Jessie, James, and Meowth are widely viewed as completely evil people with no good in them in the black and white elitist society of the Pokemon world. However, this is not the case. Need an explanation? Read on!
Jessie grew up as a poor child, in a family with extremely little money. Like, seriously, she used to eat snow. So, her passion in life was to help Pokemon, and she hoped to become a Pokemon Nurse. She applied to a school, but they rejected her. Why? Well, we’re never really given a reason. However, based on the fact that EVERY Pokemon Center has a Nurse Joy and no other human employees, it’s because Jessie was born into the wrong family. She then sees an ad for another Pokemon Nurse school. She eagerly goes there. She’s accepted, but it turns out that all of the other students are Chansey! Jessie decides that she will persevere and become a nurse. She does EXTREMELY well, even helping and befriending one of the less skilled Chansey. Then, she is expelled for making ONE mistake, which is falling asleep when there is a lesson on the Chansey using their Sing attack, which she can’t even help! She’s a human, not a Chansey! Jessie leaves the school, and enrols in Pokemon Tech, where she meets James, and they eventually both fail. So, they join a motorcycle gang and eventually turn to a life of crime in Team Rocket.
![[Image: 0.jpg]](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ctYUfeKp4uc/0.jpg)
Jessie in the school for Chansey. One of these things is not like the other…
James was born into a rich family, where it seemed that he had anything a boy could want, and some things a boy would not want. You see, his parents had chosen a woman for him to marry. The woman, Jessiebelle, was a sadist who found flaw with EVERYTHING James did. James is widely believed to be homosexual, as evidenced in many situations, like in the picture below where James is shouting that he is the FLAMING Moltres. It sure didn’t help when Jessie questioned where it came from and Meowth replied that it ‘came out of the closet with James’. He’s also crossed dressed on multiple occasions. But even if he was, well, “interested” in women, there still would be no way he would want a romantic relationship with this woman. As before mentioned, James detested Jessiebelle for many reasons, but the most prevalent being that she wanted to make James a “proper gentleman”. This entailed questioning everything he did, whipping him, and paralyzing him with her Oddish’s Stun Spore attack. What a sadist! James told his parents he didn’t want to marry Jessiebelle. However, his parents would not accept his homosexuality (though that is speculation on my part), and still wanted to force him to marry Jessiebelle. James’ only friend was his Growlithe (Growly; creative nickname, right?). He decided to run away from his unsatisfying and unhappy life.
I’m the flaming Moltres, indeed…
Meowth was a starving alley cat whose entire life revolved around getting food, just to survive. At some point in his scrounging, he joined a gang lead by a Persian. Meowth then met Meowzie, a Meowth that he fell in love with. Meowth attempted to speak to her, with the hopes of kindling a romantic relationship, but she rejected him, as he was a mere street cat who had no humans and no money. Meowth then decided that he would learn to become more like a human. He struggled to learn to talk and to walk on his hind legs. After much, much valiant hard work, he confronted Meowzie. She then rejected him, calling him a freak, something worse than an alley cat. He then vowed to someday win Meowzie’s love, and decided to join Team Rocket to gain prestige and money, which he hoped would help to win Meowzie’s love.
![[Image: tumblr_lfgqpmmQlu1qck1y4o1_500.jpg]](https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfgqpmmQlu1qck1y4o1_500.jpg)
Meowth being rejected by Meowzie. Little did she know he would go on to become one of the most beloved characters in Pokemon.
It’s not just their history though! Multiple times the three members have shown their better side.
A Poached Ego:
The episode A Poached Ego has Ash and his friends advancing to Rustboro City, and Team Rocket seem to be up to their usual schemes, trying to steal Pikachu and the like. However, they stumble upon a cage crammed full of Ekans and Koffing who had been abused. Jessie attempts to free them by melting the cage with her Arbok’s Acid attack, but they’re confronted by the poacher who is nabbing and abusing these Pokemon. Jessie and James battle him, defeat his Tyranitar and Fearow, and free the Ekans and Koffing. Unfortunately, Jessie and James have to leave their Pokemon (Arbok and Weezing) to protect the Ekans and Koffing from being further menaced.
