Why was it necessary for Jessie and James to have many Pokemon departure episodes?

Antiyonder

Amalgam Universe Overlord
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2002
Messages
17,995
Location
Washington
Note: To be honest, I'm not really bother by it, but when I keep an opinion to myself over a while, I can get pretty wordy on it.

In the case of Ash it's perfectly understandable. He has a higher amount of captures for each region (5-6 Pokemon altogether).

But with Jessie and James, they have a much lower capture rate and would actually have more room on their team for most of their older Pokemon, and the market relevent ones for the current region. But for recap, here's a list of all of the Pokemon they've had for a while (Not counting ones that they had for a short while or ones they don't use regularly like James' Growlithe or Jessie's Shellder):

James
- Weezing
- Victreebel
- Cacnea
- Chimeco
- Mime Jr.
- Carnivine

Jessie
- Arbok
- Lickitung
- Wobbuffet
- Seviper
- Dustox
- Yanmega

Heck:
- With Fire Red and Leaf Green coming out after R/S, having Weezing and Arbok a little while longer would be appropriate considering the plugins to that game. Besides which, Koffing is catchable in R/S, thus allowing you to have Weezing without trading.

- For that matter, Cacnea and Dustox are obtainable in Diamond and Pearl.

- Team Rocket battles would have been a bit more exciting with the number of Pokemon in their line up.


Like I said, I'm not bother with these decisions, just curious. Heck, I found Cacnea and Dustox's depature episodes to be well done.
 

Light Lucario

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
49,197
Location
In a Dream World
Maybe the writers didn't want Team Rocket to have as many Pokemon with them at the same time as Ash does by a current point in her region journey. While some of their Pokemon are available during some part of the newer games, they probably wanted to keep the main focus on their new Pokemon instead of combining various generations of Pokemon in one team for a whole series. Even though doing so would be kind of cool and it would make Team Rocket more interesting, battle-wise at least, I don't think that the writers wanted to do that for Jessie and James' teams throughout the previous three series.

Unlike Ash, Team Rocket doesn't have a place where they can store their Pokemon at the end of a series and know that they can use them again later on. That might be why most of the time Team Rocket has to release their Pokemon in these departure episodes, even though the James leaving his Chingling would be more similar to Ash dropping off his Pokemon at Prof. Oak's lab.
 

Antiyonder

Amalgam Universe Overlord
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2002
Messages
17,995
Location
Washington
Unlike Ash, Team Rocket doesn't have a place where they can store their Pokemon at the end of a series and know that they can use them again later on. That might be why most of the time Team Rocket has to release their Pokemon in these departure episodes, even though the James leaving his Chingling would be more similar to Ash dropping off his Pokemon at Prof. Oak's lab.

Oh I'm not disputing that it would be necessary, just that they don't really need to have as many departure since their capture range is low.
 

Dogasu

Rubber ducks kill babies?
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
5,339
Location
Japan
I think the writers wanted to keep the number of combined captures lower than six. I mean, if both members were allowed to have six pokemon apiece, what's to keep them from just using all twelve of their pokemon all at once?
 
Joined
May 14, 2006
Messages
51,299
Location
...
I think the writers wanted to keep the number of combined captures lower than six. I mean, if both members were allowed to have six pokemon apiece, what's to keep them from just using all twelve of their pokemon all at once?

It'd certainly make for an interesting battle. :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Light Lucario

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
49,197
Location
In a Dream World
Oh I'm not disputing that it would be necessary, just that they don't really need to have as many departure since their capture range is low.

The writers probably don't want to give them a higher capture range because they wouldn't want Jessie and James to have that many Pokemon on them all at once. While having twelve Pokemon between the two of them like Dogasu mentioned sounds pretty cool and it definitely would make most of the Team Rocket battles mor memorable, it would also be harder to give them screentime along with all of the other Pokemon with the protagonists' teams. Not to mention it would make Team Rocket more of a threat than they're suppose to be.
 

TheVileOne

Peace Loving Shinobi
Reporter
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
16,828
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Here is what I want to know. Why can Team Rocket Meowth talk? And why does he always say, "Meowth, that's a name!" in the Team Rocket intro? It's one of the most awkward statements I've ever head.
 
Joined
May 14, 2006
Messages
51,299
Location
...
Here is what I want to know. Why can Team Rocket Meowth talk? And why does he always say, "Meowth, that's a name!" in the Team Rocket intro? It's one of the most awkward statements I've ever head.

He taught himself to speak human to score with a rich chick. Well, Nyarth-chick.
 

Dogasu

Rubber ducks kill babies?
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
5,339
Location
Japan
TheVileOne said:
And why does he always say, "Meowth, that's a name!" in the Team Rocket intro? It's one of the most awkward statements I've ever head.

Because the dubbers are awful script writers, especially when it comes to Team Rocket?
 

Marvin Tikvah

Active Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2005
Messages
7,663
Location
California
But he says "That's the name" not "That's a name". The former is basically a self-introduction, which makes sense within the TR motto.
 

TheVileOne

Peace Loving Shinobi
Reporter
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
16,828
Location
Los Angeles, CA
That's still awkward. The typical popular English expression is "____ the name."

Why does he need to say "that's?"
 

Spotlight

Staff online

Who's on Discord?

Latest profile posts

Remember back when people were saying that "Streaming is the (bright) future"?
"I can't wait to eat this baby" - Paramount, presumably looking for tax write-offs
Happy Baseball Opening Day
"I'm probably going to watch Nymphomaniac Part II on Disney+ this weekend" isn't something I didn't think I'd ever say, but here we are.

Featured Posts

Top