Reviewing Pokemon's Human Characters - Sinnoh

The Sinnoh games, as I mentioned when I reviewed the Pokemon for Generation IV, is a generation I skipped out on, and I played through Generation IV and V in one huge swoop during the lead-up to Generation VI. I loved my journey through Platinum, but the actual human characters sort of... blur together to me? It doesn't really help that I read through all the manga volumes for the Sinnoh games in one huge sitting, and never watched the anime for this generation either. I'm not really sure why, but I just never quite felt like I was drawn to the human cast or story of this game, I feel, despite putting a crap-ton of hours into Pokemon Platinum. I did remember most of the gym leaders (since you can re-challenge them over and over), and I did like Cyrus, but the rest of the supporting cast kind of blur together to me.


Lucas & Dawn

• Position: Protagonist
• Japanese Name: Koki & Hikari

These are the protagonist characters that you can select for this game, each of them with two appearances -- a 'basic' one in Diamond and Pearl, and a winter-themed outfit for the Platinum version. The basic version of Lucas honestly feels like another retread of Red and Ethan, just swapping the jacket for a scarf and the cap for a beret. Lucas's Platinum look is a lot more distinctive, although not by much -- mostly, the jacket and huge neck-scarf just gives him a neat, more distinctive look, but he's no Brendan.

As usual, the female protagonist really ends up being far more memorable because she's actually allowed to look a lot more different from previous protagonist, with Dawn also showing up in the anime as the main girl character. She's got a neat dress-thing going on, and the colour palette of black and soft pink is a neat one. She also has a scarf, that's the feature shared between the two protagonists here, I suppose. I just find it rather hilarious that despite being dressed up for winter, Dawn got long sleeves, a big-ass scarf... but still leaves her coat ending in a miniskirt. You'll catch a cold, girl! In the Generation IV games, the gender you don't pick ends up being a minor NPC that serves as the professor's assistant.

Barry

• Position: Rival
• Japanese Name: Jun

Our rival this time around is this kid Barry, and the whole thing about him is that he's overly excited and quite literally is a ball of energy that rushes around and tackles your character and keeps rattling about "I'm going to fine you ten thousand poke-bucks!" or stuff like that. That's mostly what I really remember from him, I think he runs into things and makes situations worse, but eventually matures after one too many defeats? He's like the proto-Hop or proto-Hau, except he starts off as just being too energetic for his own good. In the post-game, Barry is revealed to be the son of the Battle Tower Tycoon, Palmer, which is implied to be why he's got a wee bit of inferiority complex. I mostly remember Barry for actually having pretty high-leveled pokemon in the post-game, which you can beat up for experience points. Barry's team is pretty respectable at the end of the game, I remember, with his Snorlax and Heracross being particular headaches if you're not prepared for them, but during the actual story he's a pushover rival.

Roark

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Hyouta
• Type Specialization: Rock

And here we go with the gym leaders of Sinnoh, with the first one being yet another Rock-type gym leader whose team is basically identical with Brock's, with the addition of an extra Cranidos. Roark is a rock-type gym leader whose name is just a couple of letters off of 'rock', and he's... a miner? That's like the most obvious profession to give to a rock trainer. There's a wee bit of tie-in to the gimmick minigame of the fourth-generation games, the Underground, where you 'fall' into the lower screen of the DS and explore an underground series of tunnels underneath Sinnoh and make like secret bases over Wi-Fi and dig for fossils and stuff... but Roark isn't even the main NPC you interact with in accessing or dealing with the Underground. I just reread his entire article on Bulbapedia but all I can gather is like he's just some dude. I don't dislike him, but he's just really kind of there. 

Gardenia

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Natane
• Type Specialization: Grass

Gardenia's got a funky design, at least, from the chunky looking anime hair, the poncho-midriff combo looking pretty neat, and I actually like Gardenia a fair bit! She feels different from the other Grass-type gym leaders, and and her outfit brings to mind more of someone that's more rough-and-tumble compared to the more demure flower-arranging Erika. Gardenia's personality in-game is originally kind of a generic friendly gym leader lady, but I really liked the neat vibe that her team has going on. A Turtwig? That's the regional starter! Gym leaders are not supposed to have that, right? And the second gym leader has... a Roserade? A final-evolved Pokemon? Sure, it's at level 20 or something, but the surprise boost in stats is a very nice wake-up-call that could catch unprepared team unawares. Unlike Roark, too, Gardenia also shows up later on in the game as part of a side-quest, where she attempts to investigate the haunted Old Chateau located in the forest near her city... except Gardenia's actually very busy. No, she's not leaving the investigation to you because she's afraid of ghost. No-siree-bob, she's just super-duper busy, um, trimming flowers! Hell, she even panics and gets confused about the potential existence of a Grass/Ghost pokemon, which I found hilarious since, of course, this being Pokemon, that exact combination would come in two generations later. And, hey, Alola's Decidueye even is a dead-ringer for her colour scheme! Is that intentional? Anyway, Gardenia's neat.

