Best Evil Organization in Mainline Pokemon Game

[Cyberninja776]

I still wonder what the heck Diantha was doing for most of XY.

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Filming a movie most likely, but then again Lysandre is clearly not evil so what does it matter?

It's also not like the E4 wasn't involved in the struggle against Team Plasma considering N beat them and the champion on BW.

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I honestly forgot that part, I just remember being stopped in the middle of the E4 because things were going down. I'd love to see something like that again in SS.

 

[BioDigital Jazzman]

I say rocket because me as the player character running into them makes sense if you will. They are posted up everywhere in the region strong arming mofos for money or Pokémon. It's organized crime that's prohibiting the players journey. That's a far cry from idiots who want to flood the earth or summon gods.

I think where the games messed up is that they should've established sub bosses beneath giovanni. You should've only fought him as a gyn leader. Maybe talked to him at silph co etc but you shouldn't have battled him. That's what watered down the experience. Fighting him 3 times

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

Team Skull, not even close. They might not actually be the most evil of the teams, but they're definitely the most charming and memorable.

 

[ffdgh]

Filming a movie most likely, but then again Lysandre is clearly not evil so what does it matter?

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Yeah. Totally not evil somehow to Sacyamore and Diantha lol.

 

[DrArchon]

Filming a movie most likely, but then again Lysandre is clearly not evil so what does it matter?

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Obligatory:

 

[Xaszatm]

I say rocket because me as the player character running into them makes sense if you will. They are posted up everywhere in the region strong arming mofos for money or Pokémon. It's organized crime that's prohibiting the players journey. That's a far cry from idiots who want to flood the earth or summon gods.

I think where the games messed up is that they should've established sub bosses beneath giovanni. You should've only fought him as a gyn leader. Maybe talked to him at silph co etc but you shouldn't have battled him. That's what watered down the experience. Fighting him 3 times

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Special fixes that by making Lt. Surge, Sabrina, and Koga all sub-bosses of Giovanni.

 

[ZeroX]

Rocket had multiple entries, huge nostalgia and are still a presence on the anime.

Plasma/N had one really good entry in BW1, probably the only decent story in the series.

Skull have the best music, they're very memorable although not threatening, their town is a great part of the game and Guzma is incredible. Also has a super dark backstory for a Pokemon game.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Filming a movie most likely, but then again Lysandre is clearly not evil so what does it matter?



I honestly forgot that part, I just remember being stopped in the middle of the E4 because things were going down. I'd love to see something like that again in SS.

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I have expectations for this fucking guy.

 

[Jessie]

I have expectations for this fucking guy.

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I expect your first conversation with him will be something like "Pokemon exist as tools for spectacle, and I have expanded my company to serve that purpose. There are rumors of a Legendary Pokemon that appears during particularly spectacular battles. I would like to meet it some day."

 

[Starlatine]

Special fixes that by making Lt. Surge, Sabrina, and Koga all sub-bosses of Giovanni.

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i think the manga did something like that? i know pryce was part of team rocket or something like that

i dont feel like koga and sabrina would be part of team rocket tho. one was a force of her own and koga was an honorable ninja stereotype

 

[Toxi]

I expect your first conversation with him will be something like "Pokemon exist as tools for spectacle, and I have expanded my company to serve that purpose. There are rumors of a Legendary Pokemon that appears during particularly spectacular battles. I would like to meet it some day."

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Holy shit how did you get ahold of Sword and Shield's script?

 

[Cyberninja776]

I have expectations for this fucking guy.

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Honestly you can quote me on this but I think he's going to be completely innocent but his assistant will be the evil one.

 

[Starlatine]

I say rocket because me as the player character running into them makes sense if you will. They are posted up everywhere in the region strong arming mofos for money or Pokémon. It's organized crime that's prohibiting the players journey. That's a far cry from idiots who want to flood the earth or summon gods.

I think where the games messed up is that they should've established sub bosses beneath giovanni. You should've only fought him as a gyn leader. Maybe talked to him at silph co etc but you shouldn't have battled him. That's what watered down the experience. Fighting him 3 times

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afaik archer (the gen II rocket executive) was supposed to be this rocket you would beat before giovanni even in gen I but they couldnt put it in time. i would say arianna as well so they wouldnt repeat executives but i doubt it

they even got unique sprites before getting unique names

 

[ILikeFeet]

I expect your first conversation with him will be something like "Pokemon exist as tools for spectacle, and I have expanded my company to serve that purpose. There are rumors of a Legendary Pokemon that appears during particularly spectacular battles. I would like to meet it some day."

