@->->- The Rants (Page 5) "We'll keep on ranting...and then we'll rant some more!" @->->- Jeez! Page 5! I guess we've got a lot to say! +P Anywayz, read on.... @->->- A Rocketshippy Year in Review by Cori NOTE: This isn't really a rant. I just wrote this on February 8, 2001 to mark my site's first anniversary. Wow! My site is a year old today! A whole year! Can ya believe it? Yeah, you're probably thinking, "So the hell what? Big deal!" Well, it is a big deal to me, so today, I'm gonna reflect on my first year as a webrunner and how much my site and I have changed since February 8, 2000! It all started on a whim, really. I've always wanted to be a writer, and Team Rocket is what finally gave me the inspiration and the courage I needed to get my ideas out of my head and actually write them down. I started writing fanfics about them in November 1999, and I submitted them to my friend, RocketMeowth's site. In January 2000, my brother decided to make a website about our kamishibai, and he offered to share some of his disk space with me so that I could post my stories. I'd seen lots of Team Rocket sites by then, so I thought, "Ah, what the hell! Why not start my own?" I then learned html, and Cori's Rocket World, a subdivision of The Bonecollectors' Page, was born. As the weeks passed, however, I decided to add more stuff -- a picture archive, fan art, fanfics by other authors, etc. So, I decided to make my own page to better support the expanding scope of my ideas for a website. On February 8, 2000, I moved my stuff from The Bonecollectors' Page, and created Cori's Ultimate Rocketshipper Page. Now that I had more space to myself and a more straightforward layout, I added more things like a bio page, a page of Rocketshippy evidence, multimedia, a page about myself, and a link page. I also joined the Jessie and James Couple Webring, just to see if anybody else would be interested in my site. And that's when things really took off. Fanfics and fan art started pouring in, and daily updates soon became impossible because there was just too much material for me to handle. And much to my dismay, a lot of the fanfics I was receiving were truly horrible, but I posted some of them anyway because I used to be naive, and I thought that aside from a "No Hentai" guideline required by most freeservers, I had to post everything that got sent to me. (The fact that most sites I'd seen really do post every piece of garbage that gets sent their way and that a lot of authors were so damned pushy about when I'd post their fics only perpetuated this misconception.) However, I soon wised up and realized that if I hated a fic, I didn't have to post it or leave it posted. So, I took down the death fic, the Rocket/Neo cross-shippies, the overly-violent stuff, etc. and established the infamous fanfic submission guidelines. I finally learned that on my site, I could do whatever I wanted and that I wasn't going to waste my time and space on a bunch of crap. As the months passed, my site continued to grow and evolve, and I added rant pages, a motto page, and various other features. Before long, 15 megs at Geocities just wasn't enough for it all, so I relocated to 50Megs.com in hopes of solving the disk space problem. Big mistake. Even though 50Megs offered more space, I soon learned that they were unreliable and provided crappy service (and that even 50 megs of space wasn't enough for all of my stuff! O_o) I started getting complaints that my site was gone and that people couldn't access the pages when the isp went down. Then, in December 2000, 50Megs did a big file transfer, which corrupted my password and all of the data I'd uploaded over the past month. I started getting complaints that my site went back a month in time, and indeed, it had. It was time to move again. I spent the remainder of December, all of January 2001, and the first week of February relocating to Spree and adding new stuff. It was a LOT of work, but now that it's done, it was worth it. And now, just in time for my first anniversary, I've reopened my site, bigger, better, and shippier than ever before. It may not seem like much to most, but I'm proud of what I've done here. True, I've had a lot of hard times -- being flamed by another webrunner and falsely accused of posting stolen material just a couple of months after my site opened, people not reading or following my fanfic guidelines and sending me depressing stories anyway, the whole 50Megs fiasco -- it's enough to make me go crazy! (Well...more crazy! lol) But it's been a rewarding experience for me as well. My writing has improved drastically because of my love for Team Rocket, and I've met a LOT of wonderful people and have friends and pen-pals from all over the world now! ^_^ And that's why I'd like to take a moment to thank some of these friends. Thanks most of all to Shigeru1313, Bishounen Kojiro, Mo, and Hot Lips for all of the positive feedback and support, and, of course, wonderful artwork! Thank you for sticking by me in the difficult times as well as the good. Thank you for all of the great conversations...many of which have been inspirational as well as entertaining! This site wouldn't be where it is today without your help! ^_^ And thanks to everybody else like Becky, Chaos, Svetlana, teamROCKET128, and LickitungJess for their rants, fics, screen-shots and scans, positive feedback, and encouragement! Running a site is a LOT of work, but because of your help I've been able to drastically improve my site and offer more to all of the other Team Rocket fans out there. Thank you all! *hugs* Well, that pretty much wraps up the first year of my site. What can we expect for the second year? Definitely more pics, fan art, fanfics, rants, and any new shippy evidence that comes our way! This site's gone from a tiny little 5 meg subdivision on my brother's page to 30+ megs on its very own server, and it'll only continue to grow and improve. Running this site is one thing I truly enjoy...almost as much as my love for Team Rocket! It's been a good year, and the best is yet to come! ^_^ @->->- The Pokemon Villains -- Bad Guys, or Just Misunderstood? by Cori Hey, everybody! Today, I'm gonna rant on a little topic that's been bugging me for quite some time -- misconceptions about the "bad guys" on Pokemon. Now I'll admit some characters truly are evil, but by the same token, some of them are simply misunderstood, and their bad rap is undeserved. So, rather than Jessie, James, and Meowth (the rest of my site is already dedicated to why they're the heroes), this rant is going to focus on seven other characters -- Gary, Jirarudan, Mewtwo, Giovanni, Butch & Cassidy, and Jessiebelle. The first four are characters that I like and think are just misunderstood, and the last three are the ones that I detest and really do think are evil, and I'm gonna explain why. Gary Okay, I honestly don't know where everybody gets the idea that Gary is evil or villainous! People are always talking about how he's a bad guy, an abusive trainer, etc., but it's just not true! When has Gary EVER hurt a pokemon? NEVER!!! He loves his Arcanine, Nidoking, Nidoqeen, and Eevee, and his Eevee even evolves into an Umbreon in the Johto League arc! (And just so ya know, a trainer has to take REALLY good care of an Eevee in order for it to evolve into Umbreon or Espeon.) Gary was also very knowledgeable about pokemon and refused to do anything to hurt the Diglett in "Dig Those Diglett," and he was nice to the pokemon at his grandfather's lab in "Showdown at the Poke-Corral." Another good thing about Gary is that he loves his grandfather. He's kind of a smart-alek in the game, but he's always treated Professor Oak with kindness and respect on the show. He even saved Prof. Oak from Team Rocket in "A Tent Situation." (I felt bad that TR had to get blasted off, of course, but you can't really blame Gary for wanting to protect his grandfather.) Another point, which my friend, Shigeru1313, made is that even on the rare occasions when Gary does see fit to battle Team Rocket, he never laughs or insults them after they blast off like Ash always does. In "A Tent Situation," the first thing he did after TR blasted off was free Professor Oak and ask if he was okay. Meanwhile, all Ash could do was call TR weirdos and freaks. >P Even in the next episode, "The Rivalry Revival," Gary didn't make fun of TR or gloat about defeating them when they crossed paths again -- he was just going on about his business! What, exactly, has Gary done to get such a bad reputation? Well, he picks on Ash all the time, but I got news for ya, folks -- picking on Ash (or hating Ash) does NOT an evil person make! And he may be kind of arrogant, but you know what? He's an excellent trainer, and he has every right to take pride in everything he's accomplished! I'll admit his cheerleaders are really ditzy and annoying, but he's since ditched them, and he's shown a tremendous amount of growth and character development in recent eps. He's a much more mature and humble person now. And besides, Ash has ALWAYS been just as arrogant (if not, more so) as Gary! Ash is always taking every chance he can get to show off his badges, his pokemon, etc., and he always brags about how he's a pokemon master. Gary doesn't show off or posture like that! He may brag about how he's a great trainer, but he prefers to do his showing off in pokemon battles...with actions rather than words. Just because Gary is a competitive threat to Ash doesn't mean he's a villain -- he's just a rival, and there's nothing wrong with a little healthy competition. Jirarudan Oh, yeah! One of my faves! Jirarudan is another great character that's only misunderstood! (He's known as Lawrence III in English, but I call him by his original name because it's so much cooler!) Jirarudan is the collector from Revelation Lugia, and people are always bad-mouthing him and calling him a greedy bastard who tried to destroy the world, but he's not really a villain either. What did Jiddy do to get such a bum rap? He tried to capture the three Legendary Birds and Lugia. Uh, excuse me, but isn't capturing wild pokemon what people in the poke-world are SUPPOSED to do?! Last time I checked, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Lugia were wild pokemon, which makes them fair game! I can't even begin to talk about how many sites there are where the webrunner talks about how evil Jiddy is and then turns around and brags about how he/she captured the three Legendary Birds in Pokemon Blue or Lugia in Pokemon Silver! (Can you say "hypocrisy," boys and girls?) True, his attempt to capture Lugia messed up the weather, but I don't really think that was intentional. Jirarudan was just focused on the hunt, and he didn't consider the potential consequences. A mistake on his part to be sure, but he certainly didn't set out to cause destruction -- he just wanted to add some new pokemon to his collection. And that's all Jiddy is -- a collector. He just wants to collect pokemon like everybody else in the poke-world does...but it just so happens that the pokemon he wants to collect are also the rarest and most powerful. Technically, nothing's wrong with that! Mewtwo Here's another great character who's not really evil. I think 4Kids is the main culprit in making him look so bad in English -- they totally overlook the introspective and soul-searching nature that he has in Japanese. In order to understand M2, we have to understand his past -- he was created in a science lab for the sole purpose of being experimented on and used by humans! His only friend, Aitwo, died while he was a kitten, and he was left with nobody. The scientists who created him didn't care about him, and his awareness of his condition made him feel alienated. Who can blame him for being filled with anger? And even though he wanted to cause a lot of destruction when he escaped from the scientists, he learned that violence and hatred only begets more violence and hatred, and he put an end to it. A true villain wouldn't gain any insight from such a situation, but Mewtwo did. (So did Jessie, James, and Meowth for that matter -- even more evidence that they're good people!) Giovanni Okay, Giovanni has to be, without a doubt, the most misunderstood one of all. Even a lot of Team Rocket fans hate him and think he's an evil bastard! (The sheer number of fanfics where Gio is trying to kill J & J, keep them from falling in love, etc. is a testament to that! >_<) But you know what? I don't think Gio is evil at all...and for very good reason! So, let's take a closer look at the boss and see what's really going on.... First up, TR fans complain that he's evil because he replaced Meowth with Persian as the top cat. Uh, hello?! Does anybody REALLY want Meowth to leave our fave Rocket trio and stay with the boss? (If you answered yes to that question, shame on you! Ya can't call yerself a Team Rocket fan unless ya love Jessie, James, AND Meowth!) Dat cat BELONGS with Jessie and James! They're his friends, and they're the ones who truly make him happy! (I even think that if Gio offered him the position, Meowth would give up the chance to be top cat again and choose to stay with J & J.) Sending Meowth to the field with J & J is a GOOD thing, folks! But Gio still needs a kitty (He's a cat-person! Yet