#not as a pawn in Ghetsis’s schemes

[whoreiaki-kakyoin]

Anyone else have characters they were into as kids before ever hearing the term “fictional other” and you just sorta… avoid eye contact with them when they come up because the urge to get back into them is so strong 😂

[cassioppenny]

WAOGH i love your v (olo) legends genesect design. most normal human being alive alert

thank you!! i love throwing volo into everything for no reason he's a scheming little shit but he's MY scheming little shit he can have is hair down as a treat

some fun v facts when james fell he was told it was someone with blue hair falling out of the sky and he's like "oh shit that's (pla protagonist)" and thought up a speech apologizing for the whole pla thing (he doesn't hate the pla protag and actually feels kinda bad for doing that to them but mainly blames arceus for what happened too) and to convince them that the world needed to be destroyed anyway and they should remake the world together. but then it's just james and he gets embarrassed and gives him a job.

then hil fell and he was told that "a kid fell out of the sky" and he was like "okay this is definitely (pla protag) this time" then hil actually shows up and v is pissed off because he embarrassed himself twice with two random guys who fell out of the sky.

oh yeah m and v have a n and ghetsis thing going on if n broke out instead of becoming their adopted dad's pawn. (though for m it's more like kidnapped. also m isn't actually related to n she's actually related to wally n never had kids (he died)) i'll elaborate on that later

[themattress]

One Villainous Scene - Shattered Mask

So...Ghetsis, leader of Team Plasma and easily the most evil villain in the core Pokemon video game series, has an interesting (and by “interesting” I mean “terrifying”) quirk given to him in Pokemon Adventures. He’s still a heartless, narcissistic megalomaniac....but he’s a very high-functioning one. He is always in control - not just over the events in his master plan, but also over himself: always speaking politely and wearing this benign, kindly look on his face as if the disturbing Pope parallels inherent to his character weren’t obvious enough. 

In the Black 2/White 2 story arc, this face had gone kind of wonky with a lot of tell-tale signs to his true evil nature popping up even as he strains to keep it on, making it come off like a mask that didn’t quite fit anymore. But in the climactic chapter, when he is cornered aboard his airship and has nowhere left to run and all seems lost, it’s back to normal all of a sudden.

So...why is that? Why is he so calm? What is he planning to do? 

Suicide alongside mass murder, that’s what! 

Oh, and you gotta love the inexplicable holy light shining upon him before he detonates the bomb, really leaning in to how he views himself as a saintly martyr; a perfect human being.

And then......this happens:

N is the person Ghetsis has always looked down upon the most. He saw him as just a monstrous freak of nature only fit to be the central pawn in his scheme, and he has fiercely resented him ever since he broke free of being that pawn. And yet...here’s N, attempting to save his life, still calling him his father, telling him that he loves him and is grateful to him despite everything. This is a level of pure, good humanity that is completely beyond Ghetsis’ grasp - and him being faced with it, coming from N specifically, is like a knife stabbed through the heart of his narcissistic self-image. Ghetsis loses control, and now his true face is on display for all to see. How ironic is it that he calls N a “monster”, given the way he looks?

Oh, and N is grateful to him for saving his life? Better rectify that by brutally killing N, then!

Ghetsis’ deranged, triumphant laughter as he falls to his death is cut short when he is saved by Zekrom......who is now squeezing him, digging its claws into him, and glaring at him furiously. Scared beyond all reason, Ghetsis can only scream “LET GO!”, a command Zekrom does not follow. It’s Ghetsis’ greatest fear come true: a total lack of control; being left helpless and powerless. If Ghetsis has no control, then he has nothing at all. No control, no Ghetsis.

Which makes his ultimate fate that much more satisfying:

No control over his situation, as he’s being taken to jail to “live with the shame of a captive”. No control over Pokemon, thousands of whom are glaring at him in the exact same furious, unforgiving way that Zekrom did. And no control over his own mind, as his attempt at reasserting his mask of a composed, saintly gentleman utterly collapses and his former eloquence goes with it as he starts laughing hysterically out of sheer terror and mental anguish before lunging for the safety of the police helicopter. In a way, Ghetsis is now nothing but a shell of his former self. But also in a way, this was always what Ghetsis was at his core and wanted so badly to deny, and now he’s condemned to spend the rest of his life with it.

