Victor/Gloria

Victor/Gloria
Species	Human
Hair color	Variable (Brown, Blonde or Black)
Eye color	Variable (Brown, Light Blue or Gray)
Relatives	Mother
Voiced by	Stephanie Southerland (Gloria, 2020) Ben Thao (Victor, 2022)
Debut	Pokémon Sword/Shield

Victor/Gloria is the protagonist of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Their name, gender and some details of their appearance are chosen by the player, but the designated names given to the characters for the sake of reference are "Victor" for the male version and "Gloria" for the female version.

Background

Victor/Gloria was a youth who lived with their mother in Postwick, within the Galar region. They were friends with their neighbor, Hop, who was the younger brother of Galar's champion, Leon. At the beginning of Sword/Shield, Hop took Victor/Gloria to meet Leon while he was visiting the area. When they found him, he presented three Pokémon (Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble) for the two of them to choose from as presents. As Hop already had a Pokémon, he allowed Victor/Gloria to choose first. After they selected one, Hop chose one that had a type disadvantage to Victor/Gloria's, and the remaining Pokémon went to Leon. Victor/Gloria and Hop had a battle to try out their new Pokémon, which either could have won. They then went to meet Sonia, who installed a Pokédex on their Rotom Phones. Victor/Gloria and Hop wanted to begin a journey and take on Galar's Gym Challenge, but they needed an endorsement from Leon first.

Soon afterwards, they discovered that the gate to the restricted Slumbering Weald was left open, and that a Wooloo had gone missing. Victor/Gloria and Hop entered the Weald in search of the Pokémon. They ended up getting lost in the fog and were encountered by a mysterious Pokémon, one that was far too powerful for them. They ended up fainting and were discovered by Leon, who had also recovered the Wooloo. Afterwards, the two young trainers went to visit Professor Magnolia and got her to help persuade Leon to endorse them. Leon finally agreed to do so, only if they showed him a "brilliant battle". So Victor/Gloria and Hop battled a second time, and once again it was a battle that either could win. Regardless of the victor, Leon officially gave endorsements to both of them. In the aftermath of the battle, Victor/Gloria and Hop discovered a pair of newly-fallen Wishing Stars. Professor Magnolia fashioned those Wishing Stars into Dynamax Bands for each of them, which would allow them to Dynamax their Pokémon at Power Spots. After saying goodbye to their parents, Victor/Gloria and Hop set off on their journeys. They traveled to Motostoke first and underwent the opening ceremony of the Gym Challenge. From their, the journey soon began.

Victor/Gloria made their way through a number of towns to take on the eight gym leaders of Galar's major league and earn their badges. Along the way, they constantly met with Hop and took him on in a number of battles. They also had two other rivals who they battled several times: Marnie and Bede. Bede was particularly aggressive, and Victor/Gloria had to battle him at Stow-on-Side to get him to stand down from attacking a mural. This resulted in Bede being expelled from the gym challenge. The trainer also had a number of run-ins with Team Yell, overzealous fans of Marnie who tried to obstruct the other competitors. Sonia also crossed paths with them a number of times, and Victor/Gloria helped her to unravel the mysteries involving the Darkest Day, a legendary event from Galar's history. Victor/Gloria also met the chairman of the Galar Pokémon League, Rose, who took an interest in the young trainer's potential. There were also some mysterious tremors and an instance of a Pokémon being forcibly Dynamaxed, but Leon saw to those incidents.

After collecting all eight badges, Victor/Gloria traveled to Wyndon to take part in the Championship Cup. In the semifinals, Victor/Gloria defeated their two remaining rivals: Hop and Marnie. Afterwards, they were supposed to have dinner with Leon, but Hop became worried when he did not show up. It turned out that he was stuck in a meeting with Rose, and Oleana did everything in her power to keep them from interrupting it. With the help of Team Yell, Marnie and Piers, Victor/Gloria and Hop made their way to Rose Tower and fought through a number of trainers, ending with Oleana herself, to reach Rose and Leon. They arrived in time to hear Leon turn down an offer from Rose, and he then left with them to have their dinner. The next day was the finals. Bede disrupted the finals to challenge Victor/Gloria one more time, and Leon allowed it. Victor/Gloria defeated him and then defeated several of the gym leaders as part of the tournament that made up the finals. Finally, it came down to Victor/Gloria battling Leon for the championship. But the battle was unable to start, as it turned out that Rose had unleashed the Legendary Pokémon Eternatus, and it had triggered a modern counterpart of the Darkest Day.

While Leon went to confront Eternatus, Victor/Gloria and Hop went to the Slumbering Weald in search of the mysterious Pokémon that they found there. Sonia explained to them that there were two Pokémon that acted as the heroes of the Darkest Day: Zacian and Zamazenta. Victor/Gloria and Hop explored the Weald and found the altar which contained two relics associated with the respective Pokémon: the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield. They each claimed one of the relics and then traveled to Hammerlocke to help Leon. At the Energy Plant, Victor/Gloria confronted Rose and defeated him in battle. They then arrived on the top of the Energy Plant in time to watch Leon fail in his attempt to capture Eternatus. It was up to Victor/Gloria and Hop, with the help of Zacian and Zamazenta, to take down Eternatus. In Sword, Victor/Gloria had the Rusted Sword and worked with Zacian; in Shield, they had the Rusted Shield and worked with Zamazenta instead. Together, they took care of Eternatus and brought the Darkest Day to an end. The next day, the championship battle was finally held. Victor/Gloria defeated Leon and was named the new champion of Galar.

