>>42194312Giovanni is associated with Ground as he is the Ground gym leader, but if we want to look for another angle, he also uses the Normal-type Kangaskhan as the Rocket Boss. Wha does Kangaskhan have in common with his other mons? A lot of them are rather large, imposing kaiju-like monsters with strong stats, which befits a powerful rpg boss character with an intimidating crime lord image like him. In his first battle, he has an Onix, which was the first gym leader's powerful ace-in-the hole, but to him (and at this later point in the game, game design-wise) it's just another not-that-impressive bit player in his repertoire. In his gym match, the only monster that doesn't really fit with this image is Dugtrio, but that's still a potent Pokemon in its own right with its Dig attack. His signature attack is Fissure, a one-hit-KO move which usually are quite scary in RPGs (though not that bad in Pokemon as they have low accuracy and other requirements like higher speed/higher level than the target). In Yellow, his teams are edited to include the iconic-in-the-anime Persian, but perhaps more importantly many of his Pokemon now know the ultimate Ground move Earthquake.
Poison for the mooks makes sense, as they are common Pokemon common grunts might carry, and a dozen battles whittling you down with poison status and shit is classic RPG design. The big boss taking you on with the big guns and a powerful Pokemon typing likewise makes sense.
