>>44057461It depends on what you look at it
Despite Pokemon having intelligence comparable to humans, a lot of them are still wild animals going on instinct and primal desires. So, is it possible for their actions to carry intent?
If a Dog bites a man does that make the dog evil? If a cat eats a corpse does that make the cat evil? If a gorilla squashes other smaller animals for fun, without fully comprehending the concept of life/death, is the ape evil?
You could argue they're wicked or mean but that's not the same thing as evil.
If a Pokemon is compelled by nature to kidnap and torture without fully comprehending or lacking the ability to learn the moral philosophy of it being wrong, can they be evil? And even those that are trained, they're not necessarily stopping because they learn it's wrong rather they're just following their trainers orders to behave; and if left in the wild, there's a good chance they'd probably revert because 'that's just what nature intended for my species.'
Pokemon can do bad things but that doesn't make them evil... for the most part. When you get into Pokemon with Human Levels of intelligence and empathy, it gets a little harder to justify. But, the 'Pokemon can't be evil' thing started in the first generation and the majority of them are either straight animals or intelligent species unable to naturally bend from their wild instincts.
The only real exception there is Mewtwo, but he's a whole different can of worms.
