Noland

Factory Head
Noland
Species	Human
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
Base	Battle Factory
Voiced by	Kaiji Tang (2019)
Debut	Pokémon: Emerald Version

Noland is one of the seven Frontier Brains of Hoenn's Battle Frontier appearing in Pokémon: Emerald Version. He is the Factory Head in charge of the Battle Factory.

Background

With the Battle Factory being a place that focused more on the research of the trainers who challenged it, Noland naturally valued intelligence. However, he believed that knowledge was more than just studying and that experience just as important in achieving true knowledge. Noland played fairly and battled the trainer using the same conditions that the trainer was fighting under, in that he used a team composed of completely random rental Pokémon. He also had access to the Battle Swap data of incoming challengers and would analyze them to prepare for battles.

In Emerald, Brendan/May would face him in their 21st and 42nd consecutive battles of the Battle Factory. He would at first lecture them about the importance of experience in knowledge, and after being defeated the first time he gave the winner the Knowledge Symbol for their Frontier Pass. In the second battle, he was excited to see that his challenger looked tougher than earlier, and after being defeated he bestowed a gold symbol upon them. He promised he would not lose again and wanted to battle again someday.

Pokémon Roster

His Pokémon roster is chosen completely at random from all the Pokémon available in as of the third generation games, with the exceptions being legendary Pokémon such as Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi and Deoxys.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Noland and a Pinsir appear together as a playable sync pair that can be unlocked at random through the Sync Pair Scout feature. Noland's Pinsir can also Mega Evolve into Mega Pinsir when using a sync move in battle. Ninjask was also available as an alternate sync partner for Noland by spending Battle Points, starting in October 2023. When fought as an opponent, Noland could also sync up with Machamp or Clefairy (a rental Pokémon during the Metronome Day event). Noland has also made appearances in some of the game's story events. In the "Melancholy Wally" Story Event, he was mentoring Wally and tried to help him understand the importance of resting instead of pushing himself and his Pokémon. He and Thorton acted as Wally's teammates for the competition depicted in the event. During the "Metronome Day" Special Event, both Noland and Thorton were intrigued by the idea of using only rental Pokémon that would only use the Metronome move, due to their experiences working with rental Pokémon. This experience was later called upon in "Trainer Files: Two Factory Heads", in which Sawyer called upon the Factory Heads to help calm down a pair of rowdy rental Pokémon so that they could work with inexperienced trainers. Noland worked with a Ninjask, introduced himself to the Pokémon and laughed when it lashed out at him. Noland was able to form a bond with the Ninjask, and Thorton was able to do the same with the other Pokémon. However, it was discovered that the Pokémon became rebellious again when working with other trainers, and they only behaved with Noland and Thorton. So it was decided that Noland and Thorton could keep the respective Pokémon they worked with, and so Ninjask officially became another partner of Noland's. Noland also appeared as an opponent in Brendan's Sync Pair Story, where he had to be defeated in order for Brendan's Treecko to evolve.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Noland appeared in two episodes of the Pokémon anime, where he was an inventor who would often ride around in an airplane he made. In this version, he allows challengers to pick which Pokémon they will battle, but when Ash Ketchum challenges him, he chooses to battle Noland's Articuno (whom he befriended, rather than owned) with his Charizard in a one-on-one battle.
• Noland appears in the Pokémon Adventures manga, where he is the first Frontier Brain whom Emerald faces in his challenge of the Battle Frontier. He is in charge of taking care and raising all of the Battle Frontier's rental Pokémon. He is defeated by Emerald but quickly comes to respect him and discusses strategy at length with him. He was temporarily put out of commission after Guile Hideout attacked him to steal the rental Pokémon, but he eventually recovered to help in the later battles against Guile. The Frontier Brains reappeared in the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire arc, where they helped in the fight against Neo Team Magma and Neo Team Aqua as well as in the effort to destroy Grand Meteor Delta.

Trivia

• His Japanese name is Datsura, which is named after the Datura plant genius. His English name of Noland may be intended to be a play on "knowledge".
• He shares his title with Thorton from Sinnoh and Johto's Battle Frontier.