Iris

"The Girl Who Knows the Hearts of Dragons"
Iris
Species	Human
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Blue
Base	Opelucid City
Debut	Pokémon: Black and White Versions

Iris is the potential gym leader of Opelucid Gym from Pokémon: Black and White Versions whose status depends on the version; she is the eighth and final gym leader of the Unova region whom the player faces in White, but in Black Drayden is still gym leader with Iris as his apprentice. She specializes in Dragon-type Pokémon.

Background

Iris was born in a village (with the implication that something happened to the village), and apparently wound up being raised by Dragon-type Pokémon in an unspecified forest. The details of how she ended up in this situation as well as how she eventually joined civilization are uncertain, but she eventually wound up in Opelucid City. There, the gym leader Drayden took her under his wing and trained her to one day replaced him as Opelucid's gym leader because of the bright future he saw in her. She also had her own coach to help her. Iris was confident enough to refer to herself as being an "amazing strong" trainer and was usually full of joy. She mentioned sometimes looking back on her village, but that it was okay because meeting various Pokémon and people made her happier.

In Pokémon: Black and White Versions. Iris first encountered the protagonist in Castelia City. She happened to overhear Bianca screaming when a Team Plasma grunt was stealing her Munna, but she arrived too late to help her. Iris decided to remain by Bianca's side and act as her bodyguard for the time being. They met up with Hilbert/Hilda and Burgh, and together they were able to pursue a grunt to Team Plasma's latest hideout. There they found Ghetsis and Bronius, who talked about Team Plasma's goals but wound up returning Bianca's Pokémon to her without a fight. Iris gave Hilbert/Hilda a Yache Berry and then began tutoring Bianca until she could take care of herself.

Iris later returned to Opelucid. Hilbert/Hilda and Alder met up with her and Drayden following a public Team Plasma rally in the city. They all spurred Team Plasma's beliefs that Pokémon should be permanently separated from Pokémon trainers. Iris believed that people and Pokémon truly benefited from each other and claimed that she would never forgive Team Plasma for trying to take them away. At Alder's request, they then explained the legend of the legendary Dragon-types Reshiram and Zekrom to Hilbert/Hilda due to N having taken control of one of them for Team Plasma.

In Black, Iris remained at the house while Hilbert/Hilda engaged Drayden in a gym match. In White, Drayden sent Iris to the gym to battle them instead. Iris was excited to face the challenger and expressed a strong curiosity for what kinds of Pokémon challengers used and how they used them. After being defeated, she surrendered the Legend Badge and TM82: Dragon Tail. Iris was happy to fight a trainer as strong as her, but she also wondered how Alder was doing against N and gave Hilbert/Hilda directions to the Pokémon League, which pressed the trainer to continue on their journey. Cheren and Bianca also defeated her soon afterwards.

In both versions, Bianca came to all the gyms calling for help when N's Castle arose at the Pokémon League. Both Drayden and Iris responded to the call, storming the castle with six of the other gym leaders just in time to hold off six of Team Plasma's Seven Sages. She then returned to Drayden's home in Black or the gym in White. In Black, she acted as a Move Tutor at this point and would tutor Draco Meteor to any Dragon-type Pokémon that had a high happiness level.

Iris would later visit the Undella Town villa where Cynthia was staying during the summer. She admired Cynthia's Garchomp as well as the oceanic view and talked about her and Drayden's plans to go on a cruise.

Pokémon Roster

Iris uses the following Pokémon in battle:

• Fraxure
• Druddigon
• Haxorus

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Iris appears in the Pokémon anime's Black and White series, where she is featured as one of the main characters due to becoming one of Ash's new companions for the trip through Unova (following the tradition of previous female companions but particularly Misty due to being a gym leader instead of a rookie trainer). Their group was eventually rounded out by Cilan. She is shown as a hyperactive and adventurous girl who is at home in the wilderness. Her reasons for joining Ash, the details of her past, and whether or not this interpretation is a gym leader yet is not known.

Trivia

• She and Drayden both use the same Pokémon for their gym battles, with the only difference between their rosters being their Pokémon's genders; Iris has a team of all females while Drayden's team is all male.
• Iris was designed with the idea of the youngest gym leader in the game in mind, to be contrasted by Drayden being the oldest.