Maylene

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Sumomo
• Type Specialization: Fighting

Maylene's another Fighting-type expert who's also a martial artist herself. The huge subversion, I think, is that unlike the likes of Bruno, Brawly and Chuck, Maylene's a young girl. And you'd expect me to be dismissive about her because, well, she's kind of boring, yeah? Just a spunky karate girl with bandages all over? But I actually do like the lines of dialogue she has, stating outright that she had no idea what this whole 'gym leader' business entails and she just wants to fight. Her gym also involves a maze that you navigate by pushing around punching-bags, which I thought was fun. Later on you see Maylene walking up the snowy peaks of Snowpoint to visit her buddy Candice while barefoot and under-dressed (not that the protagonists are much better, mind you) because it's part of her training. She also randomly shows up in HeartGold and SoulSilver, participating in the poke-athlon sports competitions and pigging out on an all-you-can-eat restaurant. She's still kind of boring, but there's a bit more about her that makes her a bit more fun than I remember her being.

Crasher Wake

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: MAXIMUM MASK
• Type Specialization: Water

"Crasher Wake", or, as his Japanese name is called, "MAXIMUM MASK", is clearly a parody of over-the-top wrestlers with a huge gimmick and a huge, loud personality... and, uh, instead of being a Fighting-type gym leader, he's a Water-type leader. That somehow fits very well with his design, which kinda looks like a swimmer anyway, and I genuinely never questioned why a wrestler man is running around hanging around with otters and salamanders.

Without a doubt, Crasher Wake is bar none my favourite gym leader in Sinnoh. He's loud, he's boisterous, he literally walks around singing his theme song, and at one point your rival Barry ends up deciding that Crasher Wake is his new 'master'. He's also fiercely protective of the swamp and general ecosystem in Pastoria City, he gives out prize money from his matches to the poor, and is one of the few pre-Generation-V gym leaders to actually run off and try to beat up these damn terrorist teams that set off a bomb near his city. A very swell guy, who also is an entertainingly hammy man. I also like the composition of his team, which has traditionally badass-looking monsters like Gyarados, Floatzel and Sharpedo... but then he's also got a bunch of dopey dudes like Quagsire and Ludicolo. Also, his pants are kind modeled after Swampert's arms and the weird bulb-things on Swampert... but he never uses one and you can't even get Swampert in the Sinnoh games. Weird!

Fantina

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Melissa
• Type Specialization: Ghost

Fantina is a funny foreigner, tres fantastique, and you know this because she drops random French phrases when she speaks with you, je voudrais parler francais, and her sentence composition is sort of stilted because she's a funny foreigner who's clearly not someone who has a full grasp of the English language. In the Japanese version, though, Fantina peppers her words with English phrases instead, MAGNIFICENT OH MY GOD! Of course, a vast majority of the English fandom thinks that Fantina comes from the French-based Kalos region, when if we're working off the original intent, then Fantina's likely a resident of the American-based Unova or England-based Galar.

Fantina's the first in-game gym leader to be heavily invested in the Contest Halls, the successor of the Pokemon Contests of Hoenn. She's mostly associated with the hauntingly pretty ghosts Mismagius and Drifblim lines, and you can totally see how it's influenced her fashion sense, particularly that huge 'X' borrowed from Drifblim that's clipping part of her dress together. her face also sort of reminds me of Dome Ace Tucker, although that might just be them both being fantabulous showboats that dress primarily in purple. Not a whole ton to say here, I do find her neat but not much else.

The order you fight Fantina is also different in Diamond and Pearl versus Platinum. In Diamond and Pearl, you arrive in Fantina's city before you arrive at Maylene's, but she's busy doing contests so she ends up being the fifth gym leader you fight. In Platinum, you face Fantina before Maylene and Crasher Wake.

Byron

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Tougan
• Type Specialization: Steel

Byron trains Steel-types, and he's the dad of Roark. So he's also a miner, but he's a lot less stuffy than his son and you know that because he's not wearing a helmet and wears a Lord of the Rings cape. That father-son connection is neat, but we really don't get a whole ton about it beyond both characters noting this, unlike the Koga/Janine succession thing from the Johto games. I don't dislike Byron and Roark, though, I just find them unmemorable.


Candice

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Suzuna
• Type Specialization: Ice

Between Dawn, Maylene and Candice, is it just fashionable in Sinnoh to transverse the snowy blizzards of Snowpeak in impractical outfits? Candice is the gym leader in Sinnoh and has a miniskirt and refuses to put on her jacket despite living 24/7 in a snow-covered mountain. I guess she's just used to it at this point? I do remember than when you rematch her in the resort part in the island East of Sinnoh, Candice comments on how sweltering it is. Her outfit has a nice colour scheme, but Candice is kind of a generic bubbly happy younger gym leader, I really don't remember anything especially notable about her. She has a bunch of random gimmicks, like referring to herself in the third person and saying that she likes fashion and romance and stuff. She's neat, I remembered her being a slightly tougher fight because my starter is four-times weak to her, and that Snow Cloak/Double Team Froslass is kind of a bitch to take down, but ultimately Candice is kind of just there.