Victor/Gloria returned home to Postwick, where Leon had left them a Charmander as a gift. Afterwards, Victor/Gloria and Hop went to the Slumbering Weald and tried returning the relics to the altar. They were interrupted by Sordward and Shieldbert, a pair of eccentric brothers who claimed to be descended from Galar's legendary heroes. They were angry about the findings of Sonia's research, which claimed that the legendary heroes were actually the Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta. Victor/Gloria and Hop battled the two brothers to defend the relics (Victor/Gloria battling Sordward in Sword and Shieldbert in Shield), but Hop lost his battle and his relic to them. Afterwards, Sordward and Shieldbert began forcing Pokémon to Dynamax at Power Spots across Galar's gyms, and they also stole the remaining Wishing Stars from Sonia. Victor/Gloria, Hop and Piers traveled across most of the gyms and calmed the Dynamaxed Pokémon by defeating them. In the end, they confronted Sordward and Shieldbert on top of the Energy Plant. The brothers used the Galar particles from the Wishing Stars to drive the Pokémon associated with Hop's relic (Zamazenta in Sword, Zacian in Shield) into a berserk rage. Victor/Gloria defeated the Pokémon in battle, and other Legendary Pokémon arrived to drive it away. Victor/Gloria then had a chance to battle and catch the Legendary Pokémon associated with their relic. Then they returned to the Slumbering Weald, where Hop had succeeded in fully calming and catching the one associated with his relic. He then challenged Victor/Gloria to one more battle. Afterwards, there were several more things that Victor/Gloria could do as the champion. They could continue to hold tournaments at Wyndon Stadium, and they could also challenge the Battle Tower.

In the Isle of Armor DLC, Victor/Gloria traveled to the Isle of Armor. There, the trainer was mistaken for a new student at the Master Dojo that was run by Mustard, a former champion who had trained Leon in the past. Victor/Gloria was mistaken for a new student, and Mustard decided to accept them as one anyway. Victor/Gloria managed to complete all three of Mustard's trials, despite attempts by a new rival (Klara in Sword or Avery in Shield) to sabotage them. After completing the trials, Victor/Gloria earned a special Legendary Pokémon called Kubfu. They were then tasked with forming a bond with Kubfu and then completing one of the Towers of the Two Fists in order to evolve it into Urshifu. Afterwards, Victor/Gloria had to find a special ingredient for Max Soup that Urshifu would like, in order to grant it the ability to Gigantamax. With Hop's help, Victor/Gloria found Max Honey, and Urshifu was made into a Giganatmax form. Afterwards, they were able to battle Mustard as their final test. The trainer later explored the Crown Tundra, where they helped Peony and Sonia to look into Legendary Pokémon within the area.

Pokémon Roster

Like all protagonists of the series, Victor/Gloria's Pokémon are a variable decided by the player. In this game, some of the Pokémon that the trainer absolutely gains throughout the game are the chosen starter Pokémon (Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble), a Toxel that is received as a gift and Eternatus when it is caught at the end of their showdown. The player can also receive a Charmander as a gift from Leon (which will evolve into a Charizard that can Gigantamax) and has a chance to catch Zacian (in Sword) or Zamazenta (in Shield).

For the Isle of Armor DLC, the player must catch a Galarian Slowpoke at the train station before embarking. They also receive a Kubfu and evolve it into Urshifu as part of the story.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Gloria and Victor both made playable appearances as parts of sync pairs that could be unlocked at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature during limited time periods. Gloria was paired with Zacian and was first made available in November 2020, being the first character from the eighth generation to be added to the game, while Victor was paired with a Rillaboom (with the Gigantamax factor) and was first made available in October 2022. Gloria has had several variants that have been made available during limited time periods: a Summer 2021 variant paired with Inteleon that was first made available in July 2021, a Dojo Uniform variant paired with Rapid Strike Style Urshifu (with the Gigantamax factor) that was first available in July 2022 and a Gym Challenge variant paired with Cinderace (with the Gigantamax factor) that was first made available in August 2023. Gloria was also added to the Trainer Lodge in March 2023, and maxing out her friendship would unlock Thwackey as an alternate Pokémon for her. As for Victor, there was a variant of him paired with Spectrier that was made available through a special sync pair event in August 2023. Gloria was treated as the protagonist of the eighth generation games, while Victor appeared to be another trainer from Postwick who took on the gym challenge at the same time as the others. While the events of Sword and Shield were mostly acknowledged within the game, the protagonist winning the championship was ignored (as has been the case with all other generations represented in the game save for the first generation), with Leon still being known as Galar's champion. Gloria's Inteleon was evolved from her starter Pokémon.

