History DracoInLeatherPants / Pokemon

* [[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet Kieran]]'s fanbase tends to paint him as either a naive kid who had no idea what he was doing (partially true, in the sense that he ''was'' naive, a child and way over his head, but it's also clear that his cruelty was deliberate), or as someone whose negative actions were all the result of an outside force (namely the previously-leaked Pecharunt) corrupting him (which is never confirmed anywhere in the DLC).

* [[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet Kieran]]'s fanbase tends to paint him as either a naive kid who had no idea what he was doing (partially true, in the sense that he ''was'' naive, a child and way over his head, but it's also clear that his cruelty was deliberate), or as someone whose negative actions were all the result of an outside force corrupting him (which is never confirmed anywhere in the DLC).

* [[VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus Volo]] unsurprisingly gets this. Despite he's way out of the bracket of villainy even when compared to Ghetsis, he's attractive, perky and assisted the protagonist when they're being outlawed. Most fans tend to gloss over that he's just ''manipulating'' the protagonist and depict him hanging with them legitimately, often with his evil aspects removed.

* Jessie, James, and Meowth. Though they're not without their sympathetic qualities, many fans ignore their clearly unsympathetic actions, like trying to steal a 10-year-old's best friend, trying to kill people who get in their way, harming or even attempting to kill Pokémon who've pissed them off (they nearly killed the Squirtle Squad with homemade bombs and they clearly weren't planning on letting the Scythers who gave Jessie a new haircut walk away), trying to kill a 10-year-old on several occasions, etc.

* [[ChildrenAreCruel Silver]], TheRival from the [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver second generation]], gets this a good bit too; he's easily the biggest asshole of the rivals in the series (what with Blue basically just being kind of a brat and petty bully, and the others all being friendly), between stealing from Elm, kicking/punching/shoving you in what is one of the only direct acts of violence from a human in the series, and infamously ''stripping you'' just when you were about to infiltrate a building infested with Team Rocket members, but yet he is one of the most popular and loved within the rivals. However, unlike some other examples it can be justified if the fanwork depicts him in the later parts of or after the events of the game, as he does get a HeelFaceTurn and majorly [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness]] by the end. It helps that he has one of clearest character arcs and CharacterDevelopment of any rival, especially in the remakes, where he has a FreudianExcuse in [[spoiler: being [[BigBad Giovanni's]] abandoned son]] with a major InferioritySuperiorityComplex thanks to it, acts like a {{Tsundere}} towards the end, becomes a borderline doting trainer and has nothing but humble respect for you by the end, has much more of a pretty boy look, and for the less emotional side of the fanbase, the fact that he's such a badass, that people tend to love him. It should be said that when he is discussed, even fans of him generally understand that he's an initially unrepentant {{Jerkass}} HateSink; [[LoveToHate they simply love that about him]].

* Before Gary’s HeelFaceTurn when he was still a {{jerkass}}, fans tended to take his side over Ash during the Kanto/Johto arc of the show by justifying his jerkass behavior towards the latter. This is due to the fact that Gary was always one step ahead of Ash. This is also because he was a well skilled trainer that earned 10 badges while Ash didn’t earn 4 of the 8 badges that he had correctly. While Ash had his flaws, fans are ignoring the fact that Gary was much more arrogant and rude than Ash ever was in the series and that Gary was knocked out of the Kanto League earlier than Ash was.
* Paul is easily the biggest {{Jerkass}} among Ash's rivals, releasing any Pokémon that don't meet his standards, insulting Ash at any given opportunity and acting cold toward everyone else he meets, and most notably having his entire team gang up on his Chimchar in an effort to force it into activating its Blaze ability (which is unusually powerful) and then rage-quitting on it and releasing it, effectively abandoning it out of disgust (everything that happened that day and the night before really soured Ash's opinion of Paul). Despite his jerkassery, he has a sizable fanbase on account of the excellent quality of his battles, high count of JerkassHasAPoint moments across the series, and CharacterDevelopment similar to Silver by the end, to the point where he's part of a fairly popular ship with Dawn.

