Did they just reveal the ACTUAL names of the player characters?

[BrandoSheriff]

So I've been watching all the recent trailers almost nonstop, and kinda noticed...

...Maybe perhaps they've finally revealed the player characters' names, being "Ray" for the male character, and "Ailey" for the female character? For example, the most recent trailer has Lillie calling the male trainer Ray.

In the previous trailer when it showed off the Rockruff event, the OTs were "Ray" and "Ailey".

The main site's new Alolan Photo Club section also uses the name Ailey under the trainer name section.

So maybe instead of "Sun" and "Moon", we might be able to refer to the SM/USUM protagonists officially as Ray and Ailey? If so, why do you think it took them so long to reveal their names? It's kinda similar to the Gold/Ethan thing, now that I think about it.

 

[User19sq]

Ray, as in a ray of sunshine.

Ailey, as in the Irish name meaning "light".

Seems pretty legit.

 

[pkmin3033]

You could call him Ray...or you could call him Jay.

Even if those are their actual names, I somehow doubt the manga will give them those names, haha.

 

[User19sq]

You could call him Ray...or you could call him Jay.

Or you may call him Infinite, in the brief moments that lead to you... but you doesn't have to call him Johnson.

That aside, should we be concerned that it took forever to learn the others' names by comparison?!

 

[Mister Coffee]

I don't think those names are the actual cannon names of the main characters.
It's sort of like when they were revealing trailers for X/Y, the player name of the male character was "Xavier" and for OR/AS revealed trailers the player name of the male character was "Orlando".

I think they are just showing us names that were cleverly chosen by a game player that reflect the themes of the game being shown off.
Xavier > X Version
Orlando > Omega Ruby
Ray > Ultra Sun (Probably as was mentioned for Sun Ray)

 

[Hikamaru]

Mister Coffee has a point. The protagonists tend to have placeholder names during pre-release material which is usually different from their canon names.

Bulbapedia tends to use the official canon names, but in the case of player characters who don't appear as a rival, they are just named after the game version instead. 7th Gen's protagonists have been referred to as "Sun" (male) and "Moon" (female) due to the latter being the case.

 

[BettyNewbie]

I doubt those are canon names. The only player characters that have canon names are the ones that have appeared as NPCs. Red appeared as a final boss in GSC/HGSS, and in most of the other games, the unselected player character appeared as either a rival (RSE, XY, ORAS), helpful friend (DPP, HGSS), or Battle Subway partner (BW, B2W2).

SM are the first games since FRLG where the unselected protagonist never appeared in any capacity, so the protagonists don't have canon names, just like the GSC protagonists and the FRLG girl.

Now, it's possible that USUM pull an HGSS and make up a new role for the unselected protagonist, thus retconning Sun/Moon into being Ray/Ailey like Gold was (awkwardly) retconned into being Ethan. However, in this day and age of protagonists being customizable, I think GF wants to move away from protagonists having canon names and identities.

The anime (aka. the primary marketing vehicle for the games) is also undoubtedly a factor, as well. It's become abundantly clear by now that Ash will be the main character forever, and that the games' male protagonists primarily exist to be new outfits for Ash, so there's little point in continuing to act like these guys are separate characters with canon identities. The male player characters have already consistently been blatant Red/Ash clones since DP, and the ones since BW haven't even gotten throwaway movie cameos, ala. Brendan and Lucas.

 

[strangerhypno]

You could call him Ray...or you could call him Jay.

Even if those are their actual names, I somehow doubt the manga will give them those names, haha.

They'll be called Ult-Sun and Ult-Moon

 

[BrandoSheriff]

Spoiler:

I don't think those names are the actual cannon names of the main characters.
It's sort of like when they were revealing trailers for X/Y, the player name of the male character was "Xavier" and for OR/AS revealed trailers the player name of the male character was "Orlando".

I think they are just showing us names that were cleverly chosen by a game player that reflect the themes of the game being shown off.
Xavier > X Version
Orlando > Omega Ruby
Ray > Ultra Sun (Probably as was mentioned for Sun Ray)

That makes sense. I honestly forgot about the whole Orlando thing they used for the ORAS demo and such.

