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Without Team Rocket

... Do you even watch Best Wishes? :p

Sandile has it's moments (the Garbodor episode was pretty keen), but aside from that the show feels like someone's bland Pokemon fanfic where they just adapt walking around from the games without a plot or arc to speak of, with the Plasma plot (the most interesting part of BW) greatly minimized into nothing relevant or interesting.

The fact of the matter is that the main star of the Black and White games was N, despite him being an antagonist.

Black and White are his story - not the player character's, not the Gym Leaders, and not Bianca or Cheren's story.

And removing him from the proceedings is like basically trying to adapt a story by replacing an interesting main character with a very bland Mary Sue (I use Mary Sue in this way to emphasize a character who no longer has any flaws or any room left to experience character growth). The equivalent would be a Metroid anime without Samus Aran, a Legend of Zelda anime without Link, or a Mario anime without Mario etc. etc.
 
Sadly, this was passed on again in favor of Brock 2.0 and Misty 2.0.

I agree that brand new archtypes for the main cast would have been nice, but Iris/Dento are entertaining characters and a hell of a lot more fresh than Misty/Brock, so I can't complain.

Of course if we get stuck with Iris/Dento for 200+ episodes like we did with Misty/Brock, then I can see the cries of staleness and them becoming boring happening all over again.

But I pretty much expect both of them will be dropped when BW ends, like May and Dawn were at the end of their gens.
 
@Zeta Cause' ya know? Every Character is a copy of another character Every single one. Hell Piplup was just nothing but Pikachu 2.0
 
I love TR, but I really want them gone. I'm pretty much done with him, serious or no, and I hope they go soon. I hope they go out decently, but still go for good.
 
Wow, way to correct me.

Piplup totally didn't stay outta the ball ya know?

A pokémon staying out of its ball has no relation to what its personality is. Saying Piplup may have been "Pikachu 2.0" in regards to the fact that it stayed out of its ball is almost like saying Iris is "Brock 2.0" because she has dark skin. Something that has little impact on personality should not determine how similar one thing is to another overall.

On topic, I'm enjoying the way Team Rocket is being handled in this generation. I think their absence from episodes proves that the anime can sustain by itself without the Rocket's comedic relief. "Pikachu VS Meguroco VS Koaruhii" is a perfect example of this. And while I do think that their change of character came rather suddenly, I justify it by Sakaki actually keeping in contact with them and giving them things to do instead of blindly thinking up elaborate schemes just to get his attention.
 
I think gotpika was being sarcastic.

But I agree with Fool, except for the Pikachu vs... episode being anything but a tragic opera-like story. Like many characters before them, Team Rocket, although beloved characters, just might have to go. The anime's grown too much to keep them. Right now, the anime's like Linus from Peanuts - carrying TR like a safety blanket. The anime can either keep the blanket and make "TRio blankets" popular, or outgrow them and move on.

TL:DR: The anime's outgrowing them.
 
The anime's grown too much to keep them. Right now, the anime's like Linus from Peanuts - carrying TR like a safety blanket. The anime can either keep the blanket and make "TRio blankets" popular, or outgrow them and move on.

TL:DR: The anime's outgrowing them.

I partly agree with this statement. I think the "safety blanket" aspect of the Rockets was their extremely formulaic appearance in every single episode. Outside of contest episodes, Team Rocket was always wreaking some sort of havoc and "blasting off again" every episode. Finally with Best Wishes, this formula is dropped and we actually have a streak of four (Four?! Can you believe it?!) episodes where they don't appear at all. To me, that's showing progress in the writers' ability to not stick to a tired trend and actually have them do something interesting for a change that's breaking the norm.

The Rockets have been by Satoshi's side since episode 2, and I don't think they'll ever leave him like Takeshi, Hikari, Kasumi, and so many others have done before. They are the main antagonists, and therefore have a secure place throughout the show's lifetime.
 
The Rockets have been by Satoshi's side since episode 2, and I don't think they'll ever leave him like Takeshi, Hikari, Kasumi, and so many others have done before. They are the main antagonists, and therefore have a secure place throughout the show's lifetime.

Yet Giovanni's return to the anime as a main villain, possibly leading to the team's disbandment at the end of the arc, with Gio either dying like J or Cyrus or whatever...leads possibility of JJM leaving the series.

