Team Rocket
- If you were looking for the TCG set, see Team Rocket (TCG).
- Rocket redirects here. For the Trainer class referred to as Rocket in Generation I, see Team Rocket Grunts.
- If you were looking for the group consisting of Jessie, James, and Meowth, see Team Rocket trio.
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 Artwork of Rocket Grunts from HeartGold and SoulSilver | ||||||||||||||||
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Team Rocket (Japanese: ロケット団 Rocket-dan, literally Rocket Gang) is an organized crime syndicate in pursuit of evil and exploitation of Pokémon based in the Kanto and Johto regions with a small outpost in the Sevii Islands.
While its main focus is stealing or capturing, then selling, rare and strong Pokémon, it also funds and conducts cruel experimental research on Pokémon. Their oath, as posted on the wall of one of their many bases, is "Steal Pokémon for profit. Exploit Pokémon for profit. All Pokémon exist for the glory of Team Rocket." Their ultimate goal is to take over the world using Pokémon.
In the games
In Kanto
In the Generation I games and their remakes, Team Rocket's attention is focused in their home region of Kanto, distributing Pokémon as prizes through the Rocket Game Corner in Celadon City and the secret subterranean hideout underneath it. In Mt. Moon, one of the many grunts says that Team Rocket intends to sell the Pokémon fossils they are mining in the cave. Several members also broke into a house in Cerulean City to steal a TM from its owner, and a mission devoted to stealing Cubone skulls in Lavender Town resulted in a hostage situation involving Mr. Fuji and the death of a Marowak. Another hostage situation developed soon afterward when the organization overran Silph Co. in Saffron City with the intention of getting the plans for the Master Ball, a prototype of which had already been produced. A Team Rocket recruiter runs the Nugget Bridge challenge north of Cerulean, and asks the player to join the Team when the challenge is completed.
The player is tasked with ousting the organization from its strongholds, and doing so, will meet the Team Rocket Boss, Giovanni. He is adamant about the success of his plots, but is not heard from again after his appearance at Silph until the player returns to Viridian City for his or her final badge– which Giovanni himself is in charge of giving out, being the region's eighth, Ground-specialist Gym Leader. After the player has defeated him this final time, Giovanni acknowledges the player as a better Trainer and disappears without a trace, vowing to disband Team Rocket (though it is later revealed in Generation IV that he only intended to become stronger, and he deliberately didn't completely disband Team Rocket).
Three years later, one Team Rocket operative returned to Kanto to steal a critical part from its Power Plant. Since only this member was involved in this plot, it is likely that he had no knowledge of Team Rocket's prior second disbandment and was working independently. Curiously enough, in HeartGold and SoulSilver, he mentions that he will return to his home country and rebuild Team Rocket anew, something that he did not say in the original games, though it is later revealed in Black and White that he gave up his plans when he returned home and subsequently married, instead finding happiness with his new family. Team Rocket has not been seen since.
In the Sevii Islands
In FireRed and LeafGreen, Team Rocket has a small branch in the Sevii Islands, searching for the Ruby and Sapphire gems. This branch is based out of the Rocket Warehouse on Chrono Island, situated in the middle of the Five Isle Meadow, where many Pokémon are held captive in cages.
Their search for the Ruby leads them to Mt. Ember, though they fail to find it. They then appear in Icefall Cave where, with the help of Lorelei, they are driven out. A scientist named Gideon then appears at the Dotted Hole to retrieve the Sapphire.
They player must then follow Gideon to their Rocket Warehouse where the Sapphire must be retrieved. After the player defeats the two Admins at the Rocket Warehouse, they realize that Giovanni has been defeated in Kanto, and without the lifeblood of the organization, all is lost for the Sevii Islands branch. Team Rocket subsequently pulled out of the Sevii Islands and has not been seen there since.
It is highly likely that this branch may be the precursor to the Johto branch that will appear three years later from this time, as one of the computer screens has plans for a device to force Pokémon to evolve. Such a device will cause a rampage of Gyarados at the Lake of Rage during the plot of HeartGold and SoulSilver. In addition, the Rocket members here vow to find Giovanni and rebuild Team Rocket, which will the goal of Team Rocket during the Generation II games and their remakes. The Rocket Admins, considering their teams, may in fact be Ariana and Archer. However, the presence of an office used by Giovanni in the Mahogany Town base suggests that Team Rocket may have established the Johto branch before Giovanni initially disbanded the group.
