Giovanni is the scariest Pokémon villain, and there is no contest |  

It's wild to me that *half* of the Kanto Gym Leaders have probably killed a LOT of people. (Surge, Sabrina, Koga, Giovanni), two of which are probably STILL actively killing people when you encounter them.

Poor kid fell into the convient acid vat™️, we couldn't stop him in time, we couldn't do a thing 😪

​@@kevingriffith6011 Pokemon are inherently dangerous, the games are always viewed from the eyes of **children brainwashed by society** into spending their childhood fighting off said beasts, the strongest maintaining their control of their area to make sure nothing gets out of hand, otherwise it you fail and become a normal person than you get a normal job. It may not meant to be viewed in the light of an endless cycle of violence perpetuated by society, but ultimately that's what it is.

​@@kevingriffith6011where is it implied that sabrina has killed people?

Just imagine if you accepted to be a Team Rocket member after crossing the bridge at Cerulean City, and the game turns into how you become a villain surpassing Giovanni's status

I find this take really interesting, I never got to play Gen 1 as a kid so I can’t ever get kid me's perspective on this. I don’t know if I found Giovanni scary in any of the remakes, anime, or cameos though. Pokemon BW Ghetsis was the scariest to me by far, cause he made me feel like his group and he had a point - till he turned out to be an absolute madman and bad dad.

To me he was always especially scary because he was so unremarkable. Like, if Giovanni was defeated, literally anyone could take his place; the system will always produce a new villain.

​@@EvistophelesSo I can only go off my memories but he never scared me as a kid. However team rocket in general was like real world evil where most other bad guy teams / leaders are a bit more comic book or Saturday morning cartoon evil. Like the rocket grunt sprite was a skinny guy in all black with this crazy whip. They really seemed like real world evil people who attack people and steal endangered animals. Other gens can take on more serious issues or bigger world endings plots but team rocket being a bunch of dudes in all black with whips and taking people hostage or killing Pokemon just makes their villainy much more personal than world endings events. They also used a lot of the gen 1 mons with the most evil looking sprites. Like look up golbat for example. It all combined to just give them an actual feeling of menace. Im sure as a child I couldn't articulate all of this but I definitely agree with OP.

Team Rocket Crimes in the games: Gen 1: A. Celadon's game corner is actually run by Team Rocket. suddenly makes sense where they get all that cash. B. They have an influence over Silph Co. The leading bussiness enterprise that specialize tech research. They made the master ball for the purpose of catching the strongest of pokemon. C. Having strong pokemon is the same as having deadly weapons. No one can challenge you if you have the strongest pokemon. so they conduct bio-engineered weapons research ie: Mewtwo. Gen 2: A. Selling slowpoke tails sounds a lot like animal explotation. B. researching on distruptive ways to force pokemon evolution sounds like animal testing IRL. C. and ofc, the hostile takeover of a radio station would be a terrorist act.

It taught me that no one special has to be bad, but someone good is really amazing and special for that. To overcome these things in the world, you will have to work hard and become great. With so many that you fight you get this feeling they will never stop coming so you have to be prepared.

💀💀💀

I hate that I can't refute this

He clearly tripped over the ledge Earthquake?! - Yeah, its a real Natural Disaster and Kanto is prone to them, you telling me you think its just a move, the brains on this guy

Thats right ... In the water

​@@JobenJP but what's under the water?

I am not sure what is more shaking, the fact that you emphasized the "more," as if to imply this is old hat, or that Skyen doesn't aside from the tone drop in that entire sentence, as if to imply this is just Tuesday.

I can't believe more people haven't praised that line and delivery

Yeah ngl that was really well done Felt like something a murderer (albeit a rather dramatic one) would actually say, down to the tone and all

It we ever get a rated T Pokemon game they have to use that line.

Straight up intimidating.

If pokemon gets a reboot, I want that line in the game 😈

Ehh, kind of.... In the pokemon manga, about half of Kanto's gym leaders, and I believe the entirety of the E4 actually are under his thumb. But that got MAJORLY toned down for the anime and games. Still agree he is absolutely epic though.

@@arrowb.8438 imagine gaining control over half the countries military before anyone even notices, you’re doing it

@@extremetech7096 that's how a lot of coups start.

Honestly, it's one of the best things and the Mewtwo movies just enchanced how much damage he done.

