#and ghetsis is a very charismatic person to these people and he's obviously

[colorful-bees]

Today's the day I talk about the White and Black memory from the Memory Link in B2/W2.

Not only is a good insight to the mindset of the Team Plasma members who are still loyal to N after the events of the first games, it's also one of the few moments in the games where the abuse N went through is actually drawn attention to in a situation where N isn't directly present. Most of the time, we're painfully aware of N's situation when it's a conversation between N and Ghetsis but this is an interaction between two random Plasma grunts where they talk about it from their perspective.

Something to note is they still call N "Lord N". They haven't magically changed their mindset. They don't call Ghetsis "Lord Ghetsis" anymore either, he's just Ghetsis now. They still are very much in that culty mindset, they're just wholly aligned with N now, rather than Team Plasma as a whole and as such, he's the only one with a title. Their a bit more moral but their unhealthy reverie towards N remains the same.

Back to my original point, it's one of the few times we see N's situation acknowledged by other characters. Other notable examples are when talking with Anthea and Concordia in the Driftveil Safehouse. While these are very brief moments, both conversations use very evocative words to describe what happened to N. Anthea and Concordia describe N as being "groomed" into a role while the Team Plasma grunts call what happened to N "disgusting." It almost feels a little strange when the characters acknowledge it. We see it happen and we know all about it but it feels much more real when the characters around you mention it and it's brought up so infrequently, it almost feels like you're not supposed to talk about it; it's jarring and uncomfortable when it is.

It also becomes interesting when you take into account how the Neo Team Plasma members feel about N, often referring to him as a traitor and an idiot, which implies they either didn't hear about what N went through or, more likely, they simply don't care; he was Team Plasma's key to victory and to power and it doesn't matter to them what was done to him for that to be his role. There's a reason Neo Team Plasma follows Ghetsis and it's because they align with his views; I wouldn't be surprised if they also viewed N as less than human just like Ghetsis does and as such, don't even view his suffering as suffering to begin with.

[themattress]

Cyrus (Team Galactic) vs. Ghetsis (Team Plasma) vs. Lysandre (Team Flare)

With a renewed interested in Pokemon villains for multiple reasons, I’d like to settle once and for all who’s the second-best. Obviously there’s no topping Giovanni of Team Rocket, but three contenders have come consistently close across the franchise: Cyrus of Team Galactic, Ghetsis of Team Plasma and Lysandre of Team Flare. So, who among them is the strongest?

DESIGN: Let’s get the shallowest aspect out of the way first; how do they look?

This is Cyrus. The design of his face is excellent: spiky blue hair, sunken eyes, and a chiseled face that’s often frowning - but in a stoic way rather than a sad or frustrated way. Unfortunately, his outfit is among the weakest worn by an evil team leader. It just seems too close to the outfits worn by his commanders, with nothing really suggesting he’s the boss. 

This is Ghetsis. Again, we’ve got a great facial design with lovely flowing locks of dull green hair, a piercing red left eye, and a nifty-looking device on his right eye. But oh good sweet Arceus, what is he wearing!? It’s certainly more memorable than Cyrus’ outfit, but I’m not sure it’s for the right reasons. Tellingly, we got a slight redesign for it when it got rendered in 3D, and then otherwise Ghetsis wears a completely different outfit. This new outfit looks better, especially when paired with that badass scepter, but it’s also kind of too on-the-nose evil.

This is Lysandre. This time, the facial design is the weakest part: the mane of red hair and beard is fine, but there’s something flat and unnatural about his face that just isn’t very appealing. His outfit is amazing, though...and yet there’s still an issue with it: it clearly was designed before his character was finalized into a corporate philanthropist. What kind of corporate philanthropist goes around in what looks like a wealthy biker’s outfit? Just give the man a helmet and the look is complete! Yet another sign of XY’s haphazard development.

So all have pros and cons to their designs. When giving the grade, I have to go with which one pops out in my mind the most. And regardless of what he’s wearing, that just has to be Ghetsis’ design. The tri-tonged hair, the red eye and eyepiece, whichever fancy robe he has on; no matter what you think of the guy, you’re always going to remember the look of him.

WINNER - Ghetsis (Team Plasma)

PERSONALITY: We know how they look. But how do they act?

Cyrus at first glance seems rather dull: always stoic, always pontificating in scientific jargon, and always impersonal in his interactions with friend and foe alike. The more time you spend around him, though, the more the layers are peeled back to reveal greater depths. His hatred of emotions stem from his own emotions that he keeps suppressed: the heavy sadness and boiling rage he feels over the state of the world, he can’t stand how “incomplete” everything is. He knows how to play to the emotions of others; to be an inspiring demagogue and role model for young people who are seeking a greater purpose in life, while derisively dismissing them for the very reason they are useful to him in private. And of course, there is his supreme arrogance: the utter conviction that he is right about everything and that only he can “fix” the universe’s problems, only he is worthy of becoming a deity and dictating humanity’s behavior for it, and that anything for that goal is justified. When all’s said and done you may like Cyrus less than when you started, but you also pity him and are fascinated by him all the same.

