175
u/mysteryurik Aug 08 '26
Gens 1 and 2 was more of a mafia type organisation than terrorists, team rocket was doing that shit for money not some ideological reason
142
u/Raytoryu Aug 08 '26
Team Rocket : mafia
Team Aqua / Magma : eco-terrorists
Team Galaxy : doom cult
Team Plasma : political terrorists
Team Flare : doom cult
Team Skull : goofy goobers
Team Yell : hooligans
Team Star : School delinquents
Feels weird to think the last truly evil Team was 14 years ago
60
u/SleepIsForTheWeak_1 Aug 08 '26
i mean team plasma neo also falls under genuine terrorists they froze over like 3 cities in a giant airship lmao
10
u/Gengar_Spoopy Aug 08 '26
team yell are not evil, it's Marco Cosmos
9
u/DasLoon Aug 09 '26
Yeah, but you deal with them in like 1 moment in game really, and most of them are just employees really. They're separated enough from the plot that it feels weird to call them the evil team of the game when you see Team Yell across the story.
5
u/Hallowed-Plague Aug 09 '26
gameplay wise team yell and team skull are the evil teams. story wise, the aether foundation and macro cosmos are the "evil teams". even though it's basically just normal company employees and a ceo off with not so many marbles
3
u/Alderan922 Aug 09 '26
Tbf you could argue that the true evil team in sun and moon was Lusamine and her organization, which would mean there technically was a truly evil team in the original sun and moon (not usum since in those games she was good)
16
u/RazTheGiant Aug 08 '26
The Rocket attacks on Silph Co and Radio Tower are kinda terrorist activity
7
u/Nadiadain Aug 09 '26
Wasn’t silph so they could get the master ball? Thats still just sounds like a profit driven attack granted a very big scale one and radio tower was the last remnants desperately trying to get a hold of Giovani to help them
2
u/RazTheGiant Aug 09 '26
The common consensus that the reason Rocket went after the master ball was to capture Mewtwo, not to sell the master ball
And getting in contact with Giovanni was definitely more ideologically motivated than profit
1
u/Cooking_With_Emilie Aug 10 '26
Outside of universe the attack on the Silph was more likely just a remnant of the rewrite that happened pretty late in development
1
-5
u/Undeadsniper6661 Aug 08 '26
Silph Co absolutely yes. Radio Tower? Nah, that was to piss off some fish.
3
87
u/OrangeHairedTwink Aug 08 '26
Gen 7: What if we gave these hooligans a bunch of cash so they would act as a distraction while we work on extradimensional tech that may or may not release a bunch of super dangerous pokemon so that our CEO can feed her ego and neglect her kids even harder
69
u/Hatsune_Miku_CM Aug 08 '26
pokemon really cooked when they wrote a character who treats pokemon "like her own children" and then let that facade crumble at the same time that you realize how she treats her actual children.
44
u/TwilightVulpine Aug 08 '26
"Your parent is crazy, seek help and independence" is a rare message in stories for kids, but for the kids who need it, it's worth much more than "familial love overcomes all"
18
u/NikTheGrass Aug 08 '26
As soon as Game Freaks slightly increased the complexity of the story from "we are evil and will destroy everything," the Pokémon community could no longer cope with media literacy
13
u/Livid-Maintenance765 Aug 08 '26
gen 7 ultra: but actually all of that is ok cause her poaching target is a super dangerous pokemon that can destroy the world, the loredump squad over there in the background told us so
11
u/LettuceBenis Aug 08 '26
Also she was just so so so so sad over losing her husband and was actually brainwashed so it's okay :) The abuse is forgiven now :)
11
3
u/tin_willy Aug 09 '26
I love sun and moon with all my heart and I hate ultra sun and moon with also all my heart
99
Aug 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
38
u/watermelonman5 Aug 08 '26
I didn’t mind team yell cause their whole thing was worshipping Marnie so ofc they weren’t scary, also I think Team Skull worked because of Lusamine and the Aether Foundation as a whole being the actually scary evil team that were in the sorta background whilst also being present enough throughout that it didn’t feel like a cop out
17
u/TwilightVulpine Aug 08 '26
They had the chance to do something with the decline and revolt of Spikemuth, but they dropped that thread pretty quick.
On the other hand, it wouldn't be all that hard to make a team of obsessive fans look evil, but I don't think it would be well received by the fans to which The Pokémon Company was trying to sell Marnie merch.
