It’s a common joke among longtime Pokemon fans that kids seem to be the ones fixing all the world’s problems. From risking their lives in the field to provide professors with research data to taming angry gods, any given Pokemon protagonist will have quite a resume before they’re even out of high school. This leads to the question of what exactly the adults are doing while the kids are keeping the world from falling apart. The easy answer is “there are other problems offscreen that qualified adults are dealing with, and the protagonist’s adventure is so special because they’re just a kid who overcame these odds.” But after 9 generations, it makes the recurring trope of grown-ups on standby feel more like a rule than an exception.
Grown-ups letting teens take down the demon dragons threatening to rip reality apart is bad enough. Upon closer inspection, however, there’s a common trend among Pokemon villains that really makes you wonder why kids trust adults at all in this universe: no less than four (five if counting both Pokemon Scarlet and Violet) of the main antagonists in the mainline Pokemon games are parents. Naturally, their villainous activities didn’t leave their kids as very well-adjusted people. Pitting parent against child makes for engaging writing, and the “useless/villainous adult” concept helps drive the inherent “child power fantasy” of Pokemon.
SPOILERS for Pokemon Generations 3, 5, 7, and 9 as well as the Pokemon Adventures manga ahead!
Johto and the Secret of Giovanni and Silver
The first time the games used this trope was with the duo of Team Rocket leader Giovanni and Johto rival Silver. In the games, this was only first revealed in the limited-time Celebi event in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, but it was first hinted at by a scientist NPC in FireRed and LeafGreen. The scientist mistakes the player for Giovanni’s child, but then corrects themselves, saying that Giovanni’s child has red hair. This line, combined with the family relationship being canon in the Pokemon Adventures manga, naturally led fans to theorize that this mysterious child was Silver.
Who’s That Character?
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Silver’s parentage makes a lot of sense in hindsight. He starts the story off as a delinquent, going so far as to steal Pokemon from others. Despite being a thief himself, Silver has a clear grudge against Team Rocket. Since the Celebi event shows the moment Giovanni left his young son to fend for himself, it makes sense that a kid with no Pokemon wound up turning to crime to survive. Luckily, Silver softens up to both his own Pokemon and the player as the story continues, but his hatred of Team Rocket understandably remains.
Silver’s relationship (or lack thereof) with his father is one of the most important aspects of his character, but the two never really talk about each other in the main games. In fact, it took a decade for it to be confirmed that the two were related at all. Part of this was likely because the Generation 2 games being on the Game Boy meant there simply wasn’t enough room to add in a separate storyline about that.
Granted, Giovanni never really thinking about his son after abandoning him is also pretty in-character. But Silver’s motivation being only hinted at, with a short optional scene confirming it, honestly makes Silver more engaging in a lot of ways. The player has to think about what made him this way rather than suffer through some awkward exposition where he turns to the camera and says, “I’m Giovanni’s son, and I don’t like him.” The mystery of his origins makes him more nuanced.
Paldea, the Professors, and Arven’s Estrangement
Giovanni may not have ever openly harmed Silver, but his neglect affected the boy who still hasn’t completely healed. And unfortunately, Silver isn’t the only Pokemon character with a neglectful parent. While he thankfully didn’t turn to thievery, Arven’s estranged relationship with his mother Professor Sada in Pokemon Scarlet or father Professor Turo in Pokemon Violet goes from bad to worse as the game progresses. Whether Sada and Turo are really “villains” is debatable, but it can’t be denied that their bad choices are what put both Arven’s storyline and the games’ finale into motion.
Obsessed with creating a time machine, Sada or Turo were so obsessed with their research that they wound up leaving Arven to live in the Poco Path lighthouse lab on his own so they could take Koraidon or Miraidon back to Area Zero and continue their studies. When the game begins, Arven has gone years without seeing his parent. And when it seems like he might finally get some closure when he and the player explore Area Zero, he finds out that his mother or father died years ago.
While the notes and AI the professor left behind imply that Sada or Turo loved Arven, they prioritized their research and almost created an ecological crisis by bringing the Paradox Pokemon to Paldea. They’re an interesting contrast to Giovanni, who truly seemed not to care for his own son, while the professors are implied to have loved Arven but didn’t have the emotional intelligence or foresight to realize why he should have been their priority in life. No matter his parents’ intentions, though, Arven really needs a hug.