Truly one of the darkest Pokemon villains ever, a fact cemented by this single chapter.

[rrocketgrunt-archive]

Oh... He had spoken about Ghetsis far more than he wanted to. Alluded to their history far more than he should have. No, he was never a Plasma grunt. Not in the pure sense of the word, anyway. But he was as much a pawn in Ghetsis' scheme as any of them. He only maintained his independence for the fact that it was more convenient for Ghetsis if Aiden believed himself to be free.

And now? He was filled with regret. For the work he had done. For the people who were hurt. For his own suffering...

'How must it feel? Despite your efforts and for all your struggles, you achieved nothing. And in the end, you won't even be a footnote in my legacy! Was it worth it?'

...It wasn't.

[prismtowerprincess]

An electrifying love story: book 1, chapter 1

This story can be found on my wattpad, Fluffyminccino. I decided to post this on tumblr as well! I hope you enjoy!

Now, before I get into the story, let me tell you how this story came to mind..

It came around the XY series ended, and I was playing Black 2 around that time. My fascination with water type Pokemon made me create an OC named Sierra. Get it? Sea.. Era? :D (I'm not funny.) anyway, I made her the soon to be water type gym leader of Humilau City. Marlon, the CURRENT :D (still not funny) gym leader of the city's cousin. She was born in the Simon region, after the divorce of her mother and father, and after her mother fell ill, they moved to the Unova region. Months later, her mother passed away. And she went to live with her cousin. During this time, she fell into Team Plasma, and eventually became their admin, doing whatever Ghetsis commanded her to do. They fooled her and used her for their selfish purposes. Like befriending Ash and company then betraying them trying to take Iris's Axew. Ghetsis brainwashed her, making her think they were doing good. If you all would like me to keep posting my chapters as I keep writing, let me know! :D enjoy!

Chapter 1: the admin's fall

Hovering over the Unova region was Team Plasma's Air fortress, our heroes, Ash, Iris, and Cilan stood against most of Team Plasma's goons. Every single one of them were about to get their pokeballs ready, but a voice stopped them. "Stop!"

Team Plasmas admin, Sierra. To Ash, she looked completely different before she betrayed them. All innocent and nice, sweet and loyal. But now? She was a completely different person in her team plasma uniform. Here she is, hand girl to Ghetsis.

"You, need to leave." She said coldly.

"Why are you doing this?!" Ash yelled.

She lifted her head to face them, getting a pokeball ready. “Don’t you see? We are trying to make Unova a better place. Face it.. without us, Pokemon everywhere will be abused and treated like servants for the rest of their lives, and I’m not going to let it happen.”

Don’t YOU see that Team Plasma is using you? They’ve mess with your head, Sierra! Trust me, Team Plasma is not what you think it is, they don’t care about y-“

Sierra stomped her foot with her long, high heeled boots. “Enough of this. You can’t change my mind.” She threw one of her pokeballs. “Go! Vaporeon!”

The water type Pokemon came out, it growled at the group and barked at them.

“Use Hydro pump.”

“Poooooooooooreon!” It released a hush of water from its mouth.

Ash counterattacked. “Dodge it, Pikachu! Use thunderbolt!”

“Piiiiiiika.. chuuuuu!!”

Vaporeon was zapped by thunderbolt and fried to a crisp. Sierra sighed and withdrew Vaporeon to its ball. “Thank you Vaporeon..” She was about to reach and grab another ball, but before she could, they were all interrupted by a voice. “I’m just getting-“

“-That’s enough, Sierra. No more battling.” A voice said from upstairs in the shadows. It was Team Plasma’s feared leader, Ghetsis.

“S-sir!” She saluted.

