For instance: all of the psychic pokemon in the shows can speak "human". You could argue that all pokemon are smart enough to comprehend language in this way.
What? No, they don't. Jessie's Wobbufett doesn't, Sabrina's Alakazam doesn't, that Drowzee Butch and Cassidy used didn't, the weather-predicting Xatu didn't, the Spoink that lost its pearl didnt.
In fact, the only Pokémon who ever spoke human, other than a few Legendaries, are Meowth, that one Slowking from the movie (no
other Slowking did) and...a Lapras, I think. I'm probably forgetting a few, but in the end no, most psychic never spoke English. XP
On the other hand, pokemon appear more or less the same as animals (duh) so you could say that they have the same intellect as said beasties (as for the question as to whether or not animals have vast intellects, that is for another time).
Animals irl are obviously sentient, so they're intellogent to an extent, but not to much of an extent. Animals are mostly unable to form sentimental attachments (they mainly understand it as "mine), they don't really get the whole emotion thing (except maybe dogs), they can't create and most animals are generally nothing more than a bunch of instincts. They also can only learn basic commands and don't understand much English.
According to the show, however, Pokémon aren't just animals. Aside from the whole thing about attacks and abilities, we've seen that most are more intelligent than that (not to mention that they seem to understand English perfectly and can execute any attack on command). The Squirtle Squad ran around causing mischeif on their own accord (they had spray paint! o_o) and Ash's Chikorita...had a crush on him. Pikachu originally detested Ash, but, like with Charizard, later understood Ash and what he did and, on their own accord, warmed up to him.
Granted, there ARE some Pokémon who just seem completely animalistic, but I like to think that intelligence varies between species and trained Pokémon tend to be more...human-like in the intelligence department. Or something.
Truth be told, when I read a fic I don't focus on that stuff. Usually I'll take what the writer says as the way the world works; if they portray all trainers as being cruel and heartless humans, I'll just say "well, that's how the writer sees the world and that's how they want it to be. I'll just take that into account in my review." Unless what they do is incredibly outrageous I won't attack it, and I'll respect it. I'll probably add in my own opinion about the matter, but I don't aim to make the writer change the entire story just for me.
I like to see other interprutations of canon, even if I strongly disagree with them. Since nothing in it is completely set in stone, playing around with it can be quite fun. ^^
~Psychic
