Ghetsis │ G-Cis
"My name is Ghetsis. I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon liberation..."
Just like anyone who's ever played through a copy of Pokémon Black (or White), I first encountered Ghetsis in hilly Accumula Town, watching him give his speech about releasing your Pokémon for the betterment of both humankind and Pokémon through my 3DS screen. I'll be very honest - it was not, in fact, love at first sight, and Team Plasma's mistreatment of Munna in the Dreamyard did not help paint anyone from said team in a favorable light. To me, it was clear from the get go that Ghetsis would be one of the main antagonists (if not the main antagonist) of the story, so I figured that I'd have to face him in battle eventually during the span of the whole game. And I was right! But not in the way I thought I would be.
Honestly, I don't think I can even begin to describe just how fucked up Ghetsis is. Going off of the two Gen V games alone we've got grooming, domestic terrorism and conspiring against the state, not to mention Pokéspe's several assaults/attempted murders (which, quite frankly, sounds exactly like something he would do in the games if they weren't aimed at a younger audience). Definitely some charges of battery, maybe throw some verbal abuse in there and you've got quite the grocery list of crimes. But I digress. I want to talk about his Gen V game battles and my own sentiments about them.
To this day, I still haven't managed to beat Ghetsis on my own in Pokémon Black. I know, I know, I'm a phony, but there were only so many times I could take of consistently getting my ass beat by his Hydreigon before I passed it on to my friend and they... got through it in one try. I can't say I regret having them do that, since that was the last battle I needed to fight in order to get my save to plot completion, but I can't help but feel a bit bitter about it. What was I doing wrong back then? I vowed that I would be the only one to defeat Ghetsis in my playthrough of Pokémon Black 2 (but to who, I can't really say). I kept myself to that promise and managed to beat him in Black 2 on my first try. The leitmotifs and chorus scattered through his battle theme in that game convey his mental state perfectly, I think - he is not the cunning mastermind he once was, rather, he is now just a megalomaniac, fallen from grace, vehemently clinging on to his ambitions. I don't know why but I cried once the encounter in the Giant Chasm was over. Maybe it was because I knew that from there on out, there would be no more encounters with Ghetsis. Maybe it was because his team was weaker, and my team had the upper hand this time. Why would I be sad about that? I think it's because I expected him to be fiercer, to double down on me with a cold, cruel vengance and a stronger team, but... I don't know. I don't think I'll ever remember an exact reason why. Maybe I was just a little emotional that day.
Unfortunately, I never got to the postgame in my save of Black 2 due to my 3DS's utter lack of self-preservation (the motherboard broke) and I sort of just... dropped the games. It's difficult to sink 50+ hours into a game twice in a row, especially so soon after you've lost all of your progress. I got another 3DS, started a file of Ultra Moon in hopes of getting to the Team Rainbow Rocket plotline, but it just didn't feel the same. Ultra Moon isn't just an (alternate) extension of the Gen V storyline, it's its own story, with its own characters and Pokémon and mentally unstable antagonists. I think that's what I was hoping it would be, rather than viewing it as the story that it is. So, I dropped Ultra Moon. Didn't bother with Pokémon games for almost a year. I didn't feel like it'd make any difference, grinding, grinding, grinding... all that for what, one climatic battle? And then, I got a little spoiler for the B2W2 postgame.
Ever since I first played Black, the Relic Castle (and by extension, the Desert Resort) has 100% been my favorite place to visit. I especially love the Pokémon you can encounter there - at least two of the Pokémon in my party are always from the Desert Resort, a Yamask/Cofagrigus and whatever other Pokémon I think would be helpful. Usually it's a Sandile, but Sigilyph is a really good choice too. It's all very atmospheric though, the eternal sandstorm, the ruined pillars, the little Darmanitan statues sitting outside as the storm rages on and the site gets buried under more grains of sand than stars in the sky... So, it's a little sad, too. Culture, relics, memories, language, all lost to time, not unlike the Abyssal Ruins. See, in B2W2's postgame - at least, according to my perception of the spoiler I briefly saw before clicking away - Zinzolin basically waltzes up to you, hands over Ghetsis's life's work and is like: "Here. Nabbed this off his desk as I was leaving. Go read some glyphs, nerd!" and then just kinda fucks off somewhere. Maybe Looker arrests him, but that might just be a BW-only postgame plotline. Whatever it is, that little spoiler sparked my interest in playing Black 2 back to life, and with it, of course, my interest in Ghetsis. I think it's fascinating, really - how did he know? What did he discover in those two years that led him being able to decipher those glyphs? Was he, perhaps, working on this for longer than Team Plasma even existed? I doubt the postgame will have the answers to these questions, just translations, but I think it's nice, having a piece of Ghetsis with me. I wonder just how many sleepless nights he spent completely engrossed in Unova's history, crossreferencing books with an ink smudged hand, decoding the past off of nothing but personal interest. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wonder.
It's truly undeniable just how much of a grip Ghetsis had over the plot of the Gen V games, and how much influence he's had over me. I was in a darker spot in my life when I decided to pick up the two games, so of course I'm still emotionally attached to the story and the characters to this day. Ghetsis is charismatic, dedicated, decisive, hedonistic even... all his crimes aside, he is someone that I, in my weird little way, look up to, someone I aspire to be like in my day-to-day life. The world doesn't need any more cult leaders than it already has, though I think it could use a couple more people who can "carpe diem", or at least get their shit together and keep on pushing forward in spite of everything. I felt stupid writing this whole spiel, and I feel even more stupid writing this, but: I miss you, Ghetsis. I hope we can battle sometime again.