He walked down the stairs. “The next step of our plan is about to into action, Sierra. Reshiram will finally be ours, and I do not need you causing a scene with these intruders. You wouldn’t want me giving your position as admin to someone else, would you?”

“Sir, no sir!” She stood at attention.

He chuckled. “Good. Now.. take these intuders and throw them out of here. I don’t want our plan of world domination to be disrupted.”

“Yes s-“ Sierra was about to take his orders but she stopped. “Wait.. world.. domination..? But I- I- thought.. that we were saving Pokemon from abuse, and-“

“Oh my little admin, it’s about time that I told you the cold hard truth. Those Pokemon we took away, weren’t being abused.”

“What?!” She exclaimed in shock. “Then why were we taking them from so many people?!”

Ghetsis let out a cold chuckle again. “Why.. we were using them for our team, our Pokemon army of course. Did you really think we, of Team Plasma, were doing good? All we want is to rule the world. Not anything else. Do you understand?”

Then it finally hit Sierra. Everything she’s been doing.. all those Pokemon she “saved” was nothing but an evil scheme to rule the world. She took those Pokemon from so many innocent people who loved them.. they weren’t helping Pokemon who were in trouble.. she felt ashamed. The team she knew, the people she trusted, were nothing but traitors. In anger, she threw her plasma mask off.

“What are you doing?” Ghetsis asked.

She stood by the exit, opening the door. “You all.. lied to me. I thought you all were doing good.. and were my friends and allies.. but I couldn’t have been more wrong. You have betrayed me, and are nothing to me!!”

Ash and friends stood there shocked at the scene.

“Ash, should we-“

Ash shook his head. “No Cilan. She deserves to know the truth. She was blinded by her leader’s lies.”

“What are you saying, Sierra?”

“I’m saying.. that I quit. I quit Team Plasma. Nothing I’ve done up to this point matters anymore..” she ran to the case full of stolen pokeballs. “Ash..”

Ash looked at her. “Y-Yeah?”

“I’m.. I’m sorry. To all of you. I should’ve listened to you, and I should’ve never betrayed you. What I’ve done was unforgivable.. I regret all of the lies I told you. My only favor I could ask you is to return these Pokemon to their owners.. please.”

Ash stood there motionless, nodding his head. “I will. And.. I-I’m sorry, Sierra-“

“Please, don’t apologize.. I have to go.”

And with that, she jumped out of the side of the air fortress, which was flying over Undella Bay.

“SIERRA!!” Ash, Iris, and Cilan screamed. All they heard was a splash in the distance. She was gone.

“Well well well.. looks like she bailed after all.” Ghetsis said, arms crossed. “She was just about useless to me anyway..”

“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done!” Iris yelled.

“She could be dead, your admin! She was loyal to you! And you don’t care?!”

He laughed. “Child, I couldn’t care less. She may have been loyal, but she was truly nothing but a pawn. I knew she was too naive to figure out what exactly we were doing. So.. it’s her loss. And it cost her her life, a foolish decision if you ask me.”

“How could you say that?!” Cilan protested.

Ash stopped them. Just stop, guys.. what’s done is done. Let’s just take everyone’s pokeballs and leave. Returning them was her favor after all..”

“Yeah..”

“You’re right..”

Ash ran after the case and grabbed it. “Charizard!!”

“Dragonite!!”

The two dragons flew over to the entrance from outside and let their trainers hop onto them. And with the case full of stolen pokeballs, they escaped before Ghetsis could attack.

“NO! come back with those pokeballs, you brats!”

A grunt walked up to him and out a hand on his shoulder. “Sir.. what do we do now?”

“Now?” He chuckled. “The plan doesn’t change. Keep our course straight for the giant chasm. Our plans to capture Reshiram and Kyurem have not changed! We Team Plasma.. will rule the world..!”

.......

While they were flying overhead of Unova’s seas, they were silent. Trying to see if they could spot Sierra floating above water. But they didn’t. They mourned at the fact that Sierra didn’t make it.

