How did Team Rocket became better at battling?

[JoshTheTrainer]

Hey,

I was wondering something. Because I wanted to try out the new season, I started watching X and Y and see a big difference between the Team Rocket in the Battle Frontier season and the X and Y season. In X and Y, they're battling better. Before it was the: OH NO, THUNDERBOLT INCOMING! and now it's like: wobuffet you know what to do or dodge. How did Team Rocket became better at battling, dodging attacks and things like that, and how did they became smarter in some way?

 

[MalcomX]

I take it that you haven't seen the Black & White (Best Wishes) saga.

Spoiler:

The trio was promoted by Giovanni himself in the BW series. They became a lot more serious about making sure Team Rocket succeeded, and even worked along-side Giovanni doing actual "Team Rocket Missions". They were definitely a huge threat, and had serious non-playful attitudes throughout the saga. I didn't too much care for the mean, stale, lifeless Jessie, James, and Meowth they gave us though. Their attitudes were just so plain and they spoke nonchalantly. It was until the "Adventures in Unova" arc, where they completely returned to their "comic relief" style and as the playful trio we are use to, only retaining upgraded technology and some competence from BW.

This is actually a perfect blend for them. They are a bit smarter with how they go about their current plans, while still maintaining the humor we're use to them giving off sometime. I actually am curious to know why exactly the writers of the series have been playing around with the TRio's characters like that....

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

In all fairness, their debut episode did imply they were dangerous enough to actually have their own wanted sign in Viridian City, not to mention place the city on high alert when they were cited, and even forced Ash to flee with Pikachu (and keep in mind, this was BEFORE they figured out Pikachu was as powerful as it was), so they weren't exactly weak initially. Unfortunately, thanks to the third episode having them lose to a Caterpie that they frankly should not have lost to, they were considered weak both by the fans and, at least in the original series, even by the actual characters (I know Misty does constantly infer that beating Team Rocket doesn't require even a significant amount of skill at all).

 

[Lizardo]

Just so you know, this really doesn't last past the first few XY episodes. By now, with the exception of the occasional episode here and there, the Rockets are just the same as they've always been.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I disagree with rockets being the same. They changed greatly in Unova which carried on through XY although not as serious and they are still stupid enough to stop after they catch a pokemon and act like they can't just catch a wild pokemon with a poke ball.

They still get beat all the time, but they are much smarter now. Not to mention, both of them are actually pretty skilled trained, mainly seen in James in Hoenn during the Poke Ringer competition. They are still clueless to some things, but when it comes to plans, other than when they stop to eat, they are much smarter and their pokemon know better moves like Shadow Ball and Psybeam now.

 

[Dedenne1]

I agree with abive disagree with double above!

Firstly if you havent watched since battle frontier then Its quite different because they are stronger in Unovas Best Wishes Saga they were pretty unbelievable for once. Still not entirely winning but they were MUCH better! In xy so far theyre doing pretty good but ash still scares the heck out of them and they still dont give up but theyre pokemon are quite powerful and they have a not of fight left in them. Just once mayeb id like too see them win ;)

 

[JoshTheTrainer]

Hmm thanks for clearing that out. I was wondering because in the past when somebody launched an attack it was 99% hit and Jessie didn't use Wobuffet that much to counter thunderbolt, while in the new series, she always does.

 

[Lizardo]

In what way have the Rockets really been that much better in XY than they were before?

Their skill and effectiveness have always bounced back and forth depending on how much of a threat they needed to be for a particular episode to work, and XY is no exception to that. One good example of this is how in XY004, just three episodes after nearly defeating Pikachu, they're getting beaten by Dedenne.

 

[Garchomp]

The answer: The power of plot device

If the writers need them to be a legitimate threat, they'll be smarter; if the writers need them to be pushovers, they'll be a joke.

 

[Wobbu]

In all fairness, Team Rocket serves the same purpose now as they always have: to fail to try and steal Ash's Pikachu at a constant basis. The main difference in BW was that they were more prepared and some of their schemes would take multiple episodes to be executed. However, XY is a lot more like the older Team Rocket in that sense. They still have the more serious personality from BW, but Pikachu or something else usually blasts them off a few minutes after they appear.

 

[JoshTheTrainer]

In all fairness, Team Rocket serves the same purpose now as they always have: to fail to try and steal Ash's Pikachu at a constant basis. The main difference in BW was that they were more prepared and some of their schemes would take multiple episodes to be executed. However, XY is a lot more like the older Team Rocket in that sense. They still have the more serious personality from BW, but Pikachu or something else usually blasts them off a few minutes after they appear.

That hasn't changed, but they look more like trainers now. But besides that, they're not the smartest always.

 

[CoffeeDrink]

In all fairness, their debut episode did imply they were dangerous enough to actually have their own wanted sign in Viridian City, not to mention place the city on high alert when they were cited, and even forced Ash to flee with Pikachu (and keep in mind, this was BEFORE they figured out Pikachu was as powerful as it was), so they weren't exactly weak initially. Unfortunately, thanks to the third episode having them lose to a Caterpie that they frankly should not have lost to, they were considered weak both by the fans and, at least in the original series, even by the actual characters (I know Misty does constantly infer that beating Team Rocket doesn't require even a significant amount of skill at all).

^This exactly. Even if we count Pikachu as effective against everything, this show at the very beginning circled around the first edition of the games which means that Poison is Super Effective against the Bug Type Pokemon. I personally think they should have beaten down the Caterpie and had someone else step in and whoop them.

 

[Famon]

How did Team Rocket became better at battling, dodging attacks and things like that, and how did they became smarter in some way?

Because of their 20 year experience of Losing !!!

 

[JoshTheTrainer]

Because of their 20 year experience of Losing !!!

Lol, that's also a way to look at it!

Oftopic: Love your sig!

 

[Stormerbuzz35]

The thing I liked about Team Rocket was that they each had well developed personalitys and back storys. James had Growly and his bottle caps, Jesse had contests and Meowth had that thing with the ramen resturant. In BW sure they became better at battling, but some of the personality they had gotten was gone. Haven't seen any XY yet though so can't comment on that.

 

[Anti-Venom]

The thing I liked about Team Rocket was that they each had well developed personalitys and back storys. James had Growly and his bottle caps, Jesse had contests and Meowth had that thing with the ramen resturant. In BW sure they became better at battling, but some of the personality they had gotten was gone. Haven't seen any XY yet though so can't comment on that.

They used to be my favorite characters. Now they lost a lot of their charm due to this.