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Was Team Flare a Hit or a Miss?

Sydney

The Good Samaritan
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Location
Canberra, Australia
Pokémon X and Y gave us a brand new evil syndicate to engage in combat with, and it was none other than the flamboyant Team Flare. Though, in this case, their flamboyancy may not have saved them. From a leader who seemed to be constantly PMSing, to scientists who didn't seem to give much of a damn, Team Flare fell (imo at least) far too short compared to their predecessors. In comparison to villainous organizations such as Team Rocket, Team Flare seemed disorganized and somewhat sloppy. However, this is purely my opinion, but do you agree with me? Were they a complete miss or a perfect hit? Discuss.
 

Fig

The Altruist
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Location
Mishima Tower
I honestly was hyped when I heard that Team Flare was going to be the evil syndicate in the Kalos region. Their designs looked unique and interesting when they were first revealed. I was actually hyping to see what was their purpose in creating the evil syndicate in the first place. When I found out that one of their main goals was to obtain money, I was rather contempt with that as it kinda reminded me of the original Team Rocket. Later on, I also heard they wanted to make the world "more beautiful" and that is what threw me off. Did it meant they don't want pollution or toxic-waste filling up across the region, or by "beautiful" did they mean it is only beneficial to members within Team Flare. Once I found out it was the latter, I somewhat gained more interest in as Pokemon X & Y were approaching.

Now in terms of development and formation of the team, I will have to say that didn't reach the standards of established syndicates had such as Rocket and Galactic, but it wasn't really that bad so to speak. If I had to say whether Team Flare was a hit or miss in terms of the syndicate themselves and if they brought a decent amount of contribution to the franchise, I would place them somewhere in the middle. I feel that they somewhat received a degree of development but it wasn't fully developed in time for the release of Pokemon X & Y, or the developers decided not to focus on the evil syndicate in the first place. Either way, I believe that Team Flare didn't reach its full potential but it wasn't a bad example at the same time either.
 

BoxTar

i got bored and posted something
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Location
Pacific Northwest
I've never really enjoyed it when they turned the villians in Pokemon into these huge "rule or destroy the world" type characters. It was just way too cliche. Team Rocket, to my memory, was just obsessed with money, and were more like the gangsters of Pokemon, and I loved them for that (and they had their share of flaws too, of course. Like Giovanni just outright giving up after Red beats his gym...like, wtf?)

EDIT: Also, I'm completely wrong with that point. The whole point of Team Rocket was to gain rare and powerful pokemon in order to...take over the world. Man, my nostalgia blinders really suck. And this is coming from a guy that played Gen III first! But I digress. The "world domination" trope has been done to death.

worldDomination.jpg

Yes, each has their own spin to it. Team Magma wanted the world to be everlastic daylight and to drought, while Team Aqua wanted the world to have more rain because...hydration? But honestly, I stopped paying attention to the plot of pokemon by Gen IV. That's not to discredit the plots in their entirety, I just...don't play Pokemon for its plots, villians included. It just started to feel...streamlined after a while. Again, may just be the nostalgia blinders, but I started with Gen III, and I still can't get into the plot of that one either. :I

Why can't the plot just be having a rival like Gary and trying to one day overcome his/her power, or there being a master trainer and having to train super hard just to stand a chance against him? Why do we have to have this whole other sub plot while this is happening?

Team Flare was ok. I thought the motivation came off as silly rather than sinister or evil, but it wasn't too distracting. It is a game for kids, it wouldn't be cool if it was a bunch of murderous psychopaths out to kill all the Pokemon on the planet.

...wait...

Lysandre said:
This world will eventually reach the point of no return... Saving the lives of all is impossible.

Lysandre said:
Pokémon... Shall no longer exist. Pokémon are wonderful beings. Humans have worked with Pokémon, and we have helped each other flourish. But precisely because of that, they will inevitably become tools for war and theft!"

Well...sh*t.
 
