shaymin.
  • The Stoic: Manages to be more effective at this than Cyrus. Averted in Masters, where she is more talkative and expressive, though she notes in the Beachside Rivalry Story Event that she still has problems trying to talk to others but joined the Dyne-a-Max food stall in order to improve her social skills.
  • Signature Mon: She uses Arcanine. Unusually enough, her Battle Tower team doesn't include Arcanine in Diamond and Pearl.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: "...I might like battling with you. ...Just a little. Only a tiny bit."
  • Weather of War: Marley has multiple Pokémon that know Rain Dance to support their other moves, usually by making the Powerful, but Inaccurate Thunder an Always Accurate Attack; in Diamond and Pearl, the monsters that used this strategy also carried a Damp Rock to extend the length of the rain.

    Buck/Baku (バク baku) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buck_dp.png
Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Pokémon Generations - JP), Bryce Papenbrook (Pokémon Generations - EN)
Flint's younger brother who wants to explore Stark Mountain to find Heatran. In Platinum, he instead helps deal with the remnant of Team Galactic.
  • Adaptational Heroism: In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Buck is a treasure hunter who wants to get his hands on the legendary Magma Stone. In Platinum, he wants to protect the Magma Stone from Team Galactic.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Buck's Establishing Character Moment depicts him as less than respectful towards Barry and the player character. In Platinum, he gets to see them battle Volkner and Flint, so he comes to respect them at the very start.
  • Always Someone Better: In Diamond and Pearl, Buck boasts to the player character about serving Barry some Humble Pie offscreen.
  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: A more brash example than most, but in Diamond and Pearl, Buck makes it clear that he doesn't think you're on his level, and he's got the chops to back it up.
  • Critical Hit Class: Buck has a Registeel capable of using a Razor Claw-boosted Shadow Claw.
  • Combos: Buck's Umbreon can use Swagger to infuriate the opponents, and then either soften them up with Screech or steal their stat boost with Psych Up.
  • Counter-Attack: Buck has a Bastiodon and a Suicune equipped with Focus Sash to ensure they get a Last Chance Hit Point to maximize the effectiveness of a Metal Burst or Mirror Coat, respectively.
  • Damage-Increasing Debuff:
    • Buck has an Umbreon whose main offensive strategy is to use Screech to weaken the foe before laying into them with Last Resort.
    • Another Umbreon uses the Swagger Screech combo to strengthen and weaken the opponent simultaneously.
  • Damage Over Time: Several of Buck's Pokémon use Toxic to deal accelerating damage over time.
  • Fiery Redhead: Rather feisty and has the most "attitude" of the partners. Fittingly, he's the younger brother of a Fire specialist.
  • Gainax Ending: Buck's partnership with the player character in Diamond and Pearl ends abruptly and without clarity. After collecting the magma stone and destabilizing Stark Mountain, Buck is told off by a local senior and promises to go return the stone. If the player follows him to the resting place of the magma stone, neither Buck nor the stone will be found, but the legendary Heatran will be there instead, ready to fight. The game will not revisit Buck or the stone. (Buck later appears safe and sound at the Battle Tower).
  • Heel Realization: Realizes that stealing the Magma Stone was not a good idea, so he decides to fix it by returning it to Mt. Stark. Averted in Platinum since he never has any plans to steal the stone.
  • Hot-Blooded: He is the younger brother of Flint, after all.
  • Jerkass: Comes across this way in Diamond and Pearl. He's overly arrogant and frequently calls the player character a wimp.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In Diamond and Pearl, Buck is introduced as an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, but he has a strong sense of respect and loyalty for his pokémon and is honest with the limitations of his own strength.
  • Knockback:
    • Buck has a Leafeon that knows Bite and carries a quick claw.
    • Buck has a Claydol that knows Trick Room, which reverses priority and gives Zen Headbutt its flinch chance. He has a Bronzong with the exact same trick, plus Iron Head and Rock Slide.
    • Buck has both a Probopass and a Suicune carrying King's Rocks to increase their chances of this.
  • Life Drain: Buck has a Tangrowth carrying a Big Root to boost its Leech Seed and Giga Drain.
  • Mighty Glacier: Many of his monsters are this by nature, but some invoke it with the move Curse.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Taking the Magma Stone. Fitting the trope even more, the player helps him with this.
    • Averted in Platinum, in which he never plans to take the Magma Stone from Stark Mountain. Instead, it is Looker who unwittingly removes it, and Buck is the one who returns it to the mountain.
  • Olympus Mons: Buck trains all three Legendary Titans—Regirock, Regice, and Registeel.
  • Passing the Torch: Buck's Umbreon can use Curse and pass the stat changes on with Baton Pass.
  • Signature Mon: The Mighty Glacier Claydol, fitting his preference for bulky Pokémon.
  • Stone Wall: His team specializes in both the Defense and Special Defense stats.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Buck has his brother Flint's red hair and the same red-and-yellow color scheme, though red is a more prominent color for Buck.
  • The Unfought: His first appearance in Diamond and Pearl seems to set him up as an opponent. However, for some reason you end up teaming up with him instead. You can fight him at the Battleground later in Platinum, if you wish.
  • Trap Master:
    • Several of Buck's pokémon can lay down Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, or even all three.
    • Buck has a Skarmory that can lay down Spikes and use Roar to drag foes into the trap.
  • Weather of War: Buck has pokémon that can implement all four main types of weather—Steelix, Shuckle, Regirock, and Bastiodon know Sandstorm; Tangrowth and Leafeon know Sunny Day; Registeel knows Rain Dance; and Articuno and Suicune can call down Hail.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • He runs off to return the Magma Stone. If you try to follow him, you will find an awake Heatran and no sign of Buck or the stone. This is the last time you see Buck outside of the Battle Tower. Obviously he got out okay and the volcano didn't erupt, but still...
    • In Platinum, he turns out fine and is the one who introduces the player to the Battleground.

Alternative Title(s): Pokemon Villain Team Galactic, Pokemon Protagonists And Rivals Sinnoh

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