Favourite Villains

[Murkrow]

Who is yours?


My biggest gripe with the Pokémon games before gen 5 was that the villains were getting too ridiculous. Team Rocket were cool, they were just criminals who wanted money and power.
Teams Aqua and Magma weren't all that good because they could have destroyed the world, then Team Galactic game along and what they wanted was to destroy the universe. I was worried that as the games kept coming out the consequences of their actions would get worse and worse, if you can even get worse than the end of the universe. Things quickly get boring if the bad guys are too daring. (I'm looking at you, Doctor Who)
Not only that but their plans were centred around legendaries that were introduced in the same generation as them, and they somehow have information on how to find them that nobody since the legendaries were first around has ever been able to use.

I love Team Plasma now. Yeah they ended up having their story based around a legendary they introduced at the same time, but the idea behind them doesn't require the existence of a legendary. They didn't have some made up rubbish motivation that they needed to write a story for. Wanting to free Pokémon is an understandable stance to have and it uses a concept that could have been explored since Pokémon has been around.
And world domination is a more understandable goal that destroying everything.

Cipher would have been better if "closing Pokémon's hearts" made sense at all. Team Snagem is okay if not a bit boring.
I haven't played Ranger for years so I can't remember what the Go-Rock-Squad were all about, but I plan to replay it soon!


So yeah my favourite is Team Plasma if that wasn't obvious :P
I like Neo Team Plasma too to an extent. I generally just like that they expanded the story like they did for Team Rocket in GSC.

 

[kyeugh]

It's not that I dislike the other Teams, but I completely fell in love with Plasma. Everything about them exceeds the other Teams so much. Especially N and Ghetsis and the Seven Sages. The Grunts are annoying, though.

 

[Murkrow]

The Grunts are annoying, though.

What about them? They're not that plasbad.

 

[Equinoxe]

I had a hard time choosing between Team Rocket and Team Galactic, but in the end I decided to give my vote to the latter (mostly because I have a feeling they won't get as much love).

Team Galactic had the craziest hairstyles and the creepiest and most fascinating leader. The grunts had a really nice outfit and colour scheme too.
I really like characters who look like they haven't been sleeping for months, and Cyrus is definitely one of those. Or maybe I just like bad guys who don't give two shits about anything and just want to, I don't know, destroy the world and make a better one for themselves?
I feel you, Cyrus! I would totally do that too if I had the power (except maybe scrap that 'without emotion' bit)! :D


Team Rocket is totally badass too, though. Gotta love the good ol' money-making, pokemon-stealing and other fun mob stuff, not to mention the super-great admins!
Petrel is the best Rocket, hands down. B)

 

[Music Dragon]

My favorite Pokémon villains are Miror B., because of his neat music and his team of dancing Ludicolo, and Watchog, because of its intricate backstory and fashionable sweater. (Actually it might not be a sweater, it's probably just stripes. You get the point.)

 

[RespectTheBlade]

Hmmm... this was a tough choice, but i liked Galactic better than Plasma. Looking at it from an ambition concept, Ghetsis wanted to rule the world and manipulated a child to do that. Which was actually a cool thing to see in a pokemon game, it was a concept and a sort of adult fear that nintendo hadn't really experimented with before. But then in BW2 they became generic pokemon-abusing villains like Rocket. There was no hidden agenda, no depth, it was just more criminals for the sake of being criminals. Although Ghetsis did go so far as to actually aim to kill the player, which was another first. But Plasma declined from what they were in the first game.


Now, Galactic had higher ambitions, and while they also had an agenda of abusing pokemon, same as nearly every team, their leader was a psychopath from what i could tell. That's not to say that Ghetsis wasn't, but i think Cyrus was more outspoken about it. Galactic didn't go around preaching to free pokemon to manipulate people, and instead acted more like actual terrorists with the bombs and all. There was also the fact that there are implications that Cyrus tortured the lake pokemon to create the red chains, and also the fact that he nearly succeeded in destroying the universe in order to create his own. (Also i have a headcanon where looker is a stand-in for the tenth doctor (which i think a lot of people do) and if you consider the fact that there was a possible galactic extinction event it's sort of like an episode of doctor who was going on in the background. But with pokemon! So i think that leads me to like the villains in that game more, as well.)

 

[I liek Squirtles]

Why does everyone forget J?

I like Team Galactic and J from the anime, but J more so.

