The Right and Wrong Way to Make a Female Villain

EITHER their femininity has nothing to do with it, or, their reason for villainy is so rooted in a distinctly female experience, that it compels the narrative and audience to explore and understand it.

Before Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon ruined her character, Lusamine was in my opinion one of the darkest villains in the Pokemon series: Her villainous motivations stems from the disappearance of her husband Mohn who explored the Ultra Dimension and never came back, leading her to research a way to bring him back but in the process of doing so got infected by Nihilego's toxins, causing Lusamine to develop a maniacal obsession with Ultra Beasts and turning into an abusive controlling mother towards her children especially Lillie (which is further expanded upon in the Pokemon Adventures manga with a panel showing Lillie having a panic attack in a clothing store after a traumatic flashback of her mother forcefully dressing her in the image of Nihilego) So in conclusion, Aether Foundation being revealed as twist villains with Team Skull being red herrings and Lusamine portrayed as an delusional sociopath was a first for me

The funny thing about Miles is that they did a genderbent version of an old Spider-Man villain with Olivia Octavius as Doc Ock in ITSV. She has one of the best character reveals in recent time, and I love how even though Kingpin is obviously the main antagonist, she still stands on her own with how smart and ruthless she and is even able to clash heads with Kingpin himself showing that they've both working together, she's less working for him and more she's just working with him to aid in her scientific research.

Easy, just write them like your regular good written villain (sure there's some intricacies that comes with the different genders but the basics are the same really)

Lusamine was honestly one of the best Pokémon villains we’ve got, since despite having a tragic backstory that makes sense why she’s the way she is, she nonetheless still acted like a selfish, egomaniacal control freak who abused her children and eventually drove them away. Along with basically keeping Pokémon as her frozen trophies and nearly killing Nebby to open the Ultra Wormhole, that too. And so the fact that US/UM somehow decided to make her some misguided hero despite the fact that she STILL does all that and is way more lucid than she was in SuMo due to not being induced by Nihiligo’s toxins is entirely baffling to me. GF just legitimately chickened out of having a hatable and selfish villainess for no reason other than…idk, it makes her more marketable, I guess??? And it’s a cryin shame too due to being the only main female Pokémon villain thus far (not counting AI Sada since they aren’t actually evil but were only doing what their programming forced them to.)

Seeing what happened with Lusamine, i'd love it you made a video about villains or characters ruined by retcons

I always saw the Boss as more an antagonist rather than a villain due to her ethics and morals. Then there are her actions but I can see how she can be seen as a villainess at least in the story's setting due to the plot and her role in it. Also saw the Batman Beyond episode and it was good. Also, also, Poképops!

I've seen people theorize that the reason they changed Lusamine for Ultra Sun and Moon was because of how the anime toned her down to fit the more comedic tone. But that doesn’t make sense I think that they should've gone further with toning her down in Ultra Sun and Moon. Have her be focused on defending Alola from Necrozma's machinations to the point that she sends Lillie and Gladion out on a journey with Cosmog and Type: Null respectively so she could have more time to focus on her work and for the two Pokemon to get stronger. Maybe have Team Skull hired to act as body guards for them as well.

I firmly believe the reason they did what they did to Lusamine in USUM was because they had the "brilliant" idea to bring back Giovanni to act as the true final antagonist of the game with his stupid Rainbow Rocket BS. They couldn't have Lusamine outshine Giovanni, the series' OG villain, so they had to tone her down so much to where she could know longer be taken seriously as a villain. This is also one of the main reasons why USUM was terrible compared to SM and completely unnecessary.

Not a bad thing. I do like how you discussed Lusamine and the messy sidelining USUM did. Frankly, I’m surprised that, when female villains was the topic, comics didn’t come to mind. Especially with casts like X men with Mystique, Destiny, Emma Frost (who eventually became a hero) and Selene. Then again, marvel and DC do have this habit of turning the women into more morally dubious characters than straight up villains. Kind of milks the “she’s not bad, just misunderstood” cliche. Makes me happy you have Selene who just loves being a nigh immortal god in a world of Ants for the sheer charm and personality she has.

Stomfront from The Boys TV series deserves a mention, when it comes to female villains. Her capacity for violence outstrips that of even Homelander.

Whether a villain has deep motivation or a Saturday morning evil for being evil I just ask that villains be entertaining and written well. Nothing sucks more than a boring or badly written character.

Demona was always one of my favorite villains in anything period. She has a tragic Shakespearen story but a lot of it is self inflicted. She was her own worst enemy and the worst her life got can be rooted into poor choices she kept making. It was a never ending cycle and she became more and more bitter. The tragedy comes from had she just let go JUST ONCE not be so distrustful and make a different choice. Her life would be better if she just stopped but she can’t. She is her own worst enemy. And the story never babies her or her actions. It still says yes she is a Shakespearen tragedy but she’s still evil. The kinda decent gargoyle she used to be died loooong ago. This vengeful, spiteful, vindictive, cruel husk is all that’s left of her and no matter how tragic the tale is, that does not excuse her for anything.

2:52 I really appreciate your desire to emphasize how this is about the writing, since there are people who won't think that, and it feels like a call out to the people who do just complain about those kinds of things. It helps set up your point as being very analytical quite nicely.

Lisamine was such a loss of potential. I actually love how they even bring the meta into her rationale. Also, Poképops.

There's a quote whose source I have long since forgotten: "If you want to create a strong female character, don't write a female character and make her strong. Write a strong character and then make them female."

Not committing to the villainy like the retcons to Lusamine is something lot of recent Japanese stuff has been doing. As I see it, it's part of the issues waifu/gacha/webnovel culture has caused in a lot of Japanese media. Can't make them "too" evil because you want to sell figures (or make people roll the gacha). It's more prevalent with female characters because they're not only more common in the current Japanese market but also they're the ones who are designed to drive merch sales. They either get forgiven and added to the protagonist's harem or you're supposed to cry as this character who has done nothing but cause problems dies because in the last five minutes you're told, "She had a tragic backstory." Also there's like a 70% chance that they'll be a loli because you get free extra sympathy points.

That skit bit in the mile morals section had me rollin on the floor

Ragyo Kiryuin from Kill La Kill is a great female villain. While her motivation is nothing more than the classic 'I want to rule the World!' , she is super intimidating and her absurd over the the top evilness makes super entertaining. They writers also also gave her character a fitting end

Female villains should just stay as villains like the male villains. Look, there's nothing wrong having a sympathetic villain but this is becoming a pattern of obsession in modern western culture of making villainess women into a mortally dubious as "heroes" despite all the terrible things they've done. This continues to leave a bad message.