Gloria's initial addition to the game was accompanied by a Prestige Event called "Battle Buffet Bash", where she defeated other trainers (Maylene, Steven Stone and Jasmine) for food at the Battle Buffet festival, and she ultimately decided to share that food with her opponents. She was also featured in the "Champion Time" Story Event, where she welcomed Leon, Piers and Marnie to Pasio. They then held exhibition matches, in which Gloria defeated Alder. In the "Beachside Rivalry" Story Event, Gloria and Marnie enlisted the help of Scottie/Bettie, Mallow and Marley to run a pop-up eatery on the beach. Gloria was shown to be a natural at attracting customers, with a special based on Inteleon shooting at a roulette wheel. Marnie spent one day helping Team Break's pop-up shop instead, which Gloria accepted as part of her rivalry, and she passed some valuable advice on to her. At the end of the day, Gloria and Marnie reunited and decided to continue working together. Gloria also played a role in the Story Event "Howling Shield of Eternity", in which she helped deal with an outbreak of Dynamax Pokémon that spread across Pasio with the arrival of Eternatus. In the Solo Event "Strongest Fighters", she appeared in her Dojo Uniform and trained with Korrina and Bea for an upcoming tournament for Fighting-type Sync Pairs. They later met up with Bruno and Chuck, from whom they received both advice and Rage Candy Bars. Gloria and Victor both appeared in the Solo Event "Severely Strained Relations", in which they had a double battle against Raihan and Gordie that was interrupted when Melony and Nessa showed up wanting to join. Victor was recruited by Raihan and Gordie, leaving Gloria to team up with Melony and Nessa, with them being warned that Melony could be fearsome both as an opponent and a teammate. Victor also made an appearance in the Story Event "Chef's Heartful Delivery", where he acted as a tiebreaker judge in the apple pie-baking competition between Mallow and Siebold. He had also given Mallow the Applin that became her Appletun and denied that it was intended as any kind of romantic gesture.

Gloria and Victor were also featured in the Neo Champions Event "Fight for the Future", where Leon recruited the two of them to act as his teammates for the second Neo Champion Stadium, where challengers would be tested against them. Hop, Marnie and Bede were able to best them to earn the Neo Champion titles. Victor also appeared in the Story Event "Galar's Poké Ball Enthusiast", where he tried to help Ball Guy with his issues, while Gloria made a cameo appearance at the end helping Ball Guy to make curry among others. In the Sync Pair Event for Victor and Spectrier, it was revealed that Spectrier had suddenly appeared in Pasio and ran amok until Victor calmed it down, at which point they bonded as a sync pair. He then talked to Sonia to learn more about it and challenged her to a battle to calm some of its pent-up energy. Within the Main Story, Gloria and Victor played roles in the Galar chapter of the Villain Arc. In that chapter, they were surprised with the other Galar trainers when Rose and Oleana appeared on Pasio without any memories of causing the Darkest Day or what occurred afterwards. Victor was suspicious when Rose obtained knowledge of sync stones, and so he had Looker investigate to find out Rose's business partner, which resulted in them discovering that he was working with Giovanni. During the tournament between Lear and Rose, Victor and Gloria both competed on Rose's side. Gloria won the first battle, fighting alongside Hop and Marnie against Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, while Victor took part in the final battle against Rose, Maxie and Colress alongside Leon and Lear. They ultimately made peace with Rose, and the chapter ended with Gloria and Leon competing in an exhibition match which paralleled Leon and Raihan's exhibition match from the opening of Sword/Shield.

Other Appearances

In Other Media

• In Pokémon Adventures, both versions of the protagonist have been featured in the Sword/Shield arc, where they are introduced as assistants of Professor Magnolia. The localization calls them Henry Sword and Casey Shield respectively, while their Japanese names are Soudo Tsurugi and Shirudomiria Tate (with both parts of their Japanese names being based on different words for 'sword' and 'shield'). Sword specialized in repairing weapons and other tools that were used by Pokémon in battle. Casey was known for being energetic. Both trainers took part in the Gym Challenge.
• In the Pokémon: Twilight Wings series of anime shorts, Victor and Gloria both made a brief appearance during a mid-credits scene of the final episode, in which they asked a Corviknight Taxi driver for a ride. They were framed with their faces offscreen. The end of the bonus episode also showed the feet of one trainer approaching to join the Star Tournament, implied to be the player character.
• The first episode of the Pokémon Evolutions shorts depicted events from Sword/Shield, with the battle against Eternatus being shown in a flashback experienced by Leon during the lead-up to the player character's championship bout with him. Victor is depicted as the protagonist for this episode, using an Intelleon in battle and then pairing with Zacian (thus making this the Sword version of events). As in the games, Victor was shown ultimately catching Eternatus. Gloria also made a cameo appearance in the episode's opening shot, which showed her riding a Corviknight Taxi with a Toxel.

Trivia

• Their names are derived from the words "victor" and "glory". These names seem to reflect the intended themes of Sword/Shield, which were the idea of strength and striving to be the strongest or greatest.
• Victor/Gloria's uniform number is set by the player, but the number used in official artwork in '227'. This number can be read in Japanese as a word meaning "safely", and it could also refer to February 27th, which was the original release date of Pokémon: Red and Green Versions.