Team Plasma

Team Plasma (Japanese: Plasma-dan, literally Plasma Gang) is the villainous team with their organization based in the Unova region. Team Plasma's original goal was to "liberate" all Pokémon from their Trainers, by either manipulating the Trainer to release their Pokémon, or by theft. Ghetsis, Team Plasma's true leader, exploited the group in an attempt to rule Unova as the only one with Pokémon.
Two years after Team Plasma's defeat, the group returned with a new goal to rule Unova by freezing it using . A small group from the original Team Plasma was still loyal to N, and took it upon themselves to take care of weakened Pokémon in the wild.
==In the core series games==
===Pokémon Black and White===
Team Plasma is met early in the games. Ghetsis appears in Accumula Town where he is holding a rally trying to get people to join Team Plasma's cause. Following this rally the will be approached and battled by a person named N. After this, the player will next come across two s at the Dreamyard, in Striaton City, who are trying to capture a in order to get some Dream Mist to spread their message in people's dreams. After defeating them here they will steal a young girl's Pokémon and hide in the Wellspring Cave, located in Route 3. The player will team up with Cheren and save the Pokémon.
In Nacrene City, the player will run into N at the entrance of the Nacrene Gym, which also doubles as the city's museum. N will challenge the player to a Pokémon battle and leave after being defeated, allowing the player to proceed inside the museum and challenge Lenora. Right after the player obtains the Basic Badge, Team Plasma will attack the museum and steal a Dragon Skull, part of an exhibit. The player will team up with Burgh to chase Team Plasma into Pinwheel Forest where they will defeat the grunts, causing Gorm to return the skull, which the player then immediately gives to Lenora. The next encounter is in Castelia City where they have stolen Bianca's Munna. After confronting them, they will give Munna back.
After entering Nimbasa City, the player will find two grunts harassing an old man. After defeating them, they will run off into the city's amusement park. The player will follow the grunts and encounter N, who takes them to the Ferris wheel. During the ride, N will reveal that he is the leader of Team Plasma. The two will then battle after getting off the ride. 
The next encounter will be in Driftveil City, where Gym Leader Clay tells the player and Cheren they will be able to challenge the Gym if they catch Team Plasma in the Cold Storage. Zinzolin and a group of grunts will be found in the deepest part of said building, and Clay will take them into custody. Later, Ghetsis retrieves the restrained Team Plasma members, subtly threatening Clay as a means of negotiation.
Later, as the player journeys through the Chargestone Cave, in Route 6, they encounter N, who tells them they are to be tested by Team Plasma. The Shadow Triad are encountered for the first time, and they work as a guide through Team Plasma's trial. Near the cave's exit, N challenges the player to another battle.
N is then briefly encountered outside the Mistralton Gym, on his own, where he tests the friendship between the player and their current lead Pokémon. Cheren and the player will encounter some Team Plasma Grunts near Twist Mountain's exit, where they will be told that Team Plasma have found what they were looking for and that they are headed to Dragonspiral Tower in Icirrus City. However, they cannot be encountered before defeating Brycen at the Icirrus Gym. At the tower, N reawakens or . He challenges the player to revive the opposite legendary dragon and battle him at the Pokémon League and leaves. Alder arrives at the spot and advises everyone to go to the Relic Castle at the Desert Resort. After descending, Alder, Cheren, and the player find Ghetsis who tells them it is pointless to continue resisting them and leaves. Right after exiting the Relic Castle, Professor Juniper tells the player to go immediately to Nacrene City, where they will receive the Dark Stone/Light Stone. Ghetsis will then confront the player on the Tubeline Bridge and tell them that even though they have the Light/Dark Stone Team Plasma will achieve its goal. Soon after the player will witness Ghetsis giving another speech in Opelucid City.
After defeating the Elite Four, the player will head to the Champion's room where they will see N after he has defeated Alder. N will then reveal his castle, which rises out of the ground and attaches to the building. The player then chases N into the castle where the Seven Sages try to stop them. The Unova Gym Leaders, except the Striaton Gym Leaders, then appear to keep the sages busy while the player searches the castle. One of the Shadow Triad will guide the player around N's Castle, where the player can find N's room, and N's foster sisters, who will provide some information regarding N, and heal the player's team. Outside the throne room, Ghetsis will challenge the player to face N, confident that the player will not be recognized by the legendary dragon. After N confronts the player, the Dark Stone/Light Stone reacts to the environment and or reawakens. The player will have to capture the dragon and have it join their party. If the player's team is full, the game will give the option to send one of their Pokémon to the PC. The player and N will then have one final battle, with the player proving victorious. Ghetsis will arrive and violently lash out at N. He reveals his true goal, and decides he will still use N as the king of Team Plasma. Since the player now knows the truth, Ghetsis will try to silence them, starting a Pokémon battle. Alder and Cheren arrive at the room and witness the events, and when Ghetsis is defeated, it is them who escort them outside the room. N accepts his beliefs were misguided and confesses he had been doubting ever since he met the player back in Accumula Town. He will then bid farewell and fly away on or .
