deathtocapslock | Voldemort vs. Grings Kodai

So the other night I was watching the thirteenth Pokemon movie, Zoroark: Master of Illusions, and I got to thinking about the main villain of the show, Grings Kodai. It seems as though the movie was trying to do with him the same thing as Harry Potter had done with Voldemort- except that in Pokemon it actually worked!

So, just who is this Grings Kodai? Well, simply put, he’s a wealthy and influential business tycoon who can see the future, allowing him to increase his fortune. The reasons for that are rather complicated to anyone not familiar with Pokemon (basically, a Pokemon did it), so suffice it to say, his powers don’t last forever and have to be renewed (he’s terrified of losing them). When he first acquired those powers it caused great destruction; because of this, nobody who knows what’s going on will just let him waltz in there and replenish his powers- he has to force them out of the city where this power is located. So he enslaves a mother Pokemon (the eponymous Zoroark) by threatening her child and drives everyone away- leaving our plucky kid heroes to stop him.

Kodai is renowned for being one of only three villains in the Pokemon anime who are completely evil, since he’s sadistic and cruel.

Now, one interesting point about these two villains is that they both seem to represent death in some capacity- in Kodai’s case, he dresses in white, a color commonly associated with death in Japan and select other cultures, and the Pokemon companions he keeps are both ghosts. He’s also one of the only villains in the series who’s actually tried to kill the heroes, rather than merely put a stop to them. The difference is that it appears almost as though he’s supposed to represent death itself, whereas Voldemort represents an all-consuming fear of death and desire for immortality- which, paradoxically, can only be obtained through murder.

Well, with that out of the way, it’s Voldie bashing time!! XD

So, where does Pokemon succeed where Harry Potter goes wrong?

1. Backstories are only useful if they add depth and complexity- something neither villain has.

Now, Voldie has a backstory while Kodai does not. However, all Voldie’s backstory does is to show that he was evil from birth- so really, it’s a waste. In Kodai’s case, the fact that he has no backstory telling us how he made bad choices even as an infant and always had and always will actually makes him seem more believable, not less- because it’s easier to believe that some people are evil and sadistic than to believe that anyone was doomed to be a mass murderer from the moment of his conception. Voldie’s inherent evil is laid on so thick that you simply can’t take him or his backstory seriously.

Incidentally, Kodai’s mysterious past also means he’s a glorious free-for-all in fanfic- but I digress.

2. Not every villain has to look like a zombie!

There’s a difference between using visual cues to tell that someone is a villain and making him look completely unearthly just to illustrate his evilness. In Kodai’s case, while you can tell just by looking at him that he’s a villain, that has more to do with subtle details like the shape of his eyes, his clothes (see above), and (to a somewhat lesser extent) his Pokemon. Compare that with Voldemort, who looks like a smooth-skinned zombie with snake eyes and no nose! Again, you wonder how that guy’s managed to get around for so long without being killed with fire- or attract any followers (since he sure as hell doesn’t look like a good leader)!

Now, to be fair, Voldie was pretty when young (as our questionably-not-gay hero Harry frequently notes). However, when he eventually turns ugly it becomes increasingly clear that Rowling is pathologically incapable of subtleties of description.

And that leads me to a digression here to point something out: often villains (especially in anime and heavily visual media) are gorgeous, to symbolize how seductive evil can be. Pokemon is no exception to this rule, and indeed seems to have enforced it for as long as the franchise has been around. Whether or not you find Grings Kodai physically attractive, he’s clearly supposed to look refined and successful, producing the same effect.

On the subject of my personal favorite Poke-villain (who actually shares a voice actor with Kodai- though unlike Kodai he actually retains some shreds of humanity in how he operates, at least in the games), common fan assertions about him are something along the lines of “That guy looks just like Voldemort with blue hair yet he’s hot.” What they probably mean is that his charismatic personality (and probably his tortured backstory, too) win them over even if his physical appearance isn’t a factor. Voldemort could have been the same way despite his appearance (well, if it were SLIGHTLY less over-the-top anyway)- yet Rowling squandered that opportunity with her approach to his personality and back story, leaving him as a shallow plot device.

3. Villains won’t win over anyone, in universe or out, by being dicks to anything that moves!

You know how Voldemort was a bully from the second he knew what that word meant, and how he got people killed at the age of twelve with no regrets? How about killing so many people as an adult that people feared to speak his name- and then trying to take over and begin a new government? Wait, what?!

As I’ve said before, it’s pretty unbelievable that Voldemort could get any real power, since he never so much as pretends to care about the well-being of anyone but himself.

Kodai, on the other hand, is successful in getting his way in part because he actually thinks to convince other people that he’s an honest, reasonable man. If he can frame a Pokemon for something he wants to cause, he will. Now think back to Voldemort. We see Voldemort do that exactly once (only it sort-of falls flat since Hagrid was actually dangerous and only got away with it for being Dumbledore’s darling) and then he just starts killing people to make himself fearsome and immortal and stuff. And then once he gets the power, he just sits on it!

Then there’s Hogwarts, where Voldemort, rather than try to appeal to the students that Harry deserves to be turned in for being a selfish prick, decides to impose martial law on the school and everyone in it. Smooth, that!

Though if I may say so, Kodai’s actions to appeal to the public sort-of fall flat only because the audience sees so little of them. It’s incredibly hard to buy him as anything other than a villain since apart from a single video recording, all we see him do is be evil.

Note well in all this, that Kodai is in no respects a subtle villain himself. He’s played with a lighter touch than Voldemort, but that tells you more about Voldemort than it does about him. Basically, the Voldie/Kodai comparison can be summed up in much the same way as Doug Walker compared the villains for two Titanic movies- sure, Kodai may have been a barely-human evil monster, but at least the Pokemon guys tried to make him look like a civilized gentleman so you could take him seriously. With Voldemort, on the other hand, not a chance- in fact, you’d think Rowling was delighted to make him as shallow and stereotyped as possible.

And... now to put my overall feelings in perspective...

Reaction I’m supposed to have to both these villains:

“OH MY GOD THIS VILLAIN IS SO EVIL AND SICK SOMEONE PUT A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEART RIGHT NOW!!!!!!”

My reaction to Grings Kodai:

“Yup, this villain sure is evil.”

My reaction to Voldemort (after finishing the series and reflecting on it):

“Oh, come on! How could anyone take this guy seriously?! He’s so flat!”