Player character

Red's Pokémon journey is about to begin...

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. 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 and Lunick, even, are not Pokémon trainers, but instead Pokémon Rangers, and 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, there has only been one reappearance of a past player character in the Pokémon games. 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.

Region →	Kanto	Johto	Hoenn	Sinnoh
Male	File:Red.png Red	File:Gold.gif Gold	File:Brendan.png Brendan	File:Koki.png Lukas
Female	Green	File:Kris.gif Kris	May	Dawn