Pokémon fans have theorized about plenty of unsolved mysteries, unanswered questions and intriguing plot holes. From suspected legendaries to wild clone assumptions, these theories range from somewhat believable to flat-out bizarre, but perhaps one of the strangest of all is that Giovanni, Team Rocket's beloved leader, is actually Ash's long-lost father.
Team Rocket is a criminal organization hell-bent on stealing other people's Pokémon for their own fiendish benefit. Overlooking that criminal hierarchy is Giovanni, Team Rocket's boss. He appears semi-frequently throughout the anime, often in a cameo role or merely to scold the Team Rocket trio for their blunders. Ash's father is rarely seen or mentioned in the Pokémon universe, so fans have been led to believe that Giovanni left Ash's mother sometime after his birth to spearhead the Pokémon-pinching operations -- and ultimately achieve overall supremacy.
Reddit's subreddit titled "r/FanTheories" is a hub for any and all in-depth analyses of fandom theories. In this subreddit, many Pokémon fans have discussed the potential that Giovanni could be Ash Ketchum's villainous father.
According to the most popular speculation, Giovanni was once a Pokémon trainer himself, journeying far and wide. He met Delia Ketchum, Ash's mother, and the two fell in love. His involvement led to Delia becoming pregnant. At this time, Giovanni had come across Team Rocket and was living a double life, quickly climbing the ranks from low-life grunt to the chain of command. When Ash was born, he stopped caring for Delia as he did before; the romance stopped, and he often came home late at night without explanation. Their relationship fell apart.
Delia, although loving Giovanni, forced him to choose between his "secret" and a committed relationship with her. Long story short, Giovanni left. when Ash turned 10 years old and started his Pokémon journey, Delia was apprehensive about sending Ash on his adventures, especially as Giovanni, unbeknownst to her, had become the leader of Team Rocket.
Giovanni still cares about Ash and his safety; therefore, he recruited Jessie and James, whom he knew were bumbling idiots -- to put it nicely -- and told them to oversee Ash's journey. They were to help him train by making him think he was trouble, but their schemes were foiled all too easily. Considering that Team Rocket are adults and Ash is a literal child, it would be thought that Team Rocket should have succeeded by now, which raises some suspicion that the Pokémon-pinching schemes are all "rigged" so that Ash will never be in any real danger.
Team Rocket's trio masks their supervision under the pretense of "stealing" Ash's Pikachu to give to their boss. Giovanni sets up scenarios for Ash to "beat" Team Rocket, all so that he can see his son without exposing their familial relationship. This idea is put into effect at the Team Rocket Hideout and Silph Co. where Ash -- a 10-year-old boy -- "overcomes" the most powerful criminal organization in the country, even defeating its leader.
Giovanni's lack of presence in the anime supports this theory for its secretive nature; he wants to keep his empire separate from his side quest to father his son from afar -- from the "shadows." As a criminal overlord, it makes sense that Ash's mom would want to avoid mentioning Ash's father.
This theory completely alters what we know about Ash's childhood, but most prominently, the mystery that surrounds his father, who has been out of the picture for as long as the series has aired. Delia never answered any questions regarding Ash's father when he asked them as a toddler; she merely told Ash that he was an extraordinary Pokémon Trainer, leaving the conclusion open-ended.
While some glimpses of Ash's "father" were seen as Delia retold his adventures to young Ash, the imagery used could be intended to mislead us as viewers and discourage us from pursuing his true identity -- for which there are many prospective candidates.
