Tag: Blaine

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Roy has a huge one-sided rivalry with the Cinnabar Gym Leader, Shouju, that nobody really seems to fully understand but him. The backstory to it all starts before Roy was even born. His great-grandfather, Blaine, was the Cinnabar Gym Leader for a long time, and eventually became the mentor of Roy’s father, Green, in the years between the events of the Kanto games and the Johto games. When Cinnabar Volcano erupted, Blaine was offered the vacant position of Viridian Gym Leader, at least until his gym on Cinnabar was repaired or moved. However, Blaine recommended his apprentice, Green, for the position instead and, while he took some time off, Green remains as the Viridian Leader to this day.

After the Cinnabar Gym was rebuilt, Blaine returned to being it’s Leader, but after a few years he felt ready to retire. He offered his position to his grandchildren, Red and Leaf, and his by-now son-in-law, Green, but all of them either didn’t want to leave their current jobs or had no interest in being a Gym Leader. So, Blaine ended up looking through a wide variety of candidates for his position, but none of them felt quite right to him. In fact, he ended up finding the perfect successor by accident. While traveling in Johto, Blaine met Soumei and Shouju, the newly-returned-to-human Lugia and Ho-oh, by chance. The couple was still struggling to adjust, used to living in ancient times, but Blaine could tell there was a special spark about them – especially Shouju, who trained fire-types and seemed to have strong leader skills. He swooped in with an offer to come with him to Cinnabar, by now fully rebuilt, and see if taking over the gym would be a fulfilling new life for them.

As it turned out, Blaine’s instincts were spot on. Shouju took to being a Gym Leader like a fish to water (or perhaps more fittingly a phoenix to flame)… perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, but nobody could deny he was a strong trainer and provided a challenge for trainers on their League Challenge while also being able to manage the leadership that came with being a Gym Leader, looking after Cinnabar and its people. Shouju remains the Cinnabar Gym Leader through the fankid era, living on the island with Soumei and their son, Kanade. Now this is all fine and good, but Roy thinks it’s all wrong! Growing up, he learned about this whole story, and decided that what really happened was Shouju “stole the Gym from Red and/or Green”. No matter how many time his dads tell him they had no interest in becoming the Cinnabar Gym Leader and they both have no issue with Shouju being there, Roy is stubborn in his belief. (It doesn’t help that Green and Shouju have quite a rivalry going, both being arrogant and competitive, but it’s still a friendly rivalry between Gym Leaders and nothing deeper!)

Roy has made it his life’s goal to become the new Cinnabar Gym Leader and “oust the usurper”, but when he first went on his Kanto journey he was utterly wiped out by Shouju the first time he challenged him. To rub salt in the wound, Shouju isn’t exactly known for being comforting, so he simply told Roy all the ways he needed to improve before trying again. This only further strengthened Roy’s resolve and convinced him Shouju was basically the equivalent of the Demon Lord in his video games. Since that day, if someone brings up the Cinnabar Gym within Roy’s earshot he’s sure to go on a rant about his nemesis and goals of “freeing the gym from tyrannical rule”, so his traveling companions learn quick not to bring it up around him.

(As an aside, while I’m still developing what Kanade does/if he travels, you can bet Roy sees him as a rival as well – the son of the enemy!)

Sage, Scout, and Amaryllis for the meme.

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Part 1
10 Facts About Sage Oak

Sage has a full profile already, so these facts will be more trivia that can’t be found there.

