Welcome anime people and other living beings. I presume that you remember me often talking about how each trainer's teams represent something, be it in the discussion forums or the episodic riffs of the show. Now I am actually putting a specific and smaller version of it. While I probably won't and most likely can't talk each and every Pokémon in the teams, this will be about how each member are meant to represent a large picture that represents the nature and goals of the characters. And this is an actual thing. More often than not the teams are not just messes put together to showcase the Pokémon in that month or week's merchandise. No, that's late D/P and Best Wishes. In contrast, the teams are actually moderately calculated for the specific archetype and certain puns and offhanded comments, something that is not talked about much(except me and fan fiction writers with intention to keep in with the canon). However, before I try to school you with pretentious nonsense and acts of superiority to keep you in the line, we need to set some ground rules.
1-I will not discuss characters with obvious team themes or teams composed of Pokémon that fill the specific needs of the character which are actually explained in the show. As such, certain characters such as Misty, Gary, Tracey and Virgil probably will not appear as a part of this unless I have something to add. For example, I might do Luke and Shamus if I find something interesting(Shamus) or if I find that fandom don't know their team's structure a lot(Luke).
2-Not every character has specific themes within their teams, and are actually nothing but bunch of stuff that desires to suck off the popularity of the characters themselves to turn into instant classics from unpopular creatures. As such Ash, Cilan and Brock teams will not make into this blogs, unless they have some sort of connection to the teams mentioned and mentioned alongside them. Jessie and James's teams are a mixture of number 1 and 2, as such they will most likely not be a part of this either.
3-Main girls' teams have major themes, but they are not very obvious, and I don't want fanboy complaints right off the bat, so they will be at the later parts of this. That and I will need a bit more time to gather information about them to see if there is anything missing.
4-No characters whose teams do not have a high chance of staying stable during the Best Wishes' run will be discussed now. As such Georgia and Burgundy's teams have to wait until the end of the series. However, even if I discuss or have discussed the current situation their teams elsewhere, they will be discussed as a part of this.
5-No characters whose teams' entire showcase I didn't watch yet will be discussed early. As such none of the Unova league rivals or certain Characters of the Day, Characters of the Arc or Characters of the Two Parter will be in the priority. On the other hand, I will watch their episodes to do these.
6-This blog series will not only include characters who have appeared more the one episode(including cameos). If there are Characters of the Day with interesting but not obvious themes they will be discussed here.
7-This is for characters that have actual teams, as such one Pokémon characters will not be discussed as most of them are created with their Pokémon in the mind anyways. I will discuss them if they have a sort of connection with another character if it is interesting and worth mentioning.
8-There is no set length for the parts. Some will be incredibly short and some will most likely take more than one post(mostly because of the amount of pictures).
9-Requests are accepted and requested. Nonetheless, the game and various manga teams will not be discussed for the time being. Even if I do start to do them as well, I will begin with the main series games as there is some overlooked themes and references regarding the NPCs. They won't probably be in the same style as these, minus some exceptions that can be talked in full length.
10-I will be primarily talking about the Japanese dub(at least for episodes I have access to), so if you are wondering about the absence of anything regarding the English dub(any additions or subtractions in the script), that's why. Of course, if I find time or there's a lot of request, I will probably make additions regarding the English dub, and of course, if you have something related to other dubs handling of the script that somehow relates to this context, I will probably post them here as well, if they are important enough. And of course, you are free to point out translation errors, colour coding errors, trope errors etc.
Now that's over with, we can boogie. To start off, we will begin with one of the most obvious, thus least discussed and overlooked team structures of the all rivals, Barry's. I chose Barry's structure because it was the easiest to do, as he has a low amount of Pokémon and he barely used any of them besides his Empoleon. In short, for a slacker like me to toy with, he is perfect.
