Info

Quick facts and appearance

• Name: Hassel
• Trainer ID: 316242
• Nicknames: Old Hass, Mr. Dragonbrows
• Home region: Unknown
• Family: He comes from a long family line of Dragon Tamers, and his father is the current leader of the family. Hassel's unnamed relative makes an appearance at the academy in the game.
• (Main) occupation: Art teacher
• Trainer status: Elite Four member, Dragon Tamer
• Age: Unknown. He appears middle-aged and refers to himself as an "old man" in the English version.
• Hair: Light blonde, though it appears a slightly darker blonde in his 3D model in Scarlet and Violet. Slightly over shoulder-length, worn in a half ponytail.
• Eye color: Golden. He has a ring around his iris that surrounds each of his pupils. No hightlights, but he still has warm eyes.
• Outfit: White dress shirt, red tie, black sweater vest with red details, green blazer jacket with a medium length cape (detailed embroidery), grey trousers, black loafers with red details, red socks. The detailing on his clothes is often two rhombus shapes together. When working as an Elite Four member, Hassel wears black leather gloves with a silver embroidery of the Paldea Pokémon League logo on the right glove. And when painting, he wears a grey apron and black wrist protectors.
• Other: He is left handed, and has long musician's fingers.

Character summary

Hassel is a part of the Elite Four in the Paldea Pokémon League, making him one of the later boss battles in the main story of the game. He is also a supporting character throughout the story.

He specializes in training Dragon Type Pokémon, and he comes from a long line of Dragon tamers. Hassel's ace Pokémon is Baxcalibur, which is the local pseudolegendary Pokémon in Paldea.

In addition to his Elite Four position, he also works as an art teacher at the Naranja/Uva Academy and his art lessons can be attended as part of the game.

At first he might seem like a somewhat prideful Elite Four member who likes to keep his League colleagues in check, sometimes scolding Rika and Larry. However, Hassel is quite the friendly teacher who sees the best in his students and friends. He is old friends with Brassius, an artist and a gym leader in Paldea. They call each other with cute nicknames: "Hass" and "Brassie".

Hassel gets the most joy out of seeing his students succeed, and is known to burst into tears of joy when overwhelmed with positive emotion. (Then Rika will be the one scolding him!) He is also rather enthusiastic about art, and wants to teach his students how to observe all the beauty around them, no matter how mundane.

Hassel's background as a Dragon tamer brings him grief though, as he has to decide if he should follow in his father's footsteps or continue the job he is actually passionate about - which is being a teacher. Hassel was raised to become the next head of the family, but he ran away when he was very young. Now his relatives are asking him to become the family head, as his father is getting quite old.
It is not known where Hassel's family home is located, but he is at least acquaintated with Unova's gym leader Drayden. Drayden's grandson Drayton knows Hassel as well.
Despite Hassel rebelling against his family's plans for him, he still takes pride in being a Dragon tamer. This is clear whenever you battle him. He is also happy to teach anyone about Dragon types if they want to learn battle tips from him.

In addition to the games his character originates from, Hassel has also appeared in the Pokémon Horizons anime series and the Pokémon Adventures manga. He's also made small cameos in Paldean Winds (2023) and an animated commercial for the Shiny Rayquaza event (2024).

In Pokémon Horizons, Hassel has appeared as a supporting character in Pokémon Horizon episodes 46, 48, 55, 67 and 79. He is voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu in the Japanese original version and by Ross Marquand in the English dub. Hassel is famous enough for Dot to recognize him, and he later battles (and wins!) against Roy and Brassius in an exhibition battle.

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