Archie

Archie as seen in Pokémon: Ruby and Sapphire Versions
Archie
Species	Human
Hair color	Black
Base	Aqua Hideout
Debut	Pokémon: Ruby Version/Pokemon: Sapphire Version

Archie is the leader of Team Aqua who appears as an antagonist in Pokémon Sapphire and Emerald Versions (being the primary antagonist of the former game and sharing the antagonistic limelight with Maxie in the latter game), as well as appearing as a helpful side character in Ruby Version.

Background

Archie's motives are unknown beyond his immediate desire to expand the world's oceans, due to the importance of water in sustaining life. This is what drives him to attempt to awaken the legendary ground Pokémon Kyogre.

Ruby Version

It is unknown if Archie still sought to awaken Kyogre in this game, but if so he did not actively pursue this goal. Instead, he focused on using Team Aqua to foil Team Magma's plans to awaken Groudon. He first showed up at Meteor Falls, bringing in Team Aqua to prevent Team Magma from stealing the Meteorite, but failing to do so. However, they were able to track Team Magma to Mt. Chimney and battled them there in an attempt to prevent Team Magma from erupting Mt. Chimney with their weapon. Although Archie was distracted by a group of grunts, Brendan/May arrived in time to defeat Maxie for him.

Archie showed up later on in the Seafloor Cavern, after Maxie had awakened Groudon, to scold him for attempting to control its power.

Sapphire Version

Archie engineered a variety of schemes revolving around awakening Kyogre from its resting place in the Seafloor Cavern. After his men failed to steal the Devon Goods from the Slateport Museum, Archie stepped in himself and left Brendan/May, the young trainer whom had defeated his men, off with a warning. Afterwards his next plan involved manipulating Professor Cozmo and then stealing a Meteorite from Meteor Falls.

This meteorite was used to power a machine at the volcanic Mt. Chimney, which would drain the volcano so that it could ultimately become a new habitat for water Pokémon after it was filled with rainwater. Maxie and Team Magma were opposed to this and attempted to battle him to prevent this, although it was ultimately Brendan/May who challenged and defeated Archie. Archie decided to give up on this plan and retreated, but assured his opponent that Team Aqua would win in the end. Afterwards, he put the final steps of his plan to resurrect Kyogre into motion; by stealing the Red Orb from Mt. Pyre and then hijacking Captain Stern's new Explorer 1 submarine from Slateport City.

Using the Explorer 1, Archie entered the Seafloor Cavern where Kyogre slept. He arrived at Kyogre's resting place just after Brendan/May and then battled them once again, believing that they would have to "disappear" so that he could make his dream come true. He was defeated again, but the Red Orb acted automatically in awakening Kyogre, which then fled. Archie found to his dismay that Kyogre's power was out of his control even with the Red Orb in his possession, and that Kyogre's power was more harmful to the world than he had intended. Seeing the error of his ways, Archie later returned the orb to Mt. Pyre.

Emerald Version

In this version, Archie and Maxie actively competed in attempting to revive their respective legendary Pokémon (and both eventually succeeded). Archie first showed up in person when his men were foiled by Brendan/May in their attempt to steal the Devon Goods from the Slateport Museum. Archie saw Brendan/May was just a kid and let them off with a warning. Archie and Team Aqua later pursued Maxie and Team Magma after they stole the Meteroite from Meteor Falls, in an attempt to prevent them from using it to rouse Mt. Chimney's volcano. Archie was not able to make it to Maxie in time, but Brenda/May was. After Brendan/May defeated Maxie, Archie congratulated them and left wondering whose side they were on.

Team Aqua later attacked Mt. Pyre. Although Team Magma had beaten them there, the Red Orb needed to awaken Kyogre was still there, so Archie claimed it and retreated it to Team Aqua's base in Lilycove City. Stealing the Submarine Explorer 1 from Slateport, Archie used it to travel to the Seafloor Cavern. There he once more found Brendan/May in his way at Kyogre's resting place and battled them, being defeated by the player trainer. However, the Red Orb acted automatically in awaking Kyogre, which fled without heed to any of Archie's orders. After hearing of the destruction Kyogre rained upon the land and being scolded by Maxie, Archie began to feel remorse with his actions.

Archie and Maxie then witnessed Kyogre and Groudon's epic battle at Sootopolis City, with Archie still being in denial and trying in vain to make Kyogre listen to his orders. Eventually Rayquaza descended and stopped the battle, at which point Archie and Maxie both mused on this outcome, then they both left to return their orbs to Mt. Pyre.

Pokémon Roster

Archie uses the following Pokémon in Ruby and Emerald:

• Mightyena
• Golbat/Crobat - Archie uses a Golbat the first time he is battled in Sapphire, but it is a Crobat during the Seafloor Cavern battle in Sapphire and Emerald.
• Sharpedo

Other Appearances

• In the Pokémon anime, Team Aqua appeared throughout the episodes of the Pokémon anime set in Hoenn, although Archie himself did not appear until the two-part episode featuring Kyogre and Groudon's battle. Archie was successful in claiming the Red Orb and using it to control Kyogre, but it corrupted and eventually merged with Archie, causing him to seek the flooding of everything without regard for anyone, including his own men. However, after Kyogre is defeated by Groudon the orb was ejected from Archie's body and he was knocked out, being awakened by Shelly with no recollection of what had happened when he was under the orb's influence.
• Archie was featured as a main antagonist in the Ruby/Sapphire and Emerald arcs of the Pokémon Adventures manga. In the Ruby/Sapphire arc he is head of Hoenn TV in addition to secretly leading Team Aqua, and he uses this position to hide Team Aqua's activities from the public while making Team Magma infamous and feared. They only succeed in stealing the prototype submarine engine and the Blue Orb from Maxie. However, as Maxie steals the entire submarine the two later form an alliance to enter the Seafloor Cavern together and then have Groudon and Kyogre battle each other to decide which is truly better. Even though Kyogre and Groudon were ultimately driven off by Raquaza and they were separated from their orbs, the two had been corrupted by the orbs to the point of insanity, at which point they teamed up together to begin eliminating all potential threats to them. However, they were ultimately defeated by Ruby and Sapphire, then sealed within Wallace's aircar. It was later shown that Sird freed them and offered a special armor to one of them that would possibly allow them to survive the potentially fatal after-effects of being possessed by the orbs. Archie won the armor (implied to have resulted in Maxie's death) and used it to operate as Guile Hideout, the mysterious villain of the Emerald saga, hunting Jirachi and using one of its wishes to fashion a fake Kyogre. However, all of the Pokédex trainers team up together to destroy it, and Archie loses his armor in the battle. Afterwards he rejects Emerald's help and attempts to find his armor so he could make another Kyogre with Jirachi's last wish, but he finds Gold's fake armor instead and disappears in a brilliant explosion when he reaches for the real armor.