Personality & Development: Meowth: Difference between revisions

sourcename=Thomas Smithurst |

sourcelink=User:05308 |

tagline=Reviewing the characterization of anime Pokémon |

blurb=The closest Personality & Development will ever come to subjecting a human character. Bulbanews columnist Thomas Smithurst explores the connotations of the actions done by a much loved character across the entire world.  }}

[[File:Meowth in love.png|thumb|right|Meowth loves you]]

Perhaps the only Pokémon character in the anime that is truly as memorable as {{bp|Ash's Pikachu|Pikachu}} (or maybe even more memorable) is {{bp|Meowth (Team Rocket)|Meowth}}. He is a monumental figure in the minds of countless children across the world. Whether or not the writers purposely created a thick personality for Meowth, anyone who has watched the anime will conclude that he, indeed, had a great deal of character. Obviously, everyone can recognize the work put into his character because he is human-like in his ability to talk, to think like a human and walk on his hind legs. In past installments of ''Personality & Development'', human psychology has always been applied to the characters; however, the relevance of human psychology to characters based on {{wp|turtles}}, {{wp|ducks}} and {{wp|seahorses}} can be considered a hindering criticism to the column. Despite Meowth being based on a {{wp|cat}}, his feline traits do not extend much further than physical appearance, other than his fear of water and love of yarn. So, since Meowth’s personality traits are more than familiar to the audience of the Pokémon anime, the psychological and sociological explanations are necessary to further the understanding of his character to the Pokémon community.

[[File:SS010.png|thumb|right|King of love]]

Meowth’s {{bp|EP070|back story}}, explaining how he began walking on two feet and ultimately, learned to speak as a human does, began with a renowned and much desired emotion called ''love''. The objective of becoming human-like was to win the love of another Meowth called {{bp|Meowzie}}. Love is a strong emotion and despite how an individual may believe they are in love, more often than not the individual is not quite in love. Love, being one of the strongest emotions, is impossible to {{wp|operationalization|operationalize}}; however, physical attraction in relationship formation can be defined. {{wp|Elaine Hatfield}} and her colleagues proposed the {{wp|matching hypothesis}} back in 1966, which is a popular explanation for how physical attractiveness comes to be. The matching hypothesis states that people form serious relationships with people who are of equal physical attractiveness. Given that our favourite Meowth and Meowzie are both of the same species and appear physically similar to our eyes, viewers may consider them both equally attractive. However, this could highlight one of Meowth’s instincts of a cat’s perspective: being able to recognize what makes a cat attractive. After Meowzie was abandoned by her trainer, who apparently couldn’t afford to keep her, the idea that Meowth was in love strengthened. Besides physical attractiveness, similarity is considered an important factor in relationship formation. Meowth, who was also alone and without nurture, living on the streets, established familiarity with Meowzie. Research in the area has suggested the less attractive reciprocate, will seek out compensating qualities, hence, Meowth sought out to talk and walk like a human, believing Meowzie desired a human-like partner. Since his ''heartbreak'', Meowth has fallen for two Skitty, a Glameow and recently another Meowth (or so he thought; this was actually a {{bp|Luke's Zorua|Zorua}} using {{a|Illusion}}). The fact Meowth falls in love, or feels he is in love so quickly connotes that he has a great desire for love, possibly because of an {{wp|Oedipus complex}} or great levels of the {{wp|testosterone}} hormone. His tendency to ''fall for other Pokémon'', usually influenced by physical attractiveness, suggests Meowth would not be able to uphold a monogamous relationship, a trait common in characters considered villains in naturalistic media.