Spenser: the Ranger Leader who recruits with seven letters

Spenser recruits on the strength of an application, not an exam. Ranger Leader of the Ringtown base, one of four in the Fiore region, he opens Pokémon Ranger by welcoming the hero on a dock and closes it by telling them he has nothing left to teach them. In between, he teaches capturing, hands out ranks, and ends up admitting in front of his subordinates that he was wrong about a Pokémon.

Contents

• Ringtown, a Fearow and a Capture Arena record
• Seven application letters, a certificate without an exam
• The man who teaches the player to capture
• Missions, ranks and a letter learned by heart
• The Go-Rock Squad, and his refusal to capture a human
• Deoxys: the failure he takes on himself
• Spenser at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Ringtown, a Fearow and a Capture Arena record

The Fiore region has four towns — Fall City, Ringtown, Summerland and Wintown — and each one is home to a Ranger Base. Spenser runs the Ringtown base, which sends out the missions assigned to Solana, Lunick and Murph, the three Rangers under his command.

He has long known Professor Hastings, and he once worked on the same team as Joel and Cameron, now the Ranger Leaders of Fall City and Summerland. His rivalry with Joel has never ended, but friendship comes first: he says he regularly visits Joel, Cameron and Elita.

His partner is a Fearow, caught at the Fall City Capture Arena, which he usually leaves upstairs at the Ringtown base. He is also the champion of that Capture Arena, where he holds the game's default record of 50,000 points.

Seven application letters, a certificate without an exam

The hero doesn't join the Rangers the usual way. They sent seven application letters, and Spenser is the one who replies: a meeting on a Sunday at the Fall City harbor, with a ferry ticket and the official uniform sent ahead of time, the uniform mainly serving to spot them in the crowd.

On the dock, a Houndoom in a frenzy goes after a Plusle or a Minun, depending on whether the player is playing as Solana or Lunick. Spenser handles the first one as a demonstration and lends the candidate his Capture Styler for the other: the device is normally reserved for certified Rangers, but he cites the emergency.

The capture succeeds, and the procedure goes out the window. He hands over the Ranger certificate without making them take the exam, on the grounds that he has just seen the candidate hold their own in a real situation. The trip to Ringtown is then made by air, on the back of his Fearow.

The man who teaches the player to capture

The lesson is technical and takes place right in front of the hero: draw loops around the Pokémon without lifting the stylus, watch the blue number go down with each loop, and only lift the stylus when that number turns orange. He repeats this last instruction, because it alone decides whether the capture succeeds.

He also goes over everything that makes a capture fail: a Capture Line that touches the target disappears, a Pokémon that attacks it drains energy from the Capture Styler, and a Capture Styler at zero means game over. Later, a stand of burning trees lets him introduce the second mechanic, target clearing, with a Mudkip whose Water-type Field Move matches the icon shown on the tree.

He applies his doctrine in front of a witness: the Houndoom is released as soon as it has calmed down. A Ranger doesn't keep the Pokémon they capture or take them out of their habitat, with one exception — the partner Pokémon, one per Ranger, chosen for the bond they share and there to help, not to keep them company.

Missions, ranks and a letter learned by heart

At the base, he's the one who hands out the work, and the mission board mixes the ordinary with the exceptional: find Larry's Taillow in Lyra Forest for the beginner's exercise, clear Krokka Tunnel after a rockfall blocks it between Ringtown and Fall City, rescue an old man lost in the forest, deal with a Grimer invasion, recover a Politoed stolen in the Olive Jungle.

Tricky cases are handled in pairs. He sends the hero with Murph to the sanctuary deep in Lyra Forest, where Celebi has been sighted and the Go-Rock Squad is prowling; then he assigns them to recover a Manaphy Egg stolen by the same group. At the debriefing, he credits Murph with compassion for Pokémon, which he considers the most important quality in the job — before telling him, after the Deoxys mission, that nobody laughs at his jokes.

