Charon: The Team Galactic Scientist Out for Himself

Team Galactic's fourth Commander exists only in Platinum. Diamond and Pearl had only three; the enhanced version adds one more, a scientist by trade, newly hired and kept away from everything that matters. He never blocks the player's path and takes part in none of the group's major operations — and yet he's the one who, once the boss has vanished, tries to hold Sinnoh to ransom.

Contents

• The Commander Platinum adds and you never battle
• Stark Mountain, or Team Galactic held hostage
• In the anime, the only one who slips through the net
• In the manga, the mastermind who stays in the shadows
• The Platinum arc: Heatran, Giratina and a collection of Legendaries
• Charon at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Commander Platinum adds and you never battle

In Diamond and Pearl, Team Galactic runs on three Commanders. Platinum adds a fourth, freshly hired, and gives him a status no one else shares: no battle against Charon is planned anywhere in the story. He is the only one of the group's leaders in that position.

His place is in the lab rather than in the field. His research focuses on Rotom and is carried out in the room that only the Secret Key can open, away from the rest of the organization.

His research outlives him from one game to the next. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, a player walking with their Rotom can read, on a table at Silph Co., the book in which Charon recorded his findings — the very same volume as the one in the locked room. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl never show it, but his notes are still there, in the hidden room of the Galactic Eterna Building, in Eterna City.

That leaves his position within the group, and it's unlike anyone else's. In front of Cyrus, or in front of Commanders who never stop making fun of him, he heaps one compliment after another on the boss; his loyalty stops at the praise, whereas Saturn, Mars and Jupiter truly believe in it.

Stark Mountain, or Team Galactic held hostage

Cyrus's disappearance changes everything. Saturn doesn't suspect a thing yet when Charon declares himself head of the organization and makes a demand that no longer has anything scientific about it: the people of Sinnoh must hand over all their savings, or else he will awaken Heatran.

The player can only answer him once they have the National Pokédex. They then climb Stark Mountain with Buck and find at the entrance Grunts demoralized by their boss's departure, who find the newcomer shady and obey him anyway. Two battles await farther up: Mars, then Jupiter, who both walk out right afterward, convinced the group lost all its worth when it lost its leader.

The rest is quickly dealt with: Looker makes the arrest, and Heatran ends up awakening without causing the slightest damage. The character can be found again afterward at Stark Mountain and at the Valley Windworks, but what matters most is what he didn't do: Galactic HQ, Spear Pillar and the three lakes the organization targeted — Verity, Valor, Acuity — all went ahead without him.

🔥 Heatran, Charon's favorite threat, has its own section: see our Legendary Pokémon.

In the anime, the only one who slips through the net

His first appearance is little more than a wink: he's glimpsed from behind while Mars calls headquarters, in the episode about the ruins on Iron Island. You have to wait for the secret-operation episode to really see him at work.

By then he's working at Mt. Coronet alongside Saturn, with a specific assignment: get hold of the gateway at Spear Pillar that is supposed to open the way to Dialga and Palkia. The organization pulls it off, but the passage requires Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, and he's the one who figures that out.

He turns up in other episodes of the Diamond & Pearl series, then in a different series altogether, Pokémon Generations, in the Magma Stone episode, once Cyrus has disappeared. By then he leads no more than a handful of men, actively hunted by Looker, and the little band removes the Magma Stone from its altar on Stark Mountain, which awakens Heatran.

Looker and Buck, who have followed them, split the work: the first puts Charon out of action, the second reseals Heatran by putting the stone back where it belongs. Yet two Grunts are enough to get him out of there, and on screen he seems to remain the only member of the whole organization that nobody ever managed to put behind bars.

In the manga, the mastermind who stays in the shadows

The manga adaptation gives him the role the games deny him. The first arc makes him one of the organization's scientific minds, the one behind the Red Chain. His face, however, stays in shadow for almost the entire arc: it's only revealed at Spear Pillar.

