Team Rocket

Team Rocket grunts
Team Rocket
Prominent Members	Archer, Ariana, Petrel, Proton Jessie, James, Meowth (Yellow/Let's Go! only)
Founder	Giovanni
Debut	Pokémon: Red/Green Versions

Team Rocket is the criminal organization that is featured as the primary antagonists of the first two generations of Pokémon games, as well as appearing in several spin-off games due to their popularity, which has been boosted by their role in the anime series.

Background

First Generation Era

Team Rocket was at large during the era of the first generation games, where they were spread throughout Kanto under the control of Giovanni. They were said to traffic Pokémon for criminal use and to discard Pokémon that they did not think were popular or useful, as well as being implied to have been involved in deaths of Pokémon. The mass minions of Team Rocket all wore uniforms and were known only as grunts. They mostly used common and/or poison Pokémon such as Rattata, Raticate, Koffing, Weezing, Zubat and Golbat. There were also higher up characters in suits known as Executives who were introduced in the second generation and remakes. Team Rocket had a hidden base under the Rocket Game Corner in Celadon City and had criminal operations in nearly every area of the game. Team Rocket members were first seen at Mt. Moon, where they were searching for Pokémon fossils to sell. Red defeated all of the grunts there, followed by the Super Nerd whom had found two fossils, although he did not seem to be affiliated with Team Rocket and split his fossils with Red after being defeated. A long Rocket Grunt robbed a house in Celadon City for TM 28: Dig, but Red found the grunt in the house's backyard and defeated him, at which point he returned the TM and ran off. Another Rocket Grunt appeared at the end of the Nugget Bridge, where he rewarded Red with a golden nugget for defeating the bridge's other trainers and offered him a place in Team Rocket, then battling him after he refused.

Red later discovered the Rocket Game Corner and fought his way through it. At the end, he battled Giovanni, who retreated after being defeated and left behind a Silph Scope. At the same time, Team Rocket members had caused trouble in the Lavender Town. Here it was implied that Rockets were responsible for the deaths of multiple Pokémon whose ghosts resided in the tower, and at the top of the tower the player must battle the uncatchable ghost of a Marowak mother that had died trying to flee Team Rocket. They held Mr. Fuji hostage on the top floor of the tower after he complained about the harm they had caused the Pokémon, but Red was able to defeat them as well. In the meantime, Team Rocket had occupied Saffron City, where Giovanni was trying to convince Silph Co.'s president to give him the Master Ball. Red defeated Giovanni again, and this was the last active Team Rocket battle of the original games. After Giovanni was defeated again at the Viridian Gym, he officially disbanded Team Rocket and decided to rededicate himself as a trainer.

In the Let's Go version of events, Archer also made an early appearance as part of Team Rocket and was battled at both the Team Rocket Hideout and Silph Co. The trainer who defeated Team Rocket in this version was instead Chase/Elaine.

Jessie and James

In the Yellow Version, the Team Rocket characters from the anime, Jessie and James, appeared throughout the game as minibosses who were battled in place of normal grunts. They were battled at Mt. Moon, the Rocket Game Corner, Lavender's Pokémon Tower and Silph Co. They used Koffing, Ekans and Meowth as their Pokémon, with the former two evolving into Weezing and Arbok before the Pokémon Tower battle.

In the Let's Go! remakes, Jessie and James were used again. Their role was mostly similar to the Yellow Version, but with some additional scenes and one last battle against them. Every battle with them was also changed into a double battle in which each of them sent out one Pokémon (Koffing/Weezing and Ekans/Arbok). Their Meowth was no longer used in battle and accompanied them outside of battle instead, similar to the one from the anime, although this version was still not capable of human speech.

The final battle with them could occur at Route 17 after beating the Elite Four. They were saddened by Team Rocket's downfall, but felt refreshed after being defeated by Chase/Elaine and gave them the Blast-Off Set (an outfit set resembling their clothes) before departing.

Sevii Islands

In FireRed/LeafGreen, it was shown that lingering members of Team Rocket remained active on the Sevii Islands, operating out of the Rocket Warehouse on Chrono Isle, which was part of the Five Isle Meadow. Rocket Grunts were dispatched to several islands seeking the Ruby and Sapphire items. A pair of grunts looking for the Ruby appeared at Mt. Ember, where Red defeated them and learned one of the two passwords to the warehouse. Several Rocket Grunts also caused mischief in the Icefall Cave, but Lorelei of the Elite Four drove them away while letting Red take one down. A Team Rocket Scientist, Gideon, later was successful in stealing the Sapphire from the Dotted Hole on Fortune Island, and then returned to the warehouse while telling Red one of the passwords to the warehouse.

