>>47152349Legendary Pokémon are treated as the supernatural in a franchise where the supernatural is the norm. That’s how you get gods and Pokémon capable of doing feats that common Pokémon don’t do. Like for example Alakazam has an IQ in the thousands but the series treat him like a common Pokémon and all he does in the series is battle and participate in contest, also one was used like a work animal. You don’t see an alakazam giving university lectures.
But for your points Little Timmy is not presented as a pet. Little Timmy doesn’t get captured in the wild, he doesn’t get put in PC or in a glorified pet carrier, he doesn’t eat dog food out of a dog bowl with his bare hands, his friends don’t play with him with a cat toy, and he is referred to as a person. Your comparison is dishonest. Ask yourself why they have you interact with Pokémon in camp with a cat toy, why do they add things like that? The answer is clear, they don’t have to outright tell you Pokémon are pets because they do it in subtle ways.
You’re trying to appeal that they can’t be pets on the basis of their relationship with humans yet examples have been provided on how real pets can also be perceived as family members, even thousands of years ago. Pets in real life can also be someone’s brother and sister, daughter and son and in rare cases of feral children, mother and father. These types of relationships don’t exclude Pokémon from being pet-like. And the Gen I text even tells us that people keep them as pets even if they don’t use that language anymore.
Humans are also the dominate species in the pokeverse, I don’t think there’s much to doubt there. And humans and real animals have a mutual relationship. It’s arguable that humanity wouldn’t have risen to their current position without animals such as horses and dogs, who have been essential companions for many, many years.
