And I know this is irrelevant, but TRio were at their most boring in BW.
It was maybe the one series besides SM they were TRYING to find a proper role for them though, just the execution was very hap hazardous.
To tell you the truth, a villain can only be as good as the hero they oppose, and vice versa. Sure TR get downgraded and used excessively much of the time, but the majority of such cases I can't help but feel are made to compensate for the twerps' weakness in character. They're always shoved in as a quick plot device whenever the latter can't carry an episode on their own, and they struggle to be anything more than jobbers because the writers don't seem capable of making the heroes much more compatible with them most of the time. They can be good as characters, but as heroic foils they're shallow as hell and of the 'zero chemistry, tons of plot armour and formula' kind (I don't even buy into the whole 'TR are supposed to be outclassed' excuse, plenty of heroes in fiction are renowned for winning easy but at least making it half way entertaining every episode, eg. Bugs Bunny).
This is admittedly something that disappoints me about SM, I was hoping the return to wacky offbeat stories and more moderated TR appearances would mean a return to Kanto style stories, where the twerps had a funny chemistry with Team Rocket and some more random and amusing face-offs, but if anything they're at their absolute worst here, almost none of their interactions have been that interesting (even the rivalries like Pikachu/Mimikyu and Litten/Meowth are solely from TR's point of view with the hero side refusing to bounce off of them), just it doesn't stink out the whole series like it did for DP and XY because they're not forced against each other nearly as often, and the twerps regularly don't need TR to pad episodes anymore. Both sides can carry great episodes individually, but pit against each other, their fun personalities 'turn off' for some reason and it's back to barebones formula.
I haven't watched Sun and Moon, but reading a few of these post maybe that was a mistake on my part. If the complaints are true and the sidekicks are overshadowing Ash (did I read this right?) then maybe the Sun and Moon anime is the Pokemon anime I've been waiting for. I needed a break from the series after XYZ but Sun and Moon sounds quite interesting now.
I wouldn't say that. The limelight is still mostly Ash and his own team, even if his goal maybe isn't progressing as blatantly as in other series (though he's still probably the most powerful member of the companions). Not to mention the writers are clearly trying to make Ash stand out as a character this series, the blandness he occasionally suffered in XY is gone (except the issues with Team Rocket mentioned above) and he even gets odd episodes revolved around his personality.
If anything I think the companions should get more limelight episodes right now, Ash's limelight is pretty strong. Kaiwe and Mallow have only had ONE limelight episode and even in that Ash was a large focus of it.