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they seemed to have learned from Lysandre, thankfully

 

[Bigg]

I love Team Skull. I have a soft spot for villains that are just laughably incompetent.

 

[MegaManTrigger]

What progression do they need? The end goal is to make money. They are making money before the player stops them from making money.

I'll take that over "I'm going to summon this 10,000 year old dragon monster to destroy all of human civilization because blah blah blah" nonsense. Because that's every JRPG.

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There has to be a reason driving their desire to make money, otherwise it just comes off as incredibly one-dimensional, shallow, and pointless in terms of being an antagonist in a story. And that's the fundamental issue I have with Team Rocket. It's hard to take them seriously when they're a bunch of joke characters, and do things strictly for the sake of doing things without solid reasoning. I think the whole crime organization element from Team Rocket could've been much better written (Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that it has to be The Iliad tier of writing quality, but Plasma and arguably even Galactic have goals and motivations that make more sense than Rocket's) than the end result we got in these games.

I don't mind you disagreeing, but i insist that you're seeing a different game than me. Our first encounter with team rocket in RBY was both at nugget bridge, someone who successfully set up a recruiting group for them, and the grunt who managed to steal Dig and give it to the rockets. Despite 'pathetic' they're both successful. Our first encounter with them in GSC is a grunt selling slowpoke tails and another group trying to take a well so they can remain selling their slowpoke tails. And it only escalates in purpose from there in RBY while it remains as pathetically contained in GSC

Edit cause i know you might say "what about the rockets in mt moon": they had little purpose in the big scheme of things but still a bigger importance than anything in GSC: getting the fossils there. Both fossils are rare, and moon stones are rare, so they all tie up with team rocket wanting money nonetheless.

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Huh? Why are you including the Nugget Bridge sequence and the burglarized home at Cerulean when they were overwhelming failures (because you were never meant to join Team Rocket in the first place due to the game's options. If there was choice implemented into the game, then you might have a point with differing dialogue)? They both failed at what they accomplished, especially the grunt when he ultimately had to return the TM anyway. You have a very weird definition of success if you're using the Nugget Bridge and burglarized home to make that point.

If we want to look at it from a purpose standpoint, recruiting the MC does nothing aside from introducing the player to Team Rocket, and stealing dig is even pointless when you consider that Mt. Moon has fossils right in front of you, and the navigation is pretty basic. And from here on out, Team Rocket continue to do idiotic things with no real reason or rhyme that end up getting stopped quite easily. That pattern continues in GSC with the Slowpoke Well and Radio Tower shenanigans stand out as some of the most idiotic things that a team can ever consider doing.

 

[Jessie]

they seemed to have learned from Lysandre, thankfully

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Team Skull was a really fun fake out, but Lusamine had a really bad case of Lysandre Syndrome.

 

[King Alamat]

i think the manga did something like that? i know pryce was part of team rocket or something like that

i dont feel like koga and sabrina would be part of team rocket tho. one was a force of her own and koga was an honorable ninja stereotype

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There's a lot of stereotypes about ninjas, but a strong sense of honor ain't one of them.

 

[Xaszatm]

i think the manga did something like that? i know pryce was part of team rocket or something like that

i dont feel like koga and sabrina would be part of team rocket tho. one was a force of her own and koga was an honorable ninja stereotype

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Special is the Pokemon Manga, or at least the pokemon Manga people like talking about. Sabrina, Lt. Surge, and Koga are Giovanni's lieutenants, with Blaine being ex-Rocket. Pryce is the leader of "New Team Rocket" the heroes of the Gold and Silver Chapters face against.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

I don't get the "Rocket is realistic" argument in favor of Team Rocket. It's a game about 10 year olds traveling around having super powered cock fights. I don't really need my evil team to be grounded in Pokémon of all things.

Anyway, Plasma is the best. I liked that some of their members were genuinely trying to help Pokémon while others were just after power. It was an interesting twist in that they all just weren't evil for the sake of it, it wasn't just black and white (I know.)

