How would a wild Shadow Pokemon behave?

Ahhh, Shadow Pokemon. The Gamecube-exclusive product of the Cipher organization in Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD. The "doors to their hearts" are closed, they pack a variety of unique attacks, and they tend to become violent and unpredictable... when they're under the command of a Trainer. But, what if one ended up on its own, whether via abandonment or via ruthlessly murdering its owner in one of its frenzies?

Personally, I think a Shadow Pokemon without an owner would usually actually be rather rational. Possibly moreso than a normal Pokemon. Closing off its heart isn't gonna make it mindless, just emotionless. It'd result in a mindset similar, for example, to Bleach's Ulquiorra Cifer. Man, I like saying the names of characters from that show out loud. Anyway, I imagine it like this: a normal Pokemon obeys its trainer. If it's loyal enough to its trainer, then it'll obey even if it doesn't really agree with what it's doing. But, if it disagrees enough, OR doesn't feel the trainer deserves its cooperation.

A Shadow Pokemon doesn't have that conscience to govern whether its actions are right, so it unquestioningly follows orders. However, sometimes its repressed emotions try to flare up, sending it into a frenzy: Hyper Mode or Reverse Mode, depending on the game. Thus, it lashes out at whatever happens to be nearby.

In the wild, a Shadow Pokemon wouldn't have orders to follow, and therefore no reason for its emotions to struggle to get their way. It would seek its own self-preservation, and other such benefits, with little concern for the consequences of its actions and little empathy for those around it. It would only be launched into a frenzy if someone else confronted them with the immorality of its actions.

That's how I imagine it, anyway.

I would think that a shadow pokémon without a trainer wouldn't do anything.
Just stand still, not feeling any emotion such as hunger, thirst or tiredness. So it wouldn't eat, drink or sleep and the majority of which would just starve.

Eventually one or two may have enough suppressed willpower to force their survival instinct to run into overdrive, removing the zombie like shadow state and self purify themselves, but it wouldn't be complete and they wouldn't be able to feel some emotions, only the absolutely necessary ones like hunger and pain, without any of the ones not directly necessary for survival such as happiness or love.

There's one major flaw in that theory, Caz. Fatigue, hunger, thirst and such really aren't emotions, per se. They're physical reactions of the body that essentially serve as an alarm system to let one know when they need something. They're feelings, yes, but not really emotions.

The term used in the games for the condition of Shadow Pokemon is, again, that the door to their heart is closed. Now, think of what emotions would figuratively come from the heart; love, hate, happiness, sorrow, anger... those are emotions. Feeling "hungry" and feeling "angry" are two very different things; the former is a state of one's body indicating a need for food, while the latter is the result of emotional passion.

In other words, Shadow Pokemon are only unable to feel "heartfelt" sensations. If you wanna say they don't feel fatigue, you -might- be onto something, but only if the process also does something to enhance their endurance. But if they literally can't feel- as in, no sense of touch- then you may as well knock off all the other senses as well. And they'd be fairly useless if they couldn't hear commands, or see targets, or whatever sensory input they use if they happen to not be visually-inclined.

Shadow Pokemon are heartless, not senseless. Granted, some sense of self-preservation might be gone, just so they wouldn't question being sent into dangerous situations. They'd have to eat eventually, though, and I personally wouldn't want to be trying to force food down the throat of something that's been engineered into a ruthless killing machine. An army of weapons that dies of starvation because they don't know how to eat would be idiotic, frankly.

They wouldn't feel any emotions.No love or sympathy.No hate or anger.They would stay still and be like zombies.Like,dead and alive together.Clinically dead.They would feel hunger,thirst and pain(if something caused it) and they would follow their insticts.They are ruthless and like,mind controlled.

Kharma wrote:They wouldn't feel any emotions.No love or sympathy.No hate or anger.They would stay still and be like zombies.Like,dead and alive together.Clinically dead.They would feel hunger,thirst and pain(if something caused it) and they would follow their insticts.They are ruthless and like,mind controlled.

Ahem... they would stay still, but they would 'be like zombies' and follow their instincts? You can't really stay still while practicing any sort of self-preserving instinct. Unless you're a plant. Or a sedentary animal. Sponges and corals and certain shellfish come to mind.

Also, zombies don't feel pain, and Shadow Pokemon clearly aren't "clinically dead" since they can be cured.

Just to reiterate, Hyper/Reverse Mode prove they can disobey, albeit in a particularly violent and unpredictable manner. And the fact that Hyper/Reverse Mode are universal and affect ALL Shadow Pokemon, even the "perfect" Shadow Lugia, means that it isn't just those specimens with particularly high willpower. All of them. Not some particular individuals.

They're weaponized. I kinda think of them like super-soldiers, of the evil variety. They're given enhanced powers, and brainwashed to keep them under control. Their express purpose was to provide Cipher with an evil army. Being with a good Trainer visibly 'breaks' the brainwashing: for example, by allowing them to remember moves, or by revealing their original nature. The real question is whether living without a Trainer would also gradually break the brainwashing; though never fully, since some special method is always required to finish the purification. Contact with Celebi, mostly. Or crazy technology, in the second game.