Team Rocket

Team Rocket (ロケット団, Rocket-dan; literally meaning "Rocket Gang"), is a fictional organization in the Sonic Pokémon series. It 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. They are headed by Giovanni, who also doubles as the Viridian City Gym Leader.

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 obtaining powerful and rare Pokémon to help their criminal syndicate in the hopes of someday taking over the world by using Pokémon. They obtain these Pokémon by regular capture, or more often, theft. In addition to this they also perform inhumane experiments on Pokémon to further enhance their power.

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 * —About Team Rocket.

Biography
Team Rocket is based in Kanto, with many smaller branches across Kanto and Johto. Giovanni was 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.

Members

 * See also: Team Rocket Grunts

The gang

 * See also: Team Rocket Gang

The Team Rocket Gang is a four member gang of Team Rocket field agents, Jessie, James, Jake, 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 gang 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 from Queen Boss to get them out of her hair). When Ash returned from Hoenn after competing in its regional League Conference, the gang returned to Kanto as well, empty-handed. After following him through Kanto once again, Giovanni assigned the gang to the Sinnoh region, again with the directive to establish a Team Rocket branch there.

Niether Giovanni or Queen Boss 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 gang'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 friends defeat the trio each time, as well as Giovanni's low opinion of the four, who have managed to eat up much of Team Rocket's funding with their failures.

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 Tyson, 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 the mother of Queen Boss and Giovanni, 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 in Unova.

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 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.

Members and their ranks
The following are members of Team Rocket.

Bosses

 * Madame Boss (original founder, leader and mastermind)
 * Queen Boss (True leader and mastermind)
 * Giovanni (Kanto leader)
 * Mask of Ice (Johto leader)

Sub-Bosses

 * Chermaine
 * Keane

Executives

 * Archer
 * Ariana
 * Proton
 * Petrel
 * Grey

Elite Officers

 * Miyamoto
 * Vicious
 * Domino
 * Pierce

Officers

 * Tyson
 * Attila
 * Hun

Spies

 * Annie
 * Oakley

Top Agents

 * Cassidy
 * Butch
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Jake
 * Meowth (Regularly)

Trios

 * Ken, Al, and Harry
 * Carr, Sird, and Orm

Sergeants

 * Viper

Scientists

 * Professor Sebastion
 * Professor Fuji
 * Doctor Namba
 * Doctor Zager
 * Gideon

Other

 * Wendy
 * Matori
 * Rocket Secretary
 * Rocket Scout
 * Mondo
 * Christopher

Notes & 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 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 (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.
 * 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's uniforms vaguely resemble bōsōzoku uniforms.
 * The running gag of blast offs may have originated from Team Rocket. According to the series, Jessie, James, Jake, and Meowth, and their Pokémon have blasted off, according to Ash, over more times than they could ever have counted. Other Team Rocket members have blasted off as well, including Butch and Cassidy and several other of the Team Rocket Grunts.
 * It is noted that Team Rocket and their Pokemon has blasted off more than any other characters in the series; However separately, Jessie has blasted off more than 700 times excluding James and Jake; James has blasted off more than 500 times excluding Jessie and Jake; Jake has blasted off more than 500 times excluding Jessie and James; and Meowth and Wobbuffet has blasted off more than 300 times. Butch and Cassidy have blasted off 10 times in the series with two of their blast offs being caused directly by Ash and his friends and the other eight caused by Delia Ketchum, Ritchie, Professor Oak, Gary, and Tracey.
 * The duos in Team Rocket, in English, are named after infamous outlaws. Such as the American outlaws Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, Hunnic warlord Attila the Hun and Annie Oakley, an expert sharpshooter.
 * Jessie, James, Jake, and Meowth are considered to be the stooges of Pokémon because their plans never work and are actually more funny than evil.
 * Team Rocket and Ash seem to have a difficult relationship, despite both being hostile to each other. They are also instances when Ash and Team Rocket seem to care for each other. In "Noodles Roamin off" Ash even jokingly mentioned Team Rocket and their blast-offs in a positive way.
 * Sometimes, after Jessie, James, Jake, and Meowth have agreed to try what they think is a genius plan, they will in unison sing a rhythmic, rhyming short song about how it's going to make them rich.
 * Team Rocket has made more appearances than any other villainous group.
 * One of Team Rocket's line in their motto "A rose by any other name's just as sweet" is a nod to "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" which is derived from a famous quote in Romeo and Juliet.