Shrinking Dinks

Excellent article from last year about why Cyrus is still such an enduring and entertaining villain in the Pokemon franchise even five generations later. I've only three quibbles with it:

1. Guzma, mediocre? C'mon, let's not be preposterous!

2. Describing Cyrus as a "nihilist". Charon is a nihilist. Colress is a nihilist. Volo is a nihilist. Cyrus is not a nihilist, because a true nihilist would believe there was nothing that could be done to change human nature and make the universe any better and meaningful. A nihilist would not have Cyrus' logic-based thinking and vision for an ideal reality. Saying he believes that the existence of humanity is detrimental to Pokémon life is a bit misleading too ("Humanity" as in the human species, no. "Humanity" as in their nature, yes.) - the writer probably should've touched upon his fondness for machines, which includes his childhood friendship with that one Rotom.

3. The writer straight up conflated the ending of Cyrus' short in Generations with his ending in Platinum. Cyrus did not "stay in the Distortion World with Giratina" after being defeated one last time because the player defeats or captures Giratina after that last battle, at Cyrus' encouragement even! Cyrus chooses to stay in there all on his own so that he can uncover all of its secrets, including any way to make it manifest into the outside world so that he can yet have his quiet world without spirit. So Cyrus still hasn't given up on his twisted dream, he's just now pursuing it far removed from society.

One of my favorite things about Cyrus across his representations is that when he's not in full founder/CEO/cult leader mode, his social technique is so bizarre.

When he first talks to you directly in Mt. Coronet, he just appears down the steps and begins monologuing to you about how the world was created. He then ups the ante by telling you that he finds the state of affairs "deplorable" and then walks past you with no further explanation.

According to one theory, Mt. Coronet is where the Sinnoh region began. In a newly created world... A world where only time flowed and space expanded... There should have been no strife. But what became of the world? Because the human spirit is weak and incomplete, strife has spread... This world is being ruined by it... I find this state of affairs deplorable...

In Japanese, it's a little better because he goes "Do you know how the world began? According to one theory..." Which is more of a conversation starter, but still a hell of a way to get some random kid's attention.

In Platinum, at Celestic Town, he also singles you out:

"...I know you, Trainer. We've met at Mt. Coronet. Why would you want to protect this incomplete world?

What do you mean "I know you"? You singled me out in a creepy mountain, dumped your existentialist monologue on me, and left as suddenly as you arrived? Does he think we're buddies now because he infodumped at us and we didn't explicitly say you disagreed with him?

In the Distortion World, he also continues his habit of just walking up to you to talk about whatever he feels like talking that day.

"...The shadowy Pokémon isn't here. It abandoned me here, then disappeared somewhere farther down... Was it content to merely interfere with my plan...? Incidentally, do you understand the concept of genes?"

That topic switch just comes with absolutely no warning. He could have said that he knows how this world functions and he's going to explain it to us with a metaphor, but no, just suddenly going from mumbling to himself about Giratina's plans to evaluating our knowledge of genes.

You may think these are gameplay abstractions to have Cyrus explain what he's thinking about to you, and you'd be right! But they're certainly written in a way to make him seem as intense as possible!

We can even see that this escalation of subject matters continues in Masters, where, after talking with Sophocles for hours, he decides that the appropriate way to continue a conversation with a nerdy kid you just met is to ask if he too thinks the human heart is irredeemable:

Sophocles: Gosh...I had no idea Rotom could do that! That was really informative. Thank you! Cyrus: No thanks necessary. You gave me information as well. Sophocles: Hehe. I still want to thank you. Now I can become even better friends with Rotom. [pause, Sophocles makes a confused ? expression] Cyrus: What do you think of this world? Sophocles: Huh?

Like dude, what is this? You went from flee-flowing nerd talk to baring your soul.

Cyrus: This world of ours is a crude one. In a word, it is incomplete. It has been, and always will be, a struggle to survive in this world. We humans and Pokémon are likewise incomplete. Because we are all so lacking, we fight, we maim... It is ugly. I hate the incompleteness. [minor zoom] That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being. The world should be complete. The world must change. Sophocles: Mister? Cyrus: The reason for this is the human spirit. As it is vague and incomplete, so too is the world.　What about you?　Have you never felt pain or sadness due to your incomplete spirit?

This would be an intense and intimate turn for an adult conversation with someone you've known for a while, let alone with someone you met a few hours ago. But he doesn't seem to think so. He doesn't even seem to realize how incredibly vulnerable it is to just lay out your core issue with the world like this. I suppose it's all just information exchange to him.

And in any case, he seemed to have thought that Sophocles was a candidate for being someone who could possibly understand. If Sophocles was like Cyrus, then Sophocles should be comfortable with such a conversation and reach the same conclusion Cyrus did as a kid. From his perspective, he's just filtering for compatibility immediately. And he says as much:

Sophocles: U-um, why did you say all that stuff to me? [zoom to Cyrus’s back] Cyrus: Because you remind me of a child I know very well. But apparently I was mistaken.