Does Team Rocket need a new motto?

[PokeDot517]

I think it's about time TRio gets a new motto. They started to reuse their "Prepare for Trouble and make it Double" motto near the end of the BW series and Decolora Islands arc and also the XY series. It's classic and enjoyable but I'm kinda getting tired of it hearing it. :/

What do ya think?

And of course this is strictly my opinion. If you like Team Rocket's "Prepare for Trouble! and Make it Double!" motto that's alright.

BTW my favorite Team Rocket motto is the one used in the early episodes of the Black and White series. =)

 

[Beth Pavell]

Depends how close of a translation it is from the original Japanese. All that "With thunderous emotion" "Carving our names on the rock of etoinity!" rubbish sounded too ridiculous in English even for a TRio motto

 

[Moe]

The motto is the absolute least of the problems for how Team Rocket are dubbed, but yeah they should change it. The problem of course being that Japan returned to the original motto, but the dub returned to the original dub translation, rather than taking the opportunity to go to a closer translation of it.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" is just hilariously bad when they are doing the motto to people that have defeated them hundreds of times.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Closer translation =/= better.

EDIT - qualifying that. A misconception I see a lot is the idea that the closer to the original language the better. Well, meaning can easily get lost in translation that way (And with a global franchise you can't just translate for anime fans who have a better understanding of Japanese culture). Puns are obvious, idioms too (A friend of mine spent ten minutes trying to explain the meaning of "Like taking candy from a baby" to his Mauritian family). Certain words have very different connotations in different languages. If you have to actually translate meaning as opposed to just translate words (Google Translate style) you have to take all this into account

 

[Alola]

I liked the motto from the DP saga :3

 

[Dogasu]

The return to the original motto is supposed to show us that the Rocket-Dan that we knew and loved from the pre-Best Wishes! are back. It's a quick and easy way to show people that the original trio is back.

Closer translation =/= better.

Closer translation =/= worse, either.

 

[kantoskies]

I'm absolutely fine with them using their original motto and I love the new music that plays with it, but please for the love of god we need some new animation. Like yeah pretty much every other series has reused some motto animation before, but usually it'd only be small segments and would have different backgrounds. But this is the exact same 20-30 seconds every episode. What kept the motto from getting stale in earlier episodes was how the presentation was different (a lot of times it would share the theme of their current disguises), but this time they just quickly throw off their disguises and it's stock footage time!

The animation they use isn't even that good, like yeah it looks flashy and its stylized and everything but after seeing it 50+ times over a year and a half it looks really dull. The much more "basic" animation from XY014 or XY051 is so much better because it a) flows with the rest of the animation and 2) is actually new

 

[Galactic_V]

Nah, but changing the animation and tone of the motto'd be good. DP's a great example of that,

 

[ii kanji]

After the replacement of the original motto I was desperate for them to bring it back. I'm not sure I can even explain why... I think I felt like it was somehow a charm which captured the magic of the original series. However with some time and perspective on everything that's happened since BF (!!) when the "new" mottoes started, I realise that the motto they use doesn't matter - the use of the original motto in Jouto and Decolora couldn't drag those boring sagas out of the mire, nor could the watered down DP motto bring down an overall fantastic saga.

As others have already said the best thing they could do right now to improve motto-life is to get rid of that effing boring recycled animation and just do some simple but original motto animations each episode.

As for the dub mottoes... If you grew up with the 4Kids dub then that original 'Prepare for trouble' motto is unfortunately an important and irreplaceable piece of history and (dependent on opinion ofc) a cemented classic Frankly the accuracy of their motto translations is the least of the problems for Team Rocket. If PUSA/TPCI/whatever the hell they're called now want to improve the Rockets then they should please give them a decent script and replace Zoppi!!

 

[kantoskies]

As far as the actual motto itself goes the original is my favorite purely from a nostalgic standpoint. Sure it's weird that they decided to go back to it now after like 5-6 years (too lazy to check how long it was between BF and the part in Unova when they switched back), but it's the most memorable to me because it's the one I grew up with. As for which one is objectively *best* it'd probably have to be the Unova one (at least in the dub since it was actually translated). I never really liked the Sinnoh one; the music was my least favorite (so imagine my delight when they decided to use it from BW023 on) and the dub performances were pretty meh, as was dubbed DP Team Rocket in general. Though I suppose that's a topic for another day.

 

[Moe]

Closer translation =/= better.

Wanting a closer translation for me is more that it gives the dub the chance to carry over more of the motto variations if they have a similar format to them. I certainly agree on the wider point of not being too literal, but I think they are on the wrong side of the middle ground at the moment.

The one they had in Unova let the dub follow a decent number of the bits of dialogue at the start of the motto, which end up a lot better than when the dub tries to do that on its own. In a few of the recent episodes in Japanese that meant Jessie mimicking Pokemon - which is hilarious and then totally lost in the dub.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Closer translation =/= better.

Wanting a closer translation for me is more that it gives the dub the chance to carry over more of the motto variations if they have a similar format to them. I certainly agree on the wider point of not being too literal, but I think they are on the wrong side of the middle ground at the moment.

The one they had in Unova let the dub follow a decent number of the bits of dialogue at the start of the motto, which end up a lot better than when the dub tries to do that on its own. In a few of the recent episodes in Japanese that meant Jessie mimicking Pokemon - which is hilarious and then totally lost in the dub.

I can see your point. The TRio more than any other aspect of the anime suffers from the long repetition - I don't think they ever really got over that, even with the Unova "competent" TRio. I agree that more variations at least means that you're never quite sure exactly what you're going to get, something which the silly TRio had going for them even when the rest of their appearance was entirely usual

 

[technickal]

I agree with PropellorYoshi1808, the original motto never gets old, dubbed or not, but come on! Lazy stock footage? I've noticed they're using stock footage for Thunderbolt and blasting off too. It would look just as good as the old days if it was a different animation each time.

 

[Muur]

Their current was played out for 10 years, they shouldn't have gone back to it in the first place.

 

[Treacle]

I like the old one, I don't know why they changed it in the first place.

 

[dman_dustin]

I think it's about time TRio gets a new motto. They started to reuse their "Prepare for Trouble and make it Double" motto near the end of the BW series and Decolora Islands arc and also the XY series. It's classic and enjoyable but I'm kinda getting tired of it hearing it. :/

What do ya think?

And of course this is strictly my opinion. If you like Team Rocket's "Prepare for Trouble! and Make it Double!" motto that's alright.

BTW my favorite Team Rocket motto is the one used in the early episodes of the Black and White series. =)

One thing I dislike about the classic motto (at least during this series) is that Meowth doesn't say anything, it's back to when Meowth doesn't feel like a Team Rocket Member, that's why I liked those updated mottos, but now, just like in the early series its just Jessie and James.

Edit: I mean it doesn't bother THAT much but I don't like regression that much.

 

[LordSeliph]

This thread is making me curious about what the XY series plans to do with the TRio character-wise

 

[Four/Tris]

I like that they're using the classic motto again. It just has that nostalgic charm that's still enjoyable after hearing multiple times, in my opinion.