>>48620496My point in posting that Tumblr screenshot was to showcase that people can pick up on the context clues provided. Pokemon never explicitly calls the Pokémon themselves pets as far as I know except when Oak is explicitly talking directly to the player. Even if it's not explicitly stated it's pretty obvious what they're meant to be and the screen ties in with that.
Do some people find it weird? Yes but I as I stated earlier it's fantasy, fiction. None of these designs resemble human beings vis a vis and I'm sure Pokémon designers take that in mind. These aren't like some of the Digimon that very clearly resemble humans in appearance. You have humanoid designs but not human designs in Pokémon. I guess the closest thing you can compare it is the existence of hominids like orangutans, literally people of the forest in Malay, chimps, etc who do have a humanlike appearance but aren't obviously human in appearance. If chimps could be safely domesticated i have no doubt people would keep them as pets, and some have tried with disastrous results.
