Pokemon Gen 3 - Underrated or Underappreciated?

[Cshad]

Expanding on what I said - I meant to say I felt Team Magma/Aqua were really, really dumb - at least what they turned into. I like the idea of expansion vs conservation but they just screwed it up somehow along the line. I loved the way the game went about making the Legendaries part of the plot and capturing them and shit like that (those additions Emerald had are what made Gen 3 enjoyable because R/S were lackluster by themselves) I just wish Team Magma/Aqua had been better.

But... it's a kid's game, though. Can they really delve too much more into the themes that Magma/Aqua represent without getting way too serious? I mean, the whole "should Pokemon be free" thing with Team Plasma had a ton going for it, but when the game is for kids and the game is based around actually using these things they had to use a cop-out answer like "it's just better when humans and Pokemon are together". So... I don't know, what did you expect/want? What would have made Team Magma/Aqua in your eyes?
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B/W had a much less child-ish plot and went into many themes that children should be thinking about, like accepting different ideas and viewing the world with a less black and white mentality. They used two extremes that didn't really have anything outright 'wrong' about them in the "Pokemon and People should be together because the mutual relationship they share makes them happy" vs "There are too many people who abuse and mistreat Pokemon and to protect them Pokemon and trainers must be separated" to do this.

R/S/E could have easily gone along the lines of "People need more room to expand, it's natural for our survival" vs "Humans have inhabited too many areas and are threatening the existence of many Pokemon - we must expand their habitat so they survive" which is very easy to understand and I would have much preferred that.