When Jessie, James, and Meowth's obsession with Ash's Pikachu goes too far.

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owenpeterson

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Now, to be honest, I personally can't stand Jessie, James, and Meowth. Although there are some moments where they are somewhat sympathetic, overall I have a HUGE dislike for the trio. The main reason is because although, it makes sense in terms of maintaining the status quo for the anime. I feel as though their obsession with stealing Ash's Pikachu goes way too far at times.

The times when I feel this was MOST unreasonable of them to do so was during the Pokemon League Tournaments. I mean there are at least 256 other trainers with presumably more powerful Pokemon then Ash's, yet they STILL INSIST ON FOCUSING ON ASH AND HIS PIKACHU!! If I were in their shoes, I would have waited until the end of the tournament when a champion is crowned and start going after him/her and attempt to steal their Pokemon and maybe they might have a better chance at being successful.

But NO! They just keep going after Ash and his Pikachu DURING the tournament and even AFTER he was eliminated. This has made me come to believe that the trio are so obsessed with that Pikachu that may be legally insane and need to be committed.

However, if they still insist on going after Ash Ketchum and his friends, I'd like to suggest two other options:

Either the TRio should make attempts at going after some of Ash's other Pokemon, such as his Charizard, Snorlax, 30 Tauros, etc.

Or they could go after his friends' Pokemon such as Misty's, Brock's, Tracey's, Gary's, May's, Drew's, Dawn's, Iris', Cilan's, or Serena's Pokemon.

Or maybe they could go bother some other trainer(s), and then they MIGHT actually be successful.

What's your opinion about why Jessie, James, and Meowth are so obsessed with Ash Ketchum's Pikachu? (from an in-universe standpoint).
 
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They are blinded by the goal of pleasing Giovanni. They feel Pikachu will please him, for whatever reason.
 
You've got tunnel vision, they go after other Pokemon all the time, Pikachu is just their favorite target since they've since it do outrageously overpowered things for it's species. Even at the leagues they try some schemes to get tons of them when they aren't selling stuff to the audience to get some money back. Like in the Hoenn League in the episode where Ash has his last battle Jessie and James are in the Pokemon Center stealing Pokeballs from the participants.
 
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There's plenty of times where they try and steal other stuff, quite often Pikachu isn't even the priority.
 
I am fully aware that the TRio do often times have plans on a wider scale. However even those plans wind up failing as a result of Ash, and then it's back to going after Ash's Pikachu.

I suggest that they try doing their schemes away from Ash so he won't be able to interfere. Why don't they try stealing Pokemon in regions where Ash isn't, then they might be successful.

Jessie even suggested that they try going after someone else, but Meowth just said "NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" and explained that they constantly go after Ash and friends because "they have the nerve to." I'm not buying that answer.
 
They are insane. After so many years of trying to catch Pikachu and failing it became their modus operandi and the only thing they can think of for most of the time, even if at this this point it became obvious they could at least get some success if they focused their efforts on something else.
At this point they lost their sight and it became an obsession. Also, they don't seem to have an actual idea of what would actually please Giovanni since they also tried to steal a lot of Pokémon he would be just plain uninterested in owning for the most non-sensical reasons ever. Personally, I don't think he would be satisfied with Pikachu since its power varies a lot, making it an untrustworthy hit-or-miss weapon, not to mention stubborn.
But you really want a simple explanation, the real reason they still go after Pikachu is because of an outside context reason. It is their obligatory role for as long as they are a part of the cast, they are stuck to it since there's no in-story reason for that and they even pointed it out at least once by playing the "we are the main bad guys" card.
 
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Because they're fanatics, just like the Coyote after the Roadrunner. If the Coyote has all this money to spend on ACME gadgets then it stands to reason that he could afford to buy an endless supply of roadrunners and spare himself the trouble, but he's too deeply committed to the pursuit itself to entertain such a notion.

"A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim." - George Santayana
 
There is a theory regarding this topic. According to it, Jessie, James and Meowth all desire love (Jessie), freedom (James) and validation (Meowth) due to their respective pasts. Here, I'll explain those pasts briefly:
Jessie's mother, a high-rank Team Rocket executive, died during a Team Rocket mission. The foster home she was sent to was so poor, that she was forced to eat snow.
James had very rich parents, but he refused to gain anything if he didn't actually work for it, as seen by how he refused to claim his parents' inheritance. James was also sick and tired of being forced to do what his parents thought was best for him and the family.
Meowth lived in Hollywood (a fictional city in Kanto) as a street Meowth. Here, he met a female Meowth (named Meowzie) who he began to show love towards. However, she refused him because she saw him as a "mere street-Meowth who was not human enough". This is why he began to learn to speak human language. However, this only led to Meowzie calling him a "freak".

