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Team Skull Speculation

Vyrron

#TeamSword
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Since this is a new generation, we're more than likely getting a new team. What do you think they'll be called? Lots of names have been suggested already such as Team Eclipse, Dusk, Dawn, Solar, Lunar etc. Do you think we'll only get one team or two different ones? What will their plans and intentions be? What will their leader be like? Discuss.
 
I would love to see "Team Eclipse", although I think the Team *blank* naming formula has gotten old, but it's unlikely they'll ever drop that formula.

Absolutely agree with the "Team" formula, getting old. I mean the name at least? Call them something else.
As for what the "villains" of the game do, whether they are "Team X" or not, something related to Eclipses would be awesome... I'm reminded of those Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes....
Like the legendaries are awoken during an Eclipse... And their signature move has something to do with eclipses... And the team is trying to use their power for something, but I just want to see an eclipse man.
 
Either we have one evil team for both games or we would have version exclusive teams.
 
Maybe:
  1. Team Flare pulls a Team Rocket and reappears with a new leader and new name (Solar Flare) in Sun while Moon gets a new team of vampires devoted to the night.
  2. Two new teams, yet-another-fire-team and aforementioned pretty vampire team.
  3. One new team depending on the version they want eternal day or eternal night.
  4. One new team hellbent on eternal night/day and a team of 100% good guys trying to stop them. Same good team in both.
  5. Flowers. The team will revolve around flowers considering flowers are the future of pokemon.
 
Hmm I was just thinking, maybe Sun and Moon, instead of Day and Night, could have something to do with Heat and Cold?

Maybe the region is split in two horizontally, with the top half being mostly snowy, the bottom being mostly warm (or the other way around.) (And the extreme top would be blizzards and the extreme bottom, a desert.) In each game, you start in a different location (top or bottom), and team in your part of the region (or maybe the opposing side) basically wants to destroy the other side by making it forever hot/cold.
 
The tropical setting parallels that of Hoenn, so it would be AWESOME to have two villainous teams a la Ruby & Sapphire. But more like Emerald, in the sense that the secondary team was relevant, not just an after-thought.
 
Here's an idea: no villainous team at all. It's a crutch and it's never made for a good story. Even in BW, with the best story in the games, the best part was N and Ghetsis, not Plasma.
 
@firepanda The only downside to having no villainous teams is that having a villainous team is a key part of the game. Like how having gym leaders and the E4 are key elements. They're the cause of the conflict in the game. If they weren't there it would just be an romp through the flowers and little story other than "collect pokemon, battle pokemon, be crowned champion.".

Even in Gen V they were a needed element. Sure Ghetsis and N were great by themselves, but they probably wouldn't be as great without Team Plasma. After all Plasma was a cover organization to hide the crimes against humanity that Ghetsis was planning and also a way to keep N thinking he was doing the right thing thanks to his indoctrination. Sure you can easily give the role of "cause of conflict" to one person. But that one person can't be everywhere at once and you can easily take them down. If that happened it would be the shortest fight the bad guy subplot ever. With an organization however, members can be everywhere to act as (easily beatable) road blocks that try to stop you from reaching their boss.
 
@firepanda The only downside to having no villainous teams is that having a villainous team is a key part of the game. Like how having gym leaders and the E4 are key elements. They're the cause of the conflict in the game. If they weren't there it would just be an romp through the flowers and little story other than "collect pokemon, battle pokemon, be crowned champion.".

Even in Gen V they were a needed element. Sure Ghetsis and N were great by themselves, but they probably wouldn't be as great without Team Plasma. After all Plasma was a cover organization to hide the crimes against humanity that Ghetsis was planning and also a way to keep N thinking he was doing the right thing thanks to his indoctrination. Sure you can easily give the role of "cause of conflict" to one person. But that one person can't be everywhere at once and you can easily take them down. If that happened it would be the shortest fight the bad guy subplot ever. With an organization however, members can be everywhere to act as (easily beatable) road blocks that try to stop you from reaching their boss.

Some random plot ideas:
  • Bad guy is a televangelist that has been persuading trainers that stronger trainers should be allowed to their capture their opponent's Pokemon directly. More of these trainers are encountered throughout the game (and i you lose to them, a random Pokemon is stolen, to be retrieved when you beat them again). You can try to catch opponent's Pokemon, changing how the game reacts, Undertale-style.
  • Bad guy is going around the north, inciting Pokemon to revolt against the colonialist humans, causing destruction of entire towns and mass-exodus. Player can lead a counter-revolution, ignore the problem or fight them head-on.
  • Bad guy is an influential politician, trying to turn public attitude against 'inhumane' battling. Has a particular grudge against the protagonist after you beat him early on.
  • Bad guy is an exec in the company that holds a monopoly Pokeball manufacture. Has secretly re-programmed all new Pokeballs to facilitate mind control in a bid to take over the region.
I'm not a writer and it shows, but none of these plots involve multiple people, let alone a villainous team + box mascot plot. To be honest, while an overarching plot is needed, I've always felt smaller city-wide subplots should take a larger role. Have lots of small baddies scattered around, with one of them rising to the top for the big crisis with the box mascot. No team needed.
 
