Iron-Masked Marauder

The Iron-Masked Marauder (Japanese: ビシャス Vicious) is the main antagonist of Celebi: The Voice of the Forest. He is an Elite Officer of Team Rocket.

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

Using the hunter's information, the Iron-Masked Marauder set out for the forest in a large, spider-like mecha. He eventually came upon, , , 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.

In an attempt to slow his quarry, the Iron-Masked Marauder sent out his and  to pursue the heroes 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 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. 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. 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 the.

When Ash and arrived to try and save Celebi, the Iron-Masked Marauder directed the corrupted Pokémon's attacks against them. Ash,, and Sam were narrowly saved from one blast by the arrival of , 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, destroying his jetpack and sending all three of them plummeting. Celebi saved Ash and Pikachu with its, 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 by a collection of forest Pokémon and berated by Diana's grandmother. It is likely that he was arrested afterwards.

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

Character
The Iron-Masked Marauder is a villain with absolutely no redeeming qualities. He is shown to be a malicious psychopath and also a megalomaniac, dishonest, ruthless, cruel, and 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, for the sake of reaching his own goals.

He is also shown to be ambitious — although he makes pretense of capturing the Mythical Pokémon to present it to, 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. This would prove his undoing, as abandoning his Pokémon left him helpless against the angry Pokémon of the forest when he was finally defeated at the end of the movie.

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.

Not much is known about his origins. However, he has quite a reputation within Team Rocket, as Jessie, James, and were all able to recognize him and immediately started kowtowing shamelessly. He seems to have a great deal of dislike for his boss, but will gladly use the help of other Team Rocket members to achieve his goals, as shown when he sided with the Team Rocket trio for the purpose of helping him carry out his plans and spreading the word about his newfound power.

In the movie adaptations
The Iron-Masked Marauder appeared in .

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

Trivia

 * According to voice actor Shirō Sano, the Japanese name Vicious comes from, the late bass player of the English punk rock band,.
 * 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, he is referred to as "Iron Mask Marauder".
 * Vicious is currently the only movie antagonist to be a member of a villainous team at the time of his movie, as and Oakley were only members of Team Rocket in the dub, and Butler had already been dismissed from Team Magma.
 * Vicious is the first Trainer in the to have  a Mythical Pokémon, as well as the only Trainer to date to have caught a  or Mythical Pokémon on-screen.

In other languages
Vicious Vicius Chasseur Masqué Predatore Mascherato ビシャス