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I've been toying with the idea of creating canon teams for every player character for years, but have taken it more seriously the last couple days as I've made lists for almost every PC over the past couple days. I've always been fascinated with the character of Red almost since I found out about him in around 2009-2010, when HGSS was announced, as a newer fan into Pokemon, my first game was Ruby, followed by LeafGreen. I always assumed the PC of LeafGreen was Ash, since my only prior knowledge about Pokemon was the anime, when I found out our PC was in the remakes as a final trainer battle, I became obsessed with Red and the concept of an NPC of a player character. Specifically, more recently, I've watched a ton of YouTube videos of people playing through games in a "gift Pokemon only" run, or more specifically, a "no catching run", where they construct a team out of only gift Pokemon, without ever throwing a Pokeball (unless required to for HMs or to progress the story). To understand Red's team, and by extension, what the canon teams for every other PC would be, you have to understand two types of Pokemon obtainable in the games:
First, Gift Pokemon.
Second, In-Game Event Pokemon.
The two classifications are almost identical, with most, if not all, gift Pokemon also being classified as in-game event Pokemon (since typically an event triggers the gifting of the Pokemon), but in addition to all gift Pokemon, in-game event Pokemon also includes special spawns, such as the two Snorlax in the Kanto games, or the static Drifloon in Sinnoh games, static Volcarona in the Unova games, and so on. Red's team (with only two recent exceptions, which I'll mention later) is comprised ENTIRELY of Pokemon that fit the above two classifications. Yellow is the most canonically manageable version of Red, so we will assume Red started with a Pikachu, obtained all three starters as gift Pokemon from their respective locations, caught one of the Snorlax, obtained the Eevee in Celadon City and the Lapras in Saffron City. These seven Pokemon make up all of his team showings from the first 7 generations. Only in LGPE did this change, as in this game, as a homage to the Pokemon Adventures Manga, they gave Red, Blue, and Green their respective manga Kanto starters and made some other team adjustments to make up for the absence of Charizard and Blastoise on Red's team, by giving him Arcanine and Machamp. Barring these two exceptions, Red's team is entirely comprised of Gen 1 and 3 gift Pokemon and in-game event Pokemon.
Using this formula with every other PC, it's not hard to come up with canon teams for just about every PC (with some exceptions, but I'll try my best).
We're gonna go down each and every generation, starting with Gen 2, since Gen 1 already has their canon teams. The only player characters from the Kanto games are Red and Green, with Green being added in the Gen 1 remakes in Gen 3. Red's team has already been covered and LGPE is Green's only appearance as an NPC, so I'm going to say that her LGPE team is her CANON team for the player character version of Green in FRLG.
Gen 2 is an interesting one to tackle because right off the bat we have three PC's, four if you're being incredibly picky about Ethan and Gold being separate characters, but I digress, Ethan is Gold so I will call him Ethan for simplicity's sake. We have Ethan in GSC and HGSS, Kris in Crystal, and Lyra in HGSS. Before Pokemon Masters, many thought Lyra and Kris were essentially just the same person but different variations of her, much like the PC's in SM and USUM are the same person, or how Leaf and Green are thought of as simply being one and the same, but this isn't actually true for Kris and Lyra, as both appear in Pokemon Masters.
I will preface all my team selections by saying this: in an effort to not overlap gift Pokemon across multiple characters for the same region, and to aid in choosing a starter, I may reference the mobile game Pokemon Masters, the anime, or the Pokemon Adventures manga to help with team selections.
Generation 2-
Kris:
-Feraligatr
-Wigglytuff
-Togetic
-Espeon
-Sudowoodo
-Hitmontop
For Kris, the logical thing to do is use some gift Pokemon exclusive to Crystal, as that is the only game that she's playable. Masters has decided that she started with a Totodile, so right off the bat she has a Feraligatr on her team. She has an anime counterpart named Marina, who also has a Jigglypuff on her team. This works out great because the Odd Egg that's exclusive to Crystal can hatch an Igglybuff, so Wigglytuff is a logical second Pokemon. Togetic as another egg gift Pokemon works fine. Espeon and Hitmontop are both evolutions of gift Pokemon obtained throughout the Johto portion of a Crystal playthrough, and Sudowoodo is obviously a one-time in-game event Pokemon.
