Winona

"The Bird User Taking Flight into the World"
Winona
Species	Human
Hair color	Purple
Base	Fortree City
Voiced by	Jeannie Tirado (2019)
Debut	Pokémon: Ruby/Sapphire Versions

Winona is the sixth gym leader of the Hoenn region who appeared as an opponent in Pokémon: Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald as well as the remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. She specializes in Flying-type Pokémon.

Background

Winona was the gym leader of Fortree City's Pokémon gym. She claimed to have "become one with bird Pokémon and soared the skies", although it is uncertain whether she is referring to riding bird Pokémon or using some man-made method of flying. She was also implied to help to protect the people of Fortree City, as one trainer in her gym observed that Winona ensured that Fortree's people had nothing to fear. Winona liked both herself and her Pokémon to be graceful, and she referred to both as having "elegant choreography".

In Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, she was challenged and defeated by Brendan/May. This was the first time Winona had seen someone command Pokémon with more grace than herself. She recognized the trainer's prowess by giving them the Feather Badge as well as a personal gift, TM40: Aerial Ace (or TM19: Roost in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire). In Emerald, she could later be challenged to a series of rematches, during which she said that even though humans may never escape Earth's gravity, striving for excellence would give them the power to soar. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, he could also be seen standing at the top of one of Mauville City's transmission towers, seemingly just for the sake of doing the stunt.

Winona reappeared in Black and White 2 as one of the competitors in the Pokémon World Tournament. She took part in the Hoenn Leaders, World Leaders and Type Expert divisions, as well as the special downloadable tournament called "The Battle Between Legendary Pokémon".

Pokémon Roster

Winona uses the following Pokémon in Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire:

• Swellow (in all versions except for Emerald)
• Pelipper
• Skarmory
• Altaria
• Swablu (Emerald only)
• Tropius (Emerald only)

In Emerald, she uses the following Pokémon in subsequent rematches:

• Dratini (first rematch)/Dragonair (second and third rematches)/Dragonite (fourth rematch)
• Tropius
• Pelipper
• Skarmory
• Altaria
• Hoothoot (second rematch)/Noctowl (last two rematches)

In Black 2 and White 2, her potential roster for tournament battles could contain some or all of the following Pokémon:

• Altaria
• Pelipper (Hoenn Leaders) or Sigilyph (World Leaders/Type Expert)
• Swellow (Hoenn Leaders) or Gyarados (World Leaders/Type Expert)
• Skarmory
• Tropius
• Honchcrow

For "The Battle Between Legendary Pokémon", she used Rayquaza, Altaria and Tropius.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Winona appeared with her Pelipper as a playable sync pair that could be unlocked through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature. She has made occasional appearances in the game's story events. Kahili joined her and Selene in cloud-gazing during the "Trials on the Isle" Story Event, and she fought alongside Skyla and Kahili during Lear and Hoopa's friendiversary event in the Story Event "Pasio Friendiversary".

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Winona appeared in two subsequent episodes of the Pokémon anime. In the first episode she was helping the city's Feather Carnival and met with Ash and his friends, later helping to defeat Team Rocket. In the second episode Ash challenges Winona and defeats her in a gym battle.
• She appeared in the Ruby/Sapphire arc of the Pokémon Adventures manga, where she supervised the other gym leaders of Hoenn. She was shown to have had some sort of relationship with Wallace in the past that ended badly and was used to parallel the Ruby and Sapphire's potential relationship. Initially when the gym leaders were divided on the issue of Team Magma and Team Aqua, Winona took Team Magma's side. She took Sapphire under her wing and trained her after beating her in a match, which resulted in her eventually rewarding Sapphire with her badge. Winona and Wallace also both appeared in one chaper of the Emerald arc, aboard the cruise to the Battle Frontier in order to witness a wedding of two minor characters from the previous arc. She briefly confided in Sapphire about how her relationship with Wallace, saying that it can be suffocating to always have someone who is stronger than her by her side and predicting her every move, but she also attempted to give Sapphire hope for her relationship with Ruby. She later appeared in the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire arc, where she was among the trainers who helped with the effort to stop Grand Meteor Delta.

Trivia

• Her English name appears to be a play on the word 'wind' and/or 'wing'. Her Japanese name is Nagi, which is both a Japanese word meaning 'calm' and references a plant species known as Nageia nagi.
• In the original third generation games, it is possible to initially skip her gym, though it must be completed before going to Ever Grande City to challenge the Elite Four. It is no longer possible to skip it in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.