After the credits roll, Looker will appear at the player's house and request their help in finding and capturing the other Sages of Team Plasma. Each one of them will tell some back story on Team Plasma before being arrested. The Shadow Triad will also appear at Marvelous Bridge where they will give the player the Adamant, Lustrous, and Griseous Orbs. They also reveal that they rescued Ghetsis from being arrested and he has now fled.
Before the sage Ryoku is arrested at Relic Castle, he says that he was planning to catch the Pokémon and give it to Ghetsis, but no one knows his and N's whereabouts, and that no one even knows if they are really parent and child. Once all the sages are arrested, Looker says that he heard N was seen in a distant land with a Dragon Pokémon.
Some Team Plasma Grunts will also appear during the Liberty Pass event where they will take over Liberty Garden and try to capture .
 was going to be revived from a Fossil and powered up by Team Plasma to create the most powerful Pokémon ever, but the project was abandoned because N felt that any Pokémon modified by science had lost its pureness. However, one scientist kept working on it, annoyed that N denied his talent. This scientist reconstructed Genesect and powered up the gun on its back.
As a part of Ghetsis's plan, Team Plasma had set up a laboratory in N's Castle which was used to attack and break the security around Amanita's Pokémon Storage System and gain master access to it with the intention of releasing every Pokémon that was stored there. Team Plasma had everything ready to begin releasing Pokémon, but this plan would only be carried out on N's command; since N, Ghetsis, and Team Plasma were ultimately defeated by the player, the plan was never executed.
===Pokémon Black 2 and White 2===
In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Team Plasma is broken into two different forces. One force remains loyal to N and, seeking atonement, dedicates itself to the protection of Pokémon that were separated from their s; the other is loyal to Ghetsis and serves a new purpose: to take over Unova.
The new Team Plasma first appears at Floccesy Ranch where they try to steal a , but they are stopped. They are found again in Virbank City, where they attempt to steal the player and Hugh's Pokémon. After fending them off, Hugh believes they have retreated to Castelia City, where they are found in Castelia Sewers. Colress appears in the sewers, where he mentions he is researching how to draw out the most strength from Pokémon. After defeating Burgh at the Castelia Gym, Colress will use a special machine to clear the blocking off .
In Nimbasa City, Team Plasma is confronted by Hugh who demands answers from them about a Pokémon kidnapping in Aspertia City. After competing in the Pokémon World Tournament, the player, Hugh, and Cheren confront Team Plasma on their ship which has docked at the PWT. There Zinzolin appears and reveals they have a new plan to take over the Unova region before telling the Shadow Triad to remove the trio from the ship. After winning at the Mistralton Gym, Professor Juniper sends the player to Opelucid City to find out more information about the Legendary Dragon Pokémon from Drayden. On the way, the player and Hugh encounter Zinzolin in Lacunosa Town where they battle him and a grunt in a tag battle.
Following the player's victory at the Opelucid Gym, Team Plasma begin their operation by covering Opelucid City and nearby routes with ice in search of Drayden's DNA Splicers. They are quickly defeated and retreat to the Seaside Cave, although Opelucid City remains frozen for some time. After winning at the Humilau Gym, the player heads to where Colress gives them his device to make the Crustle roadblocks disappear. Upon making it past the Crustle, the player defeats the Team Plasma members inside the Plasma Frigate, but once again is removed from the ship by the Shadow Triad and watches the ship fly off.
They track it down to the Giant Chasm where once again they must fight their way through the ship. Upon the defeat of Zinzolin and the new boss Colress, Ghetsis reveals himself as the true mastermind behind Team Plasma. He again reveals that he never intended to liberate Pokémon two years ago; it was just a ploy to get N to follow his plans. After defeating the Shadow Triad, the player gives chase to Ghetsis and finds him in the deepest part of the Giant Chasm, where he summons . Ghetsis orders Kyurem to attack the player, but the attack is stopped at last minute by N who arrives to save them. Ghetsis is not surprised by this, who then uses the stolen DNA Splicers to merge Kyurem with N's Dragon. The player then takes on the new Dragon as well as Ghetsis and puts an end to his plans once and for all. Colress then disbands Team Plasma for good, taking the Plasma Frigate and docking it outside the P2 Laboratory where he continues his research.
