May

May as seen in Pokémon: Ruby and Sapphire Versions
May
Species	Human
Hair color	Light Brown
Eye color	Blue
Age	12 (as rival)
Relatives	Player Character Norman (father) Mother Rival Character Professor Birch (father) Mother, Brother
Debut	Pokémon: Ruby/Sapphire Versions

May is the potential female playable protagonist of Pokémon: Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald Versions. Depending on the gender chosen by the player at the beginning of the game, she is one of two characters: the player character (and the daughter of Norman) or the rival character (and the daughter of Professor Birch). Brendan is the alternate male lead.

Background

Playable Character

May was the daughter of the gym leader Norman. She was born in Johto, but her family moved to Littleroot Town in Hoenn after Norman became a gym leader there. She soon met the neighbors, including his future rival Brendan and Professor Birch, the latter of whom he saved from a wild Pokémon using one of three Pokémon from Birch's bag. Afterwards, Birch thanked her and let her keep the Pokémon. He sent her to Oldale Town where Brendan would teach her about being a Pokémon trainer, and after the two battled and returned to Littleroot, Professor Birch bestowed upon May a Pokédex for use in recording data on Hoenn's Pokémon, while her mother gave her a pair of Running Shoes as a parting gift.

Soon she started to explore Hoenn, challenging and conquering its eight gyms as she traveled. Early in her journey, she taught a sickly boy named Wally how to catch Pokémon at her father's request, which helped Wally to recover and improve as a Pokémon trainer. May also battled Brendan several times throughout his quest until Brendan acknowledged her as superior and returned home. She eventually defeated even his own father. At the same time, May had a series of confrontations with members of the criminal organization Team Magma (in Ruby), Team Aqua (in Sapphire) or both organizations (in Emerald). This culminated in a battle with Archie and/or Maxie followed by a crisis involving Groudon and Kyogre. The problem was resolved when May defeated the raging Pokémon (in Ruby or Sapphire) or when May summoned Rayquaza to break up the two warring Pokémon.

May became the Pokémon League champion after defeating Hoenn's Elite Four and their champion Steven Stone or Wallace. Afterwards, her Pokédex was upgraded to National Mode by Professor Birch, and Norman gave her tickets to the S.S. Tidal. In Emerald Version, Scott then invited her to come to the Battle Frontier and test out his skills there.

Rival Character

May's Emerald costume.

May was the daughter of Professor Birch, who lived in Littleroot Town and often set out to help him with his research. She met Brendan when he visited her house at Littleroot Town in the beginning of the game, and Professor Birch later sent him to meet her when he was collecting data at Route 103. There May would challenge Brendan, in order to teach him about Pokémon training. She then sent him back to Littleroot to receive his Pokédex and gave him several Pokéballs to begin her journey with. In Emerald, she met Brendan again in Rustboro City, and after registering each other in Match Call, May would propose another battle, but this one was optional. May would then meet Brendam along Route 110. Challenging him yet again, this time after being defeated she gave him the Itemfinder. She then met her outside Lavaridge Town and gave him the Go-Goggles.

She appeared to Brendan again and battled him outside Fortree City, this time rewarding him with HM 02: Fly upon being defeated. May could then be found outside Lilycove City's department store on an errand for the professor, where she would challenge Brendan once more. After losing, she decided to return to Littleroot and help Professor Birch with the Pokédex using the information she had gathered. Hearing about Brendan's ambitions to challenge the Pokémon League, she considered doing the same one day, before returning to Littleroot using Fly.

May made one last appearance at the game's end, with she and Birch showing up after Brendan had become the Pokémon League champion by defeating Steven Stone. May apparently did not notice that Brendan had already defeated Steven, as she attempted to reveal Steven's weakness to him.

