Underrated Bad Guy Blurbs - Pokemon
Cipher Admins, Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale Of Darkness - Cipher is particularly vile and horrifying among evil groups in Pokemon games, as they’re like a wannabe Illuminati-type society that aspires to become rich and powerful enough to overtake the government of their region, and possibly the world, and the means they turn to involve experimenting on Pokemon, mentally enslaving them, corrupting their hearts with a dark force and turning them into mindless living weapons that they can turn against not only other Pokemon, but people as well. Heck, Cipher isn’t above using their own tools or bare hands to assault trainers in order to steal their Pokemon for turning into Shadow Pokemon. Also unsettling is that, due to their aspirations, many of their members are already in high ranking official positions outside of the group - Ein is a researcher, Miror B. is a club owner, Lady Venus is a public celebrity, Nascour runs a Colosseum, Snattle is a politician, even Evice is literally the mayor of Orre’s central city. Really makes you question who you can trust.
I have Ein up there as the image ‘cause he’s the one who developed the Shadow Pokemon creation process in the first place during his research and is constantly experimenting with it in order to perfect it just to show that he can. He’s my favorite Cipher Admin. along with his little protege Lovrina from the second game. I also am particularly fond of the creepy, gorgon looking Nascour, the effete, Poke’ Ball colored afro wearing disco dancer Miror B., and the crooked politician Snattle. Also have a soft spot for Cipher Peon Naps, Lovrina’s brother.
Gelardan, Pokemon The Movie 2000: The Power Of One - This antagonist from the second anime movie doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of depth to his character based on what you see on the surface. He’s just some obsessive, eccentric collector of rare Pokemon-related art and artifacts who’s totally misread an ancient prophecy and is objectifying four Legendary flying type Pokemon to add to his vast collection, and whose emotional range consists only of being affable, smug, and only sometimes surprised or angry. There’s actually a lot more to him than that. Supplementary material only in Japan gives his backstory of how his mother passed away when he was still young and the Ancient Mew card is his one keepsake of her, making it the one thing tying him still to her, but Gelardan also wanted to be his own person and make a life for himself. So he made the card only the start of a much larger collection that he’d surround himself with as a sort of retreat into his own little world isolated from others. Many speculate that he’s somewhere on the Autism Spectrum given his antisocial nature, general nerdishness and eccentricities, and hobby of collecting things akin to Satoshi Tajiri himself. When he obtained the tablet with the prophecy carved onto it, he misread it as meaning that there was no specific Chosen One other than the one who could make the prophecy happen (thus making HIM the Chosen One), that disturbing the three elements and making them clash, which would endanger the planet, would be okay to do so long as it’s him, the “Chosen One”, doing it, and that if he collected all three Legendary Birds (Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres), their strength combined could “tame the Beast of the Sea”, which he figured meant Lugia, who he wanted as the crown jewel of his collection (as opposed to it literally meaning the sea gets treacherous and threatens to flood the Earth).
The character’s name in the original version is Jirarudan, translated as Gelardan for English. However, all official side material name the character “Lawrence III” for some reason. I’d rather thank of that as a pseudonym for Gelardan, as it being his actual name is stupid and raises too many questions about why he’s the third Lawrence and who were the first two.
In Japan, he also has his own image song. And it is KICK ASS.
Lance, Pokemon Adventures - Lance the Dragon Master is always an intimidating looking figure and a powerful trainer, but only the Pokemon Adventures manga has ever turned him into an outright villain. But he made for one of the coolest Pokemon villains ever. This manga’s version of Lance was written almost as a proto-N and proto-Lysandre all in one - he has a natural empathy for Pokemon, especially Dragon types, and has always hated the various ways in which humans have made Pokemon suffer from their many vices and thoughtless ways. So with some goading from Agatha (who herself is motivated by a desire to prove her “elite strength trumps knowledge and heart” mentality correct), Lance seeks to eradicate all humans on his home continent save for the chosen elites (the Elite Four and all trainers who serve under them) so that the continent can become a paradise for Pokemon to be forever guarded by the elites, the “superior” humans who “truly” care about Pokemon.
He was as much of a badass villain as you’d expect from a guy with his look, his style, his Pokemon type and strength, and the whole set-up of his goals and motivations. He quit pursuing any active villainy after he got his very life nearly zapped out of him by big attack from Yellow’s Pikachu, giving Lance a great fear of Yellow and what she’s capable of from then on. He also mentored Silver at Dragon’s Den in his hometown of Blackthorn City, and over time he learned to let go of his hang-ups and hatred towards humankind, seeing a future where trainers and Pokemon could co-exist and help each other live their best lives.
The one part about Lance I’m not crazy about is how his powers are explained and how he was connected to the Virdian Forest despite canonically NOT being a trainer from Viridian. Apparently his family is from Blackthorn City in the Johto, but Lance’s mother gave birth to him while on a trip in Kanto, in the Viridian Forest. It really seems a contrived way for Kusaka to cover his goof-up of having deemed Lance a Virdian Trainer just so he can realistically pose a threat to Kusaka’s OP original heroine, Yellow. It doesn’t help that the “enhanced natural empathy for Pokemon” powers for trainers from the Viridian Forest was a dumb idea to start with, as the idea had already just been brought forth for trainers from Pallet Town rather than Viridian Forest, and N has these abilities without any stated Viridian connection!
