Pokémon Gold and Silver/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


For the Pokémon introduced in these games, refer to this page.

Main Characters

Ethan (Hibiki)/Gold

Kris

Lyra (Kotone)

Silver

  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Fits this trope perfectly.
  • Badass
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: With the player when Lance and Clair decided to challenge them to a tag battle.
  • Bishonen: His remake design, slightly.
  • Character Development: At first, he's by far the nastiest rival in the whole series, but by the end he's completely reformed.
    • More is added in the remakes, featuring a new double battle against Clair and Lance after his turn. Also upon visiting the Elm Pokémon Lab afterwards, you discover that he tried to return his starting Pokémon, but Elm let him keep it since the Pokémon loved him so much. Not to mention his Freudian Excuse is fully revealed and explained.
  • Children Are Cruel: He's arguably either abusive or borderline-abusive.
    • And being fair, he's no where near as bad as some of the other examples on that page.
  • Continuity Cameo: His anime counterpart appeared in the Japanese The Legend of Thunder special's intro.
  • Crash Into Hello: In HeartGold/SoulSilver, as a reference to Barry's usual way of meeting you.
  • Disappeared Dad: His dad up and left him when he wasn't even nine.
  • Evil Redheads
  • Freudian Excuse: He's Giovanni's son. It was first implied in FireRed and LeafGreen, but for whatever reason, the outright confirmation in HeartGold and SoulSilver was edited out (a line literally translating to "I don't understand you, Dad!" dropped the "Dad" in the English version.)
    • His issues with strength and weakness also stem from him feeling like Team Rocket and his father were weak and fearing his own weakness.
  • Gray Eyes: Arguably silver colored.
  • Hate Sink: Before his Character Development, he's actually more the antagonist than Team Rocket!
  • Idiot Hair
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: In hindsight, all his obsession with being strong really amounts to this.
  • Jerkass: Until later in the game, when he loosens up.
  • Like Father, Like Son
  • Meaningful Name: While his original design had him with red eyes, as his concept art showed, his remake design makes his name meaningful. His name is "Silver" and he has gray, or silver, eyes.
  • My Name Is ???: Trope Namer.
  • No Name Given: The closest he has been given to a canon name is Silver, which was his default in Gold and Crystal as well as the name of his Pokémon Special counterpart. In the remakes, "Silver" is never used- "Soul" is in HeartGold and "Heart" in SoulSilver.
  • The Rival
  • The Sociopath: Shades of this, even more of them in the remakes, initially.
  • Tsundere: Comes across as a nasty Type A in the remakes.
  • Would Hit a Girl: If you play as a girl. He also shoves Clair away when she offers to team with him against Lance and the player.
  • Younger Than They Look: His remake art makes him look more like a teenager, but he is stated to be Ethan and Lyra's age.

Professor Elm (Dr. Utsugi)

  • Forgets to Eat
  • Genius Ditz: His official artwork for HGSS seems to portray him this way.
  • Happily Married: He has a wife and son.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Poor Elm has to share the spotlight with Oak. As such, he's the only Pokémon Professor in the main games to not introduce you to the world of Pokémon or give the player their Pokédex.
  • Theme Naming: As usual, he is named after a tree like other regional professors.

Side Characters

Eusine (Minaki)

A mysterious man who is obsessed with Suicune.

The Kimono Girls (The Maiko)

A group of five kimono-wearing young women who live in Ecruteak City. In the original games, defeating them all would grant the player the HM for Surf, but they have a much more prominent role in the remakes.

  • Ascended Extra: They were mostly there so you could get the HM for Surf in the original versions and not a whole lot else. In the remakes, they're pretty much relevant throughout the Johto section of the game, even being the ones who summon the mascot of the version you're playing.
  • Boss Rush: In the remakes, you fight all five in a row.
  • Chekhov's Gunmen: In HeartGold and SoulSilver, they pop up once each throughout the game. It turns out that they are the ones who summon the box legendary.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Climax Boss: Their role in the remakes is something similar to this. They're fought after the eight Gyms are conquered, but before the Elite Four challenge, and right before the summoning of the version mascot.
  • Help, I'm Stuck!: A variation happens in the remakes : When you encounter Sayo in the Ice Path, she'll tell you that her sandals got stuck to the ice, and request your help to get her out.
  • Name's the Same: See One Steve Limit below.
  • One Steve Limit: In the Japanese version of GSC, one of them had the same Japanese name as Maylene. It was changed in the remakes, as Maylene makes a Cameo there.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Because you encounter them much later on in the remakes, their Pokémon are also obviously much stronger, not to mention you fight all five of them in a row.

