Iron-Masked Marauder

History

Celebi: The Voice of the Forest

The Iron-Masked Marauder was first seen accosting an old Pokémon poacher for information about a Celebi he had pursued decades ago. After the poacher refused to talk, the Iron-Masked Marauder decided to show him the power of his Dark Balls by using one on a captured Tyranitar. When the corrupted Tyranitar began destroying the hunter's camp, he showed the Iron-Masked Marauder where he found the Celebi.

Using the poacher's information, the Iron-Masked Marauder set out for the Lake of Life in a large, spider-like mecha. He eventually came upon Ash, Misty, Brock, Sam, and an injured Celebi. His attempt to capture the Pokémon failed when the Team Rocket trio intervened, but they quickly offered to join him after they recognized him.

He later sent out his Sneasel and Scizor to pursue the group while he followed in his mecha. Eventually, he discovered his Pokémon tied to a rock, at which point he laughed and noted that "those kids" were tougher than they looked. Declaring that the situation had become "interesting", the Marauder and his allies carried on, leaving his Pokémon behind.

Despite searching for the rest of the day, the Marauder failed to find Celebi. However, he quickly formulated a new plan, ambushing the group as they attempted to return to Arborville, with Jessie, James, and Meowth blocking their escape route. Destroying a few trees to distract the group, the Marauder finally managed to grab Celebi with his mecha's claws, brutally electrocuting it before capturing it in a Dark Ball. Before the villain could properly relish his victory, Ash attempted to retrieve Celebi with the help of a flock of wild Pidgey. Although the resulting struggle toppled the Marauder's mecha, he quickly reclaimed his Dark Ball by stepping on Ash's hands until the boy passed out.

Surrounded by angry wild Pokémon, the Iron-Masked Marauder decided to demonstrate the corrupted Celebi's power on them, sending it to attack the wild Pokémon and devastate the forest. Impressed by the resulting display, the Marauder ordered Celebi to absorb the surrounding debris, creating a spiked sphere that he proceeded to ride deeper into the forest. Along the way, he discovered that Jessie had been accidentally sucked into the construct, but welcomed her presence, stating that he needed her to witness Celebi's power and relay the information to their boss. With that, the Marauder had Celebi transform its construct into a nightmarish monster that began laying waste to the forest and the Lake of Life, revealing his intentions to usurp Giovanni as leader of Team Rocket and conquer Team Rocket and the world.

The Marauder unmasked

When Ash and his friends arrived to try and save Celebi, the Iron-Masked Marauder directed the corrupted Pokémon's attacks against them. Ash, Pikachu, and Sam were narrowly saved from one blast by the arrival of Suicune, prompting the Marauder to send out his Tyranitar to try and defeat it. Although the corrupted Armor Pokémon was beaten by Suicune and Brock's Onix, the Marauder remained confident as he sent Celebi to destroy them. He watched Celebi trap and torture Suicune with dark energy, but consequently missed Ash, Pikachu, and Sam's infiltration of the construct. When the electric torture paused due to Celebi fighting the Dark Ball's control, the Marauder attempted to keep Celebi on his side, reminding it that the heroes were its enemies. Ultimately, Ash and Sam's pleas won out and Celebi snapped out of its trance, destroying the Marauder's Dark Ball and knocking him into the lake when the construct collapsed.

The Iron-Masked Marauder made one final attempt to capture Celebi after its recovery, bursting out of the Lake of Life when the Pokémon flew over his hiding place. He attempted to escape with his jetpack, but Ash and Pikachu managed to grab onto his leg. While trying to kick Ash off, the Marauder was electrocuted by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, destroying his jetpack and sending all three of them plummeting. Celebi saved Ash and Pikachu with its powers, but the Marauder was left to fall into the forest. Although he survived his fall, his mask was knocked off and his remaining Dark Balls were missing. He was last seen being tied up by a collection of forest Pokémon and berated by Diana's grandmother. It is likely that he was arrested afterwards.

The Rise of Darkrai

He briefly reappeared in a montage in The Rise of Darkrai, which chronicled the preceding nine movies.

Character

The Iron-Masked Marauder holding a Dark Ball

The Iron-Masked Marauder is a villain with absolutely no redeeming qualities. He is malicious, dishonest, and a downright egocentric person. He values his own life above that of others, whether out of cowardice or selfishness, and has no qualms about harming others, be it humans or Pokémon, for the sake of reaching his own goals.

He has quite a reputation within Team Rocket, as Jessie, James, and Meowth instantly recognized him and immediately started kowtowing shamelessly. The Iron-Masked Maruader is also shown to be ambitious — although he makes pretence of capturing the Mythical Pokémon Celebi to present it to Giovanni, his true intentions are to use its power to overthrow his boss and rule Team Rocket himself. To achieve his aims, he will gladly sacrifice everything and anything, including his allies and his own Pokémon. Though this later proved to be his undoing, as abandoning his Pokémon left him helpless against the angry forest Pokémon and he was finally defeated.

The Iron-Masked Marauder is skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but does not have the best balance. His primary advantages are his Dark Balls. He also uses a jetpack concealed under his cloak, and a large, four-legged mecha for transport. The mecha can generate a dark barrier to protect it from attacks, and is armed with a pair of strong tentacles tipped with jagged claws which can electrify themselves.

Pokémon

Escaped

Scizor

Debut	Celebi: The Voice of the Forest
Voice actors
Japanese	Katsuyuki Konishi
English	Eric Stuart

The Iron-Masked Marauder sent his Scizor after Ash and his friends. It battled against Ash's Bayleef. Like all of the Marauder's Pokémon, Scizor was caught with a Dark Ball, having its power charged to the highest level. Despite this, Bayleef was able to defeat Scizor with a Razor Leaf-Vine Whip combo.