One of the more oddly notable things about Candice that I never experienced is that in her original team in Diamond and Pearl, she doesn't exclusively use Ice-types. She has three (Sneasel, Snover and her ace Abomasnow), and... randomly a Medicham! Who, sure, knows Ice Punch, but that random Medicham has to throw some players on for a loop. I thought that's kind of cool, and I've never actually experienced this, with the version of Candice in Platinum having a full Ice-team (Snover, Piloswine, Froslass, Abomasnow). It's kind of a shame, I really thought that four generations in and the games would start to experiment with making these type-experts branch more beyond just looking at 'list of Pokemon of X type' and picking the level-appropriate ones. Why can't they have Pokemon that use the attack type instead? 

Volkner

• Position: Gym Leader
• Japanese Name: Denzi
• Type Specialization: Electric

The final gym leader of Sinnoh, Volkner, is someone that I remember all of my friends called the "Yondaime Hokage" because he really looked like Minato from Naruto retired from being a ninja, swapped his white cloak for a blue jacket, and decided to train random electric Pokemon. Volkner's whole thing is that he's just so god-damned BORED with the world, and tries his best to innovate and try and get someone to give him a good challenge. In one of his boredom-inspired manic sprees, he tries to set up a huge gym puzzle... only to cause a city-wide blackout in Sunyshore City. I thought that is pretty neat, and the fact that there's some connection between the gym puzzles and the world outside the gym is hilarious. Volkner also shows up a couple of times after the main story, hanging out with his buddy, Flint of the Elite Four.

Volkner was also another one whose team was significantly revised, with his Diamond/Pearl team only being half-Electric-type (Raichu and his ace, Luxray), with the other two being the Normal-type Ambipom and Water-type Octillery... who, granted, are able to use electric-type TM attacks, but it would be cool that Volkner has an Octillery with Water, Grass and Ice-type moves to counter-act anyone who tries to sweep his gym with a Ground-type. In Platinum, Volkner has a full team of Electric-types, and the coverage comes from his Luxray and Electivire having elemental fang and elemental punch moves, and... sure, Electivire's cool and all, but I really do wish that the theme of the gym leaders do branch out of using Pokemon exclusively of a certain type be expanded upon a little.

Aaron

• Position: Elite Four
• Japanese Name: Ryou
• Type Specialization: Bug

We're into the Elite Four now, and Aaron... is some dude with green hair. I really don't have anything to say here, he's literally just some generic dude, there's nothing about him that's particularly notable,  screams 'Bug trainer' or is a subversion of a Bug-type trainer or some sort of... anything. His personality is "I am an Elite Four trainer, let's battle", very generic... and yet, as a trainer of Bug-type Pokemon, I am obligated to like him, especially because despite being a pushover in Diamond/Pearl, in Platinum his team is upgraded to have literally all the most powerful Bug-types available at the time. Yanmega! Scizor! Heracross! That tanky, undying Vespiquen! Drapion, which isn't even a Bug-type after it evolves! I really do like this boss fight, because Aaron's Pokemon swaps around from tanky stall-monsters to speedy sweepers. And, sure, it's kind of laughable nowadays, but I do remember that the fight with Aaron really surprised me.

Bertha

• Position: Elite Four
• Japanese Name: Kikuno
• Type Specialization: Ground

The Ground-type Elite Four is... some old lady. She sort of looks like someone redesigned Agatha after she mellows out, and even their names are intentionally pointed out by a character in Black 2/White 2 to be similar (Agatha/Bertha; Kikuko/Kikuno) but she doesn't really have any sort of personality beyond being a nice grandma. She uses mainly Ground-types (a Sudowoodo snuck into her party in Diamond/Pearl) and I do like the contrast that this little old lady uses fearsome-looking monsters like Gliscor, Rhyperior and Golem, but design-wise and personality-wise she's just kind of there.


Flint

• Position: Elite Four
• Japanese Name: Oba
• Type Specialization: Fire

Flint is the most prolific among the Elite Four, being Volkner's buddy, and the two have a 'red oni,  blue oni' dynamic going on, with Flint being boisterous and loud and extroverted while Volkner is the calm and quiet cool dude that hangs out next to him and the two are best-buddies that act as each other's rival. That's a very neat dynamic, and you meet Volkner and Flint later on in the Fight Area, but Flint's just kind of there, just this funny, noisy guy with a red afro. He's neat, though, and the Volkner/Flint dynamic does make the two otherwise pretty bland one-note archetypes feel just a bit more developed. He's still kind of a very boring design, though, ultimately. 

