#tl;dr the pokemon universe is one in which people and sapient magical animals

[ganymedesclock]

You know, I've joined the Pokemon fandom only recently and I've noticed that some people in the fandom think it's kind of unethical that Pokemon are captured in balls and then "forced to fight" in Pokemon battles. You seem to like Pokemon, so I was wondering what your thoughts on that are.

I certainly don’t have my finger to the pulse of new content, but, several things of note.

Literally the first episode of the anime, as well as many others since then, have demonstrated if a pokemon doesn’t want to go into a ball they will fight it, and continue to fight it after “being tamed”. Pikachu was given to Ash “already tamed” but utterly refuses a pokeball, constantly. This is not considered abnormal, baffling, or concerning. Even the games, which simplify this for the sake of mechanics, mention at different times that legendary pokemon will challenge you specifically because they are interested in seeing you prove your worth.

In Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, both games feature an enemy organization that manipulates pokemon into a “shadow” state that is described as shutting them down emotionally. A big thrust of the game is capturing and healing those pokemon, so it features relationship values and things that will help them heal- being sent into battle is something that help abused pokemon heal. So exceptionally vulnerable pokemon- who can be pretty much triggered and act violently or aggressively- enjoy battle.

Very much, the narrative presented by pokemon fairly consistently is a bond of souls, of person with partner, and they are working together to overcome adversity. 

I think personally, thinking of pokemon battles as like cockfighting is not really accurate- it’s worth noting that pokemon are really a lot less like animals and a lot more like alternatively sapient people. They are fully self-aware, and in the anime more than the games, you see this big time, but even in the games, friendship values are mechanically a thing! In later generations, pokemon will resist harder attacks, and hit harder themselves, because they enjoy and value the relationship they have with you.

We see pokemon can refuse to evolve, refuse pokeballs, and push their limits in many ways by extent of willpower. People who are abusive or controlling towards pokemon are characterized as worse than filth, and abused pokemon exist, (see: Ash’s charmander being left in a situation that is dangerous for it by its abusive owner before it came to Ash’s possession, and him being unbelievably pissed at its former master) and are met with compassion.

Likewise- pokemon can outright refuse to respect their trainers! In more recent anime, Ash picked up a Gengar that was abandoned by its trainer and, when realizing this, actually attacked that person, and is still rowdy and argumentative with him / lashes out if it feels it was accused of something it didn’t do. In the sun/moon series, the bewear that takes a shine to Team Rocket makes it abundantly clear she has no intention of ever being captured (by intercepting and crushing a pokeball between her paws). 

So basically, if you see pokemon battling, it’s an exercise of informed consent. In less dangerous situations, it can be thought of like a dog competition where a dog genuinely enjoys competing because the physical and mental challenge is stimulating, or even (as pokemon, as noted before, are pretty sapient) more like two people participating in a competition together as a team. 

Look how many fighting types are described as putting independent effort towards training and evolving, and how many pokemon of all types are described as territorial, aggressive, or generally willing to throw hands! Wild pokemon attack you and try to kick your ass! In the wild areas in Sword and Shield, pokemon actively chase you down trying to pick a fight. While we do see pokemon knocked out, stunned or weakened and then pokeballed, you can think of it like two shounen protagonists who only bond after beating the stuffing out of each other to reach an emotional bond- because, given the above factors, if they weren’t like “yes, I respect your power, I think we’re cool now” they could express their ill will or discomfort many ways.

And in another sense, you can look towards other installments of the “mon” genre- the idea of characters bonding with their partners, sometimes literally fusing or teaming together to do a move, is huge in this genre.

Could someone still abuse a pokemon? Yes- again, both anime and games make it clear this is something that happens, it is socially stigmatized by humans and pokemon alike (there’s an entire movie where Mewtwo is fucking pissed at having been made as a living weapon and his anger is depicted as pretty justified even if he needs to not take it out on people who weren’t his creators) and it would leave a mark, and does.

(Ghetsis, in BW2, notably, fights you with a pokemon who knows the move “Frustration” at full strength- the move “Frustration” specifically gains power the more the pokemon hates the trainer, so we can gather pretty clearly Ghetsis is not a nice trainer. Conversely, another “Team boss”, Cyrus, has a crobat, which only evolves from a golbat who has maximum friendship values- so whether or not Cyrus is a good person, his pokemon have a strong emotional relationship with him.)

And I really don’t wanna be the one to carelessly dismiss concerns, especially of depictions of animal abuse. You can raise questions if the pokemon series- in particular the games- are over-focused on battling to the point of depicting less about day to day social life with these guys- I personally really like to think about other elements of the pokemon world- but I also feel like a lot of “pokemon is literally just glorified fantasy dogfighting it’s awful and gross” takes are.... not made in good faith? not looking at the messages sent by the games in detail.