"Juan F. Lara" wrote:

That just makes it worse. You have an entire race of sentient
beings enslaved and forced to do battle for the advancement and
edification of their masters. Roman gladiators probably had
more freedom than these poor creatures.

...Okay, so I'm reading way more into this than I probably should.
Still, I find the whole concept just a little disturbing. The
cartoons imply that the "good" trainers love their charges, but
then they turn around and force their "pets" to pound the crap
out of each other for 22 minutes plus commercials. That's "tough
love," I guess.

(Speaking of Sentience: I now recall an unintentionally funny
sequence in one episode. Several pokemon held a "conversation"
in their native tongues, e.g., "Pika! Pika!" "Squirtle, squirtle!"
And the pokemon dialog was subtitled! :) )