* [[VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus Volo]] unsurprisingly gets this. Despite he's way out of the bracket of villainy even when compared to Ghetsis, he's attractive, perky and did assist the protagonist when they're being outlawed. Most fans tend to gloss over that he's just ''manipulating'' the protagonist and depict him hanging with them legitimately, often with his evil aspects removed.

* [[VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus Volo]] unsurprisingly gets this. Despite he's way out of the bracket of villainy even when compared to Ghetsis, he's attractive, perky and did assist the protagonist when they're being outlawed. Most fans tend to gloss over that he's just ''manipulating'' the protagonist and depict him hanging with them legitimately.

* [[ChildrenAreCruel Silver]], TheRival from the [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver second generation]], gets this a good bit too; he's easily the biggest asshole of the rivals in the series (what with Blue basically just being kind of a brat and petty bully, and the others all being friendly), between stealing from Elm, kicking/punching/shoving you in what is one of the only direct acts of violence from a human in the series, and infamously ''stripping you'' just when you were about to infiltrate a building infested with Team Rocket members, but yet he is one of the most popular and loved within the rivals. However, unlike some other examples it can be justified if the fanwork depicts him in the later parts of or after the events of the game, as he does get a HeelFaceTurn and majorly [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness]] by the end. It helps that he has one of clearest character arcs and CharacterDevelopment of any rival, especially in the remakes, where he has a FreudianExcuse in [[spoiler: being [[BigBad Giovanni's]] abandoned son]] with a major InferioritySuperiorityComplex thanks to it, acts like a {{Tsundere}} towards the end, becomes a borderline doting trainer and has nothing but humble respect for you by the end, has much more of a pretty boy look, and for the less emotional side of the fanbase, the fact that he's such a badass, that people tend to love him. It should be said that when he is discussed, even fans of him understand that he's an initially unrepentant {{Jerkass}} HateSink; [[LoveToHate they simply love that about him]].

* [[ChildrenAreCruel Silver]], TheRival from the [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver second generation]], gets this a good bit too; he's easily the biggest asshole of the rivals in the series (what with Blue basically just being kind of a brat and petty bully, and the others all being friendly), between stealing from Elm, kicking/punching/shoving you in what is one of the only direct acts of violence from a human in the series, and infamously ''stripping you'' just when you were about to infiltrate a building infested with Team Rocket members, but yet he is one of the most popular and loved within the rivals. However, unlike some other examples it can be justified if the fanwork depicts him in the later parts of or after the events of the game, as he does get a HeelFaceTurn and majorly [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness]] by the end. It helps that he has one of clearest character arcs and CharacterDevelopment of any rival, especially in the remakes, where he has a FreudianExcuse in [[spoiler: being [[BigBad Giovanni's]] abandoned son]] with a major InferioritySuperiorityComplex thanks to it, acts like a {{Tsundere}} towards the end, becomes a borderline doting trainer and has nothing but humble respect for you by the end, has much more of a pretty boy look, and for the less emotional side of the fanbase, the fact that he's such a badass, that people tend to love him. It should be said that when he is discussed, even fans of him almost unanimously agree that he was an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} HateSink initially.

** Parodied with Meowth of Team Rocket. He has this with Giovanni, even though Giovanni frequently mistreats him and is shown to be ruthless. Meowth {{imagine|Spot}}s him as simply a nice guy with a gruff exterior who likes to go {{shirtless|Scene}}. He also sees himself as competing with Giovanni's pet Persian for attention, although it's clear [[UnknownRival Persian couldn't care less.]]

