"To protect the world from devastation..."
Team Rocket is the villainous organization that terrorizes Kanto, Johto, and the world beyond! They have one goal; gather rare and powerful Pokemon and take over the world. No rules nor laws hold them down or keep them from their villainous ways. Nothing is too far, no act is too evil or too wicked for this syndicate...
they are my FAVORITE characters in the ENTIRE pokemon franchise. at this point my personality is just being a weird little team rocket freak and i'm at peace with that. i have made them the topic of school essays and presentations, i'm Not Pulling Your Leg, i have the 40 slide powerpoint to prove it.... i am a walking team rocket encyclopedia and i can rattle off about a billion points of team rocket trivia. there is so much appeal for me and so many different things for me to love. sometimes i find them cool and menacing and other times i find them silly and funny. their whole deal may be making people miserable but they sure make ME happy!!!!! i love all of the characters in team rocket; the people, the pokemon, the boss and all the grunts. though i do have favorites and i'm not afraid to admit it... i am now going to talk about jessie james and meowth and you can't stop me because this is my house
THE TEAM ROCKET TRIO
JESSIE
jessie is my absolute favorite character in my favorite team!!!! i love her to BITS, she is my very favorite character in all of pokemon! honestly, what is there not to love?? she's mean and nasty and evil and i love her for it. i support women's wrongs. she makes me laugh (AND CRY ALSO) whenever she's on screen, and she just makes me so happy. i am so incredibly normal about jessie pokemon. her character design is both parts silly and pretty, equally matched with her over-the-top personality to make a really endearing character. the pokemon she catches are consistently really cool (wobbuffet is NOT an exception) and compliment her design so perfectly. visual appeal is not the only aspect of a lovable character, but it totally helps. any episode with her as the main character immediately becomes a banger. she's hilarious, she's bad at her job, and constantly bullying everyone. i love her so much and i think she goes super underappreciated. i think it's actually a crime that so many people just remember her as the designated Girl in team rocket.jessie's role is that of a recurring comic relief antagonist, but at the exact same time she's also one of the most interesting and well-written characters in the whole show. she has a lot more depth than people give her credit for. beneath all her bravado, she's kind, hardworking, and in many cases genuinely selfless. she's not the way she is for no reason. she's the daughter of a presumed dead team rocket agent and single mother, she's someone who worked towards dream after dream and never won, and now she's someone who's turned to evil to stay afloat... and yet, through it all, not once did she give up and let all that weight crush her. she really and truly cares about her teammates and her pokemon. how many characters can you say have fought a dangerous beast with their bare hands all to protect their pokemon? she makes difficult decisions to let go of the pokemon who ultimately would be happier no longer under her care. (not a trait unique to her but it makes me CRY so whatever) her character ultimately hits home a lot more than the main characters, though probably at least in part because of my age. jessie is someone who has struggled and continues to struggle in life, but never gives up because she loves the people and pokemon around her. that resonates with me a lot.
