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 Male* 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 was known to have; she received it as a chūgen gift (a birthday gift in the dub).

In the anime

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). It is unknown who the gift was 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 all of Ash's Pokémon, and Misty attempt with Goldeen didn't succeed. However, Nurse Joy's Pikachu came out and replenished Ash's Pikachu with a Thunder Shock attack, while at the same time attacking the 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 Team Rocket was being electrocuted, Koffing's Smog was ignited by the voltage, causing the entire Pokémon Center to explode, and sending Team Rocket blasting off.

While the St. Anne had already sunk into the ocean in Pokémon Shipwreck, Ekans was responsible for the vessel flooding with seawater after Jessie ordered it to open a hole in the floor to escape. Team Rocket later escaped with Ash and his friends thanks to their Water Pokémon.

Arbok and Jessie

It was used constantly by Jessie and eventually evolved into an Arbok in Dig Those Diglett! along with James's Koffing in response to Jessie and James's desperation for their Pokémon to do so.

In Princess vs. Princess, Jessie used Arbok during the Queen of the Princess Festival competition. Arbok helped Jessie reach the finals, but ultimately, it was defeated by Pikachu's Thunder Shock.

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 escaped and dragged Arbok into Jessie's Lickitung and James' Victreebel, who were attacking the twerps 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 their Hitmonlee and lost quickly to his Rolling Kick and High Jump Kick attacks. Wobbuffet was sent out afterwards and managed to defeat them with his Counter.

In The Mystery is History, Jessie sent out Arbok against Cassidy's Houndour to see who would be the one to steal a Lugia nicknamed Silver. Arbok's Poison Sting was easily overwhelmed by Houndour's Flamethrower, after which Ash and his friends arrived to intervene. In A Promise is a Promise, the battle for the Lugia continues. The attacks from both sides of Team Rocket's Pokémon end up breaking the energy barrier holding Lugia captive and it blasts them all away.

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

Arbok fighting alongside Weezing

In A Ruin With A View, Jessie sent out Arbok alongside James's Weezing to battle the 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 took on Rico, a Pokémon poacher who had captured a herd of Ekans and Koffing in Petalburg Woods. Arbok battled Rico's Fearow and managed to hold its beak shut, leading Rico to recall it. In the follow-up match, Arbok knocked Fearow out with Headbutt, allowing Meowth to free the captured Pokémon. James and Jessie reluctantly ordered Weezing and Arbok to stay in the wild and guard the young Ekans and Koffing. The pair tearfully escaped into the wilderness as Jessie, James, and Meowth fought Rico and his Tyranitar by themselves.

Personality and characteristics

Jessie often relied on Arbok in battle because of its intimidating nature and its abilities to use Dig and swim in the water, like in The Misty Mermaid. Outside of battling, Arbok was deeply attached and loyal to Jessie, as revealed during its temporary separation from her in Island of the Giant Pokémon, and its later release in A Poached Ego!. Jessie offered Arbok support in times of difficulty, like during blastoffs or when it failed its movie audition in Lights, Camera, Quacktion.

Despite its loyalty to Jessie, Ekans showed a moral conscience of its own, revealing in Island of the Giant Pokémon that there is no such thing as an evil Pokémon; rather, that moral responsibility lies with the Trainer. There have also been rare occasions where Arbok and Weezing refused to obey their Trainers, such as in A Chansey Operation, where they refused to attack a Chansey because it had treated the injuries they suffered from Team Rocket's schemes and Got Milktank?, where Arbok, along with the rest of Team Rocket's Pokémon, refuse to attack the Miltank or any of the Pokémon at an oasis where only humans are not welcomed out of respect.

Moves used

Using Double-Edge Using Wrap 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

In the core series

Arbok appears in Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! as part of Jessie and James's team each time, 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: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!
First battle (Mt. Moon)	Second and third battle (Team Rocket Hideout/Pokémon Tower)	Fourth and fifth battle (Silph Co./Route 17)
Type: Poison Unknown Ability: No Ability Held item: None Ekans♂ Lv.12 Wrap Normal Physical   --       Acid Poison Special   --       Curse Unknown Status   --       Curse Unknown Status   --	Type: Poison Unknown Ability: No Ability Held item: None Arbok♂ Lv.32/34 Poison Jab Poison Physical   --       Glare Normal Status   --       Crunch Dark Physical   --       Curse Unknown Status   --	Type: Poison Unknown Ability: No Ability Held item: None Arbok♂ Lv.36/52 Poison Jab Poison Physical   --       Glare Normal Status   --       Crunch Dark Physical   --       Rock Slide Rock Physical   --

In spin-off games

Pokémon Zany Cards box art

Pokémon: Catch the Numbers!

Arbok appears in Pokémon: Catch the Numbers!.

Pokémon GO

Jessie always leads with a Shadow Ekans, impiled to have been borrowed from Giovanni. The player has a chance to catch it after defeating her. Unlike most Shadow Pokémon, the Shadow Ekans has a chance to be Shiny.

Pokémon Masters EX

Main article: Jessie (Masters)#Arbok

Jessie's Arbok appears alongside Jessie as a sync pair.

Pokémon Puzzle League

Arbok was one of Jessie and James's three Pokémon in Pokémon Puzzle League.

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.

Artwork

Artwork from the Game Freak website

In the manga

In the Ash & Pikachu manga

In Ash & Pikachu, which is based on the anime, Arbok appears with Jessie.

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 appears in 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.

In the TCG

Jessie's Arbok is featured in the TCG as of one Jessie's Pokémon. The following is a list of cards featuring Arbok.

Arbok Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format. Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.
Card	Type	English Expansion	Rarity	#	Japanese Expansion	Rarity	#
Arbok		Hidden Fates		27/68	Sky Legend		026/054

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 revealed to be able to swim without the need for air.
• 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 the 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.