another thing that makes him cool!), so he had to get a new one to replace his Meowth...and that just so happened to be Persian! Another point that Gio-haters bring up is that he's always yelling at Jessie and James and that he even tried to kill them in "A Scare in the Air." Again, this is all blown way out of proportion! Giovanni has a tough-guy image to uphold, and he manages his employees through strength and negative reinforcement rather than praise and encouragement. I'll admit that's not the best way to run things, but that doesn't make him evil. Gio is probably afraid that if he praises his employees and tells them how much he likes them, he'll be perceived as weak. His mother, Madam Boss, was a cold woman and referred to him as a brat when he was a child -- he was probably taught to supress his emotions and uphold a callous facade. Besides, there's even proof that he likes Jessie, James, and Meowth, and that he WASN'T trying to kill them in "A Scare in the Air." Notice that when our heroes are on the phone with him, he has a red rose in a vase with an Arbok figurine coiled around it on his desk? Anybody with eyes and half a brain can see that the rose is a symbol of James and the Arbok is a symbol of Jessie! Now, would Gio keep symbols of Jessie and James on his desk if he hated them? Of course not! And Gio doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd send his employees on suicide missions, either. Killing off employees is bad business, and Giovanni is smarter than that! Gio knew that the blimp brigade was a dangerous assignment, but he also knew that Jessie, James, and Meowth are his hardiest and most determined employees. He probably sent them on that mission as a show of faith and because he knew that they'd survive. Deep down, he really likes them. He just doesn't know how to express it, that's all. And what's up with everybody thinking that he's against Jessie and James being a romantic couple?! Where's the evidence of that?! The answer is, there IS none! I'm pretty sure Jessie and James joined Team Rocket together because they've been best friends and extremely close to each other ever since childhood, and it's pretty damned obvious that there's a lot of romance and sexual tension going on between them now. Is their boss oblivious to that? I don't think so! Gio ain't naive folks! He KNOWS what's going on, yet he's never once tried to break them up, assign them to new partners, or discipline them for it in any way, and I really doubt he ever will. Besides, why would all of his field-agent teams be male/female pairings if he were against his employees becoming romantically involved with each other? Do ya really think he's teaming up sexy teenage guys and girls, turning them out in the field with virtually no supervision and hoping nothing happens? Somehow, I doubt it. Now, if Giovanni really were evil, don't you think he'd have either fired or killed Jessie and James by now? (This is actually more evidence that J & J are good employees -- Gio isn't the kind to tolerate incompetence, yet he's never fired them! They've gotta be pulling off successful missions when those twerps aren't screwing up their plans!) And with as much crap as Ash has put his agents through, don't you think if Gio were evil, he would've had that twerp killed by now, too? Even after the destruction of the Viridian Gym and Team Rocket Headquarters, the worst thing Giovanni did was take a beach vacation, give Jess and Jim a pay cut, and make them dig for clams for a few hours. Oh, yeah. That's sooooo evil! All things considered, Gio is a cool guy! The boss is...boss! *hugs poor, misunderstood Giovanni* Giovanni: What the?! Unhand me this instant, you psycho! O_o Me: Oops! Sorry! ^_^* Butch & Cassidy Okay, here we have two characters that I truly hate and really do think are evil. Whenever Jessie and James come up with some kind of "evil" pokemon-snatching scheme, it's invariably something cute and funny. Not so with Butch and Cassidy (or Botch and Crappidy, as I like to call 'em! >D) These two are actually malevolent. Can you really picture Jessie and James abusing pokemon in a counterfeit breeding center, making pokemon turn against their own trainers, or scamming little kids? Absolutely not! (In "The Purr-fect Hero," J & J even said that they didn't believe in hurting children or destroying their dreams!) And whenever B & C show up, J & J always side with Ash in order to stop them! (If J & J would rather work with Ash than their fellow Rockets, what does that tell ya about how evil B & C are?) Plus, Botch and Crappidy make a total mockery of the Team Rocket motto! They can't even come up with their own material -- they have to rip-off Jessie and James's beautiful motto and pervert it to their own twisted purposes! And where do these miserable pissants get off thinking that they're a better team than Jessie and James?! They've only ever been in three episodes thus far, and each time, their plans failed even more miserably than Jessie and James's ever do! (They got carted off to jail in all three of those eps, didn't they? J & J always escape by blasting off!) Jessie, James and Meowth have only been to jail ONCE in the entire Pokemon series (well, *maybe* twice if ya think Officer Jenny was actually able to hold them long enough after "Viva Las Lapras"), and they escaped in a matter of minutes! What do Botch and Crappidy do when they get arrested? Sit on their lazy, incompetent butts and wait for the boss to bail them out! Nuff said -- Butch and Cassidy suck! >P Jessiebelle Now we get down to it. The character I despise above all others...even Ash, Tracey, Butch and Cassidy -- Jessiebelle! I truly hate this woman because...well, there's absolutely, positively nothing to like about her! She has no redeeming qualities, whatsoever! First off, she whips and tortures James! Need I say more?! How can any TR fan like this psychopathic bitch or think she's just misunderstood?! There's nothing TO understand about her -- she's just an evil lunatic! \_/ There's absolutely NOTHING that can possibly be said to defend Bitchybelle's rotten behavior or explain why she's so detestable! I know a lot of people theorize that she was abused as a child or that somebody who was really close to her died and she just doesn't know how to express herself, but you know what? Those theories are pure speculation! There's NO evidence to back them up, which technically renders them invalid! (At least Giovanni, Mewtwo, and the like have actual proof, no matter how subtle or obscure, so that a case can be made in their favor, but with Jessiebelle it's all "maybes" and "what ifs," and