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Pokemon Adventures Villains Evilness - From Most To Least

1. Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius - This man has no redeeming qualities to speak of and as far as rap sheets for a villain whose primarily goal is NOT to kill a whole bunch of people in the name of making a better world go, his is a real whopper, with atrocities that are rooted in Pokemon-on-human violence or sometimes even physical violence with his cane that are shockingly dark, cruel and unpleasant even for this manga in just how nonchalantly he commits them and with such unparalleled sadism. Everything about the way he raised up N to be groomed and exploited for his plan (thus everything N did, including persuading Gigi to leave White, is all thanks to Ghetsis), abusing Pokemon en masse in order to build N’s Castle and fool N into not seeing the truth, mental violation of trainers who listen to his speeches via Hypnosis so that they release their Pokemon and even implied use of that same Hypnosis on N, ordering the capture of Victini, Volcarona, and the Kami Trio to be used as test subjects and having the Swords of Justice hunted down and nearly killed by his lackeys, spearheading the “Pokemon Liberation” plan that captured several Pokemon (including Hugh’s little sister’s Purrloin), having Eelectross electrocute Black from behind and send him into painful paralysis, having his Pokemon beat down the Gym Leaders and forcing one (Brycen) to surrender by threatening an innocent hostage (Hawes) in his Hydreigon’s grasp, crucifying six Gym Leaders to display before Unova as a show of strength, ordering the hostile takeover of the Unova League that endangers the lives of all the spectators, trapping Black in a no-win situation where his Hydreigon would kill him on the spot, ordering the Sages to use their Pokemon to kill a whole bunch of defiant trainers, trying to have Black and his Pokemon burned alive by Hydreigon and Volcarona’s flames in order to cover up N’s defeat to the public of Unova, having Colress’ Beheeyem knock Black into the reverting Light Stone so that he and all his Pokemon are trapped within the Inter-Dream Zone for two years, commissioning Kyurem’s torture via the Colress Machine to raise it’s power, overseeing Team Plasma’s freezing terrorist attack on seven towns that has many people either dying or entering a death-like hibernation sleep and even threatening to freeze the entire continent once at the Giant Chasm, sealing N into the Dark Stone to use him and Zekrom as a Living Battery and Human Shield for Black Kyurem then bluntly trying to kill his son when he’s freed afterwards, attempted homicide on all the trainers who oppose him, initiating a self-destruct of the Plasma Frigate to kill himself and the many people and Pokemon - including those still inside the thousands of stolen Poke’ Balls he had with him - on board rather than be made a prisoner for his crimes, striking his son across the face and savagely bludgeoning him half to death with his cane…there’s even an implied beating down of his Hydreigon after loss to Alder (explains the Frustration move!). All of that because Ghetsis desired to rule Unova and then the world with an iron fist under a totalitarian regime in which he and his Team Plasma are the only humans to own, control and use Pokemon, all due to massive feelings of greed and entitlement. Simply put, Ghetsis is a monster. Such a monster that at least 75% of Unova’s Pokemon, literal monsters, stare him down with righteous fury, unforgiving hatred, and sheer disgust in their eyes. I don’t think any villain in Pokemon before or since then has been as great an enemy to Pokemon themselves.

