Silver (game)

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Silver (Japanese: シルバー Silver) is the rival character of and , playing opposite , , or . He is the son of Team Rocket Boss Giovanni.
In Generation II, he appears with no in all battles, although the Rival (Japanese: ライバル Rival) Trainer class is associated with him in the game data. In Generation IV, he uses the same Trainer class, except this time it appears normally in-game.
==Terminology==
He was first named Silver (Japanese: シルバー Silver) in Bandai's Pokémon Scale World collection,"Pokémon Scale World - Johto: Silver & Croconaw & Sneasel" on Bandai (Japanese)"Pokémon Scale World - Johto: Silver & Croconaw & Sneasel" on Bandai (English)"[PREMIUM BANDAI Limited Edition "Pokémon Scale World" Vol.2!! Order Now!!" on the official Pokémon website in Singapore] (English) which was released in 2020 (21 years after his introduction in ). In 2021, he became available in Pokémon Masters EX, which was the first time he was named in-game. No definitive name has been given for him in the core series games and their manuals.
In the core series games, he is temporarily known by a placeholder name in the first before he is named by the player:
* ??? (Japanese: ???) in Generation II
* Passerby Boy (Japanese: とおりすがりの しょうねん Passerby Boy) in Generation IV, using the placeholder "Passerby" and placeholder name "Boy"
If the player attempts to leave his name blank, his default name refers to a game other than the current one: Gold, Silver, Heart, or Soul (Japanese: ゴールド Gold, シルバー Silver, ハート Heart, or ソウル Soul).
In Pokémon Stadium 2, he is simply known as Rival (Japanese: ライバル Rival). In Pokémon battles, this is displayed as Rival Rival (Japanese: ライバル ライバル Rival Rival), since the word "Rival" is repeatedly stored in the game data as both the Trainer class and the character name.
In the Pokémon Gold and Silver Spaceworld '97 demo, his name is Shigeru or Satoshi. These are 's and 's respective Japanese names, and correspond to the second entry in the list of optional names for and in .
Until the reveal of his official name, Silver (Japanese: シルバー Silver) was almost universally used in fanon as the name for this character. Some fans instead called him Kamon (Japanese: カモン Kamon) to discern him from and . This name is taken from the suggested names for in both the Japanese and English versions of ; this is similar to some fans calling "", since the name is found as one of the options for the in international and for the rival in international .
==In the core series games==
Silver first appears in the Generation II , lurking outside of Professor Elm's lab, looking through the window. When talked to, he will deny everything and push the player away. During the player's journey to Mr. Pokémon's house, Silver makes his move, stealing one of Elm's two remaining first partner Pokémon (coincidentally always the one that is strong against the player's choice). He will meet with the player on the outskirts of Cherrygrove City, battling to get through. A policeman will later ask for the name of the rival, and the rival will be called the name the player gives for the rest of the game.
Silver shows a strong dislike of Team Rocket. He considers them to be weak, and vows to take them, as well as any other weak Trainer, down. He steals a Pokémon (heavily implied to be ) from a Trainer in Cianwood City and while // attempts to take down Team Rocket in Mahogany Town and Goldenrod City, he interferes to prove himself. It is in the Team Rocket HQ in Mahogany that he meets with Lance, of the Elite Four at Indigo Plateau. Silver challenges Lance and is easily defeated by the dragon Trainer, who then proceeds to berate Silver for his callous ways towards training Pokémon. Though Silver is outraged for losing to someone with such an attitude, the loss and Lance's words ultimately set him on the path to becoming a better person. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, when Team Rocket takes over the Goldenrod Radio Tower, Silver first blows the player's Team Rocket disguise, unaware of the player's plan to sneak in by pretending to be a member of Team Rocket. He later follows the player to the Goldenrod underground and they battle Team Rocket, hoping that Lance will reappear and he can request a rematch.
By the time the player reaches , Silver battles against the player not out of malice, but to prove that he is a good Trainer. He is defeated and departs to continue training. The player battles Silver on Mt. Moon, and though he loses he claims he can feel his Pokémon getting stronger, and resolves to train at Dragon's Den.
