Player Character Canon

[masterofthez]

I was doing a play through of HG when I noticed something. Even though you can choose which gender to play as in FR/LG, Red is in canon the trainer who beat Team Rocket and beat the Kanto League the first time. This now raise the question of which characters actually did the journey. Was it Ethan or Kris, Nate or Rosa, Bradan or Dawn? This now raises the far more interesting question of if we were to fight them what would their teams be? The purpose of this thread is to try and answer these to question. My answers are:
Red: You already know
Kris: Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Sudowoodo, Togekiss, and (Red) Gyarados.
Brendan:Sceptile, Blaziken, Swampert, Castform, Metagross, and Armaldo.
Lucas:Torterra, Infernape, Empoleon, Glaceon, Lucario, and Rotom.
Hilda: Serperior, Emboar, Samurott, Watchog, Volcarona, Zekrom.
Nate: Serperior, Emboar, Samurott, Zoroark, Haxorus(that shiny one), and Braviary.
Let's see what you can come up with.

 

[Cute Charm]

Ethan:
I'd pick Kris/Lyra...but seeing as how Kris has a messed up existence between the original and the remakes...it's probably safe to say Ethan is the one true player character for G/S/C/HG/SS.
- Typhlosion
- Red Gyarados
- Togekiss
- Umbreon
- Bellossom
- Hitmontop

May:
Making up for Kris not being able to be the true player character. That and I like the father/daughter aspect between her and Norman better.
- Swampert
- Tropius
- Magcargo
- Banette
- Altaria
- Gardevoir

Dawn:
Yeah...if you can't tell I like the irony of the non-battlers from the anime being the truly final bosses of the games.
- Empoleon
- Infernape
- Torterra
- Lucario
- Glaceon
- Vespiquen

Hilda:
This one I'm kind of biased on because I like Hilda, but whatever.
- Samurott
- Zoroark
- Chandelure
- Galvantula
- Garbodor
- Reshiram/Zekrom

Nate:
Going by the animated trailer...he seems to have gotten the farthest. I based his team also partly on the trailer.
- Emboar
- Lucario
- Arcanine
- Simisage
- Jellicent
- Braviary

 

[YamiiDenryuu]

Obviously the true main characters are hermaphroditic fusions of the two PCs -shot-

I like to think Leaf has the same team as Red, except with Snorlax and Lapras swapped out for Espeon and Umbreon, or maybe just Snorlax for one of those two. Other than that I got nothing.

 

[Lofty]

Red- Pikachu, Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Snorlax, Lapras

Ethan- Typhlosion, Espeon, Togekiss, shiny Gyarados, Hitmontop, Dragonite

May- Sceptile, Blaziken, Swampert, Manectric, Altaria, Metagross

Dawn- Empoleon, Rotom, Togekiss, Leafeon, Lucario, Mamoswine

Hilbert- Samurott, Simisear, Zebstrika, Excadrill, Archeops, Golurk

Rosa- Serperior, Flygon, Heracross, Zoroark, Lapras, shiny Garchomp

 

[P0KEM0N]

Red: Pikachu, Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, Snorlax, Lapras

Ethan: Typholsion, Noctowl, Donphan, Ampharos, Politoad, Umbreon

Brendan: Sceptile, Mightyena, Camerupt, Manetric, Altaria, Azumarill

Lucas: Torterra, Staraptor, Rampardos, Floatzel, Magmortar, Froslass

Hilda: Samurott, Simisear, Zebstrika, Swoobat, Escavelier, Zekrom

Nate: Emboar, Lucario, Zoroark, Braviary, Golduck, White Kyurem

 

[Team Gaara]

Red, Ethan, Brendan, Dawn, Hilbert/Hilda (I feel it could go either way), Nate.

There's no way I could predict a team, though, other than a starter and Red's team. >.<

Red- Pikachu, Lapras, Snorlax, Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard

Ethan- Cyndaquil

Brendan- Torchic

Dawn- Piplup

Hilbert- Tepig / Hilda- Oshawott

Nate- Tepig

 

[Mermaid]

Red(I don't agree with his team in HGSS. He shouldn't have all three starters):
Venusaur (makes the typings balanced)
Pikachu (mascot; every Red clone has one)
Flareon (doesn't double up on typings like Jolteon or Vaporeon. I also believe that Red would use one of the Kanto trio eeveelutions.)
Lapras
Snorlax
Hitmonchan/lee