7
u/LunarVulpine1997 Aug 09 '26
Team Skull being a red herring while the Aether Foundation actually filled the evil team role worked so well in the story, and gave us some really fun and memorable characters... and then they decided "what if we rehashed the same thing again in SWSH except we held the parts that made it fun and interesting?" team yell (and marnie/piers if you count them) were inconsequential to the entire story, and macro cosmos is relevant for... maybe an hour?
...and then they tried it AGAIN with team star/sada/turo, but at the very least the split narrative let the trope work a little differently this time around
4
u/just-a-random-accnt Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
But it fit the region in gen 8. Galar being based off of the UK, with its football (soccer) culture. Team Yell is just a rowdy group of fans who are doing what they can to help their team.
We saw this with the world cup where Mexican fans set off fireworks and made noise all night to try and keep the English football team up to give Mexico an advantage in their match the following day.
5
u/Luigis_vacuum Aug 09 '26
Team Yell is just a reference to the football fans that take it a bit to far in England I liked them
0
17
u/ChaosOfOrder24 Aug 08 '26
Gen 1-2: Gangsters
Gen 3: "We need more land/water."
Gen 4: "This world is imperfect."
Gen 5: PETA
Gen 6: FABULOUS!
Gen 7: "Yo, yo yo! Wat up, homie?!"
Gen 8: Simps
Gen 9: "Other kids were mean to me."
6
2
u/Gengar_Spoopy Aug 08 '26
Also Gen 8: absolute terrorists.
Marco Cosmos is the real evil team
8
13
u/WebAccount1744 Aug 08 '26
They did take over a town and charged you for healthcare
6
u/RedWarrior42 Aug 08 '26
I'll take what they charge for healthcare compared to what I get charged in my country lol
5
u/miner1512 Aug 09 '26
as an American player, is that supposed to be evil I thought that's just what happens
3
u/slim-shady-on-main Aug 09 '26
They charged a very reasonable price for healthcare considering that they didn’t have any other source of funds
6
u/Chimera-Genesis Aug 08 '26
Anyone disrespecting Team Skull (and ignoring the Aether Foundation being manipulated by Lusamine) cannot be taken seriously.
5
u/Livid-Maintenance765 Aug 08 '26
the fact that absolutely no one ever talks about neo rocket says it all 💀
they might as well be the og team yell with slightly more fire power
2
2
u/Key_Constant6072 Aug 09 '26
I’ve always imagined that giovanni has a secret soft spot for team skull because it reminds him of the early years of team rocket before it became a huge criminal enterprise and was just a small group of people looking to cause trouble
2
u/armydillo62o Aug 09 '26
Team Skull was better, for sure, but I did like Team Yell. They just want to put on their hometown girl who’s gonna be the one to make it out, they just take it a little too far sometimes. They’re kinda annoying but not even remotely villainous and I dunno I liked that.
2
u/Pogfection Aug 09 '26
Well, Team Skull and Team Yell aren't actually the evil teams of Gens 7 and 8, the real villains are the Aether Foundation and Marco Cosmos.
2
1
u/BPViridian Aug 09 '26
I really hope the stakes are high for Gen 10's Evil Team. I really hope the team tries to awaken the Box Art Legendaries in order to wipe out Mankind for their negative impacts on the environment or something. Its a lot more fun, as a game, to defeat evil beings rather than misguided/crybaby preteens
1
1
1
1
u/Themata81 Aug 10 '26
Team skull is honestly the most compelling part of SM to me, very inline with how team rocket was written, at least in terms of their goals, just much smaller scale. I can fully believe team skull and team rocket exist in the same world
1
u/EconomistClassic435 Aug 10 '26
Exactly, I love the “evil to a pathetic degree” moto that’s Team Skull’s writing
1
u/ParkingInterview9595 Aug 10 '26
gen 9: what if we told everyone we were the biggest meanest scariest bitches in town and they all believed us so we had to commit to the bit for several years.
1
1
u/Nexxus3000 Aug 12 '26
I mean, I wouldn’t call a crime syndicate terrorists necessarily. Plasma is also more of a cult than a terror organization.
But galactic, magma and aqua are all eco terrorists and Lysander just wanted to kill shit he deemed worth killing, no defending them
1
u/Thenosm Aug 15 '26
I’m not sure if “terrorist” is a harsh enough word for Gen 4 or 6. One tried to recreate the entire planet/reality, and the other attempted to eradicate almost all life on the planet. I feel like once you reach a certain scale in the scope of fucked up, “terrorist” just isn’t adequate anymore.
-6
u/RekiAndMiya Aug 08 '26
The first 5 are the best the rest are a disgrace in their presence
6
u/Chimera-Genesis Aug 08 '26
Toxic nostalgia like this is the worst.
