James

James is a recurring antagonist in the Pokémon anime (and later video games) alongside Jessie and Meowth, he is a member of Team Rocket.
==Personality==
In his debut anime appearance and onwards, James is initially seen as a calm and serious person who tends to recite the Team Rocket motto with more elegance and flair than his cohorts. As the series continued, however, much of the trio's original seriousness melted away.
In Holy Matrimony!, James shows his very sensitive side and intense fear when it comes to his wealthy family, particularly due to his heavily enforced, sheltered upbringing and the constant harassment he had endured from his childhood fiancée Jessiebelle. His parents were negative influences, as shown when he finally grows up and displays a clear disdain and fear concerning their wishes to marry him off to Jessiebelle. He sensitively questions whether he has a "duty to be manipulated", and he calls out his parents as being "lousy" due to their failure to realize the detrimental effects that Jessiebelle's attitude had on his upbringing. He openly despises upper-class society, lamenting about how it seems to him that they have strict rules for just about everything; feelings which were most likely triggered by Jessiebelle's constant criticism. In The Treasure is All Mine!, however, it is shown that before his rebellious attitude arose in him, James cared deeply for his parents. He also clearly cares for his grandparents, Nanny and Pop-Pop as seen in Sweet Baby James!.
Despite his reputation as a "bad guy", James temporarily sides with Ash and his friends on various occasions, and occasionally calls on their help as well. James usually honors such truces towards Ash and his friends as a method of shielding his criminal history from people such as his grandparents. This is shown on one occasion in Sweet Baby James! In this episode, James shows an obvious adoration towards his Nanny and Pop-Pop, even scolding Jessie and Meowth for carrying out their usual antics while in their care. At the end of the episode, James tells his grandparents the truth about his loyalties, and they remark that he still has the same sweet personality he had as a child.
He is shown to be the most emotional of the Team Rocket trio and apparently has the greatest moral conscience among the three. Despite this, he is not all pure but he is therefore not prone to backstabbing anyone who is kind to him. James lacks some of the constant optimism and motivation his teammates have and is shown to become depressed when he fails at something. Despite these brief depressive periods, James is actually arguably the most lighthearted and least serious of the trio. Part of James' eccentricity is shown through his affinity for collecting rare bottle caps, a hobby which he traces far back into his childhood. However, his childlike mindset often gets him into trouble, too, such as being repeatedly scammed by the same Magikarp salesman in various different episodes, much to the disapproval of Jessie and Meowth.
James, although light-hearted, is actually fairly intelligent and often loses his patience with his teammates. In both All Dressed Up With Somewhere To Go! and The Eletrike Company, James displays his anger towards his teammates when Jessie and Meowth prohibit him and his Mime Jr. to perform in the Dress-up contest after attempting to steal the prized Pokemon Egg. James and Meowth both later show an effort to effectively thwart Jessie's plans when she set her heart on stealing an electric-type Pokémon.
James has a big heart when it comes to his Pokémon. This is demonstrated when he recounts his love for his first Pokémon, Growlithe, who is extremely loyal to him. James considers Growlie to be a friend rather than a Pokémon, and other Pokémon such as Chimecho, Mime Jr., and Inkay are shown to have similar loving and loyal relationships with James. whenever James is forced to release a Pokémon, he shows great emotion and sediment for his parting friends, such as his tearful goodbye to his beloved Chimecho, who is currently in the care of his grandparents. He seems to be partial to dangerous Grass Pokémon such as Victreebel, Cacnea, and Carnivine, who have such profound affection for him that it often causes him to scold them in annoyance when it interferes with a battle. In the Sun & Moon series, he also cares for his Water Pokémon, Mareanie, despite how dangerous she is when she poisons him in affection.
In some episodes throughout the series, James has a tendency to cross-dress, which was shown frequently in the original anime and has since died down or disappeared completely.
He is also a make-up expert as seen in some episodes where he made a simple make-up and accessories for Wobbuffet and Jessie as Jessilina for the contest but Jessie ruined it for her own desire to win much of his horrible shock and dismay leaving them both to lose the competition until they were blasted off by both Dawn's Buneary and Paris' Lopunny's Bounce after Jessie takes revenge by personally stole the accessories of the contest using their robot machine which James didn't participate in their antics due to his efforts in making a simple make-up and accessories for both Jessie and Wobbuffet are ruined by Jessie herself. In the XY series, he put Wobbuffet some make-up and fashionable attires to show it to Ash and the group.
In the events of Pokémon: Black & White during their mission in Unova, James maintains his calm and serious personality we saw in his debut appearance, but due to his promotion as an Advanced Agent, he no longer cares for his beloved family or anyone else. He simply shows his antagonistic side, remaining stoic and sociopathic whenever he was engaged in a serious mission, especially those involving trying to capture Ash's Pikachu. However, after the failure of Operation Tempest, James' antagonistic behavior finally subsides and he returns to his usual personality from before.
An interesting note is that during his motto with Jessie and Meowth, James is usually seen handling a red rose to show his calm and elegant demeanor. However, in their missions in Unova whenever they capture any Pokémon, especially Ash's Pikachu, James is usually seen handling a black rose due to Jessie handling a red rose during their motto. This implies his personality change which becomes apparent when they improve their old motto.
In the XY series during the episode, Heroes, Friends and Faux Alike!, James, along with Jessie and Meowth, are able to disguise themselves as Ash, Serena and Bonnie in order to place blame on the real ones for their actions of hurting/stealing Pokemon.
James also retains in making truces to Ash and the group when facing off against powerful enemies such as the evil Malamar who initially brainwashed him and kidnapping his friends within their Psychic grasp to do their plot on destroying the world and the Pokémon Hunter and his Rhyperior who managed to capture both Inkay and Meowth.
Throughout the series despite their evil acts towards Ash and the group to capture Pikachu or other Pokémon, James, Jessie and Meowth are also dealing against criminal organizations from different regions such as Team Aqua and Team Magma in Hoenn, Team Galactic in Sinnoh, Team Plasma in Unova, Team Flare in Kalos and Team Skull in Alola.
Like Jessie and Meowth, James badly remarks about the criminal grunts' appearance and outfits in every different region and is particularly critical of Team Flare's uniforms.
As other grunts from other regions such as Saturn, Charon, and Mars from Team Galactic and later both Celosia, Mable, and Bryony from Team Flare remarking the three of them as a nuisance for interfering in their plans.
==Fanon Appearances==
===TPXZF1997's Super Smash Bros.===
James appears as a Primary Spirit.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
Category:Pokémon (series)
Category:Pokémon Characters
Category:Males
Category:Villains
Category:Non-playable Characters
Category:Non-fanon
Category:Non-fanon characters
Category:TheProjectXZoneFan1997's Super Smash Bros.