Promotions also go through him: Ranger Ranks awarded mission after mission, access to the Dragonite bus, a higher cap on Friend Pokémon. At the very moment he allows the hero to fly, he recites a passage from the hero's own letters — the idea that a Pokémon is neither an object nor a means of transportation. He says he has reread those letters often enough to know them by heart.

The Go-Rock Squad, and his refusal to capture a human

The investigation into the Go-Rock Squad keeps him and Joel busy for a good part of the game, and at first he keeps the new recruit off the case, asking them to focus on their missions. He changes his mind when unconfirmed reports point to renewed activity in Summerland, and sends the hero there to gather intel from Cameron.

The raid on the enemy base goes wrong: the Go-Rock Quads trigger the self-destruct sequence before escaping. Spenser catches up with the two young Rangers and tells them he has recovered the Super Styler, then sends them away and stays behind to free the captive Pokémon. He makes it out with Joel, but the player doesn't see him again until after the victory over Gordor, at the Fiore Temple.

One detail sums up his stance: when the idea of capturing a human is floated, he rejects it as having no place in a Ranger's work and would rather bet that Gordor will eventually come to terms with his wrongdoing. The same caution guides him with the Super Styler, and he openly fears what it would become in the wrong hands.

Deoxys: the failure he takes on himself

A Deoxys appears in Lyra Forest, so aggressive that it threatens hikers and Pokémon alike. Spenser gives the mission to the hero, then lets slip a confession: he already tried to capture it a few days earlier and failed, despite billing himself as an expert on the species.

His conclusion is categorical, and wrong — he deems it impossible to form a bond with this Pokémon. When the young Rangers pull it off, he makes no excuses for himself: his desire to capture it made him selfish, Deoxys must have taken his attempts as attacks, and he takes sole responsibility, going so far as to regret that he can't apologize to Deoxys itself.

The manga adaptation revisits the confrontation and makes it harsher. Having set out to calm Deoxys with Elita and Joel, he falls into a Go-Rock Quads trap, and the three Ranger Leaders are defeated, with the Pokémon under Clyde's control. While Lunick and Solana stand up to the Quads, Spenser thinks back to the drive he had felt building through Lunick's seven letters.

✨ Deoxys, Celebi, Manaphy: check out our Legendary Pokémon.

Spenser at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Spenser in Pokémon Ranger?
  The Ranger Leader of the Ringtown base, one of the four bases in the Fiore region. Solana, Lunick and Murph are under his command, and he's the one who recruits the hero, teaches them to capture and assigns them their missions.
• What is Spenser's partner Pokémon?
  A Fearow, which he caught at the Fall City Capture Arena. He uses it notably to fly the hero to Ringtown, and he usually leaves it upstairs at the base.
• Why does Spenser recruit the hero without an exam?
  Because he saw them in action in a real situation. Won over by seven application letters, he arranges to meet them at the Fall City harbor, lends them a Capture Styler for an emergency capture, then hands them the Ranger certificate, skipping the exam.
• Why does Spenser fail against Deoxys?
  He explains it himself: his desire to capture this Pokémon overrode everything else, so Deoxys perceived his attempts as attacks. He had concluded from this, wrongly as it later turned out, that no bond was possible with this species.
• Does Spenser appear anywhere besides the first game?
  He is mentioned in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, which reveals that he was a student at the Ranger School and that his student message is on the Pledge Stone. He also plays a role in the Pokémon Ranger manga, where he takes on Deoxys with Elita and Joel.

In short

Spenser is a leader who judges by results: seven letters are enough to make him skip a procedure, and one successful capture is enough to get him to sign a certificate. The same man publicly admits he was wrong about Deoxys and takes sole responsibility for it, in front of the two recruits who succeeded where he had failed. As a student at the Ranger School, he had engraved on the Pledge Stone his vow to become a Ranger able to sense what Pokémon feel. Lyra Forest reminded him that making a vow is no substitute for living up to it.