“Do you think she-“

Ash cut Cilan off. “I.. I don’t know.. she didn’t deserve this, any of it.”

But meanwhile..

“...” “...”

*COUGH COUGH HACK* Sierra dragged herself up, she had been dragged out of the Undella Bay by an unknown force. “Wh-What.. what happened..?” She tried to gain her vision back. “How did I.. end up here..?”

She looked around and soon after giving up, she saw a Dewgong coming up from the shore towards her, carrying berries in its mouth.

“Dewgong! Dew gong gong!” It chirped happily, happy that she was awake.

She was confused as she pet it on the head. “Did you.. rescue me?”

Dewgong nodded its head, then handed her some berries for her to eat. She took them and ate some.

“These are delicious! Thank you so much.. I can’t thank you enough for saving me..”

The sea lion Pokemon was happy to hear her kind words. It jumped on top of her and started licking her face affectionately.

“Hahahahahahaha!!” She giggled. “H-hey! St-stop that! Hahaha- That tickles!”

Dewgong smiled at her. Backing away, it gave her more berries to eat.

“You’re too kind, Dewgong..”

After she finished, she stood up and looked all around her. Undella town was just behind her.

“Undella town.. I’d better get out of here, and fast.. I don’t want Officer Jenny finding me in my uniform..”

She pet Dewgong and they said their goodbyes. She made it out of the town and she ran all the way back to her home in Humilau city. Once she found her house, she found her cousin Marlon sitting in the chair with his arms crossed.

"Sierra.."

“Marlon-! Oh.. you.. you know about everything..”

“Yeah. I know.. but it doesn’t mean I love you any less, cousin.. listen, Officer Jenny spotted you on the way here and she’s coming. She called me. You have to leave if you don’t want to go to jail. She knows you’re a part of Team Plasma.”

“Oh my god.. b-but Marlon..”

“I’m sorry, cousin..” He pulled her into a hug, then handed her a plane ticket. “Take this, hurry and leave before she catches you.. call me once you get there-“

“Marlon!”

He stopped her from protesting. “Sierra, I know this whole mess with Team Plasma wasn’t your fault, you were blinded by trying to stop other’s mistakes. But Team Plasma still committed crimes. The police are coming, call me once you get there, okay?”

She started to cry. Her tears soaked her already soaked uniform. She tried to convince him to let her stay, but it was too dangerous. He hugged her tight, and told her to run. And that’s exactly what she did. And she never looked back.

Sierra was an outlaw in the Unova region.

While running, she did her best to cover up the logo on her uniform while trying to make herself look halfway decent. But then, she noticed, a pokeball was in her pocket. She had forgotten to put one back.. but she was going to worry about that when she left. For now, she had to go. She arrived at the airport and handed them her ticket.

“FLIGHT #7 TO THE KALOS REGION BOARDING NOW.”

[another-bloody-multimuse]

*Ominous drums*

what would completely break your character? Having his public persona destroyed and his true, narcissistic self revealed to the region. And being defeated in his plans. So. Sucks for Dennis.

what was the best thing in your character’s life? N befriending Reshiram. He felt like it was inevitable that his schemes to force Unova into releasing their Pokemon, at that point. He was downright convinced that nothing was going to stop him from ruling over the region, with a legendary at his side. Albeit as N’s Pokemon, rather than his. But close enough.

what seemingly insignificant memories stuck with your character? Idfk. I hate this question so I’m ignoring it l o l.

does your character work so they can support their hobbies or use their hobbies as a way of filling up the time they aren’t working? Ghetsis is a rich bitch who doesn’t need to work. The idea of working to support his hobbies or using hobbies as a way to kill time that isn’t spent working are both entirely alien concepts. He can’t grasp either of them.

what is your character reluctant to tell people? The truth behind his scarring. As much as he still feels like Albrecht “deserved” the abuse he doled out, he’s smart enough to realise that openly admitting to being violent toward his Pokemon would make him even more detested. So if, on the rare occasions, he is forced to talk about how he got his scars, he makes it sound like he was trying to help Albrecht, who had been abused by someone before him.