Ghetsis is a first-class sociopathic narcissist. At least Cyrus’ arrogance comes from something; Ghetsis believes the world is better off ruled by him and his cronies because he’s perfect and the world he rules would be perfect too. Like Cyrus, he is a master manipulator who knows how to play to others’ feelings. His charismatic politeness that at first glance suggests belief in his convictions about helping Pokemon quickly turns into a sign of his ego and condescension; he doesn’t actually give a damn about Pokemon or other human beings for that matter, and all his sweet-sounding words are almost mockery of those around him for not realizing this. Ghetsis is also a sadist, relishing others being rendered helpless and despairing before him. And of course, like most malignant narcissists, he’s prone to panic and explosive rage when things don’t go his way and his self-image of perfection is shattered.

Lysandre, unlike Cyrus and Ghetsis, can be charming and charismatic truthfully. He isn’t putting on an act; he sincerely has an interest in other people and wants to help them. Sadly, there’s a catch: it’s only a certain kind of people. Lysandre’s unchecked mental illness has turned him into a severe elitist, who divides people into two categories: “chosen ones” and “unchosen”, “worthy” and “unworthy”, “givers” and “takers”, “productive workers” and “filthy parasites”. And yes, it’s the less financially fortunate that tend to fall into the latter category. Obsessed with the notion that they will deprive the world of its resources and spoil all its beauty, Lysandre is very outwardly angry, not even attempting to bottle it up like Cyrus and Ghetsis do. This anger drives his conviction that he is right, even if it means doing things he knows full well are wrong and is remorseful about. And it also drives his personal ruthlessness, as he can take great sadistic satisfaction out of personally disposing of those who stand in the way of his glorious vision. Lysandre is definitely among the franchise’s most tragic villains, since he really does have the qualities that could have made him a great hero, but instead he let himself become twisted until he’s only a hero in his own warped mind.

This is a really tough call. But in the end, I have to choose based on which personality runs the deepest and can continue to pull you along with it the longest. And in that regard, Cyrus is the most interesting of these villains, expressing so little all while harboring so damn much.

WINNER - Cyrus (Team Galactic)

MOTIVATION: I went over these in the previous section, so just a little more emphasis is needed here. Because he was raised by perfectionist parents whose emotions caused them to emotionally abuse him, Cyrus became distant from humanity and closer to machines which he considered better and “complete”, making him believe that humanity with their emotions is “incomplete” and the source of all the world’s strife and that if the universe could be reset with spirit (emotions, willpower and knowledge) removed from all living things then humanity could reach its full potential. Because he was marred by physical imperfections combined with the awareness that he was descended from an ancient royal family, Ghetsis desired to take over the world and force all to play into his narcissistic delusions of being a perfect being. And because he had an unchecked mental illness combined with the fact that all of his charity work never stopped poor people from being poor and needing resources, Lysandre became convinced that they would keep on taking resources until the world’s beauty was spoiled unless they were exterminated, which is where the legendary Ultimate Weapon comes in.

None of these motivations are particularly rational, nor are they focused on that much compared to the villain’s deeds in pursuing the goal these motivations give them. But I just can’t relate to Ghetsis’ egomaniacal fascism or Lysandre’s classist paranoia, whereas I can absolutely see where Cyrus is coming from and why he would think/feel the way he does.

WINNER - Cyrus (Team Galactic)

EVIL PLAN: This category is pretty straight-forward - who had the best plan?

Cyrus’ plan revolved around researching the myths of Sinnoh to find the truth in them, and from there acting accordingly: using a bomb on one of the three great lakes to draw out the three Lake Spirit Pokemon, capture them and create the Red Chain from their power, then scale Mt. Coronet to the Spear Pillar and use the Red Chain to summon and capture Dialga and/or Palkia, using their power to destroy and remake the universe as he sees fit.  In the original Diamond/Pearl and their 3D remakes, this plan only got going in the second half of the game, and failed because Cyrus was an idiot who let you free the Lake Spirits and told you exactly where he was going, which led to his defeat. Platinum fixed both problems, giving more build-up in the first half and having Cyrus make an artificial Red Chain so that he could capture both Legendary Pokemon at the Spear Pillar, rendering you and the Lake Spirits helpless when you try to interfere. His plan is now only stopped by forces beyond his control.

Ghetsis’ plan revolved around raising N to become the Hero of either Truth or Ideals, all while stealthily building up Team Plasma into a force to be reckoned with. When the time was right, N would travel across Unova to compete in the League challenge and unseat the Champion, awakening the Legendary Pokemon Reshiram or Zekrom along the way and making his Hero status known to all. On the side, Team Plasma would work toward spreading the message of Pokemon liberation. When N defeats both the Champion and the opposing Hero, Pokemon liberation would be made law. Team Plasma would be the only ones left with Pokemon, which they would use to take control of Unova and then turning their gaze to the rest of the world. This plan was well plotted and executed, very nearly succeeding if not for Ghetsis’ ego causing him to actively get the opposing Hero personally involved, which led to his undoing. Two years later he tried another plan to build a super-powered army of Pokemon and capture the Legendary Pokemon Kyurem in order to conquer Unova by force, but this plan wasn’t nearly as well crafted and carried out as the previous one, with N’s replacement Colress even becoming ambivalent about it, leading to its failure before any significant progress was made.