that just doesn't fly!) Besides, even if Jessiebelle really is from an abusive family or if somebody close to her died, it DOESN'T excuse her from being so mean to James! Uh, James came from an abusive family, Jessie's mother died when she was a little girl, and Meowth was abandoned and tortured by humans for most of his life, but do you see THEM out whipping and torturing people?! I don't think so -- J & J & M are the sweetest, most loving characters on the show, despite all of the hardships they've been through! Personally, I think Jessiebelle is a spoiled little rich bitch who's never worked a day in her life and always has everything handed to her on a silver platter. James is probably the only person who's ever stood up to her or refused to give her what she wants. That could be why she's so obsessed with torturing him -- she misinterprets his independence and defiance as "improper" behavior and thinks he should be "corrected" so that she can have what she wants. This chick has serious problems! O_o So once again, nuff said. Jessiebelle isn't misunderstood at all -- some people are just evil, and she's one of them. She's a self-centered, psychotic bitch. Period. Paragraph. End of story. Okay, I'm pretty much done playing lawyer for now. So to recap, Gary, Jiddy, M2, and Gio = good. Botch & Crappidy and Bitchybelle = bad. Those are just my opinions of course, and you can agree with them or not, but I think I gave good enough reasons as to why I like and hate the characters that I do. That said, I rest my case. @->->- Respect All Shippers, My Ass! by Cori Guess what, folks! It's time for another big angry rant about a topic that's been bugging me for ages -- all of these different "ships" involving Pokemon characters. I saw a big list of 109+ "ships" at Bulbagarden recently, and somebody I heard from frequents a site called Respect All Shippers, and a lot of the "ships" they described seriously disturbed me! Some of the pairings were okay, and I didn't really have a problem with them, but some of them were just plain sick, and I can't fathom how ANYBODY could respect or support them! Which brings me to the point of this rant. Today I'm going to talk about a lot of these different "ships" -- the ones I support, the ones I'm against, the ones I'm indifferent to, and why. I don't care whether you agree with me or not -- this is just my opinion, after all. But quite frankly, the whole "shippy" thing has gotten way out of hand, a lot of it is just stupid and sick, and this is my attempt to sort it all out. That said, let's begin with the "ships" that I support: Rocketshippy. (Well, duh. Just look at the rest of my site to see why I follow this one! This is the one true "ship" as far as I'm concerned. There's a ton of evidence to support it, a ton of evidence to debunk any possible anti-Rocketshippy theory, and it's just so beautiful and right! Jessie and James are THE perfect couple! Nuff said!) Friendshippy. (This one isn't a romantic "ship" at all -- this is just the word I use to describe Jessie and James's friendship with Meowth and their pokemon. There's a ton of evidence to support this one, too! I defy anybody who thinks that Meowth would turn against J & J or that Jessie and James are abusive trainers -- Jessie, James, Meowth, Arbok, Weezing, Lickitung, and Victreebel are teammamtes and friends forever, and nothing is ever gonna change that! As Jessie and James so eloquently said in "Meowth Rules!", Team Rocket's friendship never ends! So let's set sail on our ship of friends!) Dogashippy. (This one's kind of odd, but I follow it anyway -- Arbok and Weezing! If, like me, you think that Arbok is female and Weezing is male, there's even some evidence to support this "ship." I've seen them protect each other in battles, dance with each other, and in one ep, they were even gazing lovingly at each other! Professor Oak says that pokemon become like their trainers over time, so if Arbok is like Jessie and Weezing is like James, a romance between these two pokemon is entirely possible! Besides, it's just plain cute! ^_^) Tachishippy. (This is a term used to describe Ash, Misty, and Brock becoming friends with Jessie, James, and Meowth, and I'm all for it! As much as I complain about Ash, I really would love to see him and his friends get a clue and realize that TR aren't their enemies at all! Besides, good things always happen when they all set aside their differences and work together -- just look at great eps like "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak," "Holy Matrimony!," and "Pikachu Re-Volts!" and how they cooperate in Mewtwo Strikes Back and Revelation Lugia! This is also a reason why I love Toshihiro Ono's manga so much -- not only did Jessie and James get married and have a baby, but Ash, Misty, and Brock became friends with TR and Gary, and everybody got a happy ending!) Okay, those are the "ships" that I like, respect, and support. Now, to cover the "ships" that I'm completely against. There's a LOT of these, so I'm not going to list them by name -- I'll just lump them into general categories to save time and space. Anything involving a human/pokemon pairing or an incestuous relationship. (Uh, do I really need to explain why I'm against these things? Well I will anyway -- they're SICK!!! Don't even get me started on how wrong pairings like Ash and Pikachu, Brock and Vulpix, Misty and Psyduck, Jessie & James and Meowth, Ash's mom and Mr. Mime, Giovanni and Mewtwo, Sabrina and Mewtwo, Gary and May, Gary and Prof. Oak, Ash and his mom, Misty and her sisters, Brock and his siblings, etc. are! How can anybody in their right mind support or respect "ships" like these?! I have a question for anybody who does -- Would you condone beastiality or incest in real life? If you do, then you need help, and if not, then why the hell would you want to see crap like that associated with a show like Pokemon?! I'm sorry, but a real Pokemon fan shouldn't be thinking sick shit like this about the show! "Ships" like these don't DESERVE to be respected! >P) Anything that interferes with Rocketshipping in any way, shape or form. (Any "ship" that involves Jessie and James with anybody other than each other is a crime against nature! Where's the evidence to support Rumishipping, Rocket/Neo Cross-shipping, Rocket/Twerp Cross-shipping, Animeshipping, etc., anyway? The answer is, there IS none -- it's just stupid! And who'd want to see sick stuff like that to begin with?! Again, I'm sorry, but no real Pokemon or Team Rocket fan would ever think that Jessie is a whore, that James is gay, or any other mean things like that! And no REAL Rocketshipper