In Diamond and Pearl, he's only got two out of five of his team as Fire-types, with his final two members being a Steelix (with Sunny Day and Fire Fang), a Loppunny (also with Sunny Day and Fire Punch) and Drifblim (whose only fire-type move is the status move Will-o-Wisp). That's actually a pretty neat team set-up and that made him different, at least, although, of course, in Platinum he ends up getting a generic fully-fire team. Both Volkner and Flint end up having a duo of Electivire and Magmortar as their new aces, which admittedly fit the two of them pretty well. 

Lucian

• Position: Elite Four
• Japanese Name: Goyo
• Type Specialization: Psychic

I fought the Sinnoh Elite Four a lot, but it speaks to this guy that I genuinely don't remember what his name is, and what his design is like, and mostly remember him as 'that Psychic trainer with Gallade'. This region's Elite Four really is pretty boring, huh? Lucian is just some dude in a suit with funky hair, and he uses Psychic-types. He likes Psychic-types, and he is smart, so you meet him in a library at one point so he can give you exposition. He doesn't really have much of a personality, though, and I don't remember him at all.


Cynthia

• Position: Champion
• Japanese Name: Shirona

Where the Elite Four are mostly just kind of there and not very memorable, Cynthia is often recognized in the fandom as an absolute badass, and regularly make it as one of the best if not the best Champion character in the games. And she's just utterly stylish, being one of the Champions that end up being the most involved in your journey, showing up and helping you not only to fight Team Galactic, but also giving a lot of exposition about the legends and legendary Pokemon of the region. She's not only a total badass, she's also smart, capable, kind and basically a superhero. What other champion would literally jump into an anti-matter dimension ruled by an Elder Being alongside you to save the world? Leon? Alder? I think not! Also, a lady that dresses in absolute style! That pants-dress set in all black, all the fuzz at the edge of her clothes, and that long hair all really work for a simple-yet-memorable design... even the Lucario hairpins work a lot better on her as fashion accessories, where I've always found them tacky on the actual Lucario. She makes it work! Basically all of the personality traits that make a very likable character. She's a badass, but also quite a bit of a slight airhead (particularly in her anime appearance, apparently). 

Short of maybe Professor Oak, Looker and Red, Cynthia is also a character that has shown up the most in other games, usually as a bonus boss or to facilitate some sort of event involving the Sinnoh legendaries, usually found as a bonus boss. Her Pokemon selection is also very cool, very difficult to fight (she's easily the most difficult champion I've faced personally), consisting of Spiritomb, Roserade, Milotic, either Togekiss or Gastrodon, Lucario and her ace, that mighty Garchomp that will murder anyone unprepared. Ultimately, while I do think that her character is perhaps a bit flat, she is still one of the most likable badasses in the franchise.

Team Galactic Grunts

The bad guys this time around are Team Galactic, a bunch of guys that are... interesting? I think their suits are meant to be inspired by, like, astronaut suits or something, with those weird tube-sock-esque latex undersuit sleeves and pants going on. They've got funky green hair all cut into bobs, and they're... I don't remember specifics, but I did remember that the grunts all have funny, loony dialogue, like they learned how to speak from Kraang or something? It's been a while since I played through Sinnoh's story. Of course, Team Galactic is kind of a crazy team, alternating between generic terrorism (they blew up a lake with a bomb!) and robbery, and generally acts like a crazy cult. Of course, their leader,  Cyrus, has completely different designs that he's hiding from his followers, but we'll get there.

As with most evil team grunts, though, the Galactic Grunts have a rather boring selection of Pokemon, mainly using Zubats, Glameows, Stunkys and Croagunks, and depending on the game, either the Wurmple line (Diamond/Pearl) or Houndour (Platinum). It's just a random mix of mean-looking Pokemon, I suppose, and Glameow because... cats are evil? Glameow doesn't even look like a traditional mean cat. It's honestly really kind of a shame how samey the vibe of all villain teams' rosters end up being. You'd think a team like Team Galactic would have rosters of like, alien critters like Sorlocks and Clefairies and Staryus or something. I dunno. Design-wise, they're neat, but I think they kind of blend together with all the other evil teams other than the fact that they actually set off a terrorist bomb at one point in their career.

