I can't believe I've put this much thought into it ...

No matter how much I have tried to remain ignorant of my kid brother's Pokemon, I have unwillingly picked up things just by being in the same room when it's on. And now I have a bit of meta about it. (Meta about Pokemon, of all things!)

Ahem. So, the premise of the show is that there are these animals called Pokemon, and each breed of Pokemon has a different trick or two, and they are used by humans for fighting, etc. Humans take care of them, guide them to "evolve" into more powerful Pokemon, and use them to fight both when necessary and just for fun. Humans capture them from the wild. Pokemon (usually) can't talk, but they're clearly quite intelligent--despite the fact that usually they are depicted as being in complete and total agreement with their masters and do their bidding without question. Basically, they're perfect slaves. Imperialism and the master race, here we come.

There is one Pokemon in the series who clearly has a mind of his own, and is no ones slave, and can talk (although he still has a weird accent), and is treated almost like an equal by his human friends.

He's one of the three recurring bad guys.