The Next Top 13 Pokémon Villains.

Hey everybody. It's been one crazy year. I found it marginally better than last year, but that's akin to me saying that walking barefoot for a mile on LEGO bricks and broken glass is better than having dental work done without Novocain at this point. So, I thought I would keep up a my celebration of New Year's Evil from last year. To follow up my Top 13 Pokémon Villains, I thought I would do a second list to feature more that I didn't before. Just a heads-up, I won't be including Guzma or the Aether Foundation just yet, since the former has yet to appear and the latter hasn't had their initial arc dubbed in English yet as of this writing. So, I present The Next Top 13 Pokémon villains!

13. Damien

Damien as shown in "The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion."

This was the first major example when I was younger about having a trainer be so callous about how they treat Pokémon, considering friendship to be a waste of time compared to sheer power. In many ways, Damien was a precursor to rivals such as Paul and to some extent trip. Given how Charmander rejected an offer to return in favor of joining Ash's roster; he's a good character to lead off this list, and won't be the last entry like this either. It's worth noting that other versions (such as his counterparts in Yellow and the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga) tone down his abrasiveness, but the fact that he has no inhibitions about leaving Charmander to die in the rain makes him a good entry for this list.

12. Councilor Alva

I have pointed out before that when I first about the Volcanion movie, I wasn't sure about it, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. Alva is a key reason why, since he's a villain that has a surprising amount of deceit and cruelty in his role in the film. The way he tricked the prince and ripped out Magearna's Soul-Heart: I still wouldn't put it past him to just kill the King and Queen and usurp their power for his own.

11. Team Galactic

Official artwork of Team Galactic grunts.

When I first stating compiling this list, I was split on which member of Team Galactic I would include. From Cyrus to Charon, as well as Saturn, Mars and Jupiter; I was wondering who would make the cut. Overall, though; I decided I would do something different and include Team Galactic collectively as a villain faction. Since Platinum was the game that got me back into the series as a teenager, their motivations stood out at me. With actions that were much more devious than just stealing Pokémon, they opted to reshape the entire universe in their image; and their leader Cyrus tested the limits of the idea of perfectionism. Given Cyrus' relationship with his parents and grandfather, my headcanon has the idea taken further: Cyrus actually saw his parents and grandfather as imperfections; meaning what his parents wanted for him worked too well. I digress, because I have ten more entries for this list.

10. Damon

With my look at all the movies this year, the villains of those ones were the hardest ones to choose from. Still, I knew that I would be including Damon in the top 10. While other entries may be well-known for their ambition and malice, this entry is a good example of a well-intentioned extremist: his motivation is simply to return the people of the Vale to their former home and glory; even if it does mean using one of the legendary dragons of Unova to do it. He's also one of the few villains in the series to actually redeem themselves, and from doing the thing they wanted to, no less. This is a good lead to the top 10 entries on my list, which will have plenty of characters I've wanted to talk about for ages.

9. Zero

The next entry is another villain from the movies that stood out at me. His fascination with the Reverse World is his motivation as well as his desire to use Shaymin to that end; and even though his conflict with Newton Graceland may not be the most unique character conflict, it still works well enough to make the Giratina film a solid middle entry in to the DP "trilogy." It was an overall strong series, and Zero is definitely not the last villain introduced in Generation IV to make this list either, as my next entries will tell you.

8. Marcus

Even if the Arceus movie was admittedly a very strange way to close out the DP "trilogy," Marcus was another villain that made the film more memorable than it would have been otherwise. Marcus has no problem framing Damos for everything that happened, trying to kill a deity and ruin the future, not caring at all the consequences it would have on the world in the future. The Jewel of Life actually isn't that different from Gray's Sports Almanac in his hands in that regard. 

7. Colress (Generations)

Boy, the adaptations just love making Colress a villain, don't they? I already mentioned how much I enjoyed Episode N's version last year, and I gather he has similar motivations in the Pokémon Special/Adventures manga. In the Generations short "The Frozen World," while he is similar to his character in the games in terms of motivation, he seems to be more willing to let Kyurem lay waste to Unova to prove his theories. The whole YouTube series was excellent, and this short was one of my favorites, not the least of which because of how Colress was rendered. He is still one of many reasons why I don't identify with this new trend of bashing Generation V, and that edit of one of Owl Turd's comics definitely furthers that. I'm not personally armed, but my first Emboar; Babe, my first Samurott, Nemo and my pair of Serperior Slick and Slide would like a word with you if you believe this. Still, I'm getting ahead of myself.