Cyrus

• Position: Team Galactic Boss
• Japanese Name: Akagi

The big bad boss of Team Galactic, Cyrus, looks like just some dude in a spaceman business suit, and it might be because of the manga artwork or the sprites, but I've always thought that Cyrus looked like he's just so tired and done with this shit, like he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep for the past week. And turns out that he is done with this shit. Done with the world, that is, because unlike what the rest of his team believes, Cyrus actually is a nihilist and fatalist who wants to destroy the whole world, and recreate one that's devoid of emotion. He promises everyone he'll recreate the world to make it their dreamworld... he just doesn't elect to mention that said world won't have any of them in it, only Cyrus and Cyrus alone. And his main reason is that he really hates all of the nasty negative emotions caused by human emotion and 'spirit' and he wants to make a world devoid of it, and we learn later that Cyrus is a talented kid who nevertheless never quite lived up to his parents' expectations and felt neglected, quickly devolving into an extreme introvert who prefers the company of machines to living things. It's sort of interesting, but I've personally never really liked villains who wants to destroy the world for no real reason. The fact that he's not a megalomaniac and just this bizarre, borderline-suicidal emo nihilist is a neat little difference to the formula, though, and while I still find it hard to take Cyrus seriously as an antagonist, at least the writing tries. I don't mind this villain, I suppose, but I also don't really care too much about him. Cyrus's team is a mixture of traditionally sinister-looking Pokemon.


Mars

• Position: Team Galactic Admin
• Japanese Name: Mars

Do the admins have any sort of personality in this one? At least in the games? They're just kind of generic minibosses, the same way that the Aqua and Magma admins were. I know the manga gave them all more developed personalities. Mars is the first Galactic admin you face and she's a lady in a spaceman dress. I've always thought that she really should probably be the one called 'Saturn' considering her cute skirt ends up making this little ring around her waist, but she's otherwise just kind of there.


Jupiter

• Position: Team Galactic Admin
• Japanese Name: Jupiter

Jupiter is also kind of there, and she sort of forms this duo of constantly-bickering rivals with Mars when you eventually bump into her. She always felt like the more serious one in contrast to Mars. She's got a weirdly asymmetrical set of pants, revealing her skin on one side and not the other? I've always found that to be kind of weird. And... wow, I really don't have anything to really say here, huh? Basically everything I remember about the Galactic Admins come from the manga. She and Mars have opposite-game counterparts, which is kind of interesting? Jupiter uses Skuntank primarily and Mars uses Purugly.


Saturn

• Position: Team Galactic Admin
• Japanese Name: Saturn

Saturn's got hairs styled into horns, which ends up making him look a lot less cool than his female coworkers. He's the most boring out of the three Admins, sort of showing up a bit less than the two field agents that are Mars and Jupiter, and not getting the chance to monologue like the plot-relevant Cyrus and Charon. His whole deal is that he's very, very loyal to Cyrus, although he also doesn't quite realize the extent of what Cyrus wants to do? Okay. He uses a Toxicroak, basically filling out the trifecta of the common Pokemon used by the Galactic Grunts. 

Charon

• Position: Team Galactic
• Japanese Name: Pluto

Ah, this dude is a bit more interesting. Introduced in the revised Platinum edition as two of its major new characters, Charon isn't actually a fighter like Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but rather an old-man researcher. I guess he buys the same brand of hair gel as Saturn does. which is why, in the English versions, he's named after a moon instead of a planet (I mean, Pluto's no longer considered a planet now, but they didn't know it at the time). Charon basically takes up the post-champion storyline of Platinum, where, after Cryus's crazy plans are revealed and you defeat him and he wanders off into Giratina's distortion world, Charon continues his plans for... something-or-other, co-opting Mars, Jupiter and a bunch of grunts to try and capture the legendary Pokemon Heatran, but you foil his plans alongside the help of the interpol. No, really.

Charon himself is kind of a generic old man scientist, but I do like him and I like the implications from his old research notebooks that he was the person who actually discovered and befriended Rotom, and discovered all its alternate forms. That's actually a neat little backstory, pity it doesn't really play into his role in the game story itself.


Professor Rowan

• Position: Pokemon Professor
• Japanese Name: Nanakamado-hakase

That's it for Team Galactic, so let's go into the assorted NPC's. Our first NPC is Professor Rowan, who I mostly remember due to his very different looking vibe from the previous professors. Comparing him to the newer Pokemon Professors like Sycamore, Juniper and Kukui, Rowan does look kind of boring, but I do like how he's not actually wearing a lab-coat, but rather full a gentleman's regalia. He looks like he's off to attend a huge serious science conference or something! Rowan's whole deal is that he gives out this very serious, intimidating vibe compared to the other goofier professors. I don't really remember him doing much in the game after the requisite moment of starting you off on your journey, though. His specialization, as we find out, is Pokemon evolution, which is very fitting since around half of the new Pokemon introduced in Generation IV are new evolutions. 