2. Lysandre - If there’s any other villain could compete with Ghetsis in being as horrifically vile and heinous as this manga has to offer, his immediate follow-up, Lysandre, would be that villain. One could make the argument he’s every bit as bad or even worse because while Ghetsis was simply pure evil, Lysandre is a man of admirable, humanizing qualities, strong convictions to what he believes to be morally right and in the best interest of others, and the capacity to do great good with his wealth, power and influence, but he chooses to be a complete bastard and turn all that towards committing great evil instead. His goal is the mass eradication of all life in the Kalos region except for those select few people and Pokemon who are either with his Team Flare or are “elite” enough to buy their life’s security, believing this will create a brighter, more beautiful future for Kalos. To this end, he’s responsible for the destruction of Vaniville Town, influencing the media to cover up Team Flare’s crimes and stack the odds against their enemies, threatening the life of a child when he suspects too much, trying to drain energy from Xerneas in order to turn life-giving power into a bringer of death, keeping AZ locked up as a prisoner, capturing Pokemon from Pokemon Village to drain their life energy via Absorption Stones, controlling Mewtwo to attack his allies, controlling Emma to the point where he overloads her Essentia suit and nearly kills her, and trying to use a forcibly controlled Zygarde’s power to kill his enemies and re-activate the Ultimate Weapon to obliterate everyone in Kalos. Many people suffered due to Lysandre’s actions - some may have even lost their lives, and even more would have perished had his plan succeeded. Lysandre might have had a valid point about the state of Kalos, it’s culture and it’s people, and he had some amount of true affection for Pokemon that made him capable of mastering Mega Evolution, but his crimes are still unpardonable and he met the end he deserved.

3. The Mask Of Ice (Pryce) - When an inherently not evil person bottles up some much negative emotions and represses so much pain for so many years, ultimately letting his heart freeze over, his mind crack, and his sense of morality completely crumble, this is the result - one of the coldest, cruelest, most fiendish villains in all of Pokemon Adventures. The old bastard controlled Lugia and Ho-Oh to abduct at least six children and raise them up to be his evil disciples. When Team Rocket disbanded in Kanto, he revived the group in Johto, with he and four of his kids taking leadership and controlling the grunts’ minds with special masks. With the goal of capturing Celebi in order to control the powers of time itself, the Masked Man committed atrocious acts such as freezing the Lake of Rage, nearly killing Gold and Silver in a brutal way, having his agents hunt Suicine, controlling Ho-Oh and Lugia again for a rampage at the cross-regional League Tournament, threatening the life of a little girl to get her grandfather to open up the GS Ball for him, and risking the decimation of the entire planet just so he could go back in time and right a wrong from his past. While Pryce’s heart might’ve thawed out in the end and he did some good upon his return in the HG/SS Chapter, it’s too late in his life to fully atone for his evildoing. Sad!

4. Archie and Maxie - When in their right state of mind, these two are some of the less truly evil villains in Pokemon. But…when Kusaka made them go crazy and evil, he made them go REALLY crazy and evil. Having their madness linger even after the orbs were out of their hands, to the point where they just wanted to destroy everyone and everything in their way for no real reason, Archie was A-OK with murdering Maxie in order to gain a special suit of armor from Team Galactic, and with that armor and control over a phony Kyogre, he tried to flood the Earth and drown every living thing on it just to see his perverted dream realized and take revenge on those who defied him last time. I don’t know why Kusaka seemed to hate these characters so much that he’d turn them into such deranged monsters, but I’m glad he didn’t do it again in the ORAS Chapter.

5. Colress - This dude’s actually not evil so much as he is amoral to a truly frightening degree, but that amorality makes him by and large one of the most sinister and dangerous antagonists in the series. Many of Ghetsis’ nastiest crimes, such as the Hypnosis of trainers into releasing Pokemon, the freezing of the Swords of Justice, capture and experiments on the Kami Trio, sealing Black and his Pokemon in the Light Stone, capture and torture of Kyurem, and the freezing of all those cities, are deeds that Colress was gleefully complicit in, and his done his own share of deplorable deeds like his unethical uses of Genesect, mind controlling several Pokemon, freezing Blake and Whitley and having them dumped into the sea, and nearly killing Blake in their final battle. He’s at least done a few nice things here and there like rescuing N when he fell from Black Kyurem, being a graceful loser to his worthy adversary (unlike sore loser Ghetsis), and helping to neutralize the threat of Necrozma in the Alola region. But he’s still a selfish dick who belongs in jail.