Once Cyrus has been beaten at Spear Pillar by the Pokédex Holders, Charon watches the scene from a distance and sizes up Regigigas the way you'd appraise something worth stealing. Once spotted, he sees his machine taken back by Byron — and the device throws the clash between Palkia and Dialga off balance: a hole opens in the sky, black tentacles reach out of it and carry off both Legendaries along with Cyrus.

The diversion works in his favor, but it costs him something. He escapes and drops, along the way, the notebook holding his notes on Sinnoh's Legendary Pokémon, which Diamond picks up: the organization's most discreet member has just left behind a written record of his intentions.

The Platinum arc: Heatran, Giratina and a collection of Legendaries

He resurfaces at Stark Mountain, escorted by Grunts, with Heatran as his target. He tricks Buck just as Buck gets his hands on the Magma Stone, then captures the Legendary. Looker comes to help, Charon fights back, gets caught and questioned — and states his goal outright: to reach the Distortion World, capture the Pokémon that rules it and build himself an arsenal.

In Eterna City, Giratina has crossed into the real world and started its rampage. Charon lays out his plan to Diamond, sends in Heatran — which Regigigas stops — then hurls Giratina at Pearl: Diamond shoves his friend out of the way and takes the hit for him. With its Trainer down, Regigigas refuses the outstretched hand and leaves the battlefield; Pearl, beside himself, attacks and is stopped by Charon's Slowking before a Rotom and the returning titan push the scientist back into the Distortion World, Giratina and Heatran with him.

In the other dimension, the Commanders who have come looking for their boss accuse him of caring only about Legendaries. He denies it, demands their help, then plays his real trump card: Darkrai is under his control too. Ten Legendaries end up battling before his eyes, which delights him — only Shaymin refuses to fight. The show ordinary Pokémon put on in battle leaves him disappointed: he abandons his Slowking and goes back to his prizes; Shaymin then wakes everyone up with Worry Seed, which makes it possible to turn Giratina's attack on Charon himself and destroy his flying machine.

His exit goes no better. He flees on Giratina's back, locking the others in behind him, but Cynthia is waiting for him outside and brings the Legendary down with a Draco Meteor; his last machine is destroyed by a toy robot that turns out to be Rotom. He still tries to convince Cyrus that he was gathering the Legendaries out of devotion to the group, but the files say otherwise, and Saturn notices. Cyrus disbands Team Galactic, and Looker, recovered from his injuries, puts an end to Charon's career for good.

Charon at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Charon in Pokémon?
  He's the fourth Commander of Team Galactic, added in Pokémon Platinum and absent from Diamond and Pearl. The group's newly hired scientist, he showers Cyrus with compliments without actually being loyal to him.
• Why do you never battle Charon in Pokémon Platinum?
  Because the game has no battle planned against him: he's the only Commander in that situation. He doesn't take part in the main plan either, since you never run into him at Galactic HQ, at Spear Pillar or at Sinnoh's three lakes.
• What does Charon do at Stark Mountain?
  Once Cyrus has vanished, he declares himself boss and threatens to awaken Heatran unless the people of Sinnoh hand over all their savings. The player climbs up to confront him with Buck after getting the National Pokédex; Looker ends up arresting him.
• What Pokémon does Charon use?
  The games don't give him a team, since you never battle him. In the manga he owns a Slowking, which he eventually abandons, and he takes control of Heatran, Giratina and then Darkrai.
• What happens to Charon in the anime?
  He works at Mt. Coronet with Saturn, then leads the small group left after Cyrus's disappearance and awakens Heatran at Stark Mountain. Knocked out by Looker, he escapes thanks to two Grunts: he's the only member of Team Galactic who seems to avoid capture.

In short

Charon never served Team Galactic: he used it. The games keep him so far from the main plan that they don't even include a battle against him, and that very distance is what lets him take over the organization the moment the boss is gone. His loyalty was nothing but words, and his one constant fits in a single line: what interests him is rare Pokémon, never the cause. The manga takes that logic all the way by handing him Heatran, Giratina and Darkrai, then having him abandon the only Pokémon that was truly his. The scientist ends up with no allies, only research subjects in their place.