Reggie: The Veilstone City Breeder Caring for Paul's Rejects

Behind a Trainer who casts Pokémon aside, someone has to take them in. Reggie runs a breeding center in Veilstone City, his hometown in Sinnoh, and his place is where the Pokémon his younger brother no longer wants end up. The Diamond & Pearl series never makes him a star, but it gives him the whole other side of the rival's story: a former competitor turned breeder, who watches others battle.

Contents

• The Veilstone City breeding center, last stop for Paul's Pokémon
• A former Trainer with a surprising record
• The four Pokémon attributed to him
• The brother watching from the stands
• Reggie at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Veilstone City breeding center, last stop for Paul's Pokémon

Reggie works as a Pokémon Breeder in Veilstone City, in the Sinnoh region. His daily job fits in one sentence: looking after the Pokémon his brother Paul leaves behind, in other words the ones Ash's rival has judged unfit to travel with him.

The mechanism is simple, and that's what makes it effective: Paul casts aside, Reggie keeps. No released Pokémon ever truly disappears from the story; it changes hands and stays somewhere within reach of the scene, which gives the younger brother's ruthless sorting a visible counterweight.

Veilstone City isn't a neutral address either. It's the city of Maylene, the local Gym Leader, who is a friend of Reggie's. He moves in League circles without holding any official post there — like Melanie elsewhere in the series, he runs a refuge rather than an institution.

A former Trainer with a surprising record

His Badge collection gives away a past that was anything but a hobby. Reggie competed in the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh Leagues, four complete regional journeys in all, before retiring to take up breeding.

Add to that an even rarer line on his record: six of the seven Frontier Symbols of the Kanto Battle Frontier. The battle facilities only award these symbols to Trainers who can beat their hand-picked opponents, and Reggie was just one short of completing the set.

The series shows one of those battles in a flashback, when Paul in turn comes to challenge Brandon in Snowpoint City. It shows Reggie the competitor, pitting his Drapion against Brandon's Regirock: it's the only glimpse of him in a high-level battle that the anime has kept.

The four Pokémon attributed to him

Reggie's documented team comes down to four species. His Staraptor is the most offensive of the bunch: Brave Bird, Wing Attack and Steel Wing give it Flying-type coverage backed up by a Steel-type strike, the arsenal of a fully evolved bird of prey.

The rest tells a different story. His Swalot combines Sludge Bomb with the Stockpile and Spit Up duo, and his female Bibarel runs Secret Power, Super Fang, Take Down and Ice Beam. Two Pokémon built to take hits and last rather than finish things quickly — the profile of a breeder as much as a fighter.

His Drapion remains the most mysterious of the four: only one of its moves is known, Poison Fang, and it only appears in the flashback of the battle against Brandon.

The other three are seen in action in a battle against Ash during the Diamond & Pearl series: Bibarel against Turtwig, Swalot against Staravia, Staraptor against Pikachu. Three matchups that mainly serve as a way for the young Trainer to measure himself.

🔥 A team of four already fills a shelf: see the section Pokémon figures.

The brother watching from the stands

After the flashback, Reggie becomes a character in the stands. He watches the six-on-six Full Battle between Ash and Paul, then watches them face off again at the Sinnoh League. His narrative function is to be there whenever his brother has a lot riding on a battle.

It's also where the contrast between the two brothers comes through most clearly. Where Paul sees Ash as nothing more than a Trainer to look down on, Reggie respects him and likes him: two opposite views of the same boy, with no speech needed to spell it out.

The series finally brings him back much later, after his original seasons — the eleventh through the thirteenth — in the twenty-fifth. The two brothers are reunited in front of a TV, watching Cynthia take on Iris in the first round of the Masters Eight Tournament of the World Coronation Series, then Ash's match against Steven Stone.

Reggie at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Reggie in Pokémon?
  He's the older brother of Paul, Ash's rival in Sinnoh. He's a Pokémon Breeder in Veilstone City, his hometown, and looks after the Pokémon his brother leaves there.
• What Pokémon does Reggie have?
  Four are attributed to him: Staraptor, Swalot, Bibarel and Drapion. The last one is only seen in a flashback to a battle.
• Was Reggie a good Trainer?
  His Badge collection suggests so. He competed in the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh Leagues, and holds six of the seven Frontier Symbols of the Kanto Battle Frontier.
• Does Reggie battle Ash?
  Yes, in a battle during the Diamond & Pearl series in which Bibarel faces Turtwig, Swalot faces Staravia and Staraptor faces Pikachu.
• Does Reggie come back after the Diamond & Pearl series?
  Yes. He reappears alongside Paul during the World Coronation Series, both of them watching from in front of their TV.

In short

Reggie has no Gym, no title and no arc of his own, and yet he fills a role few supporting characters do: he's living proof that Paul's ruthless sorting has a destination. A former four-League competitor who has settled down at a breeding center in Veilstone City, he gives Ash's rival his exact opposite, without ever needing to prove him wrong. The brother who picks up what the other one drops.