Bio

James

Canon: Pokémon (anime)

Age: 25

Canon Point: SM058

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If there is darkness at the end of the universe,
Let us show you the light!
Run! Sparkle! Show how you shine!

Is love justice? Is justice evil?
A puppet show with a sudden reversal!
Watch this play where we are the stars!
There is a future in the Pokémon era!

If you see light at the end of the universe;
There you will find our faces.
Inventory:

• Crystal Amulet (Taking the form of a small, crystalline rose)


• Civilian Clothes (t-shirt, shorts, cap, sunglasses, sandals. Sometimes he ties his hair back)


• Team Rocket Uniform


• Booklet on Pokémon


• Poké Ball x 6 (5 empty, one has Mareanie)


• Darkinium Z

Background:

Wiki Article

Personality:

"I still can't believe that our Little James got all mixed up in that Team Rocket."
"Me neither, but he's still the same sweetheart he was when he was just a little boy. And it looks like he's found some good friends; friends that are looking after him, too. So it doesn't really matter what they call themselves, now, does it? After all, he's gonna be who he's gonna be..."

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To understand James as a person it's necessary to understand a bit about his personal history and what it is he wants from his own life.

Ever since I was a kid I hated how upper class society had rules for absolutely everything!

James was born to an obscenely wealthy family in Kanto. Growing up he wanted for nothing, at least materially. He was given a good education complete with personal tutors, the finest Mareep's wool clothing, and he celebrated holidays in over the top, opulent ways. What his upbringing lacked was warmth. James's tutors would sometimes whack him for doing anything wrong, even if it was something like using his eating utensils improperly. They were around the house constantly, filling every day of James's life with non-stop lessons and his parents were oblivious to his unhappiness. He only ever found escape from his suffocating home life when he got to visit his paternal grandparents, whom he loves a great deal to this day. When he was still very young his parents arranged for him to be married to a girl named Jessebelle whom he once showed interest in. Once the wedding was announced, however, she became overly controlling even wanting him to abandon his beloved Pokémon companion, Growlie.

Eventually, James could not take it anymore and he ran away from home feeling that all the money in the world could not make up for his lack of autonomy. He eventually wound up in a bicycle gang with an old Pokémon Tech associate named Jessie and the two of them reunited again as trainees at the headquarters of the far-reaching crime syndicate called Team Rocket.

As an adult he feels he can never go home, as things have not improved since he left. His fiancée's controlling behavior has become abusive and she chases James with a whip to scare him into deference and paralyzes him with her Vileplume's Stun Spore to prevent his escape (something James says she's done more than once). His parents are aware of this and are sometimes even in the room when it happens. They approve if it means breaking their delinquent son to the point that he'll agree to marry. Now that James has grown their only ambition for him is to see him produce an heir, nothing else matters. James would rather live a life of crime than shackle himself to a stifling life of unhappiness and abuse.

Now a criminal, James is often starving but he's okay with this because he has his friends (Jessie and Meowth) and he is free. Having so much of his happiness wrapped up in the Team Rocket identity means that when he and his companions part ways he is the most lost and is the most likely to do something desperate to lure them back to his side. The only times he stands aside to let the group dissolve is when he catches a glimpse of his friends' lives without him. If they seem happier, he'll let them go but he'll wallow in misery over it. Without Team Rocket he feels he has nothing. Jessie and Meowth may have other ambitions but James is running away from his old life and has no other one to turn to outside the criminal path. Being a criminal means moving around off the grid, making it harder for his parents and their infinite resources to find him and drag him home. Being a criminal also means freedom, not just from his family, but from society in general. As of Sun and Moon James often has landed into the position of the trio's leader not because he is good at leading (he very much is not, Jessie can take over with ease) but because he cares the most about the job. The job gives him purpose.

And with thunderous emotion, I am James!

His emotional intelligence is incredibly high which allows him to be in touch with the landscape of his own heart as well as the hearts of others....Sometimes, anyway. He is particularly in tune with his Pokémon, he loves them as if they were his own children, and he cares deeply for his teammates. He, Jessie, and Meowth are at their best operating as single unit and James knows this. It's not just his friends and Pokémon who receive kindness from him; if he encounters anyone with struggles similar to his own he will often empathize with them and try to help them out. He can empathize with enemies as well which can declaw him during certain jobs, much to Jessie's chagrin. She's told James before that the team would have had great success if not for James's constant feelings. Unfortunately, while he can feel deep empathy he is somewhat less good with sympathy. It's easy for him to see and feel the suffering of others if he understands that suffering himself but if he doesn't understand it, he can be cruel. James can kidnap people and drag them out into the woods to try and coerce information from them and not feel any compassion for their fear at the situation. He can also help out one of the main characters whose Pokémon lost a stick because he knows what it's like to lose part of a precious collection (he takes his collections very seriously).

There is no emotion James experiences half way. When he is angry he'll howl his rage from the rooftops, when sad he'll break down in tears and when happy he dances as he moves. His feelings guide his moral compass which means he's a man who will, as mentioned above, shut down a job just to help someone who is having troubles he can empathize with even if that someone is an established foe or an intended mark. He is also a man who would, for example, steal an entire power plant and knock a city off the electrical grid over a perceived slight. Emotions dictate his actions over logic so he can be painfully naive at times. There is a salesmen who has conned James numerous times just by poking at something James feels strongly about. Normally when things go wrong James experiences despair and not anger. His empathy usually steers his moral compass towards kindness and a milder temperament overall but it's dangerous to think that's the way he'll always lean because on the rare occasion he gets truly angry he can go an a rampage until physically restrained.

