Meowth (Team Rocket)

**Meowth** is a talking pokemon, a member of Team Rocket and the main antagonist of the *Pokemon* franchise and the arch-enemy of Ash's Pikachu.

## Personality

Meowth has an ambitious, conniving, and idealistic personality. He has made it his life goal to please Giovanni and will stop at nothing to capture or steal useful or rare Pokémon for him, especially Ash's Pikachu, which he has been pursuing since he first encountered him.

Unlike most other Pokémon, who (according to Arbok) are not truly evil and will only commit evil deeds when ordered to do so, Meowth is both perfectly capable of and willing to commit evil deeds under his own volition.

Meowth has been shown to be a bit of a philosopher. In **Mewtwo Strikes Back**, he and Meowthtwo (in addition to Pikachu) were the only Pokémon not to participate in the giant battle, Meowth remarking that the originals and the clones shared the same air, moon, and planet, giving them common ground. He noted that if all living beings focused on what was the same among them as opposed to what was different, the world would be a much better place.

Meowth has demonstrated aspirations of being a parent figure, like when he coddled Togetic's egg before fighting for custody of it, only to finally lose it to Misty.

Because he can speak and is a Pokémon, Meowth is able to easily translate a Pokémon's speech.

## Relationships

On a few occasions, Meowth has become stranded with Pikachu, and during these times, the two work together fairly well. Pikachu distrusts Meowth for obvious reasons, but Meowth is more willing to temporarily let go of the past and work together.

Meowth does have a soft side for Ash's Infernape. He comforted Infernape as a Chimchar and expressed some admiration for Ash and his friends, commenting, "You (Chimchar) have buddies who'd give you the shirt off their backs if you needed one." He was also driven to tears as he watched Chimchar evolve and cheered for it in the Sinnoh League.

During the time when Meowth was traveling with the group, Oshawott fought with him, usually when the two exploit two of their characteristics at the same time (falling in love with the same Pokémon, or when their prides are being entangled).

Meowth can be an amorous Pokémon, developing crushes on occasion. The first of these was Meowzie. Meowth later fell for May's Skitty. However, due to the fact that Jessie wanted to catch Skitty, Meowth helped Skitty escape in order to avoid Skitty joining Team Rocket and getting hurt. Later on, he fell in love with another Skitty. Meowth later fell in love with a Mamie's Glameow. Similar to Skitty, Meowth tried to get away from Jessie and James so Glameow would not join them in blasting off. Luke's Zorua used this trait to her advantage and turned into a female Meowth, causing Meowth to become infatuated. Meowth later fell in love with a Purrloin, but lost them when he learned that Purrloin was male.

## Battle Skills

With a few exceptions, Meowth normally does not battle; his explanation is that his ability to talk and walk upright came at the expense of battling ability.

When faced against Brock's Onix, Meowth realised this his attacks were ineffective. When he saw some buckets of water, knowing that Onix is weak to water, he used them against Onix along with his Fury Swipes, defeating it.

After Meowth was surrounded by Jessie, James, Ash, Dawn, Brock and Mamie when trying to defend the Glameow he had developed feelings for, Meowth gained power from the love he felt, allowing him to defeat several Pokémon at once, including Ash's Infernape and Staraptor, Jessie's Seviper and Yanmega and Dawn's Togekiss. However, after getting hit with James's Carnivine's Bullet Seed, Glameow evolved into Purugly and squished Meowth, making Meowth lose his feelings for her, along with all his power.

## Pokémon

Despite being a Pokémon himself, Meowth has occasionally commanded other Pokémon.