... Okay then.
Dec. 18th, 2017 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
insaneladybugWould someone please explain why there is a Japanese radio drama with Jessie and James actually calling each other Jessie and James (instead of, oh, Musashi and Kojiro)? No one seems to know why. It doesn't seem to be a fake.
It's a pretty heartbreaking bit, with Jessie pinned in a room draining of oxygen and James unable to free her. They talk for a bit and then Jessie tries to get him to save himself and leave, but he doesn't want to go on without her. Then a UFO shows up (WTH) and might be going to rescue them. It cuts off with James saying he's going to protect Jessie.
Apparently it's a bit from the 9th episode of a radio drama series they did. The poster was plugging it as both of them dying, but they're both alive when it ends and obviously they didn't die. Not that I accept a radio drama as canon anyway, especially this one, when some or all of the episodes clearly make no sense. One has them acting out Little Red Riding Hood, apparently (LOL), and a later one has ... Meowth having dreams about ... bed-wetting? WTH?
Of course, the poster also plugged it as absolutely showing they're a couple, with some of the commenters chiming in agreement. But to me it could also be taken as two very dear and close friends, which is what canon actually portrays them as. Fans are left to make something else out of it if they wish, but everything is just nebulous enough that it can go either way.
Then I've been trying to figure out when in season 2 the second movie happens. It's confusing, because at the beginning Charizard acts a bit like he's acting out, but every other time he's shown, he's very cooperative and helpful, so it seems likely it takes place after Charizard Chills. Then Lapras is only seen at the beginning and end; she doesn't come out to encourage Ash like all of his other Pokemon do, so I almost wonder if her being at the beginning and end is a fluke and it takes place after Viva Las Lapras. Of course, what's more likely is that her absence from the encouragement bit is the fluke and it takes place before Viva Las Lapras.
Also confusing is that they don't seem to be working towards a clear goal (like a specific Gym to visit, etc.), and why are they traveling by boat anyway if Lapras is really still there?
I know the movies mostly seem to be pretty nebulous on time periods, except for the first movie, which can be pinned down to a precise point. But they do get referenced occasionally in the series, so they're meant to be in the same verse.
I've been watching the second movie a lot the last few days, both because I love it and find it very comforting and soothing to watch and because for me it just doesn't get better if I want to see Team Rocket both being awesome and having a lot of screentime. And I keep toying with having my timeline break in after the movie and/or having the last few Orange Islands episodes go differently as well as whatever Johto stuff I incorporate. It's a difficult thing to juggle, because on the one hand, if things go back to business as usual after the second movie, I don't like that, especially with the thought of episodes like Viva Las Lapras coming after it. On the other hand, my timeline has already incorporated some Johto stuff and indicates the second movie happened sometime in the past with things going back to business as usual for a little while (but still deviating from canon soon after). I decided that the fics do take place in the same timeline instead of each being separate, but they're not written in chronological order. I've already put time and love into that timeline and don't want to erase it/start another timeline. So I guess what I need to do is see which fics reference Johto and such and if any can be placed in season 1. I think, though, that unless I specifically say season 1, it's meant to take place in my season 3. Dead and Alive Redux references Pikachu Re-Volts as though it and the Orange Islands happened sometime back. The reference made sense in context, but thinking on it now, I might have preferred a season 1 setting for that story.
I mused a few entries ago on having an AU branch off from the second movie. Maybe I should more seriously think about doing it and see if I could use that to actually show the shift from canon to my fluid/nebulous timeline. I.E., instead of it being an AU that deviates from my timeline, it establishes it. Maybe what pulls Jessie and James and Meowth back into the fight is not knowing how to get out of Team Rocket, especially once they're discovered still alive by other Team Rocket members. So things go on for a while and then culminate in A Hero Lies in You, the St. Matthew Beach fic. I definitely intend that everything else I've posted takes place before that. It's after that near-calamity that they start thinking more seriously again about trying to get out, and soon after they leave St. Matthew Beach is when they make the discoveries that push them into becoming double agents and working against Team Rocket, leading up to the downfall of Team Rocket as an organization fic.
It's a little hard trying to think what could push them into that decision, though. How much do they really know about what goes on in Team Rocket? They know about the thefts, some about the experiments, and that Giovanni apparently wants to take over the world (at least I think they know). I almost have the feeling they think Team Rocket rule would be good for the world. Or at least, maybe they try to convince themselves of that. I was also thinking that Mewtwo Returns influences their decision to turn against the organization, as Meowth at least heard Giovanni tell Mewtwo that the clone Pokemon would die in experiments. I don't think that would sit well with any of them. In the fic, I have them give becoming aware that the organization is killing Pokemon in experiments as what pushed them into becoming double agents, but I'm not sure if that would be the only factor. In my old Dead and Alive follow-up, James sees that Tyson's squad has tortured somebody (Marik Ishtar, actually) to death and that's what pushes him to decide they have to get out. Only I'm not sure Team Rocket as an organization is into murder. Giovanni's lines in his stage show song are certainly disturbing, however, and I imagine the anime Giovanni feeling similarly, so perhaps they learn that if Giovanni's plans for world conquest ever succeed, any oppressors will die? That might do it.
