Every generation of Pokémon games comes with its own unique evil team. These always involve a brand new cast of characters, new enemies to battle, and a whole new issue to save the world from. However, some evil teams definitely make a larger impact than others, due to either the depth of their characters or the story that is told along with them, making them much more memorable.
Pokémon’s first group, Team Rocket, is definitely the most widespread well-known evil team in the Pokémon franchise, from being the big baddies in two generations of Pokémon (one and two), as well as being forever present in the Pokémon anime. However, the stories involving Team Rocket were rather lackluster in the games, and Team Rocket mostly became beloved with its representation through Jessie and James in the anime. In the Pokémon games, other teams tell more diverse and well-told stories and have more fleshed-out characters.
There are a lot of factors that go into how much an evil team is loved after their debut. There are the characters and their development, the problem they cause that the protagonist must solve, the difficulty of their battles, as well as their music. Some evil teams in Pokémon go above and beyond in some – if not all – of these categories, which have them leave their mark on the franchise as a whole.
#3 Pokémon Diamond & Pearl’s Team Galactic Introduced A Cold Villain
Team Galactic, debuting in Gen 4 of the Pokémon games, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, was a good step toward really good storytelling. The player is first introduced to Team Galactic after their first gym badge, who are trying to steal Professor Rowan’s research. While the grunts themselves are a pushover, it doesn’t take much longer in the game for the player to run into Team Galactic’s first memorable character: Commander Mars. Mars is a charming lady with a deep dedication to her boss and has her iconic deep red hair and witty attitude. Her first fight in the Valley Windworks is no easy feat, as her Purugly hits hard and fast, which sets up the rest of the mood for Diamond and Pearl‘s difficulty.
In Pokémon Platinum, the player’s first interaction with Cyrus is at the very beginning of the game at Lake Verity, where Cyrus is subtly threatening Mesprit to sleep while it can, which is a large window into Cyrus’s personality and his motives. It is later revealed that Cyrus plans to enslave the three Lake Spirits, Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie, to call upon either Dialga or Palkia to help him create his own universe and be a god. Cyrus is shown in the games to be a rather cold, calculating, and uncaring individual, which makes him definitely threatening as a villain as he seems to have no morals, and hardly any emotions.
There are bits and pieces left around the game for the player to discover that give the player an insight into Team Galactic leader Cyrus’ past, including that he was originally from Sunyshore City, disliked the company of people, and struggled to live up to the expectations of his parents. This triggers him to decide that emotions are useless, and gives him the motivation to destroy the world. While a disproportionate reaction, it shows players that they are indeed dealing with a man who has lost his mind, as his unwavering desire to destroy the universe makes Team Galactic, and especially Cyrus, a nerve-wracking force to deal with.
#2 Pokémon Sun & Moon’s Team Skull Is Beloved For Its Characters & Theme
Arguably the best part of Pokémon Sun and Moon was the introduction of Team Skull. Team Skull introduced a fun, vibrant, colorful cast of characters that were fun to interact with and see in the story, as a unique personality came across in all of them. Team Skull is simply comprised of Pokémon trainers that failed the Island Challenge in the Alola region, and now simply just want to stir up trouble for other people by stealing their Pokémon in order to acquire enough money to sustain themselves. Team Skull does not have a specific goal of their own throughout Sun and Moon but does eventually become under the influence of Lusamine and the Aether Foundation.
A unique thing about Team Skull is that all of its members seem to actually care about each other, considering each other as friends or siblings. Team Skull Admins, such as the beloved Plumeria, treat her underlings like little siblings. It’s a refreshing take on Pokémon‘s evil team trope, where the characters are simply lost young adults looking for their place in the world and are not inherently bad people at all.
Another huge plus for Team Skull is its music. The typical grunt theme for Pokémon’s Team Skull has punk music to it, which is extremely different from any other team’s theme and sounds outstanding. Popular character Guzma’s theme is also extremely popular for being a unique addition to the Pokémon franchise as well as being a very fun song to listen to. Team Skull’s music makes fighting them much more enjoyable than other grunts and bosses and adds to their lighthearted and fun theme that makes them so beloved.
#1 Pokémon Black & White’s Team Plasma Is Storytelling Done Right
Pokémon‘s Gen 5, Pokémon Black and White and Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, was not initially well-received by fans. Over time, however, generation five has immensely grown in popularity for various reasons, from the games having different difficulties to select from, the unique aspect of having all brand-new Pokémon to catch, and especially generation five’s amazing story. This story has a lot to do with Black and White’s evil team, Team Plasma, and the effect they have on Unova and the manipulation of their own team members.
Team Plasma introduced two unique and memorable characters to the franchise: N and Ghetsis. The relationship between these two characters develops and changes over the story of Pokémon Black and White, and players can watch it firsthand as the player character develops their own friendship with N. Team Plasma’s leader is Ghetsis and operates under his guise that Team Plasma’s mission is to liberate Pokémon from trainers in an animal rights-esque movement. Throughout Black and White‘s story, Team Plasma seem to succeed in their goal of sowing doubt among Pokémon’s people of Unova, making them wonder if battling Pokémon is truly a moral thing.
This movement is simply a cover for Ghetsis’ true goal, which is to have all the trainers in Unova release their Pokémon so that he can rule the region without any interference. When N learns of this, he rebels against his father figure and bonds more with the player character, and Ghetsis’ true evil side is shown after the Pokémon League in the final battle, where Ghetsis threatens to actually kill the player if they lose the battle. Ghetsis also threatens this to the player in Black 2 and White 2, showing that he has not grown after the events of Black and White, and has only become more and more truly evil. A side note about Ghetsis is that his battle theme sounds strangely familiar to Arceus’, which could imply that in Pokémon Black and White Ghetsis does, in fact, consider himself a god.
While all of Pokémon‘s evil teams are memorable in their own ways, some definitely stand higher than others in terms of quality in terms of characters, storytelling, and theme. Team Yell was admittedly a step backward and seemed like a lesser quality Team Skull, so hopefully, the evil team of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet can take some bounds forward. Evil teams are best when they come along with an interesting and moving story as well as theme, so players can hope there’s plenty of that in Gen 9.
