Meowth (Team Rocket)

Meowth (ニャース, Nyarth) is a member of Team Rocket: in a trio with Jessie and James.

Character
Meowth has an ambitious, conniving, and idealistic personality. He has made it his life goal to please Giovanni (or "Boss," as he and his teammates call Giovanni), and will stop at nothing to capture or steal useful or rare Pokémon. His relationship with Jessie and James varies in quality. Meowth seems to have aspects of each of his teammates in him; in arguments, he can often be seen siding with either Jessie (usually denouncing James' incompetence) or James (usually complaining about Jessie's over-dramatic and rash behavior). Despite these fights, the three remain very close and loyal friends. Despite his seemingly outgoing nature, Meowth also has a contemplative inner side not seen as often.

Meowth is an amorous Pokémon, developing crushes on occasion. The first of these was the aforementioned Meowzie. The next one seen is Cassandra, the (human) herbalist. Due to this infatuation, he decided to help her evolve. However, he was replaced by a Persian so that he can continue traveling with Jessie and James. After this, three more cat-based Pokémon followed. Meowth also has demonstrated aspirations of being a parent-like caretaker, coddling Togepi's egg before fighting for custody of it only to finally lose it to Misty.

Meowth has also had frequent fantasies about presenting Giovanni with various Pokémon. These fantasies often involve whatever creature it happens to be assisting Giovanni in his daily routine.

Meowth does not stay inside a Poké Ball, and it is never mentioned if he was ever captured by either member of Team Rocket he travels with. Throughout most of the series, Meowth and his two friends were presented as horribly failing and erroneous criminals, always failing in their missions to capture other Pokémon. Recently, however, he, along with the rest of his team, developed a more serious attitude in his work, as he had when first introduced, being quicker-witted and much more resourceful than before and using ingenious methods of escape and thus proving much more difficult to defeat.

History
When he was younger, Meowth lived on the streets in, in search of fame and fortune. He was a member of a gang of street Meowth that was led by a ; this gang annoyed the humans in town, stealing food and causing trouble in general. One day, Meowth came across a female Meowth named. Since she rejected him and preferred the company of her rich human mistress, Meowth attempted to make himself stand out from other Meowth and become more human-like to make himself "worthy" of her. Thus, he painstakingly taught himself to speak human language in a accent and walk upright like a human. When he approached her after this transformation, she once again rejected him, calling him a freak. Heartbroken, Meowth remembered the first human word he learned to speak - "rocket" - and was inspired to join Team Rocket. Because Meowth can speak human but is a Pokémon, he is useful as a Pokémon translator.

There has been some debate as to whether or not Meowth was ever Giovanni's "Top Cat" (personal pet). He has stated himself as such in front of Giovanni with no objection (only to say that Persian was now in that position). Yet at one point, he was shown to have been present at Team Rocket Headquarters for a short time, during which we see that Persian is already there. During this time, Meowth became a servant to Giovanni, bringing him food and drinks; however, he was unsuccessful at this task and was assigned to the team of Jessie and James.

Abilities
Because of the effort Meowth exerted while learning to speak and walk like a human, he has not learned the signature move of his species,. In one particular instance, Meowth was worshiped by an island of people who believed that he could bring them riches with Pay Day. When he was caught in a battle meant to induce Pay Day, Jessie and James had to secretly bail him out by throwing the last of their spare change and some of James' prized bottle caps in order to appease the islanders.

Meowth normally does not battle unless there are extreme circumstances; his explanation is that his ability to talk and walk upright came at the expense of battling ability. However, when forced to fight, Meowth is fairly resourceful, such as dumping a bucket of water on an Onix to weaken it.

Trivia

 * In the continuity of Light & Dark, never existed, and thus, this Meowth is the incarnation that appears in  version.