After the player has become , Silver can indeed be found training in the Dragon's Den on Tuesday and Thursday, where he cannot be battled. On Monday and Wednesday, he will appear at Indigo Plateau and will challenge the player to a battle if they appear there. He does not appear at all on Friday or the weekends, indicating that he may in fact take the day off, resting his Pokémon. When battled this seventh and final time at Indigo Plateau, Silver seems to have finally learned to care for his Pokémon properly, as his has evolved to , which only occurs when Golbat is very friendly. This is further expressed in Generation IV when his first partner Pokémon starts to follow him around, much like the player's Pokémon; Professor Elm even expressly states that Silver's Pokémon have come to trust him when Silver returns to the lab, presumably to return the first partner Pokémon he stole. In , Lance and Clair will appear in the Dragon's Den and challenge the player and Silver to a Multi Battle following the battle at Mt. Moon giving him the chance to avenge his loss from earlier.
In terms of personality, Silver is initially the darkest of the rivals in the series. While most other rivals are generally good-natured, or at least zestful enough to crack a joke at the player, Silver is (at first) cruel, hateful, power-obsessed, and even physically abusive, pushing the player character around several times. Even after he starts to become kinder, he remains a rather serious individual. He does, however, express genuine happiness when Elm allows him to keep the Pokémon he stole.
Giovanni and Silver's relationship is first alluded to in , when Team Rocket Gideon at the Rocket Warehouse on Five Island asks the player if they are "Giovanni's kid", but concludes they're not, saying that "Giovanni's kid has red hair." Their relationship is officially confirmed in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, where bringing a fateful encounter to the Ilex Forest shrine causes the player to travel three years into the past, allowing them to witness Giovanni abandoning Silver to go into seclusion after his defeat at the hands of . Silver's hate for Team Rocket apparently stems from the failure of his father, hating how he's brave only when surrounded by his followers and swearing to become strong all on his own.
===Pokémon===
The first partner Pokémon that Silver has will depend on which Pokémon the player chose to bring on Professor Elm's errand at the beginning of the game. As with most rivals, it will be the Pokémon whose type weakens that of the player's first partner Pokémon.
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For Silver's Pokémon in Gold, Silver, and Crystal Versions, see here.
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=====First battle=====
Winning this battle is not mandatory. The player will not black out and the story will progress either way.
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=====Second battle=====
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=====Third battle=====
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=====Fourth battle=====
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=====Fifth battle=====
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=====Sixth battle=====
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=====Multi Battle with the =====
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=====Rematches=====
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==In the side series games==
===Pokémon Stadium 2===
Silver appears in Pokémon Stadium 2, where he's simply called "Rival". He can be battled in White City once the player has cleared every Stadium Mode and both Gym Leader Castles, acting as the final opponent of the game. His party consists of three Legendary Pokémon , which the player is allowed to face with up to six Pokémon. Defeating Silver ends the game, and, in Round 1, also unlocks Round 2.
During the game's end credits, he is seen having a battle with , facing her with his .
====Pokémon====
=====Round 1=====
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=====Round 2=====
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==In the spin-off games==
===Pokémon Masters EX===
Silver forms a sync pair with , , , , and in Pokémon Masters EX. His Tyranitar is capable of Mega Evolving. Silver became a playable sync pair on April 30, 2020.
Silver has also made notable appearances in the game's Main Stories, Legendary Adventures and the Villain Arc.
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==Gallery==
===Core series artwork===
 	
