>>49582485>>49582527>How do you command them in battle then?Hysterically enough, the canonical answer to the question is most elaborated on in the fucking Detective Pikachu movie to the extent of it even being a plot point.
IIRC, the film explains that Pokemon do not understand human words, but they understand human feelings, and can grasp the complex emotions that people around them are currently undergoing. Essentially, all Pokemon are, to some extent, inherently empaths, and can often judge human emotions with such skill that they usually can understand even a person's intentions. This doesn't allow for truly complex conversations; a Pokemon can't have a debate with someone or long discussions about various topics, but it's usually enough for the Pokemon to know the basic idea of what people are trying to say to it and act accordingly: "attack", "dodge", "please help me", "let's go", "thanks", etc.
This comes up when Pikachu falls victim to the [insert dramatic totally about to die] scene and Tim begs a Bulbasaur to help him, which results in the Bulbasaur leaving and bringing back a hoard of Bulbas (and some other mons like Morelull) to lead him to Mewtwo.
