The Pokémon The anime first introduced the legendary Mewtwo appearing in special power armor from Team Rocket, concealing its identity and adding a touch of mystery that still captivates fans more than 20 years later. But as it turns out, Team Rocket’s experiments with power armor didn’t end with Mewtwo escaping, and surprisingly Jessie and James were given that mission.
Armor for Pokémon is an interesting idea that is rarely mentioned in the franchise. Even in the case of Mewtwo, the armor doesn’t power up so much that it limits it to a controllable level, so the armored Mewtwo is actually weaker than the Mewtwo otherwise. Given how deep and tragic Mewtwo’s Pokémon plot is, this fits. However, there’s no reason why Pokémon armor designed to enhance their abilities couldn’t be made, similar to the powered exoskeleton a person might wear when moving heavy objects. In the episode “An Elite Coverup!” from the time of Sinnoh, it was revealed that Team Rocket did exactly that.
Team Rocket upgrade their Pokémon with Power Armor
In this episode, Jessie, James, and Meowth are working on another of their plans, setting up a fake daycare that promises to evolve any remaining Pokémon there after just a few hours. They manage to steal a child’s Magby, and that child turns out to be a relative of Sinnoh Elite Four member, Bertha. The boy stumbles across Ash and his co-workers, who decide to help him recover Magby. As they tracked down Team Rocket, it became apparent that the trio was a little more prepared than usual, armed with their balloons to deal with Ash’s usual tactics. Jessie and James send Carnivine and Seviper, who didn’t do very well at first; that’s when Meowth implemented their “Power-Up Part”, which is a custom power armor set designed to match Carnivine and Seviper, greatly enhancing their attacks and hitting Defeat enemy Pokémon easily. Bertha decided it was time for her to intervene, and her Golem attack destroyed the armor.
The power armor used for Seviper and Carnivine is quite interesting. Carnivine has received some additions to her vine whip attack, upgrading the vines to a metal arm with a hammer and blunt object at the end. Seviper’s armor appears to be designed to increase the hydraulics of its tail attacks. Both also wear helmets, which seem to serve mainly defensive purposes. While the armor is disappointingly easy to destroy, it’s still great to see in action and Jessie mentioned that it was a result of development that cost Team Rocket a fortune. pretty big money. If Jessie and James decide to deploy this another day when there are no Elite Four members around, Ash and co. could have had a real problem on their hands.
While Team Rocket then tries to create armor for Pokémon may not be as infamous as their first, it’s interesting to see that they continue to follow this research after the Mewtwo disaster.
