POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

[Greninjaman]

Honestly, I don't see how Ash could win that fight. Tobias was packing Legendary Pokemon for crying out loud! Sure he could have brought in Charizard which is one of his most powerful Pokemon. I still don't see how Ash could have won that. Didn't Darkrai take out like 4 of Ash's Pokemon before it went down?

 

[Daren]

The only way to fix Tobias is to remove him from existence.
Edit: Darkrai knocked out Heracross, Torkoal, and Gible. 3, not 4. So not much better, but...

 

[Greninjaman]

The only way to fix Tobias is to remove him from existence.
Edit: Darkrai knocked out Heracross, Torkoal, and Gible. 3, not 4. So not much better, but...

That is true.

 

[BackSet]

Honestly, I don't see how Ash could win that fight. Tobias was packing Legendary Pokemon for crying out loud! Sure he could have brought in Charizard which is one of Ash's most powerful Pokemon. I still don't see how Ash could have won that. Didn't Darkrai take out like 4 of Ash's Pokemon before it went down?

Well, I beat and caught Kyogre in Alpha Sapphire without losing a single Pokemon so...

 

[Daren]

Well, I beat and caught Kyogre in Alpha Sapphire without losing a single Pokemon so...

Yeah but the anime made Tobias' Darkrai insane. We're told it sweeps every single opponent in the league except Ash (including the finals, so Ash was clearly second place in spirit but had the misfortune of facing Tobias earlier).

 

[BackSet]

Ash was playing normal Pokemon, Tobias was playing a Randomizer. It's the only thing that makes sense.

 

[Greninjaman]

Also, didn't Tobias sweep every Gym in Sinnoh with just Darkrai? Is that even possible? Hmm... *Checks a Team Builder and Bulbapedia*

Darkrai is weak to Maylene's fighting types
Darkrai resists Fantina's Ghost types and is super effective against them
Darkrai takes natural damage from the rest of the Gym Leaders

So, there is only one Gym where Darkrai would struggle and one where it would absolutely dominate. This is only taking Darkrai's Dark typing into account. If Darkrai were to have the four moves that it had at the League (Ice Beam, Dark Void, Dream Eater, and Dark Pulse), than in that case:

Ice Beam counters Roark and Gardenia
Dark Pulse counters Fantina
Dark Void/Dream Eater Combo counters Maylene

So that is four of the eight Gyms covered by that moveset. That's not bad.

 

[SinnohEevee]

The only way to have Ash beat Tobias is to give him his own Legendaries and a Pokemon that can't be put to sleep/is a Dark-type/can be awaken up. For example, have him use a Mega Lucario against Darkrai and Latias/Ho-Oh/Mewtwo/Lugia/Latios against Latios.

 

[Greninjaman]

The only way to have Ash beat Tobias is to give him his own Legendaries and a Pokemon that can't be put to sleep/is a Dark-type/can be awaken up. For example, have him use a Mega Lucario against Darkrai and Latias/Ho-Oh/Mewtwo/Lugia/Latios against Latios.

Megas were not a thing in Gen 4. A Hariyama with Vital Spirit would help against Darkrai.

 

[SinnohEevee]

Megas were not a thing in Gen 4. A Hariyama with Vital Spirit would help against Darkrai.

Or Ash remembers his Primape who has been training for ages.

 

[Greninjaman]

Or Ash remembers his Primape who has been training for ages.

Assuming Anthony and Primeape remember Ash.

 

[BackSet]

Ash doesn't remember Primape because he needs to free headspace every region to stay eternally youthful.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

That reminds me of a My Little Pony / Harry Potter / Pokémon crossover where the reason why phoenixes need to regenerate is so they can forget. And now I've reminded myself of that joke theory that the humans in Pokémon are actually Gallifreyans.

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

Here's a cliche I've seen in shipping fics. If a female player character is in the main anime cast, you will find tons of fics dedicated to turning the male protagonist into the love rival/villain. I don't inherently have a problem with this except the little effort, one-note personalities that you know that this character is here to be a shipping strawman, the character who is obviously abusive, a dirty cheater in battles, and is secretly twirling a mustache in order to make the other guy look better in comparison. I hate when real shows do this. I despise it more in fanfics.

Like many shipping fics, everyone in it is an idiot.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I got one: rival roles.

If the protagonist is supposed to be the naive starry-eyed rookie, their rival will be a cold blooded prodigy that continuously smacks them down with tactics until the protag finally wins either through BOND or UNPREDICTABILITY.

If the protag is the smart and analytic underdog, the rival is a bully with a hyper offensive team of powerhouses who can never adapt to strategies and whose only role is showing the reader how much the protag is improving (bonus if the rival’s always cocky and overconfident even after getting their ass kicked numerous times)

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

I'd like to see a story where the rival is just genuinely a better person, someone to surpass in more ways than combat proficiency.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Much as I do like the idea, well, cliché, of opposing characters being two sides of the same coin, if I were to write a rival character now I would design them as similar in temperament and style to the protagonist

 

[Juliko]

I'd like to see a story where the rival is just genuinely a better person, someone to surpass in more ways than combat proficiency.

I actually plan to write a sequel to my current Pokemon fic down the line, and one of my main character's new companions will start off as a haughty, condescending, oftentimes judgmental and sexist kid who frequently jumps to conclusions and only sees people and things at face value (Like, say, seeing a popular idol singer as a literal perfect, pure goddess and not as a three-dimensional human being who has flaws and imperfections), and his rivals are actually genuinely nice people who frequently call him out on his flaws.

 

[Poke Dragon]

The heroic character has the right mindset and is fearless from the beginning is another cliche I keep seeing. This "perfect hero" from the beginning is so overdone. It's a lot more interesting for the character to have some wrong ideas and be a coward at first, but as time goes on, things change the potential hero for the better.

 

[ThatAsianInTheCorner]

One big cliche I've seen in fanfics n' stuff is the main character getting something that basically makes them unbeatable, E.G: In a Fantasy-Rooted story, where the hero literally gets the Slayer of Gods as a sword near the start of their journey or something.
Translate basically that into Pokemon and you literally have some random 10 year old befriending god. Sure, you can catch legendaries in the main games, I totally get it, but it's kinda a trope that's very common throughout the writing community.