You're right. Then again, to be fair, it was partially Brock's fault that the trade happened (since Brock saying yes to trading when he didn't even LISTEN to Ash's question and was drooling all over the Gentleman's mistress WAS the reason why Ash even traded in the first place.
Meh, I think he's probably using JJM [or in D/P, both JJM and BC] to try and acquire Hoenn and Sinnoh (I mean, hoenn obviously had to have been taken over by Team Rocket, since the 9th movie intro had A & H and Prof. Sebastian capturing a rayquaza and torturing it.), speaking of Sinnoh, does anyone think that Team Galactic and Team Rocket are related in some way? I mean, Team Galactic is the only crime syndicate OTHER than Team Rocket that hired JJM to accomplish some dark deed [steal the Adamant orb.], it seems suspicious that BC are in Sinnoh, considering how they didn't even appear in Hoenn at ALL (or at least, not in the main series.), and Giovanni seemed to almost forget who JJM are anyways in both regions. In game canon, they are also the only ones other than Team Rocket that desired global domination, as well as stealing pokemon/killing them (Kirby hints that Team Galactic might have killed his pokemon when they "adopted" them.).
Heh, me too, though, personally, I hated Team Rocket's guts since they murdered several pokemon.
Or, at least, as close to reporting to him directly as they could get, as he contacted them through a monitor. Also, I don't really think that they were capturing those pokemon for prophet (Team Rocket's main goal is global domination over the planet, not become the highest bidder in the stock market.), It seems more like they were trying to capture them to either a. kill the lot of them (It's obvious they'd kill pokemon, since they had no qualms of killing Marowak, and it was hinted that they killed more pokemon than that, as the Pokemon Tower was stated to have the graves of all the Pokemon that Team Rocket killed, plus the fact that Giovanni was prepared to kill the cloned pokemon on Mt. Quena, and some other things.), or B. turn them into mindless killers.
Yeah. Hey, BTW, that reminds me. Do you think that after robbing the ship, they were going to blow it up. I mean, it was watched by cameras, and it seemed almost too covert to actually be a mere "heist and escape" thing, so it seemed as though they were also going to blow the St. Anne up when
Well, since they blasted off, I'd assume that these grunts may have survived (If JJM survived, they can as well.)
I forgot about Brock's involvement, as that was Ash's impetus to Trade -- way to let your student down, there, Brock.
Honestly, I just thought Team Galactic just ripped on Team Rocket, but had more personality (silly, lazy writers). It's possible that there might be an actual connection, as you put it so deftly. Don't get too ahead of yourself on this one, however. Not on here, anyway -- such speculation is rather heavy for this episode discussion. It's enough to keep it Rocket-only. Although, I will post on the Japanese episode airing on Thursday, actually -- you can voice all that there.
As for the Rockets' murderous angle, at the time, I wasn't sure if they could have destroyed the ship. Ironically, the anime would prove me wrong within two years (Mewtwo's murderous rampage and Giovanni's overall callousness). Then again, it's not like the Grunts were identifiable (save for J & J), thus the two in the funny white jackets could be considered as the only true liabilities. Had they failed, the Grunts
could have killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. Of course, Giovanni still had a slight measure of confidence in the duo, so I don't think he would have ordered such things,
at that point in time.
Then again, the pair had their faces slapped on wanted posters (Pokemon Emergency), obscured images they would be. So, people with an I.Q. above 100 might recognize them (the giant R on their jackets aside, for a second).
I always thought the captured Pokemon would be used as part of their army, as that's what I interpreted in the games. And, Giovanni would later confirm that in Mewtwo Returns, if you care to bring that up. I don't, as I'd like to keep this in-early series, if I can. It's extremely difficult, I know. After all, I had to cite my future examples, as you did with yours. Heh. Funny how that works.
As for the money angle, it's a part of it, but that's more game-centric if anything else. Don't get me started on the Rocket Game Corner. Expect a mega-rant on that whenever I do the Erika episode discussion (again, jumping ahead, but the warning is needed).
As for the falling Grunts, I forgot to put that in my previous post, so thanks for jogging me there.
Again, that's the strength of this episode -- it set up so many opportunities, and the episode paid itself off magnificently, that we're still enamored of it, ten years later. Of course, it was the only Team Rocket organization episode for the longest time, so that's another reason why it endures.
You mentioned on the Pokemon Tower, y'know, I've always felt their presence was an afterthought in the games. It never stuck in my mind like Mt. Moon, Celadon or Silph, or anywhere else, for that matter. I don't know why.