Kurt (Gantetsu)

An old man from Azalea Town. He is a Poké Ball expert, who can make you special ones from Apricorns.

  • Badass Grandpa: He charges after Team Rocket at Slowpoke's Well alone, only stopped by hurting his back. He seems to have quite a reputation in Azalea, too.
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Item Crafting: The go-to guy for making Poké Balls.

Bill (Masaki Sonezaki)

A returning character from the first games. He is a computer genius who developed the Pokémon Storage System used in Kanto and Johto. You find him in Goldenrod City, where he gives you an Eevee, and his younger sister gives you his phone number.

  • Demoted to Extra: He isn't as relevant to the plot as in Red and Blue and their remakes, to the point where the original Gold, Silver, and Crystal told you right off the bat whose PC you were using to store your extra Pokémon instead of labeling it "Someone's PC" like the previous games as well as the PCs run by Lanette and Bebe in later installments.
  • It Was a Gift: He gives you an Eevee.

Red

The hero and player character from the previous games. He is found at Mt. Silver, and serves as either the Final Boss, the True Final Boss, or a Bonus Boss depending on your interpretation. He has the distinction of owning the highest-leveled Pokémon encountered in the series.

  • Badass: His team is the highest-leveled in the entire series, not to mention his achievements in the past.
  • Bonus Boss/Final Boss/True Final Boss
  • Continuity Nod: He has the three starters, the series' mascot, and two in-game event Pokémon.
    • In Red and Blue, there were two Snorlax lying in the middle of the road (One east of Celadon City, another west of Vermillion.) In these games, there is only one Snorlax; as that was the only way to catch a Snorlax in those games, we can only assume that Red caught the other.
    • The Lapras Red has in HG/SS can also be explained. There is only one Lapras to be caught in the original Red and Blue versions : when the Silph Co. building was taken over by Team Rocket, an employee gave you a Lapras as thanks after you beat Blue.
  • Curtains Match the Window: He has the same design as before, so in the remakes he has Brown Eyes (though you never see it due to his hat being in the way and due to lack of a banner).
  • Heroic Mime: Despite not being the main character anymore, he's still this.
  • Iconic Item: Both his original and remake NiceHats.
  • Legendary in the Sequel: Red is mentioned several times throughout the game as the boy who singlehandedly stopped Giovanni and disbanded Team Rocket three years prior, and is held in high regard. His True Final Boss status has made him this as a meta-example among the fandom as well.
  • Mythology Gag: His lack of speech is a nod to his status as a Heroic Mime in the original games, and him disappearing right after you beat him is a reference to the player blacking/whiting out and rushing to a Pokémon Center once all usable Pokémon have fainted. His frequently-referenced absence from home is also a nod to how the player seldom ever returns home after leaving on their journey.
  • Nice Hat
  • Took a Shortcut: Getting to him in the remake requires at least one of your Pokémon knowing the HM move Rock Climb in order to scale the walls of the cave, but none of his Pokémon know the move.
  • Previous Player Character Cameo
  • Self Fanservice: Fans always seem to think of him as a lean, red eyed, stoic bishie with sleek, combed hair and tight pants when he has never been that. He did have black hair once, and wears either of the outfits people have him in, but that's where the resemblance ends. For some reason, fanartists apparently think he's Lelouch.
  • So Proud of You: His mother remarks that she's worried for Red, but proud of him for doing what he wants to do.
  • Third Option Adaptation: He uses all four possible starters from the first game, avoiding giving him a 'canon' starter.[1] He also uses Pokémon that the player character in Red & Blue received as gifts, or was forced to encounter.
  • Visible Silence
  • The Voiceless
  • Younger Than He Looks: He's fourteen years old however he doesn't look that age. He didn't look eleven in the Kanto remakes either - in fact he looked about fourteen then - so it makes sense.

