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_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.


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pokemon
Why does Team Rocket always try to catch Pikachu?


**Short answer: This is Team Rocket's version of "following your dreams"**

The only answer I've been able to come up with is a thematic one. The Pokemon
anime, as with much Bishōnen anime is all about the idea of fulfilling your
dreams and never giving up (being the most important part of [Japanese
Spirit](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JapaneseSpirit)). Ash has
his dream of being the best Pokemon Trainer, Misty her dream of being a great
Water-type trainer, Brock his dream about being a great breeder. None of these
characters could give up on this dream or it would break the theme of the
series.

If you had to pick a "dream" for Jesse, James and Meowth I think it would be
to catch Ash's Pikachu. It kind of made sense in the first episode because
Pikachu happened to win, but over the series as a whole, Pikachu doesn't seem
especially powerful. But it doesn't really matter - Team Rocket could not give
up on this dream of catching Pikachu, even though they are the antagonists,
because it would break one of the central themes of the show: not giving up on
your dreams.

I can't think of any satisfying in-universe logical reason for Team Rocket to
continue pursuing Pikachu. There's not really any need to manufacture one, but
I'm looking forward to other possible answers that might have thought of
something I haven't.


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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**


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This is answered in the very first episode that Team Rocket shows up in (the
second episode in the series). In it, Team Rocket (Jessie, James and Meowth)
arrive at the Pokémon center that Ash and Misty are at - Pikachu is recovering
from the events of the previous episode.

At first, Team Rocket has no interest whatsoever in Ash's Pikachu, and are
only really interested in taking _all_ of the infirmed pokemon, disregarding
his one ordinary Pikachu completely.

However, when Pikachu recovers, and with the help of several other Pikachu at
the Pokémon Center, Pikachu manages to defeat Team Rocket in a single attack.

After this catastrophic failure, Team Rocket (Jessie, James and Meowth, not
the group as a whole) determines that Ash's Pikachu must be "special", and
resolve to catch it for their boss.

So to sum up, the reasons that Jessie, James, and Meowth want Ash's Pikachu so
badly are:

1: It beat them badly with a seemingly impossible level of power. 2: They want
to give that "special" Pikachu to their boss.


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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.


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I think that team rocket is always trying to catch ash's pikachu, because team
rocket, as long as ash and his pals, haven't aged for just about **20 darn
years,** for the sake of the franchise. They've been with ash in the anime the
most, so they've also then seen ash's pikachu countless times, and often
times, getting into the **'were blasting off again!'** phrase. It's only
natural that they'd want to capture pikachu, because they want pikachu's
amazing power for themselves. How ever, they always fail to capture pika, and
I'd like to sorta see a episode where rocket finally catches pikachu.

Hope this helps \- Matt


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