Wes: The Colosseum Hero Who Started on the Wrong Side

He started his story among thieves. Wes is the playable character of Pokémon Colosseum, and the only protagonist in the series with a past as a Pokémon snagger trailing behind him. He roams Orre with the machine he stole from his former organization, and now uses it to take back from criminals the creatures they have corrupted.

Contents

• A Snagger's Past with Team Snagem
• Crossing Orre with Rui
• The Doppelgänger Affair: Fein and the Shadow Togetic
• Espeon, Umbreon and an Unusual Playable Character
• Wes at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Snagger's Past with Team Snagem

The game says very little about what he went through before the adventure. All we know is that he joined Team Snagem, without his motives ever being spelled out, and that he left it shortly afterward, regretting having put his snagging talent at the service of Gonzap.

His departure is nothing like a quiet resignation. He takes the Snag Machine with him, a machine that turns Poké Balls against their purpose: instead of catching a wild Pokémon, they seize one that already belongs to another Trainer. It's the tool of theft, and that's precisely what he steals.

Before vanishing, he sets off a charge at the heart of the organization's hideout. The explosion reveals its location to the authorities, which turns his escape into a denunciation: the future hero thus begins his journey with a burglary combined with an attack on his own accomplices.

Crossing Orre with Rui

Once equipped with the Snag Machine, he first wanders with no destination, crossing paths twice with two crooks, Folly and Trudly, on the road connecting Outskirt Stand to Phenac City. It's in Phenac City that he rescues Rui, a young loner, from the clutches of this duo — the encounter that finally gives his wandering a purpose.

He then crisscrosses the region on a hovering motorbike and helps Rui uncover the Shadow Pokémon plot. The scheme is run by Cipher, which the organization he has just left secretly assists: the former snagger spends his adventure undoing a project he had indirectly contributed to.

His path eventually draws the attention of two creatures the game doesn't grant to just anyone, Celebi and Ho-Oh. Their attention is as good as a certificate of good character: in a story where the line between thief and savior is blurry, it clearly shows which side the hero ended up on.

🔥 Celebi and Ho-Oh watch over his journey: browse our Legendaries.

The Doppelgänger Affair: Fein and the Shadow Togetic

The adventure doesn't end with Cipher's fall. Once almost all the Shadow Pokémon have been recovered, a stranger with exactly his face attacks a Phenac City resident by unleashing a Shadow Togetic on him, and rumor immediately points to the hero.

Wes responds like an investigator: he cross-checks the news bulletins and relies on the Kids Grid to follow the trail to Outskirt Stand, where the culprit is caught red-handed. The impostor is a Cipher Peon named Fein, determined to tarnish the reputation of the man who dismantled his organization.

Clearing his name takes just one battle won and the snagging of the Shadow Togetic. The game doesn't say what becomes of Wes and Rui afterward: their victory lives on only in the memory of Orre's residents, brought up in front of Michael without their names ever being spoken.

Espeon, Umbreon and an Unusual Playable Character

His two Eevee evolutions aren't last-minute recruits: Espeon and Umbreon have in all likelihood been with him for several years, and the game records their met location as an old friend of Wes.

This duo makes him the first playable character in the series to start with two Pokémon, and, along with Michael from Pokémon XD, the only one whose starting partners are above level 5. The Shadow Pokémon snagged along the way stay with him afterward, but they can't be traded or entered in tournaments until they're purified.

Both manga adaptations of Colosseum feature the same pair, but each in its own way: in Pokémon Colosseum Snatcher Leo, Espeon sticks to Confusion and Helping Hand and the duo notably takes on the Ludicolo of a Cipher Admin, Miror B., while Pokémon Colosseum Snatchers gives it Confusion, Psychic, Reflect and Light Screen; Umbreon, for its part, uses Quick Attack and Feint Attack in both. Wes also catches a Shadow Croconaw in the first story, and snags a Bayleef that is sent in against Nascour's Metagross in the second.

The rest of his profile is out of the ordinary. At about seventeen, he's the oldest playable Trainer in the series, stands roughly 1.65 m tall according to the Strategy Memo, and remains the only one to have belonged to a villainous team. Like any protagonist he can be renamed: the alternative default names are Seth or Thomas in English (Vincent or Éric in French).

Wes at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Wes in Pokémon Colosseum?
  He's the game's playable character. A former Pokémon snagger who passed through Team Snagem, he leaves the organization with the Snag Machine and travels across the Orre region to dismantle the Shadow Pokémon plot.
• What is the Snag Machine?
  A device that modifies Poké Balls so they can catch Pokémon belonging to other Trainers. Wes steals it from Team Snagem before fleeing, then uses it to recover Shadow Pokémon.
• Which Pokémon does Wes have at the start of the game?
  Espeon and Umbreon, which he gets without having to catch them. They have been by his side for several years, and their met location describes them as old friends of Wes.
• Are Wes and Michael the same character?
  No. Wes is the hero of Pokémon Colosseum, and Michael is the hero of Pokémon XD. The confusion comes from the default names: Michael is the name of the Colosseum hero in the French version, but also of the XD protagonist in the English version.
• Who is Fein?
  A Cipher Peon who takes on Wes's appearance after Cipher's fall. He attacks a Phenac City resident with a Shadow Togetic to ruin Wes's reputation, before being unmasked at Outskirt Stand.

In short

Wes holds a unique place among playable characters: he doesn't enter the adventure out of competitive ambition but out of remorse. His hero's tool is an instrument of theft, his first partners are two veterans rather than a level 5 starter, and his final opponent is a double who's come to take his name from him. Colosseum thus opens with the only protagonist in the series who has something to be forgiven for.