how does your character feel about sex? Would be nice, but difficult to achieve. Openly and internally homophobic, closeted, and globally reviled makes it hard for a guy to get laid.

how many friends does your character have? Absolutely none.

how many friends does your character want? One or two could be good. But it’s Ghetsis, so he wouldn’t view someone as an actual friend, just another potential pawn.

what would your character make a scene in public about? Basically anything and everything.

for what would your character give their life? Bold of you to assume Ghetsis would give up his life for anyone or anything.

what are your character’s major flaws? How long have you got? Narcissistic, Manipulative, Violent, Abusive, Hateful, Spiteful, Chronic liar #justnarcissistthings

what does your character pretend or try to care about? Pokemon wellbeing/liberation.

how does the image your character tries to project differ from the image they actually project? Pretends to be a kind hearted, thoughtful man who only wants the best for Pokemon, which he believes involves their liberation from humanity. Is actually a gigantic fucking stagnant cunt of a man.

what is your character afraid of? Being outed. Either as a narcissist or as a gay man. Losing his strength, whether it’s physical or as a trainer. Being forgotten.

[themattress]

I Grade: Ghetsis

One of the most vile, despicable, irredeemable scumbags the franchise has to offer.

Games: For the most part, Ghetsis is a fantastic villain in Black/White. While his first few scenes sadly contain some unnecessary early tip-offs to his true nature (obviously sinister music in the first, displays of fear from his underlings in the second, a verbal slip-up about whose goal he’s working toward in the third), everything else about his presentation is excellent. As the founder of Team Plasma and leader of its Seven Sages, Ghetsis comes off as a wise, polite, charismatic figure who can easily convince people that his convictions of Pokemon liberation are strong and quite possibly right. He is so magnetic that some visible warning signs like the tri-horned hairstyle, creepy glaring eyes on his robes, and meaningful name (”devil in the music”) can actually go overlooked. But the more you get drawn into the playing out of the Hero’s Legend against N, the more Ghetsis lowers his mask for you, showing that he is actually a narcissistic megalomaniac who just wants power because he believes he deserves it on the grounds of being perfect, and is willing to manipulate a serious social issue in order to advance his plan. And it is an ingenious plan - once N becomes Champion of Unova, Team Plasma will take over and all the “foolish trainers” of the region will be made to give up their Pokemon, willingly or by force. Then, with only Team Plasma possessing Pokemon, they can dominate Unova and then move forward to do the same with all other regions until Ghetsis is the supreme, oppressive ruler of his perfect new world. It comes closer to success than any other evil plan to date, sabotaged only by his own ego when he fails to consider you a true threat and inadvertently motivates you to get stronger.

Not only is Ghetsis’ narcissistic elitism, lust for power, and hijacking of divisive political topics surprisingly and chillingly realistic, but he also displays the most personal kind of evil seen yet in the franchise: he is N’s father and has deliberately and methodically psychologically abused his son since childhood in order to use him as the chief pawn in his plan.  And when N ultimately fails at this, Ghetsis verbally berates him as a failure and a “freak without a human heart”, as if the way N turned out was N’s own fault and not the specific, cruel, isolated way Ghetsis raised him. This is what elevates Ghetsis into the most loathsome villain in the core game series, and makes it so satisfying to defeat him in an epic battle (the last one in the main story, a huge departure from previous games) and watch him totally break down afterward ("My calculations.....No! My careful schemes! The world should be mine!        I created Team Plasma with my own hands. I'm absolutely perfect! I AM PERFECTION!")

