We used democracy to switch on battle animations. Best use of democracy ever.
Keeping VP there is incredibly dumb. Unless Hariyama sweeps sidney, VP will never get levels.
It's less about getting Vileplume levels and more about having Doge ready for Pheobe. Every once in a while he kills 1 or 2 of her pokemon, and with enough leveling he'll be able to sweep most if not all of her team.
Unfortunately for Vileplume she's not very useful until Wallace, but she'll pretty much never survive to that point.
Another option would be to put Tentacruel in Slot 3 cause she's proven useful against Glacia, but then he dies against Drake and doesn't make it Wallace, where we need him most. IMO it's best just not to worry about Vileplume and focus on the useful members.
Edit: Hooooly fuck. Annie just nearly did a perfect sweep of Sidney's team. She also 1hko every pokemon now, even with intimidate. The only issue now is confusion.