POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

[Nitro Indigo]

Apparently most of the Blossomverse entries were written by the author. There was a cleanup a while ago that removed many of its subpages.

 

[BackSet]

Ah, that explains it. Shameless advertising via TV Tropes is fine but don't you dare go calling your own fic funny or they'll hunt you down.

 

[KrspaceT]

Ah, that explains it. Shameless advertising via TV Tropes is fine but don't you dare go calling your own fic funny or they'll hunt you down.

Or awesome or heartwarming or Amy YMMV trope. Green's gotten into trouble for that last one...

 

[BackSet]

Amy YMMV trope.

I mean, that one makes sense most of the time, as it's usually more for fan reactions. Like, I would not know if people were doing Alternate Character Interpretation and if I was doing Canon Defilement there's no way I'd admit it assuming I was even aware of it (I'm not doing it, for the record).

Trivia's okay, though, so long as it's not "I know because I am the author." Like, it's pretty obvious to everybody when there's a Schedule Slip most of the time.

 

[Dorothy]

I'm honestly most surprised that TVTropes is still actively used.

 

[RK9]

The thing about betrayal is that it works well! The best ones rip at the viewers' emotions. It's just that most fics tend to use established characters and skip the steps you need to make it work.

It's actually not that hard to do, build up a friendship between two characters, showing it on-screen, let plot move along. Make your audience care about the characters. THEN get into the betrayal - which you can do in all sorts of ways. Of course, most fics skip straight to the betrayal part, relying on said established characters in hopes that's enough to get you to care. But the other thing is, it's still rarely something that can stand a plot on its own.

To be fair, this is not something applying purely to betrayal fics.

On that note, I do find betrayal fics kinda a... baby's first fanfic attempt? Like a "God I'm going to make this edgy and dark and that's so cool man!" and then you look back on it in shame 5 years later when you're older.

Hopefully I'm not offending people with this. If you have a betrayal fic, I'm sure you do a good job with it but I'm speaking on the general consensus in the 'public' space.

I'm honestly most surprised that TVTropes is still actively used.

Even more so that people actively go through all the tropes and work to make entire pages for stuff. I looked into some tropes once and it's hell.

 

[BackSet]

Oh we still exist. And we will still ruin your life.

 

[RK9]

ANother one. I think I mentioned it before but now maybe (new) people got (new) insights, but making 1 Pokémon shiny if more than 1 of that Pokémon is part of the main cast. It's okay to do it and I can kind of get why, but I think using it as a means to differentiate them should be done through either movepools, characteristics or other stuff instead of the emphasis being put on the alternate color. (Especially since a lot end up being just that. Shiny.)

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

Well, I don't know about it in the Pokémon community but I know this is big thing in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom (I'm not really a fan, but I personally step in and go look now and again) which could be itching into other fandoms.

But I could personally blame this because of Blossoming Trail a Pokémon and Infinity Train crossover focusing on Chloe/Koharu, which it culminates it being a betrayal fic in all but name where it puts some characters on a pedestal and treats others horribly. I don't even like the anime anymore that much and this fic coming out change my very neutral but semi-like perception of Chloe/Koharu from when I dive on a TVTropes Binges. While it does have some very valid criticism on the anime and its characters (looking at you this incarnation of Ash and Goh), the fic goes into the wrong direction and basically reach salt betrayal fic levels treating every character not named Chloe or Parker. The fact this has so many spinoffs and tips into other fandoms (including The Owl House, a personal favorite of mine) gives more a negative influence than a positive one which could lead to the uptick of betrayal or similar fics in the fandom. Why does a great show like Infinity Train have to deal with something like this?

Oh boy, I thought I could escape that terrible story. Blossoming Trail is exactly like a politician’s speech. It drapes itself in the appearance of nuance but fails to understand nuance. It is an overly dressed salt fic/betrayal fic.

 

[KrspaceT]

Oh boy, I thought I could escape that terrible story. Blossoming Trail is exactly like a politician’s speech. It drapes itself in the appearance of nuance but fails to understand nuance. It is an overly dressed salt fic/betrayal fic.

And the worst part.....

Well let me be blunt. Me and Green talk a lot, and she always says she wants to write something nicer, less edgy, not repeat her mistakes.....and then she does them all over again.

Don't read 'Seeker of Crocus'. Annoying you can see her (and the other person but no, Green's basicaly steering it) make the occasional fix, like making Mallow less of an idiot, but then she goes right back into the stupid. And if you dare tell her 'hey, can you not do that, no one likes this era of Chloe you keep repeating' she claims we're causing the other writer borderline depressive breakdowns.

 

[BackSet]

Hey, speaking of people named Green, which gender player character do y'all think a majority of fanfic writers prefer.

I myself tend to go with the female player characters. Not because I have anything against the male ones (I quite like Calem, actually) but just because they generally have better appearances in my opinion.

 

[KrspaceT]

Hey, speaking of people named Green, which gender player character do y'all think a majority of fanfic writers prefer.

I myself tend to go with the female player characters. Not because I have anything against the male ones (I quite like Calem, actually) but just because they generally have better appearances in my opinion.

Oh the ladies are much more liked in general, though they guys aren't absent. I just think the lady protags get more love.....and not just because of the speed of light < Speed of artists principle

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

And the worst part.....

Well let me be blunt. Me and Green talk a lot, and she always says she wants to write something nicer, less edgy, not repeat her mistakes.....and then she does them all over again.

Don't read 'Seeker of Crocus'. Annoying you can see her (and the other person but no, Green's basicaly steering it) make the occasional fix, like making Mallow less of an idiot, but then she goes right back into the stupid. And if you dare tell her 'hey, can you not do that, no one likes this era of Chloe you keep repeating' she claims we're causing the other writer borderline depressive breakdowns.

