Team Rocket Wins: Difference between revisions

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How did this happen? ''Why'' did this happen?

The shortest and simplest answer is that they got their act together-- ''[[Let's Get Dangerous|really together]]''—and are now a threat. As to "why", the Author wants to shake the heroes and viewers out of their comfort zone by allowing [[The Bad Guy Wins|the bad guys to win]] [[You Can't Thwart Stage One|round one]] so the heroes will be forced to get their act together and make their next encounter a truly epic fight. These third string villains undid the [[Villain Decay]] that put them at the bottom of the [[Sorting Algorithm of Villain Threat]] by going through [[Training ~~From~~ Hell]], using some kind of [[Upgrade Artifact]] or [[Artifact of Doom]], or are under the effects of a [[Villain Override]]. Another possibility is that they catch the heroes off guard. Maybe Team [[Harmless Villain]] was [[Not So Harmless]] all along, and have been [[I Am Not Left-Handed|pretending to be weak]] to lull the heroes into [[Pride|complacency]] (which warrants the question, why didn't they [[Bond Villain Stupidity|just kill them on the spot]]?)

The shortest and simplest answer is that they got their act together-- ''[[Let's Get Dangerous|really together]]''—and are now a threat. As to "why", the Author wants to shake the heroes and viewers out of their comfort zone by allowing [[The Bad Guy Wins|the bad guys to win]] [[You Can't Thwart Stage One|round one]] so the heroes will be forced to get their act together and make their next encounter a truly epic fight. These third string villains undid the [[Villain Decay]] that put them at the bottom of the [[Sorting Algorithm of Villain Threat]] by going through [[Training from Hell]], using some kind of [[Upgrade Artifact]] or [[Artifact of Doom]], or are under the effects of a [[Villain Override]]. Another possibility is that they catch the heroes off guard. Maybe Team [[Harmless Villain]] was [[Not So Harmless]] all along, and have been [[I Am Not Left-Handed|pretending to be weak]] to lull the heroes into [[Pride|complacency]] (which warrants the question, why didn't they [[Bond Villain Stupidity|just kill them on the spot]]?)

If neither is the case, it may be that they have both traded places in the story—if the heroes do a [[Face Heel Turn]] and the bad guys make a [[Heel Face Turn]] due to a [[Mirror Morality Machine]], they will "cosmically" [[Redemption Promotion|get the power boost needed to make sure good comes out on top]], ''they'' are the [[Invincible Hero]]es now.

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** In ''Off the Unbeaten Path'', James won a contest that involved teamwork with one's own Pokémon. He used Mime Jr. and was steadfast in playing by the rules despite Jessie's repeated attempts to encourage him to cheat. So this goes with the "Team Rocket can win if they act like good guys" rule.

*** ''Nearly'' happened when James turned out to be an expert at a sport that used flying Pokémon. Once again he refused to cheat, and he lost by only the tiniest margin.

** Interestingly, repeated encounters with Ash and friends has been like [[Training ~~From~~ Hell]] to the team, giving them [[Made of Iron|superhuman damage resistance]], among other things. Meowth himself commented that a powerful electric cage was nothing compared to Pikachu's electric attacks. They also learn from their mistakes, though in the process usually make new ones. An example would be Charmander's debut episode all the way back at the very start of the original series; they use rubber coated equipment to nullify Pikachu's electric attacks, but didn't bring any ''fireproof'' equipment.

** Interestingly, repeated encounters with Ash and friends has been like [[Training from Hell]] to the team, giving them [[Made of Iron|superhuman damage resistance]], among other things. Meowth himself commented that a powerful electric cage was nothing compared to Pikachu's electric attacks. They also learn from their mistakes, though in the process usually make new ones. An example would be Charmander's debut episode all the way back at the very start of the original series; they use rubber coated equipment to nullify Pikachu's electric attacks, but didn't bring any ''fireproof'' equipment.

*** Heck, in some later episodes, Team Rocket actually does some heavy damage to other trainers. In general, Team Rocket manages to win when the plot requires it - Jessie fighting her way to the end of the Princess Festival tournament, Jessie and James defeating the Eevee Brothers, etc.

** This occurs even in early episodes—in "The Punchy Pokémon", various trainers are participating in a Fighting-type only tournament. Though Ash beats them in the end, the trio very successfully steals a Hitmonlee and thrashes their competition with it through a combination of regular battling and standard cheating. This is pretty notable, since they beat a Hitmonchan raised by a trainer who LEFT HIS FAMILY to train it.

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*** And now they've managed to break into a top-secret research facility and steal data on a meteorite that gives off some kind of ultra-powerful energy that can be used for [[World Domination]].

* In ''[[School Rumble]]'', Tennouji beats Harima once when the latter was in despair after finding out Tenma liked Karasuma.

* A borderline example. In ''Otasukeman'', one of the series from the [[Time Bokan]] meta-series, at the end of every episode the chief of the Time Patrol asked the two main groups of the Patrol to pick a choice between two special kinds of training. One group (who really were the heroes of the series, the titular Otasukeman, and always won the battles) always picked the pleasant, relaxing activity, when the other one (who really were the [[Terrible Trio]], the "evil" Ojamaman, and always lost against the Otasukeman) always picked the nasty, gruesome [[Training ~~From~~ Hell]]. In one episode, however, the Terrible Trio chose wisely and won a nice boat trip over a calm river, while the heroes found themselves in a Japanese cemetery filled with angry ghosts.

* A borderline example. In ''Otasukeman'', one of the series from the [[Time Bokan]] meta-series, at the end of every episode the chief of the Time Patrol asked the two main groups of the Patrol to pick a choice between two special kinds of training. One group (who really were the heroes of the series, the titular Otasukeman, and always won the battles) always picked the pleasant, relaxing activity, when the other one (who really were the [[Terrible Trio]], the "evil" Ojamaman, and always lost against the Otasukeman) always picked the nasty, gruesome [[Training from Hell]]. In one episode, however, the Terrible Trio chose wisely and won a nice boat trip over a calm river, while the heroes found themselves in a Japanese cemetery filled with angry ghosts.

* [[Sonic X]] had this happen once, but not when facing Sonic. Usually Eggman's schemes fail miserably, and his machines and robots are useless, but then he goes up against some Metarex that are attempting to hurt Sonic. Without warning, Boko and Deko, his worst robots, become super strong and beat everyone down, and Bokkun delivers a powerful uppercut kick, clearing a pathway for them all.

* At the end of the first arc of ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'', {{spoiler|Bagramon easily takes all the Code Crowns and reconfigures the Digital World. Taiki, Akari, Zenjirou, and Shoutmon are blown back to Earth. While they're gone, Kiriha and Nene are forced into hiding, Xros Heart is captured, and the Digital World comes under worse oppression than before.}}

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