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Living a Lie with N and Ghetsis in Unova
In contrast to Giovanni, Sada, and Turo neglecting their kids, Ghetsis and Lusamine from Generations 5 and 7 took a more active role in their children’s upbringings…for better or for worse. N, Lillie, and Gladion had their lives micromanaged by their parents, and that lack of freedom led the former to delusions of grandeur while the latter two eventually had enough of their mother and ran away.
While they look similar enough to trick the player for a good while, it turns out that Ghetsis of Pokemon Black, White, Black 2, and White 2 adopted the orphaned N to make him Team Plasma’s “puppet king.” He did a good job at hiding his true intentions, though, as N never seemed to doubt that Ghetsis shared his ideals of Pokemon liberation. Ghetsis purposefully kept N separated from other people growing up and often had hurt and abused Pokemon brought to him. This caused N to assume that Pokemon training was inherently evil, which Ghetsis used to his advantage. In the background, Ghetsis plotted his own takeover for when N would eventually convince the populace to release their Pokemon. After all, if Ghetsis was the only one with any Pokemon, nobody would be able to stand up to him.
After N’s final defeat by the player, Ghetsis shows his true colors and reveals what he really thinks of his adopted son:
There is such a thing as being too stupid! Add it up, and you are nothing more than a warped, defective boy who knows nothing but Pokémon…
Despite everything Ghetsis did in both the original Black and White and the sequels, N shows a genuine desire to save the closest thing he has to a father. As Ghetsis breaks down after his final defeat in Black 2 and White 2, N still calls him “father.” The childlike innocence that Ghetsis cultivated in him saved N, eventually leading to Ghetsis’ own downfall, but it couldn’t save their relationship.
Lusamine, Lillie, Gladion, and Forgiveness in Alola
Two generations later, Pokemon Sun and Moon introduced Lusamine, the president of the Aether Foundation. Lusamine’s brand of villainy was similar to Ghetsis in how she manipulated and belittled her children, but her story has a happier ending. Still, she stands out for being much less “cartoony” than Ghetsis when it comes to her relationship with her kids, which makes her arguably even scarier than him.
Lusamine was a loving mother to her children, Lillie and Gladion, until her husband went missing after he fell through an Ultra Wormhole. Lusamine threw herself into her research to try and bring him back, which led to her discovering the Ultra Beasts. In the original Sun and Moon storyline, exposure to Nihilego’s neurotoxins removed her inhibitions, and her obsession shifted from finding her husband to meeting the Ultra Beasts again. Once a loving conservationist, Lusamine started obsessing over beauty and perfection to the point of micromanaging her children’s lives and lashing out at them for not being “beautiful” enough. Eventually, Lillie and Gladion both ran away, and Lusamine effectively disowned them for “rejecting” her love.
Lusamine’s story isn’t as dark in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but her depiction in the originals made her one of the most unnerving Pokemon villains simply due to how much more real her villainy felt than the characters who came before her. You hear about the trauma that drove her mad, see the psychological effects this had on her children, and see her use common abuser tactics like insisting she’s the victim and that her own kids are the ones hurting her.
Lusamine isn’t an angel in the base or Ultra games, but both sets end with her reconciling with her kids in some way. A game aimed at older audiences might have given more time to examine if keeping Lusamine in their lives after she apologizes was really the healthiest option for the kids, but Pokemon is an all-ages series, so we can rest assured that Lusamine won’t put Lillie and Gladion through the same trauma again. Whether you consider her redemption a cop-out or not, though, there is something to be examined in the idea of it never being too late for someone to truly redeem themselves.
PSA: If You Are Playing Pokemon Legends Z-A, Make Sure You Are Checking Your Room at the Hotel
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Why Do the Parents Have So Many Issues?
So, why does Pokemon keep bringing back Darth Vader-style parent-antagonists? Taking down an evil adult is a common fantasy in media targeted towards children. It encourages the young audience by telling them they, even as kids, have the power to change things for the better, even if the grown-ups messed up. While it’s first and foremost used to appeal to Pokemon’s inherent “kid power fantasy,” it’s also a hopeful message that tells children that their age doesn’t mean they have to lie down in the face of hardship. As for the recurring family ties, it’s easy drama that can be approached from many different angles.
As a trope, Pokemon has done this decently well every time they’ve brought it in. And since the target audience is young, there’s the fact that most of the people playing a new Pokemon game won’t have played all the generations before it, so the majority of buyers won’t be concerned about reused plot points. From a business point of view, if this trope ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But from a writing point of view, more varied villains would of course be nice to have. Still, it’s worth noting that these parent-villains are all some of the most fleshed-out villains in the main games, while villains unrelated to the main characters don’t get as much character exploration.