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Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
I actually really liked Team Flare. They were rather cheesy as far as villains go, however their leader I thought was unique for Pokemon. He wasn't the typical bad guy like in the past games; he was trying to save the world in his own, albeit messed up, way. It was a classic "destroy the world to save the world" sort of thing, and I liked that. Although, it seemed like Lysandre was the only one who thought that way. Mostly everyone else in Team Flare was only in it for their own benefit. Although, that's rather human of them in it's own way. They were trying to secure a place in the new world for themselves.

All in all, I thought Lysandre was a good tragic villain. The rest of Team Flare could have been better, but I still liked them. I think they're my favorite evil Team in the Pokemon series.
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
Team Flare? Who are those guys? Were they the ones who wanted to bring on that everlasting drought or something?



...
:trollface:

In all seriousness, though, I really like Team Flare. First and foremost, it was their unique style and flair (ha) that really drew me in. They couldn't hope to beat the Italian mob feel of Team Rocket or the Black OPs feel of Neo Plasma. So, they went in a completely different direction, a very flamboyant direction. And it paid off. I'm in love with the red flame motif, what with the red hair, the glasses, the suit, etc. as I'm sure you're all very much aware. They're also very goofy and silly when going about regular hooligan behaviors, spouting off pop references and in general acting very wacky. Then there's the totally awesome-looking Flare scientists (my favorite of the bunch being Bryony) who take their zaniness to even greater heights.

However...

Behind all their flamboyancy and zaniness lies a very dark and very real danger: a zealousness to do the right thing that, when taken too far, ends up spreading destruction in its wake. More than all the other villain team's motives (ok well Plasma's was also hard-hitting as well), this one really struck home to me. Lysandre wasn't a power-hungry mobster who just wanted to steal Pokemon/rule the region, he wasn't a blowhard who just liked the idea of their goals until they became manifest and suddenly caused a 180 for them. He also wasn't a crazy sociopath who just wanted to control his subordinates for his own secret goal, and he wasn't a sheer monster who would do anything to manipulate the public to his interests. He honestly and truly believed what he was doing was right for the world, and so did everyone who was part of the team (well except Malva, but that was after they were gone, so whatever my point's still valid). And in the end, their zealousness got themselves killed and almost killed a whole lot of other people if it weren't for the Deus-Ex-Machina rebounding of that Ultimate Weapon on itself (seriously, did they just not check the trajectory of the beam? I'm pretty sure if they had any brain cells they would have adjusted the trajectory to hit anywhere EXCEPT where they were all at. The only logical explanation I can see for why that happened the way it did was 1: They were just being complete morons and fired off the weapon back on themselves without double-checking, or 2: They did their homework and aimed it for somewhere else, but something intervened. Perhaps Arceus or Zygarde?)

That's why I have taken on the moniker of a Team Flare grunt: To continually remind myself of the great dangers of over-zealousness.

So yeah. Team Flare. They're pretty hot.
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
And in the end, their zealousness got themselves killed and almost killed a whole lot of other people if it weren't for the Deus-Ex-Machina rebounding of that Ultimate Weapon on itself (seriously, did they just not check the trajectory of the beam? I'm pretty sure if they had any brain cells they would have adjusted the trajectory to hit anywhere EXCEPT where they were all at. The only logical explanation I can see for why that happened the way it did was 1: They were just being complete morons and fired off the weapon back on themselves without double-checking, or 2: They did their homework and aimed it for somewhere else, but something intervened. Perhaps Arceus or Zygarde?)

The way I interpreted that was that Lysandre knew he'd lost and he just wanted it to be over. So, he did that on purpose just to end it all.
 

LilyPadGeek

Some Weird Person
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
Location
Middle Earth
Let's face it, all Pokemon villains are going to be cheesy. Because you know that any villain is going to want to take over something, or gain possession of something huge. That's literally what any villain wants. I thought Team Flare was pretty great in my opinion. Of course it wasn't too hard to figure out the leader... but all in all it was great :P
Edit: Although we all know that the Team Rocket trio from the anime will always be the best
 

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