In Johto
In the Generation II games and their remakes, three years after the defeat of Giovanni at the hands of Red, a few members of the old Team Rocket attempted to reestablish the organization and get it back in operation, while awaiting the return of their leader, who was apparently away on solo training.
This new Team Rocket started off small, first kidnapping the Slowpoke from Azalea Town and cutting off their tails to sell on the black market. They began their operation, led by Executive Proton, in the Slowpoke Well, where all of the local Slowpoke dwelled. However, with the help of Kurt, the player manages to scare them away, and return the Slowpoke back to the town. When the player enters Goldenrod City, a Rocket is seen outside the Radio Tower. In Generation IV in Ecruteak City, the player encounters a Rocket Grunt harassing a Kimono Girl, and the player must defeat him. Eventually, they are encountered in Mahogany Town, where they have set up a secret hideout in the basement of the town's shop, which stores a machine that emits high-frequency sound waves. These sound waves brainwash Pokémon and induce evolution in the Magikarp that live in the Lake of Rage north of the town, turning them into Gyarados, which are far more profitable than their pre-evolutionary form. With the help of the Indigo Plateau Champion, Lance, the player defeats the syndicate once again. In this mission, the player must defeat Executives Petrel and Ariana.
In a last-ditch attempt to get in contact with their former leader, Giovanni, the group hijacks the Radio Tower in Goldenrod City, flooding the airwaves with a message to Giovanni. Petrel, who disguised himself as the impostor station manager, met with the player, who challenged the Rocket Executive to a battle, and in the process, admitting the location of where they were holding the real station manager to the player, the Goldenrod Underground. Thus, with the real station manager free of Team Rocket's hold, the player rushes off to meet Archer, the interim head of Team Rocket, where they face off in a final match. Once again defeated by the main protagonist, the Executives in charge of the operation vow to disband Team Rocket for good. Every Rocket Executive is fought in this mission. Likewise, several miles away, in Tohjo Falls, Giovanni heard the message, intending to use it as his return, until he was defeated by the player and Ethan/Lyra, who had traveled back in time with Celebi.
The Team Rocket members involved in the Johto plot may be connected in some way to the Sevii Islands branch of Team Rocket, as the Executives have similar teams to the Executives there, while a computer in the Rocket Warehouse indicates the beginnings of the Lake of Rage plot.
In Unova
Although Team Rocket itself does not appear in Generation V, it was implied that a re-establishing of Team Rocket occurred in Unova by the Team Rocket operative in Cerulean City was planned, but he gave up on those plans when he married.
In the anime
In the Pokémon anime, Team Rocket is based in Kanto, with many smaller branches across Kanto and Johto. Like in the games, Giovanni is the Gym Leader of Viridian City's Pokémon Gym during Ash's journey through the region, however, he is later revealed to have abandoned his duties.
An underground school for aspiring Team Rocket operatives is present somewhere in the region, while the organization's headquarters were formerly near Pallet Town. The headquarters was relocated sometime during Ash's journey in Johto or Hoenn to a large building in a canyon following damages it sustained due to Mewtwo's anger at being controlled.
The trio
- Main article: Team Rocket trio
A trio of Team Rocket field agents, Jessie, James, and a talking Meowth, were defeated on an assignment to steal Pokémon from Viridian City's Pokémon Center by rookie Trainer Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, and since then have followed him everywhere on his journey in order to steal the Pikachu that humiliated them. After following him through Kanto and Johto, coming in contact with many other Team Rocket members along the way and being shown as incompetent compared to said members, the trio followed Ash to the Hoenn region under directions from Giovanni to establish a branch of Team Rocket there (though this was really only a ploy to get them out of his hair). When Ash returned from Hoenn after competing in its regional League Conference, the trio returned to Kanto as well, empty-handed. After following him through Kanto once again, Giovanni assigned the trio to the Sinnoh region, again with the directive to establish a Team Rocket branch there.
Giovanni claims to not even recognize the three agents, and has rejected the only Pokémon they ever presented to him: a Togepi and a Yanma. Meowth often fantasizes about pleasing Giovanni with Pokémon captured using one of the trio's many harebrained schemes and mechas, at which point he would then replace Giovanni's Persian as "top cat", however this is hindered by both the fact that Ash and his friends defeat the trio each time, as well as Giovanni's low opinion of the three, who have managed to eat up much of Team Rocket's funding with their failures.