![[Image: Jessie_and_Seviper.png]](http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/7/7b/Jessie_and_Seviper.png)
And our hearts were broken as Arbok was permanently replaced with Seviper, his less cool counterpart… oh, well, at least Weezing left too.
Wobbu-Palooza:
The twerps (Ash and his friends) are walking along, and, as usual, Team Rocket isn’t far behind. They walk into a town where everyone is wearing a T-Shirt with a Wobbuffet logo, and all of the trainers have Wobbuffet. This is my kind of town! So, Team Rocket are sneaking around, when Wobbuffet pops out of his Pokeball like he so enjoys doing. Then, a woman named Lulu sees Jessie’s Wobbuffet, congratulates her, and befriends Team Rocket. While the twerps are wandering about, they see a severely beaten Wobbuffet. The trainer who owns the Wobbuffet says there were three attackers. Ash and company instantly think “three people + crime = Team Rocket”. They then run into Team Rocket hanging out with Lulu. El Twerpo accuses them of attacking the Wobbuffet. They are, of course, innocent, and Lulu inquires if the twerps have any proof, which they don’t. The real perpetrators then show up, and Jessie and James battle and defeat them.
One thing I’d like to point out is that the corrupt Officer Jenny does NOTHING to stop these violent criminals and vandals who attempt to destroy the huge Wobbuffet statue in the middle of town and severely injure two Wobbuffet under the bogus claims of “battles being forbidden during the Wobbuffet festival”. So, Team Rocket stop the perpetrators, and are about to fly off in their balloon. The twerps then see that they stole a bag of food. Oh, my, what a crime. The twerps and Jenny then chase them a short distance, and confront them. Jessie informs them that they can’t battle, so they might as well just go away. Well, Jenny then realizes they are about twenty feet outside of the town limits, so she decides it’s OK, even though Team Rocket just committed theft under a thousand and she just did nothing against three violent criminals. Ash unjustly sends the innocent Team Rocket blasting off again.
![[Image: twinkle+in+the+sky.jpg]](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_A-MWLMMjCco/TAvKE6Tfq_I/AAAAAAAAAS8/3lf3ajijB-E/s1600/twinkle+in+the+sky.jpg)
One wonders what kind of insurance they have…
The Poke Spokesman:
In this episode, our heroes (Team Rocket) are sitting in a man’s rest stop, disguised as old men. They do this because, well, if anyone recognizes them, they instantly judge and condemn them. So, the dude running the rest stop tries to talk to the twerps’ Pikachu when they show up. Corrupt Officer Jenny comes and says that there is a con artist swindling people by pretending to be able to talk to Pokemon. So, she attempts to arrest him, and at some point our heroes reveal themselves as Team Rocket, and then all of a sudden, BOOM! SMOKE MISSILES! BLAM! Out of nowhere, smoke missiles. Whoops.
Throughout the episode, the actual con artists try to recruit the Poke Spokesman, and all of that stuff. The most important thing in this episode is that Team Rocket do absolutely nothing negative. At the end, Meowth feels bad for the guy who talks to Pokemon, as he thinks he has been imagining his ability. Meowth, kind spirit he is, talks to the man, and pretends that they are speaking Pokemon. Warms your heart, doesn’t it?
![[Image: season4_ep38_ss2.jpg]](http://assets21.pokemon.com/assets/cms/img/animation/episodeimages/season04/season4_ep38_ss2.jpg)
Pikachu looks pretty spooked… and Meowth wants to help this dude? Wow… maybe his motives aren’t kind after all…
So, there you have it! If you weren’t already aware of the truth, then you’ve spent so much time living in a blind haze, a black and white world where Team Rocket are purely evil and Ash and his friends are noble, good people. A world with no shades of gray, an elitist society where everything is decided on which family you were born into and how well you conform. If the world was a more fair place, Jessie would be a Pokemon Nurse, James would have a husband and would have a productive and enjoyable job, and Meowth would live happily with Meowzie. Maybe one day…
Written by Richard Fightmaster
Edited by An-chan, Bay Alexison and bobandbill
This is a well written article that made me laugh quite a few times. Great first article, Richard!