that got kind of deep. okay so have you noticed that shes REALLY CUTE. (obligatory "she's literally 25 years old" disclaimer) she has a menagerie of weird little guys that she sometimes dresses up like little show dogs. her caterpillar turned into a freaky little moth and she treated it like a new puppy she got for christmas. i think jessie is a top tier character JUST for that... she gets passionate about interests outside of team rocket, like pokemon contests, or cute clothes. she wears her heart on her sleeve and gets excited about things really easily. she made her own uniform so she could be more fashionable. she has such a close friendship with james and meowth that i think would make anyone jealous. LITERALLY just look at her character design and her big clunky earrings and her silly R-shaped hair. do NOT get me started on college age jessie who immediately sends me into hysterics and cardiac arrest when i see her. i am picking her up in my hand and kissing her. there's a reason i'm in the self insert webring with this character and it's everything i just wrote. i really love jessie! she is awesome and she makes me literally insane whenever she shows upJAMES
james! he's everyone's golden boy (mine too) and for good reason. just like jessie, he's a funny guy who thinks he's more evil than he really is. in contrast to jessie he's a lot more openly sensitive and kind. usually. he's as endearing as they come and i really do think he deserves to be as iconic as he is!! he's both very similar and very different from jessie, and the two of them plus meowth have a really great and funny dynamic together. he's got a great design and color scheme too, one that not only meshes well with his team but stands out as a simple yet unique design on its own. somehow james exists in between "silly little guy" and "malicious convicted felon" and it's perfect.james' character contrasts and compliments jessie's. unlike jessie, he grew up as a young heir to his filthy rich parents. they're so rich that his growlithe, growlie, has a mansion all to himself. but despite being a boy who had everything, there was one thing it lacked, and it was love and human decency from his parents. james' parents had one ideal for what they wanted james to be, and it just was not right for him. worse still, he was put into an arranged marriage with jessebelle, an infinitely crueler doppelganger of sorts to jessie. at some point in his life, james ran away from his family to pursue his own freedom and happiness, and in the end, he ended up in team rocket. i have to admire james for choosing himself and his freedom, even though it meant struggling. the team rocket trio live in relative poverty and get blasted off by a ten year old and his pet mouse almost every day. it may not be fun but for james, it is worth it all.
james is openly caring and definitely the biggest softie in the team. he's shown to truly care about his pokemon, and for all their bickering, his teammates too. despite his wealthy upbringing and the somewhat warped view of the world it's given him, (he thinks millionaires are poor lol) he has an appreciation for the little things. one of his oft referenced endearing traits is his bottle cap collection, one he's been keeping up since his childhood. he has very sweet relationships with his small/baby pokemon like chimeco and mime jr. make no mistake, though, james is not a "baby," he's still petty and vain, and still kicks ass and commits crimes and general mischief, which is the cherry on top of it all. (i looove messy and petty characters.)
MEOWTH
meowth! he may be called meowth, he may look like all the other meowths, but there is only one talking team rocket meowth in the world. meowth is truly unique, and for more than just being a human-language-speaking pokemon. i feel like meowth often gets sidelines when people talk about the team rocket trio. he often gets left out of the "jessie james and meowth" which i think is unfair! he really is a full-fledged member of the team. meowth is every bit as silly, evil, and sweet as his human compatriots. you could say he's sort of the "brains" of the operation, despite team rocket having no such thing. (i have to wonder, though, how come his name is just meowth? i guess that goes for most pokemon in the care or company of humans. why isn't there really a culture of naming your pokemon? but i digress.)meowth's come from just as much trouble as the rest of his friends; born an abandoned or orphaned kitten, he had to fend for himself from the very beginning. humans didn't treat him kindly; there's even a scene in the show where baby meowth is tied up to a tree after mistaking some sports balls for food. while in the tree, he saw a movie being screened outside, where he got the idea to go to the city. and so he did, joining a gang of other stray meowths. he eventually found another meowth named meowzie and fell in love, but was coldly turned down. to impress her, he taught himself to walk and speak like a human can, a genuinely amazing feat. but he was turned down again for being a 'freak.' after that, he joined team rocket, becoming assigned to jessie and james. his goal may be to become giovanni's lap cat, but his home is and always will be with jessie and james.
(speaking of lap cat, the popular interpretation of meowth as jessie and james' 'straight friend' has got to be the least true thing i've ever seen put to the internet.) but i digress. like i said before, meowth is a core part of the trio, even if he's oft forgotten. he's funny, he's petty, and he's also secretly a sweet guy. something i really love about meowth is actually a real-life thing; his voice actress, maddie blaustein. there is an article, it's really worth a read, about maddie and her role as team rocket's meowth. it's said that meowth's story, a story of being different and finding a home with people who care about, was what inspired her to come out as trans. i think that's really awesome! maddie blaustein was a talented actress, even beyond her role as meowth, and she is sorely missed.