TEAM SKULL:
General: As many have mentioned, I like how we're going back to just criminals. Each game feels like they were trying to one-up the previous withe villain team's world conquering/changing plans. It started to get comical (and not helped by Team Flare's grunts). Team Skull feels a bit more grounded in reality, they're street thugs (and the more I look at them the less I see pirates, though I would say its there slightly since the whole skull theme plus they probably go island to island via boats they own). Stealing Pokemon, making trouble, and just rebelling against the system.
"But isn't that like Team Rocket"? Not quite. On the surface and just general actions they seem similar but Team Rocket was based on criminal organizations like the Yakuza and Mafia. Team Skull are more like street gang, like in New York there's the Blood and Crips. Team Rocket is very organized, they're lead by a man who has money and political influence, and they do missions they try to get in and out with little to no notice or its a giant raid meant to accomplish a certain task. Team Skull, from what's been presented, is more doing this out of personal reasons like rebelling and revenge, thus they want their actions known as it gives out a message or to make them feared. Team Rocket is for profit, Team Skull is for the evilulz. Now as we play the games we'll probably get motivations, mainly for Guzma and the admins (and maybe for some grunts via interaction dialouge), but their problems seem to be more with societal issues.
Themes: Surprisingly both the English and Japanese trailer gave us different themes for Team Skull, English seeming to be the encounter theme and Japan the (grunt?) battle theme.
This is DOPE, yo!... Sorry, I won't speak faux gangster again. But yeah, I really like this theme. It's loud and in your face, and with it having hip-hop-like voice clips littered throughout it stands out. It nicely gives you the idea how you should be feeling when going up against Team Skull.
Best way I can describe this is demented techno, it gives you a bit of an unhinged feeling, that you are facing a dangerous person. If their encounter is a foreboding message than their battle theme is them delivering on that message. It's also lively and something you can see battling to which is good.
Overall the feeling of both themes tells you that Team Skull is dangerous if not a bit deranged. They fit perfectly with the team of thugs.
Logo: I like their logo as its creatively done. Where as with most logos you first see the letter, with Team Skull you first see the, well, skull. It's not until further expectation until you realize that the elongated right eye socket and those crack above the left eye socket makes the cranium into an "S" shape. Well done.
Members: Another surprise is that they not only revealed the grunts but also the boss and (one of) the admin(s?). While at first that doesn't seem an important thing to note, as you learn more about them you actually see that, despite their rough attitudes, they consider each other as family. And with it a group of thugs instead of an organization I can also imagine they're a smaller group of villains. And while you had bosses and admins who treated their grunts kindly like Archie, Maxie, and N you rarely see it play in the theme of the team. But here makes Team Skull feel like a group who are outcasts or personally felt have been wronged so they came together not only to strike back but also to be with others who feel the same way they do; if no one is going to help them then they'll look after each others back! I wonder how much about "gang culture" did GameFreak research when creating Team Skull as this, at least from an outsider view, sounds like a trait part of gangs. I imagine we'll also come across themes of "respect" and "loyalty" within Team Skull.
General: As many have mentioned, I like how we're going back to just criminals. Each game feels like they were trying to one-up the previous withe villain team's world conquering/changing plans. It started to get comical (and not helped by Team Flare's grunts). Team Skull feels a bit more grounded in reality, they're street thugs (and the more I look at them the less I see pirates, though I would say its there slightly since the whole skull theme plus they probably go island to island via boats they own). Stealing Pokemon, making trouble, and just rebelling against the system.
"But isn't that like Team Rocket"? Not quite. On the surface and just general actions they seem similar but Team Rocket was based on criminal organizations like the Yakuza and Mafia. Team Skull are more like street gang, like in New York there's the Blood and Crips. Team Rocket is very organized, they're lead by a man who has money and political influence, and they do missions they try to get in and out with little to no notice or its a giant raid meant to accomplish a certain task. Team Skull, from what's been presented, is more doing this out of personal reasons like rebelling and revenge, thus they want their actions known as it gives out a message or to make them feared. Team Rocket is for profit, Team Skull is for the evilulz. Now as we play the games we'll probably get motivations, mainly for Guzma and the admins (and maybe for some grunts via interaction dialouge), but their problems seem to be more with societal issues.
Themes: Surprisingly both the English and Japanese trailer gave us different themes for Team Skull, English seeming to be the encounter theme and Japan the (grunt?) battle theme.
