Tory Lund: The Boy Who Was Afraid of Pokémon

A Pokémon movie hero who runs away from Pokémon. Tory Lund is ten years old, lives in a fully automated city and backs away whenever a creature comes near him. The franchise's seventh feature film builds his entire arc on this anomaly: it gives it a dated cause, makes him pay for it in public, then takes it away from him bit by bit.

Contents

• A Fear Born in the Arctic, Four Years Earlier
• The Battle He Fights Against His Will at the Battle Tower
• Plusle and Minun, the Two Pokémon Who Disarm Him
• Tory Lund at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Fear Born in the Arctic, Four Years Earlier

Four years before the events of the film, Tory goes with his father to the Arctic. There, the two of them witness a meteorite crash, and the rock is carrying a passenger: a Deoxys.

A Rayquaza swoops down to drive out the invader, and their clash turns into a disaster for the surrounding area. All the Pokémon in the area bolt at once, and hundreds of Walrein nearly trample the child left in their path.

From that stampede, Tory is left with a fear of Pokémon that never leaves him. The film doesn't give him a decorative phobia: it gives it a precise cause, dated and shown on screen, before the hero is even old enough to tell the story. The rest of the plot is covered in our article on Destiny Deoxys.

The Battle He Fights Against His Will at the Battle Tower

Years later, the Battle Tower brings him face to face with the Pikachu belonging to Ash. The mere sight of the electric mouse is enough to make him panic: he backs away, gets carried off by an escalator, and ends up teamed with Ash in a match he never asked for.

To play his part, he has to borrow the Torkoal from Ash. Tory can barely look at the Pokémon he's supposed to command, Ash tries to take back control of the battle, and the duo goes down to Rafe and Sid.

The sequence sums up the character. His fear isn't a screenwriting tic; it has an immediate cost: it makes him lose a match, in public, with a Pokémon that isn't even his.

Plusle and Minun, the Two Pokémon Who Disarm Him

The film makes a point of stating that Tory really loves Pokémon: fear and affection coexist in him. When a Minun jumps on him to ask for help, he flinches, then still goes to free the Plusle that's stuck.

The two pals want to thank him by jumping on him, and he runs away. That's the whole principle of the character: the cure doesn't come all at once, it plays out over the course of the film, with his fear retreating a notch at each encounter until it disappears.

In the end, he takes Plusle and Minun in his arms to protect them — the boy who was terrified of Pokémon now stands up for them. When his father finds him, the two perch on his shoulders and nuzzle him without him showing the slightest fear.

🧸 A duo that fits right in a child's arms: browse our Pokémon plushies.

Tory Lund at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Tory Lund?
  A ten-year-old boy, the son of Professor Lund, and one of the main characters of the franchise's seventh movie. What sets him apart: he's afraid of Pokémon.
• Why is Tory afraid of Pokémon?
  Because of something he went through four years earlier in the Arctic. A Deoxys arrives in a meteorite, a Rayquaza comes to drive it out, and their clash panics every Pokémon in the area: hundreds of Walrein nearly trample the child.
• Which Pokémon are with Tory?
  A Plusle and a Minun, met during the film. He frees the trapped Plusle at Minun's request, and the two end up perched on his shoulders in the final scene.
• Does Deoxys belong to Tory?
  No. Deoxys is the Pokémon the film revolves around, not one of Tory's Pokémon. He encounters it as a small child in the Arctic, and it's that encounter that triggers his fear.
• Does Tory Lund appear in the trading card game?
  Yes. His first card appears in a Japanese expansion released in July 2004, published to accompany the movie's launch.

In short

Tory Lund is a Pokémon movie hero defined by what he can't do. Where the franchise lines up kids who dream of catching Pokémon, it presents one who rides an escalator to get away from a Pikachu — and the film devotes its entire running time to undoing that reflex, one Plusle and one Minun at a time. In the final shot, two Pokémon nuzzle against him and he doesn't flinch.