In other Pokemon games, you have the villain wanting to blow up a reactor because of climate change in a thousand years or you have a dude wanting to kill all life because it's flawed and these are all terrible motivations that are so silly that they don't come off as dark because they're so ridiculous.
Meanwhile, in Gold/Silver, Team Rocket decides to generate funds for their operators by capturing and torturing Slowpokes to get their tails to sell for high prices to assholes.
You can even buy one of these tails for a ridiculous price and it... does nothing in a well-designed usage of gameplay-story integration.
A very direct and well-designed analog in the Pokemon world for ivory and shark fin poaching.
There are other elements of Pokemon that are pointed or dark, but they're usually deep in the background and not directly in the main story like in GSC.
Meanwhile, in Gold/Silver, Team Rocket decides to generate funds for their operators by capturing and torturing Slowpokes to get their tails to sell for high prices to assholes.
You can even buy one of these tails for a ridiculous price and it... does nothing in a well-designed usage of gameplay-story integration.
A very direct and well-designed analog in the Pokemon world for ivory and shark fin poaching.
There are other elements of Pokemon that are pointed or dark, but they're usually deep in the background and not directly in the main story like in GSC.