Monster / Pokémon

"Stop right there, Zoroark! One step closer and this little one is no more!"

Grings Kodai: I've thoroughly enjoyed playing our little game of tag. However, I already knew it would end this way.
Ash Ketchum: Stop, Kodai! All the trees and flowers will die!
Kodai: What do I care?! As long as my visionary powers grow, it's all worth it!
Ash: So you don't care what happens to Crown City?!
Kodai: It's true that twenty years ago when I touched the Time Ripple, Crown City withered, but no one knows a thing about that, just as no one will know what I've done today. All anyone knows is that I'm doing my level-best to capture the "evil" Pokémon Zoroark. (cackles evilly) VICTORY IS MINE!! (cackles even louder)

—Zoroark: Master of Illusions

Pokémon has existed since the Game Boy era with many hundreds of Pokémon and counting being made for the goal to "Gotta Catch Them All". While most Pokémon are non-malicious, many of the worst villains prove that Humans Are the Real Monsters.

Character names are from the English dub.

Entries in each group are by original release date.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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Video Games

Main Series

• Legends: Arceus: Volo, a seemingly perky yet dissatisfied member of the Ginkgo Merchant Guild, wishes to subdue Arceus and use its power to destroy reality in favor of his own world. To this end, Volo allies with Giratina, having it create the space-time rift, which both drives Pokémon across Hisui into dangerous frenzies and threatens to destroy the world. Manipulating the player into collecting Arceus's Plates, Volo, after revealing his true intentions and being defeated, summons Giratina to kill the player.

Spinoffs

Examples

• Genius Sonority's Nintendo GameCube games:
  • Colosseum: Ein is Cipher's original Mad Scientist and the brains behind the organization's worst crime: the creation of the Shadow Pokémon. After a process that seals off the Pokémon's emotions, the Shadow Pokémon are reduced to unthinking weapons in constant pain, and are so unpredictable that they may even turn on their own Trainers. Ein sees Pokémon as nothing but tools to be abused and exploited, and he tirelessly works to negate any possible way to purify the Shadow Pokémon so they can never be saved from their corrupted states.
  • XD: Gale of Darkness: Ardos, one of the two sons of Cipher's leader Greevil, is the most vicious and fanatical member within an already monstrous organization. As one of Cipher's Co-Dragons, Ardos is one of the primary authorities behind Cipher's worst atrocities, including the mass corruption and proliferation of Shadow Pokémon, and the reduction of entire towns into crime-infested wretched hives. Ardos has the distinction of not only being nastier than his brother Eldes, but his own father Greevil; in his ultimate moment of evil, Ardos attempts to cajole his father into wiping out all of Citadark Isle and every member of Cipher still on the island, all for the sake of killing the protagonist. While Eldes and Greevil redeem themselves, Ardos remains as unrepentant as ever all the way to the post-game, where he vows to rebuild Cipher and hunt down the protagonist at any cost.
• Mystery Dungeon: Explorers: Darkrai serves as the true Big Bad. He was responsible for the collapsing of Temporal Tower that lead to the Bad Future, tortures an innocent child with violent nightmares to lure out the Player Character and their partner, and makes several attempts to assassinate them so he can try his plans again. One of his most heinous acts involves trying to have the heroes willingly commit suicide by tricking them into thinking their existence is threatening the space-time continuum due to time travel shenanigans. A Manipulative Bastard par excellence, he has no regrets for his crimes and wishes nothing more than the complete and utter destruction of the world, just so he can rule the tattered remains.
• Ranger: Guardian Signs: Purple Eyes is the nefarious leader of the Pokémon Pinchers and a true sociopath who eclipses even the Societea in cruel ambition. Kidnapping and brutalizing Rand before the plot and pulling the strings behind Red Eyes and Blue Eyes, Purple Eyes debuts in the midst of holding Rand's family hostage and torturing his young daughter Nema. After he's sold as a lost cause by Dr. Edward, Purple Eyes raids the parts of the Golden Armor from the other Societea members, usurping Dr. Edward's position and controlling Mewtwo into finishing him off—gleefully brushing off Rand's apparent sacrifice once he takes the bullet. Once he's defeated, Purple Eyes allows himself to die with the full knowledge that without the Golden Armor's power, the fortress he and the Rangers are on will plummet into the ocean and create a tsunami powerful enough to wipe out Oblivia and everyone in it. Purple Eyes truly comes into his own in the story's last extra mission; after repeated interrogation, Purple Eyes snaps and decides the only logical course of action is to exterminate all humanity and recreate it as its supreme god, attempting to goad Arceus into killing off all humans whilst leaving himself as their sole survivor.