Also Gen 1 is one of the games with the best narrative pacing - Most Pokemon games have a problem of the A-plot - becoming the regional champion - having inherently lower stakes than the B-plot - the villain team. Gen 1's villain team having lower stakes - Not trying to take over the world or cause an ecological disaster, but... An organized crime syndicate - helps with this, but the real win is that you resolve it in the 8th gym. Right before the Elite 4, making the narrative climax and the gameplay climax right beside each other. There are other generations with as good (or slightly better) narrative pacing - Gen 5's first pair of games in particular comes to mind - but this is one of the few areas where Gen 1 is knocking it out of the park.

It's incredibly appropriate and isn't super obvious unlike other villians, "mafia runs the local government" is an iconic trope and it fits so well that Pokemon would use it as the final bossfight before end game.

remember even the gen1 trainer profile has the 8th gym leader blacked out

Also the underlying implications that the Pokemon League is corrupt

This saves me a comment. Ghetsis posturing and acting because he's a politician is a lot more interesting. Though I do quite like Cyrus still as a mid point of the two.

@@davidtowers1863 Unfortunately, I found Cyrus a lot less compelling on recent replay. He is still menacing in his own right, but compared to Ghetsis, who has very clearly succeeded in selling the lie to his followers, the Team Galaktik grunts (and largely leaders) are just idiots who follow for no reason. Cyrus has convinced them with his charisma, I suppose, but they're not idealogues beleving in a lie the same way team plasma is.

Ghetsis is the only character to actively try and murder the player

He plays at being a cartoon character but in actuality he's an extremely malevolent and successful cult-leader. He's a monster, Giovanni is just a dude.

​@@swampert564 Hey, this "dude" is also the leader of what is literally the pokemon equivalent of the mafia

I'm of the opinion that he actually did a good thing for Silver by keeping as far away from Team Rocket business as possible. Granted, if he really wanted the best possible future for his son he'd send him to Mr. Fuji.

And yet somehow he's still not the worst dad among the Pokémon villains.

@@swampskald2462mt moon has some really strong pokemon , beginners are ill-advised

@@lpk675Worst parent period*. Both comically, and depressingly, there are worst parents in the Pokémon universe.

Vergil must be proud

yet despite his menacing looks. being defeated by you he folds, running away. then when you confront him as the eighth gym leader, he declares his entire empire he built is done for, fucks off, then when he's about to answer the call to his minions 2 years later, another time-traveling child shows him why he can't. that last time has basically sealed it. i know, the team rainbow rocket thing, but that's a different giovanni entirely, having successfully captured silph co. and the master ball project. even after being defeated by you all these different times, he doesnt even make an ATTEMPT on your life. some mob boss.

well one of those "goons" was the mother of his son, and if hes a mobster thats kinda that works. Its not intimidation that kept them going, its crime literally running in "da family".

​@supersmashbro596 to be fair, if Pokemon had am M rating, he definitely would

I never thought of it that way and I've been watching it since it first aired on TV in the late 90s lol 😅 The Team Rocket trio were always my favorite 🤣😂

Considering James comes from a rich family, I always thought Giovanni was doing someone a favour keeping Jessie and James, while simultaneously keeping them well away from the more sensitive team rocket projects.

@@ambion19 Pretty much. If I remember correctly, Jessie's mom was Giovanni's mom's favorite agent so he also likely kept her around as a favor to his own mom.

@@jasonsmith6219 "I keep those idiots outta my hair, but in a way that won't disappoint my 'ma."

​@@ambion19 To be fair, aside from flukes, Jessie and James have proven to be effective at everything they do except catching Pikachu and being a Chansey.

Twist villain, stupid costume, shows up with ham fisted philosophy nope we're not sleeping on anything.

Oh, he absolutely did, but there’s a point to be made about how over the top he is. Just because unfortunately there IS cartoonish evil in the world that Ghetsis fits right into, doesn’t dull the point Skyen is making about how real-feeling and dangerous Giovanni is.

Yeah. I was shocked when he tried to murder the player character with Kyurem in Black 2/White 2

​@@macabrecitrus2127he physically & emotionally abuses N in the manga

Yeah, he loses his shit and tries to straight up murder a kid. Ghetsis is crazy as hell.

There's 'things not going your way' and then there's losing to a child. ...three times.

