Player character
A player character in the world of Pokémon is the protagonist of the games, the avatar of the player. Player characters are usually remarkably silent, only able to answer yes and no to questions. This is so that the player can "fill in" what the character is thinking, feeling and acting, thus immersing the player within the world of the game. In the mainstream games, they are always Pokémon Trainers. At the conclusion of their journey, most will have conquered a Pokémon League's eight Gym Leaders and Elite Four, and become the Champion.
Those who do the above will most often start their journey in their hometown by getting, or shortly before getting, a starter Pokémon, a Pokémon that appears very early in their native region's Pokédex, and is of the Grass-, Fire-, or Template:Type2. The region's native Pokémon professor will always give them this, as well as a Pokédex.
In Pokémon Crystal, and each game in the main series which followed it, players were also able to pick the gender of the lead, more often than not to match their own.
Aside from the standard that many of the games' player characters take in their journey, there are also several other ways in which other player characters complete their journey. Wes and Michael, for example, must defeat Cipher and free all of their snagged Pokémon from their Shadow state. Solana, Lunick, Hajime, and Hitomi are not Pokémon Trainers, but instead Pokémon Rangers. They must use the Pokémon they have captured with the Capture Styler to help them along the way. Todd as well must strive for something different from Trainers. In Pokémon Snap, he must capture all the Pokémon on Pokémon Island-- on film.
To date, only one player character has reappeared from an older generation. In Generation II, when Gold or Kris travels to Mt. Silver and reaches the deepest point of the cave, Red is found, utterly silent as he was under the player's control, to challenge to the highest-leveled Pokémon battle that has appeared in the series. The original games from Generation I also got remakes in Generation III, with Red as the male protagonist. Finally, if Super Smash Bros. Brawl is counted as a Generation IV game due to the time of its release, Red appears in Generation IV as well, as he is a playable character.
| Region → | Kanto | Johto | Hoenn | Sinnoh | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game* | RS | E | DP | Pt | ||
| Male |  Red |
File:Gold.gif Gold |
File:Brendan.png Brendan |
 Brendan |
File:Koki.png Lucas |
* Lucas |
| Female |  Leaf |
File:Kris.gif Kris * |
 May |
 May |
 Dawn |
* Dawn |
In the anime
In the anime, five of the player characters have been given major roles, three of them in the main anime series. Ash (and Ritchie), of course, represents Red, being based on him in appearance as well as basic history. At the beginning of Advanced Generation, May entered the fray in order to better represent Generation III to viewers, as both Misty and Brock are characters native to Generation I. Likewise, at the beginning of the Diamond & Pearl series, Dawn joined Ash.
Jimmy and Marina appeared in The Legend of Thunder! special, taking a similar role to Ash and his female companions, fighting Team Rocket members to protect legendary Pokémon. While the protagonists of Generation II were not represented in Ash's party, these two filled the roles as the anime counterparts to Gold and Kris.
So far, Brendan has only made a few select cameo appearances in the anime, while Lucas made a cameo at the begining of Giratina and the Sky's Bouquet: Shaymin battling Brendan. Leaf, or a counterpart to her, has not appeared yet. Although some speculate that if Leaf or a counterpart to her, does appear they might be one of the unknown trainers from Pallet starting with either Bulbasaur or Charmander, the same time Ash began his journey.
When May returned to the group from Johto to compete in the Wallace Cup, she had changed outfits from her Ruby and Sapphire outfit (worn for the entirety of the Advanced Generation series) to her Emerald outfit. Since Lucas and Dawn are shown with different outfits in Pokémon Platinum, it is assumed that either when Dawn goes through Snowpoint City, or if she makes a cameo after the end of the Diamond & Pearl series, she will be wearing her game counterpart's Platinum outfit.
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Trivia
- All of the female player characters who have been in the anime are Pokémon coordinators either full-time or part-time.
- Leaf is the only character that has not made some appearance in the anime so far.
