POPULAR: Cliches in Pokémon Fanfiction

[Lugion]

^Funnily enough, the planned leader of Team Millennium (from Stainless Steel) was also based loosely on Jafar.

 

[LightningTopaz]

(Great minds think alike, right?)

Another cliche that drives me up the wall is angst for angst's sake.

 

[Winterdaze]

When the main character has aura powers or is a psychic. It could open up some interesting possibilities, but I have never seen it done well.

 

[LightningTopaz]

I've always interpreted the aura powers as actual magic...so on that note...

Magic powers for the sake of being cool, without a VERY good reason why they exist.

 

[Stratelier]

Another cliche that drives me up the wall is angst for angst's sake.

Y'know, I don't actually know what "angst" is. I hear the term all the time, but I don't have a proper definition of it in my head to identify it by.

 

[Lugion]

Another cliche that drives me up the wall is angst for angst's sake.

Y'know, I don't actually know what "angst" is. I hear the term all the time, but I don't have a proper definition of it in my head to identify it by.

Angst - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

 

[LightningTopaz]

Thanks, MegaLugion--that's a great way to put it

 

[matt0044]

Being gritty and "mature" in attempt to not seem like the Anime. When really, they're idea of "mature" stems from mindless violence and such. Not that I'm all the squeamish...

 

[ShadowDRGN]

I've always interpreted the aura powers as actual magic...so on that note...

Magic powers for the sake of being cool, without a VERY good reason why they exist.

Well, it's been shown that magic is at least a concept in the series, as some moves have magic as part of the name or description, also the magician from the Jirachi movie (It was fake, but just the fact that he is a magician proves the concept of magic), and the move hex and the Hex trainer class.

 

[jasonwolf]

31. Gym Leader #1 is a carbon copy of Brock, right down to cooking skill and going googoo for the opposite gender
32. Gym Leader #1 joins the party in a manner similar to how Brock joined the party in Kanto
33. The party consists of two guys and a girl
34. Main Guy and Token Girl argue about the stupidest things

I'd say 33. is common not cliche. 3 is a good number so that its not a horde and its not a couple, and gender you only got 2 options.

anyway.

professor gives first pokemon for one reason despite just meeting them.
First pokemon is gained in contrived method where they instantly form a perfect friendship.
Pokemon lack all emotion and simply act as weapons.

I admit I got the 3rd one bad right now. I need to get some personalities for my 3 current pokemon.

 

[Spyspotter]

Overuse of Pikachu. Bonus points if it's the starter. Even more bonus points if it's a carbon copy of Ash's Pikachu.

 

[kintsugi]

Oh, I just thought of this, but one of the things that really bothers me is when trainers walk down the street, and the first person they see becomes their forever best friend travelling buddy (or in some cases, forever hate you rival nyurgh). I get that it'd be boring to talk about everyone else who doesn't become forever best friend or whatever, but it just seems unrealistic that the first person you chance encounter in the grass becomes your fire-hardened friend, right? Or is that just me? XD

 

[Karpi]

What about flanderized pokemon? The main characters' pokemon usually have a grand total of one personality trait.

 

[Zekurom]

What about flanderized pokemon? The main characters' pokemon usually have a grand total of one personality trait.

It depends on how the Pokémon are actually depicted. If they're just animals with animal-like intelligence, having only one personality trait is par for the course. If they have human-like intelligence, it's still hard to express those traits without the power of speech.

 

[Thorne_Darkrose]

35. Evil team is completely and utterly useless and should by all rights have been killed or fired by chapter 3
36. Pokemon talks when it shouldn't be able to say anything but its name
37. Befriends legendary pokemon like it's the easiest thing in the world
38. Seems to never take a loss hard or sometimes never even lose a match
39. Never has the Zubat problem everyone else seems to have
40. Destroys whitney's miltank through OC because it beat the crap out of the writer when they played the games.

Personally my fan fiction does sometimes fall into a lot of the Cliche's but thankfully I have been able to avoid some of the more idiotic ones, such as the villains being complete idiots.

 

[Spyspotter]

Oh, and I'm adding:
41. Pokémon say only their names.
It's not "cute", it's utterly annoying.

 

[Karpi]

36. Pokemon talks when it shouldn't be able to say anything but its name

This is definitely a case of YMMV. "Pika pika, chu pika!" is one of the weak points of pokemon, and I really don't mind if writers fix it by having the pokemon talk/replacing speech with realistic animal noises.

 

[voidcritter]

28. All Ghosts/Dark types are sinister and utterly evil and are always used by the villainous team.

I find this especially hilarious given how, at least in the games, every Ghost/Dark specialist we've seen has been kind of a jerk or a somewhat dirty fighter at the worst. (The jerk was Agatha, and Grimsley says a few things that are indicative of him being a Combat Pragmatist). Everyone else was just kind of normal, at least by Pokemon world standards.

 

[matt0044]

36. Pokemon talks when it shouldn't be able to say anything but its name

This is definitely a case of YMMV. "Pika pika, chu pika!" is one of the weak points of pokemon, and I really don't mind if writers fix it by having the pokemon talk/replacing speech with realistic animal noises.

Or translating their speech outright but making the one-way language barrier towards humans remain (the trainers understanding them from observing their mannerisms in context).

 

[Thorne_Darkrose]

28. All Ghosts/Dark types are sinister and utterly evil and are always used by the villainous team.

I find this especially hilarious given how, at least in the games, every Ghost/Dark specialist we've seen has been kind of a jerk or a somewhat dirty fighter at the worst. (The jerk was Agatha, and Grimsley says a few things that are indicative of him being a Combat Pragmatist). Everyone else was just kind of normal, at least by Pokemon world standards.

Actually Morty from Ecruteak Gym is a Ghost Trainer and he was not only courteous, but was pretty chill actually, and as for the dirty fighting, I think he actually fought pretty fairly.