Spoiler:

I doubt those are canon names. The only player characters that have canon names are the ones that have appeared as NPCs. Red appeared as a final boss in GSC/HGSS, and in most of the other games, the unselected player character appeared as either a rival (RSE, XY, ORAS), helpful friend (DPP, HGSS), or Battle Subway partner (BW, B2W2).

SM are the first games since FRLG where the unselected protagonist never appeared in any capacity, so the protagonists don't have canon names, just like the GSC protagonists and the FRLG girl.

Now, it's possible that USUM pull an HGSS and make up a new role for the unselected protagonist, thus retconning Sun/Moon into being Ray/Ailey like Gold was (awkwardly) retconned into being Ethan. However, in this day and age of protagonists being customizable, I think GF wants to move away from protagonists having canon names and identities.

The anime (aka. the primary marketing vehicle for the games) is also undoubtedly a factor, as well. It's become abundantly clear by now that Ash will be the main character forever, and that the games' male protagonists primarily exist to be new outfits for Ash, so there's little point in continuing to act like these guys are separate characters with canon identities. The male player characters have already consistently been blatant Red/Ash clones since DP, and the ones since BW haven't even gotten throwaway movie cameos, ala. Brendan and Lucas.

This is true. Kinda makes sense that customizable characters would end up straying away from having an actual name in an effort for you to further inject your own personality into it. The only way to know for sure is if GF does include something in USUM that would allow you to encounter the other player characters somehow like they used to.

My one question is why opt for new names (and actual non-version names at that) when they've used "Sun" and "Moon" in promo material for the last games, such as the demo. Wouldn't it make sense to just keep doing that, or am I just being silly and overthinking things? {XD}

 

[FlakyGuy]

Personally I really like these names. They seem to be memorable and I wouldn't mind calling my character Ray.

 

[BettyNewbie]

This is true. Kinda makes sense that customizable characters would end up straying away from having an actual name in an effort for you to further inject your own personality into it. The only way to know for sure is if GF does include something in USUM that would allow you to encounter the other player characters somehow like they used to.

My one question is why opt for new names (and actual non-version names at that) when they've used "Sun" and "Moon" in promo material for the last games, such as the demo. Wouldn't it make sense to just keep doing that, or am I just being silly and overthinking things? {XD}

Probably the same reason the characters got new outfits -- for aesthetic difference between SM and USUM. Plus, player characters having different default names between game versions has been a thing since Day One. A few examples:

Default names in Red -- Red, Ash, Jack
Default names in Blue -- Blue, Gary, John
Default names in Yellow -- Yellow, Ash, Jack

Default names in Gold -- Gold, Hiro, Taylor, Karl
Default names in Silver -- Silver, Kamon, Oscar, Max
Male default names in Crystal -- Chris, Mat, Allan, Jon

Female default names in Ruby -- Terra, Kimmy, Nicola, Sara
Female default names in Sapphire -- Marina, Kimmy, Nicola, Sara
Female default names in Emerald -- Kimmy, Tiara, Bella, Jayla

Take note of that last one. "May" is unquestionably the RSE girl's canon name, yet it isn't one of her default names in RSE. Her canon name solely comes from her NPC role as a rival, and that's where the other protagonists' canon names come from. Unless USUM changes things so the unselected player character still appears somewhere as a NPC, then the Alola protagonists will never have canon names.

 

[Hikamaru]

My one question is why opt for new names (and actual non-version names at that) when they've used "Sun" and "Moon" in promo material for the last games, such as the demo. Wouldn't it make sense to just keep doing that, or am I just being silly and overthinking things? {XD}

One of the pre-release trailers for S/M did refer to the protagonists as "Elio" and "Selene" due to the names appearing in Battle Royal footage in said trailer. Fans also tend to use those names as an unofficial way to call them something other than just "Sun" and "Moon".

 

[PkmnTrainerElio]

Pre-release material for Sun and Moon referred to Sun as Elio and Moon as Selene last year.

 

[Altairis]

Legit question and I don't mean to sound hostile, but why do people care what their names are? Isn't the whole point now that we are playing as self-inserts, not as specific characters (ex. playing as Link, Mario, or in a game where you don't make your own avatar) so aren't you just gonna rename them anyway?

 

[Mister Coffee]

Legit question and I don't mean to sound hostile, but why do people care what their names are? Isn't the whole point now that we are playing as self-inserts, not as specific characters (ex. playing as Link, Mario, or in a game where you don't make your own avatar) so aren't you just gonna rename them anyway?