  1. Sage is the second son of Green Oak and Red Aoyama. He was born on March 8, 3620, three years after his older brother, Roy.
  2. Sage’s goal to become a Gym Leader is actually in direct response to Roy having the same goal. Sage thinks that Roy doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful Gym Leader, so he wants to become one as well and prove that he can do it better than his brother can.
  3. As such, he’s been bothering his Aunt Leaf about inheriting the Viridian Gym from her, though her response is usually “I’ll think about it when you’re older” or “If you think I’m retiring any time soon, think again, kid!”
  4. He’s childhood friends with both Scout and Alton, his traveling companions. He’s known Scout longer, since they’re both from Pallet and the same age, but he’s closer with Alton since the two have more in common.
  5. He and Alton both vent to each other about whatever problems they have with their parents. Neither are particularly estranged from them or anything, but they both feel pressure in their families to succeed in one area or another and are in similar positions being the youngest child (well, Alton has a younger half-sister, but he doesn’t see her as much since he’s raised mostly by Misty rather than Brock.)
  6. Sage has an appreciation for traditional Kantonian culture that’s reflected in his style of dress. While neither of his parents are particularly spiritual or traditional, both of their parents (Sage’s grandparents) were friends with one of Kanto’s major deities. Sage grew up hearing stories about historical eras, spirits, youkai, and the like from his Aunt Yellow and her father, as well as his own great-grandfather Blaine, and developed an interest in Kanto’s history and traditional culture. He loves festivals since to him, they’re somewhat a timeless tradition and depending on the festival, sometimes the Other World is more present than ever. 
  7. Sage’s dislike of urban legends is related to this. He hates how modern myths replace the old ones and will never spread an urban legend he hears, even chiding the one he heard it from for believing rumors like that. Similarly, Sage has a fascination with youkai ever since he found out his own great-great grandmother was a fox youkai. He’s cautious about poking his nose too far into such things, however, since he knows it can be dangerous even for mages like himself.
  8. When traveling in Johto, Sage’s group encounter Branwen, Corvin, and Celeste, all of whom spend a lot of time investigating the supernatural, urban legends, hauntings, and the like (much to Celeste’s chagrin.) Sage disapproves of their actions since he believes they’re just putting themselves and others in danger by messing with things they don’t understand. He’s rivals especially with Branwen, who’s flippant attitude reminds him unpleasantly of Roy. They battle pretty much every time they meet.
  9. Sage has a habit of being very defensive of his interests, especially if they’re more obscure. He tends to criticize more popular trends and media if he happens to enjoy something less popular and will get annoyed if anyone makes the inevitable hipster jokes about this. For example, Sage dislikes the Hoenn Rangers Coexistence Force show only because he likes the older and less popular Kanto Rangers Justice Heroes program, which only had two seasons and barely any merch or dvds exist any more. It’s less that he loves the latter show, and more that he’s bothered that the one he likes more is less popular. He has similar feelings about many other things, like foods, movies, and music.
  10. Sage is actually horrible at learning languages. He’s fluent in Japanese (his mother tongue),

    and Japanese Sign Language (what Red uses to primarily communicate) and semi-fluent in League Standard (a language intended for use by travelers that’s standardized across all regions that are part of the Pokémon League, it’s taught in schools and most people are only conversational in it unless they travel frequently.) He chose English as his language elective in school but is miserable at it. He generally relies on his more linguistically-inclined friends to translate if the need arises.

Wait… Blaine is Red’s grandfather?! That’s interesting…

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Blaine is Red and Leaf’s grandfather, you’re right! He has one child, a daughter named Scarlett, who left her home on Cinnabar Island to go on her pokémon journey to challenge the Kanto Gyms in the year 3584. During her journey she runs into Professor Samuel Oak’s son, Charlie, and his best friend, Aiden, who are travelling together. While Charlie was undertaking a junior research program during his journey, Aiden was a competitive trainer like Scarlett, so the two naturally became rivals. Aiden and Scarlett both had ambitions to become the Champion one day and while they competed, they also end up becoming friends, especially after Aiden unexpectedly helps save Scarlett’s life (which is also when her crush on him fully blooms – though it takes a while for Aiden to notice both that and his own feelings for her.)

The two end up dating and later get married. Scarlett moves to Pallet to be with her husband and the two have two children together – Red and Leaf. While both still had aspirations to become Champion, they both found that that goal was harder then they had thought when they were young. Scarlett ends up with health problems following Red’s difficult birth, which result in her needing to stay closer to home. She gets a job as a teacher for aspiring trainers at the local school. Aiden, meanwhile, gets a job as a trainer at the Viridian Gym, however when Red is 8 and Leaf is 6, he goes missing following his discovery of Team Rocket activity there. During these struggles, Blaine does his best to support his daughter and her family, though he can’t often leave Cinnabar due to his job as Gym Leader. He also, of course, ends up facing his grandchildren years later when they both go on their own journeys and is very proud of what strong trainers they’ve become. While Blaine was somewhat distant for them growing up, he is able to establish a better relationship with his grandchildren once they’re teens.