Norman: The Gym Leader Who Makes You Beat Your Own Father

It's the only Gym in the series where your opponent is your father. Norman runs the Petalburg City Gym, champions the Normal type, and happens to be the parent of Hoenn's protagonist. He even refuses to battle you until you've made enough progress — which, coming from a father, looks as much like teaching as like competitive standards.

Contents

• First Gym Leader You Meet, Fifth You Battle
• He Refuses to Battle You Too Early
• Slaking, and a Team with Three Paces
• In the Anime and Manga, a Different Father
• Norman at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

First Gym Leader You Meet, Fifth You Battle

Met long before any of his colleagues, Norman nevertheless comes only fifth on Hoenn's official Gym circuit. This gap between meeting him and battling him exists nowhere else in the series.

The family move that opens Ruby and Sapphire is his doing: he loaded his family into a truck from Olivine City, so he would no longer have to choose between his home and his duties as Gym Leader.

His first scene shows him lending a Zigzagoon and a Poké Ball to a child who doesn't know how to catch Pokémon. The Gym Leader is introduced as a teacher before he is introduced as an opponent.

He Refuses to Battle You Too Early

His role goes beyond awarding or withholding a Badge. He's happy to throw beginners in at the deep end and only grants them a battle once he judges their progress solid enough.

Applied to his own child, the principle takes on a different color: the father sends his son or daughter off to cut their teeth elsewhere before agreeing to a real battle.

Professor Birch is one of his close friends: the two men studied together. As caring a father as he is an ambitious competitor, he watches his child take the same path with genuine pride, and the game never pits these two sides of him against each other.

Slaking, and a Team with Three Paces

His signature Pokémon is Slaking, whose Ability alternates between doing nothing at all and landing devastating blows. It's the paradox of the Normal type summed up in a single species.

Backing it up: Vigoroth, Linoone, Kecleon, Kangaskhan, Exploud, Ambipom or Zangoose depending on the version.

The animated series spells out the method: three Pokémon tuned to three distinct paces are enough for him to set the tempo, which explains how a specialist in the type with the fewest advantages of all can hold a Gym.

🏅 The Hoenn companions have their own section: see the Pokémon plushies.

In the Anime and Manga, a Different Father

The anime gives him a full home life: his wife Caroline and their two children share the Gym with him, an adjoining greenhouse serves as a dormitory for his Pokémon, and the elder of the two children long resisted the family passion.

He is highly regarded there — a large fan club has sprung up in the north of Petalburg City — and his intensity in battle goes up a notch the moment anyone goes after his family. Only one flaw is held against him: he doesn't take gossip about his private life seriously enough.

The manga hardens everything. There, Norman puts battling above all else, hence his friction with a son who is drawn to Contests. He single-handedly takes the blame for an incident that costs the Association a Legendary Pokémon, which earns him a five-year ban from the Gym Leader exam.

Norman at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is Norman really the hero's father?
  Yes. He is the father of the Hoenn protagonist, which makes his Gym the only one in the series where you formally face your own parent to earn a Badge.
• Why does Norman refuse to battle at first?
  Because he only opens his Gym to aspiring Trainers once he judges their progress solid enough. He starts by sending them off to cut their teeth elsewhere, his own child included.
• What is Norman's signature Pokémon?
  Slaking, whose Ability alternates between complete inaction and devastating blows. It is backed by Vigoroth, Linoone, Kecleon, Kangaskhan or Exploud, depending on the version.
• Why do you meet Norman before the other Gym Leaders?
  Because the family move that opens the adventure brings the player to his town. He is therefore the first Gym Leader you meet, but only the fifth on the official circuit.

In short

Norman is the Gym Leader with the most to lose in his own battle. He champions the type with the fewest advantages in the series with a team built to control the pace, and he refuses to battle you until you're ready. Beating your father to earn a Badge remains, twenty years on, a one-off the franchise has never repeated.