One thing to remember is that the games set the canon, not the other way around. Other media can't be taken as fact over them. Adventure isn't the only comic out there, and the cartoon can't even be internally consistent.
I know this. The fact is though,t he only thing the game states on the matter is Canalave Library's legends, and NPC talk, which can't really be taken as concrete; the former due to the fact that, well, it's a legend, and the second because... well, I don't know why people don't take the second as concrete.
Why do the games have to say anything? This is one of those things that falls under Occam's Razor. With your logic, since the games don't tell us what Pokemon eat (especially since you ignore the pokedex), I say they eat people. They also never sleep or poop, so they obviously don't do those things either. Who is Red's father? Simple, he doesn't have one. We just can't know!
....What?
The anime and Special are both probably the most well known interpretations of the pokemon world, with the latter even having the backing of the creator himself. In other words, if the game doesn't say something, but the anime/Special does, until the game says something different the anime/Special explanation will be used.
Also, the only time I truly ignore the Pokedex is in the case of legendary pokemon, due to the complete reliance on Legends. Other then that, I realize the Pokedex is basically a field guide of sorts, telling you only the most basic information.
Not to mention it's stated in-game that Pokemon can eat candy and poffin. Not to mention the fact that Pokemon have a Sleep status effect, and that the NPCs that heal you that aren't Nurse Joys state that your pokemon need a rest. Don't have anything about the poop though. And for Red's father, he hasn't been introduced anywhere (though slightly referenced in the anime so we know he at least exists), but until there is a real solid statement, sure you can believe Red doesn't have a father if you want to.
On a side note, why would humans be in charge if all pokes were just as intelligent as them? Thanks, terrible cartoon logic, you saved the day again.
Pokemon MD shows that Pokemon can get along fine without humans. As for why Pokemon wokl with humans, it's the entire theme of the games: trust and respect.
The way you ignored the Lapras thing on the previous page tells me not to continue with you.
Actually, I still have no idea what anyone meant about the Lapras thing. Hell, I'm not even sure which Lapras we're talking about here. The anime one? An in-game one?
Never mind, found it. I have absolutely no idea how I missed that to tell the truth.
You said "It is more intelligent than a dog because it can breath fire". I say "the ability to breath fire and intelligence have no corrolation".
...
what? How.. what...
HOW THE HELL DID YOU READ THAT?
You stated your dog was a pokemon because it could learn commands. I pointed out it was incapable of doing the majority of the magical things pokemon can do. In no way did I state that because it could do these magical things it is more intelligent. In fact, my whole point was
that pokemon can do these magic, unrealistic things and really can't be judged by real life standards.
It was said in the final Orange Islands battle, when Ash's Bulbasaur is battling Drake's Electabuzz, that despite Bulbasaur having type advantage, he still lost because Drake's Electabuzz had a much higher experience level. This battling didn't use any strategy or intelligence, so you can't claim that this was referring to Electabuzz having more experience with battling and therefor has a better strategy.
I mean, it's not like experience could possibly refer to things like aiming, using stronger attacks, or just all around knowlege of how to battle, right?
Man, I suck at giving examples.
Yet in the Kanto Champions League, Ash's Krabby, that was weak enough for Ash to catch without battling, and hadn't had a battle in his life, managed to beat all three Pokémon of Ash's first opponent without any trouble at all.
Strategy and tenacity. Ever heard of them?
IIRC, it wasn't Whitney that said it, but her assistant. And he said that it was the rule Ash only had to beat the strongest Pokémon. Respect had nothing to do with it.
Because Ash beating Whitney's strongest pokemon wouldn't earn her respect, and thus her badge. Nope.
Either way, I really don't recall much about that episode, so do you think you could give me a transcript?
The accuracy is good enough. It still gives a good picture of the Pokémon in the wild. Still, none of the entries indicate any human level intelligence in Pokémon, while many indicate animal level intelligence.
As I stated earlier, after some thinking on the matter due to this debate, I now see the Pokedex as a field guide of sorts, only stating the most basic of information, and maybe a little trivia.
This explains why you are failing so bad. You are unable to read. I gave 4 Pokédex entries and the flavor text of a TCG card, which each mention that Lapras is able to understand human, I even bolded those parts, yet you still missed it.
To be truthful, I didn't actually notice that. Yeah, epic fail on my part.
Anyway... I take this to just mean that Lapras has more intelligence then the average pokemon. Probably not the level of an Alakazam, but that it just understands english more easily, or just shows that it understands english more easily. I mean, people used it for transport; they probably noticed that Lapras very quickly responded to directions.
Interpretation FTW. Really though, I have no real counter to this, other then my own interpretation of it.
Bolding and oversizing some words doesn't make them any more true. The special thing about the old man wasn't that he was supposed to understand Pokémon. I don't even think he ever claimed that. The special thing was that he was supposed to be able to speak the Pokémon language. Do you even know what episode I'm talking about?
How do you still not understand this? I'm pointing out that all that was resolved was that that man could not speak pokemon. Nothing was said about whether or not pokemon could understand humans, or at least according to the episode summary you provided.
Here, let's give an example. There's a man who thinks he can speak German. He goes over to Germany and tries communicating with Germans. Now, somebody asks for his services as a translator, and after some hijinks the man discovers that he can not speak German. Does this mean that people who speak German can not understand humans at all?
...damn, I still suck at examples.
The Meowth being able to speak is just another clear example of the inconsitancies in the animé, and a reason why it should be disregarded when figuring out a canon. The Meowth made it seem that with a little determination, every Pokémon could talk the human language or could walk on two legs. In fact, Ash and Misty weren't surprised at all when they first heard Meowth speak or saw him walk. Yet in 5 regions, he is still the only Pokémon capable of doing either of this. It doesn't make any sense.
Looking at Meowth's own backstory episode, it seems Pokemon just don't want to learn human.
Anyway, I have no real way to counter the Lapras point, so this might be the end of this fun, if slightly frustrating (on both ends, I'm sure) debate.