Faba: the Aether Foundation Branch Chief who lied his way up

A branch chief who owes his job to flattery, not to results. Faba heads the Aether Foundation's Alola branch and serves as Lusamine's right-hand man, in the games as in the anime. Behind his green sunglasses, Pokémon Sun and Moon hide a schemer whose own notes end up giving him away, while the anime hides an old mistake that his boss's daughter paid the price for.

Contents

• In the Games: A Job Earned Through Flattery
• The Anime: The Mistake He Covered Up
• Nebby, Nihilego and the Backfire
• Masked Royal Superfan, All the Way to the Alola League
• A Surgeon's Name and Bean-Shaped Glasses
• Faba at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

In the Games: A Job Earned Through Flattery

Faba heads the Aether Foundation's Alola branch and stands one step behind Lusamine, serving as her right-hand man. His green sunglasses are enough to spot him in any scene at Aether Paradise.

The game doesn't unmask him all at once. He can be generous at times, but the dialogue and above all the notes left on his computer gradually paint the picture of a devious manipulator who climbed the ranks through flattery and lies. The story punishes him with a demotion.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon give him a second career: he joins Team Rainbow Rocket and helps it take over Aether Paradise. His opinion of himself hasn't budged an inch, and he remains convinced he can bounce back from anything. Sun and Moon also make him a very unusual challenger at the Pokémon League: he only shows up on the first day of the month, and on that day he's the only opponent.

The Anime: The Mistake He Covered Up

The anime goes back to well before the Sun & Moon series begins. He's already running the Foundation by then, but his superior has gotten into the habit of belittling him without even realizing it.

To prove what he's capable of, he sets out to open an Ultra Wormhole without anyone's help. The experiment goes nowhere, and rather than own up to the fallout, he has some of the memories of Lillie, his boss's daughter, wiped to bury the whole affair.

He gets away with it without the slightest remorse and without giving up on his project. As for the little girl, those missing memories leave her with a phobia of Pokémon — even though one of them, and not quite a Pokémon at that, had saved her life.

Nebby, Nihilego and the Backfire

He resurfaces much later at the Altar of the Sunne, alongside Wicke and Lusamine. Ultra Beasts and the wormholes leading to them still occupy his mind, but it's the sight of the mysterious Nebby that gets his wheels turning again: he immediately launches one scheme after another to capture the little Pokémon and revive his old project.

His first attempt fails, with a side effect he hadn't foreseen: it brings Lillie's memories back. The second is carried out with even more cunning. He forces Cosmog to power a machine meant to open a wormhole and bring an Ultra Beast, Nihilego, through it.

Nothing goes as promised. The creature abducts Lusamine — the very person he wanted to prove himself to — and carries her off to another world, from which Ash and his friends eventually bring her back. She accepts his apology on one condition: that he and Wicke swap ranks within the Foundation.

Masked Royal Superfan, All the Way to the Alola League

A late revelation casts the character in a different light: Faba is a die-hard fan of the Masked Royal. He stumbles onto the wrestler's double identity by accident during the battle against the Team Rocket squad led by Matori, and promises the masked Trainer he'll keep it to himself.

That passion later drives an impulsive decision. When he learns that the winner of the Alola Pokémon League will earn the right to face the Masked Royal, he signs up for the tournament on a whim.

He's no mere extra there, though. His Hypno only comes into play after the preliminary Battle Royal, which he gets through with his Alakazam, before Ash and his Meltan knock him out in the Round of 16. His run ends in the Top 16.

He returns later for a single episode of the Journeys series, when Mohn reappears in Alola. Convinced he would never see him again, Faba bursts into tears and rushes to hug him, only to be cut short by Ash's Rotom Pokédex. He's later seen refereeing a Battle Royal, in costume for the occasion, with Wicke by his side.

🔥 Aether Paradise has its display cases, and so do we: see the section dedicated to Pokémon figures.

A Surgeon's Name and Bean-Shaped Glasses

His French name, Saubohne, works on two levels. It plays on the English "sawbones", an old slang word for a surgeon (literally, someone who saws bones) that has long since fallen out of use.

The second reading is German: "Saubohne" means the fava bean. The wink is no accident, since his famous glasses are shaped just like one. His English name, Faba, points to the same bean, Vicia faba.

Two behavioral details round out the portrait: he's right-handed and he likes to twirl his goatee between his fingers. As for cards, he enters the Pokémon Trading Card Game with the Sun & Moon—Lost Thunder expansion, released in France on November 2, 2018.

Faba at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Faba in Pokémon?
  The head of the Aether Foundation's Alola branch and Lusamine's right-hand man. He appears in Pokémon Sun and Moon, in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and in the Sun & Moon anime series.
• Why is Faba demoted?
  Because the player discovers, through dialogue and the notes left on his computer, that he built his career on flattery and lies. In the anime, his demotion has a different cause: Lusamine demands that he swap ranks with Wicke after he put her in danger.
• What did Faba do to Lillie?
  He had part of her memories erased to cover up his failed attempt to open an Ultra Wormhole. Lillie was left with a phobia of Pokémon, and those memories only resurface much later, during another of Faba's attempts.
• Which Pokémon does Faba use in the anime?
  Two: an Alakazam, which he sends out alongside Professor Kukui against Gozu, and a Hypno, the one he battles with when he falls to Ash and his Meltan in the Round of 16, leaving him in the Top 16.
• Where does Faba's French name, Saubohne, come from?
  From two overlapping puns: the English "sawbones," an old word for a surgeon, and the German "Saubohne," which means the fava bean. His glasses are shaped just like one, and his English name, Faba, points to the same bean (Vicia faba).

In short

Faba is one of the few Aether Foundation characters the story never truly redeems. The games demote him, then let him drift over to Team Rainbow Rocket; the anime strips him of his rank in favor of Wicke after Lusamine's abduction. He takes every fall and bounces back with the same self-assurance, which makes him less an antagonist than a careerist who never learns.