Some random plot ideas:
  • Bad guy is a televangelist that has been persuading trainers that stronger trainers should be allowed to their capture their opponent's Pokemon directly. More of these trainers are encountered throughout the game (and i you lose to them, a random Pokemon is stolen, to be retrieved when you beat them again). You can try to catch opponent's Pokemon, changing how the game reacts, Undertale-style.
  • Bad guy is going around the north, inciting Pokemon to revolt against the colonialist humans, causing destruction of entire towns and mass-exodus. Player can lead a counter-revolution, ignore the problem or fight them head-on.
  • Bad guy is an influential politician, trying to turn public attitude against 'inhumane' battling. Has a particular grudge against the protagonist after you beat him early on.
  • Bad guy is an exec in the company that holds a monopoly Pokeball manufacture. Has secretly re-programmed all new Pokeballs to facilitate mind control in a bid to take over the region.
I'm not a writer and it shows, but none of these plots involve multiple people, let alone a villainous team + box mascot plot. To be honest, while an overarching plot is needed, I've always felt smaller city-wide subplots should take a larger role. Have lots of small baddies scattered around, with one of them rising to the top for the big crisis with the box mascot. No team needed.
  • The Televangelist idea with an Undertale type morality meter is interesting. But at the same time I still don't think playing for keeps will actually become a thing even if it is temporary until you finally win against them. On one hand you have the little kids that will cry and scream that their pokemon got stolen and on the other hand you have the adult players that take time IV training every single pokemon on their team and have the one they put the most time into stolen by the game. NPC pokemon getting taken is one thing, but the players pokemon are sort of off limits due to how much time people put into them or the emotional attachments the primary demographic has to a bunch of pixels.
  • What would happen if you ignore it? Would it send you into a, going back to the Undertale thing, neutral route where the pokemon take over?
  • The corrupt politician one seems to be the most plausible if there's more than one encounter. But even then, the encounters would probably be spread out so far a part it would just seem like a rival sort of thing.
  • So...basically the Emma/Essentia plot on a larger scale and with pokemon?
I guess some of those could actually work if changed up a little. But depending on how long we've had teams, it would take sometime getting used to only having one person and either brainwashed random NPCs or pokemon. Though I admit that a change like that is 100 times better than another new evolution or fusion mechanic that no one asked for in the first place.

City by city villain events could be fun too. If anything that's even more plausible than the politician idea. Maybe just have small nondescript gangs of punks that take over pokemon centers, harass other NPCs, steal things you have to get back (Pokemon, items, random things you need to progress) that hide out in randomized locations around the region (based on your ID). But no "Gigantic loser tries to harness the power of the box legendaries for mass destruction" plot that seems to be the norm now. No. They're just evil for the hell of it. Final battle is between each of the different leaders (who form a temporary truce because you're a bigger threat then they are to each other) in some abandoned warehouse Nugget Bridge style. Once you get to the last leader they either give up being bad and break up their respective gangs, or much like the Tubeline Bridge gang make you the supreme leader and thank you for unifying their gangs.
 
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City by city villain events could be fun too. If anything that's even more plausible than the politician idea. Maybe just have small nondescript gangs of punks that take over pokemon centers, harass other NPCs, steal things you have to get back (Pokemon, items, random things you need to progress) that hide out in randomized locations around the region (based on your ID). But no "Gigantic loser tries to harness the power of the box legendaries for mass destruction" plot that seems to be the norm now. No. They're just evil for the hell of it. Final battle is between each of the different leaders (who form a temporary truce because you're a bigger threat then they are to each other) in some abandoned warehouse Nugget Bridge style. Once you get to the last leader they either give up being bad and break up their respective gangs, or much like the Tubeline Bridge gang make you the supreme leader and thank you for unifying their gangs.

Hmmm I'm liking the city-by-city villain idea, but what I would like to unify it in a way I think a Pokemon game would... So let's say there are gangs in a few cities, initially that have nothing to do with each other. However, by the time the game starts, these gangs are all contacted by a secret group of people to do some jobs... (the player doesn't know this, initially.)

So I have an example of this plot that would have worked for like a "Z Episode", except the "Z" part would be the whole game.... (This could be converted to another story: I realize this is unlikely by itself...)

