Guzma: The Rejected Captain Who Became Team Skull's Boss

Guzma wanted to be a captain; he started a gang instead. As head of Team Skull, the criminal group plaguing Alola, he flaunts a loud swagger and stands for nothing but destruction. Yet the game takes the time to show what's behind the facade: a chair with battered armrests, a stubborn grudge against a professor, and parents living quietly on Route 2.

Contents

• The Boss of Team Skull
• The Captain He Never Became
• The Bug Type, With One Exception
• The Lost Rematch on the Beach
• At the Alola League, Then on Cards
• Guzma at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Boss of Team Skull

Guzma leads Team Skull, Alola's criminal group. The story never gives him a precise plan: his motivations go unexplained, and he's content to present himself as destruction in human form.

His anger serves as set dressing as much as character. In the gang's hideout, the boss's chair has damaged armrests, as if pounded by fists — the detail is enough to convey the character's violence without any scene having to show it.

He also stands out for a rhyming line he trots out at every encounter, in which he proclaims himself the boss everyone hates. Guzma readily speaks in rhyme, and that braggart's bravado is his whole agenda.

The Captain He Never Became

He holds a stubborn grudge against Professor Kukui, and the game explains why: both men aimed for the rank of captain. Guzma failed, whereas Kukui gave up the post to go traveling.

Never recognized by the islands, he manufactured his own recognition. Team Skull is a rejected candidate's consolation prize: the organization gives him the title the official path denied him.

The bravado is just a front, and the game says so indirectly. Plumeria eventually tells the player that Guzma has a soft spot for Lusamine, the only one who ever took him seriously: the megalomaniac mostly craves approval.

The Bug Type, With One Exception

His specialty fits in one word: Guzma is a Bug-type Pokémon Trainer. The chest in his hideout even holds Buginium Z, and only his Battle Tree teams stray from that line, with Toxapex, Toxicroak, Honchkrow, Liepard and Bisharp.

Golisopod is the face of this lineup. In the mobile game Pokémon Masters, where the character has been playable since March 2020, it's his default partner; Ariados fills that role in an alternate sync pair.

A special outfit gives him a completely different partner, a Buzzwole. The game's descriptions sum up the character better than any synopsis: his strength earns him the obedience of his motley crew, and his kindness earns their devotion.

🐛 Bug-type Pokémon have their own section: check out the Pokémon figures.

The Lost Rematch on the Beach

Once the League is beaten, the player can step into the family home, on Melemele Island's Route 2, where Guzma's father and mother live. The boss is at home there, and he sets up a meeting on the beach.

The rematch is short-lived: he loses once again and is left with a bitter taste. Hala, who watched the battle, draws the opposite conclusion and offers to take him under his wing, recognizing his talent.

Guzma balks, then accepts fairly quickly. The gift he then hands the player marks the end of the grudge, and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon bring him back at the end of the story — on the player's side, this time.

At the Alola League, Then on Cards

The animated series makes him one of its main antagonists from the twenty-second season on, when he enters the scene during the Sun & Moon series.

He signs up for the League, beats Ilima then Lana, and falls to Ash in the semifinals. His Golisopod's Emergency Exit backfires on him during that match: the defeat comes from his own tactics.

He's the third villainous team leader to cross paths with Ash in the series, after Lysandre among others, and the second to be defeated by him. On the card side, his first appearance dates back to the Sun & Moon—Burning Shadows expansion, released in France on August 19, 2017.

Guzma at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Guzma in Pokémon?
  He leads Team Skull, Alola's criminal group, in Pokémon Sun and Moon. He returns in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, this time as the player's ally at the end of the story.
• What type does Guzma use?
  The Bug type, with the sole exception of his Battle Tree teams. The chest in his hideout holds Buginium Z, and both Golisopod and Ariados serve as his partners in the mobile game Pokémon Masters.
• Why does Guzma hold a grudge against Professor Kukui?
  Both of them wanted to become captains. Guzma failed, while Kukui chose to go traveling instead: the grudge comes from that difference in paths, not from a direct clash.
• What happens to Guzma after the League?
  The player finds him at his parents' house on Route 2 and beats him in a rematch on the beach. Hala, who witnessed the battle, then takes him under his wing.
• Where does the name Guzma come from?
  From the guzmania, a Central American plant whose center resembles the cut and color of his hair. The name also evokes that of Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán.

In short

Guzma holds up because the game isn't content with just making him menacing: it gives him a reason to be there. A rank denied, a gang founded as revenge, a chair that takes the punches and parents waiting on Route 2. The beach rematch rounds out the character better than a scripted defeat: he loses, he takes it, and he accepts the hand Hala holds out to him.