Looker

• Position: Interpol Spy
• Japanese Name: Handsome

Introduced in Platinum, Looker's role in that game basically runs parallel to Cynthia's in that they both are your guides and exposition machines and authority figures, except Cynthia deals more about the actual threat to Sinnoh and reality itself, whereas Looker's an undercover member of the International Police, and is trying to gather evidence to arrest this crazy team Galactic mafia-cult. Looker, of course, is a codename (his Japanese name is the English word "Handsome") and he's a bit of a ditz who perhaps puts too much stock in his crazy disguises and whatnot (at one point, he disguises himself as a rock), and due to his utterly butchered grammar, it's highly implied that Looker is a foreigner in nearly all the games you meet him in... which, I believe, is something the translation team for the English version added in to add to his 'kooky secret agent' vibe. His buddy is a happy Croagunk that hops around behind him, and he's based from Inspector Zenigata of Lupin III fame.

Looker has, surprisingly, been one of the longest-running recurring characters, and is often used as the basis to try and string together a definitive chronology of the Pokemon games based on how events have progressed for him. Looker basically shows up a lot to facilitate post-game storylines. In Black and White, he gives your player character a quest to arrest (and will show up to arrest) the Seven Sages of Team Plasma. In XY, he's embroiled in a very long story-focused storyline involving him setting up his little investigation bureau while hunting down Team Flare's Xerosic, only to find out that his secretary has basically been brainwashed by Xerosic, and in XY we get the heavy implication that Looker's Croagunk partner fucking died in the line of duty at some point between Platinum and XY. In Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Looker washes up on the shore of the Battle Frontier with amnesia, not remembering who he is, which makes people point to ORAS as one of the chronologically-earlier games. In Sun/Moon, he and another agent, Anabel, is involved in hunting down the extra-dimensional Ultra Beasts and once more is the main NPC you deal with throughout the post-game.

I never really cared much for Looker in his original appearance, but as they say, the more you meet someone, the more you like them, and since he's shown up a fair amount of times, Looker's a character that I actually cheered for when I met him in one of the newer games.


Palmer

• Position: Tower Tycoon
• Japanese Name: Kurotsugu

And here we go to Sinnoh's Battle Frontier! Palmer shows up in all the Sinnoh games, because, well, he's your rival Barry's dad! There really isn't much to say about his design, a lot of the Sinnoh designs (Team Galactic aside) really do feel like they're just trying to make the characters look like relatively regular-looking joes, although Palmer's gigantic yellow buttons aren't something you see often in real life. Despite being a badass dad, Palmer's essentially a more matured version of Barry, so he's still eccentric. Like the Frontier Brains in Hoenn, Palmer makes use of pretty powerful Pokemon, even using a full team of legendaries in your 'gold print' rematch, using Regigigas, Heatran and Cresselia. He's neat.


Thorton

• Position: Factory Head
• Japanese Name: Neziki

Palmer debuted in Diamond and Pearl, but the Battle Frontier was expanded a lot in Platinum, and the same Battle Frontier also shows up in HeartGold/SoulSilver. Thorton runs the Battle Factory, the same 'pick random Pokemon and you can swap them after winning battles' facility of the same name in Hoenn. And... Thorton's got a neat looking getup? He dresses pretty smartly with a tie and I like his colour palette, and there's just something about that very bored-looking eye and the funky hairdo that makes me think that if this guy ever shows up in an anime, he probably sounds like an upper-class twit. He likes to use gadgets, but there's really not much to him.


Argenta

• Position: Hall Matron
• Japanese Name: Kate

The Battle Hall is modeled after a catwalk, and it's a 1-v-1 battle unlike most of the Battle Frontier facilities, and it's kind of interesting because you will basically choose from a bingo board of various types. And it's like, okay, clearly if I'm bringing like a Torterra, I'll just pick types that are weak to my Torterra, right? Except sometimes when you pick 'water', the game knows what you're doing and sics a Water/Ice pokemon like Dewgong or something, with the ice-type being effective against my Torterra. Argenta's own Pokemon is likewise randomized according to your choices, in a pool that includes legendaries, pseudo-legendaries and starters. I've personally faced off with her using a Latios and an Empoleon personally. As a character, Argenta sort of talks like she's a talent scout or a presenter, talking about her seeking a 'star'. Her outfit is pretty rad, too,  looking very stylish even if it's still one of those 'very much based on someone you'll find in real life'. 

Dahlia

• Position: Arcade Star
• Japanese Name: Dahlia

The "Arcade Star" (or "Roulette Goddess") Dahlia runs the Battle Arcade, where before each battle you basically roll a roulette to determine the conditions of the battle, the RNG/luck-based facility of this version of the Battle Frontier. Dahlia is a dancer, and her personality is all happy-go-lucky and stuff; these Frontier Brains really don't have much to go on to talk about. Her hair is very neat! I do find her team compositions interesting. Her first team are made of 'dancing' Pokemon like Ludicolo, Medicham and... Dusknoir? I guess Dusknoir dances around to carry souls to the afterlife or something? Her rematch team are all 'birds'. No, not Flying-types, birds. That's the only reason Blaziken's hanging out with her Zapdos and Togekiss.


