Jupiter: the Galactic Commander who rejects normal life

She never negotiates. Jupiter holds the rank of Commander in Team Galactic, on the same level as Mars, Saturn and Charon, and her admiration for her boss Cyrus stands in for a moral code. From the organization's building in Eterna City all the way to the summit of Mount Coronet, she carries out a program that fits in one sentence: take whatever the boss demands, so that a new universe can be born.

Contents

• Four Commanders, unwavering allegiance
• Sinnoh: Eterna City, a Clefairy, Mount Coronet
• In the anime: the Fuego Ironworks and the Red Chain
• In the manga: the strongest of the three
• Three exits, two of which contradict each other
• Jupiter at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Four Commanders, unwavering allegiance

She holds one of the four Commander posts, alongside Mars, Saturn and Charon. As for the orders of Cyrus, she carries them out without ever weighing them, driven by boundless admiration for the boss and for the project he is pursuing: giving birth to a brand-new universe.

Her Sinnoh roster comes down to five species: Bronzor — which she only fields at Spear Pillar — and four others: Bronzong, Skuntank, Golbat and Zubat. Skuntank is the one the adaptations remember: in the anime, it is even the only Pokémon she is known to have.

The way she talks tells you the rest of the character. She reminds the player that Team Galactic is working for the good of the world and that it would be a mistake to get in its way — the organization is not up for debate, it is to be accepted. This is no throwaway threat: it is the conviction that justifies everything she goes on to do.

Sinnoh: Eterna City, a Clefairy, Mount Coronet

The first encounter takes place in Eterna City, in the building Team Galactic owns there and which Jupiter is in charge of. The place is no mere backdrop: it is her post, and the organization runs its operations there a few streets away from Rad Rickshaw's bike shop.

And it is precisely this shopkeeper's Clefairy that she has kidnapped. The motive lies in the legends surrounding the species, said to have come from space, and the abduction sums up the group's whole doctrine: a cosmology serves as the pretext, and an ordinary resident pays the price.

She turns up next at Lake Acuity, where she has just beaten Barry; she tells him he will never become a Pokémon Master before serving the player her speech about the good of the world once again. The final round of Diamond and Pearl plays out at the very top of Mount Coronet, at Spear Pillar, where Jupiter and Mars take on the player and their rival in a Double Battle.

In the anime: the Fuego Ironworks and the Red Chain

Her first on-screen mission is to take the Lustrous Orb back from Team Rocket, who stole it from the Historical Research Center in Celestic Town. Cyrus later puts her in charge of capturing Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie, an operation for which she enlists Pokémon hunters — the means matter little, only the result counts.

Her biggest role comes with the Fuego Ironworks episode, where she runs a work site meant to produce the Red Chain. There she locks up Looker and the Team Rocket trio, kept under guard by her Skuntank, the only Pokémon she is ever seen using in the entire series.

Her downfall comes during the showdown over the Lake guardians. A Garchomp knocks out her Skuntank with Giga Impact and holds her until the International Police arrive; before being taken away, she asks Saturn what has become of Cyrus, and is told that he has simply abandoned them.

Two short formats round out the portrait. Pokémon Generations places her at Spear Pillar, witnessing the summoning of Dialga and Palkia, then Giratina's sudden appearance and Cyrus's disappearance; an episode titled The Rival shows her in a flashback at Lake Acuity, where her Skuntank easily brushes aside the Prinplup belonging to Barry before she seizes Uxie.

🔥 A whole team to line up on the shelf: see the Pokémon figures.

In the manga: the strongest of the three

Pokémon Adventures makes her the linchpin of the trio. There she comes across as more formidable than Mars and Saturn combined: serious, methodical, a strategist, her face impassive in every circumstance, and — unlike her colleagues — utterly merciless once a battle begins. Saturn mentions her long before she comes on stage, complaining that she is never around when he needs her.

She makes her entrance at Lake Acuity, where she catches Maylene and Candice by surprise and overpowers them effortlessly. She then reveals the trick behind the plan: two aircraft head for the lakes, but only one bomb exists, and no one but Cyrus knows where it will fall. The explosion draws out the Legendary Pokémon she came for, and she captures it before their eyes.

The rematch takes place at the foot of Spear Pillar, when six Gym Leaders who came through the Underground swoop down on the Commanders. Jupiter is the last of the three still standing, and it takes a combination of Ice Shard and Aura Sphere to finish off her Tangrowth.

That Tangrowth deserves a footnote, by the way. Jupiter is the only Commander whose signature Pokémon from the games doesn't make it into the manga: her data sheet does list a Skuntank, but it is never seen there.

Three exits, two of which contradict each other

Platinum gives her the epilogue that Diamond and Pearl denied her. Seen again at Stark Mountain with Mars and Charon, thrown off balance by Cyrus's unexplained disappearance, she challenges the player in the hope of learning more; beaten once more, she leaves the organization to get back to what she calls a normal life.

The manga takes the exact opposite tack. When Cyrus announces that Team Galactic is disbanded, Jupiter erupts: he is their boss, without him they have nowhere to go, and after what they have done no ordinary life awaits them. The boss gives in and takes them with him; the character walks off with a satisfied smile.

The two endings deal with the same question and give opposite answers. The games' version still believes turning back is possible, while the manga's considers that door shut for good — and the anime, with her arrest, settles in a third way the question of what becomes of a loyal enforcer once the boss has vanished.

The character also exists outside the story. Her cards arrive with the Platinum expansion, released in France on August 18, 2009, right at the moment when Sinnoh's third game was finally granting her an exit from the stage.

Jupiter at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Jupiter in Pokémon?
  One of Team Galactic's four Commanders, alongside Mars, Saturn and Charon. She carries out Cyrus's orders without question and shares his goal: creating a new universe.
• Where do you first meet Jupiter?
  In Eterna City, in the building Team Galactic owns there and which she is in charge of. She is the one who has Rad Rickshaw's Clefairy kidnapped — he owns the bike shop.
• What Pokémon does Jupiter use?
  Bronzor, Bronzong, Skuntank, Golbat and Zubat. Skuntank is her signature Pokémon in the games and the only one she is known to have in the anime; the manga gives her a Tangrowth instead.
• What happens to Jupiter in the end?
  It depends on the medium. In Platinum she leaves Team Galactic to return to a normal life; the anime has her arrested by the International Police; the manga sees her leave with Cyrus, after flatly rejecting the idea of an ordinary life.
• Does Jupiter have Pokémon cards?
  Yes. Her cards first appear in the Platinum expansion, released in France on August 18, 2009.

In short

Jupiter is the portrait of an enforcer nothing can shake: she has a pet Pokémon kidnapped, runs a clandestine work site and captures a Legendary Pokémon without ever questioning the orders she receives. What makes the character interesting is the question each medium asks her at the end — can you turn back? The games say yes, the manga says no, and it is the same character. One loyalty, three verdicts.