Unfortunately, Ghetsis is nowhere near as strong an antagonist in Black 2/White 2. He’s got a much cooler looking design, but the over-the-top evil nature of it also kind of reflects the problem with him in this game. In B/W, Ghetsis was a classical villain who nevertheless had some nuance to his characterization and some frightening realistic elements at play. Whereas in B2/W2, he’s a cartoony supervillain. He’s gone from that brilliant plan playing on a real, controversial issue about the relationship between Pokemon and humans to basically this. And I get what they were going for: after his plan fell apart and he had his breakdown in B/W, he became stripped of all pretense and let the monster he truly is come to the surface. But we barely see him in the game: we literally get just two scenes and a battle, and he isn’t written interestingly in that limited time: he comes off like a caricature of himself from the endgame of B/W’s story but without any of the prior context that made it so effective. Even the battle with him isn’t nearly as impressive as before - why is his Hydreigon such a pushover now!?  He’s not a total waste: he’s still despicably evil and attempts to inflict grievous harm upon the player character, he has an even bigger breakdown which ends up rendering him vegetative which is an even more satisfying fate than what he got in B/W, and a postgame quest even gives us more solid hints about his backstory and what drives his extreme narcissism (he believes himself to be the descendant of a mythical Unovan king), but overall it’s a big step down which seldom happens in a Pokemon Big Bad’s second showing. 

Along with the return to his goofier B/W design, his appearance in Episode RR of Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is a return to form for Ghetsis. A version of him that never lost in B/W’s story immediately seizes advantage of finding himself transported to another dimension by sucking up to Giovanni and playing advisor to him, planning on becoming the power behind the throne who, through Giovanni, rules over all worlds in the multiverse. When you defeat him in battle, he suffers the breakdown he never had in his reality and shockingly takes Lillie hostage, point-black threatening to murder her if you don’t surrender. Just when you think Ghetsis can’t sink any lower, he finds a way! Thankfully, he ends up being outmaneuvered by Colress, who forces him back to his own dimension after a great one-liner as to why he’s doing so: ”I simply despise you, Ghetsis.” Don’t we all, Colress...but in the best possible way.

Ghetsis shows up in Pokemon Masters for the Legendary Event “Father or Foe”, with his B2/W2 look and demeanor, and with veteran voice actor Mick Wingert giving a pitch-perfect performance. And against all odds, Masters is able to redeem him! Huh? No, I don’t mean that Ghetsis is redeemed, the game actually hammers home just how vile and irredeemable the man really is as he gleefully displays his complete lack of fatherly affection for N. What I mean is that B2/W2!Ghetsis is actually made to work as a character - despite how obviously evil and unhinged he is, the man is still capable of laying on the charm and manipulating other people. He is also still rational enough to know when the enemy of his enemy is his friend, as seen when he teams up with N and follows his lead in defeating Giovanni. The comparison between him and Giovanni is also fantastic: both are ambitious, power-hungry, narcissistic, brilliant and charismatic leaders who are bad fathers to their sons, and even when in an alliance neither of them fully trusts the other, planning a backstabbing at the earliest convenience. The core differences between them is that Giovanni is sane and self-aware, his charisma isn’t just a façade, he has a blatant honorable streak, and he truly loves his son even if he’s not a good parent to him, while Ghetsis is simply rotten to the core and he’s always going to be no matter what. He truly is the Freeza of the Pokemon franchise.   

Score = 4.5

Anime: Ghetsis is the Big Bad of the Episode N story arc in the middle of the third and final year of the Best Wishes anime series. Sadly, the inevitable problems that this arc ran into (it’s too short at just 14 episodes, it’s a hodgepodge of elements from B/W and B2/W2′s stories, it has to tone down the more mature elements of the source material in order to keep things kid-friendly) probably affect Ghetsis the most out of any character. His characterization is a mix of the calm, gentlemanly Ghetsis of B/W and the out-and-out villainous Ghetsis of B2/W2, with his whole Hero’s Legend master plan from B/W getting shut down before it even began which forced him to rely on Colress and his tech to basically do to Reshiram what was done to Kyurem in B2/W2. He only appears in half of the arc and for the most part is a typical Orcus on His Throne villain, only getting out in the final two episodes and even then still doing nothing other than enact a ritual to revive Reshiram from the Light Stone and bark orders once Colress puts it order his machine’s control, and the relationship between him and N is underplayed to the point of almost nonexistence. He plays his role well enough, but he is utterly boring as a character due to how neutered he is. Oh, and his English dub voice sucks.