While Giovanni views the trio as "bumbling idiots who can't do anything right", they have occasionally shown that they can do things right, if only by working on the side of Ash and his friends. It should be noted that when other Team Rocket members have come into contact with Ash or any of his friends they've been often just as easily foiled as these three.
The trio has often been shown as poor or having little money. This may be due to the amount of machinery and costumes they use in their attempts to capture Ash’s Pikachu. Because they have an unusually high rate of failure, one would wonder why Giovanni continues to fund their projects. They often take on side-jobs like selling food at stadiums or creating fake items and selling them to the public. Several episodes after the series began, they notably started speaking in rhymes from time to time.
As of In The Shadow of Zekrom! the trio have undergone a major character shift and, rather than being the comedic relief of the series, the team have a far more serious nature and have become more of a threat to Ash and his friends. They also seem to be more quick-witted than they were before and have successfully accomplished several missions assigned to them. Aside from that, Jessie and James also received new uniforms. Team Rocket as an organization has also been featured far more prominently that it did in all the previous series. For instance, there appear to be multiple agents situated all across the Unova region who pass on information and orders to Jessie, James and Meowth. Giovanni himself has also been featured much more prominently, unlike in previous series when his appearances (outside of Meowth's boss fantasies) were rare. Now he is in regular contact with the trio, assigning them missions and passing on information. As a result, Giovanni is now a serious threat as he is beginning to take a more active role in the trio's operations. Following events occurring in Castelia City, however, the trio have been discharged from their duties. With this, they have returned to their original white uniforms.
Other members
Many other members of Team Rocket have appeared besides the aforementioned boss and trio, most of them field agents as well. A recurring duo that is rivals with Jessie and James, Cassidy and Butch, shows up from time to time. This pair reports to Dr. Namba, rather than Giovanni directly.
Attila and Hun, operatives from Team Rocket's Johto branch, are featured as antagonists in The Legend of Thunder!, where they play the same role as Jessie and James do to Jimmy, Marina, and Vincent. Other Johto operatives include TRTyson ([[{{{2}}} (move)|{{{2}}}]]), who was in charge of the Lake of Rage experimentation; Domino, an elite Team Rocket member that was part of a mission to recapture Mewtwo; the Iron-Masked Marauder, a high-ranking agent who managed to capture a Celebi in one of his Dark Balls, and Professor Sebastian, a high-ranking Rocket scientist involved in both Attila and Hun's and Tyson's plots.
Jessie's mother, Miyamoto, was at one time a Team Rocket member under Giovanni's mother, however, she disappeared without a trace on an expedition to find and capture Mew.
Pierce and Dr. Zager are two high-ranking members of the organization introduced to assist Jessie and James with their missions in Unova. Dr. Zager currently has a relationship to Jessie and James similar to that of Dr. Namba in relation to Butch and Cassidy, directly coordinating their missions and providing machinery. Among his creations are an energy cannon using the power of Roggenrola and the "Ghost Train".
Team Rocket has attempted to do many major and potentially globally-altering operations, including cloning DNA of Mew and altering it to create Mewtwo. This stemmed out of a desire of Giovanni to appease his mother's obsession with Mew, although he ultimately desired Mewtwo for use as a weapon. When Mewtwo finally finished developing, he deceived Mewtwo into working for him, using him in Gym Battles against such Trainers as Gary Oak (who suffered his first of only four losses in the anime to date). Team Rocket also attempted to capture and control a Lugia and Celebi, and it also created a device that could force Pokémon to evolve. It also successfully managed to capture a Rayquaza, although it is never revealed whether they maintained control of it or if it managed to escape.
They have various means of transportation, such as boats, submarines and helicopters.
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
In Pokémon Adventures, "Rocket" is an acronym standing for "Raid On the City, Knock Out, Evil Tusks."
Although grunts are first seen in Glimpse of the Glow searching for Mew in Pallet Town, Team Rocket as an organization was not introduced until Gyarados Splashes In! in the Red, Green & Blue arc. Here they are mentioned by Professor Oak as an evil syndicate that use Pokémon for sinister purposes, mostly experiments. They are then seen looking for a Moon Stone in Mt. Moon. After running into Red and Misty they battled them with a Rhyhorn, and when it looked like Pika may defeat it, a mysterious injection caused it to evolve into Rhydon. It was still defeated and the admin shown to be controlling it was Koga.