Pokémon Roster

• Treecko/Grovyle, Torchic/Combusken or Mudkip/Marshtomp - May's starter Pokémon, he uses it in every battle. It will always be a Pokémon with a type advantage to that chosen by the player character. This Pokémon evolves into its second form before the Route 110 battle, but is never shown in its final form.
• Shroomish - Used in all battles starting with the Route 110 battle in Ruby/Sapphire only. May uses this Pokémon only if she has a Combusken or Marshtromp.
• Numel - Used in all battles starting with the Route 110 battle in Ruby/Sapphire only. May uses this Pokémon only if she has a Grovyle or Marshtromp.
• Wailmer - Used in all battles starting with the Route 110 battle in Ruby/Sapphire only. May uses this Pokémon only if she has a Grovyle or Combusken.
• Swellow - Used in the final rival battle at Lilycove City in Ruby/Sapphire only.
• Lotad/Lombre/Ludicolo - Used in all battles starting with the optional Rustoro City battle in Emerald only, and it is only used if May has a Torchic/Combusken or Mudkip/Swampert. It evolves into Lombre by the Rustboro City battle and Ludicolo by the Route 119 battle.
• Slugma - Used in all battles starting with the optional Rustboro City battle in Emerald only, and it is only used if May has a Treecko/Grovyle or Mudkip/Swampert.
• Wingull/Pelipper - Used in all battles starting with the optional Rustobro City battle in Emerald only, and it is only used if May has a Treecko/Grovyle or Torchic/Combusken. It evolves into Pelipper by the Route 119 battle.
• Tropius - Used in the final battle at Lilycove City in Emerald only.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• May was a main character in the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald episodes of the Pokémon anime, acting as Ash Ketchum's new traveling companion following the departure of Misty. In this version May is the daughter of Norman and has a brother named Max who also travels with them for a time. She initially disliked Pokémon and became a trainer just to travel, but she eventually grew to liking them after traveling with Ash and began competing primarily in Pokémon Contests while Ash took on the gym leader challenge. Her starter Pokémon was a Torchic. After they completed their challenges in Hoenn, they continued in Kanto with May still competing in Pokémon Contests while Ash took on the Battle Frontier. After that series ended, May parted ways to compete in contests at Johto. She also made guest appearances during the Wallace Cup episodes of the Diamond & Pearl episodes, where she competed in the tournament and lost to Dawn.
• She appears in the Pokémon Special manga as Sapphire, being featured in the story arcs based on the third generation games. Sapphire was shown as being very tomboyish and dressing in leaves to catch Pokémon, focusing more on her work than appearance and hygiene. After meeting Ruby who was obsessed with beauty, they compete to see if within 80 days Ruby could win all of Hoenn's Pokémon Contests and Sapphire could beat all the gym leaders, with Ruby also giving Sapphire "real" clothes to wear. She made her way through the various gyms, crossing paths with Ruby and battling Team Aqua several times along the way. Eventually she trained under Winona after losing to her in order to prepare for the fights against Team Aqua and Magma, only to be disappointed when Ruby acts irresponsible. Flashbacks show that Sapphire was inspired to be such a committed trainer by seeing how powerful the prodigy Ruby was as a child. although this same incident made Ruby too afraid to utilize his talents. After Ruby returns and they both train under Juan, Sapphire and Ruby recognize each other from that childhood event, which leads them to confess their feelings to each other. However, after time is altered following the last battles, Sapphire remembers their confessions while Ruby seems to have forgotten. Regardless, Sapphire defeats Norman offscreen to earn her last badge and complete their challenge. In the Emerald arc she and Ruby arrive at the Battle Frontier to help Emerald capture Jirachi, with Winona advising Sapphire not to give up on Ruby. By the end of the arc all of the Pokédex trainers team up to defeat Archie and the artificial Kyogre.

Trivia

• Like all of the playable protagonists of the Pokémon games, her name is actually chosen by the player. May is assumed as her canon name as it is the name automatically given to her as a non-playable character.
• She has not yet appeared in Pokémon Masters, but she has been alluded to by Brendan in his sync pair story. That game uses the non-playable version of May who is Birch's granddaughter, and she is said to focus on Pokémon Contests instead of battling.