Ethan:
-Typhlosion
-Togekiss
-Ampharos
-Umbreon
-Gyarados (Shiny)
-Dragonite
Masters, the Adventures manga, AND his anime counterpart, Jimmy, have all decided Ethan starts with a Typhlosion, so that one was easy. Togekiss is the new final evolution of the egg in HGSS anyways. Ampharos is from one of the Primo Eggs in HGSS, Umbreon is the gift Eevee, and I give him both the Lake of Rage Gyarados and the Dragon's Den Dragonite.
Lyra:
-Marill
-Porygon
-Tauros
-Bulbasaur
-Tangela
-Meganium
Admittedly I'm shafting Lyra here but I can explain, you see, her anime counterpart is the one with the Marill, just like the unselected PC has in HGSS, for this reason, I feel like canonically, Lyra is the one with the Marill. The next four Pokemon are all Pokemon she'll mention owning in PokeGear calls as the NPC. The Meganium is what Masters gave her, although it's spot on the team is debatable since the games never explicitly gave it to her, BUT, I believe the third Pokeball in Elm's lab does disappear eventually during a HGSS playthrough, so maybe she took it later.
Generation 3-
This one is easy, there's only May to cover. In my opinion, and according to the anime, May is the daughter of Norman, which means she is the canon player character, also May clearly has a huge interest in contests, something the unselected PC never expresses much of an interest in. You MIGHT counter this by saying that her Adventures counterpart, Sapphire, is the daughter of Professor Birch but since May is the name of the character in the games and in the anime, I prioritize using the anime over the Adventures manga in this case.
May:
-Blaziken
-Pikachu
-Wobbuffet
-Armaldo -> Metagross
-Castform
-Kecleon
Blaziken is obviously the starter Torchic May in the anime had, Pikachu is a gift contest Pokemon in ORAS, Wobbuffet is the evolved Wynaut from the egg. Armaldo is one of the two Hoenn fossils, but to avoid any discrepancies regarding the choice of either Armaldo or Cradily, I would swap Armaldo out for the gift Beldum in the post-game, evolved fully into a Metagross. Castform is a gift from the Weather Institute and static encounter Kecleons can be encountered throughout Hoenn.
Oh, and in case I didn't make it obvious for characters like Blue and Silver, and the unselected PC like Brendan, their in-game rival teams would suffice as THEIR canon team. So in the case of Brendan, if you pick Torchic as May, his team starting with Swampert would be his canon team.
Generation 4-
This is another easy one, for the same reasons as May, Dawn is canonically the Sinnoh PC. Dawn from the anime has the same exact mother, Johanna, and is also from Twinleaf Town, whereas the unselected PC is from Sandgem Town. Dawn also competes in contests.
Dawn:
-Empoleon/Torterra?
-Glaceon
-Blissey/Togekiss
-Spiritomb
-Porygon-Z
-Lucario
Empoleon is her starter Piplup, although if you feel inclined to prioritize staying true to Masters over the anime, Empoleon can be subbed for Torterra. For this reason, for a Sinnoh evolution of Eevee, Glaceon doesn't overlap in typing even if you decide Torterra is a better fit for her team. Blissey is the gift Happiny egg, Spiritomb is the one-time static encounter, Porygon-Z is from the gift Porygon, and Lucario is from the gift Riolu egg. I will note that if you want to, you could omit Blissey for Togekiss, as Dawn did have a Togekiss in the anime, and there is a gift Togepi egg but only in Platinum. Blissey makes sure this team works for Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum.
Generation 5-
This is where it gets to be a bit of a headache, as there are not two, not three, but FOUR player characters to sort through, and both BW and BW2 have unique rivals, so the unselected PC doesn't become your rival, this makes this even more a headache to sort through, but I'll do my best.
Hilbert:
-Samurott
-Simisear
-Archeops
-Zoroark
-Volcarona
-Zekrom
This was kind of the easiest one to do. In Pokemon Masters, Hilbert has a Samurott, and in the series of anime shorts, Pokemon Generations, he is shown with Zekrom. The rest I filled out with obvious gift Pokemon, the fire monkey since he picked Oshawott as his starter. Archeops as his fossil since he has no reason to have Carracosta and a duplicate Water-type. Zoroark can be obtained as a gift Zorua or Zoroark, and Volcarona can either be the static encounter of the Larvesta egg, even though it's a repeat type, I was going to have to force a repeat type either for Hilbert or Hilda, by swapping Musharna for Volcarona.