Lysandre’s plan revolved around Team Flare unearthing the Ultimate Weapon and capturing both the Legendary Pokemon Xerneas or Yveltal to power it up and the immortal AZ who possessed its key. Once this had all been achieved, Lysandre would make a public broadcast about the threat and charge anyone who wanted to be spared a high amount of money, since if they had the money to pay it meant they must be an efficient worker who is worthy of being a “chosen one”. The lack of subtlety displayed by Lysandre and Team Flare through all this is what leads to the plan failing, with the Ultimate Weapon never coming close to full charge.

The winner this time around is easy to spot. It’s really hard to beat a plan that someone has dedicated years and years to, with all sorts of intricate moving pieces on the board that come together to almost succeeding at the end. There’s a reason “The Plan” is the name of this Pokemon Evolutions episode centered around Ghetsis; it truly was a fiendishly brilliant plan.

WINNER - Ghetsis (Team Plasma)

GENERAL OUTCOME: In the end, all of the villains’ plans fail. So, then what happens?

With Cyrus, it varies wildly. In Diamond/Pearl and their 3D remakes, he learns nothing and just escapes vowing to do the same failed plan all over again. In Platinum, he stays in the Distortion World to unlock its secrets and create a new plan revolving around utilizing them. In Pokemon Generations, he plans to stay in the Distortion World forever because he feels it’s the best world for him to live in. In both Pokemon Adventures and Diamond & Pearl Adventure!, he realizes the error of his ways and reforms. In Pokemon Masters, he’s perpetually on the fence. And in the Diamond & Pearl anime series, he commits existential suicide in a delusional last bid to keep his “new world” as it’s fading. He’s all over the place!

With Ghetsis, he always suffers a Villainous Breakdown when he realizes that all is lost, with only the intensity of said breakdown varying from story to story. Sometimes he will be brought to justice by the police, while other times he escapes thanks to his faithful Shadow Triad.

With Lysandre, he always meets some kind of grand, epic, tragic end. Maybe he curses himself with immortality and is doomed to be the next AZ; maybe he straight-up attempts suicide; maybe he falls into an explosion of nuclear green fire; or maybe he falls on a bed of rocks that severs his spine and renders him the exact kind of needy “parasite” he despises.

You just have to appreciate the tonal consistency in Lysandre’s fates, so he takes this one.

WINNER - Lysandre (Team Flare)

HUMAN TEAM: Team Galactic. Team Plasma. Team Flare. Which are the best followers?

Team Galactic is largely made up of stupid young people who want to mean something and who agree that the world needs to be changed. Their slavish devotion to Cyrus and his cause really makes them come across like a cult. This extends to the three commanders: Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, who all have different reasons for being enamored with Cyrus and who all have been granted a kernel of the truth of what Cyrus really means to accomplish, although the full truth is concealed to all. The one outlier is Charon, the head scientist who is an old man and is as such bitterly cynical, caring nothing for any idealistic cause and only in it for money and power. While his scientific input is valuable, one does wonder why Cyrus keeps him around when he clearly gives off the vibes of one who will betray him given the chance.

Team Plasma is a diverse group: some of its members are well-meaning dupes who truly believe in the righteousness of Pokemon liberation, while others are budding fascists who believe they deserve Pokemon more than others and are drawn to Ghetsis’ strength. The group’s activities the first time around are led by the Seven Sages, of which Ghetsis is a member. The other Sages are also comprised of those who believe in the cause and those who have less than altruistic motives. The second time around Ghetsis’ personal servants, the Shadow Triad, take a much more active role in spearheading the group’s operations. Finally, there is the “leader” whom Ghetsis hides himself behind: first being his adopted son N, the “King” of Team Plasma and Hero of Truth or Ideals, and later being Dr. Colress, an amoral scientist who is obsessed with studying what brings out the full power of Pokemon. Much like Charon, Colress isn’t exactly reliable, and could turn on Ghetsis if he so chooses.

Team Flare in the original X/Y games is made up of fashion-obsessed snobs who do everything in the most obnoxiously unsubtle way possible. In the XY&Z anime series, the members are more professional and gangster-like. In the Pokemon Adventures manga, there’s an even mix of both types. Whatever the case, their operations are led by five scientists: Aliana, Bryony, Celosia, Mable and Xerosic. Despite their erratic personalities, these scientists actually remain steadfastly loyal to Lysandre and his cause, mainly because they don’t get along with people and thus don’t have much moral qualms in eradicating them. 