Pretty decent article. Just wondering, what does BBS stand for? I’d be glad if anyone could tell me. I LOLZED at “I’m the flaming Moltres indeed…”
Cheers for the comments!
@Anonymouse: BBS just stands for Bulletin Board System, ie what the forum we organise this on (and for that matter any forum) is. Just a name that stuck when it was created, but we thought the magazine should have a different main name to go with it (Wynaut?).
Wow, 3 comments already? That’s awesome! I’m glad people like my article! BTW, I didn’t know what BBS stood for, either! 🙂
HOW DARE U INSULT JAMES!!!? HE LOVES JESSIE! ALWAYS HAS! ALWAYS WILL!!!! GRAAAAAH!!
very interesting theory’s on multiple subjects.
Wow i really like this! Its funny and makes a good point! James is totaly gay which is fine by me! Screw James’s homophobic parents!
Personally, I think it’s been at least hinted canonically that James is NOT gay. As my first witness, I present to you: the Gastly of Madien’s Peak. Pretty obvious, right?
And then there’s the episode “Dressed for Jess Success,” in which James ADMITS that he hasn’t crossed-dressed in a while and that it makes him nervous (remember, he’s doing it for Jessie, who’s sick with who knows what). And anyway, you don’t need to be gay to realize that marrying Jessiebelle is a BAD IDEA.
In my personal headcanon, James is a virgin by choice, but has a bit of a crush on Jessie that he (quite wisely, I might add) actively and repeatedly denies for his own safety. (And, given Jessiebelle’s wrath, probably Jessie’s safety as well. Although I think Jessie could whip Jessiebelle in a catfight, no pun intended.)
The tragic scene in “Lucario and the Mystery of Mew” where James tries and fails to save Jessie from being swallowed by an oversized white blood cell (what the heck, Pokemon?) seems very telling to me, as it appears that James literally could not go on living in a world without Jessie. Perhaps thsoe sort of sentiments are what prompted Meowth to joke in the second movie, “You two don’t need the opposite sex, you have each other,” to which James had nothing to say (well, if he did, he at least was wise enough not to say it, which might be a first for that knucklehead).
And on a completely unrelated note, why the heck didn’t you mention movie #2 in this article (or did I miss it)? That was where Team Rocket SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES to literally “protect the world from devastation”!
Cheers for the further comments, guys!
@ ROCKETSHIPPER4LIFE – You’ll have to talk to Richard about that one. =p
@ bigjon357 and Tim – glad you found it interesting!
@ Kate Vunza – congrats, you win the longest comment (thus far) award! ;p Again, I suppose Richard would have to defend this, as I’m not very knowledgeable of the anime myself. It seems you know your stuff there, haha. But to be fair, we made sure to write it that some people believe him to be gay, rather than stating outright that he is (after all, it isn’t confirmed).
Movie 2 is a pretty good example of this as well, I suppose, but I think even without that the above episodes (which was intended to be a mix of new and old episodes along with character backgrounds, iirc) show the argument well enough about TR not being so bad. Certainly there’s even more that could be used to further back it up.
Wow… 9 comments! That’s a lot, I must say. So, I realize I made a couple mistakes in this article. See, I had gone quite a long time without watching the anime. I started watching it again a few months before this article, and I was going through Johto. For the “A Poached Ego” entry, I state that Weezing (ech) and Arbok defeat Tyranitar and Fearow. This is incorrect. They put up a good fight, but are eventually beaten. Then, Jessie, James, and Meowth actually PHYSICALLY ATTACK TYRANITAR! They buy enough time for Arbok, Weezing and the non evolved Pokemon to get away. Then Officer Jenny catches the poacher. My apologies! I also had never seen Pokemon #2 untill a couple months after this article, so that’s my fault. You are right, that was an awesome example.
Regarding James’ homosexuality and the fact that he has NO romantic interest in Jessie:
I’m going to throw a few quotes your way, with episode numbers of course!
“Me and Jessie… married? I’d rather DIIIIIIIIEEE!!!!!!!!” Episode 423, Sweet Baby James
“*happily dances in pink tutu*” Episode 122, Flower Power
“I AM THE FLAME THAT BURNS BRIGHTEST! A FLAME THAT LIGHTS THE NIGHT! A FLAME THAT SHATTERS THE DARKNESS! I AM… THE FLAMING MOLTRES!!!” Episode 157, The Fortune Hunters
“You know I like my bowls flaming!” Episode 253, Great Bowls of Fire!
