Pokemon Go players are tired of debating Shadow Pokemon and “cruelty to animals”.

❘ Published: 2023-03-19T17:16:01

❘ updated: 2023-03-19T17:16:10

Pokemon 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 was introduced in Pokemon Go in 2019, Niantic probably didn’t intend for their integration to become an ethical debate in the community. A debate that would last four years, with two different and passionate sides.

One side loved the idea of ​​Shadow Pokemon as they take on a form not many in the franchise had experienced before. They also get a whopping 20% ​​damage bonus, making Shadow Pokemon with bad stats still more viable than normal monsters with great stats. And some sneakers find the edgy look appealing.

On the other side of the argument, however, are those who believe that keeping a Pokémon 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 act strange because Team GO Rocket tried to make them stronger through unnatural means.”

The pesky Pokemon Go Shadow debate

The controversial topic of Shadow Pokemon is brought up quite often on public forums like Reddit and Twitter. A trainer will post their heartfelt rationale for wanting to cleanse the Shadow monsters, which inevitably leads to metaplayers explaining why Shadow Pokémon are good for PvP, and so on.

And as so many times before, the cycle repeated itself when user AstroidTea posted his own meme on the r/pokemongo subreddit. “This is my hot shot and I’m ready to be demoted. I don’t care what the meta is. I don’t like the look of Shadow Pokemon. I will clean them.”

However, they were met with over 7.5k upvotes and nearly 300 comments from users who engaged in the age-old Shadow debate. But this time, many players expressed concern about the topic of discussion, saying they were “tired” of reviving the same topic.

“I do not care. I’m tired of having this shadow debate,” commented one user. Another pointed out: “Although I’m sure other people will say otherwise, you were never forced to hold a mon shadow. It’s your game, do what you want with it.”

The majority of comments below the post came from players who agreed with AstroidTea and explained how they helped ailing Pokémon in need. And that’s typical of posts like this one. But it’s interesting to see the growing number of gamers tired of hearing about the moral dilemmas of a virtual monster collecting game.