would ever support or respect any kind of anti-Rocketshippy pairing -- it's a self-contradiction! If you think that Jessie and James becoming romantically involved with Jessiebelle, Butch and Cassidy, Ash-tachi, or anybody else is a possibility or that evil notions like these should be respected, then you're NOT a real Rocketshipper! I know I take an extremely hard-line stance on this issue, but I really don't see why I should respect something to which I'm so vehemently opposed. I've seen both sides of this issue, and it only further convinces me that Rocketshippiness is right and that anything anti-Rocketshippy is a big, steaming pile of Tauros crap! >D) Yaoi and Yuri pairings of the Pokemon characters. (Okay, I've said this a million times before, but I'm going to say it again. I'm not against these things because of homophobia -- I don't have a problem with homosexuality or bisexuality in real life. However, I DO have a problem with people making characters gay when they're not. If a character really is gay or bisexual, then a slash pairing would be just fine, but none of the Pokemon characters are gay! Jessie and James sure as hell aren't gay, Brock isn't gay, Gary isn't gay, Prof. Oak isn't gay, Ash's mom isn't gay, Giovanni isn't gay, Butch and Cassidy aren't gay, and most of the rest of the characters are little kids and too young to have any kind of sexuality -- making the Pokemon characters gay violates what they're about! Why are people so obsessed with these characters being gay anyway? What's wrong with two male characters or two female characters just having a close friendship? Why does sexuality even have to become an issue? It's just wrong! Besides, there's no evidence to support Palletshipping, Kokoshipping, Yamushipping, Bitchshipping, Airshipping, and the like. "Ships" like these have no place in Pokemon fandom as far as I'm concerned!) Anything that involves the pairing of a character I like with a character I hate. (This one is strictly a matter of personal taste, but I think "ships" involving Giovanni and Jessiebelle, Gary and Gizelle, Tracey and anybody, etc. are just wrong! Why the hell should I respect the pairing of cool guys like Gary and Gio with bitches like Gizelle and Jessiebelle?! And who the hell would want to see that freak, Tracey, in a relationship with anybody?! >_< And this makes Rumishipping and Rocket/Neo Cross-shipping doubly wrong since they interfere with Rocketshipping in addition to pairing characters I love with characters I hate. Sorry, folks, but I don't respect crap like this either.) Well, those are the "ships" that I have absolutely, positively no tolerance for. You couldn't pay me enough to even pretend that I have respect for that kind of stuff! And now that I've got all of this anger out of my system and calmed down a little, I'll talk about the stuff that I'm not really for or against -- the "ships" that I don't follow but that I don't mind either. Twerpshippy. (Okay, I consider myself to be a complete anti-Twerpshipper, but I didn't list it with the category of stuff I hate because unlike the aforementioned "ships," I don't mind that other people like and respect this one. Personally, I just think it's wrong for little kids like Ash and Misty to have a romantic relationship imposed on them -- they need time to be kids right now. At least Jessie and James are 17 or 18 and old enough for romance, but Ash and Misty just aren't ready. I don't mind if Ash and Misty are teens or adults in Twerpshippy fanfiction, and some of the stories are really well-written -- my friend, Vickie211, writes excellent AAMRNs that take place when they become more mature. However, while they're still 11 or 12, they have no business being romantically involved with each other.) Gymshippy. (If any kind of twerp romance is possible, I personally think Brock and Misty would make a better couple than Ash and Misty. I've noticed that Misty's behavior tends to be influenced by whoever she's hanging out with at the moment -- whenever she's hanging with Brock, she's usually civil to TR and doesn't act obnoxious, but whenever she makes a rude remark or starts being unnecessarily mean to our heroes, she's almost always hanging with Ash and Tracey. I think she'd be better off with Brock than she would with Ash or Tracey because Brock is more mature than any of the other twerps, and he's a good influence on her. That and there's even a bit of Gymshippy evidence -- Misty always gets angry when Brock flirts with other girls. Could it be jealousy? hehe) Neoshippy. (Now, I do think that Butch and Cassidy are a romantic couple and that they'll end up together, but quite frankly, I could care less whether they do or not. To me, the definition of a "shipper" is somebody who likes both of the characters in the relationship and truly wants them to be together. That's why people who just like James, just like Jessie, don't really like either one of them, or think they make a cute couple but don't really care whether they get together or not don't have any business calling themselves Rocketshippers. And that's precisely why I can't call myself a Neoshipper -- I hate Butch AND Cassidy, and I'm not interested in their romantic relationship at all. However, I know that a lot of people do like these characters and want them to get together, and I don't have a problem with that. Neoshippiness just isn't an issue for me. +P) Egoshippy. (Okay, I don't really agree with this one, and there's absolutely no evidence to support it, but Misty and Gary romance doesn't really bother me. I like Gary, and I don't have a problem with Misty when she behaves herself, so I don't mind this "ship.") Miscellaneous no-evidence pairings of random Pokemon characters. (There's a lot of these, but as long as they don't involve incest, beastiality, yaoi or yuri, or interfere with Jessie and James's relationship, I don't have a problem with it. Pairings like Mondo and Duplica, Seymour the Scientist and Cassandra, Professor Elm and the Nurse Joy from New Bark Town, etc. are cute and harmless "ships" that involve minor characters, and I don't see anything wrong with them.) And that pretty much sums up my stance on the many, many different kinds of "shippiness" involved with Pokemon. There's only a very few that I truly follow and respect, there are some that I don't follow but that I don't mind, and there's a lot that I'm completely opposed to and have no respect for. I'm sorry if this rant offends anybody who feels differently, but like I said before, these are my opinions, and I have good reasons for them. Pokemon is a fun and wholesome show, and any romantic "ship" that