Johto Gym Leaders

Falkner (Hayato)

Violet Gym Leader--The Elegant Master of Flying Pokémon

  • Adaptational Badass: Despite his status as arguably the weakest Gym Leader to ever grace the series, he's routinely portrayed as a very powerful trainer in other media (most egregiously in one of the manga series' where he uses Articuno). The remakes themselves made his team just a bit stronger by levelling them up...
  • Bishounen: Especially in the remakes.
  • Blow You Away
  • Curtains Match the Window: In fact, every Johto Gym Leader except Morty and Pryce, for some reason.
  • Disappeared Dad: His father was the previous Gym Leader, and the one who gave Falkner his Pokémon. He's supposedly traveling, and while not necessarily missing, the player never meets him.
  • Hypocritical Humor: He'll sometimes call you just to complain that Janine doesn't talk about anything other than her father.
  • My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: His argument with Janine revolves around this.
  • Peek-a-Bangs
  • Punny Name: Falkner = Falconer.
  • Warmup Boss: His team in Gold and Silver is the lowest-leveled of any Gym Leader. He's a bit tougher in the remakes, though. Well, he is the first gym leader...
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: We don't know what his dad thinks of him, but just about everything Falkner says and does seems to relate to him somehow. Whether he's trying to impress him or just really looks up to him is unknown.
  • Wind from Beneath My Wings
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Bugsy (Tsukushi)

Azalea Gym Leader--The Walking Bug Pokémon Encyclopedia

Whitney (Akane)

Goldenrod Gym Leader--The Incredibly Pretty Girl

Morty (Matsuba)

Ecruteak Gym Leader--The Mystic Seer of the Future

  • Adaptation Dye Job: HGSS gives him a completely new outfit and a tall, skinny, lanky build rather than his slightly buff body shape of the original game and the Anime.
  • Bishounen: More so in the remakes than the original games, where he is given the makeover mentioned above.
  • Blackout Basement
  • Blue Oni: to Eusine's Red Oni.
  • Four Is Death: He's the fourth Johto Gym Leader you face.
  • Hair of Gold
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Eusine.
  • Mr. Exposition: Gives the most details of any Johto Gym Leader on Johto's myths regarding it's legendary Pokemon. Makes sense since his city is the center of these tales and a critical place for the player to visit in the original games and especially their remakes, where the player is required to visit the Dance Studio after beating Clair.
  • Punny Name: Morty = Mortal.
    • Mort means "death".
    • Morty comes from "Mortimer", which means "beside the river"—the River Styx, that is.
    • "Morty" also sounds a bit like "Morgue".
  • Refused by the Call: He trained to become a Gym Leader hoping it would make him worthy of being The Chosen One to bring back Ho-Oh. Then you came along.
  • Scarf of Asskicking
  • Soul Power

Chuck (Shijima)

Cianwood Gym Leader--His Roaring Fists Do the Talking

Jasmine (Mikan)

Olivine Gym Leader--The Steel-Clad Defense Girl

Jasmine: These empty dishes in front of me are not all mine... Er... Actually, the person who sat here ahead of me ate a lot...

Pryce (Yanagi)

Mahogany Gym Leader--The Teacher of Winter's Harshness

Clair (Ibuki)

Blackthorn Gym Leader--The Blessed User of Dragon Pokémon

Kanto Gym Leaders

Brock (Takeshi)

Pewter Gym Leader--The Rock-Solid Pokémon Trainer!

Misty (Kasumi)

Cerulean Gym Leader--The Tomboyish Mermaid!

  • Adaptational Attractiveness: She wasn't bad-looking originally, but her HeartGold and SoulSilver design is... wow.
  • Continuity Nod: A girl in the Kanto games (even noted in the Fame Checker in FRLG) said that Misty had high hopes for the Cerulean Cape as a dating spot and as a place to find a potential boyfriend. The first place the player is able to catch her in the games and their remakes is at the cape, which scares off her date and reaffirms her apparent bad luck in love.
  • Date Peepers: When you meet her you catch her on a date. She doesn't react well, to put it simple.
  • Fiery Redhead
  • Making a Splash
  • Shorttank: Not as much as in the Kanto games, but several elements of her personality are still in there.
  • Tomboy: According to her title.
    • Girliness Upgrade: It seems that her efforts to keep up a feminine appearance and get a boyfriend are to dispel that title somewhat. One of her Gym Trainers thinks that she embodies both beauty and strength though.
  • Tsundere: Though she does react poorly to you at first, she eventually warms up, and will even call you out of the blue (once you get her number) to thank you for kicking an intruder out of her Gym.
  • Walking Swimsuit Scene

Lt. Surge (Matis)

Vermilion Gym Leader--The Lightning American!