Giovanni: Pulls out a gun to shoot you instead of battling The Incontestable Psychic Might of Professor Oak: There's a time and place for everything, but not now.

He's the one who challenges you, expecting full well to beat you up, take your Pokemon away and has his Kangaskhan Comet Punch you before throwing you in a back away somewhere, not even caring whether you survive or not. If he can't beat a kid (or two), repeatedly, he's clearly getting bad at his job, and should try to find another business to invest into instead. Again, he's not a super villain, just a regular mob boss.

​@@RorikH oak's power scaling 💹💹

Yeah, also, Ghetsis straight up attempts to murder the player in B2W2 Like, there is no ambiguity, he was fully willing to _kill a child_ in order to get his way, and the only reason he doesn't is because N saves you Giovanni _looks_ like the scariest villain, but Ghetsis is the only one who has attempted murder

Which honestly considering how much of a reach he already had from the start, it's ludicrous to think of him willingly giving up and disbanding Team Rocket after losing to Red a few times, instead of training even harder to regain his dominance... It's little wonder remnants of Team Rocket by Gold/Silver were hoping it was a joke and why his son Silver is so pissed off at him.

I mean, he got beat by a kid. I think he gave him a perspective. He wasn’t cut out for it. He took the L. What would be interesting as what would he do if confronted with these other villains? He is not some world ender. He needs the world to exist. And that’s was scary about him more than the others for you to exist in this world where you’re happy there will always be someone like him there. You can’t defeat him, someone will always take that place, and it could be someone right outside your home. He is the best villain in terms of representing to a kid actual danger in the world. Not some fantasy, super villain with maniacal world ending plan. People are all defending these other characters, but that’s the point of the video trying to make. It be cool to see Giovanni going a good guy art or antihero. He’d be an actual antihero stopping people like this to preserver a world he can rule a heavy fist over.

Would've been insane if Giovanni at one point said to Red, "You're from Pallet Town aren't you? It would be a shame if something were to happen to your family if you continue to get in Team Rockets way or challenge my gym." Though I would imagine that in universe, the only reason he doesn't make a threat like that is because he knows Pallet Town has the former most powerful Trainer in Kanto, Prof. Oak. And someone as informed as Giovanni knows of Prof. Oak's past and probably wouldn't dare cross him by trying to attack one of his pupil's family members. But there's also the simple chance Giovanni didn't know Red was from Pallet Town which completely disregards everything I just said.

PMD is better than the main games, I've always felt that in my soul 💜💙💚 except for the gen5 one we can ignore that one. The Mystery Dungeon series never got enough love

@@evangeloevoxi Oh, I agree with that. I havent played them all, but every one I have finished had me crying over the end credits. They always had some seriously hard hitting stories, with genuine stakes that have a tendency of contrasting sharply by the fact you are playing as a cute, fuzzy animal living in a house shaped like your head.

My man!!! YES !! Best pokemon villian reveal.

The first two were better storywise. The rest are mediocre at best

And one of the secondary villain in the series is a freaking Nuzleaf

He's a legitimate businessman after all

Guzma is a street punk, and for that he's respectable, he found a bunch of kids who were neglected and abused like he was and brought them together intent to cause trouble for the society that turned its back on them. Honestly, I wonder what would happen if Guzma met a still clearly Mafia Don Giovanni, would the crime boss see some spunk in the kid and decide to teach him a thing or two or would the Boss of Kanto decide this loud and brash kid needed to be taught a lesion his punk friends would never forget.

I like to imagine Guzma's plan to take over that town was to annoyingly handgesture the hell out of its citizens until they decided enough was enough and packed their bags.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Guzma is only an antagonist by name because of how much spite he's filled with. He even actively helps the player when Team Rainbow Rocket make their way into the Aether Foundation.

@@SorcererLance Yeah, I mean, his motivation basically amounts to, "Fuck you Kukui, I'm gonna have fun with my crew and y'all can eat my entire ass! ...Also I love my bugs."

@@HyperfixationWizardspeaking of team rainbow rocket it’s insane the only time giovani is truly over the top he a leader of an inter dimensional enterprise

How crazy would it be for Larry to be the true villain of Scarlet/Violet?

@@SorcererLance dun dun dun…..sparce

At the end of the day, Giovanni DOES have a legitimate job: he's the Viridian City Gym Leader. That's a job that clearly implies some level of legitimacy; maybe he's not the equivalent of the mob boss running an illegal casino, maybe he's more like the government minister that's dealing behind the table.