6. Faba - He represents a far smaller scale, more personal sort of evil, but it’s of the vilest sort. This version of Faba goes beyond being a pompous prick straight into being a raging incel who let his infatuation for his boss, Lusamine, go to his head to the point where he pushed her husband into an Ultra Wormhole just to have him out of the way, and while Lusamine still rejected his advances, Faba schemed to bring about the destruction of her and her entire family while he could take over her company and run it how he saw fit, in a tyrannical way of course. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s also the one who cheated Sun’s grandfather out of his island and turned it into Aether Paradise, he’s stepped all over those on his own side and taken advantage of Team Skull’s position, and has tried to straight up murder not only Lusamine but her two children too! I dislike the way Faba is used and written in this manga, but it’s all the same undeniable that he’s one of the series’ most loathsome characters.

7. Charon - Well before Ghetsis and Faba, Charon was Kusaka’s first stab at a main villain with ZERO redeeming features. There’s no pretense of noble intentions motivating his actions - he’s driven by stone cold greed for both money and super rare, super strong Legendary or Mythical Pokemon. While his rap sheet is fairly short, it does include some standout dick moves such as his mind control of the Galactic Grunts, his beatdown of Buck at Stark Mountain, his atrocious treatment of Pokemon in general (especially poor Rotom), and most reprehensible of all, using Giratina to nearly kill a child right in front of his friend, laughing and gloating about it afterwards. After what a sociopathic maniac he showed himself to be, you’d better believe he deserved to be blasted and have the crap beaten out of him, and ending up the only leading Galactic member to get jail time.

8. Malva - Malva was to Lysandre what Colress was to Ghetsis. She was complicit in many of Lysandre’s most monstrous crimes and has some crimes unique to her, particularly when she’s in control of the destruction-bringing Yveltel. Know how I mentioned Lysandre’s influence over the media to cover up Team Flare’s crimes and stack the odds against their enemies? That’s largely thanks to Malva, who’s a big media mogul AND a member of Kalos’ League. She seems to hate most people aside from those she takes a fancy to (particularly Lysandre, whom she’s insanely devoted to) so she relishes the idea of killing most of her region’s population, yet she hypocritically exemplifies everything wrong with Kalos’ culture based on shallow materialism and fickle outer beauty, so I can’t help but suspect that Team Flare is actually more her baby than it is Lys’.

9. Lance - Sometimes a person can care and feel too much about Pokemon and it leads them to doing some abominable things in the name of bettering life for them. Lance was one such person, as thanks to his natural empathetic abilities that allow him to feel a Pokemon’s heart through his own, he became a crazed, power-mad misanthrope who sought to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth save for the truly elite trainers who cared about Pokemon enough and had strength enough to protect them so that the world could become paradise for Pokemon everywhere - no longer would they suffer from the careless acts of people! As leader of the Elite Four, his crimes were of a higher magnitude than those of Team Rocket’s, worst of them being completely decimating Vermilion City with a super sized Hyper Beam and attempting to use Lugia to obliterate all humans on the continent of the Kanto-Johto regions, possibly taking the rest of the world down with it. A real bad dude to be sure, but he’s also the start of the more honorable, redeemable villains on this list because he has pure intentions behind his actions, he’s got plenty of redeeming qualities, he chickens out of villainy after getting his ass nearly killed by Yellow and becomes a good guy, and even his attempt at omnicide leaves much to be desired by today’s standards, as it seemed set to effect only a single continent and a few islands with the danger of it MAYBE destroying the rest of the world too.