(After saving James from Gastly, he has asked if she does really care about him [as a friend of course]) “It’s not because of you! Girls like her disgust me, always waiting around for her man as is she were his faithful pet!” (Jessie quote) Episode 20, The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak
(Regarding that episode, James is FAR less enthusiastic than Brock when it comes to the woman/Gastly.)
The following isn’t a quote, but a quick summary of some events in the Episode 198, The Heartbreak of Brock.
Team Rocket have just stolen a bunch of Pokemon, and have accidentally kidnapped a character named Temaku (she was introduced earlier in the episode). She instantly falls for James upon seeing him. James is repulsed! Temaku declares she is in love with James and wants to marry him. You want to know how Jessie reacts? SHE LOVES THE IDEA! TEMAKU’S DAD IS A POKEMON RESEARCHER AND SHE THINKS THEY CAN GET SOME EASY POKEMON IF JAMES MARRIES TEMAKU! JAMES DOESN’T EVEN WANT TO! There’s more that happens in the episode, but that’s the important part.
I could go on for HOURS, but the point is oh so clear for myself. James is gay. If you don’t believe that, then I still feel that Jessie and James are NOT interested in each other romantically.
Oh, I thought of another of my favourites!
“Like, don’t I just make the coolest girl!?!?” Episode 15, Battle Aboard the Saint Anne
Sorry, I couldn’t resist…
U got that right that OUR heroes really r amazing and r by far more than just mere petty criminals. Please, in the anime they have kicked serious butt!! For example, in Sinnoh, can’t remember which ep, they beat an Elite Four’s pokemon!!!
And I find TRio inspirational, since they never give up, their loyalty, just everything about them is amazing. I could literally write whole essays on them! ^^
U got that right that OUR heroes really r amazing and r by far more than just mere petty criminals. Please, in the anime they have kicked serious butt!! For example, in Sinnoh, can’t remember which ep, they beat an Elite Four’s pokemon!!!
And I find TRio inspirational, since they never give up, their loyalty, just everything about them is amazing. I could literally write whole essays on them! ^^
Also, idk if anyone will even see/read this, but check out my newest Team Rocket tribite:
Hey, nice AMV dude, I’m glad you love TR too!
@Richard
Thanks! Nice to see that fans appreciate and see the awesomeness that is TR. Oh, and btw actually a girl 🙂
Well…You wrote : “However, his parents would not accept his homosexuality (though that is speculation on my part), and still wanted to force him to marry Jessiebelle.”
I understand your point of view. But James runs away…to join Jessie in the Team Rocket (in “Training Daze !” He says that he will never leave her and twelve boys before him had run away). He runs away again when his parents wants to force him to marry Jessiebelle for the second time…to join Jessie again (and not Miaouss who asks them to wait for him). When Jessie leaves the Team Rocket, James is never able to live alone (in XY 63 for example, or when Miaouss wants to work in a restaurant). He needs Jessie and is always with her.
Then, I don’t know. James may be an homosexual and he looks like an homosexual (“the flaming moltres !) but he stays 24 h/ 24 with a girl who doesn’t care about him or who beats him, who looks like Jessiebelle (his ex !) and he smiles when she says something nice too him (that’s very rare !)…I agree with Kate Vunza : “James literally could not go on living in a world without Jessie.”
That’s right but Jessie doesn’t love him. He lives his homosexuality with a girl…Is there something to understand ? Anyway, there are people who think that James is gay, other people who think that he will have a romance with Jessie (according to the end of the manga “Eletric tale of Pikachu”) but both say something true and the anime will never give the answer.
And I often read that James is gay because he’s a flaming moltres, but…It was Cassidy and Butch’ joke ! If James was a flaming moltres, if he was gay, he would be the leader and be more powerful than Jessie. 🙂 But he is only an asexate loser, maybe because a lot of girls and women in Pokemon are hysterical and castrating (Jessie, Jessiebelle…even Misty when she yells)