When you get down to it, Team Flare is almost too simplistic regardless of how good or badly they are depicted, while Team Plasma is ridiculously complex. Team Galactic really hits the sweet spot in between, and to top it off even have roots in ancient Sinnoh history, back when the region was called Hisui and was undergoing colonialization. So, IMHO, they’re the best.

WINNER - Cyrus (Team Galactic)

POKEMON TEAM - Cyrus’ team includes Houndoom, Honchkrow, Crobat, Gyarados, Weavile, Probopass, Magnezone, Bronzong, Rotom, and even Dialga, Palkia or Giratina. Ghetsis’ team includes Cofagrigus, Bouffalant, Seismitoad, Bisharp, Eelektross, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Drapion, Toxicroak, and even Zekrom, Reshiram or Kyurem. Lysandre’s team includes Mienshao, Honchkrow, Pyroar, Gyarados, and even Xerneas, Yveltal or Zygarde. 

OK, Lysandre’s problem is clear: he has much fewer Pokemon at his disposal and half the normal ones are recycled from Cyrus’ team, with only Pyroar really standing out mainly due to how much it resembles him. Cyrus, meanwhile, has too many Dark or otherwise sinister-looking Pokemon; you’d think that would be more of Ghetsis’ thing. What Ghetsis does have, though, is clearly the best line-up; his powerful Hydreigon alone - that’s at lower a level than it should be possible for Hydreigons to exist at - is reason enough to give this one to him.

WINNER - Ghetsis (Team Plasma)

BATTLE MUSIC:  This is Cyrus’ music. This is Ghetsis’ music. And here’s Lysandre’s.

..........Yeah, this one’s a little too obvious. The music even blares out his name!

WINNER - Ghetsis (Team Plasma)

VOICES: Which villain had the most consistent quality of voice-acting?

Cyrus has been voiced in Japanese by Kenta Miyake, Kenjiro Tsuda and Shuunsuke Takeuchi, and in English by Sean Schemmel, Michael Sorich, and Armen Taylor.

Ghetsis has been voiced in Japanese by Masaki Aizawa, Sho Hayami, Hikaru Hanada and Takehito Koyasu, and in English by Bill Rogers, Patrick Seitz, Mick Wingert and Armen Taylor.

Lysandre has been voiced in Japanese by Hideaki Tezuka, Hiroki Tochi, Akio Otsuka and Takaya Hashi, and in English by Tyler Bunch, ???, DC Douglas and Adin Rudd.

Rather than debating about fitting voices, I will judge this by grating voices. Lysandre suffers from this the most, with Hideaki Tezuka, Takaya Hashi, ??? and Adin Rudd all falling into sounding irritating...and even the mostly superb Tyler Bunch starts phoning it in during his last few episodes of the anime. With Ghetsis, it’s just Bill Rogers and his bizarre Sith Lord chain-smoker growl of a take that gets on my nerves, and with Cyrus, it’s just Kenta Miyake and his generic delivery, especially bad compared to his far superior Giovanni in the same anime series. While Sean Schemmel’s performance as Cyrus isn’t very fitting past his initial appearance where the character is bizarrely emotive, it’s at least entertaining to listen to, and while Armen Taylor’s performance as Ghetsis falls short of Takehito Koyasu’s equivalent one or even Taylor’s own performance as Cyrus, it’s still solid. So both Cyrus and Ghetsis win.

WINNER - TIE between Cyrus (Team Galactic) and Ghetsis (Team Plasma)

FRANCHISE RECORD: So, how do their appearances across the franchise stack up?

Cyrus and Lysandre share one thing in common here: they had a miserable start with their respective games, with Cyrus in Diamond/Pearl (and its 3D remakes by extension) being, ironically enough, a “vague and incomplete” villain whose plan, relation with his evil team, and ultimate conclusion actually being less well executed than Archie and Maxie before him. Lysandre in X/Y, meanwhile, was a poorly written, often contradictory and incoherent, obvious twist of a twist villain. He was so laughably depicted that this video makes fun of it.

However, they drastically improved afterward. Lysandre put in better showings in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Masters, and is a stand-out villain in the main anime, web OVAs, TCG and Pokemon Adventures manga. Similarly, Cyrus became an infinitely richer and more compelling villain in Platinum, which continued into Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Masters, had a great depiction in the Generations OVA series, has raised his profile to great heights in the TCG, and is in the running for the best, most badass villain Pokemon Adventures has ever had. Only his depiction in the main anime was a great disappointment, but it’s balanced out by a good portrayal in the Diamond & Pearl Adventure! manga series, and even the recent series of the anime retroactively did something deep and interesting with him postmortem. 

Ghetsis, meanwhile, came out the gate strong in Black/White as the story’s Final Boss and the best, most evil and powerful villain the core games have ever seen. He unfortunately slipped afterward, being average at best and boring at worst in Black 2/White 2, the anime and the TCG. Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, Masters, Pokemon Adventures and the web OVAs thankfully set him back on course, but that blot on his record from 2012/2013 still hurts.