I also just like the whole medieval theme they have, the king, the castle, the knights, the sages. Their assault on the Pokémon League is the greatest finale in the Pokémon games. All the other evil teams plots kind of wrap up before the end and so feel like a side plot to your main quest to be a Pokémon Master. Plasma takes center stage.

I have to of course mention N who is one of the most interesting Pokémon characters. Ghetsis and Colress are also really great.


I also have mention the music associated with the team and their members is amazing.

 

[SuperJohnny]

The Aether Foundation isn't evil. It's just Lusamine who went crazy

 

[PokémonSpears]

I prefer Galactic just by how "ambitious" they were by messing around with the time and space and other dimensions.

In terms of leaders, I prefer Lusamine, because she's hot, and there's nothing that screams evilness more than a hot leader.

 

[Starlatine]

(Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that it has to be The Iliad tier of writing quality, but Plasma and arguably even Galactic have goals and motivations that make more sense than Rocket's)

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Hahahaha its my time to disagree with you hard, cause if you think galactic have motivations better than rocket when even cyrus admits no one would agree with him if they knew his plan we have a serious issue

i'll address your other points in an edit

Huh? Why are you including the Nugget Bridge sequence and the burglarized home at Cerulean when they were overwhelming failures (because you were never meant to join Team Rocket in the first place due to the game's options. If there was choice implemented into the game, then you might have a point with differing dialogue)? They both failed at what they accomplished, especially the grunt when he ultimately had to return the TM anyway. You have a very weird definition of success if you're using the Nugget Bridge and burglarized home to make that point.

Because they succeed? The player character is never meant to join the rockets of course, but how can you gauge how many people they got before? And the fact that not only the grunt got the TM but dig a way out of cerulean is already a visible victory for team rocket. Their grunts are scattered around the area and i doubt that would be possible requiring all of them to have Cut. Again, difference in game world logic vs game battle logic. If you want to use game battle logic every team, no exception, sucks cause they always lose to you. And that's a pretty dumb viewpoint to have.

If we want to look at it from a purpose standpoint, recruiting the MC does nothing aside from introducing the player to Team Rocket, and stealing dig is even pointless when you consider that Mt. Moon has fossils right in front of you, and the navigation is pretty basic. And from here on out, Team Rocket continue to do idiotic things with no real reason or rhyme that end up getting stopped quite easily. That pattern continues in GSC with the Slowpoke Well and Radio Tower shenanigans stand out as some of the most idiotic things that a team can ever consider doing.

Fossils bring money. That's the purpose. You're applying the recruitment logic solely to the player logic which is already flawed. Team Rocket dig a way out of cerulean that you use. From there you meet team rocket in celadon where they have the fucking casino, then when they take over silph co and the pokemon tower, then finally when you realize they have a fucking gym. If you want to argue this is all pointless and idiotic i bid you adieu cause you seriously aint arguing in good faith.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

I don't get the "Rocket is realistic" argument in favor of Team Rocket. It's a game about 10 year olds traveling around having super powered cock fights. I don't really need my evil team to be grounded in Pokémon of all things.

Anyway, Plasma is the best. I liked that some of their members were genuinely trying to help Pokémon while others were just after power. It was an interesting twist in that they all just weren't evil for the sake of it, it wasn't just black and white (I know.)

I also just like the whole medieval theme they have, the king, the castle, the knights, the sages. Their assault on the Pokémon League is the greatest finale in the Pokémon games. All the other evil teams plots kind of wrap up before the end and so feel like a side plot to your main quest to be a Pokémon Master. Plasma takes center stage.

I have to of course mention N who is one of the most interesting Pokémon characters. Ghetsis and Colress are also really great.


I also have mention the music associated with the team and their members is amazing.

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Grounded and realistic as in logical. Plasma falls into the same category, you can see through line in their plan, they make sense. Same for Skull.

Galactic, Magma, Aqua and Flare had bad plans regardless of anything.

This isn't hard.

 

[Siggy-P]

Team skull are great in that being lame street thugs thematically suits their actions in game. Real criminals, terrorists and evil organisations wouldn't engage in Pokémon battles with 11 year olds unless they were laughably incompetent. Team skull just wanna be jerks but are clearly just kids with issues that are up to no good.

