Team Rocket

If you were looking for the TCG set, see Team Rocket (TCG).

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Team Rocket Grunts in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

Team Rocket (Japanese: ロケット団 Rocket-dan, literally Rocket Gang or Rocket Group) is an organized crime syndicate in pursuit of evil and exploitation of Pokémon based in the Kanto and Johto region.

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 several grunts that battle you say that Team Rocket is mining for fossils to sell. 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. It seems that Team Rocket gets its new recruits from the end of Nugget Bridge as the grunt at the end asks you to join when you beat him.

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.

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 disbandment and was working independently.

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.

After the player defeats the two Admins here, 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.

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 of their tails to sell on the black market. Eventually, they are encountered in Mahogany Town, where they have set up a secret hideout in the basement of 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 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. They are once again defeated by the main protagonist, and the Executives in charge of the operation vow to disband Team Rocket for good.

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 the anime

File:Team rocket anime.png

Jessie, James and Meowth

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 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.

File:TeamRocketAnime.png

The Team Rocket trio

The 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.

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; Vicious, 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.

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. When Mewtwo finally finished developing, he deceived Mewtwo into working for him, using him in Gym Battles against such Trainers as Gary Oak, who lost miserably. Team Rocket also attempted to capture and control a Lugia and Celebi, and it also created a device that could force Pokémon to evolve.

They have various means of transportation, such as boats, submarines and helicopters.

In the Pokémon Special manga

In Pokémon Special, "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 same chapter, Red, Green & Blue. Here they are mentioned by Professor Oak as an evil syndicate that use Pokémon for their evil purposes, mostly experiments.

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 Versions. In addition, there are several Pokémon belonging to Team Rocket in the Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge, and Pokémon VS expansions.

Trivia

• Team Rocket is the only villainous team to appear in every generation so far.
• They also appeared in every generation of the anime.

See also

• Mewtwo
• Team Rocket grunts
• Team Rocket scientists
• Team Rocket executives and administrators
• Team Rocket's mechas
• Episodes focusing on Team Rocket

External links

On Bulbagarden forums

• Team Rocket fan club

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

Villainous teams Core series: Team Rocket • Team Magma • Team Aqua • Team Galactic • Team Plasma Team Flare • Team Skull • Team Rainbow Rocket • Team Yell • Team Star Side series: Team Snagem • Cipher Spin-off games: Team Great Rocket • Phobos Battalion • Go-Rock Squad • Team Dim Sun • Team Debonairs Pokémon Pinchers • Dark Legion • The Rogers • Team GO Rocket • Team Break • Unitas Animation only: Explorers Manga only: Neo Team Rocket (Adventures) • Team Kings (Horizon)