When all things are considered, I’m going to have to give this one to Cyrus. Even his anime version, as frustratingly out-of-character as it is, presided over a story arc that, while poorly written, was crucial to the overall anime’s evolution from the doldrums it had sunk into ever since the original head writer left his post in the Johto saga. No matter how big or small it may be, or how well-written it is or not, Cyrus is always guaranteed to leave some kind of impact.

WINNER - Cyrus (Team Galactic)

OK, it’s tie-breaker time! Lysandre, for all his strengths, only won in 1 category, so he’s being removed from the equation. Only Cyrus and Ghetsis remain. And the final category is...

CONTRAST: With other characters and especially with other villains like Giovanni himself.

The most obvious character that Cyrus contrasts with is Cynthia, the Sinnoh region’s Champion. Ever since they interacted in Platinum, the franchise has increasingly bound them together, even to the point of heavily implied shared ancestry. Cynthia is optimistic where Cyrus is pessimistic, open-minded where Cyrus is close-minded, openly emotional where Cyrus is repressed, and has long sun-shaded hair where Cyrus has short, moon-shaded hair. But for all their obvious differences, they share many similarities: they are both good and powerful Pokemon trainers, they both have brilliant and inquisitive minds always seeking the truth within Sinnoh’s myths, and both are unflinching in carrying out their deeply-held personal convictions. The other characters we usually see contrasted with Cyrus are children whose innocence manages to pierce through his hardened shell, whether it be Dia in Pokemon Adventures, Hareta in Diamond & Pearl Adventure!, or Sophocles in Masters. Generations also gives him an interesting contrast with Giratina the Legendary Pokemon, since they are both ultimately lonely souls who aren’t the best at expressing their feelings.

While Ghetsis contrasts with Unova’s regional Champion Alder, it’s in a different way than Cyrus does with Cynthia - more of a means to an end in service of his real main contrast, N. Alder is the humble, good-hearted father figure N deserves, while Ghetsis is the narcissistic, abusive father figure he actually had growing up. Ghetsis and N are both clearly mentally neurodivergent in some way, both descended from the same ancient royal bloodline, and (initially) both convinced that their way is the only right way, with N doubling down whenever he begins to doubt his course and Ghetsis never doubting it at all which of course bodes ill for his temperament whenever that course is derailed. But N, in spite of Ghetsis’ best efforts, learns to grow and change. He learns to accept other points of view and consider that his way isn’t necessarily the right way. He learns to grow close to humans and consider them friends just as he does with Pokemon. He even extends forgiveness towards Ghetsis for all he’s done and tries to reach out to him as a son. It’s a great dynamic that highlights just how firmly stuck in his ways Ghetsis is, making N more sympathetic and Ghetsis more repulsive.

But what this tie-breaker must come down to is the contrast with other villains outside of their own team. In this area, Cyrus sadly doesn’t have much to go on. He has yet to show any interaction with other villains, and being a well-intentioned extremist who leads his loyal followers in seeking to create a new world through destructive means doesn’t set him all that apart from Archie & Maxie, N or Lysandre. In Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Masters, Ghetsis displays a contentious relationship with Giovanni that highlights their obvious similarities and their clear differences. Under his stewardship, Team Plasma also holds a direct parallel to Team Rocket, who are open and honest in exploiting Pokemon for profit and power, while Team Plasma  who does the same thing dresses it up in self-righteous, entitled terminology such as “Pokemon liberation” and freeing Pokemon from “foolish trainers” for the sake of a “perfect” world. Its membership having people who were duped into believing the cause was just and people who fully understand it’s not and just want power also helps set it apart from the other self-righteous, “new world”-seeking teams. Finally, there’s the contrast in what Ghetsis does compared to other villains. Whether they see the error of their ways or not, most other Pokemon villains accept defeat. Ghetsis does not; will not; can not. His severe narcissism drives him to fight tooth and nail to achieve victory, even if that means committing straight-up murder. In Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, every other leader in Team Rainbow Rocket concedes graciously, but Ghetsis holds Lillie hostage and threatens to kill her with his bare hands if the protagonist doesn’t throw his Poke Balls away and reverse the victory they’d just won; and in Pokemon Adventures he detonates a bomb on the Plasma Frigate when cornered because he’d rather die and take every human and Pokemon around him with him instead of living with defeat. And given certain real life people and events? That is chilling.

WINNER - Ghetsis (Team Plasma)

The franchise’s best villain following Giovanni is DENNIS! GHETSIS!

[hypnopabinia]

On Rainbow Rocket Shenanigans.

(Don’t be fooled. It’s actually a smaller part of Team Reading Rainbow Rocket. LeVar Burton was the Ur-Villain all along).

There’s a lot that can be said for how incredibly stupidly fucking edgelord-twelve-from-DeviantArt-who-probably-worships-Mega-Charizard-X this idea is, complete with a collection of villains from alternate dimensions who have absolutely no reason whatsoever to want to work with each other teaming up because Nostalgia wank and very little else. But once you look beyond that there are probably a few ways in which this shit could actually unfold in a way that might actually be interesting...