Score = 2.5

Manga: What the Pokemon Adventures version of Ghetsis lacks in quantity, he makes up for in quality. He only appears in the Black/White Chapter briefly toward the beginning, briefly in the middle, and at length in the final five rounds, and I really think he could have stood to appear more such as in Castelia City like he did in the games; his presence there being excised weakens things considerably. He doesn’t make that many more appearances in the Black 2/White 2 Chapter, just in the last round of its first volume, the last few of its second volume, and the majority of its third and final volumes. And yet he still manages to be one of the most loathsome villains in the whole manga series, just as much as he was in the game series...probably moreso! And this is owed to the writing and artwork of Kusaka and Yamamoto. They take Ghetsis’ gentlemanly facade and run with it, to the point where he still keeps it going even as he starts indulging in crueler and crueler actions. The fake kindly smile he has on his face even when doing and saying something heinous just makes you want to punch him repeatedly. It reaches its peak at the conclusion of the B/W Chapter, where after being defeated, Ghetsis is still able to escape...but not before pushing Black toward the vortex of energy pulling Reshiram back into the Light Stone, sealing him inside of it, an action that would put the fandom through a prolonged state of depression due to all of the hiatuses the B2/W2 Chapter kept undergoing that prevented this from being rectified anytime soon.

Ghetsis avoids having his villainous breakdown like he did in the games because he actually has Colress on his payroll already and the more directly aggressive plan of B2/W2 already in the works as a back-up in case things with N didn’t pan out, making him a more impressive villain and fixing the problems that his B2/W2 portrayal ran into. But make no mistake: the failure of that initial plan did affect him. It was a serious blow to his ego that he’s even having to indulge in the back-up plan at all, and the fear that he might be defeated again is buried deep within him. As a result, his polite demeanor n the B2/W2 Chapter is...off. His smiling face now looks like a mask that doesn’t quite fit anymore, a mask you can see the cracks in: the arching of his eyebrows, the twitching of the corner of his mouth, the shadows that constantly seem to fall over him. The monster within is beginning to show, and it’s terrifying. 

And then we reach the end of the arc. As everything falls apart around him, he still manages to keep this mask of sanity on, even as he intends to die by his own hand, on his own terms, and take as many other lives with him in the process rather than live with the shame of being a prisoner. But when N saves him and tells him that despite everything, he still sees him as his father and loves him? The mask shatters. In a fit of pure monstrous rage, Ghetsis starts physically beating N with his cane while screaming about him being a freak of nature who doesn’t deserve to so much as touch him, let alone consider himself his son. N loses his grip and Ghetsis falls toward his death, laughing all the way down...and then Zekrom catches him before he hits the ground.  The glare that Zekrom gives speaks volumes: it is not going to allow this bastard to get what he wants. Ghetsis is not going to die...he is going to suffer. 

And suffer he does, as not only is he literally squeezed into surrender by Zekrom, but as he struggles (in vain) to put his mask of sanity back on as he’s being arrested and boasting about how his ambitions will be fulfilled someday, Whitley slaps him with the cold, hard truth: he will never control all Pokemon because he’s hurt far too many of them, and they will never forget or forgive. Ghetsis is then surrounded by Pokemon all glaring at him the same way Zekrom did, and the trauma this inflicts upon him causes his already fragile mind to  completely shut down. Ghetsis begins to laugh uncontrollably and hysterically as his face contorts in utter terror and he madly runs to the safety of the police helicopter, with Looker’s Pokemon struggling to restrain him. As in the games, he has lost all semblance of sanity, but unlike in the games, he is in custody rather than in the care of his loyal servants, and he won’t have a vegetative state to spare him the pain that his madness inflicts. A realistic psychopath; this Ghetsis is given the realistic, gloriously undignified ending he deserves.

