Pokémon Adventures: Black 2 & White 2’s Best Hero Is a Villain
Pokémon Adventures’ Black 2 & White 2 features one of the manga series’ best protagonists, which is only enhanced by their villainous origin.
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Most Pokémon fans are familiar with the franchise’s long-running manga, Pokémon Adventures, which retells the stories of the games far better than any anime ever has. But with the plethora of main characters, it’s often easy to forget that one of their best protagonists, Whitley of the Black 2 & White 2 chapter, was actually a villain. As a member of Team Plasma, Whitley worked against the protagonists of Black & White, “liberating” Pokémon from their trainers.
Far from the first Pokémon protagonist to take some trips to the dark side, Whitley first appears at the tail end of the Black & White arc as a young plasma grunt who is given a chance to keep a Pokémon she had formed a bond with before going into hiding to avoid arrest. The next time we see her, Whitley is transferring into Aspertia City’s trainer school! She finds herself capturing the unwanted attention of her classmate Blake, and the two start on a rocky path to friendship.
After discovering what Neo Team Plasma is like on a field trip, right before the city is frozen by Kyurem under Colress’s control, Whitley decides that the new Team Plasma is something she wants nothing to do with. This moment jump-starts her character arc from a staunch believer in the original Team Plasma’s ideals to someone who recognizes that Pokémon and humans can work together harmoniously, by showing her how Team Plasma actually operates. Whitley then finds out that she had been given a memory card that would allow her to counteract the Colress’s control and free Kyurem.
Unfortunately, before she’s able to get the pendant the card was hidden in, she’s captured by Neo Team Plasma — only to be freed by Blake — who promptly arrests her. It turns out he had been part of the International Police and was investigating her the whole time. Upon expressing remorse for what’s happened, and demonstrating a willingness to help truly liberate the Pokémon who were being used by Plasma, Whitley manages to convince Blake to let her help, showcasing an assertive side to her character that contrasts with the shy, nervous personality that she’d demonstrated prior. Together, the two travel to face off against Colress and Ghetsis, along with the previous arc’s protagonists: Black and White.
While en route, White gives Whitley a bit of a pep talk and helps her to realize that she does still believe that Pokémon should live freely, including having the freedom to choose to live with humans. With renewed determination and appreciation for her partner Foongus, she’s ready for anything. When the showdown finally begins, Whitley goes to rescue the incapacitated N, and once she frees him, the two face Ghetsis. When an explosion rips apart the flying ship they’re in, N attempts to save his “father” from falling — but ends up taking a cane to the face instead. Fortunately, Foongus is able to help out and heal N before he sustains too much damage.
With Blake having dealt with Colress and Black having defeated Kyurem, all that’s left to do is put out the flaming wreck of the airship. Whitley and N’s Tepig team up with the rest of the heroes to put the fire — and Team Plasma — to rest. When Ghetsis is taken into custody, Whitley assures the former leader, in no uncertain terms, that even if humans should forget and fall back under his spell, she won’t forget. The Pokémon won’t forget, either. And together, they’ll see to it that Ghetsis never rises to power again.
Blake agrees to keep Whitley’s connections to team Plasma a secret, making her a free agent. The depth of her growth over the chapter is shown in the epilogue when N begins to return all the stolen Pokémon, and it comes time to return Foongus. Foongus’s original trainer declines the offer, and N tells Whitley that Foongus is happy to be able to keep her. While Whitley takes some issue with the wording, her joy at being able to continue training alongside Foongus leaps off the page to tug at the reader’s heartstrings.
Of course, the reason Whitley is such a compelling character is that, despite her ‘villainous’ origins, she always honestly believed she was doing the right thing. As such, even with her heel-face-turn, she still retains some Team Plasma hallmarks — like not keeping her Pokémon in Pokéballs unless absolutely necessary. It adds a lot of depth to her character, showing why she’s initially shy and nervous around others, as she’s afraid of her past coming out. While she’s not as instantly likable as more traditional protagonists the reader gets to know her on a much more personal scale. In fact, her villainous roots make her small aspirations of living in peace and harmony with Pokémon all the more admirable.
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