6. Phantom

I felt that the Ranger movie was a solid film for the AG films to go out on, and Phantom is a good reason why. Even though there are many similarities to the Jirachi movie, it still manages to distinguish itself in key ways; and is the better for it. I still can't believe WatchMojo included Butler on their list, since he was honestly one of the dullest characters I've ever seen. Phantom, on the other hand, easily trumps him in almost every way: better design, better plan, and overall better fit for the movie. I mean, why settle for a failed Groudon clone when you can take control of the legends of the sea and the real Manaphy? It's also not hard to imagine how popular Pirates of the Caribbean was getting at the time probably played some part in his pirate motif and the movie's swashbuckling action adventure theme. Even though the Ranger games made my wrists hurt, Phantom definitely helped the AG movies end on a better note than they started, which can also be said for this year in my eyes.

5. Viper

While I have made no secret of my dislike for Pokémon Chronicles, with "Training Daze" being my least favorite episode of the whole show (it likely won't be the last time I revisit Chronicles before my retirement, either); Viper was one of the few elements that I genuinely liked from it. The way Mike Pollock did his best R. Lee Ermey impression for a tough-as-nails drill sergeant was honestly the best part of the episode; and I honestly think it would have been much better if he had been more involved, trying to bust down the new recruits rather than taking liberties with the already-established backstory. Instead, he's one of the only enjoyable things in an episode that I, along with most of Chronicles consider to be apocryphal.

4. Darkrai

Official artwork for Darkrai.

I don't know if I have included Pokémon on any of these lists before, but Darkrai is definitely a good choice. If Arceus is a deity, then Darkrai is definitely the other side of the coin a sort of lord of darkness. Not quite like you'd see in a Shin Megami Tensei/Persona game; but the idea of having a Pokémon that can instill nightmares in you if you fall asleep near it in itself has been used quite effectively in both its movie as well as the main series during the season 11 finale, "Sleepless in Pre-Battle" (that there is a reference for the parents, I guess). Its game ability is Bad Dreams, and the Dark Void move has this effect easily. Whether it's being naked at school or work or the apocalyptic opening of Terminator 2; this is easily one of my favorite villains in the series and one of my favorite Generation IV Pokémon overall. That is one of my favorite kinds of children's stories: the kind that are not just the stuff of dreams, but of nightmares as well.

3. Cross

Yeah, you knew this was coming. Even with my love for the I Choose You movie, Cross was still nasty enough an antagonist to make this list. As the movie's answer to Gary and Damien (mentioned earlier), he's one of the most cruel rivals I've seen since Silver and Paul, and to some extent Trip. Even this attempted face turn near the end of the film was nowhere near enough for me to make up for an entire movie of being a black-booted, redheaded edgelord. He's basically just a purple suit, some green hair dye and clown makeup away from being the Joker to me. Even though the end of the movie teases a potential reappearance, I honestly don't know what the next movie will do. I mean, he's at least more interesting than Alain to me, but there are unconfirmed rumors of Zeraora being involved. Still, I knew Cross was a good choice for the top 3 entries on this list.

2. Grings Kodai

Yeah, it was definitely a foregone conclusion that I was going to include Kodai on this list ever since I compiled my first one last year. As a media mogul who has psychic powers, he actually made the characters in the Zoroark film think more actively about how to stop him. He also had no objections on willing to straight-up murder Zorua, Zoroark and Celebi; and is a big reason why Master of Illusions is my favorite DP film. It was a tough call between him and my top choice, so here we go.

1. Mewtwo

Official artwork as of Pokémon X and Y.

It was a very tough call for my top spot on this list, but given how many versions Mewtwo has had over the years; I ultimately concluded that I would make Mewtwo the top spot of this list. While Pikachu definitely represents the "cute" side of the series, Mewtwo is one of the monsters that represents the "cool" side as a powerful genetic experiment. No matter where the Pokémon has shown up, it's been some of the material I enjoyed writing the most about. As an addict since the first movie and someone who didn't even find the Genesect movie as bad as others said, I am glad to make Mewtwo the next top Pokémon villain.

Honorable Mentions include Archie, Maxie, Harlan/Tabitha, Isabel/Shelly, Unbound Hoopa, Riot and Merilyn and Millis and Argus Steel.

So, much like my anime I will never recap; I think there will be one final list to make this a trilogy. I don't want to keep milking this thing dry; I don't work for EA after all. I will also be back tomorrow for my next Top 13 anime villains to help ring in 2018! Happy New Year, everyone. Later.