Heath really had not expected to see James at this point in time. Although he knew James, that was from after Ash had started his journey. By then, James and Jessie had become regular partners, and then the two met Meowth. Just like that, the once immensely popular villainous trio was born.
Even now, Heath still remembered their famous lines. They were the sort of lines he knew by heart.
He had to admit that compared with the serious, sinister Team Rocket, the trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth always felt rather out of place. It felt as though those three were specifically there for comic relief, and later on, they had practically become good guys. If Heath had not known they had been Team Rocket members all along, he probably would have thought they were some trio of anonymous champions of justice. Especially in the movies, they sided with Ash most of the time.
Heath thought this might have had something to do with Jessie and James's backgrounds.
Heath still remembered that James seemed to come from a wealthy family, but because he did not want to marry a rich young lady who looked exactly like Jessie, he had simply run away and joined the sinister organization Team Rocket. Yet looking at James picking out tomatoes in front of him, Heath really could not connect him with Team Rocket. Besides, James was currently dressed in very ordinary clothes, without that foolish look of wearing the Team Rocket emblem on his body at all.
Thinking it over carefully, James seemed to have been quite fond of that girl named Rumika at first. Unfortunately, because Rumika kept coming to his house and pressuring him to marry her, James eventually found it unbearable.
Put that way, James was someone who pursued freedom