* Generation I/III Blue sometimes gets this as well; while he isn't ''evil'' by any means, some, especially in the Japanese fanbase, make the mistake that relations between him and [[PlayerCharacter Red]] were perfectly peachy when [[AllThereInTheManual manuals]] [[UsedToBeASweetKid show that to not be the case]], or tone down his {{Jerkass}} qualities despite him being infamous for them. On the western side of things this can get particulary bad with people who believe that his Ratticate died on the S.S. Anne (some going as far as to give Red the RonTheDeathEater treatment), along with some people treating him as a bit of a MemeticBadass, probably in large part due to the reputation of his [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]] counterpart and being the FinalBoss. His more mature OlderAndWiser teenage self in the second generation and their remakes, and a Bishounen look in the latter (and to a lesser extent in the first generation remakes), do not help matters.
* Giovanni himself gets this too, due to him being a rather handsome {{Yakuza}}[=/=][[TheMafia Mafia]] crime boss with [[SharpDressedMan nice clothes to boot]]. In the Japanese fandom this can be seen with the Rocket Executives as well; though they are still acknowledged as ''evil'', they often get turned into more comical versions of themselves like a somewhat more competent version of [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} the Team Rocket Trio]], get their UndyingLoyalty (especially Archer) to Giovanni played as a TearJerker, or both. Note that these are a bunch of Pokemon traffickers, thieves, and murderers, but ''damn'' if Archer isn't loyal to his former boss. This may be at least partially attributable to the anime due to aforementioned TerribleTrio.

* Paul is easily the biggest {{Jerkass}} among Ash's rivals, releasing any Pokémon that don't meet his standards, insulting Ash at any given opportunity and acting cold toward everyone else he meets, and most notably having his entire team gang up on his Chimchar in an effort to force it into activating its Blaze ability (which is unusually powerful) and then rage-quitting on it and releasing it, effectively abandoning it out of disgust (everything that happened that day and the night before really soured Ash's opinion of Paul). Despite his jerkassery, he has a sizable fanbase that are willing to ship him with Dawn, and others [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming put the blame on his Pokémon for his horrendous treatment of them.]]

* Georgia is more of a downplayed version since she's only a rival who engages in petty squabbles with Iris (and she admittedly does get better later in the series). Fans tend to defend her rude behavior towards not only Iris, but to everyone else on the show. They tend to forget that Georgia acts more immature and practices poor sportsmanship, and that her role is TheRival in the series.

* Before Gary’s HeelFaceTurn when he was still a {{jerkass}}, fans tended to take his side over Ash during the Kanto/Johto arc of the show by justifying his jerkass behavior towards the latter. This is due to the fact that Gary was always one step ahead of Ash. This is also because he was a well skilled trainer that earned 10 badges while Ash didn’t earn 4 of the 8 badges that he had correctly. While Ash had his flaws and was NotSoDifferent, fans are ignoring the fact that Gary was much more arrogant and rude than Ash ever was in the series and that Gary was knocked out of the Kanto League earlier than Ash was.

* Ghetsis has neither a sympathetic backstory nor redeeming qualities nor outstanding beauty, so it must be his [[MagnificentBastard sheer bastardy charisma]] that earns him so many fangirls. Occasionally he's even depicted as much less of a cruel father than he is in canon. However, even then the majority of the fanbase tends to [[LoveToHate just admire how well he does his job as a villain]] or [[HateSink simply hate his guts]]. [[BrokenBase There is practically no in-between]].

* Jessie, James, and Meowth. Though they're not without their sympathetic qualities, many fans ignore their clearly unsympathetic actions, like trying to steal a 10 year old's best friend, trying to kill people who get in their way, harming or even attempting to kill Pokémon who've pissed them off (they nearly killed the Squirtle Squad with homemade bombs and they clearly weren't planning on letting the Scythers who gave Jessie a new haircut walk away), trying to kill a 10 year old on several occasions, etc.
** Parodied with Meowth of Team Rocket. He has this with Giovanni, even though Giovanni frequently mistreats him and is shown to be ruthless. Meowth {{imagine|Spot}}s him as simply a nice guy with a gruff exterior who likes to go {{shirtless|Scene}}. He also sees himself as competing with Giovanni's pet Persian for attention, although it's clear [[UnknownRival Persian couldn't care less]].