The writers learned how to write a show without TR interacting with Ash's group since BW6 through BW22....that's an insane streak.

I think this is the first real sign they're going to be written out. Its not for sure, but remember, there was no guarantee Brock was going to leave back when DP first started either, most of us just figured he was finally going to go at some point.
 
Yet Giovanni's return to the anime as a main villain, possibly leading to the team's disbandment at the end of the arc, with Gio either dying like J or Cyrus or whatever...leads possibility of JJM leaving the series.

I understand what you're saying, but part of me feels like they have been just as starring a role as Satoshi has been. Even in the Best Wishes! saga so far, I feel like they have been playing one of the more important roles despite their absences. Who knows, perhaps their change in personality, lack of interaction with Satoshi-tachi, as well as their new, solid goals are preparations to write them out of the show. However, I'm almost tempted to suggest that perhaps the reason why we've not seen them interact with our protagonists in 17 episodes is due to the fact that the writers haven't figured out the correct formula to write Rocket-Twerp scenes with the former's new persona.

Although I will say one thing: If the Rockets do stay on for the entirety of the Satoshi's run in the show and they do keep their new personalities, then they're going to have to have a different goal than just "catch Pikachu/Pokémon of the Day" every episode. That in itself lends to being comedic almost automatically. This is of course assuming that they eventually start following Satoshi more regularly later on in the series.
 
This is not something they'll continue for generations to come. It seems to be obvious set-up to finally give resolution to the TR story, which should have really happened back in Johto, but the writing was crap back then so we only got a handful of TR stories.

There is nowhere else to take Jessie/James/Meowth from here, they've finally reached their height of villainy and/or being successful. I get the feeling they'll team up with Ash to take down N or whatever by the end of the arc too.

Here's something to ponder: Why was Brock finally axed after 13 years? Were we ever given a real reason? Nope, it was just they probably finally thought it was time to wrap up his character and bring in someone new.

The writers are pretty much wrapping up every major character in the series, not completely, but they're heading there.
 
True Team Rocket presence in BW series has been dfiminished notably compared to other seasons with whole episodes going without them.

Writers are probably doing this because of their new role of being compatent villains in Unova with important mission being delivered to them by Giovanni.Now that they are being treatedlike real villains anmd not comic relief writers doesnt seem to want wasting any time on them unless its connected with their current role and TR plot in general.

While this is no guarantee by any means how Jessie,James and Meowth will 100% for sure leave cast after BW with writers very easily being capable of keeping them after that as comic relief again some signs are pointing out toward their departure too.
Speaking of comic relief before someone tries to argue how they got "complete revamp"in personality:
Rocket trio becoming more serious and competent can be described as character growth not wanting to fail down his boss Giovanni taking mission which was delivered to them seriously.If we take a look back in past we can notice how this behaviour was always part of Jessie and James personality several times showing through course of series how competent they can be.One of examples is episode "Origin of Love and Youth"from specials.
Their older traits hasnt been gone either when we take in account how in start of BW Meowth went back briefly to his older ways.It just happens writers have bigger plans with them straying away from their usual comic relief role which is actually a good thing.

In reality at end of Unova it can go either way with them.

I agree that brand new archtypes for the main cast would have been nice, but Iris/Dento are entertaining characters and a hell of a lot more fresh than Misty/Brock, so I can't complain.

Depends what you find being fresh?
While i admit how Dento coming instead of Brock was refreshing to see for a change(though i miss him being gone) considering for how long Misty has been gone from main cast not getting any appearance for a long time either makes her character feel refreshing to see again with Iris not being anymore "fresh" in my eyes than she was.

After initial hype i predict very soon people starting to complain about Iris and Dento just like its case with every other character.Sadly pokemon fanbase is known for its bad reputration of nitpicking and complaining over anything.

Of course if we get stuck with Iris/Dento for 200+ episodes like we did with Misty/Brock, then I can see the cries of staleness and them becoming boring happening all over again.

Let me guess according to you character cant remain interesting if hes kept for too long?Than i guess people must be really bored of Ash and Rocket trio but than again judging by all that praise Ash or TR is getting with their new roles is anything but true.,

Same goes for Brock,Misty,Dawn or anyone else.Some people got bored of characters,others dont.
 
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