Palmer

Palmer as seen in Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Versions
Palmer
Species	Human
Affiliation	Battle Frontier
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Orange
Base	Twinleaf Town
Relatives	Wife Barry (son)
Voiced by	Unknown (2023)
Debut	Pokémon: Diamond/Pearl Versions

Palmer is a Pokémon trainer who appears as the Tower Tycoon in charge of the Battle Tower in Pokémon: Diamond, Pearl and Platinum Versions, as well as HeartGold and Soulsilver and the Brilliand Diamond/Shining Pearl remakes. In Platinum, he also acted as one of the five Frontier Brains for Sinnoh's Battle Frontier, and he similarly is a Frontier Brain for Johto's Battle Frontier in HeartGold/SoulSilver. Additionally, he is the father of the fourth generation's rival character.

Background

In his youth, Palmer was best friends with the father of Lucas/Dawn. Palmer's recollection was hazy, but it was known that they were involved in a wild Pokémon attack at a lake, in which they fended the Pokémon off with methods that Palmer did not recall, and he also remembered a professor being involved. Palmer recalled the incident as his first step as a Pokémon trainer (the incident likely intentionally being described to resemble how Lucas/Dawn and Barry got their first Pokémon at the beginning of Diamond/Pearl). Like his son, Palmer was an exuberant man who was always in a rush and possessed a strong competitive spirit. He believed that the best trainers showed respect to one another by battling as dedicated students of Pokémon. Palmer eventually had a family at Twinleaf Town with a wife and a son who quickly took after him, although Palmer spent most of his time at the Battle Tower within Sinnoh's Battle Zone. In Platinum, he conducted his duties as a Frontier Brain.

In Diamond/Pearl/Platinum as well as Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, Palmer was first seen accidentally bumping into Lucas/Dawn while running to the tower when the player saw it for the first time, although Palmer did not initially recognize them. Within the Battle Tower, Palmer could be battled after 21 and then 49 consecutive battles. During the first challenge, he recognized Lucas/Dawn as his son's friend and was impressed at how they had grown. He requested they show him the bond they built with their Pokémon and the skill that they had built as a trainer. After being defeated, he encouraged Lucas/Dawn to keep training and becoming stronger like their father did, and he told them how much he looked forward to the day that when Barry would emerge to challenge him. After being defeated a second time, he felt inspired and recalled memories of Lucas/Dawn's father from their youth. He proceeded to further encourage Lucas/Dawn to becoming stronger, telling them that they had no limits. In Platinum, he gave the player a silver print after the first battle and a gold print after the second one. In Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, he could also be battled as the Rank 10 opponent for Master Class battles, the highest rank for the challenge. In the Doubles division, he formed a team with Barry and made it clear how proud he was of his son as well as thanking Lucas/Dawn for helping him to improve so much.

In HeartGold/SoulSilver, he ran the same Battle Tower operation for Johto's Battle Frontier. The primary difference, of course, was that Palmer's dialogue was different to acknowledge that Ethan/Lyra was a different character who did not know Barry.

Pokémon Roster

During the first challenge, he uses the following three Pokémon across all versions:

• Dragonite
• Milotic
• Rhyperior

During the second challenge, he uses the following three Pokémon across all versions:

• Heatran
• Regigigas
• Cresselia

For the Master Class battles in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, he could use mixes of three Pokémon (or two in Doubles) from both rosters.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Palmer and Regigigas 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 September 2023. In this appearance, his Regigigas was capable of Dynamaxing. After being added to the game, he was featured in the "Tower Tycoon and Hall Matron" Story Event. In that event, Palmer was confused by Barry avoiding him. Ultimately, Argenta was able to encourage Barry to admit the truth to Palmer. Barry had told Palmer that he had become stronger than him when he first arrived at Pasio and was worried that he would disappoint his father if he did not live up to the claim, so he wanted to train more in order to truly make it a reality. Palmer assured Barry that he did not have to compare himself to him or try to copy him and that he should just focus on nurturing his own strength. Barry was successfully encouraged to show Palmer his own strength, so the event ended with Barry teaming up with Scottie/Bettie and Brendan for a battle against Palmer, Argenta and Norman.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• In the Pokémon anime, Palmer was first seen in a cameo appearance fighting Cynthia in the intro to the twelfth movie. Within the series, he first showed up in two subsequent episodes where he was revealed as the father of Barry and held a tournament at the Twinleaf Festival. Ash won the tournament, but lost to Palmer. although Palmer still gave him a trophy for winning the tournament.
• In the Pokémon Adventures arc, Palmer was featured in the Platinum arc after being mentioned in the Diamond/Pearl arc. He had obtained a Cresselia and was investigating the Distortion Zone. After Platina defeated the other Frontier Brains, Palmer allowed her to join him and other trainers in their journey into the Distortion Zone, where they clashed with Darkrai and other legendary Pokémon. After the crisis was resolved, Palmer invited Platina to battle him at the Battle Tower in order to complete her Frontier challenge. He later appeared in the HeartGold/SoulSilver Pokémon, where he was shown to have captured Regigigas, but he released it because it was too powerful to control, leading to Diamond obtaining it.
• In Pokémon Evolutions, Palmer was featured in an episode showing Barry battling him at the Battle Tower, which was interspersed with flashbacks to Barry's Pokémon journey. Barry won the battle, and Palmer was left asking him who he would challenge next.

Trivia

• His Japanese name is Kurotsugu, named after the Japanese word for a dwarf sugar palm. His English name of Palmer is simply derived from 'palm'.
• Uniquely, Palmer is the only Frontier Brain so far who has appeared outside of and prior to the version featuring the Battle Frontier. His Battle Tower challenge in Diamond/Pearl could be considered a preview for the Battle Frontier in Platinum.
• Although their English titles are different, in Japanese he shares his Frontier Brain title of Tower Tycoon with Anabel of the Hoenn Battle Frontier.
• There is a kanji symbol on the back of his coat which translates to 'king'.