In the warehouse, Red battled the remaining Team Rocket grunts as well as the two Rocket Executives (who seemed to be Ariana and Archer, but dressed in grunt uniforms) and Gideon. The male executive did not believe Red's claim that Team Rocket had been disbanded, but after being defeated he noticed the Earthbadge that he had won from Giovanni and realized the truth, at which point the Rockets left the warehouse, with the admin stating his intentions to find Giovanni and resurrect Team Rocket. Gideon stayed behind, where Red battled him to get the Sapphire. This was the end of Team Rocket for a while, but data on a nearby computer foreshadowed Team Rocket's return by showing that they were researching radio signals that could evolve Pokémon.

Second Generation Era

Over the next three years, Team Rocket reformed under the control of a group of Rocket Executives who practically worshiped Giovanni. These Executives were unnamed in Gold/Silver/Crystal, but HeartGold/SoulSilver made them into the characters Archer, Ariana, Proton and Petrel. They operated primarily in Johto, with a hidden base in Mahogany Town beneath a souvenir shop, where they experimented with radio waves as part of their plan to recall Giovanni from his disappearance to resume control of Team Rocket.

A group of Rocket Grunts led by Proton (a grunt in the original games) occupied the Slowpoke Well at Azalea Town, where they stole the town's Slowpoke and cut off their tails so that they could sell them. Some grunts felt guilty about this, but they also attempted to rationalize their actions due to Slowpoke regenerating their tails, as well as their fear of Proton. [[Ethan]/Lyra was able to stop them, at which point they retreated. Ethan/Lyra later made their way up to Mahogany Town, where Team Rocket was using radio waves to force the Magikarp of the nearby Lake of Rage to prematurely evolve into Gyarados, resulting in Red Gyarados appearing. Ethan/Lyra teamed up with Lance to infiltrate the underground hideout, where Persian statues acted as security cameras and summoned Rocket Grunts to battle Ethan/Lyra until the trainer shut them down. Ethan/Lyra used passwords from defeated grunts to access Petrel's room, where Petrel attempted to pass himself off as Giovanni, although his disguise was seen through.

After being defeated, Petrel revealed the password to the control room, but then fled as it was useless because it was voice activated. However, a Murkrow in the room repeated the password and wound up opening the door for Ethan/Lyra. When the trainer approached the control room with Lance, they were attacked by Ariana and a Rocket Grunt (or another Executive in Gold/Silver/Crystal) who engaged them in a double battle. Ariana then retreated, claiming that their experiment with the radio waves was still a success and that they were ready for the next phase of their plan. To shut down the radio waves, Ethan/Lyra and Lance then had to defeat the group of Electrode that was providing the power.

Team Rocket then took control of the Radio Tower in Goldenrod City, with Petrel impersonating the Director, who was imprisoned in the underground warehouse. They hijacked the airwaves and sent out a radio transmission calling out to Giovanni, and it was suggested that they would eventually also use the radio waves to take control of all the region's Pokémon. Giovanni never came, and instead Ethan/Lyrabegan fighting their way through the Rockets, succeeding in defeating Petrel, Proton and Ariana again. At the top of the Radio Tower, they then battled Archer, who seemed to be either the overall leader of the Executives or possibly on equal footing with Ariana. After Archer was defeated, he finally admitted the futility of his dream and disbanded Team Rocket for good, before disappearing.

There was only one other act of Team Rocket activity later in the game which occurred in Kanto, which involved a Rocket Grunt from another country (later revealed to be Unova) who spoke in broken English. That grunt stole a Machine Part from the Power Plant and hid it in the Cerulean Gym, as part of a plan to create an energy crisis that Team Rocket could take advantage of when they returned from Johto. Ethan/Lyra noticed him leave the gym, and he fled to Route 24. After he was defeated at the Nugget Bridge, he revealed where he hid the Machine Part and learned about Team Rocket's disbandment. He was left wondered what to do next, and he contemplated restarting Team Rocket in his home country in HeartGold/SoulSilver.

Additionally, an event in HeartGold/SoulSilver allows the player to travel through time and learn Giovanni's whereabouts during the Rocket radio broadcasts. He was indeed planning on answering the call and reclaiming control of Team Rocket, but the time-traveling Ethan/Lyra found him and defeated him, at which point he gave up again.

