With Pokémon teasing the return of Team Rocket's Jesse and James in a new post-Ash series, now is the perfect time for studio Team Kato to portray the villainous duo more effectively than before.
Ever since the very first season of Pokémon, the dubiously evil Jesse and James (and Meowth) have almost appeared in every episode, and most of the time, they attempt the same exact strategy to capture Ash's ever-evasive Pikachu. Sometimes, the viewer is treated with the trio changing up their tactics ever so slightly. It's even rarer when Jesse and James' cameos contribute something new to the story and even allude to the possibility of character development. But these moments are few and far between. As a result, the majority of their appearances only interrupt the episode's developing storyline, cutting them short completely or preventing them from expanding into something more compelling.
But all this could change. In the last few episodes of Pokémon Journeys, after Ash's retirement, a post-credits sequence shows Team Rocket where the series will take place, Paldea, and there they encounter the next three starters. Since Ash will be returning in some capacity to this yet-to-be-named series, it's quite likely that Jesse and James (and Meowth) could as well, and this sequence fuels speculation further. Naturally, if Team Rocket won't be the main focus in this next generation of Pokémon like Ash, then the unnamed series will have already solved itself. But if they end up serving as the series' main antagonists like they have during the Ash era, then hopefully they either won't be as prominent as before or motivated by the same thing in every episode.
Pokémon's Team Rocket Have So Much Missed Potential
Of course, not every episode with Team Rocket has always felt like a rehash. One of the first times this happens is in the episodes "Pokémon Shipwreck" and "Island of the Giant Pokémon" in season one when Ash and his friends are first forced to work with Team Rocket to escape a sinking ship and then are later separated from their Pokémon upon shipwrecking on land. Pokémon XY later gives a fun spin to the latter scenario when Emma and Meowth get separated from everyone and are forced to rely on each other. The same series also devotes a whole episode to character development when Jesse actually almost leaves Team Rocket for love.
In each of these instances, Team Rocket served a purpose and their inclusion moved the story forward rather than interrupting the main storyline's flow. But the majority of episodes, besides these and a select few others, all have Pokémon's Team Rocket either randomly appearing at the beginning or end of the episode to try and capture Pikachu when the story isn't even about Pikachu. And most of the time, Jesse, James, and Meowth attempt this using their floating Meowth balloon. Worst of all, the few times they do try something different, it's completely ridiculous, like whenever they randomly happen to have a giant mecha at their disposal. Although they're all unwelcoming, some of the most aggravating instances are moments when Team Rocket only appears for a few seconds, creating the impression that the episode's creators just wanted to include the villainous trio to fulfill some arbitrary goal. Regardless, Team Rocket's Jesse and James are beloved characters in Pokémon despite their major flaws, and even though fans have heard it a thousand times, everyone loves their little recited introduction - they just want to hear them less frequently, which will make them all the more special and welcoming.
Pokémon season one is available on Netflix and XY is available on Hulu.