Due to his history James tends to be overly submissive and lacking in true self confidence. He will roll over for the wishes of stronger personalities in the interest of preventing conflict. He also will surrender his Pokémon to better Trainers or attempt to release them into the wild, feeling that they can find happiness and a more fulfilling life without him. This is, however, something he's been getting better with the longer he's spent around the fiery Jessie. He's learning to stick up for himself and snap back when he feels he needs to. His confidence is also coming back, but much more slowly. James will certainly have spikes of overconfidence, eagerly taking advantage of anything that seems to remotely favor him until it explodes in his face, and he is capable of wearing a mask of bravado but it's often short lived. The lack of confidence also manifests as him being, perhaps surprisingly, a shy man. James is very proud of his own physical beauty so he will dress up in outrageous outfits or crossdress (as he said to Misty, his beauty is not specific to a man or woman so why not?) for the sake of a Team Rocket Scheme but he doesn't have any desire to make his face known. He has a distaste in particular for large audiences. Crowds are less of an issue but being on stage or on camera can make him freeze until someone puts it in his head that he has to perform for the sake of Team Rocket. He has a deep well of faith in Team Rocket so as long as he is doing something for the Team's sake he is generally confident but he's slow to do anything for himself or his own happiness. Meowth has pointed out that sometimes, when he's acting on behalf of the Team, James becomes a different person.

James: All intelligent life will be destroyed! And I'll be...
Meowth: You'll be just fine.

James's lack of confidence, tendency to think with his heart instead of his head, and his submissive attitude means he has developed a reputation for gross incompetence and being generally dimwitted. It's a fate undeserved, some might say. He and his two companions fair as well as everyone else when it comes to capturing the Pikachu belonging to series protagonist Ash. When he turns his attention away from the show's hero he is very capable. During the Black & White arc James showed off the fact that he is an excellent hacker and stealth artist; able to break into some of the most high security research facilities in the world without leaving a trace. He is also great at programming and handling machinery in addition to having some random skills from his childhood studies like the ability to predict the weather by watching the sky (as long as the area and its winds are familiar to him) and the ability to read passages in dead languages. He is smart, very much so, he just lacks the confidence or drive to do anything with that intellect and he's scatter-brained enough that people generally dismiss him as stupid. Thinking with his heart and not his intellect means his intellect is not showcased very often. He is aware of the fact that people perceive him as an idiot. Sometimes, when he is having a moment of bravado or is dealing with technology he will proclaim himself a genius but in his quieter and more submissive moments he lets people think he is dumb and just rolls with it ("James, what were you thinking?" "Not much.")

Another reason for people deciding he's an idiot is his lack of stomach for genuine villainy. He does still derive some delight from tormenting others but true evil he finds distasteful. He prefers to think of himself as a swashbuckling rogue, not a supervillain. Sure, he and his partners acknowledge that they are devoted to evil but as Meowth says, they put the good in evil. They're classy evil. James had his taste of darkness during Team Rocket's Operation Tempest. While gearing up for the operation James did some terrible things. He hurt people and Pokémon alike. After seeing his boss descend into delirium from the power of the Forces of Nature (a trio of god-like Pokémon) and almost destroy the world James lost his appetite for true wickedness and his heart opened up again as he went back to his old ways. Sure, he's still a thief but he draws a line at things like sapping memories out of children. His days of draining out the life energy of Pokémon to power time machines are behind him and he's happier this way.

All in all, James is a good person at heart, if not always in action. He's clever and cunning, more than most people give him credit for, and he has a zest for life as long as he's free. He's not evil at all, he's just lost.

Abilities:

Reduced Fall Damage: Team Rocket blasts off at least once in most episodes. This was just played as cartoon slapstick at first but it's come up as plot relevant more and more so this is a canonical aspect of James's life: He falls. A lot. From extreme heights. In Emp this will translate as him knowing how to absorb impact in a way most people can't so falls that might critically injure others he'll be able to shrug off. He can also resist similar crushing injuries like being slammed into, against, or under things... Up to a point. Drop him from the stratosphere outside the physics of his own world and he'll die.

Enhanced Strength and Agility: James is an acrobat. All field agents for Team Rocket are, since to get approved for eventual deployment one has to clear a series of obstacle courses and physical trials. James can leap very high and spin through the air as he goes like a circus performer. He's also fairly strong though he can't lift much weight. His feats of strength are more limited to Jiu-Jitsu type moves. On the rare occasion that he tosses an enemy around it's because he's protecting someone, usually one of his children Pokémon.

Mareanie: Not an ability but a Pokémon! At the moment she's the only one he has. She is a starfish-like creature and she has only two moves currently: Spike Cannon, which launches a barrage of spikes at the enemy, and Sludge Bomb which lobs purple goo at the enemy and can poison on impact. During her stay in game she may learn more. She's also a romantic and is in love with James. She dreams of marrying him someday.

Venom Purge: James has been around Poison-type Pokémon so long that he can shake off mild poisoning after a while and can purge more intense poison from his body through sheer force of will, though he needs to be riding high on adrenaline to pull it off. Even in the context of his own world this is considered unusual.

Techno-Skill: James is often the inventor of the mechs Team Rocket makes throughout the show, while Meowth is the one who builds them (at least this is the case for a number of mechs with confirmed origins, the origins of most are never stated). James has a passion for gadgets and gizmos and can rewire devices to serve different purposes. He is also extremely skilled with computers in general and is an excellent hacker and programmer. Most of this won't help him much in a setting like Emp but his history of tinkering with things may give him a broader base understanding of the more steam-powered types of machinery around Verens. Magitech will likely fascinate him but he has no real experience there.