>>15473102You'd expect either of these teams to be experts in geology and cultivation of land (Magma) and marine biology, oceanography, and aquaculture (Aqua), but nope.
Team Magma is run by Maxie, who is highly invested in real estate and marketing off resources of land. Now, Maxie understands Groudon is capable of drying up the land, and thinks with the Blue Orb, he can create land in certain areas (like Hoenn) and profit off the new territory. Part of his goal is making Mt. Chimney erupt, revealing Groudon. Now, Maxie also understands that volcanic ash makes soil highly fertile, and sees the eruption as spreading that ash all over the nearby desert, making the area fertile and highly cultivatable, and thus highly profitable. However, no one in Magma is a geologist, so they steal METEORITES and ROCKET FUEL to make it erupt. Yeah, that doesn't work. Magma DOES seem to be pretty savvy at mining and excavation, and manage to enter through Jagged Pass into Mt. Chimney to get to Groudon to pursue their schemes.
Aqua, on the other hand, is run by pirates, as well as marine engineers. They're highly adept at maritime raiding, and thus see expanding the ocean (especially in an aquatic landscape like Hoenn) as making more of the world reliant on water-based trading, and thus easier to steal from - Archie assumes being in control of Kyogre will allow him to spare enough land for trade. Their first action is to raid Devon for goods in order to get top secret information for submarine technology, and their next is to raid the Slateport Museum for information on oceanography. They, like Magma, are foiled and eventually cut out the middle man and just steal the submarine to get to Kyogre - this means that Aqua are trained enough to operate a submarine and utilize its sonar to locate Kyogre.
Maxie understands geological engineering, Archie marine engineering. Both know business. Neither took environmental science.
