paul,rivalul lui ash

Paul's only concern in his Pokémon is of their strength in battle. He strongly dislikes weak Pokémon and has a habit of releasing them if they do not meet his high expectations. To this effect, Paul always checks new captures with his Pokédex to learn what moves they know and trains the Pokémon he keeps harshly to make them strong. He feels that bonding with Pokémon would only turn them into slackers. He also has a habit of scolding his Pokémon for losing to opponents he feels they could have beaten, and this was a recurring trait when he owned Chimchar. As a person, he is very callous and even at times brutal, especially in battle; and as a result, he has been shown to have very little emotion other than an occasional rough smile.

Sometimes, he gives some of his Pokémon to his brother, Reggie, for temporary training and caretaking, as revealed in Lost Leader Strategy!. Paul also disagrees with his brother for giving up on being a Pokémon Trainer after failing to get the Brave Symbol. He feels his brother's approach and view on this to be wrong.

A Pyramiding Rage! was an important episode that revealed much about Paul's motivation as a Pokémon trainer and more about his character. When Reggie was a roaming Pokémon trainer, he had lost to Brandon. Reggie's loss to Brandon is what caused Paul to be so adamant about strength in battle. This single loss is also what caused Paul to become the callous person he was, and that was because of how his brother handled the loss. Instead of bearing the shame of his loss to Brandon, Reggie moved on with his life and put the loss behind him. Paul found this to be unacceptable, and he became disappointed of his brother. He challenged Brandon to a full battle in hopes that he would be able to do what his brother never could. However, Paul lost to Brandon without being able to knock out any of Brandon's Pokémon. Brandon says that this loss was because Paul was unable to control his emotions.

At the beginning it was assumed that Paul was a trainer just starting out. However this was proven false in Top-Down Training where he revealed that he had already traveled through Kanto, Johto and Hoenn, participating in their respective Leagues but didn't win anything before returning to Sinnoh. In A Pyramiding Rage!, it was revealed that Kanto was the very first region he traveled through.

Paul feels that Ash is a weak trainer and can easily bring on Ash's anger by stating it. Ash's very different attitude towards being friends with Pokémon also provides much fuel to their rivalry. Out of all the rivals that Ash has, Paul seems to be the most harsh towards him and his Pokémon. Despite that, Paul barely recognizes their rivalry and Ash as a trainer and ignores Ash's speeches about loving his Pokémon. Ash on the other hand has a hatred of Paul that flares up at Paul's indifference to his Pokémon. However Ash accepts that Paul is a strong trainer but considers himself on the same par as him. Paul's only hint of respect for Ash was in A Pyramiding Rage! when he was very surprised to hear that Ash had beaten Brandon in a Pokémon battle before.

Although Paul finds most of Ash's Pokémon weak, he has shown a particular interest in his Pikachu. Paul is also angered by how Ash contradicts himself by criticizing Paul's training methods and then he uses similar methods, such as entering the Wallace Cup, despite Ash's motivations being clearly different than Paul's.
Reggie and Paul

Paul appears to feel indifference to Dawn, showing that he didn't even know her name in A Gruff Act to Follow. Paul shows mild respect as well as distaste towards Brock, probably because Brock supports Ash's view on Pokémon. Paul does show respect for his elders, such as Professor Rowan, Cynthia, Nurse Joy and Brandon .

Following Reggie's suggestion in A Pyramiding Rage!, Paul battled Ash in a full battle in Pedal to the Mettle! and Evolving Strategies!. Here, he shows his true colors in battle and, despite Ash's Chimchar evolving into Monferno, he won the match easily with only at a loss of two Pokémon overall, where one defeated three of Ash's Pokémon nearly single-handed. He had his Pokémon use a broad variety of strategies, which he kept up his sleeve until this battle, such as tempting Ash to send his Staraptor up against his Torterra so he could attack it with Stone Edge, Electabuzz using Light Screen to aid its comrades, using his Ursaring against Ash's Pikachu so as to activate its Guts ability, and his Magmortar using Rock Tomb to protect itself against Water-type attacks. As a result, his strategy of completely overwhelming and outsmarting Ash with his more powerful Pokémon team succeeded.

In DP155 it was revealed that Paul had earned the Mine Badge from Canalave Gym and, by doing so, had collected the eight badges he required to enter the Sinnoh League.

Paul reappeared in DP163, encountering Ash for the first time since their full battle. He also met his admirer Barry for the first time, however Paul wasn't impressed by him and refused his offer for a battle, suggesting he battle Ash instead. He later watched the battle between Ash's Monferno and Barry's Empoleon and when Pikachu, Piplup and Empoleon were nearly crushed by one of Team Rocket's damaged mechas, he saved the three with the help of his Electabuzz. He then witnessed Monferno evolving into Infernape, who then saved Electabuzz and the other Pokémon from getting crushed. Paul was impressed by Infernape, and gained a little respect for Ash at how well he had raised it. When asked by Ash if they could have another full battle, Paul confirmed they would in the Sinnoh League, and that Reggie was looking forward to seeing it.
Pokémon

As a result of Paul's selective team creation, his active team is composed of Pokémon that he deems to be powerful. While the captures of Ursaring and Gliscor were shown in Different Strokes for Different Blokes and Riding the Winds of Change! respectively, the rest were obtained off-screen.

This listing is of Paul's Pokémon as of the most recent Japanese episode:

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