Why does Team Rocket always try to catch Pikachu?


_Very_ surprised this question has not been asked yet.

In almost every single episode, at least from the first season all the way
through to the Unova region, Team Rocket is trying to catch Pikachu to give
him to Giovanni. Why do they do this? They often cite reasoning that this
Pikachu is special somehow, but is that actually true? Nobody else really
talks about how awesome Pikachu is, and he certainly doesn't seem to win very
often.

I'm looking for any kind of answer, in-universe, out-of-universe, thematic,
humourous, etc.

I have a theory I will post below but wonder if this community could come up
with a better answer.




At the end of the second episode of the anime (Team Rocket's first
appearance), Pikachu generates a large explosion which renders Team Rocket
flying into outer space. Shocker (pun intended).

The next time we meet Team Rocket (next episode, again, shocker) they tell our
friends the following:

> The only Pikachu we want is that one.
>
> We're only looking for the rarest, most valuable Pokémon in the world, kid.
>
> And that special Pikachu is just the kind of Pokémon we need.

As portrayed later in the series, this Team Rocket trio does not have a good
standing with Giovanni (anymore) so they try to get him the best Pokémon they
can find to make up for it, which they believe is Pikachu.




There are multiple reasons (and theories. People won't give up with Pokémon
theories & creepy pasta) of why Team Rocket would like to get Ash's Pikachu.

1) In ep65 "The Battle Of The Badge" in Season One, it revealed that the boss
**asked them to** , by team rocket saying to the Jovani "It's even rarer than
the Pikachu you want so much". the question remaining is what makes Ash's
Pikachu so rare and special?

> In the Season one episode "Ash Catches a Pokémon," when Team Rocket was
> trying to steal Pikachu, Meowth accidentally says that Ash's Pikachu's power
> exceeds the power level he would possess as a Raichu (the evolved version of
> Pikachu).

As said in the [wiki](http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Ash%27s_Pikachu), as an
example. (I'll try to update the post with a video link).

Which can be interpreted as

> Ash's Pikachu has got more power than a regular Raichu

As you can see in the different seasons of Pokémon, Ash's Pikachu is dunking
asses. If you compare it to a regular Pikachu from one of the games, the
difference in stats is ridiculous. I mean like...
[really](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pikachu_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29#Stats)?

What's more, Pikachu is one of the few Pokémon Ash didn't abandon (I mean..
C'mon, he left Charizard, who in the world would be insane enough to do this?
What do you mean, Pokémon have feelings too?), so Ash spent many years
training him.

So we can assume that, even if Ash was one of the most incompetent trainers,
**Pikachu should be around level 100** , giving the Team Rocket another good
reason to try to catch him.

2) Another way to see it (not proven at all, just my personal opinion) is
that, more than being stupid, Team Rocket is incredibly **stubborn** , as
proven by the hundreds of tries of catching Pikachu. They spent years trying
to catch Pikachu, what would be the sense of all this time of their lives if
they stopped now? They prefer to keep spending their time trying to catch this
Pikachu rather than admitting they lost years of their lives for nothing.

**TL;DR : Pikachu OP & Team Rocket stupid**

