Branch doesn’t become a Pokémon trainer.
Rather than the bergens, his grandmother was killed in an attack by the region’s villain team when he was young (the same group that has become a mere nuisance in the last 20 years after a change in leadership), and because he was there to witness it, seeing the Pokémon that the villain team used being told to attack a person made him repulsed by the idea of being a trainer himself.
He became obsessed with learning the law, training regulations, ways that people can protect themselves, and eventually wound up being recruited by a Pokémon ranger.
Now- for those who never played the Pokémon ranger games- one of the brig rules is you are only supposed to have ONE partner Pokémon - but in the main games ranger type trainers have teams of them - so let’s split the difference and say they have three.
First choice was easy to me. What other famous group of brothers in the Pokémon world is associated with different colors and do I feel like Brozone could be equivalent to?
The eevee brothers from episode 40.
Branch’s family all had eevees too.
John Dory: Leafeon or Vaporeon; leafeon because it doesn’t require an evo stone in a lot regions - just wilderness, which is something JD could access pretty easily, and vaporeon because of the “Rhonda is waterproof” joke.
Bruce: Flareon, who ADORES his kids and is very pampered. I headcanon the flareon as female and having a name like “Princess Snuggly” or something.
Clay: Jolteon - if only because I love the idea of jolteon helping power parts of Putt Putt. Plus, jolteon could keep up REALLY well with Viva. Honestly, the Pokémon is almost as much hers as Clay’s these days.
Floyd: Espeon - very emotionally intelligent and picks up on the slightest change in Floyd’s mood. I headcanon Floyd as being horrible with directions (this why he never visited Branch) and Espeon helps him navigate.
For Branch - I could see it going two ways. Either eevee never evolves (either everstone or because eevee making a choice to prevent its own evo) OR eevee evolved into an umbreon during the Burgen evacuation to shine a path for the evacuees to follow.
Either way, eevee/umbreon comes off as just as grouchy as his trainer.
So first spot goes to one of those two. Eevee is 100% Branch’s starter/partner as a ranger.
Nidorino. They are known for short tempers, tough exteriors, and are common enough that Branch could probably have found them near town as a Nidoran.
Not to mention the ground typing really fits his energy as a whole I think (some other Pokémon I had considered were Donphan, Mudsdale, and Rhyhorn).
Third slot goes to houndour.
How they met was that Branch was on a mission for the rangers and encountered a group of grunts bullying the Pokémon. He handled the grunts, and took the pup to the nearest Pokémon center for a patch up.
It ended up following him home.
The houndour could be swapped for a poochyena instead, if the fire/dark typing doesn’t feel like it fits Branch. Both are pack-loving Pokémon who rely on numbers to hunt. They would be an ideal survival buddy.
If, for whatever reason, Branch ended up going full team, here were some of my other ideas. I feel like he is a ground type trainer, but rock and dark vibe too.
Shieldon: Branch’s entire thing in the first movie was survival and protecting the other trolls. Having the shield Pokémon would be fantastic. Maybe he got it from a ranger mission involving the fossil labs.
Aron: I feel like Aron is such an underappreciated Pokémon, and could be such a good little helper for a survivalist, being a steel type and having Sturdy as an ability.
Donphan: tough, big, grey. Could be Branch’s “Rhonda” (if Branch doesn’t have one, JD absolutely does)
Rhyhorn: similar reason as Donphan
Gible: Every trainer needs a feral goblin child.
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