Jessie's Arbok

Jessie's Arbok ムサシのアーボック Musashi's Arbok

Jessie's Arbok

Debuts in Pokémon Emergency! Caught at Unknown Evolves in Dig Those Diglett! Gender Unknown Ability Unknown Released in A Poached Ego! Current location Hoenn

→ This Pokémon spent 29 episodes as Ekans.

Voice actor Japanese English As Ekans Kōichi Sakaguchi Eric Stuart As Arbok Kōichi Sakaguchi

Jessie's Arbok (Japanese: ムサシのアーボック Musashi's Arbok) was the first Pokémon Jessie appeared with in Kanto; she received it as a birthday gift (a chūgen gift in the original Japanese version).

History

Original series

Kanto

As an Ekans

It was mentioned in Island of the Giant Pokémon that Jessie received Ekans as a birthday present (for chūgen in the original Japanese version) before she met Ash. It is unknown who it was a gift from.

Arbok first appeared in Pokémon Emergency! as an Ekans. Throwing their Poké Balls down from their Meowth balloon, Jessie and James used both it and James's Koffing to quickly overtake the defenseless Viridian Pokémon Center. Koffing's job was to create a Smokescreen while Ekans destroyed the computers. Chasing Ash, Misty and Nurse Joy, Ekans scared away the Pokémon that were sent out by Ash, which caused Misty to decide to battle Team Rocket. This was a failed effort, however, as both of them managed to catch up to Ash in no time at all. Just then, Nurse Joy's Pikachu come out and healed Ash's Pikachu with a Thunder Shock attack, while at the same time attacking the Team Rocket trio. Giving Ash's Pikachu enough power to stand up, Ash charged up Pikachu using Misty's charred bike, and he let him have his own Thunder Shock. As the group were being electrocuted, Koffing released a stream of Smog from one of the craters on its body, and the electricity climbed up the toxic gas, causing the entire Pokémon Center to explode, and sending Team Rocket blasting off.

Arbok and Jessie

It was used constantly by Jessie and eventually evolved into an Arbok in the episode Dig Those Diglett! along with James's Koffing after Jessie and James desperately wanted their Pokémon to evolve.

In Princess vs. Princess, Jessie used Arbok during the Queen of the Princess Festival contest. Arbok helps Jessie make it up to the finals, but ultimately fails against Pikachu's Thunder Shock.

Although Arbok lost nearly every battle, as is traditional for Pokémon owned by Team Rocket, it has occasionally been shown to have extraordinary power and endurance to match its massive size. For example, in The Misty Mermaid, Arbok was able to single handedly battle Horsea, Starmie, Squirtle and Seaking underwater (where water Pokémon have the advantage) without the help of Weezing, enduring a huge amount of offense and eventually cornering all its opponents for the victory before Seel evolved into Dewgong and defeated it with Ice Beam.

Johto

Jessie used Arbok as her main battling Pokémon in Johto, preferring it over Lickitung and later Wobbuffet.

In The Whistle Stop, when Team Rocket stole a whistle from Arielle, Meowth blew it in the right note to cause Arbok to dance around and cry out in reaction. This gave Meowth a chance to command it to help capture a group of Ledyba from Arielle by having it dig underground and jump out in front of them for Meowth to throw a net on them and tie them in ropes. When they tried to escape, Arbok uses its tail to grab the ropes, but the Ladyba eventually escape and drag Arbok into Jessie's Lickitung and James' Victreebel, who were attacking Ash, Misty, Brock, and Arielle.

In Wobbu-Palooza!, Arbok was used alongside Victreebel to try to stop the Wobbuffet Festival crashers, since everyone else refused to fight due to festival rules. Arbok battled against their Hitmonlee and lost quickly to his kicking attacks. Wobbuffet was sent out afterwards and managed to defeat them with its Counter attack.

Advanced Generation series

Arbok fighting alongside Weezing

In A Ruin With A View, Jessie sent out Arbok alongside James's Weezing to battle Team Magma Grunts who approached them. Not long after being sent out, Team Magma's Houndoom used Roar to send Arbok and Weezing back into their Poké Balls.

In A Poached Ego!, Team Rocket found a poacher holding a herd of Ekans and Koffing captive in Hoenn. After freeing them, James and Jessie reluctantly ordered Weezing and Arbok to stay in the wild and guard their fellow Pokémon. Arbok and Weezing had to when the poacher used his Tyranitar to attack Jessie, James, and Meowth, even though it was clear that they wanted to stay and defend them. The two Pokémon have not been seen since then.