Then they are seen with Red infiltrating their ranks trying to find Green, who stole some information on Mew that was important for them. It was also revealed that under the Rocket Game Corner was a research facility for Mewtwo. After Green was found they revealed another Pokémon with a special ability, a Tauros with the ability to control other Pokémon with a swish of its tail. However they were defeated when Green's Ditty transformed into that Tauros and make the other Pokémon defeat themselves. However they believed they were okay since they retrieved the disc on Mew, which was, in fact, a fake. After realizing, they go out to find a Mew they though they saw, which was Ditty again. Eventually they figure it out and run into Red and Green who found the real Mew. Eventually as it was shown that the battle was going south Mew stepped in and knocked out the Rocket that was leading this hunt and his Jynx, leaving after that and Red and Green get away as well.
They are then seen on the Seafoam Islands chasing after Articuno only to be once again stalled by Red to a point where Articuno (which froze itself), defrosted and their combined forces easily drove Team Rocket away once again. Then they appear on Cinnabar confronting Blaine who had betrayed them. After Red joins the fight the then reveal their Moltres and the grunts disperse. Moltres is defeated by Red's Aerodactyl but is then revealed that it doesn't matter since it is then revealed that Koga has captured Articuno and Lt. Surge has obtained Zapdos.
After Blue and Green fail to get into Saffron City Blue takes a photo from the air showing some of Team Rocket's grunts there, making Blue deduce that that's their headquarters.
Once they get into Saffron City, the three of them enter Silph C., albeit for their own reasons. In each room each of the three had to face on of Team Rocket's heads. Red defeated Lt. Surge on 1F, Blue beat Koga on 2F, and Green managed to subdue Sabrina on 3F. The three of them met on 4F where a merger of the legendary birds was created by the Badge Energy Amplifier known as Zapmolcuno. Zapmulcuno was defeated, freed and split apart into the three birds. The Silph Co. building was destroyed with the three heads captured except Giovanni was still at large.
In the Yellow arc, Team Rocket is disbanded except there are many rumors of Team Rocket slowly rebuilding. These rumors are proven true when the Team Rocket Elite Trio attacks the S.S. Anne. After that the three admins that were thought to be incarcerated or even dead were proven to be out and waiting for Blaine, Blue, and Yellow. They revealed that the S.S. Anne attack was just a ploy to get the Elite Four's attention, but since Yellow ruined it, their plan backfired. Sabrina then had her Alakazam make the Spoons of Destiny, pairing each of the Pokédex holders with a rocket Admin. Blue went with Koga, Sabrina with Blue, Yellow and Blaine, and Lt. Surge was paired with Red but went with Bill instead since Red had been kidnapped and Bill's spoon had not bent since he didn't want to fight.
Each of these pairings was able to defeat a member of the Elite Four. Koga and Blue beat Agatha, Red, Bill, and Lt. Surge beat Bruno, Green and Sabrina beat Lorelei, and Yellow and Blaine defeated Lance.
Neo Team Rocket
Later in the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc, it was revealed there was a revived branch of Team Rocket in Johto. They were first seen trying to take the bag full of Pokémon that Joey had been entrusted to deliver to Professor Elm, but the ended up taking Gold's backpack instead, greatly angering Gold since it had all of his family Pokémon in it. After they realized they made the mistake, Team Rocket dumped the bag and went to Elm's lab, ending Gold and Silver's (who Gold thought was the culprit) battle by knocking out Gold with an Elekid. Silver then took them on and defeated all of the Rocket Grunts and they all disappeared by the time Gold regained consciousness.
They appeared once again at the Ruins of Alph, searching for the Unown when they encountered Bugsy and Gold. Gold had his Sunbo use flash to blind them which in turn, had the Unown which they all thought were simply symbols on the wall come out and attack them. Team Rocket then had their Spinarak use Spider Web to trap Gold and Bugsy in a room, but Gold had Exbo use SmokeScreen so some Unown would get caught in the web and take out their anger on Team Rocket. Their new leader then appeared in the shadows and mumbled about their incompetence.
They then appeared inside the Slowpoke Well trying to get Slowpoke Tails but Silver appeared and defeated all of them single-handedly.
They next appeared in Ecruteak City where it was revealed that an earthquake that hit the city was really caused by them and an admin's Piloswine. They then battle against Gold and Silver, mainly Silver so they could get revenge for him ruining their Slowpoke Well Operation but Gold joined in to get back at them for interrupting his first battle with Silver. They defeated them and they retreated since, according to the female admin, they had gotten the information they needed on Ho-Oh's behavioral patterns.
