Random Ghetsis Thoughts (2024)

Not sure why this suddenly occurred to me, but it did and I want to talk about it.

Concept art confirms that Ghetsis’ right eye is scarred, which is why he covers it up with a fancy eye piece. It’s possible that however this happened is the same reason he has such a weak, hardly-able-to-be-used right arm. I’m not sure if this was the intention, but I really, truly believe that a Pokémon was responsible. Possibly even his Deino/Zweilous/Hydreigon, since as everyone is aware it reached its full evolution at a level before its species is normally able to and has a very powerful Frustration attack; which is an attack that is stronger the more the Pokémon hates its trainer…all signs that Ghetsis heavily abused this Pokémon in order to make it achieve this kind of power. Now, the first thing that came to mind when I thought about this was the High Evolutionary, villain of the recent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, who is also a psychotic narcissist who suffered facial disfigurement from an animal he abused. However, all things considered his relationship with said animal is more akin to Ghetsis’ relationship with N than with any Pokémon; in both cases the narcissist thought so little of his victim that said victim managing to turn against them and even out-do them drove them mad.

And that’s when my mind drifted to a far more obscure cinematic villain.

Professor Screweyes was the stand-out of the otherwise mediocre We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (well, him and John Goodman as the lead dinosaur), and as he explains in the deleted scene above it was a crow pecking out his eye that led to him having a metallic replacement, and it also led to him to develop a fear of crows and what they are capable of. This is a fact that his narcissistic ego wouldn’t let stand, and so he collected a bunch of crows that he keeps under firm, tyrannical control in order to show that he is“the master of his own fear”.

And then, after he’s defeated, this happens:

In attempting to control his own fear in such a cruel way - abusing the crows and making them despise him - Screweyes only ended up causing his worst nightmare to come true.

……Wait.

He doesn’t die like Screweyes and instead is imprisoned like the High Evolutionary, but the same principle of what befell Screweyes is at work here in thePokémonAdventures manga. The implication is obvious: a Pokémon he couldn’t control f*cked him up, making him scared of Pokémon he can’t control, and as a result he decided to become“the master of his own fear” by controlling every Pokémon, through hurting them in the most unimaginably cruel ways. As a direct consequence, he finds himself faced with his worst nightmare: he’s on the sh*tlist of practically every Pokémon in Unova, and they refuse to be controlled by him. Their glare is the same as Zekrom’s, suggesting the same thing“If you dare try to worm your way out of prison and mess with us again, we will f*ck you up”, cutting right to that same fear he felt when his right eye and right arm were destroyed and making him lose his goddamn mind.