* [[ChildrenAreCruel Silver]], TheRival from the [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver second generation]], gets this a good bit too; he's easily the biggest asshole of the rivals in the series (what with Blue basically just being kind of a brat and petty bully, and the others all being friendly), between stealing from Elm, kicking/punching/shoving you in what is one of the only direct acts of violence from a human in the series, and infamously ''stripping you'' just when you were about to infiltrate a building infested with Team Rocket members, but yet he is one of the most popular and loved within the rivals. However, unlike some other examples it can be justified if the fanwork depicts him in the later parts of or after the events of the game, as he does get a HeelFaceTurn and majorly [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness]] by the end. It helps that he, in the remakes at least, has one of clearest character arcs and CharacterDevelopment of any rival, has a FreudianExcuse in [[spoiler: being [[BigBad Giovanni's]] abandoned son]] with a major InferioritySuperiorityComplex thanks to it (quite possibly the primary reason for his popularity), acts like a {{Tsundere}} towards the end, becomes a borderline doting trainer and has nothing but humble respect for you by the end, has much more of a pretty boy look, and for the less emotional side of the fanbase, the fact that he's such a badass, that people tend to love him. It should be said that when he is discussed, even fans of him almost unanimously agree that he was an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} HateSink initially.

* Paul is easily the biggest {{Jerkass}} among Ash's rivals, releasing any Pokémon that don't meet his standards, insulting Ash at any given opportunity and acting cold toward everyone else he meets, and most notably having his entire team gang up on his Chimchar in an effort to force it into activating its Blaze ability (which is unusually powerful) and then rage-quitting on it and releasing it, effectively abandoning it out of disgust (everything that happened that day and the night before really soured Ash's opinion of Paul). Despite his jerkassery, he has a sizable fanbase that are willing to ship him with Dawn, and others [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming put the blame on his Pokémon for his horrendous treatment of them.)]]

* Paul is easily the biggest {{Jerkass}} among Ash's rivals, releasing any Pokémon that don't meet his standards, insulting Ash at any given opportunity and acting cold toward everyone else he meets, and most notably having his entire team gang up on his Chimchar in an effort to force it into activating its Blaze ability (which is unusually powerful) and then rage-quitting on it and releasing it, effectively abandoning it out of disgust (everything that happened that day and the night before really soured Ash's opinion of Paul). Despite his jerkassery, he has a sizable fanbase that are willing to ship him with Dawn, and others [[VictimBlaming put the blame on his Pokémon for his horrendous treatment of them.)]]

* Before Gary’s HeelFaceTurn when he was still a {{jerkass}}, fans tended to take his side over Ash during the Kanto/Johto arc of the show by justifying his jerkass behavior towards the latter. This is due to the fact that Gary was always one step ahead of Ash. This is also because he was a well skilled trainer that earned 10 badges while Ash didn’t earn 4 of the 8 badges that he had correctly. While Ash had his flaws and was NotSoDifferent, fans are ignoring the fact that Gary was much more arrogant and rude than Ash ever was in the series and that Gary was knocked out of the Kanto league earlier than Ash did.
* Paul is easily the biggest {{Jerkass}} among Ash's rivals, releasing any Pokémon that don't meet his standards, insulting Ash at any given opportunity and acting cold toward everyone else he meets, and most notably having his entire team gang up on his Chimchar in an effort to force it into activating its Blaze ability (which is unusually powerful) and then rage-quitting on it and releasing it, effectively abandoning it out of disgust (everything that happened that day and the night before really soured Ash's opinion of Paul). Despite his jerkassery, he has a sizable fanbase that are willing to ship him with Dawn.
* Harley is often softened up because he's extremely popular and over-the-top, to the point that James even ''said'' he wore leather pants in the PUSA Dub. His sheer flamboyancy garners him quite a fan base, even if in-universe, most attempts at being pleasant are purely manipulation to fulfil his vindictive ([[InsaneTrollLogic and hard to define]]) obsession with destroying a ten year old girl.

