Sun & Moon Characters Speculation Thread

[Satomine Night]

This is true, but the Pokegirl has their own goal. The way they shoehorn Jessie into their plots, makes her look like a leech and it's pointless. With all the characters we have in SM right now and how its been set up so far, they need come up with something different for the TRio because I really don't see the point of them being around right now, except the rivalry between Mimikyu and Pikachu.

That's because Jessie is a leech - a leech who sucks the enjoyment out of episodes with her and her comrades' pointless appearances, and a leech who has to steal the spotlight from every other female on the planet, because she can't stand not being the center of attention. >_>

Seriously, there is no need for Jessie to be shoehorned in as competition for the Pokégirl, even if she does use her Pokémon in more strategic, creative ways than she ever does when she is actually doing her job. Just as there is no need for Team Rocket to attempt to kidnap Pikachu just to give an episode some sort of conflict. So far, I haven't minded what they have done with Team Rocket in SM, but I'm worried the writers won't actually keep this up and will resort to the same old shoehorning formula.

 

[DatsRight]

Keep in mind that in order for that to work, they have to improve the twerp dynamics just as much as Team Rocket. A key reasons TR are spammed is because the twerp plot isn't interesting on it's own or because the writers can't think of climatic enough way to end it. It's been complained XY's dynamic was too laid back and positive, there were few conflicts and development and training on Clemont and Serena's end was very minimal, thus TR were often needed for some cheap form of tension. That the twerps rarely have any form of chemistry with TR doesn't help.

This was probably why BW didn't overuse TR too much, even when they became bumblers again, because the BW twerp squad had more of their own foibles and situations to look into and make a whole plot out of, and even when TR did appear they could often merge them into that better because the twerps weren't nearly as 'above' their antics as in other eras'.

 

[Remix2]

I don't think that team rocket will have any real important this series other then comedy relief and being in every episode even if there no reason to be there.

 

[U.N. Owen]

TRio's main source of conflict is probably Mimikyu, seeing how it is such a fear inducing creature.

 

[J D Sheppard]

They should of retired the Trio a long time ago. They could of used members of the various villainous teams instead. Eg this gen a couple of skull grunts. Would of made much more sense

 

[Golden_Latias]

Yeah, TR should have been written off the show after Johto IMO but it's too late to do it now. They're too iconic. It would be like retiring Ash and rebooting the show with a new protagonist. It's not happening.

Again, I agree that they've been fine in SM so far. I'd say the only episode they really felt shoehorned into was the Rowlet episode. And maybe the Lana one, as well, but I think they were fine in that one as there was no real conflict going on there other than the fishing competition anyway.

As long as they're not in every single episode like DP or XY, I'm fine with them. And I really hope the writers do something with Mimikyu. That's just too good of an opportunity to waste.

 

[Zoruagible]

I actually want them in every episode..... fillers are dull without them.

 

[J D Sheppard]

I actually want them in every episode..... fillers are dull without them.

Yea fine have them in filler. But that doesn't mean they should be shoved into plot centric episodes. Like if ash has an episode dedicated to battling someone, the last thing I wanna see is TR doing stupid unimportant stuff and taking away from the battle

 

[Wednesdayz]

I actually want them in every episode..... fillers are dull without them.

Eh, I don't know. For example since Team Skull seems fairly incompetent and equally as goofy as TR, I'd rather see more of Team Skull than of TR in future episodes.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Eh, I don't know. For example since Team Skull seems fairly incompetent and equally as goofy as TR, I'd rather see more of Team Skull than of TR in future episodes.

Same same here, besides Team Rocket gets unbearable when they appear in every episode, especially Jessie. I feel like I'd need a break from them for several episodes before they appear again.

 

[DatsRight]

They just need to prioritise the heroes' development and whether TR work with it or not. As mentioned before, sometimes TR feel like a plot 'short cut' over actual character development or because the heroes are too weakly characterised to hold an episode on their own.

It's been mentioned many times that TR tend to cheapen many plots, they'll be conflicts or interesting situations that could play until they interrupt them. Sometimes I feel like this is less because the writers feel obligated to stick TR in there and more because having them break up whatever situation is going on and uniting all the characters against this enemy is a MUCH easier way to resolve the story than playing it through properly to it's full complexity. TR have slowly become little more than a writer's short cut. That the show has gradually dwindled any real chemistry they have with the heroes to just make them a generic hate sink from their POV only makes it more obvious.

 

[Satomine Night]

I actually want them in every episode..... fillers are dull without them.