Fifth Generation Era

The last Team Rocket grunt from the second generation game reappeared at Unova, now bald and with a family but still speaking in broken English. In Pokémon: Black and White Versions, he appeared at Icirrus City in a house that can only be reached during the wintertime. It turned out that even though he had pledged to start a Unova version of Team Rocket, he ended up marrying someone and having a child instead. This kept him too busy to carry out his pledge, but he felt happy with his life as it was. His wife also gave out RageCandyBars that used to belong to her husband's coworkers.

Seventh Generation Era

During the Episode RR post-game scenario of Pokémon: Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Giovanni formed a new version of Team Rocket called Team Rainbow Rocket.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Stadium 2, the player must battle Team Rocket on the Gym Leader Castle between Jasmine and Pryce's challenges. This consists of four battles, with two grunts and two executives, one of each gender. The Team Rocket members from the anime also appear in Pokémon Puzzle League, with Jessie and James as well as Giovanni appearing as bosses in 1P Stadium mode. Jessie, James and Meowth (this time part of the team rather than their Pokémon) use Weezing, Arbok and Golbat in this appearance. In Spa Service, Butch and Cassidy appear as opponents in addition to the other Team Rocket members. Team Rocket was also featured in Pokémon Card GB 2: GRDan Sanjou!, which included cards from the trading card game's Team Rocket expansion and featured a group called Team Great Rocket as the antagonists.

In Pokémon GO, they are known as Team GO Rocket and have been featured as recurring opponents in events starting in June 2019. Members of Team GO Rocket invade Pokéstops and battle with teams of three Shadow Pokémon. When defeated, they will abandon one Shadow Pokémon, which the player will have a chance to catch. This game includes three Rocket Leaders (one for each of the game's three teams) named Blanche, Spark and Candela as well as Giovanni himself. Jessie and James also appeared as opponents in a special events that started in July 2020, riding the hot air balloon from the anime. This came with a chance to unlock Jessie and James's outfits for the player's character.

Pokémon Masters

In Pokémon Masters EX, Giovanni's background with Team Rocket was referenced, and he later reassembled Team Rocket on Pasio during the game's Villain Arc. This included all four of the executives from HeartGold/SoulSilver. They were featured as the primary antagonists of the Kanto and Johto chapters of the Villain Arc, and in chapters for other regions, they operated in the background while manipulating other team leaders to serve their own ends. Giovanni researched sources of power from other regions, such as the Dynamax phenomenon and Ultra Wormholes, to use for Team Rocker's own ends.

Jessie, James and Meowth were also featured in a pair of Special Events that ran in 2020 as promotional tie-ins with the Pokémon anime film Coco. Jessie and her Arbok could be recruited as a playable sync pair through the first event, "Double Trouble", while James and his Weezing could be unlocked through the second event, "Blasting Off Again". In "Double Trouble", it was show that the trio had come to Pasio in pursuit of a shiny Celebi (from the film). Pretending to have altruistic motives, they convinced Scottie/Bettie to help them in seeking the Pokémon and fending off Team Break. Together, they managed to stop Team Break from capturing Celebi by defeating them, but Celebi itself escaped. Team Rocket became known as heroes to the locals, and Jessie decided to join Scottie/Bettie's team in order to seek out further opportunities to catch Celebi and other rare Pokémon. In "Blasting Off Again", Team Rocket stole a number of Pokémon during a fireworks festival, with the player briefly assuming control of James in the process. They even succeeded in stealing Scottie/Bettie's Pikachu. The Celebi led Scottie/Bettie to Team Rocket, and the Pikachu then rejoined its trainer. Team Rocket was defeated and sent blasting off again, and they then watched the fireworks festival. Scottie/Bettie's Pikachu then expressed to them that while they did not approve of Team Rocket's deeds, they did approve of the bond they had with their Pokémon. Team Rocket did not want to give up on seeking up Celebi or the other Pokémon of Pasio, but they decided to work with Scottie/Bettie for the time being. During this event, Team Rocket referenced their tendency to run afoul of Pikachu, and Meowth also expressed a sentiment similar to a speech that he made in the first Pokémon movie about the connections between individuals. This trio was not seen interacting with Giovanni or the game's other Team Rocket-related characters.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a Team Rocket outfit was added as a Mii Fighter costume that was made available as purchasable DLC starting in September 2019. This was based on the Rocket Grunts' dark uniforms. The full outfit was only available for Mii Brawlers, while the hat was available to all types of Mii Fighters.

