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Team Rocket's Meowth joining Ash's Team

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Mykea
13
Posts
6
Years
  • Age 26
  • Seen May 20, 2018
-What do you think would be a motivator/drive in the first place?

(I hate to separate the TRIO but if I make their relationship a toxic one for the sake of my fan-fic, it'll make more sense for Meowth wanting to leave, ideas?)

-What scenario should i choose, Meowth approaching Ash to train him, Ash approaching Meowth, or something entirely different?

-Give me your thoughts, ideas and opinions on the matter. I'm stuck but I love Meowth personally and I think if he trained a bit more he could've been a valuable asset to someone's team. He's smart, and a strategic planner, so why not make him a battler too?
 
10,174
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 37
  • Seen yesterday
I'm trying to think of some reason why Meowth would leave Jessie and James, but there really isn't a good reason. The three of them have been through so much together, treated each other terribly, but they're still friends with each other. Even the one time that I can think of where Meowth joined Ash's group, it was just a trick by Team Rocket.

Also, Meowth is valuable because he's not able to battle. He has no battling skills from learning how to walk and talk like a human, and he has the street wisdom to help him in Team Rocket. (I think the majority of the plans the TRio follow are thought of by Meowth. Jessie and James are more like grunts.) I mean, Meowth can just translate other Pokemon talking, which can be a very necessary skill for trainers.

You can still make him a battler, but in the show he's not much of one and I don't think he has that much of an interest in battling. He wants to get rich by being a criminal and live like a human.
 
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Bay

6,382
Posts
17
Years
Hey, so quick tip when asking questions like, "Do you think Ash and Meowth should work together" and such, it's a good idea to give a bit more context beforehand so we get a better idea why you want certain interactions/events to happen. I'm assuming this has to do with your idea* here?

With that out of the way, yeah I agree with Astinus here. Jessie and James being toxic to Meowth is a bit OOC there, and Meowth is probably isn't the best character to help with what Ash wants.

*(Edit 1/23): Forgot to add that I moved that post from the Ideas Exchange to the Plot Bunny thread. Ideas Exchange thread is for ideas you think you won't get to but fine with someone else writing it, Plot Bunny is help with your idea. Sorry for the confusion!
 
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39
Posts
6
Years
  • Age 37
  • Seen Jul 30, 2022
I think Meowth would have to think Jesse and James were dead and be so grief stricken that he chooses to give up to make joining Ash's team make sense.

There's already an episode where Meowth briefly joins Ash's companions, but he doesn't let anyone capture him. It turns out to be part of an elaborate plot to steal pokemon, and Meowth goes back to Jesse and James in the end.

I did read one recently, though, where Meowth gets separated from his team, and it leaves Ash bewildered as to why it wants to rejoin Team Rocket. It's revealed that Meowth is actually still a wild pokemon working for Team Rocket to retain its freedom. Ash seriously considers capturing it and training it against its will but persuades himself it would not be for the best, and so he eventually sets off to reunite Meowth with Team Rocket! Ash's black and white world gets thrown into a moral gray area? Best. Pokemon. Situation. Ever. The anime writers should take note, if they haven't already. To my knowledge there exists no situation where Ash willingly inconveniences himself to search for Jesse and James to return one of their pokemon to them! Great way to flip the script!

The Team Rocket trio have a dysfunctional relationship with each other, but they're also kind of a family. They don't consider people outside of their little group the way they consider each other, though, so they're more than willing to steal from, poison, or otherwise inconvenience almost anyone else. unless they have some kind of loyalty or need for arbitrary praise. I doubt Jesse and James would ever do anything seriously evil, like take the life of another human or pokemon on purpose (they've had a few accidents that left Ash and company in dangerous situations), but they're not angels. I think they would make decent anti-heroes, though.

It's also hinted that they are capable of much more damage than they usually do to Ash and company--(they're supposed to be highly trained field agents and they save Ash's life in at least two movies, don't they?), so maybe you could play with that angle? I thought about something where Butch and Cassidy, or some members of some other team, steal all of Ash's pokemon and kidnap his friends. Well, Jessie and James don't like being upstaged, especially if it's their rivals or a gang that isn't Team Rocket (LOL if it turns out to be Team Skull), so that might motivate them to ally with Ash and try to help him get his pokemon back. I think that would also be an opportunity for some interestingly awkward situations. Imagine how your would feel if you were at the mercy of your long-time mortal enemies. I bet Ash wouldn't be too thrilled. This time Team Rocket would be the good guys and Ash would just be along for the ride! Whoever writes this story could even include a plot twist that it was another Team Rocket operative calling the shots all along, and Ash had his pokemon stolen just to see if Jessie and James had gone soft.

I would also like to read a Team Rocket trio redemption arc with Ash catching Meowth as the catalyst.
 
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27
Posts
6
Years
  • Age 23
  • Seen Nov 5, 2023
Maybe if Jessie and James died tragically due to a scheme gone wrong then Meowth would blame Giovanni and the rest of the team by extension and defect? That's honestly the only way I could see it going down, because, bickering aside, those three are way closer then they look.
 
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