Whitney

The Incredibly Pretty Girl!
Whitney
Species	Human
Hair color	Pink
Eye color	Pink
Base	Goldenrod City
Voiced by	Sarah Williams (2019)
Debut	Pokémon: Gold/Silver Versions

Whitney is the third gym leader of the Johto region challenged in Pokémon: Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions. She is a Normal-type trainer.

Background

Whitney was an emotional young girl who seemed to enjoy cuteness and following trends. She stated that her reason for getting into training Pokémon was their popularity, and she described them as being super-cute. She had only recently started battling with Pokémon when the Pokémon League appointed her the gym leader of the Goldenrod City Gym. Her gym had a maze-like structure in all versions, but in HeartGold/SoulSilver it was altered to have raised platforms.

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, she initially met Ethan/Lyra at the Radio Tower, where she was having trouble taking the Radio Card quiz. She witnessed the other trainer pass the test and was impressed, at which point she returned to the gym. In all versions, Ethan/Lyra proceeded to challenge and defeat her within her gym. After being defeated, she began to cry, but when Ethan/Lyra talked to her again, she regained her composure and remembered to give the trainer their prize. She gave them a Plainbadge as well as TM45: Attract, saying it was perfect for a cutie like her. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, she also appeared at the Pokéthlon, where she gave Ethan/Lyra a jersey and acted as the ultimate opponent in the Supreme Cup of the Speed Course. She could also be found on the sixth floor of Goldenrod's department store on Saturdays, where she would exchange Pokégear numbers with the trainer. After exchanging Pokégear numbers, calling her on Saturdays (between the hours of 10AM and 8PM) would cause Whitney to appear in Saffron City's Fighting Dojo for a rematch. She could also appear as a spectator at the Battle Hall.

Whitney appeared again in Black and White 2 as a competitor in the Pokémon World Tournament held at Unova. She took part in the Johto Leaders, World Leaders and Type Expert Tournaments, as well as the special download tournament "Challenge the Champion Lance!".

Pokémon Roster

In Gold, Silver and Crystal as well as the first match in HeartGold and SoulSilver, Whitney's only Pokémon are a Clefairy and a Miltank. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, she uses the following Pokémon in rematches:

• Girafarig
• Lickilicky
• Bibarel
• Delcatty
• Clefable
• Miltank: In a PokéGear conversation, she cuts herself off when referring to her Miltank as "Milky", implying that it is a nickname of some sort.

She uses Miltank, Clefairy and Clefable for Pokéthlon matches.

In Black 2 and White 2, her tournament roster could include Miltank, Tauros, Ambipom and Ursaring as well as Wigglytuff and Clefable in the Johto Leaders Tournament or Blissey and Lopunny in the World Leaders and Type Expert Tournaments. In "Challenge the Champion Lance!", her Pokémon were Watchog, Cinccino and Miltank.

In Other Pokémon Games

Whitney appears as an opponent in the Gym Leader's Castle of Pokémon Stadium 2. In this game her line-up instead contains a Miltank, Clefairy, Wigglytuff, Gloom, Dodrio and Stantler in R1, or a Persian, Golduck, Mr. Mime, Tauros, Donphan and Miltank in R2. She also appeared in Pokémon Puzzle Challenge as the third opponent, using a Clefairy in battle.

In Pokémon Masters EX, Whitney and her Miltank appeared as a playable sync pair who could be recruited at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature. There was also a Holiday 2022 variant who was paired with a Winter Form Sawsbuck who was made available during limited time periods starting in December 2022. During the Main Story of the game, she worked with Bugsy in helping other trainers to fight members of Team Rocket during the Johto chapter of the Villain Arc. She was also featured in her holiday attire during the "Shine a Gentle Light" Story Event. During that event, she convinced Jasmine to throw a party to cheer up Jasmine's Ampharos and also got her to join her in wearing 'flashy outfits'. While Jasmine worked on the party, Whitney secretly gathered ingredients for a special medicine for Ampharos. She later scolded Jasmine for overworking herself to the point of fainting and cried. Whitney was also featured as an opponent in Kris's Sync Pair Story, where Kris had to defeat her in order for her Totodile to evolve.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Whitney appeared in a two-part episode of the Pokémon anime series. In the first episode, Ash Ketchum battled her and lost against her Miltank. The second episode had her bringing Ash up to stay at her Uncle Milton's farm, where Ash learned a strategy while battling Team Rocket that he ultimately used to defeat Whitney.
• Whitney appeared in several chapters of the Pokémon Adventures manga during the Gold/Silver/Crystal arc, where she guest starred at DJ Mary's radio show due to being her childhood friend, and she was characterized as being quite fire-headed. When Gold burst in on one radio show, the two argued and wound up competing in a bicycle race. She was captured by a Sudowoodo after she aggressively attacked it for blocking their path, but Gold captured it and was considered the victor. She was the only Johto gym leader not to be challenged by Suicune, although she teamed up with Pryce in battle against an illusion version of it and succeeded in defeating it with Pryce's guidance. During the gym leader competition, Whitney was defeated by Misty with apparent ease, although she later helped to piece together the Mask of Ice's identity by remembering her encounter with Pryce. In the HeartGold/SoulSilver chapter, Whitney guided Gold when he competed at the Pokéthlon and later got mad at him for keeping secrets from her. She was also shown to have a crush on Bruno.

Trivia

• Her Japanese name is Akane, named after the Japanese word for the madder plant species. Her English name of Whitney has no apparent plant connection and simply is a word that means 'white'.
• According to someone in the lobby of the Pokémon World Tournament, she is a fan of softball and bases her fashion on it.
• In Pokémon Masters EX, she tells the story of how she met her Miltank at Moomoo Farm during their Sync Pair Story. The Miltank came at her with a Rollout when she was visiting as a way of testing her, and she passed the test by dodging it. The man minding the ranch let her keep the Miltank, because he knew it always wanted to see the world. Whitney would also mention that her Miltank was staying at Moomoo Ranch during a Pokégear conversation in HeartGold/SoulSilver.
• Her Sawsbuck in Pokémon Masters EX was raised from a Deerling that was given to her by a trainer from Unova.
• She considers Bruno to be the coolest member of the Elite Four and that he "looks like quite a guy" during a Pokégear conversation in HeartGold/SoulSilver. She was outright depicted as having a crush on him in Pokémon Adventures.