Quillon: the elite Chaser who judges Project Mew

Project Mew doesn't really recruit: it weeds people out. Quillon is its most effective Chaser, the one Professor Amaranth holds up as an example to the others. He screens the candidates, referees their missions and catches three Legendary titans along the way. His very first words to Goh, whom he has just pulled out of a blizzard, are a disqualification.

Contents

• The Program's Most Effective Chaser
• Mount Coronet: Rescued First, Disqualified Next
• Tokens, Bonuses and Eliminations: The Trial's Referee
• The Three Titans, and the Door They Open
• Table Mountain: An Expedition Without Poké Balls
• Blunt, Honest and Able to Change His Mind
• Quillon at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Program's Most Effective Chaser

Quillon is a Trainer whose pursuit of Mew has turned into a full-time job. He joins Project Mew, the research program run by Professor Amaranth, and quickly establishes himself as its best member.

His specialty is rugged terrain: he studies mountain ranges and the ecosystems of Pokémon that survive in hostile environments. It's field expertise, not lab work, and it explains why he always turns up wherever the expedition gets tough.

Amaranth makes no secret of it and acknowledges in front of everyone that no Chaser matches his output. Along with Danika, Quillon is one of the five Chasers selected for the final expedition, the one that is finally supposed to lead to the Mythical Pokémon.

Mount Coronet: Rescued First, Disqualified Next

His first appearance plays out in a snowstorm. While scouting Mount Coronet, in Sinnoh, he comes across Ash and Goh lying unconscious in the blizzard and takes them to shelter in a cave. The bad weather is coming from an Alolan Ninetales that Goh's mission is, as it happens, to catch.

When they wake up, there's no friendliness: he tells Goh that his participation in the Project ends right there, since without him the two boys would have died. He also explains that Pokémon hunters moved the Ninetales, and that he intends to return it to its habitat on Mount Lanakila, in Alola.

Goh refuses to give up. Quillon then follows the group without a word, purely to judge for himself, and only steps in once the Trial Mission is complete: his Urshifu drives off, in a single blow, a Regice that had come to stop the capture. Back at the lab, he takes back his verdict and confirms Goh as an official participant.

Tokens, Bonuses and Eliminations: The Trial's Referee

Next we see him in action with Danika: they return the Alolan Ninetales to the summit of Mount Lanakila, track down the Pokémon hunters and beat them effortlessly with their two Urshifu. When Goh apologizes for being rescued yet again, Quillon sets him straight: they came for the hunters, not for him.

The Project hands out tokens, and he's the one who awards them. After the Raid Battle against Articuno, Goh, Gary and Horace get three each, plus a fourth for Gary and Horace: one for his leadership, the other for his team spirit. When Goh asks whether cooperation is the key, Quillon tells him to figure out the answer on his own.

Danika then lets slip that before he was recruited, Quillon was a loner himself, not much for teamwork — he immediately cuts off the call. Later, he announces that his own trial is over and that Gary Oak has won it, then, with the rainy season ending earlier than expected where Mew is, proposes automatically cutting any candidates below the four-token mark.

The Three Titans, and the Door They Open

Quillon doesn't just referee. He eventually catches the Regice encountered on Mount Coronet, then the Regirock he had targeted in a desert, where the flying lab had dropped him off with Danika in front of an ancient structure. The third one costs him a battle: his Urshifu gets the upper hand over the Registeel of the Iron Ruins, in the Crown Tundra, before catching it.

This trio of titans isn't a trophy collection; it's a key. At the Split-Decision Ruins, Quillon confirms that Regice, Regirock and Registeel control the opening of the doors and brings the three Pokémon out of their Poké Balls in front of the candidates.

The mission he referees next involves catching Regieleki and Regidrago, under a constraint he imposes on Gary, Goh, Lyla and Sterling: two Pokémon each, not one more. Yet the two rivals come out of the ruins with their catches, which surprises him, and the assembled titans begin to glow, summoning a Dynamax Regigigas in front of the whole team.

🧊 The titans have their own section: browse our Legendary Pokémon.

Table Mountain: An Expedition Without Poké Balls

For the final expedition, the mobile lab leaves Slateport City and heads for Faraway Island, off the coast of Hoenn. Quillon is the one at the controls: he warns the team about the turbulence ahead, and the aircraft lands, not without difficulty, at the foot of Table Mountain.

The psychic-energy detector Goh rigged up guides the group through the rainforest, then everything shuts down at once — devices, communications and Poké Balls included — because of Mew's presence. Danika wants to fall back to the lab; Quillon decides the opportunity won't come around again and starts the climb with the only three Pokémon still available, including his Weavile.

A flock of Skarmory attacks the roped party and cuts the rope, splitting the team in two. Quillon reaches the summit with Gary, finds a passage carved by non-human hands leading into an inner cave, and discovers an untouched ecosystem where normally prehistoric species live side by side. A Groudon awaits them there, flees after a brief exchange, and leads them to a Kyogre: the two Hoenn Legendaries were Mew all along.

The Mythical Pokémon then reappears on a huge floating pink crystal. Dazzled, Quillon experiences a vision of the planet's creation, of Rayquaza and of the journey across the ocean to Faraway Island — and realizes when he comes to that all the Chasers saw exactly the same thing.

Blunt, Honest and Able to Change His Mind

The portrait leaves no room for doubt: Quillon prepares and combs through the data brought back by expeditions even when he isn't on a mission. In the face of danger, he stays perfectly calm, reads the situation and decides fast — which is what lets him counter a wild Regice's Hyper Beam.

That seriousness comes at the price of coldness. He's stern, closed off to others, and his honesty stings — newcomers to Project Mew are the first to feel it. He says himself that he can't stand anything about the weak, and invites them to leave immediately.

He isn't stubborn, though. His change of heart about Goh, from their very first expedition together, proves that a judgment can be revised; at the end of the adventure, he salutes the three other Chasers and admits they made a good team. He even heads off with Danika, both having signed on for the next expedition, all the way to that mission in the middle of a snowstorm where they rescue an injured Beartic and its Cubchoo.

Quillon at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Quillon in the Pokémon anime?
  A supporting Trainer in the series and a member of Project Mew, led by Professor Amaranth. He is the program's most effective Chaser, specializing in mountain ranges and ecosystems where life is hard.
• What Pokémon does Quillon use?
  His Urshifu takes part in every battle, from the Regice driven off on Mount Coronet to the Pokémon hunters. He's also known to have a Weavile, one of the rare few Pokémon still available during the climb up Table Mountain, and a Honchkrow, as well as Regice, Regirock and Registeel, which he catches over the course of his missions.
• Why does Quillon disqualify Goh?
  Because he had to rescue Ash and Goh from a blizzard on Mount Coronet and believes that, without him, the two boys wouldn't have made it out. He reverses his decision after seeing Goh complete his Trial Mission, and confirms him as an official participant.
• What are Project Mew tokens for?
  They measure the Challengers' progress. Quillon hands them out himself after missions, with bonus tokens for specific qualities such as leadership or teamwork, and proposes cutting candidates below four tokens when time starts running short.
• Does Quillon stay with Project Mew after the final expedition?
  Yes. Professor Amaranth reveals that he and Danika have already agreed to take part in the next expedition, while Goh, Gary and Horace would rather take time to think it over.

In short

Quillon is an obstacle before he's an ally: he eliminates, sets his own rules, refuses to explain and leaves the Challengers to find on their own what they came looking for. Project Mew holds together because someone there says no, and that someone is also the one who catches three titans to open a door. All that remains is his single concession, wrung out of him at the very last minute: they made a good team.