Ethan (He was first to appear and doesn't have the confusion of the Kris/Lyra issue):
Typhlosion (he's commonly associated with it; plus it makes more sense for Silver to start with Tododile)
Togekiss
Gyarados
Dragonite
Sudowoodo
Espeon/Umbreon (He's from Gen 2, so he should have a Gen 2 eeveelution)

May(She is more well known and because Brendan had more dialogue/character development as Birch's son):
Blaziken (starter associated with her)
Wobbuffet
Castform (water or ice form setup)
Metagross
Keckleon
Cradily/Armaldo

Dawn (more exposure than Lucas):
Empoleon (starter associated with her)
Glaceon/Leafeon (she should have a Gen 4 eeveelution)
Lucario
Togekiss
Porygon-Z
N/A (not sure what the last Poke should be)

Hilda (basing this off the mother's looks):
Serperior (prevents double/triple up on fire types)
Simipour (because of Snivy)
Watchog (if you remember that competition with Cheren and Bianca on Route 1. Cheren has Purrloin on his team and Bianca has Lilipup. If the competition had ended in a tie, the only Route 1 Pokemon left is Patrat.)
Zoroark (the Zoroark in the forest is missing in B2W2)
Volcarona
Zekrom (one of the legendaries is taken by the trainer and Reshiram increases the amount of Fire types on the team)

Nate (basing this off the mother's looks):
Samurott (prevents double up)
Sawsbuck
Blissey
Dragonite (Zekrom makes White canon)
Volcarona
Zoroark

 

[PiPie314]

Each game cartridge is a containment device for a miniature, alternate universe. This universe is simplified and loaded in a bubble around the play character, so the entire universe will not have to be simulated at once on a DS. The top screen displays a view of the alternate universe through a wormhole, and the bottom is HUD created from information taken from the other universe. The screen where the professor ask for your name, gender, etc. is actually where you "create" the universe. If you choose for example Ethan, a universe is created in which Ethan is the hero, but Lyra is the rival, and vice versa if you choose Lyra. All the universes co-exist as each and every one of the universe are in a separate cartridge, thus why we cannot have 2 saves on one, to prevent massive corruption/destruction of the both universe. Trading opens up a traversal able wormhole via a force known only as Wi-Fi, allowing Pokemon, items, and information to pass through, and to prevent damage to the universe, the wormhole is guarded by a very powerful force called the "firewall". However, at the Entralink, the wall is weak enough for beings to pass through into other universes that brush past theirs.

TL;DR Each game is a separate universe, and thus are all canon.

 

[Tyrfing]

I've always theorized the gender switches back and forth between games- every second one, a female is the player character, excluding Black 2 and White 2, because if the trailer is assumed to be canon, it looks like Nate is the one stopping Team Plasma. Also, I assume the canon teams would be the same philosophy as Red's: use all three starters and Pokemon obtained via event. I'm not including the electric rodent because Hoenn has two:

Lyra:
Typhlosion
Feraligter
Meganium
Ho-Oh/ Lugia
Togekiss
Espeon

Brendan:
Blaziken
Swampert
Sceptile
Rayquaza
Wobuffet
Metagross/ Castform (Beldum is post-game, so Brendan might not of used Metagross...)

Dawn:
Infernape
Empoleon
Torterra
Lucario
Giratina
Leafeon/ Glaceon

Hilbert:
Emboar
Samurott
Serperior
Reshiram/ Zekrom (I've always assumed Reshiram, since it is the truth that people and Pokemon are meant to be together, but...)
Tornadus/ Thundurus
Volcorona

Nate:
Emboar
Samurott
Serperior
Zoroark
Black/ White Kyurem
Braviary/ Mandibuzz

 

[Dr. Buni]

I don't think Red is the canon protagonist of the Kanto games, he being the one to appear in HGSS was more of a dumb, lazy (perhaps even sexist) choice made by Game Freak than anything else. There are no canon protagonists to me, just parallel realities. In one reality, Leaf is the trainer from Pallet Town who defeats Team Rocket and becomes the Kanto champion and Red doesn't exist. In other, Red is the trainer from Pallet Town who defeats Team Rock, etc etc. The same is valid for all other main games in the franchise, except in most cases both main characters exist (for example, both Ethan and Lyra exist, but only one is the trainer who beats Lance, Red, etc...). That being said, it certainly won't hurt me to play by the thread rules, so here are the characters I would consider "canon", should I believe in such thing:

Kanto games [RBG/FRLG]: Red
Johto games [GSC/HGSS]: Ethan
Hoenn games [RSE]: May
Sinnoh games [DPPt]: Dawn
Unova games [BW/B2W2]: Hilbert and Rosa, respectively.

Too lazy to think about their teams, though.