The Criminal Teams

[Sith Droideka]

Do you think that the criminal teams and their associated plots have gotten better with each Generation?

Personally, I think that they have gotten better over time. Gen I was all fine and dandy, but I never thought of TR as a serious threat, their music was bland, and their plot was boring. In Gen II their takeover of the radio tower was awesome, and HGSS battle music rocked, but I still thought that their could be some considerable improvement in terms of plot.

Gen III was actually the second generation I played, and while I always thought TA/TM were a whole bunch of insane lunatics that don't understand basic logic, their bosses had some of the best music in the main games, and more importantly there was a sense of urgency to beat them, and they actually had a goal.

Gen IV easily had the best team and plot. Team Galactic is set up like a cult, with a sociopathic leader and grunts who had absolutely no idea what was going on. Platinum's plot was great for a Pokemon game, and TG was the biggest threat yet, beyond killing a Marowak. Although their grunts were very annoying, they also had great battle music and their goal was the most paranoia-inducing yet (imagine if Cyrus had succeeded and you had suddenly stopped existing all at once. And he's still alive and unreformed, meaning he might try and destroy the world yet again).

 

[Smugleaf]

TEAM ROCKET'S ROCKIN
DOUBLE TROUBLE BIG TROUBLE'S GONNA FOLLOW YOU

Thus, Team Rocket is the best gang in Pokemon history. And the ones in Gen 3 were silly. "IMMA TEAM UP WITH YOU TO BEAT THIS EVIL GUY, WHEREUPON IN THE OTHER GAME I WILL BE THE EVIL GUY."

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Here's the thing. Team Rocket's effectiveness varies wildly depending on which canon you mean. Let's face it--in the games, they're pretty pathetic. Their badassery comes from the show and Special.

 

[Drakon]

Here's the thing. Team Rocket's effectiveness varies wildly depending on which canon you mean. Let's face it--in the games, they're pretty pathetic. Their badassery comes from the show and Special.

I agree that they do suck in the games, though admittedly taking over a radio tower and the headquarters of a huge corporation takes some gigantic silicon carbide balls.

The anime...they do manage to pose a decent threat. Jessie and James though... 99.99% suck but the .01 percent chance they they succeed, it is pretty good.

Special, grade A badass.

 

[Peculator]

Team Rocket (Gen I & II):
— World domination. (Common goal, but the most interesting of all)

Team Aqua & Magma (Gen III):
— They fought just to rise the sea level and expand the ground, respectively. (That's lame, why'd they wanna do that?)

Team Galactic (Gen IV):
— Using Dialga and Palkia to create new universe based on Cyrus' mind. (Too extreme but still lame)

Just my opinion.

 

[Falconwing]

TR in the games and special is pretty good (not so much in the anime)

Gen II is a bit iffy, but in Gen I they have a base, the constantly cause issues for the public, they lay siege to a city to get a master ball, they KILLED a pokemon. And they kidnapped and sold others on the black market.

Aqua and Magma were idiots, plain and simple. They had awesome bases and an interesting plot, but their overall plans were stupid.

Galatic though, they were masters. Cyrus is by far the best villain yet.

I can only see them topping Cyrus by having the next villain team being an invading nation.

 

[Mijzelffan]

Tsk tsk tsk. Cipher and Snagem are more evil than eny of those. Cipher corrupts all pokémon by turning them into fighting machines, which can not be noticed, and is hard to undo, while team snagem catches your hard trained pokémon in battle, and then they're theirs.

 

[dragonica]

Hmm i would say Cyrus is the best villain unless team rocket do manage to form in black and white although you herd a SPLASH noise when geovanni ran off who says he hasnt got a son who could lead the team? if team rocket form in the black and whtie games it will be epic

 

[apenpaap]

In Generation I, Team Rocket is pretty cool IMO. Generation II Team Rocket kind of sucks though, as their big plan was to take over the radio tower to beg the old boss to please come back. In the anime, they are of course a complete joke (and one that gets really boring after a couple of episodes), but in Adventures they are very cool and scary.
I really like Team Aqua and Team Magma. They have a clearer and more dangerous goal than Team Rocket, but it's not completely over the top and stupid. Also, I like their rivalry, their uniforms (What can I say? I just love Pirates vs. Ninjas jokes), and their bosses' battle music.
Team Galactic is completely over the top though. They just tried to make them too big a thread and utterly failed IMO. Also, their uniforms suck. The grunts lampshading stuff are funny though.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Team Rocket: they're pure evil (and a certain trio is rather dumb in the anime)

Team Aqua/Magma: Their plans to expand the sea and land, respectively, is an insane plan

Team Galactic: Cyrus' plan to use the power of Dialga/Palkia to create an entirely new universe: too insane for me to comprehend

 

[Nevando]

Team Rocket is overrated. Especially since HGSS ruined my mental image of what Giovanni became [but thats not the games fault as it is my own for misinterpreting what happens between Red and Giovanni... also kinda ruining the Kanto games for me, ffff].

I like Team Aqua and Team Magma. I wish I could say Emeralds storyline with them was canon, but then I'd have to accept Emeralds champion as being canon and I don't like that. But I like Team Magma and Team Aqua because they're the Pokemon interpretations of activists; they cause public distress and whatever, but they're doing it because they seem to truly believe in whatever they're doing as the right thing to do [that's my understanding of it, anyway]. If I have to choose between Ruby or Sapphires story being canon [if I can't have Emerald XD fucking Wallace], I'd choose Ruby, cause Team Magma expanding the land actually sounds like they'd truly believe it was a good thing to do, while expanding the water [in Team Aquas case], while more devestating, is really just stupid.

