Tate and Liza

"The Mystic Combination"
Tate and Liza
Species	Humans
Affiliation	Pokémon League (Hoenn)
Hair color	Black
Base	Mossdeep City
Voiced by	Unknown (Tate, 2019) Kira Buckland (Liza, 2019)
Debut	Pokémon: Ruby/Sapphire Versions

Tate and Liza are twin Pokémon trainers who collectively act as the seventh gym leader challenge of the the Hoenn Pokémon League in Pokémon: Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, as well as the remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. They specialize in Psychic-type Pokémon.

Background

Tate and Liza were a pair of child prodigies who had psychic powers. They were known for having a strong bond with each other due to their mental communication which led them to often finish each other's sentences. This also helped them to form great combinations during Pokémon battles, as despite their youths they became the gym leaders of the Mossdeep City gym and engaged challengers in double battles.

In Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, they were eventually challenged and defeated by Brendan/May. They were surprised ,but they acknowledged that the trainer's bond with their Pokémon must have been greater than their own. The twins gave the trainer the Mind Badge along with TM 04: Calm Mind. In Emerald, they closed the gym for a while to retrain and later invited the player to take them on in rematches through the Match Call feature.

Tate and Liza later appeared in Black and White 2 as competitors in the Pokémon World Tournament. They entered and battled as individuals instead of as a team, taking part in the Hoenn Leaders, World Leaders and Type Expert divisions.

Pokémon Roster

Generation III

Tate and Liza use the following Pokémon in the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire versions:

• Solrock
• Lunatone
• Claydol (Emerald only)
• Xatu (Emerald only)

In Emerald, they use the following Pokémon for rematches:

• Slowpoke (first three rematches)/Slowking (fourth rematch)
• Claydol
• Xatu,
• Solrock
• Lunatone
• Drowzee (second match)/Hypno (last two matches)

Generation IV

In Black 2 and White 2, Tate and Liza are battled as individuals instead of as a team. Despite that, the Pokémon that they use are very similar, with just a few differences. The potential Pokémon that they use for tournament battles can include some or all of the following Pokémon:

• Solrock (Tate) or Lunatone (Liza)
• Xatu
• Chimecho
• Grumpig (both - Hoenn Leaders), Reuniclus (Tate - World Leaders/Type Expert) or Gothitelle (Liza - World Leaders/Type Expert)
• Gallade (Tate) or Gardevoir (Liza)
• Claydol

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Tate and Liza appeared as playable trainers who could be separately recruited through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature. Tate's sync partner was Solrock, while Liza's was Lunatone. Each of them received a Summer 2023 variant that was made available during limited time periods, with Tate being paired with Jirachi and first available at the end of June 2023, while Liza was paired with Celesteela and first available in July 2023. Liza was featured in the Story Event "Team Skull Crash Course", where she had lost in a battle against Guzma while fighting alongside Scottie/Bettie and Drake. Afterwards, she wanted to learn under Guzma. He and Plumeria helped her to learn how to stand on her own as a trainer and fight without her brother. In one of the extra scenes, Tate was shown to be watching Liza's training session with Guzma and that it inspired him in his own training.

They were later featured in their summer outfits in the "Twin Stars Far Apart" Story Event, in which they were preparing to perform at a star festival by singing a song about the stars and dancing along with it. Nanu and Anabel were assigned to watch over them due to recent Ultra Wormhole activity. Liza ended up falling through one Ultra Wormhole, with Anabel saving her. The two of them were trapped in an empty alternate version of Pasio, but Liza was able to befriend a Celesteela there. Back in Pasio, Archie had befriended Tate and guided him in awakening Jirachi so that he could use his wish to save Liza. Jirachi could be awakened by a song of purity, so Tate sang the song they had prepared for the festival. Once Jirachi was awake, Tate made his wish to save Liza and Anabel. This wish resulted in Liza hearing Tate's singing in the other world, which Liza, Anabel and Celesteela were able to follow to an Ultra Wormhole that brought them back to Pasio. The twins were reunited, and they carried out their performance days later. Archie made a wish on the star for the kids to grow up in a world where people and Pokémon could carry on laughing as they were during the festival.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Tate and Liza appear in two subsequent episodes of the Pokémon anime. This version expanded more on these characters by showing their parents - their father running the space center while their mother is the judge for gym battles. Unlike in the games, they did not initially have a perfect bond and bickered, although they eventually got along with each other during the double battle with Ash Ketchum and become a much stronger force until Ash eventually defeated them.
• They appear in several chapters of the Pokémon Adventures manga, where they are secretly the guardians of the Red and Blue Jewels hidden on Mt. Pyre, which leads them to often neglect their gym leader duties. They are defeated by Team Magma and entrapped within flame until trapped by Juan. They then help Ruby and Sapphire to train in team battles on Mirage Island, giving them their badge when they succeed. They reappeared in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, where they helped in the effort to stop the Grand Meteor Delta.

Trivia

• Their English names are a reference to the word 'levitate', which is an ability that their signature Pokémon (Solrock and Lunatone) bear and is also a psychic ability. Their Japanese names are Fu and Lan, in reference to the Japanese word for 'floating' and the Japanese name for the wind orchid.
• They are the only gym leaders to be battled as a team.
• In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, they could also be seen at the Lilycove Department store shopping for toys. They were accompanied by a man from the Mossdeep Space Center, who was buying the toys for them in hopes that the twins would use their psychic powers to help them with uncovering secrets about space travel.