so my uncle who totally works at nintendo tells me that originally the rainbow rocket episode was supposed to be a LGBTQ rights story
The original story went something like this he tells me:
As we all know, after his defeat at the hands of Red in the Gen 1 games, Giovanni goes somewhere far away to train, so that he can try to take over Kanto again. A few years later, he's beaten by another child just as he's about to come out of hiding and take command of Team Rocket again. After this second crushing defeat, he sinks into a depression and spends a long time thinking about life. One day, it suddenly comes to him--that he's gay, and his true calling in life isn't to take over the world mafia style, but to completely end discrimination against LGBTQ people once and for all. Re-invigorated by his newfound purpose, he first sets off to capture Mewtwo, the strongest Pokemon in the region. Given that everything is decided via Pokemon battles in the Pokemon world, he knows he needs Mewtwo's help. Mewtwo fortunately agrees to help him, and together they end LGBTQ discrimination in the world.
However, Giovanni feels as though his mission isn't complete yet, and he soon learns why: there are other worlds besides his own, and they are still struggling with homophobia and transphobia too. So he and Mewtwo depart to these other worlds to do what they did for Giovanni's world. Along the way, they meet other people who called themselves team leaders--Maxie, Archie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre. Giovanni convinces them to abandon their original plans and join him in his cause, also getting each of them to stop rejecting who they really are...gay men. With his new friends, Giovanni and co. liberate each of their worlds from oppression and form the organization know as Team Rainbow Rocket.
The new team then sets its sights on the next world, the one US/UM takes places in. They quickly swoop in and take over the Aether Foundation, feeling that it's necessary in order to help this particular world. The player is tricked into fighting them by Faba, who paints Team Rainbow Rocket as your standard villain team. Unbeknownst to the player, Faba is actually the biggest homophobe in Alola. After defeating each of the other leaders, the player confronts Giovanni, believing that they are about to save the world from this new villain team. Giovanni then reveals the truth to the player, who then apologizes for fighting against TRR and agrees to help them take down Faba and his minions. The finale is a double battle of the player and Giovanni vs Faba and some other guy who looks a lot like US Vice President Mike Pence. When the dust settles after this climactic battle, the player joins Team Rainbow Rocket as its newest major member, and work begins to end LGBTQ discrimination in this world.
my uncle who totally works at nintendo tells me that reasons given for why this isn't what we got in the official release of US/UM were things like "it's too soon", "the world's not ready", and "the kids wouldn't get it". But if I was my uncle who totally works for nintendo, I'd have been like "fuck that, the time is now!". 'tis a shame we didn't get this version of the Rainbow Rocket episode really.