There is also a group of former Team Plasma members, still loyal to N, who reside in the house just above Driftveil Gym with Rood, Anthea, and Concordia. Ashamed of their past deeds, they have vowed to make amends by returning the Pokémon taken from their Trainers, as well as caring for the Pokémon whose Trainers they couldn't find. They openly welcome the and Hugh into their cause to help stop Ghetsis and take care of the abandoned Pokémon. As such, Rood gives the player N's Zorua, deeming them a caring Trainer. They also confront the new Team Plasma at the Giant Chasm and help hold them off so the player can enter the Plasma Frigate. The player can also find N's Pokémon in various locations after witnessing a Memory Link.
On , Mae mentions that she was a , and that she battled /.
==In the spin-off games==
===Pokémon Masters EX===
Team Plasma serves as secondary antagonistic force during the Villain Arc.
==In animation==
===Pokémon the Series===
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Before Team Plasma's proper debut in the series, mentioned a secret organization operating in the Unova region and wanted to draw them out.
N debuted in New Places... Familiar Faces! followed by Colress, Ghetsis and the grunts from Black 2 and White 2 in Team Plasma's Pokémon Power Plot!. Anthea and Concordia also appeared in Team Plasma's Pokémon Manipulation!, and the Seven Sages appeared in a flashback in Secrets From Out of the Fog!.
Team Plasma had a role in Genesect and the Legend Awakened, where multiple grunts were seen overseeing the awakening of the newly revived Genesect Army. However, they only had control of the Genesect for a short time before the five Paleozoic Pokémon rebelled and violently escaped.
In Ash and N: A Clash of Ideals!, Team Plasma attacked the in order to steal the Light Stone discovered by Cedric Juniper. After successfully obtaining the stone, Ghetsis performed a ritual that resurrected from the stone. Using Colress's Pokémon Control Device, Ghetsis then took control of Reshiram, but with the support of Ash's Pikachu, Reshiram was able to fight back against its controllers and destroy the control machine. Ghetsis, Colress, and the Plasma Grunts present were subsequently arrested by the International Police, thus bringing down the organization.
Unlike other teams, Team Plasma has named grunts in . Aldith and Barret are two grunts who answered directly to Colress and Ghetsis and acted as commanders toward other, unnamed grunts. Two others, Schwarz and Weiss, have been seen conducting specific operations and may be of similar rank.
=====Postponed episodes=====
Team Plasma, in their incarnation from the original Black and White games, was initially set to debut in and in a confrontation with Team Rocket over the Meteonite. They intended to use the Meteonite's ability to influence Pokémon into leaving their Trainers. In May 2023, the scripts for these episodes surfaced in the public,https://bulbagarden.net/threads/bw023-bw024-unaired-scripts-found.297127/ revealing that Ghetsis was intended to debut during the latter of the two episodes. N was also mentioned, being referred to as "the hero" of Team Plasma.
These episodes were postponed indefinitely due to the and the . With the events depicted in Team Plasma's Pokémon Power Plot!, the episodes have been retconned out of continuity altogether. It is unknown if they will ever air in any form.
===Pokémon Generations===
Team Plasma first appeared in The Uprising. The Seven Sages (except Ghetsis) and multiple appeared at the after N's Castle rose from the ground and surrounded the League. The team was faced by the Gym Leaders from Unova, who arrived to stop them.
Team Plasma reappeared in The Frozen World, this time assuming its role from . The team attacked Opelucid City and froze the city using , allowing Zinzolin to steal the DNA Splicers from Drayden.
In The King Returns, Ghetsis was seen in Giant Chasm, where he ordered Kyurem to continue freezing Unova. He was confronted by N and , but managed to fuse Reshiram with Kyurem using the DNA Splicers, creating . At the end of the episode, arrived with his to put a stop to Team Plasma's plans.
==In the manga==
===Pokémon Adventures===
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Team Plasma was first seen in An Odd Speech, where they were attempting to build a stage for Ghetsis's speech on the place and were sleeping that night. The next day, Ghetsis gave a speech to the citizens of Accumula Town, urging them to liberate their Pokémon, which some of the listeners actually did. It was later revealed that Black's Tula used to belong to another Trainer until Team Plasma convinced the Trainer to release him, some time after when Black fought .
Some time after this, three grunts harassed Musha at the Dreamyard and were also behind the artifact robbery of the Nacrene Museum. It is also revealed what Team Plasma is after in order to achieve their ultimate goal: a who would help their leader to unite the minds of the people in Unova as one and liberate Pokémon. They kidnapped 's Litwick, together with several other Pokémon and held them in their stronghold in Castelia City. Later, they also attempted to capture at Liberty Garden. Ryoku also sought to capture of Relic Castle. In Nimbasa City, N trapped White in a Ferris wheel car and announced himself as the king of Team Plasma.
Several Team Plasma operations throughout this chapter were conducted by the Shadow Triad; in particular, their kidnapping of the Unova Gym Leaders at the same time that they set their sights on stealing the Dark Stone. At the end of the arc, several Team Plasma Grunts escaped.
