Team Galactic

Team Galactic (Japanese: ギンガ団 Ginga-dan lit. Galaxy Gang) is the villainous team in Sinnoh.

Team Galactic grunts

In the games

Among other things, Team Galactic tries to entice Pokémon to do their bidding, attempt to invite the region's Pokémon professor to do research for them, steal people's Pokémon, steal Lucas/Dawn's Pokédex, and threaten Lucas/Dawn.

Unlike past criminal syndicates, the existence of Team Galactic is an openly advertised fact; they even broadcast television commercials requesting the donation of Pokémon. However, their genuinely criminal operations remain covered-up. Team Galactic wants to catch the Pokémon that created the world: Dialga of time and Palkia of space, as well as Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie so that their leader, Cyrus, can destroy the universe and rebuild it in his own image with himself as an absolute god. However, only the Commanders and Boss are aware of this plan (which even then, Saturn isn't entirely aware of his boss's plan.), while the underlings think that it's simply an organization that collects rare Pokémon. Most of the Grunts joined because they were promised to be awarded rare Pokémon if they completed their assignments.

By the end of Platinum, Mars and Jupiter have quit the organization, Pluto has been arrested, and Cyrus has decided to stay in the Ruined World, while Saturn decides to take what's left of the team and repent for their evil deeds.

Admins and Boss

All of the Commanders of Team Galactic are named after planets:

Commander Mars
Commander Jupiter
Commander Saturn
Boss Cyrus

Pluto

File:Pluto.PNG

Pluto is a new character introduced in Pokémon Platinum.

In the anime

File:Team Galactic High Touch.jpg

The Commander trio and Saturn's Toxicroak in the opening High Touch!

Team Galactic has made several appearances in the anime. So far, only two grunts and Saturn have appeared. They first appeared in A Secret Sphere of Influence!, though it was only a brief cameo at the end. They assigned the Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth to steal the Adamant Orb for them. Both Brock and Officer Jenny believed that the trio had been assigned to this work by Butch and Cassidy or Pokémon Hunter J.

In their next appearance in Journey to the Unown!, Saturn brings the two grunts into the Solaceon Ruins. The Team Rocket trio observe them, following them inside. Using three plates, Saturn obtains a cube inside of the ruins, enraging the Unown and causing general chaos inside of the ruins. Before leaving, Saturn thanks the Team Rocket trio for their assistance in the earlier episode and his group escapes with his Bronzor.

Team Galactic appeared again in Enter Galactic!, where Saturn appears yet again. After exposing the cube obtained in Journey to the Unknown! to the Veilstone City meteorites, it transforms into the Spear Key. This episode is also the time when Ash and his friends finally encounter them. Their mission this time is apparently to steal some of Veilstone City's meteors. Saturn also battles Brock with their Toxicroak and Croagunk, respectively. However, no thanks to Ash, Dawn, Officer Jenny, and Paul's Electabuzz, the battle ends up in a draw and the mission is a complete failure, leaving Team Galactic to retreat. It is currently unknown why they wanted to steal the meteorites.

They appeared in DP096 and DP097, when Mars, Jupiter and Cyrus debuted in the anime. In the episodes, they steal the Lustrous Orb and the Adamant Orb from the Celestic Town museum.

They also appear in the opening High Touch!.

Unlike in the games, most of them know of Team Galactic's goal to control Dialga and Palkia. However, none of them know Cyrus' true intentions...

In other languages

Language	Name	Origin
Japanese	ギンガ団 Ginga-dan lit. Galaxy Gang	From 銀河 ginga, galaxy.
English	Team Galactic	From galactic
French	Team Galaxie	From galaxie, galaxy.
German	Team Galaktik	From Galaxie, galaxy.
Italian	Team Galassia	From galassia, galaxy
Spanish	Equipo Galaxia	From galaxia, galaxy
Korean	갤럭시단 Galaxy Dan	From English galaxy.

Trivia

Although "Team Galactic" is not incorrect, a more literal translation of the Japanese is "Team Galaxy" or "Galaxy Gang", possibly a reference to the Galaxy Gang in Pulseman.
This is the only villainous team of the main games whose leader does not express regret after being defeated or seem dissuaded from further activities. However, considering how Saturn took over the Team Galactic HQ and is currently reforming it into a more beneficial organization, that might count towards its leader being (albeit in a different manner) dissuaded from further activities.
- Also, after the final battle with Cyrus in the Ruined World, he mentions that he plans to live in it, thus in a sense, he is dissuaded from his goals in this game as well.
Each Commander's hair resembles a different Pokémon; Mars's hair resembles Toxicroak, Jupiter's resembles a Medicham, and Saturn's hair resembles Purugly.
Although Cipher Admin Venus from Pokémon Colosseum is not a Team Galactic operative (as far as is known), her name fits in with the other Galactic Commanders: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Like the other Galactic Commanders her appearance also seems to be based loosely on a Pokémon, Cresselia, as she wears a pink dress (Cresselia is pink) with a crescent moon turned on its side on her back (Cresselia is very well connected with the crescent moon). This is interesting to note since Cresselia is a Generation IV Pokémon, while Colosseum takes place during Generation III, which seems to suggest that it is the other way around.