Guzma

"The hated boss who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up...Yeah. Big bad Guzma is here!"

- Guzma's introduction. "Here we are, Kukui... Fellow rejects who never could become captains. We've got all these moldy old traditions in Alola — the kahunas, the captains... It’s about time we cut out all that silly garbage and make something new for ourselves. Trust me, I get that. Don't get me wrong, though, Kukui. We've got no need for a Pokemon League. After all, everyone already knows who the strongest Trainer is on these islands!"

- Guzma to Professor Kukui. "Wanna see what destruction looks like? Here it is in human form — it's your boy Guzma!"

- Guzma's most popular line.

Guzma, aka The Hated Boss, is a major antagonist in the 2016 video games Pokémon Sun and ''Pokémon Moon. ''

In the past, Guzma was a victorious contestant of Alola's famous Island Challenge and sought to further his strength to become a Trial Captain for the challenge itself. However, due to him caring far more about proving his strength and beating other trainers, Guzma was not allowed to become a Trial Captain. Seeking vengeance, Guzma rounded up dozens of trainers who had previously failed the challenge and formed Team Skull in order to wreak havoc across the Alola region and get revenge on those who denied him his dream position. He specializes in Bug Type Pokémon.

Guzma was initially thought to be the game's main antagonist (as previous team leaders such as Giovanni, Ghetsis and Lysandre had been before him) but he was later demoted to being the tertiary antagonist by the games' true main villains.

In the games
In the present day, Guzma first appears in Malie Garden along with a few of his grunts. In the garden, he taunts Professor Kukui by referring to the two of them as "fellow rejects who could never become captains" and states that there is no point in building a Pokémon League considering that he is already the strongest trainer around. However, Kukui says that he and Guzma are not the same because he never became a Captain because he chose to pursue other interests and Guzma simply couldn't do it. Kukui then asks the player to battle Guzma, who accepts the challenge after noticing the player's Z-Ring. After he is defeated, Guzma angrily leaves and states that he'll remember their encounter.

Later into the game, Guzma and his men kidnap a Yungoos that belongs to a child who lives in the Aether House, and dare the player to come and retrieve it from them. After the player makes their way through the run down Po Town and Team Skull's base, Shady House, they find Guzma inside his throne room. Guzma then reveals that he had Team Skull steal every single piece of Buginium Z in Alola simply so other trainers couldn't use it. Guzma challenges the player to a rematch, but, just like before, he is defeated and he and his minions abandon their hideout and the player can obtain a Buginium Z. However, it is later revealed that the Yungoos' kidnapping was all a ruse so Plumeria and her grunts could kidnap Lillie and Nebby and bring them to the Aether Paradise.

After defeating Faba, the player and Hau realize that Guzma and Team Skull had been working with the Aether Foundation the whole time and that they will have to go through them in order to reach Lusamine's mansion. After fighting several Grunts, the player confronts Guzma, who has just defeated the reformed Gladion, meaning that he is even stronger than he was in their last encounter. Guzma and the player battle yet again, however, after he loses, Guzma allows the player to advance into the mansion. After Lusamine opens the Ultra Wormhole, Guzma returns to her aid and battles Hau while the player battles Lusamine and Gladion battles a Nihilego. No matter who wins the battle, Guzma and Lusamine enter the Ultra Wormhole to get to Ultra Space.

After the player and Lillie use the power of the Legendary Pokémon (Solgaleo in Sun and Lunala in Moon) to travel to Ultra Space, they encounter Guzma. Guzma explains to the player and Lillie that he had tried to catch a Nihilego while in the dimension, but the creature possessed him instead, making him feel fear for the first time in his life. He also calls the player and Lillie stupid for entering Ultra Space in order to bring back Lusamine, stating that she has become completely insane and obsessed with the Ultra Beasts.