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One of the Team Plasma Grunts who escaped, , became a Pokédex holder by this chapter, which was set two years after the previous arc. By that time, Team Plasma reemerged as a new force led by Colress, who designed the Grunts' new attire.
Their main goal now was to freeze Unova by acquiring Kyurem, which they had succeeded at the Pokémon World Tournament. By enhancing its power with the Plasma Frigate, they managed to freeze over 70% of Unova and even had Kyurem fuse with Zekrom. However, their control of Kyurem was short-lived once the white Team Plasma succeeded in disabling the Colress Machine. With the help of the Unova Pokédex holders, all the members of Team Plasma were arrested at the Giant Chasm.
==In the TCG==
Team Plasma started being featured in the Pokémon Trading Card Game during the expansion, in which the first member to be featured was . Team Plasma was featured through the to expansion as a , which certain effects of cards directly interacted with them.
This is a listing of cards that does not include their own classification.
==Trivia==
* is a state of matter in which the negative s and positive that usually form atoms become pulled apart and separated. This is analogous with Team Plasma's ideology, which states that people and Pokémon should be separated from one another.
** Plasma can be interpreted as the culmination of both and .
* Team Plasma's original theme resembles that of the medieval knights.
** Their logo resembles a shield.
** The lettering in their logo resembles the symbol.
*** The symbol on their shield is made up of the letters P and Z, possibly from the transliteration of the Japanese for "plasma", purazuma (プラズマ).
** Ghetsis's clothing resembles the of a fortified position such as a castle.
** Their base is a castle.
** N is known as "king of Team Plasma" or "Lord N", as opposed to the "Boss" title used by other villainous teams.
* Team Plasma's theme in Black 2 and White 2 resembles that of classical pirates.
** There is a mark on the grunts' hats which appears to be a toned-down .
** Their base, the Plasma Frigate, is styled after a sailing ship complete with gangplank, posing as such in Castelia City and the Pokémon World Tournament.
** Ghetsis' cane is modeled after the helm of a ship.
** Ghetsis is seen wearing a type of eyepatch, which, in Black 2 and White 2, is darkened to resemble that seen by typical pirates.
** They are now far more open about how malevolent their intentions are; knights are seen as honorable, while pirates are seen as thieving criminals.
** They also bear a resemblance to ninjas, which is reflected in the increased prominence of the Shadow Triad.
* Team Plasma is the only main series villainous team to not have any administrators challenge the player at various points throughout Black and White. In fact, Ghetsis and N are the only non-grunt members to even battle the player. This is no longer the case in Black 2 and White 2.
** It is also encountered the earliest in their own game of all villainous teams to this date.
* In , Team Plasma debuts later in their respective series than any other villainous team to date, first appearing in the 112th episode of .
** However, if Team Plasma's original debut had aired as planned, this distinction would belong to Team Yell instead.
==Names==
Language 	Name 	Origin
Japanese 	プラズマ団 Plasma-dan 	From
English, French,German, Italian	Team Plasma 	Same as Japanese name
Spanish 	Equipo Plasma 	Same as Japanese name
Korean 	플라스마단 Plasma-dan 	Same as Japanese name
Chinese () 	等離子隊 / 等离子队 Děnglízǐ Duì 	From 等离子体 děnglízǐtǐ, plasma
Chinese () 	電漿團 Diànjiāng Tuán 	From 電漿 diànjiāng, plasma
Chinese () 	等離子隊 Dánglèihjí Déui 	From 等離子體 dánglèihjí, plasma
Chinese () 	等離子團 Dánglèihjí Tyùhn 	From 等離子體 dánglèihjí, plasma
Finnish 	Plasmaryhmä 	Same as English name
Greek 	Ομάδας Πλάσμα Omádas Plásma 	Same as English name
Indonesian 	Tim Plasma 	Same as English name
Malaysian 	Kumpulan Plasma 	Same as English name
Polish 	Zespół Plazma 	Same as English name
Brazilian Portuguese 	Equipe Plasma 	Same as English name
European Portuguese 	Equipa Plasma 	Same as English name
Russian 	Команда Плазма Komanda Plazma 	Same as English name
Thai 	แก๊งพลาสม่า Gang Plasmaกลุ่มพลาสม่า Klum Plasmaแก๊งค์พลาสม่า Gang Plasma	Same as Japanese name
Vietnamese 	Nhóm PlasmaBăng Plasma 	Transliteration of Japanese name
==References==
==Related articles==
* 
* Images on the Bulbagarden Archives
*
Plasma
Category:Black and White characters
Category:Black 2 and White 2 characters
de:Team Plasma
es:Equipo Plasma
fr:Team Plasma
it:Team Plasma
ja:プラズマ団
zh:等离子队