Say you go into the first city, and you meet this gang that's going through people's houses and raiding stuff and whatnot. You battle them and eventually find the gang leader, and you try to figure out what he was up to. "Who put you up to this?" And the town's gym leader is there as well or whatever. He declines to answer, and is then put away.
As you move on to other cities, you find other gangs doing similar things, and also attacking big companies, maybe like pokeball manufacturers or department stores. Eventually, you learn these gangs are all being paid by a secret group to find the Zygarde Cells that are scattered throughout the region. However, they themselves don't know why the secret group needs them. They're just doing it for the money.
Eventually, you get a gang leader that tells you where you can find them. So you go there, but it turns out to only be a temporary base. But the secret group's leader punishes the gang leader who told you by taking away his pokemon and even capturing his gang members. You move on to a few other cities, and eventually, meet a gang who isn't really into doing stuff for other people, and they agree to join you against the evil group (which, writing this, I realize is basically a "team", but I mean that they are only made up of 3-5 people.) You find their actual hide out place, and learn that the leader and his group members' goal was to awaken Zygarde, NOT to destroy the world, but to destroy HUMANITY and Pokemon (so we have the nature vs human things going on here), because they believe nature has to be saved no matter what, and humans are the only force against nature. (So that is why they were getting some gangs to attack people as well.) At the same time, you are trying to save that other gang leaders' pokemon and team members, so he joins up with you. So do a few other gangs, while a few of them join with the evil group, and then there's the ultimate showdown. Eventually Zygarde is summoned, but the player manages to someone the Protector pokemon with the help of the gang members (which is another story that takes place throughout the game; haven't thought of it yet), and the player beats the evil group leader. The leader realizes his plan was foolish and extreme (post-E4), and goes on to make the world a better place without having to kill humans and pokemon. Basically he realizes that humans are part of nature, so destroying them would be destroying a part of it, and not only that, but humans will also be the force that can save nature.

So THIS is an example of a city-by-city villain plot that is unified by a "secret group" of about 5 people. It's something :p .
 
They'll be the Sailor Scouts, lead by Sailor Moon and the Negamoon lead by...wait, wrong fandom.

Well, if we look at past gens, we can try to figure out what hasn't been done yet:

Gen 1/2: Team Rocket, basically Mafia/Yakuza, in it for the $$$.
Gen 3: Teams Aqua and Magma, essentially Eco-Terrorists, wanted to wipe out the land/ocean for pokemon to live in.
Gen 4: Team Galactic, basically a cult, wanted to end the world and set up Cyrus as the god of the new universe which would be free from emotion and strife. So peace by any means.
Gen 5: Team Plasma, ostensibly, wanted to free pokemon from human slavery, so PETA on steroids, although Ghetsis secretly wanted to rule the world by being the only one with control over pokemon.
Gen 6: Team Flare was also pretty cult like, they wanted to create a 'beautiful world'. In X this would be accomplish by making everyone immortal (so no one would age and be ugly), or in Y it would be accomplished by draining the life from everyone so the world could start again.

I would like two teams again. Perhaps the 'Evil Teams' will be more like feuding clans this time. They each just want to eliminate each other and try to force people to take sides.
 
One thing that I'd keep in mind is how the villains are named in Japanese. What happens to the *X*-bullet (for example, Rocket-dan is "Rocket Gang", but also "rocket bullet") gag from previous years, should the name no longer be "Team X" in English, or there be no villainous team at all? Of all things, I think that's something they'd want to reference in a 20th anniversary game. Though... Does the name Eclipse Bullet appeal to you guys? lol
 
Uh, I would like Team Galatic to Return.
Think about it:
In Pokemon Platinum, Cyrus stays in the Distortion World, vowing to learn its secrets and change the nature of the universe.
In the Delta Episode of ORAS, didn't Zinnia mention an "alternate universe" where Mega Evolution was unknown, possibly referring to the original RSE?
If that is the case, are XY and ORAS in a different universe than any of the previous games?

I'm hopeful that, at the very least, Game Freak/Nintendo finishes this story arc by bringing back Cyrus.
 
In X this would be accomplish by making everyone immortal (so no one would age and be ugly), or in Y it would be accomplished by draining the life from everyone so the world could start again.

Team Flare was just going to use the weapon to kill everybody except for them, straight-up. No making everybody immortal/draining the life force from everybody. In both games, Lysandre gives the same spiel about reviving the weapon and eliminating everybody who isn't in Team Flare because the population has become too large to sustain.

In the Delta Episode of ORAS, didn't Zinnia mention an "alternate universe" where Mega Evolution was unknown, possibly referring to the original RSE?
If that is the case, are XY and ORAS in a different universe than any of the previous games?

That is the implication, correct. XY/ORAS occur in a universe that experienced the war in Kalos and the discovery of Mega Evolution, whereas the alternative universe that Zinnia refers to did not see those things in its history.
 
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