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Team Rocket Psycho-analysis

By Sillabub

JESSIE

Although Jessie projects the aura of being very conceited and sure of herself, on the inside she has very low self-esteem. In fact, the reason she acts so self-admiring is BECAUSE of her low self-esteem.

Although she is very intelligent and beautiful, nobody except herself has ever told her so. As such, she goes on and on about how intelligent and beautiful she is in hopes that someone will affirm. When she's not hitting James with something, she often goes so far as to repeatedly confirm him as a genius, etc., hoping that he will take a hint and do the same for her, although he is usually too busy agreeing that yes, he is a genius, to catch on.

Jessie is also usually the one who stops James or Meowth from saying anything bad about Team Rocket (e.g. they are losers, etc.) because she desperately wants to believe that she really is part of something that is worthy of praise and admiration.

Jessie also likes to have total control of James and Meowth (i.e. Paper fan, metal pot, etc.) because it allows her to feel that she has total control over her own life, which is spinning wildly OUT of control. The more she tries to tighten her grasp on it, the more she loses hold. Keeping James and Meowth in line with the use of marginal violence and insults is really a desperate inner plea from the tired, stressed, overworked inner child who still misses her old boyfriend and badly needs a vacation.

JAMES

Although James does not have a split personality per se, there are really two slightly different Jameses that are dominant at different times.

The first group of characteristics that James exhibits often are those that resulted from the fact that James was forced to grow up too quickly, and, as a result, he's an adult on the outside and a child on the inside. He possesses the childlike quality of having an oversized amount of self-confidence; unlike Jessie, when James calls himself a genius, he really believes it.

One of his most common preoccupations is eating, and if you'll remember, he used training wheels on his bicycle even as a teenager. James became caught up in the gangster life before he was ready for that sort of thing, and the training wheels were a way of clinging to his youth. The fact that he never really learned how to ride without them is not an example of incompetence; he never learned how to ride without them because of a mental barrier that prevented him from wanting to. James does not have a low mental capacity, he is just a little naive and greedy. Because of those qualities, he's the easiest Team Rocket member to take advantage of (e.g. the Magikarp incident).

James immensely enjoys the high rate of empathy that he, Jessie, and Meowth share as part of Team Rocket; there is nothing he likes more than a good round of speaking in rhyme or plotting mischief together.

Although he cares deeply for his fellow members of Team Rocket, he does not often show it. This could either be because he doesn't know how to show it or because he doesn't actually realise how much he cares.

The second group of dominant James characteristics are those that spring from the fact that when he can suppress the infantile part of himself, he is really a romantic at heart; an admirer of poetry, fine art, and music. Of course, the only remainder of this attitude he is typically able to exhibit is the single red rose he carries with him everywhere.

MEOWTH

Meowth has a lot of pent-up rage and anger. He, like Jessie, likes to feel as if he's the one in control-- the mastermind, as it were. This is why he usually takes the position of "reminding" Jessie and James what they're supposed to be doing, correcting them if he thinks they've done something wrong, and scratching them if he thinks they've revealed too much of their plans.

The revelation that he had been ousted from his position of Top Cat by Persian really hit him hard for several reasons. That wasn't the first time he had suffered rejection, and it wasn't an experience he cared to repeat. Of course, Meowth handles rejections in a very unique manner; after a short period of moping, etc., he immediately dismisses the notion that the rejection was a result of any inadequacy on his part and becomes occupied with overturning it somehow (i.e. his plans to get rid of Persian). Meowth has very few problems with self-esteem except where Persian is concerned.

Meowth takes on the role of being the "owner" of Jessie and James; he is protective of them, but not so much that he could be considered as a father or big brother role. He is quick to judge their situation and point out exactly what they're doing wrong and what they SHOULD be doing. He thinks of himself as the leader, representative, and mascot of Team Rocket because of his exalted position of Top Cat; however, this opinion of himself did not change even after he discovered he was no longer Top Cat.

Although he acts as if he has no faith in Jessie and James's competence and ability, he really has quite a bit of confidence in them to come through in spades and often becomes worried about them if he is not aware of their whereabouts.

Meowth is not all business, however; no one's quicker than he to pop into a conversation with a bad pun, advice gem, self-exalting "sales plug," or a moment of temporary insanity. And we all know how he loves to make a splashy entrance.