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Gold as seen in Pokémon: HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions
Gold
Species	Human
Hair color	Black
Relatives	Mother
Debut	Pokémon: Gold Version/Pokemon: Silver Version

Gold is the main character of the second generation games. He is the player character of Pokémon: Gold, Silver and Crystal Versions, as well as the upcoming HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions.

Background

Gold originally lived in New Bark Town with his mother. He occasionally performed favors for his neighbor, Professor Elm, which eventually led to the beginning of his career as a Pokémon trainer when Professor Elm sent him to visit Mr. Pokémon and find out about his latest discovery. Professor Elm entrusted him with one of three newly discovered Pokémon (either Chikorita, Cyndaquil or Totodile) to serve as his partner. At Mr. Pokémon's house, he received a Pokémon Egg (which had been his discovery) and also met Professor Oak, who saw great potential in Gold and gave him a Pokédex.

However, he then found out that someone had broken into Professor Elm's lab and stolen one of the Pokémon. He stumbled upon the culprit, Silver, and battled him. Silver had picked a Pokémon with a type advantage over Gold's. Regardless of whether or not he won the battle, Silver then left but Gold learned his name. Upon his return to Elm's lab, Elm was cheered from the robbery by the news of the Pokémon Egg and Professor Oak. Elm than suggested that Gold set out to take the Pokémon Gym challenge. After saying goodbye to his mother (who offered to save part of the money he earned in battles for him), Gold left New Bark Town to travel Johto.

Gold as he appeared in the original games

Gold traveled from town to town and defeated all eight of the gym leaders to earn their badges. Along the way he also held onto the Pokémon egg until it hatched into a Togepi, had several rematches with Silver (who eventually learned the errors of his ways through his battles with Gold) and also had several battles with Team Rocket, who were trying to reform themselves despite Giovanni's retirement and subsequent disappearance. In these battles with Team Rocket, Gold was aided by the famed dragon trainer Lance. In order to earn his last gym badge he became the first dragon trainer since Lance to win the dragon user's challenge of Blackthorn City (at least in the Crystal version). Gold then became the champion of Johto and the neighboring country of Kanto after defeating the Elite Four and Lance, who was the reigning champion.

But this was not the end of Gold's journey, as Professor Elm had another gift for Gold in the form of an S.S. ticket, which Gold used to travel to Kanto on the S.S. Aqua, which sailed from the port of Olivine City in Johto to Vermilion City in Kanto. There Gold encountered many more Pokémon creatures from the first games and also battled through the eight gym leaders of Kanto. Professor Oak was accomplished by this feat and arranged for Gold to have permission to travel to Mt. Silver, which was filled with dangerous Pokémon. There he found one final challenge in the heart of Mt. Silver, in the form of the former champion Red. Gold was able to best Red in battle. His later exploits remain unknown.

Other Appearances

• In the Pokémon anime, Gold's counterpart was named Jimmy. His starter Pokémon was Cyndaquil, and he was featured in a Pokémon Chronicles episode with two other trainers. One of the other trainers is an anime version of Kris (the female counterpart to Gold), known as Marina, whose starter was a Totodile.
• Gold was featured in the Pokémon Adventures manga, starting in the Gold/Silver/Crystal arcs. He is shown to come from a family which already has a group of Pokémon as pets, although he only takes one Pokémon from his family home with him (not counting his Poliwag which he loses, but returns to him in time to evolve into a Politoed). He sets out with a Cyndaquil as his starter Pokémon initially to hunt down Silver after catching him steal Professor Elm's Totodile, but as he progresses he sees that Silver is not so bad and winds up entangled in the plans of the newly revived Team Rocket. They go missing after a battle with the Mask of Ice in which they are believed dead, but they are rescued and kept safe by Entei. Gold later plays a vital role in the final battle against the Mask of Ice, being trapped in the time portal with him and using a newly-hatched Pichu to free Celebi, trapping Pryce in time while Gold is able to escape safely. He later appeared in the Emerald arc, complete with armor that is an imitation of Archie's Guile armor, to fool him as part of Crystal's plan to use Jirachi's wish to revive the trainers whom had been petrified in stone. After they are revived, the ten Pokédex trainers unite to defeat Archie and the imitation Kyogre. Among the Pokédex trainer, Gold's specialty is described as Pokémon breeding, as shown in his hatching of Togepi and Pichu (which was born to Pikachu owned by Red and Yellow). He is shown as being more immature then Red and with quirks such as wearing goggles, riding a scooter instead of the standard bicycle and using billiard cues to launch Pokéballs.

Trivia

• Pokémon Crystal introduced the concept of selecting a trainer's gender. Thus an alternate female character to Gold was presented, known as Kris. A different character design (tentatively known as "Soul" in the fan community) is used for Gold's female counterpart in HeartGold and SoulSilver.