They then had their leader revealed to be the Masked Man, and he sent the Team Rocket Elite Trio to catch the legendary beast, Suicune. They failed due to Crystal and Eusine's interference.
In the TCG
Team Rocket has been featured in several expansions of the TCG, most notably in the self-named Team Rocket expansion, where Dark Pokémon were introduced, and the EX Team Rocket Returns expansion, which commemorated the release of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. In addition, there are several Pokémon belonging to Team Rocket in the Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge, and Pokémon VS expansions. A special Team Rocket promo card was distributed in Japan as part of the promotion of the twelfth movie.
Trivia
- Team Rocket is the villainous team to have the most regions under its control, as it had operatives in Kanto, the Sevii Islands, and Johto (if one goes by the anime, it also has operatives in the Orange Islands and Unova).
- Team Rocket is the only villainous team that appears in each generation of the Pokémon games, though their appearance in Generation V is limited to a single former Grunt and a Game Freak employee who plays the Team Rocket theme.
- Team Rocket is the only main series villainous team to not have anything to do with their respective games' version mascots. In the same way, they are the only villainous team that has yet to try and use a legendary Pokémon to achieve their goals (in the game; while in the anime have attempted to do so on several occasions, most notably with Giovanni and Mewtwo).
- In the anime, however, Team Rocket has tried to obtain the most legendary Pokémon for their own uses (by Jessie and James) out of any other villainous team.
- In Pokémon Adventures manga, they did have in their plans (and eventually succeeded) catching Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, but were then released; Mew to create Mewtwo; and in the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc, their missions included catching Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Celebi.
- Both Jessie and James have befriended or owned a Pokémon whose species are known to frequently work for the good of common people, a Chansey and a Growlithe respectively, with Chansey being known to work as nurses and Growlithe (along with Arcanine) being often used as police dogs. This is unusual, considering Team Rocket's association with crime and illegal activities.
- Team Rocket is one of only two villainous teams to have explicitly caused a death, that of the Marowak in Pokémon Tower. The other being Team Galactic, whom a trainer, Roughneck Kirby, blamed for the deaths of most of his Pokémon.
- Team Rocket's uniforms vaguely resemble bōsōzoku uniforms.
In other languages
| Language | Name | Origin |
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| Arabic | عصابة الرداء الأبيض isabat Ar-Redda Al-Abiadh | Literally "The white robe gang". |
| Chinese (Cantonese) | 火箭兵團 Fójin Bīngtyùhn | Means "Rocket Army". |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 火箭隊／火箭队 Huǒjiàn Duì | Means "Rocket Troops". |
| Dutch | Team Rocket | From English name |
| Finnish | Rakettiryhmä | Means "Rocket Group". |
| Greek | Ομάδα Πύραυλος Omada Piravlos | From "Team Rocket". |
| Hebrew | צוות רוקט Tsevet Rocket | From "Team Rocket". |
| Hungarian | Rakéta Csapat | Literally "Rocket Team". |
| Indonesian | Tim Roket (Team Rocket) | Transliteration of "Team Rocket". |
| Korean | 로켓단 Rocket-dan | Means "Rocket Group". |
| Polish | Zespół R | Literally "Team "R". |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Equipe Rocket | From "Team Rocket". |
| Romanian | Echipa Racheta | From "Team Rocket". |
| Russian | Команда Р Komanda R | Literally "Team R". |
| Команда Ракета Komanda Raketa | From "Team Rocket". | |
| Spanish (Latin America) | Equipo Rocket | From "Team Rocket". |
| Thai | แก๊งค์ร็อกเก็ต Gang Rocket | From "Rocket Gang". |
External links
On Bulbagarden forums
 Team Rocket
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| Rocket Game Corner • Team Rocket Hideout • Viridian Gym • Team Rocket HQ • Rocket Warehouse | |||||
| Boss | Admins | ||||
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| Giovanni (Masters • Pocket Monsters) |
Archer (Masters) |
Ariana (Masters) |
Petrel (Masters) |
Proton (Masters) | |
| Other members | |||||
| Jessie (Masters) • James (Masters) • Meowth • Team Rocket Grunts (Rocket Siblings) • Scientists (Gideon) Grey (Golden Boys) • Kaede (How I Became a Pokémon Card) | |||||
See also: Pokémon the Series • Adventures • Team GO Rocket • Team Rainbow Rocket
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| Jessie | James | ||||||
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| For a list of other Pokémon Team Rocket has commanded, see here and here | |||||||
