Sonia (Pokemon)

Sonia
Species	Human
Hair color	Peach
Eye color	Blue
Base	Wedgehurst
Relatives	Professor Magnolia (grandmother)
Voiced by	Morghan Lauré Garrett (2021)
Debut	Pokémon Sword/Shield

Sonia is a supporting character appearing in Pokémon Sword and Shield. She is the granddaughter of Professor Magnolia and becomes a Pokémon Professor herself over the course of the game.

Background

Sonia lived with her grandmother, Professor Magnolia, at her house at Route 2. When she was younger, she took part in Galar's Gym Challenge. She acted as a rival for Leon in those days. She and her Yamper also helped Leon to find his way when he was lost. Leon had a habit of teasing her, and the two of them tended to bicker. While Leon ended up becoming the champion of Galar, Sonia ended up returning home and helped her grandmother as an unofficial assistant. Magnolia pushed Sonia to do more with her life, but Sonia seemed to lack direction. At some point, she also befriended Nessa.

Within Sword/Shield, Sonia was first seen in Magnolia's Pokémon Lab at Wedgehurst. Sonia was minding the lab for her grandmother when Leon brought Victor/Gloria and Hop there. As Victor/Gloria and Hop were new trainers, Sonia installed the Galar Pokédex on their Rotom Phones and asked them to let her grandmother know that they received it. Sonia later met the young trainers again at Professor Magnolia's home, where she tried to ask them about the mysterious Pokémon that they had encountered in the Slumbering Weald. Afterwards, Professor Magnolia chastised her for staying at home while the young trainers were off on their journey. At the same time, Sonia wanted to look more into the mysterious Pokémon that they had encountered, and she hoped to impress her grandmother by showing that she had talent of her own. So she set off to travel as well and took the Power Spot Detector with her. She met with the trainers at the entrance to the Wild Area and gave them each a Pokémon Box Link, while explaining the Wild Area to them.

Sonia met with Victor/Gloria again at Motostoke, where she gave them a tour of the Pokémon Center and did some shopping. At the Budew Drop Inn, they saw a statue of Galar's legendary hero, and Sonia explained some of the legend associated with it, which was known as the Darkest Day. Afterwards, Sonia looked into more places associated with Galar's old legends, such as the geolyph at Turffield and the tapestries at Hammerlock's Vault. Along the way, she ran into Victor/Gloria several more times and usually gave them some sort of gift. This included TM 79: Retaliate, which Sonia gave them as a reward for defeating Nessa in the Gym Challenge, when Chairman Rose treated them to a dinner at Hulbury. At Stow-on-Side, Sonia examined a local mural. However, it was later attacked by Bede. When Sonia checked it with Victor/Gloria after Bede was defeated, it turned out that the mural had crumbled to reveal ruins which hinted at the truth behind Galar's legends: that the legendary heroes from the Darkest Day were actually Pokémon associated with a sword and shield. Sonia later tried to discuss these mysteries some more with Victor/Gloria at Hammerlocke, but they were interrupted by a commotion that occurred at Hammerlocke Stadium, and Sonia went off with Leon to look into it and to warn Chairman Rose.

At Circhester, Sonia treated Victor/Gloria and Hop to dinner at Bob's Your Uncle, where she happened upon another tapestry that contained more clues about Galar's legends. She then took them to examine the Hero's Bath and theorized that the two of them could become heroes of their own. She then set off to investigate the Slumbering Weald. Sonia next appeared at Hammerlocke after the player had earned seven badges, in the aftermath of an incident in which a mysterious red light forced a Pokémon to Dynamax, and Leon ended up defeating it. She and Leon talked about the incident with Victor/Gloria and Hop. Professor Magnolia then showed up and tasked her with looking into the connection between the red light and the Darkest Day. Sonia and the professor then went off to look into something, and they met with Victor/Gloria again right after they had earned their eighth badge from Raihan. There, Magnolia declared that she was ready to pass her lab coat onto Sonia. Sonia protested, because she had not yet completed her work, but Magnolia responded that she should see this as motivation to keep working on it. Thus, Sonia received her own lab coat.

Afterwards, Sonia spent some time performing research in the Slumbering Weald. She had just stepped out of the area when she met Victor/Gloria and Hop again. She found out that while she was in there, Chairman Rose had unleashed a Pokémon called Eternatus and set off a modern version of the Darkest Day. While Victor/Gloria and Hop went into the Slumbering Weald to search for the Legendary Pokémon, Sonia gave them some Max Revives and went to perform more research. She looked through some literature from other regions and through them managed to find the identities of the mysterious Pokémon: Zacian and Zamazenta. Sonia then reported her findings to Victor/Gloria and Hop. Afterwards, the two trainers were able to work with Zacian and Zamazenta to suppress Eternatus, and Victor/Gloria was able to defeat Leon to become Galar's new champion. As for Sonia, she officially became a professor and published a book about the truth that she had discovered: that Zacian and Zamazenta were the true heroes from Galar's past. She also had to look after all of the Wishing Stars that Rose had gathered at her lab, and she hired an assistant to help her with the extra work.

