You're absolutely right, jeez they haven't even encountered Ash at all in 19 episodes straight now!
(And they went 11 episodes without appearing at all!) All this is only serving to further my opinion that this is probably the last series where we'll see the TRio as members of Team Rocket. (If my hunch is right, they'll be quitting as members come Journey's end.)
Although it wasn't against the heroes there was also Meowth defeating his own evolved form after roughly 70 episodes of being a joke.
I'm not even sure if one could count that as a "battle," since Mimikyu was just doing whatever it wanted to do and Mareanie was still a wild Pokemon at that point.
Oh, yeah, That's another thing about Meowth in that despite consistently being portrayed as incredibly weak most of the time (something that the show even went out of its way to explain by essentially saying that Meowth used up all of his "levels and EVs" to learn to speak and walk like a human, leaving him with little to no combat potential), he occasionally goes through random bursts of power, and this actually happens even long after Kanto was over: in one Sinnoh episode he delivered a swift beatdown to powerhouses like Staraptor, Togekiss, and freaking Infernape all at the same time; in Unova he single-handedly managed to knock out an entire horde of Team Plasma's Liepards, and in Kalos I believe he defeated Serena's Fennekin with zero effort (though to be fair that last one is more justified than the first two due to Serena and Fennekin being inexperienced newbies at the time, but it's still notable because other past companions were never shown to be so weak in their rookie stages that even Mewth could beat them). Most of these are never really explained and never last beyond isolated cases. And then there's AU Meowth, who was shown to be powerful enough to trade blows with Cynthia's Garchomp of all Pokemon despite still having the ability to talk, so presumably he still had Main!Meowth's backstory, yet his power level seems to be consistently high. How and why is anyone's guess.
I feel like a lot of those of wins of Meowth's were definitely the exception rather than the rule (somewhat obviously,) and mostly for gags/laughs. The beating Serena's Fennekin thing is probably because B/W had just ended, where Meowth was competent. Or it's as you said, because she and Fennekin were inexperienced.
Why?
It is just a guess.
Why'd you say you hope for 152 episodes or less, though? Do you prefer shorter series?
To be fair, that's been the case since at least AG, if not Johto, so Team Rocket not posing a challenge for Ash is hardly a new issue. Even getting Pokemon from their Team Rocket machine usually doesn't make them more imposing or difficult for Ash to defeat. I don't see them phasing Team Rocket out of the villain role since that is one of their defining traits. They'll probably continue to use them more sparingly, but I really don't think that they've cared about making Team Rocket more difficult for Ash to defeat for decades. Much like Ash and Pikachu, I think that they're too iconic and marketable for them to replace completely. It's still more possible for them to leave than it would be for Ash, if only because the story isn't about Team Rocket, but I don't think it's particularly likely to happen either.
They were close to defeating Ash in SM with both Pikachu and Rowlet poisoned, but the joke was that Bewear stopped them before they could actually win.
It’s more of they offer very little to Ash. As Ash becomes a trainer who can fight Elite Fours and Champions, his dynamic with the TRio is reduced to brief battles and quick blast offs. This began in AG, which is where a lot of people were getting tired of Team Rocket. It's like keeping Pilaf as the main villain for Dragon Ball even though it’s clear that Goku far outclassed him. I don’t think they’ll go away completely but I do think their days of antagonizing Ash may be coming to an end given a sudden decrease of interactions in Journeys.
Actually, and I hate to be that guy, but only Rowlet was poisoned. Pikachu was just beat-the-hell up courtesy of Mimikyu.
I do not prefer shorter series.Why'd you say you hope for 152 episodes or less, though? Do you prefer shorter series?
Where did they actually state that Meowth talking used up all his exp
I didn't mean it literally, hence why I used quotation marks. But I do remember that Meowth did say something to that effect, and in any case it was still shown in other ways, such as the fact that apparently Meowth is unable to learn any new moves besides the ones he already has, not even his species' signature Pay Day.
could be the case!
