Piers (Pokemon)

Piers
Species	Human
Affiliation	Pokémon League (Galar)
Hair color	Black and White
Eye color	Green
Base	Spikemuth
Relatives	Marnie (younger sister)
Voiced by	Aleks Le (2021)
Debut	Pokémon: Sword/Shield

Piers is the seventh gym leader of the Galar region's Pokémon League who is faced as an opponent in Pokémon Sword and Shield. He is related to the rival character Marnie and is also associated with the game's faux-villainous organization, Team Yell. He specializes in Dark-type Pokémon and is the only trainer in the game who does not Dynamax his Pokémon.

Background

Piers hailed from a city called Spikemuth. Unlike most cities in Galar, Spikemuth lacked a power spot and so Pokémon could not Dynamax within its confines. This caused Spikemuth to be neglected and dilapidated compared to Galar's other cities. Piers felt responsible for the city's state and became a gym leader for the sake of promoting the city and drawing in more fans. He had a habit of getting riled up and declaring his strategies early in battles, while still being strong and skilled enough to prevail in battles. Regardless, Pokémon battling was not his main passion. That passion would actually be writing and singing his own songs, as he was often known to hold concerts within the city. He also had a younger sister named Marnie who he tried his best to look out for. He saw her as being more skilled than him and felt that she was more worthy of being Spikemuth's gym leader. Piers saw himself as merely filling the gym leader role until Marnie was old enough and ready to take over. Despite that and his inability to Dynamax his Pokémon, Piers was still considered to be the second-strongest gym leader in the Galar region. All of the gym leaders battled each other to decide their placements, and Piers was set as the seventh gym leader of the majors division.

Within the events of Sword and Shield, Piers was the only gym leader who did not attend the gym challenge's opening ceremony at Motostoke Stadium. Marnie had set out to undertake the gym challenge, and Piers remained at Spikemuth. However, all of his gym's trainers secretly followed Marnie and did everything that they could to support her in the guise of Team Yell. Team Yell went as far as to shutter the gates to Spikemuth in order to prevent gym challengers from reaching Piers. However, Victor/Gloria was able to get into the city through a secret entrance that Marnie told them about. Piers overheard what Team Yell had done just before Victor/Gloria arrived. The trainer proceeded to battle Piers and defeated him. Piers gave the trainer a Dark Badge and a Dark Uniform. Marnie arrived at that time to challenge her brother next. It was then that Piers revealed that he was planning to retire from being a gym leader after the championship cup and wanted Marnie to take over. Marnie refused, as she was set on becoming the champion instead. Marnie was then able to defeat Piers as well. Hop also defeated him at some point. Afterwards, Piers traveled to Wyndon Stadium to both cheer on Marnie (who lost to Victor/Gloria) and to complete in the tournament that made up the Championship Cup's finals, alongside most of the other gym leaders. He managed to defeat Kabu in the first round, but he lost to Raihan (the one gym leader ranked above him) in the next round.

When Leon went missing, Piers decided to help Victor/Gloria and Hop to find him. He called together Marnie and Team Yell. They all worked together to outmaneuver Oleana's tricks, and they successfully got Victor/Gloria and Hop to Rose Tower. After the following Championship Cup concluded with Victor/Gloria becoming the new champion, Piers officially stepped down as gym leader, and Marnie took his place. Afterwards, Piers held an exhibition map against Milo at Turffield Stadium, but it was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a forcibly-Dynamaxed Tsareena. Victor/Gloria and Hop arrived at that time, and the four trainers fought alongside each other to defeat the Pokémon, which was reverted to normal and then treated by Milo. Piers proceeded to accompany Victor/Gloria and Hop to every stadium in the Galar region, where they took down more rogue Dynamax Pokémon. For the first few battles, they fought together as a team. For the last few, they split up to take on multiple Pokémon. Although Piers was worried about Marnie, Spikemuth was safe from this problem due to lacking a power spot, and so they never had to return there. Once the problem was taken care of, Piers gave his rare League Card to Victor/Gloria and joked that they shouldn't call on him whenever there was a sticky situation.