10. Cyrus - “HOLD IT!” I hear you cry “Cyrus tried to literally destroy the entire goddamn universe so that he could rewrite reality and play God! How is he below Lysandre or Lance on the evilness totem pole?” Well first off, Cyrus wanted to end things via a collapse of time and space so that he could then re-create it all but purged of spirit, so there was a method to the madness rather than just “Kill ‘Em All!”. Secondly, Lys and Lance were primarily motivated by hate. Cyrus was not - Cyrus is a believer in human potential, so he truly wanted to make life and existence better for people. And finally, in his individual actions, Cyrus didn’t cross too many lines beyond what you’d expect of a villain towards his enemies in this manga. Thoroughly wrecking the Gym Leaders and striking Dia with the broken Red Chain were pretty harsh of him, but for the most part, he played fair. Cyrus’ style suggests the epitome of evil, but his actual substance shows him to be a fairly reasonable and ultimately pitiful man. Which would be why he turned towards redemption in the end. When a scary bad guy ends up at a point where he’s affectionately snuggling a Shaymin in his arms, his evilness cred is done for.

11. Giovanni - The classic villain himself. He was established as quite the vicious motherfucker, pretty much killing two Magmar with his Cloyster in his debut chapter, being behind the creation of Mewtwo and all the agony that caused Blaine, launching a hostile takeover of Saffron City and Silph Co. that resulted in an unholy abomination fusion of the three Legendary Birds, conducting life-threatening experiments on Pokemon in his Viridian breeding grounds, and even trying to have a 10 year old kid impale on his Pokemon’s horn! This man is just EVIL…but he’s got plenty of standards. He’s surprisingly civil, respectful, honorable, enjoys a good fight and appreciates those who show strength and convictions, and he’s even a caring father to his long lost son, Silver. And while he’s a bastard to Pokemon in a lot of ways, he’s never been too sadistic or homicidal towards other people. He’s even helped out on occasions where he felt obligated to see a mess he was partially responsible for get cleaned up, as in the ORAS Chapter. He’s still an unrepentant evildoer, but at least he’s a sane one with a conscience.

12. Lusamine - Here is our villainess, a narcissistic sociopath, a massive druggie, and possessive, controlling, emotionally abusive mother extraordinaire. She is everything that is evil and wicked. She has literal ice water coursing through her veins. Her lipstick is red from the blood of those who stand in her way. She’s one bad bitch. …But what if…we developed her…by making her a misunderstood woobie, who is only evil because of a douchebag man?!? Yeah, even putting that aside, Lusamine’s not exactly an EVIL person in this manga - she’s just completely out of her mind because she totally mismanaged her emotional duress and grieving over her missing husband, and the stress of being a single parent, and was led down the wrong path. Like Cyrus, she’s frightening, but not pure evil at all.

13. The Four Rocket Executives - Even with a beefed up role and a more dangerous plan they’re working, these four are pretty small potatoes as far as evildoers go. Plus, while Archer and Petrel might be crazy jerks, Arianna and Proton are alright as far as Rockets go.

14. Guzma - The manga depicts Guzma in a much more detailed, more realistic, more unsettlingly unhinged light, showing just how damaged, violent, and self-destructive he can get, and as such he gets to commit more horrible acts of villainy than what the games showed to us. But like the above-mentioned Rocket Executives, this increase in threat level doesn’t make him any more evil than he was to begin with. He’s still a small time delinquent among villains and one who is easily redeemable with his sympathetic background, likable qualities, and care for his home and family beneath all his bravado. Easily among the least despicable major antagonists.

15. Lorekeeper Zinnia - See the above panels where she starts getting into how she pretty much ruined Ruby and Sapphire’s life way back when? That’s pretty much the height of her villainy. Otherwise, this girl isn’t even a real villain - she’s just a cocky, self-important dick and a troll who delights in messing with others she thinks of as puny NPCs while she tries to play the hero. None of her actions go beyond the pail in terms of how dark shit can get in this manga, she’s got loved ones, a sad backstory, and good intentions for doing what she does, and after she pays the price for her reckless arrogance she redeems herself and becomes Ruby and Sapphire’s friend. Steven’s dad was honestly the more reprehensible character in this story!

Honorable Mention: N - N as Team Plasma’s king is as much a villain as Bucky Barnes was as HYDRA’s Winter Soldier. He was fucking brainwashed, in this manga more literally than anywhere else

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