Official art from	Official art from
===Core series game assets===
 	 	 	
 	 	 	
Trainer sprite	Trainer sprite usedafter Victory Road 	Overworld sprite	Overworld sprite
 	 	 	
 	 	 	
sprite 	Reveal traileroverworld spritehttps://archive.org/details/pokemon-trailer-archive__	Trainer sprite 	Overworldsprite
 	 	 	
Back sprite 	VS sprite 	Opening sprite 	Opening sprite
===Other game assets===
 	 		
 	 		
In-game art	Portraits		
===Animation===
concept art by
===Other artwork===
website artwork
==Quotes==
==Counterparts==
===In animation===
====Pokémon the Series====
Silver's only appearance in was a brief cameo in the original Japanese opening of The Legend of Thunder!. In this opening, he was shown defeating with his , only to be defeated later on when Jimmy's fully evolved into .
=====Pokémon=====
♂
====Pokémon Generations====
Silver appeared in The Legacy. He was seen meeting up with Looker outside the Indigo Plateau, discussing his relationship and last meeting with Giovanni that ultimately led to their estrangement. During the conversation, Silver asserted that he decided to stay out of his father's affairs, telling Looker that it is his job to find Giovanni, before going off to face the Elite Four.
=====Voice actors=====
====GOTCHA!====
Silver briefly appeared in GOTCHA!, with all three of the Johto first partner Pokémon.
===In the manga===
====Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys====
The character who appears in Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga is based on Silver.
====Pokémon Adventures====
Silver's counterpart in the Pokémon Adventures manga is also named . They share several similarities, such as stealing a first partner Pokémon from Professor Elm, in the manga's case, , owning a , and being 's son. Unlike his game counterpart, however, he was initially unaware of his father's identity, due to being taken away from him at a young age.
====Pocket Monsters HGSS Jō's Big Adventure====
 from Pocket Monsters HGSS Jō's Big Adventure is based on Silver.
====Pokémon Pocket Monsters====
Silver has a counterpart in the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga named .
==In the TCG==
This listing is of cards mentioning or featuring Silver or his Pokémon in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
==Trivia==
* In the Generation II core series games, Silver is the only Pokémon Trainer non-player character who appears to have no , only having "<name> wants to battle!" in his battle text.
** However, in the game data, there are two separate Trainer classes sharing the same name: <sc>Rival</sc> (Japanese: ライバル Rival). Each of these Trainer classes corresponds to a different sprite used in-game. The battle theme music plays when the player is battling the latter.
* A 1997 pamphlet describing mentions that the rival character lives in the same town as . This aspect of his character was apparently discarded by the time of the final release, as his hometown was not elaborated upon in the and it is implied to not be New Bark Town since he seems to be unfamiliar with Professor Elm's lab at the beginning of the game.
* In Generation IV, Silver is depicted with two different eye colors. His eyes are gray in his Generation IV artwork while they are red in the HeartGold and SoulSilver games, as seen in the opening animation.
* In the original Gold, Silver, and Crystal games, when battled at Indigo Plateau, the Champion theme is played instead of his rival theme.
* In the Pokémon Gold and Silver Spaceworld 1999 demo, Silver's Magnemite and Magneton are instead a and a respectively.
** Additionally, his alternate post-game sprite is not present.
* The English script of the event in never states that Silver is Giovanni's son, unlike the Japanese script.
* Silver has achieved a high score of 2000 at Pal Park, which serves as the default high score.
* In the battle in the Goldenrod Tunnel in the remakes, his team when the player starts with Cyndaquil are all two levels lower than the same team he uses if the player were to start with another first partner Pokémon. This is presumably to make up for the player's Quilava likely not being fully evolved.
* In the original games, at level 16, Silver's Croconaw is in the second battle, when Totodile usually does not evolve into Croconaw until level 18. This is fixed in the remakes.
**His Haunter was also underleveled at level 20 in the third battle, when Gastly usually does not evolve until level 25. This is fixed in the remakes where instead his Haunter remains a Gastly.
* Silver is the first rival whose team does not change in accordance to his first partner Pokémon, nor does he have any types that cover for his first partner Pokémon's initial type.
* Art of Silver on Game Freak's website depicts him with a , despite not owning one within the games.
* While Silver did not appear in the outside of a brief cameo, he shares many similarities to Paul, who was 's main rival throughout . Like Silver, Paul believed in raising the power of his Pokémon through harsh training as opposed to forming a trusting relationship, which put him at odds with Ash throughout the series.
==Names==
Language 	Name 	Origin
Japanese 	シルバー 	From
English, French	Silver 	From Pokémon Silver
German 	Silber 	From Pokémon Silberne Edition (Pokémon Silver)
Spanish 	Plata 	From Pokémon Edición Plata (Pokémon Silver)
Italian 	Argento 	From Pokémon Versione Argento (Pokémon Silver)
Korean 	실버 	Transcription of his Japanese name
Chinese () 	小銀 Xiǎo Yín 	From 銀 yín / ngàhn (silver)
Chinese () 	小銀 Síu Ngàhn 	From 銀 yín / ngàhn (silver)
Passerby Boy
==References==
==Related articles==
* Images on the Bulbagarden Archives
Category:Rival characters
Category:Gold, Silver and Crystal characters
Category:HeartGold and SoulSilver characters
Category:Stadium 2 characters
Category:Multi Battle partners
Category:Trainers with unique classes
Category:Pokémon Generations characters
Category:Trainers with Legendary Pokémon
de:Silber (Spielcharakter)
es:Plata (personaje)
fr:Silver (Johto)
it:Argento (gioco)
ja:シルバー
zh:小银