Team Galactic however is my favourite. A lot of people give the grunts flack for not really knowing whats going on, by just being persuaded by Cyrus' convincing speeches, but honestly, I like how they explain their belief in Cyrus. Unlike the other team grunts, who just seem to follow because they can and they're just as dumb! But yeah, Cyrus' ambition leads me to think he's pretty hardcore. His ambitions have far less to do with Pokemon themselves, even pretending really that they have a part in this at all; they don't. Cyrus just wants a world for himself. In that sense, he's the most evil person in the Pokemon universe.

But in terms of evil people against Pokemon, yeah, it's Cipher. They're pretty awesome.

So my rankings

1) Galactic
2) Cipher
3) Magma
4) Aqua
5) Rocket
6) Snaggem

Eh, I dont have anything good to say about Snaggem. They're more an embarassing subdivision of Cipher.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Cyrus just wants a world for himself.

Only on the show. And I think that was because the writers, like most of the fandom, ignored the two parts in Platinum where he states that there WILL be others in his new world (and quite a few, if you read what he says to you on the Spear Pillar). Including people he doesn't particularly like.

 

[Mijzelffan]

Eh, I dont have anything good to say about Snaggem. They're more an embarassing subdivision of Cipher.

If it wasn't for Wes turning good all of a sudden, Every trainer in Orre would've gotten its pokémon legally catched by team snagem. Before Wes destroyed the snag machine and stole the portable one they already stole some pokémon, sold them to Cipher, who made them shadow and distributed them. They just couldn't continue after this. They're no subdivision in the slightest way.

 

[RaccoonGoon]

Team Rocket was the best. Team Aqua and all them just wanted more water, Team Magma, more land. Team Galactic were a bunch of mindless troops following a man bent on a horrible goal, so yes, that is pretty darn evil, but only due to Cyrus alone. But Team Rocket and all the grunts knew what they were doing, and didn't care. They knew they killed a Marowak, they knew they stole, and knew they were low down scum. Thats what makes them the most evil team.

 

[LULZ 26023]

TR in the games and special is pretty good (not so much in the anime)

Gen II is a bit iffy, but in Gen I they have a base, the constantly cause issues for the public, they lay siege to a city to get a master ball, they KILLED a pokemon. And they kidnapped and sold others on the black market.

Aqua and Magma were idiots, plain and simple. They had awesome bases and an interesting plot, but their overall plans were stupid.

Galatic though, they were masters. Cyrus is by far the best villain yet.

I can only see them topping Cyrus by having the next villain team being an invading nation.

They had one in Gen II. Mahogany?


As for my thoughts, I say Rocket. Aqua and Magma were alright, but the plans were stupid. Galactic, I hated.

 

[Miju]

I love Team Rocket in generation I, so I vote them for having the best plot. (Plus TR has badass theme songs.)
In order of best plot i'd say-
TR
TG
TM + TA
TR (Gen II)
The generation II plot for TR wasn't bad but it wasn't awesome.

 

[MetalGearFlaccid]

Team Rocket: Typical criminal organization with a bit more pizazz than normal. Wants to take over the world, and, barring that, simply profit. A basic, yet realistic and understandable M.O. May be a bit less "cool" in the GSC games, but they just have lost their leadership.

Team Magma/Team Aqua: Less criminal, more fanatical cult. They think what they are doing is for the greater good, not understanding why people don't "understand" their need to disrupt nature's precious balance. Not that cool to me solely as a "criminal" group.

Team Galactic: NERV/Seele wannabees. Also a cult, but they are much more honest about being an illegal group (except... why are they allowed to have their headquarters so out in the open?) All they want is to pretty much rip of End of Evangelion and make a "perfect" world. Again, the fanaticism turns me off.

In the end, to me, at least, you can't beat the original.
LOOKS LITE TEAM ROCKET IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!

 

[Sith Droideka]

Personally, I think that TR is vastly overrated when everybody brings up them killing a Marowak. That one incident reminds me of a Pokemon manga I once saw (Pokemon DP?) where Cyrus had thousands of gravestones behind him and was saying something along the lines of "I don't care how many Pokemon die". And I'm talking about game canon.

 

[zel]

even as an obsessive team rocket fan, i'll admit that they're quite overrated in terms of canon evil-ness. in gen I they were actually quite comic relief-y when they weren't busy killing marowaks. however, in my headcanon/fanfics i tend to depict TR as much darker than they actually are (assassinations, sadistic experiments, etc etc), and because of this they will always be the most badass out of the evil teams (to me). ;D

i like magma/aqua only because they coincide with the very nature-ish feel that i got from gen III. i thought the goals of magma & aqua were fitting for a region like hoenn. (also, i adore maxie & archie.) but they were obviously the least criminal of the criminal teams, which made them not very convincing as enemies...

i'd say as far as canon BAMF-ery goes, team galactic wins. mostly because cyrus's ultimate goal is so complex and beyond what you'd usually find in a video game aimed at kids. when you think about it, team galactic's goals are very deep and... existential. but anyhow. in the games, they just give off a "we will do whatever it takes" sort of vibe, and that's why i think they are probably the most effective out of the evil teams. /nodnod

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Personally, I think that TR is vastly overrated when everybody brings up them killing a Marowak. That one incident reminds me of a Pokemon manga I once saw (Pokemon DP?) where Cyrus had thousands of gravestones behind him and was saying something along the lines of "I don't care how many Pokemon die". And I'm talking about game canon.

That's from DPA. "For the sake of that new world, for me to become a god, the sacrifice of thousands, even tens of thousands of pokémon means nothing!"

Although oddly enough, any body count linked to them is only vaguely implied. There's a lot of *attempted* murder though.