Highlights
- Despite capturing powerful Pokemon, Jessie and James failed to bring out their full strength.
- Popular Pokemon like Woobat and Yamask never reached their full evolution or potential in battles.
- Even with access to strong Pokemon from the Rocket Prize Master, Jessie and James struggled to use them effectively.
The infamous Team Rocket Trio – made up of Jessie, James, and Meowth – is the most iconic group of characters in the Pokemon anime, only second to the duo of Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. Just like the protagonist, they have also traveled to almost every single region, where they met, befriended, and caught a large variety of different Pokemon.
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But the Team Rocket Trio are a bunch of silly thieves and criminals, and they’re not professional Pokemon trainers. This means that, despite having trained some really powerful Pokemon, many other members of their team were never brought up to their full potential. The following examples are all the solid Pokemon that Jessie and James have wasted the most.
1 Jessie's Woobat
The First Pokemon They Caught In Unova Never Even Evolved
- First Appearance: Episode 659
The Black & White series introduced an unexpected overhaul for Team Rocket, where they would don black uniforms and act way more seriously. So, when Jessie managed to catch her first-ever Pokemon in the Unova Region there was a lot of potential for Woobat to become a true menace.
Sadly, this never happened, as Woobat became a minor nuisance for Ash and his friends. He was stuck with the same three relatively weak moves, and he never even evolved. Woobat’s evolution, Swoobat, may not be the most powerful Pokemon ever, but it would’ve certainly been more useful for this brand-new version of Team Rocket.
2 James' Yamask
A Friendly Ghost Who Never Reached His Full Potential
- First Appearance: Episode 680
James is one of the most popular characters in the Pokemon anime for a variety of reasons. But one of them is his tendency to befriend every Pokemon he catches, instead of using force to subdue them. And this is exactly what happened with Yamask, a friendly Ghost-type from the Unova Region.
As James’ first capture in the Black & White series, Yamask was relatively helpful for most of his appearances, but he was slowly left behind in terms of strength. Similarly to Swoobat, Yamask never learned more powerful moves, and he also didn’t evolve into Cofagrigus, which is one of the best Ghost-type Pokemon in the region. There’s a slight possibility that this cheerful little Yamask just didn’t want to evolve into a creepy Cofagrigus, but the series never addressed this in any way.
3 Jessie's Frillish
Yet Another Strong Ghost Who Never Evolved
- First Appearance: Episode 766
With time, Team Rocket decided to train even more Pokemon in the Unova region to deal with Ash, Pikachu, and their friends. So, at one point, Jessie caught a Frillish off-screen. This was already a bad sign because viewers couldn’t really get acquainted with the new member of her team.
Frillish proved to be stronger than Woobat, to the point that she even used a few Psychic-type moves, but she ultimately became yet another worthless punching bag. Considering that Jessie only used her in nine episodes total, she was completely wasted by her trainer, to the point that she never evolved into Jellicent, who is a much more powerful Pokemon that could’ve been of more use to the evil trio.
4 James' Amoonguss
A Support Pokemon Who Could Have Been More Supportive
- First Appearance: Episode 766
James also caught a new Pokemon off-screen in the Unova region, and that was his Amoonguss. Sadly, it never showed the same level of personality or close bond to its trainer that James’ many other Grass-type Pokemon had (Like Cacnea or Carnivine), so it was already way less memorable than any of them. Unlike all the other Pokemon Team Rocket caught in the Black & White series, Amoonguss was fully evolved, so it was stronger by default.
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It was somewhat helpful throughout the rest of the show, seeing as its role was usually to confuse Ash and his friends by using support moves like Spore or Stun Spore. However, most competitive players can ensure that Amoonguss has always been one of the best support Pokemon ever introduced in the franchise, and James never really used his to its fullest potential. With enough time and care, James’ Amoonguss could’ve become a real danger for the series' protagonists.
5 James' Inkay
The Only Pokemon James Caught In Kalos
- First Appearance: Episode 802
The little Inkay that James caught in the Kalos region is undoubtedly one of the most charming Pokemon he ever raised. After all, James is no stranger to befriending small and friendly Pokemon with a lot of personality. But, while Inkay was a memorable character, he left a lot to be desired in terms of battle prowess.
Inkay is a Psychic and Dark-type Pokemon with strange hypnotic abilities, yet James didn’t use them very often, which was highlighted even more by the fact that an evil Malamar (Inkay’s evolution) was a recurring antagonist throughout the XY series, showing Inkay how powerful he could have become. While this wouldn’t usually be an issue, this was the only Pokemon that James caught in the entire Kalos Region, meaning that he never really helped much in battles during that series.
6 Jessie’s Chewtle
Never Became The Mighty Dreadnaw They Were Hoping For
- First Appearance: Episode 1098
In the Pokemon Journeys, Team Rocket relied mostly on the assortment of Pokemon they could get from the Rocket Prize Master. But they did catch a few of their own, and one of the most interesting ones was Chewtle. Team Rocket decided to capture it after witnessing how powerful Gigantamax Dreadnaw was.
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Truth be told, this Chewtle was technically presented to Team Rocket's leader, Giovanni. But since it was obsessed with chewing on Jessie’s hair and was mostly ordered around by her, it’s usually associated with her. Chewtle was a memorable Pokemon with a funny personality, but it never reached its full potential, and it never evolved into Dreadnaw like Team Rocket was hoping. It was instead relegated to a few running gags and was forgotten in favor of other Pokemon from the Rocket Prize Master.
7 Most Pokemon From The Rocket Prize Master
Not Even The Powerful Ones Were Used Appropriately
- First Appearance: Episode 1088
But, sadly, not even the other Pokemon that Jessie and James got from the Rocket Prize Master were put to good use. While Pelipper’s capsule toy vending machine randomly gave them access to a large variety of creatures, of which some were relatively weak, sometimes they would get the opportunity to fight with some really powerful Pokemon.
Throughout Pokemon Journeys, Team Rocket used Pokemon like Gyarados, Machamp, Skarmory, Scolipede, Dusknoir, Beartic, and many more. But, despite a few impressive moments, Ash and Goh always managed to defeat them all without many problems. The most frustrating part is that Jessie and James are legitimately good trainers who can raise strong Pokemon, but their mishandling of the Rocket Prize Master demonstrated that they are just not good at using Pokemon they’re not familiar with.
