Ralph is a trainer from Yambera on Mandarin Island South who appeared in the episode "Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon?" He's best known for his intense rivalry with Emily—they'd matched each other in every competition they ever entered, which only fueled their competitive fire.
Things got complicated when Ralph's Nidoran, Tony, fell head over heels for Emily's Nidoran, Maria. The problem was that Ralph and Emily couldn't stand each other, so the two Pokémon were basically kept apart by their trainers' feud. Misty, convinced that Ralph and Emily actually had feelings for each other buried underneath all that antagonism, decided to play matchmaker. It backfired spectacularly and only made things worse between them.
Everything changed when Team Rocket showed up and grabbed both Tony and Maria. Forced to cooperate to rescue their Pokémon, Ralph and Emily finally worked as a team and managed to take down Team Rocket. Once they got Tony and Maria back safely, both trainers realized their rivalry was pointless if it meant keeping their Pokémon apart. They called a truce.
The Nidoran kissed and evolved—Tony into Nidorino and Maria into Nidorina. By the episode's end, Ralph and Emily had clearly caught feelings for each other too. When Misty and Tracey suggested building a house for the newly evolved Pokémon, both Ralph and Emily immediately called out each other's names instead of their Nidoran's, which pretty much said it all.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