Both J and Cyrus were insane, careless, and indifferent(they even worked together), but J tried to kill Ash more than once and was a pseudo-Fett for the Pokemon world. That's enough to be a great villain in my book.

 

[Flora]

I'm really fond of Cypher/Snagem, probably because I'm really fond of Colosseum/Gale of Darkness (on a vaguely related note, Pokemon Team, you guys are amazing but why would you make part of a game's name a fucking emoticon based off a terrible acronym). I loved that they were doing something more clearly malevolent than TR in attempting to take over (like, I guess TR stole Pokemon too but they didn't make them ruthless attackers). ...okay honestly it's probably because of the games.

other than that! Plasma's costumes are great.

 

[ultraviolet]

why would anyone ever not vote for the endearing incompetence at organised crime that is Team Rocket

 

[kyeugh]

why would anyone ever not vote for the endearing incompetence at organised crime that is Team Rocket

They are still responsible for the superbowl.

 

[mewtini]

I'm in love with Galactic. Partly because Platinum was my first game and hnnnnnnnnnnnng nostalgia.

Also they're so dumb and their uniforms are just... so galactic-y

Also Cyrus was awesome.

 

[kyeugh]

Hmmm... this was a tough choice, but i liked Galactic better than Plasma. Looking at it from an ambition concept, Ghetsis wanted to rule the world and manipulated a child to do that. Which was actually a cool thing to see in a pokemon game, it was a concept and a sort of adult fear that nintendo hadn't really experimented with before. But then in BW2 they became generic pokemon-abusing villains like Rocket. There was no hidden agenda, no depth, it was just more criminals for the sake of being criminals. Although Ghetsis did go so far as to actually aim to kill the player, which was another first. But Plasma declined from what they were in the first game.

It is my understanding that Ghetsis went insane after the first game. Also, Team Plasma was already in ruins and it was revealed that Ghetsis didn't really want Pokémon liberation, so he did what he could.

 

[Murkrow]

I just had a thought!

Wouldn't it have been interesting in BW2 if the Purrloin that your rival is so intent on getting back was actually stolen by a member of Team Plasma who actually believed in liberating Pokémon, and by then was working at that house in Driftveil and got really close to it. Fanfic material right there.

 

[Dar]

I picked Plasma, but I'm going to split it into three parts: One as their original appearance, when their motive was to liberate Pokémon, one in the second game, when they were more take-over-the-world, and what I like as a whole.

In the first game, I loved the team in general. They had by far the stupidest grunts, but also had the best story. In all honesty, I had trouble deciding whether I wanted to fight them or not. They just seemed so pure. Until the end of the game, of course, when Ghetsis revealed his plans. But the battles with N and Ghetsis were incredibly challenging and fun, and a nice twist at the end of the League. Come to think of it, to this day I haven't faced Alder.

As for the current team, I don't like them nearly as much as I did before. But it seems like they educated themselves a bit. Though I loved Ghetsis this time around. I love insane characters (which is why Ghetsis is tied with Cyrus for my favorite Pokémon villain.)

Their outfits were always awesome, N was always awesome, and gingers are always awesome. The end.

 

[kyeugh]

Their outfits were always awesome, N was always awesome, and gingers are always awesome. The end.

That was the single most beautiful thing I have ever read.

Insane leaders are cool, though, although I didn't like Cyrus. He was insane the whole time, right?

 

[Bulbamew]

I would say the original Team Plasma are my personal favourite. The only thing I really liked better about Neo Plasma were the new outfits which I thought were better

 

[Vipera Magnifica]

This is certainly a tough decision for me

As far as team leaders go, Cyrus definitely tops it for me. Every time he spoke to my player it just gave me chills. As completely mad as he is, his backstory actually is very well-developed and sad and he can even seem convincing at times. His parents never loved him, so he decided at a young age that emotions were the cause of all suffering in the world. And after you talk to talk to Cyrus's grandfather in Platinum... damn, it almost made me cry

Spoiler: tvtropes

According to the old man, Cyrus was an aloof but otherwise relatively normal child prodigy, who was slowly broken and then gradually turned insane as he was forced to live up to his parents' unreasonable expectations. Grandpa saw what was happening. Why didn't he save Cyrus? He didn't consider it proper to tell them how to raise their own child. Listening to that, and the regret he expresses as he tells his story, and especially knowing how twisted Cyrus ended up, and knowing that if the old man had intervened Cyrus could have grown up happy and adjusted...is heartbreaking.