involves humans and pokemon, members of the same family, or that makes characters gay when they're not is just wrong, and that's all there is to it! I believe in seeing both sides of an issue and getting all of the facts straight before forming an opinion or taking a stance, and that's precisely what I've done while considering all of these different types of "ships." And the conclusion I've reached after taking all of this into consideration is that Pokemon is NOT about sexual perversion, and perverted "ships" just don't belong in Pokemon fandom! People who think sick and twisted things about the Pokemon characters don't deserve to call themselves fans, and their disturbing ideas don't deserve to be acknowledged as valid. Respect isn't an entitlement -- it's something you EARN, and most of the "ships" out there have done absolutely, positively nothing to earn my respect or the respect of anybody else in their right mind! @->->- A Fan or Not a Fan That is the Question! by Hot Lips A little note from Cori: This rant contains a bit of material that *kind of* bends one of my rules -- it criticizes another website and another webrunner. However, I posted this rant because I agree with Hot Lips 100%...not just on the topic she rants about, but about the site and webrunner she criticizes, too! The fanfic archive on the site in question is beyond disturbing, and whoever is running that site is a sick, sick person who can't be called a Team Rocket fan by any stretch of the imagination! >P I see nothing wrong with the opinions expressed in this rant because they're just the TRUTH plain and simple as far as I'm concerned! (And Hot Lips is MUCH nicer about it than I would've been!) If anybody has a problem with this rant or the opinions expressed herein, that's just too f***ing bad -- I'm leaving this rant posted, and Hot Lips and I are most certainly NOT making any apologies for it because the site and webrunner in question DESERVE to be criticized! >D So, now that you've been warned, enjoy the rant...or quit reading if you think you'll be offended! Hi everybody! Hot Lips here with a new rant! ^_^ Gee what a year it has been, I finished school, my stories get posted ^_^, I keep reading stories where Jessie and James get killed.... Oh! Oops! Did I say that out loud? Silly old me. But seriously folks this is not a happy rant, I’m very mad and upset. But I think with VERY good reason. See I’m a big TR fan as many of you already know. AND I DON'T LIKE DEATH OR SICK FICS! \__/ I don’t like their message, I don’t like how they are written, I don’t like DEATH Period! Or sick stories -- you know what I’m talking about! Rape, James beating up Jessie, Drugs, Sex Slaves etc. To A LOT of people and me they are just plain SICK! I mean come on people! It’s Team Rocket for God sake! They are cartoons! They don’t deserve this kind of treatment from all you so-called fans! How can you call yourself a fan?! How can you kill something you claim to love so much?! It’s not right! Real fans treat the things or people they love with respect! So all you people writing sick fics or death fics I’m sorry but you’re NOT a real fan in my book. I’m sorry if this upsets some people but remember this is MY rant and it’s MY POV. Now don’t get me wrong I love a good TR story anytime comedy, drama, as long as it has a positive message and a happy ending. But I can’t stand tragedy of any kind. I love writing about Team Rocket and I love to give them happy lives and respect, and fans get an attachment. So when I read a death story it's along the line of losing a close friend. But anyway I made a little list explaining my point. Let's start with Jessie. Jessie What you so-called fans do to her. Ok, death she has a lot of death stories! She‘s been stabbed and hurt in every way to kill her. And there’s even those who claim to love her to death! Yeah, they love her to death then they kill her! \__/ But death is not her point. It’s the sick stuff that comes to my mind. Poor Jessie she has been beaten up by James, knocked down the stairs, experimented on, committed suicide, been paralyzed, and here it comes...RAPE! How can you write a story about rape?! Jessie is a female! I’m a female, and just thinking about it makes me very uncomfortable. Plus she’s a cartoon! She is not about rape! But here is my question HOW can a female write that shit?! It’s worse than a boy writing it! YOU KNOW WHO I’m talking about! >___< Piss off, you stupid "only likes James" fans. Please! Real fans treat her with respect! The poor thing needs some! \_/ *Hugs Jessie* Ok, ok that covers Jessie’s so-called fans and just some of the shit they do to her. Next Meowth, Meowth Ok Meowth poor little kitty! 8__8 First things first you're not a true Team Rocket fan if you don’t like Meowth in some shape or form. Cuss me out, call me crazy I don’t care! Meowth is a VERY important part of the team. And he always will be. He’s not there to break Jessie and James up or to hurt them. And never there to call Jessie a bitch or James a gay fag. All you so-called fans who make him do that should be ashamed of yourself! Team Rocket is a family! They ALL love one another to the fullest! Proof “Go West Young Meowth!” and of course “Meowth Rules!” A circle ship of friends! ^_^ Friendshippy forever! A true Team Rocket fan loves each one! Dat’s right! Thank you Meowth! *Hugs sweet little kitty* Finally poor James 8__8 James Poor James you ask? YUP! The shit you so-called fans do to him makes me sad and just sick! The list just goes on and on! James has more crap done to him than Jessie and Meowth put together! He’s been put on drugs, turned into a complete junkie! He’s been kidnapped by Jessiebelle and turned into a sex slave by her! Sick! Jessie has tried to kill him! We all know Jessie would never try to do that and James would NEVER beat her! \__/ They are cartoons! For God Sake! He’s been paralyzed and doesn’t recover! Just like Jessie! He shoots himself! It goes on and on. But here it comes, DEATH! >__< Why is everybody obsessed with killing James?! He is so sweet and gentle! 