It's a pretty heartbreaking bit, with Jessie pinned in a room draining of oxygen and James unable to free her. They talk for a bit and then Jessie tries to get him to save himself and leave, but he doesn't want to go on without her. Then a UFO shows up (WTH) and might be going to rescue them. It cuts off with James saying he's going to protect Jessie.
Apparently it's a bit from the 9th episode of a radio drama series they did. The poster was plugging it as both of them dying, but they're both alive when it ends and obviously they didn't die. Not that I accept a radio drama as canon anyway, especially this one, when some or all of the episodes clearly make no sense. One has them acting out Little Red Riding Hood, apparently (LOL), and a later one has ... Meowth having dreams about ... bed-wetting? WTH?
Of course, the poster also plugged it as absolutely showing they're a couple, with some of the commenters chiming in agreement. But to me it could also be taken as two very dear and close friends, which is what canon actually portrays them as. Fans are left to make something else out of it if they wish, but everything is just nebulous enough that it can go either way.
Then I've been trying to figure out when in season 2 the second movie happens. It's confusing, because at the beginning Charizard acts a bit like he's acting out, but every other time he's shown, he's very cooperative and helpful, so it seems likely it takes place after Charizard Chills. Then Lapras is only seen at the beginning and end; she doesn't come out to encourage Ash like all of his other Pokemon do, so I almost wonder if her being at the beginning and end is a fluke and it takes place after Viva Las Lapras. Of course, what's more likely is that her absence from the encouragement bit is the fluke and it takes place before Viva Las Lapras.
Also confusing is that they don't seem to be working towards a clear goal (like a specific Gym to visit, etc.), and why are they traveling by boat anyway if Lapras is really still there?
I know the movies mostly seem to be pretty nebulous on time periods, except for the first movie, which can be pinned down to a precise point. But they do get referenced occasionally in the series, so they're meant to be in the same verse.
I've been watching the second movie a lot the last few days, both because I love it and find it very comforting and soothing to watch and because for me it just doesn't get better if I want to see Team Rocket both being awesome and having a lot of screentime. And I keep toying with having my timeline break in after the movie and/or having the last few Orange Islands episodes go differently as well as whatever Johto stuff I incorporate. It's a difficult thing to juggle, because on the one hand, if things go back to business as usual after the second movie, I don't like that, especially with the thought of episodes like Viva Las Lapras coming after it. On the other hand, my timeline has already incorporated some Johto stuff and indicates the second movie happened sometime in the past with things going back to business as usual for a little while (but still deviating from canon soon after). I decided that the fics do take place in the same timeline instead of each being separate, but they're not written in chronological order. I've already put time and love into that timeline and don't want to erase it/start another timeline. So I guess what I need to do is see which fics reference Johto and such and if any can be placed in season 1. I think, though, that unless I specifically say season 1, it's meant to take place in my season 3. Dead and Alive Redux references Pikachu Re-Volts as though it and the Orange Islands happened sometime back. The reference made sense in context, but thinking on it now, I might have preferred a season 1 setting for that story.
I mused a few entries ago on having an AU branch off from the second movie. Maybe I should more seriously think about doing it and see if I could use that to actually show the shift from canon to my fluid/nebulous timeline. I.E., instead of it being an AU that deviates from my timeline, it establishes it. Maybe what pulls Jessie and James and Meowth back into the fight is not knowing how to get out of Team Rocket, especially once they're discovered still alive by other Team Rocket members. So things go on for a while and then culminate in A Hero Lies in You, the St. Matthew Beach fic. I definitely intend that everything else I've posted takes place before that. It's after that near-calamity that they start thinking more seriously again about trying to get out, and soon after they leave St. Matthew Beach is when they make the discoveries that push them into becoming double agents and working against Team Rocket, leading up to the downfall of Team Rocket as an organization fic.
It's a little hard trying to think what could push them into that decision, though. How much do they really know about what goes on in Team Rocket? They know about the thefts, some about the experiments, and that Giovanni apparently wants to take over the world (at least I think they know). I almost have the feeling they think Team Rocket rule would be good for the world. Or at least, maybe they try to convince themselves of that. I was also thinking that Mewtwo Returns influences their decision to turn against the organization, as Meowth at least heard Giovanni tell Mewtwo that the clone Pokemon would die in experiments. I don't think that would sit well with any of them. In the fic, I have them give becoming aware that the organization is killing Pokemon in experiments as what pushed them into becoming double agents, but I'm not sure if that would be the only factor. In my old Dead and Alive follow-up, James sees that Tyson's squad has tortured somebody (Marik Ishtar, actually) to death and that's what pushes him to decide they have to get out. Only I'm not sure Team Rocket as an organization is into murder. Giovanni's lines in his stage show song are certainly disturbing, however, and I imagine the anime Giovanni feeling similarly, so perhaps they learn that if Giovanni's plans for world conquest ever succeed, any oppressors will die? That might do it.
