Pokémon Trainer is a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series. They are from the Pokémon series and made his first playable appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. They fights alongside its Pokémon Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard.
Biography
Red is the protagonist from the Generation I games. He was originally a young trainer from Pallet Town who would go on to try and catch all 151 available Pokémon. Red chooses any of the starter Pokémon and bonded with it over the course of his adventure, where he beat all 8 Kanto Gym Leaders, the evil organization Team Rocket, his Rival Blue and the Elite Four before taking on the legendary Mewtwo. After catching all 151 available Pokémon, Red resided on the top of Mount Silver, waiting for future trainers worthy of a challenge. Some time later, Red has been shown to finally come back into public life, as he enters the Champions Tournament of the Pokémon World Tournament in the Unova region. In Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, a visibly older Red is invited to work as the boss of Alola's Battle Tree along with Blue.
Leaf's adventure begins after Professor Oak calls her to his lab and gives her a choice of Pokémon. Blue challenges Leaf to a Pokémon battle as soon as they get their Pokémon. Later, Professor Oak calls the two back, gives each of them a Pokédex, and sends them on a journey to fulfill their dream of capturing every kind of Pokémon. Leaf travels all over Kanto, filling in the Pokédex and defeating the Gym Leaders. Her rival Blue constantly stays one step ahead, and shows up quite a few times to impede her progress. When Leaf eventually reaches the Elite Four, she finds that Blue has beaten her to a milestone yet again and has become the Indigo League Champion. Leaf defeats Blue in the final battle, and becomes the Champion herself. Her adventure continues even after that, with Leaf discovering new places, such as the Sevii Islands. Leaf's main conflict in the games, aside from Blue, is Team Rocket, an infamous group of Pokémon thieves. Leaf clashes with Team Rocket many times in her quest. She defeats a group of grunts at Mt. Moon who are attempting to steal rare Pokémon Fossils, and defeats another group ahead at a bridge in Cerulean City. Leaf protects the Pokémon Tower and Mr. Fuji in Lavender Town and destroys their hold on the Game Corner. After she foils their plot to take over Silph Co., Leaf encounters Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, as the final Gym Leader in Viridian City. Upon defeating him, Leaf stops the group's world domination plots once and for all, though a few remaining grunts, many who appeared and were defeated by Leaf on Five Island in Generation III, would band together in Johto to try to revive the group.
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
A Pokémon Trainer makes an official appearance as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The Trainer in Brawl is Red, the protagonist of the Generation I games, and the male protagonist of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen Versions. However, he is simply referred to as "Pokémon Trainer" to reflect how players can name the playable Trainers within each of the Pokémon games. Instead of using his original design from Generation I, he uses his redesign from Generation III.
It should be noted that it would be rather inaccurate to call the Trainer himself a playable fighter, as selecting him is akin to selecting a Zelda/Sheik-style character with three interchangeable forms; in the Trainer's case, these are the three Pokémon he has in his collection: Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard. The Trainer visually issues commands in the background of the stage to the Pokémon in the foreground, corresponding with the actions input by the player to the current Pokémon as the real fighter. Conversely, one can say that the player controls the Trainer, who in turn commands the Pokémon.
Super Smash Bros. 4
Due to the limitations of the Nintendo 3DS' processing power, transformation-type characters were split apart and became standalone characters for Super Smash Bros. 4. In Pokémon Trainer's case, only Charizard returned as a playable character. However, Red (under the name "Pokémon Trainer"), Squirtle and Ivysaur make cameos as collectible trophies.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Pokémon Trainer returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, albeit as an unlockable character instead of a starter character. As a result, Squirtle and Ivysaur also returned by default, while Charizard was reintegrated into the team. In addition to Red reappearing as the default Pokémon Trainer, his female counterpart, Leaf, makes her Super Smash Bros. series debut as an alternate character.
Pokémon Trainer has been noticeably reworked in order to streamline the character's unique playstyle. The removal of both stamina and type effectiveness significantly improves the team's overall consistency. In addition, Pokémon Change's drastically faster speed and newfound usability in the air collectively make it much less committal, as well as allow the Trainer to rotate between Pokémon to the point of using their unique attributes to adapt to different situations at a much better pace.
Trivia
- The male and female Pokémon Trainers are the only playable Pokémon character that are human. However, they do have three playable Pokémon fight on their behalf.
- As stated above, Pokémon Trainer's overall design is based off on Red who is the main protagonist of Pokémon Red and Blue. The female Pokémon Trainer is based Leaf from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
- The Pokémon Trainer's trophy description in SSB4 and Boxing Ring title in Ultimate both reference the first English theme song for the Pokémon anime.