Anyone who says Cyrus is "just a crazy bad guy with a god complex" probably missed that whole part.

When it comes to outfits, I just love Team Flare. I mean, damn, they're called Team Flair for a reason. It's just too bad their leader is Hitler.

Team Rocket is just all-around cool. They also have a pretty cool leader who is well-respected enough to run a gym in Viridan yet be the secret leader of a huge criminal organization.

Team Plasma I liked, but mostly because of N. Yes, N had a backstory just as sad and well-developed as Cyrus. Yet, unlike Cyrus, he always remained pure at heart. Ghetsis, however, was extremely cruel and manipulative. I didn't really care for B2W2 Team Plasma, but then again, I wasn't too impressed by Johto Team Rocket either. I suppose it's more satisfying to defeat a villain team that's at it's greatest, not one that's already falling to pieces.

I wish I had something nice to say about Team Aqua/Team Magma but honestly their goals are just too damn ridiculous. Team Aqua wanted to expand the oceans by making it rain forever.

NEWS FLASH!

RAIN COMES FROM THE OCEANS YOU IDIOTS.

 

[Professor Wesker]

My favorite team leaders would be a tie between Cyrus, N Ghetsis and Colress, and Lysandre.

Cyrus was the first villain in the series I found to be genuinely intimidating. His hatred for emotions and desire to suppress them, that cold blank stare, and his ominous yet awesome boss theme all helped give him a creepy air, but his actions and personality really sold it. Not only did Team Galactic's acts escalate into terrorism (Lake Valor's bombing, anyone?), but Cyrus' desire to destroy the fabric of time and space and create a world without any emotion really got to me as a younger kid. And it's just worse that if his childhood had gone any differently, he could have been a good man. The fact that an abusive childhood left him so far gone genuinely depresses me, and makes him someone to be pitied in my eyes. And no other antagonist gave me the chills the way Cyrus did after his defeat in Platinum. To this day, him losing control and going into a screaming rant about emotions, then calmly and ominously saying that he'll never rest until he forms his perfect world still gets to me.

As for N and Ghetsis, I loved the contrast between these two. I feel that they perfectly capture the two different sides to purity. N is a completely unselfish, pure-hearted kid who genuinely wants to help Pokémon that he sees as being abused and opressed, while Ghetsis is a purely evil, self-centered Complete Monster of a human being who isn't afraid to do whatever it takes for a bit of power. Ghetsis' manipulation of N and the horrible way he treats him towards the game's climax really cemented him as one of the most despicable characters in the series, and it felt so damn good to defeat him. And Colress added to the group just fine in the sequels, perfectly capturing the grey area between Black and White. He isn't a typical sadistic villainous scientist in the vein of others like Dr. Braun or Professor Hojo, he simply wishes to carry out scientific advances, not really caring if he does good or evil things.

And Lysandre, despite X and Y's flawed story-telling really stood out to me. While I feel that his development through what are essentially Skype Rants was a bit lame, I find him incredibly relatable. Like him, I've wondered how exactly the world is supposed to survive with so many people populating it, and I feel bad for him since he tried to do good things, but was left seeing how much people can suck. And most of all, the tears he shed due to knowing that Pokémon would be killed along with humans after firing the Ultimate Weapon really drove home to me that Lysandre KNOWS what he's doing may be evil and that in some ways, he doesn't relish his decision, but due to his mind being totally warped, he can only see it as the right thing to do.

 

[Murkrow]

I've played X now and I can't say I like Team Flare that much.

Their motivation is at least understandable again but other than that they don't have much going for them. I don't like their costumes or the stupid-soundingness of "ultimate weapon". Also if they succeeded, wouldn't there eventually be a fight for resources among those who are left anyway?
I do like how I can imagine that they weren't originally evil and they were probably above board at first, just a rich people only club or something. (though I doubt the grunts all paid millions to join) Like the fire type elite four lady probably isn't a bad person, and has just been a member for a really long time.

 

[Tailsy]

My favorite Pokémon villains are Miror B., because of his neat music and his team of dancing Ludicolo, and Watchog, because of its intricate backstory and fashionable sweater. (Actually it might not be a sweater, it's probably just stripes. You get the point.)

I don't know why this isn't everyone's opinion?? So weird. Cipher wins (even if they kinda kicked Miror B. out. whatever. they had a good idea)