Why hasn't Team Rocket been dealt with?

matt0044

matt0044

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No, not the hapless trio we either love or hate. Not specifically. I'm referring instead to the organization at large with Giovanni still in power and creating all sorts of chaos with or without Jessie, James and Meowth. What's weird about it is how they went two whole regions after Johto without any major developments before Unova attempted to make a subplot out of them.

Whether you defend BW or not, this is one aspect that I personally can appreciate because we had the TRio working as a part of the overall organization rather than how they were pretty much an independent faction until themselves in Hoenn and Sinnoh. We had Pierce, Zagar, Matori and even a few unknown spies that worked with them. Butch and Cassidy were cool but their appearances were woefully more limited than they should've been.

However, while other organizations have come and gone, why is Team Rocket as a whole still kicking? It's strange to think about how feel good the show is when there's an secret criminal organization constantly lurking in the shadows. Maybe not affecting our heroes but certainly something to watch out for yet none of the writers seems to care about this incredibly loose plotline.

Not like Jessie, James and Meowth gotta be a part of a functioning Team Rocket. They could be trying to start their own Team Rocket or try to bring is back ala how GSC's storyline went.

So... what the heck?
 
Without the Team Rocket organization, the Team Rocket trio wouldn't really have a reason to be in the show. They could still try to steal rare Pokemon for themselves, but they clearly like being a part of Team Rocket and want to work for Giovanni, so I don't think that would be enough.

It also doesn't help that they didn't really attempt to adapt the Team Rocket events from R/B during the first arc. If they wanted to have Ash defeat the Team Rocket organization during the original series, then they would have had to include those events, particularly the Sliph Co takeover and actually have Ash confront Giovanni for his eighth badge. It's possible that they were going to do something with Giovanni originally since they kept him hidden until his battle with Gary, but nothing really came out of that. Ash didn't even see Giovanni until the Mewtwo Returns special and there was only one confrontation between them in BW during the Meloetta arc. Since they didn't really adapt the storyline from R/B, they couldn't really do a lot with Team Rocket's appearances in the G/S storyline either since that was all about Team Rocket trying to get Giovanni to come back.

Plus, it does provide a consistent threat within the world with at least one evil team always around. I don't think that takes away from the more light hearted tone of the series. Even though Ash and his friends have defeated the other evil teams, they probably existed in-universe before Ash arrived in those regions. There needs to be some form of conflict within the show and an evil organization is a pretty clear and easy way to provide that in a show.
 
Not to sound snippy, but wasn’t this something that I once started a conversation about a little while ago?
 
In-universe, possibly corruption and influences, and high loyalty from its followers.

Out of universe, well, you can't disband TR without finishing JJM's story and vice-versa, and that will take ages to happen. TR being a part of the trio gives the writers the opportunity to: give the trio a collective name, justify their actions, making them more relatable by making them work for someone else, and justify the origin of their mechas.

It's not really a plot hole, because TR haven't been percieved as a direct threat to the heroes since Unova. As Movie 9 shown with the Rayquaza scene, there are some things the heroes just can't control, maybe it adds an strange tone to the series, but that's how the real world works. Even then, there aren't many scenes like that one and I'm sure that when Kanto and Johto get revisited they'll be fine.
 
Hidden Mew said:
It's possible that they were going to do something with Giovanni originally since they kept him hidden until his battle with Gary, but nothing really came out of that.
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Yeah, why didn't they have Ash face Giovanni himself? It's not like he would've toppled the organization there with the Sylph Co. event so why go with a glorified Team Rocket encounter?

I mean, it might tied in well with Mewtwo Strikes Back.
 
matt0044 said:
Yeah, why didn't they have Ash face Giovanni himself? It's not like he would've toppled the organization there with the Sylph Co. event so why go with a glorified Team Rocket encounter?