Also that theme song is amazing. Easily the hilight of the game:

 

[NSESN]

Team rocket is lame
There I said it

 

[Jessie]

Team Skull was kind of like a deconstruction of how incompetent Team Rocket was. It was a fun idea.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Team rocket is lame
There I said it

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Not the thread question

 

[ThisIsBlitz21]

I would say team Rocket..... but Im not blinded in nostalgia, so I wont.

I like Team Plasma the best, followed by Skull, and then Galactic.

Galactic gets on the top three because they're actually pretty fucked up in what they do. Remember the time when they blew up an entire lake?

Skull has the best home base by far. Po town is fantastic.

 

[NSESN]

Not the thread question

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It is Team Skull
Just pointing out that the leading option is lame

 

[ILikeFeet]

Team Skull was a really fun fake out, but Lusamine had a really bad case of Lysandre Syndrome.

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the difference between Lusamine and Lysandre is that while Lusamine says that, Lysandre goes on about his disdain for people. motherfucker doesn't even try to hide it. then the game tries to play stupid about it

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

Either Team Rocket or Team Skull. I like that their ambitions were more lowkey and tied directly into their respective regions.

A lot of the Global Conquest stuff of the latter games is just ridiculous.

 

[Siggy-P]

I feel like Bobo Dakes should exclude Jessie and James from the Polls Team Rocket, as they are pretty different to the games version of Team Rocket and yet I would presume are responsible for most of Rockets popularity.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Plasma has way too many votes, unless people are counting N as a part of their group I guess :P

But yea, Skull wins here.

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I'm honestly confused how you could not consider N part of Team Plasma. He absolutely is.

Grounded and realistic as in logical. Plasma falls into the same category, you can see through line in their plan, they make sense. Same for Skull.

Galactic, Magma, Aqua and Flare had bad plans regardless of anything.

This isn't hard.

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Yet that isn't what many people say when they make that argument. They usually make a point that Rocket isn't trying to take over the world like the other teams or Awakening super Pokémon. You're saying something different to what I'm pointing out.

What's with the "this isn't hard?" If you prefer Team Rocket out of all the teams, that's fine, no need for the attitude.

On a side note, I don't think Magma and Aqua's plans were dumb. Rather their motivations and what they intended to happen made sense but their plans backfire because they could not control the Pokémon they awakened. Their plan wasn't to destroy the world with Groudon/Kyogre. I can definitely see that with a group like Flare or Galatic who were actually trying to destroy the world and that was just wacky.

 

[Lotus]

I'm honestly confused how you could not consider N part of Team Plasma. He absolutely is.

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Idk, I just finished playing Black 2, so now I'm all forgetful of just how big of a role he had as a part of their group since that obviously ended in the sequel. Outside of him, I'm not that impressed with Team Plasma as a whole from what I remember.

 

[Becks']

Stan Guzma brehs.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Idk, I just finished playing Black 2, so now I'm all forgetful of just how big of a role he had as a part of their group since that obviously ended in the sequel. Outside of him, I'm not that impressed with Team Plasma as a whole from what I remember.

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Well yeah, in Black 2 he is no longer a Team Plasma member but Team Plasma also doesn't exist in the same way it did, it's splintered between the Plasma members who genuinely thought they were helping Pokémon and the ones who followed Ghetsis and just wanted power.

Anyway in Black 1, N is their king. He battles you many times as the king of Team Plasma and leads them. It's not like a Gladius situation where he wasn't really a Team Skull member. I think Team Plasma is interested outside of N too but I don't think you can really remove him from the equation.

 

[BDS]

I voted for Team Galactic because wanting to conquer the whole universe or whatever is pretty ambitious. However, the best music is Team Flare and the Aether Foundation.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Team Skull da bess

 

[Deleted member 4034]

I'm honestly confused how you could not consider N part of Team Plasma. He absolutely is.


Yet that isn't what many people say when they make that argument. They usually make a point that Rocket isn't trying to take over the world like the other teams or Awakening super Pokémon. You're saying something different to what I'm pointing out.

What's with the "this isn't hard?" If you prefer Team Rocket out of all the teams, that's fine, no need for the attitude.

On a side note, I don't think Magma and Aqua's plans were dumb. Rather their motivations and what they intended to happen made sense but their plans backfire because they could not control the Pokémon they awakened. Their plan wasn't to destroy the world with Groudon/Kyogre. I can definitely see that with a group like Flare or Galatic who were actually trying to destroy the world and that was just wacky.

