Red (Pokémon Trainer)

Red (レッド, Red) is the name of the player character in the first generation games Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and the male choice in their third generation remakes Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, where his female counterpart is Leaf.

Pokémon series


After his friend Blue stopped playing with him, Red, being 11 years old, became interested in Pokémon. One day, Professor Oak calls both and gives them the choice of selecting one of three starter Pokémon. Moments later, the professor gives both a Pokédex, and gives them the mission to complete it with all species of Pokémon, which had been Oak's dream from long ago.

While Red advances through Kanto, collecting Pokémon and defeating Gym Leaders to compete in the Pokémon League against the Elite Four, his rival Blue seems to be always one step ahead. The main conflict Red must face is Team Rocket, a group of criminals who want to steal Pokémon and related objects to cause trouble. Red later finds Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket he'd faced twice, is the last gym leader he must face before continuing his way. After being defeated once again, Giovanni decides to leave Team Rocket and the group apparently splits forever.

Red becomes the champion of the Pokémon League after beating Blue, and nothing is heard about him until some time after.

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Red's story continues through the Sevii Islands, where he aids Celio, a man attempting to make communications reach the Hoenn region, by recovering pieces of Ruby and Sapphire, needed for the machine Celio had been preparing to work. While he is there, he finds remaining Team Rocket grunts, who are presumably the ones who rejoin it into Neo Team Rocket in Pokémon Gold and Silver.

After these events, not much is heard of Red, and by the time the Pokémon Trainer Gold reaches the League, Red is no longer the champion, but one of the previous Elite Four, Lance. Red's mother can be found living in Pallet Town still, but about three years have passed since her son left home. In the final part of the game, however, Red can be found in Mt. Silver, standing in the very last room, probably training. He is now the Pokemon Master for all regions.

Super Smash Bros. series


In the Super Smash Bros. series, a Pokémon Trainer that resembles Red appears as a selectable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, who battles with Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, using one at a time and able to change them at anytime. He is one of the four playable characters from the Pokémon series in Brawl and has a trophy of himself as well as one for each of his Pokémon. Though his design resembles Red, the game talks about it as a Pokémon Trainer in general, and does not specify about any.

Counterparts
Red is a character from the main Pokémon games, and, as with many other characters, has counterparts in other media.

The main character from the Pokémon anime, Ash Ketchum, started his journey in Pallet Town as well with the option to choose from Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, too (though, in Ash's case, he got Pikachu instead because the other ones had already been taken). He also resembles him physically, especially in earlier artworks of Red.

In the manga, there is a character who lives in Pallet Town and starts his journey there in a similar way Red from the video games did. In fact, both his appearance and his name are similar to the original.