* Georgia is more of a downplayed version since she’s only a rival who engages in petty squabbles with Iris (and she admittedly does get better later in the series). Fans tend to take Georgia’s side over Iris and tend to defend her jerkass behavior towards Iris. This is because they see Iris as {{not so different}} from Georgia. This is ignoring the fact that unlike Georgia, Iris is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold that practices good sportsmanship and doesn’t whine and blame others for her losses. Georgia, on the other hand, tends to act more immature and practices poor sportsmanship. Georgia is also a SoreLoser who loves to take the blame off of herself when battles don’t go her way (except for that one time when she actually had a point that Dragonite winning and not Iris).

** Jessie, James, and Meowth. Though they're not without their sympathetic qualities, many fans ignore their clearly unsympathetic actions, like trying to steal a 10 year old's best friend, trying to kill people who get in their way, harming or even attempting to kill Pokémon who've pissed them off (they nearly killed the Squirtle Squad with homemade bombs and they clearly weren't planning on letting the Scythers who gave Jessie a new haircut walk away), trying to kill a 10 year old on several occasions, etc.
*** Parodied with Meowth of Team Rocket. He has this with Giovanni, even though Giovanni frequently mistreats him and is shown to be ruthless. Meowth {{imagine|Spot}}s him as simply a nice guy with a gruff exterior who likes to go {{shirtless|Scene}}. He also sees himself as competing with Giovanni's pet Persian for attention, although it's clear [[UnknownRival Persian couldn't care less]].
** Before Gary’s HeelFaceTurn when he was still a {{jerkass}}, fans tended to take his side over Ash during the Kanto/Johto arc of the show by justifying his jerkass behavior towards the latter. This is due to the fact that Gary was always one step ahead of Ash. This is also because he was a well skilled trainer that earned 10 badges while Ash didn’t earn 4 of the 8 badges that he had correctly. While Ash had his flaws and was NotSoDifferent, fans are ignoring the fact that Gary was much more arrogant and rude than Ash ever was in the series and that Gary was knocked out of the Kanto league earlier than Ash did.
** Paul is easily the biggest {{Jerkass}} among Ash's rivals, releasing any Pokémon that don't meet his standards, insulting Ash at any given opportunity and acting cold toward everyone else he meets, and most notably having his entire team gang up on his Chimchar in an effort to force it into activating its Blaze ability (which is unusually powerful) and then rage-quitting on it and releasing it, effectively abandoning it out of disgust (everything that happened that day and the night before really soured Ash's opinion of Paul). Despite his jerkassery, he has a sizable fanbase that are willing to ship him with Dawn.
** Harley is often softened up because he's extremely popular and over-the-top, to the point that James even ''said'' he wore leather pants in the PUSA Dub. His sheer flamboyancy garners him quite a fan base, even if in-universe, most attempts at being pleasant are purely manipulation to fulfil his vindictive ([[InsaneTrollLogic and hard to define]]) obsession with destroying a ten year old girl.
** Georgia is more of a downplayed version since she’s only a rival who engages in petty squabbles with Iris (and she admittedly does get better later in the series). Fans tend to take Georgia’s side over Iris and tend to defend her jerkass behavior towards Iris. This is because they see Iris as {{not so different}} from Georgia. This is ignoring the fact that unlike Georgia, Iris is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold that practices good sportsmanship and doesn’t whine and blame others for her losses. Georgia, on the other hand, tends to act more immature and practices poor sportsmanship. Georgia is also a SoreLoser who loves to take the blame off of herself when battles don’t go her way (except for that one time when she actually had a point that Dragonite winning and not Iris).

