Paul

Paul (Japanese: シンジ Shinji) is one of Ash's rivals, and a citizen of Veilstone City. He most likely headed to Sandgem Town to get his starter, he has since traveled through Kanto, Johto & Hoenn. However,unlike Ash, he is intially not a caring trainer, what he wants from his Pokémon is pure power and the trainers he faces to be strong. When he first meets Ash, he demands a 3 on 3 Battle, however since Ash was still looking for Pikachu, Ash couldn't battle, this warranted some aggravation on Paul's part. Paul is also known to release his Pokémon if he deems them weak or useless. Some fans call him a "cold-hearted power monger" which seems somewhat appropriate due to his ambition and seeing his Pokémon as tools for his own glory. Paul is similar to the rival in Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, who is often referred to as Silver.

History
Prior to the Diamond and Pearl Series- When Paul was just become a trainer, had just started his Pokemon journey and obtained his Turtwig, he went over from Sinnoh to Kanto to watch his brother Reggie battle against Pyramid King Brandon. Unfortunately, Reggie couldn't knock out any of Brandon's Pokemon and was easily defeated. Brandon yelled at Reggie and asked him where his true inner strength was. This made Paul wonder about his own strength as a trainer and from then on, he became obsessed with power. He then apparently travelled through the Kanto, Hoenn and Johto regions, didn't win any of their leagues and then returned to Sinnoh.

Once he returned to sinnoh, he caught a Ninjask using his Elekid. Not long after he caught Ninjask, He watched a terrified wild Chimchar being chased by a pack of Zangoose. Chimchar got to an end of a cliff and was cornered by the Zanggoose- out of desperation and determination, Chimchar managed to produce a blaze endused Flame Wheel- which impressed Paul- and scared the Zanggoose away. Paul then approached the fire type and asked it to join his team, which Chimchar accepted. Chimchar would greatly regret this decision as Paul put it through extremely harsh training in order to activiate Blaze again- as shown throughout the diamond and pearl series.

Two Degrees of seperation Paul watched Ash Ketchum capture a startly with his Aipom prior to their first meeting and is unimpressed by him.

When Pokemon Worlds Colide Paul and his Elekid then meet Ash face to face for the first time and tells him he saw him catch Starly- and he'd be better trying to catch the best Starly he could. Ash sarcastically replies 'You can tell which one's the strongest?'

Paul says 'Of course' and releases three Starly- To Ash and Brock's suprise. Paul explains that you can scan the pokemon you catch on your pokedex. He decides to keep the Starly with Aerial ace and releases the other two to Ash's horror. When Paul says that they were useless, it makes Ash angry and he says 'You know what- any pokemon can be strong if you train them' .

Paul challenges Ash to a 3 on 3 battle- but Ash declines since he only has Aipom and Starly with him. Paul is disgusted by this, calls Ash 'Pathetic' and leaves with his Elekid

Later on, when Ash has got Pikachu back and has changed into his sinnoh clothes, he walks out of Professor Rowan's lab with Brock, Dawn and Professor Rowan to find Paul standing at a tree, waiting for him. He asks him for the battle he requested earlier, which now Ash gladly accepts. Paul's Starly manages to defeat Ash's with aerial ace. Paul however decides to release Starly since it doesn't meet his standards- much to Ash's annoyance. Next up it's Ash's Aipom vs Paul's Chimchar.

Shapes of things to come

A Gruff act to follow

Top down Training

An A-mazing Race 

'''Tag! We're it'''

Glory Blaze

Smells like Team Spirit

Riding the Winds of Change 

Chim-charred

Aiding the enemy

Pursuing a lofty Goal

Sliding into seventh

A pyramiding Rage

Pedal to the Mettle

Evolving Strategies

Fighting Ire with fire 

League Unleashed

Casting a Paul on Barry

Working on a right move

Paul is shown watching Ash battle Conway. Once Conway is defeated, the sinnoh league board shuffles and Ash and Paul look at each other as they realise they are to battle each other next. Later on, Paul walks up to Ash with his Electivire

Familarity Breeds strategy, A real Rival rouser and Battling a thaw in relations

The semi final frontier

Paul is shown to have watched the battle between Ash and Tobias on TV. He looks sad, sighs and then walks away.

Personality
Paul is a cold, callous, and rather arrogant trainer. He has no interest in being friends with anybody, even his own Pokémon, and simply sees his Pokémon as tools to win Pokémon battles. He is often annoyed and exasperated by Ash's actions and tendency to act like a child, and Paul seems to barely see their rivalry.