8_8 Nobody deserves to die, but why James?! Why must he suffer and leave Jessie and Meowth behind? He is so young! He deserves a full life with his friends. He’s been shot to death many times; Pikachu has shocked him to death in a couple of stories. But here’s one of the big things CAR WRECKS he dies in a car wreck, never telling Jessie he loves her or Jessie and James are in a car wreck and only Jessie survives. That’s not right! And NOT FAIR TO TR! How can you people do that to him and them?! >_< But here comes the BIG thing, say it with me: Mystery Sickness and I’ll MEET you up in HEAVEN fics! Those are the worst ever! They are not Rocketshippy at all! They are anti-shippy in the WORST way! How could a true fan do that?! Jessie having to wait all her life to see her beloved, NOT FAIR! Those fics are the worst! They make me sad and very depressed! I don’t care if you call me crazy! I’m telling the truth! James and Jessie deserve happy long lives together, forever! So please stop killing JAMES! PLEASE! *Hugs him* I said it once, I’ll say again real fans don’t kill the things they claim to love so much! >_< Now before closing let me make a few points. I never read a sick or death story on purpose. I run into them because of no warnings. Sites need warnings! Even though I’m an adult, kids love TR and would maybe come on a site thinking “Oh wow Team Rocket stories” but because of no warnings they might read about rape or anything sick! Come on, a young kid about 11 or 12 reading about sex slaves or rape?! That’s so unfair to them! So please sites without warnings please put them up! Especially Team Rocket Palace! Didn’t want to bring anyone up, but YOUR SITE IS SICK! And to the webmaster, you don’t deserve to be called a Team Rocket fan at all! One last thing, I know I wrote “Our Dreams” when James is close to death. I really don’t have a problem with close to death ones. As long as the person is going to be ok and makes a full recovery. And in “Our Dreams” James is going to be ok and makes a full recovery. Positive outcome all the way! ^_^ With that I’ll close this rant by saying, “Please Team Rocket Fans and Rocketshippers, let's show the world how much we love these three beautiful characters. And give them something they never had from the brats, RESPECT! And keep all the wonderful Rocketshippy, Friendshippy, and Ash bashing stories coming! ^__^ Thank You." See ya! Hot Lips. @->->- SIX EXAMPLES OF THE TWERPS CHEATING! by teamROCKET128 Hi everyone, this is my first rant, and it will be about all the times the twerps have cheated in Pokémon battles. Example One: In "Dig Those Diglett," the match was Arbok & Weezing VS Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Pikachu. Thats two versus four! Example Two: In "Grin To Win," the ep where TR try to steal the noodles, it was Arbok & Weezing VS Pikachu, Poliwag and Chikorita, which is two versus three. Example Three: This one was in "A Friend In Deed." Pikachu and Sparky ganged up on Arbok, and the result was Ash and Ritchie destroying TR's van, which was a rental! Example Four: In "The Misty Mermaid," it was Arbok VS Seel, Seaking, Horsea and Starmie. (And Seel evolved into Dewgong). Thats one versus five! Example Five: The twerp trio weren't involved in this one, but it is still cheating. In the "School of Hard Knocks" ep, TR had to go against Giselle and all her students. It was like ten trainers versus two! And James said, "What about the rules? Stay one on one!" The Final Example: In "The Flame Pokémon-athon," it was Arbok and Weezing VS Ponyta, Squirtle, Pikachu and Starmie. And TR did great in that battle! There are most likely more examples, but I'll leave it at that. @->->- 7 Reasons why the Twerps Ruined the Orange Islands! by TailsPower5 The Orange Islands...what COULD'VE been a good Pokémon series was ruined by the twerps. And here are 7 ways that the twerps (and the Pokémon scriptwriters) ruined the Orange Islands. 1.) Tracie. Well, now we know what would happen if they created another boy that had the same golf-ball sized brain as Ash (no offense to the golf ball). Also, he's boring, stupid, pointless, ugly, and has the worst fashion taste in the world. I'll tell ya, for me to dress like Tracie, you'd have to pay me a BIG sum of money. Boy, was I glad when this sorry S.O.B. left 30+ episodes later...I actually cheered! 2.) They acted more evil than ever (examples: Misty wrote those fake letters to Ralph and Emily in "Wherefore Art Thou Pokemon", Tracie sicced Scyther on poor Jessie, James and Meowth, Pikachu couldn't stop Thunderbolting Meowth in "Bound for Trouble", Misty wouldn't easily give James and Meowth the weeds Jessie needed in "The Stun Spore Detour", most episodes Team Twerp would either slash, electrocute, or just water gun away TR, etc.) 3.) The twerp-centric episodes in the Orange Islands, 98% of the time, were little more than cures for insomnia (like the episodes where Ash battled the Orange Crew, and don't forget about the "exciting" watching of Magikarp that Tracie did in "The Wacky Watcher!"). "Meowth Rules!" is still my favorite episode from the Orange Islands. 4.) They didn't let Jessie or James get any new Pokemon!!!! Ash caught Lapras and Snorlax, Misty caught Poliwag, Tracie captured an evil, green bug...but Jessie and James got zero new Pokémon! 5.) They got rid of Brock for Tracie!! 6.) The twerps had the lamest adventures. Like helping out a Diglett rancher, exploring an island of pink Pokémon, doing nothing ("A Way Off Day Off"), see Brock get upset from their saying the word "Ivy" (which I found EXTREMELY mean, considering he's my favorite twerp), and several others. And there's only TWO Team Rocket episodes...WAAAHHHH!!! 7.) Ash was stupider than ever. He used his Pokédex on Pokémon he saw last season! I swear, one day he's going to use that thing on one of his own Pokémon. He also seemed to like Tracie a lot, and we all know that if you hang around with Tracie a lot, you more than qualify as an idiot. "Congratulations", Twerp Trio from the Orange Islands arc (whom I consider totally different people from the first season and Johto League twerps), you're the winners of Cori-sama's Golden Ponyta Patooie Award! (*gives them the flaming horse's ass trophy, then drops a giant snorlax on them*) @->->- The Writers are Pathetic by teamROCKET128 Notice how pathetic the writers are? For example, in the Togepi episode, after Jessie and James threw the fake eggs to distract the twerps so Meowth could grap the REAL egg, after they ran off with the the egg, the twerps followed a trail of eggs. How could they of followed a trail of eggs after TR threw all of their fakes in the distraction? You could clearly see that there were no eggs in their basket when they ran off. Also, whenever they fall into a famous Team Rocket dug hole, they magically come out of them! Here is another example: In "Snubble Snobbery," when Team Rocket used some cool cufflinks on the twerps legs so they couldn't stand up, when TR were about to win, the twerps magically came out of the old lady's house with NO CUFFLINKS. Typical, huh? This last example has a touch of Team Rocket realism, as they mention the writers. In "The Crystal Onix," after the twerps