After Lusamine is defeated and everyone returns to the real world, Guzma helps take her to a hospital. After the player becomes the Champion, Guzma, realizing how pointless Team Skull is, disbands it and moves back into his parents' house on Route 2. If visited, Guzma will challenge the player to a battle on Hau'oli City's beachfront. Once defeated here, Kahuna Hala reprimands Guzma for his inability to recognize his opponent's strength and promises to make a fine trainer out of him. In Pokémon Moon only, Guzma becomes a recurring character in the Battle Tree.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Guzma debuts in the Sun & Moon chapter. He is first seen berating a pair of Grunts after their attempt to skip out on paying Sun for his part-time job ended in their defeat. He orders the Grunts to find Sun so that he can teach him a lesson personally.

Later, Guzma travels to a festival being held at Iki Town. There, he finds the pair of Grunts hosting a Slowpoke Tail stand and proceeds to knock Grunt A unconscious for not informing him that Sun was at the festival. After claiming that Grunt A was injured in an accident, Guzma proceeds to take the Grunt's place in the festival's tournament.

Personality
Guzma, over much of the game, appears as a stark contrast to the typical evil leader characters found in the Pokémon Universe. Unlike the other leaders before him, Guzma has an extremely laid back and unprofessional personality, signified by his typical slouching and squatting postures. Guzma often treats most situations with a lack of seriousness, often blowing them off completely or trying to create his own silver lining.

Despite his laid back nature, Guzma tends to express a much darker side to himself. After being defeated, Guzma beats himself up for his failures, usually by shouting "GUZMA! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" while also ruffling his hair. Guzma also desperately tries to assure himself as the strongest trainer in all of Alola, seemingly to fill his own personal void which was possibly created by his denial of being a Trial Captain. If the player looks hard enough, they can also find hints that Guzma had a seemingly abusive relationship with his father and that he ran away from home, an action which most likely served as his motivation for his "only the strong can survive" attitude.

Quotes
"Watch closely, Kukui. Someday I'm gonna destroy you. But first, I'll destroy everything you care about!"

- Guzma to Kukui.

"I don't really get you, kid, but at least this is a change of pace. It's not every day someone comes straight to me for a beating!"

- Guzma to the Player.

"And you came all the way here just for that, huh? Can't you just watch out for your own Pokemon and stay out of other people's business?! You're one messed up kid! You wanna know what I do when some machine messes up? The first thing I do is give it a nice hard smack! I mean, most of the time I smash it to pieces, but hey, what can you do? Now let's see if I can't fix you!"

- Guzma before his second fight.

"Guzma!!! What is wrong with you?! Now's the time for your vaunted team to let loose and destroy everything!"

- Guzma after being defeated.

"I'm gonna beat you down one of these days! No matter whose help I need to do it..."

- Guzma to the player.

"Y'ALL ARE STUPID"

- Guzma to Lillie and the Player.

Trivia

 * All of Guzma's Pokemon were caught in Ultra Balls.
 * Golisopod is stated and shown to be Guzma's favorite Pokemon, as he starts every battle with it.
 * Up until fighting him in the Battle Tree (and per his offensive personality), all of Guzma's Pokemon's attacks do physical damage, with the only exception being his Masquerain, who uses only special attacks. Also, none of his Pokemon uses items until Battle Tree either.
 * Guzma, like the rest of Team Skull, was created by GameFreak in an effort to parody their selves, as Guzma's personality, appearance, motivations, Pokemon type preference, goals and character arc were radically different from that of the generic evil team leaders from other Pokemon games.
 * Guzma, ever since his character reveal, has been subject to multiple internet memes over 2016, with many of the memes showing him indulging in real life trends (such as "dabbing") or comparing his appearance and personality to other characters, such as Rick Sanchez, Dr. Wily, Junkrat, Doodlebob, Doc Brown, Sans the Skeleton, The Joker, etc.
 * Both Guzma and President Haltmann from Kirby: Planet Robobot are strangely similar.
 * They are both antagonists from 3DS games released in 2016 who became famous and extremely popular for breaking up villain trends plaguing their universes (Guzma was the first leader of an evil Pokemon organization who did not treat things seriously and had no ends goals, while Haltmann was an evil business man in a world of Alien entities who wanted to dominate the universe).