Hilda:
-Emboar
-Simisage
-Carracosta
-Musharna
-Darmanitan
-Zoroark
For Hilda, in Masters and some other media, she started with a Tepig, so Emboar is the no-brainer. Simisage is the matching Grass monkey, and Carracosta rounds out the Fire/Grass/Water core as her fossil. Then I gave her the late-game static Musharna, and a static Zen Mode Darmanitan, but there are now no more unique gift Pokemon, so I gave her Zoroark. Pretend that one of these two characters got their's as the gift Zorua, and the other got the in-game event Zoroark.
For Nate and Rosa, there is little media to go off of for deciding which gift and in-game event Pokemon they should get, other than their respective starters being shown in the BW2 Animated Trailer, so I'm just gonna half-ass the distribution of gift and in-game event Pokemon between the two to try and make somewhat balanced teams.
Nate:
-Emboar
-Jolteon
-Jellicent
-Sawsbuck
-Braviary
-Dragonite (Shiny)
Rosa:
-Serperior
-Vaporeon
-Crustle
-Blissey
-Mandibuzz
-Garchomp (Shiny)
Generation 6-
Gen 6 gets easier again, Serena in the anime is actually the daughter of the famous Rhyhorn racer, Grace, so Serena being the canon PC in the games makes the most sense, and this is what I have for her team.
Serena:
-Delphox
-Venusaur
-Snorlax
-Tyrantrum
-Lucario
-Lapras
Pretty easy team to come up with, Fennekin is her starter in the anime and in Masters, Lapras is a confirmed gift Pokemon so Venusaur makes the most sense to round out the type chart, Snorlax and Lucario are received in Kalos, and Tyrantrum makes the most sense as the fossil so as not to overlap with Lapras with the Ice-type Aurorus.
This is all I have so far, I haven't put much thought into Generation 7 since Gen 7 introduced actual alternate timelines in a major way, with the stories, and the Pokemon availability in SM and USUM are vastly different, so this isn't one I'm willing to tackle tonight, and Gen 8 isn't even done for sure but I could take a crack at both tomorrow perhaps.
Don't take any of this personally or anything, since this is just my interpretation of what canon teams could look like, in the end it hardly matters since YOU, the player, decide what your player character's team is.
First, Gift Pokemon.
Second, In-Game Event Pokemon.
The two classifications are almost identical, with most, if not all, gift Pokemon also being classified as in-game event Pokemon (since typically an event triggers the gifting of the Pokemon), but in addition to all gift Pokemon, in-game event Pokemon also includes special spawns, such as the two Snorlax in the Kanto games, or the static Drifloon in Sinnoh games, static Volcarona in the Unova games, and so on. Red's team (with only two recent exceptions, which I'll mention later) is comprised ENTIRELY of Pokemon that fit the above two classifications. Yellow is the most canonically manageable version of Red, so we will assume Red started with a Pikachu, obtained all three starters as gift Pokemon from their respective locations, caught one of the Snorlax, obtained the Eevee in Celadon City and the Lapras in Saffron City. These seven Pokemon make up all of his team showings from the first 7 generations. Only in LGPE did this change, as in this game, as a homage to the Pokemon Adventures Manga, they gave Red, Blue, and Green their respective manga Kanto starters and made some other team adjustments to make up for the absence of Charizard and Blastoise on Red's team, by giving him Arcanine and Machamp. Barring these two exceptions, Red's team is entirely comprised of Gen 1 and 3 gift Pokemon and in-game event Pokemon.
Using this formula with every other PC, it's not hard to come up with canon teams for just about every PC (with some exceptions, but I'll try my best).
We're gonna go down each and every generation, starting with Gen 2, since Gen 1 already has their canon teams. The only player characters from the Kanto games are Red and Green, with Green being added in the Gen 1 remakes in Gen 3. Red's team has already been covered and LGPE is Green's only appearance as an NPC, so I'm going to say that her LGPE team is her CANON team for the player character version of Green in FRLG.
