— Ghetsis in Pokémon Black and White after revealing his true motives to player, said about his son, N.
Despite its kid-friendly appearance, the Pokemon franchise has been sliding ever further into Darker and Edgier territory with each iteration, both in the main series and in the spinoffs. While Game Freak and The Pokemon Company continue to test how intense a concentration of Nightmare Fuel they can successfully put into each title without compromising its precious E rating, there are times when it shows, as these abominations demonstrate. Note that we used the word "abomination" - calling these folks monsters would insult Pokemon everywhere. Anime examples are this way.
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Pokemon Black and White
Black and White'sGhetsis Harmonia, as you can plainly see from the quote above, is currently the biggest singular abomination in this series. This guy took his Parenting pages from the handbook of Super Hero Aurum and fundamentally screwed up N's childhood, convincing the poor kid to perceive humans as a species ofPoochyena kickers and to save Pokémon from them, and even went as far as to put Team Plasma in his command once he came of age, with Mooks that were running off the ideal rather than the twisted, blackened heart that it really had. And once N is shot down by the protagonist, the Jerkass turns his back on his own son, calls his very existence a blasphemy, and reveals that he would have used the boy to effectively take over a region wholly disarmed of Pokémon as he originally planned, potentially up to and including replacing him as king. Put blunt, N was raised to be Stupid Good, manufactured for much more malicious ends, and basically thrown away when he broke. While Cipher as a whole (mentioned below) may possibly out-evil him and his team, very few of their members as individuals are as nasty in comparison.
To make matters worse, one Sage implies that they don't even know if N is truly Ghetsis' son. In other words, for the sake of his plans, Ghetsis might have gotten his hands on a kid who could have had a perfect normal life and screwed him up, making Ghetsis both an abusive father figure and a cradle robber. Like Colosseum, we don't know exactly where Black and White line up, so the plans may have run longer than the other protagonists have had their licenses.
There's a hint that he would also kill N when his plan is completed. Just look at the level of his Hydreigon and its ability to kill the legendary you or N acquire- why would he need something like that?
Team Plasma based their operations, so they say, on studying the failures of Teams Rocket and Galactic. I don't think Ghetsis would prefer pissing off Cynthia's replacement when he could just wait for him/her to have the orbs shipped overseas to keep another Sinnoh megalomaniac from getting them. Then again, who said the other sages all came from Unova?
If that still isn't enough to convince you, consider that all the other villains on this list are from spinoffs. He's the only main-series villain to hit every single criterion on the main article.
Ghetsis being the absolute extreme of sociopathy is bad enough. However, he decides to be an even worse horror with this comment: "Granted, the moment when someone loses all hope...I really do love to watch that moment." Essentially, Ghetsis admits that he gets a sadistic thrill when someone suffers a Despair Event Horizon. Which is what he likely inflicted on his own son. As if you needed another reason to hate him...
He's even called as this by Cheren and AlderIn-Universe, pointing out his Hypocrisy.
Oh, and that beautiful awe-inspiring giant castle that serves as Team Plasma's headquarters? According to one of the mooks you talk to before battling N, it was build by overworked pokemon and was kept a secret from the rest of the world. In addition, after separating the pokemon from their trainers, they gleefully plan to use them in whatever ways they serve fit even if they don't want to. And this from an organization that frequently prattles on and on about liberating pokemon from the "selfish" humans.
Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness
Team Plasma, who is subservient to the aforementioned Ghetsis Harmonia, is actually inconsistent in terms of monstrosity - Ghetsis is an asshole, bar none, but some of the members are bona fide jerks who live up their evil while others reside on N's end of the evil spectrum (that is, barely evil if at all). You will find far less ambiguity with the Cipher syndicate, whose crimes include grand theft Pokemon (including inventing a device that circumvents built-in anti-theft failsafes), countless cases of trainer assault, the mass murder of the S.S. Libra (two of which are confirmed to be fatally lost at sea), mass Pokemon mindrape and corruption, mass abduction and federal subversion, and miscellaneous otheracts of Lillipup football. Orre is hell on earth one way or another, and these fiends are living it up at everyone else's expense. Shudder at the thought of Ghetsis fleeing to the Eclo Wastes; if Cipher doesn't murder him outright, he'd fit right in or possibly take the organization as his own. Some admins like Miror B. seem to fall on the Evilly Affable side of things, but others are completely unpardonable:
Nascour and Es Cade/Evice, the Big Bad and Dragon duo of the first game, engineered everything and kept the other Cipher members in line.
Ein developed the process to create shadow pokemon and is continuously trying to improve on it. He's basically the franchise's answer to Xehanort or Hojo.
Thankfully, she's wrong, it is possible to purify XD001, just very difficult, but that didn't stop her from trying.
Snattle, who actually forces the population of an entire town into an underground prison, is implied to have actually used violence against said population, and wishes to become Governor of Orre so that Cipher can legally spread it's control. Also, he's a really sore loser.
It should be noted that both Lovrina and Snattle (along with Gorigan) send letters to you after being defeated for the last time post-game in the colosseum that hint at them softening up and potentially finding redemption. Unfortunately, their "redemption" rings hollow since we don't get to see any of it and whether or not they remain Complete Monsters. Their Moral Event Horizon crossing still stands.
