Mr. Kincaid: the teacher who turned Ranger School into a talent pool

Mr. Kincaid enforces the rules by morning and plots the enslavement of Pokémon by night. The teacher of the other class at Almia's Ranger School, he only took the job to get his hands on a brain capable of saving his invention. The player spends a good half of the adventure unaware that this fussy hallway monitor is a high-ranking member of Team Dim Sun.

Contents

• Ten Years of Work and a Classroom for Cover
• The Styler Affair, or the Kincaid Method
• Isaac, the Forbidden Basement and Two Machines
• The Mask Comes Off on Board the Ship
• On the Oil Field, a Leader No One Follows
• Two Failed Comebacks: The Special Mission and the Manga
• Mr. Kincaid at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Ten Years of Work and a Classroom for Cover

Before he's a teacher, Kincaid is an engineer. He claims ten years of development on the Gigaremo, a device that takes control of Pokémon's minds. The machine works; its designer knows its limits better than anyone.

The Gigaremo is heavy, very noisy and far too easy to destroy — three deal-breaking flaws for an organization that plans to use it on a mass scale. Kincaid draws an unexpected conclusion: what he's missing isn't a workshop, it's a brain.

Hence his signing on as a teacher at the Ranger School, where he takes charge of the school's other class. The job is nothing more than a net cast to catch a genius, the kind he reckons comes along once a century. The rules serve as his front, and the ban on running in the hallways comes up in almost every line he speaks.

The Styler Affair, or the Kincaid Method

When Stylers vanish from the staffroom, Mr. Kincaid runs the investigation his own way. He declares his own students in the clear and points the finger at Keith, who was absent that morning, reading his lateness as the time it takes to make loot disappear.

The accusation rests on nothing but reputation: the boy runs, he goes down to the basement, so he must be a thief. Ms. April objects that it's not like him, a classmate stands up for him, and Keith turns out to have actually been on the thief's trail.

The irony of the episode lies in the two golden rules Mr. Kincaid himself lays down for the player: no running in the hallways, and no accusing anyone without proof. He breaks the second one at the first opportunity and merely grumbles when the case falls apart.

Isaac, the Forbidden Basement and Two Machines

The genius he's been waiting for is named Isaac, and Kincaid spots him quickly. He immediately diverts the student's know-how toward his own project, locking the school basement and keeping access to himself. Caught there at night, he blames the racket on a Zubat that strayed into the hallway.

Two devices come out of this collaboration. The Miniremo takes the Gigaremo's principle and makes it portable, boasts more than a hundred controls and can now only be neutralized by a capture: exactly the flaw its backer wanted fixed.

The second project thinks much bigger. The Incredible Machine is a giant Gigaremo built on the Shadow Crystal, said to be practically indestructible. Mr. Kincaid still presides over the graduation ceremony, introducing Principal Lamont and then Isaac, top of the class, before an explosion cuts the ceremony short.

The Mask Comes Off on Board the Ship

The player runs into Mr. Kincaid again on a Team Dim Sun ship, and the teacher drops the act. He introduces himself as the organization's underboss and takes on the tone of the captain he has become, not without scolding the hero one last time for running in the passageways.

His own Grunts would rather swim home than face his anger: Kincaid writes them off with an accountant's remark, that much less weight and that much fuel saved. Against Barlow, whose Styler ends up broken, he sends out a Drapion and brags about a Miniremo far more advanced than its old ancestor.

Once defeated, he opts for the most expedient solution. He orders the Kingston Valve pulled to send the ship to the bottom, along with the evidence of the conspiracy and the Pokémon on board — not before ordering his own crew to evacuate by swimming, then wishing bon voyage to the Rangers left aboard.

⚓ Set course for our section: check out the Pokémon figures.

On the Oil Field, a Leader No One Follows

At the Oil Field Hideout, Kincaid oversees Miniremo production until Blake Hall, the boss, orders everything halted in favor of the main project. He obeys without argument and waits for his reward: an executive position at headquarters the day the Incredible Machine is up and running.

His authority, on the other hand, doesn't hold up. The Marine Unit was supposed to capture a Wailord to replace the lost Cargo Ship; it brings back a Wailmer that its officers mistake for a "Mini-Wailord". Kincaid humiliates the officer in charge and immediately takes back the promotion he had just promised him.

What follows proves him wrong on every count. A Wailord rams into the rig, the player leaves with the disk holding the blueprints, Isaac is invited to the Ranger Union, and Kincaid abandons his base, his subordinates and his former student to flee by submarine. The main story never shows him again.

Two Failed Comebacks: The Special Mission and the Manga

Once the adventure is over, Kincaid comes back on his own account. He gathers the last Grunts under a new banner, Team Debonairs, and sets out to remove the three gems from the Luminous Crystal to turn it back into the Shadow Crystal. He announces, in all seriousness, that he will rule the world.

Keith and the player stand in his way once again, backed by Darkrai. Professor Hastings takes it upon himself to crush what's left of his spirit, telling him that the darkness he carries weighs nothing against the people of Almia, and inviting him to go see for himself that the region is doing perfectly fine.

The manga, for its part, compresses the whole story and reshuffles the roles. There, Kincaid takes Blake Hall's place at the head of Team Dim Sun and controls Darkrai, after a brief appearance as a teacher in the opening pages. The Rangers free the Pokémon from his grip and deal with him without mercy.

Mr. Kincaid at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Mr. Kincaid in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia?
  He teaches the other class at Almia's Ranger School and, partway through the adventure, turns out to be a high-ranking member of Team Dim Sun. His teaching job was only a cover meant to recruit a gifted student.
• Why is Mr. Kincaid so interested in Isaac?
  Because his Gigaremo is heavy, noisy and too easy to destroy. He was looking for a genius who could fix those flaws: Isaac gives him the Miniremo, which is portable and can only be neutralized by a capture.
• What happens to Kincaid after his defeat?
  He leaves the Oil Field Hideout by submarine and disappears from the main story. A special mission brings him back at the head of Team Debonairs, where Keith, the player and Darkrai stop him once again.
• Does Kincaid play the same role in the manga?
  No. The adaptation condenses the game and gives him Blake Hall's place: he leads Team Dim Sun and controls Darkrai, until the Rangers free the Pokémon and put him out of action.

In short

Kincaid isn't a mad scientist; he's a manager. He plans a recruitment drive over ten years, humiliates his subordinates and abandons his base without a moment's hesitation the moment the numbers stop adding up. Almia owes him its two worst machines, and the Ranger School owes him its worst hire. The only rules he ever truly followed were his own.