Like taking into consideration who actually started it. What if the whole thing is Faba’s idea? As a “branch chief” he’ll have access to all the hidden research Aether did into the Ultra Wormhole. He obviously has beef against Gladion and the player characters, and he’s just the type of absolute conniving shitweasel who would do anything for his own feeling important to sell out his homeworld just to get even. Enter a disgraced post-US/UM-main-story Faba hopping an Ultra Wormhole and finding a world where Giovanni actually won (and as the trailers show THIS Giovanni with a goddamn Mewtwo, I don’t think Rainbow Rocket Giovanni is “canon universe” Giovanni) and essentially pulling a Grima Wormtongue - convincing that Giovanni that ruling one world is fine but with his technology he could rule all the worlds, and somehow convince him to form a big damn Unstoppable Evil Alliance consisting of versions of all the major villains so far - potentially versions that ‘won’ or at the very least, that didn’t reform, get committed into mental institutions or straight up died.

What does Faba get out of it? He’s still important and his ‘genius’ is recognized, even if he isn’t wearing the proverbial crown of the outfit. Faba is more comfortable operating from the sidelines, letting the ‘peons’ take care of the administrative nonsense while still having an important position to flaunt, his own underlings, and his views and opinions and whatever respected enough so he can blog about how great he is.

Which brings us to the OTHER plot point I would like to see. As stated above, none of these villains have any reason to want to work with each other or to form alliances with potential competition. So what brings them together? Maybe each one of them thinks they are conning the con man.

Think about it: Of all these villains, only Giovanni was straight up “I’m trying to take over the world here”. Archie and Maxie just want to play with their inflatable pool/sandbox and will do whatever it takes for that purpose - they weren’t about taking over the world, they were about reshaping it for the aesthetic. Cyrus and Ghetsis built entire cults of personality - Cyrus around himself and the idea of ‘creating a new world for Team Galactic’, keeping his true goal of killing literally everybody and creating a new world without spirit only for himself to himself and hiding it even from his closest commanders, and Ghetsis around N because he made a convenient poster boy for winning the hearts and minds of the public at large so they’ll do all the work of surrendering the world to him themselves. And then Lysandre - who was so rich, successful and connected, and lived in such a region of complacent apathetic morons that no one took his occasional mad blatherings as anything more than hypotheticals and didn’t actually imagine he might ACTUALLY want to kill everyone except whom he considered the best and the brightest, the ones worth saving (Who is John Galt? Lysandre, Probably.)

All of these people are charismatic manipulators who have fairly distinct goals. Now. What if each and every one of them is only pretending to work with everyone else, actually just biding their time and waiting for an opportunity to screw everyone else over and take over the entire operation from the inside? A bunch of cons conning cons ad infinitum? What if this internal strife is what actually causes this entire bullshit alliance to fall on its ass, crash and burn?

... Nah, it’ll never happen. This is Pokemon, a series written for Twelves, apparently by Twelves. Ah well. I can dream, Harold.

[themattress]

I Grade: Lysandre

A standout villain in literally everything except his actual games of origin.

Games: Lysandre is a terribly executed villain in X/Y. Just really, really bad. As the wealthy owner of Lysandre Labs, he’s supposed to be renowned throughout the Kalos region as a brilliant and compassionate philanthropist, but that’s all told to us and not shown. What we are shown is an obviously evil, bitter misanthrope whose very late reveal as the Big Bad is not a surprise at all. Worse still, there is a severe disconnect from him and the team he’s the leader of, Team Flare. Team Flare has established themselves over the course of the game to just be a bunch of greedy, egotistical, fashion-obsessed crooks who are more funny than threatening, and yet once Lysandre is outed as their boss, the goal behind the team is revealed as harnessing an Ultimate Weapon powered by the souls of Pokemon and using it to commit genocide in order to stop humanity from wasting the world’s resources. Huh!? 

The personality and motivations of Lysandre are also a mess, feeling like they were just tossed in a blender rather than carefully constructed as a cohesive whole. He has a fear of the world, especially Kalos, losing its beauty due to humans using up resources, but we see no evidence that this fear has any basis in reality. He claims to be acting altruistically, but his private diary reveals that he is mainly acting out of anger and hate toward poor people, whom he says are parasites that he spent his life helping through his philanthropy but who always wanted more. This kind of repulsive elitist classism spills into his plan, where you can be spared from his Ultimate Weapon if you’re wealthy enough to pay your way into Team Flare, thus being “worthy” of inheriting the new world...except that all the Team Flare members have been shown as so shallow and unsympathetic that they seem far more likely to waste resources than anyone else! Oh, but we are supposed to feel sorry for Lysandre and see him as so tragic because he cares so much for the world, and he cries for the innocent Pokemon who will have to perish from his plan, and he used to be such a great guy, don’t you know? Also, he’s a descendant of the ancient king AZ, but this never really factors into anything.