I know, this theory seems a bit far-fetched, as that's what I first thought when I heard about it, but it does make some sense.
 
I think at this point, they just can't stop trying to get Pikachu. Even though they know there are stronger Pokemon out there that they really should steal, the drive for Pikachu is now beyond obsession. They probably have been trying to get him for so long, it would be pointless to just have them suddenly switch for some obviously stronger Pokemon and ditch him.

Besides, they've shown that they, at least, can steal him. When they go for other wild Pokemon, more often than not, they get their asses handed to them. At least they know they could potentially steal Pikachu if they try hard enough or if Ash's gang is incompetent enough.
 
Yeah, that was getting old already during the Johto season. The writers should have retired them immediately after Ash travels to Hoenn. Though, I must admit, they've seemed to be much less annoying in XY. I would have liked to see more of other villains that does the nefarious schemes and Ash and Co trying to stop them. Whether that means showing more of the regional villains, or people within TR who are much less obsessive, and much more competent. (Especially Vicious from M04, or Domino from Mewtwo returns.)
 
The Rocket trio's justification for following Satoshi around isn't any worse than any of his friends' reasons, really. It's not like Citron or Eureka or Serena or any of the others have a decent reason to tag along either.
 
Dogasu said:
The Rocket trio's justification for following Satoshi around isn't any worse than any of his friends' reasons, really. It's not like Citron or Eureka or Serena or any of the others have a decent reason to tag along either.
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I don't see why being friends isn't a decent reason.
 
I think Team Rocket only use the "steal Pikachu" thing as an excuse to keep following Ash and his friends. They must truly enjoy getting in their way all the time.
 
In one of the first episodes, I'm pretty sure they are beat by Pikachu and they say something about a powerful pokémon like that would please The Boss.

Pikachu's only getting stronger, so why not keep chasing?

They say, "That's no ordinary Pikachu"
"It's quite the prize"
"Let's catch it"
"Perhaps we will"
EP 02
So I guess they think it's super rare and powerful.
 
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In recent seasons, they been after Pokemon instead of Pikachu. Look at the Amaura they try to take or the Pangoro and Pancham. Team Rocket is not only after Pikachu anymore.
 
It's because they actually like them, countless times he saved their lives in eps and the movies, or they've been forced to team up.
Just like Misty trying to pretend she only followed him round to get him to fix her bike which was total BS, the TRio are the same, they like Ash, and just use stealing Pikachu as there excuse to stick around.

In the early BW eps when they had to be all serious and focus on an actual mission besides Ash and never got to see him, it hurt them inside, they hated their lives to be honest, so when the project was cancelled and they were pretty much free to go do as they wish, where did they go, straight back to following Ash, because like Misty, they do actually like him, just they don't know how to express it.

They're like many children actually they want to be villains as it's cool, but actually they've not got a villainous bone in their all their bodies combined, they just don't know how to approach Ash and say, hey can we come on your journey with you, so they use the villains after your Pikachu thing as an excuse.
 
Johtohfiller said:
I don't see why being friends isn't a decent reason.
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It isn't, but most of the people who choose to follow Satoshi around on his badge quest decide to do so mere moments after they first meet him. They're barely acquaintances when they decide to just drop everything and leave home to follow this boy around.

Compared to that, the Rocket trio following Satoshi around to get his Pikachu looks downright logical.

Cuddy said:
In recent seasons, they been after Pokemon instead of Pikachu. Look at the Amaura they try to take or the Pangoro and Pancham. Team Rocket is not only after Pikachu anymore.
Click to expand...

They haven't been "only after Pikachu" for over a decade now.
 
They secretly want to be friends with and travel with Ash after a lifetime of not having many friends. They are trying to get Pika to fry their bicycles which locks you in a BFFs with Ash and Pilachu.
 
Here's my answer: they are complete idiots who are incapable of learning. If that's not true then why are they still following Ash even though it's been made obvious hundreds of times that they are NEVER going to win against him? I mean Pikachu beat them one time and they instantly decided that that meant that it is rare and powerful and as a result they keep following him around like a bad cold. The way I see it those three are wasting their lives. I can see only solution to the problem they present: remove them from the anime completely.
 
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