Team rocket was originally based on yakuza, so yeah that's exactly how it goes, they have some legit business on top of their not legit ones. Or used to at least.

That's more or less how they operate in the manga I believe.

Something I value Team Rocket and Gen 1 very highly for is that in this honestly utopian world, there still exists the mafia. Because it grounds this otherwise cartoonish world. There are genuine businesses, there are shady businesses, and this rather mundane organisation has a hand in both. That's something later Generations abandon, for better or for worse. But Gen 1 will always be special because it is so comprehensible. So. Ordinary.

I like to believe Team Rocket started out as protection against Pokemon, and eventually got too powerful and morphed into the mafia.

Funny enough in the B2W2 arc ghetsis freezes the protagonists of that arc and chucks them in the ocean.

@@lunerblade13 Poetry.

Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon did reveal there is a multiverse where each evil team leader did succeed in their respective worlds as Giovanni gathered them up to form Team Rainbow Rocket... So yeah, in theory, your multiverse scenario could have happened somewhere

@@SorcererLancealso, wasn’t that one also an alternate universe one?

On one hand, yes, it's absolutely menacing. On the other hand, everyone in Team Rocket is like "oop, you defeated my single Zubat. guess i'll just let you destroy our whole operation."

​@@ItsAGhostPartydo you wanna be on the recieving end of an army of dogs that can shoot laser beams

​@@ItsAGhostParty I mean, if a kid with a supernatural dragon-like beast just beat my supernatural bat, bird and/or dog, I'll for fucking sure not be the next one to throw hands with it, I'm out-

@@ItsAGhostPartyif fairness, many Pokémon are tougher and sometimes faster than guns

If there's even an ounce of truth to some of the Pokedex entries and random lore in the world maps, then a monster putting a kid to sleep with the Magikarps would be comparatively mundane.

Patience. Three gens to get to him. I think there's a reason Cyrus wasn't in the collage of Saturday morning cartoon villains. That said: I'm more scared of his great grandmother...

@@esosique5I think you would find him more scary if you see him take a draco meteor head on by Cynthia then see him survive the meteor shower calling her lacking in its weak display.

Meanwhile in the games he gets scared of the shadow centipede dragon that Cynthia's great-gramps enslaved

I'd say his strongest feature is his design more than anything else

@@esosique5what are ya talking about, his great grandmother is a cutie also cares a lot about you

"was" "had" ...are... they ok?

@@SorcererLance Well, they were in their 60s and 70s 20 years ago. They've all passed on. From old age, mind you!

He successfully won in his own alternate universe, but it somehow wasn't enough as his aspirations became as ludicrously high as Team Galactic by deciding to join up with the other Team Leaders who also succeeded in their own multiverses.

Yeah. I honestly felt like he was just trying to teach us a lesson about staying out of adult matters. He never seemed like the type to murder children. Adults, yeah, but he never makes us fight for our survival like Ghetsis did.

​@Forestdude-be6ud Well Silver wouldve been 7 at that point. Prob some shreds of kindness, even if twisted by his criminal mindset

Honestly, one simple thing could have been making the player lose and start over if they lose to him Like he took your pokemons away, as promised

I advise you to read the manga then, cuz in the games? yea he is kinda wimpy.... But in manga? He is much more viscous.

Agree. Also, yes, he became over-the-top in BW2 but that's because his first plan failed, it took him 10+ years of preparation since he had to raise N since he was a kid, in "The Plan" episode we can hear how he had to 'keep his silence' and lay low for years to make sure that everything went according to his machinations. Then... He lost it all. Primarily thanks to a random teenager who popped out of nowhere. It's safe to say he also lost his sanity, and the God complex was already there. Since he was found out, when he eventually returned he had no reason to play the role of the 'False prophet' again, he lost all his temper and wanted what he thought was rightfully his with no playing around, no more years wasted. From a design standpoint, I like both of his costumes, the BW2 one may be too 'edgy', but it's to tell the viewer that Ghetsis finally decided to show his real colors, his real self, to the world, while mantaining those eye patterns he originally had. I'm not sure what those could be referencing but I love them. TL;DR: He crazy

I’ll also add that time in Gen 7 where in the Rainbow Rocket episode, Ghetsis almost strangles Lillie with his own hands and only stops because the trainer gets there just at the right time.