** [[KnightOfCerebus Cyrus]] from ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''/''Platinum'' has quite the fanbase due to his sympathetic backstory... despite the fact that he tries to [[spoiler:destroy the universe and re-shape it using a Legendary Pokemon (Either Dialga, Palkia, or both depending on which version you get) so that he can [[AGodAmI basically become God]]]]. In ''Manga/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'' he manages to redeem himself, starting from when the hero shows compassion towards him. This series is ''hugely'' popular among his fans and Team Galactic fans in general, partially for the more humanised view of the members, though even ''then'' it's made quite clear that they're ''wrong'' in what they're doing.
** [[ChildrenAreCruel Silver]], TheRival from the [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver second generation]], gets this a good bit too; he's easily the biggest asshole of the rivals in the series (what with Blue basically just being kind of a brat and petty bully, and the others all being friendly), between stealing from Elm, kicking/punching/shoving you in what is one of the only direct acts of violence from a human in the series, and infamously ''stripping you'' just when you were about to infiltrate a building infested with Team Rocket members, but yet he is one of the most popular and loved within the rivals. However, unlike some other examples it can be justified if the fanwork depicts him in the later parts of or after the events of the game, as he does get a HeelFaceTurn and majorly [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness]] by the end. It helps that he, in the remakes at least, has one of clearest character arcs and CharacterDevelopment of any rival, has a FreudianExcuse in [[spoiler: being [[BigBad Giovanni's]] abandoned son]] with a major InferioritySuperiorityComplex thanks to it (quite possibly the primary reason for his popularity), acts like a {{Tsundere}} towards the end, becomes a borderline doting trainer and has nothing but humble respect for you by the end, has much more of a pretty boy look, and for the less emotional side of the fanbase, the fact that he's such a badass, that people tend to love him. It should be said that when he is discussed, even fans of him almost unanimously agree that he was an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} HateSink initially.
** Generation I/III Blue sometimes gets this as well; while he isn't ''evil'' by any means, some, especially in the Japanese fanbase, make the mistake that relations between him and [[PlayerCharacter Red]] were perfectly peachy when [[AllThereInTheManual manuals]] [[UsedToBeASweetKid show that to not be the case]], or tone down his {{Jerkass}} qualities despite him being infamous for them. On the western side of things this can get particulary bad with people who believe that his Ratticate died on the S.S. Anne (some going as far as to give Red the RonTheDeathEater treatment), along with some people treating him as a bit of a MemeticBadass, probably in large part due to the reputation of his [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]] counterpart and being the FinalBoss. His more mature OlderAndWiser teenage self in the second generation and their remakes, and a Bishounen look in the latter (and to a lesser extent in the first generation remakes), do not help matters.
** Giovanni himself gets this too, due to him being a rather handsome {{Yakuza}}[=/=][[TheMafia Mafia]] crime boss with [[SharpDressedMan nice clothes to boot]]. In the Japanese fandom this can be seen with the Rocket Executives as well; though they are still acknowledged as ''evil'', they often get turned into more comical versions of themselves like a somewhat more competent version of [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} the Team Rocket Trio]], get their UndyingLoyalty (especially Archer) to Giovanni played as a TearJerker, or both. Note that these are a bunch of Pokemon traffickers, thieves, and murderers, but ''damn'' if Archer isn't loyal to his former boss. This may be at least partially attributable to the anime due to aforementioned TerribleTrio.
** Ghetsis has neither a sympathetic backstory nor redeeming qualities nor outstanding beauty, so it must be his [[MagnificentBastard sheer bastardy charisma]] that earns him so many fangirls. Occasionally he's even depicted as much less of a cruel father than he is in canon. However, even then the majority of the fanbase tends to [[LoveToHate just admire how well he does his job as a villain]] or [[HateSink simply hate his guts]]. [[BrokenBase There is practically no in-between]].
** N may not be a villain, but most fans forget that he was explicitly built up as the main antagonist in the first game, and intentionally antagonized the main character into conflict in most of their meetings. The fanbase's utter adoration and ignorance of his bad qualities, especially when ''Black and White'' was still new, is probably why ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' decided to make him [[KickTheDog much]] [[LackOfEmpathy less]] [[{{Jerkass}} sympathetic]] and amp up the "Jerkass" in JerkassWoobie. However, unlike many other examples and similarly to Silver above, this isn't without basis in canon due to most if not all of his bad actions purely being the result of him being misguided by Ghetsis and his AmbiguousInnocence, with it being shown that the man only ever had good intentions, and by the end of his CharacterDevelopment he becomes much more of a straight-up hero.
** [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Lysandre]] sometimes gets this as well; it is not uncommon for fans to downplay his actions, even depict him hanging around with the main characters, despite the man being ''completely Zubatshit insane''.