>>56230687Money talks and like 150 years ago people lived in fear of the very real threat of a pokemon killing them and that's not a long time at all.
I'm guessing Apricorn balls were not mass produced. Maybe the original rocket grunts are from families affected by this. Giovanni's mother founded Team Rocket so it's like what, around 50 years old at the start of r/b/y?
This isn't some grimderp headcanon, the games and manga are pretty upfront about it with only the anime ignoring anything slightly edgy after the first season.
Team Rocket's usual gig is likely low level mafia shit, bribes, drugs, stuff like the Slowpoke tails in gen 2.
As long as Rocket isn't killing humans and destroying pokemon habitats I doubt they get any real attention from the League/Government. The Lake of Rage shit was bad Rocket leadership doing exactly that and forcing Lance to crack down on them.