Overall the feeling of both themes tells you that Team Skull is dangerous if not a bit deranged. They fit perfectly with the team of thugs.
Logo: I like their logo as its creatively done. Where as with most logos you first see the letter, with Team Skull you first see the, well, skull. It's not until further expectation until you realize that the elongated right eye socket and those crack above the left eye socket makes the cranium into an "S" shape. Well done.
Members: Another surprise is that they not only revealed the grunts but also the boss and (one of) the admin(s?). While at first that doesn't seem an important thing to note, as you learn more about them you actually see that, despite their rough attitudes, they consider each other as family. And with it a group of thugs instead of an organization I can also imagine they're a smaller group of villains. And while you had bosses and admins who treated their grunts kindly like Archie, Maxie, and N you rarely see it play in the theme of the team. But here makes Team Skull feel like a group who are outcasts or personally felt have been wronged so they came together not only to strike back but also to be with others who feel the same way they do; if no one is going to help them then they'll look after each others back! I wonder how much about "gang culture" did GameFreak research when creating Team Skull as this, at least from an outsider view, sounds like a trait part of gangs. I imagine we'll also come across themes of "respect" and "loyalty" within Team Skull.
- Grunts. Nothing much to say here except after the more intricate grunt uniforms we've had over the years just people wearing plain clothes is refreshing. Infact without the cap, bandana, and pendant you really wouldn't know they were a part of Team Skull. And while its funny they have to buy their own clothes (though I'm wondering how and who), it was a joke done before by Team Flare (I'd also imagine Team Rocket would have to buy their clothes, all other groups I can see supplying their grunt uniforms). I think maybe the joke would work better if it said they needed to make their own uniform. And as a final fun note, in addition to their cap and bandana looking like an open-mouthed skull the white "x" on the bottom makes it look like a jolly roger, a nice touch (especially when their pendant is dangling above it like you can see in the female grunt's stock art).
- Admin Plumeria. With their colors being black and white there also seems to be a concept of "clashing", Plumeria presenting it moreso with her pink and yellow hair. Going back to the family theme, Plumeria acts like an older sister to the grunts, both caring for them though being strict, in the trailer referring to them as her "cute, dumb brothers and sisters". I don't think in the main series we've seen an admin caring for their grunts like that, and the only boss I know who shown to care for his grunts was N. I'm looking forward to hearing more about her story. Also that skull tattoo on her abdomen is a bit particularly placed if you follow the design of the logo, especially where the skull's teeth would be...
- Boss Guzma. The man of the hour. A departure from the usual boss leaders, Guzma looks younger than all but N and he's not dressed in any way that would stand him out (not that's a complaint with his design, I quite like it as it goes back to Team Skull being a more grounded group then the pirate/whatever Magma was/spacemen/knights/para-military/businessmen theme we've had). However he still have subtle design touches here an their like his glasses which both look like a skull eye socket but, with one of them being cut in half diagonally, looks like a sun and moon. Though of course what is most interesting about him is what he said in the trailer to Kukui.
We're told Guzma has a bone to pick (get it? Cause the skull is a bone... moving on) with Kukui. While ambiguous at first, in the trailer more of this is delved into as Guzma points out they both failed to become Trial Captains, linking them together there. He also seems to know Kukui personally making me think at one point they maybe were friends, cause at the moment I don't see a reason for the grudge otherwise. In my head I've made two scenarios: (1.) They were friends and both tried to become Trial Captains but failed. For Kukui it was because the Captains/Kahunas realized that his interests was more elsewhere (which would lead to him becoming a Pokemon Professor) but for Guzma it was because they felt he had some wickedness to overcome; but instead he became angry with the whole system and decided to go against it, even Kukui who had joined said system instead of sticking with him. (2.) They were both in a gang together or at least were miscreants. They tried to become Trial Captains for whatever reason but due to their attitudes were turned down and probably harshly criticized. Whatever was said hit Kukui hard and he decided he wanted to better himself while Guzma instead wanted to get back at them and angry as Kukui for leaving. Of course this is just speculation, for all I know they have no past history and Guzma was just doing a "we're not different" villain speech.
Eitherway I also think its clear that Guzma is also maybe a bit psychopathic with the whole declaring himself the human form of destruction (Yveltal be like "b****, please") while giving crazy eyes (Plumeria also had some crazy eyes but they were more "I'm going to stab you" then Guzma's "I WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN").