The player could also hold further tournaments at Wyndon Stadium at which Piers could appear, either by invitation or a random, for possible rematches with him. Piers could also make appearances at the Isle of Armor and take part in the Galarian Star Tournament. During Star Tournaments, Piers could partner up with Marnie, Milo, Opal or Raihan, and he could also be chosen to team up with Victor/Gloria after beating the Star Tournament six times,

Pokémon Roster

• Scrafty
• Malamar
• Skuntank
• Obstagoon
• Toxtricity (rematches)

He uses Obstagoon for team battles. During the Galarian Star Tournament, he only uses Skuntank, Toxtricity and Obstagoon. He also caught Marnie's Morpeko for her when she was five years old.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Piers and his Obstagoon were made available as a playable sync pair that could be unlocked at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature, starting in February 2021. In this appearance, he was still known as Spikemuth's Gym Leader and only mentioned passing his title onto Marnie as something he wanted to do in the future. In the "Champion Time" Story Event, he was among the new arrivals to Pasio who Gloria greeted. He cheered Marnie on in her exhibition match against Karen and reassured her after she lost. In extra scenes for the event, he met with Roxie and Ryuki, both of whose music he was familiar with, and the three of them proceeded to perform together. He also heard from Rosa about how Hugh's sister had her Pokémon stolen by Team Plasma, and he was saddened imagining such a thing happening to Marnie. During the time trial event "The Eternal Rivals", he was sad after Marnie turned down training with him and claimed he was writing a song called "Ballad of the Sad Older Brother" until Gloria offered to train with him, and they proceeded to help Raihan prepare for a time trial competition against Leon. Piers offered the suggestion of training against a Tyranitar due to it being a natural enemy of Raihan's partner Pokémon, Duraludon. He also helped to deal with a rash of Dynamax Pokémon in the "Howling Shield of Eternity" Legendary Adventure.

Piers also appeared in the "Sweet Shenanigans" Story Event, in which he had written a song for Marnie as a Palentine's Day present, only to find Marnie sad because the sweets she had made for Piers and Gloria had been stolen by Team Heartbreak. He proceeded to help track down the thieves. After Team Heartbreak was defeated, it turned out that the sweets had already been eaten, but Piers did not mind so much, as he considered Marnie's feelings to be a sufficient present. During the "Pasio Friendiversary" Story Event, Piers formed a team with Sawyer and Rachel to battle the team of Leon, Raihan and Lear. During extra scenes for the "Curious Tea Party" Story Event, he also helped Emmet to prepare for his role as a butler after he was moved by a song of his. In the Neo Champions event "Fight for the Future", Piers formed a team with Raihan and Gordie for the Neo Champion Stadium, but they lost against Leon's team, and Piers proceeded to support Marnie's team. Within the Main Story's Villain Arc, Piers and Team Yell provided support for Leon in his campaign countering Rose's campaign for control of Pasio during the Galar chapter. Piers also appeared in the Final Chapter, in which he, Marnie and Team Yell worked alongside Guzma, Plumeria and Team Skull in battling members of Team Rocket.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• In the Pokémon: Twilight Wings series of anime shorts, Piers made several small appearances. He made a cameo appearance walking in the background of one episode. At the beginning of the final episode, there was a video montage of testimonies given by the Gym Leaders about Leon. However, Piers was seen putting his hand in the camera while walking away, because he was in a hurry. He was later seen watching Marnie watch Leon's match. He made an additional appearance in the bonus episode, where he was seen with the Maximizers and later going to participate in the Galarian Star Tournament.
• Piers appeared in the Pokémon Adventures as a supporting character in the Sword/Shield arc.
• In the Pokémon anime, Piers appeared in an episode of the Pokémon Journeys series, in which he found Ash and Goh lost in Spikemuth after they had been led there by false directions from Team Yell, who were trying to make Ash miss his battle with Marnie. Piers proceeded to bring Ash and Goh to Wyndon in time for the battle, which he watched with Goh. Piers was also seen watching Ash's final battle with Leon in the Masters Eight Tournament.

Trivia

• His name could be a reference to the genus name "juniperus" and possibly the word "pierce". His Japanese name, Nezu, is taken from the Japanese word for a temple juniper.
• His League Number is 061, which could be read in Japanese as the word meaning "bad".
• His Pokémon are kept in Dusk Balls.