Sonia later crossed paths with Victor/Gloria again by the altar within the Slumbering Weald. She congratulated Victor/Gloria on their championship and reported how things had been going for her. She also encouraged the two of them to return the relics associated with the two Legendary Pokémon, the Rusted Sword and Shield, to their rightful place at the altar. However, they were then disrupted by two eccentric young men, Sordward and Shieldbert. They claimed to be descended from Galar's legendary heroes and dismissed Sonia's findings as lies. They stole one of the relics and used it to begin wreaking havoc across Galar by forcing Pokémon to Dynamax. Sonia was able to use the Power Spot Detector to track their movements, and she sent Victor/Gloria and Hop (who were joined by Piers) to different gyms in order to control the situations as they arose. Sordworth and Shieldbert eventually came to the lab to take the Wishing Stars. Although Victor/Gloria and Hop were able to defeat them, Sonia's assistant proceeded to betray her and handed the Wishing Stars over to them. Sonia was saddened by her betrayal, but she soon picked herself back up. She sent the trainers to look into some more Dynamax incidents, while she looked into the whereabouts of the two brothers.

She ultimately tracked Sordworth and Shieldbert to the Energy Plant at Hammerlocke, and her Yamper was able to help unlock the elevator door there. She then continued to defend her research and watched the final battles unfold. One of the Legendary Pokémon came to Victor/Gloria's aid and ultimately joined them, while the other was driven into a blind rage by the brothers, until quieted through battle with Victor/Gloria, and then it ended up joining Hop. Ultimately, the two brothers turned themselves in and withdrew their claims about Sonia, and Sonia also confronted her former assistant. Sonia then witnessed Victor/Gloria's final battle with Hop at the Slumbering Weald. In the aftermath of the battle, Hop declared that he had decided to become a Pokémon Professor, and Sonia decided to hire him as her new assistant.

Pokémon Roster

Sonia's only known Pokémon is her Yamper. She has owned it since her days of taking on the Gym Challenge.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Sonia and Yamper appeared as a playable sync pair that could be recruited at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature after being added to the game in December 2021. She also had a Special Costume variant (wearing a purple dress that is intended to look royal) that was paired with a Shiny Tsareena, which was made available during limited time periods starting in April 2022. Sonia was featured in the "Winter Wishes" Story Event, in which she attended a winter soiree with other trainers while hoping for the presence of Leon and Nessa, who were acting as gift givers for Pasio's populace. Sonia had not spent much time with either of them lately and was worried that they were drifting apart. Nessa alleviated her worries first and promised that they would get a Lumiose Galette together to celebrate her becoming a professor. Leon eventually showed up to give her a new lab coat as her present. He also congratulated her on becoming a professor and thanked her for everything she did for him.

Sonia was later featured in her variant costume in the Costume Event "Curious Tea Party", in which she worked with Emmet and Ingo (both of whom were dressed as butlers) to present a series of riddles and puzzles to trainers wishing to attend a tea party. In her costume, Sonia referred to herself as a queen and felt that this helped her to battle understand her Tsareena. She presented them with the last puzzle, which was to pick Lillie's Antique Form Polteageist out of a group of Phoney Form Polteageist. Scottie/Bettie was able to solve her challenge, and Sonia then managed to defeat a Team Break grunt who wanted to steal Lillie's Polteageist. Afterwards, she learned that Lillie did not know the difference between the different forms of Polteageist and tested her to see if she could still identify hers in a group, which she accomplished easily. During the Neo Champion event "Fight for the Future Together", Sonia formed a team with Ness and Bea to compete in the Neo Champion Stadium, but they lost their battle after they all tried focusing their attacks on Leon, leaving them open to his teammates: Gloria and Victor. She was also featured in the Sync Pair-Up Event for Victor and Spectrier, in which she related what little she knew about the Pokémon and the folklore from the Crown Tundra, while wondering about its connection to the horse Pokémon ridden by Leon's Calyrex. Victor ultimately challenged her to a battle due to the Pokémon's pent-up energy, which she reluctantly accepted.

During the Main Story, she played a role during the Johto chapter of the Villain Arc, in which she provided the trainers with information on the Dynamax phenomenon and provided them with a new invention called the Dynamax Sync Pair Power Spot Detector which would help them to detect Pokémon on the verge of Dynamaxing. Will stayed with Sonia to protect her from Team Rocket while the others sought out their hideout. She also made a small appearance in the Galar chapter, where she was among the Galarian trainers who were shocked by Rose and Oleana's sudden appearance on Pasio.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Sonia appeared in the Pokémon Adventures manga during the Sword/Shield arc. As in the games, she mostly traveled around Galar and investigated areas of historical importance.
• In Pokémon: Twilight Wings, Sonia appeared in the fourth episode, where she offered Nessa advice and helped convince her to continue pursuing both Pokémon battling and modeling. She also made a cameo appearance at the end of sixth episode, where she was seen talking to Leon over her laptop during a silent montage, as well as one more appearance watching Leon's battle in the stands during the final episode. She also made an appearance after becoming professor in the bonus episode, in which she handed Hop his invitation to the Galarian Star Tournament before setting off for the Crown Tundra.
• In the Pokémon anime, Sonia appeared during the Pokémon Journeys series. She was primarily featured during an arc that was based on the storyline of Sword and Shield, in which she conducted research around Galar and ultimately became a Pokémon Professor after accepting the title from her grandmother. It was also shown that Sonia and Leon were childhood friends, but a rift started between them after Rose started mentoring Leon.

Trivia

• Her name, which is the same in both Japanese and English, may be derived from the plant genus "Sandersonia". It is never made clear if she shares her grandmother's surname of "Magnolia".
• According to Opal's notes, Sonia answered all three of her questions correctly, but still failed her audition, and Opal felt that she gave up too easily, while being understanding of the pressure she must have faced as Magnolia's granddaughter.
• In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the academy contains a book that appears to be one that Sonia published. It is called "Galar: A History", and the excerpt tells of the discovery at Stow-on-Side from a first-person perspective.