Team Rocket mottos: Difference between revisions

The Team Rocket motto is a motto that Team Rocket members often recite and/or live by.

In the anime

Jessie, James, and Meowth have several mottos, saying one of them in nearly every episode when they reveal themselves to Ash Ketchum and his friends. Early on, they had an irresistible urge to say it whenever hearing the word "trouble", but this seemingly has been left to the past.

Original motto

Since the episode Team Rocket was introduced in, the duo has used rhyming "prepare for trouble" and "make it double" phrases. An example from Zig Zag Zangoose!, where Jessie was training Seviper and Meowth filled in for her, is:

Meowth: Prepare for trouble, here in the wood...

James: ... and make it double, like you know that you should!

Also, in many later episodes, James said "fight, fight, fight" at the end of his last line. Wobbuffet also began saying its name at the end of the motto in Tunnel Vision, and has done so in most episodes since.

It should also be noted that this version of the motto was used in commercials for Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen with each line being said by different children, omitting the parts where Jessie, James and Meowth say their own names and the line "Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."

Pokémon Fashion Flash motto

In this episode Team Rocket opens "Salon Roquet" and for this reason introduces itself with a special motto.

Jessie: To protect the world from boring fashion!

James: To dress all people with flash and passion!

Jessie: To give all Pokémon pretty faces!

James: To extend our art to outer spaces!

Jessie: Jessie!

James: James!

Jessie: Salon Roquet! When it comes to chic we know what's right!

James: Surrender your taste or prepare to fight!

For Ho-Oh the Bells Toll motto

In this episode, Team Rocket steals the Crystal Bells, and they use a different version of their motto.

Jessie: With Crystal Bells in hand,

James: We'll ring across the land!

Jessie: And then, when Ho-Oh reappears,

James: We will quickly switch gears!

Jessie: Because, together we will show,

James: That we could beat old Ho-Oh!

Jessie: Jessie!

James: James!

Jessie: Team Rocket! Ringing at the speed of light!

James: Our Crystal Bells pack a mighty fight, fight, fight!

Song version

Main article: Team Rocket Forever

Good version

In The Power of One, when Team Rocket decides to help Ash, they use a different version of their motto.

Jessie: If that kid thinks were here for trouble...

James: ...we're certainly going to burst his bubble!

Jessie: Instead of causing tribulation...

James: ...we've undergone a transformation!

Jessie: Though it's way outside our usual range...

James: ...we're going to do something nice for a change!

Jessie: Jessie!

James: James!

Jessie: Up til now Team Rocket's been quite unscrupulous!

James: Being good good guys for once would be super-dupulous!

Meowth: That's right!

Butch and Cassidy

Butch and Cassidy also have a motto, which is similar to Jessie and James's original motto. During Pokémon Chronicles, they add "(now) here's our mission, so ya better listen!" after Butch's first line. Like Meowth and Wobbuffet, Cassidy's Raticate often pops out at the end. Apparently, they have switched to a new motto, which is itself similar to Jessie and James's Sinnoh motto.

Battle Frontier

During the Battle Frontier saga, Jessie, James, and Meowth changed their motto, likely to reflect the fact that the motto changed in the Japanese version at the start of the Advanced Generation series:

Since the first episode, they have adapted their traditional rhyming phrases "Prepare for trouble" and "Make it double" into the motto, thereby restoring the first two lines of the original motto. James's Chimecho and James's Mime Jr. also contribute their names at the end of the motto in most episodes they appear in.

Sinnoh

In Sinnoh, the trio changed to a new motto yet again.

They often replace the first two lines with

Jessie: Listen, is that a twerpish voice I hear?

James: It's shrieking to me loud and clear.

Jessie: Listen, is that a pitiful head of a Pokécenter I hear?

James: It whines to me loud and clear.

or something similar. As in Battle Frontier, Mime Jr. contributes its name after Wobbuffet.

It is notable that the Sinnoh motto is modified more often even in the Japanese version.

Ripoffs

The motto has been ripped off repeatedly by Ash and his friends during the series. The first time it was done was in Ditto's Mysterious Mansion, where Ash, Misty, and Brock, along with Duplica, put on Team Rocket uniforms and mocked the original motto, with Duplica severely angering the two by saying "ignite" instead of "unite". The motto was mockingly mimicked again in The Chikorita Rescue!, and then much later the DP motto was mocked in Mass Hip-Po-Sis and DP056. As before, the trio is angered.

Schpielbunk's motto

In the episode Lights, Camera, Quacktion! the director Cleavon Schpielbunk introduces himself with a motto which is very similar to that of Team Rocket.

Prepare for trouble! No stunt double!

To protect the movies from devastation!

To restore spectacle and imagination!

To make greate epics of hate and love!

To direct the best films you ever heard of!

Cleavon Schpielbunk, winner of the Golden Growlithe for best director at the Flea Collar Film Festival!

Lights! Camera!

Hit your mark when I call "Action!" or prepare to fight!

That's right!

Blasting off

When defeated, and flying off due to a Pokémon's attack or a malfunction in their mech, Jessie, James, and Meowth usually cry "We're blasting off again!" before disappearing into the distance with a star. This usually happens only once each episode, but there have been many occasions in which it has happened multiple times, especially in Malice in Wonderland, where they are shown blasting off four times on screen, and heard to blast off many more times offscreen. Butch and Cassidy have also "blasted off", however, James noted once that he, Jessie, and Meowth had copyrighted it.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Special manga, the "Rocket" in Team Rocket is apparently their motto, which is an acronym for:

Raid

On

City

Knock out

Evil

Tusks