Greevil, the Big Bad of the second game, is a borderline example, as he acts like a typical Cipher member for most of the game but has a Heel Realizationjust as the plot comes to a close. Part of the reason for the Heel Realization is because of the positive influence of Eldes, the White Sheep of the organization, who is exempt from this status. Not so for Eldes' brother, Ardos, who suggests to Greevil after his defeat that they murder the ten-year-old protagonist, as well as all the Cipher personnel and Pokemon present, by blowing up their base to escape arrest.
Ghetsis is the personal kind of aberration. He manipulates the hearts of those around him to achieve his aims, with all of Team Plasma (and, indeed, almost all of Unova) completely in the dark about the fullest of his intentions through spoken word alone. He is constantly putting on speeches, barbing his words so the unaware fall in line with little hesitation. The player character - and, by extension, the player - are as susceptible to this as they allow themselves to be, but constant exposure to Team Plasma's activities wears away whatever illusion he weaves - and when the Unova League catches on, they start becoming disillusioned as well.
Cipher is the professional kind of aberration. While there is some room for compassion in the group (Greevil came to care for his sons enough that Eldes convinced him to surrender at the end of XD), this is limited to the confines of the group itself. Deals with the public are strictly professional and extremely brutal, both in their execution and in their efficiency. They are notorious for instilling evil in the people that deal with the group and seek to cripple or kill what they cannot corrupt. Greevil's deals with the sailors of Gateon Port and Evice's mayorship over Phenac City is proof that even government and corporate interest is not immune. Furthermore, due to their underground operations, few people knew Cipher existed until Wes went rogue, and even in the present day, nobody can reliably predict what their latest operations involve - and the fact that they ambush and neutralize anyone who digs too deep does little to dispel this illusion. Peon training, both in Pokemon handling and in trainer engagement, is meant to induce as much paranoia as possible to maintain their cover, as survivors of their raids are driven crazy enough that the public doesn't believe their stories of white, machinelike humanoids assaulting them from all directions. No matter who occupies it, this organization as a whole is a total abomination to the world of Pokemon.
Also, his motives are never explained, leaving us to assume that it was For the Evulz.
Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs gives us Purple Eyes. Before we even learn he exists, he's beaten Rand within an inch of his life and kidnapped both his wife and daughter. Later, he beats the daughter up, too! It gets worse, though; he eventually mugs the elderly Societea members (though, admittedly, they deserve it), hijacks the villain's plans, makes himself immortal, pumps up Mewtwo's power higher than it should ever be, and then commands Mewtwo to finish off Dr. Edward. And when Rand takes the shot for Edward, Purple Eyes is simply amused and continues to attack anyway, even taunting Rand's daughter about it. After you beat him, he points out that the Sky Fortress is now plummeting and will wipe out all of Oblivia. And then he laughs.
Aaand he just one-upped himself. In the last Extra Mission, in which an enraged Arceus is passing judgment on the human race, he arrives in person. His imprisonment and constant questioning has not redeemed him, but instead turned him into a Misanthrope Supreme who no longer wishes to rule over all humans, but instead Kill All Humans. He begins preaching to Arceus that it should go through with the destruction, but to allow himself to act as its Dragon due to their similar beliefs about humans. This only enrages Arceus more. After you defeat and calm Arceus, Arceus leaves back to its home world and drags Purple Eyes with it, to pass judgment on him. Yeah, even the god of the Pokémon world deems it unsafe for him to be in our plane.
For a while. Hastings says that Arceus will send him back eventually when (or if) he really has a change of heart. However, when you consider that Arceus acted on this but not when Cyrus was unmaking the universe right under it, it says something potent about Purple Eyes' capacity for evil. Of course, this is assuming he could prove that he has some manner of decency, and there's no telling where he'll be dropped off - even Hastings couldn't guess where he'd wind up. He's in this trope now; the odds are slim enough already.
"The wondrous Arceus's enemy is all of humanity. And I can no longer trust people, so all humans are now also my enemy... I want to deepen our bond, because Arceus and I share a common enemy. O Arceus! I have no desire to rise above you. I only want to work beneath you, and help you shape a new world!" (Ben/Summer interrupts, but Purple Eyes resumes.) "Quiet! I'm speaking to Arceus right now! I beg you, O Arceus! Don't confuse me, Purple Eyes, with those who would have simply tried to use you! I understand what you're envisioning, O Arceus. Doubtless, it's an act of vengeance toward humanity. In other words... You will destroy this world and reshape it anew, under a new ruler. If you would, please let me help you..."
How bad was Purple Eyes? You may ask. Rand's wife, an archeologist, says that the ruins she and her daughter were captured and tortured in is the only place that gives her recurring nightmares. THAT'S HOW BAD HE IS!
He can also be a bit of Fridge Horror when you realise he's a Misanthrope Supreme and Complete Monster and he looks like he's in his early 20's. It appears that in the Pokémon universe, evil is most profound among the young and old. Remember, Cyrus, who tried to destroy the universe, was 27. At least the members of the Societea are all in their 60s.
Not to mention his pose. It screams 'the world is mine'. Or something like that. Anyways, it's like a mix of the poses of Blue Eyes and Red Eyes made that little bit creepier.
