

In the episode Island of the Giant Pokemon, Ekans and Koffing give a speech
about Pokemon not being bad, but rather obeying bad masters. Meowth responds
saying his master is never around and he still does bad things, implying that
Meowth is not owned by Jesse or James. Do we know who his trainer/master is?


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pokemon
Do we ever learn who Meowth's trainer is?


In the anime, Team Rocket's Meowth is technically a wild Pokémon. Which is to
say he isn't bound to a Pokeball and thereby has no trainer.

The strongest evidence of this is during the Black & White series when
[Iris](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Meowth_\(Team_Rocket\)#:%7E:text=Iris%20to%20attempt%20to%20capture%20him%20in%20a%20Pok%C3%A9%20Ball.%20The%20capture%20nearly%20succeeded%20but%20Meowth%20broke%20out%20and%20told%20her%20he%20was%20going%20to%20help%20her%20regardless)
and [Cliff](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Cliff_\(BW046\)) try to
catch Meowth at various times with a Pokeball. Meowth actually gets sucked
into the Pokeball but breaks out before being properly captured each time. In
the anime, when you try to catch a Pokémon that already has a trainer, the
ball is shown to simply not work, it bounces off without opening or sucking
the Pokémon in. This has something to do with some kind of tagging system
which I don't think is ever explained in detail but for the most part
Pokeballs somehow "know" if a Pokémon is already bound to a Pokeball so that
you can't arbitrarily catch other people's Pokémon. Therefore, since Pokeballs
are working on Meowth he is not already bound to one and thus does not have a
trainer. He hangs out with the Team Rocket crew by choice, not because any of
them own him.


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answer


The answer will be none.

Meowth's whole backstory has been shown in multiple flashbacks in the show and
his whole journey was without a trainer (unless they retcon it in the future.

In a flashback in [Go West Young
Meowth](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP070), Meowth's earliest
memory is being alone at Camp Pokéhearst without food and trying to eat a
basketball basket. There only he watches a movie called That Darn Meowth!
which inspired him to go to Hollywood which he believed would be a paradise.
But he was treated as a stray there and later taken under a Meowth gang, led
by a Persian. There only he saw his crush
[Meowzie](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Meowzie). But she rejects
him for human and he tries to be like humans by changing his walk and learning
the human language but got rejected for being a freak. Heartbroken, Meowth
remembered the first human word he understood—"rocket"—and was inspired to
join Team Rocket.

In [Battle Aboard the St. Anne](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP015)
he referred to himself as Top Cat of Giovani before Persian. But in [Training
Daze](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/HS12), he was at Team Rocket HQ
with Persian already being there. And Meowth became a servant to Giovanni,
bringing him food and drinks unsuccessfully. Giovanni didn't appear to be
angry, but he assigned Meowth to Jessie and James's team.

Covered in more detail on
[Bulbapedia](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Meowth_\(Team_Rocket\)#Trivia).


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