Jokes on you I would very much like to see a giant essay about pokemon and the power of friendship. Pokemon go brrrrrrr
So first, there's the misconception that Pokemon don't want to fight. What this overlooks is that Pokemon are both sentient and sapient, and therefore if they don't want to fight they just... won't? Both the games and the anime show that a Pokemon won't listen to you if you don't have enough experience. You have no means of forcing them to obey you, so if they didn't want to fight they'd literally just Leave, which kind of ruins the whole dogfighting angle. (various villain teams, who use unethical methods to control their Pokemon, are outliers adn should not have been counted)
Secondly, there's also the misconception that Pokemon are slaves and can't leave. However, it's been clearly shown that Pokemon can literally leave their Pokeballs at any time they want without their trainer calling them out--Pokeballs are more like little homes for the Pokemon than cages. This goes back to point 1, wherein if a Pokemon doesn't want to fight, it would just Leave.
Thirdly, Pokemon matches are less like dogfights and more like boxing. The goal is to simply knock out your opponent--nothing that could kill or mutilate them. They even have refs (at least in the anime) to watch the fights to make sure that everything's safe. This also means that Pokemon are actually much safer battling with a trainer, as out in the wild they'd still be fighting with other wild Pokemon, except possibly to the death. Pokemon can also be healed relatively easily, so they're not left in a ton of pain if they do get hurt (another thing that they don't get to have after wild fights).
Fourthly, and I cannot stress this enough, most Pokemon could straight up kill you if they wanted--some have even evolved specifically to prey on humans! Pokemon could rebel and kill off humanity if they wanted to, yet they don't, solely because they like us.
Fifthly, the point of battling wild Pokemon seems to less be "lmao this thing doesn't wanna come with me so I'll beat it into submission" and more "you have to prove your strength to this Pokemon before it will agree to be your companion". Think about it--if you can't even beat this wild Pokemon, then what can it learn from you? We've also seen Pokemon join up with trainers without even bothering battling first, so it's obvious most Pokemon have no problems training with humans.
So what I'm getting at is that Pokemon actually has this really cool mutualistic symbiosis going on between humans and people. Humans help keep their Pokemon safe and well cared for, and help them train to become stronger and/or give them loving homes. The Pokemon, in return, not only don't hurt humans but protect them against threats. Some sources even say that humans are descended from Pokemon, and that it was the Pokemon who first started partnering with humans to protect them, not the other way around.
What's also neat is that Pokemon aren't just used for battling either, but for a variety of other purposes, ranging from labor to medical. Pokemon are so thoroughly ingrained into society that they've taken the place of a lot of IRL tech, furthering the mutualism aspect.
It's also worth noting that the practice of catching and training Pokemon has literally been going on for thousands of years. People have been forming bonds with Pokemon practically since humanity existed, and frankly it's really the only reason everything hasn't been wiped off the map yet.
Pokemon and humans have literally evolved over thousands of years to help each other, and to be each other's friends. thank you for coming to my TED talk