Anime

The Series continuity

Examples

• The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon: Dr. Yung, aka the Mirage Master, presents himself as a friendly researcher, but he is actually a cold-hearted and petty man who demands absolute perfection in Pokémon. Yung developed the "Mirage System" to create living, intelligent "Mirage" Pokémon that lacked what Yung believed were the natural flaws and weaknesses of real Pokémon, but his flagrant disregard for Pokémon and mistreatment of his Mirages lead to his rejection from the scientific community. Stewing in his hatred and further perfecting his technology, Yung would create Mirage Pokémon only to abuse, enslave, and disregard them if he found the slightest flaws, the greatest example being a Mew who Yung subjects to harsh physical and verbal torment. Luring Professor Oak, Ash, and their friends to his castle, Yung forces Oak to hand over access codes to his network by torturing Pikachu with a mind scanner and threatening the kids with death. Upon creating "Mirage Mewtwo", Yung cruelly has it painfully destroy the rest of his Mirage Pokémon—including Mew, to which Yung smugly declares "Good riddance. Flawed specimen."—and then reveals his plan to spread his Mirage network worldwide and use his Mirage Pokémon to conquer the world, crushing all Pokémon who lack the perfection of his Mirages.
• Diamond and Pearl:
  • Cyrus, leader of Team Galactic, completely lacks the magnificence and genuinely good intentions that defined his game counterpart. Cyrus seeks to use the power of Dialga and Palkia to create a perfect new world at the knowing cost of the old one, and demonstrates a total Lack of Empathy in gathering the components for this plan, at one point ordering the hugely-populated Iron Island destroyed simply to kill Ash Ketchum and his allies. Ultimately, after having employed the equally-ruthless Hunter J toward his cause, Cyrus tortures Dialga and Palkia into creating a "new world" for him, and he promptly attempts to abandon all of Team Galactic to die with the old world so he can experience perfection alone.
  • Pokémon Hunter J is a remorseless poacher of Pokémon who hunts rare Pokémon, petrifying them and selling them on the Black Market. Hunter J has no compunction not only stealing from innocent trainers, but petrifying them as well and leaving them to die. Employed at numerous points during the season to capture innocent Pokémon—including by Cyrus—Hunter J dumps numbers of her own men off her ship without caring if they live or die; happily tortures people; and has her Salamence raze a densely-populated forest just to flush out and kill Ash.
• Films:
  • Zoroark: Master of Illusions: Grings Kodai is a powerful businessman who discovered one of Celebi's Time Ripples. Gaining its power at the price of annihilating the nearby city's plant life, Kodai used this power for his own greed. In the present, Kodai kidnapped a Zoroark's baby Zorua, importing the baby into another region and using blackmail to force Zoroark to terrorize innocents to make himself look good. He intended to renew his abilities by touching the Time Ripple again, at the threat of once again devastating the ecosystem solely for the money. Once Zoroark tracks Kodai down, Kodai threatens Zorua's life, electrocuting it with his gauntlet to almost fatal extents to prove he was serious. Upon being tricked by Zoroark, Kodai loses it and instead electrocutes Zoroark to death in his fury.
  • Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel: Cabinet Minister Alva is a cruel, scheming man who seeks to usurp control of the Azoth Kingdom through force. Alva devised a technique known as the Mega Wave, forcefully and painfully trapping Pokémon in their Mega Forms, using them in his attempt to take the power of Magearna. Alva assures Magearna's compliance by torturing Ash and his friends, before tearing out Magearna's mechanical heart, forcing Racel to watch. Using Magearna's heart to empower his flying fortress, Alva attacks the Nebel Plateau, forcing Magearna to ravage its own home, and spitefully tries to destroy the plateau and everything on it by letting his fortress plunge into it.

Other anime

Examples

• Generations's Generation V episodes: Ghetsis is a cruel, selfish man seeking total world domination, and the driving force behind all the evil acts of Team Plasma. In "The Uprising", Ghetsis has ordered his six chosen Sages to lead an attack on the Unova League, where they attempt to kill the young Iris and all the other Gym Leaders who oppose Team Plasma's effort to take Pokémon away from trainers by force. In "The Frozen World", in order to seize the DNA Splicers, Ghetsis has Sage Zinzolin and his forces launch a terrorist attack on Opelucid City, that's shown to endanger civilian lives and create massive collateral damage as the city gets frozen solid, leaving all in it to suffer. Finally, "The King Returns" sees Ghetsis attempting to freeze all of Unova, using the DNA Splicers to force Reshiram and a controlled Kyurem to fuse, and ordering White Kyurem to directly assault and destroy Ghetsis's own foster son N with an Ice Burn, all to remove any obstacles to his insatiable lust for power.
• Secrets of the Jungle: Dr. Zed is a cruel, egomaniacal scientist seeking the healing power within the Sacred Tree of the Zarude, all to glorify his own ego. With no regard to any life, human or Pokémon, but his own, Dr. Zed murdered his colleagues Chrom and Phossa Molybden by running them off the road, barely missing their infant son Al in the process and cutting the baby off from human civilization for ten years. When he learns Al survived years later, Zed tracks him to the Sacred Tree, lays waste to the forest, and attempts to desolate the entire colony of Zarude so he can rip the healing power right from its source.

