ETR's Inspiration

## Inspiration behind CTA's Extinction of Team Rocket (Warning: Contains Spoilers!)

There were a lot of moments of thought and different influences that all contributed to the birth of *The Extinction of Team Rocket* (and the *Extinction of Team Rocket* series that followed it). Back in 2010, while trudging through my first year of college, an idea came to mind.

*What if Team Rocket wasn't just for comedic relief and was an actual threat?*

This idea began to evolve, and more influences joined it to piece together the book that exists today.

### Team Rocket

Team Rocket is known throughout the main series games, manga, anime, and trading card game as a criminal organization that profits off others' misfortune, with world domination as their ultimate goal in life.

> *"Steal Pokémon for profit. Exploit Pokémon for profit. All Pokémon exist for the glory of Team Rocket."* ~ Team Rocket oath
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The first introduction many of us had was through the anime, where they are depicted as criminals, but as the series goes on, the goofy yet lovable characters James, Jessie, and Meowth are frequently used for comedic relief and are seldom successful in their plans, often being overshadowed by competent and far more successful colleagues/rivals Butch and Cassidy. But, yet, their organization seems to be competent or devious enough to turn a profit and remain in existence for the entirety of the anime's run. But the thought remained regarding if Team Rocket was as nefarious as they claim to be, what would the Pokémon world have been like if their heinousness was anywhere close to the level of atrocities committed by Germany's Third Reich?

Like the screenshot from Pokemon Let's Go above, players of the original Pokémon Red & Blue and Yellow games remember encountering Team Rocket and seeing them as degenerate thugs that needed to be stopped, finding success simply by beating them in trainer battles. The player first meets them in Mt. Moon, where they search for fossils, and then in Cerulean City, burglarizing a resident's home. As a trainer meets their rival and heads onto Route 24 in search of the Cerulean Cape where the famous pokemaniac Bill lives, the player must meet the trainer challenge on Nugget Bridge. By the end, the player defeats the last trainer to earn their prize and is revealed to be a recruiter for Team Rocket, with them point blank asking if you want to join. At that time (and even within both remakes Generation I received), there was no way to say Yes or No. Granted, Team Rocket wasn't much of a threat in our minds, but, like many players presumably, I was confounded by the lack of choice. Obviously, in a real sense I wouldn't want to participate, but yet there would've been a small level of thrill in joining.

When the Generation II games received their remakes with Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, all our insignificant Team Rocket fantasies were fulfilled when the player subdues Team Rocket toward the end of the main game, where Team Rocket has overtaken the Radio Tower in Goldenrod City in hopes of reaching Giovanni to summon him back to the organization. Whereas you could enter the tower and force them into *extinction*, a new feature of the remakes meant you weren't allowed to enter the tower if you were dressed like a normal citizen, and because of the Generation IV feature of participating in Contests while in costume, someone gifts you a Team Rocket uniform. My dreams were realized, and I loved how every citizen's responses changed once you were in uniform, and all the Team Rocket grunts who once despised you now look at you favorably. More importantly, because you dressed for success, you're able to enter the tower and subdue Team Rocket.

Also, for those who obtained Celebi from GameStop, you gain access to the cut scene where Giovanni abandons Silver (which will be relevant later), and it gives the player the option to battle Giovanni and prevent him from making it to Goldenrod City to rejoin his organization. All of these factors played a heavy influence in ETR's storyline.

However, there were a few other elements worth mentioning.

### Ash's Father

There were also theories out there regarding main protagonist Ash Ketchum and the identity of his father. We never saw him in the anime, and he was only alluded to be a trainer who never returned home (though the manga tells a much different story and gives more backstory for Ash's mother, Delia). The main-series games incorporated Japanese culture in that, for many families, parents have to work long hours or work far away, and this translated some to the anime as well.

When this idea came to mind and grew larger, I'd done some research online (I cannot recall if this was on YouTube, since it was still in its infancy, or if this was another pokemaniac's article). A plausible theory many gamers has was Ash's father was secretly Giovanni, which would explain why he's never present and how Ash inherited the drive for success in being a trainer.

Naturally, Ash's revulsion to everything Team Rocket stands for translates to him never willfully joining. If the protagonist was forced into being part of a so-called family-operated organization, it made sense for the role to be occupied instead by an original character, so this thought led to Giovanni having two sons - William "Will" Brown, who joined willfully and supported Team Rocket's goals, and Andrew "Drew" Brown, who was forced into it and later dismantled the organization. While secondary, it still had a major impact on the storyline.

### Burn Notice

However, the storyline didn't immediately dictate that Drew would dismantle Team Rocket. This plot point came later with the addition of some inspiration from popular TV show Burn Notice, which ran from 2007 to 2013. The main premise revolved around an undercover agent receiving a burn notice and doing whatever he could to learn why he was burned, survive, and continued to protect his community. A burn notice is traditionally issued by a governing intelligence body to an individual who is deemed unreliable, and with no income or support, they essentially become a person without an identity.

This concept intrigued me, and at first I made Drew a character sympathetic of Team Rocket who's injured during a mission and is issued a burn notice, leaving him defenseless in an unfamiliar territory. Naturally blindsided, his anger at his brother led him to returning home to recover, reassess his priorities, and come to the conclusion that he needs to destroy the organization.

But that premise wasn't solid, and after some horrid attempts at writing the piece, I scrapped it and later became too enthralled with HGSS' gameplay that it became the new device for the plot, to much more success.

### Many edits and false starts

Because of the many drafts I'd metaphorically crumbled and tossed into the trash, I set the idea down and focused on a tumultuous sophomore year of college. Once my junior year began, I enrolled in a Creative Writing class, and for one of our larger assignments, we were tasked with writing a short story, and conveniently my professor approved of fanfiction being an acceptable medium. This gave me all the motivation I needed to dust off this idea and flesh it out into an actual story. This time, the story took shape, albeit some flaws, and the reception from my class was positive. After the class ended, I attempted to put it on Fanfiction.net, but yet again life happened, and the story sat.

By 2013, I began dating a guy who also loved Pokémon, and from our connection, he encouraged me to flesh out my short story into a full-fledged novella. After a couple of weeks/months (who really knows what happened then), it became an early version of the work of art existing today. After it was finished (and after getting some major criticism from a different guy over how horrible of a writer I was), I put it down again.

By 2016, I'd had another thought of wanting to return to my writing after some tough life circumstances and publish it. However, I didn't believe I could continue without cover art to sell it to prospective readers online. A friend of mine was an artist, and despite my attempts there wasn't an opportunity for the art to be created. As life got tougher, I watched more videos from now prominent Pokétubers, and the desire to publish it remained. Due to writing an epilogue, I decided to make it my sequel story and began writing bits and pieces for it as I tried to weather out the chaos around me.

This process and mindset of being unable to proceed without art and numerous revisions and edits continued through the end of 2019 when another friend I'd made was unable to contribute art. Finally, I had an a-ha moment. Why did I need an artist when I could just make the art myself? I was skeptical - I didn't major in Art or Graphic Design, and I didn't have access to any of the software I'd used in college for my university's newspaper. But I still made an attempt to create a simple cover because I needed to publish the story. I was sick of sitting on it, and I'd endured a traumatic year and needed to return to my art as a means of healing.

And the rest is "his story"! 😁 My only question is, "Do you even Drew?"

~Ashton