Pokemon Go players tired of debating Shadow Pokemon and “animal cruelty”
NianticPokemon Go players have started rehashing the ethical dilemma of not purifying Shadow Pokemon, while others are tired of debating whether having stronger Pokemon counts as animal cruelty.
When Shadow Pokemon were introduced to Pokemon Go in 2019, Niantic likely didn’t intend for their integration to become an ethical debate among the community. A debate that would continue for four years, with two distinct and passionate sides.
One side loved the idea of Shadow Pokemon as they take on a form not many in the franchise had previously experienced. They also get a beefy 20% damage bonus, making Shadow Pokemon with poor stats still more viable than normal monsters with great stats. And some trainers find the edgy look appealing.
However, on the other side of the quarrel are those who believe keeping a Pokemon in its Shadow state is a form of animal cruelty. Their ideology stems from a Pokemon Go blog post that states, “these Pokémon look unusual and behave strangely because Team GO Rocket tried to make them stronger through unnatural means.”
The tiresome Pokemon Go Shadow debate
The divisive topic of Shadow Pokemon is brought up fairly often on public forums such as Reddit and Twitter. One trainer will post their heartfelt reasoning for wanting to purify the Shadow monsters, inevitably leading to meta players explaining why Shadow Pokemon are good for PvP, and so on.
And like many times before, the cycle repeated itself when user AstroidTea posted their own meme to the r/pokemongo subreddit. “This is my hot take, and I am prepared to be downvoted. I don’t care what the meta is. I don’t like how Shadow Pokemon look. I am going to purify them.”
However, they were met with over 7.5k upvoted and nearly 300 comments from users engaging in the age-old Shadow debate. But this time, a large number of players expressed their anguish with the topic of discussion, stating they are “tired” of rehashing this same issue.
“I don’t care anymore. I’m tired of having this shadow debate,” one user commented. Another pointed out, “Although I’m sure other people will say otherwise, you were never forced into keeping a mon shadow. It’s your game, do what you want with it.”
The majority of comments under the post were from players agreeing with AstroidTea, explaining how they were helping suffering Pokemon in need. And that’s typical for posts like this one. But it’s interesting to see the growing number of players who are sick of hearing about the moral dilemmas of a virtual monster collecting game.