>>47666156Nah, it's cowardly that they used to do that and I'm glad the games and the franchise in general has moved towards showing Pokémon as the animals they are meant to represent, with Barraskewda being eaten by Cramorants, Pidgeys picking up caterpies, and so on and so forth.
The, "Pokemon aren't like animals, real animals have are dumb stupid soulless machines you don't have to think about", line is completely at odds with the better messages of the franchise. For example, the first movie with Mewtwo, where the girl tells Mewtwo that Pokemon can't cry because they don't have souls, and then the Pokémon cry for Ash at the end, that's obviously meant to represent the absurdity of people who think animals can't think or feel or suffer the same way humans can. The only way for the Pokémon franchise to remain good is for it to acknowledge these themes and develop them further, instead of cowardly shying away from controversy by pretending Pokémon aren't animal analogies.
The Pokemon aren't animals concept is also cancerous for another reason, that reason being that the more the franchise moves away from animals, the more we get trash like Toxtricity and all that humanoid furry garbage.
