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Lysandre was interesting, but a case of lost potential. He was this wealthy technocrat who wanted to make the world a better place with his innovations, but got sick of society going nowhere and developed an overblown god complex. The problem with him I think is the whole tone of the Pokemon brand. The whole universe is designed to be idealistic, and Lysandre's backstory is easy to miss during XY. The main story is just you running around Kalos with your "friends", and you never quite get to see what makes Lysandre tick. What makes the world so bleak that he would want to burn it all down. They sort of wanted to tell a more serious story with this game, with war, social disparity, and other heavy topics. But didn't have the balls to fully commit, or present Pokemon's world in a harsher light than normal.
They really are better off with simplistic villains like Giovanni or Guzma. Though I get his characterization more than someone like Cyrus.