James's Parents

James's parents are two wealthy aristocrats who first appeared in Holy Matrimony!.

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In Holy Matrimony!, they pretended to be dead as a trap to lure James back home and get him to marry Jessebelle, an arrangement he now fiercely opposed. With James in the mansion, James's parents revealed their reasoning for capturing him: to marry and continue the family line. After grabbing him and taking him to the basement, they told him that he needed to be taught a lesson for running away from home, while telling Jessie and Meowth that they had been aware of them the entire time and only pretended not to notice them. After James and Ash's Pokémon defeat Jessebelle's Vileplume, Jessebelle flees the mansion. While on the run, Jessebelle knocks James's parents, Hopkins, and Vileplume into a pond while running away, proclaiming how much she hates Growlie, James's pet Growlithe. This left James's parents convinced that Jessebelle is too good for their son. James's parents have been occasionally mentioned since their debut appearance: James, along with Jessie and Meowth, sometimes visits one of his parents' many vacation homes if the trio are in the area. In Sweet Baby James, it is revealed that James's parents are traveling the world. They reappeared in James's flashback in The Treasure Is All Mine!, where it was revealed that they arranged James to marry Jessebelle after he seemed to show some interest in her while they were children. Unfortunately the two parents failed to realize (or perhaps, chose to ignore) the fact that James is now completely evasive of her, and thus still fully expect him to marry her. While not appearing in person, James's mother's voice could be heard in a flashback of James in Mending a Broken Spirit!.

Personality
From their single appearance in addition to James's occasional recounts of his childhood, they were shown to be rather insensitively oblivious to James's personal feelings. They frequently forced him into things he didn't care about at all while he was growing up, such as endless lessons in upper-class activities and aristocratic mannerisms. They also appointed him a fiancée that he to this day tries to stay as far away as possible from. For the most part, it seems that they only hold interest in having James do what they think is best for him and appear to far favor Jessebelle, whom they view to be their idea of a "perfect daughter-in-law".

Trivia
Theresa Buchheister did the initial recording for James's mother in Mending a Broken Spirit!, but replaced herself with Eileen Stevens to keep consistency with The Treasure Is All Mine!. Even though she has no actual voice acting role in the final episode, she is still listed in the voice credits due to this.