As the first-ever evil team in the Pokémon series, as well as being one of the main antagonists in the anime, Team Rocket has consistently been one of the most easily recognizable villains in video games. Although they mainly appear in the Kanto and Johto region games, their influence has been felt across nearly every playable region in the mainline games.
Team Rocket’s goal may be a simple one, to extort money through Pokémon by any means necessary, there is a great deal of information and history hidden throughout the Pokémon games that players may have missed, particularly if they aren’t actively looking for it.
10 The Only Evil Team Confirmed To Have Killed Pokemon
The generation one games have a reputation for being quite a bit darker than any of the games that followed, particularly when it comes to the treatment of Pokémon and the bluntness of some characters in the game. During the player’s quest to put the ghost of Marowak to rest, it is revealed that during a confrontation, Team Rocket ended up killing the mother Marowak as it tried to defend its child from harm. So far, Team Rocket is the only evil team to have been confirmed to have killed a Pokémon, as most other evil teams would rather subjugate Pokémon than kill them.
9 Archer In FireRed & LeafGreen
In the generation one remakes FireRed and LeafGreen, players are able to explore a completely new part of the map called the Sevii Islands, which holds Pokémon otherwise not native to the region as well as some extra trainers. One of these trainers, although he is unnamed in the game, is Archer, the future head of Team Rocket in the generation two games. He appears on Five Island and challenges the player to a battle, having a similar team to his battle in HeartGold and SoulSilver. After defeating him, he backs down after he recognizes that the player has defeated Giovanni, seeing the Earth Badge, and vows to return Team Rocket to its former glory in the Johto region.
8 The Mewtwo Connections
There is a running theory in the Pokémon franchise that Team Rocket isn’t necessarily as evil as they claim to be, with a few hints throughout the generation one games that they have a very different end goal than what they claim. Although their connection to the legendary Pokémon was only in the animated film, it is possible that Giovanni only ever wanted to catch Mewtwo.
The player’s first encounter with Team Rocket is in Mt. Moon and Celadon City, very close to where Mewtwo resides in the game. The Silph Scope that they are interested in reveals Ghost-type Pokémon, the only type that was effective against Psychic-type Pokémon at the time, and the final encounter with Team Rocket rewards the player with the Master Ball, which would have caught Mewtwo without any hassle.
7 The Power Plant Thief’s Future
After beating Team Rocket in the Radio Tower and disbanding them for good, players will meet one final Team Rocket Grunt in the Kanto region after defeating the Elite Four and becoming the champion. This grunt steals a vital component of the refurbished Power Plant, and after defeating him, he claims that he will move back home and build Team Rocket anew. In Black and White, it is shown that, instead, he gave up the life of crime, settled in Icirrus City in the Unova region, and got married instead.
6 They Have No Bearing On The Story
For the most part in recent Pokémon titles, the evil team of that region has a large influence on the main storyline of that particular game, usually wanting to do something evil with the cover legendaries. So far, Team Rocket is the only evil team to not have any real impact on the wider story or to have any interest in the cover Pokémon, even in Gold and Silver when the cover Pokémon started being legendary Pokémon.
5 Executives Ariana & Petrel
Although the games and the anime are usually completely separate, with the exception of Yellow and Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee having references to anime events, there is one in the mainline series that is easy to miss. Based on their demeanor and Pokémon of choice, it is likely that Executives Ariana and Petrel are based on Jesse and James from the anime. Petrel is seen in his final battle with a team of five Koffing and a Weezing, the signature Pokemon of James in the earlier seasons, while Ariana has an Arbok on her team, which was Jesse’s signature Pokemon. Their character designs also have remnants of their anime counterparts, particularly in their stature and hair colors.
4 Giovanni’s Name
Most of the gym leaders in Pokémon have a name that represents their particular specialty in Pokémon types, with the likes of Brock the Rock-type leader and Misty the Water-type leader easily coming to mind, though this isn’t consistent for all gym leaders. One that has this reference, though not in his English name, is Giovanni.
Giovanni’s Japanese name is Sakaki, a sacred tree in Shinto religion that closely resembles the Earth Badge in design — a very obvious nod to his eventual reveal as the Viridian City gym leader if players are playing in Japanese.
3 The Executive’s Names
Like Giovanni, the Executives Archer, Ariana, Proton, and Petrel all have their own naming conventions that connect them to Team Rocket, though they are slightly different in their Japanese counterparts. Named Apollo, Athena, Lance, and Lambda respectfully, they are each named after a different model of rocket or missile, while their English names are based more on military hardware than exploration vehicles.
2 The Cubone Theory & Giovanni
There has been a long-running theory in the Pokémon series that Kangaskhan was intended to be the final evolution of the Cubone line. While there have been many nods to this theory in more recent games, the first one that players noticed was with Giovanni’s team in Red and Blue. Despite being the Ground-type gym leader, there is one Ground-type Pokémon inextricably absent from his team: Marowak. What is present on his team instead, however, is a Kangaskhan, a Pokémon that is completely out of place considering it is a Normal-type. While he would later have a Marowak during the Pokémon World Tournament, he still carries this Kangaskhan with him as well.
1 Team Rocket’s Future
After not appearing as a main character since HeartGold and SoulSilver (discounting his matches in the Pokémon World Tournament), Giovanni and Team Rocket returned in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon as Team Rainbow Rocket in Episode RR. Following his defeat at the hands of the player character, Giovanni, who has a Mewtwo at this point, is seen traveling to other worlds, indicating that Team Rocket is probably still functional in another universe in spite of the multiple times they have been disbanded.
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