Other Media

• In the Pokémon anime, Team Rocket has appeared as recurring antagonists throughout the series. The primary members featured in nearly every episode are the trio of original characters: Jessie, James and a talking Meowth. They are played as bumbling comic relief villains, and on a number of occasions, they end up helping out the protagonists, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Their actual goal is to steal rare Pokémon, with their sights usually set on Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, as they consider it to be special and powerful. Other members of Team Rocket are less commonly shown, with Giovanni himself only making occasional appearances. Different agents of Team Rocket have also appeared occasionally, all of them being original characters, such as a pair named Butch and Cassidy. Unlike in the games and other continuities, Giovanni was never definitively defeated, and Team Rocket never disbanded. This has allowed Jessie, James and Meowth to continue to operate even during Ash's adventures in other regions beyond Kanto and Johto. During Best Wishes, the series based on the fifth generation games, Jessie and James received black outfits and were portrayed in a more competent light, as they received missions directly from Giovanni and succeeded at some of them. They later reverted to their original outfits and portrayals in later series. Later series also acknowledged the lack of a Team Rocket presence in some regions (Kalos and Alola) beyond the traveling trio. The trio's appearances ended with the original anime series, with Team Rocket still remaining active.
• Team Rocket also appears throughout the Pokémon Adventures manga, where they were portrayed in a darker fashion and shown to sometimes cause the death of Pokémon. In the Red/Green/Blue arc, other gym leaders such as Sabrina, Koga and Lieutenant Surge (as well as Blaine, before he reforms towards the end of the arc) appear as Giovanni's lieutenants. They perform a variety of inhumane experiments such as injecting Ryhorn with something to force its evolution, creating Mewtwo and implanting an Eevee with a chip that forces it to alternate between its three possible evolutions randomly. Their ultimate plan was to capture the three legendary birds and the eight gym badges, using the badges to power a machine that forced the three birds to fuse together. However, Red, Green and Blue were able to foil their plans by undoing the fusion and Red then defeated Giovanni in a battle resulting in Team Rocket's temporary disbandment. In the Yellow arc Giovanni and the former commanders helped Red and company in the final battles with the Elite Four. In the Gold/Silver/Crystal arc, the details of Team Rocket forming again were changed, with the Mask of Ice bringing them together through brainwashing as part of his plan to capture Ho-Oh and Lugia followed by Celebi, rather than their game plan of calling for Giovanni. The Rocket Executives from the games also appeared as two of the Mask of Ice's people whom he had raised since childhood and are given the names Kean and Charmaine. After Pryce disappears in time and their brainwashing is undone, they disband again. Giovanni brings Team Rocket back together again in the FireRed/LeafGreen arc, with the three new commanders Carr, Sird and Urm, in order to create Deoxys as well as seeking Giovanni's son Silver.
• Team Rocket appeared in the Pokémon Origins anime, where their storyline mirrored the story from the original first generation games.
• Members of Team Rocket were featured in several episodes of the Pokémon Generations anime. One episode followed the International Police's attempts to capture Giovanni, after Team Rocket grunts had been arrested following their defeats at the Celadon City Game Corner and Silph Co. The grunts remained silent when questioned about their boss, and Giovanni ultimately eluded the police while declaring that Team Rocket would never die, even as Looker heard rumors of the team's disbandment. Another episode featured Ethan and Lance fighting Team Rocket members (including Petrel) by the Lake of Rage, as in the second generation games. A flashback in another episode also recounted their takeover of the Goldenrod Radio Tower.

Trivia

• They are the beginning of a trend within the Pokémon series, as following the first two generations (which both featured Team Rocket as antagonists), every generation has featured a different antagonistic organization, and each group's title has started with "Team".
• In HeartGold/SoulSilver, the player character can take a picture wearing a Team Rocket costume in Goldenrod's Underground Tunnel, and later in the game, the player must briefly disguise themselves as a Rocket Grunt in order to enter the Radio Tower, although Silver notices and removes the disguise almost immediately.
• In HeartGold/SoulSilver, the Rocket Executives follow a naming scheme of being named after real-life rockets and missiles.
• Team Rocket and Team Galactic were both mentioned by a Plasma Grunt in Pokémon: Black and White Versions, who blamed the past failures of both teams on how high-profile they were, and he claimed that Team Plasma would be different due to their more subtle nature.