Executive (Trainer class)

Executive ロケットだんかんぶ Team Rocket Executive
Art from HeartGold and SoulSilver
Other names	Rocket Executive (ロケットだんいん のかんぶ Team Rocket Executive) (Generation II) Team Rocket Admin (ロケットだんいんのかんぶ Team Rocket executive member) (Generation III)
Introduced in	Generation II
Appears in	Gold, Silver, and Crystal FireRed and LeafGreen HeartGold and SoulSilver Stadium 2
Gender	Both
counterpart	{{{counterpart}}}
Notable members	Proton, Petrel, Ariana, and Archer Sham, Carl (Adventures) Grey (The Golden Boys)
Anime debut	[[]]
TCG debut	[[ (TCG)|]]
TCG Card	{{{card}}}
Manga debut	Piloswine Whine (Adventures) Gold and Black vs. Team Rocket (The Golden Boys)

An Executive (Japanese: ロケットだんかんぶ Team Rocket Executive), known as a Team Rocket Admin (Japanese: ロケットだんかんぶ Team Rocket Executive) in Generation III, and as a Rocket Executive (Japanese: ロケットだんいんのかんぶ Team Rocket executive member) in Generation II, is a type of Pokémon Trainer that first debuted in the Generation II games. They are the highest ranked members of Team Rocket after Giovanni, and are the heads of Team Rocket after he abandons the organization. They tend to use a combination of Poison-type and Dark-type Pokémon.

There are four of them: three men and one woman. They were unnamed in Generation II, but they all got individual names and sprites in Generation IV. Archer disbands Team Rocket after he is defeated.

Differences between Generations

Generation I

There aren't any distinct Rocket Executives in Generation I; however, both Jessie and James appear in Pokémon Yellow ranked higher than grunts, guarding the room where Giovanni waits in the Rocket Hideout and Silph Co. However, they are unnamed in this game, being referred to simply as "ROCKET", since Trainers were not given names until Generation II.

Generation II

Generation II art by Ken Sugimori for the TCG

In Generation II, this class technically didn't exist as all the characters who would eventually carry the title retained the same class as other members of Team Rocket. Thus, their Trainer class was Rocket (Japanese: ロケットだんいん Team Rocket member) and each had the name Executive (Japanese: のかんぶ Executive), with the sprites only differing between genders. They battle the player at Team Rocket HQ and Goldenrod Radio Tower.

Generation III

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, two higher-ranking members of Team Rocket appear in command of the Rocket Warehouse. They seem to be two of the same members who would head the Team in Johto three years later. Here, their Trainer class was changed to Team Rocket (Japanese: ロケットだん Team Rocket) in order to remain identical with the Grunts', whose sprites they also shared. However, they are both given the name Admin (Japanese: かんぶ Executive).

In the Rocket Warehouse, the female Team Rocket Admin is battled before going into the male administrator's room. She objects that Team Rocket is not disbanded, but after a battle, admits that it probably is and as a final act, turns off the floor so that the player can go back and heal. After defeating the male Team Rocket Admin, he sees the player's Earth Badge Badge and realizes that the Viridian City-based Team Rocket has disbanded; he then tells the player that he will find Giovanni and revive Team Rocket.

The Team Rocket Admins are the same people as the Rocket executives in Generations II and IV, as hinted by the similarity in their teams and the male administrator's determination to revive Team Rocket after he is defeated, as well as the information given on the computer screen which the Rocket administrator was working on ("The influence of magnetic waves on Pokémon evolution"). This is linked to what happened in Generations II and IV, when Team Rocket used radio waves to evolve the Magikarp at Lake of Rage.

Generation IV

Petrel, Archer, Ariana and Proton in the opening of HeartGold and SoulSilver

Their Trainer classes are finally dissociated from those of the Grunts when they make a return in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, where they are each known as an Executive. However, the Japanese Trainer classes remain unchanged from Generation III, but they are still given names. They are all adapted from the Executives from Pokémon Gold and Silver but given individual names and identities. Their names, Proton, Petrel, Ariana, and Archer, refer to real-life rockets or missiles in all languages, much like Team Galactic's Commanders, who were named after celestial bodies. These characters were all adapted into characters in the Pokémon Adventures manga, retaining their unique identities.