  • Eagle Land: Take a look at his title. Type 1, by the way.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Muscular, military uniform, blonde...
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty
  • Gratuitous English: This is how he speaks in the Japanese versions of the games.
    • He does it in the French versions too, but only of the remakes, for some odd reason.
  • Opaque Lenses: He has opaque-looking sunglasses in Generation II and HGSS, though unlike Blaine he is seen with them off in HGSS (he simply holds them in his hand before and after battles with him), and of course in Generations I and III he never wore sunglasses at all.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: For such a manly guy, he seems to like cute Pokémon. His favorite Pokémon are the Pikachu line. In HGSS, you can show him a Pikachu to get his phone number, and he practically gushes over the sight of it like a fangirl.
    • He adds a Pachirisu to his team for the rematch.
  • Shock and Awe

Erika

Celadon Gym Leader--The Nature-Loving Princess!

  • Ambiguously Gay: For the same reasons as in the previous games, but she does have questionable interactions with female characters (mostly Jasmine) in the remakes.
  • Gossipy Hens: Normally she isn't this, but catching her chatting with Jasmine in Celadon on her days off will yield surprisingly harsh gossip.
  • Green Thumb
  • The Ojou
  • Yamato Nadeshiko

Janine (Anzu)

Fuchsia Gym Leader--The Poisonous Ninja Master

Sabrina (Natsume)

Saffron Gym Leader--The Master of Psychic Pokémon!

Blaine (Katsura)

Seafoam Gym Leader--The Hotheaded Quiz Master!

Blue (Green)

Virdian Gym Leader (no subtitle)

  • Always Someone Better: Red, though his animosity has decreased over the years. Still, he'll praise you and take a picture with you if you defeat Red.
  • Dub Name Change: His name is "Green" in Japan but "Blue" outside of it, even following the release of FireRed and LeafGreen, the former of which had Green as a default name and the latter of which didn't get a Market-Based Title like the game it's a remake of. (This is probably justified for the sake of consistency with the original Gold and Silver and possibly nostalgia value for people who played said originals.)
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a bit more mellow than in earlier appearances, though he's still brusque.
    • In HGSS, he is genuinely happy for you when you beat Red if you talk to him to get a photograph.
  • Non-Elemental: At least in comparison to other leaders- Blue has no type specialty and is the only leader in the entire series who doesn't. Technically, his Pokemon cover Playing with Fire, Making a Splash, Blow You Away, Green Thumb, Psychic Powers, Non-Elemental, Dishing Out Dirt and Wrestler in All of Us.
  • The Rival: Former rival. He's the player's rival from the original games.
  • Third Option Adaptation: His team is based off of his Red & Blue team... omitting the starter.[2] This is to avoid giving a 'canon' choice of his (and therefore Red's) starter. Notably, he does NOT have an Eeveelution, or any other Pokémon exclusively from his team in Yellow.
  • Took a Level in Badass: He took over Giovanni's Gym and is the toughest Gym Leader of the 8 Kanto leaders (and the toughest of the 16 in the Indigo League, and possibly toughest of the 47 Gym leaders in the entire series). He may be 2nd to Red, but that still makes him the 2nd toughest trainer in the game.

