Hilbert: The Unova Hero Who Vanishes If You Don't Pick Him

He only fully exists if the player picks him. Hilbert is the male playable character of Pokémon Black and White, a fourteen-year-old boy who leaves a country town with a brand-new Pokédex and two childhood friends. Picking him as your avatar writes his female counterpart out of the plot; leaving him aside sends him, in turn, to a Battle Subway car. No rival takes his place: he simply never comes back.

Contents

• Fourteen, Nuvema Town and a Poké Ball-shaped cap
• Team Plasma, N and the dragon in the castle
• The hero you didn't pick: a train car and a few traces
• The silent figure in the Giant Chasm and the Neo Champion of Pasio
• A name left blank: Black, Blair, Kuro
• Hilbert at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Fourteen, Nuvema Town and a Poké Ball-shaped cap

The hero grows up in Nuvema Town, a small town in the southeast of Unova, alongside two neighbors his own age: Bianca and Cheren. It's Professor Juniper who gives each of the three a Pokédex and a first partner, and this trio of teenagers sets off to explore the region on the same day. His age is no accident: according to the game's scenario writer, the design first aimed for sixteen before coming back down to fourteen.

His outfit is a catalog of precise details. The tricolor cap with black patterns takes on the look of a Poké Ball as soon as you see it from above; beneath it, medium-length dark brown hair and brown eyes. Then come a black undershirt under a sky-blue jacket with a darker collar and sleeves, slate-gray pants held up by a pewter belt, and red and black sneakers with white soles.

Two accessories complete the kit: a blue bag with a dark gray shoulder strap to carry his items, and a blue Xtransceiver worn on his left wrist. The C-Gear, for its part, comes later in the journey — Fennel gives it to him during his stop in Striaton City.

His bedroom holds a detail the game brings up only once. The TV in it is a gift from his father, mentioned in a single dialogue box and nowhere else — it's the only place in the entire game where the player character's father is brought up. As for his team, it starts with a choice between Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, then fills out with a Pokémon brought back to life from a fossil obtained at Relic Castle and a Larvesta Egg found on Route 18.

Team Plasma, N and the dragon in the castle

The opposition Hilbert faces looks nothing like that of previous generations. Team Plasma demands that Pokémon be set free, with no conditions and no exceptions, which turns the most ordinary act of the hero's trade against him: catching. Every Poké Ball thrown becomes a piece of evidence against him.

Standing against him is N, an enigmatic young man who sees Hilbert as the ultimate rival and takes their disagreement all the way. Their duel isn't settled on a scoreboard: it brings in the Legendary dragons that local tradition credits with founding Unova.

The outcome depends on which version you own: Reshiram recognizes Hilbert in the Black version, Zekrom does so in the White version. So the hero always inherits the dragon opposite to his rival's, and it's in N's Castle that this Legendary joins his team, at the end of the showdown.

🐉 Unova's two founding dragons have their own section: see the Legendary Pokémon figures.

The hero you didn't pick: a train car and a few traces

When the player takes on the role of Hilda, Hilbert doesn't become a rival: he becomes an extra. You only find him on the Battle Subway's Multi Trains, where he shows up with two Pokémon drawn at random from a pool that depends on the approach you ask for — offensive, defensive or balanced. These makeshift teammates are carefully tuned: maxed-out IVs in every stat and 510 EVs split evenly between two or three of them.

In the sequels, he doesn't appear at all. All that's left are clues that he passed through: a Prop Case left behind at the Musical Theater, a few lines from N. His mother, for her part, believes for a moment that he's come back when you visit her — and only mentions him by name through the Memory Link, a sign that the journey of Team Plasma's former adversary isn't over.

A return was considered, though. The internal data of the sequels contains unused lines that were meant to bring Hilbert and Hilda back as opponents at the Pokémon World Tournament. Translated into several languages, French among them, they were later blanked out in Japanese, Korean and German — only one survived there — and then replaced with the note "unused".

The silent figure in the Giant Chasm and the Neo Champion of Pasio

His only anime appearance lasts a few seconds and doesn't include a single word. He's recognizable by his silhouette alone in the fifteenth episode of Pokémon Generations, "The King Returns": the Trainer bursts into the Giant Chasm riding Zekrom and snatches N away from an attack by White Kyurem ordered by Ghetsis.

The mobile game gave him a far richer career, starting on September 24, 2019. There he has four outfits, each with its own set partners. In his canonical clothes, he's paired with Oshawott, destined to become Samurott, backed by two variants: one with Glaceon, the other with a Thundurus in its Incarnate Forme.

The other three costumes switch to a completely different register. His seasonal outfit has him hunting for candy alongside a Mightyena despite his openly admitted fear of Ghost-type Pokémon; his Sygna Suit pairs him with Genesect; his Neo Champion outfit celebrates a title won there, with a Shiny White Kyurem at his side. It's also in this game that he takes on the player's role during the Black and White storyline, and that he becomes friends with N.

A name left blank: Black, Blair, Kuro

The fifth generation broke new ground on a subtle point: no name is suggested at the start, even if the player goes through the name entry screen without typing anything valid. Hilbert and his female counterpart are the first main-series avatars in this situation, with the only constraint being a seven-character limit. So the name "Hilbert" comes from the role he plays as an NPC when you play as Hilda.

The official names follow a shared logic. In every language, the names of the two Black and White heroes draw on the vocabulary of war and combat. Fan communities, however, latched onto something else: "Black" caught on, and even turns up on the game's promotional material. Two other names circulated before release — "Blair" in the English demo, "Kuro" in screenshots of the English edition.

The manga adaptations scatter his identity even further. Five series take him on under five different names — Black, Monta, Tōya, Shin, and then Hiro for the sequel. A sixth adaptation, Pokémon Adventures, gives him an alter ego named Black (Noir in the French edition), who lets a Munna perched on his head feed on his dreams to sharpen his focus. One last nod survives elsewhere: the museum in Lumiose City displays a painting based on the artwork that shows him with Hilda aboard a Battle Subway train.

Hilbert at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Hilbert in Pokémon Black and White?
  He's the game's male playable character: an aspiring fourteen-year-old Trainer from Nuvema Town who receives his Pokédex and first Pokémon from Professor Juniper before setting out across Unova.
• What is the difference between Hilbert and Hilda?
  They are two versions of the same avatar. Choosing one writes the other out of the plot: the character you pass over doesn't become a rival, but simply reappears at the Battle Subway.
• Which Legendary Pokémon does Hilbert get?
  Reshiram in the Black version and Zekrom in the White version. He becomes its chosen one and catches it in N's Castle, at the end of his confrontation with Team Plasma.
• Why is Hilbert called "Black"?
  Because the fifth generation offers no default name. Fan communities adopted "Black," which also appears in the game's promotional content; "Blair" and "Kuro" circulated before release.
• Does Hilbert appear in the anime?
  Just once, and without speaking. He's recognizable by his silhouette in an episode titled "The King Returns," where he bursts into the Giant Chasm riding Zekrom to save N from an attack by Ghetsis's White Kyurem.

In short

Hilbert is a now-you-see-him, now-you-don't hero. Chosen, he carries one of the most thoughtfully argued storylines in the series, the one where an opponent condemns the very act of catching — set aside, he's reduced to a cap glimpsed in a train car and a forgotten Prop Case. The sequels themselves don't dare bring him back, and leave his lines ready but silent in the code. The only avatar in the series whose absence was written with as much care as his presence.