Who was the best villain in terms of how they were written?

Hades0918 · February 11

I'm not asking for your favorite or who you agree with

Who was the best written?

Before I give my answer, I want to make two mentions

First is N

Correct me if I'm wrong, but he was raised and manipulated by Ghetis (the real villain) to believe a specific thing and be willing to do anything for his cause

He wasn't really a villain because he was raised to think what he was doing was okay, even though society didn't agree

The next one is Volo

I think he was completely justified

He wanted the attention of Arceus

All he wanted was acknowledged by it

He spent his life worshiping it and just a bit of attention was all he was asking for

But he was ignored, which led to this want for attention to become a need, which then evolved into a craving for it

This lead him to insanity and he found Girintina

If Arceus wouldn't look at him willingly, he'd make it look at him by destroying its creation (our reality)

The only reason I don't think he was the best written is because he was a plot twist villain that there was no hint at all at

He was random

He wasn't pulled off properly

I think the best written villain is Lysander

He was actually in the plot and his goal was understandable

He wasn't some heartless villain who hurt just to hurt

He was a twisted hero, wanting to fix the biggest flaw in this Earth

Greed

He started out being a good, kind man but that didn't get him anywhere

So he took it up a whole lot of notches to fix the world

He is an amazing villain

Evolve8eon · February 11

I think n has the most well written story

Candy0_o · February 11

N or Silver. He has a sad backstory. Or Sada/Turo

TheJeffers · February 12

It depends how you define a villain. A villain usually has to have evil intent or motives. Giovanni certainly qualifies and was the model for all "evil" teams in Pokémon, but honestly the series tends to show the leaders of "evil" teams as misguided extremists rather than outright villains.

While I like N, and I have made no secret of BW being my favourite games in part because of their story, I wouldn't describe him as a villain. He was an antagonist for most of the story, but if anything he was a victim of Ghetsis...

Who in turn I would describe as a bit of a boring villain. It was a disappointing (if obvious) twist that he was just a plain old bad guy out for world domination. He could have been far more interesting if he actually believed what he had preached, rather than it merely being a pretense, and represented a more extreme, warped version of N's beliefs that took it to destructive extremes.

But no, world domination it is.

Lusamine's story I quite like, but sadly the conclusion and consequences were skipped over in USUM so we could have Rainbow Rocket. Which was fun, but did we have to sweep away the conclusion of Lusamine's character arc for it?

Plus something something mind control toxin so is she actually a villain or just crazy?

Maxie and Archie I always hated because I think their entire plans were self-defeating and stupid, even knowing the real world context the games were referencing.

Cyrus' plan is disproportionately evil given that he lives in the Pokémon utopia and seems entirely disconnected from anything Team Galactic are doing. Platinum gave us a little more insight, but frankly he seems like a villain lifted from a much darker franchise and much more dystopian world.

French Vanilla Ganondorf similarly seemed a poor match for the Pokémon world and Team Flare, as his own team seemed to be the very people he sought to eliminate.

I think a common theme for villains in the Pokémon franchise is that they appear to be designed as commentary on problems in the real world, but that do not exist (or at least are not shown to exist) in the Pokémon world, so they seem delusional and out of touch.

All other NPCs generally seem happy, friendly (if a little competitive when it comes to Pokémon battles) and kind to the world and their Pokémon. If Game Freak want to make their villains out to be sympathetic and justified, show us the cause they supposedly fight actually needing to be addressed in the Pokémon world.

Anyway, I don't think Rose even understands if or why he was a villain, and the less said about those two other dorks in the post game the better.

Scarlet and Violet don't have a villain, unless you count crummy teachers and the professor being a bad parent and lax in their ecology protection policies.

In summary, Pokémon villains are poorly written. They did it best with Team Rocket in the simplicity of their motives and operations. They wanted money and power, they stole stuff. They were Pokémon yakuza. Easy to convey, easy to understand. A widely understood trope.

But GF have adhered to that model despite wanting to portray very different types of villain. It has led to teams being at worst a nuisance and entirely disconnected from the motivations of their leaders.

Hades0918 · February 12

https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/126530#Comment_126530

I don't know

I think Cyrus was a pretty good villain

Of course he didn't care about Team Galactic

He only needed them to get what he wanted

Once he got that he planned on wiping them out with everything else for the sake of perfection

I think Ghetis was literally just a more evil Giovanni

Neither of them were meant to be well written

They were just there to be bad

TheJeffers · February 12

@Hades0918

Neither of them were meant to be well written
They were just there to be bad

Why not expect both?

Hades0918 · February 12

https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/126552#Comment_126552

I do expect both

That's what I'm hoping for next game

But I just mean that the whole purpose of them were to be heartless, evil, and hate-able

They didn't want to give them motives that are relatable or deep

That's what I thought, anyways

UnovanZorua · February 12

Lusamine for sure. There aren't any others who can compare. I don't see N as a villain at all, he was well-written but if I called him a villain I'd have to call Bede one as well. His role in the story is closer to a rival— Ghetsis is the one I'd consider a villain. Ghetsis is just normal evil. He wants to rule the world and he hurts people and Pokémon badly and doesn't care about it. That's it. Volo was done OK, but he could have been more memorable outside of the post-game battle and showed more hints at his motivations and goals. Cyrus had an interesting goal and he has motivations, even if most of them were hinted at by a random NPC in the post-game. He could have been done much better. Lysandre had interesting goals and motivations, but the way the game executed it felt very off. It doesn't help that the cast isn't well-written (even if I like them). Magma and Aqua are just regular villains and Giovanni is just the common cartoon big villain character, nothing that stands out at all.