Lysandre, much like Team Flare as a whole, is so incompetently written that I feel nothing for him but contempt...and not in the fun way, like with Ghetsis. I don’t feel sorry for him, not even when he commits suicide by Ultimate Weapon in the end, I don’t think he’s complex in the same vein as Cyrus, and I’m not impressed by his plan or his battle prowess which are severely lackluster compared to past villains. His score would be even lower if not for his turn in the postgame scenario of Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, where he is a much more formidable fighter and his irredeemable villainy is treated with honesty. Other than that, he still sucks, which is a shame since as conceived he is a very interesting character and could have worked great, perhaps even being the games’ best villain, if only he was written correctly.

In Pokemon Masters’ Legendary Event “Give and Take”, it turns out that Lysandre’s attempted suicide wasn’t even successful, as he managed to escape the ruins of his secret lair and eventually capture Yvetal, proceeding to use it and a slew of bombs to try to destroy Pasio. Professor Sycamore and Xerneas put a stop to his plan, and Lysandre agrees to a truce so long as he’s on Pasio, but making it clear that he still intends to pursue his genocidal aims once he’s back in Kalos. Like US/UM, Lysandre himself is well-depicted here, with a wonderfully charismatic voice by veteran voice actor D.C Douglas, and some of his dialogue even captures the nuance and, yes, sympathy that X/Y notoriously failed to. By the time he gets his Sygna Suit and actually murders two Team Rocket grunts on-screen, he’s firmly secured his place as an actually good character and villain. And it only took him a full decade!

Score = 3

Anime: Lysandre is the Big Bad of the XY series. No, not just a villain of a subplot or story arc like Maxie & Archie, Cyrus, and Ghetsis & Colress were, he is actually an overarching villain on the same level as Giovanni. From the Spring of 2014 to the Autumn of 2015, Lysandre would routinely appear in the “Strongest Mega Evolution” side specials as a seemingly benevolent business magnate who clearly had sinister intentions as he slowly manipulated Alain to his side. For the better part of two years, the hype that this plot would cross into Ash’s journey in the main series kept on building, to the point where it was tiresome. The XY series was so boring that I wished they’d just go ahead and use Lysandre in it already. But then again, Lysandre and Team Flare weren’t even very good in the games, so there was no reason to believe they’d fare better in the anime, so I wasn’t interested. 

But surprisingly, once the show’s final year (XY&Z) finally got going, the thing I expected to be the weakest link was in fact the strongest element. Not only was Team Flare revamped into a more threatening criminal gang that actually fit Lysandre’s insane philosophy, but Lysandre himself is one of the greatest villains ever put into the anime franchise. Rather than waste time on any unearned pathos, this version of the character embraces what a deranged psychopath he is with delicious glee. He still thinks he’s in the right, but the audience isn’t meant to think he has even the slightest of a valid point with his elitist misanthropy. He has enough nuance with his backstory, self-righteous conviction, and genuine fondness for Alain while the narrative still never loses sight of the fact that he is a heinous villain (in the case of his fondness of Alain, it just makes the manipulation and psychological abuse he puts him through that much more horrible). He is extremely powerful in battle, fighting Ash, Alain and Malva to a stand-still. And the stupid Ultimate Weapon plan from the games is jettisoned in favor of a much more interesting and destructive plan involving Mega Evolution energy collected by Alain, a giant rock ancient Monolith, and the Legendary Pokemon Zygarde.

If there’s a single flaw with Lysandre in the anime, aside from the fact that I wish we had even more of him during the first two years of the series, it’s that head writer Atsuhiro Tomioka was still clearly upset over not being able to do the originally intended adaptation of Black/White’s Team Plasma plot, and so he incorporated elements of it here instead, to the point where at times Lysandre and Alain are behaving exactly like Ghetsis and N. But the epic way that Lysandre is finished off, falling to his death into a fiery green explosion, is enough to make you forgive that. To the very end, I was amazed at how much they managed to win me over with this character, who went from one of the games’ worst villains to one of the anime’s best.

Score = 4.5

Manga: In the X/Y Chapter, Lysandre is naturally the central Big Bad, although Malva is portrayed as his equal partner in crime here. This version of Lysandre is quite different from the anime’s, yet is equally as strong. His similarities to the anime version include not beating around the bush when it comes to his villainy and no attempts to downplay or excuse it, having his Team Flare be more menacing and more in line with his goal, and the fact that after the initial Ultimate Weapon plan fails he rebounds with a new plan involving Zygarde.  

Apart from that, there are three things that distinguish this incarnation of the character from the rest. The first is that he has all of his bases ridiculously covered, using his vast influence as a rich and famous philanthropist to gain control over many more areas of Kalos than in any other version. This makes the deck appear staggeringly stacked against the heroes, as now Team Flare has eyes and ears everywhere they go and they can never be sure who they can trust, which adds to this arc’s dark atmosphere. The second is that he is limiting the scope of his destruction to just Kalos rather than the whole world, and his motivations, while still treated as wrong, actually have some validity to them because the population of Kalos is actively shown to waste resources in their frivolous lives of decadence. And the third is that despite this, he still manages to be the most personally ruthless version of Lysandre, responsible for several shocking moments of violence, destruction, and almost-death. Ultimately, he reaps what he has sow, falling from the exploding Zygarde and getting battered against a pit of jagged rocks, which severs his spine and condemns him to live the rest of his life as a paraplegic...someone he would deem a “parasite”. It’s beautifully poetic justice.