Appearance

Proton, Petrel, and Archer's sprite from Gold, Silver, and Crystal	Ariana's sprite from Gold, Silver, and Crystal	Archer's sprite from Stadium 2	Ariana's sprite from Stadium 2	Archer's sprite from FireRed and LeafGreen
Ariana's sprite from FireRed and LeafGreen	Proton's sprite from HeartGold and SoulSilver	Petrel's sprite from HeartGold and SoulSilver	Ariana's sprite from HeartGold and SoulSilver	Archer's sprite from HeartGold and SoulSilver

Trainer list

Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal

Trainer name	Battle	Winnings	Pokémon
Rocket Executive	Initial battle	5184	Lv.36	-------	-------	-------	-------	-------
Rocket Executive	Initial battle	1584	Lv.22	Lv.22	Lv.24	-------	-------	-------
	First rematch	2160	Lv.30	Lv.30	Lv.30	Lv.30	Lv.32	Lv.30
Rocket Executive	Initial battle	1800	Lv.23	Lv.23	Lv.25	-------	-------	-------
	First rematch	2304	Lv.32	Lv.32	Lv.32	-------	-------	-------
Rocket Executive	Initial battle	2520	Lv.33	Lv.33	Lv.35	-------	-------	-------

Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen

Trainer name	Battle	Winnings	Pokémon
Team Rocket Admin	Initial battle	1728	Lv.53	Lv.54	Lv.55	-------	-------	-------
Team Rocket Admin	Initial battle	1760	Lv.53	Lv.54	Lv.55	-------	-------	-------

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver

Trainer name	Battle	Winnings	Pokémon
Executive Proton	Initial battle	480	Lv.8	Lv.12	-------	-------	-------	-------
	First rematch	1320	Lv.28	Lv.33	-------	-------	-------	-------
Executive Petrel	Initial battle	880	Lv.22	Lv.22	Lv.24	-------	-------	-------
	First rematch	1200	Lv.30	Lv.30	Lv.30	Lv.30	Lv.32	Lv.30
Executive Ariana	Initial battle	2960	Lv.25	Lv.25	Lv.27	-------	-------	-------
	First rematch	2560	Lv.32	Lv.32	Lv.32	-------	-------	-------
Executive Archer	Initial battle	3040	Lv.35	Lv.35	Lv.38	-------	-------	-------

In the anime

It is unknown whether or not there are executives as present in the games and manga, as Giovanni is still in control of the organization. Instead, the anime tends to focus much more on higher-ranking Team Rocket members such as Domino and the Iron-Masked Marauder, who are field agents rather than administrators. Annie and Oakley were also inclusive to the ranks of Team Rocket, working as hired spies hunting Latios and Latias, but this was only in the English dub.

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Team Rocket Generals

In the Red, Green, & Blue chapter, Lt. Surge, Koga, and Sabrina are Team Rocket executives. Blaine, previously an executive, left the organization because of problems with Mewtwo. In the Yellow chapter, the executives were recalled by Giovanni after he saw a battle between Lance and Yellow and realized he still had much to learn.

In the Gold, Silver, & Crystal chapter, executives are replaced by two sub-leaders, Sham and Carl, while the real Leader is the Masked Man. The characters of male and female Executive from Generation II were adapted as Carl and Sham, respectively.

Years later, in the HeartGold & SoulSilver chapter, Archer, Ariana, Petrel and Proton, dubbed the Four Team Rocket Generals, appear in Johto searching for Arceus to accomplish their plan of making Giovanni return to Team Rocket's leadership.

Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys

Grey from the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga is based on the male Executive design. His role within the team is based on Archer's.

In the TCG

Rocket Executives were illustrated in Team Rocket's Evil Deeds.

Trivia

• Though Rocket Executives are members of Team Rocket, like Rocket Grunts, the background theme played when fighting them is the normal Trainer battle theme in Gold, Silver, and Crystal Versions. This was rectified in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, where all members of Team Rocket-related Trainer classes play the Rocket battle theme.

In other languages

Language Title French Commandant German Vorstand Italian Generale Rocket Spanish Ejecutivo

This Trainer Class article is part of Project CharacterDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each character found in the Pokémon games.