I’m not reading a GPQ fic for a long time. GPQ’s handling of the orientalist critiques in Blossoming Trail really turned me off.

Hey, speaking of people named Green, which gender player character do y'all think a majority of fanfic writers prefer.

I myself tend to go with the female player characters. Not because I have anything against the male ones (I quite like Calem, actually) but just because they generally have better appearances in my opinion.

It really depends on the generation. Older fics liked to use Red because he was cool. Newer ones focus on memetic or shipping value. Gloria is more popular than Victor because she had a lot of meme value. It tends to be girls who get more fanart. Special mention goes to the ones who actually show up in the anime even if not everyone likes that incarnation of the character.

 

[BackSet]

I will say, I like Victor's hat.

 

[Ryoma Maser]

Hey, speaking of people named Green, which gender player character do y'all think a majority of fanfic writers prefer.

I myself tend to go with the female player characters. Not because I have anything against the male ones (I quite like Calem, actually) but just because they generally have better appearances in my opinion.

I personally find the female player characters more alluring and most often female characters in general, though that's more I've been liking their designs than the guys recently and also just to give them something other than contest or roles other than other player characters get. Which is another cliché I've mentioned in this before, female characters always going into contests, I hated when it was revealed Chloe/Koharu went into contests and I hated when anime Serena basically did the same (since she has only one unique character trait in my opinion, being in love with Ash and even that's not even somewhat exclusive to her since Misty had some implications about it). I always notice it when people write characters like Green/Leaf that they always end up going into coordination since it just feels like gender stereotyping even though Pokémon has always made sure to be somwhat gender equal even in Gen 1 days despite the lack of female protags.

But moving on, in the sense of my world of Orre: The Desert despite not battles being the focus due to being a slice of life in a leagueless Orre, one of my characters are a fan of watching battles, so I planned out most of the leagues just case if I want to show them as a cameo and I also try to at least make the canon protag characters who are champions (or in general) gender equal especially if player characters. For example:

Kanto: Red and Blue were still champions, but Lance is still currently champion until I figure it out.
Johto: Johto is now independent from Kanto and has it own league instead of sharing with Kanto due to rising Kanto Nationalism and being seen as part of Kanto (to point being call Kantonian instead of Johtonese is an insult) instead of its own region. Their champion is Kris. My fic takes place after in a fusion of Crystal/HGSS so both Lyra & Kris are canon in their own ways.
Hoenn: Haven't thought about it much, I was going to make the champion May, but I might make this champion of my fic's world Wally instead. Though I still might make my canon protagonist in my fic May.
Sinnoh: Also haven't thought about it much, I still want to have Cynthia has champ but I might make the canon protag Lucas since he gets no love recently.
Unova: Iris is still champion due to being the youngest champion sans Blue (I guess I can say I always headcanon there was a rule saying even if you beat the champion, you could not take the spot of champion when entering the hall of fame). Canon protags would be Blair (Hilbert) and Whitley (Rosa) both decline to take the champion place.
Kalos: Diantha was removed from her position as champion due to her inaction against Team Flare in XY (and no Z to retcon it), hero of Kalos Xavier (Calem) took her place.
Alola: Normal SM Selene (or Mizuki, haven't decided if I wanted her to have a Japanese name or a different name altogether) stepped down due to criticisms that the first champion of Alola wasn't from Alola and also due to the Kanto Nationalism problem Johto has. Gladion took her place after finishing his work at Aether and handing reigns to Wicke.
Galar: Gloria, cause I don't like Victor's design really. After she took hold, a lot more of the unpopular opinions on Leon finally came to light since people realized they were very tired of Leon's never lose shtick.

Yes, I did thought that out way too much despite no reason to. Though Johto did had reason for a character backstory, it just spreaded out to that for fun and I decided to keep it in my fic's world despite the possibly of it never being mentioned.

Oh the ladies are much more liked in general, though they guys aren't absent. I just think the lady protags get more love.....and not just because of the speed of light < Speed of artists principle

Sonia had fanart the safe and the not so safe in under five minutes of her debut. I mean what?

 

[BackSet]

To me Sonia will forever be "Pokemon Athena Cykes" because she looks extremely similar to Athena and I am a huge Ace Attorney fan.

 

[BackSet]

Here's one that's oddly popular: just straight up Pokedexes. I realize that's kind of hypocritical on my part considering I've written several articles for one of said Fan Pokedexes (though to be fair, this one predates most of them) but it's bizarre how many of them you see on Fanfiction.Net of all things.

 

[KrspaceT]

Here's one that's oddly popular: just straight up Pokedexes. I realize that's kind of hypocritical on my part considering I've written several articles for one of said Fan Pokedexes (though to be fair, this one predates most of them) but it's bizarre how many of them you see on Fanfiction.Net of all things.

I mean writing original Pokedex entries are fun. I do it a lot in my own stories where it is plausible, though some go too far into realism for my liking

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I'm guilty as charged with Temtemology, except it's the first Temtem fic of its genre as far as I know, so that means I'm original.

Also, I've entertained the idea of a group of Reds from different universes, and one of them is a Leaf who was the protagonist, because the games love to hammer in that Red was the canonical Kanto protag. (The group also included a version of Ash who stayed a Pikachu permanently after the events of "Hocus Pokémon".)

 

[BackSet]

Also, I've entertained the idea of a group of Reds from different universes, and one of them is a Leaf who was the protagonist, because the games love to hammer in that Red was the canonical Kanto protag. (The group also included a version of Ash who stayed a Pikachu permanently after the events pf "Hocus Pokémon".)

What would you call that? Red: Into the Poke-Verse? Into the Red-Verse?

Long story short, I like that idea and you should totally do it.