>>53110380The easiest way of determining whether a Pokemon can consent is whether it can speak.
Granted, this is not perfect, as a toddler can speak, and it is damn well not capable of consenting, but the immediate way of discerning whether a Pokemon can consent is being able to communicate with it.
The most notable talking Pokemon is clear; Meowth. He cannot be counted, however, in the sense that his having speech was clearly just for comedic effect, and not canon. The events which led to him learning human speech are never again seen throughout the entire franchise, despite numerous times where a Pokémon would have reason or ability to do so.
Canon examples of Pokemon capable of direct communication include:
>A lot of legendaries(Not that this would mean much to the average Joe) >Lucario(Through aura telepathy) >Zoroark and Ninetales(Through illusions)>Ralts, and by extension gardevoir (Through telepathy)>Lapras(You guessed it, telepathy)And probably a few others I missed.
Psychic types could potentially be capable of telepathy as a whole, though they've never displayed this capability too much.
Once again, the ability to talk alone does not imply human-level intelligence, but is a decent litmus test, through which the Harkness test can be applied. One might even go so far as to claim that human level intelligence is not required, so long as both parties are clearly and blatantly consenting, but that is a debate I will not have.
Of course, the spoken word is not the sole form of communication. Language appears several times throughout the franchise. Of course, none would have the natural capacity to any more than you or I did as children, . Which actually can is difficult to discern, thanks to a lack of literary Pokemon in the franchise.
However, Weavile, (Again, a Pokemon which the games note for being smarter than usual) is stated to have created a vague language without any outside influence, using 500 characters scratched into trees.
