Ghetsis Harmonia

Art by Matori

**Ghetsis Harmonia** is a major antagonist in *The Angel of Reckoning*. As the Third Chromosome of Polaris's Sacred Helix and the founder of Team Plasma, he plays a significant role in both the backstory of the two organizations' conflict with Team Rocket and their eventual encounters with the group led by Matt Chiaki. He is a ruthlessly ambitious individual marked by his sadistic and cruel treatment of others, all of whom he views as tools for his own benefit.

## History

In the past, Ghetsis was a figure in the political high-society circles of Unova. Believing himself to be the only one worthy of dominating and ruling over the public, he joined Polaris and founded Team Plasma as a division of it. Despite rising to the rank of Third Chromosome, one of the ten members of Polaris's leadership board the Sacred Helix, Ghetsis never stopped scheming ways to achieve his true goal - the overthrowing of Father and the rest of the cult's leaders, allowing him to seize control of it and use it to subjugate the entire world.

As the first step of his dream, Ghetsis devised a plan to have all the people of Unova release their Pokémon, thus allowing him to consolidate all power in Team Plasma, functionally meaning he would rule. He concluded that he would need a hero with a Transcendence power to use as a pawn in this plan, and found that Concordia, an aspiring actress in Virbank City, possessed a Transcendence that could be useful. Posing as a weathy, benevolent figure interested in creating a film based on the legends of the Hero of Ideals, Ghetsis visited the bar where Concordia worked with her roommate Anthea and co-worker Trevor Hastings. He lured Concordia and Anthea into joining his supposed film project for the roles of the "Goddess of Peace" (Concordia) and "Goddess of Love" (Anthea), a pair of mythological figures who acted as aides to the Hero of Ideals. While conducting auditions and tests of his screenplay with them, Ghetsis gradually ingratiated himself with them on a more personal level, eventually striking up a relationship with Concordia. Once she was carrying the child that would become Ghetsis's puppet hero, he brought both women to his estate in Lacunosa Town, where he imprisoned them under the guard of himself and some of his closest followers.

Roughly a year later, Ghetsis brought Concordia and Anthea to the castle being constructed underground by Team Plasma, where he introduced Zinzolin to the infant N, who would become Team Plasma's king. Though he never informed Zinzolin of N's heritage, Zinzolin was able to deduce that Ghetsis was the child's father. Ghetsis tasked Zinzolin with providing N the education he would need to become king, as well as keeping N isolated away from humanity so he would be raised by the abused Pokémon Ghetsis brought to the castle to live with him. Through such steps, Ghetsis planned to foster a hatred of humanity in N. This would prompt the boy when he came of age to use the Transcendence he inherited from his mother to crusade for the cause of Pokémon liberation.

Eventually, N's obsession with the ideal of Pokémon liberation grew strong enough that the Dark Stone appeared to him, all in alignment with Ghetsis's designs. Ghetsis brought N and the rest of Team Plasma to the Dragonspiral Tower, where he intended to have N summon the legendary Pokémon Zekrom using the Dark Stone. Zekrom did appear to them, but N wavered in his convictions for a brief moment, leading Zekrom to deem him unworthy of becoming the Hero of Ideals. Zekrom ravaged the tower and disappeared, going as far as Nuvema Town before Ghetsis's men lost track of it.

## Relation to Canon

Ghetsis's portrayal in the *Operation GEAR* series follows from and expands upon his depiction in the Pokémon video games. However, several major aspects are revised. His background as a political figure from Lacunosa Town who poses as a film producer was created for the series, while his relationships with N, Concordia and Anthea are all very different.

## Trivia

* Ghetsis's characterization is based on that of Marquis Albert de Blois, the main antagonist of the novel and anime series *Gosick*. Specific references include his backstory as a political figure who abducted a performer to birth a child with special powers for use in his plan.
* Ghetsis's look in the flashbacks to Virbank City in *Team Rocket VS. Team Plasma: Best Wishes From the Past (Part 1)* is based on that of Anton Ivanov/The Superior, a villain featured in the fifth season of the television series *Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*.
* Ghetsis's appearance in *Team Rocket VS. Team Plasma: Best Wishes From the Past (Part 2)* was introduced to the Pokémon anime episodes as an *Operation GEAR*-original element. When the scripts for these episodes were obtained by the public in 2023, it was discovered that Ghetsis did in fact appear in the second of the two episodes. At the time the chapter was written, this fact was unknown.