Petalburg City Pokémon Gym Leader: Norman
A man in pursuit of power!
Petalburg City Pokémon Gym Leader: Norman
A man in pursuit of power!
Between the entrance and Gym Leader Norman are a series of rooms, each containing a Trainer. In order to access these rooms, all of the first four Badges must be obtained first; otherwise, the doors will be locked. The Trainers have special methods of battling, as displayed on the doors leading to their rooms. They include the One-Hit KO Room, Accuracy Room, Attack Room, Defense Room, Speed Room, Recovery Room and either Zero Reduction RoomRSORAS or Confusion RoomE. Once three rooms in a row are completed, they can access the Gym Leader Room with Norman. In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, all seven Trainers in their respective rooms use items in the battle, whereas in Pokémon Emerald, the strategy of these Trainers is dependent on the moves of their Pokémon.
When defeated, Norman will give the player the Balance Badge as well as TM42 (Facade)RSE or TM67 (Retaliate)ORAS as a reward. Also, in Pokémon Emerald, Wally's father will then enter Norman's room and lead the player to Wally's house.
After the player enters the Hall of Fame, the Gym's guide disappears, and Norman appears at the first room of the Gym like he did earlier in the game. In Pokémon Emerald, Norman will return to the furthest room back if he is ready to rebattle the player.
Trainers with a PokéNav by their names will be registered in the Trainer's Eyes or Match Call function after the first battle, and may have a rematch with the player with higher-level Pokémon.
Trainers with a PokéNav by their names will be registered in the Trainer's Eyes or Match Call function after the first battle, and may have a rematch with the player with higher-level Pokémon.
Trainers with a PokéNav by their names will be registered in the Trainer's Eyes or Match Call function after the first battle, and may have a rematch with the player with higher-level Pokémon.
In addition to housing the battlefield, Petalburg Gym is also home to Norman, his wife Caroline, and his children May and Max, as well as the Gym assistant Kenny. A greenhouse is also on the Gym's property. The various Normal-type Pokémon at the Gym are housed in the greenhouse when they're not battling.
It is Max's dream to one day succeed his father as Gym Leader, and he approaches this goal through learning battling strategies.
The Petalburg Gym first appeared in There's no Place Like Hoenn, where Ash and May reached the facility, with Ash intending to battle Norman and win his first Hoenn LeagueBadge. However, when Norman learned that Ash only had Pikachu with him, he declined the Gym battle, as challengers needed three Pokémon to have an official battle. He did agree to an unofficial battle, which Ash lost. It was also at the Petalburg Gym where Ash first met May's younger brother Max, who joined him and May on their journey.
In ZigZag Zangoose!, Nicholai was mentioned to have visited the Petalburg Gym. After telling Norman and Caroline that he was friends with their children, he had been treated to a meal before having a Gym battle with Norman, which Nicholai had lost.
Following Ash's conquest of the Kanto Battle Frontier, May and Max headed back to Gym in Home is Where the Start Is!, with May soon departing again to head to Johto, while Max stayed at the Gym to help take care of his father's Pokémon using the skills he had learned from Brock.
Vigoroth was first seen after Norman agreed to have an unofficial battle with Ash because he had less than three Pokémon at the time. After a tough battle with Ash's Pikachu, Vigoroth managed to defeat him. Later, it helped in destroying one of Team Rocket's mechas that was attacking the Gym.
In Balance of Power, Vigoroth was the second Pokémon used by Norman in his official Gym battle with Ash. It managed to easily defeat Torkoal before once again facing Pikachu. This time, Pikachu was able to defeat Vigoroth, but ended up exhausting all of his own energy as well in the process, resulting in a double knockout.
Slakoth first appeared in the greenhouse where Norman keeps his Pokémon. It appeared again in Balance of Power!, during Norman's Gymbattle with Ash. It first went up against Pikachu, but when Pikachu's strategies failed to work, Ash switched him out for Torkoal, who was able to defeat its opponent.
Slaking debuted in Norman's greenhouse with the rest of his Pokémon. In Balance of Power!, it battled Grovyle during Ash's Gym battle against Norman, but was ultimately defeated.
The Petalburg Gym appeared in Distracting Dustox, where Ruby's mother called Norman to inform him that their son had run away from home. Hearing this, Norman decided to find his son himself.
Pokémon Pocket Monsters
The Petalburg Gym appeared in There's Someone More Important Than Clefairy?!. Red and Clefairy visited it after seeing a Poké Ball flying out of there, and found Norman, who was feeling down due to his Balance Badge having gotten stuck inside his Slakoth. Clefairy managed to retrieve it, but then refused to return it to Norman, much to his anger.
Trivia
The Petalburg Gym is similar to Kanto's Viridian Gym, in the sense that it was the first Gym the player can reach, but cannot be challenged until the player has collected a certain amount of Badges.
Due to the structure of the Gym, the Petalburg Gym is the only Gym in Pokémon Emerald where the player cannot face a pair of Trainers in a Double Battle.