Later, after the Marauder was unmasked, Scizor was seen disappearing into the surrounding forest along with Sneasel, freed from the Marauder's control.

Scizor's known moves are Double Team and Quick Attack.

Sneasel

Debut	Celebi: The Voice of the Forest
Voice actors
Japanese	Yumi Touma
English	Kayzie Rogers

The Marauder's Sneasel was first seen during his interrogation of the old Pokémon poacher, where it freed a Tyranitar for the Marauder to capture with a Dark Ball. It was later deployed to go after Ash and his friends, battling Sam's Charmeleon. Despite its Dark Ball-enhanced power, it was defeated by Charmeleon's Headbutt.

After the Marauder's final defeat, Sneasel was freed from his control, and it was last seen disappearing into the surrounding forest along with Scizor.

Sneasel's only known move is Slash.

Tyranitar

Debut	Celebi: The Voice of the Forest

Tyranitar was originally captured by an old Pokémon poacher, who kept it caged outside along with his other captures. The Iron-Masked Marauder later specially selected Tyranitar in order to demonstrate the powers of his Dark Ball and force the old poacher to reveal the place where he had seen Celebi. It was originally rather timid – possibly due to its captivity – but the Dark Ball's influence transformed it into a violent monstrosity that lay waste to whatever its new Trainer commanded it to.

The Marauder sent his new Tyranitar to attack Ash and his friends, who were carrying Celebi, but they got away when James's Weezing used its Smokescreen to distract the Marauder. It was later sent out against Suicune in order to weaken the Legendary Pokémon so the Marauder could capture it. Brock used his Onix to battle Tyranitar, but the powered-up Armor Pokémon was too strong for Onix. Suicune, however, was able to defeat Tyranitar with a powerful Bubble Beam, and Onix used the last of its strength to slam Tyranitar into the Lake of Life.

Later, after the Marauder was defeated, the freed Tyranitar was seen swimming through the Lake of Life and disappearing into the mist, sinking Team Rocket's raft on the way.

Tyranitar's only known move is Hyper Beam.

Celebi

Debut	Celebi: The Voice of the Forest
Voice actors
Japanese	Kazuko Sugiyama
English	Kazuko Sugiyama

Main article: Celebi (M04)

The Marauder's ultimate goal was to capture and corrupt a Celebi to use for his schemes. After searching for a long time and gaining the assistance of the Team Rocket trio, he finally managed to capture it with his Dark Ball, turning it into a mindless engine of destruction. The Marauder used Celebi to create a huge monster out of debris in the forest, planning to destroy Giovanni and take over Team Rocket, eventually achieving conquest of the entire world by using Celebi's powers.

However, Ash and Sam managed to infiltrate the construct and negate Celebi's brainwashing by reminding it of their shared memories. This destroyed Celebi's Dark Ball, freeing it, and causing the huge "twig-monster", as James called it, to collapse into the Lake of Life. Celebi was left injured and dying from the Iron-Masked Marauder's actions, though Celebi from the future and the past restored its health. The Marauder tried yet again to snatch Celebi and attempted to fly away with his jetpack. Though Ash grabbed his feet and had his Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, destroying the jetpack and freeing Celebi from the Marauder's grip.

Artwork

Ken Sugimori's design of Iron-Masked Marauder

Voice actors

Iron-Masked Marauder in Celebi: a Timeless Encounter

Movie adaptations

The Iron-Masked Marauder appears in the manga adaptation of the movie, fulfilling the same role as he does in the movie.

Pokémon

Tyranitar

Debut	Celebi: a Timeless Encounter

The Iron-Masked Marauder caught a Tyranitar in a Dark Ball, instantly corrupting the Pokémon, at the old Pokémon poacher's camp in an attempt to learn of a reclusive Celebi's whereabouts. It blew up the poacher's camp after the old poacher refused to offer up any information.

Later The Marauder used Tyranitar to help him capture Celebi near the Lake of Life. Ash and his friends tried to intervene, so the Iron-Masked Maruader called on Tyranitar to fight off Brock's Onix and Suicune, who also came to Celebi's rescue.

None of Tyranitar's moves are known.

This listing is of cards mentioning or featuring the Iron-Masked Marauder in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Related cards Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format. Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.
Card	Type	English Expansion	Rarity	#	Japanese Expansion	Rarity	#
Rocket's Scizor		Best of Game		4	P Promotional cards		002/P
Rocket's Sneasel		Best of Game		5	P Promotional cards		003/P
Rocket's Tyranitar					Pokémon VS		142/141

• According to voice actor Shirō Sano, the Japanese name Vicious comes from Sid Vicious, the late bass player of the English punk rock band, Sex Pistols.
• Due to a mistranslation before the movie's release, it was mistakenly thought for a time that he was the future son of Jessie and James.
  • On the Netflix website, their summary of Celebi: The Voice of the Forest still mentions this.
• In the film novelization, he is simply referred to as "Iron Mask".
• In the book Pokémon Hall of Fame, he is referred to as "Iron Mask Marauder".
• The Iron-Masked Marauder is currently the only movie antagonist to be a member of a villainous team at the time of his movie, as Annie and Oakley were only members of Team Rocket in the dub, and Butler had already been dismissed from Team Magma.
• The Iron-Masked Marauder is the first Trainer in the animated series to have caught a Mythical Pokémon.