I disagree. Team Rocket's constantly interfering via Pikachu kidnapping attempts gets really old really fast. Team Rocket's presence shouldn't be necessary to make an episode, filler or not, interesting. It's one thing if they actually play an integral role in an episode's plot. That's fine. But when they are shoehorned in just for the sake of having conflict, that's annoying. I can barely stand Team Rocket at this point because of that.

 

[Forretress Fan]

Bewear has made TR much more enjoyable, I anticipate to see how they "Blast Off" in every episode now.

An interesting chance they could've had to make TR relevant, have them accidentally steal the Zygarde Cube, and them not knowing what it is, try to fill it up by eventually when it gets to 100%, it rampages or w/e

 

[DatsRight]

Bewear has made TR much more enjoyable, I anticipate to see how they "Blast Off" in every episode now.

An interesting chance they could've had to make TR relevant, have them accidentally steal the Zygarde Cube, and them not knowing what it is, try to fill it up by eventually when it gets to 100%, it rampages or w/e

There are plenty of ways they could make TR relevant, even in XYZ they could have easily had them monitor and rival Team Flare instead of just spamming Pikachu schemes. I still stand by the idea that TR are a writing short cut for the creative team to help simplify stories they don't want to put as much effort into while preparing the big arcs.

How do we tame an antagonistic Pokemon? Use Team Rocket.
How do we resolve a character's insecurities or misdeeds? Use Team Rocket.
How do we stop a battle we don't know how to end dynamically enough? Use Team Rocket.

People think the writing team feel forced to use the TRio, truthfully I doubt that they use them all the time unwillingly. They're the perfect scapegoat for lazy writing.

If Sun/Moon manages to avoid or even just downplay this from the usual in favour of creative plots, I'll give it a lot of credit. It's a key reason I couldn't fully hate BW. Even late into the series when they were comical again, a lot of TR appearances felt meaningful.

 

[Remix2]

There are plenty of ways they could make TR relevant, even in XYZ they could have easily had them monitor and rival Team Flare instead of just spamming Pikachu schemes. I still stand by the idea that TR are a writing short cut for the creative team to help simplify stories they don't want to put as much effort into while preparing the big arcs.

How do we tame an antagonistic Pokemon? Use Team Rocket.
How do we resolve a character's insecurities or misdeeds? Use Team Rocket.
How do we stop a battle we don't know how to end dynamically enough? Use Team Rocket.

People think the writing team feel forced to use the TRio, truthfully I doubt that they use them all the time unwillingly. They're the perfect scapegoat for lazy writing.

If Sun/Moon manages to avoid or even just downplay this from the usual in favour of creative plots, I'll give it a lot of credit. It's a key reason I couldn't fully hate BW. Even late into the series when they were comical again, a lot of TR appearances felt meaningful.

After 20 years you will think that the writer will know that you can make story or episodes without having team rocktet.

 

[DatsRight]

After 20 years you will think that the writer will know that you can make story or episodes without having team rocktet.

Generally the same writers have been on the show since the start and the same minds will have the same strengths and limitations.

I think that the recurring vice with the writers is making the heroes and supporting cast proactive and flawed enough as characters that they can hold a story on their own, and that the writers are willing to analyse and play them out depth fully enough without using TR as a short cut around it. This isn't uncommon, heroes tend to be reactors. Pokemon downplays it by giving most of them a goal and tournament type arc, but besides that they are usually rather placid and still need a villain or antagonist to set up a proper climax for them.

I have noticed this tends to be more prominent in the series where Tomioka is the lead writer (AG, DP and XY) while the others tend to have token moments they try to give the heroes more star power or use Team Rocket more depth fully (early OS, BW, the early part of SM so far).

 

[Nacreous]

God,I hope they use the Lillie-Gladion-Lusamine plot in the anime.It would be such a waste if they don't do it.

 

[Alloutℯ]

God,I hope they use the Lillie-Gladion-Lusamine plot in the anime.It would be such a waste if they don't do it.

I could see Gladion being introduced as Lillie's brother like in the games, but I think Lusamine might be ignored like AZ was.

 

[Zoruagible]

I could see Gladion being introduced as Lillie's brother like in the games, but I think Lusamine might be ignored like AZ was.

They won't ignore Lusamine.
That would be like introducing Team Plasma and never touching on N.

 

[DatsRight]

They won't ignore Lusamine.
That would be like introducing Team Plasma and never touching on N.

They introduced Team Flare and ignored AZ.

One thing I notice is that the anime tends to tweak things to be more black and white. The villainous team become more sinister and one dimensionally evil, and any anti-villain character besides that is either made far more benevolent/redeemable or omitted altogether.