Very odd take, considering even original SM lusamine hinted at a redemption at the end of the game.

No

Genwunner nostalgia, bringing down other gens to make Gen 1 sound way better than it actually is.

Dont forget Lysandre too.

I argue that despite the fact that Team Flare is obviously cartoonish, they should be regarded as scarier, simply because they are enacting extreme genocide against the poor (as in, those who can’t pay the exorbitant fee will die) and that is roughly what is happening. Instead they are just an obviously cartoonish group with grunts that care if a child trips for some reason.

In the manga not only did Ghetsis freeze the black 2 white 2 protagonists and chucked their frozen block in the ocean but he also pinned the original unova protagonist Black to reshiram’s resealing body trapping him away for 2 whole years.

​@@iantaakalla8180 I mean, Team Galactic pretty much has the same thing going on, minus the classism, right down to them being ignorant of the leader's true goals

​​@@TheWrathAbove At least members of team Galactic don't have to pay insanely high fees to join.

​@@iantaakalla8180That's not even what makes Team Flare scary, what makes them scary is that their leader is just some regular dude who set this up for his goals. It's not even like Lysandre is doing this for some cartoonishly evil reason like ruling the world, man is just a mere environmentalist who went extremist when he saw how little his little things were helping. They are a villain team that could happen in real life at any moment, real people have been arrested for killing people to protect animals or the environment, and at any point someone could go above just that and we'd never know until it was too late. That's what makes them so scary.

This is really underselling how intimidating and scary of a villain Lysandre is. The only villain of those 3 who's realistic is Giovanni, but it's still hard to run a whole mafia. Lysandre is terrifying because he's realistic and a real one could exist at anytime, man was just an extremist environmentalist who took advantage of elitists to help his extreme plan to help the Earth, and that's something that could happen in real life at any point in time and we'd be powerless to stop it.

@@saphirestorm7952 I actually forgot anout Lysandre, possible because his motivation and evil plan are actually quite cartoonishly evil, but also because it's the oldest game I haven't played in a while. I've played all the gen 1-5 games multiple times in the last few years, but I haven't had the opportunity to play XY since it first came out, mostly because I don't own a copy right now.

@@michaelgrey1503 He didn't even start wth cartoonishly evil was the funny thing, man took control over everything just so he could be peaceful, and when being peaceful didn't work he went to cartoon villain while still being a pretty realistic level of cartoon villain. Paying attention to the storyline of X&Y is a whole other experience than with other Pokémon games, because skipping through the other games' stories still give you a basis on what's happening but X&Y requires paying attention to see the true stakes. If Lysandre went for government control instead of death beam then he could've forced people to help the environment more easily, but most Pokémon villains don't ever go with the "take over the government first" plan so that's a problem that all the villains have. Eitherway though, all the things Lysandre did other than the death ray were things that real people can do and he had realistic motives, while other villains rely on the fact that they're in Pokémon where they can use the Pokémon for their unrealistic goals like making a whole new universe. I also haven't played X&Y since they first released, but it's the one Pokémon game that I retained the most info from because it was my favorite, and while the others I know about too, they just never stuck out as much as the story where you have to stop a threat that could happen in real life.

This is what I find weird about Lysander. He should, by all rights, be recognized as a threat considering he does want to destroy the entire Earth and commit genocide against the poor, but wow is his team sufficiently weird enough that you would forget that fact.

​@@iantaakalla8180and hell he is so dangerous that despite the obvious connection between the team and him with color scheme etc... he managed to build up a flawless reputation in Kalos only starting to crumble once he truly turns into the cartoon villain.

They didn't fully win in the thing, those were things to get people to listen before Lysandre resorted to death beam. He doesn't want control, he just wants to protect the Earth. They managed to take over everything just to get people to be better towards the planet, as he didn't wanna kill everyone and everything, but nobody listened and it led to him resorting to the death beam. Man is a simple environmentalist who manipulated the elites to work for him by lying about his true intentions, then used that money and power that they gave him to try and peacefully get his goal, and when that failed he went to full-blown extremism. He was a villain who could exist in real life at any point and time and everybody would be powerless to stop them.

And then in the sequel he almost kills the player

The exalted cultist feels more threatening when he commands a cosmic dragon to impale you with giant icicles