fall into another pit, when TR run off to steal the Crystal Onix, Marissa starts crying and says, "Waaaaaaahhhh! They'll steal Crystal Onix!" Then Ash says, "Don't you worry Marissa. We'll dig our way out of here, and beat Team Rocket to the Crystal Onix." How the hell could they dig out of a pit if they were in one? Dig UP?!? And when TR get out of the traps they made, Ash asks them how they got out of the traps. James says its a secret, and Jessie said the writers can't figure it out either. HAHAHA!!! That's the only way TR lose: Either they get outnumbered in battles, or the writers figure out a pathetic way for the twerps to prevail. @->->- "Variety is the Spice of Team Rocket." by teamROCKET128 How come the twerps keep doing the same damn things all the time? It's like the same routine every time... Walk to a new town, meet new friend, destroy Team Rocket AGAIN, go to another town, meet new friend, go to new town, get a badge, go to another town and meet their new damn friend... They don't even change their Pokéball throwing animation. Team Rocket are always doing something new and different. Learning about James' controlling parents and a phychopathic bitch that James' parents probably care more about... Learning how Meowth learned to talk, learning about Jessie trying to be a Pokémon nurse... The list goes on and on... Their motto is entertaining and different, they sing cool songs, they do various other cute things, they have more than a couple of clothes, they throw their Pokéballs differently, they actually sing their own songs, not all these dumb pop bands singing for Ash and all the other different twerps... And if you look beneath the surface, you see that they are NOT evil, and that the twerps are the evil (and stupid!) characters! Why don't we see one of the twerps' Pokémon sing a song like Meowth's Party? They're probably busy cheating away in battles.... @->->- The Monopoly of the People With the Rights to the English Version of Pokemon by Lina Inverse I have just spent a bunch of time on the internet searching for fansubbed Pokemon...It's hard to find fansubbed Pokemon, and when you do, it's only a few things: one of the movies and the few skipped episodes. I know this is because no other episodes have been fansubbed...but why is that? The answer: the monopolization of the people who have the rights to the English version of Pokemon. Now I don't know much about copyright stuff, but I do know that people can get sued if they're caught distributing fansubs of a show that has been liscensed to be released in that country (or at least in the US, I don't know about other countries...^^;;). But I think that is retarded. There is not a commercially released subtitled version of Pokemon here, so why can't people fansub it? WHY MUST WE BE DEPRIVED OF SUBTITLED POKEMON??? I am really getting sick of the English version. It's not the voice-acting or anything (I thoroughly enjoy dubbed Slayers, and for those of you who don't know, every main character in Pokemon's voice actor plays at least one character in Slayers). The thing I'm getting sick of is the dialogue. I can't trust the dialogue in terms of shippyness...things could be dub-added or dub-removed... I want to have shippiness in Japanese! It's not fair! I don't understand why they don't subtitle pokemon or at least let the fansubbers do it! Are they afraid people will see that they aren't dubbing it faithfully? Or are they scared little kids who get a bilingual DVD will stumble upon the not-so-childish parts of the show? If it's the first, they really need to get with the program and understand that most people already know. If it's the second, they could always just release it seperately and put a warning on it... *sigh* I was excited when I saw the movies were bilingual, but then I saw that it was bilingual with English and French... It pisses me off so much!! Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. This probably just rambles on... I don't even feel like re-reading it... I'm too frustrated... If anyone knows anything about fansubbed Pokemon (or if they're actually planning on subtitling Pokemon...like that's gonna happen), please e-mail me at LinaInverseSlyrs@aol.com. Thanks. @->->- "IT WAS NICE KNOWING YOU." by teamROCKET128 "The licking Pokémon." That's Lickitung's description in the Pokédex. Lots of people are going to miss Lickitung, since it will be leaving us in an upcoming episode. It will be accidentally traded by this trainer that has a Wobbuffet. The Pokédex says that Lickitung is very useful. And I mean the Pokédex in Pokémon Gold and Silver, not from the show. "Its long tongue, slathered with gooey saliva, sticks to anything, so it is very useful." Lickitung is 3 feet and eleven inches tall, and weighs in at 144 pounds! Lickitung has done many great things since its arrival in "Princess VS Princess," like showing how easy it is to beat Pikachu without the twerps cheating in the Princess festival, or showing off its great attacks, like Supersonic in "The Whisle Stop." It is also the cutest TR Pokémon. But it is time to bid a tearful goodbye, in the episode, "SOONANSU AND THE POKéMON EXCHANGE." (I don't know the English title.) Let's shift our focus to Wobbuffet. I'm not saying this Pokémon is bad, I'm just disappointed that Jessie couldn't keep the Pokémon without losing Lickitung. Wobbuffet is "The Patient Pokémon," and stands in at four feet, three inches tall. It weighs in at sixty-three pounds. Here is some info on the Pokémon: "To keep its pitch black tail hidden, it lives quitely in the darkness. It is never first to attack." Another fact is that its tiny tail has its own personality. I think it has eyes! It's a bit like Weezing's two heads. Another interesting fact is that Wobbu is a PSYCHIC Pokémon! Jessie DOES NOT have telekinesis! These are the moves my Wobbuffet has: (I caught it yesterday!) COUNTER ATTACK, MIRROR COAT, SAFEGUARD AND DESTINY BOND. I haven't used it in battle yet, so I can't tell if these attacks are good or not. At least Jessie didn't abandon Lickitung deliberatly, like Ash promised to get Pidgeot after going to the Orange Islands, and yet he still hasn't come back for it! And Misty left her Pokémon at the Cerulean Gym! They must be putting on an awful lot of shows! I hope James doesn't lose one of his Pokémon! I must admit I wouldn't of been as upset if Victeebel left, as I like Lickitung more. Oh, and if you have Pokémon Gold and Silver, go to a place called "Dark Cave" at night, and you'll find a Wobbuffet. Happy hunting! @->->- Onward to Page 6 Back to Page 4 Back to the Main Page @->->- Music is "46 and 2" by Tool. @->->-