Darach

• Position: Castle Valet
• Japanese Name: Kokuran

The best Frontier Brain is the leader of the Battle Castle, Castle Valet Darach. Yes, a valet.  Despite the fun, swept-back  hair with a huge chunk of blonde streak, Darach is merely the butler of the Lady Caitlin, the lady of the castle. The Battle Castle is basically a bit of a tournament held as a display to entertain the lady of the castle, noting that he will be the one to battle you, not Caitlin, because of "reasons that [he] is not at liberty to disclose." When playing through the Sinnoh games, I thought it's just a wacky little line that fits with the whole upper-class royalty vibe that Darach and Caitlin are lampooning... but turns out that this is actually foreshadowing for Caitlin's larger role in the next generation games! (And we'll cover Caitlin in the Unova games, too)

Darach's Pokemon are also pretty themed after a butler, in a way. The one that stays the same between his two teams is Empelon, who is based on a snotty king, while over his two battles he fights with Staraptor, Houndoom, Entei and Gallade, most of which are Pokemon that are highly protective of their trainer, or are based on animals stereotypically owned by rich folk. Anyway, Darach is always pretty cool due to the circumstances that you fight him.


Riley, Cheryl, Mira, Marley & Buck

• Position: Stat Trainer
• Japanese Names: Gen, Momi, Miru, Mai, Baku

These five are collectively called the 'Stat Trainers' among the fandom, because you meet the five of them at some point in your journey, and they will basically tag along with you because they are lost or need help or something, fighting alongside you in double battles as you travel through the 'dungeon'. In the post-game, you'll find them in the constantly-refreshing battle house alongside the gym leaders where they're able to be rematched with a full high-level team, and they all train Pokemon that's good on a specific stat, and are basically there so you can EV train your Pokemon. I lump them all together because I really don't have much to say about most of them.

Riley is perhaps the most interesting one, in that he's a cool gentleman dude that dresses himself after Lucario, trains a Lucario, and gives you a Riolu egg. He hangs out in Iron Island and views his helping you as training, and is basically an adaptation of Aaron, the Aura-using Lucario trainer that debuted alongside Lucario in a movie before the Generation IV games were released. I think that in-universe Byron offered him to be the gym leader of Oreburgh, but he refused to give Roark a chance. Okay. Riley trains Pokemon with high attack stats and doesn't really have much of a personality beyond being a cool guy.

Cheryl hangs out with you through Eterna Forest, and she's got a nice dress. She mainly uses Chansey and trains the HP stat, but otherwise is a generic nice lady. Mira's a little girl, and I do like the asymmetry of her hair, one of which loops around and the other hangs loose. Like many Japanese children in anime, she refers to herself in the third person, but that's really about it. She helps you out in Wayward Cave, and I do find it interesting that her team specializes on the Special Attack stat, so her team has huge badass-looking dudes like Gengar, Porygon-Z and her ace, Alakazam. Marley helps out in a post-game part of the Victory Route, and would be involved in a Shaymin event, and specializes in Speed. She's also got a very cool goth outfit, and is easily one of the more striking designs from this set of characters... although her personality is just 'shy girl'. None of her pokemon are particularly goth-y, and her primary one is an Arcanine.

Buck's perhaps the most involved one among these guys in the post-game, accompanying you as you hunt down the Team Galactic grunts attempting to attack Stark Mountain and catch Heatran. He sure looks like a fire-type trainer, but that's actually deceptive -- he primarily uses the Rock/Psychic Claydol, and only wear a fire shirt because he's the little brother of the Elite Four's Flint. He uses defensive Pokemon. He's kind of neat. I remember him for his relatively larger role in the plot, even though he otherwise wouldn't be that memorable.

Ultimately, I do actually like the inclusion of the five, which I think is meant to show a bunch of different Pokemon trainers going off on their own journeys and stuff. They don't really offer much in terms of personality or story relevance. Still, it's a good effort in trying to make the game a lot more expansive than it otherwise would be, and if nothing else I remember them because they show up all the time in the post-game battle area for daily battles.

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As usual, we'll be talking about more trainer classes. From this point onwards, I don't think we actually have a lot of particularly new new classes? At least not ones that really show up a whole ton in later generations. As with Generation III, there are a couple of classes like "Belle & Pa" that are just two regular classes shoved together as a double battle, while the "Interviewers" inversely had its two members separated in some battles as 'Cameraman' and 'Reporter'.


The Veteran (Beteran Toreina; Veteran Trainer) is one of my favourite classes, although in Generation IV they are just kind of generic dudes in Japanese gi. The fifth generation's Veterans with their trenchcoats and scarf-dress combo look great, as do the ones from the sixth generation. Basically replacing the 'Expert' class and being an older equivalent of the Ace Trainer, these are basically older, experienced trainers that use a wide variety of fully-evolved Pokemon. They look pretty cool, I don't really have much to say here.


