Skyla (Pokemon)

About

Skyla is a gym leader in the Pokémon games Pokémon Black and White. She is a flying-type gym leader with red hair and a white outfit. Since her debut in the series and the anime, she has been a fan favorite and has been the subject of hundreds of pieces of fan art, as well as memes. In mid-October 2024, she saw renewed interest in the Pokémon fandom after a massive leak of Game Freak documents emerged online and went viral that showed the original plans for Skyla were to make her a "sexy pilot" and "Hispanic" with a "large" chest, a la "Jennifer Lopez."

Origin

Skyla debuted in Pokémon Black and White, the fifth generation of Pokémon games, which were released on September 18th, 2010. She is the flying-type gym leader of the Mistralton City Gym.^[1]

Skyla has also appeared in the Pokémon anime and the Pokémon Masters mobile game.

Spread

Since her original debut in 2010, Skyla has been a popular subject of fan art online on sites like DeviantArt, ^[2] Fanpop,^[3] Tumblr] and more, as well as the character becoming the subject of memes and jokes on social media.

Much of the fan art surrounding Skyla was typical of fan art communities until the October 2024 Game Freak Gigaleak.

Game Freak Gigaleak Design Document

Files uncovered from the October 12th, 2024, Game Freak Gigaleak of unreleased Pokémon material such as design docs and beta sprites contained drafts for Skyla, which drew significant attention online.

The leaked material purportedly showed that Skyla was conceived as a "sexy pilot," "Hispanic," should have a "large chest" and resemble Isabella Fontana or Jennifer Lopez^[7] (purported leaked design docs shown below).

The discovery led to a surge in fan art and memes joking about and celebrating Skyla as a Latina woman. For example, on October 13th, 2024, Twitter / X user @SomethingInWorl^[5] posted art of Shadow the Hedgehog flirting with Skyla, referencing the Shadow Loves Latinas meme. The post gained over 5,500 retweets and 51,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

The same day, X user @xxcreepymary6^[6] posted fan art of Skyla in an outfit once worn by Lopez, gaining over 1,600 retweets and 10,000 likes in the same timeframe.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References