Manga

Examples

• Adventures makes the following villains much, much worse than in the games and anime:
  • Yellow: Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four was the brains behind the group's operations and its one truly vile member. Desiring to settle a petty grudge against Professor Samuel Oak and prove that only the truly strong trainers can spearhead the future of Pokémon, Agatha coaxed Lorelei into becoming her protégé by playing on her trauma, spurred Lance's desire to Kill All Humans, and brainwashed the honorable Bruno. Agatha was also particularly sadistic in her methods, such as nearly killing her own pawns; threatening the life of an innocent child accompanying Blue; trying to drain the life from Blue and Koga; and mentally enslaving armies of Pokémon into being living weapons for terrorist attacks on cities. Unlike her comrades, Agatha's motives are entirely self-centered, and she never plays fair in a fight.
  • Black & White & Black 2 & White 2: Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius is the leader of Team Plasma, posing as a kind person seeking Pokémon freedom from trainers, but is in truth a sociopath who plans to disarm trainers and exploit Pokémon so that he can conquer Unova and from there the world. Viewing his son N only as a tool, Ghetsis raised N in an isolated environment and groomed him to be the hero of legend later, savagely beating N with his cane when N opposed him. Ghetsis also used hypnosis on several people, making them release their Pokémon companions. When battling Black, Ghetsis attempts to have the boy and all his Pokémon burned alive by flames, and then has them sealed inside the Light Stone. Ghetsis later captures Kyurem and forces it to decimate many cities, freezing populated areas solid, planning to cover the entire continent in ice. Ghetsis is willing to kill anyone who opposes him, even his own son, to the point where he self-destructs the Plasma Frigate to end his own life and the lives of everyone on board, including thousands of captive Pokémon.
• Diamond and Pearl Adventure!: Charon, while bad in Pokémon Platinum, is worse here. He introduces himself by ordering his agents to suicide bomb a crowded stadium, the explosion potentially destroying the whole town were it to spread. He holds no regard for the lives of others and plans to control the world with money made from selling legendary Pokémon, as well as to extort more money from the masses by threatening them with the power of Giratina. He also conducts nasty experiments on Pokémon that shuts off their hearts and essentially turns them into living weapons, Koya's Growlithe being among his victims, and we see him use a bunch of Skuntank under Mind Control as explosive weapons against the opposing trainers. Charon doesn't even treat his colleagues within Team Galactic well, as he captures the organization's previous leader, Cyrus, and tries to kill two of his top officers when they leave to find him. Cyrus goes on to rally the remaining agents against Charon, despite he himself previously trying to destroy the universe. Thinking only of himself the whole way through, Charon ends the series the sole character to reject The Power of Friendship as a concept and thus ends up thoroughly irredeemable.
• Phantom Thief Pokémon 7: Io is a ruthless Team Galactic member who won't hesitate to eliminate anyone, even her own subordinates, and treats her Pokémon as little more than weapons that she can hurt and use to hurt. Five years prior to the story, Io kidnapped Hiori's twin sister, Lily, when both kids were only 5 years old. Io conducted experiments on Lily's mind that wiped her memory of her old life and then brainwashed her into being a member of Team Galactic. When Lily gets her memory back and turns against Team Galactic, Io takes her frustration out on her henchman by having her Pokémon attack him, calling him worthless before attempting to kill both Lily and her brother. Io sought to usurp control within Team Galactic and then Take Over the World by using Darkrai's Hypnosis to enslave the minds of every living being. When warned that this could also ravage the planet and cover it in darkness, Io doesn't care so long as she can reign supreme.
• Arceus and the Jewel of Life manga adaptation, by Makoto Mizobuchi: Markus lacks the redeeming qualities of his anime counterpart. A manipulative Godhood Seeker, Markus seeks to kill Arceus in order to become a god himself, uncaring and ungrateful that Arceus nearly gave its life to save humanity. Unwilling to put himself in danger, Markus hypnotizes his own ally Damos to have him do the deed instead; this only results in Arceus killing both Damos and Markus in rage. When Ash and company arrive from the far future and Markus learns of his impending death, Markus immediately changes his scheme, using the lethal "silver water" to almost kill Arceus in a bid to rewrite history and become omnipotent. Foiled again in this, Markus blows up the temple they're fighting within so he can take the dozens of people and Pokémon still inside to the grave with him.

Other Media

• Pokémon 4Ever: The Voice of the Forest, by Howie Dewin: Iron Mask is an exceptionally vicious agent of Team Rocket who schemes to claim Celebi's power for himself. Introduced burning the camp of a hunter and threatening the lives of many Pokémon to extort information, Iron Mask uses his "Dark Ball" technology to corrupt Pokémon into his slaves. Later capturing and torturing Celebi into submission, Iron Mask reacts to Ash trying to save Celebi by crushing Ash's fingers under his boot until the boy faints from the pain. Iron Mask then forces Celebi to begin ravaging the very forest it has always protected, endangering the lives of hundreds of Pokémon while Iron Mask proclaims his intent to take over Team Rocket, then the whole world. When Ash and his friends stage another rescue, Iron Mask tries to force Celebi to torture and kill the children.

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