Giovanni

**Giovanni** is the main antagonist in Pokémon Red (Animation Series) and the former leader of Team Rocket. He also served as the Viridian City Gym Leader and specializes in Ground-Type Pokémon. His title was "The Self-Proclaimed Strongest Trainer!".

## Biography

### Early life

Years ago, Giovanni was a respected scientist and Gym Leader at the Viridian City, but his theories about Pokémon were laughed off by his peers. Giovanni tried to prove the existence of a Mysterious Pokémon he discovered, claiming a piece of its fur when it flew away, and tried to claim how it was connected to all the other Pokémon. But, his theories were rejected by his fellow scientists, and even his friends Agatha, Bruno, and Oak did not believe him.

Giovanni tried to push his theories to other people, but kept getting rejected and laughed at for them. As the years went on, Giovanni began to show resentment towards his friends: he became jealous when Oak created the first Pokédex, and he was passed over for a promotion to become a member of the Elite Four over Bruno thanks to Captain John. Two people began to believe Giovanni's theories, Ariana and Archer, and helped him study Pokémon to help prove them. But Giovanni grew desperate and stole DNA of the Mysterious Pokémon from a nearby lab, hoping Oak would help prove his theories were correct. Instead, Oak threw him out of his lab, disgusted that he stole DNA for his own selfish ideals.

Finally reaching his breaking point, along with having a family to raise with Ariana, Giovanni started Team Rocket and began making shady deals across Kanto to make his theories true. He sold stolen Pokémon to the Game Corner and got Petrel involved, and he bribed Blaine into helping him create a Pokémon with the Mysterious Pokémon's DNA. Their efforts resulted in the creation of Mewtwo, but one night, the latter blasted out of the Pokémon Mansion and escaped. In the chaos, Giovanni and his family escaped, but his oldest daughter Mars was taken in by the Global Police for safety.

### Growing Plans

By the start of the series, Giovanni continued to lead Team Rocket and their infamous was known across Kanto. When a Grunt returned after losing TM - 28 to Red, meaning Team Rocket could not use Dig to gather Pokémon Fossils or find a way into the Cerulean Cave, Giovanni had Ariana take the former into a room where her Arbok ate him alive.

Weeks later, Giovanni led a group of Team Rocket members, including Ariana, his son Silver, and Proton, into the Cerulean Caves. Having found Mewtwo, Giovanni planned on capturing the former, only for Mewtwo to defeat the Pokémon they sent out. Then, Mewtwo used his Psychic abilities to force Giovanni to recall past, making him enraged that the former would make him remember his failures. Giovanni ordered his henchmen to capture Mewtwo, but it fails. Then, Giovanni ordered Nidoking to use Strength on Mewtwo, but the latter took the shattered pieces of boulder Nidoking threw at it, and sent it back to the latter. Doing so resulted in Nidoking losing an eye. In desperation, Giovanni tried to punch Mewtwo in the face, only to get sent flying across the room.

With the mission a failure, Giovanni and his group returned to the Team Rocket Hideout to recover. While recovering, Giovanni read about Silph Co. developing a Master Ball.

## Pokémon Team

### Back up Pokémon

If Giovanni's main team is unavailable, he has back up Pokémon to use when battling.

## Trivia

* He and Blaine are the only Gym Leaders that were a part of Team Rocket. They are also the only Gym Leaders with criminal records.