Personality and characteristics

Arbok was both very emotional and loyal to its Trainer while it was under Jessie's ownership. This was first shown in Island of the Giant Pokémon, where it became saddened and overwhelmed in tears when separated from Jessie. It was also in this episode that it was explained that Ekans and James's Koffing only acted evilly because their Trainers ordered them so, and instead refused bad orders from Meowth. The only time Arbok and Weezing refused to obey their Trainers was in A Chansey Operation, where they refused to attack a Chansey, because it had cared for their injuries that had been caused from Team Rocket's schemes. In Lights, Camera, Quacktion both Arbok and Weezing began to sulk after being rejected as the main characters in the movie. It was only with Jessie's and James's help that they were able to get over it. On their last appearance, in A Poached Ego!, they were reluctant to leave Jessie and James, crying as their Trainers released them.

Moves used

Using Glare Using Bite as an Ekans	Move First Used In Dig Ash Catches a Pokémon Bite Clefairy and the Moon Stone Wrap † The Path to the Pokémon League Acid † Pokémon Shipwreck Glare The Flame Pokémon-athon! Poison Sting † The Flame Pokémon-athon! Toxic Make Room For Gloom Double-Edge Bad to the Bone Tackle × A Shipful of Shivers Headbutt † Trouble's Brewing Take Down You're a Star, Larvitar!
An × shows that the move cannot be legitimately known by this Pokémon in the games.
A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

In the games

Pokémon Yellow

Arbok appears as part of Jessie and James's team each time they appear, alongside Meowth/Weezing and its pre-evolved form.

Pokémon Yellow
First battle Mt. Moon	Second battle Rocket Hideout	Third and fourth battle Pokémon Tower/Silph Co.
Type: Poison Unknown Ekans Lv.14 Wrap Normal   --       Leer Normal   --       Poison Sting Poison   --       Struggle Normal   --	Type: Poison Unknown Ekans Lv.25 Bite Normal   --       Leer Normal   --       Poison Sting Poison   --       Glare Normal   --	Type: Poison Unknown Arbok Lv.27/31 Bite Normal   --       Leer Normal   --       Poison Sting Poison   --       Glare Normal   --

Pokémon Zany Cards box art

Pokémon Zany Cards

Arbok is depicted on a photograph on the box art for Pokémon Zany Cards, along with Wobbuffet and Weezing. However, it does not make an appearance in the game.

In the manga

In the Ash & Pikachu manga

In the manga series Ash & Pikachu, based on the anime, Arbok appears with Jessie in her travels.

Moves used

Using Acid	Move First Used In Acid Hoppip, the Wind Calls!
A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

In The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga

Arbok in The Electric Tale of Pikachu

As an Ekans

Jessie's Arbok makes an appearance in the manga series The Electric Tale of Pikachu. It first appears as an Ekans in Pikachu's Excellent Adventure. All subsequent appearances, beginning in You Gotta Have Friends, are as an Arbok. Like in the anime, Arbok is Jessie's primary Pokémon used in battle.

Moves used

Using Poison Sting	Move First Used In Poison Sting You Gotta Have Friends Glare Clefairy in Space
A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

Trivia

Jessilina and her Arbok-shaped flute

• Arbok's arrow-like pattern on its neck differs in some episodes. Sometimes, the ends of the arrow stretch until the ends of its eye-like patterns on its chest and is only a few inches wide. Similarly, there are two red dots on its arrow in some episodes and in other episodes there are none.
• In The Misty Mermaid, Jessie's Arbok was shown to be able to swim without the need for air.
• In Jessie's room in Where No Togepi Has Gone Before!, an Arbok's head can be seen as part of her bed's design. Additionally, in Yes in Dee Dee, It's Dawn!, Jessie uses an Arbok-shaped flute during her performance in the Daybreak Contest. An Ekans Lure was also used by Jessie in The Sun, the Scare, the Secret Lair!. These three are possibly paying homage to her former Pokémon.
• Its gender was hinted in the Japanese version of Island of the Giant Pokémon. In the subtitles, it refers to itself and Koffing as おれたち ore-tachi, which is a pronoun normally used by males meaning "we", also used by characters such as Ash, Brock and James in the Japanese version.
• Out of all Pokémon ever owned by Jessie or James, Arbok has used the most moves, with eleven.

Related articles

For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Ekans and Arbok.

Team Rocket's Pokémon
Travel with:	Meowth	Rotom Phone
	Jessie			James
On hand:	Wobbuffet	Seviper	Yanmega	Mime Jr.	Carnivine	Yamask
	Woobat	Frillish	Gourgeist	Amoonguss	Inkay	Morpeko
In training:				Cacnea
At home:				Growlie	Chimecho
Released:	Arbok	Dustox	Mimikyu	Weezing	Gyarados	Mareanie
Traded away:	Lickitung			Victreebel
Lived with (all three):	Bewear	Stufful
Worked with (all three):	Delibird	Pelipper
Temporarily owned:	Porygon Zero	Shellder	Magikarp	Second Victreebel	Hoppip
	Mawile
Befriended:	Blissey
Status unknown:	Starmie			Pidgey	Numel
For a list of other Pokémon Team Rocket has commanded, see here and here

This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.