Elite Four

Will (Itsuki)

Koga (Kyou)

Bruno (Shiba)

Karen/Karin

Lance (Wataru)

  • Awesome but Impractical: In Generation II, and in fact every game he has been in before Generation IV, barring Pokémon Stadium, every Pokémon he uses knows Hyper Beam.
  • Badass Cape: He apparently buys them at the Department Store in Celadon, according to Fire Red & Leaf Green.
  • Blow You Away: All of his Pokémon are Flying-type, except for Garchomp.
  • Disc One Final Boss
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: His three Dragonite know Thunder, Blizzard and Fire Blast respectively. In Generation IV, his Gyarados, Aerodactyl and Charizard also know Ice Fang, Thunder Fang and Fire Fang respectively.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He's perfectly willing to rough up Rocket Grunts; this includes having Dragonite use Hyper Beam on them.
  • Lance is a Cheating Bastard: Three Dragonite that are below the level they can be obtained and an Aerodactyl with the move Rock Slide. The latter would be made legal in the remakes, and some of the Dragonite would be as well, since an event gave out Dragonite at level fifty, but two or three of his are still below that. Notably, in the remakes, he's shown with a level 40 Dragonite in Team Rocket's Mahogany Town hideout.
  • Large Ham: His outfit, especially in Generation II.
  • Nice Guy: Despite his intimidating appearance and status, he's actually a fairly nice person; he's helpful to the protagonist, and has passed the Dragon's Den test, which requires knowledge of proper Pokémon care.
  • Rule of Three: Guess how many Dragonite he has.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: To Ice, and also Rock.

Team Rocket

  • Ascended Extra: In the original games the Rocket Executives looked alike and weren't even named, not unlike the Grunts. It wasn't uncommon to believe that there were only two of them, one male and one female. The remakes made them into their own characters with individual looks and personalities.
  • Theme Naming: All four Executives are named after real-life spacecraft, both in the Japanese and North American versions.
    • Alphabetical Theme Naming: The lower-ranked execs (dressed in the grunts' black uniform) begin with a P, while the higher-ranked execs (in customized white attire) have their initial be an A. Even with their Japanese names, the higher-ranked ones still start with A, while the lower-ranked ones start with a later letter (L).
  • Dub Name Change: All executives were given a new name in the English localization, even though Proton's Japanese name was the only one with an obvious reason as to why it was changed (that being that there was already a character named Lance in the English versions).

Proton (Lance)

Petrel (Lambda)

Ariana (Athena)

Archer (Apollo)

  • Bishonen: Don't even try to deny it.
  • The Cameo: Likewise, the male Admin in FireRed and LeafGreen seems to be him, due to team similarities and his desire to bring back Team Rocket.
  • The Dragon/Dragon Ascendant: Could be seen as this to Giovanni, as he's the interim head of Team Rocket during Giovanni's absence. Alternatively, he could be Co-Dragons with Ariana.
    • Big Bad: His placement within the organization may be subservient to Giovanni, but he's still the main antagonist of the Johto games.
  • Elite Mook
  • Expy: His design is based off the male Executive from Gold and Silver; he originally shared this design with the Executives that became Proton and Petrel in the remake.
  • Graceful Loser: Defeated by the player, Archer curses his lack of strength to reunite Team Rocket and restore it to its former glory, but he immediately disbands Team Rocket and never gives the player any trouble thereafter.
  • Noble Demon
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Giovanni

  • Aesop Amnesia/Ignored Epiphany: Remember how Red beat him and he decided to disband Team Rocket and dedicate his life to studying Pokemon? Well, apparently he got over that, because when you battle him he's preparing to head out to the Radio Tower to take the reigns of Team Rocket again.
    • Note that the remakes of Gen I retcon the line to say that he will now dedicate his life to becoming stronger, keeping in line with this (now nonexistent) epiphany.
  • Badass Longcoat
  • Bigger Bad: Every crime Archer, Ariana, and the rest of Team Rocket commit is done in his name and to facilitate his return—but he remains unseen in the main story, and is only available to battle long after the main conflict has ended. As an optional event battle, at that.
  • Bonus Boss: Became the first event trainer when the remakes added an optional battle with him with an event Celebi to access him.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: His Pokémon are oriented towards the Ground-type in general.
  • The Don
  • Hot Dad
  • Nice Hat: A fedora.
  1. ↑ While all four starters are possible to obtain in Yellow, note that Blue doesn't use his team from that version
  2. ↑ Blue in RGBFRLG will have on his team a Gyarados, an Arcanine and a Exeggutor, dropping one for his Blastoise, Charizard or Venusaur respectively; here he has all 3 of the first
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Pokémon_Gold_and_Silver/Characters?oldid=1508063"