Malamar are not solely called the upside-down pokemon for their strange method of evolution, for their discovery happened not long before a revolution which overturned the entirety of Kalos' social order - and Malamar, aided by their exiled dissident of a discoverer, played a key role in manning the barricades for the masses against the nobility. Inkay were valued for writing, but also common enough to be thrown away, and many among the peasantry and the mob of urban poor had come to train them for personal correspondence. When word of how to evolve Inkay spread throughout Kalos, the king and his army were left far too outmatched to fight back.
Yet many also blame the Malamar for the dark turn this revolution took. Malamar are known to have powers of mind control – breaking their foe's will to fight is their primary method of victory – and it is said opposing trainers are just as likely as pokemon to fall victim to this influence. Malamar are themselves dark pokemon, and when the revolution turned to gruesome violence – be it directed at the oppressive ex-aristocrats for revenge, or personal grudges being resolved through accusations of treason, or political opponents in the capital – it became customary for individuals facing punishment to claim the powers of their Malamar drove them them to the crime.
Whether the deflection of blame worked often had more to do with how much the government approved of the killer and how much their victim was reviled than with any real attempt to determine the level of Malamar hypnosis. Recent scholarship has suggested that Malamar can not influence humans apart from by making them lose the will to fight, and all such killings were the product of human minds with a convenient excuse and the opportunity for revenge.