Gen 2 is an interesting one to tackle because right off the bat we have three PC's, four if you're being incredibly picky about Ethan and Gold being separate characters, but I digress, Ethan is Gold so I will call him Ethan for simplicity's sake. We have Ethan in GSC and HGSS, Kris in Crystal, and Lyra in HGSS. Before Pokemon Masters, many thought Lyra and Kris were essentially just the same person but different variations of her, much like the PC's in SM and USUM are the same person, or how Leaf and Green are thought of as simply being one and the same, but this isn't actually true for Kris and Lyra, as both appear in Pokemon Masters.
I will preface all my team selections by saying this: in an effort to not overlap gift Pokemon across multiple characters for the same region, and to aid in choosing a starter, I may reference the mobile game Pokemon Masters, the anime, or the Pokemon Adventures manga to help with team selections.
Generation 2-
Kris:
-Feraligatr
-Wigglytuff
-Togetic
-Espeon
-Sudowoodo
-Hitmontop
For Kris, the logical thing to do is use some gift Pokemon exclusive to Crystal, as that is the only game that she's playable. Masters has decided that she started with a Totodile, so right off the bat she has a Feraligatr on her team. She has an anime counterpart named Marina, who also has a Jigglypuff on her team. This works out great because the Odd Egg that's exclusive to Crystal can hatch an Igglybuff, so Wigglytuff is a logical second Pokemon. Togetic as another egg gift Pokemon works fine. Espeon and Hitmontop are both evolutions of gift Pokemon obtained throughout the Johto portion of a Crystal playthrough, and Sudowoodo is obviously a one-time in-game event Pokemon.
Ethan:
-Typhlosion
-Togekiss
-Ampharos
-Umbreon
-Gyarados (Shiny)
-Dragonite
Masters, the Adventures manga, AND his anime counterpart, Jimmy, have all decided Ethan starts with a Typhlosion, so that one was easy. Togekiss is the new final evolution of the egg in HGSS anyways. Ampharos is from one of the Primo Eggs in HGSS, Umbreon is the gift Eevee, and I give him both the Lake of Rage Gyarados and the Dragon's Den Dragonite.
Lyra:
-Marill
-Porygon
-Tauros
-Bulbasaur
-Tangela
-Meganium
Admittedly I'm shafting Lyra here but I can explain, you see, her anime counterpart is the one with the Marill, just like the unselected PC has in HGSS, for this reason, I feel like canonically, Lyra is the one with the Marill. The next four Pokemon are all Pokemon she'll mention owning in PokeGear calls as the NPC. The Meganium is what Masters gave her, although it's spot on the team is debatable since the games never explicitly gave it to her, BUT, I believe the third Pokeball in Elm's lab does disappear eventually during a HGSS playthrough, so maybe she took it later.
Generation 3-
This one is easy, there's only May to cover. In my opinion, and according to the anime, May is the daughter of Norman, which means she is the canon player character, also May clearly has a huge interest in contests, something the unselected PC never expresses much of an interest in. You MIGHT counter this by saying that her Adventures counterpart, Sapphire, is the daughter of Professor Birch but since May is the name of the character in the games and in the anime, I prioritize using the anime over the Adventures manga in this case.
May:
-Blaziken
-Pikachu
-Wobbuffet
-Armaldo -> Metagross
-Castform
-Kecleon
Blaziken is obviously the starter Torchic May in the anime had, Pikachu is a gift contest Pokemon in ORAS, Wobbuffet is the evolved Wynaut from the egg. Armaldo is one of the two Hoenn fossils, but to avoid any discrepancies regarding the choice of either Armaldo or Cradily, I would swap Armaldo out for the gift Beldum in the post-game, evolved fully into a Metagross. Castform is a gift from the Weather Institute and static encounter Kecleons can be encountered throughout Hoenn.
Oh, and in case I didn't make it obvious for characters like Blue and Silver, and the unselected PC like Brendan, their in-game rival teams would suffice as THEIR canon team. So in the case of Brendan, if you pick Torchic as May, his team starting with Swampert would be his canon team.
