With great power comes great responsibility. Pokemon are an extremely great power, and there are plenty of villains out there with no responsibility. Across the franchise, plenty of Pokemon villains have had crack-pot schemes in need of foiling by a ten-year-old kid. Thankfully, one is always on hand to save the day, and none of them ever succeed.

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Not all evil schemes are created equal, though. As the franchise has continued to expand, so too have the baddies' plans. From stealing and selling Pokemon, all the way to creating a brand new universe, some villains dream far grander than others.

Updated December 23, 2021, by Ryan Woodrow: As the series marches forward and the games move into later and later Generations, Game Freak is constantly trying to find new ways to make Pokemon villains stand out from each other. It is as yet unclear who or what will be the main antagonist of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, but if it is a human character they will have to be doing something pretty crazy if they want to stand out amongst the current crowd. Whether they want to destroy the world, rule it, or create a new one just for themselves, these Pokemon villains take evil to a whole new level.

9 Archer - Gold/Silver/Crystal

Pokemon Archer

Archer is the personification of the phrase "lack of imagination". After Giovanni was defeated in Red & Blue, Archer found himself at the head of Team Rocket. He became the man who held all the power in a massive crime syndicate.

So what does Archer do with this power? Beg Giovanni to return. He does some evil things along the way, like cutting off Slowpoke tails or taking over the radio station, but it's just to put a call out and beg Giovanni to return and take his place back at the top. It's nice that the organization respects their former leader, but Archer could've done so much more with the position he found himself in.

Archer has never had much imagination for his Pokemon, either. In Gold, Silver & Crystal, he has just three Pokemon, which isn't going to be very effective. A Koffing, a Houndour, and a Houndoom aren't going to be very intimidating to players at such a late stage in the game's story, especially when their levels are only in the low 30s.

8 Lusamine - Sun/Moon

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Lusamine at least follows her own ambitions and succeeds for the most part, but matters are soon taken out of her hands. Lusamine's evils are more personal than a wish to destroy the world. Her mother complex pushes her to a dark place while looking for the Ultra Beasts, and she pays the price for it.

While she does some pretty reprehensible things in the build-up, her motivations aren't super evil, and she ends up getting possessed anyway. Additionally, she's one of the only Pokemon villains to repent at the end and become a better person eventually. In fact, in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, she was booted out of the main villain role by a far more evil foe.

Lusamine's team during her final battle is a pretty formidable bunch. Interestingly, in this battle, every Pokemon has one of their stats automatically boosted in the battle due to Lusamine's effect after having merged with Nihilego. With five Pokemon at Level 50, Lusamine will be putting a lot of pressure on players at this point in the game.

7 Giovanni - Red/Blue/Green

Pokemon Giovanni and Mewtwo

Giovanni is absolutely an iconic Pokemon villain and is still considered by many to be the gold standard of the franchise. However, when compared to the plots of the villains that came after him, he doesn't seem as bad. When it comes to the look and aura of a villain, Giovanni has it all, but stealing and selling Pokemon looks like a pretty basic plot in the modern era.

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He's still an extremely evil guy. The problem is, when the rest of the franchise has stories about the world being destroyed, the Pokemon Mafia doesn't seem like that big of a deal anymore. He eventually reaches that level in the Team Rainbow Rocket arc of Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, but by definition, that is not the same Giovanni who loses to Red in the originals.

Giovanni's Pokemon team is interesting because, in Red & Blue, he takes the role of the game's final Gym Leader. On the surface, his team looks quite imposing, but they're not actually all that tough. Since he is a Gym Leader, his team is themed by type, which means that it can be swept with a well-trained Pokemon of just about any type that Ground is weak to.

6 Chairman Rose - Sword/Shield

Rose is a pretty underwhelming villain for Sword & Shield. He does some grand things, but he's a pretty boring character, especially when compared to his sidekicks. What puts him as a less evil villain is that, although misguided, he does what he does for understandable reasons.

It's made very clear throughout the story that an energy crisis is going to hit the Galar region at some point in the future, and Rose wants to prevent it. The way he does this is absolutely the worst route he could've taken, but he's not doing it just for kicks like other villains.

Rose's team leaves a lot to be desired. Much like Giovanni, he suffers from the weakness of only using a single type (in this case, Steel), although he does a slightly better job covering his weaknesses. Ferrothorn can be a pain to deal with if it's allowed to stick around, and the Gigantamax Copperajah is a challenge if players have already used their Dynamax turns, but other than that, he's not too challenging.

5 Archie & Maxie - Ruby/Sapphire/Emerlad

Pokemon Adventures: Archie & Maxie Looking Very Evil

These two Pokemon villains, while manacing, seem to have rather short-sighted plans. For one thing, they steal the wrong colored orb for the Pokemon they're trying to awaken. It surely doesn't take a genius to figure out that the blue Pokemon is controlled with the blue orb, not the red one (and vice versa), but apparently, these two couldn't see it.