I mean, it might tied in well with Mewtwo Strikes Back.
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My best guess would be that they just didn't want to risk Ash defeating Giovanni in case that made the Team Rocket organization less of a credible threat. Ash defeating the Team Rocket trio on a regular bias isn't an issue since they're comedy relief villains, but defeating Giovanni with his underdeveloped Kanto team might be more of an issue. It wouldn't lead to the organization disappearing, especially when they didn't cover any of the other major Team Rocket appearances from the games, but it would probably be too unbelievable for Ash to do and went with the trio again instead.

It's also possible that they were originally going to do something different with Giovanni when they thought that the series would last through the Indigo League. Since they probably knew that the show would continue beyond that point once Ash was getting his last couple of badges, they could have scrapped any plans they had for Ash to battle against Giovanni.
 
You know if team rocket is in SM then there is a less chance to be a Kanto arc due the release of LGE and LGP. And ai dont understand why they make a game like USUM that is filled with Kanto and then make game of Kanto AGAIN! And why making a Kanto arc so early if there will be a new pokémon game that focuses on Kanto?
 
I don't know the in-universe reason, but the main reason is it's a great excuse to keep the TRio around.

Without the TRio doing almost everything they do in the name of the organization and Giovanni, they'd be even MORE annoying, pointless, and intrusive than they already are.

And nobody wants that. :cautious:
 
I like the idea of the Team Rocket organization still kicking in part because of corruption. It adds a shade to the world of this anime that is really interesting.

Also the idea of Team Rocket being disbanded at the end of Kanto/Orange Islands and having the trio trying to bring them back would have actually been a really cool storyline for them to follow in Johto. But I'm not sure how they would have handled them after this. Did they succeed and get a promotion like Best Wishes? Did they succeed but dont get credit? Would Sakaki still be in power? Would they keep up this plotline for the next 800 episodes?
 
Hidden Mew said:
it would probably be too unbelievable for Ash to do and went with the trio again instead.
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Isn't that what ultimate confrontations are about? The underdog finding a way to overcome the big bad in a one-on-one showdown.
 
kantoskies said:
Also the idea of Team Rocket being disbanded at the end of Kanto/Orange Islands and having the trio trying to bring them back would have actually been a really cool storyline for them to follow in Johto. But I'm not sure how they would have handled them after this. Did they succeed and get a promotion like Best Wishes? Did they succeed but dont get credit? Would Sakaki still be in power? Would they keep up this plotline for the next 800 episodes?
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I never thought of that take on the G/S storyline, but that would be pretty interesting. It would give the Team Rocket trio something different to do during Johto. I don't know how they'd tackle the ending since Team Rocket stays disbanded in the game and I doubt that they'd keep that storyline going past Johto, but it could have been a fun way to handle Team Rocket searching for Giovanni.

matt0044 said:
Isn't that what ultimate confrontations are about? The underdog finding a way to overcome the big bad in a one-on-one showdown.
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It usually helps if there's buildup to that ultimate confrontation or if the underdog is actually skilled. Ash didn't even have a full team on him by the time he reached the eighth Gym and most of his Pokemon were unevolved. I don't think he could have defeated Giovanni in a satisfying manner, especially when he already had Mewtwo. If they wanted Ash to defeat Giovanni, they would have had to change quite a bit of Ash's Kanto team and his journey to make it feel more believable/earned.
 
Muur said:
Why hasn't the Yakuza been dealt with IRL? I mean sure some of the other teams disbanded in the anime, but TR are basically the Yakuza and they spread over multiple regions
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The trio in the anime means that Team Rocket stays. I want the trio to stay but I want Team Rocket to play a bigger part in the anime so there is some relevance. I think it would work well if there was satellite HQs in every new region so they are forced to play a bigger role.
 
I think the TRio and TR as a whole haven't been "dealt with" is simply because catching Pikachu is the schtick they are well known for. There probably was a plan at one point, but then Pokemon became popular and the TRio along with it. So we are stuck with them.
 
Team Rocket being dealt with means the TRio wouldn't really have to be a part of the main anime. If the three must be a part of the show, their background organization needs to be up and running.
 
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