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Several us said this while making the argument in this thread and dont want to tread ground yet again.

No, aqua and magmas plans were dumb. The world is 70 of the world is water and you want to add more. You're in the region with the most water.

Magma, are you displaced? No, do you need more land, what for?

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Several us said this while making the argument in this thread and dont want to tread ground yet again.

No, aqua and magmas plans were dumb. The world is 70 of the world is water and you want to add more. You're in the region with the most water.

Magma, are you displaced? No, do you need more land, what for?

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Eh, the Pokémon world has it's parallels to Earth but it's not Earth. I think Magma's/Aqua's plans made sense considering who they were and what they wanted. I think you're arguing why they needed it. They didn't; it's what they wanted and believed and yes they were wrong. They're the bad guys.

I think if Hoenn was desperately in need for more water or land (the amount of people complaining about the water routes says yes haha) then the question would arise, why are we fighting Magma/Aqua? We should help them! No, I think they logically have to be wrong. They're extreme environmentalists and bad people.

Anyway, I don't even know why I'm going to bat for Magma/Aqua anyway. They aren't my favorite teams though I guess I do like them more than a good number of the other ones.

 

[RKasa]

Team Skull, definitely. They're a bunch of frustrated, and relatable, failures in such a way that one can't help but feel for them, while at the same time maintaining that certain goofiness that Pokemon's villain teams are known for. Ya Boy Guzma is such a great boss character, and how he compares himself to Professor Kukui is quite revealing (his Golisopod is pretty damn cool, too). Plus, Po Town is a great take on a villain base, and one that's very fitting and believable for Team Skull.

Plasma is probably second for me, though that's mainly because of N, and Ghetsis to a certain extent; the latter was a terrific villain, up there with Lusamine in terms of best-in-the-series. I didn't care much at all for Colress, though. Also, I did not much like the Plasma grunts. Their outfits were weird considering the setting, and all the "PLASMAAAA!" battle cries got pretty old after awhile.

 

[Aleh]

The Aether foundation isn't really an evil organization, it was just their boss who momentarily went cray cray for a while :P

Best serious team: Galactic and Plasma
Best funny team: Skull

The rest is nothing but trash. TRASH.

 

[Subconian Dreamer]

This also leads to a great question:

How in the fuck did the leaders of Aqua/Magma/Galactic/etc. manage to get anyone to join them? You can call the Rocket Grunts dumb, but at least they were promised money and power. The others?

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When we have groups like Heaven's Gate in the real world, I can see people signing up for these dumb Pokemon teams

 

[Deleted member 4034]

The Aether foundation isn't really an evil organization, it was just their boss who momentarily went cray cray for a while :P

Best serious team: Galactic and Plasma
Best funny team: Skull

The rest is nothing but trash. TRASH.

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Lusamine was established to be an abusive mother the entire time.

Not to mention didn't the team try to straight up capture Lily when she tried to escape?

I only see purple haired woman as good.

 

[Starlatine]

Lusamine was established to be an abusive mother the entire time.

Not to mention didn't the team try to straight up capture Lily when she tried to escape?

I only see purple haired woman as good.

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They retconned Lusamine HARD in USUM and frankly made the game worse. She was a good villain which the heroes (both protagonist, Lillie and Gladion) had to overcome to a "spur of the moment due to circumstances but i'm still pretty good" non villain which ruined everything.

 

[ArmadilloGame]

There's been a lot of trashing of aqua/magma in this thread and frankly, the logic is sound. But team aqua are pirates so your argument is invalid.

 

[King Alamat]

There's been a lot of trashing of aqua/magma in this thread and frankly, the logic is sound. But team aqua are pirates so your argument is invalid.

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Team Plasma has both pirates AND ninjas. Clearly the superior team.

 

[DrArchon]

When we have groups like Heaven's Gate in the real world, I can see people signing up for these dumb Pokemon teams

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Yeah, but don't most cult leaders have charisma out the ass? I guess that could apply to Archie and Maxie, but totally not Cyrus.

 

[Deleted member 7883]

Team Skull/Ya Boy, Guzma's antics were the only times I genuinely unironically laughed from any of the Pokémon game's writing.