Paul rarely shows any emotions and this affects his dealings with his Pokemon which can be very harsh. On some occasions, however he has been shown to lose his temper. An example of this was a very significant time was in  A Pyramiding Rage, when he let his anger get out of control during his battle with Brandon due to his frustration of not being able to beat Brandon's Pokemon. Paul also almost never smiles, except for the occasional smirk and a small chuckle when dealing with Ash.

Despite his seemingly cruel nature, he can be polite when he wants to - especially towards authority figures like Cynthia and Nurse Joy. He also can aknowlege his opponent if he considers them to be a worthy opponent- an example of this is Roark who he was very impressed by. He also seems to think a lot of his brother Reggie, despite once saying he had 'a big mouth'.

He also seems to enjoy seeing Ash get worked up- an example of this is In Chim-Charred! when He chuckled and said to Ash, "Man, you get worked up.

"Paul's catchphrase is 'Pathetic'- and tends to direct it at Ash when Ash does or says something that Paul finds irriating or childish. Paul's battle cry is "Stand by for battle!"

Towards the end of the saga, and especially after losing the battle to Ash in the Sinnoh League, Paul seems to  reform somewhat and is shown congratulating Electivire on a job well done, something that he had never done prior to the three-part final battle. Paul was also impressed by how his former pokemon Infernape developed after being in Ash's care, how well Ash had trained it and admitted this after their final sinnoh battle. Paul then decided to return to Snowpoint City  to rechallenge Brandon and he bids farewell to Ash, albeit on more friendly terms. He also seems sad when he sees Ash lose to Tobias.

Pokémon
As a result of Paul's selective team creation, his active team is composed of Pokémon that he deems to be powerful. While the captures of Ursaring and Gliscor were shown in Different Strokes for Different Blokes and Riding the Winds of Change! respectively, the rest were obtained off-screen. The On-hand Pokémon List contains Paul's Pokémon whom are currently used by him in the Sinnoh League and against Ash. It was later revealed that his Torterra, Nidoking, Hariyama, Weavile, Froslass, Drapion and Electivire have a type of sentimental value to him as he captured these Pokémon when he first started his journey as a Pokémon trainer.

Kanto League

 * 8 Unknown Badges

Johto League

 * 8 Unknown Badges

Hoenn League

 * 8 Unknown Badges

Sinnoh League

 * Coal Badge
 * Cobble Badge
 * Icicle Badge
 * Beacon badge
 * Lightweight badge
 * 3 Unknown Badges

Pokemon League Status

 * Kanto Conference (Indigo League): Unknown but did not win
 * Silver Conference (Johto League): Unknown but did not win
 * Ever Grande Conference (Hoenn League): Unknown but did not win
 * Lilly of the Valley Coference (Sinnoh League) Lost to Ash: Top 8

Unoffical competions

 * Hearthome Tag Battle: Champion-with Ash
 * PokéRinger - Squallville: Runner-Up [Loses to Ash]

Trivia

 * Paul's appearance and personality is heavily based on Silver's; at first some fans assumed that he was the anime counterpart of Silver. This was proven false because Silver already appeared in the anime before Paul. However, the appearance was brief, so Paul may be a remake of Silver the way Lyra is Kris 's game remake.
 * Strangely enough, Paul's hometown is Veilstone City, which is also where Team Galactic's base was set up. Also interesting to note is that, in the games, you can only evolve Murkrow by use of the Dusk Stone, which is only available inside of said base.
 * Oddly, out of almost all the battles Paul and Ash were in, Paul was the victor, making him a lot stronger than Ash, yet he couldn't defeat Brandon the Pyramid King but Ash could because Paul fought out of anger.
 * Although a Pokédex is often red or pink Paul's Pokédex is black.
 * Paul smiled when he lost to Ash Ketchum in the Sinnoh league.
 * Paul and Ash share the dream of becoming the world's best trainer.
 * Paul is the only named trainer to own an East Sea Gastrodon.
 * Paul has owned several pokemon that Ash owns, Torterra, Gliscor, Starly and Chimchar(the same Chimchar as Ash).
 * Paul has never seen Ash without his hat.
 * Paul is the kind of trainer who doesn't let any entry hazards stop him from making substitutions.
 * Unlike the original owners of Tepig and Charmander, Paul doesn't try getting Chimchar back despite witnessing its power. This could be Paul's own act of kindness, as it shows that Paul truely acknowledges Chimchar's growth as Infernape, unlike the other trainers, who wanted their abandoned Pokemon for their power.
 * Paul also didn't lie or fake a kind farewell to his Chimchar, like Charmander and Tepig, but rather demanded that Chimchar leave in a harsh voice.