Generation 4-
This is another easy one, for the same reasons as May, Dawn is canonically the Sinnoh PC. Dawn from the anime has the same exact mother, Johanna, and is also from Twinleaf Town, whereas the unselected PC is from Sandgem Town. Dawn also competes in contests.
Dawn:
-Empoleon/Torterra?
-Glaceon
-Blissey/Togekiss
-Spiritomb
-Porygon-Z
-Lucario
Empoleon is her starter Piplup, although if you feel inclined to prioritize staying true to Masters over the anime, Empoleon can be subbed for Torterra. For this reason, for a Sinnoh evolution of Eevee, Glaceon doesn't overlap in typing even if you decide Torterra is a better fit for her team. Blissey is the gift Happiny egg, Spiritomb is the one-time static encounter, Porygon-Z is from the gift Porygon, and Lucario is from the gift Riolu egg. I will note that if you want to, you could omit Blissey for Togekiss, as Dawn did have a Togekiss in the anime, and there is a gift Togepi egg but only in Platinum. Blissey makes sure this team works for Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum.
Generation 5-
This is where it gets to be a bit of a headache, as there are not two, not three, but FOUR player characters to sort through, and both BW and BW2 have unique rivals, so the unselected PC doesn't become your rival, this makes this even more a headache to sort through, but I'll do my best.
Hilbert:
-Samurott
-Simisear
-Archeops
-Zoroark
-Volcarona
-Zekrom
This was kind of the easiest one to do. In Pokemon Masters, Hilbert has a Samurott, and in the series of anime shorts, Pokemon Generations, he is shown with Zekrom. The rest I filled out with obvious gift Pokemon, the fire monkey since he picked Oshawott as his starter. Archeops as his fossil since he has no reason to have Carracosta and a duplicate Water-type. Zoroark can be obtained as a gift Zorua or Zoroark, and Volcarona can either be the static encounter of the Larvesta egg, even though it's a repeat type, I was going to have to force a repeat type either for Hilbert or Hilda, by swapping Musharna for Volcarona.
Hilda:
-Emboar
-Simisage
-Carracosta
-Musharna
-Darmanitan
-Zoroark
For Hilda, in Masters and some other media, she started with a Tepig, so Emboar is the no-brainer. Simisage is the matching Grass monkey, and Carracosta rounds out the Fire/Grass/Water core as her fossil. Then I gave her the late-game static Musharna, and a static Zen Mode Darmanitan, but there are now no more unique gift Pokemon, so I gave her Zoroark. Pretend that one of these two characters got their's as the gift Zorua, and the other got the in-game event Zoroark.
For Nate and Rosa, there is little media to go off of for deciding which gift and in-game event Pokemon they should get, other than their respective starters being shown in the BW2 Animated Trailer, so I'm just gonna half-ass the distribution of gift and in-game event Pokemon between the two to try and make somewhat balanced teams.
Nate:
-Emboar
-Jolteon
-Jellicent
-Sawsbuck
-Braviary
-Dragonite (Shiny)
Rosa:
-Serperior
-Vaporeon
-Crustle
-Blissey
-Mandibuzz
-Garchomp (Shiny)
Generation 6-
Gen 6 gets easier again, Serena in the anime is actually the daughter of the famous Rhyhorn racer, Grace, so Serena being the canon PC in the games makes the most sense, and this is what I have for her team.
Serena:
-Delphox
-Venusaur
-Snorlax
-Tyrantrum
-Lucario
-Lapras
Pretty easy team to come up with, Fennekin is her starter in the anime and in Masters, Lapras is a confirmed gift Pokemon so Venusaur makes the most sense to round out the type chart, Snorlax and Lucario are received in Kalos, and Tyrantrum makes the most sense as the fossil so as not to overlap with Lapras with the Ice-type Aurorus.
This is all I have so far, I haven't put much thought into Generation 7 since Gen 7 introduced actual alternate timelines in a major way, with the stories, and the Pokemon availability in SM and USUM are vastly different, so this isn't one I'm willing to tackle tonight, and Gen 8 isn't even done for sure but I could take a crack at both tomorrow perhaps.
Don't take any of this personally or anything, since this is just my interpretation of what canon teams could look like, in the end it hardly matters since YOU, the player, decide what your player character's team is.
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