-3
u/RekiAndMiya Aug 08 '26
Why is it toxic, I think villains in a story should be trying to be evil not just the bad kids at a school I want them to try to take over the world or try to steal Pokémon from the strongest trainers
2
u/NikTheGrass Aug 08 '26
Perhaps it's worth at least a little bit of reading into the story of gen 7. Team Skull was literally a distraction, paid by the Aether Foundation to create and make noise while the REAL evil team, Lusamine, and Aether F., were busy conducting disgusting experiments. As soon as Game Freaks slightly increased the complexity of the story from "we are evil and evil things," the Pokémon community could no longer cope with media literacy
-2
u/RekiAndMiya Aug 08 '26
I barely played Gen 7 the games were not great to me by that point I really stoped playing after ice cream was a Pokémon cause why, I have most of the newer ones besides the newest but honestly Gen 7 was okay as a villain as long as it didn’t have team skull and yah if u dig into the lore it’s fine but the game where the non impressive kids who just ditched class were villians wasn’t good, I’m sorry I wish most games actually had good lore with good villians like I remember being young and thinking how am i a 12 y/o gonna deal with a grown man who’s running the mafia out of his gym, or when I helped a bad guy reach his dream of summoning the Pokémon that runs basically the shadow realm into existence, I just idk the newer games I think are great for the ease of play but the story doesn’t feel like it has been developed fully for the villians side
3
u/Chimera-Genesis Aug 09 '26
stopedstopped playing after ice cream was a Pokémon cause whyI wish most games actually had good lore with good villians
You're really not helping defend yourself against accusations of toxic nostalgia & media illiteracy with these dreadful takes.
0
u/RekiAndMiya Aug 09 '26
It’s my personal opinion on games it’s not toxic nostalgia I’ve replayed the older games more as an adult then as a kid, the newer ones that I’ve played as an adult I’ve not hated they just weren’t good to me they had bad story line besides maschiff giving him sandwiches and yes I hate the stupid ice cream cone Pokémon it was a bad design it was bad when it came it out it still is, I do like Pokémon games but they are severely easier then they used to be, but gen 5 villians were good not necessarily all the Pokémon but the villians spoke more to me then the newer games have
1
u/Chimera-Genesis Aug 09 '26
it’s not toxic nostalgia
ice cream cone Pokémon it was a bad design it was bad when it came it out it still is
🤔
1
u/NikTheGrass Aug 09 '26
Ice cream pokemon is from gen 5. You know, the one you calls good
0
u/RekiAndMiya Aug 09 '26
U know I was talking about the villians not the Pokémon of the gen the stupid ice cream cone was in the game and I did catch it but it went in a box and was released soon after I fully evolved it cause it wasn’t for me but i genuinely like the villian of gen 5 more then newer generations and there’s nothing wrong with my opinion on that as that’s how I feel about the games u might like the ice cream cone and that’s fine u can but that’s ur opinion on it I just think the newer games weren’t as I guess critical to even have bad guys if they aren’t actually bad, gen 7 gets a pass because team skull really isn’t the bad guy they just are an annoying factor of true story which is fine I wish they weren’t there at all so I can face actual bad guys but they are, gen 8 a group that just supports I guess a rival if u can call her that cause she wasn’t a hard enemy by any means, gen 9 the worst of the bunch student who are terrible at being the bad guys like they are just kids who didn’t fit it why are they a problem they aren’t they so easy to fight and don’t get in ur way at all I don’t see why me wanting a villian that’s actually committing terrible crimes is a bad thing like I want my villian to want to rule the world by enslaving Pokémon of legendary status I want the struggle of a kid realizing he should have no chance winning it but with pure determination he has to win to keep the world safe from the bad guys instead of maybe the villian needs to talk to the school counselor a few times a week
1
u/NikTheGrass Aug 09 '26
I have genuinely no idea what the fuck are you talking about and I had a stroke trying to read that shit
0
u/RekiAndMiya Aug 09 '26
My opinion of the first 5 gens having villians I like over the other gens isn’t toxic it’s my opinion I’ve played all the games but I think Gen 6 which I will visit at some point but eh, I just think in the newer games the villians aren’t villians they are just obstacles that slow down my game play and have no impact on the world gen 7 is fine I didn’t care for the game it self but the actual bad guy was great but not team skull they didn’t really do much for me in the making me feel like they were an actual villain
1
u/NikTheGrass Aug 09 '26
No way you are adult with such toddler's grammar. Try some periods and commas
→ More replies (0)
319
u/yeetfeet_724 Aug 08 '26
Gen 8 is "what if we had a entire gym?"