On top of that, their misguided fantasies about what having more land/ocean would do for the world is quite dumb. Either there's nowhere for people to live, or everyone dies because there's way less water. What they were doing was definitely very evil, but it's hard to tell how much of that evil was intentional.

For people so diametrically opposed, their teams are similarly disappointing. Both sport a Mightyena and a Crobat, which aren't particularly tough Pokemon to deal with. The difference is Archie uses a Sharpedo, whereas Maxie uses a Camerupt. Which one is more difficult to deal with entirely depends on which Starter Pokemon the player chose.

4 Lysandre - X/Y

Lysandre is one of the weirder villains in the franchise. His motivations are very hard to understand. He talks about wanting to make a more beautiful world but thinks killing everyone is the way to go about it. Additionally, he's extremely helpful to the player in their efforts to stop him. He has all the tools at his disposal to keep the player away from his plans but chooses not to use any of them. He even says as much to the player at certain points.

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As far as evil goes, killing all the people and Pokemon not aligned with him is among the upper limits of how evil a person can be. What's even weirder, though, is that he discovers the secret to eternal life, and no one seems to care. Sure, people wouldn't use it because death is needed to power it, but at least a couple of people should be a bit curious. At the end of the day, Lysandre is far outshone by his anime counterpart.

Despite X and Y's reputation as the easiest games in the franchise, Lysandre's team looks fairly impressive at a glance. Mienshao, Honchkrow and Pyroar all have their own challenges to deal with and cover each other's weaknesses to a certain extent. Then there's the Gyarados, which can Mega-Evolve. The only problem that makes this battle not so tricky is that the player will have just caught Xerneas or Yveltal and added it to their team. Having a Legendary Pokemon on the team is sure to make a battle like this a bit of a breeze.

3 Necrozma - Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon

While Legendary Pokemon do some pretty horrible things in most games, they're very rarely acting of their own willpower. The human villain controls or manipulates them somehow to work for them. This is not the case for Necrozma, though. It acts entirely of its own free will and seeks destruction.

What makes Necrozma, such an evil Pokemon is that players get to see Ultra Megalopolis, a world where Necrozma succeeded in removing all light. It's perhaps the most terrifying a Pokemon has ever acted in one of the games, subduing and possessing Solgaleo/Lunala at a key point in the story. It's also one of the toughest boss fights in franchise history. It took a long time for a Pokemon to truly be the villain of the story, but it was worth the wait.

Uniquely, since Necrozma is a Pokemon, it doesn't have any kind of team in its battle. The player just has to battle Necrozma. In its Ultra form, it is an incredibly strong opponent and accounts for the power of an entire team on its own.

2 Ghetsis - Black/White/Black 2/White 2

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When it comes to being evil for the sake of being evil, Ghetsis has all the bases covered. He knows that he's the bad guy, and he doesn't care. He'll lie and manipulate anyone if it gets him closer to his goal. Black & White is where his actions are most evil because he manipulates N in a truly horrible way.

N is an odd character himself, but he gives the impression of someone pure of heart and good at his very core. However, Ghetsis convinces him of dreams he has no intention of fulfilling just to get his way. His dream to be the only person in possession of Pokemon is all kinds of horrible, and it only gets worse considering he's using Team Plasma's "no Pokemon for anyone" philosophy to cover for it.

Ghetsis is easily the best Pokemon villain when it comes to his team in battle. His Black 2 & White 2 team has a lot to love about it, but the real main event is his team from the originals. Here, he is the final boss in the main game, and he lives up to that spot. Even though the player will have the Legendary Reshiram or Zekrom on their team, Ghetsis' Hydreigon can cut through them like butter, so players will have to be at their absolute best to come out victorious in this fight.

1 Cyrus - Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Cyrus pokemon platinum villain

Cyrus is a very intimidating Pokemon villain purely because he had rid himself of emotion and spirit. That is the world Cyrus seeks to create for himself too. Through his orders, Team Galactic does some of the worst things any evil team has done. They let off multiple bombs in locations where Pokemon were thriving. Torture the trio of Lake Guardians to create the Red Chain and then use it to control Dialga and Palkia.

What makes it even worse is that Cyrus is doing all this whilst lying to his followers about why. They believe Cyrus is looking to take them to a new world where they can thrive as one, when in reality, he just wants to destroy the existing world and create a new one, just for himself, in its place. Weirdly, in Platinum, he sort of gets his way. He elects to remain in the Distortion World, as it has that spiritless, hopeless vibe that he was searching for.

Despite Cyrus' insanely evil intentions, his Pokemon aren't the best. His Diamond & Pearl team is laughable, but in Platinum, it gets a significant upgrade for the final battle in the Distortion World. That said, the common thread of Dark and Flying-type throughout the team will mean he's not a challenge for trainers who come prepared.

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