I think it kind of depends on the person playing the game and their point of view. For example, even though I have played the pokemon games with the concept that it is me playing the character and I am making specific choices based on my team built around my personal tastes, the pokemon games are still telling a specific story about a specific character the story that unfolds around that character is not being manipulated by my actions, merely directed. In Su/Mo you are playing as the characters Sun or Moon and although you have the ability to choose how that person dresses or what pokemon they prefer to use, you are still following them on their personal adventure while continuing forward.
You can imagine that the story is focused around you as much as you want, but in the end it is still specifically the story of Sun and Moon, your choices don't change what happens to that character's story. So, yeah it is kind of nice to know the actual names of the characters that we are playing as.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Those possibly could be the real name like they do with some of the characters like Serena and Xaiviar or however you spell it. But their manga names are confirmed Sun and Moon as all name sin the manga. They name them after the games.

And even though many people don't read the manga, a lot of people will call them by their manga names. Red(Male), Blue(Female), Green(Male), Gold(Male), Silver(Male), Crystal/Kris(Female), Sapphire(Female), Ruby(Male), Emerald(Male), Diamond(Male), Pearl(Male), and Plantinum(Female), Black(Male), White(Female), X(Male), Y, Sun(Male), and Moon(Female).

 

[Hikamaru]

I think it kind of depends on the person playing the game and their point of view. For example, even though I have played the pokemon games with the concept that it is me playing the character and I am making specific choices based on my team built around my personal tastes, the pokemon games are still telling a specific story about a specific character the story that unfolds around that character is not being manipulated by my actions, merely directed. In Su/Mo you are playing as the characters Sun or Moon and although you have the ability to choose how that person dresses or what pokemon they prefer to use, you are still following them on their personal adventure while continuing forward.
You can imagine that the story is focused around you as much as you want, but in the end it is still specifically the story of Sun and Moon, your choices don't change what happens to that character's story. So, yeah it is kind of nice to know the actual names of the characters that we are playing as.

You do have a point. While Calem/Serena also had the customization feature, they only had that official name due to appearing in the game in another capacity, unlike the 7th Gen protagonists who pull the other being completely absent for the first time in 12 years.

While I could see GF trying to promote future protagonists as one the player can project themselves onto, they are still a character in their own and it is their story.

 

[BettyNewbie]

Legit question and I don't mean to sound hostile, but why do people care what their names are? Isn't the whole point now that we are playing as self-inserts, not as specific characters (ex. playing as Link, Mario, or in a game where you don't make your own avatar) so aren't you just gonna rename them anyway?

Well, fans still need something to call the protagonists other than "Gen 7 player characters," and just like other cases where characters didn't have canon names, fans go with either a default game-based name (ie. Kris/Crystal, Silver, Leaf/Green/Blue) or the name that the anime gave the character (ie. the Gen 2 girl being called "Marina" or the Gen 2 boy being called "Jimmy" before HGSS... the Gen 1 PC/rival were also widely believed to be "Ash" and "Gary" before GSC canonized them as "Red" and "Blue" ). So far, it appears that "Sun" and "Moon" are the most widely-accepted names for these characters.

 

[Somewhere_]

Pre-release material for Sun and Moon referred to Sun as Elio and Moon as Selene last year.

I guess this confirms that Ray and Ailey are not the canon names then.

 

[Hikamaru]

Well, fans still need something to call the protagonists other than "Gen 7 player characters," and just like other cases where characters didn't have canon names, fans go with either a default game-based name (ie. Kris/Crystal, Silver, Leaf/Green/Blue) or the name that the anime gave the character (ie. the Gen 2 girl being called "Marina" or the Gen 2 boy being called "Jimmy" before HGSS... the Gen 1 PC/rival were also widely believed to be "Ash" and "Gary" before GSC canonized them as "Red" and "Blue" ). So far, it appears that "Sun" and "Moon" are the most widely-accepted names for these characters.

I guess this confirms that Ray and Ailey are not the canon names then.

According to Bulbapedia, it's "Sun" and "Moon" that are recognised as their so-called official names, much like how Leaf from FR/LG was referred to as that due to also not having a real name. Elio/Selene seem to function as the alternate fan-made names for those who don't want to call them after the game versions.