Score = 5

TCG: Ghetsis, as the leader of Team Plasma, is quite literally a gamechanger in the TCG. Much like the anime, the TCG didn’t adapt the B/W incarnation of Team Plasma in favor of sticking with just the B2/W2 version, and around the same time of the anime’s Episode N arc we got a trilogy of sets: Plasma Storm, Plasma Freeze, and Plasma Blast. The sets all formed a narrative arc as displayed by their official descriptions: Plasma Storm is Team Plasma’s arrival on the scene, Plasma Freeze is their plan to take over Unova going into overdrive, and Plasma Blast is their last stand and defeat (unless you decide to make them win, you sick bastard). Ghetsis officially debuts in Plasma Freeze, shown in the Plasma Frigate’s control room, just the way he was introduced in B2/W2. However, since this is a card game, you are free to play around with his character as much as you want as you use his card’s effect, and that his role in events would last all the way into Plasma Blast means he has more longevity than he did in the actual B2/W2 games. The artwork of his card’s special print also makes it easier to imagine him as a lot more direct, active and bombastic when compared to his concurrently released anime counterpart, making him a stronger villain.

Several years later the bans on certain Lysandre and Lusamine cards ended up having a retroactive effect on their predecessor, as it was decided that Ghetsis could make the game more needlessly frustrating in tournaments as well, so naturally his card was also banned. He would get another shot when the Paldea region entered the game in Gen 9, with Ghetsis in his priest-like B/W attire showing up to hunt for ancient treasures he can rule the world with.

Score = 3

Other: Ghetsis receives build-up in episodes 13 and 14 of the Generations web series, and then has episode 15 entirely dedicated to him and his twisted fatherly relationship with N in a modified version of the climactic showdown from B2/W2. Not only is this a better animated version of Ghetsis than the one we got in the main anime (with a much better English dub voice courtesy of Patrick Seitz), but he also comes across as a stronger character than in the source material this is adapting. Getting see all the nuances of his facial expressions and vocal delivery makes him less of a caricature and more of a real person who is on the verge of going completely insane. It also makes him even more menacing, with his attempt to freeze the player character into a slow, cruel demise now transferred toward N. Again, that’s his fucking son. In just 5 minutes, they nail Ghetsis’ narcissism, power-lust, and cruelty.

The Evolutions web series takes us further back in time, with Ghetsis providing his own POV narration as we see him enact his master plan from B/W. Once again, he comes off as far more terrifying than he even was in the games, as getting to see his facial expressions and hear his voice (now Armen Taylor imitating Seitz) emphasizes what a soulless monster he is.

Ghetsis also features in the Pokemon: Legendary Encounters manga one-shot promoting the Black/White games during their release, faithfully adapted from how he was depicted there.

Score = 4

TOTAL FRANCHISE SCORE = 4 out of 5

When it comes to the game series, Ghetsis in B/W is definitely the strongest villain they have ever had. He’s just got everything you could want in a good antagonist: easy to grasp motives, a brilliant evil plan, an intense battle with a team of strong Pokemon and awesome music playing in the background, charisma, menace, and of course that Love to Hate factor. For the rest of the franchise, it’s more of a mixed bag - he is rather underachieving in the follow-up B2/W2 games, the TCG, and the Best Wishes anime, while he is wonderfully overachieving in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, Masters, the Adventures manga, and the web series. But all the same, he is an unforgettable baddie and thus stands as one of the franchise’s very best, right up there with Giovanni and Cyrus. What else is there to say but: DENNIS!

BONUS: Which version is my personal favorite?

While the Adventures incarnation of Ghetsis is certainly the best, he is a strongly depicted villain in a rather long line of strongly depicted villains...plus I think me and many others will always hold some personal resentment against him for what he did to Black, not to mention he goes so far into heinous evil that he just becomes kind of uncomfortable. Ghetsis of the game series remains its best Big Bad. He’s just so much fun in his psychopathy and utilized so effectively, arguably representing a franchise peak that can never fully be overcome.