The Madame (Madamu) is a trainer class that surprisingly shows up in a lot of games, although they were previously called the Socialite. They're old, fashionable ladies that use refined, upper-class Pokemon like Roselia, Glameow, Liepard and Indeedee.. but in Battle Frontier or Battle Tower facilities, they are somehow associated with legendary Pokemon. I really don't have a whole ton to say here.


Artist (Geijutsuka; Artist), replacing 'painter', are sort of forgettable until the sixth generation, where the addition of the artwork-sprites really end up giving them more of a personality beyond just another job class that got turned into a trainer. Particularly that super-energetic female Artist, who's clearly very, very enthusiastic at slathering paint all over her canvas. Galar's Artist has the most utterly-crazy expression on his face, too, clearly he's been working on his masterpiece for a bit too long without sleep. Where the defunct Painter class uses mostly Smeargle, the 'Artist' class don't exclusively use Smeargle, sometimes they use Pokemon that copy or mimic, like Mr. Mime, Sudowoodo, or Pokemon that presumably make great models for their artwork like Sunflora and Sigilyph.

The Worker (Sagyoin; Laborer) class shows up a lot, huh? I guess it's one of those 'occupational' trainer classes that could easily be slotted into any region, and has shown up in every single one since their debut in Generation IV. They basically replace the 'Mechanic' class, and while in Generation IV use a mixture of Steel, Fighting or Rock-type Pokemon, later iterations basically made them more of a multi-purpose class that could carry any Pokemon that could conceivably help out in their job. I don't have a whole ton to say here.

Poke Kid (Pokemon Gokko; Make-Believe Pokemon) is a trainer class that I thought showed up a lot more, but I guess it's just me mixing up the Poke-Fan? The Poke-Kid's whole deal is that they're little kids in a full body Pikachu hoodie, whose overworld sprites look exactly like that of Pikachu, so they surprise you by not really being Pokemon, but a trainer. In Galar, the girls wear Eevee hoodies. Got to sell those Let's Go Pikachu and Eeevee cartridges! In Generation IV, they exclusively use the Pikachu line, but in Sword/Shield they just use un-evolved Pokemon like Breeders or Kindergartners.

The Waitress (Uetoresu) & Waiter (Ueta) are... well, they're another one that's just an occupational job, and, uh, it's neat that they exist? I don't really have much to say about these classes, I'm afraid. The Waitresses (other than the Generation VI one, of course) seem to just be retooled 'Lady' sprites, I feel. I do find it funny that they're carrying trays with Pokeballs, though.

Okay? The Maid (Meido) shows up in like, mansions and stuff, and I don't even remember them showing up in Generation IV or V, although Generation VI's got that Battle Chaetau filled with these powerful maids. Parts of Sinnoh do kind of feel a bit more high-class compared to Kanto and Hoenn, and there are like, villas and resorts around, so having maids and waiters show up here and there kind of make sense, I suppose.

The Cyclist (Saikuringu; Cycling) and the Jogger (Jogingu; Jogging) replace the Triathletes, and sort of take over the motorcyclists from the first two generations. They show up here and there, and I think you can only challenge the Joggers in the morning or something? They're there, they're doing sports, I really find it hard to say anything about them. I guess it's interesting that their Japanese names are verbs?


The Cowgirl (Kaugaru) and the Rancher (Bokujo Ojisan; Farm Man) are farmers in cowboy outfits, found around Solaceon Town, which is like, a farm or something? There isn't a lot of either of these classes in the games. It sure is a neat 'job' character! The Pokemon Breeders in Alola also use a very similar design with these two, which I remembered was what some of the conspiracy theorists note is something that could point to the Sinnoh remakes in Generation VII -- the male Pokemon Breeders in Sun/Moon are old, bearded men with cowboy hats, and the female Breeders are girls with blonde pigtails and cowboy hats, clearly they're preparing the models for the Sinnoh games, right? Whoops.


It's an Idol (Aidoru), and I don't remember this one. It's Black and White that had the actual idol/superstar side-quest. There's only like two of these in Generation IV's games, I guess they just prepared a bunch of extra trainer sprites for the Battle Frontier.


It's a Clown (Piero; Pierrot). They'll be replaced with a different Clown class in Generation V. They're mostly just there as part of a company promotion in Jubilife City, and you have to track them all down in the huge city. They use Mr. Mimes.

And... that's it for Sinnoh! Apologies, but I do feel like I ended up being a bit of a downer for a large portion of this one mostly because I just don't find a lot of the Sinnoh NPC's all that interesting. Part of it might be because I blazed through Platinum when I was a bit older than when I consumed the first three generations, and also didn't really get their personalities drilled into my head by re-reading the manga and watching the cartoon episodes, which expands on the handful of lines they got in the game. Oh well, next up is Unova.