Thorton

Thorton as seen in Pokémon: Platinum Version
Thorton
Species	Human
Affiliation	Battle Frontier
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Blue
Base	Battle Factory
Voiced by	Jon Allen (2019)
Debut	Pokémon: Platinum Version

Thorton is the Factory Head of the Battle Factory, acting as one of the five Frontier Brains of the Battle Frontier that is located in both Sinnoh (Pokémon: Platinum Version) and Johto (HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions).

Background

Thorton was an intelligent young man who liked to make inventions alongside his job running the Battle Factory. The only invention he was shown to use was a device that he used to see the rental Pokémon used by his challengers and to evaluate the threat they posed in the form of a percentage number (the number actually being a randomly-generated number between 1 and 99). He battled the player (Lucas/Dawn in Platinum or Gold/Lyra in HeartGold/SoulSilver) twice, being challenged after the player won 21 consecutive battles and then 49.

Both times that he lost, he admitted to being unhappy with his defeat (moreso the second time), but he was still grateful for the data he had collected from the battle. Thorton also advised the player to return with new rental Pokémon and give him a chance to redeem himself. He relinquished a silver print upon the first defeat and a gold print with the second one.

Pokémon Roster

Due to the nature of the Pokémon Factory, Thorton uses a random set of rental Pokémon and thus does not have a single set roster. The only limitations on the Pokémon that he can use is that there are no legendary Pokémon.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Thorton and a Bronzong appeared together as a playable sync pair that could be recruited at random through the Sync Pair Scout feature. Magnezone could be unlocked as an alternate sync partner for him by spending Battle Points starting in October 2023. When fought as an opponent, he has also synced up with Krookodile and Clefairy (specifically a rental Pokémon as part of the Metronome Day event). Thorton was also featured as an opponent for the Sync Pair Story for the evolution of Lyra's Chikorita and in the Story Event "The Girl in Black and White". In both cases, he was motivated to battle by a desire to analyze battle performance. During the story event, he had acquired four Casteliacones before they ran out, for the sake of an experiment in which he would observe their effects on his Pokémon. He ultimately agreed to give them up to the others in exchange for a battle, though they ultimately melted by the time had gave them up.

In the Story Event "All Aboard the Victory Train", Emmet and Ingo defeated Thorton at the the Battle Villa while on their way to meet with Lear, with his 'data-interpreting machine' having assessed that he only had a thirty-two percent chance at winning. He and Noland acted as Wally's teammates during a competition in "Melancholy Wally", and he also appeared during the "Metronome Day" Special Event, where he was supportive of using Rental Pokémon that only knew Metronome due to his familiarity with Rental Pokémon. Sawyer later called upon Thorton and Noland's experience with Rental Pokémon in "Trainer Files: Two Factory Heads", when he asked the two trainers to help straighten out a pair of rowdy Rental Pokémon that weren't cooperating with inexperienced trainers. Thorton worked with a Magenzone and seemed to get it to behave, but it started acting up again when paired with another trainer. This led Sawyer to conclude that the two Pokémon only liked working with the respective Factory Heads that were looking after them, and so he allowed them to keep the Pokémon. Thus, Thorton kept the Magnezone and concluded that they had one hundred percent affinity.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Thorton appears in the Pokémon Adventures manga during the Platinum arc. Platina challenges him at the Battle Factory and defeats him, at which point he throws a tantrum until Argenta slaps him. He later exhausts himself repairing a Team Galactic camera robot for Riley.

Trivia

• His English name seems to be a play on the word 'thorn'. His Japanese name is Neziki, taken from the Japanse word for the staggerbush.
• Thorton shares his title of Factory Head with Noland of Hoenn's Battle Frontier. They are the only Frontier Brains to share a title in the English version, although Anabel and Palmer also share titles in the Japanese version.