My only point of contention with this Lysandre is that he feels a little too familiar...him having connections throughout the region that make him more dangerous and successful in carrying out his plan is exactly like Giovanni from the original R/B/G Chapter, his positioning as the terrifying embodiment of evil that a group of young heroes seem hopelessly outmatched against is exactly like Cyrus from the D/P Chapter, and his horrific acts of violence and depravity is exactly like his direct predecessor Ghetsis. And he falls flat compared to all of them, as Giovanni was far more charismatic and his plan more feasible (the Ultimate Weapon is as bullshit here as it was in the games), the heroes being teens instead of preteens lessen Lysandre’s fear factor as does the fact that he’s shown to be a sad, broken man at his core almost right from the start which isn’t nearly as effective as it being an endgame revelation with Cyrus, and try as he might he’s just not as loathsome as Ghetsis - that bar is too high. Hell, he’s not even the first redheaded evil mastermind seeking to commit genocide in order to create a utopia in the manga...Lance of the Elite Four actually filled that role years ago!

But this aside, this manga’s Lysandre is excellent, a warped visionary who is in serious competition with the anime’s when it comes to being the definitive version of the character.

Score = 4.5

TCG: Lysandre debuted with the “Lysandre” card in the Flashfire expansion set (and later reprinted in the Ancient Origins in case anyone missed out on him before). As the head of Lysandre Labs, he has the power to order an active Pokemon to get switched with a benched one. Fairly impressive, but it was his return in Phantom Forces that turned him into the greatest villain in the TCG’s history. “Lysandre’s Trump Card”, revealing him as the boss of Team Flare, causes each player to reshuffle their whole decks, which includes putting all discarded cards back in! This ability is an absolute game-breaker, and in fact was so broken that the card was eventually banned from all official tournaments due to how unfair and drawn out it made games. OK, so just to be clear as to what happened here: Lysandre actually affected the game to the point where a real-life, official ruling had to be made against him. How can you not call him the TCG’s most heinous and powerful villain after that? 

In the Forbidden Light set, an Ultra Wormhole opens up to Lysandre Labs (the “Lysandre Labs” card), and a new “Lysandre” card is not far behind. This time, Lysandre has the power to cancel out Pokemon Tool cards and to banish any discarded card to the Lost Zone so long as there are Fire-type Pokemon in play. And in the Shining Fates set, he ends up competing against Giovanni for power in the Galar region with his own print of “The Boss’s Orders”.

Score = 4

Other: Lysandre is the subject of the 16th episode of the Pokemon Generations web series, and boy do I wish this was the Lysandre we had gotten in the actual games. Rather than adhering to “Tell, Don’t Show”, this episode actually shows us Lysandre as a charismatic and likable public figure, a flamboyant Tony Stark-esque businessman who seems dedicated to improving the lives of the citizens of Kalos. He keeps this front up for most of the episode, but slowly we begin to see the cracks forming, and as his inner misanthropic bitterness reveals itself it is genuinely chilling. It all builds to the ending revelation that he’s in charge of a secret criminal group and is working on a genocidal scheme. So yeah, this episode and this version of Lysandre is highly effective...in the original Japanese language. I have no idea who is voicing him in the English dub, but he is absolutely horrendous, clearly reading his lines right off the script without any passion and ruining how well Lysandre is portrayed, sucking out all presence whether he’s in good mode or evil mode. Because of this, his score gets lowered.

While Generations followed Y, Pokemon Evolutions’ 3rd episode gives us the X version of Lysandre and his tragic outcome, depicted with genuine pathos that, again, should have been what we got in the games. Adin Rudd certainly does a better job voicing him than whoever was doing it previously, especially during his emotional suicidal outburst, but his performance still could have used some fine-tuning, particularly for when Lysandre is speaking normally.

Score = 3

TOTAL FRANCHISE SCORE = 4 out of 5

It is actually kind of unbelievable how a villain whose potential was so badly squandered in the games he debuted in can make such a rebound throughout the rest of the franchise. While that debut portrayal and certain flaws from it that he can’t fully shake off holds Lysandre back from the highest echelons of greatness, he still manages to be a top tier villain overall.

BONUS: Which version is my personal favorite?

While I’m again sure that the Adventures’ version is the best, I think which between it and the anime’s is one’s favorite probably depends on what qualities one want to see out of Lysandre. In this regard, the anime’s version wins for me hands-down, because he is brilliant, powerful, and nuanced in his backstory and motivations while also being just balls-to-the-wall insane. Anyone who knows me knows I’m no fan of the XY anime series, but the four Mega Evolution specials and XY&Z episodes to feature him are its strongest material. He’s simply beautiful.